These mostly look OK. Three thoughts straight away, though:

Cthulhu Larva reduces maximum stamina by 1, but doesn't give you a token or a marker or any way of remembering that. (Neither does Cthulhu Himself, but at least He stays next to the board, whereas this little guy will be going back in the cup sooner or later).

Cyborg is fine, but why is it treated as a cultist? Isn't that going to make it easier under some AOs?

Electric Succubus: sorry to be pedantic, but shouldn't it be "nearest street or location containing AN investigator" (singular, rather than plural)? Otherwise, it could be interpreted as only going after streets or locations which contain multiple investigators...

Mechanical Monsters - physical immunity and FOUR toughness? There's no definite reason why you can't do that, but are you sure you want to? No-one is going to want to go near the thing.

thecorinthian said:

D'oh! Yup, I need to add to use a doom token to remember the loss on Cthulu Larva.

As for Cyborg, the reason it's treated as a cultist is that I'm thinking of it as a baseline creature, kind of like Child of the Goat. There would be 4 included in the expansion. Think I should make it easier on it's own in that case? So that some of the AO's will make it nastier?

I'll fix electric succubus's wording. I'm rather on the pedantic side myself, so don't feel bad! I'm kind of surprised I didn't notice it, actually.

Mechanical Monsters are based on the giant robots from "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow", which were actually inspired by a 1941 Superman cartoon, "The Mechanical Monsters." They are a nasty monster, but I figured it wouldn't be impossible because any magic items will effect them as normal. Think I should tone them down? They are a one off monster, as in, only one in the expansion.

Also, what would you think about a Lethal ability?

Thanks for your input, Corinth, I always appreciate it!

thecorinthian said:

The way I handle this sort of thing is a house rule. Any sanity and stamina tokens beside an investigator is on that investigator. If it is off, I assume it is lost. Also, if they lose their max stamina or sanity, I have them put their token in the bag I keep the stamina/sanity tokens in.

Admiral142 said:

Cheers, np.

Avi's right about the max sanity thing, of course; it's easy to 'house rule' the problem. My group uses dice to track sanity/stamina, so we've got no other use for the San/Stam counters anyway.

Now that I think of it, I made a similar comment about a different monster a while ago (I think it was a mermaid or something, might have been one of Kroen's). It led to the idea that you only have the max san/stam loss while you have the monster as a trophy .

Which in turn led me to invent this:

Because everyone loves parasitic worms.

Nifty idea, but how do you get rid of it? Or are you just going to let that thing weaken investigators forever? If nothing else, maybe let closing a star gate get rid of it?

I like that! I think I'm going to steal it!

The Cthulhu Larva is sooo cute... I want one as a pet!

Hadanelith said:

That's exactly how I thought it should work, but there's no way that's going to fit on the monster marker.

There does need to be some way to get rid of it, though. So what I thought instead was that maybe there'd be a few different 'parasite' monsters that reduce abilities (sanity, stamina, and focus, are the obvious three to reduce) and then there could be a few custom items that would get rid of parasite markers. Alternatively, you could just have a house rule that you can pay $2 at the hospital to remove a parasite (instead of being healed to full stamina). Special items to remove parasites wouldn't be totally useless if you didn't have a parasite, since the same items could optionally work to remove Injury cards or just work as normal healing. A tome, methinks.

When it comes down to it, all the Mindworm really is is a combined monster and injury card. It might make more sense to just have it give you a particular injury. For example, a spinal parasite could give you a back injury.

Really the best place for this idea is in a fan expansion, where there can be custom items or location abilities which interact with it.

MrsGamura said:

Mrs. Gamura, you are wonderful.

@The Corinthian - I like the idea about a fan expansion incorporating parasites. If we're feeling particularly ambitious I would suggest maybe making a parasite deck. Then, if you fail a combat check against a parasite monster (or some sort of parasite mother montster) you draw a specific or random parasite from the deck. Could be fun.

How about a elusive parasite monster that you want to have as a parasite, ie plus to skill checks, bonus clues, etc

I thought I'd try my hand at making some monsters. Here are some MTG inspired guys I thought of today.

I really like the idea of monsters giving each other bonuses the more of them there are. Kind of like they are ganging up on the Investigators. so...

