Intro
There’s still at least another week to go before i’ll get my hands on the Drowned City Campaign, so I’ve instead been spending some time towards moving forward with this set of custom investigators. The first set of five that I did was reasonably well received, so i wanted to do another set. Maybe eventually finish off the whole cycle of 20 alternate investigators with the Core “5-class 2-sideclass” style of deckbuilding. For this set, the class pairings i chose to do are:
Alternate Tommy (Guardian-survivor)
Alternate Lucius (Seeker-rogue)
Alternate Sefina (Rogue-mystic)
Alternate Diana (Mystic-guardian)
Alternate Darrell (Survivor-seeker)
As before, the idea is to create investigators that allow using the card pool opened up by these combinations in a way that’s different from the official investigators. I am also going to stick to a skill split of two 4s, a 3 and a 1 as this opens up the most freedom for deckbuilding and doesn’t minmax them into a corner by railroading them with a 5.
None of these five new investigators are done at all yet, they are all in different stages of the design/development process. But that by itself might already be interesting enough to write about.
Margaret Grady, The Railroad Worker
Maggie never had the luxury of an easy life. Growing up in a Yorkshire mining town, she early on had to contribute, fixing machinery and helping out with anything from scavenging for scrap to setting detonation charges. During the war, she was lucky enough to be able to leverage her skills to get out of the mines and find work on the railways, travelling the country and keeping the trains running. But when the men returned from their duty, her job was gone and with it her desire to stay. Left with no place to go, she crossed the ocean to America, making a living in Arkham’s scrapyards and repair shops. Folks around here talk about strange things, bizarre and outlandish. Maggie doesn’t put much stock in stories like that, but she knows trouble when she sees it. And if it comes for her, she’ll be ready to put it back in its place.
Skills and soak:
4/1/3/4
7 health, 7 sanity
Deckbuilding:
Guardian 5 + Survivor 2
Investigator ability:
Reaction, when initiating an attack or evasion attempt, shuffle X cards from your discard pile back into your deck: Gain +X skill value. If X is 5 or more, then the attack deals +1 damage or the evaded enemy doesn’t ready during the next upkeep.
Signature:
Frantic Search (event), 0 cost, she has 3 copies of these
Draw two cards, then discard 2 non-weakness cards from your hand.
Reaction, after discarding Frantic Search from your hand: Play it.
Weakness:
Hoarder (treachery)
Revelation – Take 1 horror. For each 5 cards in your discard pile, take an additional horror.
Notes:
Of the five, Maggie is the one closest to being finished in terms of concept and abilities. Some numbers may need to be playtested more, but this looks promising to me and like it’s significantly different from what already exists. Her interaction with the discard pile is not about returning cards from the discard to her hand or into play, it’s just about getting cards there from anywhere. She uses discarded scraps to get things done, repurposing them in a pragmatic way. This is in contrast to the Survivor character, the Salvager, in this set who is instead very deliberate about what he interacts with. My working title for Maggie was “The Scrapper” first, then “the Jury-Rigger” later until i finally went to fleshing out the actual character and ended up with The Railroad Worker.
Edward Lemay, The Underworld Chemist
Edwin once sought knowledge for its own sake, unraveling the mysteries of ancient texts and unknown relics. But knowledge has a price, and one disastrous experiment cost him everything: His career, his reputation, and the lives of those who trusted him. Cast out from his peers, he found reluctant refuge in the underworld, where the O’Bannions keep his lab stocked in exchange for his expertise. They mostly ask for drugs. Sometimes, they bring him artifacts, expecting answers. But Edwin’s true work continues in secret, piecing together the fragments of his ruined research. He tells himself he is close to understanding what went wrong that day and that the ends justify the means. They just have to.
Skills and Soak:
4/4/3/1
6 health, 8 sanity
Deckbuilding:
Seeker 5 + Rogue 2
Investigator Ability:
Reaction, after playing another card with Researched or Customizable: Add a resource to Field Lab, as inspiration. Then, tick a checkbox on Field Lab’s upgrade sheet. (Max two ticks per game)
Reaction, after completing the Research task on an asset for the first time: Add two resources to Field Lab, as inspiration.
