I think they're balanced, but I don't get what the Hue Jackson character is meant to do. Is it just that he can defer his focus until later in the turn? That's a good idea for an ability but if anything it seems too weak at the moment.

I gate him a rather weak ability on purpse, as he starts with Changed. He effectively have 6 sanity and 6 stamina, 1 free clue per turn, and perphas the best stats lineup in the game. If I'd give him a bit stronger ability he would be overpowered, if he isn't already. Also surprise-focus can come in handy in many occasions.

Ah ok. I thought I hadn't understood how it works, but it does seem fair if that's all it does.

It does make me wonder about some slightly-more-powerful focus-related abilities, though.

Funny, I thought you'd say it's a bad idea to have stuff like white ship/changed as starting equipment... after all, these things needs to be worked hard for in order to get, and these investigators get a free-pass...

Hmmm, true... I suppose you are effectively denying anyone else the chance to get those special cards...on the other hand everyone else would know the cards weren't available.

You could just do what I did: when I made my Awakened Mummy investigator, I wanted to give her the Beloved of Bast cards as starting items, but decided it was too much of a 'liberty' since it a) meant the investigator required people to have Kingsport and b) made her impossible to use with the Bast guardian. All I did was come up with an outrageously powerful Exhibit item which has the exact same effect but a different name.

Hi, these are my first attempts at some custom investigators:

I don't know about a investigator starting off with the best Unqiue in the game that can be used as a Elder Sign but overall interesting... even though the Radio Guy has a ability very same as Kane minus the Sanity Cost but the rumor part is nice! Also I take it you like the 4fight/ 2will part so looks like you want all the dudes in the streets killing monsters.

Didnt even notice that I put each of them at 4/2. oh well.

I've only got to look at the base game so far, so wasnt aware that I was copying a previous ability

You know what? Disregard this post. Stupid forums...

for some reason my pictures export with that black around them...

Cool idea with a convict starting off in jail!

Here's my latest:

I considered having him start with Wanted, but that just made arrest scenarios overly weird since he'd get two rolls to prevent devouring from Wanted, but one roll for other kinds of arrest. Other than that he's more of a sneaky spellcaster than a combat character, and hopefully will be fun to play. Although he's still a sick murderer, even Jack the Ripper would probably chip in to prevent the awakening of an AO! And having an investigator kill Allies was just too fun to pass up. XD

Edit: I may also make his devour check Sneak instead of Evade so Mists of Releh can't help him there.

Sothis said:

I like the picture and character selection :') however, I get the impression that this would make a very weak character. Can't you bump it up a bit? Personally, I would never even consider using his abilities, as they are now.

Really? I was thinking his murder ability is pretty good. Gaining 1 Sanity and 1 Stamina is pretty rare, and throwing away an Ally from the deck is something that would concern me *not at all*. I never did understand why anyone would care when they are discarded on terror increases. Maybe I'm missing something?

It is rather tough though since you have to make sure you can pass the Sneak check, which may cost you a clue or two. And the arrested penalty is just for theme really. Hmmm...

With his equipment I thought he seemed like a pretty good spellcaster actually, and he can refill his stats through his ability. For what reason do you say you would never consider using that ability? The terror I assume? What if it was an Evade check so he could use Mists to roll Lore (-2) instead?

Want to understand so I can make him better. I think he has potential and a neat feel.

Sothis said:

? My terror level typically doesn't rise above three. It is essential not to lose allies (especially at random) because you're much better off recruiting one or two of them. As for investigators being able to heal themselves... First of all, there's Lily, Carolyn, and Vincent. They heal themselves and others, and they don't need to waste a turn going into the street— they also don't risk terror increases every time they want to heal. If you made it so every time Jack used his ability he restored his sanity to his maximum, *that* would be an interesting (and somewhat powerful) ability (since you would then enable him to soak up hits while keeping his fight at three). I'm not quite sure why him killing people would gain him stamina, he's not a vampire as far as I know :') If you were to take my suggestion about the ability change I'd also couple it with reducing his will by one, and increasing his focus by one (for a character with his ability to not have focus two... well, it's a bit problematic for switching over to sneak). ::Shrug:: anyways, if you made these changes, he'd still be a balanced character, in my opinion.

I wouldn't use his ability both because of terror level increases (probable), time cost for insufficient gain, and the ally losses. You'd need to offer quite a bit more for me to take those kinds of risks. I'd rather get a madness card (or just walk to the asylum and spend two bucks, or just a turn to get back sanity— it'd be restored at the same rate and with less risk).

Also, you might want to change his second ability to "Instead of being arrested Jack makes an evade -2 check instead, if he fails he is devoured." This would couple some benefit with the detriment and also be a more accurate representation of the lynch mob ;') this is the 20s after all, I doubt they're going to let him serve a little jail time and be off.

