Veet said:

I like this idea. That way, the stats for the Flying Polyp can be viewed at any time and it removes the limitation of there being only one Flying Polyp.

jeremyj621 said:

Yes, that will work too :') Technically you can do both (but make the cultists copies not spawn).

My (hopefully) final version of Polypous Magnus:

In addition, his Ancient One Plot Cards:

jeremyj621 said:

With this plot card...do you take 2 stamina if you get one success and 4 stamina if you get 0 successes? Or does this just convert the challenge to a 2-success challenge, with you suffering 4 stamina damage if you fail? I'm thinking the latter, but wasn't sure. If it's the former, it might be better to use the results table format that some of the Arkham cards use.

"Investigators roll their Fight Check as normal, but check successes against the table below:

0: Lose 4 Stamina

1: Lose 2 Stamina

2: No effect"

Or some such.

Sounds pretty nasty, what with converting the cultists to Polyps. O_O Wow.

I guess for the investigators who didn't have at least 2 successes during their attack, they take 4 Stamina damage instead of 2 like stated on the AOO sheet.

Hugues said:

This is right. Each investigator needs to roll at least two successes during Polypous Magnus's attack, or they take 4 Stamina damage instead of the normal 2. Since the fight check modifier decreases by one each round, if this card comes up late in the battle the investigators could be in for some serious hurt.

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

He's baaaaack.

Hopefully for the last time :' Seriously, if someone complains about the picture, I will start to cry and flood the forum (to death) with my tears.

Avi_dreader said:

Weeeeeeeeell... I'm not so convinced of the way you changed the white from the original art and...

::tempted tempted tempted tempted tempted::

ok, this time it's fine. Even if I'd prefer the Vampirella one ::laughter::

Julia said:

::shudder::

Avi_dreader said:

Ever thought about writing Sinister plot cards for your AOs, Avi?

Julia said:

Nope. Because there's no way I'd ever print them out. I try to make the attacks powerful enough to work without epic battles.

I much prefer the original (or earlier) picture... with the old, wrinkly face and the sunken evil eyes. This makes me think "vampire," not "Dracula."

(buying flood insurance)

Grudunza said:

::Laughter:: Well... I am never reposting this again, so too bad!

Ummm... Wait. Which picture? The one that looked like it had a bloody face? I wouldn't mind updating the text accompanying that image and reposting it as well (so people can have a choice of art).

Repost for clarity, and to reflect minor edits, and Azathoth plays very differently now:


Increasing the difficulty of the Base Game's Ancient Ones

Ancient One fixes for only playing the base board (this will make it *quite* difficult) They can also be played as variants for the normal game, but the Starting Doom Tokens should then be ignored in all cases except Azathoth:

Starting Doom Tokens:

Yig: 0

Ithaqua: 2

Azathoth: 5

Cthulhu: 3

Nyarlathotep: 2

Hastur: 3

Yog Sothoth: 2

Shub Niggurath: 3

Doom tokens can not be removed from the doom track by any means (that means no South Church exploit, and no Elder Sign hunting). This makes it so you can't just play out the clock for a guaranteed win. If you are only playing the base board, mythos cards that would open two gates simultaneously DO add two doom tokens.

Another basic difficulty raising rule along with the above would be banning the use of clues with the fight skill or the shotgun in final combat (I'd strongly suggest this against Ancient Ones without combat resistances, since otherwise it's too easy to stockpile clues and kill them in one or two turns).

----------------

Yig: Make it so that investigators can not be blessed during games against him (possibly make an exception for Sister Mary). Twice as many successes as normal should be required to remove a doom token from his doom track.

Cultists are fast.

Ithaqua: give both physical and magical resistance.

Each round of combat with a Cultist, roll a die for each weapon or spell you are using, on a failure, it is lost.

Azathoth: Starts with five doom tokens.

Cultists and Maniacs deal four damage to an investigator who defeats them and are Stalkers. They are not counted against the monster limit, if one appears in the Outskirts, place it directly on The First Player instead (unless the first player is in an Other World, in which case, place it on an investigator in Arkham with the lowest sneak, first player's choice if a tie).

