Ok, so I have this idea. Here is a link to the board so far.

www.thefourseasonsboutique.com/pictures/monsters/Expansion-1.png

The idea is that whenever an Investigator is devoured, unconscious or insane, a ghouls spawned, and a token added to the ghoul track starting at the top. As each new ghoul spawns, they make the others stronger. If they investigators let it get out of hand and all 7 are drawn, then a Pickman blight card (not made yet) will be drawn and I was thinking they could fight a herald.

You will notice symbols next to each picture, the only way to get a ghoul token off the track is to close a gate with that symbol.

I also added a tunnel movement that would work similar to aquatic, but making the black cave and graveyard also tunnel locations.

Here are the ghouls, there would be 7 in all each with a different symbol.

Then I want to have the investigators somehow able to move to the breeding pits to close them down and stop the ghouls once and for all but don't have it worked out yet.

As I say, this is in its infancy, I only just put it together today. But, any ideas are welcome.

slow down you have a lot of rules and your board confuses me! why do 2 locations have special abilities that arent specific to them but are universal? huh? spawning pits? why not make them a regular location? please dont make a herald you fight that will be a rules nightmare. art club? are they painting a blizzard? real good ideas but you need to make it more simple! its hard to help you cause i dont really know where you are going with it! but i will help you any way i can.

If you have ever read the story, you would know that the narrator talks about knowing pickman at the art club. And that Pickman quits because his paintings are too dark and are rejected. He moves to the north end and invites the narrator along to see his paintings. They depict ghouls bursting up from the burying ground and cellars into the city and talk of tunnels connecting all parts of town. Hence, I the ghoul track. I wanted them to get more powerful the longer investigators neglected fighting them off. A ghoul would spawn by one of two ways.

1. a monster surge

2. an investigator going unconscious, insane or devoured.

When a ghoul is spawned, place a token on the track starting at the top. The only way to remove these tokens, hence, removing the special abilities would be to close the gate corresponding to the token. Notice I made the Pickman blight a moon symbol so if it gets that far, that token stays in play for the game.

If all 7 ghouls spawned, then the Pickman blight would be put into play and the creature in the story (Pickman's model) would awaken and have to be fought.

Ghoul movement would have a special ability "tunnels". Black cave and Graveyard would then also have the special ability along with Burial Ground and Shallow Cove. If an investigator is on one of these places when a ghoul moves, the ghoul moves to their location and has ambush.

Having investigators fight a herald is not difficult at all. You just make a spawn monster that represents the herald. If a certain condition is met, the investigators can fight the monster and then after its defeated, all of the heralds special abilities would no longer take place. This can be a super badass like dunwich.

The two stand alone underground areas are an alternative way to get to the town if investigators want to chance it. Move from the "shallow cove to underworld to underground cave to black cave" or reverse. I was thinking there could be a payoff here. Nasty encounters with some sprinkled in to gain allies or skills.

The breeding pits are similar. I wanted to make a way that investigators had to close them (ie using dynamite, kerosene, the flamethrower, etc.) By picking enough special weapons to use so that it's hard to get the right tools for the job but not so hard as its impossible. I was thinking of giving them combat modifiers with increasing difficulty. If the investigator fails the first check they have a nasty encounter there. Then if they are still there next turn , they could try again. When the pits are closed, the ghouls don't spawn anymore.

pittplayer said:

It's not that bad. I've made some fightable heralds, and it took me a while, but I did eventually make them work. All you need is a monster marker which represents the herald. If you're willing to make special cards (like the Dunwich Horror) or just have a relatively simple monster battle, then it's even easier.

pittplayer said:

It's the default image that Strange Eons puts on custom locations! So he hasn't found a picture for the location yet. Big deal! He hasn't added the 'likely encounter' symbols yet either, but I assume all that stuff is coming later.

pittplayer said:

@ivory_tower: I think Pittplayer has a point about this one. The rules on those two locations seem to apply all the time - which makes me think they shouldn't be on locations. They've got to either go in an expansion rulebook, or better yet, on a herald whcih makes the whole thing work.

