Final version. I do not like some much the idea of the color being kicked out of its well, so locations with colors cannot be closed.

I play tested it yesterday. First gate, the second color got in play at the woods. Then, they did not do much for a while... then the dust spread everywhere. That was scary. These bugs have an horror check of -3 with 4 SAN damages... Time to reach to them, you are almost mad. Though, if you manage to kill one with clue tokens, all dust evaporates (phew).

anyway, here it is

To Avi and Veet,

do you mind if I translate Basatan and The Black Goat to french ? I would like to put them in the french wiki, with reference to your name. If you agree, can you give me the eon files ?

amikezor said:

There's a French Arkham Horror wiki?

Of course I don't mind. I'm not sure why you'd need the eon files though. Just the picture I'd think (since you're going to have to redo everything in SE anyways).

Yes to boh questions

The Black Man, Mark 2. The feed-back took this in a completely new direction.

Edit: Spelling error on the Herald

amikezor said:

My favorite Lovecraft story as a Herald!

It's nice. Since it's final version, I have nothing to add. I just wanted to share a link to an upcoming german film adaptation:

amikezor said:

Of course you can, it's here to share with everyone.

Ok, here is the final version. Finally, I've decided to take the suggestion from Woodclaw, and keep the monster on the sheet as additional life point: is surely more original than mine.

Adventurer said:

Final version sans text corrections :') I'll try and do this quickly.

The presence of the Outsider weakens the barrier that divides reality from imagination and horror.

Or, The presense of the Outsider weakens the barriers that divide reality from imagination and horror.

[i'm not sure which one you meant to say; either way, presence and reality were misspelled.]

Start of the Game: Pick a Dreamlands gate. It is the first gate that opens.

When a gate appears to The Dreamlands, Unknown Kadath, The Underworld, or Plateau of Leng, roll a die. Raise the terror level by 1 on a 1. Gates to these Other Worlds can not be sealed. When one of the four aforementioned gates opens or has a monster surge

The Outsider feeds on fear and despair: when investigators successfully evade a monster, go insane, or draw a madness, randomly draw a monster from the cup and put it on this card. When one of the four aforementioned gates opens or has a monster surge, place the monsters on this card on that gate after normal monster placement [i assume that's how you want it done, because otherwise they could cherrypick weak monsters onto the gate and send unknown random monsters into the Outskirts]

[The part about the Ancient One should be moved to the bottom of the card, since that's where information about final battle effects usually goes, you might want to put The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of in the middle or the top if you don't the Ancient One text under that heading].

If the Ancient One awakens, it gets extra doom tokens equal to the terror level and [i'm not sure what exactly you meant to say so I'll write out two possible texts that you can exchange with this bracketed remark].

investigators must roll additional successes equal to the number of monsters [or monster toughness?] on this card to remove doom tokens.

or [the much weaker alternative]:

investigators must roll an extra number of successes equal to the number of monster toughness on this card to defeat the Ancient One.

Personally, I'd prefer the former with number of monsters [monster toughness would be too hard], it'd give it sharp teeth, but obviously it's whatever you prefer.

::Laughter:: I just saw the line of text on top of your card and I think you intended the former ;') but consider using my suggestion if you don't think it'd be too difficult.

rovdjuret said:

Oooo. Scary :'D [i love the new picture btw]

I'll respond to a few details later (either tomorrow or Sunday) mostly on formatting or rules clarification. I really like this design :') my favorite part was how you used the board symbols, no one has ever thought of that before (as far as I know). That could come in handy for future herald or AO or whatever designs.

Avi_dreader said:

I think I like the idea. It sounds thematic to me, but I regret that the Black Man does do much besides being here at the begining of the game. Can't he remove a doom token from the investigators ? Or add one doom token but give an extra boost ?

I would get rid of the 1 doom token+1 curse.

I can feel that there are many ways wording can be improved, but I leave it to the grand "master of wording" :-).

I am not sure, that the second part is thematically relevant to the black man. Though, I like the effect.

I looked at the Farber trailer, looks great.

amikezor said:

::Laughter:: how did I get stuck with an unpaid editor job? Oh, right, volunteering ;')

amikezor said:

Send me a private message with your email address so I can mail you a copy of the jpeg.

amikezor said:

Heh... Now that I think about it, that's a pretty good critique. You might want to split off some of the later abilities onto one of the other avatar heralds (it'll also keep the card size down).

I wouldn't get rid of the 1 doom token +1 curse ability, what I'd do is cause investigators to get a doom token if they get cursed ;'D

It would be cool if you moved the later stuff onto a different herald and gave The Black Man some interactivity instead.

Anyways, whatever you do, I think you have a bunch of good ideas here and a great picture and I can't wait to see the final product :'D

I'd rather see TBM give you a doom token in exchange for something, rather than take one away :') but if you can think of a good reason why he'd do that, that'd be great too.

Hrm... Also, you might need to make the Black Man a spawn monster (it's also unclear to me if he's going to return to the cup or to the sheet— you could potentially make him return to the witch house when defeated, but if you did that you might want to modify him so he'd only provide one or no clues, or perhaps so he provided a doom token whenever he gave his 2 clues).