Signature:
Field Lab (asset)
Customizable, Permanent. Uses (0 inspiration).
Can not be upgraded except through the investigator ability. (Max 10 ticks in total)
Upgrade sheet:
Field Lab gains:
O – At the start of the game, place two resources on Field Lab, as inspiration.
O – When taking a test on a Researched or Customizable card, you may spend 1 inspiration to gain +2 skill value for that test
OO – Inspiration on Field Lab can be spent as if they were uses on any Researched or Customizable card you control.
OO – You may spend an inspiration to gain an extra action on your turn which can only be used to play or activate a Researched or Customizable card. (limit 1 per turn)
OOO – Once per game, you may reveal a Researched card from your hand, search your collection for a card that shares a name it, then swap those two cards.
OOO – Your Deckbuilding Options gain “One other Customizable player card from any class, up to level 3”.
OOO – At the end of the game, gain any inspiration left on Field Lab as bonus XP that can only be spent on upgrading Customizables or Researched cards.
Weakness:
Uninspired (treachery)
Revelation – Add to threat area. You can not use action, reaction or free trigger abilities on assets you control.
Action: Shuffle Uninspired back into your deck
Free trigger, remove two inspiration from Field Lab: Discard Uninspired.
Notes:
I went into the design with the idea of Seeker-rogue being the investigator that cares about Researched cards firmly in place. By also pulling in Customizables (which share a lot of the flavor of Researched cards imo) this got to the point where i centered the whole character mechanically around a signature asset that will get upgraded over time by following what the investigator wants you to do. This is fairly narrow in terms of what the investigator enables, but i feel like that’s fine considering that Lucius is already very open-ended. Lucius existence also makes it fine to me that we have a rogue subclass investigator with agility 1 here, despite that being something that used to irk me about Leo Anderson for a long time. The flavor of an underworld chemist came about as a way to justify the rogue access and i think that works reasonably well. The rogue customizables all work well with him too.
I didn’t think terribly hard yet about what abilities he gets exactly on the upgrade sheet of the signature, for now i just threw some things on the wall to get the point across. I could see a lot of details change here still, but i think as far as early design goes, this holds up fine enough to develop on.
???, The Hustler???
Notes:
I’ve not gotten terribly far with the Rogue-mystic yet, but i do have some ideas in my head that i am going to use as a start. Basically, i want to go for a reverse on Dexter thematically. Where Dexter is a real magician who happens to also go on stage, this new character is of course a rogue first, mystic second. So i am not thinking rabbits out of a hat here, but shell games and coin tricks. No immaculate stage for wealthy customers, but hustling people out of their money in back alleys.
The existing card that comes to mind immediately is Sleight of Hand and chances are i want their ability and/or signature to synergize with that event because that just feels right to me. Since Sefina is keyed towards playing with events, i think The Hustler should be based on assets, an idea that aligns with the Sleight of Hand card.
My best idea for a possible investigator ability would be something like:
Reaction, after an asset you control leaves play: Activate an action or free trigger ability on that asset without paying any costs. (limit once per round).
Basically, giving all assets the ability on the new Remington gun from Drowned City. I didn’t properly explore how interesting that would be though. And what sort of thing one could use it for beyond just getting a free action and/or use out of stuff.
In any case, still lots to find out about this person!
Imani Chande, The Lionheart
Imani lived a quiet, devout life in the bustling coastal city of Mombasa, where cultures intertwined. She worked hard, prayed faithfully, and never imagined her life would take an extraordinary turn. That changed when she stumbled upon an ancient mask tucked away in the dusty corner of a trader’s storeroom. Calling itself Qalb al-Asad, “Heart of the Lion”, the mask came to her in visions and dreams, urging her to take up its mantle as a protector of the innocent. Though it did not demand her obedience, its presence weighed heavily on her spirit, offering both strength and a calling she could not ignore. Over time, Imani embraced this purpose, leaving behind her old life to face dangers others could not. Her journey has brought her to Arkham, where the mask’s whispers grow louder, warning of an approaching darkness.
