That's true, and I agree. No gate openings does take away from the fun of the game. I'll put this one on the back burner for a minute and think about it some more. I like the idea of the parasite-like muck maggots, and may work on them some more though.

He's baaaaaaack! I've retooled Molesh and changed him into Molech. I think that this version works better. Let me know what you think!

since strange eons doesn't work on my computor I have a challenge for you to do one for one who is perhaps one of the youngest yet most disturbing Ancient Ones around He Who Waits Behind The Wall: Zalgo here's some images

Image on tv with old fashioned one... dude...

Here is one that I've been wanting to do for a while. I wanted to do a Lich. I couldn't think of a good way to make an AO use spells though, until I came across Uv. The attack idea is from that AO, posted a ways back in this thread, and credit to the originator of the idea is due (though I don't remember the screen name, sorry!). I'm interested to see what feedback I get on this one.

Sorry, no Zalgo, but good luck on getting that one done! It looks interesting. It might help, Drrockso, if you posted what you think its power should be, or something like that, to help get a jump on it.

It has been awhile since I have been around. Here are a couple of new ideas of mine. (Characters from Soul Eater)

I am debating whether to increase his Doom Track to 13 or not.

The Snake Token to go along with her Abilities:

And a Herald related to Medusa.

Snake Token too powerful and has been fixed.

Heh... I wish I commented on this when it first came out, but I'm afraid this is the first time I've seen it. I like the picture. I like the effects. I think it's pretty tough. I think the stalking curse idea is really fiendish. Good job :') I'm going to print this one out.

Cynical said:

Heeeee... Play this with The Lich King Xzmundl (I just reposted a somewhat modified version), if you want a hellishly hard game (preselect characters or die would be my guess, and don't try this unless you're an expert level player, or a masochist). Heh... If Atlach-Nacha just isn't doing it for you any more, give this team a shot ;')

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

and here is a direct link to The Lich King Xzmundl

http://i622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/avi_dreader/LichKing2.jpg

Or if you want a more traditional Dracula photo...

http://i622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/avi_dreader/dracula2.jpg

For a while, I wanted to create an Ancient One that interacts specifically with Kingsport. It took some time and research to find an appropriate being. However, here is the culmination of my efforts.

I would greatly appreciate any feedback you may have.

DeadGuyWalking said:

Hmmm.... Well... First problem. If investigators *try* to beat him in combat, they can get 12 rounds of combat against him. That's crazy. Even in a less than ideal situation, lets say it's eight? That's crazy. So, I'd say you should add in something to his attack. Make him have a little more bite against teams who would try to fight him directly.

I think it's a very competent and generally well balanced creation, other than what I mentioned above. Perhaps you could add another Slumbering ability? There's room (and perhaps more importantly, I think it's a little bland— it's true, this guy cranks up Kingsport difficulty, but he doesn't really make the game more exciting). Hmmm... You could make it so that every time a monster is spawned in one of the Kingsport locations (that will make it extra difficult to shut the rifts, it will also give players something more intense to deal with in Kingsport). I would recommend having monsters appear at Strange High House in the Mist (that way there's a bit of extra time before they head into town). Besides, lets face it, how often does anyone try to make it to SHHitM?

One last thing... Could you get a color picture? Or if you're dead set on using this image, play with the contrast and brightness so it is more distinct. Currently it almost seems invisible compared to the rest of the card, the text boxes and the doom track (not a good thing, considering that the picture should be the most eye-catching part).

;') Make these changes and I will print out your creation with enthusiasm.

Avi_dreader said:

Strangely, I've lost every game against this guy when it went to final combat. Perhaps it's just bad luck, but I seem to get lots of physical weapons, but few spells or magic weapons at that point.

You are right that the investigators could get up to 12 rounds of combat, although if they managed that, I'd be wondering why they didn't spend time trying to close or seal gates. Still, I could also probably add in an ability check or something.

Actually, having him spawn monsters in Kingsport is a pretty good idea. Perhaps they could spawn in at the location on the rift progression token drawn. Although Strange High House in the Mist is also a good idea.

