rovdjuret said:

::Laughter:: the path of insanity? ;'D

Hey, I think it's a great project you have going, I hope you follow through to the end.

There's a few things about this card that I'd change...

Make it so all monsters on gates are endless (otherwise the ability is going to require a lot of annoying checking and will hardly ever have an effect). [edit: I see now, that can't work because then the game would never end, never mind]

Two: do you want the masks to be effected by the monster limit, or not (I could see an argument being made for this either way— and of course, you could give masks abilities to over-ride the monster limit to another Avatar)? Oh... On a more careful reading of your card, clearly you do :') [btw, in the paragraph "when a new gate opens" it should say "are placed" not "is placed"]

I was going to say that you should get rid of except monsters in the sky clause (and then I saw how this card reanimates endless monsters, so, heh, nevermind, it's going to be more than tough enough).

I guess I have nothing to say about this other than the is/are bit :'D and that I'm scared.

I like it. Looks great. I like the endless monsters coming more frequently.

After some time time, they may come back so frequently that players can never win ? Ummm... I do not know. Especially for the moon ones. It has to be play tested.... did you ?

A detail, same opinion as Avi, I am not sure for the match between Gates and Monsters. Could you either make it happen more often or get rid of it.

Hey, here is an idea to experience more the Jail Cell and the Sheldon Membership cards. :-) It was also motivated by the extreme pleasure I will get from robbing the Bank :-)

First version of Nahum Sheldon

amikezor said:

You could make it so that one or two of the symbols are endless while on gates (that way you won't have to gate check).

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@ amikezor

I'll try and comment on Nahum soon. It's definitely interesting... It's also very crowded, and I'm a little worried about balance issues (it has enough drastically game changing effects that I'd need to think about it for half an hour or so before I can critique it properly). I think it's great that you've made another corruption herald (I'm always happy to see those). But... I'm exhausted and I have work ahead of me, so, give me some time.

Oh, in the meantime, one thing I definitely have strong feelings about, the art is okay, but do you think you could find something, I don't know, more sinister, more... Arkhamey? The gangster looks fairly benign.

Edit:

I did a few minutes searching... This picture's well... Faceless, but far more shadowy :')

http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs11/i/2006/190/d/7/The_Mafia_by_sk3e.jpg

this one's potentially useful as well (it won't look as photorealistic when it's shrunken down to normal herald picture size, and it's already a bit unreal looking).

http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs19/f/2007/285/2/2/It__s_a_Mafia_day_by_IllusionCrash.jpg

Avi_dreader said:

I agree... though, this gangster was not really an Angel (Al Capone ;o)

amikezor said:

Oh, he definitely looks like a thug, he just doesn't look like someone in league with entities that devour worlds and sanity :')

Al Capone is a fine choice, but yeah, the smile looks kind of dorky...

I love the idea of this, though. Great job!

thank you. I think this can be fun to play (Robbing the Arkham Bank looks like an exciting adventure :-). I will play-test it very soon.

Ok I will change the picture of the guy. What else would you all suggest ?

amikezor said:

I need a little time to think about it. I'll try to post a detailed analysis of it by next weekend.

Alright. Many thanks. No rush Avi, take your time ;o)

By the way, here in France, the spanish league has started. Sounds really nice.

new picture same text

I finally got my idea for a Nyarlathotep only herald that uses the exhibit items. It's going to be quite nasty :'D but hopefully fun as well.

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The masks have a special cup (I'd advise just putting them aside and drawing them randomly without looking). Monsters that appear in central Arkham are drawn from the Mask Cup. Monsters that appear in the other towns are drawn from the normal cup. If no mask remains to be drawn, draw a non mask monster and treat it as a copy of God of the Bloody Tongue.

The Shadowy Figure moves twice.

When you enter combat with The Dark Pharoah, you are cursed .

If a mask is defeated, pass a lore -1 check to draw an exhibit item.

If an investigator is devoured, all investigators lose two clues.

