Willow & Tara: World of Darkness (new)

Willow and Tara in Mage the Awakening

Following up on my post from earlier today on The World of Darkness RPG.

One of the reoccurring themes in Willow & Tara fiction or games is their shared growth of magical power.  As they grow together and grow more in love, their powers increase to a near phenomenal level.  Sort of like the powers wielded in Mage the Awakening.

Now in my last Buffy campaign, "Season of the Witch", I had Willow and Tara become "mages".  Not exactly what is here, but very close.  I would be lying though if I didn't say there was some influence. There was. You can read about that in the last three adventures of that game:

• Episode 11: The Burning Times
• Episode 12: Torn
• Episode 13: All Along the Watchtower

This is also a common theme in the various Willow & Tara fanfics out there. In fact one of the best Willow/Tara fan fics out there is “Unexpected Consequences” by Lisa Countryman.  Lisa even uses the word “mage” to describe their power level even though I know for a fact she has never seen any White Wolf game.  In Lisa’s “Unexpected Consequences” Tara’s Awakening happens too soon and it causes, well, all sorts of unexpected consequences.  It takes place during season six and is far, far better than what happened on TV.  In the sequel fic “Milestones” Lisa deals quite well with Willow and Tara’s true Awakening some 10-15 years in the future.  Not only does she capture 30-something Willow and Tara quite well, it is an excellent narrative of how an Awakening can happen or be done.  Willow and Tara knew it was coming, and yet they are still totally unprepared for it.  It also shows what an Awakening must be like through the eyes of a mundane or other non-awakened witches.

So as they grow old together Willow and Tara will get much more powerful.

Presented here are a possible Willow and Tara right after the events of Season of the Witch.  I am borrowing heavy from Lisa here as well as my own World of Darkness (old) stats.  This would have lead up to my Season 3 that would have been more magically focus. In fact these conversions lead right from my Mutants & Masterminds 2.0 conversions in terms of when they happened (game wise) and when I wrote them (real time).  It was because of these two games that gave me the idea to move the girls to Boston.

Their Awakening in Brief
Lisa and I both consider Willow and Tara to be “old souls”, they have both been reincarnated many times and have shared many lives together.  Our separate visions of this were so compatible that we meshed them.  I had considered their first incarnations to be “Bodhmal” (Willow) and “Liath” (Tara) from Celtic Ireland, Lisa’s are “Belen” (Tara) and “Damara” (Willow).  In either case Willow and Tara’s Awakening in Mage is a similar event to awakening their Old Soul in WitchCraft; contact with their primal soul-selves. In Mage Revised this would have been their avatar. In Mage the Awakening this is the primal spirit that instructs them on who they were, who they are now and what they are to become.  I choose them both to take the Path of Thyrsus.  While they are not really “shamans”, there is an earthy quality about Tara.  It was more for their seeking of their Primordial Soul-selves. Plus in Lisa’s fiction Willow and Tara’s awakenings was always about a surplus of life and life-power. In UC Tara becomes faster, stronger and more confident.  Something she tries to maintain later in MS. What also struck me was the description of the Thyrsus’ extreme emotions.  This also fits Lisa’s fictions.

Delving deeper into the “Tome of The Watchtowers” (which also inspired the name for Episode 13) we learn that Thyrsus was the only Watchtower formed by a woman. The sexual nimbus fits with sex=magic we saw on TV and Lisa’s description of Adourflame (Episode 11).

I could have chosen Acanthus as well since this communication with their previous souls is across time and space, but I did not feel either of them fit the “Fool” or extremely lucky archetypes.

Willow Rosenberg

Path: Thyrsus   Order: Mysterium

Virtue: Justice. Willow is very much about what is right and what is wrong.
Vice: Wrath.  Some people bring a gun a knife fit, Willow brings a flame thrower.

Attributes
Intelligence: 5	Strength: 1	Presence: 3
Wits: 3	Dexterity: 2	Manipulation: 2
Resolve: 3	Stamina: 3	Composure: 3

Skills
Mental	Physical	Social
Academics 4	Athletics 2	Animal Ken 0
Computer 5	Brawl 1	Empathy 1
Crafts 1	Drive 0	Expression 1
Investigation 2	Firearms 0	Intimidation 1
Medicine 2	Larceny 1	Persuasion 2
Occult 3	Stealth 1	Socialize 1
Politics 1	Survival 1	Streetwise 1
Science 4	Weaponry 1	Subterfuge 1

Merits
Allies
Ambidextrous
Encyclopaedic Knowledge
Language 2     
Striking looks 2
Size: 5
Speed: 8
Initiative Mod: 4
Defence: 2
Health: 8
Willpower: 6/6
Morality: 6



Mana: 9
Gnosis: 5
Wisdom: 8



Personal Data
Age: 27 (in 2008)
Ht: 5’3”
Wt: 115#
Hair: Red
Eyes: Green
Gender: Female


Arcana

Death: 0
Fate: 0
Forces: 3
Life: 2
Matter: 1
Mind: 2
Prime: 2
Space: 0
Spirit: 1
Time: 0




Tara Maclay

Path: Thyrsus   Order: Mysterium

Virtue: Temperance. Tara is nothing if not understanding and temperate
Vice: Sloth. She is not lazy, but she likes things to move a little slower. She does not enjoy fighting monsters.

Attributes
Intelligence: 3	Strength: 2	Presence: 3
Wits: 4	Dexterity: 1	Manipulation: 1
Resolve: 3	Stamina: 3	Composure: 4

Skills
Mental	Physical	Social
Academics 3	Athletics 0	Animal Ken 2
Computer 2	Brawl 1	Empathy 3
Crafts 1	Drive 1	Expression 0
Investigation 2	Firearms 0	Intimidation 0
Medicine 1	Larceny 0	Persuasion 0
Occult 5	Stealth	Socialize 1
Politics 0	Survival 1	Streetwise 1
Science 1	Weaponry 1	Subterfuge 0

Merits
Allies
Encyclopaedic Knowledge
Language 3
Striking looks 2
Size: 5
Speed: 9
Initiative Mod: 4
Defence: 2
Health: 8
Willpower: 7/7
Morality: 8

Mana: 10
Gnosis: 4
Wisdom: 8

Arcana

Death: 0
Fate: 0
Forces: 2
Life: 3
Matter: 1
Mind: 2
Prime: 1
Space: 0
Spirit: 1
Time: 0


Personal Data
Age: 28 (in 2008)
Ht: 5’4”
Wt: 125#
Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Blue
Gender: Female

Of all the re-builds I have done of the girls these are in my top 5.
If I were to pick-up playing these characters again I would seriously consider using the nWoD/Mage rules.

