[Buffy] Need some ideas, themes, and opinions for a New BtVS game season

[mrlost]

As this maybe my only hope to escape the crappy D&D games I'm in at the moment. I need to come up with a good High School Buffy Game as the players desprately want to play a Highschool Buffy game. Most of my buffy ideas, consist of Intiative games, Wild West Slayers, and other non-highschool concepts. I need a good place to set a game, post-season seven destruction of the Sunnydale Hellmouth. If possible I was thinking about setting it near dimensional confluence/nexus. An unstable dimensional anomaly, which would suck the town into a hell dimension or something fresh. I don't want to regugitate any season of the show. Ideas on a good setting?



Second question: I need a believable high school. If have to set it in Cleveland, whats the worst Highschool there. Should I run an exchange student game, wherein the slayer is sent to England? I think that would be cool. SteveD was running a Watcher Accademy game, I think. I'm not british, and know very little about England's school system. If someone could give me the low down on how that would work, what the differences are between United States and British school systems it would be great.

Third Question: I need most of all a good series of themes for the game, growing up has been pretty over used. So any other good themes to be explored by a High School Setting? Whata you think.

Finally, I need a good villian. What kind of Big Bads should I use? If it was set in England say at the Watcher Accademy then I think a fraturnity/secret society of less than good watchers would be cool.

[Cossack]

Themes: cliquishness, the pressure to conform, the pressure to succeed, the quest for personal identity.

Watch "The Breakfast Club" two or three times and see if it sparks anything.

[Cossack]

If possible I was thinking about setting it near dimensional confluence/nexus. An unstable dimensional anomaly, which would suck the town into a hell dimension or something fresh. I don't want to regugitate any season of the show. Ideas on a good setting?


There are three approaches to this I can think of.

1. Natural Occurance. One day, all of a sudden, the town is in a hell dimension. You have no obligation to explain why and can just sit there chuckling while the PCs try to fix it.

2. Experiment Gone Wrong. Either somebody was messing around with a ritual and didn't know what he was doing, or some super-science gadget at the local university misfired. Either way, it'll look to the PCs like option #1 at first, but in this scenario there is a cause they can discover.

3. Evil Plot. Maybe a bunch of cultists who were abused are taking revenge on the town. Maybe some demons from the hell dimension in question have been bound to the town and this is the only way home. In any case, the PCs should get a chance to stop the ritual that will send the town to hell. If (when?) they fail, major rewards should be heaped on the first player who thinks to say "Well, there goes the neighborhood."

[Cossack]

More thoughts:

Villains -- What if, instead of becoming a Scooby, Cordy had stumbled across some sort of mystical power and gave in more and more to her dark side? What if the popular girl is actually a cult leader? Maybe that goth chick who leads the outcasts is in charge of a rival cult and the fued between them drives half of the bizarre happenings at the school and eventually opens the nexus thingy?

[DannyK]

I honestly wouldn't worry too much about reusing the themes from the series. They're universal themes, mostly, and the players are asking specifically for a high-school Buffy game. Adressing those same themes, except with their own characters and in their own way, may be just what they want.

It might be interesting to change the nature of the high school, though, Sunnydale High is the archetypal all-American high school.

If the school was an alternative school for troubled teens, or a magnet school for gifted kids (everybody gets artistic for free), or a crappy inner-city high school with tons of gang activity and teenage pregnancy... any of those would be fresh and interesting.

[SteveD]

I'd think about moving away from the more "occult" enemies, to get a new feel. Why not let the gateway be something akin to a stargate instead?

Buffy's theme is specifically about responsibility, that part of growing up. There are other aspects of growing up to examine. How about dealing with limitless choices? That fits well with a gate to anywhere.

How about this:

The PCs are all smart types. Not all geeks, but all intelligent types, doing well in their classes, know exactly which college they want to go to. The kind of people who, when high school ends, have a huge amount of choice. Go to Europe for a year, or be fast tracked into the corporate sector, or be hand-picked for a great program at MIT, whatever. They just can't wait to get started on their dreams. But they really don't understand the price of that much freedom and choice. So they get a glimpse of it.