Heh :') I'm so glad that the Heralds thread is active again, with so many interesting and exciting ideas.

@amikezor

I just wanted to clarify something, the dust can't travel by train depots, right?

Avi_dreader said:

I dunno. That the last bit I am still uncertain (and it did not happen during my play test) ? Shall it travel ? Shall it close the train depots ?

I call for advices !! :-))

amikezor said:

Ehhhh, well, the Patrol Wagon remains available if investigators let Dunwich get out of control and the dust to spread to Arkham Proper. The terror level will probably go crazy ;') I don't know. I think it could work either way. If you want investigators to be able to ignore Dunwich if they choose, make it so the dust can't take the train, if you want to force confrontations with the colors I'd say give them their passports. Um... I'd probably go for the choice though, it allows for more potential strategizing, even if it does make the game slightly easier :')

One of the things I don't like about a few of my custom creations is I feel like the corral players into choosing a certain strategy while the normal game usually allows for one of several strategic routes to victory.

Avi_dreader said:

Isn't that partialy what heralds do though? Heralds more than anything else in the game offer a way to focus certain aspects and feature certain themes.

Avi_dreader said:

I guess dust could travel to other cities, that would do not bad to the game, would it ?

As for closing the station, I think I would leave the possibility to travel between cities (even if the station is closed for encounters) . Though, if if you have 5 or 6 streets with dust before reaching the beast, you are very likely to be mad when you reach it (horror check -3, 4 SAN). So I will reword just a bit the Herald and post an updated version soon.

Veet said:

No, I mean that some of my heralds basically force investigators to go for combat victories instead of sealing victories :') maybe I should have said that straight out. I still feel guilty about that.

OK, newer version. Dust can travel, does not prevent investigators to travel. Though spreads faster (first token is for the street adjacent to the color area) .

to Avi. Did you received my MP (for the picture) ?

Nope. Did you get my email?

Say "It spreads through rail depots but doesn't close them." It's a bit clearer and shorter.

::Blink blink:: So... I'm finally playing a game against that Dracula AO I made months ago... It's really slamming my guts to the wall. I can't figure out if I'm winning or losing yet. I got Tommy Muldoon, William Yorrick, and Jenny Barnes.... Tommy has done almost nothing all game (besides get knocked out twice by Dracula (the original vampire avatar it has), and he's about to get taken out a third time I'm afraid :'/ I've had horrible luck... Three rounds of shopping and not a single unique weapon. On the other hand, I did get an elder sign, so it wasn't a total waste. Guh... I have no combat spells or magical items... So I've just been using Tommy as bait (to keep my other investigators in the game— unfortunately my other investigators have three speed and four speed (I gave Jenny Tommy's map). ::Sigh:: It's just been one of those God Awful games... I had one two monsters appear in Dunwich and one two monsters appear in Innsmouth. Two gates have opened in Innsmouth, and One in Dunwich, oh, and I got the environment that WASHES OUT THE RAILS for three turns... GAH! And the rumor that rolls dice to add Deep One Rising tokens. Hrm... Ugh... Anyways... I'm currently stressed since I have Tommy locked down under the Dracula Vampire. Tommy wasted all his clues evading instead of sealing the gate (I got booted out a turn early by an OW encounter so I didn't have a safe turn)— I figure if I'm lucky he'll get eaten soon, and five clues will pass to someone else, and if not, I still closed the gate on Historical Society ::sigh::

Got it with a blessed Jenny at two fight with a flamethrower burst... And all her three clue tokens. Those were three *very* suspenseful rolls. Heh ;'D Now I just need to figure out what card I want...

---

::Blink blink:: and suddenly I realized how horribly I played (I thought of a tactic that would have made the game a *hell* of a lot easier, but I'm not going to spoil it for people who haven't played vs. Dracula yet— and figured it out).

---

Yes! Finally, Muldoon died, and all it took was delirium, a back injury, a sprained ankle, hearing loss, an injured arm, and double consumptions ;'D Terror level at four. ::Blinkblinkblinkblink:: and the replacement draw is Vincent Lee. VAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK! ::laughter:: great, now I have three three movement investigators with now magical weapons against a flying monster that moves into unstable locations ::laughter:: ::sigh:: Hrm... Three sealed gates, loads of trophies... I think now's the time to go for a sealing win... The only problem is I need to keep Dracula from eating people in the Science building :' But... I have a plan :'D and I will say no more (unless I lose horribly, in which case I will probably come back and type some more ill-disguised profanity).

---

Gateburst. Game. ::Sigh:: Well... At least I know how to deal with it better now for next time (I'll give you a hint, it's not by making one of your characters a perpetual human sacrifice)...

Ok, I can sense where this is going, so I've read The Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep now.

I'll continue to work on TBM. Meanwhile, here is part of him that I moved to another herald:

I'm starting to feel like a member of the Carlyle expedition myself, not quite knowing what I'm getting myself into. Other than of course the dubious honor of now walking the same path as Kroen once did.