DeepSix said:

There's the core of a great idea there, but it just doesn't work in its present form - there's way to much confusion.

One or two points:

- Personally, I don't like investigator special abilities which are 'triggered' by a skill check. I know you need a way of determining whether Jonathan gets another investigator's ability or his own 'Voices' ability, but this isn't a good way of doing it. You can't make something only happen sometimes by making it contingent on a voluntarily skill check. The effect of the voluntary check is to make sure the ability either never happens or happens whenever it can. People will only attempt the risky test if they've got a very good chance of success, and once they've amassed the means to make success very likely (for example, in this case, the skill 'Will'), they'll keep doing it every turn.

- The Disorder ability needs simplifying. Using other investigators' abilities is fraught with peril. Fraught, I say! The Martial Artist's special abilty simply doesn't apply to any other character. And the Entertainer's Doom Token removal thingy is also a bit unclear - if you drew the Entertainer a second time, would you be able to use the ability again? That wouldn't actually be broken but it is ambiguous.

I don't have an alternative way of making these abilities work yet but I'll have a think about it.

DeepSix said:

But the problem is, at the moment moving apart has no benefit whatsoever; you'll end up with two investigators that have a drawback but no ability. Perhaps you could think about an ability that becomes less effective the further the two of them are apart? So they might want to keep near to each other but don't have to be in the same area all the time?

I could also imagine an ability that lets the two of them trade clues or cards to each other (but not to other investigators) that cannot normally be traded (skills, memberships, etc), which could encourage more cooperation and planning between the players.

DeepSix said:

But the problem is, at the moment moving apart has no benefit whatsoever; you'll end up with two investigators that have a drawback but no ability. Perhaps you could think about an ability that becomes less effective the further the two of them are apart? So they might want to keep near to each other but don't have to be in the same area all the time?

I could also imagine an ability that lets the two of them trade clues or cards to each other (but not to other investigators) that cannot normally be traded (skills, memberships, etc), which could encourage more cooperation and planning between the players.

Hey all! This is my first post as I am fairly new to the World of Arkham. I am loving it so far and this is my first creation. I plan to design an Expansion eventually as I learn all of the ins and outs of the games rules. I was thinking about doing a Movie Monster Investigator theme. Here is my first one.

Something funny about Leatherface saving the world. Would Edge of Insanity prevent going insane or just have him be at the asylum with 2 sanity? Also you may need some way to mark monsters that are hit by the chainsaw's ability, otherwise you could easily forget or some might assume it would end at end of turn.

I agree, he's a little inconsitent as far as heroes go, lol. I was thinking it would keep him from going insane.

Here are a couple more investigators for any Heroes Fans out there.

I included some new Sky Location Encounter Cards also.

I have a 50/50 mix of good and bad to offset the advantage to move across the board and sneak past monsters by flying.

What is the best way to print these out for game use? I am new to all this.

Morgaln said:

Morgaln said:

I feel like many investigators have abilities that only work during certain situations, say like "One Man Army", "Science!", "Psychic Sensivity" or "Resilient". These investigators behave as normal but have an advantage when certain situations turn up, so i wouldn't say the Twins have a drawback apart since they are normally balanced characters.

It's advantageous for the Twins to stay together in the combat sense, but they wont get as many clue tokens or be able to take advantage of as many features of the board. This game however, makes moving together in the first place difficult, since a location encounter could move someone across the board.

What you say about being near each other is really interesting, should "hand in hand" work in the range of the same neighborhood? Would that make it a bit overpowered, since i think it would be easier to keep that distance apart? The hand and hand powers are extremly powerful as it is, a re-roll per or a +1 skill check. I guess the researcher has the "research" power, which is smilar and can be used every turn regardless, and aplies to other players as well.

What you said about trading clues and skills is really really cool, and makes sense with the whole "psychic link" theme. I think i'll just change "invisible bond" to "psychic link", that makes more sense as a title. They can trade knowledge based items (clues,skills) over any distance, but not physical items (weapons, spell books).

continuing with the Heroes theme here are two more. Any requests for a certain Hero? I'll create it.

