Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2002)

Eden Studios, Inc.

Date Reviewed: Jan 22, 2005

Critical Kobold Rating:  (4 out of 5 Dice)

 

Be the Chosen One! Just don't miss cheerleading.

Merrick– "Do you know how many girls I've trained to be Slayers?       Five. Five properly prepared girls, girls who faced their      responsibilities, who worked hard to become women overnight - harder than you've ever worked in your life - and I saw them ripped apart. Do you want to live? Do you?"

Buffy– "I..."

Merrick – "What did you think, that being able to jump about and hit      people makes you a Slayer?"

     Buffy looks at him a bit.

Buffy – "Five?"

Merrick – "Five."

Buffy – "So, basically, I've got the life expectancy of a zit, right?"

Merrick – "Not if you're careful."

 - Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)

     Welcome to the world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer! In the rpg of the same name, the players get to recreate Sunnydale High School and the environs, and assume the personae of vigilante killers of the undead! For fans of the TV show, this game should please. For fans of well-crafted game systems, this game holds its own as well. Plus, it's about vampires! How frickin' cool is that?!

     Buffy Summers is The Chosen, the Slayer, who pops up throughout history to fight the forces of the vampire kings. This keeps the vamps from growing too powerful, and taking over the human mortals. Every time a Slayer is killed, another one is born to take up the title. The Slayer, in a pleasant twist, is always a little hottie, with superhuman strength and reflexes inherited from generation upon generation of Slayer genetics.

     While I'm much more of a fan of the original movie than the TV show, the premise of the two is the same: a teenage girl in the modern world is involuntarily recruited to slay monsters straight out of medieval legends. The film and TV series are a comic juxtaposition of traditionally stoic gothic horror films, and Valley Girl teen movies. While you don't necessarily need to be familiar with the show, it helps to understand the tone of the rpg if you've seen a few episodes. The only real difference between the movie and TV series is that the series introduces many more monsters than just vampires; your Buffy players will also be facing witches, trolls, demons, zombies, ghosts… just about any nightmarish spook from the darkest recesses of your fears can pop up.

     The game is published by Eden Studios Inc., using their Unisystem game mechanics. These mechanics are used in other Eden rpg's, so those familiar with the system can dive right in. Those unfamiliar will get the gist quickly and pretty intuitively.

     In Buffy's rpg world, there are Heroes and White Hats. Heroes are stronger characters in the sense of having higher scores and more flashy abilities, but White Hats are the Hero's loyal friends and followers. White Hats aren't as super, but they're compensated in the game by having the ability to alter the outcome of situations more often. (We'll get more into this when we discuss Drama Points.) When playing Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it's assumed that one player will take the Hero role of the Slayer, and all other players will be White Hats as comrades of the Slayer.

     The game doesn't have to be played this way, of course. The GM can run a game of all Heroes or all White Hats, if she wants. A game with more Hero characters will require stronger villains, and play more like a superheroes rpg, while a game of all Hats will be more gritty and realistic, less like a movie.

     So, let's discuss PC generation, and you'll see what I'm talking about…

Creating Your Very Own Chosen One!

     For those wishing to play the TV show characters, they're written up for you, with adjustments for playing them during the five different seasons of Buffy. (Season Five characters are higher level, and have better or more skills and attributes than, say, Season Two dudes.)

     For those of you wishing to design your own guys, you'll start with a varying amount of points, depending on whether you're a Hero (20 starting points) or a Hat (15 starting points). You use those points to "buy" Attribute levels. The Attributes are pretty standard: strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, perception, and willpower. Attributes can be bought up to "5" on a point per point basis, but after that it costs three points per level. (So, having a Perception of 5 costs five points, but having a Perception of 6 costs eight points.) Most normal humans have scores between 2 and 3 in their Attributes.

