thecorinthian said:

Interesting... Zeal is a bit of a weak effect though (although granted— it would be nice for the initial draw). If you wanted to add a little more fang to this guy, have it so Zeal effects *all* investigators when he is in a game.

kroen said:

Cool. One question. What happens to his corruption cards when you discard them? Do they go to the bottom of their respective piles, or does he effectively burn throught the corruption deck twice as fast?

Avi_dreader said:

Zeal is meant to be a bit rubbish. It's really only there for the initial draw, since there are very few other ways of getting a random ally, I think. Even if it affected all investigators, it still wouldn't do much, except make the Politician and the Exped Leader much better.

Then again, trading allies isn't that useful either. I had another idea for what this guy's ability could be: he could be a wandering 'ally shop'. In addition to the Ally deck at Ma's, Aloysius could have his own Ally deck which is reduced by the Terror level just the same, and anyone in the same space as Aloysius could buy one of his allies in the same way as they can buy allies at Ma's. But it would take waaaay too many words to explain all that on a card.

Aloysius is a good idea, allies definitely need more play in AH. I think you should really consider using that ally shop ability too. Zeal is useless after the initial draw because allies are very rarely random draws, and Brothers-in-Arms is also going to be very rarely used. You could phrase it fairly compactly like this:

"While in Aloysius' location, investigators may purchase allies as though they were at Ma's. Keep a second ally deck in play for this purpose."

True, it doesn't explicitly state that the second deck is reduced by terror increases, but that should be obvious since it's an "ally deck". Nor is it real clear how it's "as though they were at Ma's" if they're not drawing from the normal ally deck. But honestly, it's a custom investigator so the only people using it will have gotten it right here. You're not mass-releasing it in gaming stores or anything.

The real benefit of this ability is the fact that there are 22 allies to choose from in the game instead of 11, which is very cool. Definitely better than his abilities now, which are nice since they're ally-related but they really don't do much. The mobile ally store on the other hand is a bit more interesting.

Nice work!

Avi_dreader said:

I'm afraid he burns it twice as fast.

thecorinthian said:

Contacts

During step 10 of setup, deal out 11 Ally cards from the box into a special deck. When the terror level rises, return one of these cards to the box.
<h1>Calling in Favors</h1>
<b>Upkeep:</b> Any investigator at the same location as <name> (including <name>) may discard 10 toughness of monster trophies or 2 gate trophies to select one Ally from <name>'s special deck.

Looks like it just fits to me.

-Frank

Completely useless with only the base game though.

Very neatly done, Frank - cheers. I was being unduly pessimistic.

Here's a new version:

He is a very odd character to play as, though. Starting with a random Ally of his own is the main thing that's going to make him interesting, and I'd quite happily play as him, but he might not be everyone's cup of tea. Kroen, you have a point as well - obviously this guy is an 'advanced' investigator in that you need to have at least 11 more Allies from expansions in order to use him.

Also, you can't buy Allies from him using 'combinations' of monster/gate trophies, only with one kind or the other, so he is a bit harder to use than Ma's Boarding House, which is fine. Because it's an absolutely kick-ass ability for the investigators to have on their side: the choice of another 11 allies. It could easily mean the difference between defeat and victory. Basil Elton, William Bain, those Professors who make your weapons actually work...

That works! I also realized you could simply write it as the ally deck has 22 cards, discarding 2 per terror increase. Then you draw from the ally deck whether at Ma's or at Aloysius. This version is even better if you want him to be stronger.

I'm not sure I do want him to be stronger. I'm already concerned that he's too good - or rather, that his ability is the sort of game-altering ability that really shouldn't be on an investigator. It's like having a Guardian that walks around town.

Giving the investigators 22 allies to choose from, rather than 11, is already amazingly good. It needs to be restricted a bit, which is why a) Aloysius requires payment in one type of trophy, not a mixture, and b) he has a seperate set, so if you're after a particular ally, you don't have a choice of where to go to get it. And there is another downside, it occurs to me: the allies in this deck are not part of the Ally deck, so they count as 'unavailable' for the purpose of encounters

Two ways I might limit the ability further:

- Reduce the number of allies Aloysius sells (so his deck only consists of 7 or even just 5 allies).

- Increase the price, so it's 15 toughness or three gate trophies - but then I suspect everyone would take their money elsewhere. Specifically, to Ma's Boarding House.

- Have him provide random allies, not chosen ones, and have it cost 1 gate / 5 monster. If his stock was limited (only 5 in the deck, for example) and still eroded by the Terror level, it might not be too broken. It means that there's a limited stock of cheap random allies available early in the game. Of course, once they're gone (bought or returned to the box) it leaves the character with no special abilities whatsoever.

There's no room on the card for more special abilities, but I'd quite like to make the character himself a bit more distinctive. He has a starting Ally (which helps specialize him a bit) but it's not really enough. And since I want him to have a starting Ally, I don't want to make his skill tracks very extreme at all, because that might 'clash' with the ally's Skill bonuses. The obvious option is an interesting fixed item (since giving him the enchanted cane isn't very imaginative). I could make up an entirely new item, but I think there are enough investigators with that already. What I really want is an existing Unique that does something interesting, but which usually doesn't turn up soon enough for the investigator to really mess around with it. There must be a few items like that whcih deserve to be plucked out of obscurity. Any suggestions?

