Geekery: Heroes and Arkham Horror

[triskellian]

After conversations the last few days with various other Arkham/Heroes fans, I've now created Heroes Arkham investigators...

• Peter (special: may take on the special of another character in play once per turn, forfeiting his next focus)
• Niki/Jessica (special: gets 2 extra points of focus to use whenever she likes)
• Nathan (special: treats the sky as a street location one movement point away from any other; must fight or evade monsters there)
• Isaac (special: may turn over the top card of any deck once per turn; if it's a location card, that deck isn't shuffled next time)
• Hiro (special: may teleport or reroll a fight check once per turn)
• The Haitian (special: may take clue tokens from another investigator in his location and restore an equal number of points of sanity)
• DL (special: cannot be arrested or delayed; can enter and use closed locations)
• Claude (special: can auto-pass all evade checks in one location per turn)
• Claire (special: loses one turn to go back up to full stamina)

Some of these are fairly hefty specials, but as someone (smiorgan?) said this weekend: these aren't first level characters ;-) And I'm considering making Sylar as a Great Old One to go with them. He'll spend the game chomping away on allies (possibly raising the doom track as he goes), and his attack may well be to eat an investigator at random. So he'll be pretty nasty to suit.

So the next question is: who wants to help me playtest them?

Comments

[sesquipedality.livejournal.com]

Sounds like fun. I'd be up for that.

[al-fruitbat.livejournal.com]

You'll want to mandate that Nathan cannot stay in the sky as in any other location.
Similarly, DL's power is going to give him refuge which is unfair. Perhaps a sanity or stamina loss if he stays in a 'closed' location?
I definitely think the Haitian's power is too strong. He'll be 'gate seal boy' combined with 'mobile asylum'. Either he simply burns the clues (so he doesn't get them) or he burns two clues to receive one, and give one point of sanity.
Hiro should be delayed if he teleports, especially if he's allowed to do it in any phase. If he's not delayed, perhaps he should only be allowed to teleport during Upkeep? Teleporting should definitely exhaust his movement points. (some kind of dice roll would be OK though - maybe on a 1 to 3 he's delayed, 4 or 5 nothing happens and 6 he regains a sanity?)
Peter shouldn't be able to use the same power twice in a row. Otherwise you'll just end up with two of the 'best' characters on the board at all times.

[triskellian]

All good thoughts, thanks. I'll make some changes...

I don't think DL having a refuge is a big deal - anyone can go hide out in a green location, and there's no reason to have to hide from other investigators, is there?

And with the Haitian, I do agree with you, but remember that if he's gate seal boy, he's not around to be mobile asylum at the same time. And someone still has to pick up the clues in the first place. But I like your 2-to-1 suggestion to tone it down.

[triskellian]

Further thought: I agree that Nathan should have to land at the end of his turn, but I'm stumped on how that works with possibly fighting in mid-air, since fighting otherwise ends your movement. Perhaps he should simply have to evade them, but then the same question applies if he fails his evade check...

[al-fruitbat.livejournal.com]

Perhaps if he fights in the air, he simply returns to the location he took off from at the end of movement? Still allows him to go pick up a Mi-Go, but means if he's stuck in a horrible location he can't escape if the sky is already full of gribble?

[triskellian]

Yeah, that works.

Next question: Hiro. I think delaying him just makes the ability rubbish - almost anyone can get across the board in two goes without a special. Maybe have him make a speed check, and if he fails, then he's delayed? (His max speed is only three, but who needs to be fast when you can just slow everyone else down? And he'll fail the roll reasonbly often.)

[al-fruitbat.livejournal.com]

Exsqueese me? He still gets to re-roll a combat check every round! That's actually a damn fine ability on it's own!

He's supposed to have a risky teleport isn't he? OK, how about a 1 on the roll loses a stamina and a sanity, a 2 and a 3 cause a delay, a 4 and a 5 do nothing and a 6 regains a sanity or a stamina (his choice)?
If it's not obvious though, that roll should be independent of skill check bonuses, clues or re-roll girl.

[triskellian]

Or if he messes it up, he goes through the nearest gate ;-)

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Lands in a random location ! That would rock ! :-D

[secondhand-rick.livejournal.com]

Sometime I'd like to play a beginners' game of Arkham Horror.

I'm almost convinced it might be a boardgame I'd enjoy.

[triskellian]

I'm not so keen on boardgames in general, but Arkham has more in common with RPGs than board games in its collaborative nature, which I really like.

But just in case you were tempted: don't play a game composed solely of beginners, because learning the rules is hard. Get some old hands, at least for your first game, because they can worry about the rules while you work out whether you like it, instead of you getting so frustrated with having to look up complicated systems every single turn, that you give up and throw it across the room ;-)

[secondhand-rick.livejournal.com]

Fair enough, let me rephrase... I'd like to play a beginner-friendly game of Arkham Horror.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

I played these Heroes characters last night as my first ever game of AH - I think it's quite beginner-friendly (at least, the other players made it so!). :D Definitely worth finding a game to see if you like it, IMO.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

I'm almost convinced it might be a boardgame I'd enjoy.

If you don't like other boardgames (as you imply) that might well help in liking Arkham. Certainly works the other way around (I like almost all boardgames except Arkham).