Character Creation Challenge 2023 19: Parallel Universe Hero

Character Creation Challenge 2023

31 Buffy The Vampire Slayer characters

19: Buffy The Vampire Slayer

But...

19: Parallel Universe Hero

Happy birthday Buffy!

We’ve had parallel universes crossing over with the regular Buffyverse more than once, and the current comic series is a reboot in an Earth-2 kind of world where everybody starts largely as they were but decades later. Turns out it’s the world without shrimp.

This was a big deal in The Watch House, bringing Milli back from the dead through unwise use of a dimensional portal to a reality that branched when she died.

So even though there’s normally only one slayer... there could be more than one of that slayer.

“Buffy Winters”

Type: Hero

Sarah Michelle Gellar
but in I Know What You Did Last Summer

Description: A lot like Sarah Michelle Gellar

Example quote: “I’m Buffy. The Vampire Slayer! No, not that one.”

Buffy isn’t 100% sure how she ended up in this universe where (a) there’s already a Buffy the Vampire Slayer and (b) she’s kind of famous.

But until she can get back to her nice normal universe with the friendly giant bat and none of this “shrimp” stuff she’ll just keep fighting monsters who are after her head because it looks like somebody else’s.

Conpulsion 2023

Conpulsion 2023 - 14th-16th April.

You heard it here first!

Unless you were at GEAS tonight.

And yes, there may be a quiz.

Character Creation Challenge 2023 18: Gargoyle

Character Creation Challenge 2023

31 Buffy The Vampire Slayer characters

18: Gargoyle

Stone By Day, Warriors By Night!

I always wanted to do this. Blame the animated series. A gargoyle is one of my more visually out there character ideas, I acknowledge that he couldn’t really hang out in school or a nightclub. (Unless he’s a were-gargoyle. Which I had something like in my most recent Buffy game actually, using the Angel demon rules.) But the idea of being a chunk of stone amuses me anyway.

So it’s time for another non-robot use of the Robot Quality. Using Angel I probably could have added the gliding and the sleeping as stone during the day, but this’ll do - his high Acrobatics is for “falling with style”.

Granite

Type: Hero

Michael Wilson AKA Knightmage cosplaying as Goliath

Description: He’ll make a really cool action figure

Example quote: “It is my duty to protect this realm, and so I shall.”

Granite is a great and noble warrior of gargoyle kind. Awakened after centuries by wild magics, sworn to protect the city, based in the college museum where he woke.

The Bad Batch 2.04

Star Wars: The Bad Batch

2.04: Faster

“The team enters the colorful and dangerous world of racing.”

22 1/2 minutes plus credits.

With voices of reason Hunter and Echo away, Cid brings Wrecker, Tech and Omega to a Riot Racing meet (basically pod racing but you can also shoot at each other) to look out for her new racer.

Featuring Ben Schwartz as a funny droid and Ernie Hudson as a scary team boss.

Animation showoff bit: the main race, complete with techno music to make it feel even more like a hi-def Wipeout game.

Character Creation Challenge 2023 17: Wild Talent

Character Creation Challenge 2023

31 Buffy The Vampire Slayer characters

17: Wild Talent

Superpowers, particularly psychic powers, that manifest with adolescence tend to get a bit out of control for adolescence metaphor reasons.

Carrie is one real friend away from being a Buffyish superhero origin.

See also multiple X-Men, Firestarter, Eleven in Stranger Things, I Am Not Okay With This and more.

So here’s one who joins the gang and that helps keep some control over things.

Rachel Hayes

Type: White Hat

Kaylee Bryant

Description: Rarely makes eye contact, but when she does you’ll know about it

Example quote: “Just to check, am I levitating?”

Rachel isn’t sure why she can move things by looking at them, but she does know she can control it... usually. Having some friends to watch her back at school helps. And when it gets too much she needs help getting people away from her.

She never knew her father and her mother doesn’t like to talk about him, so that’s a dead end for research into what this is about. And whether it will get stronger or fade out, and what else she might find out she can do...

The Mandalorian season three trailer

The Baby Yoda Adventures is back!

