Hello everyone! This is my first topic here at Arkham Horror forums.

I have been playing vanilla AH for some time now and tested it with various number of players. It is a fun boardgame.

I really like it when there is a bigger chance of getting a human encounter than monster one. Fightning against maniacs and interrogating cultists is great. I like it when the real terror keeps us waiting and lurks in the shadows. Less real monsters on the board, the better. Now I decided to buy the "Dunwich Horror"-expansion which adds some great rules to gameplay (like injuries and madness) but it also adds new monsters.

First, I thought it is great to have extra monsters but then I realised that chances of having 'normal' encounters just dropped. Now I am thinking to remove the extra monsters from the Monster Cup but I am not sure what happens with the game balance. Usually we lose the game (win probability about 25%) but I like it hard so I don't want to make it too easy either.

Are there anykind of generally accepted house rules which would increase the encounters of Maniacs, Witches, Warlocks, Cultists etc. human or even humanoid encounters? If not, then any help is welcome.

This kind of house rule just popped in my mind. What do you think about it? Every time you beat a Maniac, Witch or Cultist you do not retrieve it as a trophy. Instead of a trophy you gain clue tokens equal to it's toughness. Return the <monster name> to the Cup.

As a huge part of the Cthulu-mythos is about undecribable beasts that roam the human world I actually find it quite boring when we end up drawing a cultist. Sure it's an easy kill but nothing more. I want more tentacles and unpronouncable names..

I cannot think of any such hourserule at the moment but then again, houserules are free to incorporate as you wish. Talk with your players if they agrre and if you can find a houserule that everyone is happy with..

They will be viewed as clue cows then. Tougher Cultists in an Ithaqua game will be like a treasure chest.

Arkham is about the monsters—the human element comes with all the town encounters. Of course, as stated above, Arkham is more about the inexplicable cosmic horrors—but can easily be tuned to your personal tastes.

Don't understand me wrong. I like a lot cosmic horrors - especially ones in Cthulhu Mythos. What I mean, is that horror should be built carefully. Almost every story made by Lovecraft introduces only one horror and not always those horrors are even described. This is why I prefer more human encounters: When you finally meet monsters it will be double fun.

Ok. So, no clues tokens from killing cultists or maniacs. Maybe they should be put back in the bag. It would be harder since you don't get easy trophies but also a bit easier because I would remove some of the monsters. What do you think about this? Any other simple ideas?

PS. Isn't my idea basically that I add "Endless"-ability to Witches, Maniacs and Cultists?

The obvious solution is to make a bunch of new 'human' monsters - fanatics, murderers, sorcerers, escaped lunatics, thugs, gangsters, bounty hunters, no end of possibilities really. Some of them could count as cultists so they'll be covered by worshipper abilities.

Sure, just play against Nyarlathotep all the time.

In all seriousness though, the humanoid monsters are by far the easiest to kill, even without giving yourself clues for beating them, you're making the game significantly easier by creating such a rule. Not only are they generally wussy, but they usually have low or no sanity damage and low physical damage, which means that characters like Harrigan or McGlen will just obliterate them without much hassle at all.

I guess if you *really* wanted to do something like that, I would create a new monster cup to use. Add only cultists, witches, warlocks, high priests, and then one of every other type of monster. Maybe add +1 to the toughness of all human monsters and +1 to their sanity and stamina damage as well (so a "-" becomes a +0 for 1 damage, etc). Additionally, making cultists Endless and playing with Tzultcha as the Herald might help to compensate for the decreased difficulty.

Not to mention, it's more weird having human stroll out of inter-dimensional gates instead of monsters. As it is now, it's plausible that these human were in other dimensions wreaking havoc. But too many of them and it'll start getting silly. Where are all the formless spawn?

Tibs said:

Well, why do they have to 'emerge' from the gates? Perhaps the individual in question opened the gate at that location and then went out for a stroll (And some killing, raving... normal insane maniac stuff).

You should probably just use strange eons to make a ton of 'human' monsters, being sure to throw in a lot of tougher than normal humans to keep the balance the same, then remake a few of the 'monster' monsters and bump up their stats. Then you'll have a cup of mostly cultists and maniacs and whenever the investigators actually run into a shoggoth or a gug it becomes an extremely difficult situation. I'm working on a standalone expansion right now that puts more emphasis on cultists and the like than actual monsters.

I'm suprised at how many people object to this on the grounds of 'lovecraftian horror', as having multiple unrelated monsters storming out of gates to unrelated worlds and walking around town is so far removed from anything in lovecraft's work it's almost laughable. Don't get me wrong, I adore AH, but it is anything but a lovecraftian horror story come to life. In the actually writings, the monsters were the absolute climax, and fighting them was generally out of the question. An entire story could build up to an encounter with a single dark young, and then the narrator would be driven insane and meet some gruesome fate. What the OP suggests is drastically closer to the source material than the current state of AH.