These are good, but all of them except for the Stronghold Rats have a bit of a fundamental problem. Admiral142's four horsemen of the apocalypse had a similar problem recently. It's this: the AH rules only tell you look at the back of a monster marker in the event that you fight the monster. The backs of monster markers aren't meant to be 'hidden', but there's almost no precedent for them affecting things in any circumstances except combat and special movement (which is indicated by the green border). According to the letter of the rules, you wouldn't look at a monster marker's combat side until you fought it, so it's not really a place you can put a 'constant effect' ability.

Although as usual in AH, there's an exception to everything; in this case, it's the Servants of Glaaki, which do have comes-into-play abilities, and those abilities aren't indicated anywhere on the front. So in that respect I'm holding you to a higher standard than FFG themselves have managed to achieve... deal with it.

Of course, if you want to just say that people should check the back when the monster is drawn from the cup, that's fair enough. But I think a special symbol is needed - something on the 'front' of the monster marker, like the spawn symbol. A yellow arrow in the middle at the bottom, or something. You'd have to add it after exporting from SE, of course...

You're right about the game needing more 'tribal' monsters (which is what me and my chums used to call this type of ability in MtG, I think). I hope you won't object to me adding to your menagerie:

thecorinthian said:

Was this rat theme influnced by the "Rats in the Walls" story? If not, it's very thematically appropriate.

DeepSix said:

Yes it was . And thanks for the addition. You're right, it was called tribal abilities or something to the affect in magic. I will try to come up with a way to "deal with it" as you mentioned as I'm making more rats as we speak. I like yours btw. For them to be affective though, I would think some of the other monsters would need to be removed so these abilities aren't diluted.

by the way, did I get this guy right?

The rats in Magic had shadow, so I wanted this guy to have elusive. And they move fast so if they move past an investigator, with elusive the investigator would have to do a sneak check right? to see if they get to battle it? and if it failed they lose an item. Kind of like they are just running around town causing mischief stealing stuff to hoard.

I think I have a solution. I have included 2 new symbols on the monsters. They mean the following.

= Comes into play ability : If a monster with this symbol comes into play, check the back and follow the directions regarding it's ability.

= Environment ability affecting other Monsters : If a monster with this symbol is in play, check the back to see how it affects other monsters.

So it ends up like this.

These guys look like they are eating a book so I think their ability is fitting.

I think the possibilities of Monsters helping other monsters will add great depth to them. Either deal with the monsters or they get stronger and deal with you.

Elusive monsters ignore investigators. Unless the investigator try to defeat the monster. I've had games where there where serphent people running all over the place. You could change Stroghold Rats ability similiar to the Wherewolfs where investigators loss items when it moves into the same spot!

I think you will appreciate these, corinthian.

and this guy might be fun....

Here are another round of Tribal Monsters. I went with zombies this time.

This guy is damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Hey, Corinthian, may I get the eon file for the mindworm, or could you tell me where you got the pic? Also, is it supposed to reduce stamina, or sanity? I really like the parasitic worms idea.

Admiral142 said:

If you tell me an email address, I'll email you the .eon. The pic is a good one - it's reasonably high-res, so it's almost worthy of being an AO, in my view. I may use it for something else at some point. I found it on DeviantArt, of course.... here's the link: furgur.deviantart.com/art/Alien-Xenomorph-spider-95496265 . The artists does a few weird creatures, by the looks of it - might not be a bad gallery to browse through.

here are some more zombies, an alternate Frankenstein and another spawn monster

@Ivorytower:

You don't mind if I systemically rephrase all your monsters, do you? I do have some thoughts...

Nightmare Champion - Might be better to phrase it as "...That item cannot be refreshed while Nightmare Champion is in play." That makes it a bit neater, and keeps all the refresh-related stuff confined to the upkeep.

Nightmare Horror - creates an odd side-effect if an investigator is devoured and replaced while the Horror is in play. The Horror will leave play, and the new investigator (who never had his/her stats reduced) will have his/her stats increased. You could rephrase it as a 'constant effect': "Each investigator's maximum sanity and maximum stamina are reduced by 1 while Nightmare Horror is in play."

