After reading that Session Report of the 4 investigators vs Nyarly I just can't help but recount that experience I had when I ran Scenario 6 with my friends at the Dice Project. As the title suggests, our victory was most owed to Professor Harvey Walters himself!

Before I get too excited in recounting my experience, I'd just like to say beforehand that we aren't that familiar with the true potential or possible godlike potentials of the Professor in our regular games - we normally take him as a tome-reader or a spellcaster, one who can handle encounters in places where there are notorious instances of losing Sanity. But this one completely changed our view - maybe we were just lucky there, or maybe it was just in the hands of an experienced player, but our future league (and even regular) games would involve him in the lineup!

It started with Scenario Six, the one against Shudde M'ell. As early as game setup the Professor was already given an Enchanted Blade. Okay, that seemed good enough to have for a magic-oriented person. His teammates revolved around Diana Stanley, Sister Mary, Kate Winthrop, Jenny Barnes, Wilson Richards, and "Ashcan" Pete. The first Mythos opened a gate in the woods, and out marched a Cthonian and a Byakhee. Without further ado, the Professor went up and hobbled to the gate. Much to our surprise, the Professor, armed with his somewhat-average Enchanted Blade, took down the Cthonian and the Byakhee and entered the other world!

Several turns passed later and the Professor's killing spree went higher and higher, not minding in the slightest that he's squaring up to monsters that regularly take out 2-3 sanity points (which he always fails on horror checks, thereby receiving the discounted sanity loss), just regularly spending turns at the Asylum to refill his sanity. We normally task Jenny Barnes with fund support so the Professor was always kept in check. It was when Sister Mary paid a visit to South Church that our fate turned from the better to the best: She blessed Professor Walters!

After that singular investment that seemed just normal for any fighter to get (we normally treat blessings as supplements and not uber buffs that can completely change the tide) and somewhat easy to lose with an unlucky dice roll, the Professor's kills just went off the chart. Sometimes when monsters appear on streets due to the Mythos he marches straight up to them and decimates the entire lot. Really, we were all surprised as the Professor gathered up monsters in droves and to think throughout the game he never lost his blessing.

The Professor's unworldly skill did give us the chance to clean out the gates and eventually we won with an all-gate closure, with three locations sealed. When we started counting for scores, the monster trophies that everyone else got (summed up) was dwarfed at the single pile of monsters that the Professor collected by himself.

So yes, now we've changed our views: This scholarly, elderly, frail old man isn't someone you ought to mess with. Not even in class.

AWESOME! Ever more evidence that ANY Investigator can be the MVP: the Nun-With-a-Shotgun Effect. I love it when it's the unlikely underdog who comes through, especially when it's one I personally dislike. "Yeah, take THAT, me."

Not that I dislike Harvey. He's not in my A-Squad, but when you get something like this game, where Harvey's channeling Sherlock Holmes' fencing skills...outstanding.

Thanks for the tale!

I used to have extreme dislike for Harvey after finding out the difference between losts and costs (i.e. realizing that he can't cast free spells)— and then I realized that you just have him soak up sanity damage while going around on full fight :') apparently your fellow gamer had an epiphany of that sort too.

Enjoyed your session report, I really like Old Prof. Harvey but I've only personally played him once so far out of about 15 games. He is someone I always don't mind picking from my three randomly delt investigators, but the other two times he came up I had better choices like Mandy last game, and I think I took Carolyn the time before that just because she had yet to be played in any of our games and I wanted to try her out.

Walters seems like quite the Esoteric Badass, and I definately look forward to another game with him on monster patrol.

Walters is probably my favorite from the base set. I really like the flavor of a professor or a nerdy guy really being the one who saves the day. It also helped that on my second or third game with him I drew an enchanted blade or gladius as starting equipment and went about slaying everything in my path. His greatest disadvantage is the movement of three. If you're lucky enough to get a movement-boosting item though, hes great!

Vaxsythrakul said:

See, this is exactly why I've always used single-random investigators. If I play solo, choose 4 numbers, shuffle the deck and deal out those investigators. When playing with my friend, both choose 2 numbers. Those you get dealt, those you play. Mulligan only if you used said investigator in the previous game.

Dam,

same here...I basically use a similar method. I want to get a feel for each investigator's use. Some have subtle advantages that feel great when you "figure 'em out"!

To the OP; great story!

The professor's great. He's just not professorial. I don't know if he was another design fooler or a design mistake. I don't play him as written because I don't like playing characters out of character. If someone else plays him and starts getting depressed, I tell them Walter's secret identity as a monster masher.

BTW, I played 9 games at my last convention and every investigator was chosen (given two choices) except for the politician and Amanda. I give players two choices, a male and female and put the unchosen back on the top of the character pile. Once again, Mandy and Daisy were ignored on their first go around. Kate was also rejected once. Wendy got chosen twice. But neither time was she played to her fullest, IMO. Not everybody was up twice, though. The convention went 4-5. My first losing convention.

Sorry duplicate post.

I just played a game where the professor went all out with monster-slaying. After an early blessing, he claimed all of the toughest monsters on the board, including 3 Dark Young and the Flying Polyp. Unfortunately, this being a Black Goat of the Woods game, he was extremely corrupted and eventually claimed as a Vessel of the Mythos and devoured. Right after sealing Michael McGlen in the Dreamlands against Yog-Sothoth... I guess he was just a bad egg.

The professor has just been leveled up ;') see Innsmouth cards for details.