Custom Heralds

By dkw, in Fan Creations

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Avi_dreader said:

@Sdrolion

Who knows, you might need those two extra movement, (and it'll let you jump over a monster baracade sometimes). The idea wasn't really an incentive to fight them (the ambush will *force* you to fight them if you fail your evade check against them), it's just a little potential bonus for winning. You're much better off avoiding them most of the time if possible.

I don't want to tie clue tokens to them. Too potentially exploitable (especially if you herd two or three of them together). Besides, I don't really want investigators fighting them generally, they're just a way of causing the overrunning of the town to feel increasingly intense over time.

So yeah, I'm not trying to generally incentivize combat against them.

Then in that case, yeah, you're fine. Just your use of "incentivise" made it sound more like you wanted an effect that would make us occasionally want to fight them.

By "jump over a monster barricade," do you mean that during the extra movement you can ignore other monsters and not have to Evade? Or do you just mean that since you might be able to use the zombie bonus to move, you could keep your evade higher and still move through?

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Veet said:

Avi_dreader said:

It's still a little risky ;') considering that if you get knocked out by one you'll be devoured, the terror level will rise by one, and there'll be another large zombie on the board. But, hey, it'd be really fun, and hilarious.

What if you're driven insane?

That won't cause a devouring. I love insanity too much ;')

Wait, are you implying that I'm not already insane?

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Sdrolion said:

Veet said:

Avi_dreader said:

No. But I could make them stalkers and lower their toughness by one. What do you think?

Well, in regards to the bit about moving after defeating one, if they were stalkers and an investigator only got to move 1 space after defeating it there would be a 1/3 chance that it would follow them the next turn. If they are not stalkers this chance is greatly diminished. If you allow the investigator to move 2 spaces this chance is all but eliminated.

I'd keep them at their current toughness but not do the stalkers thing. Zombies do sometimes chase people, but they aren't exactly known for their amazing intelligence. If you evaded one or knocked one a little loopy and bolted (the combat victory), it shouldn't know where you are. And they're also often portrayed as not really being aware of things until they're really close, so having a zombie in one location know where an investigator is and move specifically for him doesn't really work for me. Maybe if there wasn't anyone else in Arkham and you could argue that the investigators are the only living flesh around to eat, but as far as I know you're not having everything in Arkham start closed.

Maybe when the Terror Track reaches a certain level they become stalkers?

Well... These are *Arkham* zombies after all. But I like the idea of turning the zombies into stalkers at a certain point. Perhaps terror level 5. I think I'll also have the Graveyard Zombie start moving at that point.

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Sdrolion said:

By "jump over a monster barricade," do you mean that during the extra movement you can ignore other monsters and not have to Evade? Or do you just mean that since you might be able to use the zombie bonus to move, you could keep your evade higher and still move through?

I want it to allow you to directly move to any location up to two spaces away (i.e. you ignore the contents of adjacent spaces if you're moving two spaces). Think of it as a zombie patrol wagon that you can ride up to two spaces before it decomposes ;') or more likely a really really potent adrenaline boost.

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Anyway, this all sounds pretty cool. I'll wait for Julia to throw in her two cents and then I'll probably, uh, stitch this monster together on the weekend ;')

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Avi_dreader said:

Sdrolion said:

By "jump over a monster barricade," do you mean that during the extra movement you can ignore other monsters and not have to Evade? Or do you just mean that since you might be able to use the zombie bonus to move, you could keep your evade higher and still move through?

I want it to allow you to directly move to any location up to two spaces away (i.e. you ignore the contents of adjacent spaces if you're moving two spaces). Think of it as a zombie patrol wagon that you can ride up to two spaces before it decomposes ;') or more likely a really really potent adrenaline boost.

That makes it far more attractive, then. I still don't think I'd be likely to try the zombie hop unless I was pretty darn sure of success or the alternative was worse, but I can see certain (bonkers) people trying it. It is a good bonus that will make you feel a little better for having to fight one of those things, that's for certain.

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Do the zombie hop. C'mon. I dare you. I double dog dare you.

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First rule to survive Arkhamzombieland: CARDIO. You have to be fit to run away safely from Avi ::laughing::


Second rule to survive Arkhamzombieland: DOUBLE BACK. If you think you're safe from Avi, check your sideview mirror: he can be on your track.


Third rule to survive Arkhamzombieland: FASTEN SEAT BELTS. If Avi is still following you, try to evade his zombie-car driving like Senna. You'll probably kill yourself even with the seat belts fastened, but nonetheless, he won't get you.

