I have attempted to integrate Clue Cards and the feel that one is investigating something wth them, a system of advantages/disadvantages, and a reward for completing the investigation all in one system. Here is how it works.

Start the game with Resident of Arkham Personal Stories, like this.

Now I plan on having more than one of these going on at any time. So there will be a Clue Card deck and the Investigators will have to track down the Clues pertaining to this story and contribute them to it (discard them to activate the story). The Clues also have an inherit advantage and disadvantage on their own if you don't want to follow the personal story.

What do you guys think?

Here is one more example of this format.

And here are the corresponding clues.

The strategy in all this will be whether to decide to contribute the clues for the story to get the reward or use them for other reasons.

Hello Ivory Tower,

Good to see that someone has taken this challenge on.

A few general impressions. Outside of the fragment of gamers that will complain that your trying to make a board game into a role playing game, and "If I wanted to play a role playing game then I would." (Hint! You're not forced to use custom content.)

Having little story quests to develop the game is good, but too much of that and the over all game is lost.

You're corresponding clue cards, at this moment at night seem way to wordy, not that it might not be a good idea.

Clues might have several functions, and when gathered could be used to trigger the NPC Cards, so that might reduce the number of clue cards needed.

I wish that there was a way to use clues in a sensible manner to lead an investigator to a certain spot, to either do something for the larger game, or gain a new clue that has a thematic connection. As it is clues are rather like smart bombs, luck, karma points, or what not, rather then knowledge learned.

Yes the cards are a little wordy but I couldn't figure a way to slim it down and still get the story on there. What I had in mind, which I talked about in the other clue thread is having a clue deck of

2 for each symbol = 16

2 for each neighborhood (except northside cause there is no unstable location there) = 16

Then some misc. clues maybe 10, maybe some could open up personal stories of other NPC's. Total Clue deck of 42 cards. It shouldn't be that hard to find all the clues for any story.

Players will start out with generic clues, but all Clues gathered after the start of the game will be drawn by clue cards. All clue cards can be discarded to add bonuses just like regular clues.

Each set of clues, (1 symbol and 1 neighborhood) will tell a story the players have to investigate. This makes 8 stories that could be played, but I would recommend only 4, drawn randomly at the start, that way not all the clues will be towards completing these mini quests.

I just thought of something. One could start the game with 1 personal story and if it passes the next chapter would be activated, but if it failed then a separate timeline with more dire consequences could be activated. The Personal stories don't need to be all NPC's either. They could be events or locations the investigators would have to unravel also. And as the story progresses, the rewards and detriments could become greater.

For example, the above story of father michael is solved, but then that activates a witch house storyline, where they track the package originating from the witch house. Or if it fails, it activates them having to track down father micheal and have to perform an exorcism to remove the blight and gain a reward. And so on, until the story has something to do with the Ancient One, and later successes could remove doom tokens or create seals to reward the investigators for progressing along the story. Hope that makes sense?

I just wanted to give an update on where I am going with this. Here is a sample of how this will work

Act 1

So here is what happens if Act 2 is activated.

Here is the Demon Father Monster that was activated for failing act 1. The investigators can now either pass act 2 or destroy this guy to move on to act 3. A series of decisions like this will make it interesting. What to do...

and here is a continuation. As you can see the rewards and detriments are increased here, plus the clue cards will continue to tell the story.

Hello Ivory_Tower,

I like what you're doing, and if your willing to do all the hard work I'll gladly give it a try and try again.

The writing is nice and not just a few colorless sentences.

You're going to need to do a LOT of writing, if you want to keep things fresh,and really offer a lot of possibities. Actually, your take reminds me of those old paragraph board games, which Arkham Horror certainly has more then a touch of with its endless events.

Perhaps, you might make some of the stories based around the current G.O.O., so that the clue collecting is pushing the larger story. Maybe, individual story lines for each of the Old Ones. Well, maybe just start with one and see how that goes?

Having the Father turn into a demon certainly has a spark of nastiness to it. You're really opening up lots of odd new play developments. Lycanthropic states of mind. Possession. Vampirism. Abductions.

Good work.

