@cimmerz: how'd you do that? I used to know how to make Strange Eons do my bidding, but obviously I'm losing my touch. I always ended up with either too much money spare, too much focus, or the skills too high.

@graksnor: glad someone else can see the appeal. The inspiration for the ability was that once or twice in almost every game, my regular group gets into a situation where if the order of players was different, things would come out a whole lot better.

@morgaln: That's the stuff! Of course that is how it should be worded. Interesting side note though: when I made up the ability I looked in the rulebook to see exactly when the first player marker is passed, and strictly speaking it's not in the Mythos phase... it's just at the 'Turn end'. Although using your wording for the ability, you could put it under 'Any phase' and it wouldn't matter, because it could only be triggered when the marker was passed anyway.

Thanks for feedback, all.

Graksnor said:

Glad you like it!

Here is another Investigator I came up with. As always, feedback is welcome!

I was kinda playing with the limits of how powerful a character Strange Eons would allow before declaring "Unbalanced". Also, this marks my first attempt at an original Special Ability.

Ok, I corrected these two based on feedback. let me know what you think.

This is one that I really like the concept behind it. The idea of a member of the Great Race of Yith who possesses people and uses them to fight the GOO amuses me.

Ok, so still a pastich of the character by Terry Brooks in response to a challenge to come up with a character that could beat AH by his/her self. Powerful? Yes, but not intended for group play. None the less...

@Feonor

Richard Mayhew

Dream Traveller is an interesting ability. It pretty much means he'll have a choice between encounters while in an OW a good amount of time, since even if his OW comes up, he'll have the option to take the "Other" encounter (every card has an Other option), or Dreamland option if it's available.

One thing though. I made an investigator (Nina Fisher, a few pages back in this thread) that had an ability that kicked in while in OWs as well. I gave her the Find Gate spell also. It was pointed out to me that this isn't a good thing to do, and I think it applies to Richard as well. If you give an investigator an ability that applies to Other Worlds, and then give them an option of leaving the OW sooner (Find Gate in this case) then you're pretty much reducing their abilities effectiveness. With two options to choose from in OWs, I don't think Richard needs the Find Gate spell. Hope I explained that properly.

@Cimmerz: You are right, it is a poor combination. Lets see... how about this instead?

(serves me right for doing the spell by memory)

thecorinthian said:

And that's exactly what I tried doing the first time but no images showed up in the post window so I abandoned it and just posted links. Answer me this. Are the images supposed to show before publishing or not. Because if they're not then maybe I was doing it right the whole time and just didn't know it. Anyways, thanks for the help. I appreciate it. I'll try posting them again but I don't feel optimistic about it.

Whoa! It worked! Amazing!

And the my most recent creation.

@Feonor: a few suggestions.

- There's already a 'Dreamer' in Kingsport Horror, so call Richard Mayhew 'The Dream-Traveller', or the 'Sleeper' or the 'Daydreamer'. Or maybe the 'Somnambulist'.

- Investigators who start with no money are often screwed by it. What I'd do is this: use the 'custom possessions' mode in SE, and start him with four clues, not five, then remove the little footnote about the clue at the Witch House. I hate those little footnotes anyway; they really clutter up the abilities box. Leave the clue at the Witch House, so that if Richard stays there on turn one, he can get up to five clues, but if he can't then that's his own problem. That way, you've got enough spare cash to start him with $2 as well. Of course, a gate might open under him at the start of the game, but somehow I think he'll cope.

- I think the 'Dream Traveller' ability might take out some of the fun. My reaction, if I drew Richard Mayhew, would be that the ability makes the OWs too 'safe', and I'd never want to actually use it (I don't like the Photographer or the Author either). It's also a shame when the most effective and efficient form of play is often the least eventful. So I'd not give Richard the choice of 'Other' - he should be stuck with either Dreamlands or the place he's really in.

- It's also a very difficult ability to phrase right. I'd do it something like this: "Other World encounter phase: Whenever <name> would resolve an Other World encounter, <he/she> may choose to have the Dreamlands encounter from the same card instead. If that card has no Dreamlands encounter, <name> must have the appropriate encounter as normal."

- The OW survival ability is good enough that Mayhew doesn't necessaily need the 'ultra-fixed' Astral Travel. Certainly it's not an essential part of his character. He could just start with Astral Travel as normal, and once it's used, it's gone. On the other hand, if you really do want him to have that spell permanently, the special ability needs its own name/heading. And it should probably say "Any phase: <name> cannot trade or discard Astral Travel." And if he is going to be teleporting around the board using that spell, I'd give him a 0-3 sneak track, so to make sure he can't get too much of an advantage by cynically setting his Speed to 1.

