Avi_dreader said:

::laughter:: preserve your still-to-be-grown beard (for reasons already discussed in a different thread)

Here's updated versions of Godzilla, Rodan and King Ghidorah. Are these better on this pass?

And here's Hedorah, the Smog Monster as well! He works because he's particularly Lovecraftian in design and execution.

I have yet to read the abilities but you get a sympathetic woot from me for Kaiju.

Happy April Fools day everyone. There's a story behind this, but I'll let it sit. Enjoy!

Master Fwiffo said:

I was about to ask if you were serious ;'D you got me. But seriously, this is cluttering up the thread. I'm reporting you to a moderator... April Fools! ;'D

Well, here's my first attempt at making a baddie (And at using Strange Eons). To clarify the "Use a GOO as a herald": Whenever an effect would add doom tokens to the GOO, instead add them to Hasra. Other than that, well, you basically have two baddies for most of the game.

The pic was the default in SE. I haven't learned how to replace it yet. (Lazyness syndrome)

An interesting idea but you really do need to change that picture, it's easy. You may want to make a few clarifications on how that ancient one herald works, I think it's pretty obvious that their worshiper and power text are in play but how does start of battle and attack play into things? This power can result in some prety nasty combos but also I can think of a few that could just peter out. The cultist power is interesting but unless you have a herald that really boosts them it would be no real threat, in fact it would be harder if you just gave them a toughness boost of 2. Also the name Hasra in addition to being a village in Brazil is a somewhat common name of middle eastern origin, this is kind of like calling your ancient one Mike.

Master Fwiffo said:

I'm sitting here lamenting the fact that I know who that is.

Veet said:

Hee hee hee...

@Rhamni

You should have the investigators "sacrificed" be devoured... Otherwise it doesn't make much sense having them continuing to live and walk around the town. I.e. for thematic purposes, either change the rules mechanics, or change the wording.

Veet said:

It's ok. It's happened to the best of us.

Interesting idea I had based on a religious order of assassins (and their god) from an RPG I play in.

Concept not yet playtested:

Text:

Worshippers: The Blessed One is worshipped by the Tiamaeku, a group of zealous assassins. Cultists are elusive and have a combat modifier of -3 and a toughness of 2. Any investigator who fails a combat check against a cultist is devoured.

Stillness and Silence: Upkeep: If a cultist is in the same area as any other monster, place that monster trophy on this card. If at least 3 toughness of monster trophies are on this card, the first player chooses 1 stable location to close for the game. Return the trophies to the box.

Start of Battle: Peace at Last: If the Blessed One awakens, all life ends. The investigators are devoured.

General idea here was basically an AO that, like Azathoth, you can't do a final battle with, but which has a somewhat greater chance of awakening and an interesting effect on the game.

(An alternate idea for the effect of Stillness and Silence was that you'd just plain add a doom token, and the doom track would be longer to begin with, but I wanted to bounce the more unusual idea off you first.)

So........um the cultists would handle monster control for you? This makes the game easier.

Veet said:

Perhaps whenever this happens you should place monsters in the outskirts equal to twice the number of monsters trophies discarded.

Or maybe they could do something with the doom track? Add a doom token or three when they're removed. Would make killing cultists a lot more important, since closing stable locations doesn't seem all that brutal to me. It's certainly not good , but if you do a halfway decent job of monster control (or are playing with only a couple people, so the monsters are generally spread out anyway), that would probably only mean closing a couple locations, and that's pretty easy to deal with.

Also, what happens if two cultists are in the same space?

The idea was that the cultists handle monster control, but that they have a fairly major negative effect as they do so. Thus, on some level it's making the game easier, but you have to be careful not to leave controlling things just to the cultists or you're going to lose your support structure.

As far as cultists being on the same spot as another cultist: nothing happens. I originally had "same space as another type of monster," but was trying to save a little space. :-P

I considered the doom token thing, but wanted to try the more unusual effect first. I think you're suggesting having the stable location close and adding a doom token each time? Seems like it would be good (and as shown below, fits the storyline explanation), but do you think I should raise the doom track in that case? Do you think it will be too small to be winnable?

