Arkham Horror: Friendship Costs 2 Sanity

[radmelon]

They can dig and they are physically tough.

[Braininthejar]

Since the thread started, there have been some new villains (Windigos being the most cthuluesque - they are a herd of cloud horses that feed on negative emotions and produce cold - so the more everybody is at each other's throats, the colder it gets.)

I have seen some pony investigator cards on the net, as well as a Nightmare Moon great old one card, but they seem to be intended for use with the Arkham game rather than at a separate board. Are any of them yours?


EDIT: there are several versions - this one is my favourite

[bhu]

None of them are mine.  I originally intended to do this project but the people who really wanted to see it sort of poofed so it kind of got put on the backburner...

[Braininthejar]

So, I think it would be fun to help, but I don't want to just randomly rant about ponies. What information would actually help you?

And why would ponies use no items?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Cv5ZBrj3s4

[bhu]

My problem is I know nothing about the show.  Absolutely nothing.  While I can look stuff up I need people who watch the show to kind of help guide me when designing critters and such.

Also, ponies have no thumbs.  With the exception of the one with teke how are they gonna pull the trigger on a tommy gun, or turn pages in a tome?

[Braininthejar]

Well, as far as the series handles it... musical instruments kind of stick to the hooves. Other pony-made items are usually used with the mouth or have handles wide enough to put a hoof through (don't ask me how a typewriter with two buttons works ;P )

As for our six investigators, the pegasi don't use much equipment, the unicorns have telekinesis, while the earth ponies are both a bit special. Applejack is a local rodeo champion and as you could see in the clip, she uses her tail as if it was semi-prehensile.

Pinkie Pie on the other hand is the comedy relief and can get away with pretty much anything as long as it is funny - in one instance she used Twilight Sparkle as a gun, pointing her horn at the monsters and spinning her tail like a crank.

Items that appeared in the series:

Zecora's brews - the zebra Zecora is a skilled witch doctor and capable of making antidotes and healing potions (uses in the series include regrowing broken teeth and neutralising the effects of poison joke

One-pony-orchestra - used by Pinkie Pie to mesmerise the parasprites and lead them out of town Piper of Hamelin style.

Starswirl's journal - Contains research notes of the legendary Starswirl the Bearded - the final episode of season 3 revolved around Twilight trying to finish his final spell, but there is no canon data on what the rest of the tome contains.

Alicorn amulet: an iron and ruby gorget that clamps around the user's neck and cannot be removed against her will. Gives a massive power boost. Side effects include glowy red eyes and turning into an evil egomaniac.

Spy catsuit: used on several occassions. improves stealth?

Apple pies: baked in bulk and used as projectiles during the pony-buffalo conflict

Party cannon: A cannon loaded with baloons, tablecloths, streamers and confetti, which Pinkie uses to instantly set up parties. There is an in series precedent of using it as a weapon, though we didn't get to see how effective it actually was.

Crystal heart: don't know if it would be of any use as an item, since it works properly when placed in the central plaza of the Crystal Empire - it absorbs the happiness of the citizens and uses it to power a massive protective spell

Disguise: there were several, from wide hat and sunglasses, through a hay bale, trenchcoat and Groucho glasses, to a full body disguise with a zipper.

Night vision goggles: used for a single gag by Pinkie Pie

There are of course the elements of harmony, but since they can one-shot Discord when properly applied, there wouldn't be a game if they were available.

[bhu]

Hmmmm...

So would you prefer monsters or investigators or old ones first?

[Braininthejar]

Now, more spells that appeared in the show.

Bestow moustache: conjures a moustache of a chosen type on the target (could probably aid in passing a horror check by making the monster look ridiculous)

Conjure monster: Twilight was able to summon a parasprite to counter Trixie's pie attack. When Luna got angry during the halloween episode, she  turned a bucket of toy spiders into a spider swarm.

Force bubble: a pink sphere of protective energy. The size depends on the power of the user. Twilight could make it big enough to shield her entire team from Discord or cover the library building when she wanted some privacy. Her brother, who is the captain of the royal guard and has defensive spells as his special talent, could protect the entire city of Canterlot (and when supercharged with his girlfriend's love, he could turn it into the closest thing Equestria has to a locate city bomb - the barrier pushes away unwanted creatures as it expands)

A trip in time: one use only, sends the caster back in time for a few minutes, allowing her to witness a past event. Trying to change the past results in a stable time loop.

door to nightmare: used as a trap by the evil King Sombra: the spell is cast on a door, causing the first person who tried to walk in to be trapped in a dream, standing motionless in the doorframe while her mind experiences her worst fears coming true. The spell lasts until someone else shakes the victim out of it.

illusory cloud: used by Zecora in the halloween episode - Zecora blows a cloud of green dust into the air, making it take shapes she needs to illustrate her story.

reverse gravity: affects the caster - used to navigate obstacles by walking on ceilings instead of the floors.