There are also a lot of 'spare' locations - what's going to happen at these? And maybe I'm being thick, but what exactly is a Spawning Ground? Where do the Night Ghouls appear?

but why make a fightable herald when you could just make a monster? wasnt the dunwich horror technicaly a "fightable herald" but also a monster?

i am dumb i didnt read all the post! herald with a spawn monster!! i get it. i am on board sir!! really nice work. why not reduce the number of locations, make the spawning pits actual locations, make the ghoul art more like a ghoul!, and why cant this all be underground? ( i am a fanatic with that idea lol ) cant wait to see your herald.

i would suggest the ghouls live underground.... also about putting the ghoul tokens, i think that you could totally avoid them, if you having a good game then you could bypass all this so i am going to give you an idea i was saving for the underground exp... investigators getting devoured or anytime a monster is returned to the cup!! think about it how brutal is that! plus it randomly makes the gravedigger better!

I updated the board and made significant changes.

Yes, I have not found a pic for the art gallery. And have not updated the item boxes yet either. I am a little confused about them. Do you basically make the majority of the encounters pertain to those 2 things? Whichever they are?

I was thinking of making the spawning pit where the ghoul is placed on the board, and the breeding pit where they reproduce. The investigators can travel underground to the breeding pit to destroy it using special weapons.I made them hard to get to. You'd have to go through a series of tough encounters before you could get to the breeding pit.

Thank you for the critiques, any thoughts, no matter how far fetched are welcome.

I have a question about the ghoul track. If it fills up in order from top to bottom, and you have to close a gate to remove the corrisponding ghoul marker, what happens when you close a gate that is at the begging or the middle of the track? Do all the markers slide back to fill the gap? It would be really difficult to keep the track from filling up if you couldn't reduce it from it's highest level. I think the only way to work a system like this is to take the one off the top, just like you would with the terror track, doom track, etc.

I was thinking it would fill from top down, then if a gate closes, removing a token, the next time a token appears it would appear at the lowest level. Or should closing the gate close off that token slot. Close all gates being another way to stop the ghouls from invading?

@pittplayer: do you like this pic better? I originally picked the first one because in the story it talks of ghouls in the painting crouching over sleepers.

ivory_tower said:

The idea is that the two symbols can be used as a guide by investigators, so that they know what the most likely outcome of an encounter at that location will be.

BUT:

a) the symbols only represent the single most likely outcome , and that outcome is rarely "the majority of encounters". If you're at Hibb's, you might be more likely to get "Common Items" than "Spells", but you're still less likely to get "Common items" than you are to get "something else".

b) the symbols don't seem to distinguish between rewards that are contingent on skill checks and rewards that aren't. So although a location is a source of a particular item type, you could still go there and find it difficult to get an item of that type.

c) the symbols aren't very strong indicators anyway.

The Newspaper is the most notable exception - a whole bunch of the encounters really do just hand out money. Personally, I think location symbols ought to be a bit more useful, so making the majority of encounters pertain to the 2 symbols isn't a bad idea. There are no hard-and-fast rules about how to use the symbols though, so you can just lie if you want, and put the wrong symbols there to mislead the investigators!

I often thought about coming up with an alternate set of location symbols which told you what skill was most likely to be required - so you'd have a foot symbol for speed, a dice symbol for luck, etc, etc - but it's fairly pointless either way.

@ivorytower i like the new monster art a lot better! thanks for thinking of me!! i am a theme person! i need good art! lol

here is my 2 cents:

i love love love what you are doing so please dont take this stuff wrong i just want your board to be perfect

1. your 2 locations with the devoured investigators ability, still doesnt make sense.

2. i like your locations that stop movement but is gets a bit redunant.

3. dont need a holding area for ghouls take makes the board look ugly.

4. reduce your locations, are you really going to make encounter cards for all those?

5. i hope you put your new ghoul art on there.

6. love your sac ally ability on that one location you need more abilities on other locations, plus ruination is a little specific what if they are all out? (could happen) how bout just a corruption.

7. i love the art on the locations really well done!

8. if you want i will post some ideas for location abilities i just got home from work so havent had time to think! lol

9. i think you should have like 7-8 locations.

10. no outer worlds? thats cool i guess.

11. love the ghoul theme!! love how you put more underground location on there! good job!

love how you have to go to the breeding pits through tunnels! dont like needing specific weapons to destroy them. just a combat modifier will do. cant wait to see your herald/blight/spawn!!

pittplayer said:

How is this pic, any better? I think so.

I will make a new Ghoul track with this pic.

