Custom Institutions

By Veet, in Fan Creations

This is the start of a Mini-Expansion I'm working on. When all is said and done, it'll be this Institution (and its cards) plus a number of Investigators themed to the Circus. Maybe some Allies/Items if I'm feeling particularly rambunctious. But here's the Institution - and the cause of the latest trouble in Arkham!

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Interesting idea.

You might want some links to Darke's Carnival (e.g. Searching the caravans behind the circus, you find an intriguing letter addressed to Ringmaster Darke. Place a clue token at Darke's Carnival or Ringmaster Darke is trying to recruit new acts from the circus. You may discard an Ally to put the Darke's Blessing condition into play )

I'm not convinced about the" take in a show" ability. $2 will fully heal you at the Asylum. Proximity to the Hospital helps, but $3 for a variable gain is a little too expensive. I'd reduce it to $2 or possibly even $1 for d3 Sanity.

I'm also not sure about Cultists gaining Nightmarish 1 . I'd reserve that for really gruesome mosnters. Clowns, for all the horror motifs, don't really fit the "I don't understand how that thing can possibly exist" model, so I'd suggest a Horror (-1) for 1 Sanity (unless worse already) ought to be enough.

Still I love the concept and eagerly await your next work.

Somebody had proposed a variant for a traveling carnival a while back that had some really good ideas. You might want to merge some of that with this. But that being said, I do like this idea a lot as it is, though as Jake suggests, it could use a few tweaks. I always like the idea of additional locations that are adjacent to certain others (like you have the Circus adjacent to the Uptown Streets). That could open up a lot of smaller expansion ideas, where you don't need a new board of the size of Dunwich or Innsmouth, but a herald or institution sort of functions as a small board extension.

Jake yet again said:

Interesting idea.

You might want some links to Darke's Carnival (e.g. Searching the caravans behind the circus, you find an intriguing letter addressed to Ringmaster Darke. Place a clue token at Darke's Carnival or Ringmaster Darke is trying to recruit new acts from the circus. You may discard an Ally to put the Darke's Blessing condition into play )

I'm not convinced about the" take in a show" ability. $2 will fully heal you at the Asylum. Proximity to the Hospital helps, but $3 for a variable gain is a little too expensive. I'd reduce it to $2 or possibly even $1 for d3 Sanity.

I'm also not sure about Cultists gaining Nightmarish 1 . I'd reserve that for really gruesome mosnters. Clowns, for all the horror motifs, don't really fit the "I don't understand how that thing can possibly exist" model, so I'd suggest a Horror (-1) for 1 Sanity (unless worse already) ought to be enough.

Still I love the concept and eagerly await your next work.


The only problem with Darke's is that I didn't want this to require Dunwich.

You're right on the ability - I'll reduce it to 2 - any less though would likely make it too powerful (because of how close it is to the Hospital).

As for Nightmarish, I needed something to be a bit negative, and I really wanted to run with the clown-in-cult idea i had. Do you have any thoughts n some sort of global effect?

Grudunza said:

Somebody had proposed a variant for a traveling carnival a while back that had some really good ideas. You might want to merge some of that with this. But that being said, I do like this idea a lot as it is, though as Jake suggests, it could use a few tweaks. I always like the idea of additional locations that are adjacent to certain others (like you have the Circus adjacent to the Uptown Streets). That could open up a lot of smaller expansion ideas, where you don't need a new board of the size of Dunwich or Innsmouth, but a herald or institution sort of functions as a small board extension.


THat's exactly the idea! I actually came up with the location idea fairly late into the concept, but once I hit it, I fell in love. It's certainly a much better (as far as custom components and actually printing them out goes) than another board. I'd love FFG to do some similar expansions.

I wante to share this idea of mine:

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hi there:) I think its fine but I miss that hunting card so pls make some:)) And about ability:: About gate trophy its actually good but…

About physical weapon… should we take first common weapon or common weapon of our choice??

and about gate trophy. kinda like it but gate trophy here is more powerfull like monster trophy i would replace that monster trophy to some other ability :) ) But as i said i like it:)

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When you post an image, if you specify width = 600, it fits perfectly the message window :-I

Also, grammar: "the maximum number of dice", I believe.

Maybe "the max number of movement points an investigator may spend is equal to the difference between his maximum and his current Sanity" is a better wording (even if the sense of "loss" is pretty clear, speaking of "losses" is always dangerous when playing Arkham)

Hi Everyone,
With this Institution, I worked with the idea of making more helpful -and suitable for their characters- the items the Investigators get at setup; all for a price (and a penalty).
Greetings, and please let me know your comments and suggestions.
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About the picture and quotes:
The illustration depicts the Industrial Trust Company Building (also known as the Superman Building), located in Providence, Rhode Island, completed in 1938.
The quote about the Industrial Trust Company bank was taken from "Industries and Wealth of the Principal Points in Rhode Island.", A. F. Parsons Publishing Co., 1892, p. 61; as published in: http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/RIGENWEB/2000-11/0973274382
The quoted text below "I am Providence" is an extract of a letter from H.P. Lovecraft to James Ferdinand Morton, dated 16 May 1926.
The quoted text below "The Haunter of the Dark" is an extract of the same name novel from H.P. Lovecraft, written in 1935, seven after the Industrial Trust Building was completed.

Wouldn't the players always just grab 4 Elder Signs and a Tommy Gun / Shotgun? Doublng the number of CIs and UIs received at the start of the game but forcing the player take a Loan card without the cash might leaving a little more room for variety. Good job on the quotes and picture though. Always good to see a little research.

Hi Jake yet again,

Thanks! Actually Elder Signs are not included in the offered Unique Items, only Physical and Magical weapons.

Since the founder of The Industrial Trust Company was a nephew of Samuel Colt, a handy armory as well as "securities and other articles of value" accesible at their vaults are -arguably- thematically connected.

The double & random is an alternative, I'll keep testing and publishing an updated version.

To be honest, I'm not entirely certain if this constitutes an institution, per se. While it's meant to represent the infected population of Arkham, the plague in and of itself is not an institution. However, it doesn't quite feel like it qualifies as a Herald either. Regardless, this seemed like the simplest way to format the idea, so here goes...

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As always, looking forward to everyone's thoughts and constructive criticism! Thanks!