One day, one of the PCs is working late with his favourite science teacher (a prominent NPC, Giles figure) and through science gone wrong (although feel free to add an explanation later!) they open a gateway, a nexus in time and space. It connects to hundreds of dimensions and time periods. They can go through it, like the Sliders kids or the Stargate people, but things also come through it, like the Hellmouth. The whole multiverse can come to them, and they can see all the marvels life has in store. And they'll learn that some marvels aren't that nice...

Of course, this throws away almost all the canon of the show. But the Watchers would be interested in a dimensional door they can use reliably (an army of slayers marching into the demon dimensions?) and a Slayer might be sent to check it out. It might be fun for Watchers to try and deal with science more than occultism - maybe they have a special branch dedicated to Mad Science stuff? Techno-watcher fun!

Maybe the physics teacher IS a techno-watcher?

A big bad should play upon this theme. The Djinn is a good one, as he offers limitless choice and power, and he might just benefit from a dimensional door. Or how about a Time Master, who is tempting them to take steps so he can live again in the future? Someone like Viggo from Ghostbusters? Time is but a door, death is but a window. Plus he can slow down time or stop it - making him almost impossible to fight!

Man, I SO want to play this now!

Steve

[Craig Oxbrow]

I wouldn't worry about the accuracy of your background (finding the worst school in Cleveland) since this is, after all, a game about Teenage Monster Hunters. The series made up a whole town, which expanded regularly depending on the needs of the episode in question.

That said, you shouldn't set it somewhere that your players know better than you, as even with the "this is a game about Teenage Monster Hunters" caveat they might still correct you on factual matters, or just find them annoying.

Since it's after Season 7, deal with the fallout of it. The Watchers haven't been wiped out, but they have lost their central command and most of their senior members. The Academy's probably gone as well, for that matter. There are Slayers all over the world, with the Scoobies forming a new group to try and find them but plenty slipping through the cracks. Faith is riding around on a motorbike acting like Cain in Kung Fu. And all kinds of strange things happened in LA last summer...

So you can feature a clueless Slayer (or more than one) among the PCs or the supporting cast (and various groups with various agendas would like to get ahold of her). You can have a Watcher "in the cold" trying to deal with the supernatural threats on his own.

As for a Big Bad, I'd start out with something that reflects the Cast to some extent. Buffy's a Vampire Slayer, so the first Big Bad was a vampire...

[Professor Phobos]

I set my game in Arkham, Massachusetts, and borrowed all sorts of things from Cthulhu. The first season's theme was basically betrayal and "ruthlessification", if that makes any sense, and the second season's theme, thus far, is helping out individuals. Or something. I'm not quite good enough for there to be "themes."

Basically, don't worry about it. With a good bunch of players, decent monsters of the week, and a nifty enough Big Bad, you'll be fine.

[Matt H]

I honestly wouldn't worry too much about reusing the themes from the series. They're universal themes, mostly, and the players are asking specifically for a high-school Buffy game. Adressing those same themes, except with their own characters and in their own way, may be just what they want.

I couldn't agree with this more.

[CasperLions]

Look at the original Persona game for inspiration of an entire town being sucked into a Hell dimension.

[Orsino]

I have to give a 'me too' to the idea that the themes from Buffy are worth repeating, particularly if you and your players put their own stamp on them. I also like the idea of the different types of schools: the inner-city high school gives me the series pitch of "Buffy meets Dangerous Minds meets the Substitute," which could be very cool.

I also understand no wanting to put a Hellmouth in your town. I mean, they can't be that common. But you also need a reason for all these monsters to show up. Here's a couple ideas:

For the western U.S.: In 1945-6, in an experiment running parallel to the Manhattan Project, prominent Allied occultists (including Alestair Crowley and L. Ron Hubbard) performed a ritual referred to in DOD documents as "The Babylon Working." These summonings were designed to open a portal and summon extra-dimensional help to counteract Nazi Thule sorceries. It didn't go as planned, because once opened, the portal could not be completely closed. It became a flaw in reality--not coincidentally, UFO sightings began mere months after the final working. The portal would be more accurately be described as a tear, one that is moving and growing. It is an area in which reality is in flux, with alternate realities fighting for our idea-space. The result is a series of 'portal storms' through which all sorts of nasties are dumped into our universe. In my game, the epicenter of the Portal Storms had moved from the New Mexico desert to Las Vegas (the game setting); you could do the same for your high school. I'd recommend Kenneth Hite's good work on the subject of reality quakes, since that's what gave me the inspiration in the first place. That and Doug Moench's Big Book of Conspiracies (for the Babylon Working).

