Interlude: When Robert met Megan
Sunnydale, June 1976
"I am telling you I don't like this!" The man said for what may have been the twelfth time that evening. He was young, early or mid twenties. He still had the hair and mannerism of someone who had spent a lifetime in the military. In fact that is how he, Robert Maclay, got his current job as squad commander for S.A.V.E. He lit his cigarette and handed the lighter to his companion who lit his own.
"Well, too bad. Her orders came in from Dublin HQ and a fat all good it does talking to them. Sorry mate, she is our problem now."
"Well I for one have not spent the better part of a year and a half fighting god-knows-what just so I can invite a witch into my group" Robert swore.
"Cleanser." Came a feminine voice. "Cleanser or Craft-Worker, but never a Witch."
Both men turned around to see they had been joined a small, rather unassuming, but attractive woman. She was dressed in hip-hugging bell bottoms, sandals, and a tattered Led Zeppelin concert shirt. Her hair was long and blonde. She looked every bit like all the other California girls they had seen since coming to this hellhole of a town. She carried a burlap bag on one shoulder and wore sunglasses that covered half her face. She took them off to reveal sparkling blue eyes.
"Great." Bob replied. "I ask for a spirit removal expert and S.A.V.E. sends me a kid."
"Hey. I just graduated from Berkeley, I'm no kid. Besides you're like not much older than me anyway." She shot back.
"Oi. Don't listen to him." The other man rose to shake her hand, "Nigel. Nigel Delamort. Don't let the accent fool you, I'm French, not English. I just had the misfortune of having to grow up there. That over there is our fearless leader, Robert Maclay. Don't let the rough exterior fool you, deep down inside he is still every bit the humorless bastard we all know and love."
"Megan" the woman answered back, "Megan O'Kelly. Here are my papers. So. What brings S.A.V.E. to Sunnydale?"
Showing posts with label tara. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tara. Show all posts
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
Season of the Witch: Episode 3
Episode 3: Strange Sort of Homecoming
Late Summer 2004
Willow & Tara go to Tara's home town in Alabama to attend the funeral of Robert Maclay, Tara's father. While there they discover more about Robert's past and how it is connected to Willow and Tara's future.
Synopsis
The girls return to Tara's hometown where they stay with her brother Donny, his new wife Leah and their new baby Megan (named after Tara's mother). Though without knowing Leah has set the girls up in seperate rooms as if they were "just friends". One of the themes of this episode was actually confronting the issues of homophobia as opposed to dancing around the issues. This was at the request of my player/testers who felt that the show never did a very good job of this.
The girls arrive in town. Go to the wake. Tara decides she needs a drink and heads to the local bar. She runs into a guy (Dan) that had a crush on her in high school who never quite understood she was gay. As well as cousin Beth. People in the bar begin to talk and whisper about Tara being back, and with a girlfriend no less. To bust the tension of the moment my Tara player decides to break into a bit of dirty dancing with Willow to Prince's "Gett Off". They of course get kicked out of the bar, much to Beth's delight.
During the funeral Tara and Donny get into a fight over the minister Donny chooses to speak. They get into a fight, Tara storms out, Beth comments on "Tara running away again". Beth mentions that she cast a spell to set everyone against Tara for leaving her behind. Willow punches her. Willow follows Tara, tells her about Beth's spell. Discover that Beth did cast a spell, but it had no effect. Next day things seem to be better, Donny apologizes. Beth has left town. Tara is given her mother's things including her journal that details this entire life she had working with her father as part of a covert ops group to take out supernatural threats. Donny also gives the girls Robert's car, a blue 1967 Ford Thunderbird. Tara, now feeling welcomed in her old home decides to head back to her new home. On the drive back though the ghost of Robert McClay informs them they have work to do.
Notes: This was not an action packed episode, but rather one of interpersonal actions and reactions. I wanted to delve deeper into Tara's past and her family life, plus fix some of the problems from the show (demons in female side of the family?? WTF?? yeah, I fix that too). Things learned in this episode: Tara, her mother and grandmother are/were all power witches. Megan was a "Craft Worker" assigned to Robert's unit to aid his group in hunting the supernatural. Her job was the "Cleaner", or the removal of spirits. Robert didn't want to work with a witch, but orders are orders. Now for their group I just used my old 1980's Chill game. So Bob and Megan were part of S.A.V.E., but something happened back then and they never finished their mission and Bob and Megan left, never to talk about it again. We also learn that Megan was from Sunnydale. Donny is not an dick really, just a jerk that listened to his father's anti-demon, anti-witchcraft tirades a little too much. He is after all Megan's child too, though he does not have any magic. Beth though does have some magic, though hers never works. Her role here is smaller than originally planned, but that is fine, she comes back in Web of Lies.
The big deal here of course is Bob, the Ghost. He needs to lead Willow and Tara through his failed 1976-79 mission in order to find peace. This mission is also tied to the what the girls are dealing with now and the Awakening. They also are given Megan's journal which has the cut scenes of the action in the 70's.
So you are a young gay woman on a road trip with your girlfriend in a cool convertible, what else could you want? That's right the ghost of your ultra-conservative, way strict father hanging around. That's got comedy gold written all over it! Too bad that the trip is to discover what supernatural force might be taking over the world soon and may have had an impact on why your mother died and why your dad is such an asshole.
Now about Bob: Bob of course was on the show, but never given that name. I named him that cause he looks like a Bob to me, plus it was a nod to a friend of mine author Robert Black. Funny thing is Robert Black goes to the same church as does Steve Rankin who played Mr. Maclay in the episode "Family" (one of the highest rated Buffy episodes). This is my chance to try to redeem the character a bit instead of making him a two-dimensional cliche. Since he played a number of military types on various shows (including multiple characters on various Star Treks) he is portrayed here as a Marine (he has played Klingons, Romulans and Cardassians, and as the infamous Col. Green, I think he can pull off a Marine too). He was later convinced to work with SAVE after seeing something really scary. In 1976, when he meets Megan O'Kelly he is in his late 20's
"Megan" was my Tara player's idea. Originally she was named Deirdre (I had just read the Irish tale "Deirdre of the Sorrows" and thought that Bob should be much older than his wife), but in the end came to like Megan more. Deirdre then became her grandmother. Megan, who I figure was 22 in 1976 when she joined Bob's team was something of a California girl. Long blonde hair, Led Zeppelin concert tee, and wearing hip hugger bell bottoms. For Megan think of a young Eliza Roberts (Eric Robert's wife), though she does not make any appearnces here except in photos and flashbacks.
We learn that Bob had been in the military when he was younger, but left for an unknown reason. He was getting followers and cards from people Tara had never heard of before from all around the globe. Donny didn't even know them.
The town the Tara lived in had been her family home for years. Her father's family had been her for generations. People talked about how Tara left AND also how Bob had left when he was roughly the same age. Both came back with a strange new woman from California in their lives (Willow and Megan respectively). This was the start of building a lot of parallels between Bob/Megan and Willow/Tara. Each generation did something that the other generation could relate too.
We also learn about Tara's first crush. Tara had been in Jr. High and her crush had been a red-headed high school girl that worked at the "Tastee Freeze" (no, there are no Tastee Freezes in AL). Tara would go there to buy a small vanilla ice cream cone just so she could see her, even if she never actually said anything to her. The girl found out, thought it was cute, and began dipping her cone in that strawberry stuff that freezes when it comes in contact with the ice cream. We called them dip-cones. Of course, the girl had a boyfriend, which broke Tara's heart, but her taste for red-headed women remained. Not sure about the strawberry dip-cones though.
Strange Sort of Homecoming was also the first of the "Road Stories" sub arc. We had planned this as the first series even before Dragon and the Phoenix. The 67 Ford Thunderbird was our nod to Thelma and Louise, though we already did that ending in Dragon.
We now had our cast whole. Willow and Tara, our two witches. Bob the ghost and Cordy the Whitelighter. It was good that the last two could move in and out at will since the Thunderbird can only seat two.
Next Time: Willow, Tara, Bob, and Cordy get caught up in the crossfire of a voodoo war, meet an unlikely ally, and find what may be the most haunted house in the entire Western Hemisphere in "Under a Cajun Moon".
Late Summer 2004
Willow & Tara go to Tara's home town in Alabama to attend the funeral of Robert Maclay, Tara's father. While there they discover more about Robert's past and how it is connected to Willow and Tara's future.
Synopsis
The girls return to Tara's hometown where they stay with her brother Donny, his new wife Leah and their new baby Megan (named after Tara's mother). Though without knowing Leah has set the girls up in seperate rooms as if they were "just friends". One of the themes of this episode was actually confronting the issues of homophobia as opposed to dancing around the issues. This was at the request of my player/testers who felt that the show never did a very good job of this.
The girls arrive in town. Go to the wake. Tara decides she needs a drink and heads to the local bar. She runs into a guy (Dan) that had a crush on her in high school who never quite understood she was gay. As well as cousin Beth. People in the bar begin to talk and whisper about Tara being back, and with a girlfriend no less. To bust the tension of the moment my Tara player decides to break into a bit of dirty dancing with Willow to Prince's "Gett Off". They of course get kicked out of the bar, much to Beth's delight.
Notes: This was not an action packed episode, but rather one of interpersonal actions and reactions. I wanted to delve deeper into Tara's past and her family life, plus fix some of the problems from the show (demons in female side of the family?? WTF?? yeah, I fix that too). Things learned in this episode: Tara, her mother and grandmother are/were all power witches. Megan was a "Craft Worker" assigned to Robert's unit to aid his group in hunting the supernatural. Her job was the "Cleaner", or the removal of spirits. Robert didn't want to work with a witch, but orders are orders. Now for their group I just used my old 1980's Chill game. So Bob and Megan were part of S.A.V.E., but something happened back then and they never finished their mission and Bob and Megan left, never to talk about it again. We also learn that Megan was from Sunnydale. Donny is not an dick really, just a jerk that listened to his father's anti-demon, anti-witchcraft tirades a little too much. He is after all Megan's child too, though he does not have any magic. Beth though does have some magic, though hers never works. Her role here is smaller than originally planned, but that is fine, she comes back in Web of Lies.
The big deal here of course is Bob, the Ghost. He needs to lead Willow and Tara through his failed 1976-79 mission in order to find peace. This mission is also tied to the what the girls are dealing with now and the Awakening. They also are given Megan's journal which has the cut scenes of the action in the 70's.
So you are a young gay woman on a road trip with your girlfriend in a cool convertible, what else could you want? That's right the ghost of your ultra-conservative, way strict father hanging around. That's got comedy gold written all over it! Too bad that the trip is to discover what supernatural force might be taking over the world soon and may have had an impact on why your mother died and why your dad is such an asshole.
We learn that Bob had been in the military when he was younger, but left for an unknown reason. He was getting followers and cards from people Tara had never heard of before from all around the globe. Donny didn't even know them.
The town the Tara lived in had been her family home for years. Her father's family had been her for generations. People talked about how Tara left AND also how Bob had left when he was roughly the same age. Both came back with a strange new woman from California in their lives (Willow and Megan respectively). This was the start of building a lot of parallels between Bob/Megan and Willow/Tara. Each generation did something that the other generation could relate too.
We also learn about Tara's first crush. Tara had been in Jr. High and her crush had been a red-headed high school girl that worked at the "Tastee Freeze" (no, there are no Tastee Freezes in AL). Tara would go there to buy a small vanilla ice cream cone just so she could see her, even if she never actually said anything to her. The girl found out, thought it was cute, and began dipping her cone in that strawberry stuff that freezes when it comes in contact with the ice cream. We called them dip-cones. Of course, the girl had a boyfriend, which broke Tara's heart, but her taste for red-headed women remained. Not sure about the strawberry dip-cones though.
Strange Sort of Homecoming was also the first of the "Road Stories" sub arc. We had planned this as the first series even before Dragon and the Phoenix. The 67 Ford Thunderbird was our nod to Thelma and Louise, though we already did that ending in Dragon.
We now had our cast whole. Willow and Tara, our two witches. Bob the ghost and Cordy the Whitelighter. It was good that the last two could move in and out at will since the Thunderbird can only seat two.
Next Time: Willow, Tara, Bob, and Cordy get caught up in the crossfire of a voodoo war, meet an unlikely ally, and find what may be the most haunted house in the entire Western Hemisphere in "Under a Cajun Moon".
Friday, January 21, 2011
Season of the Witch: Episode 2
Episode 2: This Blessed Plot
Summer 2004
Willow & Tara travel to England (courtesy of Cordy) where they discover the secret of the "Journal of Tamara Swift" and their suprising connection to the Protectors of Albion. They also run into two groups of supernaturals, one wants the Awakening to happen the other does not. Which side should Willow and Tara choose when they still don't know what the Awakening is?
Synopsis
Now unlike “the Dragon and the Phoenix” adventures, these are not as well playtested or developed. My group was breaking up about this time, I was getting a new job and I was moving back to playing some more D&D. The first half of the season, the “Road Stories” portion, was well thought out, but after the girls get back home was when we all started doing different things. You will notice a lack of cover art for many episodes for example.
“This Blessed Plot” is actually the first “proper” episode of Season of the Witch. While “Semi-Charmed Life” sets up the “rules” of the new series, the actual adventure is not part of the full arc. This is something Charmed did often, an aperitif before the main course.
This episode is an homage to “Coming Up Roses”, a Willow & Tara fan fic site that first convinced me that these two characters were worth playing in a game. I then created a WitchCraft RPG game based in that world (not really Whedon’s). While that was fun, it didn’t last. But that game really shaped how I playtested the Buffy RPG and how I wrote the characters. TBP is also a nod to my own playtest group. We had switched over fully to Ghosts of Albion by this point and this was our way of bring the worlds together. There was a desire to keep the girls in England for a while and make that the series. But in the end I wanted to pursue the “Road Stories” idea some more.
The episode begins with the Cast (Willow, Tara and Cordy) “orbing” (teleporting) to England. The book Tara bought, “The Journal of Tamara Swift” contained a letter addressed to Tara telling her to come to the Swift home in Highgate. When they arrive they discover that the Swift mansion is now a museum of witchcraft and magic. There they meet the curator, Millicent Stuart, and discover that Tara looked exactly like Tamara. They also meet a teen-ager, Sennen, who looks like the newest Slayer. Sennen works with Millicent, but “Millie” is not her watcher.
