A list of all of the Investigators that can appear in the Arkham Horror series of board games created by Fantasy Flight Games, including the and Mansions of Madness series, which shares characters and themes. Tropes common to all investigators.: Some of the investigators have some training for what they are dealing with. But mostly, as is common for these types of horror stories, they are woefully out of their depth.: Some are better at one than the other, but any character can wield weapons, cast spells, or both.: The characters come from varying occupations, social statuses, and different parts of the world. The only thing they have in common is that they are in the same place and are arrayed against the forces of darkness.
Sister Mary, the Nun.: Being a woman of God in a, she makes no bones about how the are no match for the One, True God.: While she doesn't develop the attitude outright, failing her personal story has her start to suffer doubts of this kind.: Nothing stops her from wielding heavy weapons like everyone else.: As seen in her losing condition.: Sister Mary has an extremely forgiving Personal Story, which is won by two people in the game being Blessed, and is lost by her being cursed (which is less likely to happen to her, because she starts the game as Blessed). If she succeeds, she gets Blessed again if she's not already and gets total immunity to curses.
If she somehow loses, she outright the curse and becomes blessed instead (but only that one time).: One of her starting items is a cross. 'Ashcan' Pete, the Drifter.: Duke, his faithful dog. Pete always starts with Duke and Duke will stick by him no matter what.: His backstory shows us he lives on the streets, and has done so for a long time.: The goal of his personal story is to get a Dreamlands trophy, with the failure condition being if the doom track hits 5.
The problem is that opening gates typically advance the doom track, which means that absent somebody starting with the Control Gate spell or fortunately-timed monster surges, Pete's only real hope for passing his objective is if (a) the Dreamlands can be reached by one of the first two gates (very low chance), and (b) he can get to that gate quickly. Not easy with his maximum base speed of 3.: Even if Pete loses all his other allies and companions (by failing his personal mission), ol' Duke'll stick by his side to the end.
Just like it’s bigger board game brother, Arkham Horror: The Card Game (AH:TCG) has players taking on the role of investigators, digging into mysterious cases with supernatural twists. Build your deck for Arkham Horror LCG by Fantasy Flight Games. Browse the cards and the thousand of decklists submitted by the community. Publish your own decks and get feedback.
Jenny Barnes, the Dilettante.: How she figures out that she's failed her personal mission. 'The last envelope had contained a finger. The one before that, a toe. When she, '.: All characters can, if they have the guns. But Jenny does so in her character art.: Failing Jenny's Personal Story (which results in ) hits her with this BIG-TIME, where she either takes a Madness card, or loses 2 Max Sanity.: Looking for her sister, Isabelle.
If she passes her personal mission, she finds her in one piece and gains her as an Ally card. If not, she technically finds her.: Her backstory has her turn her nose up when she's not in places like Paris. Granted, this may be a side effect of going to a place where an has just kidnapped her sister.: Starts out very wealthy (and gains money every turn), but seems to think rushing headlong to a place full of terror is a good idea.: She has no job other than being an heiress. And she moves in high society.: Automatically fails once the terror level reaches at least 3. Joe Diamond, the Private Eye.: Seen in his character profile.: His special ability is hunches: Whenever he tries to spend a Clue Token for a die roll, he gets two dice instead of one.
In Mansions of Madness, his clues convert two successes instead of one.: Everything about him marks him as one of these.: That's his job, and how he got involved in this whole mess.: Dexter Drake, the Magician.: Interestingly, he was a magician before he was a wizard.: A thin, pencil-like one.: Always longed to discover real magic, until he found a fragment of the Necronomicon. Similar in name, identical in appearance.: Takes this attitude if he fails his personal story, swearing off 'real' magic for good.: His career after serving in World War I. Carolyn Fern, the Psychologist.: She's a learned woman, and is well suited for Lore and Will checks.: She'd have to be intelligent to be a psychologist, and she sports a pair of frames.: Once a turn, she may restore a point of Sanity to herself or someone sharing her location.: After her patient was brutally murdered for sharing his dreams, Carolyn knows that people will come after her if she isn't careful with how she proceeds in her investigation. Failing her personal quest has her, and penalizes all her Sneak checks.: Essentially what happens when she fails her Personal Story.: That's her job, but mechanically, Dr. Fern can help restore her own or others' Sanity. Gloria Goldberg, the Author.: She'd been plagued by visions since she was a girl. It's how she became a bestseller.: She aims to do this by defeating the Ancient One.: Succeeding her personal mission has her take this attitude, boosting her Fight skill.: Her ideas for her books came from her visions.
