Indio said:

Since you can't play more than one herald together normally, you might want to add a line after the intro text saying that this herald can be used simultaneously with the other herald.

I also think it's excessive having the Witch House bleed terror as well as doom. There shouldn't be a penalty for closing the gate, I think the fact that it keeps reopening and taking away time to seal it (while creating additional doom tokens) is penalty enough. ::Shrug:: you'll see it when you playtest it, assuming you don't get lucky ;')

Soooo... I've been playing with the idea of an H.P. Lovecraft investigator for several weeks now, but as I've said in another section of the forum, I don't actually like custom investigators (for a number of reasons). Anyways :') I've decided to try a slightly different tack ;'D Sometime soon a new herald shall be released. The Arbiter of Reality, Prophet of Apocalypse :'D lets just say, playing with him will turn Arkham Horror into a more Lovecraftian experience (i.e. it will *definitely* amp up the difficulty level). ::Laughter:: it looks like your comment (Pittplayer) sunk into my subconscious at some level.

Here's a direct link to the image of the Herald (in case it's clipped for you).

This herald is a tribute to all the players who complain about the game not being Lovecraftian enough ;'D

Also, it is not intended for amateurs (or people who don't make strategy their primary game concern). If you don't know what you're doing, expect your investigators to be pulped and eaten alive. If you do ;') expect a challenge .

http://i622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/avi_dreader/TheArbiterofReality.jpg

Looks like alot of investigators are going to be retired and devoured randomly by injury/ madness cards. Rita Young may be a knight vs. this herald and sealing victory is going to be a must.

i see you made a version of my lovecraft herald, good version but i put the can not be devoured thing on mine cause you are going to have a lot of investigators being devoured real fast with those rules and its more fun having a lot of hanicapped insane guys running around arkham than bringing out new investigators every 3 turns!!

plus dont you already roll on your blessing in the final battle? am i wrong?

and why the chance of a madness card at the start of game? why not get madness and 3 clue tokens for that mind shattering revelation! i love your herald avi i just hope you tweek it a bit

so i would get an injury card and normal consq, could i then draw another injury card?

so how about instead of when an investigator is devoured the increase instead have when an invest is devoured put an blight card into play?

Avi_dreader said:

This makes the game harder, sure, but it doesn't actually bring the flavor of Lovecraftian... 'adventures' into the game more than anything that's already present. The main issue is that people are running around with weapons blowing away shoggoths, gugs and byhakees (Why are all of these things working together? That's also a failing of the game's flavor) in the middle of the street. It would take a drastic overhaul of the game to actually make it capture the feel of a Lovecraftian story... there would be extremely few gates, an emphasis on clues and exploration and almost no combat whatsoever along with the monsters all being significantly more powerful... but at that point we're moving into RPG territory, or at least risking a boardgame with little replayability.

That said, I love the herald, but not for bringing us back to the source fiction. It has a very In The Mouth of Madness vibe to it.

i agree with the lovecraftian flavor point you make. it is kind of silly to battle a shoggoth with a knife! its cheesy fun but not lovecraftian that is why in my original hpl herald i gave all monsters physical resistance. and i just house rule the other things u say like fewer gates (roll a die 123 no mythos 456 mythos) and for the monsters working together you could make theme monster cups to go with your goo.

@The Messenger

:') I know, I know, it doesn't really fix the thematic discrepancies (but I did want to keep the game *playable* after all). Basically it has two main effects to keep the game more like the source texts (although obviously, it still isn't). Madness and injuries are now a much more major issue (actually, they're almost unavoidable and combat will be a constant source of anxiety for players when this Herald is used, rather than an easy probability game). Notice that you actually get a one in six chance of being forced to draw an injury every time you fail a combat ;') that means that even something like a cultist (under the right conditions— i.e. a surprise attack on an ill equipped investigator in another world) can be a back breaking brute :')

I thought it would be an interesting twist to make the investigators more frail relative to the monsters (rather than making the monsters more robust which is what is normally done), and I think it'll lead to better afterstories (although of course, I wouldn't dream of playing this herald with newbies, although... I feel a strange force compelling me to). I didn't want to make almost everything physically immune and magically resistant, but I did want to leave players with the sense that there is more of a price to pay for battling the mythos than an occasional hospitalization or a brief rest in an asylum bed. As the game currently is, it feels like there is very little price to pay for going insane or being knocked unconscious— I have very little fear of it, and will sometimes do it for strategic reasons— it works like a teleport healing. That's... Really not the right vibe one should get from these sorts of things, I think.

