Custom Investigators and Investigator Cards

wow. where do you get the "blanks" for these (I'm guessing alot of photoshop skill required to do these)

dude, http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffgforums/posts/list/1913.page

newguy

,I looked around more before I started posting, anyway...back to topic

Guy_Gallium wrote:

This isn't intended to be a joke (maybe not serious) investigator so any comments on balancing him would be appreciated. I want to stress that the special ability is for beneficial and detrimental losses. Any item, encounter, or ability that involves sanity loss is closed to The Terminator. This means that Lightning Gun, Elder Signs, all Spellcasting, Rumors and Missions involving sanity sacrifice, and tomes are all closed to him. Also, although he effectively ignores horror checks, he still must make them. This means that if Will is not raised then Shans and Yithians can be especially deadly.

The Genealogy Research task is part of his flavor (haven't written yet) but The Terminator is in the 1920's because he is destroying all records of the Connor family. I usually play the character like a machine, single-minded, going straight to the next place on the task even if there is a gate there, until it is complete.

This has been great fun for my group because we spout off Terminator and Arnold S. quotes whenever we pull him out. He is especially good at keeping monsters down (imagine, a Terminator good at killing) but whenever the sanity sacrifice rumor comes out, everybody groans. Also you can play an evil terminator by simply changing Genealogy Research to Choosing the Right Team.

This is a very interesting character and I know when it can be good and bad, however the one thing I'm not so sure about is the whole Genealogy Research part. It wouldn't matter if after the game is over he's devoured, maybe it'd be better if he's devoured before the Ancient one wakes up. It would be better screwing over your team for failing your task. Maybe have him still working on it rather than focusing on the Ancient one or something. Still it's very interesting and definitely deserves more attention.

Also you mean "Join the Winning Team" rather than "Choosing the Right Team" as the optional task for an evil Terminator.

Sorry for the double post but I figured I'd post my newest try at an investigator and see what you guys think of him.

Rift Duty might be a little hard to read so I'll type it up.

"Gordon may collect rift tokens as gate trophies if and only if he has completed at least half of the encounters of an open rift and had the last rift encounter. Rift tokens are still added to the track normally. Meaning if the rift token is spent the rift opens immediately if both tracks are full."

Introduction: So another poster on BGG uses house rules allowing his investigators to adjust their skill sliders during the game, rather than just during upkeep. Myself, I allow new players to place their skill sliders anywhere on their investigator sheets during the first turn. So... why not an investigator that has this as his special ability? Since this investigator can be used in the base set, I used the base set art to flesh out his character. An agent seems as good as any other profession...

Introduction: Then there are those 3-Sanity characters that are a "challenge" to play. I figured I'd make an investigator that (almost) *rewarded* going insane. I then tossed in the "Joining the Winning Team" Unique Item and a the Paranoia Insanity (which, of course, works against JtWT and prevents this investigator from trading away his neat toys) just to make things "interesting". He ended up with a crapload of stuff (including a spell he can't use), so I figured he'd be someone who *stole* it all from somewhere -- such as the Historical Society. Yes, he's a Curator with a poor Lore and high Fight. But picking a poor career path is the least of his concerns...

The Story So Far:

It was supposed to be an easy job.

Dusting off the unvisited exhibits... categorizing unwanted artifacts... researching the odd question... <name> was never really set upon being a Curator, but it was the only job his uncle had offered to him, so he took it. He never particularly thought much of the old fuddy-duddies that composed most of the Arkham Historical Society, other than their boring lectures and demand for Earl Grey and biscuits.

But, having been slipped a few dollars by an oddly furtive group of newer members, he accompanied them to a strange outcropping near an abandoned well in Dunwich.

And suddenly it happened.

He only recalls screaming and the wet pulsating thing crawling over his body, as he shrieked and fled the horrid place. He would spend nights waking in cold sweat at something was invading his mind, offering a sort of peace one should never accept. He spent weeks deliberating his choice, furtively avoiding Society members as best as they could. They could hear him.

He now flees the Society building with a series of hastily gathered artifacts that he knows won't be missed. Job security is the least of his worries...

Cool characters. I rather like them.

Re: The Agent - As written, the Adaptability power sort of gives you a floating point of focus (Or possibly more - you say "Adjust his skills" without specifying how much you can adjust them, which leads me to believe that you might have meant "by his focus". This would be broke.) that can be reactively used and a really solid "Pay clues to move your sliders" power. Honestly, I suspect strongly that the ability would be good enough by itself. I would personally suggest "Any Phase: Wilfred may pay one Clue token to move any of his skill sliders one space in either direction."