The Message said:

I agree. The tone of Arkham Horror is much closer to the work of other authors who came after Lovecraft and imitated some of his ideas. Brian Lumley, for instance - The Burrowers Beneath and The Transition of Titus Crow pretty much cover all the sorts of scenarios you get in Arkham Horror. The investigators actually win from time to time, and there's all sorts of silly faffing about with physical and magical weapons first.

The most common monsters in Lovecraft's work are quite typical 'gothic' monsters - ghouls, undead, deformed humans, phantom hounds and so on. Actually cosmic beings and elder gods are frequently referred to but rarely appear.

To make this work, wouldn't cultists and their ilk have to be tougher and monsters even tougher?

For example, right now to fight a cultist, the investigators get first attack and have a bunch of dice +1 and only have to do one damage to the cultist and he's defeated. Talk about rolling over and playing dead.

An investigator would have to fail to damage the cultist 3-6 times before the cultist puts him in the hospital. Hardly a fair fight.

In addition, shouldn't there be a horror check or nightmarish for defeating a cultist? After all, you've just killed a human. Apparently all investigators have a 007 license to kill.

A normal ordinary cultist s/b

Horror -3

Horror damage 2 brains

Nightmarish 1 (at least)

Combat rating of -3

Heart damage 3 or so.

And 2-4 toughness.

That might give cultists a fighting chance (50%) against an investigator.

Of course, once you did that, then the monsters would have be even tougher and more difficult and you might need rules for multiple investigators to fight certain monsters, like Elder Things and Shoggoths.

In other words, the scale is way out of whack.

And what is a monster trophy and where do the investigators keep them until they take them to the science builidng or add them up for points?

Or always try playing with Strength of Earth (something like that), environment from KiY.

There were a bunch of really cool undercover cultist monsters in the old forums. I forget who made them. I can't upload the images, but these are a couple of samples:

Cultist (Psychiatrist)

Elusive, Awareness: -1

No horror check, combat modifier: +1, combat damage: 1, toughness: 1

Green border: When drawn, place the cultist at the Asylum. Instead of moving, add a doom token to the doom track and return the cultist to the box. Before you make a Combat check against the cultist, pass a Speed (-2) check or draw 1 Madness card and you are arrested. If you pass a Combat check against the cultist, return it to the box, gain 2 Clue tokens and roll a die. On a failure, raise the Terror level by 1.

Cultist (Deckhand)

Elusive, Awareness: +0

No horror check, combat modifier: +0, combat damage: 2, toughness: 2

Green border: When drawn, place the cultist at the River Docks. Instead of moving, add a doom token to the doom track and return the cultist to the box. Before making a Combat check against the cultist, pass a Will (-2) check or you lose $3, move to the street, and are delayed. If you pass a Combat check against the the cultist, return it to the box, draw 1 Common Item and roll a die. On a failure, raise the Terror level by 1.

The other cultists were a cop, a surgeon, a parishioner, a vagrant, a professor, a reporter, and a Silver Twilight Lodge insider. They all had the moon symbol.

Basically, they're respected citizens who are quietly trying to pave the way for the return of the ancient one. They're hard to find. Once you find them, you can't just start fighting them or you'll get arrested. Even if you defeat them, the resuting scandal can create negative effects in the community.

Anyway, I always use them with Nyarlathotep. His cult seems like it would be cleverer than, say, Yig's.

i523.photobucket.com/albums/w359/mageith/blightmonsters.png

Something like this?

mageith said:

No, but those are really cool too.

Excellent. Now this thread is getting to the point!

The Message, well put! I like your comment. I know AH is a board game and I am not asking for a 'realistic' Lovecraft simulation but everything closer it would be nice.

mageith, w00t!! Where did you get those monsters and Herald card? Those are awesome! Only problem are the names because those characters appear in encounters as friends. It would look silly when Doyle Jeffries is fightning against investigators but someone in the Newspaper-location is getting extra money from him. Excluding the names, that was exactly the thing I was talking about.

Someones were talking about creating own monsters. How do you do that exactly? Graphics can be done via computer but are there somekind of programs for AH-monsters specially? How about materializing the bits? How do I make the pixels come true?

Simple house rule ideas are still welcome! I would rather go easier than harder way.

Templarion said:

Note the last paragraph on the Herald: those Encounters are to be ignored if the Blight Monster is in play. (This is a fantastic variant of the Blight Deck and Herald from the King in Yellow Expansion, which I assume you don't have yet, Templarion.)