@Whitechapel: glad to see you've got the images working. As usual, I have some ideas about how to improve card phrasing....

Fred Jones - The ability should read "Mythos Phase: At the end of the Phase, while in Arkham, <name> may spend 2 Clue tokens to move one monster on the board to <his/her> current street or location." That's not a bad ability, but it's a bit weird.... not only is it one of those Magic-the-Gathering style 'activated abilities' where you spend stuff for a peculiar purpose (which is rare in Arkham Horror, and probably deliberately so), it's also a sort of 'action at a distance' thing, which there aren't many examples of in the main game (they probably deliberately kept them to a minimum too). And this ability can uproot yellow-bordered monsters. Hell, it can move the Dunwich Horror.

Shaggy - I recommend changing his ability a bit. It doesn't need to say 'except upkeep', because it's not like it would matter if you used it at the end of the upkeep - except that that illustrates the main problem, which is that Shaggy is (functionally) a Focus 4 investigator, if you choose to use him that way. I think it's more interesting if he doesn't get an additional focus step, but actually just gets to use his focus at any point during the turn. So it should probably say "Any phase: If Shaggy has not adjusted any of his Skill sliders yet this turn, he may now do so as if it was the Upkeep." That should do it. It creates a bit of an interpretation problem, though: can he adjust skills during combat , or after drawing and looking at an encounter card but before actually having the encounter? If you think he should be allowed to do this, that's fine, and it's a very powerful ability but probably not completely broken. (Even if he only had Focus 1, it would still be pretty good). If you think he shouldn't be allowed to 'interrupt' combat or an encounter in order to adjust his skills, then you need to add a sentence to the end of the ability: "Shaggy may not use this ability during combat, or while resolving an encounter card."

Mystery machine - should be "Movement: Exhaust to get 2 extra movement points." It's functionally identical to the Motorcycle common item, except it costs $1 more. There's nothing wrong with that, I just wanted to make sure you realized.

Scooby-Doo - text should be "Any phase: Discard to pass a Luck, Speed or Sneak check."

Scooby Snacks - text should be "Any phase: Discard to pass a Horror check."

Daphne - 'helping hand' is a bit unclear and should probably say "Any phase: Once per turn, when making a Skill check, one investigator may use Daphne's current Skill value instead of his or her own." I think that wording would allow you to include any bonuses Daphne had (from Allies or whatever).

Velma - 'Jinkies' should say "Any phase: when <name> adds a Clue token to a Skill check, the additional die scores a success on a 4, 5 or 6." That's a frickin' brilliant ability, even if you think it doesn't override a Curse (which I think it should). Scrap the second ability altogether. She doesn't need it, there's a danger of it being too powerful anyway, and rolling extra dice to determine something is very clumsy.

John Constantine - Waaaaaay too much fixed stuff. I love Hellblazer as much as anyone, but these fixed items don't just add 'character', they also dictate how the character needs to be played, which is a bit annoying if someone draws the investigator at random and doesn't want to play him that way. Leave him with the Elder Sign (it's by far the most significant one), but cut all the rest of the fixed stuff. Put his speed to 1-4, which should drop his Focus to 1 anyway. Give him another dollar instead of the fags, and make it a random skill. Cut the random Unique and give him +$1 and another spell instead. The man's a wizard, after all.

Oh, and Constantine's special ability (which is pretty cool, btw) should probably say "Any phase: If <name> is devoured while in Arkham or an Other World, <he/she> is lost in time and space instead, <his/her> Sanity and Stamina are set to 1, and a Doom token is added to the Doom track." I added the San/Stam clause in order to try to sidestep a few rules confusions. In the cases of some 'devouring' effects (like losing all sanity/stamina at the same time) it would have been unclear what san/stam he ended up on, because the rulebook fairly understandably doesn't specify. There's another problem too - one which is harder to solve: there are some continuous effects in AH which can cause you to be 'constantly' devoured - so even though John had become LiTaS, he might still meet the criteria of another card which devours him, so it'd 'break' the game. The clause about Arkham/OWs makes it work against Yog-Sothoth, but there might be other AOs (or any type of card really) which would clash with this ability. Just a heads up.

Is that everyone? Yep. There you go.

I am still new to the game having played it only a few times over the last couple weeks, so I can't really respond about abilities yet. I do think it is great that a game like this is able to have fan generated content and be able to play with it. Here are a brother and sister duo I just made for your consideration.

