Buffy RPG - A Hellmouth in Waterloo [Closed]

[Cor Azer]

Got an itch to return to some old(er/ish) stomping grounds, and was wondering if there might be an interest in playing in a Buffy: the Vampire Slayer RPG play-by-post game, using Eden Studios Unisystem.

Premise:
The game would be run with the idea that when Buffy nearly killed Faith at the end of season 3, Faith was actually clinically dead for long enough to trigger a new Slayer somewhere else. The game would not be set concurrent with the current Season 8/9 comics; in fact, I'd probably roll back the years a bit and start it around shortly after the new millennium.

Setting:
The game would be set in a fictionalized version of Waterloo in southern Ontario, Canada, known for having several well respected universities and colleges, which gives it enough of a happening and transient population that it's fairly easy for the demonly-oriented to hide their habits.

Somewhere in the city will be a Hellmouth, but its location is not exactly common knowledge, so... I ain't saying yet.

Cast:
I'd be hoping for 1-2 Hero level characters, and 2-4 White Hat level characters. There's no requirement for anyone to be the Slayer, but that is a possibility.

I do have access to all the Buffy RPG books, as well as the Angel RPG Corebook, so all that material is in play if desired (barring the more "powerful" character template-ish things from the Angel book).

Preferably, all of the characters would be university students, faculty, or staff. It'd be a big help if the players could come up with ways that everyone knows at least some of each other beforehand, but I'm willing to work on that with the group.

Characters would not have to necessarily be aware of the supernatural world at the start of play, but given the genre, well, they'll need to learn fast.

Plot:
The game will be fairly episodic, but longer plot arcs will develop, and there will be an ongoing mix of little and big bads.

Anyone up for a patrol?

Edit: Recruiting is closed for now, unless people drop out.

 

[Herobizkit]

Your idea interests me. I would need to seek out the rulebooks for said system, but I could be down for some teen angst/drama/putting vamps where they belong.

 

[Walking Dad]

Hey, finally the possibility to try out the (cinematic) UniSystem. I have the Angel Corebook, which should be the same rules-set. I don't mind playing a White Hat, if all characters have roughly the same 'screen time'.

 

[DrZombie]

My wife is gonna kill me if I buy yet another rulesystem, but who wants to live forever?

I'll need a bit to get the rulesystem under my belt.

My first idea is to play a jock, an american football player, none too bright but very popular.

Cheers,

DrZ

 

[Cor Azer]

Your idea interests me. I would need to seek out the rulebooks for said system, but I could be down for some teen angst/drama/putting vamps where they belong.

Excellent; I am hoping to have some mundane life issues messing with simple vampire slayage.

Hey, finally the possibility to try out the (cinematic) UniSystem. I have the Angel Corebook, which should be the same rules-set. I don't mind playing a White Hat, if all characters have roughly the same 'screen time'.

I'm certainly hoping to give equal screen time.

I think the Angel book explains a few rules better, but I don't recall any major rules changes except one: Angel uses the character types Champion, Investigator, and Veteran, which get 10 more skill points than comparable Hero, White Hat, Experienced Hero that Buffy uses.

My wife is gonna kill me if I buy yet another rulesystem, but who wants to live forever?

I'll need a bit to get the rulesystem under my belt.

My first idea is to play a jock, an american football player, none too bright but very popular.

Cheers,

DrZ

Well, these are Canadian universities, so it'd be Canadian football, but I doubt we'd be getting deep enough into that background point for the differences to matter.

Glad to see some quick initial interest.

 

[Herobizkit]

I'm also Canadian. East Cost represent whut whuuut.

We don't have a football team yet. :/

 

[Cor Azer]

I'm also Canadian. East Cost represent whut whuuut.

We don't have a football team yet. :/

I doubt we ever will; the Touchdown Atlantic games in Moncton did okay, but I don't think they exactly rocked the CFL's world. But heck, PEI is just happy to get some varsity football back with the Hurricanes.

For those on the fence (particularly those who might not want to play without the rulebooks themselves), barring the rules for spells, the details players need to know are fairly straightforward - I'm more than willing to help work up characters, and beyond that, players mainly just need to know the specifics of their characters and some combat basics.

 

[jkason]

I'm certainly interested in the concept, though I'll admit to being gunshy about trying to learn a new system. I love me some Buffy; the mix of angst, humor, and action is always fun. Had a human-looking half-demon in another fairly short-lived game on here (a 'psychic surgeon' of sorts). Not sure if the system supports this sort of thing or not (the original game used Mutants and Masterminds for the abilities). Possibly a medical / pre-med student?:

[sblock=Gavin Peterson]Raised by his human father, Gavin didn't know about his true heritage until a drunken prom drive ended in disaster. Or nearly so. Though the car was demolished, all four teenagers in it survived unscathed. What Gavin kept from his classmates was his own part in their survival: Overwhelmed by a massive hunger, he had touched them, relished their pain, and only afterwards realized his feast left them all remarkably whole.