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Avi_dreader said:

Hrm... I was thinking of a zombie herald while driving home today. It'd function a bit like clothing drive except the zombies would be exact copies and near permanent. The Actual zombie would be in the graveyard and become a special movement monster. Its stats remain the same except it does not count against the monster limit, can only be taken as a trophy in combat, and... Has ten toughness ;'D

I think I'm gonna curiosity-shopping the Flute of the Outer Gods

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Avi_dreader said:

If an investigator with a zombie marker is devoured in Arkham, put a zombie token on the board where they were. It is like a zombie except it has 5 toughness and a -1 Awareness. It can not be removed from the board (defeating it in combat only counts as evading it).

What about a toughness equals to the departed investigator's max stamina?

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Avi_dreader said:

Any other suggestions for zombie infested Arkham?

You can discard an alive investigator as if he was a Food card!

Ok, stop joking, I try to use my brain to produce something intelligent to say about this topic. Maybe. Seriously, it's something that can be fun to play

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Ok, my two cents (after reading carefully everything): make them stalkers when terror hits 3. And make the toughest guy move when terror reaches 6. When terror reaches 9, every zombie becomes fast. Use for "dead investigators" zombies the toughness they had when alive (just to vary a little the thing).


As for the rest... well... I'd say the vel between the world of the dead and the world of the living is getting thinner and thinner, so I'd try to express the strength of the invasion relating it to: a) the number of gates and / or b) the number of doomers the AO has. I'd focus monster surges on zombies having a toughness equal to the number of open gates. The more they are, the tougher will be the fight. I'd play something like "whenever a monster surge happens, all investigators in unstable locations / street areas have to fight - during the upkeep - a zombie whose toughness is equal to the number of open gates"; besides, resolve the monster surge as normal. In addition, whenever the doom track raises, the first player, in case he has a zombie marker, has to roll a die, being devoured on 1-2 (I know this is something different from what you said, I'm just throwing in a couple of ideas that jumped into my mind)

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Julia said:

Avi_dreader said:

Hrm... I was thinking of a zombie herald while driving home today. It'd function a bit like clothing drive except the zombies would be exact copies and near permanent. The Actual zombie would be in the graveyard and become a special movement monster. Its stats remain the same except it does not count against the monster limit, can only be taken as a trophy in combat, and... Has ten toughness ;'D

I think I'm gonna curiosity-shopping the Flute of the Outer Gods

Nope. I'm going to plug off that hole and Blue Watcher of the Pyramid.

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Julia said:

Avi_dreader said:

If an investigator with a zombie marker is devoured in Arkham, put a zombie token on the board where they were. It is like a zombie except it has 5 toughness and a -1 Awareness. It can not be removed from the board (defeating it in combat only counts as evading it).

What about a toughness equals to the departed investigator's max stamina?

Nice in theory, but in practice, difficult to keep track of without a pen and paper, or it would require leaving investigator tokens on the board and getting more stands. Ehhh... Besides, there would be problems if a 7 toughness investigator was killed. 5's a decent number. And it might be a bit confusing keeping track of living and dead investigators.

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Julia said:

Ok, my two cents (after reading carefully everything): make them stalkers when terror hits 3. And make the toughest guy move when terror reaches 6. When terror reaches 9, every zombie becomes fast. Use for "dead investigators" zombies the toughness they had when alive (just to vary a little the thing).

As for the rest... well... I'd say the vel between the world of the dead and the world of the living is getting thinner and thinner, so I'd try to express the strength of the invasion relating it to: a) the number of gates and / or b) the number of doomers the AO has. I'd focus monster surges on zombies having a toughness equal to the number of open gates. The more they are, the tougher will be the fight. I'd play something like "whenever a monster surge happens, all investigators in unstable locations / street areas have to fight - during the upkeep - a zombie whose toughness is equal to the number of open gates"; besides, resolve the monster surge as normal. In addition, whenever the doom track raises, the first player, in case he has a zombie marker, has to roll a die, being devoured on 1-2 (I know this is something different from what you said, I'm just throwing in a couple of ideas that jumped into my mind)

I think the medium and large zombies will add enough intensity to the later game. I think I'll take your advice about terror 3 and 6. I don't want to use text for terror level nine (since at that point the game is basically over and it will just be another line of text).

Heh... Julia, you do realize this thing is going to be quite hard as it already is, right? Moving through the zombie infested streets is going to be a pain, especially when death after their bite is fatal and fatalities raise the terror (and this thing will probably be coupled with Eihort and Glaaki). You don't need to make it much harder at this point ;') we've been pouring poison on it all day, the dish is nearly ready. Thank you though :')

I'll try to write up the final copy this weekend. If anyone has a great picture to use, send it my way. Otherwise, Deviantarts, here I come.