Body Snatcher - don't bother with the 'draw a spell' option - it's chickenfeed, and you've got enough text here already. 'Discarding' an investigator should probably be phrased as 'retirement' so there's some grounding in the official rules. Try it like this: "When you defeat Body Snatcher, return it to the box, and you may choose to retire your current investigator. If you do so, transfer all your trophies, money and investigator cards to your new investigator." The 'return to the box' part is to stop it coming back several times during a game and letting people accumulate lots of fixed items. I think the term 'investigator cards' is a catch-all term for small cards, including allies, skills, injuries, madnesses and specials, but I'm not absolutely sure. So you might just have to list the things you want the player to be able to transfer. Were allies and special cards deliberately un-transferrable?

Frankenstein's Monster (the first variant) - I wouldn't bother with the 'backup clause' - if the players want to make him +0 by spending all their trophies, good luck to 'em. He's still toughness 3. The ability should probably say "X is equal to the total number of monster trophies held by investigators."

Gravedigger - Hey, I remember these! I used to use them in my black decks. They were very handy. This monster has two cool abilities - put each on a different monster, I reckon, just so there's less text to wade through. The first ability could be a bit confusing: there are plenty of ways for a monster to be returned to the cup without it being 'defeated', so it's possible to get halfway through reading the ability before realizing that it hasn't triggered - which is always frustrating. It should just say "Whenever an investigator defeats Gravedigger, that investigator must put one of his or her monster trophies into play as a monster at the Graveyard." Hopefully it will be obvious that this won't 'override' the monster limit. The second ability should say "Whenever Gravedigger moves, each investigator must draw a Rivertown encounter card and resolve the Graveyard encounter" or something like that. That's going to produce some very odd effects, by the way - but it's probably not going to break the game too badly.

Zombie Ghoul - wahey, you actually bothered to say that a token is added to indicate the increase! You sir are a gentleman. You wouldn't believe how often I end up pointing out that such-and-such an ability has no marker or token to indicate its existence. Anyhoo... the ghoul should probably start on toughness 1. And it should be "Whenever a zombie monster is defeated...", not returned to the cup.

Wailing Zombie: This needs to work in Other Worlds too, so the Asylum reference is no good. Try this wording: "When Wailing Zombie drives you insane , draw two Madness cards, and do not discard items, clue tokens or your retainer." That's all you need - the rest of the insanity rules apply as normal.

Zombie Behemeth - same refinement needed as with Wailing Zombie (above).

Zombie Thief: The only one so far that I don't like! This is a movement-based ability, so it requires a green border in order to make the players look at the back of the monster marker when it moves. If you want it to move as 'Fast', give it a green border and put the words "Treat as Fast (red-bordered)" on the back. If you're really dead-set on the special ability, it should say "Whenever Zombie Thief moves into a street or location which contains an investigator, that investigator must pass a Sneak (-3) check or discard 1 item." But I don't like that sort of ability - extra skill checks are fiddly, and Sneak (-3) is so harsh that it makes failure almost certain. Just make the item-loss 'automatic' - the elusive Werewolf doesn't make you take a check, it just bites you. The line about requiring an 'additional sneak test' to fight Zombie Thief - is that a reference to the elusive/evade check, or did you mean there should be another sneak check? If it's the latter, that's a bit mad, and if it's the former, the line is unnecessary.

Were-Zombie: Great idea, a few problems. For example, it creates the new monster at your location even though you might be in the OWs. Also, there are a few ways to avoid being devoured (The Messenger, for example) and you don't want to create the new werewolf if the investigator who was bitten hasn't actually been removed! Also, the token method is a bit fiddly given that the Were-Zombie is quite difficult to kill - it could easily hit you all three times during the same combat. If it did more damage, then it'd be more likely to hospitalize you before you got your third bite - in which case you'd have to be careful not to get near a Were-Zombie again, which seems like a more fun idea. After all, a monster that can devour you the first time you meet it is not so special: Shans do it. So what's more fun is if these Bite Tokens can really be given the chance to accumulate - or at least, you get once chance and then you're history. So how about this: drop the toughness to 2, the combat modifer to -1, set the combat damage to 2, and make it Physically Immune (it's a cousin of the Werewolf). Then, the ability says: "If you fail a combat check against Were-Zombie, place a token from the bank on your investigator sheet as a Bite Token. Then, if you have two or more Bite Tokens, you are devoured. If you are devoured this way, draw a Were-Zombie from the cup and place it at your current street or location." That's the neatest phrasing I can think of, but it's still pretty bloated. What's really needed, to make it fun, is more monsters that provide Bite Tokens, and that kill you in different ways if you have them.

