More or less, italic typeface did originate in Italy.

Yep. The interesting thing is that we call it "corsivo" (cursive) and not "italic". Oh, well...

Julia said:

Really ? I always thought that "cursive" for a font was meant to be "written by hand"...

Italics was originally supposed to be just that a font that looked like handwriting. It's like Canadian Bacon everyone calls it that because they think it came from Canada but in Canada they just call it ham.

Veet said:

good to know. thank you for the answers (I loved the canadian bacon one, I knew nothing about it ... very funny indeed.)

So I made a Batman Investigator awhile back, but this morning, I thought about trying a different tactic with the Bat. Since I've made a Joker Herald as a chotic troublemaking force, what if I tried Batman as the opposite?

He's a really helpful Guardian, but if he starts making the game two easy, he might leave you! What do you guys think?

I really like that, better than as an investigator. And the possibility (a likely one, it might seem) of his identity being discovered and the guardian being discarded is also good, though I might have chosen 8 clues instead of 7 as the trigger for that.

Grudunza said:

Actually 8 was my original number, then I changed my mind last minute (literally last minute!) because with all the ways on the card to spend clue tokens, 7 is a bit more likely (and thus more dangerous) which balances out his better abilities.

I also originally had Batman take out the highest toughness monsters rather than the lowest, but then that seemed TOO good. Nobody better than Bat's to remove your Dhole problem, after all.

Haven't made any Arwyn's favor cards, but they are going to be one shot cards that add bonuses to specific rolls, like discard to gain +1 to +3 to all dice rolled for your next combat / horror / spell / evade check.

Mh'ithrha, the Lord of Tindalos:

I got the idea for this one when browsing the list of Great Old Ones on Wikipedia. I couldn't find any images of Mh'ithrha, so I used "Odin vs.Fenrir at Ragnarok" by LunaticLucien (giving credit where credit is due). Since Mh'ithrha is described as a sort of giant wolf like Fenrir (of Norse mythology), I thought it close enough.

That... is a fascinating Guardian idea. I love it.

It's a little funky, but the idea is neat.

In some ways, it seems to function like a herald though. It's cool that it gives you amazing bonuses for spending Hounds, but at the same time it also guarantees them on almost every gate, and last I checked they weren't exactly an easy monster to deal with.

It's a little funky, but the idea is neat.

In some ways, it seems to function like a herald though. It's cool that it gives you amazing bonuses for spending Hounds, but at the same time it also guarantees them on almost every gate, and last I checked they weren't exactly an easy monster to deal with.

Because this gentleman seems to catch a bad wrap in a number of films and stories, I've decided to play him as a Guardian versus a Herald. The image is courtesy of deviantArt yet again, and I think suits the mood incredibly well! On top of that, despite his misgivings in his stories, I think Lovecraft was fascinated by voodoo in some way and thus, why it played a key role in at least two of his major tales--Call of Cthulhu being, of course, the main one.

Baron Samedi - Loa of the Dead

I had a large thing written up about this explaining it but then I hit the backspace, it didn't post and now I"m annoyed so I'm not writing it up again. Basically, here's what is important:

I made this for my group just to have fun with since we're all fans of the Shin Megami Tensai series and it also has Nyalarthotep and Nodens in it--so I figured why not?

The Major Arcana are referencing the Shadow and Persona by having the split choices--one choice gives a boon to all Investigators while the other gives either one to the First Player or screws over everyone BUT the First Player. This is also a play on the notion of drawing 'Upright' or 'Reversed' cards in Tarot readings.

Blessings of Nodens is included in this Guardian because in the game Nodens was (spoilers) an apsect of Philemon.

The Major Arcana deck can be used without using Philemon.

The Tarot Deck is a Unique Item.

Finally, this is ideally played with Nyalarthotep as the Ancient One. Even then, this Guardian will make things easy unless you include other elements to increase the difficulty. I recommend using the Black Pharaoh to even the odds. This Guardian was designed to give the players a more relaxed but more competitive and 'back-biting' version of gameplay.

There are some wording issues in these that I've picked out as I was re-reading them and I'll be putting up the corrected texts once I get a feel for how folks like or dislike the idea of this set.

Hey, I'm working on an experimental Guardian concept and would like to know what you think. The character is from an original work of mine, the art is borrowed. Enjoy.

Personal stories like missions and another way to win the game, very interesting…. How about associating this Guardian to a specific AO and/or Herald based on retribution (Karma?)? Like The Cauldron, each killing adds more doom tokens..

I like this idea too. I enjoy seeing other ways to win the game, especially something like this that relatively doesn't require you to go Gate hunting. In fact, a large protion of this could be done by exploring Arkham locations and all, something I am always an advocate of!

So I made a Batman Investigator awhile back, but this morning, I thought about trying a different tactic with the Bat. Since I've made a Joker Herald as a chotic troublemaking force, what if I tried Batman as the opposite?

He's a really helpful Guardian, but if he starts making the game two easy, he might leave you! What do you guys think?

I would like to point out that the theme itself is the only reason I might not use him. If there was a 'Modern' expansion I might though. Still, the notion of a guardian that can be lost because you are doing too well is an awesome one!

Since there hasn't been a new Guardian posted in quite some time, I decided to make another one. It seems I'm better at making Guardians and Investigators than I am Ancient Ones and Heralds--guess I'm an optimist!

I wanted to try for a Guardian that is more in tune with Lovecraft--that is, largely ambivalent to humanity and simply seems to have the same goals as them. In this case, I stumbled across an image that said 'Faust! Use me to make something!' and so I did. As you can see, this Guardian does a great deal to help with keeping Gates closed and maintaining what goes in and out--unfortunately, he doesn't like anything messing with reality, which includes Investigators. Spell casting is more difficult, in addition to other penalties for using magic.

What do you lot think?

Some general considerations about the Guardian:

a) The Wall between the Worlds: seems like a total Atlach prevention. Additionally, the wording "the gate burst is ignored" I believe could be a little more precise: does this mean we do not resolve the gate opening step of the Mythos card or that we resolve it as a normal gate opening? It is relevant because of the DOR track

b) Indeed, Magic is now a little more expensive, but still, point is that you can easily avoid casting spells for a whole game and live with that. Not sayin' spells are crap, but that you could play without them and still win quite easily the game

c) the general design of the Herald is good, but, although his abilities are interesting, I'm afraid is way to strong and will make the game a lot easier. You could consider focusing on some of this aspects (gates, for instance, so that you use only points 2, 3 and 4 of the Guardian), adding some drawbacks. Not too many (otherwise you'll have a balanced Guardian that looks more like an Institution), but at least some.

Just my two cents

It's Christmas time--and yeah, I know there is an Institution for Christmas out there, but I wanted a Guardian having to do with Santa Claus--because I LOVE Santa Claus.

So I made a Batman Investigator awhile back, but this morning, I thought about trying a different tactic with the Bat. Since I've made a Joker Herald as a chotic troublemaking force, what if I tried Batman as the opposite?

He's a really helpful Guardian, but if he starts making the game two easy, he might leave you! What do you guys think?

I would like to point out that the theme itself is the only reason I might not use him. If there was a 'Modern' expansion I might though. Still, the notion of a guardian that can be lost because you are doing too well is an awesome one!

There are a number of Pre-WW2-era Batman Elseworlds that night provide more appropriate artwork. THE DOOM THAT CAME TO GOTHAM being a personal favorite.

Anyone with time to spare, I need a lot of critique for this one. There's a lot of working parts here, so I'm trying to find the big problems and snuff them out early.