Errr, also, one less clue, three more dollars? C'mon, you mean to tell me that a serial killer doesn't have a little spare cash in his pockets? :')

So you don't use allies, huh?

Btw, I really liked how his picture mirrored the mist and the knife :')

I would just auto remove a ally to regain the Sanity Stamina and no check for terror level because that is two allys being removed (Glaaki will love you though). Maybe change it to upkeep too.

and what Avi said about being arrested... Evade Check or be devoured... replaces being arrested... maybe the evade check could be based on how many allies that have been returned to the box during this game!

Great suggestions, thanks! On the arrested ability though, I think you misread it. It already does what you suggest. Namely, he cannot be arrested at all. He makes his roll, and if he succeeds the arrest is prevented. If it fails he is devoured because as you said, he's arrested forever. I'll reword it for clarity.

I also thought about giving him a Silver Twilight membership, but it's $10! wtf! That's a bit high for a special card that does very little in the course of a game I think. It would have been cool for theme though, implying the conspiracy theory interpretation of who the Ripper was.

What do you guys think about Mists of Releh? Can it be used outside of combat, using the specified modifier as the Awareness? The card seems to imply combat but doesn't actually require combat, so I was thinking it can be used for any Evade check.

I like the idea of restoring Sanity to maximum. One of each was simply the first thing I thought of that was pretty powerful; it's rare to get that boost anywhere in the game. But full Sanity is better and will be much more sensible since he's a spellcaster. It will fit him well.

I also exchanged a Clue for $2, since that would put him at $5 (the cost of a spell). Starting Clues are awesome, but this works out fine too.

I see the point about his Focus also. With Mists of Releh plus his Murder ability, it shouldn't matter much that he will always fail Horror checks. Plus having low Will is thematic since he is a serial killer after all. Not exactly a champion of impulse control you know!

Lastly, the idea that it's harder to avoid arrest after more killings is a great one too. I'm going to leave the terror increase though, since it just fits so perfectly. If he isn't sneaky killing an ally, the terror goes up and more people leave town. Thanks for all the help guys! Here's the new version, let me know if it looks alright. Personally I think this is going to be a favorite of mine. We need more good spellcasters.

Sothis said:

::Shrug:: I'd just ignore what Strange Eons tells you The Silver Twilight Lodge membership is worth— in my opinion, it's nearly worthless. If this weren't true, people would spend alot more time trying to get one. Yeah, there are some good encounters there, but there's also plenty of ways to get screwed (and if you spend your time in the lodge instead of in places where you need to go— i.e. with clues, cash, or gates you're probably going to lose). I'd just give him that as an extra item and not take anything away. 5 Dollars can buy a spell :') or it can be saved for a bit for common items or unique items— it depends on what the player thinks would be best, the point is, it makes the character considerably more versitile as opposed to just being stuck with starting items. It's one of the reasons why two out of the four characters who start more or less broke sort of suck ;') (Mary, Amanda, Pete, and Wendy). Seriously, if Mary and Amanda started off with 6-8 bucks, their characters wouldn't be so hateable (from a strategic point of view). Unfortunately their thematic design trumped their playability ;') which isn't to say that I don't enjoy playing them (particularly Mary).

The problem with you making Ripper Umasked an Evade check (as opposed to a sneak check) is precisely that evade checks were specifically designed in reference to escaping monsters... One way of getting around this would be turning it into a sneak check, the other way would be by adding in mention of Police and Lynch Mob with an awareness of +0. ::Shrug:: I don't know. However you do it would imply a bending of the rules if you use the term evade check (on the other hand, I can understand why you would prefer that over sneak, because you can use stuff like the Pallid Mask or Dark Cloaks). Perhaps you could change it to sneak and add in a line of text that says "Items that provide a bonus to evade may be used for this roll."

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Okay, off of game mechanics for a minute :') first of all, congratulations. This is the first custom investigator that I intend to print (after the final version). Prior to this I was only putting a few AOs and Heralds in my file. I dislike the notion of printing out custom investigators (for a number of reasons). But I think this guy is so interesting (and fairly balanced, although I would definitely list him as a tier two character) and heavy with theme (it would be *wonderful* to roleplay in a game with him as a character), I can't imagine *not* printing him out :'D

I *love* the idea of him going into some horrible fight with an otherworldly monster to save the Earth from destruction— and then going off to kill some person in the streets to make himself *feel* better ;'D truely, a wonderful character. A sinister maniac. An evil (and far more balanced) Daisy :')

Kudos. Really. Excellent job.

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Oh, and no, I don't think Mists can be used outside combat, and if you include the text change I suggest, it still won't be usable for that check ;') which is fine— otherwise it would be too easy.

Um... If Strange Eons prints unbalanced on the card if you add Silver Twilight Lodge Membership, just forget about adding it though :'/ having it run across the card would ruin its look.

