Shining Aquas' Creation Workshop - That is not dead which can eternal lie

[Shining Aquas 34]

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while.  More bad news follows as I don't expect I will be updating very frequently for a long time.  There are a few reasons for this:

1) I haven't been making much in the way of custom content, so production of the new has been very choked.  This shouldn't be confused with a complete lack of content, I still have a lot to show (and a lot to test), but I will be slowing down the release rate for the sake of rationing the goods since production and creation have massively slowed down.

2) Nobody cares, as far as I know.  I have yet to receive a single comment on anything here, except for a completely unrelated thing with Julia and a comment from Dr. Faust in a completely different board.  Since I haven't really gotten any feedback on pretty much anything, I can safely assume that either everyone is silent or nobody cares.  In fact, I bet nobody is reading this.

3) I would like more time to playtest existing and future content.  This ultimately comes out as a plus since I will be releasing just as many balance tweaks and bug fixes in far fewer intervals, which for anyone that is using my stuff means you don't need to print papers out nearly as often to keep up.  As someone that has printed out all of his content, I know how much it sucks reprinting things for this game.

4) I'm actually pretty busy now, and live is seriously catching up to me in a bad way.  I need to focus on things that are in all honesty more important than these projects.  As much fun as this hobby is, it doesn't create any opportunities for me as an adult.

With that out of the way, here's the most recent set of changes and new content.

5/12/2013 - Do you feel lucky?

NEW GUARDIAN: Saligrama, Arcana of Luck
-Saligrama can be found under the Arcana Heart section of Guardians.

Rachel Alucard
-Passing your personal story now places 2 clue tokens in each of two different unstable locations, instead of placing 1 clue token in each unstable location that doesn't have one.

Valkenhayn R. Hellsing
-You now fail your personal story if the doom track reaches 8 instead of 9.  You still fail upon being knocked unconscious as an alternative.

The Cauldron (AO)
-One of the Sinister Plots has been changed from "Only Investigators Attack" to "Battle Event".  Nothing about it has changed otherwise.

Agatha Prenderghast (AO)
-Worshippers got some word cleanup.

Nu -13-
>Nu is functioning the way I want, but it's still not quite perfect.  Her original Archetype Shift was a little too strong, but the current one doesn't quite feel right.  I'm confident now that I want to return the function to being Any Phase instead of limiting the phases, but I've also incorporated a fix to deal with it's absurd strength for encounters.  Additionally, I've taken her Sword Summoner ability and given it a huge quality of life improvement all around.

-Sword Summoner is now "Pay 5 toughness for the first bladed weapon in the common item deck, or 10 for the unique deck instead".
-Archetype Shift has been reverted back to Any Phase, from Upkeep and Combat only.  However, using Archetype Shift on an encounter phase now requires you to use it before drawing an encounter.

Teddie
-Resident Bear no longer prevents trading of items.  It now only prevents the trading of the Gate Box.  Passing Teddie's personal story removes the trading restriction like before.

Yukiko Amagi
-Protection of the Faithful has been cleaned up and reworded in a way that makes it a little stronger than before.

Ragna the Bloodedge
-Personal Story Reward is now discarded when the Ancient One awakens.
-Personal Story Punishment also adds 1 to the terror level if triggered.

Viktor
>Viktor is a very reasonably powered character, but I don't feel like he's especially exciting until his Hex Core has finished evolving, after which he's a very cool character.  While I don't feel completely comfortable making his Evolving Technology stronger, I think this minor change will help Viktor reach his most unique functionality just a tad earlier.

-The Hex Core now only requires 5 counters to reach Evolution instead of 6.

[Hadanelith 0]

It may surprise you, but I actually check this board regularly, and I do think your stuff is pretty sweet. That said, I rarely get to take out the official Arkham stuff - playing with custom content is something I'd like to do, but first I'd need to play Arkham regularly again.

Another note: I know I haven't posted in this thread before this point so that the thread came remain just your stuff, with no clutter. I doubt I'm the only one.

Let this be your encouragement: Your characters are quite interesting. I'm not a huge fan of custom GOOs or Heralds, but I can always be suckered by new characters with neat ability ideas. If you really want lots of feedback, though, might I suggest the unification of some of your content into a solid, organized, themed fan expansion, like Vermont Horror or the Dreamlands? My personal preference is definitely for well-packaged themed expansions, and if I ever get the money to print out some custom content, those are most certainly where that money will be spent. I should think that with the variety of content you have available already, you should have at least some ideas for a board expansion, or at least a mini expedition board like the Door to Saturn. If so, please, do share. If not, well, your characters are still interesting. Don't let a lack of feedback stop you; post until you are out of ideas. If nothing else, continued fan efforts may convince FFG that there's still some life in Arkham yet.

[Shining Aquas 34]

Hadanelith said:

It may surprise you, but I actually check this board regularly, and I do think your stuff is pretty sweet. That said, I rarely get to take out the official Arkham stuff - playing with custom content is something I'd like to do, but first I'd need to play Arkham regularly again.

Another note: I know I haven't posted in this thread before this point so that the thread came remain just your stuff, with no clutter. I doubt I'm the only one.

Let this be your encouragement: Your characters are quite interesting. I'm not a huge fan of custom GOOs or Heralds, but I can always be suckered by new characters with neat ability ideas. If you really want lots of feedback, though, might I suggest the unification of some of your content into a solid, organized, themed fan expansion, like Vermont Horror or the Dreamlands? My personal preference is definitely for well-packaged themed expansions, and if I ever get the money to print out some custom content, those are most certainly where that money will be spent. I should think that with the variety of content you have available already, you should have at least some ideas for a board expansion, or at least a mini expedition board like the Door to Saturn. If so, please, do share. If not, well, your characters are still interesting. Don't let a lack of feedback stop you; post until you are out of ideas. If nothing else, continued fan efforts may convince FFG that there's still some life in Arkham yet.

Thanks for the comments, I really do appreciate it knowing that people are looking at all my stuff.  But, if I may speak on the topic of people not wanting to clutter the thread, PLEASE DO.  Even though this thread is mine for the sake of posting content, I reserve nothing but the first three posts.  Far as I'm concerned, everything after my Download List, Visual Preview and Most Recent Update are entirely the community's to do with as they will.  I just happen to be the only one posting updates and balance changes, or any kind of comments.  If there's something you want to say, I would love to read it.

As for the second note regarding an expansion, I definitely have thought about it and do have a Board Expansion Work in Progress based on the game Odin Sphere.  I've almost finished everything but the encounters, which will take a while especially since it's somewhat of an "off-project".

What I can do however is create batch downloads for the stuff that does exist, maybe bundle groups of content together for single, large downloads.  If people would like to see that, lemme know and I can make it happen.

[Hadanelith 0]

Bundled downloads would be good; the number of files I'd have to grab individually has triggered my lazy and prevented me from seeing all of the stuff you've posted.

 

Re: Odin Sphere: I would encourage you to show off what you have, even if the encounters aren't done. The more we see, the more excited we can be for the rest of it. I, for one, would love to see what you've got.

[Atomicq 0]

Hi Shining Aquas,

 

Personally, I really appreciate the posts in this forum, specially the AO, Heralds, Guardians and Institutions (as well as the Investigators), since they are easy to print and mix with the official game. 

 

Probably this board is not so accessible to all the forum visitors since the images of the new posts are not exposed, just the names (that you have to word-search in the large list of the 1st page). Then you have to download the files one bye one, extract them and finally open them in Strange Eons. Probably not all the visitors of this forum have installed SE, maybe they are new gamers of Arkham Horror (like me), silent visitors looking for new exciting material to add to their games. 

 

Besides, I am receiving an Error window alert when I try to open the new listed *.eon files (Saligrama, Rachel Alucard, Valkenhayn, Agatha Prenderghast, Nu -13-, Teddie, Yukiko Amagi, Ragna the Bloodedge and Viktor the Machine Herald). Probably because I have the Strange Eons 2.1 alpha 13 installed, instead of SE3? I can open some other previous *.eon posts (Pooka's Curse, Bang Shishigami Personal Story, Cornelius Personal Story, Haku-men Personal Story) but not all, and none of the 4/15/ post. Also, when I tried to download the The Cauldron, Crucible of Souls, MediaFire asked me to Sign Up/Login, instead of going directly to the download page, the link is missing.

 

What about publishing a JPG/PNG besides the EON (not only the name, but also the link, so no need to search for it in the 1st page)? Maybe a "see first and download if you like" will be more user friendly than the current "first download and then see (and then comment)".

 

Thanks again and keep posting!

[Shining Aquas 34]

Atomicq said:

Besides, I am receiving an Error window alert when I try to open the new listed *.eon files (Saligrama, Rachel Alucard, Valkenhayn, Agatha Prenderghast, Nu -13-, Teddie, Yukiko Amagi, Ragna the Bloodedge and Viktor the Machine Herald). Probably because I have the Strange Eons 2.1 alpha 13 installed, instead of SE3? I can open some other previous *.eon posts (Pooka's Curse, Bang Shishigami Personal Story, Cornelius Personal Story, Haku-men Personal Story) but not all, and none of the 4/15/ post. Also, when I tried to download the The Cauldron, Crucible of Souls, MediaFire asked me to Sign Up/Login, instead of going directly to the download page, the link is missing.