For Arcana I gave Willow 11 dots and Tara 10.  This actually might be a little light.
I would love to play around some more with this game some day, but I can't find people to play it.

---

This is my last post for the YAM Magazine LBGT Blogathon.  I wanted to end with Willow & Tara and using one of the most accepting RPG I have ever known.

The Dark Druid

Something different today for the YAM Magazine LBGT Blogathon.  Today, not a character so much as characters  and an adventure.  I wanted to repost a link to the first ever Buffy adventure I ever wrote; updated to feature Willow & Tara more prominently.  Also updated with a new download link.
Originally posted here in 2010.


The Dark Druid: The Director's Cut

- Download here -

A bit of history.  Back in 2002 Eden was getting ready to release their newest game, The Buffy the Vampire Slayer game.  As you may know, I had already been playing a Willow/Tara focused WitchCraft game for about a year, so I was pretty excited by this.  Well I got asked by Eden to write the first Buffy adventure that would appear in "Games Unplugged" along with an interview with C.J. Carella talking about the game.

I took an idea I had been working on for my other game (tentatively called "All Soul's Night") and thus the Dark Druid was born.

I had been reading a ton of Irish myths then.  Among those were the stories of Fionn MacCumhaill ("Finn MacCool") and his foster mothers Bodhmal and Liath.  It occurred to me that Liath and Bodhmal were lovers, and to tie it more directly to my work in Buffy, they were reincarnated later on into the form of Willow and Tara.   Since that time anytime I read a story about Fionn MacCumhaill I can't help but read Bodhmal and Liath as lovers.

The original featured, rather prominently, Willow and Tara, as to be expected.  I had to make some changes to make it playable for others and to make it an "intro" or season opener type episode.  The plot dealt with an enemy from the Cast's past as a portent to greater evil in the future.  It was designed to be a opening episode of the season, but one that may or may not be directly related to the seasonal arc.  We were going to use this i n part of the great "Djinn" story, but that never happened.

Fast forward a few years and I was finishing up work on Ghosts of Albion and another adventure that sprang from "All Soul's Night" called "Blight" (which I have played at Gen Con before).  I felt it was time to bring back the Dark Druid and restore it to the mythology that I had created in my games.  Now you can have it too.  So it became a Prequel or an Episode 0 for my huge Willow & Tara series, The Dragon and the Phoenix.  This adventure and the Dragon adventures were designed to feature Willow and Tara.  My players were extremely pissed off at Tara being killed, so this was our way of getting our own way.

I updated it not only to fit better with my world-myths, and with some of the work I did on Ghosts of Albion and the adventure Blight.  In fact you can run Blight and The Dark Druid as co-adventures, separated by time.

The story is rather direct and linear.  This was partly due to the nature of the story and what is was supposed to do (introduce new players to the game) and part of just me writing for the Buffy game for the first time.  I have opted not to change that here, despite nearly 10 years of Cinematic Unisystem adventure writing since then.  It is supposed to be a quick, fun little adventure dealing with past lives.

The episode was well received and even has a bit on Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffyverse_role-playing_games#Adventures

It was the first. The start of a series of adventures that led me personally down a crazy path.  It's hard to gauge the effect it has had, it was so fundamental.  From this point my writing increased maybe a 100 or 500 fold.  Hard to say really.

Willow and Tara Digital Comics

I don't read the Buffy comics. No desire really, and the world I had created with the RPG was far more interesting to me anyway. 

But when Amber Benson and Christopher Golden team up to write a Willow & Tara based comic, well how can I possibly say no?

This month Dark Horse re-released the two (well three, two stories in three books) Willow & Tara comics.  Wanna Blessed Be and Wilderness. 

You can get them here:

Willow & Tara: Wanna Blessed Be

Willow & Tara: Wilderness

I enjoyed the heck out these and went ahead and bought them again in digital format.

I ran a Ghosts of Albion adventure loosely based on these, it seemed appropriate.  The adventure still needs some work, but I do like it.  And it has a pedigree. 

So here they are.  Thought you might like to check them out.

Now if someone would make a comic of the Dragon and the Phoenix I'd be thrilled to death! 

More Free Downloads

In the interest of providing you, the reader of the Other Side, only the finest in gaming accessories I give you a couple more more character sheets I have used in the past.

• Willow & Tara RPG Sheet
• Willow & RPG Character Journal

These were designed for my "Willow & Tara RPG", which was a mix of Eden's Buffy, WitchCraft and Ghosts of Albion games.

The Character sheet is a one page deal.  The Journal is nine pages to track everything for your Unisystem character.

Willow and Tara: Marvel Heroic Roleplaying

I am still playing around a bit with Marvel Heroic Roleplaying now that I have seen it out in the stores.  Saw a copy at my local Barnes & Nobel last night in fact.  I thought this might be appropriate for today.

"Willow and Tara" by David Reynolds

Willow and Tara in the Marvelverse
I have to admit, that anytime I think about the girls in a super hero universe I always think of it in terms of DC.  But the roleplaying and character development aspects of MHR are too good to ignore.
I have already done up my two DC go-to characters Zatanna and Justice with this system.  And I have stated up Willow and Tara in one other version of Cortex in the past.

For the girls in this universe I'll start with the assumptions that the events in my previous games, The Dragon and The Phoenix and Season of the Witch happened.  In fact even though this game was not part of the original plan it would work fine as part of the Generation HEX season I started and never finished.


Name: Willow
ID: Willow D. Rosenberg (public)
Age: 32 (2012)

Base of Operations: Boston, MA

Affiliations: Solo d8, Buddy d10, Team d6  (Willow in highschool was certainly more Team, but this is an older Willow)

Distinctions:
Bad Ass Wicca
Technophile
Quick to Anger

Power Sets
Sorcery d10
Magical Spells d10, Blast d10, Senses (magical) d10, Teleport d10, Telekinesis d10
Limit: Conscious Effort
SFX: Versatile
SFX: Area Attack

Anamchara d10  (Willow and Tara can combine their powers)
"I will always find you." (Telepathy) d8,  "I am you know...yours" (Combine) d10
Limit: Distance/focus
SFX: Multipower
SFX: Boost

Specialties 
Mystic d10
Tech d10
Cosmic d8
Science d8

Milestones
Magic
1xp You uncover some plot that is magical in nature.
3xp You discover some new magical tome or artifact.
10xp You defeat the main villain without magic.

