This is really a silly project for me and my friends -- we made up Futurama characters for Battlestar Galactica, and now the joke has passed into out other favorite game, Arkham. Unlike BSG, however, I'm posting these characters before any testing of any type has been done.

Bear in mind, these are first drafts of the characters. They are balanced in so far as Strange Eons lets them be. The abilities are more geared towards the characters and themes of the show than feasibility in the game itself. They will likely undergo several changes, and it may even be that at some point a theme for the characters will emerge, and they will undergo some major changes.

So, without any further ado, I present:

Star of our little show. Fry is loveable, yet stupid. He says and does things that make no sense. Yet fate always seem to fall his way. He doesn't start with much, but that Blessing will help him out in a jam. He's also a watered down Joe Diamon, and that's a theme you will find among these characters -- many have a minor tweak to an ability of a character already in the game. I didn't want to copy them exactly, but at the same time I want these characters to fit into the game without any major changes to the game itself.

Next up is the woman Fry loves. She's a mutant, she's a starship captain, she has no depth perception. Ladies and gentlemen, Turanga Leela:

Leela admits that she is a violent person, and she actively seeks out monsters to fight. She is not the fastest crew member, but she knows how to deal it out. And she can pull monsters that are moving to her location, in the right circumstances. That pesky Byakee is swooping down on Fry; nope,not anymore. Leela will take it. The Hound of Tindalos sees the Professor nearby Leela grabs it from halfway across the board. She always wanted to find a way to serve the community that incorporates her love of violence. Now she has her chance.

Edit Change: Leela had $5 leftr over, so I used it to pick her up a .45 Magnum. After all, what good is a monster hunter if she can't actually fight anything.

Good news everyone! Let's take a look at Fry's only living relative. He may appear 130+ years older than Fry, but don't let that fool you. Of course we're talking about Fry's great-great-great....great-nephew, Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth:

The Professor is slow. The Professor is weak. The Professor might be insane (Mad Scientist often comes to mind). But he has an amazing way of creating things. Glow in the Dark noses. The Smell-o-scope. A Bad Ass Gravity Pump. Yes, the Professor can come up with the right tool for the job, but it doesn't come free. Still, being able to look at an extra item and chosing the one(s) you want is nothing to scoff at. Let's just hope you and the Professor are on the right track. Doomsday device, anyone?

Edit Change: The Professor now can get 1 additional item at no cost, or two at the cost of a clue. Thanks, guys.

This leads us right into the Professor's oldest friend. He's poor, unliked, perhaps lives in his office and can't even get a break at the Apollo. **** it Jim, he's a Doctor, not a comedian no matter how hard he tries:

EDIT : Zoidberg took a huge change. He is less of a copy of Vincent and more similar to Silas. His aquatic movement is better, as it it cheaper unless he is traveling between boards. And his skill bonus also applies in Innsmouth locations, as the Deep Ones think he might be one of their own. His Fight and Will have been dropped to reflect this, which allowed me to raise his focus as well.

What would Futurama be without sweet, lovable Bender. He drinks, he smokes, he cavorts with hookers and enjoys cheating at cards. He even joined the protest group to ban him from television. Yet we push comes to shove (and he loves to shove) he can be counted on to help his friends.

Bender can take punishment, and if he feels like it he can step in the way of your punishment. Being made of metal, he can do that. His Bad Influence is a nasty drawback, and not exactly the stuff of Arkham perhaps it will become the Fail of his personal story. But it fits the character in a way that works in the game.

EDIT: Changed Bender to 4/6instead of 3/7. His Stamina reducer made that 7 Stamina way too good. He also got the Crowbar, which reduced his starting stuff, which is fine.

Hahaa, I love Bender. He seems the most flavorful out of the bunch. As for Zoidberg, he definitely needs more Innsmouth synergy. And the Newspaper doesn't seem like a good starting location for him. Maybe the River Docks? I'd say the Hospital, but you've already got Fry there.

The professor's ability is too weak, it would never be used. A clue token should allow him to draw two extra cards. While that would be a fairly powerful ability, bear in mind, clues are expensive!

These are great, JJ. I'm a big Futurama fan, so I might actually try a game of this sometime.

At first, Leela's ability seemed confusing, but then I was like, duh, flying monsters and the green monsters...

Fry gaining a clue when passing a Luck check is nice, though I'd have just kept it at passing, and not require 2 successes. How often is he likely to have a Luck check in a game, anyway?

I agree that Farnsworth's ability should be a little better... drawing two extra cards would do it.

Zoidberg may be kind of lame, but he is who he is and I won't mind him being part of the team if I'm playing a solo game... I wouldn't choose him otherwise, though. I wonder if he should have some kind of "Consuming" ability, or start with a Food card or something.

Are you making character sheets for Zapp, Hermes, Amy, etc., or just having them as Allies, maybe?

Like the X-Files retheme, this should otherwise work alright as it is with the Ancient One and its monsters representing alien forces taking over the world and arriving through wormholes (gates). The time setting is anachronstic, but so what... Perhaps there's a period in the 3000's when they go all retro and everything is like the 1920's, or maybe the Planet Express crew has to travel back in time to the 1920's to save the Earth. Whatever... It's fun, though. Or were you going to make a specific AO for this? The Beast with a Billion Backs would probably work well.