 

What about publishing a JPG/PNG besides the EON (not only the name, but also the link, so no need to search for it in the 1st page)? Maybe a "see first and download if you like" will be more user friendly than the current "first download and then see (and then comment)".

 

It's very likely that some of the files I've posted only work on Strange Eons 3 since everything I create is also in Strange Eons 3.  So, the best solution I can give for that right now is to just Get Strange Eons 3.  I also had a link to the program in the opening post.  I'm sorry if this sounds like terrible advice but that's the only solution I can think of on the .EON front.

Thanks for letting me know about the broken link on The Cauldron.  I just fixed it.

Regarding the JPG/PNG idea, it's definitely something I've considered but it will take a lot of time to get all the previews up.  Stay tuned though, as the next couple updates will be ABSOLUTELY HUGE, aimed at both content updates and balances but also interface upgrades for the forums.  Among the changes will likely be something similar to visual previews.

[Atomicq 0]

I just installed Strange Eons 3 (3630a) but I am still unable to open the posted *.eon files, I receive the message "This does not appear to be a Strange Eon file" every time I try to open one.

Anyway, I am checking the SE Support page and Googling for a fix (probably a Windows 8 + Java scenario).

I will stay tuned!

 

[Shining Aquas 34]

Atomicq said:

I just installed Strange Eons 3 (3630a) but I am still unable to open the posted *.eon files, I receive the message "This does not appear to be a Strange Eon file" every time I try to open one.

Anyway, I am checking the SE Support page and Googling for a fix (probably a Windows 8 + Java scenario).

I will stay tuned!

Alright, I think I found the fix.  Turns out, I have numerous plugins installed on my version that Strange Eons doesn't come with automatically.  The fix I found is the following:

1) Open up Strange Eons 3

2) Go to Toolbox > Manage Plug-ins.  At the bottom left of the Plug-ins window should be a button that says "Download Plug-In's"

3) From the list of Plug-In's, select "Arkham Horror" and install it.

If it still doesn't work, lemme know.  In the mean time, I've got a giant update to write:

Today's update is LOADED TO THE BRIM with cool stuff.  We've got updates to TONS of Investigators and Ancient Ones, a brand new Herald, and the introduction of the fan requested Content Bundles!  Today's a good day to go insane in the town of Arkham.

 

5/22/2013 - Drop the Time Bomb

NEW CONTENT:
New Herald - Anutpada, Arcana of Time
-Anutpada can be found under the Arcana Heart section of the Heralds tab

Content Bundles!
-The first of many Content Bundles has been released.  The Odin Sphere Bundle contains 5 Investigators, 5 Ancient Ones and all the necessary game pieces needed to play with them.
-A new Batch will be released upon each update until everything has been bundled.

BALANCE CHANGES:
Annie Hastur
-Tibbers monster token got a major wording cleanup.  Ability is still the same.

Ahri
-Personal Story Complete!
    >Pass - Discard a Soul Gem, Healing Stone, Camilla's Ruby or Map of the Mind
    >Reward - +1 to Will checks.  Whenever Ahri uses Spirit Rush, if she pulls at least 3 monsters she recovers 1 sanity afterwards.
    >Fail - Use Essence Theft on a Cultist, Maniac, Witch or High Priest
    >Punishment - Maximum Sanity reduced by 1.

Arcia Rinslet
-Personal Story Complete!
    >Pass - Complete a Task or Mission
    >Reward - Choose One: Discard this card and get a second set of rewards on your most recently completed task/mission; OR keep this card and search the common/unique deck for the first available task/mission and take it.  This card may be exhausted in place of paying costs for a mission.
    >Fail - If you ever have 5 monster trophies
    >Punishment - Sneak (-1), and spending monster trophies in any quanitity results in a loss of 1 sanity.

Chimbley Sweep
*These changes are actually pretty old, but I apparently forgot to add them to the site (my bad).  These changes were mostly for the sake of adding better flavor to the item.  Also, I do agree that Chimbley is pretty ridiculous, his design is super old (updated, but still old) and back when I thought the average for evasive characters was Wendy Adams. At some point I'll address this, but it's not high on my list of priorities, and he's honestly fun to play right now albeit ridiculously strong.

-Dusty Broom is now "Exhaust to add 1 success to an evade check. This item doesn't refresh during upkeep. Movement: While this card is exhausted, for each area you travel through put a soot counter on this card. When it has 6 counters, remove them and refresh Dusty Broom."  This is drastically different from the original "Exhaust to add 1 success to an evade check. This item doesn't refresh unless you pay $3."
-Dusty Broom is now $4 from $3.

Crom Cruach (AO)
*Crom is designed with a very specific type of counterplay in mind.  Cultists appear on gates and attempt to make the game terrible if they can reach the Woods (and they will try), and the investigators need to spend at least some of their resources attempting to stop them.  Unfortunately, certain elements of Crom's kit don't allow for nearly enough counterplay in cases where gates appeared directly on the Woods or even on Expansion boards.  It was also too difficult and occasionally degenerate in cases where you would draw any cultists in your regular monsters on top of the extra cultists.  If you add all the worse cases together in a lareg party game, you could potentially get up to 4 doom tokens in one turn.  These major changes to his primary ability, as well as minor changes should make Crom much less frustrating to play against.

-Sanguine Harvest has been reworked tremendously.
    >Cultists are now seperated from the monster cup during game setup and place in their own cup.
    >Instead of drawing a cultist from the cup each time a gate opens, you now simply pull a random cultist out of the cultist cup and add it to the normal monsters when the gate opens.
    >Cultists are no longer placed on expansion boards
    >Whenever a gate opens on the Woods, the Cultist is placed on Uptown streets instead of on the gate.
    >Cultists no longer count towards the monster limit.
-Speed checks made against defeated worshippers is now at a -1 penalty instead of -2.
-Added a new clause on the Ancient One's attack.  If the Woods is Sealed when an investigator attempts to move onto it, remove the seal instead of moving the investigator onto it.

Emily Hayes
*Emily was intended to be a character that could cast very difficult to cast spells with near certainty thanks to her mysterious amulet, at the potential cost of losing control to the will of the amulet.  Her original ability however didn't convey this attribute as well as I had hoped, so it's time to change things up.  Hopefully this change will make Emily a more exciting pick.

-Channeling the Amulet is now "Emily get a bonus to spell checks equal to the spell's sanity cost plus 1. Anytime she successfully casts a combat spell, the combat bonus is amplified by (+1)."  Original was "Whenever Emily rolls a spell check, she gets twice as many dice as normal."
-Personal Story Pass Condition has been reworked into a Task.
    >Task in order is Ye Olde Magick Shoppe / Unvisited Isle / Arkham Asylum / Silver Twilight Lodge / The Dreamlands (2nd area)
-Personal Story Pass Reward now requires you to roll for The Stonekeeper's Curse anytime you choose to spend no sanity on Dragon's Eye.

Jumanji (AO)
-Wording cleanup everywhere for easier reading.  Still complex though.
-Worshippers clause now includes "Increased Open Gate limit by 1".
-Jumanji Encounters updated all around
    >"Riots" - Now only spawns 1 Riot, as opposed to all 3.
    >"Behemoths" - Wording update
    >"Arachnids" - Changed to "when there are 2 or fewer Leng Spiders on the board, you pass" as opposed to "when at least 2 Leng Spiders are removed, you pass"
    >"Great Deluge" - Now raises the Deep One Rising Track by 1 instead of 2.
    >"Fishy" - Card is now discarded after the afflicted player draws 6 Innsmouth Look cards instead of 5
    >"Tripping the Rift" - Now sends the Mojo token to "The Causeway" instead of "Strange High House in the Mist".  Even I must admit, that was just too cruel.
    >"Sky Demons" - Alternatively can be passed if any of it's monsters are sent to the Outskirts.
    >"On the Verge of Awakening" - No longer forces a monster surge, but now raises the terror level by 2.
    >"Earthquakes" - Depot Locations has been included as a thing that the earthquakes cannot close.
    >"Town Militia" - Patrol Markers do not get placed on any town other than the one you are in (Arkham, Dunwich, Kingsport, or Innsmouth)
    >"Undertow" - Clause added to deal with Split Gates
    >"Tripping through Time" - Clause added to deal with Split Gates
    >NEW ENCOUNTER ADDED - "Drawn to Life"

Nasus
-Main ability is now called "Fury of the Sands" instead of "Deity of Ra"
-Starts with 1 fewer dollar, 1 less clue token, and 1 fewer Exhibit item.  Now starts with an extra Unique item and a Spell.
-Fury of the Sands now worded "Once per turn when a gate opens".  Ability hasn't changed.

Nu -13-
-Personal Story Complete!
    >Pass - Sacrifice an ally on the Black Cave OR another investigator gets devoured
    >Reward - Exhaust this card in place of spending 3 toughness of monster trophies for Sword Summoner.  Discard this card to immediately wake up the Ancient One
    >Fail - Become Lost in Time and Space
    >Punishment - You are devoured, but instead of choosing a new investigator you may instead restart Nu's character sheet with this card. If you do, start the game delayed at the Science Building instead of Lost in Time and Space.