Anger
1xp When you loose your temper
3xp When someone you are helping takes trauma
10 xp When your anger threatens the world, or saves it.

Willow in "Generation HEX" is one of the most power spell casters in the world.  But her own issues surrounding her anger still plague her.  She has turned to magic as a means of not just obtaining control over her situation, but of herself.  She is slowly getting there.


Name: Tara
ID: Tara A. Maclay (public)
Age: 33 (2012)

Base of Operations: Boston, MA

Affiliations: Solo d6, Buddy d10, Team d8  (Tara does best with Willow or in a group)

Distinctions:
Witchy Woman
Loyal
"Tara hide your magic" - Tara is a deep, quiet, well of magical power, but she has been told her whole life to hide it.

Power Sets
Sorcery d10
Magical Spells d10, Blast d8, Senses (magical) d10, Telekinesis d10
Limit: Conscious Effort
SFX: Versatile
SFX: Healing

Anamchara d10  (Willow and Tara can combine their powers)
"I will always find you." (Telepathy) d8,  "I am you know...yours" (Combine) d10
Limit: Distance/focus
SFX: Multipower
SFX: Boost

Specialties 
Mystic d10
Psych d10
Cosmic d8
Science d8

Milestones
Magic
1xp You uncover some plot that is magical in nature.
3xp You discover some new magical tome or artifact.
10xp You defeat the main villain without magic.

Soulmates
1xp When you or Willow are dragged into a problem together
3xp When someone uses you to get to Willow or visa-versa
10 xp When you have to work together after being apart to stop the threat

Tara is more self-actualized than Willow is.  She knows and accepts the dangers and responsibilities of her power.  What she is most afraid of is loosing Willow; either to death or darkness.   In my games the girls have seen many alternate realities, any reality without a Tara in it results in Willow turning evil and destroying things.

Willow and Tara have a lot of linked powers and milestones, as to be expected given their lives together.

To follow along with the Generation HEX plot ideas, they are living in Boston teaching at a school that has a lot of magical kids enrolled.  In my game they would of course know of Zatanna and I would still have to say they are not up to her power level on their own, combined though they could give Zee a run for her money. Not that they would mind you, Tara is a HUGE fan of Zatanna, I have this on authority.

Of course this would also be a good episode to have the girl visit the wilds of Canada and check out the Cave of Cool.

Willow and Tara: Doctor Who Adventures in Time & Space

I think it is an obvious conclusion, but if Willow and Tara had been characters during Russel T. Davies run of Doctor Who, they would have fared far, far better than they did on some other show.  Heck even under Steven  "Tipping the Scales" Moffat they would have been better off.

But that is the fantastic thing about RPGs.  They let us go places and do things we otherwise never could.

So what you have Willow and Tara been like as companions to the Doctor?

Willow, the Doctor, Tara and the Dodecahedron (my clock-face d12)

Well let's take them back a bit to when they were younger, maybe when Tara first showed up on the show.  Given that it is tempting then to use my WitchCraft RPG stats as a point of origin.  But there is an issue with that.  There is no magic really in the Doctor Who universe.  There are plenty of things that look like it and there are psychic abilities, but nothing like the magic I typically have the girls doing.  So for completeness sake I am going to look at stats I did about the same time the 10th Doctor was doing his thing. Something like my Fudge, Chill or Mutants and Masterminds stats. So maybe instead I'll go with their ages then.

So here is an idea.  Play up Willow's tech back ground a lot more.  She becomes, what is known in the game is a Boffin. Some one that can argue with the Doctor on tech and science. Sort of like what River Song can do now or how Romana was.   Tara is still shy and quiet, but she has a very good reason, she is psychic.  Like scary psychic. Makes for some great plots and gives me something weird and alien to work with, maybe even giving her some Carrionite ancestry.

I like it.

Willow Rosenberg (circa 2006)

Story Points: 12

Attributes
Awareness 2
Coordination 2
Ingenuity 6
Presence 3
Resolve 4
Strength 2

Skills
Athletics 1
Convince 1
Craft 2
Fighting 1
Knowledge 4
Marksman 0
Medicine 2
Science 4
Subterfuge 0
Survival 1
Technology 4
Transport 1

Traits
Ambidextrous (not in the book, but in my reality), Attractive, Boffin, Photographic Memory, Technically Adept, Insatiable Curiosity

Equipment
Laptop, Smart Phone (PDA Phone)

Home Tech Level: 5

Nationality: American
Profession: Software Engineer
Education: B.S. in Computer Science, 2003 University of California, Magna Cum Laude


Tara Maclay (circa 2006)

Story Points: 10 (2 points used)

Attributes
Awareness 4
Coordination 2
Ingenuity 4
Presence 2
Resolve 3
Strength 3

Skills
Athletics 1
Convince 0
Craft 1
Fighting 1
Knowledge 3
Marksman 0
Medicine 1
Science 2
Subterfuge 1
Survival 1
Technology 2
Transport 1

Traits
Attractive, Animal Friendship, Empathic, Psychic, Telekinesis, Telepathy, Code of Conduct, Eccentric

Equipment
Cellphone

Home Tech Level: 5

Nationality: American
Profession: Part time QMHP.
Education: B.A. in Art History, 2003 University of Southern California, Cum Laude,
M.A. in Psychology, Counseling emphasis, 2005 University of Southern California.

Looks good to me.  Now to see if they will ever run into Vastra and Jenny.

What Does "The Dragon and the Phoenix" sound like?

What does the first season of my Willow & Tara game, "The Dragon and The Phoenix" sound like?


Episode 0



Episode 1





Episode 2



Episode 3



Episode 6





Episode 7



Episode 8





Episode 9



Episode 10





Episode 11



Episode 12









A little like that.

Zombies vs. Robots

IDW has a new series of short stories up called "Zombies vs. Robots".
I'll admit I knew nothing about it but today my friend (and Ghosts of Albion RPG co-writer) Amber Benson has a new book out in the series.