Both quite good, although Victor's ability is massively, massively more powerful than Eleanor's.

Victor's ability makes him a combat monster, probably one of the best combat investigators. Many of the game's monsters will be almost unable to kill him. Unless this is what you wanted, I recommend making him only gain Stamina when he succeeds at a combat check.

Eleanor's ability is fine since it happens after the horror check, so all it really does is heal her a bit when there's no more loss coming anyway.

These two don't seem like the type to have Focus 1. I'd reduce Eleanor's Sneak and Victor's Lore - that outta get them both to Focus 2.

Right, here we go.

I'm still trying to balance a proper ally-recruiting investigator. I reckon that letting them buy allies for half price is too good, and if you expect the investigator to actually go in search of allies by having Arkham encounters, he has to be pretty sure it's going to be worthwhile. So:

I could also add the 'Charlie Kane' ability, so that when he has an encounter, he can gain the ally even if it's been returned to the box. But that might not really be necessary. Any thoughts?

Edited to add: Does anyone recognize the person in the picture? I've edited the image to try to make him less recognizable, but I'd be interested to know if it's enough...

thecorinthian said:

thanks for the input. What if I make it so he gains 2 or 3 stamina whenever he defeats a monster. Kind of like he thrives on fighting monsters.

I can't think of the guy in the picture but he kind of looks like Terry o'quinn. i think that's his name. The guy that played in Stepfather and is John Locke on Lost.

Nope, that's not it... obviously I have disguised him reasonably well.

Two more for your consideration: I've changed the Fool into a sort of gate acrobat, and given the Fool's old highly-tactical ability to the Chess Player. So these two aren't entirely new, but they're more flavourful at least. I think someone posted an investigator with a similar ability to the Fool a little while ago, so apologies there - great minds think alike, obviously.

thecorinthian said:

@Thecorinthian: I appreciate your suggestions, but respectfully disagree in some areas. I find the photographer (especially in Kingsport) and the author to be two of my favourites to play as they provide a much needed survivability dynamic to a team.

Anyway, here is an amended version for the group's review.

Hello! I have amended Oscar Zoroasters abilities. Here are the revisions I made.

True Mage <b>Any Phase:</b> <name> may spend 1 clue token to add 1 success to any Lore or Spell check. He may do this as often as he likes.

<h1>Spell Book</h1>
<b>Any Phase:</b> Whenever <name> returns from an Other World, he may draw one spell.

Does it make him too powerful to add a success to a lore check automatically? I'm kind of comparing it to the Lawers ability.

Also, here is Arnold Collins rewrite:

The Lucky One <b>Any Phase:</b> <name> automatically passes <b>Luck</b> checks.

<h1>Denial of Fate</h1>
<b>Any Phase</b>: As long as <name> has the Unique Item, <i>The King in Yellow</i>, he cannot be <b>devoured</b> unless he chooses to allow it. Discard <i>The King in Yellow</i> if the Ancient One awakens.

(Also took away the fixed skill, Luck, and gave him one random skill.

Automatically passing luck checks is pretty good, but not as good as some abilities, so I gave him Denial of Fate as well. What do you think, is that too much?

BTW, we got Innsmouth the other day, and those investigators are crazy good!

@Feonor: That's alright, its only a matter of taste after all! The pick-your-encounter characters do add survivability, I just prefer to live dangerously. The way he is now, he's a very very reliable OW voyager, which is fair enough. Nice work.

@Admiral142: The 'Lucky One' thing isn't necessarily too much, since all it will probably do is save you from some sanity loss in the Other Worlds, and ensure that you get the occasional item... the game hardly has any 'important' luck checks. Except against Hastur. Against Hastur, this guy can't lose .... so you probably need to add "...except those taken during the Final Battle." or somesuch. Also, bear in mind that he will always be using his max Lore because his luck track is completely irrelevent.

You might be right about Oscar Zoroaster's spell check thing - it might be too powerful. It's the skill Mystic Gift, except it's half the price - it probably needs playtesting. On the one hand, it's very powerful; on the other hand, we are always in need of more spellcasters who can actually compete.

Heh... I really like the fool and his abilities... Too bad I hate printing out custom investigators ;'D (even more so now that they don't have personal stories).

thecorinthian said:

I'm late in the game, because not only did I miss this whole section of thread, but I missed out on GIANT KILLER ROBOTS!?!?!

