tiborvadovan said:

Would you like me to play with the picture colors a little bit? They're a bit faint and pale.

Also, for Multidimensional Existence, you do realize you're actually giving Yog-Sothoth weaker combat abilities with the first part of his ability? Since there will never be a time when investigators have less than one gate (since they die as soon as they lose it). Perhaps you should raise his combat modifier to -10? (I would say this would still be a balance issue, but due to disappearing gates, and the need to get blessings, I don't think players stocking up gate trophies will be a major issue).

One last thing. His name reminds me of Afikomen ;')

Hello avi_dreader and other esteemed board members,

Sure, i'd love your help, you seem to have a keen eye for these kinds of things, are you an editor / graphic designer or something equivalent?

Here is a link to the original image:

pantherhorror.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/clarkashtonsmithspacetime.jpg

Concerning your coments, yes, you are right, it should be possible for an Investigator to "hoard" enough gate trophies (2 are enough, the more the merrier) to have an apparently easier final combat.

However, I feel this is somewhat kept in check because it will be made at the expense of other Investigators (only the Investigator with the gate box will be able to generally get a high enough number of trophies for it to be a problem), and is a transient advantage that dissipates when the gate trophies start being discarded.

But nevertheless, I made a change (the "Aftermath") that I hope that discourages (or slows down) gate gathering by a single investigator, while offering additional possibilities for tight, coordinated teamplay between Investigators, a theme I was aiming for in this Herald. I am also trying to make sure it is beatable, not just overpowering (and also taking advantage of an underused AO awakening condition)

Have a look. I hope you feel it is "mean" enough now

ps: The name actually reminds of something straight out of a Pokemon episode :[ However, it is an "official" avatar of Yoggie, so more power to him/her/it.

Here we go, I do like that pic better. I had seen it before, but it didn't catch my fancy; however, it looks great on the card, I think. I changed some of the wording as you suggested and hopefully fixed the werewolf monster trophy deal. Also, I made it so lycanthropes in other worlds become delayed, and all lycanthropes lose 1 sanity if the moon comes out. I also exported in higher resolution. Does anyone see anything that could be improved in this version?

Whoo! (Oh geeze, I think I caught Lycanthropy from your card). You picked my favorite of the pics. Anyways, more comments in a bit.

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Edit: No. Nope. No more comments. Scary! Cool! I can't wait to play it (I think I'm going to save it for when I'm with friends). The one thing about it that makes me sad is that because it relies on Cultists, I can't make it herald my Dracula ::sigh:: oh well... I was dying to have Dracula interact with werewolves somehow, but there wasn't room on the card ;') perhaps what I'll do if I play your version is I'll have the Vampires not move when it is day, and have the only werewolf on the board be the endless one at the woods. That would actually be pretty awesome ;'D Vampires and Werewolves and Dracula! Putting the Horror back in Arkham Horror! :'D

AWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

tiborvadovan said:

Hah... It's not quite as pants shattingly terrifying now ;') but I think it'll still make for very interesting Yog-Sothoth games.

Two minor details. in the first paragraph it should be "an Other World" and for Aftermath, it should be "loses" not "looses." I like it. I'd be willing to print it out, after you correct the little errors. Oh right, but let me email you the picture first (I sent you my email address through a friend's message, just send me back a message with Arkham Horror in the title or contact me directly through personal messenging).

As for the personal questions... No, I'm not a graphic designer (although I used to draw quite a bit when I was younger, and spent *alot* of time with photoshop) and I'm not an editor (although I was an English major as an undergraduate). I'm currently in grad school working towards becoming a librarian, and no, my copy of The Necronomicon will not circulate :')

I'm going to post a Yog-Sothoth herald tonight too! Give me a few minutes (it's done, but I need to upload it to photobucket)...

I designed this one to prevent dilution in Dunwich (it's actually based on an idea I had waaay back when at the beginning of the first league). I don't want to bore you with the history though. The card should work to make Dunwich (and the Dunwich Horror) a significant threat whether you play Yog-Sothoth or not. I wouldn't say he's primarily to be used with Yog (I made most of his major abilities independent of Yog-Sothoth for a reason).