While in England Willow & Tara are contacted by Anya who tells them that her employer wants meet them. They are surprised that Anya knew that they were coming. I have a great seen were Anya and Cordy meet for the very first time. They don’t actually care for each other. Long story short, Anya is separated from Xander and working for Lilith’s human corporate empire. They meet Lilith (played by Angie Everhart) and Lilith informs them that they are central to the Awakening and she wants to make sure that they do nothing. She does not want the status quo to change. The Awakening could mean the end of humanity and she is rather fond of humans. She promises to make it worth their while and has Anya wipe out their student loan debt. Anya walks them out and tells them they can trust Lilith, after all they trusted the Mormo and those are her children. Upon leaving “L’Enterprises” the girls are intercepted by a van (Anya is knocked out), thrown in and driven off. They can’t use magic in this van at all, even Cordy can’t orb out. When they stop they are greeted by a woman, Morgan (played by Mia Sara), who claims she is the leader of a group known as “The Witches Committee”. She wants to make sure that the Awakening happens and that Willow and Tara are firmly on her side when it does. Morgan tells the girls that they can trust her.
The girls are found by Lilith’s agents and begin to attack the Witches’ Committee members. A magical “turf war” breaks out with Willow, Tara and Cordy in the middle. Millicent shows up and stops the fighting, we discover she is current Protector of Albion. Both sides agree to leave Willow and Tara alone, but they will be watching them.
Millicent tells the girls they are going to need to discover what the Awakening is on their own; not even Tamara figured it out. Millicent does reveal that the Veil is getting weaker. The Veil is what keeps non-magical people from learning about the magical world. As long as it is in place then any magical occurrence will always have a non-magical answer that people will believe. The Veil was not constructed by William & Tamara, but in the 1880’s they helped make it stronger. The last time it was threatened like this was the late 1970’s, but something happened then and the magic that was supposed to be used to fix it never got used. Millicent tells them that their destinies, the Veil and the Awakening are all intertwined and only they can see it all through.
The girls Orb back to the states (“Air Cordy”), once there Tara’s cell phone rings. It is Dawn, she tells her she has been trying to reach Tara for days. Tara’s father has died and she needs to go home to Alabama.
Notes:
Ok setting up the big plots here. Like I said, no big bad, but I do have some lesser antagonists. I wanted to keep the players guessing on which group was really an ally and which one was not. In the end it would depend on what the Cast decided to do.
I make the William/Tamara and Willow/Tara connection more explicit here. Yes. They are reincarnations of the other. Now a couple of people felt it was a little squicky that Willow had been a man in a previous life and the brother no less. I get that really, but I also wanted to go with the idea that as Anamchara they would go through many lives in many different guises to experience love in a number of ways, including platonic sibling love. I won’t spoil the books for you all, but William and Tamara don’t have the best of luck with paramours. My idea is they gave that up and went back to what works in their next lives.
Millicent had been “the Guardian” in Coming Up Roses. Here she becomes “The Protector”. She ran a museum of witchcraft, which I decided was the old Swift mansion. Millicent and Sennen are detailed here, http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2011/01/sennen-saranta-living-in-love-of-common.html
The Witches Committee look like a bad Rosicrucian rip off, but in my WitchCraft Games, they are Wicce that want to protect all the Gifted in the world. It is just some have decided that the best way to do that is to control all the mundanes. They want the veil to drop and magic to be out again. This way they are poised to be humanities “protectors” from the evils of the magical world. Lilith wants the status quo to remain, but she certainly has plans in place to take advantage of any situation. There are two other factions that need to be introduced and all of them are watching Willow and Tara.
The Veil is a glamour that keeps us from seeing the effects of magic in the world. But it has been weakening for years (thus the proliferation of all the TV shows about the supernatural!). It’s going to fall. The question is what will happen when it does.
Next up, a strange sort of homecoming…
Summer 2004
Willow & Tara travel to England (courtesy of Cordy) where they discover the secret of the "Journal of Tamara Swift" and their suprising connection to the Protectors of Albion. They also run into two groups of supernaturals, one wants the Awakening to happen the other does not. Which side should Willow and Tara choose when they still don't know what the Awakening is?
Synopsis
Now unlike “the Dragon and the Phoenix” adventures, these are not as well playtested or developed. My group was breaking up about this time, I was getting a new job and I was moving back to playing some more D&D. The first half of the season, the “Road Stories” portion, was well thought out, but after the girls get back home was when we all started doing different things. You will notice a lack of cover art for many episodes for example.
“This Blessed Plot” is actually the first “proper” episode of Season of the Witch. While “Semi-Charmed Life” sets up the “rules” of the new series, the actual adventure is not part of the full arc. This is something Charmed did often, an aperitif before the main course.
This episode is an homage to “Coming Up Roses”, a Willow & Tara fan fic site that first convinced me that these two characters were worth playing in a game. I then created a WitchCraft RPG game based in that world (not really Whedon’s). While that was fun, it didn’t last. But that game really shaped how I playtested the Buffy RPG and how I wrote the characters. TBP is also a nod to my own playtest group. We had switched over fully to Ghosts of Albion by this point and this was our way of bring the worlds together. There was a desire to keep the girls in England for a while and make that the series. But in the end I wanted to pursue the “Road Stories” idea some more.
The episode begins with the Cast (Willow, Tara and Cordy) “orbing” (teleporting) to England. The book Tara bought, “The Journal of Tamara Swift” contained a letter addressed to Tara telling her to come to the Swift home in Highgate. When they arrive they discover that the Swift mansion is now a museum of witchcraft and magic. There they meet the curator, Millicent Stuart, and discover that Tara looked exactly like Tamara. They also meet a teen-ager, Sennen, who looks like the newest Slayer. Sennen works with Millicent, but “Millie” is not her watcher.
The girls are found by Lilith’s agents and begin to attack the Witches’ Committee members. A magical “turf war” breaks out with Willow, Tara and Cordy in the middle. Millicent shows up and stops the fighting, we discover she is current Protector of Albion. Both sides agree to leave Willow and Tara alone, but they will be watching them.
Millicent tells the girls they are going to need to discover what the Awakening is on their own; not even Tamara figured it out. Millicent does reveal that the Veil is getting weaker. The Veil is what keeps non-magical people from learning about the magical world. As long as it is in place then any magical occurrence will always have a non-magical answer that people will believe. The Veil was not constructed by William & Tamara, but in the 1880’s they helped make it stronger. The last time it was threatened like this was the late 1970’s, but something happened then and the magic that was supposed to be used to fix it never got used. Millicent tells them that their destinies, the Veil and the Awakening are all intertwined and only they can see it all through.
The girls Orb back to the states (“Air Cordy”), once there Tara’s cell phone rings. It is Dawn, she tells her she has been trying to reach Tara for days. Tara’s father has died and she needs to go home to Alabama.
Notes:
Ok setting up the big plots here. Like I said, no big bad, but I do have some lesser antagonists. I wanted to keep the players guessing on which group was really an ally and which one was not. In the end it would depend on what the Cast decided to do.
I make the William/Tamara and Willow/Tara connection more explicit here. Yes. They are reincarnations of the other. Now a couple of people felt it was a little squicky that Willow had been a man in a previous life and the brother no less. I get that really, but I also wanted to go with the idea that as Anamchara they would go through many lives in many different guises to experience love in a number of ways, including platonic sibling love. I won’t spoil the books for you all, but William and Tamara don’t have the best of luck with paramours. My idea is they gave that up and went back to what works in their next lives.
Millicent had been “the Guardian” in Coming Up Roses. Here she becomes “The Protector”. She ran a museum of witchcraft, which I decided was the old Swift mansion. Millicent and Sennen are detailed here, http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2011/01/sennen-saranta-living-in-love-of-common.html
The Witches Committee look like a bad Rosicrucian rip off, but in my WitchCraft Games, they are Wicce that want to protect all the Gifted in the world. It is just some have decided that the best way to do that is to control all the mundanes. They want the veil to drop and magic to be out again. This way they are poised to be humanities “protectors” from the evils of the magical world. Lilith wants the status quo to remain, but she certainly has plans in place to take advantage of any situation. There are two other factions that need to be introduced and all of them are watching Willow and Tara.
The Veil is a glamour that keeps us from seeing the effects of magic in the world. But it has been weakening for years (thus the proliferation of all the TV shows about the supernatural!). It’s going to fall. The question is what will happen when it does.
Next up, a strange sort of homecoming…
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Willow & Tara: True20 and Blue Rose
I like True20. I do. I am also rather fond of Blue Rose.
In terms of game play and ease of use it is the closest thing I have found like Cinematic Unisystem. Back in the mid 2000 (2005 - 2007 or so) I was looking for another system. Not that I was tired of Unisystem or D&D, I just wanted to try something new. I had played Mutants and Masterminds and I liked it. I had heard of Blue Rose, but had not tried it yet.
So I picked them both up and did some playing I really liked them. I wish I could have gotten more people into both games, but it didn't really work out that way.
I have detailed already why I think Blue Rose is a perfect setting and system to do Ravenloft, but you can read those posts here: Black Rose.
I did get a chance to play an online game of True20 set in a modern supernatural world similar to that of Witchcraft/Buffy/Ghosts of Albion and it went great. It was about a seedy area of Vancouver that was a front for a demonic brothel and swinger's club. Not for the faint of heart or immature of mind.
True20 has some great untapped potential and to me at least it is a shame that more people don't see that.
Part of the idea of "Vacation in Vancouver" started out for WitchCraft. Soon though I converted it to True20 and I was pleased with the results (even if I had a couple of people drop out). Here are some notes from that process.
Converting Unisystem and True20
For attributes take the True20 score (-5 to +5) add 6 and divide by 2, round up. The table below helps. I am working on the idea that +5 in True 20 and 6 are both the human maximums and very few people have those.
All True 20 feats would be qualities, skills are skills. Skills work like M&M skills, so 2 points of True20 skills equal 1 point of Unisystem skills.
Converting Characters
Converting characters is not too bad really. True20 tries to do a lot of the same things Unisystem does, just in different ways. I convert characters to get a rough idea of what I want, but then I stat them up from scratch. It works better than a direct conversion.
Given that my interest in True20/Blue Rose was right after finishing up with Season of the Witch I did do Willow and Tara versions for True20. No, they did not appear in "ViV", but I did toy with the idea of Vampire Willow and Vampire Tara showing up in it..
These builds are based on the girls during Season of the Witch. I used True20 as a base but I also like the Calling aspect from Blue Rose, so I am using that as well.
Willow Rosenberg
Human
Expert 2 / Adept 10
Abilities
Combat
Initiative: 0
Defense: +6
Base Attack bonus: +6 (Melee +6, Ranged +6)
Saving Throws
Toughness: +0
Fortitude: +3
Reflex: +6
Will: +8
Virtue: Curious (Queen of Rods)
Vice: Domineering (Nine of Rods)
Calling (Blue Rose): The Adept, Master of Arcane Arts
Reputation: +4
Prog Skill: Business Owner
Skills
Acrobatics +2, Bluff +7, Computers +16, Craft (Chemical) +13, Craft (Electronics) +13, Diplomacy +6, Disable Device +10, Research +13, Intimidate +6, Knowledge (Science) +15, Knowledge (Occult) +16, Medicine +9, Perform (Ritual) +10, Notice +7, Search +8, Sense Motive +7, Sleight of Hand +4, Concentration +13, Survival +7
Feats
Contacts, Talented (computers, craft electronics), Master Plan, Attractive, Wealthy, Innate Power (Move Object)
Powers
Computer LinkM, Fire ShapingF, Elemental BlastF, IllusionFC MC, Light ShapingF, Manipulate ObjectF,M, Mind ShapingF, MC, Mind TouchM, Move ObjectFM, WardC
Special Abilities
Expertise
Other
Languages: Latin, French, Hebrew, Greek, Russian, English
Equipment: Dolls Eye Crystal (Empowering Focus)
Conviction: 8
Notes: Starts out as an "Expert" to reflect her computer hacker skills but picks up "Adept" pretty quickly.
Adept powers are based on Intelligence.
Philosophy: Witchcraft.
Tara Maclay
Human
Adept 9 / Expert 1
Abilities
Combat
Initiative: -1
Defense: +9
Base Attack bonus: +4 (Melee +3, Ranged +3)
Saving Throws
Toughness: +2
Fortitude: +4
Reflex: +2
Will: +10
Virtue: Devoted (Queen of Chalices)
Vice: Inhibited (Three of Chalices)
Calling (Blue Rose): The Star, Artistic mastery (Though The Moon is also good here)
Reputation: +4
Prof Skill: Teacher (Art History)
Skills
Acrobatics +1, Bluff +6, Computers +8, Craft (alchemical) +6, Concentration +9, Diplomacy +5, Research +9, Handle Animal +6, Knowledge (Art) +11, Knowledge (Occult) +12, Medicine +8, Perform (song) +8, Perform (dance) +8, Perform (Ritual) +9, Notice +13, Search +7, Sense Motive +8, Ride +4, Survival +7
Feats
Attractive, Supernatural Talent (Heart reading, second sight)B, Empower, Defensive Roll (+1)
Powers
CureF, Enhance Senses, Heart Reading, Light Shaping, Manipulate Object, Aura Reading,
Mind Touch, Move Object, Plane Shift, Second Sight
Special Abilities
The Talent (use convection for any power)
Other
Languages: Latin, French, Hebrew, Greek, Russian, English
Equipment: Dolls Eye Crystal (Empowering Focus)
Conviction: 8
Notes: Starts out as an "Adept" and picks up a level of "Expert" to cover her monster hunting days (gains defensive roll).
Adept powers are based on Wisdom.
Philosophy: Witchcraft.
So the idea here is I did Willow and Tara slightly different than their Unisystem counterparts. Here each approached their magic from a different point of view. While this has no real in game effect, it does give each a different feel, and something I really liked about these versions. I did in fact stat up a witch that uses Charisma as her power source too.
Makes me want to do more with this game.
