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AWESOME!
Thank you so very much Aslan for sharing so much in detail your campaign. It truly looks terrific - having pictures is a really great plus.
Gave me some ideas... if I ever am to run a BtVS game, would you mind my stealing of the church story? (Leading to something else I think?)
Congrats dude. Looks really, really, really great. :)
How do they handle the greater then average fortitude of the Slayer? I mean she just can't be broke. :D
Well they have an ability called Hard to Kill and everyone can buy soe, but only Slayers and Vampires can buy it like 10 times, so they are really hard to kill :)
Doctorates in Secret Societies & Conspiracy Theory and Wicca Studies...I see Baldwick College has quite the Arts Department goin' on there. :D A place after my own heart. ;)
Why are the other characters there? What do they study?
Perri is a general studies student.
Kimmi is studying art in defiance of her parents desire for her to study sciences.
Tyler is on a scholarship.
Heather is studying Wicca.
Father Murphy is a spiritual advisor for the kiddies.
And Nigel is a teacher.
Right now Dr. Darkholme has put them together as a group to participate in an expirament.
They take all their classes together for one year and she will allow them to get their Bachelors in 3 years instead of 4.
I won't go all graphical as AslanC has. But here is my campaign:
Setting: Moon Ridge, Ontario - basically sitting in the same place geographically as Peterborough, Ontario. A town on hard times, its main industry is tourism, the big Apex Canada plant (medical supplies and pharmaceuticals), and education thanks to the brand-new Moon Ridge "megacollege".
Prior to the beginning of season one, the big threat to the town was Delilah, and ancient Vampire about on par with "The Master" of Buffy fame. With her lieutenant, Samual, she stole the Persephone Blade and tried to use it to rip a hole between the living world and Geburah, the lands of the dead. She was opposed by Mercy the Vampire Slayer and Jessica her Watcher. Mercy won the day, stopping Delilah and killing her. Samual escaped along with their vampire cult, seemingly ending the vampire plague in the city.
As Season One started, Mercy has gone to visit her folks in Vancouver (she was going to school here and B.C. is her home) with Jessica, a former Slayer-in-training, covering for her. After all, with most of the vampires gone, there was no threat...
...everything starts to spiral as Samual returns with Schraeder and his Vampire "gang". Jessica is severely injured during and ambush and would have been killed if two young woman hadn't saved the day. Joined later by another mysterious Watcher called "Stone" they started to oppose Samual and his mysterious plot.
Yeah mine is a little over the top eh? ;)
Like the premise.
Mercy the Vampire Slayer sounds so much better than Kimi the Vampire Slayer ;)
I thought about setting in Canada (MOntreal to be exact, but decided not).
How do you handle the Slayer line? IE: Why was Mercy activated?
The Characters:
Connie Marquee - Initially White Hat. A Business Admin student at Moon Ridge Megacollege. A sports fanatic, she is involved in all sorts of hockey, baseball, and soccer leagues throughout the year. Has dreams of starting a sporting goods store in town. Was identified as a "Slayer Potential" by the Watchers Council, who sent Jerimiah Stone to teach her. Upon Mercy's death, Connie became the Slayer, just in time to kick some serious butt.
Molly Potter - Initially White Hat. A History student at Moon Ridge Megacollege. A budding Witch, Molly was also adept at Computers (using ebay to gather her Occult Librairy). Early in the season, she was killed by a Vampire and rose from the grave. She was given her soul back by the mysterious Cabal and was used as a pawn throughout most of Season One. She is still dealing with this at the start of Season Two.
Jerimiah Stone - Initially White Hat. A Watcher, Stone is called in in order to teach Connie the ways of the Slayer. He is a very odd person, often being wise about somethings and foolish or ignorant of others. Also has more than a few "mental problems". It is later learned the Stone is actually a 1000-year old Golem, one of the mystic "Guardian" created to fight evil and the last not to decend into sociopathic madness. Still, he gets close by the end of Season One, having to destroy Mercy's undead body in order to stop Samual's plan. His last act is to quit the Watchers and spend much time brooding in his apartment and plotting how to bring Mercy back from the dead.