During final combat: Nyarlathotep's causes investigators to lose 2 clues instead, his combat modifier is -9, and if you draw The Masks, all investigators are devoured.

http://www.onmytoes.co.uk/images/about/beksinski09.jpg

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Any feedback, before I make the final version?

Great !! I love the idea of having a new Herald for the Curse of the Pharaoh (I do not find the official one especially good).

I find the mask cup very nice. Though, what if you do not play with other cities ? Plus, I am not sure about the copy of God of the Bloody Tongue ( I love the idea of enrichment in Masks, but removing all other monsters seems weird to me). If all masks are already in play (if all from all expansions, that will be more than the limit), I do not think one needs extra Gods of BT. If you are thinking of punishment, you can play with the terror or doom track, can't you ?

Where do defeated masks go ? (back to the herald ?)

I am not sure I understand the sentence "if you draw The Masks, all investigators are devoured.". At this point where are the masks ?

"combat modifier is -9", this is more than Nyogtha, you know it right ? Isn't too much ? Can any investigator damage such a beast ?

amikezor said:

Honestly, it's not going to be a problem for most of us diehards. But not everyone owns all the big box sets. I don't want it to be unplayable for people who only have the base game and maybe one of the big expansions.

I might lower the combat modifier to -8 (but remember, Nyarl has one of the easiest attacks and a low doom track, even bumped up to two clue tokens, I think it's still pretty easy to deal with him). Hrm... Maybe :'/

"The Masks" is a sinister plot card (I'll clarify it in the final text).

The defeated masks go back to the mask cup :') I'll clarify that they can't be captured later.

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Heh... I didn't even realize I hadn't understood Shadowy Figure until today (I'd only used him before once— I didn't realize that he teleports to clues, I thought he moved normally, and then like a stalker towards clues. Whoops.).

Avi_dreader said:

True... I haven't had a chance to see it in play yet. Therefore maybe not moving twice :-)

Avi_dreader said:

Nyarlathotep never goes out of style.

1) If the Herald is only to be used with Nyarly then maybe a Scenario instead of a Herald? You could then control settings more: You may for instance want to remove the King in Yellow Tome (and maybe the Elder Signs to make the parchments more valuable) and see to it that all the CotDP allies are in the allied deck (for flavor).

2) I agree that its kind of tedious to have Bloody Tongue proxxies around the board. I would also argue that you don't really need that rule. The mask monster cup is a monster cup after all - if you must draw a mask and there's no one left to draw Nyarly awakens. (Another reason to use the Scenario structure to specify many or all of the large expansions - with only 5 masks in the cup this herald would be ultra-lethal)

Other than that, I like this. The exhibit item reward is a really good idea!

rovdjuret said:

Heh... The bloody tongue is just a bone to new players (in case they want to try something fun, but don't have the exps). I *never* hit ten monsters in Arkham because my monster limit is usually at five ;'D ::Shrug:: and even with an eight player game, assuming at least two expansion boards are being used, the monster limit will be at ten. So :') it works out nicely, don't worry ;'D Assuming you own IH, KH, and DH, you're never going to see a Bloody Tongue proxy anyways.

Ehhh... re: Scenario Maybe. I'm not so sure about including the CotDP allies. They're pretty tough. Getting rid of the Elder Signs would be a good idea though :')

Scenario title: Nyarlethotep Unmasked

Um... How do you make a scenario as opposed to a Herald?

I'd keep in the KiY's though. I don't want to remove *all* incentive for unique item shopping ;'D

amikezor said:

Unfortunately, no, I haven't begun play-testing it yet. I'm still trying to figure out how the avatars are going to relate to each other and what each one will do, but I really needed the feed-back for the "endless herald" concept.

My current plan is to make four heralds; one for each of the masks in the basic game (except Dark Pharaoh of course). It seems a fitting number for many reasons: It would cover all aspects of Nyarlathotep featured in Lovecraft's novels and Chaosiums epic Nyarlathotep campaign. Using more than five (!) heralds at once would be too cumbersome. FFG haven't made any heralds based on Ancient Ones showing up in expansions so why should I base heralds based on Masks in expansions? Having five more masks that aren't covered as heralds enhances the feeling that there will always be one more aspect of Nyarlathotep around the corner.