[Braininthejar]

Whichever you like. Note that while I have played Arkham Horror, It was long ago. I know much more about the ponies.

EDIT: I'd start with the map actually. Your list of locations is a bit chaotic. listing both single buildings and whole cities. What scale do you have in mind?

[bhu]

Let's start with telling me which ones are which .  I could replace the outer worlds with the cities.

I'd also have to figure out how to use strange eons to make map tiles.

[Braininthejar]

Ok...  you can find the official map on the net, so locations are in the right directions on your map.

Equestria is the name of the whole pony realm.

MAJOR LOCATIONS

Manehattan, Fillydelfia and Hoofington are irrelevant cities. They are on the map and get mentioned in passing ( a part of the Apple family lives in Manehattan), but no plot happens there.

Canterlot is the capital. This is where the princesses live.

Ponyville is a small town a short trip by train from Canterlot. This is where most of the cast lives and this is where stuff happens.

Cloudsdale is the biggest pegasi city. It is made of semi-solid clouds, so you need some sort of flight or cloudwalk ability to get there.

Everfree forest is a large forest south of Ponyville. It is full of weird stuff, including monsters.

Appleloosa is on the other side of Everfree forest. It is a wild west themed town inhabited by earth ponies, including a part of the Apples family. Accessible by train

Crystal Empire. Actually a single city in the polar region, maintaining a bearable micro-climate inside its protective magic dome. It has recently returned after being gone for a 1000 years due to a powerful curse. Accessible by train

MINOR LOCATIONS

Canterlot:
* Royal palace. This is where the royal sisters, Celestia and Luna reside. well stocked magical library
* Royal gardens. A large garden with a hedge maze and a number of statues - one of which turned out to be petrified Discord, spirit of chaos.
* Pony Joe's donut shop - Celestia sometimes drops in after slipping away from her bodyguards.
* I think they might have one curiosity shop there, with the owner looking like a parody of the guy from Gremlins.

Cloudsdale:
*Stadium. Used for flying competitions only - there is no floor
*Weather Factory. This is where pegasi make clouds. They are then pushed all over Equestria to provide rain where it is needed.

Everfree forest:
* Ursa cave. A cave where Ursa Minor and Ursa Major live
* Dragon Cave. There is a green dragon there
* Zecora's hut. Zecora the zebra lives in the forest to have access to rare plants. How she survives all the monsters there is anypony's guess.
* The ruins of the old palace - this is where the royal sisters used to live before Luna changed into Nightmare Moon.
* cave of the Mirror Pool. A magical pool of water that can bring reflections to life. They are physically identical, but lack most of the memories and have only the basic personality of the original. This makes them very unrealiable as help. Fortunately you have to say a rhyme to activate the pool, so random monsters don't multiply there.

Ponyville:
*Town Hall. Located in the middle of town, it is a large building used for official ocassions and for festivities.
* Sugarcube corner. A bakery that looks like a pile of sweets. Pinkie Pie lives there and works for the owners
* Carousel butique. Rarity's home and work
* Golden Oaks Library - a large oak that somehow manages to stay alive despite being hollowed out and made into a house. (whoever built it must have used some serious magic). Twilight Sparkle is the current librarian.
* Hospital. There is one. And they handle mental patients too
* Sweet Apple Acres. An orchard belonging to the Apples family. This is where Applejack lives.
* Fluttershy's house. Built at the edge of the forest and full of animals under her care (she is pretty much your redneck druid prc) Mostly irrelevant, unless you are looking for a pet.
* "Quills and Sofas" shop. If you need another shop.
* Ghasty Gorge - a gorge running south along the edge of the forest. Inhabited by guarray eels and full of natural hazards, it is a place where only Rainbow Dash dares to fly.
* They also have one high mountain where a red dragon used to live.

Crystal Empire
* Royal Palace - a single giant tower with the central plaza directly underneath. This is where the crystal heart is kept.
* Library. A huge one
* Stadium. - chosen as the location of the next Equestrian Games


I'm not expecting you to use all of the locations of course - you should have a better idea about which of them can be made into something useful.

[bhu]

Okay it will be set in Ponyville.  There are 9 districts in Arkham with three locations each for 27 Locations.  Unless we got 17 more locations I'll have to shrink the map which potentially alters the game somewhat.

There are 8 Other Worlds.  I could replace them with some of the other major or minor locations.

[Braininthejar]

So, you need more locations within Ponyville?

[bhu]

Unless we wanna make th map prtty darn small...

Actually is there a map of Pnyville?