So I picked them both up and did some playing I really liked them. I wish I could have gotten more people into both games, but it didn't really work out that way.
I have detailed already why I think Blue Rose is a perfect setting and system to do Ravenloft, but you can read those posts here: Black Rose.
I did get a chance to play an online game of True20 set in a modern supernatural world similar to that of Witchcraft/Buffy/Ghosts of Albion and it went great. It was about a seedy area of Vancouver that was a front for a demonic brothel and swinger's club. Not for the faint of heart or immature of mind.
True20 has some great untapped potential and to me at least it is a shame that more people don't see that.
Part of the idea of "Vacation in Vancouver" started out for WitchCraft. Soon though I converted it to True20 and I was pleased with the results (even if I had a couple of people drop out). Here are some notes from that process.
Converting Unisystem and True20
For attributes take the True20 score (-5 to +5) add 6 and divide by 2, round up. The table below helps. I am working on the idea that +5 in True 20 and 6 are both the human maximums and very few people have those.
True20
|
Unisystem
|
-5
|
1
|
-4
|
1
|
-3
|
2
|
-2
|
2
|
-1
|
3
|
0
|
3
|
+1
|
4
|
+2
|
4
|
+3
|
5
|
+4
|
5
|
+5
|
6
|
All True 20 feats would be qualities, skills are skills. Skills work like M&M skills, so 2 points of True20 skills equal 1 point of Unisystem skills.
Converting Characters
Converting characters is not too bad really. True20 tries to do a lot of the same things Unisystem does, just in different ways. I convert characters to get a rough idea of what I want, but then I stat them up from scratch. It works better than a direct conversion.
Given that my interest in True20/Blue Rose was right after finishing up with Season of the Witch I did do Willow and Tara versions for True20. No, they did not appear in "ViV", but I did toy with the idea of Vampire Willow and Vampire Tara showing up in it..
These builds are based on the girls during Season of the Witch. I used True20 as a base but I also like the Calling aspect from Blue Rose, so I am using that as well.
Willow Rosenberg
Expert 2 / Adept 10
Abilities
| STR: | -1 | INT: | +5 |
| DEX: | 0 | WIS: | +3 |
| CON: | 0 | CHA: | +3 |
Combat
Initiative: 0
Defense: +6
Base Attack bonus: +6 (Melee +6, Ranged +6)
Saving Throws
Toughness: +0
Fortitude: +3
Reflex: +6
Will: +8
Virtue: Curious (Queen of Rods)
Vice: Domineering (Nine of Rods)
Calling (Blue Rose): The Adept, Master of Arcane Arts
Reputation: +4
Prog Skill: Business Owner
Skills
Acrobatics +2, Bluff +7, Computers +16, Craft (Chemical) +13, Craft (Electronics) +13, Diplomacy +6, Disable Device +10, Research +13, Intimidate +6, Knowledge (Science) +15, Knowledge (Occult) +16, Medicine +9, Perform (Ritual) +10, Notice +7, Search +8, Sense Motive +7, Sleight of Hand +4, Concentration +13, Survival +7
Feats
Contacts, Talented (computers, craft electronics), Master Plan, Attractive, Wealthy, Innate Power (Move Object)
Powers
Computer LinkM, Fire ShapingF, Elemental BlastF, IllusionFC MC, Light ShapingF, Manipulate ObjectF,M, Mind ShapingF, MC, Mind TouchM, Move ObjectFM, WardC
Special Abilities
Expertise
Other
Languages: Latin, French, Hebrew, Greek, Russian, English
Equipment: Dolls Eye Crystal (Empowering Focus)
Conviction: 8
Notes: Starts out as an "Expert" to reflect her computer hacker skills but picks up "Adept" pretty quickly.
Adept powers are based on Intelligence.
Philosophy: Witchcraft.
Tara Maclay
Adept 9 / Expert 1
Abilities
| STR: | +1 | INT: | +4 |
| DEX: | -1 | WIS: | +4 |
| CON: | +1 | CHA: | +3 |
Combat
Initiative: -1
Defense: +9
Base Attack bonus: +4 (Melee +3, Ranged +3)
Saving Throws
Toughness: +2
Fortitude: +4
Reflex: +2
Will: +10
Virtue: Devoted (Queen of Chalices)
Vice: Inhibited (Three of Chalices)
Calling (Blue Rose): The Star, Artistic mastery (Though The Moon is also good here)
Reputation: +4
Prof Skill: Teacher (Art History)
Skills
Acrobatics +1, Bluff +6, Computers +8, Craft (alchemical) +6, Concentration +9, Diplomacy +5, Research +9, Handle Animal +6, Knowledge (Art) +11, Knowledge (Occult) +12, Medicine +8, Perform (song) +8, Perform (dance) +8, Perform (Ritual) +9, Notice +13, Search +7, Sense Motive +8, Ride +4, Survival +7
Feats
Attractive, Supernatural Talent (Heart reading, second sight)B, Empower, Defensive Roll (+1)
Powers
CureF, Enhance Senses, Heart Reading, Light Shaping, Manipulate Object, Aura Reading,
Mind Touch, Move Object, Plane Shift, Second Sight
Special Abilities
The Talent (use convection for any power)
Other
Languages: Latin, French, Hebrew, Greek, Russian, English
Equipment: Dolls Eye Crystal (Empowering Focus)
Conviction: 8
Notes: Starts out as an "Adept" and picks up a level of "Expert" to cover her monster hunting days (gains defensive roll).
Adept powers are based on Wisdom.
Philosophy: Witchcraft.
So the idea here is I did Willow and Tara slightly different than their Unisystem counterparts. Here each approached their magic from a different point of view. While this has no real in game effect, it does give each a different feel, and something I really liked about these versions. I did in fact stat up a witch that uses Charisma as her power source too.
Makes me want to do more with this game.
Sennen Saranta: Living in the Love of the Common People
Sennen has the distinction of being the first EVER Slayer-in-Training character created for the Buffy RPG. I made her in the first month or so of the Buffy RPG playtests. The date on her sheet says Feb 25, 2002. I have updated her a bit now that she is a full Slayer. Sennen's original stats still live on as the Slayer-in-Training stats in "The Slayer's Handbook".
I based a lot of what I think her life was like on the old song "Living in the Love of the Common People" made popular to me at least by Paul Young.
I wanted to post this as prep for my Season of the Witch postings.
Thanks to Kirk if he ever reads this!
Sennen Saranta
Sennen was a character in a group of stories set in 2005 (and written back in 2001) dealing with Willow and Tara called Coming Up Roses. The girls are given a Museum of Witchcraft when its old curator, Millicent Stuart, dies. The museum is actually a nexus point between magical realities and Willow and Tara, with new characters Mel and Sennen, as its guardians. Before the Buffy RPG ever got into playtest I spent the summer of 2001 playing a WitchCraft RPG game based around Coming Up Roses. Willow and Taras official stats look an awful lot like the stats I came up with then.
Coming Up Roses though never went past its first season, but I recruited a few of their writers to help me on The Dragon and the Phoenix. My later season Season of the Witch brought back Millicent and Sennen as special guest stars. Millicents role changed from a Guardian to a Protector, and Sennen was a full Slayer. In both timelines (CUR and SotW) Willow and Tara went to England in 2005. The differences were that Millicent didnt die (I did not want to base them in England) and Sennen had already ditched her Watcher in favor of working with Millicent.
Appearance
Sennen stands 5'2" (157 cm) tall. She has dark hair with a streaks of blue in it, a pierced nose, labret and navel. She also has a tattoo of a black sun on her left shoulder. She is dark skin with dark brown eyes.
Background
Life has not been great to 15 year-old Sennen Saranta. Born in an Indian neighborhood on Londons East side Sennen had to cope with a lot of the same things her friends did. An out of work and alcoholic father and an overworked mother, and she was a minority among minorities with her mixed Sri Lankan (father) and Londoner (mother) racial mix.
Her family life is bad, but no worse than her friends in the same situation. Her dad is a drunk, but he is not a mean one (he never would touch her or her mother) but he is a lazy one. Her mom is overworked, so no one even notices when she leaves the house at all hours of the night.
The night of Sennens calling was memorable. She goes out one night ends up drinking a little too much, taking a little too much X and finds herself at an after hours party. Soon she discovers that everyone around her is a vampire and she was brought as one of the snacks. With her friend already dead something in her snaps. She sobered up in flash and ended up killing ten vampires before getting out. The next morning she meets this man who looks a lot older than he actually is who identifies himself as her Watcher. Soon Sennen finds herself stuck with James Jimmy AKA Jimmy the Perv Grey and his twisted witch girlfriend Karen Kent. Karen is a witch, she says she is training Sennen to fight evil, but in reality she just likes to torture her. Jimmy likes to watch.
Things change when Jimmy asks Sennen to kill an old witch by the name of Millicent.
Sennen won't ever kill any human, no matter how evil they are, but all demons and vampires (good or not) are fair game.
And dont call her Sen. She hates that.
Sennen Saranta
Character Type: Hero
Life Points: 81
Drama Points: 10
Attributes
Strength 7
Dexterity 6
Constitution 7
Intelligence 3
Perception 4
Willpower 6
Qualities
Slayer
Attractiveness 2
Contacts, Criminal 1
Contacts, Supernatural 2
Fast Reaction Time
Hard to Kill 5
Nerves of Steel
Regeneration
Drawbacks
Addiction (Temazepam) 1
Adversary 5
Emotional Problem, Depression 1
Emotional Problem, Fear of Commitment 1
Emotional Problem, Fear of Rejection 1
Mental Problem, Recklessness 1
Mental Problem, Obsession, self-mutilation (cutter)
Screwed-Up Adolescent
Skills
Acrobatics 4
Art 1
Computers 0
Crime 3
Doctor 1
Driving 0
Getting Medieval 4
Gun Fu 2
Influence 1
Knowledge 1
Kung Fu 6
Languages 1
Mr. Fix-It 1
Notice 2
Occultism 3
Science 0
Sports 1
Wild Card 0
Combat
Maneuver Bonus Base Damage Notes
Punch 12 14
Kick 11 16
Stake 10 14
Knife 10 12
- Thrown 9 6
Break neck 5 28
Dodge 10 None Defensive Move
Note: I suppose if I had kept up with Sennen she would be 21 by now (and closer to the pic above). Though I never really used her much after this. Re-reading over these stats it is kind of a pity really.
I did have this idea that after the events in Season of the Witch that Sennen later went on to become the new Protector of Albion when Millie dies. I kind of like that idea really and maybe that is the version of the character I should investigate further.
Hmm. Actually now that I am writing this I am thinking of a new modern Ghosts of Albion game featuring Sennen, maybe one of the older Ghosts or Nigel and throw in Dirty Nel just for the fun of it.
I based a lot of what I think her life was like on the old song "Living in the Love of the Common People" made popular to me at least by Paul Young.
I wanted to post this as prep for my Season of the Witch postings.
Thanks to Kirk if he ever reads this!
Sennen Saranta
Sennen was a character in a group of stories set in 2005 (and written back in 2001) dealing with Willow and Tara called Coming Up Roses. The girls are given a Museum of Witchcraft when its old curator, Millicent Stuart, dies. The museum is actually a nexus point between magical realities and Willow and Tara, with new characters Mel and Sennen, as its guardians. Before the Buffy RPG ever got into playtest I spent the summer of 2001 playing a WitchCraft RPG game based around Coming Up Roses. Willow and Taras official stats look an awful lot like the stats I came up with then.
Coming Up Roses though never went past its first season, but I recruited a few of their writers to help me on The Dragon and the Phoenix. My later season Season of the Witch brought back Millicent and Sennen as special guest stars. Millicents role changed from a Guardian to a Protector, and Sennen was a full Slayer. In both timelines (CUR and SotW) Willow and Tara went to England in 2005. The differences were that Millicent didnt die (I did not want to base them in England) and Sennen had already ditched her Watcher in favor of working with Millicent.
Appearance
Sennen stands 5'2" (157 cm) tall. She has dark hair with a streaks of blue in it, a pierced nose, labret and navel. She also has a tattoo of a black sun on her left shoulder. She is dark skin with dark brown eyes.
Background
Life has not been great to 15 year-old Sennen Saranta. Born in an Indian neighborhood on Londons East side Sennen had to cope with a lot of the same things her friends did. An out of work and alcoholic father and an overworked mother, and she was a minority among minorities with her mixed Sri Lankan (father) and Londoner (mother) racial mix.
Her family life is bad, but no worse than her friends in the same situation. Her dad is a drunk, but he is not a mean one (he never would touch her or her mother) but he is a lazy one. Her mom is overworked, so no one even notices when she leaves the house at all hours of the night.
The night of Sennens calling was memorable. She goes out one night ends up drinking a little too much, taking a little too much X and finds herself at an after hours party. Soon she discovers that everyone around her is a vampire and she was brought as one of the snacks. With her friend already dead something in her snaps. She sobered up in flash and ended up killing ten vampires before getting out. The next morning she meets this man who looks a lot older than he actually is who identifies himself as her Watcher. Soon Sennen finds herself stuck with James Jimmy AKA Jimmy the Perv Grey and his twisted witch girlfriend Karen Kent. Karen is a witch, she says she is training Sennen to fight evil, but in reality she just likes to torture her. Jimmy likes to watch.
Things change when Jimmy asks Sennen to kill an old witch by the name of Millicent.
Sennen won't ever kill any human, no matter how evil they are, but all demons and vampires (good or not) are fair game.
And dont call her Sen. She hates that.