Gavin's father, however, seemed to know what had happened. He revealed that Gavin's real mother had been a Poena Epulum ("Pain Feast") demon. One of her species' more benign members, she met Joshua Peterson in a hospital after a fire left his body covered in second and third degree burns. She bonded and mated with him in the euphoria of feasting on so much pain, but left the seemingly-human child behind, fearing it would not survive the demonic world.

Hoping to control his hunger and learn about his mother, Gavin set off in search of his demon-kin. He found them, nomadic demon medics, 'psychic surgeons', all pointing him West in the search for his mother. There, in Los Angeles, he also discovered the nastier side of the Poena Epulum: sadistic torturers maiming innocents, healing them through feasting, only to torture them further. As might be expected, Gavin fled as quickly and as far as he could.

powers:

Poena Epulum demons have the ability to 'feast' on organically-generated pain, which has the side effect of healing. They can sense pain at a distance, and can project pain of varying forms at a distance--partly as a means of self-defense, but mostly to feed their young. Gavin inherited the pain-sense, but his own ability to heal and project pain is limited to physical contact.[/sblock]

 

[Cor Azer]

I'm certainly interested in the concept, though I'll admit to being gunshy about trying to learn a new system. I love me some Buffy; the mix of angst, humor, and action is always fun. Had a human-looking half-demon in another fairly short-lived game on here (a 'psychic surgeon' of sorts). Not sure if the system supports this sort of thing or not (the original game used Mutants and Masterminds for the abilities). Possibly a medical / pre-med student?:

[sblock=Gavin Peterson]Raised by his human father, Gavin didn't know about his true heritage until a drunken prom drive ended in disaster. Or nearly so. Though the car was demolished, all four teenagers in it survived unscathed. What Gavin kept from his classmates was his own part in their survival: Overwhelmed by a massive hunger, he had touched them, relished their pain, and only afterwards realized his feast left them all remarkably whole.

Gavin's father, however, seemed to know what had happened. He revealed that Gavin's real mother had been a Poena Epulum ("Pain Feast") demon. One of her species' more benign members, she met Joshua Peterson in a hospital after a fire left his body covered in second and third degree burns. She bonded and mated with him in the euphoria of feasting on so much pain, but left the seemingly-human child behind, fearing it would not survive the demonic world.

Hoping to control his hunger and learn about his mother, Gavin set off in search of his demon-kin. He found them, nomadic demon medics, 'psychic surgeons', all pointing him West in the search for his mother. There, in Los Angeles, he also discovered the nastier side of the Poena Epulum: sadistic torturers maiming innocents, healing them through feasting, only to torture them further. As might be expected, Gavin fled as quickly and as far as he could.

powers:

Poena Epulum demons have the ability to 'feast' on organically-generated pain, which has the side effect of healing. They can sense pain at a distance, and can project pain of varying forms at a distance--partly as a means of self-defense, but mostly to feed their young. Gavin inherited the pain-sense, but his own ability to heal and project pain is limited to physical contact.[/sblock]

Interesting. I think something like that could definitely work, although I'd have to look to the Angel rules for the more customizable demon stuff.

The basics of the system are fairly straightforward - roll d10 and add an Ability and a Skill, possibly some modifiers, then hope for 9 or higher (some opposed actions require more than 9); higher rolls lead to more successes. Example, knowing rules of baseball: d10 + Intelligence + Sports; hitting a baseball: d10 + Dexterity + Sports; staking a vampire: d10 + Dexterity + Getting Medieval - 5.

The "tricky/vague" parts are Drama Points and magic. Drama points can be spent to add bonuses to rolls, modify scenes (adding clues, convenient escape cars, etc), healing (removing half of current damage), and other things. Anyone can perform magic (typically Willpower + Occult roll), but the rules for spell research are little more menu-driven rather than D&Ds preset and reusable spells.

 

[airwalkrr]

Oh how I love Buffy. But I have a hard time imagining how it would work in an RPG. Some characters were just around for comic relief (Xander). Others had supernatural powers that were essentially useless once they were discovered (Oz), but still had a place as window dressing. Others were just... well I don't know why they were there aside from being easy on the eyes (Cordelia).

Question: Would the Watcher be a playable character in this campaign? That's probably the only character I'd be interested in playing.