By the way, where is his equipment? I don't have Strange Eons on me at the moment, so I might just be eyeballing this wrong, but he seems massively underequipped. This goes double for his apparent role as a 5 Fight/6 Stamina character one would expect to at least start off with a handgun. I'm assuming this is a Federal-type of agent (Perhaps you should specify?), and they'd at least toss the man a .357, even if it's a terrible weapon in-game.

Re: The Curator - First off, this man is enormous. Seriously, the Curator can apparently drop a beatdown on your average tough-as-nails private eye and hold his own against battle-hardened criminals. As an academic, I wouldn't quite expect him to start with 5 Fight and 7 Stamina, even if the latter comes from mechanical limitations. I would actually suggest that he might be worth recasting in the vein of that ragged little urchin whose name escapes me, with a stamina/sanity combination that adds up to less than 10. It would also help reinforce the theme of the pre-broken man.

"Shaken" is really strong, but it doesn't appear to be broken at all from passive observation. The Horror evasion power is simply inferior to Harvey's power (It only blocks more damage vs. 3/4 sanity damage horrors, doesn't stop Nightmarish at all, and is powerless against non-monster threats), but the Madness discard is way, way better than Resilient on the sanity side of things. Considering Virgil has been cast as a brutal monster fighter, it's likely to see a lot of use, but I can't conclusively say he'll be a better killer than Michael McGlen without seeing him in play. My guess is not so much.

Interesting investigators, ced1106.

Please, do you want to share the EON files? I'm interested to traduct to spanish for Arkham Horror's spanish comunity.

Thank you, and greetings from Spain.

My customs are on MU in .eon format, although the two investigators I just posted aren't there, since I'd like to revise them. Please prod me with a PM at your leisure.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=EJDGZ7WC

Fafnir's given me some good analysis, which I will digest. The Agent's been given a Tommy Gun, since it's the weapon in the picture, but I know there's another investigator who already comes with a Tommy Gun, and I'm reluctant to create an investigator with the same non-random fixed item as another. Mebbe I'll use the woman in the picture instead?

The Curator is purposefully an odd character

. The background explains that, not only is he not suited for the job, but he's *stolen* all of his starting equipment (he's also appropriately quite clueless)! The spell (stolen, of course) is likely to be quite useless and should be given to another player -- except that he's Paranoid. I'm thinking of also lowering his Luck -- I'd say that anyone who was contacted by the Mythos would be quite unlucky! Unfortunately, the Strange Eons application doesn't allow Sanity and Stamina totals to be less than ten. I'll check again. Also, good to see he isn't obviously better or worse than another fighter character. I like characters which address a common comment about the mechanics, but don't want to introduce anything unbalanced. Virgil is pretty much meant to be a Sanity 3 character that's "easier" to play, and to bring more Madness cards into play.

I believe Michael McGlen starts with the Tommy Gun.

You can find the modifiers to Sanity/Stamina under "Extras" on the possessions page. It is rather hard to find.

I realize that the Curator in question isn't actually supposed to be a highly-dedicated (Or, apparently, skilled) artificer, but 7 Stamina and 5 Fight is really rather high for anybody who doesn't crack skulls for a living. Look at Dexter Drake, for instance - he just got back from a war, and he's not as tough as this guy is in a stand-up fight.

Fafnir wrote: Look at Dexter Drake, for instance - he just got back from a war, and he's not as tough as this guy is in a stand-up fight.

you mean Mark Harrigan, don't you? I don't remember Dexter being just back from the war....bu I might be wrong, though

Dexter's backstory explicitly describes his having served in WWI, although it also mentions his time there as a "stint" and implies that he was looking forward to getting back to civilian life with fewer tentacled monsters. Harrigan's coming straight off the front lines, and his "Soldier" tag suggests that he's more of a career guy than the conscript I suspect Dexter was, but Dex has seen action.

oh, ok, my bad...

Anyone watch Hellsing?

Oh I just could not resist:

The best thing about the Alucard investigator is the idea behind the gun. I'm not sure about the idea of replacing him with Vlad Tepes - it seems kinda arbitrary. You could start Alucard with a special Task or Mission instead which does some of the same stuff if completed. Or, Alucard could be very powerful but could start with a bunch of Injuries/Madnesses/Detriments to represent the control restrictions, and then he has a mission or an ability which lets him get rid of them.

