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[pbp] Eldritch Horror 2: Electric Boogymen - FIN.
Nocren
Lt Futz, Back in ActionNorth CarolinaRegistered User regular
Lt Futz, Back in ActionNorth CarolinaRegistered User regular
THE MADNESS RETURNS!!!
It is 1926 and the world stands on the brink of catastrophe. An elder being of unfathomable power threatens to awaken from its long slumber and bring about death and madness in it's wake before it has it's morning cup of coffee souls. Strange cults and unspeakable monsters wreak havoc on every continent of the world as the fabric of reality tears itself apart like a cheap dime novel dame's corset. They seek to open gates to bizarre other worlds, and don't even have the common courtesy to close them afterwards.
Only a few pitiful fools brave investigators have a clue understand what is truly happening (Hint: it's REALLY not good). These poor tenacious souls come from all walks of life and decide that "hey I LIVE HERE, and I'll be damned if some fish-faced GOD is gonna destroy MY world." It falls upon them to investigate what is going, explore the remote corners of the globe, fight these living nightmarish creatures that lurk in the shadows, and find the answers that can stop this
ELDRITCH HORROR
Yep, we're screwed.
Yep, we're screwed.
It's time to do another play by post of Eldritch Horror! For those of you that missed my last game last month, Eldritch Horror can be considered Arkham 2.0, as the game is somewhat more streamlined, but slightly larger in scope. In it, we have 12 Investigators with fixed stats (none of that "adjusting stats at the beginning of your turn" stuff here and it actually states in the rules that if a current investigator becomes crippled or insane, you pick a new investigator and continue playing and provided the previous investigator is still alive, you can receive aid from them), and only 4 Elder Ones at the start (though Forsaken Lore did add a 5th one, Yig). There's also only 1 game board though a second did just get released that covers Antarctica in greater detail (Mountains of Madness, which adds 8 new investigators and 2 new Ancient Ones).
The Rules can be downloaded/viewed from the Fantasy Flight Page here
As well as the reference sheet
And Errata/FAQ
So what exactly is this?
Similar to Arkham Horror, this is a co-operative board game where the players work together to beat the clock and prevent an Old God from waking up on the wrong side of the universe and causing "very bad things" (tm) to happen. In case you can't tell, this based on the HP Lovecraft Mythos. During the course of the game several things might happen that will impede the investigators' such as stopping a plague cult that is taking advantage of the weirdness from wiping out everyone.
Here's the game board. I'll put it in a spoiler so I don't possibly break H-scroll
So how is this game played?
Each player (game can be played with up to 8 players) picks an investigator and starts following whatever clues they find. The Lead Investigator (that would be me in this case since I have the board and cards) has some extra steps to perform afterwards called the Mythos Phase where "Bad Shit Happens" and it also signifies the start of a new round. Each round has 3 phases:
Action Phase - This is where the investigators perform their actions. They may perform ONE TWO of the following actions (but not the same action twice unless described):
Move along a single section. Using the board picture above, an investigator could start in Arkham and travel to that nice, nondescript Midwestern city (or that Mexico/Texas board city, but really, why would you want to?) and then spend their next turn going from the city to San Francisco
Rest and recuperate. The investigator takes a breather and recovers both 1 health and 1 sanity (see? Told you this game was a little more forgiving). However if there's a monster in the same space, this can't happen.
Trade items among themselves, but only to investigators that are in the same location. You can trade Artifacts, Clues, Assets, Spells, and Tickets. Which brings us too...
Prepare for Travel if you're on a city location (Identified as the black dots on the board) you may spend your action to acquire a ticket. But you can only get tickets from cities which have that means of access. For example, that midwestern city or Istanbul? You could acquire a train ticket there, but not a boat ticket, while in Sydney or up in Alaska, you're stuck getting only a boat pass. Why do you want tickets? They let you move a second time a turn, but only on the appropriate paths (red for train, blue/white for boat). You may carry two tickets at once (either type).
Acquire assets if you're in a city. If you look at the picture you'll see 4 cards in the lower left hand corner of the board. These are Reserve assets. By testing Influence and succeeding, you may pick one that has a value equal to or less than the number of success you rolled. Bad roll and no successes? It's not all bad, you may discard one card from Reserve of your choice. And of course, if there's a monster in the city, you're not going to be able to do this until it's dealt with.