Cthulhu: when he reaches 7 doom tokens, have his ability reduce all investigators maximum stamina and sanity by 2 instead.

Star Spawn have their toughness increased by two. If they are adjacent to an Elder Sign, they will move onto it if their movement is shown during the mythos phase, ignoring investigators and arrows. If they are still on the Elder Sign during the next mythos phase, remove it from the board. If they defeat an investigator in combat and are on the board, they immediately move one space closer to the nearest Elder Sign (player's choice if there is a tie), following an arrow, or directly (if they are directly adjacent). They can not be taken as monster trophies. If they are defeated, return them to the cup. If they are placed in the outskirts, substitute them with any non-Star Spawn monster on the board that is not in the Sky— if there is a Cultist on the board, a Cultist must be chosen.

Nyarlathotep: make him magical and physically immune and require twice as many successes as normal to remove doom tokens from his doom track.

If you defeat a Cultist, immediately search the monster cup for a random Mask, and fight or evade it as well. If the Cultist was on the board, the Mask remains on the board if undefeated, if not, return it to the cup.

Hastur: raise the terror track to four in the start of games against him.

If a Cultist is in the sky, moves, and is unable to leave the sky (due to lack of investigators in the street), raise the terror level by one. When a Cultist is defeated, all investigators lose one clue.

Yog Sothoth: flip all gates against him upside down until investigators enter them, increase their modifiers by -1, give him physical resistance.

Before investigators in an Other World draw their first encounter they must fight or evade a random monster from the monster cup. If this causes them to be devoured, add a doom token to the doom track.

Shub Niggurath: Give him magical resistance. Have the final combat attack require investigators to lose 3 monster trophies.

Dark Young have their toughness increased an additional one and are not counted against the monster limit. Dhole moves like a Hound of Tindalos, is not counted against the monster limit, and is Endless. Every time a Cultist is defeated, roll a die, on a 1-3 search the cup and place it on the open gate with the least number of monsters on it (players choice if a tie). If a Dholes or Dark Young would be taken as a trophy, return it to the cup instead.

------------------------

Here's a Nyarlathotep variant that you can combine with the above. Although it was created to be played by itself.

The Demi-Gods: A Nyarlathotep Variant

Drawing a mask will trigger various game effects, keep at least one copy of this sheet for reference during the game. You may want to mark on the sheet which masks are currently active for easier reference of their abilities and effects.

Masks can not be gained as trophies, if a game effect would have them be gained as trophies, return them to the cup instead. They can be returned to the cup as normal by the closing of gates.

For the masks, “in play” means being permanently in play (not just temporarily appearing as the result of an encounter and not in the outskirts).

With Dual Gates, only the top symbol can remove masks from the board (unless there are three or more masks on the board, and God of the Bloody Tongue is not in play).

When the doom track is at six, search the monster cup for a random mask and put it into on Miskatonic University streets. If this would be above the monster limit, the first player may choose the lowest toughness non-Mask monster and place it in the Outskirts.

Start of Game: Players may collectively decide to give Nyarlathotep a two extra doom token track (so his doom track is 13 instead of 11); however, if they do so, when the doom track reaches 11, search the monster cup and place The Dark Pharoah on Miskatonic University Streets.

When Nyarlathotep awakens, he has weapon immunity instead of magical resistance, and rather than losing a clue, the penalty for failing a lore check against him is being devoured.

The Dark Pharoah- He has two extra toughness and weapon immunity. While he is in play, the monster limit is ignored (this will not cause the Ancient One to potentially awaken unless the terror track is at 10). When he enters play, all investigators’ monster trophies are reanimated and placed on their locations (unless they are in an Other World, in which case, reanimate them at the beginning of the turn after the investigator emerges from a gate). If he leaves play, the monster limit is restored (remove excess non-mask monsters of your choice from the board to get as close as possible to the normal monster limit).

The Black Man- Whenever he moves, the first player must draw two madness cards or add a doom token to the doom track. Investigators who draw these madness cards can not be retired. He must move when he comes into play, even if his movement symbol is not shown. He moves like a Fast Stalker. When he leaves play, replace him with a random mask (an investigator in the new mask’s location, must immediately evade or enter combat with it).