(She started writing to cope with said visions.).: Failing her personal mission leads to her developing this mentality, hurting her ability to make Will checks. Bob Jenkins, the Salesman.: Bob is not a villain, but he freely admits that the only reason he looks into these things is for the top dollar swag he can sell, and the fact that these cult folks have lots and lots of gold. As he puts it, nobility costs extra.: Bob gets to draw extra cards from the common deck. Items in that deck aren't as flashy as the tomes and fancy items in the Unique Item deck, but they're cheap and, nine times out of ten, he'll be able to solve whatever problem comes the player's way with them.: Probably what the moral is more likely to be, since his is sparked. Succeeding in his personal story has him hit the 'Jackpot' of coins, but he now realizes just what danger they represent. Not wising up in time makes him Cursed if he has any money on him, prevents him from being Blessed with any money on him, and he'll immediately lose being Blessed if he gets any money back.: Having this excites him enough to get into the story. And it will bite him if he fails his personal story.: His potentially.
Giving into it will leave him Cursed.: 'There's more to life than money.' .: Of course, after learning the, he gets and can spend that money on Clue Tokens.: Is described as such in his bio — the only reason he hasn't already left Arkham is because. Vincent Lee, the Doctor.: Although it's not a good idea to delve into this too much: See below. Lee can heal a point of Stamina to himself or another character in his location once a turn.: If he kills too many monsters and fails his Personal Story.: His failure title says this almost word for word. Michael McGlen, the Gangster.: He's certainly fond of it.: His buddy Louie was a pal, and Michael will do what it takes to avenge him.: The O'Bannion Gang.: Making more than $5 in one go has him fail his personal story, as he gets accused of Tax Evasion.
He permanently loses all the money he has, and is prevented from making any more money for the game. (This also means that taking a loan before passing his personal story.).: His Strong Body ability gives him reductions to Stamina damage.: Starts the game with a Tommy Gun.: After his pal Fast Louie Farrell is drowned by a, McGlen intends to make each and every one of those monsters sleep with the fishes, too.: Has a cigarette firmly wedged in his mouth on his character portrait.:, he's still a mobster (and an unrepentant one at that) working with allies such as a magician, a student, an archaeologist, and a detective. Amanda Sharpe, the Student.: Gameplay-wise, this is effectively what happens if she fails her personal story.: In her personal story, she has to find Unique Items that will help her cure herself of The Innsmouth Look, and prevent her from becoming a Deep One.: The Innsmouth Look, though unlike Silas, it's not immediately apparent.: All her stat tracks are the average 1-4 type. With her high Focus as well, she can adapt very quickly to game situations.: If she fails her personal story, she turns into a Deep One.: Well,.: Her personal story is all about averting this. Botch it and she permanently becomes a Deep One. Darrell Simmons, the Photographer.: He's seen with a antique camera, and his job is to get evidence of all of these goings on in Arkham.: His whole plot motivation.: Or photographer.: His personal quest revolves around proving to his superiors that something big and freaky's going down.
Monterey Jack, the Archaelogist.: Considering who he's an expy of, this is no surprise.: He once used his whip as a weapon. He ended up getting dynamite.
His story in Arkham Horror also evokes a plot.:, this was quickly adopted as the explanation for his player's horrific luck with die rolls. As well as one very defining event. As the above thread says, just because you can use a bullwhip to snatch something out of a cultist's hands, doesn't mean you should. The something? Lit dynamite. It also became the reason for a 1st edition Arkham Horror house rule by the campaign master — Jack is always SAN 3 and STA 7 at the beginning. Come 2nd Edition.: Starts off with a Whip as a starting item.
Mandy Thompson, the Researcher.: Her job is researcher, and her outfits show off her cleavage.: Her personal story. It depends on gates opening on top of sealed gates which means the right mythos cards have to be drawn and players have very limited ability to control the mythos cards.: Her successful Personal Story, where her research helps to disrupt the that are trying to wake up the, and bring.: Her ability allows any player once a round to reroll all failed dice in a skill check at any time. She can use it herself, but her average stats makes it a better choice for someone with more dice, as it affects all failed dice.: Her failed Personal Story, where the keep opening up no matter what she or anybody else does. Harvey Walters, the Professor.: He has a high Lore stat, decent Sneak skills, and a lot of Sanity points. His standard ability also reduces Sanity losses, making trips to the Asylum highly unlikely note and being even less likely, as that requires losing all and at the same time.: Although it doesn't exactly take another Professor to figure that out.: He's generally built around spell-casting, but those high Lore, Sneak, and Sanity ratings come with low stats in, and.: Under normal conditions, his passive ability only reduces involuntary Sanity losses, not voluntary ones (e.g. From spells). However, if he successfully completes his personal quest, this expands to cover, allowing him to use and with few (if any) penalties at all.