1. The locations are meant to be where the Night Ghouls emerge but I might make them emerge from the breeding pits instead. That would make more sense. I am contemplating adding another world area as well, and taking off some of the locations.

2. The stop movement is meant to make it hard to get to the breeding pits so they are not so easy to kill off. Or I could make a way for them to regenerate so investigators could close them but they reopen later.

3. took off the holding area. Check out the updated board, still working on refining it. Any ideas for the "other worlds"? The ghoul track will appear right in the space to the left of the other world areas.

6. Any ideas for abilities of other locations?

For SR Horror, I made it so that each thing promised by the location indicators happened on at least 3 Encounters out of 12. So half or more of the encounters provide one or the other of the promised rewards (there usually being two of them). Blackened out ones are just for when the location special text gives you a way to get the thing in question in a predictable way (for example: shopping). So you wouldn't put a black common item symbol on the Sewer System.

-Frank

ok

you only have one location with a real ability!! i like both the new ghouls arts, have the ghouls emerge from the breeding pits, regenerating breeding pits? sure like how the deep one uprising track always refills, the pits should always be a threat.

new outer worlds?

The Nameless City

Rue d'Auseil

Shaggai

i mean u dont really need outerworlds.... any news on your pickman herald?

I decided to switch gears a little here and just go with the core Ghoul idea. Here is a pic of the board. What I want to happen is, when a Gate opens, a token is put on the corresponding Ghoul along the track. This will give the Ghouls whichever ability. The only way to remove the token will be to close the gate. If the track fills up to 6, then the 7th (blight card) will be placed. Also, the Ghouls movement will go from the breeding pit to the left. Then if they move again, they move into arkham to the corresponding location. From shallow cove to unvisited isle and from underworld to black cave. They do not count against the monster limit. Investigators can travel underground to close the breeding pits. A ghoul would be placed at a breeding pit when

1. Any investigator is knocked unconscious, insane or devoured.

2. There is a monster surge.

Now I still need to figure in the Herald, how the Investigators would fight the Spawn monster, what would make the Spawn Monster appear, etc.

Any comments or room for improvement?

i think you should keep gallows hill it is really cool and has a great ability, maybe you can allow investigators to take a train there. board looks good dont forget your arkham background stuff so your background doesnt look like cardboard! lol how bout instead of 2 lines of locations make a C shape? anyway i just am voting for Gallow Hill to come back! lol have the ghouls be the spawn monsters!! just the more there are the more undefeatable they become! have them surge out of the cemetary!

also i would take the ghouls track out totally and have the herald say put x number of ghouls on the herald sheet, then you can fit gallow hill back!

Good ideas, I will do that. Any thoughts on where I could get some good background map images?

no idea!! sorry. how bout any body else out there? i dont have strange aeons (comp sucks) so i dont know about the tech stuff! sorry

What we should have learned from Kingsport is that locations which stop your movement in a chain are really annoying and add little to the game. While it may be "worth it" for a single investigator to climb all the way up to the strange high house to get changed and then all the way back down to use the Great Seal, it's incredibly annoying and actually does not make the game fun. To be a proper Arkham side quest, the area should be something that can be dealt with incrementally and by multiple investigators in tandem. Otherwise the game loses its cooperative feel as one player wanders off and becomes unengaged with the rest of the team's endeavors.

My suggestion would be to have locations farther down the chain begin the game closed and then stop being closed upon certain triggering events. For example, the first tunnel entrance could become "not closed" when one of the players takes out a Night Ghoul. The second area can become opened by an encounter at the first one or some other triggering event. You could even add a task to the game that opens all the locations. Thereafter the final combat with the breeding pit can simply be the encounters for the breeding pit. The actual text of the board location can simply be "This location begins the game closed." The actual board should be set up as normal neighborhoods, not the irritating and divisive Kingsport Head.

As to the actual distraction of the ghouls themselves, there needs to be a stick in addition to a carrot. As a mechanic, I would suggest using Doom tokens to keep track of various victories against the Ghouls. And those Doom tokens could be taken from the Doom track of the Ancient One. So if you complete the entire sidequest, you reduce the Doom level by like 3 to 5. This makes spending all the turns to deal with the problem something other than a modest difficulty enhancement. There should be positives for success as well as negatives for failure - because success takes resources that could otherwise be spent gathering clues and sealing gates.

-Frank

good points frank! maybe have locations be closed until the doom track reaches 5?