Character Type: Hero
Life Points: 81
Drama Points: 10
Attributes
Strength 7
Dexterity 6
Constitution 7
Intelligence 3
Perception 4
Willpower 6
Qualities
Slayer
Attractiveness 2
Contacts, Criminal 1
Contacts, Supernatural 2
Fast Reaction Time
Hard to Kill 5
Nerves of Steel
Regeneration
Drawbacks
Addiction (Temazepam) 1
Adversary 5
Emotional Problem, Depression 1
Emotional Problem, Fear of Commitment 1
Emotional Problem, Fear of Rejection 1
Mental Problem, Recklessness 1
Mental Problem, Obsession, self-mutilation (cutter)
Screwed-Up Adolescent
Skills
Acrobatics 4
Art 1
Computers 0
Crime 3
Doctor 1
Driving 0
Getting Medieval 4
Gun Fu 2
Influence 1
Knowledge 1
Kung Fu 6
Languages 1
Mr. Fix-It 1
Notice 2
Occultism 3
Science 0
Sports 1
Wild Card 0
Combat
Maneuver Bonus Base Damage Notes
Punch 12 14
Kick 11 16
Stake 10 14
Knife 10 12
- Thrown 9 6
Break neck 5 28
Dodge 10 None Defensive Move
Note: I suppose if I had kept up with Sennen she would be 21 by now (and closer to the pic above). Though I never really used her much after this. Re-reading over these stats it is kind of a pity really.
I did have this idea that after the events in Season of the Witch that Sennen later went on to become the new Protector of Albion when Millie dies. I kind of like that idea really and maybe that is the version of the character I should investigate further.
Hmm. Actually now that I am writing this I am thinking of a new modern Ghosts of Albion game featuring Sennen, maybe one of the older Ghosts or Nigel and throw in Dirty Nel just for the fun of it.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Season of the Witch: Episode 1
Episode 1: Semi-Charmed Life
Semi-Charmed Life
Summer 2004
Overview: Willow and Tara join forces with the Charmed Ones to stop D’hoffryn from becoming the new Source.
Synopsis: Willow and Tara are on vacation in San Francisco when they decide to stop in an auction house selling items from the Victorian Occult revival. While there they notice many demons and witches passing as normal humans. A book catches Tara’s eye and the director of the auction tells her she should buy it. The book is “The Journal of Tamara Swift”. The girls also notice another item up for a bid, a talisman believed to be owned by Madame Blavatsky, but Willow notices it as the Heart of Belial, a potent demonic artifact.
They bid on the items and win the Journal, but the Heart goes to a very attractive woman (who reminds them of Cordelia). The auction director tells the girls that the Heart has fallen into the hands of evil and they have to stop it. She says she could not do anything herself, but tells Willow and Tara that they need to find her sisters, The Charmed Ones. She tells them her name is Prue Halliwell.
At the same time at the Halliwell Manor Piper is frantic about trying to juggle new baby Chris and still dealing with P3 scheduling nightmares (she is trying to get Michelle Branch back), Phoebe is rushing off to work and Paige is reading the want ads. In the middle of all this chaos, Prue appears and tells them that the “Charmed Ones” (but not “you” or “my sisters”) are in danger. Everyone panics, and Leo says he wants to talk to the only other witch he knows that has come back from the dead.
Leo finds Willow and Tara and takes them to the Halliwell manor. Leo knew Tara when she was in Heaven and she asks him about Kara. Willow wants to know why she does not have a Whitelighter and Leo tells her it was because she was using magic for personal gain and on a tract towards evil.
Meantime the demon (Kira the Seer) who purchased the Heart of Belial shimmers into the underworld. Where she meets with D’Hoffryn. She give the Heart to him commenting that every demon from the source on down that has fought the Charmed Ones has gotten a bad case of being dead. D’hoffryn replies that is why he is not going to fight them, he has something more subtle in mind. Kira also lets him know that Willow and Tara are also in town. D’Hoffryn comments that this must mean that the Awakening is about to occur. He take the Heart and begins to chant his spell.
At the Halliwell Manor the five witches discuss what this all must mean. They look up the Heart in the both The Book of Shadows and in the Journal of Tamara Swift. They discover that it is the actual heart of the demon Belial and it had been in the possession of the former Protector of Albion, John Dee and assumed to be destroyed by later Protector Tamara Swift. The Heart allows it’s possessor to manipulate time. The Halliwells immediately trust Tara and Willow when they go to the Book of Shadows and can open it.
Suddenly Phoebe and Willow disappear and are replaced by Paradox Sisters. Everyone believes that everything is completely normal, including the fact that Paradox Phoebe and Paradox Willow do not have magic (and thus no Charmed Ones power of three or Willow and Tara’s combined Anamchara magic). Tara attempts to hold Willow’s hand and going in a kiss, which causes Willow to pull back in shock. Paradox Willow is straight. At the same time the Book of Shadows refuses to be around Phoebe. Leo orbs out to consult with the underworld (he still does not trust the other Elders). The witches have no time to figure out why though, they are attacked by the warlocks Hannah and Rex.
Taking advantage of Leo's absence the warlocks attack. As in Season 1 of Charmed they try to steal the Charmed Ones powers. The battle goes badly given the depowered nature of the cast and it looks like they are about to gain their quarry, Wyatt’s vast untapped power, when Hannah is hit by an arc of Elder lighting. Thinking is it Leo the Cast is surprised (as are the Players) when it is revealed to be Prue. A wounded Hannah and Rex shimmer out.
In the Underworld Leo find real Willow and real Phoebe, but they are in a temporal bubble and their powers are being drained. Once he sees them Leo remembers who they are. He attacks D’Hoffryn who tosses him around like a rag doll. He hits him with lighting of his own and he disappears. D’Hoffryn tells Phoebe that he was removed from all time. Rex and Hannah shimmer in and D’Hoffryn kills them by tossing them across the room. Willow and Phoebe tell D’Hoffryn it is only a matter of time before they are found by their loved ones. D’Hoffryn tells them that they are not even looking.
At the manor everyone knows there something wrong. Tara feels a loss she can’t explain and is getting very concerned and Paradox Willow is depressed. Paradox Phoebe is angry because she is only here because her flight back to New York was delayed and she hates being involve in all this “magic stuff”. But everyone is more concerned with Prue returning. Thinking that the Heart of Belial must be at the root of this, the witches try to scry for it, but no success.
Phoebe, an empath, combines her magic with Willow to try to get a message out. Phoebe tries to get it Piper, but Willow’s thoughts are too strong on Tara. Tara, also an empath, gets the message.
The three witches and the paradox sisters are orbed to the underworld by Prue. D’Hoffryn is in the middle of some spells surrounded by demons in robes. Everyone sees real Phoebe and real Willow in the bubble, but can’t reach them. The Charmed Ones and Prue attack the demons, Tara tries to get to Willow and Phoebe. Paradox Willow and Paradox Phoebe remain in the background, mostly forgotten.
The Demons are fought and killed and Tara and Phoebe figure out a way to break the time bubble. Once that is done the Charmed Ones power back up, as do Willow and Tara. The remaining priest demons are then easily vanquished. Paige hurls a vanquishing potion at D’Hoffryn but it has no effect. He has become the new Source of All Evil. He throws a fireball at Prue but Paradox Phoebe pushes her out of the way and takes the full blast, exploding into ashes. Prue attacks D’Hoffryn with her lighting. This leaves the cast (and the players) to figure out what to do next. They decide to try a modified version of the Power of Three spell, only this one is a Power of Five. All five witches link hands, even Paradox Willow puts her hands on top of Tara’s and Willow’s linked hands, and they summon the power of the witches in their family line. The spell takes hold and strikes down D’Hoffryn, destroying him and the Heart of Belial. Leo reappears, but Paradox Willow remains.
At the end of the episode the cast, with Prue and Paradox Willow, are at P3. Michelle Branch is back.
The women toast to their new friends and family and promise to always help each other in the future. Paradox Willow wonders why she is still here and all they can think of is there must be some magic left over from the Heart. Willow discovers that Paradox Phoebe has an apartment still in New York so Paradox Willows figure she will go there since she has always wanted to sing on stage. They raise a toast to their “lost sister” Phoebe Bennet and Prue gets ready to leave. Prue does tell Willow that her case was “reviewed” again by the other Elders and they have decided to give her and Tara a Whitelighter on a “probationary” basis. Prue orbs out and Cordelia Chase orbs in with a “You have got to be kidding me!”
Tara, laughing, opens up the Journal of Tamara Swift and a letter falls out. It is address to “Misses Tara Maclay and Willow Rosenberg”. It was written by Tamara in 1889.
Epiloge
Kira is on her knees picking through the dust that was D’Hoffryn till she finds a small rock. Saying “that will do” she holds it and concentrates. Cole half shimmers in. She hands him the rock, all that is left of the Heart of Belial, and tells him she kept up her side of the deal now he was going to tell her how she can come back from the wasteland after Zankou kills her in a few months.
Notes and Comments
Well as the first official episode I had a lot of setup I wanted to do here, but not beat people over the head with it. I mention the Awakening only once and we learn that Tara’s mother was named Megan and her Grandmother Deidre.
I wanted a “witchier” feel to this season than Buffy, so there are lots of elements from various witch shows to guide the players in; Buffy, Charmed, Hex, Ghosts of Albion even little bits of Practical Magic. Then there is the letter to the girls from Tamara, big stuff is in store. Plus I also touch on the theme of nothing is more important than the people you love.
In many ways Charmed is seen as the antithesis of Buffy. So what better way to seperate "Willow & Tara the Series" from Buffy than to have a Charmed crossover. And not just a crossover, but show Buffy characters aspiring to becoming more Charmed-like. D'Hoffryn becoming The Source, Willow wanting a Whitelighter, Cordy becoming a Whitelighter.
I used Andrew Pergine’s Charmed netbook for the Girls stats, even if I am not 100% sold on his point breakdowns for Whitelighters.
I brought in some Charmed bad guys, Rex and Hannah, and Buffy bad guy D’Hoffryn making a claim to Source. In truth D’Hoffryn would make a bad ass Source, too bad he did the one thing you should never, ever do in my games; piss of a witch. Here is D'Hoffryn's entry in the Halliwell Book of Shadows. It mentions that there is no known vanquishing potion for him (Willow would have been able to figure one out back in the old series) but that does not stop the cast from trying one.
Charisma Carpenter gets double duty here both as Cordy the new Whitelighter and as Kira the Seer. I wanted to bring back Cordy because I felt her character got shafted in the show. Not as bad as Tara, but still. Plus she also makes a good foil for Willow, I bring in Tara’s foil later. And let’s be totally honest here, Charima Carpenter is hot.
Of course Paradox Phoebe and Paradox Willow are from my Sisters of Paradox post. They were developed for this adventure. http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2009/11/sisters-of-paradox.html
Paradox Willow living at the end was homage by us to our friend and fellow Kitten Bob Black who came up with the idea originally and he had Paradox Willow live. Paradox Phoebe dies to save Prue which I felt was good because it should that even though that Paradox Phoebe hated Prue they were still sisters and you do anything to help a family member or loved one.
Plus it also became something of an in-joke in my group. If you are playing the Buffy RPG and your Willow is straight then it obviously means you are using the "Riff Reagan" version.
The playable characters were Phoebe (and Paradox Phobe, same player), Piper, Paige, Willow (and Paradox Willow, same player) and Tara. Originally Prue was also going to be a playable character, but it never really worked out. I also had a sub-plot with Andy returning, but it was too much.
This was also the only episode where I made a "cover" image. You will note that the "Buffy RPG" logo is dropped and a "Willow & Tara RPG" logo is in it's place. I figure that if you run a modern supernatural game using Ghosts of Albion as the source and the Buffy books as the splats, then what you have is the "Willow & Tara Roleplaying Game". Made sense to me.
Here is the back cover:
Kara was of course Tara's "Sister" from the Dragon and the Phoenix, Megan was her mother and Deidre her Grandmother. Originally it was the other way around, but Lisa had Megan as Tara's mother in all her work, so I switched them. Pru was not a Player-Character at the time, so I felt it was not right to have her there to defeat the bad guy.
The rest of this season was not as finished as "The Dragon and the Phoenix", often times all I had were some rough notes. Plus my regular group of players was getting less regular. I was also moving to a new group and running more Ghosts of Albion. Some of these adventures then had their origin as something that could be run under Buffy or Ghosts.
Originally these were to follow right after "Dragon" but there was a lot of time inbetween, so there is a break of one year game time between the last episode of Dragon ("No Other Troy") and "Semi-Charmed Life".
Next up the girls go to London to confront their past and future. Plus one more guest star makes a surprising appearance.
Semi-Charmed Life
Summer 2004
Overview: Willow and Tara join forces with the Charmed Ones to stop D’hoffryn from becoming the new Source.
Synopsis: Willow and Tara are on vacation in San Francisco when they decide to stop in an auction house selling items from the Victorian Occult revival. While there they notice many demons and witches passing as normal humans. A book catches Tara’s eye and the director of the auction tells her she should buy it. The book is “The Journal of Tamara Swift”. The girls also notice another item up for a bid, a talisman believed to be owned by Madame Blavatsky, but Willow notices it as the Heart of Belial, a potent demonic artifact.
They bid on the items and win the Journal, but the Heart goes to a very attractive woman (who reminds them of Cordelia). The auction director tells the girls that the Heart has fallen into the hands of evil and they have to stop it. She says she could not do anything herself, but tells Willow and Tara that they need to find her sisters, The Charmed Ones. She tells them her name is Prue Halliwell.
At the same time at the Halliwell Manor Piper is frantic about trying to juggle new baby Chris and still dealing with P3 scheduling nightmares (she is trying to get Michelle Branch back), Phoebe is rushing off to work and Paige is reading the want ads. In the middle of all this chaos, Prue appears and tells them that the “Charmed Ones” (but not “you” or “my sisters”) are in danger. Everyone panics, and Leo says he wants to talk to the only other witch he knows that has come back from the dead.
Leo finds Willow and Tara and takes them to the Halliwell manor. Leo knew Tara when she was in Heaven and she asks him about Kara. Willow wants to know why she does not have a Whitelighter and Leo tells her it was because she was using magic for personal gain and on a tract towards evil.
Meantime the demon (Kira the Seer) who purchased the Heart of Belial shimmers into the underworld. Where she meets with D’Hoffryn. She give the Heart to him commenting that every demon from the source on down that has fought the Charmed Ones has gotten a bad case of being dead. D’hoffryn replies that is why he is not going to fight them, he has something more subtle in mind. Kira also lets him know that Willow and Tara are also in town. D’Hoffryn comments that this must mean that the Awakening is about to occur. He take the Heart and begins to chant his spell.