NPCS
Mercy Jacobs - The Slayer. Is gone most of Season One, visiting her parents. When she returns, everyone is assumes that she will tip the scales in the heroes favor. She even develops a romantic relationship with Stone. Everyone is stunned when they find out that Mercy is the final ingredient to Samuals master plan. Mercy is capture and sacrificed in order to replace her soul with that of Delilah. As the new Mercy-Delilah transforms into a vampire, Jerimiah plunges a stake into her and destroys her.
Jessica Farlane - The Watcher. Was once concidered to a good candidate to become the Slayer and had extensive training. However, she never got the chance and instead became a Watcher. Can handle her own in a fight but even she couldn't withstand the might of Samual and his minions. She died in her home, a victim of an assault by demon mercenaries called "The Five"
I have always injected a lot of Witchcraft into the game universe (because the Buffy game doesn't have a lot of books yet). In WC, the Reckoning is approaching. Its basically the apocalypse and one of the signs of the Reckoning is the massive increase of mystic energy. One of the side effects of that are the increase in Witches, Wizards, and Psychics.Quote:
How do you handle the Slayer line? IE: Why was Mercy activated?
My justification was that the whole "One Slayer per generation" was pre-Reckoning. That just as the Witch poplulation was increasing as the Reckoning approached, so has the Slayer population. After all, the Slayer is the major shock troop in the up coming apocalypse.
The Bads...
Samual - Former Vampire Lieutenant of Delilah. Dresses in business casual. He has been plotting the resurrection of Delilah since her death. He finally gathered the dark mystic knowledge in order to make that happen. Taking the person who slew his master, Mercy, he used a spell to transfer Delilah's transient soul back into Mercy. Was foiled by Connie and the scoobies and had his butt handed to him by the new Slayer. He has since went underground in Moon Ridge and Plots his revenge.
Shraeder - Leader of the Vampire Gang. Looks like Ron Perlman in Blade 2. Was the main Lieutenant to Samual in Season One. Survived the final battle with the new slayer and friends, only to die by Samuals hand hours later.
"Dee" - Golem. Constructed by Stone in the first episode of Season Two, it was a Kabbalic construct that housed what Stone thought was the soul of Mercy Jacobs. He soon found out that not only was the soul energy of Delilah also found within the Golem's body but also that the curse of the Guardians was slowly twisting her to evil. Would become one of the bads in Season Two.
The Shadowgate - one of the Nine Gates to the Kingdom of Shadows (yes, like the Polanski flick) of which the Hellmouth is a part. Was basically ignored/unknown in Moon Ridge until the final battle, when Samual used its power to fuel his massive soul spell.
The Cabal - Mysterious group of individuals who seemingly guard the Shadowgate. Maybe cultists or wizards, or demons. No one is sure. What is sure is that the Cabal has been a thorn in the side of the Slayer and pals during the late First and Early Second seasons. Also is their leader has amazing regenerative powers...
Oh, yeah.
I forgot the The Five, which were a group of big Demons which Samual used as an elite guard (and to attack people in situations that vampires couldn't - such as invade Jessica's private property). The Five looked basically like Jem'Haddar or like "The Judge" from season 2 of Buffy.
Season one was basically as season of transition. The Slayer and the Watcher were there basically long enough for the White Hats to be confident enough to handle things on their own... a safety net if things went south. Mercy and Jessica were destined to die and when I finally did the deed, everyone in the group felt it. It was my first time trying something as emotional is this and it actually worked... a little too well as Stone, distraught over the kidnapping of Mercy, went on a Matrix-like vampire hunt. Think Vampire Biker Bar, major firepower, and slow motion camera action...oh yeah and grenades. Shudder :D
Season Two died about mid-way through the season. Stone and company had found out about the Cabal, the Shadowgate, and the mystic runes which bound Molly's soul to her body. They had just survived a major smackdown by the Cabal involving kidnapping attempts by a group of Initiative-like commandos.
It died because of my own burning out and the group as well. Only one of my players is a big Buffy fan (the player of Stone). Molly's player watches the show because of his significant other and the Slayer's player never has seen the show or movie. It was really hard to maintain the Buffy feel under these circumstances.
I had already added a lot of Witchcraft info in the Buffy game (filling in blanks in the Buffyverse) - for instance the realms of the dead and the Sentinels showed up for one-shots. So I figured that I would darken the tone of the game and add all sorts of Unisystem information. However, tonights game fell very, very flat. So Buffy may have to take a vacation for awhile while we find more Buffy-friendly players and I watch more Buffy DVD's...