The Bloated Woman- When she enters play each investigator loses two stamina and two sanity. While she is in play will checks have an additional -1 penalty (this includes horror checks) and all sanity damage is increased by 1. An investigator who defeats her in combat is Cursed.

Haunter of the Dark- It has +1 toughness and physical and magical immunity. While in play, flying monsters treat unstable locations as adjacent to the sky, are not counted against the monster limit, and if they are in or are placed in the outskirts, they go directly to the Sky instead. When it leaves play, all flying monsters in play are returned to the monster cup. This does not count against the monster limit (and if it is placed in the Outskirts, place it in the Sky instead).

God of the Bloody Tongue- It has weapon immunity. While it is in play monsters can not be returned to the cup by closing gates with their dimensional symbol and red, black, and purple bordered monsters move toward the nearest investigator (following yellow lines like an investigator could) with the lowest Sneak (first player’s choice when nearness and sneak are tied).

Wailing Writher- It has +2 toughness. While it is in play, investigators must fight or evade an unmodified copy of Wailing Writher before attempting to seal a gate by means of clue or power tokens. If you declare you are intending to attempt to seal a gate, fight or evade a Wailing Writher copy before rolling against the gate modifier. Unmodified copies of Wailing Writher can not be modified by any game effects and defeating or evading them has no effect beyond ending or avoiding combat.

Shugeron- He has +2 toughness. While he is in play, all streets are treated as aquatic locations and black bordered and yellow bordered monsters move as orange bordered monsters instead. This does not count against the monster limit (and if it is placed in the Outskirts, place it in Rivertown Streets instead).

Skinless One- He has +1 toughness. While he is in play, whenever an investigator is devoured, raise the terror level by one. Also, all monsters move twice, and yellow bordered monsters are treated as black bordered monsters.

The Beast- It has +1 toughness. While it is in play, all other monsters gain +2 toughness, except as monster trophies.

The Shadowy Figure- When he comes into play, remove one Elder Sign token from the board, and investigators in Arkham lose all their clues.

--------

[if you use this variant with the above (base board only), you may want to ignore the sped up doom track, since The Black Man should add doom tokens]

[if you want to make this extremely brutal, make none of the masks count against the monster limit, if they go to the outskirts and do not have a specified location, redirect them to Miskatonic University streets.]

Avi, you should widen your blog (or maybe starting another one) with all the variants posted. The boosted AOs for the base game and the modified Masks are a lot interesting for spicing up the game, and it'd be cool to have them without digging in past threads (something you can do only if aware of their existance)

Julia said:

When the Fan Creation League is over, I'm probably going to have a section in the back with bonus content. Probably this stuff, the Nyarlathotep variant, and possibly suggestions for replaying some of the scenarios with massively increased difficulty levels :') (And by probably, I mean I've been planning to do it for some time so, yeah, probably).

I just don't want to post any of that stuff in between the actual scenarios. So. We must wait :')

Hey, everyone. Long time no see. O_O Sorry about my absence...I had a lot of other projects going on recently.

I finally got the chance to actually test the Blessed One. It works...pretty much exactly as I was hoping, so I'm leaving it as is. I may create a herald or a guardian for further difficulty options down the line, but with just the AO it works pretty much fine.

The Blessed One basically functions as a shorter-doom Azathoth that encourages you to pursue monster hunting more than you otherwise would. As long as you're actually handling the monsters or the cultists (which one you choose to go after depends on your characters and items), in most cases you shouldn't end up with many neighborhoods closed, from my analysis. The only place where you might have trouble no matter what your strategy has been is when a monster spawns on a cultist or vice-versa, usually due to either a monster surge or one of the "two monsters appear in..." Mythos cards. When this happens you don't get the chance to eliminate the monster or cultist, and if that's a high-toughness monster, there goes a neighborhood. The monster movement will only sometimes result in a cultist landing on a monster, so you generally can have several rounds with cultists and monsters on the board without a cultist slaying a monster...it's all dependent on the luck of the draw, there. It is important to analyze where cultists/monsters can move, though, to check if there's an immediate threat. And, of course, if you happen to draw all powerful monsters and don't have anyone set up as a monster hunter, you could find yourself in trouble, but...that's true in any case.

