There haven't been any posts in almost a year, so I may be late to a party that is winding down, but here is my first Herald. Based on the story "Nyarlathotep", the headings and rules text are lifted or modified from the work. The flavor text is from a letter Lovecraft wrote to a friend describing the dream that inspired "Nyarlathotep". This has yet to be playtested. Any comments and critiques are appreciated.

Hi and welcome!

You're right, the community of people crafting housemade Heralds got a little LiTaS lately, so new forces joining the party are always welcome!

Some observations on your creation:

- Generally it looks more like a Guardian than a Herald. For example, let's take the last ability: a blessed investigator with high Will would have quite some high chances to pull a free Elder Sign from the deck. We can reach the parossistical situation of having all 6 Elder Signs in investigators' possessions by the end of Turn 2, with clues eventually being spent on the Will check to gain the item instead of saving such a precious resource to seal.

- A -1 San on a failed Horror Check triggered upon movement could imply on average a -4 San lost throughout the game: it's a negligible effect. Want to make him scary? Go with a free Madness when you fail the Horror.

- The Terror Level isn't usually such a problem in the game: again, let's consider a 14-turn average, it's a +3? to Terror.

So, again, no biggie.

In the end, the concept is interesting and a good representation of the Messenger appearing in HPL's short story, but in game terms his effects are not detrimental for the investigators if not benefical.

Sorry, hope this doesn't sound too discouraging!

Hello Julia, thanks for the welcome!

And no, I did not find the criticism discouraging in the least, but very helpful. Thank you. You made some great points -- admittedly, I was going with a philosophy of theme over challenge or game effects.

I made some revisions based on your suggestions. I didn't incorporate the Madness card idea, however. My philosophy making this was to keep it as barebones as possible; anyone wanting to use this Herald would only need the base Arkham Horror game (though I do have Dunwich -- how could I resist not having a board game based on my favorite HPL story?).

Hey folks,

Alrighty so here's the first of a few heralds I came up with (or stole really). Not making a dime off of it, I swear Anyways hope its not too game breaking so I can try using it.

He seems fine. Permanent Icy Conditions alone is enough for this Herald to be super annoying, the rest of his effects are minor in comparison.