Still working on a Rlim overhaul but I cooked up this first draft of something else based on conversations with Avi in the herald thread.

The power is based off Avi's moving gate idea, I thought making them fast stalkers give them a certain threat level being able to hop out a good distance and suck up an investigator. The battle setup is one I've cooked up that I've been wanting to try out, interested in critique on it. The worshipers I designed to be short and annoying.

Heh... Before I say anything, there is a critical problem with your creation :') sorry. Investigators are sucked into gates during Arkham Encounters— hence this card will not operate as I think you intend it to (investigators can move away). You could fix this by making them the equivalent of monsters (movement ends if you are on their space) with no evade checks. Or you could just say that that's how they operate, and not waste card space ;'D

I still think the AO is going to be too hard. The doom track should probably be at 15 or 16. As it is currently designed, players have fourteen turns and then it wakes up.

Then again, maybe that's fair for a difficult AO.

Hrm... Or you could give Cultists a *new* ability. When you kill one you can move all gates to any unstable locations you want. This would potentially act as a balancing factor for time.

Btw, what happens if two gates are on the same location? You do realize that going over the gate limit is going to be a major problem now too? I'm a little worried about the board getting swarmed with gates (making movement impossible). HMMM! Make it so that as investigators exit gates they can move the gate to any location. That will allow them to potentially clear roads for each other even if they don't have clues for sealing (if they get really desperate) and it'll take care of the teleporting seals problem (in a way it will also give the investigators a bit of a teleportation boost—- potentially necessary if a town gets too cluttered with gates).

Also, Luck or Lore Check, not Roll.

I'm not sure if making the gates fast stalkers will be necessary. Playtest it. I think it's going to be *really* nasty as it currently is.

Hmmm.... Another possible cultist ability is giving the investigator who killed one movement to any gate with an explored token. You could use both of these abilities and keep the doom track at 14, and the fast stalking gates. This would probably be enough to balance the time eaten by the gate infestation. Well... Balance a little ;'D

I was kind of ho-huming over that exact issue, however I think there is enough of a precedence to say that investigators are drawn through on the Mythos phase as well since opening gates are the only other time that happens and I'm trying to prevent this from becoming too wordy. The only other way I can think of to rectify that would be to change the moving gates to the Worshipers (letting the cultists continue to wander the streets handing knives to anyone willing to stab them) and dictate the behavior of the gates in the power section.

I can boost the doom track to 15 without having to do a special markup in Strange Eons.

Veet said:

I've been editing my last post, make sure you reread it carefully, the main points are two possible adjustments of the cultists, and altering how exploration works. I think that'd be enough to keep the streets somewhat clear.

Hrm... You can just say "Investigators without explored markers can not move from gates."

When everything's finished I'll try and help you go through the card so its text can be said in the least possible space.

Heh... The whole explored teleportation thing would be a bit cool because it would be a way for investigators to easily get to Y'ha Nethlei or Strange High House in the Mist.

Just... Whatever you do... Don't make the gates aquatic ;'D

What if instead of moving like monsters they are treated like monsters so when a gate closes any gates with the same symbol are drawn through?

Aquatic gates! Now I have to explain to people why I'm laughing so hard.

I will playtest with this text tonigh

"Gates move like <b><i>fast, stalkers</i></b> according to their dimensional symbols, and never enter vortexes.
Whenever an investigator exits a gate they may relocate it, and themselves, to any unstable location in Arkham. Investigators without explored tokens may not move away from a gate."

Veet said:

I thought about having gate removal, but I don't think it significantly alters the game difficulty problem and it will take up a decent sized chunk of text.

The playtest sounds good. If you die as horribly as I expect you will (I think this thing is going to wake up fast like a ten doom token monster), take my advice and add the benefits with cultists :')

So testing was interesting, I did not die horribly as you thought but it was a hard fought game and I had to use some unorthodox tactics.

Investigators were random draw, got Darrel Simmons, Jenny Barnes, Kate Winthrop and Sister Mary.

The game ended with the Goo being sealed away. The final doom track was 13, one double doom mythos had been drawn and two elder signs used. I lost count of the turns where seals blocked gates or monster surges occurred (I think it was around 6). Kate blocked 2 openings.

A few things we didn't consider in previous conversations, the early game had an unusual saturation of clue tokens since gates weren't preventing them from appearing, this made getting the resources needed to seal gates easier. Mid game the mythos card "No one can help you" came out and stayed for a long time preventing the sealing of gates. At this point only 1 location had been sealed and I resorted to having three of the characters holding gates open (choosing not to close them after explored) in high traffic areas to reduce the frequency of new gates appearing while the fourth (Jenny Barnes with dual .45s and a motorcycle ) cleaned up the resulting monster surges.

The gate stalking was actually a fun part in my opinion (though they did appear to favor sneaking up on Jenny), They once sucked Sister Mary away from the task of closing another gate creating the only instance the whole game where more than one gate was at the same location (3 of em hanging out in the graveyard).

The cultist power never actually showed up, I intend to include that power but the only time a cultists got defeated the whole game was at a time when all the gates were already on unstable locations.

So all in all first test he didn't seem too hard, extra clue tokens and the ability to move the gates on exit seem to mitigate the predicted lack of monster surges. Kate was definately an asset here but "No one can help you" was also a stroke of horrible luck and I believe that Kate or not I would have won sooner had that not stuck around so long. He would definately be impossible to win against with a singe investigator though.

