Thanks for the heralds, guys!
Are there any house rules for making the game more thematic?
Some of the fan made stuff looks really good, I wonder if we could convice FFG to release a collection of the best bits as a print on demand expansion.
I tend to choose my heralds and guardians at random for each game. I shuffle them all together and pick one at random, if I draw a guardian first I play the game without a herald or guardian, if I draw a herald first then I use it and draw another random card and if that is a guardian then I use that as well.
I couldn't use a fan made herald with my random draw unless it was printed on card like one of the official heralds, maybe I'd give it a go if there was a scenario to go along with it.
This problem (custom stuff is different from the official one) was discussed several times in the past. A possible fix is: stockpile all the Heralds you like. Then roll a die, and discard from the top of the pile Heralds until you find the one matching the number rolled. Discarded Heralds go to the bottom of the pile. Do not reshuffle the pile. In this way, you can cycle all the stuff you want to play with!
More specifically what I do is roll a die (result is N) and take the Nth herald from the top of the stack, putting it on the bottom after the game. I do this with AOs and location encounters too.
Veet said:
If you look at the map image in the background of the board you will also notice that east town street location is placed right over a bridge crossing the miskatonic so it would not be unreasonable to assume that could be an aquatic location as well, or rivertown as that name makes a little more sense being aquatic.
Also check out Basatan if you want to ramp up how an aquatic monster works.
Oh man, how awesome would that be,
"Quickly! Over that bridge" *oozing black tentacles rise up from beneath the bridge, ensnaring our heroes. An unearthly roar from an unseen maw splits the air*
"Nothing's ever easy" *reloads shotgun*
jgt7771 said:
Tibs created a list of Starting Possessions that were appropriate to each Investigator (so someone like the Nun didn't start the game with a Shotgun or similarly ill-suited items). I've used it quite a few times, and it does enhance the role-playing somewhat. It's buried around here or Board Game Geek somewhere.
On another note, what's wrong with the Nun With a Gun schtick? I'll never forget my first game, pulling Sister Mary against Yig (sweet serendipity, blessed be!) and during my travels acquiring a tommy gun and Tom "Mountain" Murphy. I was a Bad Ass Mother Superior, kicking scaly arse for THE LORD and taking names.
I've finally started a game using some house rules, I've just cleared enough space on my desk so that I can leave AH set up, with expansions, and play a bit each day. I didn't have the space or time to use any of the big expansions previously.
It's an 8 investigator game using all expansions except dunwich and COTDP and I am currently starting turn 4, it's looking pretty grim for the investigators so far. The custom rules I am using are seperate monster cups for the different dimensional symbols, R'leh gates couting as aquatic locations and unamable and merchant district streets also counting as aquatic. Also if a rumour is drawn while one is already active I add a token to the terror track.
So far spltting the monster cups is working well, the game started with a gate opening to R'yleh and 2 deep ones coming out. Mythos encounters have resulted in skelentons and zombies appearing in Arkham. A gate to the dreamlands has spawned Nightgaunts and moonbeasts. It's resulted in a much better game of AH so far, although I think any difficult game is a good game of AH.
The combination of AO and herald is causing a great deal of worry, Rhan-Tegoth and the king in yellow, whenever a cultist is drawn it is placed on the AO and the doom track and terror level increase by 1. The herald then increases either the doom track or terror level by 1 and a new monster is drawn. There are a lot of cultists in the game and now that I am drawing them from a much smaller monster cup there is a good chance of having the doom and terror track increase every time an invstigator has an encounter or a mythos card is drawn. This adds a great deal of tension to the game, which is good, but I think it makes an epic battle an almost certain conclusion.
The only thing that has happened to make the game less thematic is the pickpocket ring mythos card, this card even works on investigators that are in other worlds which seemed very odd to me. This card disarmed most of my investigators including 2 who had gone through gates.
R'yleh being an aquatic location has made closing that gate a lot more difficult, once a gate openend in Innsmount monsters from there could easily swim to get the investigator trying to close the R'yleh gate.
Treguard said:
jgt7771 said:
Tibs created a list of Starting Possessions that were appropriate to each Investigator (so someone like the Nun didn't start the game with a Shotgun or similarly ill-suited items). I've used it quite a few times, and it does enhance the role-playing somewhat. It's buried around here or Board Game Geek somewhere.
On another note, what's wrong with the Nun With a Gun schtick? I'll never forget my first game, pulling Sister Mary against Yig (sweet serendipity, blessed be!) and during my travels acquiring a tommy gun and Tom "Mountain" Murphy. I was a Bad Ass Mother Superior, kicking scaly arse for THE LORD and taking names.
I have no problem with Sister Mary taking the Old Testament to the Streets. My best Mary story, though it was years ago, involved her and her Lord's Boom-Stick of Righteous Fury: www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/103288/a-moment-of-glory-brought-to-you-by-sister-mary
I rather enjoy some of the wacky combos that can happen during set-up, even if they're a bit frustrating. (Don't care who you are, when Mark draws Expert Occultist for a Skill, you get MAD.) There are two schools of thought: (A) things in Arkham have been crazy for a while, and we join our Investigators sometime after they've already been swimming in it (hence Wendy with a Flamethrower, Michael with the Necronomicon, and Pete with a Credit Rating). Or (B) we find our Investigators at the beginning, when just yesterday, their lives were ordinary and logical, and now they are suddenly thrust into circumstances beyond their world view. Both are fun to role-play.
mulletcheese said:
The only thing that has happened to make the game less thematic is the pickpocket ring mythos card, this card even works on investigators that are in other worlds which seemed very odd to me. This card disarmed most of my investigators including 2 who had gone through gates.
Maybe the investigators are really slow on the uptake and enter these gates believing they're fully kitted? God ol' Hank springs to mind
"Hmm, a dark cave, guess I'll reach for my Pa's trusty lant.......heeeeyyyy...!"