Oh... The other thematic fix I made was massively amping up the final battle. Given the changes I made, in my opinion, if you make it there, you're screwed unless you can take out the ancient one in three turns or less. Even creatures like Yig and Nyarlethotep will be considerably tougher. (I would actually only be willing to play the herald's final battle effects with the base game AOs— and maybe Glaaki and Abhoth, eh, maybe Eihort too).

One thing I like about this herald :') for personal reasons, is I think I won't feel guilty if I select investigators when playing against it (instead of drawing randomly as I normally do). I kindof miss picking my characters :')

@Mrs Gamura

Actually, if you reread the Inescapable Evil section :') you'll see that investigators can't retire. As for random devourings... Shouldn't be *too* many, after all, you'd still need double copies of a card to be devoured, and it does take a while to get that. I do expect this herald will have a high chance of resulting in a devouring or two during a game— a devouring that will destroy well equipped investigators ;') a more "realistic" devouring. Yeah... Sealing is *definitely* encouraged against this guy, unless you're playing a team of three or under in which case I would say prepare for the final battle— although even that will be a major ordeal now since blessings won't stick long, clue stockpiling will be impossible, the AO gets double attacks and the weaker AOs get boosted defenses, and of course, the dreaded double attack. Heh... Good luck with that ;')

Heh... Now I'm kindof tempted to make the roll for drawing madnesses on failed horror checks 1 and 2 ;'D must... resist... temptation...

Also, I must say, don't play Rita ;') but I happen to love it when I draw her. The idea of playing a black female heroine in the Lovecraftian 20s tickles me to no end.

@pittplayer

Last but not least :') I actually did mention you in the post about the post where I posted my herald. I swear I had no conscious recollection of your herald mention when I first thought of the herald, although afterwards I noticed your post and felt I was probably unconsciously influenced, so I felt it was important to make a note of it.

You do roll on blessings in final battles. Now blessings are discarded on a 1 or a 6 ;') I was tempted to just say discard all blessings, but... I did kindof want to balance Lovecraftian despair with a board game's potential winnability (I didn't want to cut off investigators hands and legs ;'D just their legs).

I don't think there will actually be *too* many devourings for a couple reasons. Investigators are more likely to go insane than unconscious (and I gave the option of drawing corruptions instead of madness under certain circustances, mostly because I wanted to give players a way of reducing the likelihoods of drawing amnesias). As for the other stuff ::shrug:: perhaps there will be a devouring or two per game against this herald, but as long as you play somewhat carefully (and don't battle monsters unless you're heavily armed), your characters shouldn't be devoured right and left (either they will be devoured right, or left, but not both). Besides. I *want* some investigators to be devoured. And I want it to be a painful experience for the players. I dislike the relative infrequency and beninity of devourings. This herald should fix both those problems ;')

Oh. I definitely owe you more credit :') I just reviewed your prior posts and even though I have a goldfish memory and consciously forgot about your post about an H.P. Lovecraft herald (in another thread) it was definitely a major source of inspiration for this herald.

Lastly, regarding your suggestion that the start of game potential madness should come with 3 (3?!) clues :') thematically I appreciate it (in part), but keep in mind, there are two gods of theme I serve, Theme of the Text, and Theme of the Text, and these two gods, named the same, require different sacrifices. In terms of strategy, I would consider trading a madness for three clue tokens (particularly if it were on the first turn because that would mean an easy early seal), and in my opinion, that would drain alot of the tension out of the game (it would allow players to easily neuter the terror track and dry up the monster flow, especially if they drew two madnesses ::shudder:: in which case they'd start off nearly able to seal two gates— the horror the horror!) Yeah. That's not going to happen ;') However, for thematic reasons, I think I'll have it come with one clue. A price not worth paying, but, it will add to the theme a bit ;') perhaps the initial madness should be drawn on a roll of 1 or 2? And text added saying that if an investigator draws amnesia they may draw a corruption card instead?

As for the rain of maggots :') I enjoy the image, however, I don't quite see it fitting with this herald. It's more of an E.A. Poe herald effect ;') (I did mean the first sentence in this paragraph seriously though). I've been playing around with the thought of a herald that causes all monsters to be classed as undead, and that has a reanimation effect (along with text that reflects day or night weaknesses). If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to put some sort of rain of maggots effect there?

excellent ideas all around avi!! an undead herald? cool. go ahead use the rain of maggots idea. I got that idea from one of my fav movies The Gates Of Hell aka City of the Living Dead. If you havent seen that def check it out.