As has been pointed out in previous discussions regarding this AO, there are a few neighborhoods in Arkham which can be pretty safely closed, so unless you're doing particularly badly (or just have extremely poor luck, or totally left monster management to the cultists), you probably won't see something critical closed in most games. Your mileage may vary, however, and again, a lot of this AO's power depends on just what Mythos cards come up and how many monster surges happen. If you do find the cultists are killing a lot of monsters, just remember that because of the way the neighborhood-closing mechanic works, the Blessed One will never close more than one neighborhood per Mythos phase. I highly doubt that the Blessed One will ever awaken from all neighborhoods being closed, but if that ever happens to someone please post about it!

The handcuffs are a powerful tool in this case, but we actually had a character with both handcuffs and the Disguise skill in our game and even that didn't feel overpowering. If you end up with that combination you'll certainly have an easier time with things and can go after cultists instead of having to risk monster battles, but the cultists will still claim a few monsters (esp. from monster surges or "two monsters appear..." cards) depending on luck. And, if you don't have the Disguise skill (or something else that gives you a high chance of succeeding on evade checks) you may not always catch a cultist to pop the cuffs on (and even in that case you'll still only generally be able to handle one cultist per turn, tops, so if multiple cultists spawn there could still be trouble). Thus, I feel no need to make cultists immune to handcuffs. Obviously this does leave the Blessed One open to defeat by certain character choice strategies if you specifically choose investigators and Ancient Ones, but if you tend to do that then in my opinion you don't have a right to complain about things being too easy since you can tailor your investigator choices to the AO you're fighting. If you feel you would like to house rule the handcuff advantage away, however, you certainly could (explanation is that the experienced assassin picks the lock).

Optional House Rule: This is something one of my AH buddies came up with while we were testing that might serve as an interesting option if you want to make the Blessed One a bit harder: rather than you getting to choose the neighborhood that closes, you close the neighborhood in which a cultist most recently killed a monster. If that neighborhood is already closed, then you get to choose. We did not test using this rule, but it seems like it would rationally make things a bit tougher since you might not have any choice about losing the hospital or the curiosity shop or something like that.

You can get the Blessed One here . (Or, as always, from the links in my signature.)

It'll probably be a little while before I create another thing for Arkham Horror as I don't tend to have a lot of time to test these days and I don't like letting my creations go this long before I put them through testing to check if they work like I expect. O_O

Avi, maybe this was your intent, but are you aware that your "fan creation link" in your sig goes to the March 28, 2010 post and not to the most current one?

Sdrolion said:

Sdrolion said:

Avi_dreader said:

I don't consider that the "official" Blessed One setup and I prefer the "players choose a neighborhood" way myself. Not going to make an alternate version of the AO again as that frankly seemed to confuse the heck out of people with the Barganon one. At the moment, it is a house rule, and house rules don't get noted "officially." If it does ever get actually put somewhere it'll probably be part of the herald (as it does fit the herald concept).

Hey everyone, it's been a while here too.

Testing has shown Sancho Panza (who I'm not sure if I've posted yet) to work just as planned, and I'm completely reworking Elesh Norn to make the Phyresis counters matter quite a bit more. However, my latest project was this Ancient One/Herald combo. Looking back, I'm not sure if the AO needs the Herald, considering a -5 with no defenses is still formidable, but they really work well together. In theory, anyway.

So here it is: The Saigyou Ayakashi.

And here's the corresponding Herald:

But wait! There's more! Epic Battle cards! It was my first time making these, so I'm not sure how good they are, but man were they ever fun to do.

So as you can see, if the sealing plan isn't going well, you better get some friggin' petals or it's bad news. Whether I should make Petals interact with gates somehow, I'm not sure. Requiring to spend a Petal to seal a gate seems too rough considering gate trophies are (usually) how people get them, but maybe only someone holding can seal a gate? (Except for Akashi, of course)

So, why is Arkham and possibly Humanity as we know it being attacked by... a cherry tree? Here's my notes on the Saigyou Ayakashi, as it's a modern story (and not even from literature) but one I thought badass enough to make an AO around.