Platinum The Trinity
-Now starts with "Staff of the Pharaoh" and an extra dollar instead of "Enchanted Cane"
-Apparently Platinum had $5 of unspent cash, so she now starts with an extra unique item.

Sieg Wahrheit
-The Victor Delacroix monster token for Sieg's Personal Story has had both its horror and combat modifiers reduced to -2 from -3.

 

ALSO, in the near future I will be doing away with the Visual Preview section of this thread and adding visual previews in the Topic Post for EVERYTHING.  This change will not be happening immediately, more like sometime down the line.

[Atomicq 0]

The fix works, thanks! 

I find the Crom Cruach mechanics compelling, I will try to play with this AO in a future game. The Cauldron, Anutpada and Saligrama's mechanics looks dangerously interesting too, and Jumanji seems like a lot of fun!

[Shining Aquas 34]

For anyone looking for a new post, I don't have one yet.  Just updating the topic with some new stuff.

However, there will be a FREAKISHLY HUGE UPDATE in the next few days.  And I literally mean HUGE.  Like, I can't get the font big enough.

I'm just saying that come the time of the update, everyone will be looking at me like I lost it.

For a scope of how big it is, I've been working on this set of changes for ALMOST AN ENTIRE WEEK.  NOTHING IS SAFE.

[Shining Aquas 34]

Alright, as promised the GIANT update is here.  Would've been here yesterday but the forums exploded in the middle of the update.  Whatever, it's all good.  For this most recent update, I literally went back and looked over almost everything I've ever made, rebalancing and tweaking a large number of investigators, and a few guardians and heralds.  At some point I'll give the same treatment to all my Ancient Ones, but most of the major changes to those have happened over the last few updates.  If you have any questions or comments, you know what to do.

6/6/2013 - Subspace Supernova

NEW CONTENT:
New Ancient One - Tabuu, the Subspace Emissary
-Tabuu can be found under the miscellaneous tab for Ancient Ones.

New Content Bundles - Blazblue
-Calamity Trigger bundle includes the first game's cast, totaling 12 investigators.
-Continuum Shift includes the second game's extra characters, totalling 7 investigators. 2 are missing personal stories.
-Chrono Phantasma includes SOME of the third game's new characters, totalling 4 investigators so far.  No personal stories yet, overall incomplete.  Will be finished when the actual game gets an official release (Roughly October)

BALANCE CHANGES:
Ahri
-Ahri's Personal Story can now also be passed by discarding 5 clue tokens at any time.

Amane Nishiki
-You only discard a drill counter on a roll of 1-2, instead of on a failure.

Azrael
-Unstoppable reworked.  Instead of starting with an endurance counter and spending it to prevent unconsciousness or insanity, you now don't start with one and gain one when preventing unconsciousness or insanity.  With the new ability, you cannot use it if you already have an endurance counter, and the counter can be removed by ending movement at either St. Mary's Hospital or Arkham Asylum.
-Unstoppable now sets your Sanity OR Stamina to 1, instead of setting your Stamina AND Sanity to 1.

Bang Shishigami
-FURINKAZAN now gives you a magical effect called "Tenjou Overdrive" which provides you with the benefits FURINKAZAN used to give you.  This was turned into a seperate card to better seperate the active effects from the other miscellaneous triggers (ex: Discarding Blaze Counters is listed on Bang's sheet, but being able to move after winning a combat is now on Tenjou Overdrive's card)
-Tenjou Overdrive gives you +2 Speed, instead of 2 additional movement points.  Effectively the same, but now gives the benefits on Speed checks.

Bhanri (Guardian)
-Crioch (Counterspark) now only gives +1 to combat checks if the monster has any resistances and +2 if they have any immunities, instead of +1 per resistance and +2 per immunity.

Bullet
-Art updated. No actual changes. I actually think Bullet is in a good place, power-wise.

Caitlyn
-Ace in the Hole is no longer restricted by "line of sight" since there's really no good way to judge that on the Arkham game board.

Carl Clover
-Nirvana can now be exhausted during upkeep to restore an extra control counter.  Doing so will prevent you from using Nirvana for the turn.
-Nirvana's wording has been updated to match Ignis (Relius' doll)
-Carl's delayed trigger on an empty Nirvana is now checked at Mythos instead of Upkeep.
-Carl's Personal Story pass condition no longer triggers on gaining allies, but the number of tokens needed has been reduced to 3 from 4.

Chie Satonaka
-Trial of the Dragon now gives +2 to horror and combat checks against monsters that you have trophies for, instead of a (+2) bonus to the first horror and combat check.  Mostly a phrasing update, but it does mean the bonuses last for the entire combat now.
-Trial of the Dragon now also gives the bonus against any monster you've failed a combat check against, provided you weren't knocked unconscious.

Cho'Gath
-You can no longer pay 1 gate trophy to use Carnivorous Feast.

Dieu Mort (Herald)
-Rancour now only considers losses, not payments, when deciding how to punish you.  This includes things like Sanity payments for spells and various payments for missions.
-Art updated.

Dizzy
-Necro and Undine completely reworked.  Now gives +1 to Will checks when your Fight is maxed, and +1 to Fight checks when your Will is maxed.

Dr. Mundo
-Infected Cleaver typo fixed. Now gives "(+1) to combat checks" instead of "(+1) to a combat check".  Because of the weapon's exhaust ability, this actually makes a large difference.
-Sadist now only triggers on other investigators in Arkham, and doesn't trigger unless Dr. Mundo is also in Arkham.

Haku-men
-Gaining an extra movement point with 8-seal Magatama now only costs 2 counters instead of 3.
-Haku-men's Personal Story fail punishment is now called "Preparing for the End" instead of "The End has Come"

Iron Tager
-Spark Bolt now pulls any 1 monster in the same town as you, instead of 1 monster in your line of sight.  As with Caitlyn, there isn't really a concrete way to define "line of sight" within the Arkham Game Board.
-Tager's Personal Story fail punishment is now "(-1) to all skill checks when the Ancient One awakens" instead of "Add 1 doom token to the doom track".  This change is actually ancient but I COMPLETELY FORGOT TO UPDATE IT (sorry).

Izayoi
-Speed increased to 4 from 3. Luck decreased to 3 from 4.

Liliana Vess (Herald)
-No longer gives undead monsters an additional -1 to combat.
-Wording cleanup on Liliana's Caress, as it was generally agreed that it was written very poorly and ambiguously.
-Extra clarification added to Gruesome Encore.

Malzahar
-Malefic Visions now delays Malzahar whenever it triggers.  He still gains a 1 clue and 1 sanity from it.
-Nether Grasp is now done before making a combat check against the listed monster type, instead of whenever you encounter it.
-Monsters conscripted with Nether Grasp will now ignore players when moving.

Makoto Nanaya
-Makoto Nanaya personal story pass condition (Mission) has had it's final area changed to "1st/2nd Area of Another Time/Dimension" instead of "1st Area of Another Time/Dimension"

Naoto Shirogane
-Master of Deduction now triggers upon closing a gate instead of sealing a gate.

Nasus
-Nasus' Personal Story now requires either 5 monster trophies or 1 gate trophy when the doom track is half full to pass.  The fail condition is now not achieving the pass condition by that point.
-Nasus' Personal Story pass reward is now "Enforcer of Balance"
    >Enforcer of Balance: "You may spend 5 toughness of monster trophies or 1 gate trophy to remove all blessings, curses, benefits, detriments and corruptions from all investigators that have them.  Either way, immediately gain a storm counter"

Noel Vermillion
-Wording Cleanup on Chain Revolver and Personal Story.  No actual changes.

Oswald
-Oswald's Personal Story pass condition only requires you to kill 2 undead monsters instead of 3.
-Oswald's Personal Story reward now prevents all sanity loss from Shadow Awakening.  Also, instead of preventing the first stamina spent from Shadow Awakening, you simply gain 1 stamina back if you kill the monster with Shadow Awakening.

Platinum the Trinity
-Magical Symphony has a NEW ITEM!
    >Magical Gift: 2 charge counters. Upkeep: You may spend all of your focus and 1 charge counter to drop a gift token in your current area. When this card is out of charge counters, discard it. If an investigator ends their movement on a gift token, remove it and roll a die. On a 1-3, they gain $1. On a 4-5, they recover their choice of 1 sanity or stamina. On a 6, they gain a clue token.
-Magical Symphony deck got a visual overhaul.  New color scheme and custom back image!

Rachel Alucard
-Starts with 1 less dollar and 1 fewer common item, but has 1 extra clue token.  Starts with Call down the Storm instead of Wither.

Ragna the Bloodedge
*Imitation Azure is a powerful ability that works well for an investigator like Ragna, but at the same time I feel it's just a little too powerful an ability to give to any investigator even if it can only be used once per game.  So, despite how much that ability resonates with the character, I've decided to remodel it into a different ability that is much smaller but also more relevent.

-Imitation Azure ability replaced with Veins of Black
-Veins of Black gives Ragna +1 to Fight and Will and twice the recovery rate from Soul Eater if his sanity or stamina is ever at 1.
-Ragna's Personal Story reward and punishment have been modified to adapt to the removal of Imitation Azure.