Mageith, these are indeed wicked cool. I wish I had any skill at all about making my own counters. One thing: there's a duplicate Nurse Sharon and no Thomas Oliver. What's up with that?

Templarion said:

Aha! Apparently you don't know about Strange Eons.

www.sfu.ca/~cjenning/eons/index.html

Strange Eons will make any type of AH card. It's absolutely f***ing brilliant. Without it, the Custom Content forum would be completely dead.

How about this:

Helps with the frequency, but doesn't help with the difficulty. Awarding one clue is still a bit much, especially considering that cultists and maniacs are easy pickins.

Templarion said:

As pointed out, these all come from Strange eons and a scanner and heavy paper. I suppose you can now get the images from the Arkham Horror Wiki.

In reality, monsters are only a combination of numbers so you could change the pictures and use the numbers and rules on the back of monsters to keep your ratios the same. You can change the names to protect the innocent.

I do have an Oliver. Just when I made the card sheet I misclicked. I also have a monster card for each ally. I call them Insane Allies. With them, I actually pull them when a cultist is called. However, in a cup of all monsters, there aren't that many cultists. I don't think I've ever seen more than 6 and its usually in the 4 or so range.

In reality' date=' monsters are only a combination of numbers so you could change the pictures and use the numbers and rules on the back of monsters to keep your ratios the same. You can change the names to protect the innocent.[/quote']

Yeah. I understand that.

However, I still want to have monsters that are actually more terrifying than human encounters. I want that the humans are easier to kill than Dark Youngs. I also like the fact that in the game you can actually kill a human person with a .45 handgun.

kroen, yeah! Something like that!

Tibs, hmmh... That's probably true what you just said. Maybe you should gain 1-2$ cash instead of clue tokens?

PS. These forums just keep eating my texts. Rrghh...

Yeah, the forums are wacky.

I don't think you need any reward, aside from the trophy. Unless you seriously want all the trophies to be endless, in which case I don't have a recommendation.

Templarion said:

It can be done. Have you fought the Dunwich Horror Yet? Of course, you can kill a human with a .45 handgun but apparently none of the cultists have learned how to use one so it's like shooting fish in a barrell. See Sheriff Engle for my imagination of what an agressive and strong human would be like.

Have you seen The Mist yet? In it, are MI-go and Byakhee type monsters. The Byakhee are actually smaller than I imagined, since they don't seem big enough to carry a human. There are also spiders of all sizes. All of them were killable by ordinary means and weapons.

Then there were two monsters off camera. One only showed us it's tentacles. You had to imagine it's real size. Maybe, just maybe, a proper dynamite charge would have harmed it. But I doubt it would have stood still for that like AH monsters do.

Then there was a shadow of such a large monster, who's every step shook the earth. Maybe it was an Old One, maybe not. There's no way our investigators, short of magic, could have defeated it straight up.

Much of the movie had to do with conflict between several groups of people and some individuals. I think you would like that part.

Right now most of the humans are waaaay too weak and some of the monsters are way too weak. With Strange eons you can create your own configuration of monsters to fit your imagination. Or you could just play the Shub-Niggurath rule where all monsters have +1 toughness, which probably makes it more like you imagine it.

Defeating humans and gain a clue token? What's the theme behind this? Here's how I'd do it. What you are doing is capturing humans and taking them to jail (rather than dissecting them at the Science Building). I'd do it one of several ways. Either give the same reward as the science building (2 clues for 5 bloods). In addition, each human trophy you have slows you down one Movement point. (They aren't cooperative). If you want to increase the clue generation then don't place any clues on the board to begin with. They still come normally when gates open and when you turn over cultists to the authorities.

I rather don't connect silly movies and the father of modern horror together. The only actually good HP Lovecraft movie which exists is: Call of Cthulhu (made 2005). And believe me... I have seen pretty many of them.

Anyway, thanks to everyone for their advices! More are of course welcome but this is quite enough. See you around.

Templarion said:

Awwwwwwww.

Well, you're probably right. Lovecraft is a little hard to adapt "as is"; modern audiences need more flash.

But if we want to talk good "Arkham Horror" movies (not straight HPL, I mean), I always thought In the Mouth of Madness (1995) at least got the theme right. I still like Dagon (2001), and I wonder if Innsmouth Horror will be anything like it. Nightmares and Dreamscapes' "Crouch End" (2001) and Masters of Horror's "Dreams in the Witch House" (2005) hit the theme pretty well.

But I still say, for all its goofiness, Ghostbusters (1984) is the best game of Arkham Horror ever filmed.