As a matter of fact, here are the rest of the folks I whipped out:

Zapp is interesting. In the show, he's this incompetant military leader.But that doesn't really make for a good investigator. I though giving him an ally, and letting him trade them between investigators was an interesting ability. We'll have to see how it works out.

Naturally, what would the Planet Express crew be without their cute intern, Amy:

Amy is alot like Jenny. She gets more money than Jenny does, but has a weakness that fits her character. Again, Arkham is not really a game about character weaknesses, but I wanted to make some that fit the characters.

Last, we have Hermes Conrad, Grade 36 Bureaucrat:

Hermes becomes the closest thing to a spell caster for the group (Zoidberg also fit this bill slightly, but more so because thematically he wouldn't have lots of possesions or money; so, Zoid should get some more love). His Redundancy is a variation on Mandy it is only good for Lore checks, but can use it multiple times per turn, provided he has the clues for the other investigators.

I had also created Kiff and Scruffy, but right now they are pretty much just carbon copies of the abilities of characters from the original game, so I am not inclined to post them until I give them something more appropriate. Nibbler will be making an appearance as well (and in consultation with some of our local players, we're giving him a Rail Pass or equivalent special ability, since he has his own personal space ship that he hides wherever he wants. He's also likely be a 4/4 like Wendy, but that's still in negotiation.

You really think the Professor should get to pull 2 extra items? I saw this ability working like Dexter, Monterry and Bob combined, as it affects any "item" deck (including Exhibit). And if he wants to use it during setup, he has the clues to do so as well. The fact that it affected all three (or more...) decks made me want to give it more of a downside.

Also, local word has it we need to get rid of Bender's Lucky Cigarette Case in exchange for a Crowbar. As Bender himself would sing, "I like stealin'. I like taking things."

And of course: "Futurama: the show that does not endorse the cool crime of robbery."

JerusalemJones said:

Heh... If you let him draw one extra item from each deck without paying a clue, that'd be fine. I understood the reasoning, I just think the ability would be essentially worthless because no one would want to spend a clue to only be able to draw one extra item. So I'd say either allow the extra draw without a clue expenditure, or allow two extra draws with a clue expenditure.

I thought all the other stuff was neat and relatively balanced (although I worry about Zap a bit, you might want to make it so he can only trade allies to investigators without allies, and not allow him to trade for allies if he has more than two allies). Otherwise he could allow your team to make a super-character fairly easily.

Reasonable change to Zapp. I'll encorporate it into the the next version.

Assuming I do allow the Professor the draw an extra item without the clue expenditure, how would that compre him vs. the other characters who can only do so for their own particular deck (I mean, sure, these characters are meant to be played in a Futurama only investigator pool, but I use the Arkham ones as my base line).

JerusalemJones said:

It would make him stronger than those three characters, but so what, I assume you're only going to be playing with Futurama characters. It wouldn't be a broken ability.

I've made some changes to Zoidberg he's now similar to Silas, but without the drawback and his skill bonus also works in Innsmouth locations. I've lowered his Fight/Will to help balance this.

I think I have Kif done, and will post when finished.

Re: Zapp, I could give him a personal story that if he gains too many allies (say three) he fails his story and can no longer gain any more allied for the rest of the game. the Pass condition could be something that only happens once, at the end of the game perhaps?

Alright, here are the last ones of the initial set:

Scruffy is slow, so his max speed is 3. But he is really cool, and so I gave him a really cool ability. Making sure he couldn't takeit from the item being uses (such as a Tome or Elder Sign) makes it more balanced, I hope.

Kiff is much better now. I lowered his Sneak to compensate for his Evade ability, and he's got a similar ability to Finn, but more specific in that it can only keep an extra item.

I can't see Scruffy.

Veet said:

Fixed. I also uploaded new versions of the other characters, and edited the original posting to reflect the changes.

These are really cool! I was expecting to see someone start with the alien device. Perhaps if you make some second-tier characters, like Lurr (the destroyer) or Morbo (the news anchorman). Good job though, hope to see some more!

Here's what I've come up with for Nibbler:

I suppose it could be argued that someone who has lived as long as Nibbler would have a higher sanity, but I like the idea of him as a 4/4 character. That's one of the reasons I gave him a higher Will. His voracious appetite is very thematic, as Nibbler can eat pretty much everything (and I didn't want to make him a combat machine). His personal spaceship is pretty powerful, though, but i wanted him to have this sort of ability. He still has to make Evade checks, and he could be either a successful monster killer or clue hunter, based on play styles.

And I gave him the Alien Device because, well, he is an Alien.

Looks good. I'm kind of amused that you have no focus one characters :')

my take on bender:

Avi_dreader said:

My characters, my bias against 1 Focus. A character has to have something REALLY good going for them for me to consider using them if they have 1 focus. And even if I was going to make a character like that, I would actually give them two focus, but force them to have to spend it on more than one slider if they use it all.

And, yes, you can point out all the good one focus characters, and I have likely played each of them.But I'm not a big fan of the 1.

@Kroen I would consider making Bender have to spend $15 (and possibly not take out a Bank Loan). With all those 7's on his sheet and the ability to pass his story turn one if he geats a great Unique Item (cost $7 or higher, or even just $6 if he can discard the Whiskey while attempting the Pass) it makes him just a tad overpowered.

perhaps.

btw the third +2 in the pass card is lore, not fight (all +2's add to skills he has 2 at and the fail gives -1's for all skills he have 7's at)