Perform their character action. Each investigator has a unique action that they can perform during their turn. For example, Citizen Charlie Kane may use his action to allow another investigator to immediately perform an additional action. Lily Chen may spend any number of health or sanity points to recover an equal number of health or sanity points.
After everyone performs their Action, next is the Encounter Phase. The Encounter phase covers all encounters and not just monsters.
Combat Encounter
If there is a monster in the same space as an investigator, they must make a combat encounter against it. A combat encounter is first a Will test, where the player rolls their Will stat, number of successes must exceed monster's horror rating, or they take sanity damage equal to the difference. This is followed by a Strength test (same as will, but health instead of Sanity). If the player succeeds the Strength roll, the monster loses health the same way the investigator does. If the monster loses more health than it's toughness rating, it's dead.
If there are multiple monsters on the same space as an investigator, they get to make a single action against each and every monster. If an investigator clears a monster from their space, they may resolve another Encounter.
Location Encounter
The investigator draws a card from the deck that matches the color of their area they're in (Major Cities are color coded but you may also choose to draw from the generic pile as well). Major cities often provide bonuses (it's that itty-bitty text below the city name that you can't read on the picture), but where there's reward, there's risk.
Token Encounters
Tokens are placed throughout the board and each is resolved differently.
Clue Tokens - Draw a research encounter card and follow it's text. Succeed, and you might get one step closer to saving the world.
Gate Tokens - Gate tokens allow investigators to access the Other World.
Active Expedition Token - Go on an Expedition and see what knowledge you may find.
Rumor token - Investigate a rumor that was spawned from the Mythos Phase
Assist a Defeated Investigator - Just because you're down, doesn't mean you're out. The defeated investigator passes on all knowledge and possesions and there is one final act they may perform.
Finally there's the Mythos Phase. Here the lead investigator draws a card from the Mythos deck, which is when bad shit starts happening. The stars may align, causing the Doom Track to advance (you don't want that to hit zero), currently in play effects may happen (these are called Reckoning effects), a gate may spawn, a surge of monsters may push through currently open gates, more clues may arise, a rumor is started and other things.
I'll be choosing a different Elder One this time to add some more exciting dynamic to the game. Azatoth was fun, but it's pretty boring actually since when he wakes up it's game over.
Anway, I'll take up to 5 other victims volunteers for this next game. I've got most of the bugs worked out from the previous run so I think we'll be good this time. And I'll let someone else take the glory of being lead investigator as well (though I'll obviously still have to draw the cards and such).
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The Investigators, you know them, you love them...
Full write ups for the selected investigators, but here's a brief rundown of the Dirty Dozen.
Diana Stanely - Order of the Silver Twilight cult initiate transferred to Panama, realized that being a part of a cult probably isn't a good thing and decided to take them down from within. Isn't as phased by monsters and can misdirect Cultists.
Silas Marsh - The sailor from Innsmouth, but currently ported in Sydney. As an able Seaman, Silas gets to move an extra space on the water and assists others on tasks if they're on the same ship.
Akachi Onyele - A shaman from Nigeria. A spirit walker, she is able to use the Gates as a means of travel and can sense where they will go.
Charlie Kane - Politician from San Francisco, realizes that all that money and political power is good for something and "Saved the World" is a helluva a campaign slogan. May give another investigator an extra action or share the wealth with other investigators when acquiring assets.
Jaqueline Fine - The psychic in Minneapolis. Able to share knowledge with others without the need for face to face contact, and read their future as well.
Trish Scarborough - The Spy from Moscow. Working for the Black Chamber government agency, she is always informed and makes sure that the information is applied correctly.
Lola Hayes - Recovering in Tokyo from a performance of "The King in Yellow", Lola is a method actor and able to slip into any role as needed.
Leo Anderson - Adventurer and trail guide in the jungles of South America, Leo knows something out there, and by gum he'll stop it even if need some hired help.
Mark Harrigan - Rough and ready soldier from the Great War, Mark already lost his wife to these....things and isn't afraid to take a few down with him and heads back to Germany where he fought them before.
