He's not too difficul.

He's certainly not too easy.

But you can say that for a lot of Ancient Ones. What I really like about this one is his awesome russian-roulette ability. It actually makes me feel suspense every time I turn over one of his faces. Nothing in the game makes me feel this way other than that amazing and well thought of power. It also a very tough decision to either take 2 and risk death or play it safetly. It's actually sad that you need to flip over his faces after 4 blanks have been revealed. I wish you would only flip the blanks when you find his face or when there's only 1 left, whichever is sooner. Would've made him much more suspenseful and had deepened the russian-roulette feel.

Agree/disagree?

Discuss.

The suspense element is fun, but if you get right down to it it is essentially a random draw. I think Shudde M'ell's one of the best, because he's tough to beat but not extremely so. Also his special ability adds an extra way to lose, which is always fun.

Random is what's so awesome. Every time I'm about to flip one of his markers I imagine putting a bullet inside a revolver and spinning the chamber. It's awesome, and the sense of reliefe after flipping a blank is awesome as well.

Ghatanothoa is one of my favorite AOs. Heck, I might even go as far as to say he IS my favorite AO. However, I also must say that the easiest game I ever played was against Ghatanothoa. It was a five player game, and we had a Patrice player who was targeted by Annihilating Gaze twice as many times as anyone else. Not once was Ghatanothoa's face revealed. The game was an easy victory by sealing. Not very satisfying. I LOVE the mechanic, but like it's been said, when it comes down to it, it's random. So it could either be devastating, or non-existent.

I don't know if he's the best designed, but the most satisfying game I ever played was with Nyogtha as the AO. The Tendril appeared a decent number of times, claiming one investigator (Zoey Samaras). After sealing five gates, Nyogtha was summoned via the Deep Ones Rising track to face off with Bob Jenkins, Sister Mary, Carolyn Fern, Gloria Goldberg, and Michael McGlen. The combat was fairly even, though the completion of Sister Mary's personal story a round or two before battle tipped the scales a bit more in the investigator's favor. After the last round of combat it was Sister Mary standing alone atop the pile of vanquished tentacles, as Nyogtha had managed to crush everyone else. We like to think that afterwords, she lit a candle for her fallen comrades at the South Church.

Though I suppose that Nyogtha is also a rather random AO. It must just be the frequency the ability's activation that matters...

Hello again Kroen. I'm sad to see that your opinions are 'humble' now.

You're not wrong, anyway. Ghatanathoa is one of my favourites too... although it's not perfect. There are a few odd things about it.

It's possible to mostly "opt out" of the gaze, by never picking up two clues off the board. Skill checks that get you two clues are not that common. And the worshipper ability doesn't affect many monsters, and I often find that Lloigors are unkillable anyway, so giving them extra toughness doesn't make much difference.

All in all, Ghat is quite an easy AO to ignore... it's not really "high-impact" in the same was as Atlach-Nacha or Cthulhu or Shub-Niggurath. And it's a VERY long doom track for an AO whose abilities can be avoided quite easily. Although again, tbh, this is one of the reasons I like playing against it: you get a nice long game, and it probably won't just wake up or kill you all arbitrarily without you having a chance.

For the same reason, the gaze is quite a good piece of design because it means that if you ARE devoured by the gaze, you probably took the risk willingly, which makes it much less frustrating.

The final battle is nice and simple and tough, although the wording is a bit botched so it's unclear whether you should be able to use some items.

Gotta agree with Tibs though: I think Shudde M'ell is the best AO design - in fact I think it's miles ahead of any of the others. The timing mechanism is just about right, the locations it collapses are well chosen, and the actual way the ability works is really very elegant, because it balances the main game with the final battle. If Shudde awakes quickly, it's easier to defeat because there'll be more tokens left, whereas if you let the main game drag on, you gradually make the impending final battle more and more difficult... so it actually builds up the suspense incrementally.

I like Shudde Me'll too, but he (or any others for that matter) doesn't make me feel any suspense what so ever, like Gath do.

Btw, can you use items in his attack? like motorcycle/map etc?

Well, we all assume so. Movement points are movement points. Ghatanothoa is the only AO where receiving movement points matters. Though I don't know if you can use these points towards things such as reading tomes: only to stay alive versus his attack.

Yeah, I'd also think you can't read tomes in final battle. Can you imagine yourself running away from Gath and stopping to read a book? or read a book while riding a motorcycle?

kroen said:

None of the other AOs make you feel suspense like Ghatanathoa does? What about Quachil Uttaus? I find him to be MUCH more suspenseful than Ghatanathoa.

Meh. It's either nothing or 1 sanity (unless you're in the last deck). Gath is either nothing or devouring.