Admiral142 said:

You mean you don't think the ability, "Exhaust an item: win the game" adds to the fun? ;')

Ok, so I've got some feedback from my gaming group too, made some changes based on everyone's feedback, and here is what I came up with:

My friends preferred once per combat to once per turn, so I made it so. However, I need to know, for the Dark Arts ability: Against the AO, could she use this ability only once or once per round of combat?

As for the "it homogenize spells" argument, I agree, but then I feel it's kind of thematic. At the beginning, Willows does a lot of small, diverse spell, but when she become a full-power witch, she attack and blocks with magical energy, basically.

So, what do you think. This is my final version till playtest, I think. Next: Adding the expansion symbol, personal stories and then, Xander Harris!

Collex said:

I don't think it's too bad... it would be more of a problem if everyone had an incentive to just heap all their spells on to Willow, but obviously now she can only use an absolute maximum of two additional spells per turn anyway.

Seems pretty polished now.

thecorinthian said:

Agreed. As it is, if it weren't Willow, it could probably be printed as an official character (almost). Actually, one problem remains. She can prevent damage in final combat. You need to remove that ability during final combat (otherwise several AOs can't defeat her).

Avi_dreader said:

Can she really? I might be wrong, but the AO does not count as a monster. It is it's own component, an AO. At least, that was the way we always played it in my group. Were we wrong?

Collex said:

It certainly doesn't. But Avi might have a point anyway: a few official components which obviously only work on monsters do have a note which also specifies that they don't work on AOs. Strictkly speaking the clarification isn't necessary but I guess some players might find it helpful. I wouldn't bother myself, but it's your call I guess.

Looks good, Collex, way to go! I like the way you found to balance it.

I am new to AH and Strange Eons, so I wanted to create my first investigator, let me know what you all think. I went down the Hellboy freak soldier route.

And a weapon.

I don't know about his skills. He seems to be weak at evrything except fighting, and even then, he won't fight for very long if he can't succeed at horror check.

His ability seems ok tough. You've found a great way of expressing something I wanted to do for a real long time.

I think the machine gun should cost more than 5$. A +6 item I don't have to exhaust? That's kind of powerful. Also, you forgot the Luger. We need to see it to comment on it.

It's a good first try, will need to be polished more tough.

Welcome to the fascinating world of AH and SE!

As for my personnal project, I'm working on Willow's personnal Story.

As you probably know, Klaus' special ability duplicates Zoey's. If that was intentional, then Klaus is probably best thought of as a replacement for Zoey.

avec said:

Agreed. Other than that, it seems pretty balanced. And you left out the lugar.

Hey thanks for the welcome, and I haven't got enough time to feel out all the supplied investigators. I need to post the luger and the $5 thing was a complete oversight. My friends and I are having a complete blast figuring out the game. This was definitely a first (weak) effort. Strange thing is I must of saved the wrong version of him, I had given him a custom ability along the lines of ignoring Horror Check modifiers ( I am sure this was overpowering), it was "I Have Gazed Into Hell...."

Anyway, I will continue to learn and come up with new ones as my game knowledge progresses. I was thinking about a Circus Strongman.

There is also one thing I must mention. It's aesthetic rather than mechanical, but I feel that if want someone to go to the trouble or printing and playing with something I created, it must at least be visually appealing. On your investigator, I can't determine if it's a photo or not. I for one don,t like photo as Investigator, unless it has been modified in photoshop or something to give it a more artistic appearance.

Your machine gun however, is obviously a picture. Worse, it's on a white background. That extremely unappealing and clash with the style of AH. I admit pictures for items are extremely hard to find. My tip: don,t do an image search for your item. Think of a context in which the item must be used. You will find some interesting images of a scene where your item is featured. Crop the image in order to fit the box or to draw the attention on the item, and voilà. For a good example, look three pages or so ago for my Gardian's Scythe (or wait a couple of days 'till I post the updated version).

Hi evryone! I worked a bit on my AH stuff this weekend, and I've got the Willow Personnal Story and (Edited) Buffy' Scythe ready. You'll notice those new cards have a nifty new expansion symbol. Do you like it?

I think they are balanced, but I'm unsure of the wording of the benefit and of the last sentence in the main story. English is not my mother tongue, anyone care to check it's idiomatic? Thanks

As for the Scythe:

So is it more balanced now? Also, I must say a re-worded the Pass card so that she loses her monster trophies when she gain that card (it wasn't clear, but ti was what I wanted it to do)

Next on the List: Xander Harris. Got his ability now, so he is next. After that, maybe I'll take a break of investigators and work on my Caleb herald.

Last thing: The scope of the project expand every time I thought about it. Thus, I wondered if I should start a "Sunnydale Horror" thread to discuss idea not related to investigator (i.e: a board). This thread would also serve as a fixed place to get all the ressources (as opposed to looking for it on this thread). Would you like that? Or do you prefer I stay in the main threads? (Note: New stuff would still be posted on this thread. The other thread would be for idea discussion and for "archive". Follow me?)