Edit: AHA! http://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/Ponyville

[Braininthejar]

I was about to mention the CMC clubhouse, the spa and the bowling alley.   

Apart from all mentioned in that article, Ponyville also has a park and a dam on the river.

Rainbow Dash's home is made of a cloud and inaccessible to non-fliers.

Sweet Apple Acres would probably consist of the Apples' home, CMC clubhouse and the orchard itself. I see from the picture that the clubhouse is pretty close to the school too.

If it is supposed to be a separate game, I guess it will end up much smaller... won't it affect game balance?

If you want it on one map and in this scale, the Everfree forest, Ghasty Gorge and Froggy Bottom Bog (just remembered about this one) would probably fit within the same map. That should give us a map of more or less the right size.


Now, outer worlds are a different matter - the ponies don't really travel to different worlds... Unless you take stuff from out of the series proper, then we have 2 or 3 possible locations.

* In the comic book the group travels to the Moon, to face nightmare creatures that are revealed as those responsible for turning Luna into Nightmare Moon.

* In the same comic, a neighbour country of ridiculously cute creatures gets conquered by changelings and the group has to go on a rescue mission there, taking a long route through monster-infested forest/mountains and into an evil castle.

* In the movie currently entering cinemas (and universally reviled for its premise) Twilight Sparkle enters a portal found within the Crystal Empire and lands on a local equivalent of Earth, briefly getting transformed into a human and ending in high school.

* wait, I just remembered. Apparently Equastria has a Tartarus, where ancient evil monsters are imprisoned. We don't get any info of it though - it only gets mentioned when Cerberus comes to town and Twilight must use a rubber ball to distract it and lead it back to the gates he is supposed to guard 

[bhu]

Okay if we wanna keep teh map similar we need 9 neighborhoods of 3 locations, 11 of which should be unstable

Downtown: Town Hall/Square, Day Spa, ?, 1 unstable

Easttown: Ponyville Retirement Village, Cafe, ?, 1 unstable

French Hill: ?, ?, 2 unstable

Merchant District: Ghastly Gorge, ?, ?, 2 unstable

MSU: Golden Oaks Library, Ponyville Tower, ?, 1 unstable

Northside: Train Station, Marketplace, Ponyyville Express Newspaper, no unstables

Rivertown: Hardware Store, Everfree Forest, ?, 2 unstables

Southside: Sweet Apple Acres, Sugarcube Corner, ?, 1 unstable

Uptown: Hospital, ?, ?, 1 unstable

[Braininthejar]

How about this?

Out of town ( North West)
* Dragon Mountain (unstable)
* Froggy Bottom Bog (unstable)
* River Dam

New District (North)
* Bowling alley
* Construction site (unstable)
* Newspaper

* Train Station (extra tile, serves as a way out if there are any supplements to the map)

Old Town (North East)
* Sugarcube Corner
* The Spa
* Hardware store

The Park (West)
* The park
* Golden Oaks Library
* Clock Tower (unstable)

City Center (middle)
* Town Hall (unstable)
*Carousel Boutique  (perhaps we could make outfits an extra category of items?)
* Quills and sofas

Northern Everfree Forest (East)
* Ghastly Gorge (unstable)
* Ursa Cave (unstable)
* Zecora's hut (magic shop?)

Sweet Apple Acres (South West)
* Apples' house
* orchard (unstable)
* CMC club house

Outskirts (South)
* School (unstable?)
* Hospital
* Fluttershy's house (find a companion:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtAVuyBlwsk   )

Southern Everfree Forest (South East, accessible through Northern Everfree only)
* Dragon Cave (unstable)
* river crossing
* Palace ruins (unstable)

(I tried to get thigs close to things they were in the series, inconsistent as it was. I realise I ended with  the hospital in a district with an unstable location)

[bhu]

Do you want more investigators than the main five characters? 

Plus we need to select starting points for them on the board.

[Braininthejar]

Do I want? I'm not controlling the project, just helping 

As for the starting positions, 4 out of 5 characters' homes are among the locations listed. So the only one we don't have a location for is Rainbow Dash. Perhaps the hospital, though she only landed there once - she is very hard to damage.


Now, I see you want the investigators next. What do you want to know about the characters?

[bhu]

Do I want? I'm not controlling the project, just helping 

As for the starting positions, 4 out of 5 characters' homes are among the locations listed. So the only one we don't have a location for is Rainbow Dash. Perhaps the hospital, though she only landed there once - she is very hard to damage.


Now, I see you want the investigators next. What do you want to know about the characters?

Based on commentary you're the one most interested so I'm ensuring you hang around 

Where does Rainbow Dash live?  We could make it one of the outer worlds.  Instead of being alternate dimensions they could be alternate locations.