I quite like the Curator but I'm not sure what the point of Join the Winning Team is - it seems to me that there's little chance of ever actually resolving it and all it really does is tempt one player to waste their time trying.

Speaking of low-sanity characters, here's my take. I'm putting together a group of investigators which kinda connect up to CotDP and use exhibit items, and this is the only one I've playtested so far. He's basically a pretty unpredictable spellcaster and the Book of Anubis is his lifeline. He's meant to be pretty high-powered because I'm working on some custom Ancient Ones who are fairly hardcore.

magicman011 wrote:Oh I just could not resist:

You need to do Shaggy, and the rest of the gang...

Hey all,

A friend of mine has a birthday coming up, so I decided to whip up a character in Strange Eons to commemorate it. Please let me know what you think. The alternative the the existing abilities is "Screw the Rules, I Have Money" which I can't figure out how to quantify, but would probably allow for the use of some amount of money as equivalent to clue tokens once per turn.

Hmm.

Efficiency! is a really cool ability, even if it could be used as written to grief other players. It does look fantastic for Joining the Winning Team, though, particularly if you can start slowing down the guy making a run for the last gate. Obviously, the solution there is to reach around the table and smack the offending player, but I would think you'd just as soon the wording not allow your supposed ally to kill you by remote.

Casework is a good plan, but the fact that players can already trade money and such freely makes it a mite too strong (Also, how is she doing that without a cell phone?). Provided everyone can eventually reach her during the movement phase, you're essentially just cranking up everyone's Lore to master-class. I grant that Lore isn't an amazing stat, but that could do bad things with the lower-order spellcasters.

"Screw the Rules..." does have an inbuilt edge in that the gameboard already establishes a conversion rate between clues and cash (Or, rather, between each and monsters, but still), so that could theoretically work. That ability would be tough to work with, though, considering how rapidly you'd run out of cash (And how much tougher it is to get money vs. clues), so I would necessarily suggest it as a sole ability unless there were some other smaller power attached - possibly either one of the currently-used ones, or a money-making power. Perhaps a slightly toned-down version of the Stock Market power from Strange Eons, with +2/-1 dollars? You could call it "Casework", even.

Still, it's tough to make valid suggestions that should ideally mimic a person we don't know. Take mine as you will.

Fafnir wrote:Hmm.

Efficiency! is a really cool ability, even if it could be used as written to grief other players. It does look fantastic for Joining the Winning Team, though, particularly if you can start slowing down the guy making a run for the last gate. Obviously, the solution there is to reach around the table and smack the offending player, but I would think you'd just as soon the wording not allow your supposed ally to kill you by remote.

Casework is a good plan, but the fact that players can already trade money and such freely makes it a mite too strong (Also, how is she doing that without a cell phone?). Provided everyone can eventually reach her during the movement phase, you're essentially just cranking up everyone's Lore to master-class. I grant that Lore isn't an amazing stat, but that could do bad things with the lower-order spellcasters.

"Screw the Rules..." does have an inbuilt edge in that the gameboard already establishes a conversion rate between clues and cash (Or, rather, between each and monsters, but still), so that could theoretically work. That ability would be tough to work with, though, considering how rapidly you'd run out of cash (And how much tougher it is to get money vs. clues), so I would necessarily suggest it as a sole ability unless there were some other smaller power attached - possibly either one of the currently-used ones, or a money-making power. Perhaps a slightly toned-down version of the Stock Market power from Strange Eons, with +2/-1 dollars? You could call it "Casework", even.

Still, it's tough to make valid suggestions that should ideally mimic a person we don't know. Take mine as you will.

Thanks for the suggestions. Mostly, my concerns are the balance/perceived fun in playing such a character. This probably won't be a commonly-used investigator, but I wanted it to be fun to play and relatively balanced. I will probably fix the Efficiency rule to prevent screwing with other players, if I decide to keep it.

The Casework ability was supposed to let investigators use the Lore skill by paying $1 no matter where they are, although I can see how this might cause problems. I think changing it to in the same location would make it completely useless, though. I'll have to come up with a way to balance it.

Two more for your consideration. The 'Service Revolver' item, btw, is a one-handed +3 Physical Weapon that can't be lost or stolen.

You should specify that Horace's ability only works once for each Horror check.

Otherwise: very nicely done.

-Frank

Service Revolver? I don't recall that Common Item.