Norman "Old Man" Withers - Ridiculed by the science community for saying that the stars have changed (and then drummed out of the family's amusement park by some meddling kids and their dog in Arkham), Norman discovered that he was right all along! His knowledge is powerful, but it comes with a terrible price.
Jim Culver - Jim can feel the blues deep in the South. His music soothes the soul, living or dead. But he can also play something you can fight to. And the dead tell him that something's coming. Something bad.
Lily Chen - Trained from birth in China to fight a great evil, Lily knows her purpose and knows dedication.
Ok, sounds interesting. So who's the Final Four?"
So the four base set Elder Gods are Yog-Sothoth: The Lurker on the Threshold, Shub-Niggurath: The Black Goat of the Woods, Azathoth: The Deamon Sultan, and of course Cthulhu: The Madness from the Sea.
Like in Arkham, each God had their cultists act differently. For example, Cthulhu's cult automatically inflicts sanity damage, while Azathoth's automatically deal physical damage, but are instantly destroyed after doing so.
When the Doom counter reaches 0, the Elder God awakens. An effect immediately takes place (depends on the Old One), their cult gets a boost, and new effects take place instead of the previous ones. However unlike Arkham, you don't immediately go into one last showdown with Tommy Guns blazing.
So how do we win if we can't punch out Cthulhu?
Well, you're an investigator, not a punchinator. So you investigate and solve Mysteries. If 3 mysteries are solved before Azathoth's dinner bell rings, then you win. But if you fail, then you have one final shot (unless it's Azathoth).
This could mean that you just need to shoot the damn thing in it's head(? does it have a head?) or maybe you have to solve a different mystery or you still have to solve 3 mysteries AND punch Cthulhu in his fishy face.
For this game, we'll be going up against the The Lurker on the Threshold, itself... Yog-Sothoth.
Sign up the usual way and let me know whom you'd like to start with.
Once there are six total players, I'll do the initial write up of everything.
Also, for those that read my previous thread, feel free to contribute your own narrative. While it was fun writing everything out for everyone, I didn't want to step on any toes on how you think your characters would interpret events.
As I played the first game let other play first.
If you need the extra player I'll be happy to play and be Lola.
(Also, how do I color text?)
colors we use are red for health, dodgerblue for sanity, and limegreen for notices.
Time zone isn't an issue since I usually wait about 24 hours from initial posting of board status before I start bugging people for a move :biggrin:
Once I have all the player's actions, I usually post a follow up if needed for any dice rolls, though people are free to front-load those if needed (such as knowingly going to fight a monster).
We did learn that Geth can't do dice rolls on an edit, so I usually post encounters then will ask the player to make the rolls. During the Mythos phase, I do a final write up of all the actions and what happened and then I post the board update.
The Black Hole of Cygnus X-1
I'll post the final select Sunday evening/night and the first board setup Monday morning.
So far we have
@[explicative deleted]
@stever777
@Kirindal
and myself with Void, Daemonis and Zpreda as back ups.
Actually, I could run it with all 6 of you guys and me just running the game and not as an investigator...
What is the optimal number of players? How does the difficulty level change with the number of people?
Also we did get lucky on a lot of card draws.
Optimal number of players is around 4-6. As you have more players, more gates are open at start and more monsters occur during a surge. That's pretty much all that happens. The rest is up to how the Mythos deck is build.
The Lead Investigator for this game is...
Lily Chen - The Martial Artist "I have been preparing to confront this evil for my entire life. My focus must be absolute."
She currently has 6 Health, 6 Sanity, 2 Lore, 2 Influence, 2 Observation, 4 Strength, 3 Will.
Active Skill: May Spend Health to recover Sanity or vice versa.
Passive Skill: Whenever a skill is improved, immediately improve it again.
Played by... @stever777
And the rest of the team...
Leo Anderson - The Expedition Leader "Keep moving. You can die on your own time."
He currently has 6 Health, 6 Sanity, 2 Lore, 2 Influence, 3 Observation, 3 Strength, 3 Will
Active Skill: Test Influence. Pass - Gain 1 Ally from the reserve set or discard pile.
Passive: Investigators on your space roll 1 extra die to resolve tests in the Wilderness.
Played by... @Void Slayer
Trish Scarborough – The Spy ”We lie all the time. But the truth is in there. You just have to know how to decode people.”
