Most of the characters should be relatively normal college students who have little, if any, experience with the supernatural. A newbie witch, minor psychic or budding occult investigator would be appropriate, but I'd prefer to avoid any slayers, half-demons or the like. Where superheroic types like Buffy or Angel may rely on their fists & feet, the PCs will have to rely on their wits & planning. The character requirements detailed below are intended to reflect this.
All White Hats. As college students, rather than the default high school students, all characters get an extra 5 Skill points (for a total of 20).
If you don't feel you can create a character you'll enjoy playing that will fit these requirements, this may not be the right campaign for you... I realize everyone has different tastes, so if it's not, that's okay. But if you're uncertain or feeling overly-restricted, talk to me first and we'll see if we can work something out.
No list of Qualities can ever cover every possibility. If you want something that's not in the Corebook, let me know and we'll come up with an appropriate point value. All Flesh Must Be Eaten and other Unisystem games (as well as the Serenity RPG) are an excellent source of ideas, most of which can easily be adapted into the Buffy rules (a few have been below, in fact).
Car Guy (1 pt/level) – NEW: Most college students travel by bike, bus or, in a pinch, foot. You don't.
| Level: | 1 - An old beater car. It sputters now and then, but it runs... Usually. |
|---|---|
| 2 - A solid, reliable car. It's not gonna drive the ladies wild, but it gets you where you're going. | |
| 3 - Not only is your car reliable, but it's a type of vehicle that provides some additional benefit. It might be a nice sports car (ideal for fast getaways) or a large cargo van (comes in handy for hauling plenty of slaying gear), for example. |
Mean Left Hook (3 pts) – NEW: Your unarmed attacks do Basic damage, instead of Stun. Requires at least 4 in either Strength or Kung Fu. May be added after character creation.
The Knack (2 pts) – NEW: You just seem to have a natural rapport with technology. You get a +2 on any roll to do work on electronic or mechanical devices.
Pyrokinesis – BANNED: Sorry, but this power blurs the line between Buffy and four-color comics enough that I'd be a little wary of it even in a standard Buffy game. In the grittier, lower-powered game that I'm trying to run, it just doesn't fit.
Robot and Superscientist – BANNED: Some people might think it's silly that robots shatter my suspension of disbelief in a world that features demons and superhuman cheerleaders, but in my mind, Buffy is a modern occult horror setting – superscience is neither modern, occult, nor horror. It just doesn't fit.
Sorcery – CHANGED: Sorcery is now a 3 pt/level Quality (instead of 5 pt). It no longer includes Telekinesis, but characters with Sorcery may purchase Telekinesis or other psychic Qualities separately if they choose, even after character creation. (Normally, psychic powers must be purchased during character creation, unless something very unusual happens during the game to justify the new abilities.)
Resources – NOTE: College students aren't exactly renowned for their wealth, and you don't live in a co-op if you can afford your own place. Characters probably shouldn't have a positive Resources quality without a really good explanation.
Bleeder (3 pts) – NEW: You suffer from a medical condition known as hemophilia, or take blood thinners due to another medical condition. Either way, your blood's not too big on that whole "clotting" thing. Any time you suffer Lethal damage you begin to bleed severely, losing 1 Life Point per round until the bleeding can be stopped. Taking a full-round action to bandage the wound will slow the bleeding to 1 Life Point per minute, but stopping the bleeding entirely requires a successful Doctor roll.
Weak Stomach (3 pts) – NEW: You have a hard time dealing with the grosser things in life – such as blood, guts and corpses. Exposure causes you to suffer a -2 penalty to Fear Tests, as well as any action that requires concentration. Additionally, you have to make a Willpower (doubled) roll to willingly approach within several steps of the subject of your discomfort.
Gremlin Magnet (1 pt) – NEW: Technology hates you. When you – or anyone else near you – rolls a natural 1 on any action involving an electronic or mechanical device, a malfunction occurs.
Art, Crime, Knowledge, Occultism, Science and Sports are incredibly broad skills – The worst offender, Knowledge, covers all academic knowledge that isn't covered by Science or Occultism, from literature to mathematics, which makes it difficult for characters to maintain their own niches. I don't want to have to revamp the entire skill system, so to keep things simple, characters will just list which fields they've studied within each of these skills (The Art skill already requires this, so I don't know why this requirement wasn't included for other skills as well). A character cannot have studied more fields within a skill than his total rating in that skill.
For example, a college professor might have Knowledge 3 (Geography, mythology, philosophy), while a high school teacher might have Knowledge 2 (Literature, history). The professor knows more about his areas of expertise than the teacher knows about hers, but that won't help him out at all if he needs to identify a 14th century Guatemalan death mask.
Your skill rating is the maximum number of fields you can be familiar with – raising your skill rating doesn't automatically give you a new field. If you want to gain a new field next time you raise your skill, you need to spend a few months of game time studying that field (much like the rules for learning new Languages in the Corebook).
Here are some examples of fields that would be appropriate for each skill. This is not intended to be a definitive list.
When you create a new character, what looks good on paper isn't always as fun as you thought it would be once it hits the street. Until the end of the third session, we can retroactively tweak your character however you need to make sure you're happy with it. After that, your stats are finalized, and any changes will have to develop through game play and be bought normally with XP.
You'll have to make your starting Drama Points last. The season should be about 13 episodes; that means you'll need to spend less than 2 DP per episode, on average, if you want to have any left for the big finale.
I Think I'm Okay - CHANGED: 1 DP can be spent:
Second Wind - NEW: For 1 DP, the character can recover half of the Endurance he's lost so far. This can be done at any time, but the character must have time to rest and recuperate for awhile before doing it again.
The standard Buffy health & damage system is being spliced with the system from Serenity, because I think it works better for a Buffy game than the Buffy system does.
The Cast will have Life Points and Endurance Points, each equal to (Str + Con + Wil) * 3.
If you run out of Endurance, or your remaining Endurance plus your remaining Life is less than or equal to your max Endurance, you have to make a Consciousness roll every round or pass out. If your Life Points run out, you have to make a Survival roll... or else.
Each full night of sleep lets you heal a number of Life Points equal to your Constitution. Each hour that you avoid strenuous activity, you recover a number of Endurance Points equal to your Constitution.
There are 3 types of damage:
In the Buffyverse, magic is a powerful force, but it exacts a steep price. Willow often appeared tired after spellcasting, suffered nosebleeds if she pushed herself, and she actually collapsed from exhaustion after teleporting Glory into the stratosphere. (Admittedly, amateurs cast powerful spells with nary a sweat drop whenever the plot required, but that was the exception, not the rule.)
In the standard rules, multiple castings simply incur a cumulative -2 penalty, which seems more like an arbitrary curb invented by the game designers than anything suggested by the show. I believe the Endurance rules (above) allow for a more authentic solution.
Casting a spell costs Endurance equal to the spell's Power Level minus the witch's Sorcery level (EP = PL - Sorcery). Quick casting costs double the spell's Power Level minus the witch's Sorcery level (EP = (PL*2) – Sorcery).