I started him at the River Docks to simulate him just getting here from Japan.

thecorinthian said:

- Personally, I don't like investigator special abilities which are 'triggered' by a skill check. I know you need a way of determining whether Jonathan gets another investigator's ability or his own 'Voices' ability, but this isn't a good way of doing it. You can't make something only happen sometimes by making it contingent on a voluntarily skill check.

Ahhh, but it's not voluntary. The player must make the skill check on every upkeep phase, they have no choice in the matter. Jonathan has no choice in whether he goes insane or not, he can simply use his will to try and fight it back. I actually added must in bold to newer revisions of the card to drive home that point.

thecorinthian said:

- The Disorder ability needs simplifying. Using other investigators' abilities is fraught with peril. Fraught, I say! The Martial Artist's special abilty simply doesn't apply to any other character. And the Entertainer's Doom Token removal thingy is also a bit unclear - if you drew the Entertainer a second time, would you be able to use the ability again? That wouldn't actually be broken but it is ambiguous.

I don't have an alternative way of making these abilities work yet but I'll have a think about it.

The martial artist would be a discard, draw again. Looking through all the cards(i have all the expansions), the martial artist was the only one that wouldnt work. The Entertainer's ability would only work once. These are supposed to be seperate personalites of a single character, so disregard the idea of new investigators entering the game. If the Entertainer is drawn again, it's just the personality resurfacing. Her once per game ability was used once, so it stays used.

I am a little unsure of upkeep phase abilies. Since MPD takes place on an upkeep, if you draw a character with an upkeep ability, do you use that ability or have to wait till the next turn? On the next turn you may have to switch personalities again, and miss a chance to use the other ability. Or do you use it and then roll for MPD? Hmmmm...

Has anyone created the Master himself? Here is my interpretation.

Thanks for all the input on Ludwig. Here's the second character from my Trail campaign, Howard - the biologist. Any feedback would be appreciated.

And now for the quickfire round, where I suggest a record-breaking number of refinements to custom investigators in the space of a few lines!

Jonathan Turtledove:

@DeepSix - continuing our conversation from earlier:

The first ability (the one which causes Jonathan to become someone else) isn't the one I meant - it's the other ability, 'Voices', which I don't like. Presumably the idea is that it's a really good ability which the player only has access to if he can keep his other personalities in check. That's fine, that's a good idea - but making 'Voices' contingent on a skill check is exactly the sort of thing I'm talking about. It's not a very good way of making him sometimes gain 2 clue tokens because it's easy enough for the player to almost guarantee a particular outcome. Skill checks work on encounter cards because you don't know what skill is going to be tested. If there's a risky skill check on an investigator ability, it's trivially easy for the investigator to maniupulate the odds, so they can either roll so many dice that there's little suspense, or they can not take the test at all. That's why you don't tend to see official investigators with abilities like this (although Innsmouth may prove me wrong). Still, if it doesn't bother you then that's fair enough.

Your 'theme' rationale for the Entertainer's ability only working once is all very well, but I think that a strict reading of the rules will contradict the logic behind Jonathan's personalities resurfacing. As far as I'm aware, there are already other ways in which it is possible for the same investigator to 'enter play' multiple times in the same game - for example, someone can start with the Entertainer, use the ability, get devoured, and then another investigator can get devoured and can draw the Entertainer again. In that scenario, would the second player not be able to use the Entertainer's ability? I'm pretty sure they would. That's the closest analogy I can see for what's happening with Jonathan's personalities, and even then it's not really the same; Jonathan is simply copying the ability from another sheet (and substituting his own name for the other investigator's name). It's one of those frustrating places where one of the unwritten golden rule of AH card design is broken: the Entertainer has an ability which changes state (from 'unused' to 'used') but there's no card or marker or token to record the change. This is a problem with the Entertainer herself, now that I think about it; but your guy makes the problem a bit worse. If you're really worried about it working a particular way, you need to specify. On the other hand, the chance of drawing the Entertainer twice is pretty small, and even if you do, removing the odd Doom token is not actually that significant.

