I have been wanting to take Soakman's custom investigators out for a spin and finally got a game completed.
https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?showtopic=97796
But enough about the good news. Or if not exactly good news, then at least better news than what was to come.. For those looking for happy endings, you can stop reading here, this is one of those cases of "move along folks, nothing to see here." I had tried twice previously to play a group of investigators that included Sadie Godfrey, Anton Pavel, Obi Laveau and Astrid Lee. The first time I didn't play a couple of their abilities quite right (it was a loss against Cthulhu). In the second game, I made a different sort of mistake that had a major impact on the outcome (it ended up being a "win" vs. Bokrug when "The Departure" came up as an epic battle card, shortly after Obi Laveau had been devoured, with four red cards remaining in the Final Battle, and the remaining investigators down to their last turn).
In each case I decided to call these games "practice games", due to the misinterpretations or the violations of the rules that had occurred. This is not to say that they weren't highly entertaining games....they just didn't "count". Still, I got a good look at how some of Soakman's custom investigators play.
For my third game, I decided to take on Bokrug once again, with the same group. As Astrid Lee has a secondary ability ("Rumor Has It") that calls for her to draw a Corruption card if she uses it, I decided to use the Black Goat of the Woods herald (knowing this was probably a death wish), since each time an investigator defeats a hexagon monster with that herald in play, he or she draws a Corruption card. Maybe I'm missing something, but it strikes me that the Corruption deck is pretty unlikely to be much of a problem, especially if you're using a couple of expansions to "dilute" the decks, which I do (and did). (I also used the Innsmouth Horror board expansion and the revised Curse of the Dark Pharaoh as well as the Black Goat of the Woods card expansions.)
Anyway. On the initial Mythos card draw, "Oppressive Atmosphere" came up, opening a gate at Devil Reef. Hexagon monsters moved, and one moved immediately into the vortex, placing a token on the Deep Ones Rising track. The alarm went out for investigators to head for Innsmouth...if not all of them, then at least a strong contingent. A definite sense of unease was already in the air.
On the second Mythos card draw, "Gathering Storm" came up. This would have opened a gate at Devil Reef, but there was already one there, so instead, a monster surge occurred. This was about as bad a draw as you could have gotten at this time, as all four monsters had to be placed at Devil Reef, since it was the only gate open.. Making matters worse, this card was a Headline with the text.."The situation in Innsmouth continues to worsen (ya think..?). Add one uprising token to the Deep Ones Rising track." Two more monsters moved into the vortex as well! So three uprising tokens were placed on the track on ONE turn, bringing the total to four at the end of the first full turn!
On the following turn, the investigators caught a bit of a break when "A Dark Wind Covers Arkham" was the Mythos card drawn. Ordinarily, that wouldn't seem like such a lucky break, but such was the state of affairs in this game that it was actually cause for wild celebration, as no additional uprising tokens went on the track. Two Formless Spawns (hexagon monsters) lurked at Devil Reef, waiting to cause some sort of trouble or else move into the vortex.
During the next turn Anton Pavel arrived in Innsmouth, hastened to Falcon Point and caught a Boat Charter to Devil Reef. He was armed with an elephant gun but the Spawns have Physical Immunity, so that weapon was useless, and he elected to evade them instead, leaving behind a ticking Time Bomb with one clue on it. That should teach them. If only they would not move on the next Mythos card...they'd be blown up and the other two investigators now in Innsmouth (Obi and Astrid) could lay down sufficient clue tokens to bring about a Feds Raid of Innsmouth... (Obi had placed two already.) Anton continued on to explore R'lyeh.
Ordinarily an investigator would be thrilled to get out of R'lyeh as soon as possible. In this case, Anton's other world encounter was to make a Luck (+0) check.."if you succeed, return to Arkham (NO-OOOOO! I just placed a time bomb there..). If not, you are lost in time and space." He succeeded at the Luck check, and it was back to Arkham, to await his fate. Either he would be hideously disfigured by his own time bomb, or the Formless Spawns would move into the vortex and immediately awaken Bokrug.
The next Mythos card revealed was "Jail Break!", and sure enough, hexagon monsters moved. Both Formless Spawns hurled themselves into the vortex, the Deep Ones Rising Track filled up and Bokrug awoke from his slumber, at the end of the third full turn of the game.
It makes me wonder if that's some sort of world record.
As all four Beings of Ib still remained on Bokrug's sheet, I decided that the investigators would pass on the Final Battle. After all, Bokrug was upgraded to both Physical Immunity and Magical Immunity and six extra doom tokens were to be placed on him (all as a result of the surviving Beings of Ib). I decided my time would be better spent writing this report.
All the same, I did have sufficient time to form opinions about Soakman's custom investigators.. (I'll assume anyone still reading and interested at this point can just open the link to the investigators and read about them there.)
I like Obi Laveau a lot! While I may not understand all the machinations of his Nanchons of Loa or Gris-Gris of Legba, I'm totally fascinated by it all, nonetheless. Maybe if I understood it, it wouldn't be as mysterious and entertaining. In function, it's straightforward enough. In the second game I played, Obi sealed a gate before placing 2 Sanity tokens on Other World locations (his Pass condition), thereby failing his personal story and causing him to pay "Papa Legba's Price". Good stuff! In that game, Bokrug devoured Obi in the Final Battle (strangely sparing the other three investigators) and then abruptly Departed. As a narrative element, this was obviously a case of Bokrug personally seeing to it that Obi paid Papa's price, and then being satisfied that his "work here was done". That's the sort of thing you can get with a character like Obi Laveau, the Voodoo Bokor. And of course his Lore of 6 is perfect, making him a natural at Other World exploration (or at least gate closings) and spells.
I also really like Astrid Lee! The personal story is brilliant. Both the primary and secondary special abilities are spectacular....that is to say, I personally love strong one-time abilities that can be played at "just the right time" to save the day (her primary ability) and I'm also a fan of abilities where you get a nice benefit but also take on a risk (secondary ability). In this case, Astrid's back story, personal story and abilities all interact in a way that is able to develop an intriguing sidebar narrative, for lack of a better way to put it.
Anton Pavel is a little bit more difficult for me to properly assess. Again (as with all of them), I'm a big fan of the back story and personal story. With the latter, I'm not sure what the odds are that either Anton or any investigator will have an encounter with Anna Kaslow (probably quite low), but it provides an interesting side story to hold in the back of your mind (and how awesome will it be if it actually happens). Both Fleetfooted and Guardian of the Scales are interesting concepts that are clever. I like his Speed and Fight of 5 for the character. I probably could have made better use of Fleetfooted than I did.
Lastly, there is Sadie Godfrey... First off, what an interesting character! The Turning (into a werewolf) and Abomination are fantastic ideas, adding yet another narrative element that is fascinating to follow during the course of the game. The only problem is that this makes for a very "unreliable" investigator, in terms of getting much accomplished, as you never know when she suddenly won't be allowed to enter locations (which is certainly understandable). Still, I really like the general idea, and the back story and personal story, and their interaction with her abilities. Very entertaining. Oddly, in the games I played, she never did take down a monster immediately following The Turning, but she was a very good monster hunter, even so, and that can be useful.
My next project will be to either play these four again (since this last -and only legitimate - game was SO SHORT), or play the other four Soakman custom investigators, or do some sort of combination thereof.....a good problem to have to contemplate. I'm leaning toward the former. Thank you, Soakman, for sharing these investigators! Great work! They really have added to my enjoyment of this already awesome game experience and I recommend them to anyone.