She currently has 7 Health, 5 Sanity, 1 Lore, 3 Influence, 4 Observation, 3 Strength, 2 Will
Active Skill: If you do not have a Clue, gain 1 Clue
Passive Skill: Any investigator on your space that spends a Clue to reroll a single die, may instead reroll TWO dice.
Played by... @Kirindal
Diana Stanley – The Redeemed Cultist ”The Lodge is not as innocent as they pretend. I have learned that nothing is ever as it seems, myself included.”
She currently has 7 Health, 5 Sanity, 4 Lore, 2 Influence, 3 Observation, 3 Strength, 1 Will.
Active Skill: If there is a Cultist in your space, discard all monsters on your space or move the Cultist to any other space.
Passive Skill: Reduce the Horror of Monsters you encounter to 1.
Played by... @[Expletive deleted]
Lola Hayes - The Actress "I've played many roles. Madness is to be expected."
She currently has 5 Health, 7 Sanity, 2 Lore, 4 Influence, 2 Observation, 2 Strength, 3 Will
Active Skill: May "Respec" and exchange any number of improvement tokens to improve a single skill by that many tokens.
Passive Skill: Once per round, an Investigator may roll 1 additional die when resolving any test.
Played by... @Preda
Silas Marsh - The Sailor "Leave your fears on the docks, lads. I'll not carry that cargo. The wind is up! Full sail!"
He currently has 8 Health, 4 Sanity, 1 Lore, 3 Influence, 3 Observation, 3 Strength, 3 Will.
Active Skill: Move 1 space along the a Ship path and perform 1 additional action (Essentially, a free move along a Sea route).
Passive Skill: Investigators on your space roll 1 extra die to resolve tests in Sea encounters
Played by... @Daemonis
With 6 players, the board starts with 2 gates open and 3 clues. Every time there's a Surge event, 2 monsters will spawn at each gate.
Board Status:
Omen: (Green) - Blue - Red - Blue
Doom Track: 14
Clues: Bermuda, Istanbul, Londan
Gates: Rome (Red), San Francisco (Green)
Monsters: A Deep One spawns in San Fran, while a Byakhee circles over Rome...
Current Mystery:
Lavina Whatelley has given birth to something horrible, and now the creature calls for it's father...
The Dunwich Horror Epic Monster has Spawned in Arkham.
At the end of the Mythos Phase, if the Dunwich horror is defeated, this Mystery is solved.
Monster Information:
Reckoning Effect: Spawn a Gate
Deep One: 2 Horror, 1 Health with -1 to Strength, 2 Toughness.
Reckoning Effect: Each Investigator on this space loses 1 Sanity
Byakhee: 1 Horror, 2 Health, 2 Toughness.
When defeated, you may lose 1 Sanity to move 3 spaces instead of resolving another encounter.
I should probably put up Yog-Sothoth's information as well, shouldn't I?
Here it is:
Cultists have 1 Health and 1 Toughness. When defeated in combat, Lose 1 Sanity and Gain 1 Spell.
Reckoning Effect: Each Investigator on a space with a Gate advances Doom by 1, unless they discard 1 spell.
Solve 3 Mysteries to win.
When Doom hits Zero... bad shit turns into Worse Shit.
There is now an active Expedition to Tunguska.
Reserve Assets: (Number of Successes Needed)
Dynamite (3) - Item/Weapon Action: Each Monster on your space loses 3 Toughness, then discard this card.
Bandages (1) - Item May discard to prevent an investigator on your space from losing up to 2 Health
Kerosene (1) - Item May discard to add +5 to Strength for a single Combat Encounter
Wireless Report (1) - Service/Teamwork Give any number of Clues to another investigator on any space, then discard this card.
And with the current Mystery, we're off to a great stop...
Well, figure out what you guys want to do and where you guys are planning on going and I'll resolve all the actions/encounters in order.
(Tho' if I go to Tunguska, I won't get anywhere interesting next turn.)
I'd like to get to Rome for that skill improvement, eventually.
That's what I should do early is double-boost up my skills.
Of course, that Dunwich Horror is nasty.
We could use a good influence shopper, also.
Items are always nice.