Leatherface:

'Recruiting' should read "Any phase: Leatherface gets +2 to Combat checks for each Maniac or Zombie monster trophy in his possession."

'Edge of Insanity' should read "Any phase: When Leatherface is reduced to 0 Sanity or less, he may make a Will (-2) check. If he passes, he is reduced to 1 Sanity instead." although I still don't like that (I'm prejudiced against skill checks on investigator abilities).

Chainsaw should say "+4 to Combat checks" not Fight checks. The ability at the bottom shouldn't have a name - boldfaces are reserved for 'tags' like 'Tome' etc. The item provides no way to remember which monsters have been affected. A working effect text for the item would have to say "Any phase: Whenever a success is rolled while using Chainsaw in combat against a monster, place a Stamina token on that monster. Monsters with Stamina tokens have their combat damage reduced by 1. When a monster with a stamina token is defeated, return the token to the box." That's far too much text for an item, so I reckon you're better off simplifying the ability: "Any phase: While using Chainsaw, ignore the first point of Stamina damage from monsters in combat." Might be a bit too good that way, though, so you're between a rock and a hard place.

Sylar:

As usual, I suggest giving him stats without the normal ranges. 6 Sanity, 4 Stamina would be ok. I'm a bluff old traditionalist I know.

'Stopwatch' doesn't need to say 'Magical Item' and the text should be: "Any phase: Exhaust to automatically pass one Evade check. Stopwatch does not refresh during your next upkeep."

'I want that Power' is very ambiguous and confusing. How exactly does it work? Will it work will all investigators? (Hint: it won't work with Lily Chen, and others will cause problems. See earlier posts about the Jonathan Turtledove character). Currently the clue token expenditure is part of the effect, so if you didn't have three clues you could still use the power. Usual problem with investigator ability skill tests: they're not a very good way of making it difficult to use the ability. Make him spend Sanity instead.

Lose the 'starting monster trophy'. It's characterful but it's not much use and it's more complex than it's worth. No starting item is worth adding three lines of special footnote for! Plus if you want to make the main special ability work, you're going to need that space...

Nathan Petrelli:

'Charismatic' doesn't interact with Nathan's other abilities and is unnecessary. Lose it, or put it on another custom investigator. You're going to need the space, because...

'Flying Man' needs waaaay more explanation. Try this: "Movement: While in a street, and if there are no monsters in the same street, Nathan may spend one movement point to move to the Sky. While in the Sky, Nathan may spend 1 Movement point to move to any street. If Nathan ends his movement in the Sky, he must encounter all monsters in the Sky as if he and they were in a street or location. If Nathan is in the Sky during the Arkham Encounter phase, he must draw a Sky Encounter." That's not perfect - there are going to a lot of small clashes and odd effects on monster movement etc - but it'll do. It's still a freakin' awesome power.

Hiro Nakamura:

'Lay of the Land' should say "Any phase: If Hiro would become Lost in Time and Space, move him to the River Docks instead."

'Teleportation' is a slightly mad and complex idea (and I still don't like all these built-in Will checks) but it might work if you phrase it a bit like this: "Movement: Hiro may spend 2 Movement points to make a Will (-2) check. If he passes, draw an Other World Encounter card and resolve the 'Other' encounter. If Hiro is not insane or unconscious, he may immediately move to any street or location in Arkham."

Elle Bishop:

The ability should be in the form of a fixed Unique item that she can't ever lose. Never mind all these WIll checks; the item should be "Magical Weapon. One-handed. Any phase: Exhaust and lose 1 Stamina to gain +4 to Combat checks until the end of this combat." Elle then needs an actual ability of her own; I suggest making her 'magically resistant' with some ability like: "Any phase: Elle takes 2 less Stamina damage in combat from all monsters that have the ability 'Physical Resistance' or 'Physical Immunity'. This cannot reduce a monster's Stamina damage to less than 1."

H. P. Lovecraft:

(Incidentally, this isn't the first HPL investigator; it is, at minimum, the fifth, and that's not mention all the other horror writers, authors etc. Best picture yet, though.)

'Weaver of Worlds' should say: "Arkham Encounter Phase: When drawing an encounter card, H.P. may draw as if he was in an Arkham location of his choice."