BTW, this investigator is really cool. I'm going to see about playtesting him also. Way to put the iron to those wrinkles!

thecorinthian said:

Looks like the Masonic portrait of Harry Truman to me.

Thought I'd offer up the first custom investigator I made, directly stolen from... err inspired by one of my favorite animes/mangas. That aside, here is a monster to hunt and battle monsters:

My goal was to have him fighting monsters on the board, and if he gets eaten he'll take a round to heal up then be right back there kicking butt straight to the Ancient One fight. The barred from southside penalty is because he's a vampire, and well... the church is right there. Mocking him. Repelling him. The fact he's an undead is also why Blessings cause him physical damage and up the terror level. Passerby see a monster writhing and screaming and run in fear.

Other rules I was considering for him were:

1) Drop his Focus to one, but add a once per game ability to discard monster trophies and remove negative cards (injuries, curses, corruptions,etc.) on a one toughness per card discarded ability.

2) Remove some of his resources to add a .45 automatic to his fixed gear. Upside: two guns, huge fight stat. Downsides: Pure Physical damage, lack of variety in gear, kind of cash poor.

Still on the "to do" list:

1) Add personal story. Offhand instinct says "gather twelve toughness of monster trophies to gain ability to negate AO's attack once" with a fail of "Become LiTaS three times to lose Control Art Restriction but gain +1 Lore."

2) Publish marker image and backside of character card. They're done, just not posted.

3) Add .zip of complete character and/or .eon file(s).

@Dekrosse:

Good ideas, but both his special abilities need clarifying, and I also think you need to make at least one of them better .

Starting Location : I'm pretty sure Alucard is powerful enough (even at a low release level) to enter churches whenever he wants. (He does enter at least one church in the anime). So if anything, I'd do the exact opposite of what you've done. His starting location should be South Church. Just to mock it. Although there's one much bigger practical advantage: South Church is stable, so Strange Eons won't force you to put that stupid little clue-token disclaimer in the ability box. That footnote thing takes up space, shrinks the other text, and gets on people's nerves for aesthetic and practical reasons...

Fixed Possessions: Lose the 'Barred' card - it's pointless. And you could consider designing a special unique gun for him, one which can fire those special silver bullets made from melted crosses from Coventry Cathedral or whatever it is. A decent physical weapon which can be made magical for one round or something? Like the Ancient Spear? Just a thought. Don't add a fixed .45. One fixed phys weapon is enough - in some cases it's more than enough.

Control Art Restriction: There's also a problem with how he gets devoured. If he's devoured by being reduced to 0 sanity and 0 stamina at the same time, you need to say what happens to him, because the game rules won't handle it. The obvious answer is that he's restored to 1 san and 1 stam when he's LiTaS, but you do need to specify that in the ability. The same goes for his maximum sanity or stamina reaching zero. So try this wording instead:

"Any Phase: If <name> is devoured while in Arkham or an Other World, <he/she> may choose to be Lost in Time and Space instead. If <he/she> does so, <his/her> current and maximum sanity and stamina totals are restored to a minimum of 1."

I think that closes all the loopholes. Since the final battle isn't "in Arkham" or "in an Other World", he couldn't use the ability then, so he's not invincible against the AO. Duplicate injury and Madness cards only devour you when you draw the second copy - so if you can dodge being devoured then, you can carry on playing with both cards. It's an odd effect, but it has precedent on an official card; the Messenger ally will achieve the same thing.

Eternally Damned: Barring a character from Southside and making him unable to enter the church is flavourful, but it's such a minor and predictable ability that it's barely worth adding so many words for. Plus, Stamina damage and a Terror level increase seems like a clumsy way of restricting an investigator or motivating the player's behaviour. If you want this character to be repelled by the sign of the cross, do it more simply: " Any phase: Whenever <name> would be Blessed, <he/she> is Cursed instead."

I still reckon he needs something else though. Right now, he's got two 'passive' abilities which only trigger when certain rare game events happen - it's not very satisfying. He needs something special he can do. Discarding trophies to remove injuries isn't that good - it's too 'defensive'.

Allright, here is a guy I've been working on for my expansion. I'm actually surprised no one has done this yet, or at least, I haven't seen one yet.

Alternatively, he could be Fujibayashi Sarutobi, the Street Sweeper. I'm hoping that his -1 to skill checks balances him, but am looking forward to feedback.

Corinthian, because imitation is the sincerest form of flattery:

Bonus points if you can find out where the name is from!

Constructive criticism is always welcome. Thanks!