Disease Carrier: Doesn't a spawn monster have to be spawned by something? A monster can't spawn itself unless it's already part of the game somehow. What happens when the monster limit is reached a second time, while Disease Carrier is still on the board? Also, it's got a movement special ability, so it should be green-bordered, with the phrase "Treat as normal (black-bordered)." on the back. Try this for the movement ability: "Whenever Disease Carrier moves, place a Brood token on its new street or location. Then, if there are three Brood tokens on the board, remove them and draw a Blight card."

Frankenstein's Monster (Variant 2): Same spawn-related issues as with Disease Carrier. Does it just sit beside the board until its condition is met? Hmmm, I guess that's ok tbh. The ability should say "Whenever a player has five or more toughness of monster trophies, if Frankenstein's Monster is not already in play, it is put into play at the Science Building. It gains any resistences and immunities that the player's monster trophies have."

Also - this 'Creature Type Zombie' stuff - I wouldn't bother with it. If you want to have zombies affecting each other, just make them all Undead, and have them affect other Undead. There aren't many Undead monsters anyway, and it won't matter if a few other types of undead (vampires, ghosts) get lumped in with the zombie horde. You'll save two lines on almost all your monster markers, which you need.

Thank you Corinthian, as always, for your in depth critiques. I will make the necessary adjustments and repost the images when I'm finished, maybe with some more monsters as well. As for the Spawning, I guess I am not sure about the rules there. I need to read and learn some more before I mess around with that game mechanic.

Hehehe - I hadn't realized my previous post had got quite so long! I'll try to keep it a bit more succinct next time...

I don't think you're out of touch with the 'spawn' rules. They have almost no rules of their own, as far as I can recall; it's just that whenever you get a card which creates Spawn monsters, it tends to have a few of the sensible 'conventions' on it.

As far as I can tell, spawn monsters ought to work like this:

- They don't get placed on the board unless another card or sheet tells you to do it.

- They never go in the monster cup (so effects that send them straight to the cup, like 'Feds Raid Arkham', don't affect them). I don't think the Spawn rules actually say this - they just say you can't get Spawn as trophies - but in practise, all the game's Spawn monsters (Dunwich Horror, Abhoth things, Glaaki things, and Riots) go somewhere other than in the cup.

- They ignored and are ignored by the monster limit (which means they can never affect the outskirts either)

- Whenever they leave the board by any means (including being defeated) they go straight back to the card or sheet that created them.

Not all official Spawn monsters have or even need all these rules, but it's the set of house rules that I tend to assume whenever I'm creating custom spawns.

On the other hand, there's nothing wrong with a spawn monster that creates itself; the players just have to decide to use it, and put it beside the board at the start of the game.

I am trying to print these off but am having trouble. I exported the images and then made 1 mass page with paint, when I print preview it, they print larger than they are supposed to be. Same thing when I print from Photoshop. It fits them to the page rather than printing them the size they are suppoosed to be. When I print from strange eons it only prints one per sheet. That is an incredible waste of paper. So, what is the best way to print off monsters for play use?

In Strange Eons, create a new 'deck of cards' sheet, under 'decks and expansions'.

Press 'add cards' (left-hand toolbar) and point it to the .eon files for all the monsters. It'll put them all into the 'cards' tab on the left-hand side. You can drag and drop them on to the page.

Arrange all the monster front-sides on one page, then a mirrored layout of all the monster back-sides on the next page. Print using Strange Eons directly - it should be intelligent enough to output at real size. If not, you're on your own!

(As for assembling the monsters - you can stick the whole sheet on to cardboard and then cut it up, but when I tried to do that I ended up mangling the monster markers too much. If you are going to do it that way, you'd need a cutting board and a sharp knife, rather than scissors, I reckon. Otherwise, you could just bite the bullet and do what I did: cut out one monster's front and back, cut out a square of card, stick it all together, trim it, and then move on to the next monster. Takes ages, but worked for me).