Whatcha think, doomed friends?
The Black Hole of Cygnus X-1
If I were Lily, I'd buy a railroad ticket, and then either move to Tunguska (saving the ticket, and going on an expedition), or go to Rome (spending the ticket, and beating up the bayakee). If she goes to Tunguska this turn, she could get to Istanbul next turn (using the ticket).
Diana (whom I control) really wants more spells (especially the "improve stats" one; her Will is pitiful). I'm thinking that Diana should buy a railroad ticket (possibly try and get reserves instead, but with 2 influence…) and go to either Buenos Aires to get spells, or SF to kick ass and close gates. I think Diana can take on a Deep One with her Whither spell and her passive ability. Leaning towards ticket + SF. Thoughts?
Question: Does Diana's active ability work on epic monsters or only regular monsters? If the Dunwich Horror shares a space with a cultist, can she simply tell both of them to take a hike?
If so, we could wait for a cultist to show up, then Diana could teleport the cultist to Arkham, then move there herself and banish the whole lot of them.
If I were Lily, I'd buy a railroad ticket, and then either move to Tunguska (saving the ticket, and going on an expedition), or go to Rome (spending the ticket, and beating up the bayakee). If she goes to Tunguska this turn, she could get to Istanbul next turn (using the ticket).
Diana (whom I control) really wants more spells (especially the "improve stats" one; her Will is pitiful). I'm thinking that Diana should buy a railroad ticket (possibly try and get reserves instead, but with 2 influence…) and go to either Buenos Aires to get spells, or SF to kick ass and close gates. I think Diana can take on a Deep One with her Whither spell and her passive ability. Leaning towards ticket + SF. Thoughts?
Question: Does Diana's active ability work on epic monsters or only regular monsters? If the Dunwich Horror shares a space with a cultist, can she simply tell both of them to take a hike?
If so, we could wait for a cultist to show up, then Diana could teleport the cultist to Arkham, then move there herself and banish the whole lot of them.
I checked the reference; you're right. Bummer.
With 4 strength I can join you in SF and try and take down the Deep One first, then we can both try for the gate. The issue is if we cant close the gate we are doomed at a reckoning.
Then next turn we can trade items and go on to liberate Arkham from madness.
Alternatively, since I go first I could test for some items then you would get some new ones to look at.
Edit: Also it is funny we have two super support characters, land or sea we will rock, just not in civilized lands.
1st action: Aquire assets
Geth roll 2d6t5 for Aquire assets
Aquire debt, kerosene and dynamite
2. action: Move to SF
So, assuming nobody else tried to acquire assets until it's my turn, I do the above. If somebody already bought the good stuff by the time it's my turn, I'll have to re-evalute.
Am I missing something?
We can only move 1 space without a ticket, right?
I can't move to Rome this turn & I can only get to Tunguska with a ticket, I thought.
The Black Hole of Cygnus X-1
My bad. I was confusing Trish with Lily.
Now that I know who is who, I guess Trish could go to Rome and Lily to Tunguska? I'm just spitballing here.
In any case, I'll be incommunicado the next 8 hours (it's nighttime in [Expletive deleted]-land).
Lucky Rabbit's Foot (Trinket - Once per round, may reroll 1 die when resolving any test)
6 Health, 6 Sanity, 2 Lore, 2 Influence, 2 Observation, 4 Strength, 3 Will.
Active Skill: May Spend Health to recover Sanity or vice versa.
Passive Skill: Whenever a skill is improved, immediately improve it again.
Get train ticket.
Move to Istanbul.
The Black Hole of Cygnus X-1
stever777 has taken the train to Constantinople, where I'm going to guess Lily will attempt to go for the Clue. But I could be wrong and maybe she just wants to see the city.
@Void Slayer still needs to take action
@Kirindal does as well
[Expletive deleted] has already decided what he wants to do
@Preda has to figure out what Lola is going to do.
@Daemonis does the same with Silas.
The Black Hole of Cygnus X-1
Action 1: Aquire assets
Action 2: Get ship ticket
Encounter: Sydney
Actions:
Get a ship ticket
Move to Panama->Spend a ship ticket->Move to San Francisco
Encounter:
Fight the Deep one
Gate encounter if the deep one is defeated