Vector Horror

I’ve done up the cast of Final Fantasy VI as investigators for the board game Arkham Horror. They’ve all been tweaked a bit but not actually playtested. According to the software I used to create these (Strange Eons) they aren’t unbalanced, but who knows for sure. (Click for make bigger.)

Here’s a link to a .rar with all this stuff packed up in it so you can use it in your own games.

Terra is a pretty balanced character. Her special ability enables her to fly anywhere in Arkham to cast pretty much any spell she happens to have wherever she wants to use it, but has a cost to represent her inability to do it at will. She starts Lost in Time and Space to represent the amnesiac fog she begins FF6 in.

Locke’s claim to fame is the ability to steal items from bad guys. Just like in FF6 this will sometimes fail, usually give a minor item, and sometimes give a rare, unique item. His ability was actually toned down somewhat; he used to be able to draw a Unique Item instead of taking a monster trophy upon killing a monster, but it was pointed out that this would basically let him farm for Elder Signs, which is way too powerful.

Edgar is rich and has the enhanced ability to use tools in combat. I was going to make him an Autocrossbow item to start with, and still might, but first I have to figure out how exactly I’d make it different than the guns already in the game without unbalancing it.

Sabin is a fighting machine. He starts with 11 total Sanity/Stamina, whereas most investigators only start with 10 total. His Bravery skill helps him actually get to the fighting part of combat by increasing his chances of passing Horror checks. (I’m not sure he actually needs this. If not, I’ll just remove it.) Blitz is extremely powerful and should let him mow down bad guys, but is balanced by the fact that it’s rendered either redundant or ineffective if he’s Blessed or Cursed, respectively. Sabin should really start with the Martial Arts skill, but I want all this to be playable without any expansions.

Celes has the ability right from the beginning of the game to completely ignore both types of resistance and immunity. If the monster is physically resistant she can cast Enchant Weapon on her Cavalry Saber to get around it. If it’s magically resistant she can just attack it without losing dice. Resistance/immunity is the monster ability most likely to shut down an otherwise badass monster slayer, so giving a not-so-badass character a way to bypass it really makes Celes stand out.

Shadow’s special ability lets him take all those little nothing weapons nobody uses — Knives, Derringers, Axes, etc. — and turns them into killtastic ammo. He starts with a couple weapons and the money to buy more. What’s interesting is that Shadow (and maybe Edgar) are both characters who will be more likely to spend money at the General Store than the Curiositie Shoppe, which is usually what gets the most business. I do think he should have Interceptor as an Ally instead of a random skill, but I haven’t done it yet because I’m not sure exactly what Interceptor could do that wouldn’t be overpowering out of the gate.

Cyan is unique in that his special ability probably isn’t going to be that useful over the course of a game (seriously, how often is a guy with 5 Fight and an Enchanted Blade going to be failing Combat checks?), but could be seriously powerful against Ancient Ones. Honestly I think that’s perfectly balanced; most games of Arkham Horror revolve around preventing the Ancient One from awakening because they’re near impossible to kill. Well, here’s a character who actually might be able to kill one. If Cyan spends the entire game killing every monster in sight in preparation for an epic face-off, I think he deserves to make some serious headway into the Ancient One’s doom track.

I didn’t make a General Leo investigator, but someone else at the forum I posted these at did, and I think Bitter Rivals is a good fit for two war heroes on opposing sides who have respect but not love for one another.

Gau is an absolutely insane character. His Rage abilities are all pretty powerful (some perhaps even too powerful), but this is balanced by him being utterly weak without them. Gau has got to get a decent weapon or two before he could even think of killing a monster that will grant him a powerful ability. Originally his Green Border ability allowed him to remove a doom token from the doom track, but even if Gau manages to kill a Chthonian or Hound of Tindalos (an incredibly difficult task for him) I don’t think he deserves to run around with a permenant Elder Sign. Heck, once he can fight decently his ability to keep the Outskirts empty alone is extraordinarily powerful.

Setzer is a situational character. Luck checks are called for only infrequently, and as a result characters oftentime find themselves unable to pass them when they need to. Well, here’s a guy who will pass all his Luck checks no problem. Of course, it’s possible you might never see one. His other situational ability allows him to quickly dispell rumors. Rumors, again, are not guaranteed but when they arise they can very quickly screw the entire group over. Setzer’s here to counteract that. I do think he needed something non-situational though, so I let him keep his 3 Focus (which makes him pretty versatile) and gave him the ability to buy his way out of failed skill checks (which I think is characteristic of a charismatic rich dude).

Like Gau, Mog is a pretty insane character. His special ability essentially allows him to carry the fixed encounters already on the board around with him, with the risk of failure. Since a Mog player is going to want to keep his Luck high, that means his Lore is going to be low. Low Lore and low Fight mean Mog is not a combat character. I envision him as more of a support character, running around the board and propping up other players as they do all the hard work. In case he does have to fight, though, I’ve given him an ally…

Umaro is a stupid-ass character in FF6 and I was not about to make him a full-fledged investigator. With his help Mog can actually win fights if he has to, but only at a cost to himself, and not against Physically Resistant/Immune monsters.

The point of Strago is to get into as many fights as possible in order to build up his spellbook, just like Blue Magic in the FF series. His high Lore makes him the perfect spellcaster once he manages to find a good combat spell or two.

Relm is the last insane character, after Gau and Mog. Sketch will sometimes cause her to be weak, sometimes strong, and usually will break even. That element of randomness is how Sketch works in FF6, too. She does start with a Unique Item that will help protect her from harm; I was going to make her a Memento Ring item but didn’t have to since the base deck already provides the perfect one.

So that takes care of the investigators. But what are investigators without Ancient Ones?

In FF6 you can’t stop the Phantom Train, so it only makes sense you can’t stop its doom track. A gate’s gonna open every turn, come hell or high water — and if you try to prevent it (by leaving a Train Station gate open) your terror track is going to start to skyrocket and Phantom Train will awaken that way. I’m not sure whether this Final Battle would be too difficult or too easy. I would love to playtest it to find out.

Ultros is crazy. You’re meant to fight him multiple times per game, but the battle against him each time should be pretty easy. To balance that out you need to seal more gates than usual. The weakness here may be that he’s too easy. Players who get devoured during the normal game are allowed to just roll new investigators, so the only way for players to lose against Ultros would be to all be completely devoured during a single fight against him. This is likely to happen if the fight drags on too long, but you only need to score 20-25 successes against him to win… so again, playtesting is going to be required.

In FF6 Kefka essentially ends up with all the magic power the players let slip through their fingers. My hope is that enough Spells are discarded during a typical Arkham game to make Kefka completely unkillable, but not so many that players who are specifically being careful about discarding spells can’t beat him.

Like I said, none of this stuff has been playtested. Who knows if any of it will work. Let me know if you give any of this a shot.