Willow & Tara: Chill

Willow and Tara in Chill

The world the girls live in is not exactly the same as the world described in Chill. A lot of what is “Unknown” in Chill is common knowledge to our girls. Let’s be honest even Tara has seen more vampires than the average 1st Edition Chill character would see in a lifetime.

So how do we explain the differences? I see the worlds as being the same, the different rules are just different ways at looking at it. Let’s steal a page from the WitchCraft RPG core book. Chill and S.A.V.E. were most active in the 80’s and early 90’s before their Dublin HQ was destroyed. So we only have records up till then. In WitchCraft it has been documented that as we approach the Reckoning supernatural occurrences have become more and more frequent. By the time the girls start their “career” in battling the supernatural in the late 90’s early 2000’s supernatural occurrences are far more common than 10 or 20 years ago.

This is even supported by the move from 1st to 2nd Eds of Chill. 1st Ed was lighter, a little campy, but emphasis was on things that go bump in the night. It was more Ghostbusters than Ghost Story. 2nd Ed was a child of the paranoid late 80’s and 90’s. Elements of X-Files were abundant and the same zeitgeist that gave us the World of Darkness, Kult and yes WitchCraft was at work in Chill as well. To further the “world is much darker than you think” idea, 2nd Edition Chill makes the (somewhat silly, somewhat crafty) claim that the Pacesetter version was propaganda by S.A.V.E. sent out as disinformation. And let’s be honest, a lot of people played Chill as “monster of the week” adventures anyway. Maybe it was years of “Dark Shadows” and “Night Stalker” or more likely years of AD&D, but that’s how we did it in my house.

Chill 3rd Edition looked darker still, but it did not come out so I can’t say.

Relations with S.A.V.E.

Willow and Tara’s relationship with S.A.V.E. (Societas Argenti Viae Eternitata, Society of the Eternal Silver Way) begins before either girl was born. In the “Dragon and the Phoenix” canon Robert Maclay had been an envoy of S.A.V.E. working in the southern part of the United States. They had discovered an area of reported spiritual activity during the Summer of ’76 and were ordered to investigate. They came to an old plantation that later been converted to a brothel after the Civil War and was rumored to be haunted by the ghost of the former owner. Realizing that Maclay’s team would need magical aid, S.A.V.E. assigned a “craft worker” to the team. This infuriated the young Robert Maclay. He was a devout Christian and the idea of working with a witch was as unacceptable to him as working with a vampire. The young witch, Megan Rose O’Kelley, was however more than a match for Robert’s head strong attitude. The mission would have been a complete failure had it not been for Megan’s magic, though it was not with out complications. The reported “ghosts” turned out to be demonic ethereal spirits. Megan had been possessed by one of the demons in the course of the fight, she fought off the demonic thrall (with Maclay’s aid), but she suffered reoccurring ill health and nightmares. These persisted into her courtship and marriage to Robert till the end of her life in 1997. The demons were banished, and Robert and Megan left S.A.V.E. soon after.

S.A.V.E. knew that any offspring of Robert and Megan Maclay would be a formidable witch in her own right, so they watched Donald and Tara for years. It was soon obvious that while Donny lacked the ability to even do a card trick, Tara was a different story. She began to manifest her powers very early in life. They even observed her display feats of power that would have been difficult for a witch three-times her age, though she was always very careful to not show her power anytime she felt her father or older brother were watching. When Tara was murdered, the remaining members of the fractionalized S.A.V.E. prepared to close the book on what would have been a promising recruit and recorded it as a profound loss for humanity. To their shock and surprise S.A.V.E. found themselves “re-opening” that book when Tara was discovered to be alive and well due to a rare occurrence of divine magics (S.A.V.E. was later made aware of the miscast Art that substituted Tara’s death record for a previously unmentioned or unrecorded twin sister, Kara).