And as for that, in my two most recent games against this guy, I've had investigators get lost in the mist and end up at the SHHitM. It was especially beneficial when Gloria managed to find the Necronomicon there and later passed it on to Daisy.

As for the picture, I just went to DeviantArt and typed Daoloth into the search engine and this was what I thought was most appropriate. I think it looks decent, but still, I could look for something better.

I'll think on these matters and get back on this.

The attack should be less mechanical. One thing that usually makes the final battle a lot easier is knowing exactly how long it will last.

Try something like this: "Attack: The first player looks at the top two Mythos cards and adds Rift progress markers to any spaces on the Rift tracks which match the monster movement symbols on those cards. If this would cause one or more Rifts to open, the first player's investigator is devoured. Then, if all three Rifts are open, all investigators are devoured."

Either way, the best way to play against that is to make sure all the tracks are empty when the AO wakes up... but of course that's difficult to do. You could remove the slumber ability (and give him a different one), since it seems like it gives players less of an incentive to go to Kingsport.

"While Daoloth stirs in its slumber, whenever a Rift progress marker is added to the Rift tracks, draw a second Rift progress marker and place a monster from the cup at the location indicated on that marker, then return that marker to the pile."

I've had a look for pictures that might work for Daoloth, but tbh you've probably found the best one. And, indeed, the only one.

DeadGuyWalking said:

Heh... Luck has little to do with the sort of weapons you get. If you are an Arkham veteran, you stack the game in your favor, frequenting the shop at the early game that is most likely to let you get past the Ancient One's immunities and resistances (just in case you can't pull off a sealing victory). And if you are victory obsessed, you make sure to break out the bank loans and go on a shopping spree if the game looks like it's going south. That latter tactic is a bit harder for magical immune AOs, but for phys res or phys immune, you have until terror six for the curiosity shop, and terror nine for the magic shop.

It's *very* easy to justify only shopping at the curiosity shop though, if the Ancient One has no defense against magic, since you can also get Elder Signs and other helpful sealing tools there.

::Laughter:: drawing the SHHitM card is pretty rare, I wouldn't bank on that as a normal strategy. Besides, if the monsters only appeared there when a rift moved, there would still be plenty of turns where there would be no monsters there (and also, it can be advantageous to have monsters there, that way if you get teleported up there without enough trophies, you could stick around a bit, fight, and trade to be changed).

I'm not saying that most teams would have 8-12 turns against him, I'm just saying that if a team wanted to go for a combat victory against him instead of a sealing victory, as he is now, he'd be pretty easy.

thecorinthian said:

Hmmm.... I kindof agree with you about the disincentive; however, those rifts are going to open *really* fast in a game where you can't keep half of a rift track from filling. Doom is going to be a major problem (now that I think about it a little more, I would almost definitely stock up for final combat)... Perhaps if you gave an investigator two clue tokens for closing a rift, that would provide a bit more incentive to head out to Kingsport.

Avi_dreader said:

Well, I've only been playing for about 2 months, so I suppose I'm not yet thinking about ways to exploit the game.

At any rate, here's the next version of Daoloth

So now, as a rift opens, two monsters should appear at the SHHitM. Although, I suppose I can't see much incentive for investigators to go up there unless they draw a Chthonian or something equally nasty.

Added a Luck skill check into the final combat, which could shorten it. Thematically, looking at Daoloth drives people insane, so the investigators have to look away. Granted, the Sanity loss is not huge, but it could cut down from 12 turns to somewhere between 6 and 8.

As for the picture, I cropped it and played around with contrast and brightness a bit. I think I managed to make the Ancient One more the focus of this, as opposed to being off on the side.

Hmm. 2 clue tokens for closing a rift. Well, maybe. I'll have to test this one a bit first, and then see if I should add in the extra incentive.

DeadGuyWalking said:

Ah... Two months ;') and already making custom components? Ambitious. I didn't start creating anything until my fourth year ::laughter:: granted, I couldn't use strange eons until I got my new computer.

The picture is a definite improvement.

I still think he'll be a pushover in final battle. One sanity damage is insignificant. It's too easy to soak that. And there are quite a few game cards that would basically allow you to ignore one sanity damage. If you just want to go with something straightforward and simple, raise it to two damage. It's still not much (Although the minus five modifier would still make it difficult for unprepared investigators).