For the Eastern U.S.: Project Montauk and Rainbow, the original Philadelphia Experiment. Once the first incarnation of the Initiative learned of the existence of other dimensions they devoted a large amount of resource looking for ways to make dimension travel useful for war. Working within the U.S. Navy under the monikers Rainbow and later Montauk, the Initiative equipped the U.S.S. Eldridge with a device to make it invisible. Unfortunately the experiment went horribly wrong, sending the ship temporarily into a Hell dimension, creating portal storms, irrevocably twisting the crew in horrible ways (some set burning in green flames, some melding fatally with bulkheads, etc.), and causing the ship to vanish and reappear miles away. Writing project Rainbow off, Montauk was developed to contain the damage and research the fallout. One such fall out is the dimensional nexus created by the immense power involved in Rainbow. Like the previous scenario, the eimic epicenter could now be over Your Town, spawning portals at random (once an episode, say?) and allowing bad things out. In addition, Project Montauk is still going on, as the Invisible Girl might attest. The officers in charge might not take kindly to a bunch of White Hats meddling in their fifty year experiment.

[Kasumi]

The trappings of the genre are just pure fun - exams are interesting when combined with the soap opera of dating, which is amplified by the immenence of kung-fu battles against Cthulu. Especially in Buffy where being not the Invincible Sword Princess, but the football jock who loves her, is just as fun.

[DannyK]

Damnit. Now I really, really want to run my own Buffy game. I think it's mostly SteveD's fault.

[Craig Oxbrow]

Damnit. Now I really, really want to run my own Buffy game. I think it's mostly SteveD's fault.
That's what I said. (And my PBP game is Varyar's fault too.)

One advnatge of a fairly "default" Buffy game is that most random Buffy plot hooks (from the likes of Iron Roleplayer) have "default" assumptions attached. (In Iron Rolepayer: Goblins, I based an idea around goblins kidnapping kids the PCs were babysitting.)

[mrlost]

I've decided to set the game in New Mexico. I think I'll use a bit of that Crowley/Hubbard Military Ritual idea, but what happened it that it fragmented a section of reality, creating a dark, and a light dimension that the region sits inbetween. On certain nights of the year, the walls between worlds weaken, until someone appeases the creatures that dwell beyond or strengthens the boundries.

While the boundries are weak, creatures from the light, or dark kingdoms can walk into ours but only if a human steps over into their world.

I'm thinking of having a house, that sits on the metaphysical boundry between the dark world, our world, and the light world. Neutral ground as it were.

There is a fraturity, like the Masons or what have you that is perfectly open about itself. Called the Manitou Lodge or something similar. Members of the lodge are at work to both seal the light world off, and permanently open the way to the dark.
The Lodge HQ is the house on the border. At night through its windows, grey fog can be seen to rise and swirl around the house, from the west a great light can be seen, and demonic creatures cavort at the edges of the fog, which is why the windows are kept covered in white velvet curtains.

Some of the Lodge members are geniunely good men, but the leadership has brainwashed them, into believing that the true goals are opening the gates of heaven, and imprisoning the devil.

Not what your usually Buffy game is supposed to be about, granted. But what do you think?

I think it would be interesting if some top secret specter divison US Military knew about some of the strange occurances here, and was passively trying to keep a lid on things, which might have been how the Lodge was originally created, as a covert means of surveilance on the problem. However, the local bureau informant has been compromised.

The town is near a former nuclear testing area, and a Air Force base.