In late 2005 S.A.V.E. operations in Washington DC approached Willow and Tara (after observing what they refer to as the ‘Leviathan / Pan-dimensional Incident’). S.A.V.E. had learned of the supposed recent activity of Erszébet Báthory (Elizabeth Bathory) near the girls’ new Boston home and hoped to make use of the girls unique understanding of vampires and witchcraft. That it was reported that Willow had encountered Dracula was only another bonus in their favor. The details of that encounter will be dealt with at a later date. Willow and Tara are not members of S.A.V.E. at this time, but their contact is Dr. Robert Samuels, Deputy Director of S.A.V.E.’s American Operations. (Geek Note: Dr. Robert Samuels was one of the pre-generated characters from the 1st Ed. Chill rule book.)

These stats represent Willow and Tara after the Dragon and the Phoenix, during the Season of the Witch, series but sometime before the Mid-Semester's Nightmare mini-series.  So about 2005.

Willow Danielle Rosenberg

BASIC ABILITIES

Strength 30

Perception 67

Dexterity 33

Willpower 81

Agility 42

Luck 50

Personality 67

Stamina 50

Unskilled Melee 36 (1st Ed)* / 18 (2nd Ed)**

Sense Unknown 13%

Movement 34

Sprinting 92

Initiative 4

EDGES & DRAWBACKS**

Name CIPs Notes

Ambidexterity 1

Attractive 2

Curiosity -1

Improved STA Rec 1

Improved Will Rec 1

Phobia (Frogs) 1

Psychological flaw 1 Addictive personality

SKILLS

Name Rank Score Calc

Armed Melee S 51 (STR+AGL)/2 +15

Crossbow S 48 DEX +15

Anthropology T 101 (PCN+WPR+PER)/3 +30

Biology T 104 (PCN+WPR)/2 +30

Computers M 129 (PCN+WPR)/2 +55

Investigation M 121 (PCN+WPR+LUCK)/3 +55

Language, Latin T 104 (PCN+WPR)/2 +30

Legend/Lore T 104 (PCN+WPR)/2 +30

Mathematics T 104 (PCN+WPR)/2+30

Mechanics T 80 (PCN+DEX)/2 +30

Occult Lore** M 116

Ritual Magic** M 116

PERSONAL DATA

Age: 23 (in 2004)

Ht: 5’3”

Wt: 115#

Hair: Red

Eyes: Green

Gender: Female

Nationality: American

Profession: Software Engineer

Education: B.S. in Computer Science, 2003 University of California, Magna Cum Laude

THE ART

Name Score* Calc Base** Rank**Score

Telepathic Sending 67 (PCN+PER)/2 44 M 94

Telepathic Empathy 67 (PCN+PER)/2 44 M 94

Sphere of Protection 61 (PCN+LUCK)/2 39 T 69

* Indicates a 1st Edition Rule.

** Indicates a 2nd Edition Rule.

Tara A. Maclay

BASIC ABILITIES

Strength 38

Perception 70

Dexterity 32

Willpower 65

Agility 36

Luck 40

Personality 65

Stamina 40

Unskilled Melee 37 (1st Ed)* / 19 (2nd Ed)**

Sense Unknown 14%

Movement 32

Sprinting 86

Initiative 4

EDGES & DRAWBACKS**

Name CIPs Notes

Animal Empathy 1

Attractive 1

Destiny 1

Improved Will Rec 1

Pet (MKF) 1

Psionic Ability 1 Empathy

SKILLS

Name Rank Score Calc (1st Ed)

Armed Melee S 52 (STR+AGL)/2 +15

- Axe S 52 (STR+AGL)/2 +15 SR 2/4

- Sword S 52 (STR+AGL)/2 +15 SR 5

Crossbow S 47 DEX +15

Animal Training** T 87

Art T 98 (PCN+WPR)/2 +30

Calligraphy** T 81 (AGL+WPR)/2 +30

Horseback riding T 81 (AGL+WPR)/2 +30

Investigation M 113 (PCN+WPR+LUCK)/3 +55

Language, Japanese T 98 (PCN+WPR)/2 +30

Legend/Lore T 98 (PCN+WPR)/2 +30

Occult Lore** M 108

Painting** T 81 (AGL+WPR)/2 +30

Ritual Magic** M 108

Psychology M 123 (PCN+WPR)/2 +55

PERSONAL DATA

Age: 24 (in 2004)

Ht: 5’4”

Wt: 125#

Hair: Blonde

Eyes: Blue

Gender: Female

Nationality: American

Profession: Graduate Student in Counselling Psychology, working as 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. Thesis: “Daughters without Mothers: Long Term Depression and Survivor’s Guilt in Adolescent Girls and Young Women” ERIC Abstracts Online

THE ART

Name Score* Calc Base** Rank**Score

Telepathic Sending 68 (PCN+PER)/2 45 M 95

Telepathic Empathy 68 (PCN+PER)/2 45 T 75

Sphere of Protection 61 (PCN+LUCK)/2 36 T 66

* Indicates a 1st Edition Rule.