Zombies vs. Robots: Mademoiselle Consuela and Her Army of One

She is also running a contest around the book and you could win a lunch with her over Skype.
So go. Download.  99 cents won't buy you much, but it will get you Amber's newest book.  And would make her happy.  Unless of course you have something against happy.

In other Amber/Tara news, Zap2It is running a poll on the most "crush worthy" dearly departed TV character.  If you enjoy my blog, pop over and give "Tara Maclay" a vote.
http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2012/02/tvs-most-crushworthy-dearly-departed-mischa-barton-ian-somerhalder-amber-benson-vote-now.html

Willow & Tara: World of Darkness (old)

I have been going over a ton of my old books and looking at what I want to keep, what I want to give to my kids and what I want to get rid of.  I cam across some old World of Darkness stuff the other day and I am not 100% sure what I am going to do with it yet.  Most likely sell it all in my local game auctions.  But considering that I have wanted to do some posting on my girls, I thought this would be a good choice.

I never really got into the original World of Darkness.  I did have Vampire the Masquerade and I recognized why and how it was good, but at the time I had also just discovered WitchCraft, so that was the game I had chosen to scratch my Modern-Supernatural itches.

Though I did really like Mage. A lot. I really like Sorcerer's Crusade, I thought it was a really cool idea and much more interesting than Mage the Ascension.  That lead me to Sorcerer: The Hedge Wizard's Handbook, which is not part of Sorcerer's Crusade, but part of modern Mage.  But I am glad I made that mistake, since I really liked this book and it made me look again at the World of Darkness.

For Willow's and Tara's stats in the old World of Darkness I am opting to use Sorcerer: The Hedge Wizard's Handbook instead of Mage proper for a couple of reasons.

First, it is obvious that in the first five seasons of the show Willow learned magic from books and self study. Tara learned from her grandmother and mother.  Plus, Season Sux (what I have been calling it that for years) aside, neither Tara nor Willow achieve the power levels in Mage. Sorcerer handles everything nicely. I also happen to like Sorcerer a little bit better than Mage anyway.  Now of course in my own games, especially in "Season of the Witch" the girls do achieve Mage like power levels.  I'll detail that on a future posting when I talk about new WoD.

What works nice with this version is that it mirrors my WitchCraft/early Buffy stats, and then once I got the characters on my own I took them to Ghosts of Albion, and even the "new" Mage..

Of course I never did use these versions.  I did use the Mage: The Awakening versions in one game way back when it first came out, but that is about it.

Willow Rosenberg

Nature: Sage	Society: None
Demeanor:	Mentor: None
Concept: Wicca

Atributes

Strength: 1	Charisma: 2	Perception: 2
Dexterity: 2	Manipulation: 2	Intelligence: 5
Stamina: 3	Appearance: 3	Wits: 3

Abilities

Talents	Skills	Knowledge
Alertness 1	Leadership 2	Computer 5
Instruction 2	Research 5	Enigmas 2
Intimidation 1	Survival 1	Investigation 2
		Medicine 1
		Occult 3
		Science 4

Paths	Backgrounds
Conjuration: 3	Arcane: 1
Enchantment: 2	Library: 5
Ephemera: 1	Relic: 1 (Doll’s Eye Crystal)
Hellfire: 3	Status: 2
Herbalism: 2
Counterspells
Warding

Tara Maclay

Nature: Sage	Society: None
Demeanor:	Mentor: None
Concept: Wicca

Atributes

Strength: 2	Charisma: 3	Perception: 3
Dexterity: 1	Manipulation: 1	Intelligence: 3
Stamina: 3	Appearance: 3	Wits: 4

Abilities

Talents	Skills	Knowledge
Alertness 1	Animal Ken 2	Cosmology 3
Expression 1	Research 4	Enigmas 2
Instruction 2	Survival 2	Investigation 2
		Linguistics 2
		Lore 1
		Occult 2

Paths	Backgrounds
Conjuration: 3	Arcane: 2
Enchantment: 2	Library: 5
Healing: 2	Status: 4
Herbalism: 3
Counterspells
Warding

Looking Forward to 2012: Willow and Tara

I have been missing my Friday Willow and Tara posts.

I have been reading and re-reading a ton of my old supers games (and new ones) and I have been thinking that maybe I need to revive Generation HEX.  I think it would be a good time and frankly, I miss the girls.

Expect to see some supers related posts in 2012.

Willow & Tara: DC Heroes

DC Heroes from Mayfair Games was one of the "Big Games" for me back in the day.  One of those games that was like entering into an entire sub-culture, not just a game.  You know like old World of Darkness, Call of Cthulhu, Rifts or Exalted.  One where they have their fans and they are very loyal and the entry seems to be a bit high.

I loved DC comics at the time, though I was slowly going over to Marvel.  I never got into DC Heroes.  Villains & Vigilantes seemed easier to get into coming from D&D and when I finally got back around to Supers, it was Marvel Super Heroes.  I feel I missed out on something though to be honest.

DC Heroes has a certain style to it.  A certain elegance I see now on the other side of several graduate level statistics courses.  It is a game I'd love to give another chance too. Course parts of it seem pretty dated too. Tables with "column shifts" and exploding doubles.  Course that sounds exactly like the kind of thing that would get the OSR's blood pumping.  I also like it because in many ways DC Heroes is the antidote to "grimdark" and "gritty", not that you can't do those with this, you can rather easily, but DC Heroes was about being a hero, being the good guy.

I have not done a lot of posting of Willow and Tara in a while.  When "Season of the Witch" died down and "Generation HEX" never took off I had run out of creative juices.  Plus I had moved on Ghosts of Albion by then and other games.  Though Gen HEX was going to be my supers/animie/comics game.  I still have great plans to run each "issue"/episode/adventure with a different rule set.  But I am not likely to get to it all now.  More's the shame.  In any case here are my girls, in their Generation HEX best.
Since these are very seasoned vets of many battles they are starting higher than your average character.

Willow Rosenberg

DEX: 2	STR: 1	BODY: 3
INT: 9	WILL: 4	MIND: 5
INFL: 11	AURA: 13	SPIRIT: 12
Initiative: 22	Hero Points:  20

Mystic Link:
Empathy (Will) 2, Magic Blast (Spirit) 6, Magic Shield (Spirit) 6, Mystic Shield (Will) 5, Telekinesis (Will) 7, Telepathy (Int) 5 (9 with Tara), Teleportation (Will) 4, Truesight 3

Limitations: Since the events in "Season of the Witch" Willow has no limitations on her powers.

