I'm playing around with this idea for a sort of Guardian, sort of Investigator-lite, sort of Ally kind of thing... Still needs work, no doubt. I'm thinking of just having it so he automatically evades all monsters, just to simplify that whole aspect. But I like the idea of him having some kind of stamina/sanity that can be lost. I'd also like a different means of restricting his ability for doing a Lore check to gain a Clue at locations with Clue icons, rather than saying he can only do that once per location... that's hard to track. But if he can just sit somewhere and keep doing that, then he'd probably be too powerful. Anyway, this is a rough first draft, so please let me know if you have any suggestions.

Here's his fiancee. A little bit different kind of thing. These aren't really meant to be used together, though I suppose they could be. But in that case, I would change their "Sanity restore" rule to require them both being together in the same location, which is what that's meant to represent, anyway.

And their markers, in investigator format and circle, which might distinguish them better...

I'm thinking this could be a whole new type of thing... not just these two characters, but others that can be thematically worked into the mix to provide some kind of guardian/ally abilities.

interesting idea. I suspect that they could be too beneficial for the investigators. You could think of balancing them out with negative effects too.

For example, you hire Elizabeth, you also have to deal with some bad guy that run around the board to kick investigators ass because you should not bother his fiancé. Or you could hire them for only few turns.

Obviously, I am just thinking out loud.

anyway, interesting idea.

amikezor said:

Well, keep in mind that these are meant to be, in essence, guardians/allies, so they should be quite positive, in general. And their duration is somewhat limited by their Sanity/Stamina, and there is a negative effect when they are removed from the game.

Here's another one...

Maybe you could say that you're hiring him for a given time.

When you're hiring him, you put X money token on it (Where X is the price paid or anything else) and then, each mythos phase, remove a token. When last token removed the guy go back to personal stuff. He stays on the board and you still can re-hire him.

Another new one...

And an updated Detective Shaw...

Neat idea, but it needs something to balance it.

Perhaps some kind of restriction, like you make a small deck of cards to go with these "Adventurers" and every time you close / seal a Gate one Adventurer becomes available. The card should indicate the Adventurer's start location and cost. If you have at least ten, they could flee town every time the Terror Level rises.

Additionally you could have Nemeses that come into play every time a GOO fills a row of it's Doom Track. They could have detrimental effects like making Allies more expensive to hire, spawning a monster in the Outskirts every turn, killing a random Adventurer, +1 doom whenever Black Moon is shown for monster movement or causing Investigators to have to spend an extra clue to seal gates, etc. Players could even have sub-missions to take on Nemesis like visiting four Unstable Sites, sacrificing and then taking him / her / it in combat.

Jake yet again said:

Not to discount your suggestions, Jake... some good ideas there... but I disagree with the notion that these *need* something to balance them.

As I said before, these are meant to be, in essence, "guardian allies". I would call them that, specifically, except that it might create some confusion. Ally Guardians or Guardian Allies might get confused with actual Guardians or Allies. I think they need some kind of distinctive name. Heroes of Arkham, maybe? Unsung Heroes? But anyway, that's another issue... But do Guardians not offer a purely positive effect? Same with Allies? And these are intended to be temporary characters with some time limit to them based on their Sanity/Stamina, there is a cost of some kind of resource to attain them in the first place, and there is a negative effect if they are lost. They also requires specific choices and movement and skill checks for their positive effects to be of use. So really, it's already a bit of a tempered thing, though generally very positive, at least potentially.

If you need something to balance it, you play against a hard GOO or herald, like you would if you were adding in a Guardian. And the idea of Nemeses is a great one... That could indeed be a separate thing. (In fact, I think I'm going to start working on that very idea next.) But I wouldn't want to clutter the specifics of this particular thing for what it is. I think it should remain as more or less a purely positive effect. Certainly, the specifics of each character might need tweaking, so they are not too powerful in and of themselves (or not too weak that there's no point in enlisting them), but I do want them to remain as they are, in essence, to give a guardian type of effect.

I could see there being some limitation in how these are used. For example, only one per game can be used. Or perhaps, for each one that you allow to be used per game (whether you hire them to actually use, if you declare ahead of time that they are available), you remove 2 Allies from the game. Something like that would be a good addition for this idea, I think.

By the Way, Would you mind posting eon files? It would be much easier to translate them.

Thanks a lot.

Hugues said:

Sure, I'll post a folder somewhere with all of them at some point. But before I do that I want to add one or two more, and then have a chance to try them out.

Hugues said:

translate into ... french ?

Grudunza said:

Thanks, i'll be waiting ;o)

@amikezor: Well i could try translating into spanish but it would be much more difficult Yep, in french.

Made a rules sheet, which reduces some of the text on the individual sheets. Also, added a new one for Nurse Anna. (Need to find some better images for her and the Errand Boy.) Here they all are with updated formatting...