Once I have these four heralds I can begin play testing.

Avi_dreader said:

IIRC, you were the one that once broke the Summer League on the knee. You should be no stranger to scenarios...

But here's my two cents. The reason I really never play scenarios myself is that I'm way to lazy to remove expansions from my set. Boards, sure. Investigators, sure. Individual items and cards from deck, sure. But I can't be bothered going through the monster cup, not alone all the decks looking for the expansion symbols (arguably, the monsters are worst, since I'd have to look them up on a list). In my opinion, a scenario should list the bare essential expansions needed (and then the other expansions can be used according to taste) and then cards/boards/monsters which are banned in this scenario (removing it at the start of the game or when it shows up, whatever your tastes are). And then all the specific rules.

What's really fun with the scenario concept is that you can specify the AO, whereas a Herald must be compatible with them all (for now, lets just see the Tulzscha-Abhoth/R-T as sloppiness on the part of FFG).

Now that I think about it, scenarios could be used to reiterate individual Lovecraft stories within AH. I'll put that on my to-do list.

rovdjuret said:

Oh, you remember what I did in the Summer League, do you? ;'D

I'm sorry, what I meant was how do you do a scenario in Strange Eons (it's been a while since I played one an I don't remember what they look like— is it basically just a herald sheet with slightly modified formatting?) I guess I should probably download one.

I'm not really sure why it needs to be a scenario to tell the truth— really the only card I'd want dumped would be Elder Signs (and that's easy enough to do with a line of text (all elder signs are returned to the box and replaced by a random unique item). Actually, I was just thinking of something that would be thematically sound. Nyarlathotep wearing another Ancient One as a mask :') I could recycle Dkw's random AO fight except make it the other way around. The AO fight would be against the amped up Nyarlathotep, however the AO can be any AO *except* Nyarlathotep :'D What do you think?

rovdjuret said:

Heh... I kindof wish you remade the Dark Pharoah herald too... I hate FFG's DP. But if you don't you don't. Four heralds will be more than enough ;')

amikezor said:

Heh,,, I wish you used my shadowy figures picture, but this is a *definite* improvement over the last one ;') even if he does look like he's wearing black lipstick (goth gangster).

Okay, so, a few game dynamics to consider... Variable toughness cultists. Terror almost never rises over five. Even a five toughness cultist would be an easy kill. Unless you want to make cultists easy rewards, don't mess with their toughness. If you want to make them into potential serious threats, have their toughness equal 2x (that'll make them a major problem when terror hits 4 for non-Gangsters).

I'm not sure why you can't get bank loans as a gangster or become a deputy? Is that thematic? :') You could actually give the gang some kind of *bonus* if they got deputized. Perhaps raise the corruption per draw by two (in criminals— this will prevent excessive exploitation of robberies) the entire game, and remove the ban against entering non-corrupted locations altogether once a Gang member is deputized (or reduce Criminal Record cost to $1— personally I'd rather get rid of the ban since it seems to me like it could really gum up the game :') I don't think people will have much fun sitting in jail so often). I guess what I'm slightly worried about is that the warrants will cripple investigators really fast (and I think crime should pay— especially in the 20s). If you felt it was essential to have delayed in prison penalties, but that the change in deputized corruption is problematic— remove the ability to pay for discarding warrant tokens altogether, or raise it to $4 or $5— dat'll teach dem bums...

Avi_dreader said:

No, it doesn't need to be a scenario at all, you just had me going in that direction... as long as the herald actually WORKS with the other AOs I think its a great idea!

Avi_dreader said:

Thank you Avi for your suggestions. I will digest them and propose a new version of Nahum. I am a bit off right now, but will be back soon.

best

OK here is something I've been kicking around in my head for a while, I think it's unfinished but functional at this point.