Skills:  Detective 2, Gadgetry 5, Medicine 1, Occultist 7, Scholar (Supernatual) 7, Scientist 5

Connections:  
Business (high),  Supernatural (high)


Motivation: Learn more about her power

Wealth: Affluent  (maybe a bit higher, but not Multimillionaire)

Job: Semi-retired software designer and CEO, teacher

Race: Human (Homo Magi is what she would be in the DC universe)

Origin: Mystical Heritage (Major)

Alter Ego/Aliases: none

Base of Operations: Boston, MA


Tara Maclay 

DEX: 2	STR: 2	BODY: 3
INT: 8	WILL: 5	MIND: 4
INFL: 10	AURA: 14	SPIRIT: 12
Initiative: 20	Hero Points: 20

Powers: Mystic Link:
Empathy (Will) 6, Heal (Spirit) 4*, Magic Blast (Spirit) 2, Magic Shield (Spirit) 3, Mystic Shield (Will) 2, Telekinesis (Will) 4, Telepathy (Int) 5 (9 with Willow), Truesight 5

(*Heal is not in the rule book, but something Tara can do.  At 4 AP she can heal 4 AP of damage per touch)

Limitations: Since the events in "Season of the Witch" Tara has no limitations on her powers.

Skills: Animal Handling 2, Artist (dancing) 4, Artist (singing) 5, Artist (painter) 4, Occultist 6, Scholar (Witchcraft) 7

Connections:  
Supernatural

Motivation: Responsibility of Power

Wealth: Affluent

Job: High school art teacher, girls counselor

Race: Human (Homo Magi)

Origin: Mystical Heritage (Major)

Alter Ego/Aliases: none

Base of Operations: Boston, MA

Willow and Tara in Generation HEX
In Generation HEX we pick up a few years after the events from Season of the Witch.  Magic is outed and the first generation of magic using children are reaching high school age. One of which is their own daughter. Tara is an art teacher and girls counselor at a school for magical teens.  Willow, having sold off her software firm is also teaching.  They relocated to Boston, MA and despite being older, there is still plenty of adventure left to have.

Willow and Tara in the DC Universe
Personally I would think that the girls would have fared much better in the DC Universe than in others.  I can easily see them both joining the Teen Titans, or depending on when we do this, Young Justice.    Though Willow would need something else to do than turn evil since that was already done by Raven.
Given their backgrounds I would expect they would be viewed as resources into the occult and supernatural worlds the same way that Zatanna, Doctor Fate and Madame Xandu are.  Only less dangerous to deal with.  In the DC universe though, the nod has to go to Zee.   I am assuming a more magic-rich world than the 1st edition rules laid out, maybe something closer to what we saw in the 3rd ed DC Heroes.

In either case the girls work as a team.  Willow is the heavy hitter, but Tara has a greater store of power and more subtle powers.

Strippers make the best informants

So if you have been following Sarah Michelle Gellar's new show "Ringer" you know she has ties to the mob (or her sister did, not sure)  well tonight we get a treat in the form of Amber Benson, playing a mob informant/stripper named...Tara Mary.

http://www.tvline.com/2011/10/ringer-buffy-amber-benson-sarah-michelle-gellar/
http://www.tvguide.com/News/Ringer-Amber-Benson-1040084.aspx

Now where have I seen that before?  Oh yeah.

http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2010/09/dragon-and-phoenix-episode-4.html

So in the Ringer-world Willow's spell went really wonky and "Kara" became real, but was implanted with "Candy's" personality.  Sure.  Why not.

ETA: I guess the sources got it wrong.  Her name was "Mary" on the show.

DriveThru RPG August PDF sales

It is about that time again. DriveThruRPG's blog support program where I reward you the loyal reader with savings found no where else! That is till the other bloggers also post this list!

Anyway some cool things for you all this month and the code to get 20% off of any or all the products here.

Vampire Hunter$ Modern OGL [Team Frog]
SAWS+ Character Sheet for Pathfinder [Dire Giraffe]
Field Guide to Superheroes Vol. 3 (ICONS) [Vigilance Press] *Read me review of this one on the product page*
Plastic Ships and Fuzzy Men [Inner City Games Designs]
The Genius Guide to Another 110 Spell Variants (Pathfinder) [Super Genius Games]
Iron Dynasty: Way of the Ronin [Reality Blurs] *for Savage Worlds*

Your discount code is: AfterGenConGlow2011

And for one lucky reader a FREE copy of Iron Dynasty: Way of the Ronin if they can answer this Other Side trivia question:
In "The Dragon and the Phoenix", Tara learns to speak fluent Japanese.  How did this happen?

The first correct answer posted below (and some means of me emailing you the free code) will win a PDF copy!

Good luck!

Willow & Tara: Icons

I have been missing my regularly scheduled Willow and Tara posts. I posted everything for Season 1: The Dragon and the Phoenix and Season 2: Season of the Witch.

Season 3 was going to be more "supers" or even "anime" like.  So I played around with Mutants and Masterminds and Big Eyes, Small Mouth quite a bit to get what I wanted, but I never quite got it there.  The idea behind Season 3: Generation HEX was Willow and Tara would play a less central role as educators of the next generation of witches growing up in a world where everyone knows all about magic.

Again I never quite got it working.  But the releases of Mutants and Masterminds 3rd Ed, as well as Bash, Icons and Villains and Vigilantes has got me thinking about it all again.

So here are the girls using Icons, plus some new Icons related supplements I picked up.

Icons

Icons is not really the game I would use if I were going to run a multi-year, multi-arc long game; that's what Mutants and Masterminds is for. But if I needed to run a supers game on a rainy afternoon or a convention or just something to have some fun with, then Icons is a great choice.

Icons though is perfect for trying out a couple of episodes.  The biggest issues of "Generation HEX" is it lacked a bit of an identity.  "Dragon" was a "Buffy Game", "Season of the Witch" was a "Ghosts of Albion" Game.  So the best thing I think is to try out a couple of different "episodes" or "issues" in the various games that went to inspire the series.  Now I had stopped work on "Generation HEX" long before Icons came along, but there are still things I can do.