     Life Points obviously dictate how much of a beating you can take before becoming a corpse yourself. Your LP is found by doing some calculations with your strength and constitution scores, and range usually between 20 and 45. Macho warrior types, like soldiers, martial artists, or demon hunters have higher LPs, like in the 50's. The Slayer usually starts with more than 70 LP. For comparison, a fledgling, newly-undead vampire has about 52 points, and veteran bloodsuckers can have LPs in the 80's. Master Vampires can easily have 90 or 100+ LPs.

     Next up we have the infamous "Advantage and Disadvantage" feature. So, you choose Qualities and Drawbacks, which are good things your PC gets, or things that hamper you. Heroes start with 20 Quality Points with which to purchase these shticks, and White Hats start with 10 Quality Points. As in all point-based char-gen systems, cool qualities cost you points and disadvantages earn you more points to spend. The main purpose of these things is to make the PC more interesting and give players some hooks to build personality quirks on, or the GM to design plots around.
 

Attractive +6

     The list includes stuff like Acute or Impaired Senses, Addiction, Attractive, Fast Reaction, Hard to Kill, Nerves of Steel, Military Rank, Nightmares, or Enemy. These are all pretty obvious in description. You can also choose to be Aged, or a Teenager. All sorts of things.

     Heck, if your GM allows it, you can even purchase the Vampire or Werewolf qualities! You play a monster, with all the issues that entails in a game where the main character is born to kick monster ass.

     Now, you ain't done. Once you've got yourself loaded up on character-building gimmicks, you get to pick Skills. You PC gets Skill Points like she got Quality Points, and Skill levels are purchased exactly like you spent points to buy your Attributes.

     Skills can be any learned knowledge you want your PC to have, and book examples include Acrobatics, Crime, Driving, Getting Medieval (makes you better with melee weapons), Gun Fu (makes you better with ranged weapons), Kung Fu, Languages, Occultism,  Sports, Science, or anything else the player or GM can think up.

     PCs then get a choice of Combat Maneuvers. Basic attacks are listed by general types in B:tVS. Your character may be skilled in the standard Punch and Kick school of playground roughhousing, but you might also be skilled in the interesting techniques of Head Butt, Groin Shot, Crossbow, Decapitation, Break Neck, or Spin Kick.

     We'll explain combat in a few moments.

How to Make with the Stabby Stabby

     The Unisystem mechanics are simple: the basic rule is, roll a d10, add the level of the skill you’re using, plus whatever Attribute is appropriate, and try to beat a difficulty number for the action. If there's no skill involved, you just double your Attribute score and add it to the d10 roll.

     Most times, for uncontested actions like computer hacking or researching the history of the Slime Beast of Byzantium, any roll of 9 or more will succeed. The higher you roll, the more "successes" you get. Once in a while the number of successes is important to how well you accomplish whatever you're trying. A chart in the book lists how many successes you get depending on what your final rolled score is.

Say, to break down a door, the GM decides that your PC needs to score three successes. You take your strength score of three, roll a d10 and get a "4". There's no skill involved, so doubling your strength and adding your rolled four gives you a total of 10. That's one success, according to the chart. The door splinters, but doesn't break. You try again, and this time you roll a "9". Adding your doubled strength gives you a total of 15, which according to the chart equals four success levels; more than you needed in the first place. The door shatters inward easily, but it took you two rounds.

For contested actions, such as trying to outrun someone, or wrestle something from someone's grasp, whoever has the highest score wins.

     For combat, characters who attack a vampire, thug, or maybe a demonic time-share salesman will roll against the dodging ability of their target. Dodging scores depend on dexterity, and possibly useful skills like acrobatics or kung fu. If the attacker's roll beats the defender's dodge roll, the attack hits. Damage is done according to weapon type, but one extra point of damage is added for each success level the attacker got on his roll.
 

     Sample weapon damage: a pistol (.32 cal) does 12 points of damage. A Big Ass pistol, say a .45, does 18 points. Knives do two times your strength, a quarterstaff does three times your strength, and a sword or a baseball bat does four times your strength. The thing is, knife and gun damage is actually then doubled against humans, so you prob'ly don't wanna mess with them. This is a reflection of the fact that firearms aren't used frequently on the TV show. Muy deadly!