The first season wouldn't heavily explore the reasons for all this or even reveal the true villians at work. I was thinking that something about this place draws in vampires...and that the world of the light isn't necessarily a good place, but the dark world is definately a Hell dimension. Both dimensions have a screwy time effect on people from our dimension. Thoughts?
EDIT:
Especially, about the Light World...perhaps the Lodge believes it to be heaven and labor toward transporting the whole town to it. Perhaps in it dwell creatures of impossible beauty and incomprensible evil. How does that sound?

The dark world on the other hand, I see as some horribly gothic underworld necropolis/metropolis. Huge city of the dead, filled with ravenous hordes of the undead, long starved by the Hell God rulers of the city, who dwell in some of the larger fortresses, protected by their dwindling armies of demonic servitors left over from some demonic golden age long since past them by, waiting for away in. Time here passes impossibly fast, but death doesn't exist, things that die merely rise again and again endlessly. Does anyone have a better idea

[mrlost]

oh for…*bump*

What do you think of the Dark/Light worlds, the Lodge, maybe set it in Manitou Springs, Colorado?

Feedback please. I crave feedback.

[Varyar]

That's what I said. (And my PBP game is Varyar's fault too.)

Mwahahahaha and all that.

One advnatge of a fairly "default" Buffy game is that most random Buffy plot hooks (from the likes of Iron Roleplayer) have "default" assumptions attached. (In Iron Rolepayer: Goblins, I based an idea around goblins kidnapping kids the PCs were babysitting.)

Oh. Oh. I have to use that in Albion somehow.

[mrlost]

Actual feedback please. Bumpity bump!

Should I just scrap this an set the game in Sunnydale, and let them play the core cast? Hmm? The last High School game of Buffy I ran was set in NYC and the first 5 episodes featured a male slayer who went mad with power and was killed for the greater good, only to come back as a vampire/zombie bigbad/villian of the season. The other PCs were a semi-normal kid with rich demon worshiping jetsetting parents willing to sacrifice him for power, a robot demon hunter, a disgraced watcher sorceror, another sorceror played by Midnight, and a perfectly normal slayer chick who was supporting her kid brother, by working weekends at a supermarket, and picking up welfare checks.

Damn I wish, someone would reply to my post. Is this alternate universe thing to weird for Buffy? I don't want to go down the sliders road, suggested above because I never really liked the show, and I don't think I could do it much better.

As for plot hooks, I've never had a problem coming up with them for any game. I don't see it as an advantage that I could rip off I TV show and get called on it by a room full of Buffy fanatics. But I see what your saying and all. I just want to go my own way, but I want to make sure its cool, and workable.

And unlikely to piss someone off thats expecting to play Buffy.

[knightsky]

Here's an idea. Ask the players.

Not just "what game would you like to play", but stuff like "what scenes/character bit/cool stuff would you like to see in this campaign?" Try to get a feel for what they're hoping for out of the game, what they'd like to do, and that'll give you lots of fodder to work with.

[Craig Oxbrow]

Having the characters always moving between alternate Earths would be more Sliders than Buffy and might annoy players, but having occasional incursions to and from other dimensions wouldn't be a problem.

The metaphysical source of the weirdness isn't really such an issue for whether something would be "enough like Buffy" or not - the style is.

As long as there are scary monsters to fight, jokes to make and emotional traumas to suffer from, the monsters could be from anywhere and it would work. After all, a government science project to study demons and build cyborgs didn't really fit with the previous tone of Buffy on TV...

As is, the secret fraternal society guarding portals to opposing alternate worlds works fine. Personally I'd make one hellish and one strange rather than both being hellish in different ways, or set two Hellworlds against each other with Earth as the battleground (I always wanted to borrow the Blood War concept from D&D for an Angel game). Neither of them are places you'd want the portals to be permanently open to, but one can be a source of a different kind of problems than the other.

Snagging an idea from the Gatekeeper Trilogy of Buffy books, one gate leads to a Hell and the other leads to the Otherworld of mythical beasts - so it provides a perfect excuse for goblins and Bigfoot and Nessie to turn up in less scary stand-alone episodes...