Since I am experimenting I am used the the official module The Mastermind Affair as my test.
You can read my review of the adventure on DriveThruRPG's site.

Since I am rebuilding this season I also grabbed a ton of books on playing in High School and supers:

• Smallville High School Yearbook (Cortex Plus)
• Hope Prep #0: Orientation (Icons)
• Hope Prep School Freshman Handbook (M&M 3)
• Mutants and Masterminds 2nd Edition Beginners Guide

Willow Rosenberg

Prowess: 2
Coordination: 3
Strength: 2
Intellect: 7
Awareness: 6
Willpower: 7

Height: 5'3"  Weight: 114 lbs.
First Appearance (Icons):  Season 3, Episode1: We Could  Be Heroes.

Powers
Wizardry (magic) 7 (Telekinesis, Blast)
Detection
Mind Control 4
Supersenses (magic, ghosts, astral [sight, hearing, touch]) 3
Telepathy 2 (4 /w Tara)

Specialties
Science, Occult, Electronics, Computers, Languages

Stamina: 9
Determination: 1

Aspects
Qualities
Connections, Motivation: "To learn more magic"

Challenges
Personal: Out Lesbian.
Relationship: Tara

Tara Maclay

Prowess: 2

Coordination: 2

Strength: 3

Intellect: 

Awareness: 7

Willpower: 6

Height: 5'5"  Weight: 128 lbs.

First Appearance (Icons):  Season 3, Episode1: We Could  Be Heroes.

Powers

Wizardry (magic) 6 (Telekinesis, Force Field)

Aura 3 (supernatural creatures affected only, fear aura)

Blast 2

Emotion Control 2

Healing 4

Supersenses (magic, ghosts, astral [sight, hearing, touch]) 3

Telepathy 2 (4 /w Willow)

Specialties

Art, Occult, Psychiatry, Languages 

Stamina: 8

Determination: 1

Aspects

Qualities

Connections, Motivation: "To protect the innocent"

Challenges

Personal: Out Lesbian. 

Relationship: Willow

These are built assuming this is the start of Season 3 and the girls have quite a bit of experience.  I like these builds, but I think I am going to need more practice in this game.  

Icons has some great advice/hints/tips on making an archenemy, I think I am going to have to take that advice and figure out someone for the girls to battle.  

K is for Kittenboard

Back in the day I spent a lot of time on Discussion Boards.  Lots and lots of time.  The board though arguably I spent the most time on was The Kitten Board.

The Kitten Board, also known as "The Kitten" is short for "The Kitten, The Two Witches, and  The Bad Wardrobe".  As can be gleaned from the name, it is a board dedicated to Willow and Tara.  Members are also known as Kittens.

The Kitten was my place to go back in the early part of the 2000s.  I had started my WitchCraft based Willow and Tara game back in 2001 and was told I really need to visit "the Kitten" since it was the place for Willow and  Tara fans.  I did and was hooked.  It was through the Kitten that I met all sorts of great people.  All of the authors and players in my Willow & Tara games "The Dragon and the Phoenix" and "Season of the Witch" as well as meeting Christopher Golden and Amber Benson.

Back in 2001 I lost my dot com job like so many others so I was at home for a while looking for a new job.  I was laid off on Sept. 10, 2001.  So I was at home on Sept 11, 2001 and watched the whole World Trade Center on TV.  I worked back and forth between the Kitten and the TV to see what was going on.  That was the start of my time there.

Of course we were the first to also learn that Tara was going to be killed.  It was my rather vocal opposition to this on the Kitten that got me the attention of several of the shows writers.  While some were pissed at us, I also had others that secretly agreed with me and were sending my copies of the scripts as soon as he could.

We ran a charity event and raised over $8,000.00 to support the Trevor Project.  That was at the time (and I think of all time) that any "Buffy" based board had ever raised for charity.  Recently Amber Benson herself donated to the Trevor Project with the help of the Kitten Board.

One thing the Kitten is most remembered for is of course the "Dead/Evil Lesbian Cliché FAQ".   IF you have not read it, then please do.  While Whedon/Mutant Enemy may not have set out to tell a clichéd, ultimately they did exactly that. Intentions are good for the Road to Hell.  Before you start quoting Season 7 or the godawful comic keep in mind when this was written and that all those later things happened after Whedon and co had to answer the question of why Tara had to die a 1000 times and are still be asked about today. they were wrong and now ten years later I see more people saying "the Kittens were right".

10 years later the Kitten is still going when many of the other boards that were around at the same time are distant memories.

I don't get into boards much anymore.  I hated the fighting between them that made the Edition Wars look like two first graders pushing each other on the play ground.  I hated some of the cliqueness of it all.   I still have close to 5000 posts there, which is not a lot given that it is 10 years old, but a lot if you consider I did most of those in the first 3 years.

I know one thing though, I'll always have a home at the Kitten.

Season of the Witch: Episode 13

Episode 13: All Along the Watchtower

May/June, 2005
Heatherfield, WA

No previously on “Willow & Tara: Season of the Witch” we pick up right where we left off.

Willow and Tara are separated by the newly repaired veil. A lot of things happen at once. Tara is screaming for Willow and collapses, but does not pass out. Cordelia and Bob both disappear. The Guardians “power down” and revert to their normal forms.

The members of the Witches’ Committee attempt to use magic to capture Tara, but all discover that they no longer have any magic at all. S.A.V.E. (Nigel, Faith and a couple of field agents) gets in between them with guns (Faith, btw no longer feels like a Slayer). At some point the Daughters of Flame had arrived and are now surrounding Tara to protect her from anyone that might cross their line. It looks like everyone is going to resort to physical fighting. In what would later be called “Tapping a Line” in my games, Tara, the only Mage in the group, screams “Enough” and summons up enough magic to physically move everyone away from her. Think of those anime shows where the hero summons up magic. So lit from the bottom, hair flying wild, glowing eyes.

Tara manages to round up the groups and sets them into figuring out what is going on. I tell her player she can still feel Willow, but it is weak and distant. She can tell that Willow is still alive, but that is it.