Notes:
This design already made the jump over from just text editing into the Strange Eons Editor, but that’s not to say that it’s the design that is the farthest along. It’s just the one i have been tinkering with for the longest time. This is a design that started with the article where i mused about alternatives to what FFG is doing with doomplay. I ended up exploring this area a bit further and came up with an investigator that gets rewarded for taking up more than their usual share of encounter cards. Neatly, this lines up with Diana’s deckbuilding and also works as a contrast to Diana who wants to cancel stuff instead of taking on extras. I am also going with 4 combat here so this Mystic gets to explore the combat side of her guardian subclass more than Diana. Being able to fight properly aligns very well with the protector flavor as well. Overall i am very happy with how this concept for Imani ended up, i feel like it’s far superior to the one I suggested in that doomplay article. Now if only i could come up with a more interesting weakness than just a random weakness enemy. I am also considering giving her a second signature card, because just having a permanent asset on its own is not super interesting in this case. Still a good amount of polishing to do with this character, but what i have is solid enough that i am probably only going to tweak some corners on it. My only regret is that she can not take the Martyr’s Vambrace which sadly is Guardian 3. I briefly considered making her a Guardian 5 Mystic 2 instead because of that, but then she couldn’t take Deliverance which i also think would be really cool with her. Oh well.
Felix Keenan, The Salvager
Living in the streets, Felix grew up learning that the things people throw away can be more valuable than what they keep. A discarded love letter, a torn-up ledger, a half-burned map… each scrap told a story, and Felix had a knack for piecing them together. What started as a way to make ends meet turned out to be sought after by both the police and Miskatonic University. With a little luck and the right tools, he could restore faded ink, mend brittle paper, even pull images from ruined film. Such insights could incriminate a person. Or open ways to knowledge that most would deem lost. But some knowledge was buried for a reason, a lesson that young Felix would soon learn…
Skills and Soak:
4/3/1/4
6 health, 8 sanity
Deckbuilding:
Survivor 5 + Seeker 2
Investigator Ability:
Reaction, after moving a card from the discard to your hand or into play: Search the top 3 cards of your deck for a card that shares a trait with the returned card and draw it. Shuffle the deck. If no card was drawn this way, gain a resource. (limit 1 per round)
Signature:
Rummage (event), cost X
Discard the top X cards of your deck, then return one of them to your hand. Any weaknesses discarded this way are shuffled back into the deck. (X is max. 9)
Weakness:
Treasure to Trash (treachery)
Revelation: Discard Treasure to Trash (to the top of your discard). While in your discard pile, cards below Treasure to Trash can not be returned to play or hand.
Notes:
Recursion is of course a major theme in Survivor, so having one that gains additional value from returning stuff to hand or play seems like an obvious thing to do. Felix gains rewarded with even more card draw or resources for doing this. I originally considered stranding Felix with 1 intellect, to make him completely different to Darrell and just have him focus on the card selection side of Seeker. But i think the 4-3-1-4 line overall works better to have him work in different roles. There is a slight concern about the weakness being the first card to actually care about the order of cards in the discard pile, but the rules clearly state that the order is not to be changed… until now it just didn’t actually matter. So i think that’s fine and i feel like the weakness is mechanically interesting enough to justify that slight inconvenience. I’m not terribly convinced by that signature though.
I am also not completely settled on the background and flavor of Felix yet. I tried to force it to be clearly survivor first by turning him into sort of a street rat that digs through trash to find people’s secrets, but maybe an actual forensic scientist works better here?
Moving on from here
There’s still plenty to do with these, from finishing up concepts over tweaking designs to preparing the cards in the editor. And playtesting of course. So it’ll likely be some time before these are finished up and ready to print. No idea yet when you’ll be seeing these next, i expect that my forays into the new campaign are going to take over my Arkham time soon anyways. But it’s a thing that i’ll keep on cooking on here and there.
If you have any suggestions or ideas, definitely let me know, though!
