I am thinking of making a monster called Plague Of Locust that would have an affect on all players. Any ideas about how to go about doing this?

Are there any monsters in the game that affect all players currently?

I also want to make one called Kaleidoscopic Polyhedron Of Doom, from Dreams In The Witch house. I have not seen that one yet, but it would be comical.

Cthonians and Colour Out of Space both effect all players when their movement is activated.  They are terrible and evil, and I hate them!  Though I did take down a Colour out of space one game.  That was very, very gratifying... 

Depends what you mean by 'affects all players'.

If it's an effect which only triggers when the monster moves, that's fine - because you can give it a green border ('special movement' rule). But if you want the monster to have a constant effect while it's on the board, there's no border-colour which indicates that.

The thing to remember is that the back of a monster marker is the 'combat side' and it's only really there to tell you what to do while you're fighting the monster. If you put special rules on that side, it's a bit awkward for the players, and it does change how the players have to handle monster markers (since they would then have to check each placed monster to make sure it didn't do something, and if it did do something, people would have to keep picking it up and turning it over if they wanted to remember what the effect was.

Definitely go for it, but just bear in mind that the back of the monster marker isn't a very good place for a static special ability.

Here's how I'd do it: instead of just making a monster, make an Environment (Urban) Mythos card which creates a spawn monster. I was gonna do a few of these a while ago but never go around to it. So the Environment is really nasty, but it puts a 'Locust Queen' down on the board (or something like that) and if the investigators can kill the queen, the environment is discarded. Actually maybe it should be a rumor.

thecorinthian said:

While you make good points, after 'experiencing' any given monster one or two times it's unlikely that the players are going to completely blank on which ones have non-movement and non-combat abilities, and they're probably also going to remember exactly what those abilities are unless it's something really complicated. Of course, if you only use the custom monster rarely, or are prone to taking large breaks from the game (1 month+) then I could see being a bit hazy.

That said, I love the ideas for Environments and Rumors that spawn monsters.

ivory_tower said:

I would like the Zombie tokens, and the Rats, too. Your ideas are fun. I enjoy printing and sticking new stuff! I prefer .eons, then I can change anything to my taste.

Sorry Makken, I did not see your message.

Here is a link to all the eon files you requested.

click here

and here is one more monster.  I might need to take out the flavor text though.

A good idea as usual, but this rules concept might be a bit ambitious for a monster marker. And yes, you definitely need to cut the flavor text and probably shorten the rules text.

There's a 'representation' issue: the back of a monster marker is not usually a place where you can put global special rules (i.e. special rules whcih affect things which are going on elsewhere on the board). One of the unique properties of monster markers is that you don't really look at them until you're fighting the monster, or until another card tells you to - so they're a bad place to explain how a type of counter might work. Especially since the monster might end up back in the cup before the last Goo token is gone, and then you're left with a special rule which isn't explained anywhere on any card in play. Which violates one of the Prime Directives of AH card design... in my mind, anyway.

It's a difficult effect to describe on the back of one monster marker, but I think you can get pretty close, albeit by making it behave slightly differently. The 'three counters, ticking down' approach is going to be too wordy, since you need to specify where the counters go. So instead, I suggest something like this:

"When you fail a Combat check against Gluttonous Slime, place it face-down on your investigator sheet. While this marker is on your investigator sheet, your Speed is reduced by 2. During the Upkeep, you may spend 3 Sanity or 3 Stamina to return this marker to the cup."

Something like that, anyway. Also, you're gonna be so short of space that you probably need to add the resistances 'manually' using the Strange Eons text editing option, so that it won't put a line break in. In fact I'd recommended scrapping one of the resistances just to save space. Scrap Magical, it's nowhere near as much of a pain as Phys.

It is a little wordy as is right now.  I like your idea of putting the monster on the character sheet, I will try to reword it to make it work better.

Here's something that I think might be fun.  Scary, but fun...

Just so you know, the Lethal ability is: "If you are reduced to 0 Stamina by this monster, instead of being knocked Unconscious, you are devoured."

ivory_tower said:

Thanks ivory-tower, I'm gonna print these on lovely textured paper, when combined with decent card stock  the monster tokens look spot on; and when in the cup it is impossible to tell the difference with the official tokens.

Here are some betty's that I think would be ok.  We playtested a bunch of my other monsters recently.  I found out that they were too hard.  Way too hard.  So I have redone them all and checked for balance.  These monsters are more in the vein of my revised outlook.  Let me know what you think!

Do you think the -4 is too in your face?  I tried to make their combat modifiers such that it would be possible to max out your will and still fight them if you had a weapon.  However, I have found that requiring multiple successes is much harder than subtracting dice.  Constructive criticism is welcome!   BTW, where is everyone...?

I like the idea but -4 is too much. -2 is about right. I haven';t checked but do the symbols on the monsters match the symbols on their corruptions.

I actually have seen that art before, great set of it.

I love the movement patterns, how Wrath is fast and the jealous envy is a stalker. Sloth being yellow movement cracked me up.

I dunno, -4 is certainly harsh. It almost makes it definite that that card will be drawn, with only a slight chance to resist, which could be what you're going for. And one corruption card isn't that harsh. Alternatively, just have it so if an investigator defeats them he automatically draws the card. Up to you.

Only question: What happens if that card is unavailiable? Maybe another investigator already has both cards. No effect?

I do love the idea, very fun. The seven personified sins thing is always neat.

Cool, thanks for the feedback! Yes, the symbols match the corruption card symbols. I thought that would be appropriate. :) I think I could change the -4 to something not as nasty so it wouldn't seem as aggressive.  I like your idea, Graksnor, of just having them draw a corruption.  I might do that.  Originally, I was going to make a deck of 7 sins cards, but decided that the game has enough decks as it is... :P  As for what happens if the particular corruption is not available, then yes, I guess it would have no effect.  That seems ok, since there are 2 of each corruption in the corruption deck and if both are already gone, there's enough trouble anyway...  ;)
 

Fear.