** Indicates a 2nd Edition Rule.

Notes:  I advanced the characters to 2005 and have Willow and Tara graduated. Education level was a big deal in Chill; I am thinking this is because it was a big deal in Call of Cthulhu, so I detailed that here.  This is right before (game world here folks) Willow created a small company that wrote security programs for industries.  Her stock split many times and she sold off most of it and was retained as executive consultant to Red Witch Software.  This gave her a lot of freedom and a few million dollars.  That though is a detail for another time and game system.

The biggest issue with Chill and witches like Willow and Tara is one of power.  Chill simply does not handle PCs with a lot of power well.  Chill was designed as "normal people fighting the monsters" game, a role that is serves well.  Call of Cthulhu has the same issues, but again at least in Chill the PCs are expected to make a difference.  Willow and Tara are beyond what most humans can do.  Chill is great for "Supernatural" or even some episodes of "The X Files", but not the likes of "Charmed" or "Willow & Tara: The Series".

What I did do during "Season of the Witch" was have a flashbacks with Tara's parents, Robert and Megan, and they were perfect for Chill since it was the late 70's and the power levels are much less than they are today.  Like Harry Dresden said in "Storm Front" the world is getting weirder and darker all the time.  This is something I have used in my games quite a bit.

Chill was great to look back on, but it is not s substitute for a more modern game for me.  If I ever run another 70s-80s flashback game though I will pull it out.

Another note.  While the stats above reflect the girls in or around 2004, the Chill timeline above is 2005.  So there is one crucial element missing from Tara's stats.  In 2005 she gave birth to a baby girl.  That is also for another day and system.

Chill: Adventures into the Unknown

Chill: Adventures into the Unknown 

To many role-players around my age their first introduction to Horror roleplaying was the venerable “Call of Cthulhu”, but not me. Mine was Chill. I had the Pacesetter version (1st Edition), which I remember quite fondly, even if I did not get much of a chance to play. The Mayfair version (2nd Edition) is of course superior, but it lacks some of the feel I associated with the game. Maybe it was the lack of the Jim Holloway art or the darker tone. Picking up a copy of the Mayfair version now I get the impression (true or not) that the makers of Kult saw it and thought, “yes this is good, but what if the world was much, much worse?”
Recently I started going through my Chill books (Chill Vampires for either version is a must buy if you are at all serious about using vampires as adversaries in any game) and started thinking about converting some of my characters over. It has been interesting because I never actually played. I ran some Chill games (I was a ChillMaster!), incorporated Chill into my AD&D games, but I never actually made any characters. It’s very odd…

I liked Chill also because it had Midwest sensibilities. Pacesetter was from Wisconsin; Mayfair was/is in Niles/Skokie, a suburb of Chicago than is not to far from where I live (and has one of my favourite pizza places). It was while playing Chill that learned that the best horror was horror close to home. I don’t know, or much care really, what Hollywood thinks is horror. How can a place that gets like 350 days of sunshine know what is horror? On the other hand East Coast horror (Lovecraft) has a completely different flavor. It’s almost alien. Chill may have had a global scope, but the horror is home grown. Chill remembers that there is simple horror in the haunted house, or the strange creature from the Unknown. It is not about the bigger-badder-more horror of some games, where every game has to up the ante on the last game.

Chill has influenced pretty much every horror game I have ever played.  Ideas in my game like "the darkness can be fought" and "the heroes matter" are from Chill, not CoC.