With Bob and Cordilia gone I get their players to play Nigel (and Faith, representing S.A.V.E.) and Morgan (representing the Witches’ Committee). I slip them notes with what their ultimate goal is. S.A.V.E. wants to keep the veil closed so there are no more magical threats. Nigel though wants Tara to be with Willow because of his own guilt with Megan and Bob. The Witches Committee wants the veil to be removed since they have the most to gain in a world of magic. Lilith is also there, being represented by Anya. She is an NPC, but Lilith’s interests are maintain the status-quo. But she has plans for either outcomes. The Guardians for the first time in years have nothing to guard. They have no powers and they feel lost.

While meeting and discussing the various merits of all the plans, Tara and company get a visitor. The Lich from Episode 10. Tara meets with him alone, everyone else is too terrified and too surprised to see him still walking around (they had gotten reports that all magical creatures were gone or dead).

On the other side of the veil, Willow is having the opposite problem. She is super powerful, but everything she throws at the veil does nothing to change it. She is joined by Coyote. He mocks her a bit, saying this what the old Willow would have wanted, all this power. Willow tells him if the price for power is Tara then it is not worth it; That she would rather be a normal human, living a normal life as long as she is with Tara. Coyote tells her that maybe she can have both and he wanders off. Willow follows.

Tara and the Lich are meeting in a room, the Daughters begged her to allow a body guard, but Tara didn’t want one. The Lich tells her that they are linked, that she owes him but in the present state of the world there is no way she could pay him back. Tara figures out the other reason they are linked. Everyone else’s magic is gone, but his and hers. He was a Mage too. The Lich says that the only way they can settle their debt, and he indicates his mark on her, is to bring magic back to the world and not just the trickle that leaked through the Veil, all of it. Tara asks him what he wants in return. The Lich is silent.

Willow follows Coyote to the court of the Fae. Both the leaders of the Seelie and Unseelie Courts are there. The Seelie King and Queen treat Willow with an odd amount of respect. The Unseelie Queen is down-right friendly. King Oberon address Willow and says it has been over a hundred years since they last met. Willow is confused. Queen Maeve (the Unseelie Queen) tells her that the King refers to her past life when the Veil was erected by herself and her Anamchara.
The Seelie want the veil to remain closed, and have offered Willow a home on this side of it. The Unseelie want it open, Maeve enjoys humans and will miss the interactions. The court leaves Willow to think about her future, Coyote joins her.

Tara has decided to drop the veil. Living in a world with no magic is one thing, but living in a world with no Willow is another thing all together. Since she and the Lich are the only ones with magic she doesn’t even bother to tell the others.

Willow can feel Tara’s anxiety but does not know what it is about. She decides that living in a world full of magic is meaningless without Tara. She goes back to the Veil. Laughing, Coyote follows her telling her it is time to destroy the world.

At the Veil Tara is followed by the throng, wanting to see what she is going to do. She summons up her magic and tries to bring down the Veil. Nigel asks her to stop, telling her that if she drops the Veil she might not get it back up again.

On the other side Willow feels Tara at the Veil and uses her own magic to lower it. The Seelie Court detects this and are right on her heels trying to stop her. The Unseelie try to stop them.

The Veil is weakening as it does the people with magic on the other side begin to feel the return. The Guardians are first, and they are unsure what to do. The decide to help Tara. The Witches Committee member, Morgan, lends her magic as do the Daughters of the Flame.

On Willow’s side she can feel the flow of magic more and knows Tara is on the other side helping. Maeve is also lending her magic. So total we have five Guardians, three Daughters of the Flame, Morgan, Maeve, Willow and Tara, and the Lich for a total of 13 witches/mages.

The Veil falls.

Willow and Tara are reunited as magic rushes into the “real” world, banality rushes into the magical one.

The Guardians of the Veil are now the Guardians of the Watchtowers, each a mage in her respective element.
Morgan and the Daughters all have their magic levels increased.
Bob and Cordelia are back.
Maeve and the rest of the fae feel weaker in terms of magic, but they mention this is a temporary solution. King Obereon tells Willow and Tara that the pact forged in their past lives is now broken.
Two of the Daughters, Ceriweden and Brigh, offer themselves as their personal protectors as long as they draw breath.
Morgan can be heard on her cell phone talking away about setting up a press conference right away. She is ushered into a car that had just pulled up. She pauses to thank Willow and Tara and tells them they should come to offices, now that they are not trying to kidnap or kill them. They can do lunch.
Nigel and Faith mention they will figure out something to tell S.A.V.E., Faith kisses both girls on the cheeks and tells them not to be strangers anymore.

Tara looks out to see the Lich. It nods to her and she feels her mark burn. The Lich speaks in her mind, “there is still the debt”.

Tara feels ill, then light headed and she passes out.

--

Tara wakes in a hospital room. She is connected to an IV drip and Willow is sitting by her side. Bob is “pacing” the room. As soon as Tara sits up Cordelia orbs in. She tells them all the Elders are “Freaking out” but not as much as the demons. They are all crazy busy, but she felt they knew this was the direction everything was going to go. Now that they don’t have to cover up magic anymore they can concentrate more on fighting evil. Cordy gives Willow and Tara both a hug goodbye. She tells them she can’t be their Whitelighter anymore since they are Mages and she is needed elsewhere. But she will come by to see them when she can.
Cordelia orbs out.

Bob, who has been quiet this whole time says he has to go too. Tara protests, but he tells her that she is grown up and doesn’t need her daddy to help her back on to the horses anymore. He tells her this was how it was always going to be, he was here to help with the Awakening and that is what he did. He tells her he is tired, and he wants to see Megan again. Megan appears (played by Eliza Roberts again) she goes to Tara and hugs and kisses her. She also hugs Willow thanking her for being there and loving her daughter so much. She tells them both how proud she is of them and how exciting the future will be for them. She takes Bob’s hand and as they fade away they fade to their younger versions from the 1980s.

Tara is crying and Willow is holding her.

The doctor comes in, a young Indian man. He apologizes for being so late, saying that the ER has been a nightmare for the last 24 hours. He asks if Willow can leave so he can talk to the patient, Willow protests, but Tara mentions they are legal domestic partners and are married in the tenants of their faiths. That they are spending the rest of their lives together and that anything that she needs to know Willow needs to know too.

The doctor says, “Ok, this should be good news then. Congratulations Ms. Maclay, you are pregnant!”

The final scene is the stunned look on the girls’ faces.

--
Notes: Ok so big things here. Let’s break it all down.