Relius Clover
-Ignis now starts with 4 control counters instead of 6, and using her requires you to spend 2 instead of 3. Effectively no change, but the planned reward for passing Relius' story (when it's finally written) is recovering 1 control counter per upkeep, making this an eventual buff.
-Ignis is now 1 handed instead of 2 handed, but the starting bonus is +2 instead of +3 (The +X portion is the same).

Saligrama (Guardian)
-Soma wording cleanup.

Sieg Wahrheit
-Blasphemy Legion now costs 1 stamina instead of 1 sanity when blasting away a monster of 3 or higher toughness.

Sona Buvelle
-Crescendo now includes Voice of Ra again.  It's musical enough in nature, and while Sona is "technically" mute (but maybe not?), Voice was added again to make up for the incredibly sparse amount of other musical-themed items.
-Sona's Personal Story now states "2 or more possessions listed under Crescendo" instead of "2 or more musical possessions".  This change was made to avoid any possible confusion.

Taokaka
-Now starts with a Knife, but also has 1 fewer clue token.
-Taokaka's Personal Story reward now also restores your sanity and stamina to full.

Tryndamere
-Mocking Shout can no longer be used unless you are in Arkham.
-Mocking Shout can no longer move monsters into Stable Locations
-Mocking Shout now moves monsters 1 space in the direction of Tryndamere, instead of their regular movement.  This is different from simply having the monster move towards Tryndamere, which means it can now be used to move stationary and special monsters.

Tsubaki Yayoi
-Tsubaki now gains 2 stock counters every upkeep during the Ancient One battle.
-Divine Judgment no longer has any restrictions on how often you can equip a Punishment instead of a Judgment Art.  However, equipping a Punishment also requires you to spend all of your focus.
-Judgment Arts modified slightly
    >Light in the Sky now costs 3 stock instead of 2.
    >All Arts have had wording fixes and cleanups.

Twisted Fate
*I've actually been lingering on the choice to remove Destiny Gate for a while, only recently deciding that I did want to go through with it. It seems weird removing what is arguably TF's most unique ability, but it was just causing too many design issues.  I knew, and still know exactly what I want to do with the Destiny Gate effect and I've already incorporated that effect into his personal story, so there really isn't any reason to keep the ability around.  This means that I can use the other idea from the previous Destiny Gate in future designs.

-Loaded Dice now has the extra effect "Any Phase: Once per turn, you may add +1 to the result of any die you rolled"
-Pick a Card's values have been rearranged.  1-2 is now common item, 3-4 is now spell, and 5-6 is now unique item.
-Destiny Gate has been completely removed.  The intended ability has already been worked into TF's personal story, so there's no need for this ability anymore.
-Twisted Fate's Personal Story pass reward no longer delays you upon using Astral Travel.

Velvet Valentine
-Psypher Chain now gives a +1 horror bonus against a chained monster as well.

Zappa
-Wording cleanup on ability and summons.
-Triplet Spirits now gives +2 to combat checks instead of +1.
-Triplet Spirits gives 1 soul counter for each 5-6 you roll on a skill check, and discards 1 for each 1-2 you roll on a skill check.  This completely replaces the old, cumbersome method.
-Spectral Hound is still a +2 to combat checks, but now the modifier increases to +3 if your other hand is equipped with something.
-Cursed Sword no longer gives +2 to horror checks.
-Cursed Sword now causes Combat to be fought with Speed instead of Fight, to help match the theme with all other summons.

 

I also thought I'd update people on the full image gallery idea.  It's definitely going to happen, but I'm still brainstorming the best way to arrange it and it also requires me to upload over 100 images in high quality.  So, while I can promise that it will be coming, I really can't promise it will be anytime soon.

[Shining Aquas 34]

Hey folks, sorry it's been silent around here. That last update actually took a lot out of me, no joke.  Anyways, I'm going on vacation for a couple weeks, but I thought I'd leave you with an update before hitting the trail.

6/22/2013 - Holy Protector

NEW CONTENT:
New Guardian - Zillael, Arcana of Sacred
-Zillael can be found in the Arcana Heart section of Guardians.

New Content Bundle - Inaba Investigation Team (Persona 4)
-The Persona 4 Bundle includes 7 Investigators and 1 Herald.

BALANCE CHANGES:
Chie Satonaka
-Trial of the Dragon now applies the bonus against a monster when having a monster trophy of the same name or after failing the first combat check against it, instead of having a monster trophy of the same name or failing ANY combat check against it.
-Trial of the Dragon's activation cost is now 3 kai counters from 5.  The maximum she can hold is now 3 from 5.
-Trial of the Dragon can now be activated during Any Phase instead of Movement.
-Kung Fu Fanatic now increases Chie's Maximum Sanity by 1 if she has any of the listed skills.
-Kung Fu Fanatic now only gives 1 sanity instead of all sanity upon gaining any of the listed skills.

Cornelius
-Cornelius had $2 of unspent cash, so he now starts with 1 spell and $2 fewer.
-Pooka's Curse only replaces your starting curse with the Pooka's Curse card, instead of every curse after as well.
-Getting blessed no longer dispels the Pooka's Curse, but instead places 3 Valentine Counters on it.
-Pooka's Curse now takes 6 Valentine Counters to remove from 5.
-Pooka's Curse card now has a custom symbol on the backside, drawn by me .

The Odin Sphere Content Bundle has been updated

 

Next time, I will bundle up the League of Legends content and I'll be creating the first bits of the full image gallery.

[Shining Aquas 34]

After having been stuck in New York due to a cancelled flight (caused by events happening at SFO), I'm back and ready to update new material.

7/17/2013 - This Migo reminds me of a Puzzle

 

NEW CONTENT

New Investigator - Hershal "Professor" Layton

-Professor Layton can be found under the Miscellaneous tab under Investigators.

 

New Content Bundle - League of Legends

-The League Bundle contains 13 investigators, including the exclusive beta release of "Vladimir, the Crimson Reaper".  Vladimir will be released as a seperate download in the coming weeks.

 

 

BALANCE CHANGES

Kanji Tatsumi
*Kanji has always felt like the overall weakest character out of the P4 lineup.  He doesn't bring anything really solid to the game and performs as an average combat character with a couple of small gimmicks.  Having an ability that is potentially punishing and is effectively a worse version of Joe Diamond's "Hunches" wasn't really helping his already mediocre playstyle.  To help put Kanji in a more contendable position with other characters similar to him and to make his play more synergistic and fun, his main ability has been completely reworked.

 

-"Real Man, 110%" reworked.  New effect is "Whenever you spend any number of clue tokens towards passing a skill check and you succeed that check, regain 1 spent clue token."
    >This ability says that you regain 1 spent clue token, so it will not trigger upon using a clue replacement effect (Mythos Lore, for example)
    >This ability also does not count as gaining a clue for the sake of triggers that occur upon gaining a clue token (Press Pass, for example)
    >Because of how this skill is worded, it does work with Skills like Fisticuffs, which Kanji already starts with.
-Heart of Gold now prevents 2 stamina damage on the target instead of 1.

Isaac

*Isaac's last batch of major changes have shown a significant increase in playability with the character.  The original version of Isaac involved the player switching maybe 1-2 times in the entire game, but this version of Isaac almost encourages about 3-5 switches per game, and overall the player feels a bit more rewarded switching multiple times a game.  The only issue that remains is with Samson in that he fights with Judas over a similar sort of role, and Judas ALWAYS ends up preferred.  These buffs to Samson should help make him just as viable a pick for combat instances as Judas, and hopefully it will make it easier to see what each of those characters was originally designed for.

 

-No changes to Isaac, however major changes have been made to Samson.
*Samson
-Sanity and Stamina are now 5 each, instead of 4 Sanity and 6 Stamina.
-Fury Counters may now be spent as clue tokens, but only for the sake of combat and horror checks.  If you ever have 3 Fury counters, you still discard them and gain an actual clue token.
-Samson's Switch Bonus now shows you the monster token during Upkeep, and you may choose to place it on your location at any time during movement.  If you don't, the token returns to the cup.

Malzahar
-Nether Grasp got some minor wording fixes to prevent confusion.  Ability remains unchanged.

Viktor
-Augment: Energy now only requires 1 focus to refresh, instead of all of your focus.

 

I mentioned that I would begin working on the image previews on this update.  Unfortunately, I cannot begin working on it because the new forum is structured differently from the old one.  While most of the changes that this new forum brings are positive ones, major negatives exist where image uploading is involved, namely that you cannot create any post with more than 10 images in it.  The full image gallery will be put on hold until I find a good way around this problem, although I am always open for suggestion.

Edited July 17, 2013 by Shining Aquas

[Shining Aquas 34]

Sorry this last update has been taking a while, but I will have something up in the coming day(s).

In case you're wondering about the delay, it has something to do with the "Full Visual Gallery"

[Shining Aquas 34]

8/9/2013 - Paint the town Red

 

NEW CONTENT

New Investigator - Vladimir, the Crimson Reaper

-Vladimir can be found in the League of Legends tab under Investigators.