Converting Chill Ability Scores 
Conversions between any game is no easy task, especially between a point based game system like Unisystem and a random generation one like Chill 1st Ed. But here is a go at it.
The basic Ability conversion formula is to take the square root of the Chill Ability and then minus 4 to get the Unisystem Ability; to convert to Chill from Unisystem, take the ability, add 4 and then square.

So your basic Unisystem scores produce the following Chill scores

Chill  Unisystem
25        1
36        2
49        3
64        4
81        5
100      6

For normal humans Unisystem Abilities typically run 1 to 5 and Chill Abilities typically run 26 to 80 (10 to 90 for 2nd Ed.). Starting Unisystem characters are usually a bit tougher, but rarely does a starting character have any “6’s” before qualities. Sure there are Vampires and Ghosts and things like that in Unisystem that go beyond 6, but none of these are normal humans nor are they playable types in Chill.

The average roll you get with Chill is 53 for any of the eight scores, based on a normal curve. The average score for an Unisystem character is about 3 (based on a flat point distribution) so, they are about equal.
The biggest trouble is of course, using a normal distribution for one and a flat for the other. Squaring helps that, but it will never be perfect, at least not without some more math. This can be seen by comparing the max lift for each game at their converted Strengths. The distributions show the greatest differences at the extremes and coming close right around Unisystem Strength of 6. So characters in the 3 to 9 region will make the best conversions. This is assuming the Max Lift distributions are roughly equal, which they are not but they are close enough.

Not everything translates as well as strength. So here is a proposed Chill/Unisystem translation matrix. Use the math above to get the scores. In all cases the formula is
Chill = (Unisystem+4)²

Chill	Unisystem (qualities and/or skills)
Strength	Strength
Dexterity	Dexterity (missile combat; fine motor skills)
Agility	Dexterity (melee combat; acrobatics)
Personality	Charisma Quality*
Perception	Perception + Notice
Luck	Good/Bad Luck Quality*
Willpower	Willpower
Stamina	Constitution

*For Qualities such as Luck and Charisma use the Unisystem Quality (-3 to +3) add 3 and use that number in your equations. So a character with a Good Luck of +1 has a Chill Luck score of 64 (1 + 3 = 4 + 4, 8 squared is 64).
In some cases in stead of adding 4 I added a skill, half the skill or the average of a group of skills. This is helpful when making a differentiation between Dexterity and Agility.

Again, with all conversions, math is only half the answer, the other half is decided what is the best way to portray the character in that particular system. This is why I use Willow and Tara (and another witch of my own), they represent a “golden mean” or a standard I can use.

2nd Edition Chill Abilities
This also works roughly for Chill 2nd Edition 10-90 point spread. Again, no conversion is perfect. The range of 10 to 90 is roughly equal to Unisystem’s 1 to 6, or in this case 0 to 6. Unisystem converted characters then will not produce Chill characters below 25 points in any attribute.

There is the added caveat that Chill has 8 abilities while Unisystem only has 6.

2nd Edition has some other minor differences, but nothing that should matter here except for maybe magic rules.

Skills run from 41 to 135 and have levels of Student, Teacher and Master. The easiest is to just convert the levels. Student = 1-2, Teacher = 3-4 and Master = 5-6. Rough, but it works well enough.

Fortunately to play Chill only requires only d10s. Something a Unisystem player should have in abundance. Course in Chill you need to roll a percentage less than your Ability. And there is the Action Table…but that is basically the same idea as Success Levels.

In Chill 2nd Edition the rules were expanded to include Edges and Drawbacks (still a somewhat new idea at the time) and the various skill levels were altered slightly. Also a big change was now Disciplines of the Art were now Schools of the Art and now could be rated at S, T and M levels.

New Unisystem Rules based on Chill
A lot of the rules in Chill can be found in one way or another in Unisystem. In fact one gets the feeling of seeing evolution in process when comparing similar rules in Chill and Unisystem. Successes, Fear Checks, even proto-Drama point usage (of a sorts) are all here. If one is more used to modern games, the Chill versions do seem unwieldy and even a bit primitive, but looking at them the other way, the Chill rules were a landmark for the time. Indeed there are a lot of rules in existence today that we take for granted that were still cutting edge in Chill.
But that is not to say that Chill does not have something to offer the Unisystem player.