Having played the game for four years, I can tell you without playtesting, thecorinthian is right. The card currently disincentivizes closing rifts. It will either lead to one of two outcomes for experienced players. A large team will try to rush for a sealing victory. A small team will completely ignore sealings and just try to get the best equipment for the final battle (in which they will probably Cluenuke your Ancient One). There's not enough incentive for a team going for a sealing victory to do anything against this guy other than completely ignore Kingsport. A two clue reward would be just enough to make it worth it for two players to head into Kingsport for a couple turns— one clue per turn is almost resource neutral, while at the same time there is a definite benefit to being able to prevent the doom track from rapidly accelerating, but at the same time, the monsters swarming there would still make it a danger.

The way your card is set up, as the FAQ currently reads (although I've asked for a clarification), each time a rift moves out of a location it will cause a doom token to be added to the track (since it moves along both a white and black arrow). That means that since your rifts can not possibly be closed, they are going to add three doom tokens to the doom track. I.e. there is very little chance of being Daoloth except in final battle. I think the addition of a two clues incentive is essential to persuade more experienced players to give sealing a shot (I know that personally, I wouldn't even consider it without the incentive, otherwise it's just a mousetrap without cheese).

Avi_dreader said:

2 sanity might make it seem like a variant on Hastur. Perhaps instead, the players have to spend an increasing amount of sanity each turn. Or, perhaps instead of Luck, they have to make a Will check or spend an increasing amount of Sanity. Then they have to perform a balancing act between attacking and keeping from looking at Daoloth.

Oh, so moving rifts out of locations does add a token to the doom track? I thought that it had to move over the exact same color arrow as the dimensional symbol on the rift. That, or you have to draw a movement pattern where the dimensional symbol on the mythos card is in the same color as the dimesional symbol on the rift. I guess I've just been playing it wrong.

And I suppose my wording on the slumbering ability is wrong. My intent was not to make it impossible to close rifts, but that the investigators have to wait until a rift opens before they can start investigating. But perhaps that's a poor idea. Perhaps instead of that, I'll just make it so that whenever a movement pattern is drawn, both slots on its track are filled. That way, you get the rifts opening a bit faster than normal, but the investigators can still go in and remove them before the rift opens.

A mousetrap without the cheese, huh? I thought the point wasn't to make it easy for the investigators. But I think you are right. Might as well award 2 clues so that players will actually want to go to Kingsport. I'll get started on the next version right away.

DeadGuyWalking said:

Welllll... When it comes to rift movements there was *alot* of ambiguity in the new FAQ... The truth is, while you might want to work on this guy a bit more (particularly his final battle attack). You might want to wait until the next version of the FAQ rough draft is sent out, so I can answer your question with some confidence (part of the confusion is based on rulebook ambiguity of whether rifts are activated from movement on cards, or movement on color arrows). Bleh.

I'm glad you liked the mousetrap metaphor. It represents one of my personal rules when creating Ancient Ones and Heralds— that they can not remove players' sense of hope. Victory must always seem achievable. This makes the look on their faces so much sweeter when they fail ;')

I understood how your rifts mechanic worked before. Personally, I think double rifts per card would be insanely difficult.

I think the idea of exponentially increasing sanity damage would differentiate it from Hastur. Or perhaps have the sanity damage equal the number of combat round the investigators are on (while having a decreasing luck check).

I'm actually kindof excited about your final version (I was considering going to Kinkos to print custom items this week, but I think I will wait until it's done).

Avi_dreader said:

It sounds good. I guess I'll wait until the next FAQ comes out before releasing the next incarnation of Daoloth. Although, I'll playtest it a bit and see if there are any weak points.

For the record, I tried a version with double rifts. The first game against it was canceled by Bast (cat decided to flop on the board and bat at pieces and dice.) The next two games were badly lost. So that was a poor idea.

At any rate, it'll give me time to work on other ideas.

