hey, I liked the "increase terror when the row is filled". Where did it go ? I think I liked the previous one better (sorry :-) because it was less dependent on events that depends on the expansion. Carcossa only works if you play DH and Strange Sightings if you play BGW.

For the acts, if you play pure King in Yellow, you have already so many "a new act begins" going on that we did not consider adding them when the row were filled.

Detail, but the citation at the beginning is not totally correct. There are two question marks for the ending "No mask ? No mask ?" (I checked it recently on the book, great stories by the way).

amikezor said:

Mea Culpa! I went back and checked the quote and there is not one but two errors in Cassildas line. As for the question marks, in the book I have, there is a single question mark in the first "no mask" immediately repeated by the same sentence by a single exclamation mark. I am using Chaosiums "The Yellow Sign and Other Stories" anthology, maybe it's been corrupted somehow? Until I find another source, however, I'll stick to single question mark -> single exclamation mark. I'll replace the faulty quote picture with a new one.

Well, I like this version of the phantom better. The main purpose of the rows mechanism was a deterministic push of the acts. Deterministic in the sense that the players could plan ahead and make the right decision when the time came. But the beauty of using the "Strange Sightings!" cards is that they are spread evenly between the expansions: there are 2 in Kingsport, 3 in Black Goat an 1 in Innsmouth. I'll bet you money that there is at least one in Lurker. Both "The Next Act Begins!" and "Strange Sightings!"award the First Player 1 Clue token and make all creatures move so they're not that different. They differ in that there is a monster surge instead of 2 doom tokens but monster surges are a potential help for the terror track anyway. In effect having "Strange Sightings!" working double duty secures that there are "The Next Act Begins!" in every new expansion.

The old expansions of course don't have these cards. For KiY, that's not a problem, but the Lost Carcosa thingie is a way to compensate for Dunwich-dilution of KiY. Also, Dunwich brings Madness cards which makes sacrificing sanity coming full circle. As for CofDP, I've yet to come up with something but maybe CofDP is the one that got away.

So in this perspective, having the doom track just as a deterministic pusher of the terror track don't make much sense to me. But I'm willing to change the "unique item terror bomb" mechanic to something more predictable. "The Phantom of Truth is Laid" is the weak mechanic of the herald and the one I'm least content with anyway. It's purpose is to have an effect on the terror track even if someone plays the phantom without ANY expansion. Any "X -> terror track rises by Y" will do for me. Ideas?

They ARE great stories. I actually like Chambers more than Lovecraft (in a "like ice cream more than cake" way). Fixing the KiY dilution problem has always been my top priority while home brewing for AH.

I understand your points. Though, if you play the herald with a "pure" KiY it does not offer any more interest, does it ?

So strange for the quote, my version is this one: http://www.amazon.com/Yellow-Stories-Mystery-Detective-Fiction/dp/0486437507/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269012600&sr=8-1 and it has two question marks ??? Humm.... From a google search both exist, though your version seems more common. Strange :-) I guess that is ok, people won't bother so much about details like this ;o))

I liked Chambers stories very much indeed. In the version I read they added a couple of other stories which were all nice. Happy that I read that.

This new version of the phantom is fine, but I tend to prefer the previous one. Can't you keep the fillied rows things ? :-) It happens so that in our game ("pure" KiY as I mentioned), a lot a emotion came from this filling row events and we enjoyed it. Terror at 10 ! This does not happen so often, does it ? ;o)

Did you notice that I read the Haunter in the Dark and checked your herald for thematic adequation. I think it fits very well with the story (I can't tell for sure about game interest since I haven't test it yet, but it looked nice :-)

Just played the Sheldon last version with 3 investigators. It was fun and did not go crazy (I still have not seen the red corruptions in play yet :-)

rovdjuret said:

Woah woah woah, tell me why The Black Man didn't work, and I'll tell you how you could've gotten around the problem (probably).

rovdjuret said:

Gulp. I like this revision better too. The randomness it adds makes it far creepier to deal with (plus I like how you handled its thematic game effects). Very nice :')

I liked the new herald too... please do not think I was reacting too negatively. Though, I liked the filled row thing a lot. I guess I can used both depending on what extension I will be using.

amikezor said:

Well, this is the forum for fan creations, so we can't be all positive and at the same time give constructive criticism, can we? You’re right of course. The Phantom would have to add difficulty to the AH+KiY combination as well. It seems the Phantom has two design ways from here.