Interesting. I completely forgot about the extra clues.

Heh... You still sounded somewhat lucky (two elder signs) and Kate Blocking two doom tokens :')

Oh, crap, I just remembered what's missing from the card. The moving gates should move monsters ontop of them, unless the monsters also move. Otherwise you have a bunch of easy access unguarded gates. Another way of potentially doing the monster movement is making monsters move from their gates if they move and the gate does not (of course, they could also pick up monsters while they're traveling around the boards— and they would set up monster walls in front of vortexes)... Well... Not entirely, since they could still move when the gate didn't. Hrm... :') Heh... I knew I was overlooking something when I told you about my old moving gate idea ;'D

I agree there was some good luck there but I do think that was mitigated by the appearance of "No One Can Help You" and the fact that it stuck around **** near half the game. There is not enough data to make a call on this I need to do a run through with no investigators who are able to manipulate gate closings.

Veet said:

Well, just weed out any highly abnormal investigators.

Any fans of Bubba-Hotep with Bruce Campbell? I just started working with SE and wanted to start with something silly, and I can't think of a sillier villain than this, so here he is.

Worshippers: Bubba-Hotep is preceded by scarab beetles. At the start of the game place the five scarab tokens on this sheet. When a gate opens place a scarab at the gate in addition to the normal monsters. If you ever cannot place a scarab, add a doom token or play a Blight card instead.

Prey on the Weak: At the end of the mythos phase the first player must roll one die per stamina he possesses. If he rolls no successes he is Devoured. If he rolls three or more successes he gains one clue token.

That's the chant against evil from the Book of Souls ?: Tomes require one additional success to read.

Start of Battle: Investigators lose stamina equal to the number of scarabs in play.

Attack : Each investigator must roll a die for each stamina he possesses. For each failure he must lose one stamina. Investigators who rolls no successes are devoured.

Ambush

If you succeed a combat check against a Scarab return it to the ancient one sheet

In my fight against Bubba-Hotep, two investigators were devoured by his Prey on the Weak ability. One of them was in the second area of R'lyeh one turn away from coming out and sealing the sixth gate. So close!

For everyone who don't like this Czech political creature

oops, i don't know how to place here an image..

Chattusil said:

::sigh:: I'd offer to help you through it, but it sounds like you're posting a joke AO instead of a serious AO ;')

(That and I'm short on time). Post a real AO next time :'D

It is rather joke AO, but what's wrong about it? I have wanted to share it, but the truth is that it will appreciate likely only Czech... So if you would like to help me I'll be glad, if not then nothing matters

(sorry for me english)

bye

Chattusil said:

Nothing matters if you don't make this AO? ;'D that sounds like a suicide note. Don't worry, I'll help you. Create a photobucket account and upload the picture. Then take the direct image link and copy paste it into the forum in the little yellow button (that looks like a mountain postcard) that says insert/edit image if you hold your mouse on it.

OK here is another stab at Rlim Shaikorth. He has retained his strong showing in the final battle but I replaced his weak worshiper power with an ally killer and his regular power with a rejiggered version of Ithiqua's that intensifies slightly halfway through the game. I have not yet play tested this version so let me know what you think.

Update: I have altered Rlims text to read "Unstable locations" instead of "Aquatic Locations and Streets" There aren't enough aquatic locations to make hm effective unless you have Innsmouth.

Veet said:

Okay. *Now* you have an effective AO that I'd be willing to print out (I felt like even with Innsmouth his ability wasn't much of a big deal, unless Basatan was herald).

Here's a question in terms of game dynamics, is a location with a gate on it an unstable location while the gate is on it or has the gate replaced the location including the idea that it is an unstable location. Tere's no official ruling on this, so I'd like to know how you intend this to be played— will closing gates always cost a minimum of one sanity? Because that'd be very brutal and I'd like it :')

I always assumed that a locations stability wasn't affected by gates, after all the very definition of unstable means gates can open there.

Veet said:

Right, but then you have the notion that gates replace locations (closed locations are temporarily ignored, encounters aren't had, and the martial law check isn't made). I don't think there's an official understanding of this, but now I know how you want the card played, which is good ;') since that's how I wanted to play it (and probably would have with or without a clarification).

OK yet another thing I've been thinking about. I recently made fun of Azathoth for being the "default" setting of arkham horror. He has almost no effect on the game other than to remove the final battle and I use him to test heralds since I know there will be little interaction. I still want to add an actual power but I figured that replacing his "madmen" followers (which in my opinion was more beneficial than anything) with the idea of the outer gods attending him might be fun. Oh and I love this picture, considering the most likely vantage of anyone seeing Azathoth would be from the inside.

So what do people think?

Veet said:

::Laughter:: I like it. But I'm not printing it out. I'm just going to make it a house rule.

Avi_dreader said:

Part of the beauty of it is it really doesn't add anything. But you gotta love the perspective on that picture.

I'm thinking of doing this for the power

"Song of the Outer Gods

Whenever an investigator closes a gate draw a madness card"

I don't really like making it expansion specific (especialy one i don't have yet) but it seems a fitting power.

Veet said:

Oo... That's a good one too. But I'd also have it raise the limit for injuries/madnesses for retirement, or remove retirement altogether. Madnesses and injuries are just too tempting exploits...