     So, now that you know how to play, the only thing left to mention is that the book is pretty damn spiffy, as far as rpg's go. The Buffy the Vampire Slayer Core Book is a colorful, hard backed, glossy paged work of art. It's a complete game, with really everything a group needs to start playing a campaign. Photos from the show litter the chapters (in a good way), and it's chock full of examples and quotes from the TV characters.

     Sections of the book include an entire magic system for use by various witches and magicians and demons, monster sections detailing critters of the night, and their powers and habits, advice for GMs running a "series", and a brief overview of Sunnydale where the TV show takes place. Several NPCs are given, both human and otherwise, and lots of charts for the GM to use. There's even a Buffyspeak dictionary, to explain the slang commonly tossed around by the show characters.

     The only thing not present is an extensive equipment list, but that’s in keeping in tune with the show. Nobody on the series ever totes around more than a school backpack during the day, and a few stakes and a crucifix at night, so it's assumed that anything a normal person could want and have access to is available in the game. Need a magnifying glass? Your GM will probably say you have one around the house. Looking for some high tensile piano wire? The WalMart has it. Want a nuclear-powered hovercraft with heat-seeking Sidewinder missile racks and nanotech laser camouflage capabilities? You're playing the wrong game, dork.

The GOOD
 

      I admit the first time I read through the rules, I was not terribly impressed. Not sure why, just didn't crackle my Krispies, so to speak. But after shelving the game for a while, and rereading it some months later more thoroughly, I find that I'm very impressed with the Unisystem mechanics, and also impressed with the thorough job the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Core Book does in presenting a playable, enjoyable game.

     Easy to use and effective game mechanics make every task check a breeze. While there are other sourcebooks now out for the game, you really only need the core book to play. Also, the tone and style of play mirror that of the TV series very well, so Buffy fans have a game that truly represents their favorite source material.

     Also, because it's the Unisystem, you could theoretically combine your Buffy the Vampire Slayer rpg with some other fine rpg products produced by Eden Studios. The most obvious one is the Angel rpg, from the show that is a spinoff from Buffy. However, for more gritty undead fun, you could check out All Flesh Must Be Eaten, a game about the horrors of a "Dawn of the Dead" type world, where a mysterious occurrence has awakened hordes of zombie freaks just waiting to eat your brain! Or Terra Primate, the rpg that plays like Planet of the Apes. Check out the Eden website for more cross-game breeding ideas.

 

The NEUTRAL
 

     The book is written in a chatty, Buffyspeak parlance that does indeed sound like the banter on the show, but it grows just a touch wearisome after a few chapters. This doesn't really affect the game at all, it's just a bit distracting to read a whole book that sounds vaguely like it was dictated by a former Valley Girl cheerleader.

The EVIL

     The only thing I can possibly say negative about the game, honestly, is that like any rpg based on a singular inspiration, a specific show, there is a limited amount of "crunch" to the system. While I said above that it mirrors the show fantastically, this very mirroring limits its use a bit when played by non-Buffy fans.

     For example, the aforementioned lack of equipment lists, absolute lack of vehicle or chase rules, no mention of costs or money anywhere, and incredibly generic handling of weapon types will make this a less- than- attractive rpg choice for detail-minded gamers. This is more a game for those who like to emphasize a hand-wavier style of fun and character development than those who like detail or formulae for modifying rules to your own liking. Which is fine, cuz that's what the game is about, and I'm sure players are well aware of what they're getting when they buy a game named "Buffy".
 

     On a final note, I like this game mucho. It's fast, peppy, and did I mention that it has vampires?

     So sharpen a stick and spritz yourself with holy water. There's a full moon tonight, and the sun goes down in half an hour.

 

MERRICK - "Go to school tomorrow.  Try to act normal.  Don't let anyone know what's happening.  This is important. When the vampires find out who you are... you won't be hunting them anymore."

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