Any experiences with the Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG?

[weckar]

I was reading through the book for this the other day (we are currently (re-)watching the series at home) and it actually looks quite solid, but there are a couple thing about it - especially the magic and mystery bits - that I am not sure would play out well at an actual table; let alone a virtual tabletop like we would use.

Does anyone here have experiences with the system - good, bad or interesting - that they would like to share?

[Seto]

I haven't used that system, but I'd like to chime in to say that as a Buffy fan I'm also interested in the subject. I was thinking of running a game in that universe someday, but the system I was thinking of was FATE.

[Lapak]

I played in a campaign using it that lasted several years, so it is definitely viable as a system. (Of course, given the right group most systems are.)

Its strength and its weakness come from the same sense in that it’s a system that revolves around the narrative. If you’ve got a group that’s looking to play to that - a group who will enjoy playing out the story and don’t mind getting occasionally screwed-over-by-fiat for the sake of the plot and a Drama Point - it is seriously lots of fun. If you have a group that tends towards the mechanical-optimization (or ‘optimal’ anything, including in-game decision making) the seams are going to show.

Mechanical notes / advice:

- The power disparity between Heroes and White Hats is real and gets worse before it gets better. A combat that can make your Slayer break a sweat will have the rest of the group bleeding Drama Points if they are involved; a mildly-witty Slayer will therefore have both much higher base stats AND a stack of unused Drama Points in a few sessions. And it will be dozens of episodes before XP gains and diminishing returns start to flatten out the curve.

- building on this, even though it is a point-buy system it’s a good idea to establish niches. The slayer has enough bonus points to be a combat monster and a competent researcher (or party face, or getaway driver) but resist that. Have everyone specialize in something so they get a moment to shine, and remember that the system rewards everyone for engaging via banter when their talent isn’t center-stage. Outside of ‘season finales,’ it’s best to have 90%+ of session time be out-of-combat.

- the magic system does require active partnership from the DM and the players not to mess up the game. Investment in Sorcery gives benefits all out of proportion to any other stat in the game, and can break things pretty quickly unless everyone agrees on some sensible limits.

- (IMO) The game is much, much more enjoyable with an off-show (but real-world) setting. We were running the adventures of a slayer in late 1930s Cleveland, and the period-piece aspect worked. We also had a game-runner who was a history buff and was capable of working in the Torso Murderer, Eliot Ness, and so on, which definitely helped.

[Anonymouswizard]

It's Unisystem, and unisystem isn't the most balanced system in the world. If the GM works to give the party stuff that their characters are specialised in it works out better than say D&D 3.5 because the warrior won't be stepping on the scientists toes, but that comes with the problem of 'if the GM has a specific vision in mind you need to play character creation so as not to waste points on Resources instead of buying increased combat abilities'. The latter actually happened, I wanted to pump Resources up to 5 to represent the fact my character was an accomplished scientist and had equipment already (would have been useful in the post apocalyptic setting), the GM insisted I had money instead then refused to let it be worth anything.

Worse, it's cinematic unisystem, which suffers from the problems of Magic having lost most of it's limits and thus being spammable and the value of cheaper Drama Points being overestimated. But work past that, and the game works.

It is certainly set up for you using your own characters in a Buffy AU, which is always best.

[weckar]

Thanks for the insights thus far!

- building on this, even though it is a point-buy system it’s a good idea to establish niches. The slayer has enough bonus points to be a combat monster and a competent researcher (or party face, or getaway driver) but resist that. Have everyone specialize in something so they get a moment to shine, and remember that the system rewards everyone for engaging via banter when their talent isn’t center-stage. Outside of ‘season finales,’ it’s best to have 90%+ of session time be out-of-combat.

Really? This slightly surprises me as even the Watcher quality seems rather combat-focused.

I'll have to play with the system a bit, really. It reads like a bit of an awkward blend between Tri-Stat and Storyteller, but...
The alternative would be using d20 Modern, but that has its own bag of awful :P

[Lapak]

Really? This slightly surprises me as even the Watcher quality seems rather combat-focused.

