Apparently Work is a Stalker with a nasty Evade modifier. Lost a bunch of sanity and stamina...

So, finally got to work on a Hecate GOO. That's pretty nasty, Avi but other than the gate fun in the WH, which I paraphrased, it doesn't have much to do with the story's theme. (Then again, neither do my cultists, but I wanted an extra terror trigger.) There wasn't really a rat cult going on -- though something like that could work for a Rats In The Walls/twilit grotto scenario... hmm....

Anyway, this sucker may just be too busy, trying to get everything from DitWH into it. She currently feels more like a second herald than an AO. No token accelerator other than a hemorraging Witch House, but some situational delays built in. As for her attack, I was trying to come up with a mechanism that potentially gets progressively easier until it suddenly doesn't. Especially with her defenses requiring some Fight and/or meaty weapons. But I wouldn't be surprised if there's some loopholes making it infeasible. Anyhoo, can never tell if photobucket's resizing me, here's hoping the fine print's legible...

Also made a slightly revised Brown Jenkin, which I'll put in that thread.

Indio said:

::Laughter:: I haven't read the card yet, but I just want to say that that is an *awesome* picture.

Avi_dreader said:

Heh heh, I agree. Thanks, Deviant Art! Too bad I couldn't fit the whole thing... fc08.deviantart.com/fs11/i/2006/254/2/5/Cthulhu_was_a_girl_by_DonnaRicci.jpg

Indio said:

Hey, those Rat-things have to come from *somewhere* ;')

I liked the movement compulsion and the mind crippling yuggoth encounters, on the other hand, the luck difficulty and the terror increasing stalker cultists, not so much (the latter's a bit Y'Golonacy, and the former is liable to have very unbalancing effects on game dynamics).

I guess I'll make a different AO that is unrelated to your Herald that is somehow connected to the transformation of human to rat. I think that killer-rat thing cultists would make a fun in game challenge :') and I like the idea of an ancient one whose attack is essentially dedicated to converting you into a form more to her liking ;')

::Laughter:: never mind, I've got it. A herald. The Pied Piper. That purple monster with the rats that I showed you earlier.

You're right, I forgot all about Y'Golonac having the same gimmick. Hrm. And I was flipping a coin on the Luck difficulty; maybe just a (-1) penalty instead. Especially if Brown Jenkin is putting The Black Man in action all over. Devourings left and right! But you're right. forcing a pinned Luck/Lore slider may not be entirely fair. How about the Attack?

Back to the drawing board...

Indio said:

A permanent -1 to luck checks sounds good. It's not nearly as brutal. ::Laughter:: when I made that remark about the luck checks, I wasn't even thinking about The Black Man.

You shouldn't make the remove doom token ability have such a high cost (after all, when it reopens it will put two more doom tokens on her sheet— it's not exactly drawing even). I don't think it should cost anything to have it remove a doom token— the reason why I added that ability on mine was because an unsealable Witch House which causes double doom every time a gate opens there would lead to a quick and brutal massacre (since it is a high frequency gate location). I'd remove that cost. Otherwise the two abilities coupled together make Hecate nearly impossible to defeat except in final combat (which I still haven't quite figured out how that works against her— granted, I've been thinking about something else).

Fury's a good ability. Her having a -5 modifier and phys res is going to be *really* tough. I'd suggest putting her at a -4 modifier (since she's also immune to magic). Considering who she is, you might want to make her attack based on a lore check, not a will check (after all, lore is associated with magic, and she'll probably be impossible to defeat with such a high modifier and strong resistances if players have to crank their fight down to put their will on maximum). As for what to do :') I leave you to think about it some more. Feel free to copy my inflict 2 madness and 1 injury attack. For one thing, I've never seen it used before, and also it leads to some interesting situations with investigators being crippled during the final battle, as well as sudden unexpected devourings (from drawing double cards). Also, flavor text is more of a thing for Heralds than Ancient Ones ;') you might want to cut out a few words since your text is pretty crowded as it is.

Here is a revision. I shortened his doom track by one, and changed his powers. I want the investigators to almost have to draw madness cards, so I was thinking that maybe I could close Arkham Asylum at the start of the game with Molesh. I know that's pretty rough, but with other expansions, it wouldn't be impossible. What do you guys think of that? Closing Arkham Asylum, that is? If so, should I change his worshipper power back to giving dolls nightmarish 1? I want this guy to be one of those that when you draw him randomly, you're like, "Oh, crap..." you know? Looking forward to suggestions!

uh yea I would not close the Coco Bin... that's like a basic part of the games core rules (yada yada AO suppose to break core rules yada yada)... you could always word it win a investigator goes insane they MUST draw a madness that way you get those investigators Mad without going closing.

