“Manipulative, Two-Faced, Bad In Sports, Superficial, No Sense Of Humor, Fake Smile, Brie, Xander”
Cordelia’s weaknesses on the whiteboard, Homecoming
Buffy The Vampire Slayer is an urban fantasy action superhero drama horror comedy, and the comedy mostly comes from the characters’ reaction to everything else. How do we do that in the RPG?
I talk about how humour works in RPGs including Buffy in the general, how much of it comes from the players and how you can encourage by example and setups.
Even the darkest and most dramatic episodes still have occasional moment of light - see Cordelia’s concern about having let Angel into her car in Passion for example - the trick is not to totally undercut, and that’s pretty much on the players.
And I discussed Funny Magic Episodes in the original Buffy Season, where the plot is built to encourage absurd results. Sometimes the Director will do this, sometimes the players bring it.
So for simplicity, a Director-instigated example. Stealing from Supernatural because I think I’m due one after all the format-bending episodes I did before them. ;)
2.13: It’s All True
Ty attempts to use magic to get the Dean to be completely truthful on the record and gets the design of the warding circle wrong, so now everybody on campus is unable to lie.
Naturally this happens while one of the cast is being evasive about something personal and someone else is wondering what’s really going on with someone else and everybody needs a reminder of why they have to keep secrets and...
“Okay, this evening has been nice but I’m trying to come up with an excuse to leave not because I don’t want to stay but because I have to go and hunt vampires and oh what the hell why am I still talking?”
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