Thanks Lemmingsunday. This is harder than I thought, trying to weave everything so it fits. Considering there is more than one path. But here is the story so far along with the clue tokens. It's almost complete. I am double posting because some of these have changed , and you can see the big picture better this way.

Act 2

Act 3

Act 4

Act 5

If you don't pass this act, I made him Elusive, if you pass the next one he is not elusive.

Act 6

Act 7

Now I only need to make a nasty Herald that is put into play for the Investigators failing this mission. Any ideas on this? I have not made one of those yet? And I only need to finish up some clues before it's playable.

You really can put forth a ton of stuff that need not just be a standard herald. Perhaps, a super herald as thecorinthian had developed. A scenario card that acts as an unfolding ritual. A random ritual effect deck. A deck of black rituals. A herald that mutates turn from turn.

Just based off of calling the herald the Harbringer of Sleep, perhaps all focus sliders are pegged left, and it requires a clue point to move a slider. The energy required to stay awake and overcome ones overwhelming apathy requires tremondous effort. Perhaps, the first player investigator must pass a difficult will test or miss his/her turn in a coma like state. Or maybe, the investigator is instead possessed, and does something rather nasty. All investigators lose 1 movement point as time becomes sluggish.

lemmingsunday said:

Say, those are all great ideas. I will work on some things today for the Herald. I have the picture already. Do you have a link to corinthians super herald, I remember him talking about it but I stop playing for some time and just recently started getting into it again. Maybe the herald, when fought, could have a deck of spells, and that's his attack every turn. Each spell could have some devastating effect on the board, gates or the characters. He would take cumulative damage like an Ancient One.

I am going to play test this, and my plan for the next story will be to incorporate some of lovecrafts shortstories. I will post the .eon files when it's ready to playtest if you would like to help me test it and work out the bugs.

Hello Ivory Tower,

I'll glady try and play test your stories once, you've finished the novel.

If you want you can an email to me at [email protected]

I can email you the superheralds, as I can't find via the search function.

Shame that Thecorithian isn't around as much, as the dark gods have blessed him, with the ability to make wonderful custom content. He would be the one to help you fine tune the clue cards.

Yeah, I noticed it's been kind of dead around here. I can't believe you are the only commenting on this. I have also been working on the next story. I have a better handle on this now. I decided to take Lovecrafts words right out of the Dunwich Horror. Here is a teaser piece from what I've been making.

This is meant to be played with the Dunwich expansion and I make novel use of the locations, wizard whateley and this new, partially metamorphed dunwich horror. All through from the beginning, I use lovecrafts words on the story and clues. It should be interesting.

I will wrap up the loose ends on the other story and email you the files.

All the ghouls have gone to sleep. I suppose when the next season is announced, in other worlds a new expansion the ghouls will shamble forth.

The Dunwich Tentacles as is is little confusing to me. Does the player have to make a Fight Check at the beginning of each Upkeep Phase, or before each new combat? Perhaps, if a player doesn't defeat the Dunwich Tentacle combat ends with the Dunwich Tentacle still in the street. The player takes 1 stamina point, and suffers a permanet fight reduction of one.

Is each street location going to have its own clue deck? How does a player know where to go to get the proper card. If a card says, "Black Cave," is that where the event takes place, or is that only flavor text? It would be nice if they both go together, otherwise, it gets a little disjointed with what is happening in play and what the cards are saying.

Using Lovecraft to tell a Lovecraft tale makes complete sense to me.

Looking forward to more unfolding tales.

lemmingsunday said:

Basically, the tentacle attaches itself to you and you have to fight it off or it takes your stamina away; or it falls off after 3 turns.

For father micheal story, I made the Clue cards have extra abilities, but I did not do that for the Dunwich Horror story because I wanted to put all the flavor text I could on there. Bascially, there will be one clue deck. But to add flavor, for example, I put alternative ways to find clues (choose to be delayed at whateley farm to search the clue deck for the Act 1 Clue 1) to give the feeling that you are investigating something and it's paying off by getting certain clues. I don't want to make the clue deck too big because the odds of finding the combination of clues should be fairly low and easy to do. So I'm thinking a clue deck of about 30 clues. I'll play test that first and see what happens. When I have the dunwich investgative tale done, I'll post it in a new thread