At the Halliwell Manor the five witches discuss what this all must mean. They look up the Heart in the both The Book of Shadows and in the Journal of Tamara Swift. They discover that it is the actual heart of the demon Belial and it had been in the possession of the former Protector of Albion, John Dee and assumed to be destroyed by later Protector Tamara Swift. The Heart allows it’s possessor to manipulate time. The Halliwells immediately trust Tara and Willow when they go to the Book of Shadows and can open it.
Suddenly Phoebe and Willow disappear and are replaced by Paradox Sisters. Everyone believes that everything is completely normal, including the fact that Paradox Phoebe and Paradox Willow do not have magic (and thus no Charmed Ones power of three or Willow and Tara’s combined Anamchara magic). Tara attempts to hold Willow’s hand and going in a kiss, which causes Willow to pull back in shock. Paradox Willow is straight. At the same time the Book of Shadows refuses to be around Phoebe. Leo orbs out to consult with the underworld (he still does not trust the other Elders). The witches have no time to figure out why though, they are attacked by the warlocks Hannah and Rex.
Taking advantage of Leo's absence the warlocks attack. As in Season 1 of Charmed they try to steal the Charmed Ones powers. The battle goes badly given the depowered nature of the cast and it looks like they are about to gain their quarry, Wyatt’s vast untapped power, when Hannah is hit by an arc of Elder lighting. Thinking is it Leo the Cast is surprised (as are the Players) when it is revealed to be Prue. A wounded Hannah and Rex shimmer out.
In the Underworld Leo find real Willow and real Phoebe, but they are in a temporal bubble and their powers are being drained. Once he sees them Leo remembers who they are. He attacks D’Hoffryn who tosses him around like a rag doll. He hits him with lighting of his own and he disappears. D’Hoffryn tells Phoebe that he was removed from all time. Rex and Hannah shimmer in and D’Hoffryn kills them by tossing them across the room. Willow and Phoebe tell D’Hoffryn it is only a matter of time before they are found by their loved ones. D’Hoffryn tells them that they are not even looking.
At the manor everyone knows there something wrong. Tara feels a loss she can’t explain and is getting very concerned and Paradox Willow is depressed. Paradox Phoebe is angry because she is only here because her flight back to New York was delayed and she hates being involve in all this “magic stuff”. But everyone is more concerned with Prue returning. Thinking that the Heart of Belial must be at the root of this, the witches try to scry for it, but no success.
Phoebe, an empath, combines her magic with Willow to try to get a message out. Phoebe tries to get it Piper, but Willow’s thoughts are too strong on Tara. Tara, also an empath, gets the message.
The three witches and the paradox sisters are orbed to the underworld by Prue. D’Hoffryn is in the middle of some spells surrounded by demons in robes. Everyone sees real Phoebe and real Willow in the bubble, but can’t reach them. The Charmed Ones and Prue attack the demons, Tara tries to get to Willow and Phoebe. Paradox Willow and Paradox Phoebe remain in the background, mostly forgotten.
The Demons are fought and killed and Tara and Phoebe figure out a way to break the time bubble. Once that is done the Charmed Ones power back up, as do Willow and Tara. The remaining priest demons are then easily vanquished. Paige hurls a vanquishing potion at D’Hoffryn but it has no effect. He has become the new Source of All Evil. He throws a fireball at Prue but Paradox Phoebe pushes her out of the way and takes the full blast, exploding into ashes. Prue attacks D’Hoffryn with her lighting. This leaves the cast (and the players) to figure out what to do next. They decide to try a modified version of the Power of Three spell, only this one is a Power of Five. All five witches link hands, even Paradox Willow puts her hands on top of Tara’s and Willow’s linked hands, and they summon the power of the witches in their family line. The spell takes hold and strikes down D’Hoffryn, destroying him and the Heart of Belial. Leo reappears, but Paradox Willow remains.
At the end of the episode the cast, with Prue and Paradox Willow, are at P3. Michelle Branch is back.
The women toast to their new friends and family and promise to always help each other in the future. Paradox Willow wonders why she is still here and all they can think of is there must be some magic left over from the Heart. Willow discovers that Paradox Phoebe has an apartment still in New York so Paradox Willows figure she will go there since she has always wanted to sing on stage. They raise a toast to their “lost sister” Phoebe Bennet and Prue gets ready to leave. Prue does tell Willow that her case was “reviewed” again by the other Elders and they have decided to give her and Tara a Whitelighter on a “probationary” basis. Prue orbs out and Cordelia Chase orbs in with a “You have got to be kidding me!”
Tara, laughing, opens up the Journal of Tamara Swift and a letter falls out. It is address to “Misses Tara Maclay and Willow Rosenberg”. It was written by Tamara in 1889.
Epiloge
Kira is on her knees picking through the dust that was D’Hoffryn till she finds a small rock. Saying “that will do” she holds it and concentrates. Cole half shimmers in. She hands him the rock, all that is left of the Heart of Belial, and tells him she kept up her side of the deal now he was going to tell her how she can come back from the wasteland after Zankou kills her in a few months.
Notes and Comments
Well as the first official episode I had a lot of setup I wanted to do here, but not beat people over the head with it. I mention the Awakening only once and we learn that Tara’s mother was named Megan and her Grandmother Deidre.
I wanted a “witchier” feel to this season than Buffy, so there are lots of elements from various witch shows to guide the players in; Buffy, Charmed, Hex, Ghosts of Albion even little bits of Practical Magic. Then there is the letter to the girls from Tamara, big stuff is in store. Plus I also touch on the theme of nothing is more important than the people you love.
In many ways Charmed is seen as the antithesis of Buffy. So what better way to seperate "Willow & Tara the Series" from Buffy than to have a Charmed crossover. And not just a crossover, but show Buffy characters aspiring to becoming more Charmed-like. D'Hoffryn becoming The Source, Willow wanting a Whitelighter, Cordy becoming a Whitelighter.
I used Andrew Pergine’s Charmed netbook for the Girls stats, even if I am not 100% sold on his point breakdowns for Whitelighters.
I brought in some Charmed bad guys, Rex and Hannah, and Buffy bad guy D’Hoffryn making a claim to Source. In truth D’Hoffryn would make a bad ass Source, too bad he did the one thing you should never, ever do in my games; piss of a witch. Here is D'Hoffryn's entry in the Halliwell Book of Shadows. It mentions that there is no known vanquishing potion for him (Willow would have been able to figure one out back in the old series) but that does not stop the cast from trying one.
Charisma Carpenter gets double duty here both as Cordy the new Whitelighter and as Kira the Seer. I wanted to bring back Cordy because I felt her character got shafted in the show. Not as bad as Tara, but still. Plus she also makes a good foil for Willow, I bring in Tara’s foil later. And let’s be totally honest here, Charima Carpenter is hot.
Of course Paradox Phoebe and Paradox Willow are from my Sisters of Paradox post. They were developed for this adventure. http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2009/11/sisters-of-paradox.html
Paradox Willow living at the end was homage by us to our friend and fellow Kitten Bob Black who came up with the idea originally and he had Paradox Willow live. Paradox Phoebe dies to save Prue which I felt was good because it should that even though that Paradox Phoebe hated Prue they were still sisters and you do anything to help a family member or loved one.
Plus it also became something of an in-joke in my group. If you are playing the Buffy RPG and your Willow is straight then it obviously means you are using the "Riff Reagan" version.
The playable characters were Phoebe (and Paradox Phobe, same player), Piper, Paige, Willow (and Paradox Willow, same player) and Tara. Originally Prue was also going to be a playable character, but it never really worked out. I also had a sub-plot with Andy returning, but it was too much.
This was also the only episode where I made a "cover" image. You will note that the "Buffy RPG" logo is dropped and a "Willow & Tara RPG" logo is in it's place. I figure that if you run a modern supernatural game using Ghosts of Albion as the source and the Buffy books as the splats, then what you have is the "Willow & Tara Roleplaying Game". Made sense to me.
Here is the back cover:
Kara was of course Tara's "Sister" from the Dragon and the Phoenix, Megan was her mother and Deidre her Grandmother. Originally it was the other way around, but Lisa had Megan as Tara's mother in all her work, so I switched them. Pru was not a Player-Character at the time, so I felt it was not right to have her there to defeat the bad guy.
The rest of this season was not as finished as "The Dragon and the Phoenix", often times all I had were some rough notes. Plus my regular group of players was getting less regular. I was also moving to a new group and running more Ghosts of Albion. Some of these adventures then had their origin as something that could be run under Buffy or Ghosts.
Originally these were to follow right after "Dragon" but there was a lot of time inbetween, so there is a break of one year game time between the last episode of Dragon ("No Other Troy") and "Semi-Charmed Life".
Next up the girls go to London to confront their past and future. Plus one more guest star makes a surprising appearance.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
The Kitten Board and The Trevor Project!
Reposting from Amber Benson's blog, http://amberbensonwrotethis.blogspot.com/2011/01/kitten-board-and-trevor-project.html.
I helped in the first Kitten Board Trevor Project fundraiser back in 2002 and it was a smash success.
So I am happy to see that they still are working for such a great cause.
I don't own a Triangle Tara myself yet, so I am going to wait till the next charity to get one.
Congrats to Amber, Xita, Triangle Tara and all the Kittens who made this a success!
I helped in the first Kitten Board Trevor Project fundraiser back in 2002 and it was a smash success.
So I am happy to see that they still are working for such a great cause.
I don't own a Triangle Tara myself yet, so I am going to wait till the next charity to get one.
Congrats to Amber, Xita, Triangle Tara and all the Kittens who made this a success!
Friday, January 7, 2011
Willow and Tara: Season of the Witch
So what is "Willow and Tara: Season of the Witch"?
Well for starters Season of the Witch had three major purposes. First was to show that Willow and Tara could hold a series on their own. I think I showed that well enough in "The Dragon and the Phoenix", but I really wanted to emphasize that here. So to that end there was a format change from the Original Series. To force our hand I decided that we could not even say the words "Buffy" or "Vampire", though vampires I was not so successful with. I have a cut scene near the end of the series when a witch hunter comes to town. She is surrounded by a pack of vampires, then with out a word at all she cuts them all down. I figured in that case I was also further distancing myself from the Original Series since I showed that slaying vampires was no big deal. The other was one I just couldn't help doing and that was Vampire Tara. More on those two though when the time is right.
The second major purpose of this series was to have no big bad.
That's right, none. The Big Bad formula was getting old. Every season on the Original Series was a Big Bad that had to up the ante on the last one. What was next? Galactus? So instead I came up with this idea of the Awakening. Now I kept the Awakening vague for most of the series simply because I also didn't know what it was! I knew it was something that all the magical factions in the world were looking upon with fear, uncertainty and doubt. I knew that Tara's parents discovered the most recent clues about it in 1976. And I knew it dealt with Willow and Tara directly.
In the end, like some of these kinds of things it was a convergence of many ideas into a whole. Which gets to my third major purpose.
The third thing I wanted to do with the series, and this is mostly tangential, is I wanted to work in features from other games. You saw this as my big conversion efforts. Season of the Witch began with elements from WitchCraft and Ghosts of Albion, but I began working in the concepts from other, mostly supernatural horror, games into it. This was not part of the plot, only as a means to give a fuller experience of a much larger world. The Original Series was very narrow in it's focus, something I did not realize till I started to take the series apart. Like in The Dragon and the Phoenix, I wanted the players to feel they were part of a larger world and they did not live in a vacuum. In Season of the Witch there are other things going on, there are other factions, other players and other threats and allies. To help me out I borrowed from other games. There are factions from Mage the Awakening, SAVE from Chill. The Bureau is loosely based on various government bodies found in Conspiracy X, DarkMatter, Bureau 13 and Delta Green. This helped shape the world they lived in, not just some small corner of Southern California.
But this got me thinking, how is that all these games where "magic is real but hidden" work? How is it that magic can stay hidden when there are so many vampire related killings? Are all cops on the take? What is happening? How can this keep going on? And then the answer became clear. It can't. If you read Chill and WitchCraft you get the idea that long ago magic was more common. Then something happened that caused it to be less common. Now something is happening again to make more common. Both Chill and WitchCraft say supernatural occurrences are on the rise. But even the average 2-3 games of WitchCraft have more supernatural things going on than an entire campaign of Chill. Which is fine IF you consider there is 20 years separating them. Then look at Armageddon, 2018 magic and the supernatural are out and in the open. I had my answer.
The Awakening is the falling of the Veil between our world and the magical one. After the awakening we will be living in a world were magic is real and everyone knows about it.
The characters have to decide whether or not this is a good thing and which of the factions working for/against them they can trust if any.
But I also needed to stay true to my first major purpose; Willow and Tara. So if the world was going to go full on magic, or not, something needs to happen to these two as well. Given the research I was doing, and again taking an idea from my contributor and playtester Lisa Countryman, I decided that Willow and Tara were also going to become the first Mages.
Exactly what a Mage is will detailed soon.
Characters
Obviously Willow and Tara, but that is almost too small of a group. But still all I had them in was Bob's '67 Ford Thunderbird. I needed to be very clever or lucky. I was both.
The other main character was Robert Maclay, Tara's father. He was a ghost ala Ghosts of Albion (I'll post his stats soon). He had been the team leader back in '76 so his insight was needed. He also had the whole repentant thing going, he needed to prove to his daughter that he was not really a heartless bastard. Well. He was, but he had his reasons, and those reasons are the same ones why he did not want Tara in Sunnydale, that he lied to her for years and inventiblly why her mother died.
Plus if you were a young lesbian on a road trip with your girlfriend who is the last person you want tagging along? That's right the ghost of your strict and very conservative father! He made it in on comedy alone!
I also needed another character. For this I needed someone with fighting ability. I love Willow and Tara, but in physical combat they suck. Bob is fine, as long as whomever he is hitting is also a supernatural creature. A mundane can't be hit by him, hell they can't even see him. So I needed some one with some firepower, some physical ability to fight, and someone that could fit in a convertible with two other people.
I considered using Ms. Kitty as High Bast, but truth be told, I dismissed it as soon as came up with it. No good reason, and even while typing this now I can't think of a reason not to do it. But it wasn't what I wanted really.