Beowulf Bundle Of Holding

Beowulf by Handiwork at Bundle Of Holding until February 6th.

Character Creation Challenge 2023 16: Wielder Of A Magic Weapon

Character Creation Challenge 2023

31 Buffy The Vampire Slayer characters

16: Wielder Of A Magic Weapon

We’re at the halfway point of the challenge!

We now enter a section I call “Hey, this is an urban fantasy show with slightly superhero-y characters, I could run this with Buffy|!”

And even more remarkably, I’ve actually played this one!

As well as Buffy getting the Scythe late in season seven, assorted magical weapons turn up throughout Buffy and Angel, and people have used them in superhero comics and urban fantasy adventures before them, as well as some obviously post-Buffy examples like the TV version of Wynonna Earp.

Someone finds, inherits or otherwise gets stuck with an enchanted sword, blessed Colt .45 or something of the sort, and is expected to fight evil with it. Expect struggling with the weight of expectations.

The Night Watch had Excalibur as its example (as does The Kid Who Would Be King) and I took the never-named sword in the stone for mine...

Jim Clark

Type: Hero

Fred Hechinger

Description: Deceptively average

Example quote: “I’m stuck with this, so that means I gotta do it.”

Jim acquired the Nameless Sword kind of by accident, pulling it out of a stone when under attack at a building site at the back of his school. At least it looks like an accident to him. People keep talking about fate.

Character Creation Challenge 2023 15: Teenage Frankenstein

Character Creation Challenge 2023

31 Buffy The Vampire Slayer characters

15: Teenage Frankenstein

As Dracula was followed by Frankenstein in the Universal horror cycle, Buffy Vs. Dracula was followed by Milli Vs. Frankenstein when we did that episode of The Watch House. Buffy had a couple of stitched together superscience revivals, and Angel had a subplot about technomagical transplants and an evil hand.

Assorted comics, The Monster Squad and Van Helsing have the original creature doing face turns, and I, Frankenstein takes the “handsome guy with slight scarring” approach to an extreme. And besides The Munsters I’m old enough to remember a sitcom about the monster called Struck By Lightning.

Anyway, the Robot Quality’s good enough for government work. (Though also really cheap!) I had one of these guys in a Buffy game for a while, who could pass as a regular guy as long as he kept his shirt on.

“Shelley”

Type: Hero

Miguel Bernardeau

Description: Large and glowery

Example quote: “I don’t know the name that comes with my face, or with either of my hands, but I do know that life is precious. And also that I like chimichangas. That last part might not be so relevant but I just found that out today so I thought I’d mention it.”

The creation of some unwise experiments who escaped into the world, “Shelley” helped the gang against his creators. His face is unfamiliar and his fingerprints don’t seem to be on record, so he’s not sure who - or how many - his donors were. Built from more-or-less compatible parts, and capable of things like eating and sleeping, he’s one of the more successful attempts in the Buffyverse.

14 Vampire plot hooks from Witch of the Vale

Hunter on RPGnet liked the Episodes Based On Song Titles idea as recently showcased here and started a thread for more. So I felt I should contribute.

Fortunately, the most recent album I bought and the game I’m currently running fit together, being rather Goth.

Vampire: The Masquerade

with

Commemorate by Witch of the Vale

Something Lost

One of a vampire’s few human connections is moving away, ready to make a new and better life for herself. Can she really let go?

Fever

“Please, someone stake me, bury me, put me in the ground”

A vampire is infected with a blood borne disease. Can the coterie find a way to cleanse him before the Camarilla puts him down?

Trust the Pain

“Now you know we’re not good people”

A vampire finds herself unable to feel pain. Is this a sign of growing power, or of fading humanity?

Undressed

In a most intimate moment, a vampire’s lover sees what he really is. Can they ever recover?

Death Dream

A vampire wakes from a shockingly vivid dream of someone dying - and realises that her hated sire has returned and plans to Embrace another victim. What can she do?

Crash

A car crash. The driver can’t possibly survive. So much blood. Would it really be wrong to take some?

The Sky and the Sea

A ship comes in with everyone on board dead. What came to port with it?