Apocalypse of the Dead

Zombie apocalypse

ZGZ Zombie invasion

Preview Horde

Zombie apocalypse

Zombies

I'm thinking this one's probably at the forefront of these (although I'll have to see what I can do with the others in SEs when I play around with image selection). Still... This style looks more Arkhamish, a definite point in its favor.

Zombie Apocalypse

These also seem pretty good...

Zombies 5 Cover

Zombies 4 Cover

Zombies cover 3

Zombies 1 cover

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Just a side note: what about giving investigators the chance to remove a zombie marker by being blessed? Go to the South Church, toss a couple of monster corpses to Father Michael and instead of receiving a Blessing card, you're allowed to heal from the infection.


Anyway... yep, I know the game is quite *tough* but sometimes it's nice to go knowing most likely you'll lose, but nonetheless you'll have a great time trying ;-) Just do not such a thing into the Custom League!

Posted at

Julia said:

Just a side note: what about giving investigators the chance to remove a zombie marker by being blessed? Go to the South Church, toss a couple of monster corpses to Father Michael and instead of receiving a Blessing card, you're allowed to heal from the infection.

Anyway... yep, I know the game is quite *tough* but sometimes it's nice to go knowing most likely you'll lose, but nonetheless you'll have a great time trying ;-) Just do not such a thing into the Custom League!

Well... I don't really want the infection to not be lethal :') Maybe for ten toughness... And an actual trip by an individual. I want the pain of this thing to be that to move, one must risk infection, and risking infection is risking death, and risking death is risking reanimation, which, of course, risks further death and reanimation :'D the plague must spread!

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Hey, all. Provided an incorrect link to the Herald eon file before, which would require you to sign in to Google Docs. This one should fix that and not require you to sign in.

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Finally got the chance to work on this stuff again, so I've cleaned up a little on the "Power of Barganon" herald and created (Avi: Yay!) a "hard mode" entitled "Fury of Barganon."

The differences between the two are as follows:

  1. Fury of Barganon has a slightly increased chance of spawning a Mask monster on the "Before the Storm of Chaos" power, and a slightly lessened chance of nothing happening.
  2. Fury of Barganon adjusts the "In This Wondrous Hour" power to allow it to give Barganon Immunities as well as Resistances.

Note that with Power or with Fury, the "In This Wondrous Hour" effect should count for both Barganon and Barganon Rex AOs.

Not going to post the images visually because they'll take a lot of space, but I'll provide links to them.

Power of Barganon: Eon and Image

Fury of Barganon (Hard mode): Eon and Image

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Sdrolion said:

Finally got the chance to work on this stuff again, so I've cleaned up a little on the "Power of Barganon" herald and created (Avi: Yay!) a "hard mode" entitled "Fury of Barganon."

The differences between the two are as follows:

  1. Fury of Barganon has a slightly increased chance of spawning a Mask monster on the "Before the Storm of Chaos" power, and a slightly lessened chance of nothing happening.
  2. Fury of Barganon adjusts the "In This Wondrous Hour" power to allow it to give Barganon Immunities as well as Resistances.

Note that with Power or with Fury, the "In This Wondrous Hour" effect should count for both Barganon and Barganon Rex AOs.

Not going to post the images visually because they'll take a lot of space, but I'll provide links to them.

Power of Barganon: Eon and Image

Fury of Barganon (Hard mode): Eon and Image

Cool. I'll try to schedule out some editing time this weekend or next weekend.

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Uh... Unfortunately there's *way* too much stuff thrown out re: the zombie herald... So I'm going to have to simplify it quite a bit... Very saddening...

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Jeeze... And even simplified it's really difficult to write... I'm almost done though... I'll probably post it sometime tomorrow.

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Any additional comments or glaring corrections, let me know... Sorry to not incorporate more suggestions, but it took me several hours just figuring out how to manage to squeeze all this stuff on. I would have especially loved to incorporate a movement trigger for the giant zombies, but... That's not going to happen. Still ;'D hopefully you'll have a new zombie herald to play with, when you're having a day you're feeling especially masochistic on :'D

By the way, does anyone know how to make the display image fit the forum screen?

direct link:

http://i622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/avi_dreader/Ghhuthetheth-Front-Face.png

Also, a few clarifications: The things in the streets are Zombies, The monster chit Zombies (the Original Zombies) are Zombies, and the Brood Tokens on the board are Zombies. And yes, Eihort's Brood Tokens count as Zombie infection :') ... Crap... I need to change this already ;.( it should be "replace him with it." [i.e. one brood token will not be added to Eihort's track, it will go to the streets or a location instead].

Ghhuthetheth-Front-Face.png

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Avi_dreader said:

By the way, does anyone know how to make the display image fit the forum screen?

Yep, specify a Width of 600 pixel and it's done!

As for the Herald... need some time to read it! My mind is quite clouded after reworking some custom stuff for your league