Also, I think the reason we were commenting on what happens when he is arrested is the way you phrased it originally, "If Jack is ever arrested" implies that he *is* arrested, and consequently the latter part of the sentence which seemed to imply that he wouldn't be arrested didn't make sense. Once it became a "would be" situation the problem was gone.

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On second thought, why is the Ripper killing monsters? And what is he doing running around in the 20s with a ritual blade? ;'D I *love* this card's roleplaying potential.

Btw, MrsGamura, I think I might recycle that Orangutan picture on the investigator you made for me :') I think it's a great picture (and it suddenly occurred to me that having someone Roleplay an evil-fighting Orangutan would also be loads of fun).

Avi_dreader said:

Wha? Even though its not cartony? Yea I guess I should try to remake it but gave him love will because I'm not sure if a Orangutan is to charming also it wouldn't know how to care for a Tommy Gun so thats why 1 use.

MrsGamura said:

This isn't *a* orangutan. This is *THE* Orangutan. He is an orangutan prodigy. A genius among nonhuman apes :') And naturally, the first product of a brilliant primate mind is gun-wielding abilities ;'D

For some reason the photograph looks somewhat cartoony to me ;') yeah, I know, it's a photo, but the orangutan looks unreal to me.

Avi:

I agree that Lodge membership is worth at most $1. You're not guaranteed any payoff (and in fact you have to risk getting a bad encounter), plus you have to spend one turn each try! It's more a theme mechanic than anything. But Strange Eons does charge $10, which means the only way to get it for free without "UNBALANCED" would be to put it in the Abilities section. But that would mean Jack would have way too much text there and it would be ugly. Not worth it. It was a decent idea, but he certainly doesn't need it.

As for his arrested ability: The main problem is that he's not likely to have a high Sneak when he's suddenly arrested in an encounter. That means he'll have to spend clues to avoid being devoured. This is why I thought it would be nice if he could use Mists of Releh to roll with Lore instead. And with the way Mists is written, it clearly says you use it to pass "an Evade check". IMO the fact that it says the modifier is the monster's Awareness is more likely an oversight by FFG than anything, since Evade checks also come up when no monster is around (in certain encounters iirc). So the interpretation that it can be used on ANY evade check seems just as reasonable to me as your interpretation. Not much room for abuse or anything.

It also makes much more sense thematically for it to be an evade check, since he's evading capture. Sneak would be to avoid attention in the first place, which is not what's happening when he's supposed to be arrested. (That's also why the murder ability uses sneak and not evade.) I also think it takes away from the feel of the character to have both abilities have the same skill check.

Bottom line, I think I'll leave it as is and playtest it once. If you decide you prefer it as a Sneak (+X) check instead, just inform the other players at the beginning of the game. Or if you really can't stand it, I'll post another one with it written as sneak. Just let me know.

Thanks for the kudos and I'm glad you like him so much. It's very satisfying to make custom stuff and get a great reaction! I am really excited about Jack as well, since the theme fell into place perfectly in both his equipment and abilities. As you said he almost begs to be roleplayed. Lastly, I'm glad he's a tier two character. It's easy to make someone who's overpowered; making someone who's balanced and fun is what I want.

Thanks to you and Gam for the input! Now if I could just get my friends together to try this guy...

The only thing I don't like about Jake is he has two skill checks that are very similar Sneak/ Evade I would

1. make them both the same i.e. Sneak/ Sneak or Evade/ Evade
2. Remove one of the skill checks

I would remove the Murderer in the East End Sneak check... he was Sneaky at killing and the bondies where not found until later (later being after the world being destroyed by the AO). Most people wouldn't mind a few dead bodies after seeing a Star Spwan walking around down town!

Sothis said:

Ach... So "Unbalanced" is definitely mandatory? (I don't know, I don't make characters). Ah well. Skip it :')

How often do your characters get arrested? It happens to mine once in a blue moon (that's why I wouldn't be too concerned about making it work for mists), and besides, if you allow mists to be used, surviving the arrest attempt would be a bit too easy when it occurs, either way, I don't think it'd break the character, but, I think it'd be fair if it cost a clue or two for him to escape death— and the situation would be more tense for the player controlling him— if it does come up.

::Laughter:: I happen to agree with you on the thematic superiority of an evade check over a sneak check (well, the word anyways— however, I wouldn't worry about that too much since their meanings overlap in the jargon of Arkham— how you use your imagination with it is your own business— personally, I would see it as running, lying, sneaking, and killing in order to escape— more action packed).

Can you give an example of evade check being used to not refer to a monster encounter? I think you're probably right (I can think of a combat check encounter that doesn't have a monster appear). Still, I'm not really sure if, legitimately speaking, it would or wouldn't work.