In the end I went with another character I felt got shafted, Cordelia, as a Charmed style White Lighter. It fit really. I had a Charmed crossover coming up. I had already used her once in "Will We Burn in Heaven?" and the Ascension quality I gave her was not very different than the White Lighter one. She could pop in and out as needed and then didn't have to be in the car the whole time. I gave Cordy other "charges" to explain why she could not get them out of every mess. And the girls needed to drive to recreate Bob and Megan's (Tara's mother) original mission. Plus, and lets be really honest here, Charisma Carpenter is hot.
Willow and Tara get Bob's car and Megan's journal/Book of Shadows (things that can help them or be stolen if I need them to be) and the adventure is ready to begin!
Here is my original outline for the season:
Main plot is witchcraft and magic. With seasonal issues of family.
Season of the Witch - Cinematic game set in 2003-2005. Set in the same universe as "The Dragon and the Phoenix". Heavy WitchCraft RPG elements (with many elements from "Ghosts of Albion").
Willow and Tara travel back to Tara's home town for the funereal of her father. While there they discover that Robert and Megan Mclay (Tara's parents) were involved with a secret society of hunters of the supernatural. Visited by Robert's ghost, Willow and Tara retrace the steps of Robert and Megan's failed 1976-1980 mission. Tara's mom had a vision of the world in Chaos, magic open and running amok. Thousand's kill themselves in crises of faith, others began to hunt down and kill witches.
Watching them are the Government (the Bureau), SAVE, the Daughters of the Flame, the Witches Committee and Lilith. All know about the "Awakening", or a fundamental change in the nature of magic. Most believe it means magic will be exposed (it has already begun).
The Awakening: Magic is going to be exposed. The various groups, Cleaners, Guardians, Protectors all know this and there is nothing they can do to stop it. But Willow and Tara are going to give it a try.
This will certainly throw society into chaos. To stop it the girls need to shut down several key portals. Willow & Tara stumble on this reality and learn that Tara's mother and father, while working for a small team of psychic investigators discovered this in 1976. Now 30 years later the prophecies are coming true.
FACTIONS:
The Witches' Committee wants this to happen and are poised to take control in the ensuing chaos. Human witches.
Lillith wants to keep the status quo since she knows that the mundanes will turn on witches and slaughter them. Lillith runs "L Enterprises". (have a report of how W&H were destroyed by her). She is running the auction in San Francisco. Approached by Lillith. Anya is there, she is now divorced and working for Lillith. Lillith does not reveal all her plans yet.
Governmental Bodies. The Bureau (introduced last season) is working on a "final solution" for the problems with magic and demons. Bob knew of them, but never trusted them. Of course they want to stop the awakening as well, but have other plans too.
Daughters of the Flame. This group of witches has a different view on what the Awakening means and they are convinced it has to do with Willow and Tara specifically.
RESOURCES: Cordy, Bob Mclay, Megan's journal.
NOTE: I do not remember who originally did that image above. It was a desktop image that I most certainly downloaded from the Kitten Board. I added the text myself later. If the creator sees this then please contact me for your proper credit or removal of the pic.
Friday, November 19, 2010
The Dragon and the Phoenix: wrap-up
The Dragon and the Phoenix ran for 13 episodes and it was great fun.
We set out to show we could tell a great story and even a better one than the source material and I think we succeeded.
Here are some random things we learned while writing and playing these episodes.
I'll post the Season of the Witch reports starting next year I think. Holidays coming and all.
We set out to show we could tell a great story and even a better one than the source material and I think we succeeded.
Here are some random things we learned while writing and playing these episodes.
Their first semester living together Willow and Tara arranged their schedules to always be near each other.We took a break and then went into the next season of episodes, Season of the Witch, those were not as playtested as much.
They also rearranged classes so they could both come home during the day to watch "Jerry Springer" though they told everyone else it was so they could watch PBS.
Tara's first meal back as a human? Chicago style deep dish pizza. She tried crawfish etouffee but discovered she was in fact still allergic to shellfish.
Tara does not drink at all. She has smoked some pot in the past (mostly highschool) but no longer.
While Willow was in high school she discovered some old journals of Jenny Calendar where she talked about being "outrageously bisexual" with her roommate in college. It made her feel more comfortable about her own questioning sexuality.
Dawn has walked in on Willow and Tara having sex 4 times. Xander has walked in on them 0 times.
Willow can disco. It is not something she is proud of or even talks about, but her father (a HUGE Saturday Night Fever fan) taught Willow how to dance when she was little, she remembers it all to this day.
Willow is ambidextrous, she can write equally well with either hand.
Tara hates ponies. She loves to ride horses but thinks ponies are evil.
Tara has a set of witchcraft ritual tools. She prefers to cast rituals with her athame when she can. Tara discovered that Willow is also capable of using Tara's ritual tools (not something that is normally done).
The Cast has both memories of Tara and memories of her sister Kara. Generally there is no conflict with these.
Tara's mother was named Megan, her grandmother Deidre. Her father's name was Robert. Tara's middle name in Ann. Her brother would tease her and call her "Annie", to this day she hates the name and will not use it.
Dawn knew she was psychic as early as Episode 1. In the finale she was given a glimpse of her futures as well. One where she was a doctor and another where she becomes a physicist.
Anya and Xander split up after a couple of months. They do not get divorced until some time later. I toyed with the idea of Anya also being pregnant and might still do that.
Buffy begins dating the police officer Tony Foster. In one possible future shown by the Mouth of Leviathan she and Tony are married.
Spike is not seen or heard from again. He is rumored to be "alive" somewhere.
Clem the Demon can do complex mathematical calculations in his head.
Giles had a religious upbringing. While his mother was a duty-bound English Watcher, his father was a Irish Catholic. Giles was brought up in both the Catholic and Angelican churches. No wonder he rebelled.
Luna the Seraphim was one of my D&D characters from back in the day. Her original character sheet says she was rolled up in 1982.
Charmed influences abounded. Rack was a "Charmed" style Warlock and had no soul. He was in fact stealing powers from the magical kids in his thrall. Cordy had become a Whitelighter.
The plane of Leviathan was taken from the Monster Smackdown book, it was augmented based on the old Dragon Magazine adventure "Nogard", the demonic wasteland from Charmed and the last planet in the Heavy Metal movie. Leviathan himself is Leviathan from Armageddon. He is demonic as well as a mad god due to all the demonic "souls" he has been feeding on over the millennia.
I'll post the Season of the Witch reports starting next year I think. Holidays coming and all.
Friday, November 12, 2010
The Dragon and the Phoenix: Episode 12
Episode 12: No Other Troy
Yoln: You brought an army to stop me Slayer?
Buffy: No. I brought two.
- Willow and Tara: The Dragon and the Phoenix, Episode 12 “No Other Troy”
Why should I blame her that she filled my days
With misery, or that she would of late
Have taught to ignorant men most violent ways,
Or hurled the little streets upon the great.
Had they but courage equal to desire?
What could have made her peaceful with a mind
That nobleness made simple as a fire,
With beauty like a tightened bow, a kind
That is not natural in an age like this,
Being high and solitary and most stern?
Why, what could she have done, being what she is?
Was there another Troy for her to burn?
- William Butler Yeats, No Second Troy
Oh, I love you
God, I love you
I'd kill a dragon for you
I'll die
But I will rise
And I will return
The Phoenix from the flame
I have learned
I will rise
And you'll see me return
Being what I am
There is no other Troy
For me to burn
- Sinéad O'Connor, Troy
No time, no date (Cast returns on May 19, 2003. Monday)
The cast leads an army of demons and an army of angels to Leviathan’s plane, but they discover it may require the death of one of their own to seal the portal forever. Release the souls of all the Slayer’s Leviathan has been feeding on for years. Buffy must defeat Yoln, but Willow and Tara must find a way to stop a God on his home realm.
Story Arc Elements: Willow and Tara are shown their pasts and futures by the Mouth of Leviathan, how everything they have done was constructed to bring them to this point to allow Leviathan to enter this realm. Leviathan had meant for Willow to be his instrument to be powerful enough to allow him to enter this realm. Tara was the factor he did not count on, her influence was turning Willow away from the path she was on to one more in balance with magic. Without Tara, Leviathan will enter the realm through Willow at anytime he chooses.
Game Mechanics: Stats for various Slayers from the past. Dragons.
Soundtrack: Sinead O’Connor “Drink Before the War” and "Troy". Megadeth “A Tout Le Monde”, Sarah Maclachlan “Elsewhere”
Notes and Comments:
This is the big one. The finale. Designed to be both the series finale for “Buffy” and the start of a new spin-off series “Willow & Tara” and there is a lot going on.
Let’s start with the big stuff. The Cast comes through Dawn’s rift using the Spear as a guide. It takes them to a cave in an outcropping overlooking a valley. A valley filled with demons (40,000 to be exact), when they see Buffy they all begin to shout “Slayer! Slayer!” It was quite a visual.
The first act of course is to get a grip on this new demonic army. The leaders are the Mormo demons from before. The cast is also joined by a smaller, but no less effective, army of angels. Among them is Kara, who has taken Tara’s place in the armies of Heaven. In fact she has surpassed even Tara’s previous achievements. Once the cast can convince the demons and angels to fight together against the forces of Leviathan then the action begins.
For the battles I used the Army of Darkness mass combat rules with Buffy as the general, but I made sure everyone had a chance to shine.
Upon entering the realm of Leviathan the cast notices that their Con and Wills are being drained. So, we have a time limit here. Both Faith and Buffy know that the realm is draining the source of their power, though they can’t figure out why.
Dawn has to hold the portal open, so she is given a group of angels to protect her. Spike has the Hand of Yoln as a weapon and Buffy has the spear.
We spend some time battling the armies of Leviathan. His creatures combine the worse aspects of dragon, snake and demon, for lack of a better word I called them Draconians.
The cast enters Leviathan himself, anyone with a soul takes another hit to Will. Anyone without a soul is absorbed into the walls, floor, everything. Thus newly re-re-ensouled Anya and recently souled Spike are fine. Well, fine as can be. I struggled with this for a bit, do angels have souls? In the end I decided no, they have spirits like demons. So the angels that went in with the cast are lost. This is done for the obvious reasons; the cast needs to shine here, not the armies.
Buffy fights Yoln. Until next season she is the star and the big guy is going after her. Now I don’t know how many of you all use the Original Slayer in games, but she is one deadly character. I had to up Yoln to obscene levels just to deal with her. Faith and Spike are fighting at her sides (I am sure there is metaphor here, but I am not going there) and these three can quickly mow down (and did) most opponents. Spike gets his arm chopped of by Yoln (yeah I did that first too) and dumps the ash out of the glove and puts it back on.
There is truth in Yoln’s quote since this was an adventure I had planned to do for AD&D 1st ed back in 1987. It took place during the same battle as the “flashback” from Episode 5. Then, as in now, the story focused on a battle with Yoln and his Master, then known only as “The Whispering God”, and two lovers; Morganne (the Slayer from episode 5) and a young swordsman. So this adventure had been in the works long before Buffy and crew were ever “born”. Yoln was then a demonic-human that became a death knight.
Anya and Xander meanwhile are off to discover the reason why their “souls” are being drained. They discover that the spirits all of the Slayers that have died before are stuck on Leviathan’s plane. Literally. They are stuck in the wall of the dead god’s flesh and are slowly being consumed. Anya and Xander work to free them while fighting lesser minions (giant white blood cell things). They manage to free some of the Slayers who can fight (but are still dead, but at least now they can move on) till Spike come running up telling them it is a trap.
Willow and Tara confront Leviathan “himself” in the form of The Mouth of Leviathan played by Malcolm McDowell at his evil best.
From the Mouth of Leviathan we learn Leviathan worked through Set and other gods and demons to get things done. He empowered Willow when she first gave Angel back his soul. Willow was supposed to be his instrument, a force strong enough to bring Leviathan into this world, then he would feed on Willow. In a way she was working like another one of my old AD&D influences (or rather my DM’s), Raven from the Teen Titans. Though Willow is not Leviathan’s daughter, he does need her to enter the world.
What Leviathan never worked into his plans was how much of an influence Tara was having. Tara was pulling Willow away from the self-destructive forms of witchcraft (Sorcery) and too the more “natural” Magic. At first he worked on Glory and her minions to redirect Glory to a vulnerable Tara, but that was short lived. The Mouth shows the girls thousands of alternate realities where they are together, but in each one Leviathan manages to kill Tara (or somehow turn Willow) and consume the world. So Leviathan through his agents stopped the bullet from hitting Willow and instead redirected to Tara. The various realities shown are all various fan-fictions of my playtesters and our friends on the Kitten Board. There are also scenes of various alternate versions of Willow and Tara. Lots of ones on their past lives, including one where they both die in Atlantis; a pair of Chinese sorceresses; Liath and Bodhmal from Episode 5 and “The Dark Druid” and others. There are also alternate versions of Tara, the Tara that really was part demon, the nature sprite Tara that Whedon talked about doing, vampire Tara, even the “original” plan for Tara to make her what the Amy character eventually became; the dark magic junkie. The outcome for any alternate though is the same, the destruction of the world.
The mouth offers Willow a choice now, they can leave together, all she needs to do is drain all of her’s and Tara’s magic into Dawn. Then Leviathan will enter the world via Dawn. They can then live on Faith’s old magic dead world. Of course everyone they know or love will die.
Now at this point we had planned to go in a bunch of different directions, but the winning one, the plan that made the most sense won out.
Standing on spires (really his spine) of Leviathan’s plane Willow and Tara see their friends running back to the portal, being perused by devilish, dragon monsters, the armies still fighting. They see torn and battered Slayers limping to attack Leviathan’s creatures, even though they stand no hope of even slowing them down. Meanwhile with Yoln’s death the conduit to the mortal realm is breaking up. Dawn is fighting to keep the portal open and the land (which is really Leviathan himself) is reacting violently with “earth quakes” and volcanoes. The Earth can be seen (blocking out the sun) and rising. The Mouth tells the girls that all Leviathan needs now is enter the world through the gate, either through Willow now or Dawn (since she is holding it open) and then drain his “hosts” magic to manifest fully.
