But anyway i really enjoyed debating with you, i can nerd out about AH for hours which proves what a great game it is.

There should have been a crazy wizard with Dunwich or Kingsport, (The Dunwich Horror, The Festival) it wouldnt make much sense in Innsmouth.

A Ghoul or Deepone investigator is very plausible, because those things start as humans and are often quite put out upon discovering that they are "turning into a monster."

While you could have a guy who is actually a Mi-Go brain transfer who was hit by a car and now doesn't remember being a Mi-Go, you couldn't really have an outright Mi-Go investigator. Actually, that could work pretty well. You have an English Patient type affair, where he begins the game at the Hopital. But as his memories return he gradually realizes that before the accident he was actually an alien and that the peson he thinks of himself as is really a human that he had brutally murdered and taken the body of.

That fulfills the demands that he have essentially human appearance and reactions - which is a requirement for a lot of the encounters to make sense. He has to be horrified if he looks into a bucket and sees a bunch of human body parts. He has to be frightened when he sees evidence of real magic. And so on. But also, he has to be told that he has a trustworthy face if he walks into Hibbs. None of those things are going to happen if he looks into the mirror and sees a multi-dimensional space bug.

-Frank

Tibs said:

Are the existing investigators evenly distributed across starting locations?

There are 32 investigators already, and of those, only the Dreamer starts in an unusual place, so there are are 31 Arkham starting locations - which means there must be an imbalance anyway. At least one location must appear more than twice, and I seem to remember that actually, some starting locations, like the Train Station, are considerably more common than others. If that is the case (I don't have my cards within reach right now to check) then Innsmouth might correct the imbalance, which means it won't just be one instance of each location.

A Ghost would be pretty neat. Cannot take physical damage except via the Ancient One.

Yes, all 32 current characters are spread evenly: 2 per stable location, with Kate in the Science Building and Luke in La-La Land. I am confident there will be 8 women and 8 men, 1 per stable location and 1 in some other place.

Ah, of course! I forgot about the Scientist. You're almost certainly right about the starting locations.

The best bet for the 'odd-one-out' starting location is probably LiTas, then. They could have one investigator who simply chooses his or her starting location, but that might as well be LiTas anyway (and not delayed).

On the other hand...since Kate overcomes the usual reason for not starting in an unstable location, they might include an investigator who overcomes the usual reason for not starting in a street. The reason for not starting in a street is that a monster might move on to you on turn one - which would be ignored if there was (for example) an investigator whom monsters never moved on to. A monster-blocker would be quite interesting. Does anything like that exist yet?

If we assume that it IS one new investigator per stable location, we can start narrowing down our guesses a bit. Looking at the backstories, there is a vague pattern - there's usually one person who's an employee/resident at the location, and one person who's just visiting for some specific reason. However there are a few exceptions, which mean there are gaps which Innsmouth will probably fill in.

Bank of Arkham - there's already one person who works here (the Student) and one customer (the Orphan).

Arkham Asylum - one person works here (the Psychologist) and one "customer" i.e. inmate (the Actress). Another inmate who has just 'checked out' after some mild madness is a bit unlikely; an escapee would be cool - something like Rex Murphy, except instead of being cursed, his Sanity is 'locked' at 1 until he somehow cures himself?

Velma's Diner - two customers (the Author and the Musician) but no employees yet, so the Waitress will almost certainly start here.

Police Station - Two 'visitors' (the Private Eye and the Athlete) but so far we've got no police or criminals. 'Arrested' is another interesting starting location option - there isn't a 'petty thief' investigator yet, or even a classy cat-burglar (except the ally). Starting out arrested (and maybe having some other negative clause to do with being arrested again) would be a good way to excuse a more powerful ability, much like Rex Murphy. There's unlikely to be an actual police character (since there's already a way to make anyone into a deputy) but if there's a Federal Agent investigator, this would make thematic sense as their starting point.

General Store - there are two investigators who seem to start here because they're traders or merchants or shopkeepers themselves - the Salesman and (weirdly) the Redeemed Cultist. So we are probably overdue for an investigator who is actually in the shop in order to look for or buy something.