It’s not that the White Hats can’t function in combat; it’s just that they are hilariously outclassed. The effect of superhuman stats in the system cannot be overstated, particularly superhuman Dexterity. We’re talking order-of-magnitude effectiveness issues such that the Slayer is fighting three of [Monster] at once while the other four party members are ganging up on one of them, and the two groups are hurting their enemies proportionally the same. Assuming the Slayer does not use the instakill maneuvers baked into the combat system, which because of her superhuman strength are often viable as one-shots on non-boss-baddies.

And that makes sense! The Slayer is supposed to be the Monster That Other Monsters Fear. But the degree to which it is true surprised all of us a bit. It was more fun on balance to have equal time focused on using the underworld access that the mob princess character had to find the villains (the rest of the characters, including the Slayer, playing support to her) and to spend some play time focused on the magical dabbler’s vision quest to uncover the season’s main plot (with the rest of the characters trying to make sure she didn’t walk off a cliff or go evil in the process), have a car-chase scene where the only one of us who knew how to drive barreled through Cleveland, and so on. 90% is overstating it, but in a five-person group 80% is about right.

Which in turn means that the Slayer can go ahead and uncork the four-actions-a-round, one-shot common vampires, and so on while the Scoobies gang up to take down the stragglers (or better, use her as cover to bypass the baddies and rescue the hostage / break the artifact / mess with the ritual that is the true threat) both giving her the moment of cool in the spotlight and moving the plot along briskly.

[weckar]

I must admit, the provided character sheet examples for the show characters do really help to show how certain characters would or would not work. Even after all his episodic upgrades Xander is outclassed at... basically everything. By everyone. :P

[Dragovon]

I had a lot of fun playing in it. That said, it's very easy to break the game with sorcery if you don't understand the system. I made a character that was sort of a cross between Anya and Willow (Ex ancient demon sorceress). In any case, broken sorcery can be fine as long as the players are willing to cooperate with the GM and be self limiting. :)

[LibraryOgre]

Worth a note: If you can get the Angel game, things open up a bit, as you can start making all slayer-level characters with non-slayery focuses, through the use of demons.

[weckar]

As far as I understand it, the rules in Angel and Buffy are completely compatible, right?

[LibraryOgre]

As far as I understand it, the rules in Angel and Buffy are completely compatible, right?

I don't recall any conflicts, but it's been years since I looked through them.

[Elana]

The rules of all the cinematic unisys games are compatible with each other.

So you could combine Buffy, Angel and Army of Darkness if you wanted.

And Buffy had several splatbooks to open up possibilities.
Magic box gives additional rules for magic and super science.
The slayer handbook introduces the totem warrior as an alternate super natural hero type
And Monster smackdown gives you stats for all sorts of baddies

While the Corebooks for other games are 90% identical to each other there are specialised areas

The Buffy Rpg book has more detailed magic rules than the other games
Angel has rules for organisations
Army of Darkness brings rules for mass combat to the table

(There are more games using the rules, but I can only comment on the handbooks I have actually read)


Overall the game is surprisingly solid and simulates the show genre well.

If you want to see it in actual use
Roll4It currently has a game running with the system called "Layla the vampire slayer"
(Should be enough info to find their sessions on youtube)

[Tinkerer]

The rules of all the cinematic unisys games are compatible with each other.

So you could combine Buffy, Angel and Army of Darkness if you wanted.

I completely forgot that AoD was from the same system... combining the two ideas I may have a plan for a campaign sometime in the near future.

[Angelalex242]

I'm also highly familiar with Buffy, and I own most of the books.

But yes, there is good verisimilitude. If you're a watcher, or a Xander, expect to be useless in a fight. Like, ya know, Giles and Xander actually were. Even Riley Finn only keeps up so long. If you're Willow, you've got spells, but no hard to kill levels, so you're a glass canon of the highest order. Buffy/Angel/Faith/Spike dominate the fighting game, as well they should.

Also, if this game gets started, I want in.

I enjoy the canon games, where you take on the role of Buffy/Angel/etc.

[weckar]

Unfortunately, we'd be playing IRL. So unless you're from SW England, I don't think you could be 'in'?

[Angelalex242]

I am not. I'm only available for online games, since I live in Seattle.