Seeing the death and destruction they realize there is only one way to keep it from getting worse. Grabbing hands, they jump into the gapping maw of Leviathan’s plane. Yup. I went for the “Thelma and Louise” ending.
Now everything goes berserk. Demons are running amok, trying to get out of the place. Angels find they are fighting the hordes of Leviathan AND retreating demons, the land is throwing fits more than ever, and then silence.
From the maw that Willow and Tara threw themselves in comes the reborn Leviathan. He was “force feed” all of Willow’s and Tara’s combined magic. Given the Anamchara rules that is quite a bit. He now stands over 200 feet tall and getting taller by the second, seven heads and full of anger. There is no way he can go through the portal now, so he is going to settle for killing everyone and everything on his plane. Time for the cast to run.
Of course I gave them the chance to get to the portal. Leviathan is chasing them down, roaring in anger. Then I need to decide what I should do with the characters. Leviathan is not a stated out monster, he is pure plot device. But I want the surviving characters to well, survive. Yeah I really, really wanted to off Spike. I felt he was representative of everything that I considered wrong with the show. The plan was that he was going to take the remote detonator for his chip and wait till the armies got on top of him then he was going to blow his own head off. But Garner convinced me otherwise. Plus I was already working on “Season of the Witch” at this point and he never showed there, but I figured I’d need him later. I did in fact for a Ghosts of Albion/Buffy crossover. I wanted to make him into a ghost and said as much very early on, but he ended up being a ghost in Angel, so I figured I could do better than that. So his player and I agreed that Spike was going to buy the rest of the cast time. He stood and fought the on coming demons and draconians to keep them a little bit at bay. That way if I needed him back I could, or if I needed him evil again then I can say Leviathan had been whispering in his ear all this time, the same thing he did to Yoln. At this point anyway I was borrowing heavily from Charmed so Leviathan’s plan was the same as the Demonic Wasteland. There were plenty of powers laying around there for someone with the will to use them. Spike could have come back (and still might who knows) like Cole did in Charmed.
The remaining cast get through the portal. Beaten, broken, but alive. They leave the ruins of the High School (they are shot out of the Hellmouth) and Dawn says the mouth is closed completely.
Cut back to a grey void where Willow and Tara are. Luna, the Seraphim, returns and offers them a choice. They can go to Heaven together as their reward, or the Summerlands if they prefer, or they can be sent back to Earth. Tara will loose some of her divine power she had before (the aura around her that induced fear in demons), but they will let her keep the ability to heal by touch.
They come back and we wrap up the game. Scenes of Xander’s and Anya’s wedding (this time a small private ceremony), Giles ends up catching the bouquet. Buffy’s martial arts class is still a big hit, we see her going on dates with Tony, the cop from Episodes 6 and 7. There are a few demons left in town, but most have cleared off. The last scene is Willow and Tara enjoying themselves (not like that!) at home. I don’t have it my notes, but they talked about how their lives are theirs to do with as they please. At that point Dawn comes in to tell Tara the phone is for her, it is her brother.
Covers
This may be one of my most favorite cover of the series. The idea was to only going to get Willow and Tara fans to write the episodes, play test and do the covers, and in particular only members of the Kitten Board. This one was done by Chris Cook who runs a website devoted to Willow and Tara in every universe. Called “Through the Looking Glass” it has tons of art, stories, and even games for the Willow and Tara fan base. The premise really mirrors that of this episode. I showed the multiverse where Willow and Tara are together in every reality. I also showed that in realities that they are not together are doomed to destruction. Chris shows us the realities where they are together. Have a look, http://www.uberwillowtara.com/ there is even some Dragon and the Phoenix art there as well. The various realities are all from various W/T fan fiction. The sources for them were stories from the Kitten Board, Different Color Pens fiction board and the old Willow and Tara fiction site, Extra Flamey.
And of note. This is my 100th post tagged "witch".
Next time, DS al Coda.
Yoln: You brought an army to stop me Slayer?
Buffy: No. I brought two.
- Willow and Tara: The Dragon and the Phoenix, Episode 12 “No Other Troy”
Why should I blame her that she filled my days
With misery, or that she would of late
Have taught to ignorant men most violent ways,
Or hurled the little streets upon the great.
Had they but courage equal to desire?
What could have made her peaceful with a mind
That nobleness made simple as a fire,
With beauty like a tightened bow, a kind
That is not natural in an age like this,
Being high and solitary and most stern?
Why, what could she have done, being what she is?
Was there another Troy for her to burn?
- William Butler Yeats, No Second Troy
Oh, I love you
God, I love you
I'd kill a dragon for you
I'll die
But I will rise
And I will return
The Phoenix from the flame
I have learned
I will rise
And you'll see me return
Being what I am
There is no other Troy
For me to burn
- Sinéad O'Connor, Troy
No time, no date (Cast returns on May 19, 2003. Monday)
The cast leads an army of demons and an army of angels to Leviathan’s plane, but they discover it may require the death of one of their own to seal the portal forever. Release the souls of all the Slayer’s Leviathan has been feeding on for years. Buffy must defeat Yoln, but Willow and Tara must find a way to stop a God on his home realm.
Story Arc Elements: Willow and Tara are shown their pasts and futures by the Mouth of Leviathan, how everything they have done was constructed to bring them to this point to allow Leviathan to enter this realm. Leviathan had meant for Willow to be his instrument to be powerful enough to allow him to enter this realm. Tara was the factor he did not count on, her influence was turning Willow away from the path she was on to one more in balance with magic. Without Tara, Leviathan will enter the realm through Willow at anytime he chooses.
Game Mechanics: Stats for various Slayers from the past. Dragons.
Soundtrack: Sinead O’Connor “Drink Before the War” and "Troy". Megadeth “A Tout Le Monde”, Sarah Maclachlan “Elsewhere”
Notes and Comments:
This is the big one. The finale. Designed to be both the series finale for “Buffy” and the start of a new spin-off series “Willow & Tara” and there is a lot going on.
Let’s start with the big stuff. The Cast comes through Dawn’s rift using the Spear as a guide. It takes them to a cave in an outcropping overlooking a valley. A valley filled with demons (40,000 to be exact), when they see Buffy they all begin to shout “Slayer! Slayer!” It was quite a visual.
The first act of course is to get a grip on this new demonic army. The leaders are the Mormo demons from before. The cast is also joined by a smaller, but no less effective, army of angels. Among them is Kara, who has taken Tara’s place in the armies of Heaven. In fact she has surpassed even Tara’s previous achievements. Once the cast can convince the demons and angels to fight together against the forces of Leviathan then the action begins.
For the battles I used the Army of Darkness mass combat rules with Buffy as the general, but I made sure everyone had a chance to shine.
Upon entering the realm of Leviathan the cast notices that their Con and Wills are being drained. So, we have a time limit here. Both Faith and Buffy know that the realm is draining the source of their power, though they can’t figure out why.
Dawn has to hold the portal open, so she is given a group of angels to protect her. Spike has the Hand of Yoln as a weapon and Buffy has the spear.
We spend some time battling the armies of Leviathan. His creatures combine the worse aspects of dragon, snake and demon, for lack of a better word I called them Draconians.
The cast enters Leviathan himself, anyone with a soul takes another hit to Will. Anyone without a soul is absorbed into the walls, floor, everything. Thus newly re-re-ensouled Anya and recently souled Spike are fine. Well, fine as can be. I struggled with this for a bit, do angels have souls? In the end I decided no, they have spirits like demons. So the angels that went in with the cast are lost. This is done for the obvious reasons; the cast needs to shine here, not the armies.
Buffy fights Yoln. Until next season she is the star and the big guy is going after her. Now I don’t know how many of you all use the Original Slayer in games, but she is one deadly character. I had to up Yoln to obscene levels just to deal with her. Faith and Spike are fighting at her sides (I am sure there is metaphor here, but I am not going there) and these three can quickly mow down (and did) most opponents. Spike gets his arm chopped of by Yoln (yeah I did that first too) and dumps the ash out of the glove and puts it back on.
“You think you came here to stop me and my lord. You can’t. Everything is in motion, everything had been planned before you were even born. This is not my defeat, this is my apotheosis. You are not heroes.Yoln becomes fully human again (or at least as human as he was before), he tells them it is a trap and the attack start anew. Yoln is stronger now, but can be killed. Buffy does kill him, which just starts the whole place to start exploding.
You are sacrifices.”
- Yoln, the Shadowreaper
There is truth in Yoln’s quote since this was an adventure I had planned to do for AD&D 1st ed back in 1987. It took place during the same battle as the “flashback” from Episode 5. Then, as in now, the story focused on a battle with Yoln and his Master, then known only as “The Whispering God”, and two lovers; Morganne (the Slayer from episode 5) and a young swordsman. So this adventure had been in the works long before Buffy and crew were ever “born”. Yoln was then a demonic-human that became a death knight.
Anya and Xander meanwhile are off to discover the reason why their “souls” are being drained. They discover that the spirits all of the Slayers that have died before are stuck on Leviathan’s plane. Literally. They are stuck in the wall of the dead god’s flesh and are slowly being consumed. Anya and Xander work to free them while fighting lesser minions (giant white blood cell things). They manage to free some of the Slayers who can fight (but are still dead, but at least now they can move on) till Spike come running up telling them it is a trap.
Willow and Tara confront Leviathan “himself” in the form of The Mouth of Leviathan played by Malcolm McDowell at his evil best.
From the Mouth of Leviathan we learn Leviathan worked through Set and other gods and demons to get things done. He empowered Willow when she first gave Angel back his soul. Willow was supposed to be his instrument, a force strong enough to bring Leviathan into this world, then he would feed on Willow. In a way she was working like another one of my old AD&D influences (or rather my DM’s), Raven from the Teen Titans. Though Willow is not Leviathan’s daughter, he does need her to enter the world.
What Leviathan never worked into his plans was how much of an influence Tara was having. Tara was pulling Willow away from the self-destructive forms of witchcraft (Sorcery) and too the more “natural” Magic. At first he worked on Glory and her minions to redirect Glory to a vulnerable Tara, but that was short lived. The Mouth shows the girls thousands of alternate realities where they are together, but in each one Leviathan manages to kill Tara (or somehow turn Willow) and consume the world. So Leviathan through his agents stopped the bullet from hitting Willow and instead redirected to Tara. The various realities shown are all various fan-fictions of my playtesters and our friends on the Kitten Board. There are also scenes of various alternate versions of Willow and Tara. Lots of ones on their past lives, including one where they both die in Atlantis; a pair of Chinese sorceresses; Liath and Bodhmal from Episode 5 and “The Dark Druid” and others. There are also alternate versions of Tara, the Tara that really was part demon, the nature sprite Tara that Whedon talked about doing, vampire Tara, even the “original” plan for Tara to make her what the Amy character eventually became; the dark magic junkie. The outcome for any alternate though is the same, the destruction of the world.
The mouth offers Willow a choice now, they can leave together, all she needs to do is drain all of her’s and Tara’s magic into Dawn. Then Leviathan will enter the world via Dawn. They can then live on Faith’s old magic dead world. Of course everyone they know or love will die.
Now at this point we had planned to go in a bunch of different directions, but the winning one, the plan that made the most sense won out.
Standing on spires (really his spine) of Leviathan’s plane Willow and Tara see their friends running back to the portal, being perused by devilish, dragon monsters, the armies still fighting. They see torn and battered Slayers limping to attack Leviathan’s creatures, even though they stand no hope of even slowing them down. Meanwhile with Yoln’s death the conduit to the mortal realm is breaking up. Dawn is fighting to keep the portal open and the land (which is really Leviathan himself) is reacting violently with “earth quakes” and volcanoes. The Earth can be seen (blocking out the sun) and rising. The Mouth tells the girls that all Leviathan needs now is enter the world through the gate, either through Willow now or Dawn (since she is holding it open) and then drain his “hosts” magic to manifest fully.
Seeing the death and destruction they realize there is only one way to keep it from getting worse. Grabbing hands, they jump into the gapping maw of Leviathan’s plane. Yup. I went for the “Thelma and Louise” ending.
Now everything goes berserk. Demons are running amok, trying to get out of the place. Angels find they are fighting the hordes of Leviathan AND retreating demons, the land is throwing fits more than ever, and then silence.
From the maw that Willow and Tara threw themselves in comes the reborn Leviathan. He was “force feed” all of Willow’s and Tara’s combined magic. Given the Anamchara rules that is quite a bit. He now stands over 200 feet tall and getting taller by the second, seven heads and full of anger. There is no way he can go through the portal now, so he is going to settle for killing everyone and everything on his plane. Time for the cast to run.
Of course I gave them the chance to get to the portal. Leviathan is chasing them down, roaring in anger. Then I need to decide what I should do with the characters. Leviathan is not a stated out monster, he is pure plot device. But I want the surviving characters to well, survive. Yeah I really, really wanted to off Spike. I felt he was representative of everything that I considered wrong with the show. The plan was that he was going to take the remote detonator for his chip and wait till the armies got on top of him then he was going to blow his own head off. But Garner convinced me otherwise. Plus I was already working on “Season of the Witch” at this point and he never showed there, but I figured I’d need him later. I did in fact for a Ghosts of Albion/Buffy crossover. I wanted to make him into a ghost and said as much very early on, but he ended up being a ghost in Angel, so I figured I could do better than that. So his player and I agreed that Spike was going to buy the rest of the cast time. He stood and fought the on coming demons and draconians to keep them a little bit at bay. That way if I needed him back I could, or if I needed him evil again then I can say Leviathan had been whispering in his ear all this time, the same thing he did to Yoln. At this point anyway I was borrowing heavily from Charmed so Leviathan’s plan was the same as the Demonic Wasteland. There were plenty of powers laying around there for someone with the will to use them. Spike could have come back (and still might who knows) like Cole did in Charmed.
The remaining cast get through the portal. Beaten, broken, but alive. They leave the ruins of the High School (they are shot out of the Hellmouth) and Dawn says the mouth is closed completely.
Cut back to a grey void where Willow and Tara are. Luna, the Seraphim, returns and offers them a choice. They can go to Heaven together as their reward, or the Summerlands if they prefer, or they can be sent back to Earth. Tara will loose some of her divine power she had before (the aura around her that induced fear in demons), but they will let her keep the ability to heal by touch.