 

New Content Bundle - Chaos Legion

-This mini bundle comes with 2 investigators and 1 Ancient One from the Chaos Legion title.

 

THE FULL IMAGE GALLERY IS UP!

-By use of the Imgur Gallery features, this full image gallery was crafted with traces of legendary dragon scales and smelted together with the embers of a dying star.

-Each item on display has a name, description and a high resolution image.  Not on display are Personal Stories or Sinister Plots.

-There are goodies in there.  Namely, a few images for future content.

-The Full Image Gallery can be found in the second post of the thread, right under the Topic post.  Alternatively, there's a link here.

 

BALANCE CHANGES
Annie Hastur
-Lore reduced to 4 from 5.  Sneak increased to 5 from 4.
-More wording cleanup on the Tibbers Monster Token.

Chimbley Sweep

*Chimbley was a long time joke character, made in the earliest days of my custom creation phase.  While I like Chimbley from a flavorful standpoint, his selection of items and abilities was not very well thought out, and has been long overdo for an update.  The reason why it took so long to refine Chimbley is because he was incredibly fun and kinda silly, and people enjoyed playing him despite how overpowered his design was.  I think I finally found a sweet spot where Chimbley can be strong without being overbearing, can still remain flavorful and no longer reeks of bad design.

-Convenient Law Enforcement completely reworked.  Now allows you to make a Luck (-1) check once per turn instead of making a combat or evade check.  If you pass, the monster is arrested.  Only 1 monster can be in jail at a time, putting another in there causes the first monster to be released into Easttown Streets.  The monster will also be released during "Blue Flu".
-Panic and Stealth have both been removed from Fixed Possesions.  Now starts with an extra random spell.
-Dusty Broom now costs $5 instead of $4.
-Dusty Broom now requires 5 soot counters to refresh from 6.
-Chimbley's Personal Story completely redone to reflect the recent rework.

Chie Satonaka
-Trial of the Dragon's activation is now restricted to "cannot be used unless in Arkham" as opposed to "cannot be used in the middle of an Arkham Encounter or while not in Arkham, but can be used before drawing an Arkham Encounter".  Not only better, but way nicer to read.

Ewan
-Ewan has been scrapped due to poor design and no interesting gameplay.  Ideas that went into creating Ewan will be redirected into future projects.

*Ewan, like Chimbley, was made as more of a joke character in the earliest stages of custom creation.  Unlike Chimbley, he didn't really have any great specifications or unique abilities, and his gameplay was really lackluster.  Additionally, he could almost be considered overpowered once he passed his personal story.  Ultimately, there's nothing really compelling about Ewan as an investigator and as such, I'm sorry to say, he's not worth keeping around.  Basic ideas on which Ewan was founded, like self-recovery and item bonding via Duct Tape, will probably be re-evaluated and used in future designs.  I'm a particular fan of Magical Duct Tape, and will probably try to incorporate it elsewhere.

 

Gwendolyn
-Image updated for "Griselda's Spear".  No Actual Changes.

Isaac
-No changes to Isaac, but a small change has been made to Samson
>Samson
-Samson no longer automatically discards his fury counters for 1 clue token upon hitting 3.
-Samson's Bloody Fury now has "Any Phase: You may discard 3 fury counters to gain 1 clue token."

Litchi Faye-Ling
-Image updated for "Matenbou Staff".  No Actual Changes.

ODIN SPHERE CONTENT
-Art assets have been updated for all Ancient Ones (Leventhan, The Cauldron, Darkova, Onyx and King Gallon), and art assets for Ancient One parts have also been updated (Baby Leventhan and The Cauldron Monster Tokens).

Sieg Wahrheit

*Summoning legions really takes a lot out of Sieg.  Because of how the ability works, Sieg could only really play at Maximum Speed (5) and would still only receive 3 movement points if he ever tried to take advantage of Legions, which is his only unique trait.  My first inclination was to start him off with a Map of Arkham, but I decided instead to fix his ability at it's core so that smart players can find a way to create additional movement out of it.
-Apocrypha of Yzarc now allows you to summon a legion at any time during movement at the cost of half your remaining movement points (rounded up), instead of at the start of movement for half your overall movement points (rounded down).

Twisted Fate

*In the actual League of Legends game, Twisted Fate's ability to grant bonus money to everyone was recently reworked into a self-giving money tool based on the idea of rolling loaded dice.  I was such a fan of this change that I decided to implement it onto his investigator sheet as well.
-Loaded Dice minor rework.  Whenever Twisted Fate gains money outside of trades,  retainers or Deputy of Arkham, roll a die and receive that much money instead.  You cannot receive less money from this ability than you would normally (Ex: If you would receive $3 and you roll a 1, you will still gain $3.  However, if you roll a 4, you receive $4 instead of $3).
    >The second part of this ability remains unchanged (Any Phase: Once per turn you may add +1 to the result of any die rolled by Twisted Fate)
-Wording on Pick a Card revised to better cover what is actually happening with the ability, mostly where shop purchases are concerned.
-Personal Story pass condition now also requires discarding a gate trophy in addition to the ally and $6.
-Personal Story reward now lets you exhaust the card instead of discarding Astral Travel, instead of exhausting and paying 1 stamina.

ODIN SPHERE BUNDLE HAS BEEN UPDATED

 

 

I hope you guys enjoy the new image gallery, it took a long time to set it up but I'm pretty satisfied with it overall.  If there's anything about it that bothers you, let me know.

Edited August 9, 2013 by Shining Aquas

[Shining Aquas 34]

UPDATES! ON THE INTERNET! WOO!

I've got nothing to say, so here's some junk.

 

9/10/2013 - Leaf on the Wind

 

NEW CONTENT

New Guardian - Tempestas, Arcana of Wind

-Tempestas can be found in the Arcana Heart tab under Guardians.  Image Gallery has been updated accordingly.

 

BALANCE CHANGES

Annie Hastur

*Summon Tibbers is a big, awesome effect that really helps define what Annie can do, but I wasn't a big fan of how it was operating.  Because Tibbers lowered the toughness of monsters by 1, it was best to use it simply to clean up 1 toughness monsters without putting people at risk.  I wanted to remove the indiscriminate removal that Tibbers was offering while still making the ability enticing.  Hopefully, these touch-ups will accomplish that.
-Tibbers now reduces monsters to a minimum of 1 toughness, instead of 0.
-Monsters defeated by Tibbers are now claimed as trophies by Annie instead of returned to the monster cup.

King Gallon (AO)

*It's been a while since I got a hard look at King Gallon's actual ability, and after some simple research found that the second clause didn't actually do anything.  This AO has been under my radar for way too long, so I made a series of small changes that will help make his interactions just a bit more active than passive.
-Combat modifier decreased to -1 from -2
-Main ability no longer contains addendum regarding removing monsters via gate closing.  This didn't actually do anything since no undead monsters are removed from gate closing anyway (except for Dark Druid and Child of the Goat, in the case of this AO)
-New effect: "Whenever an investigator closes a gate, they remove an undead monster from the board or outskirts".  Yes, that does trigger King Gallon's main ability.
-Start of battle slightly reworded, but effect is mostly the same.
-Attack reworded to reflect changes made to Start of Battle.  Overall effect: Instead of simply replenishing the Extra Doom track, you actually repeat King Gallon's start of battle after each bonus round.  Ultimately, this makes King Gallon harder to fight.

Mu -12-
-PERSONAL STORY ADDED!
    >Every time you defeat a monster, you get 1 counter. Every time you close a gate, you get 2 counters or 3 if you sealed the gate. Once you reach at least 10, you pass.
    >If you are knocked unconscious by a monster without defeating it, you fail.
    >Pass reward lets you either get a 2-handed weapon of your choice from any deck, or gain a blessing.  If you choose to get blessed, you can't ever lose that blessing.
    >Fail punishment is maximum sanity reduced by 1 and your story resets, losing half the remaining counters (rounded down).  If it's the third time you would fail, you are instead devoured and add 1 doom token to the doom track.

Shane Talos
-PERSONAL STORY ADDED!
    >You need to complete a 5 area mission with the cost being 1 clue token per area.  Afterwards, you may choose to either pass OR fail.
    >Pass reward reduces number of counters needed for Swirl of Aether to 3.  Anytime an investigator would gain a spell, they may instead have you gain 2 clues.  Other investigators in the same area as Shane may choose to receive the full effect of his Eye of the Storm ability.
    >Failure causes all players to discard all spells and returns the spell deck to the box. For each spell discarded, that player gains 2 clue tokens.  Monsters no longer have resistances and immunities.

Twisted Fate

*I'll keep it simple: I made TF too strong on accident.  Loaded Dice was intended to be the defining ability for TF and the intention was to give him some control over his other abilities, but people just save the Loaded Die for Skill Checks making him almost constantly blessed, and just flat out broken when he's actually blessed.  Hate to do it again, but TF needs a serious nerf.
-Loaded Dice now allows you to add or subtract 1 to/from the result of a die rolled, instead of just adding 1.  Still restricted to once per turn.
-Loaded Dice no longer allows you to change the result of dice rolled on a skill check.

Venser, the Sojourner (Guardian)
-Venser's Diffusion is now optional.