I told you double rifts wouldn't work ;') I don't know if you've seen some of the things I've made as heralds and Ancient ones, but believe me, if I say that something is too powerful ;') that's a really bad thing, to put it in plain English. :') Here's a link to my photobucket account (I made it exclusively for Arkham Horror) if you haven't. If you see two versions of anything, the second version is the correct one. Hecate was designed to work with someone else's Herald, which is why she may seem a bit off compared to some of the others ;') believe me though, she's quite a nightmare with the herald (I eventually mutated her into the Pied Piper since the other player made his own version of Hecate to go with his herald that didn't use the Rat Things).

http://s622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/avi_dreader/

Here's another repost. I promised I'd repost it waaaay back when (to a player who didn't like the allusion in the first one to MOTU). Enjoy, if you haven't seen it before.

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

@Avi: I seem to remember 'Lord of Destruction' from way back when... but I might be thinking of something else. I don't know if you're looking for any more feedback on this guy, but for what it's worth:

The last bit of the attack seems to be the same as the last bit of the Slumber ability... is it just meant to 'stack', on the assumption that the Slumber ability still applies? Or is it just that you wanted it to work in the final battle as well? Either way, there are too many small itty-bitty abilities for my tastes... it's quite a cluttered card. The formatting is the worst problem... rename the slumber ability so its name fits on one line. Lose the +1 Sneak thing; if you need to counterbalance the bad effect, find a more elegant way of doing it. Small stat bonuses and penalties on the AO's sheet are a pain (I think so anyway) because you have to keep looking right across the table to see what stuff applies to your character. And lose the clause about Father Iwanicki. If the players are clever enough to go get him, good luck to them; the most he can save is one investigator, which will never be enough in the long run. I'd also reduce the amount of random dice-rolling that's going on; if you really need to do it, at least make it all work according to the game's normal 'success/failure' criteria for dice rolls. All this guy basically does is curse people and eat away at max sanity during the game, then curse more people and eat away at max sanity faster during the final battle. Can't the same basic set of effects be done without nine seperate paragraphs of text? The theme stuff is ok, but if the card already has a high word count, I'd consider just cutting the theme in the interests of making the card easier to read.

Anyway that's not what I checked in on this thread for! Here's my own latest effort. It's yet another version of the Dweller in the Gulf, as an AO this time, and using the same pic I used for the herald ages ago.

It's pretty good, I guess maybe it's a bit like Ghathanathoa, in that it's main in-game ability is to occasionally arbitrarily devour you.

This is from this story, btw: www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/55/the-dweller-in-the-gulf

And yeah, there are meant to be two small tokens with it, each with a different picture on them... but I can't be arsed making them right now.

With regards to Daoloth, I had some tokens that I thought might be interesting to include since he deals with rifts. I've always kind of thought that rifts were a neat idea, but didn't really do much since monsters in Kingsport don't effect the monster limit, so investigators can stay away from Kingsport and just let it become a hell hole. That's what we usually do anyway. Of course, we're running a 2 man team, so that's another reason why we don't get out of town much. Anyway, I thought it would be cool if there were rift tokens for Arkham locations, so I made some. I apologize for the large file size. I didn't realize SE won't export to web a deck. So this is a .png, but I figured this page of the thread is almost full anyway. The gates are for my expansion, so you can ignore those. Have fun!

Actually, some of that feedback was very helpful. I think I should just presume that slumbering abilities are still in effect during the final battle (I think it was double posted in there originally to prevent misconceptions about it). Hmmm..... Ability renamed, "The Sleepless Scythe." I think there's also an extra line of space... Well... Crap ;'D thanks for the comments though. Hmmm... I'm really tempted to take your advice about Father Iwanicki, but I really hate him ;'D Alright... Fine.... Mumble grumble...

The sneak is essential. Investigators are going to need it against monsters with extra -2 horror ratings.

Adding his final battle cursing to the slumbering abilities will make the mid-game too difficult. And it's less thematic ;')

I'll repost it in just a minute and then comment on your post (I do appreciate the critique btw, I think this version is better— and quite a bit easier to read).

I'm of a slightly different mind about ability clutter though. If I wanted a basic experience, I'd play one of the simpler AOs, but the reason I like making custom components is I like having something different on occasion. Besides, I don't think it's *that* hard to learn. Sure, you might have to study it for a minute or two before the game, but, so what?

thecorinthian said: