Sooo... On Boardgame Geek, someone made a suggestion that got me very excited.

Why not make a Nyarlathotep Variant where the drawing of a Mask causes various effects.

For a start, I think that if Nyarlathotep awakens, the investigators should immediately lose, but if someone comes up with a really crazy (and tough) idea for final combat, I'd want to hear that.

Begin suggestions for mask effects (permanent, temporary, stat changes, extra abilities).

I was also thinking of triggering a random mask search when the doom track hits six (so that at least one will be drawn each game).

Perhaps when a mask is placed in the outskirts it immediately replaces the lowest toughness non-mask monster on the board (first player chooses in case of a tie).

I have a few mask specific ideas, but I want to hear other peoples ideas first before I throw anything out :'D let's gooooo!

I have one on Nephren Ka, the dark pharaoh. He has forseen the future of the world but non-cultist that look at the Walls of Truth (where the future of humankind is depicted) must pay the price of this knowledge, usually with their life (from R. Bloch, fane of the Black Pharaoh).

So, when Nephren Ka comes into play, the first player look at the top three next mythos cards (without changing their order) and then must choose to be devoured or to add one (two ?) doom tokens to the doom track.

I shall think about the other ones soon.

amikezor said:

Keep 'em coming. I'll post my list tomorrow (if I have a bit of extra time). I already wrote it up by hand.

A Nyarlathotep Variant:

The Demi-Gods

Drawing a mask will trigger various game effects, keep at least one copy of this sheet for reference during the game. You may want to mark on the sheet which masks are currently active for easier reference of their abilities and effects.

Masks can not be gained as trophies, if a game effect would have them be gained as trophies, return them to the cup instead. They can be returned to the cup as normal by the closing of gates.

For the masks, “in play” means being permanently in play (not just temporarily appearing as the result of an encounter and not in the outskirts).

When Nyarlathotep awakens, he has weapon immunity instead of magical resistance, and rather than losing a clue, the penalty for failing a lore check against him is being devoured.

The Dark Pharoah - He has two extra toughness and weapon immunity. While he is in play, the monster limit is ignored (this will not cause the Ancient One to potentially awaken unless the terror track is at 10). When he enters play, all investigators’ monster trophies are reanimated and placed on their locations. If he leaves play, the monster limit is restored (remove excess non-mask monsters of your choice from the board to get as close as possible to the normal monster limit).

The Black Man - Whenever he moves, the first player must draw two madness cards or add a doom token to the doom track. Investigators who draw these madness cards can not be retired. He must move when he comes into play, even if his movement symbol is not shown. He moves like a Fast Stalker. When he leaves play, replace him with a random mask (an investigator in the new mask’s location, must immediately evade or enter combat with it).

The Bloated Woman - When she enters play each investigator loses two stamina and two sanity. While she is in play will checks have an additional -1 penalty (this includes horror checks) and all sanity damage is increased by 1. An investigator who defeats her in combat is Cursed.

Haunter of the Dark - It has +1 toughness and physical and magical immunity. While in play, flying monsters treat unstable locations as adjacent to the sky, are not counted against the monster limit, and if they are in or are placed in the outskirts, they directly to the Sky instead. When it leaves play, all flying monsters in play are returned to the monster cup.

God of the Bloody Tongue - It has weapon immunity. While it is in play monsters can not be returned to the cup by closing gates with their dimensional symbol and red, black, and purple bordered monsters move toward the nearest investigator (following yellow lines like an investigator could) with the lowest Sneak (first player’s choice when nearness and sneak are tied).

Wailing Writher - It has +2 toughness. While it is in play, investigators must fight or evade an unmodified copy of Wailing Writher before attempting to seal a gate by means of clue or power tokens. If you declare you are intending to attempt to seal a gate, fight or evade a Wailing Writher copy before rolling against the gate modifier. Unmodified copies of Wailing Writher can not be modified by any game effects and defeating or evading them has no effect beyond ending or avoiding combat.

Shugeron - He has +2 toughness. While he is in play, all streets are treated as aquatic locations and black bordered and yellow bordered monsters move as orange bordered monsters instead.

Skinless One - He has +1 toughness. While he is in play, whenever an investigator is devoured, raise the terror level by one. Also, all monsters move twice, and yellow bordered monsters are treated as black bordered monsters.

The Beast - It has +1 toughness. While it is in play, all other monsters gain +2 toughness, except as monster trophies.

The Shadowy Figure - When he comes into play, remove one Elder Sign token from the board, and investigators in Arkham lose all their clues.

Now you can have a game where it's like you're playing against 11 Ancient Ones ;'D well... If you get *really* unlucky with your draws.

Anyway, now you can have a Nyarlathotep game on steroids :'D and the masks can actually be in the cup!

This is horrifying! love it! Now I know what my Sunday game is going to be Great idea btw, adds some deeper theme to their appearance. I wish there was more time to focus on dealing with monsters, some way to stall the midgame so these variants could become more a part of the story being told. Any thoughts?

Petition: give the poor Nyarly a couple of extra doomers, in order to allow investigator to enjoy the evolving pain of Avi's madness!