Your Voice

A vampire soprano finds someone recorded her last performance in life. What would she do to hear her living voice again, and how would it make her feel?

Commemorate

The Prince is dead, and his childe wishes a wake in his honour. Who would speak kindly of him? And who would dare speak true?

Suffocation

A vampire wakes to find herself in a coffin, buried in the city cemetery. How can she get out? And who put her there?

The Way This Will End

A vampire realises that her lover is going to leave her. Will she let him?

Gods & Monsters

A vampire cult worshipping a cruel ancient god comes to the city. What are they looking for here, and what happens if they find it?

The Ghosts Won’t Know

A seer of the Giovanni family approaches the coterie with a warning of a ghost stalking them. What have they done to bring this on themselves?

Live Again

A scholar of Golconda finds a way to be human again. What would the Kindred do for this, or to stop it?

The best counterfeiter ever

Rose Bailey tells the true story of the man who solved the basic problem of counterfeiting and thus totally fucked Portugal’s economy.

Character Creation Challenge 2023 14: I Was A Teenage Ghost

Character Creation Challenge 2023

31 Buffy The Vampire Slayer characters

14: I Was A Teenage Ghost

One of my earliest Buffy character ideas. 

Neither Buffy nor Angel had a ghost in the regular cast, although Willow spent Halloween as one, Cordelia had Phantom Dennis as a roommate, and Spike’s soul was incorporeal for a chunk of Angel season five.

As such, the setting rules for ghosts are a bit handwavy. And the game rules likewise, there’s no official Ghost Quality. I’ve DIYed this kind of thing since my first Buffy PBP.

Borrowing from Being Human and the RPG MonsterHearts, a ghost who’s visible most of the time and can make herself substantial so she can pass for still alive, but reverts to normal ghostiness sometimes, and can be harmed by mortal means. And since she can pick things up with her ghostly hands like Spike learns to I haven’t given her telekinesis.

Minda Baker

Type: White Hat

Bailee Madison

Description: Usually visible but unobtrusive

Example quote: “Boo, I guess?”

Minda died recently in a botched cult sacrifice, and due to it going a bit wrong she’s still in the world. She can see and hear, touch and feel, and move things like normal. But sometimes when she’s startled or scared she dissipates, and when it gets too much she becomes invisible. And it gets too much more and more around this one member of the slayer’s gang... 

Lockwood & Co.

Lockwood & Co. from Joe Cornish on Netflix. Trailer and discussion at Empire. Teens go into business shunting ghosts in a world where hunting ghosts is a major concern. From the creator of Attack The Block and The Kid Who Would Be King, this shows some similarities with kids sword fighting monsters and the threat being too big to hide from the world.

The Open RPG Creative Licence

ORC for short. Not to be confused with Edinburgh’s Open Roleplaying Community. Morgue was way ahead there.

In related news, WOTC is backing off in some ways, it seems.

Character Creation Challenge 2023 13: A Talking Cat

Character Creation Challenge 2023

31 Buffy The Vampire Slayer characters

13: A Talking Cat

So that’s variably similar analogues to everybody who featured in the series credits. And now for something completely different. Starting with some other classic supernatural creature types...

It’s also Friday the 13th! So... no, not a guy with a machete.

Instead, inspired by Steve D statting up a throwaway gag from the rulebook about Slayo the Slayer-dog, something I’ve sometimes threatened but never done in a Buffy game: an adorable talking animal episode. It’s no weirder than The Puppet Show, after all.

And while an adorable talking animal has some obvious limitations as a full cast member, it could be pretty fun as a recurring guest star.

Mittens

Type: Hero

Thackery Binx in Hocus Pocus

Description: Black cat with a hint of a smirk

Example quote: “My mistress will be avenged! Also are you going to finish that sandwich?”

Mittens is a witch’s cat, but his mistress is missing presumed dead or lost in a spirit realm, and now he seeks the aid of supernatural warriors in saving or avenging her. What, are they busy or something?

Universal Horror Nights Every Night

Universal are bringing a horror park to Las Vegas, all year round.

I WANNA!

