Fear.

Is it just me, or are some people getting the monsters out of Magic the Gathering creatures?

Yeah, sometimes people do use magic cards, either for ideas, or for art. I think it's cool though, as some of the MTG art is amazing and I like to see how people interperet the cards into AH. I haven't played MTG since... Tempest? I think that was the last set I really got into. Ravnica a little, but not a lot.

And some monsters:

comments welcome!

I like the Incubus, although I would make two suggestions. First, I'd remove the gender targetting aspect, and just make them stalkers. Children of the Goat don't only attack male investigators, so, it seems out of place. Ironically, Arkham treats the two genders equally, and a card that doesn't feels a little out of place. Second, and please someone correct me if I have this wrong, typically moon symbols are for things that are/were "human" or otherwise from the physical world (instead of an Other World). Incubi are demons, so perhaps a different symbol would be better...

I also like the Sylph, but if there are no open gates to the dreamlands, the investigator who fails his combat check, will be stuck there for 1 - 2 turns, then will be lost in time and space for a turn, then finally return to Arkham. That's 3 lost turns for a single failed check. Perhaps allow the investigator to return to where the Sylph is, provided the Sylph hasn't been defeated in the meantime? Something like "The location the Sylph is in counts as an open gate for the Dreamlands for investigators returning to Arkham."

Great comments! I did mean to change the Incubus symbol to something else. I agree, the game does tend to treat the genders equally, which is cool. I've been thinking about capitalizing on the idea that there are male and female investigators, and am planning to use that aspect in many of the encounter cards I make for my custom expansion. To that end, I have an electric succubus a few pages back that I have changed to target male investigators. However, in the meantime it would probably be beneficial to have it target the nearest investigator.

For the Sylph, that's a good suggestion. I knew losing to her would be a pain, but losing 3 turns is pretty steep.

Thanks again!

I wanted to post these guys again because: 1. I wanted this thread back on the front page,2. I saw that Supercshunk had made a horseman AO,I thought it would be neat to comparecontrast:

Just FYI, lethal is an ability that I introduced in my custom campaign, it means that if you are knocked unconscious by this monster, you are instead devoured.

I LOVE monsters! I hope we can get some more interest in custom monsters in this thread!

I'm diggin' the monsters in here.

I'll be posting some non-investigator ideas in the near future, so all the custom topics should be a buzz and hopefully others will get some ideas.

Okay, time to stop just criticizing and actually add to the custom content!

Both of these are based on monsters from Brian Lumley's works, Haggopian and The Thing from the Blasted Heath. MINOR SPOILER ALERT: Monster in Haggopian is a lamprey whose victims allow it to continue feeding because of some sort of hypnotic or mental control. In Thing from the Blasted Heath, monster is an alien tree that uses telepathy to get people to sleepwalk into its clutches, then drains them dry of all bodily fluids using tentacle-like thorned roots.

Isn't the thing from Blasted Heath the Colour out of Space? Interesting idea, though you might want to give Investigator a Will saving throw first.

EDIT: didn't spot the Lumley reference. Next time I'll try reading the post

Game-wise I like the lamprey, easy to kill but has a nasty first attack ability. The Thing from The Blasted Heath you might want to consider toughening up a little, he's fairly easy to avoid and not very strong in a fight, not weak but most investigators with a weapon could take him no problem. I would consider perhaps making him elusive and upping his awarenes to -3.

Story-wise I'm interested in finding out a few things about the Thing From the Blasted Heath. I can't find anything about it online other than it being present in a list of short stories Lumley wrote. I'm curious where in the history of Arkham this story falls since at the end of The Colour Out of Space they were planing on flooding the Blasted Heath by constructing a dam.

So to go with my Doctor Who Investigator, I had to come up with some Whovian nemesis to haunt our Arkham Horror games. Watch out - they're toughies!

First up, the good ol Saltshakers themselves, the Daleks!

Dalek's are both a blessing and a curse. If one comes out, it's going to be a pain in the ass to kill. But on the other hand, Daleks are highly xenophobic and might eliminate other problem monsters for you. If you can avoid them, a Dalek might do more good than bad.