Yosuke Hanamura

*Yosuke is a cool character, and I love watching people work with his clone.  After a good amount of research, I've found the core strengths and weaknesses of using his abilities and tech.  I'm making these minor changes to improve the way Yosuke's clone works, and to give him more unique options without just flat out buffing him.
-Reliably Surprising's range has been extended to within 3 spaces of Yosuke instead of 2.
-Jiraiya's ability is now "Any Phase: Exhaust and pay 1 sanity to have Yosuke switch places with his clone".
-Yosuke's Personal Story Reward has been modified.  Now gives your persona "Exhaust instead of paying 1 sanity for Reliably Surprising" in addition to it's normal ability.
-Yosuke's Personal Story Fail Condition is now when the terror level reaches 4, instead of when it reaches 3.

[Shining Aquas 34]

I actually intended to update this thread about a week ago, but out of nowhere the topic page EXPLODED!  I don't know how for how long, but ALL THE LINKS WERE BROKEN.  I'm actually surprised no one noticed

 

But that's all taken care of and it came at a plus since I was given a good reason to reorganize the list slightly.  So, here are the updates you're probably waiting to see:

 

10/15/2013 - Your Journey Begins Here

 

NEW CONTENT

New Investigator - Journey, the Illuminus

-Journey can be found in the Enigma Aether section of Investigators.  An alpha version of her has been hiding in the Image Gallery for a while, but the most updated version has replaced it.

 

BALANCE CHANGES

Haku-men
-Sneak decreased to 3 from 4.  Luck increased to 4 from 3.
-Wording updated for 8-Seal Magatama.

Oswald
-Shadow Awakening is now usable during "Any Phase" instead of "Movement".  This was always meant to be an Any Phase ability, but I guess I missed it.

The Cauldron (AO)
-Main ability marginally updated to help match it to Leventhan.  Now states "nothing can move or remove The Cauldron monster token" as opposed to just "nothing can remove it".  This means you cannot move The Cauldron token with Migo Brain Case or Milk of Shub Nigguroth anymore.

Valkenhayn R. Hellsing

*The original intended design of Valkenhayn was to use Summon the Beast Within flexibly, turning it on and off as various situations dictated.  What I failed to respect when making the investigator was the sheer power of the Inner Beast card.  Instead of switching between forms, people playing Valkenhayn would either cast a spell or wait for their sanity to lower at all, and then proceed to play with Inner Beast on at all times for the rest of the game since there was never a good reason not to.  With these changes, Valkenhayn's stats have been reworked and now he receives some serious bonuses as long as he doesn't have Inner Beast.  Hopefully, these changes will encourage what Valkenhayn was designed to do all along: Be Versatile.
-Fight decreased to 3 from 4. Sneak increased to 4 from 3.
-Now has Will +1 and Sneak +1 as long as he doesn't have the Inner Beast card.
-Casting Summon the Beast Within on a phase other than upkeep no longer causes it to forcefully refresh at the end of the turn.
-Second clause of Werewolf is now "Any Phase: Once per turn you may pay 1 sanity to cast or refresh Summon the Beast Within".
-Since Valkenhayn now gets the equivalent of 2 extra stat points outside of Inner Beast, he now starts with 2 fewer clues and 1 fewer common item to help keep his new stat alignment a bit fairer.
-Valkenhayn's Personal Story reward and punishment have been augmented to include benefits/detriments for not having Inner Beast.

 

[Shining Aquas 34]

Hope everyone had a fantastic Halloween dressing up as their favorite Lovecraftian terror.  I attempted to crash a party dressed as a Crawling One, but got taken away for being "indecent in public".  That's a joke, its okay to laugh.  Ha. Ha ha. Right.

 

ANYWAYS, I got some new updates for y'all today.  This is definitely the largest update in a while but surprisingly not that much has actually changed (wait what).  Also, I want to ask the readers if the current format of updates is good or not.  I usually start with new stuff first, then post the balance updates after that, and for a few things I leave some extra commentary on why those changes went into effect.  If you want to see improvements or you think the system is good as is LET ME KNOW.  Put a post in this thread telling me "I love it" or "Go die in a fire!".  Ha ha how EXCITING!

 

Here's the updates.

 

11/5/2013 - All that Glitters is Gold

 

NEW CONTENT
New Investigator - Karolina Dean, the runaway outlander
-Karolina can be found in the Runaways tab of investigators.

BALANCE CHANGES
Persona 4 Investigators (All of them)

*Now I know what you're probably thinking: "Changes to ALL OF THEM!?"  Yes, all of them.  However, these are mostly cosmetic changes.  Each Persona 4 investigator had a first ability that made it impossible to lose their starting ally, which makes sense since it's attached to their soul somewhat.  Unfortunately, this made it so that each investigator sheet had about 3 abilities on them, which clutters the sheet tremendously and makes it less appealing to read.  So, I've removed that ability entirely and decided to integrate parts of the effect into their other abilities.  Overall, the sheets have much less text-shrinkage, making for happier players.
-Every one of these investigators have had their first ability removed, which means it's now possible for them to lose their Persona ally.
-Every ability these investigators had that involved spending 1 sanity now comes with the condition of needing to have your Persona ally in order to use it.
-Every character now has the ability to regain their Persona Ally if they ever lose it by spending 1 sanity.
-The Persona 4 bundle has been updated to accomidate these and other changes.

Chie
-Trial of the Dragon's trigger now reads "+2 to skill checks" instead of "+2 to combat and horror checks".  While this was done mostly to save space on the sheet, it also means that Chie receives a bonus to casting spells against a monster if Trial of the Dragon triggers on that monster.

Gier (Herald)
-Sichel now applies a -1 penalty to skill checks concerning red skills, instead of -1 to all Will and Luck checks.

Kanji
-Heart of Gold now gives "+1 to Will and Sneak" as opposed to "+1 to Will and Sneak checks".  It occurred to me that simply giving bonuses to the checks as opposed to the skills would not give benefits towards horror and evade checks, which was largely the point of the skill.

Klara

*Klara is mostly in a good spot play-wise, but some of her values and strengths seem just a tad too high.  These nerfs are intended to make playing her a little less safe, while still retaining her play-style.
-Speed increased to 5 from 4, Lore decreased to 4 from 5.
-Tangle of Thorns now gives a combat bonus of +4 from +5
-Tangle of Thorns now has a casting modifier of -1 from -2. Still costs $4.

Leventhan (AO)

*These are actually huge changes to the way Leventhan plays.  While I do think it's important for all Ancient One's to have some strategies or methods of counterplay, Leventhan was actually plagued by actually having too much counterplay.  These changes aren't made for the sake of simply empowering Leventhan but rather giving him a way to fight back.
-After Baby Leventhan has been engulfed by the Cauldron, it now adds 6 doom tokens per upkeep instead of 4.
-Defeating Baby Leventhan now adds 2 doom tokens to the doom track.

Onyx (AO)

*Onyx's main ability was just way too messy, and cluttered his sheet pretty ridiculously.  I tried to find many different ways to reword the functions and rearrange the effects, but ultimately the best fix I found was just making custom monsters to take some of the heavy lifting away.  As a result, Onyx requires more printing to play with, but is also much more coherent.
-Onyx's main ability has been revamped. Instead of creating fire tokens, it now creates spawn monsters called "Emberkin" that contain most of the rules the main ability used to have.  Functionally, the ability is mostly the same.
-Unlike Fire tokens, Emberkin don't close areas.  Instead, they explode when making contact with an investigator, dealing 2 stamina damage in the process.  If it happens during mythos, it delays that investigator.  Investigators that are knocked unconscious from this effect are still devoured afterwards.
-Instead of lasting 3 turns, Emberkin have 3 toughness and have their toughness reduced by 1 at the end of every mythos.

Naoto

*These changes are very minor, but the hope is that by adding a much more rewarding 6 effect people may be more encouraged to use Rewritten Destiny.
-Rolling a 1 on Rewritten Destiny now forces Naoto to discard Sukuna-Hikona.  Originally caused nothing to happen but allowed you to spend an additional sanity to roll again.
-Rolling a 6 on Rewritten Destiny now claims the monster as a trophy, ignoring endless.  Originally returned the monster to the box.

Nicol Bolas (AO)
-Main ability now written as "if you didn't discard anything to Bolas" instead of "if you don't have any weapons to discard".  This will allow his ability to surpass weapons that aren't lost unless you choose to lose them (Enchanted Cane, Derringer, etc.)

-Not discarding an item to Bolas now also causes you to lose 1 sanity in addition to all your clue tokens.
-Nicol Bolas now has Sinister Plot cards!

Teddie
-Midnight Navigator no longer restricted to once per turn.

The Cauldron (AO)
-Main ability got some wording cleanup and alterations.  Now adds a token whenever a monster is defeated or removed from Arkham (but not the outskirts), instead of adding a token whenever a monster is killed or removed for any reason. While this is technically a nerf, it does encourage a new method of counterplay.
-If an investigator is devoured before The Cauldron awakens, it now adds 2 doom tokens instead of 1.

Yosuke
-If Yosuke's clone is ever reduced to 0 stamina/sanity, he must discard the Jiraiya ally.

 

Yukiko

-Art updated.  No specific changes other than the universal P4 update.