Paramore, C'est Comme Ça

Paramore, C’est Comme Ça lyric video

I still need a certain degree of disorder

Character Creation Challenge 2023 12: The Witch

Character Creation Challenge 2023

31 Buffy The Vampire Slayer characters

12: The Witch

Magic is a powerful and unpredictable thing. And a powerful and unpredictable thing can make for interesting plots.

Willow gets into magic in a big way, but there are lower-key magic types around from the first regular episode of Buffy onwards, and this includes Tara, the last character added to the opening credits and therefore the last of this subset of the challenge that I’ll be making a playable sorta-kinda riff on.

Having at least ritual magic available is handy for the series from the get-go, with opportunities for countering hexes, discovering things that are hard to learn normally, and making Funny Magic Episodes happen.

And there are also players who love spellcaster options. But at this point I should make a note about balance. Buffy as a system is sorta-kinda balanced, but Sorcery isn’t. It being both very powerful and really cheap perfectly models Willow going from first spell to extinction level event in four years flat, but other magical characters note that her power is extraordinary.

(TWH digression: I gave the group a friendly witch type NPC as nobody started with magic, as a way to have magic-related plots as well as latterly adding romantic tensions. Then Ziggy’s player took some Sorcery and he got scary good scary fast, and was written out when his player moved away. Then Matthew’s player took some Sorcery and he also got scary good scary fast, and his player decided we should nerf him. Twice. Making him totally unable to affect or suffer from magic the second time. Hence warnings like the above, house rules, and more.)

So anyway, a starting witch type can have plenty to do without much Sorcery.

Lana Donovan

Type: White Hat

Grace Fulton

Description: Notably funky earrings

Example quote: “Make it work, make it work, make it work, make it work...”

Lana discovered there was a Vampire Slayer in town when she was researching the town cemeteries and their tendency to have more open graves at night than during the day. It seemed only polite to introduce herself, and help with rogue sorcerers, ancient curses rising, and that thing with the pirates.

Character Creation Challenge 2023 11: The Kid

Character Creation Challenge 2023

31 Buffy The Vampire Slayer characters

11: The Kid

With the Scoobies out of high school for a year already, Dawn brought a mid-teens character back to the main cast of a teen show. Of course introducing a kid is tricky, and Dawn being a frequent hostage and written to be extremely annoying to our hero didn’t help win fans over.

But a trouble magnet can be fun to play, and a seemingly unremarkable friend or relative of an established central character could be a good choice for a player who prefers a supporting role.

Dawn is also special and important to the wider world, all the trouble of being a Chosen One with none of the empowerment. See also the kids in various Star Wars series, but note that Ezra, Baby Yoda Grogu and Omega are all introduced in their series’ first episodes so they’re part of the setup, so check before bringing something like that into an existing game.

(Inevitable The Watch House reminiscences: The online pilot of The Night Watch had the trainee Watchers find a “possessed” little girl was actually a Slayer reliving previous Chosen memories. And a guest player came in to TWH as someone marked for death by a cult through no fault of his own, so he got to be the “escort mission” target for his stay.)

Angel also has this with Connor - as a baby in particular, though the audition for the teen version is a scene where he argues with Angel who’s his sworn protector but not his father. They also established it can happen to others, with the blind seer children in season one and the marked-for-fate baby at the start of season two. Who should be out of college by now. Hmm...

Jodie Adams

Type: White Hat

Emily Alyn Lind

Description: Young enough to make our teen heroes feel old

Example quote: “Ew. Ew. I repeat: Ew.”

Jodie is Lane’s cousin, and about to start high school so he was told to look out for her. Unfortunately this resulted in her tagging along in an impromptu ritual-disrupting outing and getting caught in the blowback, so now her blood calls to every vampire that can smell it, who could use it to complete the ritual and become True Demons unaffected by stake or sunlight. Lane’s pretty sure that this isn’t what Aunt Kath meant.

The Bad Batch 2.03

Star Wars: The Bad Batch

2.03: The Solitary Clone

“Clones battle against a Separatist hold out.”

27 minutes plus credits.

A Crosshair episode. Also featuring another returning clone.