Hecate does have a pretty sweet picture *yoink* takes as desk top screen saver... everything looks good you may want to stream line here wording a little and her final combat seems a little confusing... Avi already pointed out she going to be very though to defeat as is!

Oookay... Yesterday I posted a Herald that I thought would make for a repulsive and somewhat difficult game, but I couldn't really think of an Ancient One that I'd really like to pair it with (it was based off my scrapped Hekate). It's not so much a herald as an independent force that happens to be popping up at the same time as the impending apocalypse ;') lucky you.

Anyways, I decided to make an Ancient One that could play well by itself or (if you're a total masochist, with the herald I made yesterday— it's on page 16 of the Heralds thread). The Pied Piper. Its implications are quite gruesome ;') I'm proud of them. Anyhoo, it's late now, and time for the lights to go out. Sweet nightmares my fellow Arkhamites ;')

http://i622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/avi_dreader/TheDarkness.jpg

Yes, the AO is slightly modeled on Azathoth (except his in game effects should be a serious threat, and I hope they will also feel thematic).

As for the picture, believe it or not, that's actually a deviantart picture of Dracula. Dracula? Yeah. I know ;')

Agh... Double post...

i like the darkness goo but the monsters movement rules are kind of blah, oh bought something more interesting and simplified like give all monsters double movement so i dont have to keep consulting the goo everytime a monster moves.

pittplayer said:

Just think of it this way. It's really all monsters stalk except green (I phrased it the way I did because I didn't want to lead to confusions re:fliers and fast monsters, I also wanted yellow monsters to only move occasionally). ::Shrug:: it's not hard to memorize. Besides, I don't want fast monsters with this ancient one. I want blind and stumbling investigators being stalked in unnatural darkness. If you want to deal with fast monsters try that other herald I posted for Nyarlathotep.

::Shrug:: if you want a simple experience that's easy to play, just stick with the official GOOs ;') but if you don't mind spending a minute commiting something a bit more complex to memory, well, I think you'd enjoy this one.

I really like The Darkness, just one question: Is that "raise the terror level 1 AND draw a madness" or "...OR draw a madness"? Wasn't sure if you're giving a pick-your-poison option or just being brutal. And glad to see you put the rat picture to use on The Pied Piper, very cool herald, but minus points for cropping out the purple pimp hat.

As for Hecate, well, I just had to download Strange Eons the week work decides to go FUBAR. But, I have an idea for an overhaul that simplifies a lot of the muck. Hopefully I can get to that tonight or this weekend. Picture stays, not a whole lot else...

You can be The Darkenss in the final battle... Joe, Fight, Fight, Shot Gun, The Messanger and Clues out your but!

plus not being able to retire seems lame... guess you keep driving that investigator insane and KO until you get doubles or find some other way to get yourself devoured! lol

Indio said:

Oh crap. Text got snipped when I was copy pasting in the card, it's supposed to be on a 1 raise the terror by 1, on a 2 draw a madness. Blah. I'll post a fixed version later. I love the idea of people being stalked and slowly going insane with terror in the darkness ;') There should be on average about three or four madnesses among the investigators by the end of the game. I definitely wouldn't advise playing this with a team of less than four (three would be a large challenge, as the odds of one of the players drawing an amnesia are fairly high— I was tempted to say investigators with amnesia can retire, but :') no).

As for The Pied Piper ;.( believe me, I was very sad to have to clip as much of that image as I did, but that was the best manipulation of it I could present without leaving blank space ::sigh::

MrsGamura said:

That's right, the only way out of Arkham now is a digestive tract :')

Okay, here are the reposts of Dretrimord and The Darkness that I said I'd make (appropriately, Dtretrimord's third version appears to be his final one).

URL for The Darkness http://i622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/avi_dreader/TheDarkness2.jpg

URL for Dretrimord http://i622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/avi_dreader/Dretrimord3.jpg

MrsGamura said:

No you can't :') that's a start of battle ability, not an attack. The investigators don't get a fight check.

OK, here's the stripped-down Hecate:

Nothing all that shocking, but then there's her heralds... herald S ...

Avi_dreader said:

I don't see why... whenever your devoured you can discard the Messanger! maybe word it that the investigators loss... sort of like Azath is worded but really I wish Azathoth effected the game like your AO does... well maybe not as much! lol

MrsGamura said:

::Laughter:: fine, if investigators have the Messenger, Joe, and a shotgun, and a *really* small team, they might have a chance. Fine. I'll reword it later. ::Sigh::

Indio said:

I'll go take advanced mathematics and then I'll critique it.

Indio said:

Which reminds me. You should include a line of text on her that says she can use both heralds. Perhaps under the Worshippers section.