I don't think he will be as powerful as you think. On the "What house rules do you use" thread, more than one person has said they already play with a larger-than-normal ally deck (at least for certain purposes, like random draws). Regardless, I don't think having 22 cards in the ally deck is overpowered at all. (I kind of think it's a dumb rule that there's only 11. Allies are not put in play often enough for this to be necessary. Nor does it matter to me that they are discarded at terror increases. But I digress...) I do think a double size ally deck is a very cool mechanic for this guy, though. After all, he is a very bland character (like the Expedition Leader) but makes the rest of the team stronger. Both characters do this, and in very interesting ways. One supports his team's Sanity/Stamina, and the other helps allies play a big part in the game.

As for Unique Items, Dhol Chants would be perfectly in theme and gives him a second ally. It might be overkill on the ally theme though. Other than that nothing really stands out. Didn't consider all the expansions though. Definitely pick something other than a combat weapon. Elixir of Life maybe? I dunno.

I wonder about the power level of this one...

The Pathologist's ability is a good idea but could probably be stronger. You could try this: "Any phase: <name> may discard a monster trophy to add dice to a skill check as if he were spending X clue tokens, where X is the monster's toughness." I think that wouldn't actually interact with Gray's Anatomy, so he can keep that item too.

What is it with people and wanting to play as Yithians? This must be about the fourth Yithian investigator. Yours probably isn't that broken, but I'm not sure I'd ever want to play as it - I'd miss out on all the fun locations because I'd be too worried about the Terror level.

thecorinthian said:

How is your idea stronger? My idea lets you seal a gates using monsters/gates instead of clues. Yours doesn't.

kroen said:

But mine gets you way more clue tokens for your trophies. In your version, 1 trophy = 1 clue, which is not a particularly good exchange rate, particularly for gate trophies. It would cost five trophies to seal a gate - a very serious expenditure, since those five would certainly be able to buy you something else good.

In my estimatiion, getting more dice for each trophy is preferable to being able to use five trophies to seal a location. (Then again, I am less obsessed with sealing locations that many players on this board...). Of course, it is possible to come up with a version that works for both: "Any phase: You may spend a monster trophy at any time as if it were X Clue tokens, where X is the trophy's toughness" or similar.

Of course, any version that also uses Gate trophies has to either value them at 1 Clue token, or 5, or try to do something based around the inverse of the closing check modifier, but that's a tricky one to phrase.

kroen said:

Is there a precedent for Jeff Becker's Ruthless ability? I.e. is there an official character with that ability?

I think it's very strong for a character that starts with a speed of five. Imho, it's one of the major balancing factors in AH that you can either evade monsters to get to places or be held up by fighting monsters on the streets or in locations. It might be better balanced if the investigator was slow (speed 3) or rather weak in combat. Currently, about the only balancing factor is the low sanity.

Prepare to meet the new tier 1 character:

And two more investigators:

kroen said:

Well obviously that's amazing. And it's probably not even broken. He doesn't look much like a salty seadog, though. He looks more like a detective.

Although...aren't you tempted to make it reduce losses "to a minimum of 1"? Otherwise you're potentially creating infinite loops (in which, for example, Quentin can't hurt the Warlock and the Warlock can't hurt Quentin). I know that those loops just end after one iteration, but still...

(And forgive my ignorance, but what are these 'tiers' that people keep talking about? This seems to be a part of the discussion of the game that I've just missed out on entirely.)

EDITED to add: Good work on the Infiltrator and the Bartender. The latter could probably use some additional ability though - just dodging OW monsters automatically is good but it isn't much fun - certainly not when compared to the Infiltrator's ability to slip past monsters on gates.

This one I made just for fun, though I can only hope I still look as good as Stan Lee in 40 years (and I better not still be delivering mail):

Thanks for the positive critcism, thecorinthian And when coming from you, that means a lot.

Also, Micheal Mclagen and Harvery Walters suffers from the same "loops" so I don't see the problem.

I'm actually quite disappointed that non of the dunwich investigators starts in dunwich and that non of the kingsport investigators starts in kingsport.

And the tier system catagorize the power level of investigator, tier 1 being the most powerful, including investigators such as mandy, darrel, etc.

ha ha you made an investigator from yourself looks good!

but auto gain clues seems a little evil maybe change it to unstable locations only or something...

plus should he have a retainer?

Sothis said:

I'm not sure about unique items, but no other character is as well suited to the Dunwich spell Call Friend. Sure, Aloysius isn't exactly a spellcaster, but he can still get plenty of dice to jerk his allies around the board willy-nilly at the moderate cost of a sanity. That is an extremely fun spell, if played correctly. He's already an advanced character, I'd say go all out. It also lets them get an ally from him! What a great fit.