No Big Bads: One of the things I wanted to do here was do a Season/Series/Arc/Campaign with no Big Bads. No final boss at the end of the level to fight. I am going to say that this was 100% a success. It did take some work to do. The mental place you are in when working on this game is a Big Bad. It’s what the show does, it’s what a lot of shows do.

The Awakening: The big season focus was on the Awakening, or the return of all Magic. Or as we said at the time, Magic was being outed. I felt that the world as it was could no longer exist. You can’t explain everything with gangs and PCP, you can’t even explain anything really. So the best plan was to have a world where everyone knew magic was real. We do it all the time in D&D and ShadowRun. My major influence here was the Piers Anthony “Incarnations of Immortality” series. Magic has returned to the world and it allows me make some rather big changes.

Pregnant: Yup. I got Tara knocked up. Well. Not me personally.
I wanted to keep the identity of the other parent secret for a while, but my Season 3 never quite got together the way I wanted. It got together in a completely different way, but more on that later.
Tara is pregnant. At the time we were building “The Dragon and the Phoenix” there was a meme of Tara getting pregnant stories. There were tons of them. Examples,  http://www.uberwillowtara.com/artfamily.htm  and http://www.uberwillowtara.com/artmothers.htm
I thought we should do our own take too. Taking a cue from Lisa , our co-author and resident Tara expert, I went to her Willow & Tara epic tale (700+ pages) “Unexpected Consequences” and got the name for Tara’s child, Brianna. Brianna was born Feb 2, 2006.

Who is the “father”? Well I wanted to do a lot of Red Herrings and things like that. Maybe even implicate the Lich, but in the end that never came to pass. Season Three picked up many years later, with a small “Mini-series” in between.

The father of Brianna is Willow.

You can even see where (and when) I came up with the idea, http://edenstudiosdiscussionboards.yuku.com/reply/21984#reply-21984

During the adourflame the girls suffered provide the magical catalyst, and they were certainly having enough sex at the time. This is also (I am told) a fairly common theme in lesbian authored Sci-Fi stories, so I suppose I should not have been surprised there were so many fics out there of it.

Ghosts of Albion: A lot of what happened in Season of the Witch made it one way or the other into Ghosts of Albion. These were our play tests. Anamchara casting rules became “William and Tamara Casting Together”, faeries, expanded vampires, magical philosophies, all of it came from these games. Mages obviously never made it to Ghosts, but we also did not have Protectors in Season of the Witch (except Milicent, and she was only there in the beginning).
This lead to a number of discussions with Chris Golden, Amber, and all my players on how different were William and Tamara compared to Willow and Tara. The answer of course is not much at all.

This was the last time I played with that group. I had a more local group forming at this point and we were getting back into D&D and Ghosts of Albion. We played a lot of games, thus continuing my “conversions” threads over the years, but it was not the same without my witches.

Where are Willow and Tara now?

Well the character sheets (hundreds of them, for several dozen games) sit in a 4-inch binder in my game room.

The characters?

Willow created a small software company that produced a new type of data encryption method. It was quickly bought by a larger company making millions for Willow and Tara. Willow was hired by the same company as an executive consultant. She helps other companies set up her software to protect their data. Willow herself uses the same software on her home computers to protect all the magical texts she has scanned in over the years.
Willow took her money to have special Subaru Outback converted to a hybrid car.

Tara completed her degree and is teaching Art History at a local private school. She is also a youth councilor at the school. She still has her mother’s spellbook/journals as well as her own. She wants to complete a Ph.D. but thinks she will wait till after Brianna is older. She is also starting to think she wants another child.

Brianna is four and is the spitting image of Willow.

They all live in a converted Brownstone in Boston, MA. Tara takes her bike to work everyday (when it is cold she laments giving her dad’s car to the vampires). They have not seen Cordy again, but have heard of her and some of her charges. They have seen Dawn a few times, she is currently in medical school where she uses her psychic powers to diagnosis and treat patients.

Season of the Witch: Episode 12

Episode 12: Torn

May/June, 2005
Heatherfield, WA

Willow and Tara spend more than a month with the Daughters of the Flame. They begin to feel a pull to the north, something summoning them.

They prepare to travel but Tara mentions being sick. Cordy scans her, but finds nothing wrong with her. She admits though as she is mage now her magic is different.

They arrive is a small town in Washington State called Heatherfield. Here they meet up with five young women fighting a giant dragon. Before they can help they are able to send through a portal. The women identify themselves as “The Guardians” and they have been protecting Earth from threats from the magical worlds for almost 10 years. They are younger than Willow and Tara, but act much older. When they are finally able to talk to them (they are not interested in what Willow and Tara have to say) they learn that the Veil is thinnest here and it is getting thinner by the minute.

There are some battles with various monsters that come through and Willow and Tara prove their worth to the five Guardians. Tara notes that in Tamara’s Journal she talked about creating the Veil to protect the lands of Faerie from humans and visa versa. The spell is in the book, but it is a very complicated one and it will take all seven of them to cast it. They debate, the five guardians are anything but united in their plans, but finally they decide to give it a try.

The ritual is cast. During this time the Witches’ Committee shows up to try to stop them but they are stopped themselves by S.A.V.E. The ritual hits a tumult and the veil is erected anew, but Willow is trapped on the other side and they can’t take it down now.

Notes: This one was going to be bigger but my group was falling apart at this point. The Guardians obviously are a take on the Guardians of Kandrakar from the comic book W.I.T.C.H., but also designed to be any type of elemental-based magic-girl. I wanted to explore why the universe would choose five teenage girls as the ultimate protectors. I figured it had something to do with innocence or something, but I never got the chance to really get too deep into it.
I wanted this episode to have a real anime feel to it. So there were a lot of magical battles. I let Willow and Tara fire bolts of magical energy that were cast like spells and did SL x3 + Willpower x2 amounts of damage. It made for an interesting time.

I wanted to play up how the Guardian girls were no longer connected to what they were and that had something to do with the weakening of the veil, but I don’t think I quite got it.

I did the cliffhanger ending here of Willow being on the other side of the veil when it went up. Yeah I know, separating the girls to cause angst was quickly becoming a cliché in this game, but this was the last time.

The Witches Committee and S.A.V.E. were back to provide some more antagonists/distractions.

Next up. There must be some kind of way out of here…