The most thematic would be something like:”When a row in the ancient ones doom track is filled, raise the terror level by 1. Each time the pallid mask is drawn, raise the terror level by 3.” The rows of the doom track a play of words - rows in the theatre of a play. The phantom of truth laid also a play of words – the pallid mask will be laid before the players and the mask IS the phantom (sort of). The two mechanics complement each other; one is strictly non-random while the other is nothing but. A lot of text but if the quote is removed the whole piece will fit without the herald being to crowded. Each expansion with unique item cards dilutes the bomb effect – that’s all but CotDP and Innsmouth; the two with the least amount of Strange Sightings cards (except KiY and Dunwich).

But then again, I get this feeling that its too much detail, too much happening on the herald. There is a lot of theme but the “Phantom of Truth is Laid”-mechanic is bulky. The Strange Sightings/Gate to Lost Carcosa-mechanic is bulky by necessity – it dances to the tune of game configuration non-dependency. Does this mechanic really NEED to be bulky as well? Is there any condition that would come up with some kind of regularity at 2-3 times per game that would be even remotely thematic? That may very well be a cleaner design solution.

rovdjuret said:

If you're going to give terror rises from doom track rows, get rid of the start of game condition, and put the flavor text there instead. That's how I'd deal with it anyways. I think otherwise you're going a bit overboard on terror, maybe. I could probably also edit Herald to the Tattered King and cut off at least a line.

I looked forward to the updated version.

Note that you can decrease size of the quote using <size X></size>. It sometimes can be convenient.

In the previous version, the rows were increasing the terror by 2, right ? why is it 1 now per event ? (just wandering)

I was not aware of the play on words. Very nice :-).

Let see what is coming twice of thrice a game with randomness. Gates with some symbols (usually around 3 per symbol), going to asylum or hospital (well, it may be more ;o), specific patterns of mythos cards (e.g. white moon, black cross), ... hum... I will need more time to think about it. If I am enlighted, I'll post right away. :-)

About things that happen 2-3 times in a typical game: an increase in the terror level ;o)

amikezor said:

Mmm... I'd argue a normal game's terror level is something like 2-5 on average (keep in mind, you have more vortexes now). 2-4 minimum :') Then again, this sort of thing really varies based on playstyle.

Sheldon update after play test.

1- Cultist ability to give tokens was useless.

2- There was an issue regarding the number of tokens you get when you close a gate (one in the way in and 1 in the way out).

3- 2 gangster tokens were too much for the bank and 10$ too much for 1 token.

4- I missed the shop robbery. This very last ability is the only one I haven't correctly play tested, otherwise I think I am done with rules.

Avi, if you have rewording suggestion, I would be more than happy to tweek the text a bit.

Alright. It looks good. I'll post something on wording later.

Avi_dreader said:

Would you guys want me to set up a small series of campaigns with some of my custom stuff and some of the other players custom stuff (Rovdjuret, finish up your Nyarlathotep heralds, I want to give him a subsection of maybe five battles)?

sure.

finally fixed the toughness of cultist to 4 for the sheldon gang:

amikezor said:

Are these cultists intended to count against the monster limit? Because they currently do.

I just posted a preview of The Fan Creations League on the main part of the forum :') I hope you guys will participate.

Avi_dreader said:

Indeed they are. They really are just regular monsters. For the first 3 ones, you'll have to wack them before you reach the limiit. That how gang war suddendly started in this peaceful town :-)

amikezor said:

Alright, I was just asking, because of, you know :')

I've surfed through these pages quite often recently (curious not only to see some custom creations, but also curious to see corrections about rules and wording, I think they've given me a better understanding of game mechanics) but... it's a very difficult thread to skim if you search for some material. too long, and the risk of skipping some good infos is very high.

So my question: would you mind opening a thread to post only final versions of heralds?
(or many different threads, one for each author, or thematic threads or whatelse)

Like a huge archive of good stuff to use! Could be a great help for someone searching for new materials

Julia said:

It would be nice. Unfortunately there's no real way of only posting final versions. I'll be posting some other people's stuff that I like in a subfolder in my photobucket page though, so that'll save people some browsing time (it'll be piecemeal as the Fan Creation League goes on, I don't want it to be difficult for people to find anything in the folder there).

Ideally we could have a fan creations section on the Arkham Horror Wiki (like the French one has) someday.

Otherwise... shouldn't be enough having a "custom herald" photobucket where final versions are posted?

Anyway... I'm afraid I do not really get the point you touched. Why should be impossible to have a thread with final versions? As they're posted on this thread, shouldn't they be posted also on a different thread?

But yeah, having a dedicated section on Arkhamwiki would be great!

Julia said:

Heh... It's because "Final" versions often don't stay *final* ;') I'd say maybe 30-40 percent get retouched later.