kroen said:

He's pretty good. What is he meant to be? Is he a sherpa or a guide or something? He looks a bit like a WW1 soldier with a flamethrower.

As for your recent crop of items - glad to see you're getting the hang of balancing them, old boy.

Stapler: This made me laugh, and it is interesting, and we do need more cards that interact with tomes. Suggestion though: instead of being a Stapler, this card should be a 'Mimeograph' (a mechanical copying machine). Its limited success could be attributed to the fact that many occult tomes can't be replicated just by copying the text, because they were written with magic ink and so forth.

Trash Can: Ability should read "Any phase: Exhaust and end your movement while in Arkham to add 1 success to the result of an Evade check."

Astral Journey: Takes some of the fun out of it, don't you think? At the very least, it should be modifier -2, sanity cost 3, in order to make it almost impossible to use repeatedly.

Change of Fate: Same thing - this ability, if the investigators get set up to do it over and over again, can potentially make the game too easy. Make it drive the caster insane instantly, so it'll only get used if the investigators are really desperate.

Future change: Seems fair.

Teleportation: That's the stuff! Makes 'Mists of Releh' look like a chump. A few more like this, and suddenly spellcasters might actually become useful.

Repelling the Ancient One: Seems fair enough, since it's one use only.

Time Shift: I don't think this is a good idea. Isn't it one of Kev's Golden Rules that the Terror level never goes down? And even if you're willing to ignore that, what is the actual point of this item? Most of the negative effects of the Terror level are one-off things which trigger when it rises, and you haven't prevented those by lowering it again - in fact all you've done is allow them to happen 1 more time before reaching 10. Is your idea that the General Store re-open if the Terror level dropped back below three (and so on)? If so, it's still not that great a spell, since it would only be useful if you were at exactly the right point.

Vampire Blade: Not the game's most powerful, but pretty **** amazing. If I were you, I'd get rid of the "divided as you choose" part, to preserve a bit more of the element of long-term risk of fighting monsters.

Astral Journey is one-time... but Change of Fate should probably be one-time as well.

More powerful than an Elder Sign? perhaps. Most powerful item in the game? possibly.

kroen said:

Ahh! What did I just say about balancing? Honestly, I leave you people alone for five minutes and look what happens...

This item certainly is more powerful than an Elder Sign. It can't be gate-bursted, it doesn't cost Sanity/Stamina, and it doesn't require you to actually do anything. It's true that when you draw it, some of the locations you would have wanted to use it on might already have gates, but there's a good chance that at least one high-frequency unstable location will be empty.

The bigger problem is that it's not particularly interesting for the players - all it does is irrevocably 'anull' a certain number of Mythos card gate-openings, without otherwise contributing to the win/lose mechanisms of the game. The fact that it appears instantaneously makes it seem like the sort of power that ought to be on a Mythos card, or even a really difficult OW encounter - because it's not really an 'item' in the conventional sense. You don't get to 'keep it' the way you keep items.

(And no offence Kroen, but the fact that it's the most powerful item in the game isn't anything to be proud of. Making powerful items is easy. Making weak items is also easy. The important thing is to make items which force the investigator to think carefully about how best to use them, or which represent a risky investment because the investigator might not get a chance to use the ability (and even the mighty Elder Sign falls into that category). When I'm designing items, I try to make sure that if someone draws them as part of a trip to the Curiosity Shop, they'll have a genuinely difficult choice about whcih one to buy. Whenever I do want to go overboard and design a super-item, I at least price it at $10, like a couple of the Exhibit items in my fan expansion. Your Sign of the Outer Gods is so unstoppably brilliant in almost all circumstances that it kinda defeats the point. And sometimes you even overestimate your own items' greatness, like when you told us to "brace ourselves" for the Vampire Blade. Stop trying to 'blow our minds' with powerful items! We're not that easily impressed.)

but there are a couple of items that you don't keep... warding, throne, shrine... but yeah, my sign is probably overpowered...

Now this is defintely more powerful than Sword of Glory, as it's much more versitile:

It doesn't need any explaining. It works exactly how you think it works.

kroen said:

I have no idea how it works.

Can you choose to use it as one or the other? Or is it meant to be that half the combat bonus is Physical and half is Magical? Either way, the 'Physical/Magical' labels apply to the item , not to specific abilities on the item, so a strict reading of your item would make it entirely useless against a monster with either immunity. Although that rather subtle distinction has never mattered before, probably because no-one else has your very special approach to item design.

Still quite a good idea though.

Edited to add: regarding Warding, Throne, Shrine etc: don't try citing precedent with me! There are plenty of 'official' items which I don't like, or which I think are disproportionately good or bad. Yes, I am holding you to a higher standard than FFG themselves usually achieve. Deal with it.