Saldre said:

Mmmm... I do that to some extent. But I also like to think about how the heralds would interact with various AOs and if I think that they would work particularly well with an AO that isn't the one they're primarily associated with I have no problem with coupling them.

glaaki herald avi?

pittplayer said:

:') glad you're liking them. I think this herald should probably accompany Glaaki (primarily) as it seems the most thematic (plus I don't want to have to create another AO to go with it).

So far it would go something like this:

Start of game: The first mythos card that comes into play must be the Environment card Blackest Night. Search the mythos deck for it, put it into play, then reshuffle the mythos deck.

The Interdimensional Undead Army: All monsters are undead and have one extra toughness.

Long Nights: Environments that do not add +1 or -1 to sneak are discarded without changing the environment. Environments that give +1 to sneak are night , while environments that give -1 to sneak are day . If a day environment comes into play, put five clue tokens on it, and remove one at the end of each mythos phase after the turn it comes into play. When there are no clue tokens on a day environment, discard it and search the mythos deck until you find a night environment, you must put it into play then reshuffle the mythos deck.

When a day ends, the terror track rises by one. When a night ends, all investigators may restore up to three sanity.

The Dead Walk in Darkness: At night any undead without physical immunity gain physical resistance . Undead with physical immunity gain magical resistance . During each upkeep, one randomly selected monster trophy belonging to the first player reanimates and attacks the first player. If the monster is successfully evaded, return it to the monster cup.

Slay Beneath the Sunlight: During the day immunities are treated as resistances whereas resistances are ignored. Investigators get +1 to horror checks and monster trophies do not reanimate.

Time is Immutable: Environment cards can not be discarded by any means other than by the drawing of another Environment that is either day or night .

Rain of Maggots: I haven't determined the effect yet, but once I do (and get an image I like for this herald— not to mention think up a name and flavor text) I think this herald will be done.

Sounds fun?

pittplayer said:

I don't plan on specifically amping up Glaaki with this herald (as he is already fairly tough in a fight).

Wellll.... But now that you mention it ;') I might make it so that the first player must battle one of the Servants of Glaaki that are in play each round of combat (returning it to the box if it is defeated so it doesn't redo its effect). Yeah. Definitely :')

Heh... I *need* a picture for this thing ;') then I will be able to think of a name.

why not just have the heralds effect make it night all the time? that would save you a lot of rules space.

day/night is ok, but makes me think of vampires. and in that case i will play fury of dracula,

i am still a fan of the undead cup.

it seems to have a lot of rules and not enough pow! you know what i mean?

Keep blackest night in play?

How bout draw a undead monster everyturn and put him in the graveyead??

pittplayer said:

Heh... I just want something fairly atmospheric. This isn't intended to be a killer herald (although the night mechanic will make the game fairly difficult). I think reanimation will be a major pain in the ass though :') especially coupled with phys res/mag res bonuses and +1 toughness monsters. I also think I will make the days shorter (three clue tokens). Since you do seem to specifically love the *undead* undead :') I've decided to amp up the power of this herald a bit more (I'll have it posted within the next fifteen minutes, I think). Hopefully you'll like it a bit more.

::Laughter:: it would be ready to post now, but I'm trying to think of a rain of maggots ability. I don't want to make a separate cup because they tend to be a hassle to set up (and, you'll see, I turned the basic undead monsters into absolute hellfiends).

As for light weaknesses. Glaaki's wikipedia entry says that "As time passes the undead creatures become increasingly sensitive to sunlight, and even begin to take damage from it. The Servants of Glaaki refer to this condition as the Green Decay."

RAIN OF MAGGOTS: if an investigator ends his movement in the streets he must make a -1 will check or lose one sanity

pittplayer said:

Heh heh heh... There's something *much* nastier that awaits investigators foolhardy enough to dare entering the streets ;'D (granted there is an evade check of +0, so it isn't certain death). The rain of maggots ability will be rather unpleasant too. It's nearly ready. Five more minutes.

Hee hee hee... Okay. It's ready ;') I hope you like it better now. I think it's the most complex custom component I've created, but I hope it will also be fun and feel thematically interrelated.

Here's a direct link to the image in case it's cut off:

http://i622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/avi_dreader/TheLichKingXzmundl.jpg

Clarifications: The monster that appears from Rain of Maggots is like a regular "A monster appears" encounter i.e. it's unaffected by the monster limit and it disappears after combat— RUN PUNY HUMANS! ::Cough cough:: sorry :')

love the guy on the horse!!! decent herald, just want a more concentrated theme, thats just me..