They come back and we wrap up the game. Scenes of Xander’s and Anya’s wedding (this time a small private ceremony), Giles ends up catching the bouquet. Buffy’s martial arts class is still a big hit, we see her going on dates with Tony, the cop from Episodes 6 and 7. There are a few demons left in town, but most have cleared off. The last scene is Willow and Tara enjoying themselves (not like that!) at home. I don’t have it my notes, but they talked about how their lives are theirs to do with as they please. At that point Dawn comes in to tell Tara the phone is for her, it is her brother.
Covers
This may be one of my most favorite cover of the series. The idea was to only going to get Willow and Tara fans to write the episodes, play test and do the covers, and in particular only members of the Kitten Board. This one was done by Chris Cook who runs a website devoted to Willow and Tara in every universe. Called “Through the Looking Glass” it has tons of art, stories, and even games for the Willow and Tara fan base. The premise really mirrors that of this episode. I showed the multiverse where Willow and Tara are together in every reality. I also showed that in realities that they are not together are doomed to destruction. Chris shows us the realities where they are together. Have a look, http://www.uberwillowtara.com/ there is even some Dragon and the Phoenix art there as well. The various realities are all from various W/T fan fiction. The sources for them were stories from the Kitten Board, Different Color Pens fiction board and the old Willow and Tara fiction site, Extra Flamey.
And of note. This is my 100th post tagged "witch".
Next time, DS al Coda.
Willow & Tara: Cartoon Action Hour Season 2
I have covered a lot of this ground already, but I am surprised I had not actually posted this yet.
To follow-up on my review and write-ups of Cartoon Action Hour 2 I wanted to present my two witches. The power scale here is a bit different than say the Hex Girls, but it is still very do-able in CAH:2. In fact the power scalability here maybe one of Cartoon Action Hour's greatest strength.
So I am obviously going to start with my versions of Willow and Tara from BESM 3.0 and OVA. I think they both do a good job of capturing an "animated universe" version of the girls. CAH should actually do a bit of a better job really since it is so flexible.
With BESM 2r I was going more for a different universe deal. Same characters, different situations. With this I think I am more likely to go with the characters as they are in the Dragon and the Phoenix/Season of the Witch time lines. Just different viewpoint on the same characters and events. Plus it makes filling out the sheets easier since I have a very clear idea of who these characters are and what their motives are.
So going with Season 3 here there are somethings that are new to the world. Like for example everyone knows magic is real. While they don't hide they are witches they do hide how powerful they really are.
(For details on this world, you will have to wait till I post all of "Season of the Witch".)
Willow Rosenberg
Series: Willow and Tara, Season 3
Group: Willow and Tara
Appearance: Attractive 20-something woman with red hair.
Factoids
- Is off-the-charts smart
- Fantastic computer hacker
- Is a witch and can do magic
- Is in love with Tara
- Sold her computer company at age 25 so is very rich
- Can still be a bit insecure
Subplots
- Has anger issues
- Secret: Brought down the veil between worlds (outed magic)
- Fears loosing Tara and loosing control of her powers
- has made a number of enemies
Traits
Witch (Spell Caster Cluster), 8 (24 points)
- TK (manipulate)
- Arcane Blast (attack)
- Shield (defend)
- Magical Sight (can see magical creatures, magical forces in the earth) (misc.)
Attractive 2
Computer Expert/Hacker, AF 6
Monster Hunter 2
Occult Scholar 5
Anger issues x1
Secrets x2
Base Oomph 5
Threshold 18
Battle Rating 8
Tara Mclay
Series: Willow and Tara, Season 3
Group: Willow and Tara
Appearance: Attractive 20-something woman with blonde hair.
Factoids
- Is empathic
- Artist
- Is a witch and can do magic
- Is in love with Willow
- Is a councilor
- Can heal by touch
Subplots
- Secret: Brought down the veil between worlds (outed magic)
- Fears Willow loosing control of her powers
- has made a number of enemies
Traits
Witch (Spell Caster Cluster), 7 (22 points)
- TK (manipulate)
- Arcane Blast (attack)
- Shield (defend)
- Magical Sight (can see magical creatures, magical forces in the earth) (misc.)
Attractive 1
Books of Spells
- Albus Codex 2
- Journals of Tamara Swift 2
- Journals of Megan Mclay 2
Familar (MKF, adds +2 to Oomph), 4
Healing Touch (revives), AF 3
Monster Hunter 2
Occult Scholar 5
Secrets x2
Base Oomph 5+2 (7)
Threshold 19
Battle Rating 7
To follow-up on my review and write-ups of Cartoon Action Hour 2 I wanted to present my two witches. The power scale here is a bit different than say the Hex Girls, but it is still very do-able in CAH:2. In fact the power scalability here maybe one of Cartoon Action Hour's greatest strength.
Keeping with the 80's vibe of the game, I'll use pictures of action figures.
With BESM 2r I was going more for a different universe deal. Same characters, different situations. With this I think I am more likely to go with the characters as they are in the Dragon and the Phoenix/Season of the Witch time lines. Just different viewpoint on the same characters and events. Plus it makes filling out the sheets easier since I have a very clear idea of who these characters are and what their motives are.
So going with Season 3 here there are somethings that are new to the world. Like for example everyone knows magic is real. While they don't hide they are witches they do hide how powerful they really are.
(For details on this world, you will have to wait till I post all of "Season of the Witch".)
Willow Rosenberg
Group: Willow and Tara
Appearance: Attractive 20-something woman with red hair.
Factoids
- Is off-the-charts smart
- Fantastic computer hacker
- Is a witch and can do magic
- Is in love with Tara
- Sold her computer company at age 25 so is very rich
- Can still be a bit insecure
Subplots
- Has anger issues
- Secret: Brought down the veil between worlds (outed magic)
- Fears loosing Tara and loosing control of her powers
- has made a number of enemies
Traits
Witch (Spell Caster Cluster), 8 (24 points)
- TK (manipulate)
- Arcane Blast (attack)
- Shield (defend)
- Magical Sight (can see magical creatures, magical forces in the earth) (misc.)
Attractive 2
Computer Expert/Hacker, AF 6
Monster Hunter 2
Occult Scholar 5
Anger issues x1
Secrets x2
Base Oomph 5
Threshold 18
Battle Rating 8
Tara Mclay
Group: Willow and Tara
Appearance: Attractive 20-something woman with blonde hair.
Factoids
- Is empathic
- Artist
- Is a witch and can do magic
- Is in love with Willow
- Is a councilor
- Can heal by touch
Subplots
- Secret: Brought down the veil between worlds (outed magic)
- Fears Willow loosing control of her powers
- has made a number of enemies
Traits
Witch (Spell Caster Cluster), 7 (22 points)
- TK (manipulate)
- Arcane Blast (attack)
- Shield (defend)
- Magical Sight (can see magical creatures, magical forces in the earth) (misc.)
Attractive 1
Books of Spells
- Albus Codex 2
- Journals of Tamara Swift 2
- Journals of Megan Mclay 2
Familar (MKF, adds +2 to Oomph), 4
Healing Touch (revives), AF 3
Monster Hunter 2
Occult Scholar 5
Secrets x2
Base Oomph 5+2 (7)
Threshold 19
Battle Rating 7
Thursday, November 11, 2010
D&D4 Essentials: Druids and Rangers
So long time readers here know of my struggles with finding a good druid in D&D4. When the Player's Handbook 2 came out I was thrilled. I was getting a Druid and Bard class. Well the druid class was very disappointing to me. Concept wise it was more of a shaman than the shaman was i thought.
You can read the details of my search here:
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2009/07/hybrid-class-playtest-and-character_28.html
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2009/08/few-updates.html
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2009/08/bodhmall-druidess-er-nature-priestess.html
In particular that last link where I attempt to re-build a character I have played in the past. Bodhmall is a druidess from the Fenian Cycle of Irish myth. She was one of the fosters of Fionn MacCumhail. Fionn, Bodhmall and Liath all feature rather prominently in the myths of my modern-era Unisystem games. So I have a pretty clear idea of who Bodhmall and Liath are and D&D4 didn't cut it. I was ok with Liath as a Ranger, and I'll admit I opted to change a few things about the character to fit the Ranger idea more.
Well now I have "Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms" and all of that has now changed.
The new Druid class, the Sentinel, is almost EXACTLY what I wanted a druid to be. No more shape-shifting half-bestial attacks, the new Druid has an animal companion and no sight of any shape change. The powers do reflect what I want in a druid, though still not a perfect fit for Bodhmall. Though there is a simple fix for that. I can take some of the powers from PHB2's druid that I want. Things like "Primal Storm" come to mind and the Paragon Path "Keeper of the Hidden Flame" which is almost exactly what I had in mind for Bodhmall.
So not a 100% fit, but certainly 95%.
Her animal companion is a wolf; something that I did for a slightly different version of Bodhmall back in 3e. So I am pleased with that. Her wolf companion is named Cú Chulainn after the legendary hero.
Liath, her trusted companion and body guard (not that see will need this later on), is one of the new Scout sub-classes of Ranger. She takes the two weapon fighting and the wilderness tracker knack.
Bodhmall nic Tadg
1st Level Druid (Sentinel)
Human Female, Good Alignment, Deity: Brigit
HP: 26, Surges: 9
Initiative: +0 Speed: +6
Skills: Arcana +7, Heal +11, Insight +9, Nature +9, History +7
Languages: Common, Draconic, Elven, Giant, Goblin, Primordial
Feats: Linguist, Jack-of-All Trades (both fit with my concept that Tadg, Bodhmall's father was a Druid of great learning and passed this down to his daughter).
Acolyte of the Natural Cycle: Druid of Spring
Prof: Staffs, Totems, Scimitar.
+1 Scimitars, spears, daggers and sickles
Animal companion: Wolf
Combined Attack
Healing Word
Reap the Harvest
Shillelagh
Herb Lore
Weapons: Staff (+2, 1d8), Scimitar (+3, 1d8)
Leather Armor (+2)
Liath Luchara
You can read the details of my search here:
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2009/07/hybrid-class-playtest-and-character_28.html
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2009/08/few-updates.html
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2009/08/bodhmall-druidess-er-nature-priestess.html
In particular that last link where I attempt to re-build a character I have played in the past. Bodhmall is a druidess from the Fenian Cycle of Irish myth. She was one of the fosters of Fionn MacCumhail. Fionn, Bodhmall and Liath all feature rather prominently in the myths of my modern-era Unisystem games. So I have a pretty clear idea of who Bodhmall and Liath are and D&D4 didn't cut it. I was ok with Liath as a Ranger, and I'll admit I opted to change a few things about the character to fit the Ranger idea more.
Well now I have "Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms" and all of that has now changed.
The new Druid class, the Sentinel, is almost EXACTLY what I wanted a druid to be. No more shape-shifting half-bestial attacks, the new Druid has an animal companion and no sight of any shape change. The powers do reflect what I want in a druid, though still not a perfect fit for Bodhmall. Though there is a simple fix for that. I can take some of the powers from PHB2's druid that I want. Things like "Primal Storm" come to mind and the Paragon Path "Keeper of the Hidden Flame" which is almost exactly what I had in mind for Bodhmall.
So not a 100% fit, but certainly 95%.
Her animal companion is a wolf; something that I did for a slightly different version of Bodhmall back in 3e. So I am pleased with that. Her wolf companion is named Cú Chulainn after the legendary hero.
Liath, her trusted companion and body guard (not that see will need this later on), is one of the new Scout sub-classes of Ranger. She takes the two weapon fighting and the wilderness tracker knack.
Bodhmall nic Tadg
Human Female, Good Alignment, Deity: Brigit
| Abilities | Defenses |
| AC: 14 | |
| STR: 10 | Fort: 15 |
| CON: 14 | |
| DEX: 10 | Ref: 13 |
| INT: 14 | |
| WIS: 18 | Will: 15 |
| CHA: 11 |
HP: 26, Surges: 9
Initiative: +0 Speed: +6
Skills: Arcana +7, Heal +11, Insight +9, Nature +9, History +7
Languages: Common, Draconic, Elven, Giant, Goblin, Primordial
Feats: Linguist, Jack-of-All Trades (both fit with my concept that Tadg, Bodhmall's father was a Druid of great learning and passed this down to his daughter).
Acolyte of the Natural Cycle: Druid of Spring
Prof: Staffs, Totems, Scimitar.
+1 Scimitars, spears, daggers and sickles
Animal companion: Wolf
Combined Attack
Healing Word
Reap the Harvest
Shillelagh
Herb Lore
Weapons: Staff (+2, 1d8), Scimitar (+3, 1d8)
Leather Armor (+2)
Liath Luchara
1st Level Ranger (Scout)
Half-Elf Female, Good Alignment, Deity: Brigit
Abilities | Defenses |
AC: 16 | |
STR: 10 | Fort: 11 |
CON: 10 | |
DEX: 18 | Ref: 14 |
INT: 10 | |
WIS: 16 | Will: 14 |
CHA: 11 |
HP: 22, Surges: 7
Initiative: +4 Speed: +6
Skills: Endurance +5, Stealth +9, Heal +8, Insight +5, Nature +7, Perception +10, Diplomacy +2
Languages: Common, Elven, Giant,
Feats: Alertness
Knack for Success
Flashing Blade Mastery
Dual Weapon Attack (Dex vs. AC)
Prof: Simple Melee and Ranged,Military Melee and Ranged
Attack finesse (dex instead of str)
Power Strike
Aspect of the Cunning Fox
Wilderness Tracker
Weapons: Spear (+6, 1d8), Short Sword (+7, 1d6)
Leather Armor (+2)
Now how does this Bodhmal compare to the one I had done before? Well the "Nature Priest" from Advanced Player’s Guide is still rather close. But this new Sentinel Druid is much better now. I could for my own games see Druid as a Parent Class and have three sub-classes, Beast Master, Nature Priest and Sentinel. Sorta like we did back in the AD&D 2nd ed days.
All in all I am very pleased with the changes to the classes in Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms. I have some Warlocks I want to do next.
All in all I am very pleased with the changes to the classes in Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms. I have some Warlocks I want to do next.
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