Ma's Boarding House - The Violinist maybe? If he's a busker/street musician, he could be anywhere - Train Station, or a shop, or in the police station. There's also a good chance that he will have some way of earning money whereever he goes (although that will be a bit of a repetition, since the Handyman and the Bounty Hunter already have abilities a bit like that). I always thought it was a shame that Arkham was lacking any sort of theatre or music-hall location. Maybe Innsmouth will have one. All the entertainer-type characters (the Entertainer, the Actress, the Musician) are scattered all over town already.

South Church - This place already has an in-theme character (the Nun) and a character who's there to pray (the Soldier). A Priest or Missionary character would make a lot of sense, since Innsmouth is in dire need of spiritual redemption ever since they kicked out the priests and rededicated their churches to the Sea and that sort of thing. A Missionary (who's come to save the souls of Innsmouth) would be most flavourful.

Ye Olde Magicke Shoppeee - The Magician and the Martial Artist are both "customers" of the shop, so someone who sells something magicky-related wouldn't be a surprise. A fortune-teller who does tarot readings?

St. Mary's Hospital - already got an 'employee' (the Doctor) and a 'patient' (the Bounty Hunter), so no clues really. It's unlikely to just be someone who's recovered from a horrific injury, since that's the Bounty Hunter's backstory.

Administration Building - one employee (the Professor) and one visitor (the Politician).

Library - the Librarian ANd the Researcher both sort-of work here, but there's yet to be anyone who's just looking for a particular book. It's unlikely to be a student because there's already a student, so a rare book collector maybe?

River Docks - fairly safe bet that the Sailor will start here.

Curiositie Shoppe - the Archaeologist is here for obvious reasons, but the Psychic's reason isn't really explained, so all bets are off. A proper 'customer' at the Shoppe is an obvious plot hook - someone who didn't know anything about the Mythos until they bought a little stone statue to use as a paperweight or whatever.

Newspaper - The Photographer and the Reporter both explicitly work for the Newspaper, and anyone else in the game can impliclty get hired on retainer, so more newspaper employees are unlikely. There also isn't an obvious third type, unless there's a Deputy Editor or a court sketch artist or something.

Train Station - the Handyman and the Dilettante have both just arrived in town on the train, so a train engineer might be interesting.

...anyway, all this is very wild speculation, but it has given me a few ideas, so anything that turns out to be wrong is just something else I may make using Strange Eons.

A monster-blocker is unlikely, particularly because that would make Bast's already kind of lame ability even more lame. But I wouldn't rule it out—which street would the character begin in?

My vote's for LiTaS.

If these characters work out as I've predicted, then I'm set to continue working on the 16 characters I have. I plan on having some start in each of the streets, or maybe the less active streets (Northside, Southside, Miskatonic, Easttown). The remaining characters will start on expansion boards. This has not happened yet, and would be a neat new consideration.

Based on what I've seen in the league, Calvin's probably going to start at Ma's, but I could see him at the police station too.

Tibs said:

I don't play the League. Who's Calvin?

The first teaser for the 2nd league was written in the form of a lengthy journal entry of one Calvin Wright as he fled his home town in the dead of night following an assault by unknown creatures. It was pretty awesome. There was also a huge flavor story preceding each of the first four scenarios, worked out as "chapters."

Calvin spends all of his nights at Ma's Boarding house down the hall from Jenny Barnes and Michael McGlen. He also bumps into various other characters.

The latest two chapters have no flavor stories which is kind of a bummer (the stories are my favorite parts), but I'm guessing that Calvin's story will conclude just in time for Innsmouth's release—perhaps so that Innsmouth will be used in the final chapters.

It was a really, really clever gimmick on behalf of FFG.

Tibs said:

I'm pretty sure there are 2 more men than women (17-15). I store my investigator markers in a 16 compartment tray divided by men and women and there's always one man who has to be in the women's side. Or maybe, I can't tell the difference anymore. When we play a normal game (not that often anymore), each player gets a man and a woman to choose from. In most cases, the female is the better investigator, because overall I think they are.

I think there is only one encounter -- at the Science building-- that is gender specific but I haven't encountered it recently? Of course, you can read anything you want into the new formations in the Black Cave.

