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For those that have played games like Descent: Journeys in the Dark where an Overlord player is pitted against a heroic party, actively working against the players and laying down traps and other such machinations to keep the game interesting, I thought it might be fun to play the role of the Herald, actively orchestrating the forces of the Mythos to pave the way for the Ancient One's awakening.

Obviously you'd have to be very careful about what rules you alter as the "Herald" to not totally break the game in favor of the Mythos. Has anyone tried this before?

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No/Yes questions like this are not a good fit for the Q&A format. Additionally, the rules for heralds already exist, and the Ancient One and all bad things like Mythos cards are handled by random draws. The opponent in this game is the game system. What you are proposing is a complete rewrite if the rules, so that the opposing player has meaningful decisions, instead of players trying to beat the game system. This question is too open-ended to get a meaningful/correct answer. Even if you suggested rules and asked, "would this work?" You wouldn't get any useful answers. – user1873 Mar 7 at 13:48
I'm asking what players might think and what experiences they're had. As for the rules for heralds, I'm using the term in a different way. – Daniel Green Mar 7 at 17:38
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I suggest reading meta.boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/535/… – bwarner Mar 7 at 17:54

closed as not constructive by user1873, SocioMatt, bwarner, Paul Marshall, Pat Ludwig♦ Mar 11 at 20:53

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To answer the question...the kind of game you're thinking of, really, is Mansion of Madness, which is the Descent version of Arkham Horror. Players play one of eight investigators and move through a location as they try to uncover a secret plot. The story teller acts as the Herald or Overlord, by moving monsters to certain locations and playing cards on the player characters as they move through. Generally speaking, it's very weighted against the players, unless they've played the scenarios a number of times and know what to do in each situation.

What you're proposing is basically the same idea. Arkham Horror would turn into Mansions of Madness very quickly given the changes you've proposed. I would say, from the number of times I've retconned certain turns in Arkham Horror, that the game is hard enough with the board being as random and cruel as it is. If you had someone actively choosing Mythos cards or moving monsters, you would have a much harder and significantly different game on your hands.

My advice to you would be to pick up Mansions of Madness. It's a long setup for a game, but I like it and what it does to the players as they frantically run around, trying to not die.

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