Edited November 6, 2013 by Shining Aquas

[Shining Aquas 34]

Oh god, I definitely ate WAY TOO MUCH on Thanksgiving.  I can still taste the turkey.

 

Look...I'm gonna put the updates down, then just let me finish getting over this turkey half-coma.  Erg.

 

12/3/2013 - Mirror Mirror, On the Wall Everything

 

NEW CONTENT

New Herald - Heliogabalus, Arcana of Mirror

-Heliogabalus can be found in the Arcana Heart section of Heralds.

 

BALANCE CHANGES

Bang Shishigami

*In this set of changes, I've been looking at characters with "once per turn" abilities and seeing if they can be cleaned up a bit.  Bang was one of these characters, with a restriction that I honestly don't think needed to be there. On top of remodeling the restrictions on his main ability, I've also made lots of small touch-ups to his kit.  Stay fancy.
-Burning Heart completely reworded and cleaned up.
-Burning Heart's once per turn restriction is now once per combat.
-Burning Heart now gives a number of blaze counters equal to how many successes you rolled, instead of automatically giving 1 each time.
-Furinkazan no longer delays you when you run out of counters, but now you will also lose the effect if you are knocked unconscious.

Chie Satonaka

*I'll be honest, this small adjustment may end up doing big things to Chie's overall performance, possibly too much.  By removing the limit on how many counters Trial of the Dragon can build up, Chie can stockpile a ton.  Since each one obtained requires defeating a monster, I think the simple limits of what the game can produce will help keep this in check, but we'll have to wait and see...
-Trial of the Dragon no longer has a limit to how many ki counters you can have at once. Costs are all still the same.
-Chie's personal story punishment now adjusts Trial of the Dragon's cost to 5 ki counters, instead of 6.

 

Iron Tager
-Starting location is now Miskatonic University Streets, instead of Science Building.  Starts with 1 less clue token as a result.

 

Izayoi
-The casting modifier for Zero Weave Mode Shift is now +2 instead of +1. Cost is unchanged.
-Successfully casting Zero Weave Mode Shift now grants a scarlet counter if you rolled at least 2 successes when casting it.

Litchi Faye-Ling

*I really enjoy that Litchi can chain Kokusho into Daisharin in the same turn, but it really bothers me that you can't do it both ways.  For a character that's all about making your abilities flow naturally into one another, this was completely unacceptable, so I modified Daisharin's cost to make it possible to chain in either direction.
-Daisharin now has a cost of 1 sanity and up to 2 movement points, instead of 1 sanity and all your remaining movement points. The function is more or less the same, but has been adjusted to match these new values.
-Kokusho's wording has been cleaned up tremendously.

Makoto Nanaya

*Another victim of the "once per turn" restriction, and much like Bang it was really unnecessary, even more so in Makoto's case.  On top of removing the restriction (which is a flat-out buff), I'm also reinforcing the theme of the move (in the form of a nerf).
-Impact no longer has the once per turn restriction
-Rolling a 1-3 on Impact now sets your combat modifier to (-1) instead of simply removing all rolled bonuses so far.  This was done to add more of a "gamble" aspect to the ability.
-Makoto's Personal Story Reward now includes "If the gate you returned from is in the streets, seal the location it spawned on, closing any gates there"

Mu-12-
-Desperate and Determined now triggers off of any skill check that would knock Mu unconscious, not just combat checks on monsters.

*I really want to delve much deeper in Mu-12- someday, because I do believe she needs some serious improvements before she's "solid". This quality of life improvement will help get her back in the game a little bit, but I am still looking for "the right fix".

 

Naoto Shirogane
-Naoto's Personal Story Pass Condition is now "If Naoto ends her movement on the Police Station after having sealed a gate, or she becomes Deputy of Arkham"

Nasus
-Art Updated, no actual changes made.

Noel Vermillion

*I kinda feel that Noel falls in the same boat as Mu-12- (which is funny since they are technically the same person) in that they both feel a bit underwhelming in their current state.  However, I don't think Noel is in nearly as bad a place, and hopefully this impact on her personal story will give her a greater goal to reach for.
-Noel's Personal Story pass condition is now "spend 5 clue tokens and 3 monster trophies while there are at least 2 seals on the board". Originally was "If you ever have 7 clue tokens and 4 monster trophies, and there are at least 2 seals on the board..."
-Noel's Personal Story reward has been changed to "Noel gets +1 Lore and Will. When you get this card, gain a skill."  Originally was "Draw 2 skills, keeping 1 and discarding the other."  The second clause regarding Chain Revolver remains unchanged.

Nu-13-
-Archetype Shift got some wording cleanup.

Relius Clover
-Instead of making a separate monster trophy pile, all monsters defeated by Ignis are now attached to Ignis.  The overall function is exactly the same, but the wording comes out cleaner and it's much easier to keep track of which trophies are Ignis' and which are not.
-Using Dissection on the Science Building now only yields an additional clue token if the entire cost was paid using the Ignis pile.

Sieg Wahrheit

*Alright, it's been a long time coming, but this time instead of getting Sieg in a good place, I think I finally have him in THE right place.  Shifting his ability from Movement to Upkeep makes the entire interaction cleaner, and retuning his Legions to all feel about equal in power should make this more or less THE Sieg build.  Everything from here on out will likely just be minor tune-ups and small tweaks, if any.  Please let me know how he plays.
-Speed decreased to 4 from 5.  Fight increased to 5 from 4.
-Apocrypha of Yzarc activation is now 2 focus instead of half of your remaining movement points (rounded up).  Activation is now during Upkeep instead of Movement.
-Sieg now starts with a Cavalry Saber and an extra random common instead of an Enchanted Blade.
-Legion of the Sword no longer claims endless monsters.  Instead, now has "Any Phase: Exhaust and pay 1 stamina before making a combat check to move your Fight/Will skill slider furthest right."
-Legion of the Shield is now usable against the Ancient One.  Additionally, Sieg only gets shield counters if he prevented damage with the legion now (instead of prevented with anything).
-Legion of the Shield's counters don't work as combat clue tokens anymore. Instead, Shield now has "Any Phase: Exhaust and spend all your shield counters to add that many die to a single skill check. If you fail that check, lose 1 sanity."
-Legion of the Bomb got wording cleanup.

Tsubaki Yayoi

*I liked all of Tsubaki's abilities except for Gaea's Embrace, so I remade it.  I don't really have anything else to say on the matter
-Judgment Art: Heavenly Wings is now worded "you can only move up to 2 spaces this movement and may ignore any monsters along the path".  Originally was "For this movement, you gain 3 movement points and may ignore any number of monsters while moving".  Not only is the number of spaces reduced by 1, but you cannot combine it with any item that gives movement points anymore.
-Punishment Art: Gaea's Embrace has been reworked.  Now costs 5 stock and 1 sanity/stamina each, roots all monsters on the board, forcing them to skip their next movement. Additionally can force any number of flying monsters to land, placing them in any street area of your choice.  If at least 5 monsters were affected by this, gain 1 stock counter.

Yukiko Amagi
-The bonus for choosing Heal as your starting spell is now "May cast Heal during Any Phase, and may target investigators in adjacent areas" instead of "May target investigators in adjacent areas, and healing another investigator also heals Yukiko for the same amount".
-Yukiko's Personal Story Pass Condition now requires 10 counters instead of 12.

Zappa
-When using Triplet Spirits, you now only discard soul counters for each 1 you roll on a skill check, instead of every 1-2 you roll.

Edited December 4, 2013 by Shining Aquas

[Shining Aquas 34]

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year in advance.  I say this mostly because I won't be here on New Years and thought it might be nice to put the New Years update a little earlier.  Hope you enjoy.

 

12/25/2013 - A Legacy Like No Other

 

NEW CONTENT

New Guardian - Traele, Chronicler of the Aether

-Traele can be found in the Enigma Aether section of Guardians

 

BALANCE CHANGES

All of the following characters now have Personal Stories
-Dizzy
-Professor Layton
-Relius Clover
-Tryndamere
-Viktor
-Vivian Deshaun
-Vladimir

*Since our newest Guardian, Traele, is entirely focused on Personal Stories, I decided to put a bigger effort towards giving Personal Stories towards characters that were missing them.  These stories not only benefit the play experience of Traele, but also for those investigators.

 

Bhanri (Guardian)
-Static Clash now only triggers once per combat.

Gier (Herald)

*The last few changes have been tailored around making Gier feel tougher since I feel like he's always been underperforming as a herald.  This will probably be the last buff to him for a while.
-Vicious Stalker now makes you roll a Speed (+0) check instead of a Fight (+0) check or lose 1 movement point.
-The Burden of Despair now has "If you failed the Speed check on Vicious Stalker, you have -1 to all skill checks instead of just -1 to skill checks made with red skills".

Lillet Blan
-Time travel via "The Endless Five" no longer allows you to keep Blessings.

Viktor
-Hex Core's cost has been changed to $6 from $8.  Viktor now starts with an extra clue token.

Zillael (Guardian)
-Crusade can now be used at any Stable Location, instead of just St. Mary's Hospital or Arkham Asylum.

 

See you guys next year.