At first glance, the Cybermen look like Pushovers. But soon you'll be fearing every time these come out. Why? Because they fill up the monster limit just by being there. An army of easy-to-kill things that don't give you trophies, have high awareness and flood the board is EVIL. You're going to hate playing against them. Hint: If you use them, make a lot so the gimmick works.

And now the Weeping Angel. Oh goodness. They are elusive so you can't attack them unless you try to, but their effect will drive you mad. The idea is that because you have to keep your eyes on the weeping angel, othermonsters will get the drop by on you. But lest you be tempted to just kill them - well, that's going to be no-fun either.

So there you go. Three monsters absolutely evil in complete different ways. Hope you enjoy!

I would make The Weeping Angels alter the awareness of all monsters in Arkham, otherwise it's likely to not be a threat at all (since most of the time it won't share a space with monsters).

Avi_dreader said:

That would be, uhh, utterly terryfyingly terrible. I don't think I'd want to play that game. 0o

It won't always share space with monsters, but when it does it locks down that location and makes it tough to deal with. That's pretty scary on its own right. Add to the fact that it can mess you up terribly if you decide to fight it, changing it like that would break the game in a bad way.

Actually I'm not getting how the angel would mess you up terribly unless yog is the AO.

@ Veet & Jake: I'm not sure how Lumley handled the flooding, but the basic premise is a collector of the arcane and occult (yes, yet another one) convinces someone in America to run onto the blasted heath sometime after Lovecraft's story and pick a shrub, which he mails to the narrator in England. The shrub grows into a tree, and starts eating people (and cats). If you're interested in finding it, it's in Lumley's collection of Mythos short stories titled "Haggopian" which I heartily reccomend. Probably set you back ten bucks or so.

As for theDoctor Who monsters, they are indeed nasty. I rather like the idea of the Daleks, though honestly I think I'd like it when they showed up. -1 isn't too bad, and that "eat other monsters" thing is pretty handy. I think I'd just leave them alone for the game pretty much all the time. Honestly the cybermen sound like the worst. If there are enough to fill up the monster limit, which can be up to what, 11? Then you'd need at least 11 to make it work, making 'em more common than cultists! I'd hate to clear the board of them, then watch as another is drawn, and endless makes this a very likely scenario. Also, they're fast, so they're going to clog up the board pretty quickly, especially with that movement rule. Yeeowch. I think they are a pretty big game changer, perhaps the biggest of any monster yet.

I think the idea of elusive boosting monsters is a great one. That's an area that could be investigated more.

Veet said:

If you fail against it, you're Lost in Time and Space. And it's got a -4 modifier. And Magical Immunity.

That's not easy even without the Awareness bit.

MustardTheTroops said:

I could make it so that only one or two are real Cybermen (maybe make them Cybermen Controllers?) and then have the regular Cybermen be spawn monsters that count agains the Monster Limit. That would deal with the potential redrawing/reflooding issue. The other way would be to print out 5 or so and add in a text that says they only fill up until you hit the Limit or you run out of Cybermen.

Master Fwiffo said:

As it is right now, it's basically a free monster on the board. It wouldn't break the game if altered, it would just make it much more difficult when drawn (kind of like a Colour does sometime). You could make it easier if it was only a 1 awareness change.

Avi_dreader said:

I really don't want to make the modifier global (as that doesn't make sense with the story behind it). But what if it affected monsters Adjacent as well? That would make a bit more sense with the story behind it.

Master Fwiffo said:

Hmm... That would definitely work better. Although you should keep the modifier at at least two in that case since it's still unlikely to impact the game much. It's still not a huge threat though (I mean, how often do you run through monsters anyway). If you also had it add to monster horror, combat, or toughness, that would make it a bit worse. Personally, I love monsters that function as mini-environments. They make for a more exciting game when they pop-out (in my opinion).

The newest Season of Dr. Who just premiered in the US, and the villian in it was so very Arkham Horror fitting that I just had to make it.

And while I'm here, here's a fixed Weeping Angel and a Dalek with increased awareness to make it a bigger threat.

Freaking Lolz that is some funny stuff

These are a couple of Monsters that could make the game more interesting...

And if you are in the mood to 'Scooby' up your game a little...