Direct link: http://i622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/avi_dreader/Whateley.jpg

Finally... Black Goat of the Woods won't suck. And this completes my base game herald fixes :') (Although I might do *another* one for Cthulhu, possibly a drastic remake of Dagon or Hydra, I really wasn't happy with those heralds and I have an ideas involving enhanced aquatic movements and intertown kidnappings— forced relocations to the Innsmouth Jail I mean). I wouldn't expect that for a while though. Hmmm... And I guess there's the other side of the Nyarlathotep herald that I'd like to make (fitting that I should begin and end this cycle with a Nyarlathotep herald).

I hope you guys like this. It might even make you *want* to buy Black Goat of the Woods :')

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

Proposed rules changes for the BGotW herald (copied from another thread where I was discussion some of the features of the card— I decided to make some changes based on jgt's comment):

One *must* join the cult when ending movement at a cult location by paying two stamina or three toughness of monster trophies.

Dark Young does not count against the monster limit or go to the Outskirts. An investigator who kills one.... Must pay the cost for a cult member ship or draw a cult encounter if they are already a cult member :'D Oh good ;') you just got a Dark Young. (This won't take place during final Battle though).

I think I'm going to add in a rule that adds a mythos phase for final combat (only while playing Shub) so you then also have to contend with corruption issues. That'd probably be add much thematic fun (and fighting the Dark Young will lead players to the red corruption deck). And just to clarify before anyone asks, the final battle doesn't specify where you are, so I'm going to assume that Uncontrollable Rage just has no effect. Heeee... We're going to make it to the Red Deck ;'D

Whoops... I just realized I posted this in the wrong thread when I went to check for replies to my raven comment...

Aaaand, this might be the final version (I'm pretty happy with it— and will remain so unless playtesting reveals that the cult encounters as currently designed are too exploitable— I don't think they will be though, there's a built in balance to mess up camping). If you don't have Black Goat of the Woods, feel free to just turn off the corruption features. It'll still work (kindof). The added monster limit, and double gate spawning is enough to drastically alter the game, and the mobile Dark Young would add a little more spice. ::Shrug:: it is intended for players who own Black Goat of the Woods though. Hopefully it will be good enough to persuade fence sitters to buy it :') If you can think of any suggestions on how to improve it or criticisms, let me know (I'm not promising that I'll change it, but I will at least consider it especially if it deals with a thematic or balancing issue).

direct link: http://i622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/avi_dreader/Blackgoatofthewoods.jpg

****... There's another error in the opening text. You don't draw more than one cult membership and you don't pay the price for it if you already have one. The text should "for a" instead of "and draw a" (I think that would be clear enough without cluttering the text further). Perhaps I can think of another way to say it without making the text more smooshed.

By the way Tiborvadovan, after you post a revised version of a custom component, you should the source for the original component (unless you want it to exist as a variant) because otherwise skimming people will unknowingly use and repost it elsewhere. I think this is definitely something you should know for the Nyarlathotep herald :') I noticed the problem today because after I reposted it somewhere, I realized that I posted the wrong version.

Final copy (I think) of The Black Goat of the Woods, and a polished repost (also the last I hope) of The Pied Piper (I hated how the colors came out on the last one, and there were a few flavor text issues I wanted to fix). I started thinking about it again since it's my other herald with corruption. Okay. Enjoy :'D

direct link: http://i622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/avi_dreader/BlackgoatofthewoodsFINAL.jpg

direct link: http://i622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/avi_dreader/Piedpiper.jpg

i523.photobucket.com/albums/w359/mageith/Cult-of-Ithaqua-Front-Face.jpg

@ Magieth

First of all, you need to upload a higher quality image. The one you uploaded is extremely blurry. You should always save your jpegs with the highest possible quality.

Second, no different picture for the herald? ;.(

Third.

What does When Ithaqua awakens mean?