Howard Chattington:

'Study the Corpse' is too weak at the moment: the tougher monsters tend to only have one or two copies each, so Howard would be very unlikely to be helped. The obvious way to broaden the appeal is dimension symbols. So: "Any phase: Howard takes 1 less Sanity damage (to a minimum of 1) and 1 less Stamina damage (to a minimum of 1) from monsters whose dimension symbol matches the dimension symbol of a trophy in Howard's possession."

thecorinthian said:

Interesting, interesting. I totally see what you mean about voices, i had not thought of it that way before. It's too easy to exploit. Looking over all the other investigator cards again, i don't see anyone that has a similar ability, so i'm having a hard time putting together the best way to make it work.

I would work out the entertainer problem as this. If an investigator is devoured, they go to the box, not back into the investigator pool. Gone for good. They've been eaten, they should not be able to pop back up later in the game and be like "I got better!".

If another player is devoured, and draws the entertainer AFTER Jonathan at some point had the persona, then yes they can use her ability again. Jonathan is'nt really PLAYING the other card, just emulating the special ability of it. In the rare case something like this could actually happen, two doom tokens down, what luck!

thecorinthian said:

This is a very cool idea for an ability. Howards stats make him a potential beast in combat as well.

Thank you for the input. I haven't learned the lingo yet but your adjustments have helped me in the right direction. I will make the changes and think about how to word things in the future.

Lol, I can do this all day long.

ivory_tower said:

However pompous all this advice of mine might sound, I should also say that there are no hard-and-fast rules about how to phrase the abilities on cards. All you can really do is look at similar abilities and copy how they're worded.

For instance: it's nearly always a good idea to start abilities with a 'phase' tag, like "Any phase:" or "Movement:" etc. but sometimes it's unnecessary. A few of our veteran forum users will probably tell you that I am a pedant and a snob when it comes to how cards are phrased, so I recommend you ignore me if it seems like I am impossible to please.

MacGyver does have a first name, btw. It's 'Angus'. They didn't reveal it until the last episode, iirc.

thecorinthian said:

It's cool man. I am anal about things as well. And kudos for knowing Macgyver's first name. I'm impressed. Even I didn't know that and I was a huge fan back in the day. Of course I was only in Middle school at the time; lol.

I updated Macgyver with your advice for Elle by making one of his abilities a skill to make room for the explanation. Here is the accompanying skill for Macgyver.

DeepSix said:

I don't think it would be overpowered if it worked within the same neighborhood. As you said, Mandy works regardless of area and can be used for anyone. I rather think it would accomplish exactly what you want, because it encourages teamwork. For example, it allows one of them to kill a monster and the other to collect a clue in the same neighborhood and they still benefit from their abilities.

How about this guy? He looks like he fits the time period (although he's from the 1840's or so).

ummmm,seriously you cant just take other investigators abilities and paste them on your guy!!!!!! -9 for stealing other peoples ideas!

pittplayer said:

Why not?

My 'Harriman Nash' cultist character had an ability directly copied off Wendy Adams. It's less original, but I don't see anything wrong with it. If there's a good ability which would balance a character, why not just use it? The alternative is often to try to come up with some absurdly complicated variation....

Made some adjustments, any thoughts? Should i stick a fork in these two?

thecorinthian said:

Copy and paste abilities into new investigators is actually a good idea, since Arkham Horror has a lot of theme into the game the investigator has to fit into the theme.

With that said I have uploaded my Investigators to flickr www.flickr.com/photos/fireblaze/

I hope someone finds them interesting and continue to work on them refining and change them into really good Investigators.

Jack The Ripper has a really cool theme, and Jonathan the man of many faces has complex but interesting abilites, perhaps combind them?

you can do anything you want, you could make a series of Poo Fighters!! if you wanted or make a team of the Golden Girls!! whatever!! but if you are going to post characters on the board expect other people to comment and i think a lame idea is 100 times better then a stolen idea. That is just me. If you want we could just not comment on on peoples characters cause no one does that right, The corinthian? I just dont know who would ever comment on someones character........