The way it works is simple:

If enemy has no resistance/immunities, it gives +6

If enemy has physical/magical resistance, it gives +5

If enemy has physical and magical resistance, it gives +4

If enemy has physical/magical immunity, it gives +3

If enemy has physical and magical immunity, it gives +0

thecorinthian said:

BTW TY for the input

Change it to Mimeograph but what investigator gonna haul that around... if its not portable(?)

Not sure if it needs to be Exhausted but guess it would make sense cause it cost nothing.

The basket of kittens... it's just... it's just horrible...

*Prints it out*

Ps: You could probably turn it into a cursed item... the kittens come back to haunt you...

Maybe after you use the basket you roll some upkeep check or have to fight...Ghost Kitten

edit where the "t" go? lol and lower case "i"!

edit edit and the "to"

and the "to" I had the same problem when i tried posting something, stuff was added! Stuff was missing! it was crazy! but then again I do have a habit of not paying attention...

Haha, those kittens are great!

And underwater basket weaving is clearly my favorite skill! (Do you happen to play D&D or any other RPG?)

ty

a little but its been awhile

LOL the kittens and the basket weaving are hilarious.

Meow Meow Meow Munch Munch Burrrp

Delightfully evil. Murdering Kittens is funny!

Some difficulty cards:

And something else...

Just imagine the raw power of this! Curses, blessings, brood tokens, Yibb-Tstll's attack... the possibilities are endless!

what up

LOL, I love the fun cards! I think this game could use more of those (fan creations, of course. )

I've been at it some more. Here are some new items and allies I made.

I justify this card by its $10 price tag. Thus far, the most expensive item in the game. It may still be too powerful though, input is appreciated!

The precedent on this is the telescope, which you can discard instead of being delayed. It also has an additional power, and is only $2. Again, input is great!

I believe that in the 20's, they were still saying that smoking was good for you. I think Arkham having an item card for a pack of smokes is period appropriate.

These two would go with my Godzilla AO. They are those little priestesses of Mothra. I think I've seen them sing monsters to sleep, thus the effects. Also, unlike Basil Elton, who may be discarded at any time to cancel the AO's attack (even after he attacks, it looks like on his card text, which would be extremely useful in an epic battle), the Priestesses must be used in the upkeep.

Another Godzilla themed card.

Last one! This guy would be part of an industrial expansion that I'm working on.

Sorry the post is so long, I wanted to get these out to be critiqued. Looking forward to suggestions!

love love love the twins! MOOOOTHRAAAAAA!

Hey Admiral142, not a bad set of cards. This bodes well for your industrial expansion.

A few thoughts:

Roadster - absolutely fine. It would probably even be alright if it was $8 or $9. The key factor which keeps it from being too good is that it has to start and stop in the street, so it simply won't always be useful - if you want to reach a location with it, it requires another turn's movement "on foot", and most investigators can cover almost the entire board in two turns' movement anyway, so the potential benefit is great but not that great. The fact that it gets you past intervening monsters is the best part. The list price probably should stay at $10 actually, since it'll potentially save you a few quid in train fares. ANd it is quite fun to raise the upper limit on what items cost, so that people will want to collect more cash before going to the General Store.

Pocket Watch - maybe a bit too good, since it's very hard to get delayed more than once a turn, so this item is equivalent to the Soldier's special ability - which is a bit unfair to the Soldier at least! I suggest making it like the Crystal of the Elder Things - you can put a token on it to avoid being delayed, but when it's got four tokens on it, it goes.

Pack of Smokes - should cost more. For some investigators this item is unbelievably good; it makes up for a huge flaw in their stats. Also, it needs to be phrased "Any phase: exhaust and spend 1 Stamina to gain 1 Sanity." It has to be 'spend' because spending can't be reduced by abilities like Michael McGlen's. If McGlen got this card as it is now, it'd be a bit too good for $1.

Twin Priestesses - hmmmm, I'm not sure I like them - surely there should be a choice here? Discard them to remove a Doom, or discard them to cancel the attack? William Bain and Basil Elton have those abilities respectively, and I regard them as game-changingly powerful abilities; their availability or unavailability in the Ally deck is sufficiently important that it can make a serious difference to investigator strategy (in my games anyway). Putting both abilities on one ally might be a bit much...

Mothra Dust - there are a few items that already just remove Doom tokens; this should be made more interesting. How about: the person who uses it goes mad instantly. That way, at least there's some unique cost (apart from a trivial cost of dollars).

Clockwork Man - fine stuff. Better than the **** dog anyway.

Same thought re: pack of smokes. It should be priced at $3, minimum, although I'd be willing to pay four for it under a bunch of circumstances. Being able to pump more sanity into a low san high stam character is invaluable.

On the other hand, why your cigarettes would cost more than a cigarette case is beyond me ;') Perhaps it should be Packs of Smokes.

Avi_dreader said:

Call the item "Imported Cigars". That'll justify a bigger price tag.