Ambidexterity
1-Point Quality
You can use either hand as effectively as the other. You suffer no penalty in using your off hand in attacks or skill checks. This includes any writing, melee or other handiness skills, but not Disciplines of the Art (Magic). This quality does not increase the number of attacks you can make per turn.

Model
4-Point Quality
You have the grace, the looks and the talent. You have even hired an agent and shortened your name to a single word. Being a professional model has its perks, and a few disadvantages as well.
Anyone with the quality automatically adds 3 levels of Attractiveness. Models typically have Attractiveness of 3 or better, with the best at +4 or +5. Unless the character is a supernatural creature (or descended from one) +5 is still the best they can be, any points above and beyond that are lost. The character also gains 2 levels of resources. This can come from work the character does as a model or in form of gifts that beautiful people also get.
The model has an Obligation to her job. This can be in form of a contract, or needing to be certain places at certain times, of being seen on the arm of the aforementioned gift giver. This is a 1 point drawback. The character must also choose 2 levels of drawbacks. Typically these will be the in form of various mental or emotional problems such as covetous, fear of rejection, fear of commitment, delusions (believes they are the most beautiful person in world), extreme vanity or even cruelty. Addictions are also not uncommon, with drugs, smoking, diet pills, and even sex being rather common. The character should not have any of these in excess, otherwise they become ex-models. One level of some emotional/mental problem and one level of an addiction is the most common combination.Authors Note: Why Models?
It seemed to me that nearly every Chill book I ever owned has some model or former model as an NPC. Of course it also fits the role a S.A.V.E. envoy needs to serve. Successful models and ex-models are young, travel the world and have the money to spare. Plus it fits well with the early 80s feel of the Chill game.

S.A.V.E. Envoy
6-Point Quality
Prerequisite: Sense the Unknown (or better quality); Resources +4 or better.
You are an official S.A.V.E. Envoy with the rights and responsibilities thereof. You have been recruited by S.A.V.E. not just because you have the time and money to spare, but because you have a desire to investigate the Unknown.
With this Quality characters gain financial support for S.A.V.E. sponsored excursions, legal and medical aid. They also gain a worldwide network of contacts and access to S.A.V.E. archives. All in all this will add +2 to the characters resources when on S.A.V.E. missions, a +1 to their Occultism and Knowledge skills, and increase their Occult library by +1, and +2 levels of Contacts.
These benefits come at a price of course. Envoys have an obligation to follow the rules of S.A.V.E. and they gain a Secret to boot. Research must be turned over including any and all magical tomes. Characters violating these rules, or caught participating in what S.A.V.E. considers Dark Magics, will be removed from the organization.
Ex-Envoys may find their future explorations into the supernatural hindered or even completely blocked.

Sense the Unknown
1-Point Quality
Some characters are sensitive to the varied psychic emanations of creatures from beyond. All natural animals have this ability, and some humans can hone it with practice or training. This acts as sort of a limited sixth sense to paranormal or supernatural activity.
You can make a normal perception check to include things that might otherwise go unnoticed in the mundane world such as the effects of magic and the presence of some supernatural creature. When such things are viewed with the trained eye (use of the Occultism/Occult Knowledge skill) then this quality gives a +1 to correctly recognize or identify these phenomena.
This Quality is not required for magic using characters (Gifted, Magicians, Witches) or any supernatural creature (Vampires, Ghosts, Bast) though it will give them a +1 when making any Perception based check for anything related to the Supernatural or the Unknown.
The range for this ability is limited, only 30 feet.

Chill Bast vs. WitchCraft RPG Bast
Often times the hardest thing about converting games is when there is a concept that is so similar in nature and yet developed in completely different ways. For example the Bast.
In both games Bast are cat people relating to ancient Egyptian Goddess of Bast. But there the similarity ends. Chill Bast are women with cat heads and always evil, or at least agents of the unknown; which makes them more akin to the old Irish cat-head demons. WitchCraft Bast are shape-shifting felines that are neither good nor evil. So what can we do to work out the differences.
What I propose is that the Bast seen and recorded by S.A.V.E. agents are in fact Tainted Bast or Maahes.

