now, during the first rounds, the doom track advances slowly (or not), but the terror level moves on. if the investigators don't close gates, the doom track will soon advance every round, no matter if there is a monster surge or not. this makes closing gates without sealing more interesting.
thematic explanation: the ancient one needs open gates and power to prepare his return. when many gates are open, or when he chooses to not open a gate (because there is already one on that location), he can proceed his preparations to return. when there are only few gates, he has less power and focusses this power on opening the gate. the citizens of Arkham are unsetttled by sudden gate openings. when there are already many gates open, one more doesn't disturb them that much.

note: it makes only sense to use both at the same time, as it's more a variant given in the form of herald/guardian, than a real herald and guardian.

i didn't find a good name or picture for them, would be grateful for suggestions

i also did lots of other smaller changes, which i posted here: www.boardgamegeek.com/article/5599545#5599545

I liked "Suppressing the Weak" I may include that as a blanket house rule when gaining madness/injury when playing random settings (unless I'm setting myself up for an especially challenging match).

It seems to me that one monster surge will break the terror track though.

Avi_dreader said:

hmm sorry, i don't understand what you mean. why? i've played at least 20 games using these rules (and a few minor other modifications, but those don't matter for that purpose) and it seems to work.

It sounds like there would be more monsters with out the terror track going up. Perhaps having each event increase it by 3..? I dunno...

Ebonrook said:

Ah. I didn't notice that you'd removed the monster limit. You know that if you do that, there's no significant threat of the terror track hitting ten, because, well, who cares if there's no outskirts at that point? Ancient One only wakes up if there are monsters on the board equal to twice the monster limit.

Avi_dreader said:

you mean besides (1) closed shops, (2) all allies gone and (3) future terror track increases advance the doom track instead? if you don't care about these little nuissances, then yes, you're right. i personally like allies and dislike doom counters =)

letsdance said:

With your system, the doom track increases would be minor (if at all), if I understand it correctly, hitting *10* is no big deal, 3, and 6, yes, 9, eh, losing allies yes, but hitting *10*, again, no big deal.

All I'm suggesting is you consider adding something extra for doom track ten. Perhaps + one to monster toughness for combat and - two for trading.

he, well i actually did. but i didn't add it to the herald because i thought it was too much =) i invented this rule:
b) The General Store / Curiositie Shoppe / Ye Olde Magicke Shoppe / South Church is closed permanently when the terror level reaches 4/6/8/10.
shall i add this sentence, or leave 3/6/9 as is and just close the church at 10? 3 is often reached very quickly, it basicly means if you want to visit the general store you'll have do to it within the first 2-3 game rounds.

We often buy blessings, so closing the church is bad. But this hasn't been tested, we always use the rifts rule (see below) which causes real chaos. I didn't want terror level 10 to be a big problem because Investigators cannot really prevent it.

If you use DH or IH the danger of getting a doom counter from monsters moving into a vortex is probably bad enough.

here is the terror-rifts-rules:
if you have rifts, and don't use the KH board:
a) Don’t close locations when the terror level increases.
b) When the terror level reaches 3, one rift appears at (each of) the General Store, Curiositie Shoppe and Ye Olde Magicke Shoppe.
c) Rifts are (for now) stationary.
d) When a mythos card gate opening causes a monster surge, one (additional) monster (two monsters if there are 5+ investigators) spawns at the rift with a dimensional symbol, that is also shown on the mythos card.
e) Any Investigator who tries to enter a location with a rift must pass a horror check (+0) or discard any one monster trophy (decide before making the check). If he fails, the movement point is lost and he cannot try entering this location again during this movement phase.
f) If the Feds raid Innsmouth, the start player removes one rift. Rifts cannot be closed otherwise.
g) When the terror level is at least 6, rifts move as a monster with their dimensional symbol. This movement happens before rift monsters spawn.
h) When the terror level is at least 9, a rift always spawns a monster (2 monsters if there are 5+ investigators) after it moved. Rifts no longer spawn monsters on gate surges.
i) When the terror level is 10, rifts add a Doom counter if they moved the same color as their dimensional symbol.