(For anyone interested: storyline explanation is that the Blessed One's power simply snuffs out life when he gets free, and the Tiamaeku are wandering around killing monsters to power his awakening...which I guess does mean the doom track should raise, now that I think about it...and each time they get closer, some of his energy slips through, ending the lives of everyone in a particular area.)

Also note that monster trophies taken this way are returned to the box, which means there is a (admittedly small, but notable) risk of running out of monsters if you're letting the cultists control things. If I'm not mistaken, doesn't that awaken the AO?

Alternate idea: what if instead of closing 1 stable location, you close all locations (stable or no) in a neighborhood ? (Except, hopefully obviously, for entering to close gates.)

Avi_dreader said:

Or maybe just flat-out raise the terror track 1 each time? It'd be likely to have that effect anyway, or at least get close to it.

I considered the doom token thing, but wanted to try the more unusual effect first. I think you're suggesting having the stable location close and adding a doom token each time? Seems like it would be good (and as shown below, fits the storyline explanation), but do you think I should raise the doom track in that case? Do you think it will be too small to be winnable?

Yeah, I was thinking both, since that would keep some uniqueness while making Cultist cleanup a more worrying thing. As is, I think I'd see little reason to risk being Devoured. And yeah, you probably would need to increase the terror track a couple spots for that change, though I'd imagine it's still winnable keeping it at 11, it would just mean that killing Cultists is priority 1. Probably worth a playtest to see.

Also note that monster trophies taken this way are returned to the box, which means there is a (admittedly small, but notable) risk of running out of monsters if you're letting the cultists control things. If I'm not mistaken, doesn't that awaken the AO.

Yeah, it does, though I have a feeling that every location on the board would be closed before that happens. Speaking of which, what happens if you're out of locations to close? I assume that the AO would awaken, but that should probably be explicit.

Alternate idea: what if instead of closing 1 stable location, you close all locations (stable or no) in a neighborhood? (Except, hopefully obviously, for entering to close gates.)

FINAL EDIT: I freaking give up

I would go with the doom track. I don't think it's going to be all that common for this power to go off, likely 1-3 times in a game at most, but you should probably play test this a few times to get a feel for it. Also combining the ability to devour an investigator in an elusive monster is kind of wonky since you pretty much at that point give the investigators a devouring clause that they can choose when to face, which gives an easy route for replacement investigators.

Sdrolion said:

I'd say closing all locations in a neighborhood would be harsh enough. No need to have any other effects though (unless you want to raise the terror by one as well to make up for missing monsters). Or in other words, the doom track is short enough.

Veet said:

He could do that, but would you really want to play a 9 doom Azathoth?

WhirlwindMonk said:

WhirlwindMonk said:

Yeah. I just wanted to make clear that was still my intent.

As far as if no locations remain to close...hm. I could see saying he immediately awakens, but I could see also making you stumble along with basically nothing to help you. Officially...probably, yeah, he immediately awakens, because I expect that unless this happens really late you're pretty screwed (and more importantly, there wouldn't be much left for you to do, so I don't know that the game would be much fun anymore).

If I did the neighborhood thing, do you think I need to do the doom track at all, or would that be the kind of unnecessarily cruel thing I should put in a special Hard Mode for Avi?

(Also quick note: hopefully this was obvious too, but only locations close...not streets. You can still move through the neighborhood.)

Think I should specify neighborhoods on the base board, or should I leave it open to letting you use expansion neighborhoods to buffer yourself a little bit, since the expansions are adding their own difficulties?

(Ow, just realized...if you close a Kingsport neighborhood that means you might not be able to do anything at all about some rifts. I'm actually okay with that, though.)

(And yes, I'm absolutely going to play test this. It sometimes takes me a while to get to it, but I will playtest it.)

Sorry, Avi...didn't see your reply about the track and such. Yeah, I agree that the neighborhood is probably bad enough on its own.

Veet said:

It's a story thing. Tiamaeku always fight to the death in the RPG this comes from, so they wouldn't leave you unconscious and let you get carted off, no matter what.

I could always have it add a doom token (or maybe close another neighborhood instead) when one of them kills an investigator if you're worried about it being used for that tactic. After all...your death grants power to the Blessed One too.