Let's go working in SE to re-create the monsters chits

Julia said:

Oh you could definitely give him two more doom tokens :') I wouldn't mind. Consider that an official variant variant ;'D Another variant tweak would be searching the monster cup for a random mask and placing it at Miskatonic U. Streets when the doom track hits 7 (this would guarantee that you see at least one mask per game).

You don't need to make monster chits, just print out a copy of the variant for each player and they can consult it whenever a monster pops out. There'd be too much text there to put on most of the monsters anyway.

I'm glad you guys like it. It's fun basically using the masks as inavoidable reckoning cards.

Sooo... Just curious, do you have any favorite revised masks? ;'D Mine's the Dark Pharoah. I think it'll lead to a really insane moment in the game when he comes out. The one I hate the most is Wailing Writher (it is going to be hell when it comes out).

Avi_dreader said:

The monster chits are subject of a loooooong discussion off-forum. But that's another story ::laughing::

Avi_dreader said:

I really like Shugeron's ability to flood everything :-) And I think Patrice will love the Shadowy figure ::laughing::

Julia said:

::Laughter:: he's basically a living clue bomb.

By the way, I don't know if anyone noticed, but this variant works decently with the base game (since The Black Man will definitely add doom tokens, so you can't just wait out the gates).

Oh, for Haunter it should say "go directly." Whoops.

Julia said:

Me too. :-) Especially since I think aquatic movement in the official rules is a bit of a failure. Most of the people in my group don't even know what the orange border means (and we almost always play with Innsmouth).

I also like the Howler in the Dark. It's a bit like the Father of Bats mask that MillMaster posted way back when. We play with FoB and he definitely makes his presence felt in our games.

Oh... Duh... I should have thought of this earlier... Shugeron and Haunter of the Dark do not count against the monster limit once they are in play (otherwise it's possible to kill them by tricking them out of town then back into town when the monster limit's capped). Thanks for reminding me, Avec ;'D

I like it. Maybe it's a bit too tough though. I'll post my own variant shortly.

Tonight I dreamt of your varianst, Avi.. ::shock:: dreams came with an idea, originating from the point that in the base game, we have eleven unstable location and eleven allies. We now have 10 masks ready to transform Arkham in a nightmarish Hell. What about relating every Mask to a specific location and to Nyarly doom track? When the doom track hits 2, the first Mask (selected randomly) enters play at the Woods (regardless of gate opening, and so on), with 3 we have the second one arriving at the Witch House, then Unvisited Isle, Independence Square, and so on. Spawning from the high frequency location first, then from the medium ones, then from the low ones. Investigators should be quick if they want to survive (yeah, probably is a little bit overpowered... but nonetheless, could be fun to try)

Wow, the mask are real bastards now.

I definitely like when the triggering effects, especially the flooded town with the Shugeron (really neat), but I am not sure they need to have increased stats. I may end up using dome triggering effects without transforming them into super-monsters. ;o)

zealot12 said:

Oh, it'd definitely be tough. I think I'd need at least four investigators to have hope of a sealing victory (and I doubt I'd use a herald). You can compensate for the toughness though by not drawing investigators randomly (maybe by pulling your choice out of a random three). Or you could pull a board off :')

I'm looking forward to seeing your variant, I'm glad this was inspirational ;'D

amikezor said:

Triggered effects without stat boosts work. The problem is if you make the triggered effects only while the monsters are in play, normal masks are usually very easy to beat in combat. What you could do if you don't like the stats, is have the triggered effect be permanent. (Although I'd probably leave The Dark Pharoah's stats alone and not make it permanent for him).

amikezor said:

Also, if you go for the permanent trigger route, you might want to make masks in Arkham not count against the monster limit (I'd have masks in outskirts work as normal). I would have done that, but I was worried it could be too tough, potentially. Also, if the Wailing Writher trigger is permanent, I'd probably reduce the copies toughness by one.

Julia said:

Actually, that'd be a really fun scenario type set up. Increase Nyarlathotep's doom track. Give each of the ten masks a starting location and a doom trigger for spawning. Don't have them count against the monster limit, and throw in a few doom track triggered events to try and bring out theme a bit more? :'D go for it! I hope the dream was at least nightmarish 2 ;'D And you can call the variant The Ten Plagues.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing how you guys take this idea and run with it :'D

Avi_dreader said:

I'll try to write something during the week-end / at the beginning of the next week. And mail you the scenario :-D

Julia said:

Cool :') or you could post it here so that everyone can participate in the initial critique.

Avi_dreader said:

Yep, if you don't mind! I thought that, being you the author of the "variants", you'd have been fair searching for your approval before posting something that could not fit your ideas. That's all. If you say I may work on it and post it directly here, yeah, no probs at all!

Just because I made a variant doesn't mean I'm entitled to be Censor in Chief of other people's heralds ;'D although I will take that job if you guys pay me $30 an hour.

Go with your idea. Make sure it pleases yourself first. And maybe it will please some other people, whether or not I like it. I promise to throw my opinion out there too :')

Avi_dreader said:

Ok then! Keep tuned ::smiling::