[DannyK]

What Craig said. As long as the Lodge guys have the requisite number of bumbling hubristic fools, you're good. As the good guys grow in power, they may graduate from dealing with monster o' the week to tracking them to their source to even going through... or not.

What kind of a high school, though? Besides the three I mentioned before, I think a boarding school would be cool. It's a different vibe, maybe more of a "Strange Days at Blake Holsey High" thing.

[AusJeb]

I like the New Mexico setting with all of its potential for Southwestern mysticism. Sort of a Buffy meets Scout.

[Hunter]

Here's an idea. Set in in the 1950's. Have the girl PC's all wearing saddle shoes and poodle skirts and the boy PC's wearing suits all the time. Their version of the magic shop is the local drive-in or soda shop. Think Buffy meets "Pleasantville".

[SteveD]

I fucking LOVE this. I think you should try and fool the PCs too, about the nature of Light world - it's such an easy mistake to make. What you need now though is some good hooks for your PCs. Why do the high school students get involved with this Lodge?

Steve

[Phantom Stranger]

Damnit. Now I really, really want to run my own Buffy game. I think it's mostly SteveD's fault.

If you run by PbP, I have a White Hat high scool paper reporter from Amado's game that didn't get off the ground I could offer. I'd like to get to use him.

[mrlost]

Hmm, 1950s would be cool. I'll run it by the players today, at the D&D game o'boredom today. Dimension incursions are what its all about.

Hmm, yeah actually I was thinking of using villians like the Queen of the Faeries from Discworld to populate the Light World. For those that haven't read Wee Free Men (and other books with the Queen) she's a horribly cruel unimaginative mistress of illusions who is bored out of her mind most of the time and finds horribly unimaginative ways to fill her time.

I also want to reinforce this element of cosmic equalibrium so that things can't simply force their way through to our world without something from our world entering theirs. Maybe the rules can be broken with a lot of powerful magicks but most of the time this is how it would work.

Thank-you for the Gatekeepers reminder, I read a couple of those, I guess I could go back and mine(read: steal) them for ideas.

Phantom Stranger I'm sorry I have no experience running play by post.

[DannyK]

If you run by PbP, I have a White Hat high scool paper reporter from Amado's game that didn't get off the ground I could offer. I'd like to get to use him.

Man, I should change my .sig to "will run RPG's for food." Except maybe it should be "for food, mortgage payments, and gas money." I don't know if I'm *that* good. But I am watching mrlost get his ideas together, and maybe sometime I'll follow suit.

mrlost: the 50's theme would fit really well with dimensional incursions, I think. And there's about a thousand bad movies out there to crib from about American 50's teenagers facing the unknown. I think xenophobia and sexual repression would be really important period themes (I'm thinking of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and "Forbidden Planet" here -- monsters from the id, indeed!)

[mrlost]

Well I had a talk with the potential players, one has finished building a watcher (White Hat) character that is basically exactly the same as the sample watcher. I don't know if this is good or bad.

The players shot down the 1950's game idea. They adamently want to play in the modern day. Only the player who built a watcher has even seen the 7th season.

I'm thinking of theming the Vampire gang (minor reoccuring villians) with somekind of 50's stuff. As for what they want to see, they don't know. They definately want, a reoccuring villian (which I told them was a staple of the game), a plot (no duh!), and basically had no concept the question. I think its because of their long running experience playing only really bad d&d that they have no expectations.

Just in-case I've built a couple pregens in the twenty minutes I was over at their house, so that if it comes down to the day of the game, and they still haven't built a character I can hand them one with a minium of fuss.

[Craig Oxbrow]

Well I had a talk with the potential players, one has finished building a watcher (White Hat) character that is basically exactly the same as the sample watcher. I don't know if this is good or bad.

It's probably to do with their lack of familiarity, and the pregens are serviceable and straightforward characters.

(I'm curious as to why the only player to have seen S7 decided to go for a Watcher though... :D )

I think its because of their long running experience playing only really bad d&d that they have no expectations.
In your position I'd keep the game relatively straightforward, and be sure to give them opportunities to make jokes in-character, develop some character drama and relationship angst...