"The Saigyou Ayakashi is a gargantuan, sentient, and malevolent cherry tree from the Touhou series. It fed its power to fully blossom by feasting upon the essence of spring and also using its telepathic, hypnotic powers to lure people to sleep beneath it, during which it would absorb their soul. With enough sustenance, it would grow boundlessly and achieve its goal of essentially /becoming/ the world, a true Yggdrasil. It was sealed away long ago by the sacrifice of a woman named Yuyuko Saigyouji, but no seal will last forever, especially when the stars are right.

Unfortunately, the full flavor of the battle couldn't fit on the card without 4-point font, so using a herald is necessary. In a way, that's an unexpected boon, so that the influence of Ayakashi may be felt even as other ancient forces stir. So who else to be Ayakashi's herald but the woman who stopped it so many years ago? Having kept and tortured her soul for centuries, she is now a brainwashed, ethereal pawn that amplifies the horror's mind-infiltrating powers.

The idea behind spending trophies for Spring tokens is that the investigator is using the power saved from his/her accomplishments to rip part of Ayakashi's stolen spring from it and wield it as a weapon or shield. As the game goes on and the herald starts becoming more menacing, the petals will become key.

The -5 combat rating may seem a bit much for a tree (I mean, that's almost Cthulhu's rating), but as my playgroup has a tendency to just punch out Ancient Ones as opposed to trying to seal them, I wanted to discoruage that. If your playgroup is less aggressive and thus doesn't need such discouragement, feel free to make it a bit easier (no easier than a -3 though; remember that with a Petal spent, it has no defenses).

And yes, it is implied that if someone uses the "Footsteps of Yuyuko" sinister plot, that investigator would share her grisly fate for whenever the stars are right again, essentially feeding the machine..."

Yuyuko's story I haven't gotten around to writing, but I will shortly if you guys are interested. If anyone wants to play Saigyou and Yuyuko or even just Yuyuko in a session (I'm proud tha I've come up with an original mechanic that lets a player be on the "bad guy's team" without really twisting the game's rules), let me know!

I wanted to make an Ancient One that dealt with injuries and madnesses, this is the result. Also, how do you get the images to post properly? The little mountain just results in a broken picture link when I try it.

http://i1139.photobucket.com/albums/n545/ArkhamSheets/The-Crippled-One-Front-Face.png

In case of unreadability of the image-

The Crippled One -X combat rating, Physical Resistance

Worshippers- The Crippled One empowers those who are decrepit or insane. Mummies, Maniacs and Cultists have their horror and combat checks increased by -1, and their toughness increased by 1.

Power For Weakness- During the Encounter phase, any Investigator may choose to draw one Injury card and gain three clue tokens. Investigators are not devoured for having duplicate Injury or Madness cards.

When an Investigator closes a gate, he may draw one Madness card to seal it instead.

Whenever a Gate is sealed, The Crippled One gains a Doom Token.

Start Of Battle- Any Investigator without an Injury is devoured, any Investigator with a Madness is blessed.

Attack- When The Crippled One attacks, each Investigator discards one Injury or Madness card. Any Investigator with no Injury or Madness cards is devoured.

Any time an Injury or Madness card is discarded or drawn, The Crippled One's combat rating increases by -1.

To add an image, click the Insert/Edit Image icon in the toolbar above where you're typing (yellow box with a mountain range image). In the Image Info tab, add the URL of the image to the "URL" line, and in the Link tab, add the URL to the "URL" line and choose New Window under Target.

I like the GOO except for this: "Investigators are not devoured for having duplicate Injury or Madness cards." I would definitely keep that danger inherent in the game.

Here's the image...

Upon further thinking on it I think I need to decrease his track, because 5 investigators could take 5 madness' and win. The not being devoured for having duplicates encourages people to get more of the injuries and madness cards, and will also make the GOO more powerful for the final battle. If there's the possibility of being devoured I find whenever I can help it in real games I NEVER take a second injury or madness card. The risk is just too great. Also I meant to make -x a -0, since I never specified X