Shame too, since we had soooooooo much fun in the game :(
Wow! These sound like really good games. I might just take a closer look at the RPG in the New Year. You mentioned Witchcraft, I've seen it at my LGS, any good?
It depends what you like in a game. Witchcraft is a game in the same vien of the World of Darkness. You play the Gifted, which are those which can do "magic".Quote:
You mentioned Witchcraft, I've seen it at my LGS, any good?
Sort of like Mage: The Ascension without all the metaphysics which can drag things down. Also, the Gifted's powers aren't all the same - each of the Gifted abilities (Invocations, Devine Inspiration, Necromancy, and Psionics) are all unique in execution. For instance, Invocations fall a very freeform system much like Mage, while Seer powers have to be bought with Strength and Art scores but don't require Essense (personal energy) to power. Works really well, actually.
As far as the rulesystem, its a much more complex version of Buffy's "Unisystem Lite". But all the streamlining (such as removing the variable damage ratings) are already integrated into the rulebook - for instance all damages are listed with both the variable and "quick" damage ratings. My All Flesh Must Be Eaten books serves as a guide to Equipment in Buffy, for instance.
WC is full of cool things. Ferals (Werecreatures), Vampires, Ghosts, Phantasms, Seraphim, Fiends, Pariahs, Mad Gods, True Immortals, Etherials, Realms based on the Sephrioth Tree of Life. And with the Advantage/Disadvantage system you can play things such as Vampires, Ferals, and Ghosts without buying a whole bunch of core books (just a couple of supplements). For instance, in the Mystery Codex has rules for Vampires, Relentless Dead (Think Crow or Jason), Ghosts, or Phantasms; Abomination Codex has rules for Ferals. One rulebook instead of having to buy five or more...and all utilize the same base system instead of making their own mechanics.
I dunno. I like the game a lot - and with Unisystem, you have access to other genres too - for instance All Flesh Must Be Eaten is the game of Survival Horror (against Zombies - think Resident Evil) and Terra Primate is the same except with Apes (Congo, or Planet of the Apes). While character generation may differ, the point values and rule systems don't - so its possible to use a Quality (Advantage) from Terra Primate in Witchcraft or Buffy.
Thanks for the run down, I shall take a closer look at it as well. Though my interest in the occult is based more on my study of Ancient History, Mummy: The Resurrection is a favourite. :D
Thanks all for the nice info! :) It's very interesting to read.
Okay, I thought of sharing my own campaign as well, that died down a year ago... We used a point-based ICON system with some tweaks (and I'm glad to see some of the game mechanics I thought of appeared in the Unisystem - in a much more balanced way than my own, that is ;))
The series happens in a Florida harbor called Coascape. Guess what? It's a hellmouth of its own right :)
The PCs, season 1
Luna Shepperd - Slayer. Always hungry, strong-headed, a bit dumb sometimes a la Xander (gave us most of the funny lines of the series).
Alessandro Calavez Lopez - Luna's watcher, Sandro is in fact an immortal (a la Highlander, they existed in this Buffyverse. That was an error, there was too much power difference between the PCs). Professor of archeology of maya origins.
Celena Springs - Our goth bisexual witch, saved from the death when she was young by some sort of androgynous divinity called Avatar. Since then, Celena must follow Avatar's orders.
Azlilz Russel - Special agent trained as a commando. Gorgeous blonde, childhood friend of Luna. Her parents were killed by vamps.
Rebecca de Winter - Your average cheerleader spending most of her time finding the ultimate outfits...
Guest star PCs for the S1 pilot
Kevin Waters - Demon buying souls with contracts...
Cléo Willy - Teen liking everything gypsy.
Batosai Imura - Vampire samurai. Retains a feeling of honor after death using meditation techniques, making him not a predator but a worthy ally.
Season 2 PCs
All the previous regulars minus Sandro, plus:
Orgg - 2 meters tall demon, previously used as a killer-on-invocation. But the spell went wrong and Orgg is struck into our dimension. Took a strong liking to TV series. A nice guy, finally.
Steven Veiga - Misfit teen with a gift for machinery and engineering. Designs nifty machines all the time.
Next: the story and why I didn't last as long as my TrekRPG campaign.