Built correctly, he can Shrivelling spells and almost any enemy that doesn't possess the Magical Immunity trait. Kate Winthrop, the Scientist.: She's built for spells moreso than combat. But she's perfectly fine using that magic to destroy her enemies.: Constructing a Flux Capacitor, that can stop a monster or a Gate from spawning in her location? That's certainly something.: A wispy build, but makes a lab coat look sexy.: Her backstory mentions she's very shy and is quite happy with the fact that none of her co-workers even know her name.: An interesting inversion: Kate's flux capacitor is based on magic, but it's purely scientific in nature, created through experimentation and the scientific method. However, it works against magic. Furthermore, nothing stops Kate from casting spells like any other investigator; in fact, she starts the game with spells.: Monsters and gates cannot appear in her location.
This only applies to the initial spawning, though. Monsters can move into her locations, and Kate will get pulled through gates if she walks into places with them. Leo Anderson, the Expedition Leader.: Fail his personal story and he'll do this the next time he would lose an Ally.except that, since the player loses the Allies anyway once he does so, it's more of a.: His Personal Story depends on him being this, by assembling a large enough party to investigate the horrors in Arkham.: Led seven men into the Yucatan., unless you count the guy who.: Does this if an Ally is lost after failing his personal story. Though he makes a to save them, by game rules, his death means the player loses the advantage of the allies anyway, so from the player's perspective, it's this.: Goes into this if an ally gets devoured.: He develops this tendency with suicidal results if he fails his personal story. Jim Culver, the Musician.: Averted at first; his music raises the dead, but it's not inherently evil, and in fact, if he succeeds in his personal story, he manages to turn it around and use it to his advantage.
If he fails, though.: Fail his personal story, and this happens every time he goes insane or falls unconscious, raising the Terror level. /: How his personal story plays out determines which tropes apply to his music.
Succeed, and Fail it, and,. Musician: His story repeatedly mentions how he is one.:.: Loves his coffee.: By passing his personal story, any 'Undead' type monster simply fails to appear on the board.: The Golden Trumpet, which belonged to his father.: He wasn't always one. But ever since he played at Widow Jenkins's funeral, he hasn't been able to get work. Probably because his magic trumpet.: The aforementioned dancing dead widow. Jacqueline Fine, the Psychic.: In Eldritch Horror, she can use her gifts to peek at the effects of Conditions.: She is, after all, called a psychic. This is more prominent in, when she can peek at unflipped Condition cards.: If her personal story succeeds.: Completing her story involves needing to find 2 Ally cards.: If her personal story fails.
Mark Harrigan, the Soldier.: You can't delay him, and he can't be arrested.: If he fails his story.: Two items he starts with are a, and the.: His girl, Sophie.: Sophie, who believed him about the monsters he saw in the war. She believed him because.: Only very specific circumstances can stop him from his tasks, and he cannot be stuck in jail.: He starts in the South Church at the, praying for forgiveness for.: His personal story involves fighting a creature in R'yleh, as the one that devoured Sophie was from there.: Most people think that Mark didn't take the war very well. Ironically, his story makes it clear that it wasn't the war that got to him, thanks to believing everything he wrote back to her about the monsters he encountered fighting in the trenches. It was only AFTER he came home, and found Sophie being by an.: Knocking back one in his profile.
By lighting it with a flamethrower. Also gets a victory smoke if he passes his Personal Story. Marie Lambeau, the Entertainer.: Known as 'Smoky Velvet', and has the outfit and personality to match.: Declares this when failing her quest.: She's able to remove doom tokens from the Ancient One's doom track.
If she passes her personal story, she can do it twice.: From New Orleans.: Her special ability is called this, although it doesn't manifest in-game. It just gives her an extra hand to cast a spell with.: Her magic is in the blood; her grand-mere was also an accomplished witch.