It seems like this herald is designed to only play with Ithaqua. Why don't you just make it that way completely instead of bothering with the whole, place this sheet over Ithaqua's rules. You could say that Contradictions between the herald and the ancient one are played according to the herald. Or something. There's *got* to be a way for you to make your card shorter.

tiborvadovan said:

Hmmm... I tested this with a friend yesterday, and lost rather badly (but it was a wierd game and our starting investigators were not very impressive). We lost a total of 7 movements in the first two turns... With 4 players. It was really pathetic. Two things though. I think it might be necessary to deliberately get knocked out on occasion for extra clues. Also, one of the sinister plot cards no longer works for this variant. Take a look at it.

When we were still in the last forum I made a guardian based on the enigmatic Phantom of Truth, mentioned in Chamber's "King in Yellow" (and presumably a different entity). My main idea was an "Act deck anti-dilution"-entity and since the king was already the herald and the phantom was presented as rather benign in Blish's "More Light!", a guardian made the most sense. The feed-back I recieved was that while being a good idea, the act deck pusher mechanic would work much better as a threat (=herald) and that I should read Ryng's version of the play (where the phantom is, indeed, rather more malicious).

Ok, since then IH came out, showing that it is possible for two heralds to work in tandem (Dagon/Hydra). Also, I've finally read Ryng. So, here is my take on the Phantom of Truth as herald. What do you guys think?

Wow. Very impressive. Ferocious. Thematic. But not unbeatable. I like it quite a bit. That being said, it has a few textual problems. Does it mean to imply that a third act card will come into play when an ancient one with three rows of doom tokens awakens? That seems a little *too* harsh... Consider changing it to "If a row of the Ancient One's doom track is filled up while not awakening it" etc.

I don't know why you would force players to use the Act Deck to play with your herald. Yeah, it'd be nice, but if they don't have it, they don't have it. They might just want to play it for the terror boosts and the madness.

Also, Hastur's ability isn't too impressive. So what if everyone has to draw a madness before entering final battle? It'd be far more fierce if all investigators had to draw a madness card when a gate to Carcosa appears. Again, it's unnecessary to state: "If playing with Dunwich" for the aforementioned reasons.

For your last paragraph, just say "All their effects are cumulative (e.g. Two yellow signs are placed at the start of the game)." Much shorter.

Anyways, I like it. Fix it and I'll print it..

Thanks for the feed-back, Avi, it was great! Now I've tried to balance things so that a diluted game benefits from the phantom while still not making AH+KiY ridiculously hard. It's really hard to balance the values correctly though (all cudos to FF that somehow manages that in their products).

rovdjuret said:

Great :') thanks.

Btw, could you post a second copy without the flavor text?

You sure? That quote is at least one of the four clues in the King in Yellow

So here is a herald I've been knocking together, based on the witch from Dreams in the Witch House.

@Veet You need to upload higher quality images. As yours is currently, it's very fuzzy.

I like the mandatory Dreamland encounters mechanic (I'd definitely hang onto that, it's a new and potentially fun idea), but if I wanted to play a Nyarlethotep herald I'd pick this one instead

http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/1717/thecrawlingchaosfrontfa.jpg

Or my own (even though it needs fixing now— and I think the other's much better in terms of balance and game mechanics).

I'm going to post my Janus herald soon. If anyone has any suggestions, they should let me know probably by tomorrow. It's going to make monster evade checks double (thematically because they have eyes in the back of their heads, like Janus) it's also going to allow the selection of two ancient ones, with cumulative monster modifiers, and a randomly selected doom track for use in determining awakening, for use in the final battle, and both monsters will attack during the final battle (only one will be fought though). It'll also not remove cultists with Abhoth (since that'd screw him up in many cases).

clarification: yes, both Ancient One's slumbering effects take place. Enjoy :') I'm glad this idea is finally done (I've been excited by the idea of double Ancient One fights ever since it was implemented in the league, but I've been thinking about how to make this idea work since the summer, in retrospect, it feels like I really shouldn't've taken so long). I hope you guys like it. It may be the last thing I post for a while (with the possible exception of another Nyarlathotep herald).

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

::Sigh:: no new heralds? Still? :' This thread used to be so active once ;.( now it is sad and neglected.

Well I suppose I could post my rewrite of Keziah Mason that I posted earlier, made her more of a generic herald. And I have a herald based on Captain Obed Marsh that I've been working on with the idea that he could focus a game onto the innsmouth board even with the cards watered down by lots of expansions.