Also, I hope there are some Arab or Middle eastern investigators. After all, the Necronomicon was compiled by a mad Arab and Egyptian relics figure big and at least one Ally appears to be middle eastern.

mageith said:

Hehehehe...I love that encounter. There's also an extremely suspicious encounter at the Science Building, in which you find Sir William Brinton standing over the prostrate bodies of a large number of "groaning, muscular, fallen men"...

Maybe we need an innuendo-themed expansion. Carry On Up The Miskatonic? The Arkham Horror Picture Show?

Tibs said:

Yog-Sothoth is intrigued by this possiblity...

Oh my Tsathoggua...you're right!

There are 9 males in the base game and 7 females!

OK. Well maybe it will be 7/9 in Innsmouth.

Bexarath said:

Well I figured that it didn't need to be said that this character would be immune to death by LiTaS. Having to devour and re-draw the character during setup just because Yog-Sothoth was pulled would be stupid.

This ability would be cool for final combat, as well.

How about streets? or other boards, ie DW and have a rule if your not playing the other boards their at the train station... and yes a convict sarting the game arressted would be cool... maybe has to make some skill check to get out (but the poor guy may be in there the whole game!).

Starting in the jail cell is a bad idea. In the first turn of the game, in the movement phase, you would simply move it from the jail cell to the police station and lose your turn. I suspect one investigator will start in an unstable location with the ability (in addition to another ability) "[name] cannot be drawn through gates unless he chooses to allow it".

Tibs said:

I knew there was some kind of discrepancy!

I like the idea of an investigator that starts LiTaS. I think that could be fun. One that could never be devoured while he is LiTaS. I also like the idea of a criminal or bank-robber who starts in jail. Missing a turn would suck, but give them room to give him a large benefit as well. Helo in the BSG boardgame starts the game not present, so I wouldn't put it past them to have some situation similar to that.

I would love it if that investigator did start LiTaS and was some kind Time-Traveller.

Also, KW mentioned that the Violinist had some abiltity that benefitted the entire group of investigators. I imagine that his character will take inspiration from Erich Zann so I am hoping that his ability will be something along the lines of "Once per game, when the ancient one awakens, he may make some check at +/- X to keep the ancient one from awakening" or perhaps "Whenever the terror level would increase because of the outskirts, the Violinist may make a check at -/+ X to keep terror from going up". Or something like that

Having characters that start on other boards might explain why there are 8 more investigators for this expansion then the others. I think that there will probably be a character that starts in the streets. I also want to see what Calvin is like.

Tibs said:

Or the one "Half-Deep One's abilities makes him immune to that particular effect. I don't think they would give us a full Deep One, but a half breed fits in thematicly. Maybe he/she hasn't realized his heritage...

Now I'm getting ideas for an Arthur Jermyn themed investigator...

Hm. Very well. I suppose my AH lore is not quite as good as I thought it was. I would hope that Innsmouth investigators, then, would include 9 women and 7 men.

Acebob said:

That's nice, but it's a bit unlikely, since Charlie Kane already suppresses the Terror level.

(Also, it's unheard of for an investigator special ability to prompt an additional skill check in order to see if it works. That's something you see all the time on investigators made by we amateurs, but not on KW's official cards. I don't know if it's a conscious design rule that Kev's made, but I suspect it is, and rightly so)

How about this for the Violinist instead: "Any phase: Other investigators in Arkham may use the Violinist's Will when making Horror checks. If a Horror check made this way is failed, both the Violinist and the other investigator take the Sanity damage." That would obviously be a pretty major downside, but it would still be a brilliant ability. Although it is fraught with rules problems.

Well there's the location Neil's Curiousitie Shoppe in Kingsport that its special ability makes you pass a Will check. So if there's something like that in a location it's not impossible there would be a skill check in an investigator's ability.

Re: Starting Locations. How about a taxi-cab driver who has a special ability to start anywhere in Arkham.

Jake yet again said:

That's quite a good idea. It could be a fixed Common item: "Taxi Cab. Any phase: spend $1 to gain 2 Movement points. If you begin the game with this item, you choose your own starting location."

And if there's a Cab Driver, his special ability should be to do with moving other people extra distances. I might try to come up with this.

there are no new items in innsmouth...