Edited December 25, 2013 by Shining Aquas

[Shining Aquas 34]

Hey investigators, the new year just rolled out.  Another year of dread terrors, non-euclidean horror-scopes, and space mead.  Glorious.

 

Here at the Shining Aquas Party Zone, we know how to keep it real.  With updates.

 

1/15/2014 - Winter Wonderland

 

NEW CONTENT

New Guardian - Almacia, Arcana of Ice

-Almacia can be found under the Arcana Heart section of Guardians

 

New Scenario - Corrupted Beast (Darkova)

-Corrupted Beast is the 1st of 5 scenarios in the Erion Armageddon set. The Ancient One for this scenario is Darkova.

-Corrupted Beast can be found in the Odin Sphere section of Scenarios. Download includes all parts needed.

-Darkova's download also includes Corrupted Beast now, so there are two places to grab it.

-For more information about recording scores on Scenarios, visit the thread here!

 

BALANCE CHANGES

Darkova (AO)

*This tweak is very minor, but I am going to use this chance to mention that whenever I release a new scenario, I will also give that particular Ancient One another thorough look.  As a result, each of those Ancient Ones may or may not receive little tweaks as their scenarios are released.
-The cost to ignore Death Roulette is now 2 clues instead of 1 clue.

Mu -12-

*In December I mentioned that Mu was in a pretty bad place, and I still agree with that.  I did also say that I was looking for the right fix, so for the sake of finding that fix I'm making a rather interesting tonal shift in her archetype.  These changes will help take Mu in a slightly different direction, and does redefine her play a bit, but I'm hoping it will help identify a new niche for her to fit.  Here's to hoping these modifications give her a more unique and wanted feel.
-Sanity increased to 6, Stamina decreased to 4.  Originally was 5 for both.
-Lore increased to 5 from 4. Focus decreased from 2 to 1.
-Steins Gunner is now "Investigators in Mu's space don't need to exhaust weapons and spells to use them in combat (extra effects such as rerolls still exhaust)".  Originally was "Mu doesn't need to exhaust guns or projectile weapons in combat"

Noel Vermillion
-Lore increased to 4 from 3, Luck decreased to 3 from 4
-Now starts with a Spell.  As a result, starts with 1 fewer common and 1 less dollar.
-Chain Revolver's cost is now 1 stamina OR 1 sanity, instead of 1 stamina AND 1 sanity.
-Art changed.

Edited January 22, 2014 by Shining Aquas

[Shining Aquas 34]

Hey guys, Happy Valentine's Day.  Too late?  Yeah, I know.

 

Anyways, I got some new stuff for you, the 1-3 other people that read this.

 

2/17/2014 - Soul Sisters

 

NEW CONTENT

New Guardian - Koshmar, Arcana of Punishment

+

New Herald - Sorwat', Arcana of Sin

-Koshmar can be found in the Arcana Heart section of Guardians, and Sorwat' can be found in the Arcana Heart section of Heralds.

-Both of those links lead to the same file, so you'll actually be getting both either way.

-Their position in the visual gallery is still based on the first post's order, so unfortunately they will remain separate in the visual gallery.

 

BALANCE CHANGES

*Truth be told, this is actually less than half of the changes that were implemented this week.  All of the unlisted changes went to things that haven't been released yet and are in beta testing, including: Kagura, Kokonoe, The Pantheon, Chaos, Red, Merkava, and others.

 

Agatha Prenderghast (AO)
-Agatha's combat modifier is now reduced individually by that investigator's Lore or Will, whichever is higher.  Originally was just Lore.
-Slight cleanup on her Start of Battle wording.

Amane Nishiki
-Spiral now only requires 3 drill counters to activate, instead of 4.

Bloody Marie (AO)
-Sinister Plot cards reworded and cleaned up a bit.

Hazama
-Starts with +1 clue, +1 dollar, -1 common item.
-Ouroboros can now only be used while in Arkham, and can now only target investigators that are also in Arkham.

[Shining Aquas 34]

Today is the first day of Spring!

 

Spring as a season is often stated as a season of rebirth, renewal and of new life.  To celebrate this occasion, I've started releasing the first of many new investigators from an entirely new category: Under Night In-Birth.  Enjoy!

 

3/20/2014 - New Beginnings

 

NEW CONTENT

NEW Investigators - Hyde, the Disruptor  +  Linne, the Eternal Heiress

-Both of these investigators can be found in the Under Night In-Birth section of Investigators

 

BALANCE CHANGES

Bang Shishigami

*Apparently taking out the delay trigger at the end of Tenjou Overdrive caused some larger than expected power spikes, and after seeing Bang literally go from one end of Arkham to the other twice in the same turn while killing monsters along the way, I decided his overall mobility with Furinkazan was a little too much.
-Bang is once again delayed upon losing Tenjou Overdrive.  This is a revert to the previous change a few months ago.
-Reminder Text added to Furinkazan, so that people will actually discard blaze counters on the first turn (as intended).
-Tenjou Overdrive no longer allows you to move to a street 2 spaces away as if they were adjacent.  Instead, it now has "Up to twice per movement phase, you may spend 1 movement point to move yourself to an adjacent area, regardless of monsters. This cannot be done mid-combat."

Bloody Marie

*No actual changes have been made to Bloody Marie, but I added an additional 3 Sinister Plots to keep the final battle with her a bit more interesting.
-3 Additional Sinister Plots have been added, putting her up to 6.  Over the course of a full Ancient One Fight, you will still only resolve 3 of them.

Hazama

*Yeah, I know, Hazama's been getting a lot of changes recently, but it's because he continues to be a bit of a problem case.  These changes probably won't fix some of the ridiculous interactions he has with low cost spells, but it will tone down his unbelievable mobility.  Additionally, I've restructured his personal story to do something a bit more awesome.
-Using Ouroboros to jump to another investigator now prevents Hazama from moving any more for the turn.
-Using Ouroboros to jump to another investigator now prevents Hazama from gaining any more snake counters for the turn.
-Personal Story completely restructured to do something...very unusual. Guess you'll have to download it to understand what I mean

Viktor
-Bionic Arm now has some restrictions.  The third hand can only be assigned a 1-handed weapon or spell, and that weapon cannot have a dollar value over $4 nor does it count for Martial Arts.  Originally was a free hand that could be used with anything, but didn't count as an unassigned hand when not used.

Edited March 24, 2014 by Shining Aquas

[Shining Aquas 34]

Sup. Updates. Done. Wow.

Not much for today though.  I guess things are just too balanced right now.

4/16/2014 - Heavenly Star

 

NEW CONTENT

NEW Ancient One - The Corruption, Scourge of Eden

-The Corruption can be found under the Miscellaneous tab under Ancient Ones.

 

BALANCE CHANGES

All the following characters now have Personal Stories

-Amane Nishiki

-Bullet

-Azrael

-Izayoi

*Hey, my copy of Chrono Phantasma finally came in the mail.  Excellent fighting game, love it, but more importantly this means I could finally play through the story mode, which in turn gave me a much greater understanding of some of the newer characters.  As a result, they now have personal stories.

 

Azrael
-Title changed.  No actual changes made.

Bullet
-Title changed.  No actual changes made.

 

Carmine Prime
-Effects are mostly the same, but massive rewording for clarity.
-The sanity reduction on Blood Spike is now restricted to once per turn.
-Crimson Carnival cannot reduce monsters below 1 toughness.

*Wait, dangit, you weren't supposed to see this.  He's not ready yet.  Come back in May.

 

Iliad Palette

*I really like Iliad, and I also like how she's intended to be played, but that's not how she's actually playing.  Her current ability to just outright ignore bad encounters is maybe a little too strong, and possibly a little too binary because of how it's worded.  Basically, she's really great when she has clue tokens to pick up, and horrendously underwhelming when there aren't any.  As a gameplay crux goes, that's not too bad, but I also don't think it makes enough sense given her focus on being more of a utility character.  So, I've reworked her main ability to have it make more sense, work better, and allow her a better range of options.
-Easily Inspired slightly reworked.  Now reads "Iliad may use the Painter skill in any Stable Location."  Additionally has "Upkeep: Spend 2 focus to roll a die.  On a success, you may also use the Painter skill in any Unstable Location for this turn."

Edited April 16, 2014 by Shining Aquas

[Shining Aquas 34]

Well, here's the monthly update, which to some people's disappointment is excessively light.  Well, I recently got myself a new job, which occupies most of my time and will continue to do so until the end of May.  Then, school begins again, and I'll still have my job.

 

My time will no longer be my own in the upcoming future, I feel.

 

So unfortunately I don't have any balance changes for you guys today.  The aforementioned time restrictions are part of it, but there's another side in which I think everything is starting to approach that point where balance is achieved.  Almost every character I feel is in a "good place", so balance changes overall should be fewer and fewer.  Which is good.

 

So, here's the new content at least for today.

 

5/18/2014 - It's Gonna Be a Bloodbath

 

NEW CONTENT

NEW Investigators - Waldstein, Steel-Armed Titan + Carmine Prime, the Bloodlust Vandal

-Both of these investigators can be found in the Under Night In-Birth tab under Investigators.

 

BALANCE CHANGES

We don't have any.  Everything's good for now