Like the story; it's flavourful without being overpowering: the pass is relatively easy to do though you need to do a bit of work, failing is unlikely; the pass effect is a small bonus, the fail effect is nastier but not appalling.

Incidentally, I would never have guessed English was not your first language: your text is completely fluent.

Thanks YellowPebble. To be fair, I speak English almost daily. Still, some times, it's not pitch-perfect.

I've worked some more on ths "expansion", now named Sunnydale Horror, and here is very preliminary version ofthe next investigator: Xander Harris.

After two combat-oriented investigator, here is one that you could call a "support" investigator. Now, for the thematic explanation of his two abilities:

First Aid: In the series, Xander has two great moments: When he revive Buffy at the end of season 1 (healing her Stamina) and when he bring Willow back to her senses an the end of Season 6 (healing her Sanity). In addition, he help everyone numerous time in the season, with either a good speech or a helping hand.

Good Old Reliable: Xander has the knack to arrive just at the right moment. This ability let him forgo his normal movement to go directly to one of his friend.

I must admit I don't like the name I've found for both ability. I find them bland. Anyone has a better idea?

Feedback is more than welcome, as always...

Collex said:

Why does the Scythe have hands on it? It exhausts in any phase. I don't see why hands are relevant. Also, you should probably bump down the bonus to +3, +4 at the maximum, a +5 handless bonus is enormous. It pretty much lets you kill any monster with ease. And you need to explicitly state what the bonus given is, is it magical, physical or neither, because at it normally works, it would be neither.

Why doesn't Willow get +1 bonuses for her spell check in combat? You do know that spell checks are only for casting the spells, not using them, right? Is it for thematic reasons?

Collex said:

If you wanted to toughen him up a bit (you could make it so he could heal himself, although that would lead to a bunch of thematic problems, like essentially turning him into a spell caster). For Good Old Reliable, you could strengthen that ability by only having it cost two movement points.

Here is my first custom investigator, please leave any comments on how it can be improved....the portrait used was done by myself

Avi_dreader said:

So the Scythe clearly still have problems, as it is not clear at all what she does. I tought the magical weapon would make it clear it was a magical bonus. Hmm, ok so to stay thematically and mechanically correct, here is yet another formulation:

2H Magical Weapon

Exhaust to gain +5 to combat check

Exhaust to give a +3 magical bonus to combat check to another investigator.

Would that be more acceptable? (I'm not on my computer, so no access to SE right now)

As for Willow not getting a bonus to spell check in combat, yes it is thematic. By getting closer to the earth, she is more focused in order to perform rituals, but combat spells being more agressive, out of touch with the natural order of the world, she don't get bonus to those. It's also a power consideration: keep in mind Tara already gives her a +1 bonus to spell check. I would not want her to get no penalty to cast a dread curse of azatoth, for example...

hyeperionx said:

Re: Lillian Garett:

Nice work on the art! But the ability is a bit mad. Several issues that I can see:

a) fighting monsters "at a distance" is bound to make some spells and items malfunction in funny ways;

b) you've added at least one extra skill check to every Mythos phase, and probably two;

c) and a purely "preventative" special ability like this doesn't seem that interesting, particularly since

d) the chance of passing a Lore (-3) [3] check is about 0.04, which is not very much .

You'd be very unlikely to ever close a gate with this ability. If you really want the ability to work as it is now, you need to change the phrasing of the ability quite drastically. Try something a bit like this:

" Mythos Phase: Before the Mythos card is drawn, Lillian may make a Lore (-3) [3] check. If she passes, and the Mythos card causes a gate to open, Lillian may immediately make a Fight or Lore check to close that gate as if she had explored it. If she passes this check, she may not seal the gate. If she fails this check, she must Fight or Evade all monsters placed on the gate this turn."

But that's still fairly confusing... I think it's a nice idea, but it's a very complex ability given that it's unlikely to ever work! For example, why can she only attempt it if she's got Lore 6? Why not let her try with less Lore? It's a bit pointless making a skill check impossible for someone with Lore <6, when it would be nearly impossible anyway even if they could take it!

Collex said:

You probably mean to say Exhaust to gain +5 to Combat checks until the end of this combat. As it's currently worded, the bonus would only last for one round.

And it should be "to another investigator's combat check."

So how do we print this stuff off (esp. the unique cards and investigator peice) to use in the game, allowing it to look right? Or do you just make do with it on paper?

Up until recently I've made do with paper or heavy cardstock. Photo paper might work. Fortunately, my wife works for a fulfillment and print shop, and she has access to a remarkable printer that can make beautiful copies of these cards, and I'm looking to abuse that access in the upcoming months.

Been playing a while and always fancied doubling this game up with another hobby of mine.
So here is my first attempt.
Jean-Paul Valley AKA Azrael from DC comics Knightfall series and subsequent title along with his sword.

I know there is a new one but he will have to wait, that and this guys mental instability makes him well suited to Arkham and it environs.

Thoughts please!