Vampires

I single out vampires in Chill for a very good reason. All games before, and many after, dealt with vampires much the same way, little carbon copies of Hollywood Dracula. Sure, some made attempts at doing different things, but most were weak in implementation. But Chill (and to be fair a D&D article in Dragon about a year before) did something that no other game had done before, give us varieties of vampires. So it was not just pack your stake, holy water and crucifix, you had to know what species of vampire you were after. So that stake would be fine against a Common Carpathian and by luck the Macedonian Vampire, but completely useless against an Alpine Vampire. This played well into Chills other evolutionary concept, in game research.
Some of these vampires represented a type or species of vampire. The Common Carpathian, Macedonian and Oriental Vampires are of this kind. Others were most likely unique individuals with a specific vampirism curse, Elizabeth Bathory is a good example, she is most like a Common Carpathian with some things that are unique to her nature in life.

Chill Vampires in Unisystem
All of these are based on the base 15 point Vampire (or Vampyre) quality. Nearly all have some form of a Unique Kill Quality, though maybe not a full 5-points worth. So instead of one way to kill, there may be very limited ways to kill them. All Chill vampires also can assume two or more alternate forms. Wolves, bats, mist are common, but other odder forms such as cobras, snow drifts or even becoming extremely thin. In WitchCraft all of these could be duplicated with a proper invocation or supernatural quality. In addition all Chill vampires emanate the powers of the Evil Way. In game terms this means there is something just not right about them, even when they are guised as human. All vampires in Chill are soulless monsters. Soulless not that they lack a soul, but rather they are incapable of the things we hold the most dear. They live forever, but rarely learn anything from it. They can lust, but never love.
All in all, a Chill vampire type would cost anywhere from 20 to 25 Quality points. Players though should be reminded that in Chill, vampires are hunted, not played.

Common Carpathian20-Point Vampire Quality (or 5 if purchased with Vampire/Vampyre)
The defacto Chill vampire. The Common Carpathian gets their name from the area they were first recorded, the Carpathian Mountains area of Eastern Europe. These vampires have many unique powers above and beyond that of the normal Vampire (Vampyre).
They can become wolves, bats, or even mist. They can cling to any surface like a spider.
A stake in the heart immobilizes it, but doesnt kill it; one has to also cut off their head. Garlic, holy water or a crucifix (but not a cross) will repel them, fire will kill them. They cast no shadow or reflection and cannot be captured on film or videotape.
Examples: Count Dracula, Elizabeth Bathory (with some modifications)




Final Thoughts
Chill was fun, but when I picked it up again to do these reviews/conversions I realised that the RPG world had passed it by. Percentile systems are not very much in vouge anymore and some of the concepts to seem dated.  I had high hopes for Chill 3rd Edition, but it never came to be.

Still though it was a lot of fun reading over the old books again and seeing the origins of things I still do today.

Old School day!

I spent the weekend with the people I used to game Basic and AD&D 1st ed with, the week opened up to some cool old school news for me.

First I got my copy of Palace of the Vampire Queen!
I plan on running this with Spellcraft & Swordplay as soon as I can.

And in other cool news. ChicagoWiz's blog is back! I was never 100% sure why he had left in the first place to be honest.  But I am glad to see his blog back with us.

Busy Weekend becomes Busy Week

Work will be crazy this week so posts will slow unless I can find something ready to go.

I spent the weekend at the wedding of long-time friend Jon Cook.  What was interesting about this wedding is it was at a civil war re-enactment.  So everyone in the wedding party and many guests were wearing their Civil War period costumes.  Since I was one of the best men in the wedding, so did I.

If you have that Facebook thing, you can see my pictures.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=2061854&id=1065752655

What is also cool is Jon is the one that introduced me to Dungeons & Dragons more than 30 years ago.  Well, let me clarify.  I had seen and read the books before, Jon was the one that ran the first game I was ever in.
Jon and I played for years.  Eventually we also discovered other players including Erik, the other best man, and Bob who can be seen with his daughter in the picture here on the right. I dedicated my first book of witches to both of them.

Neither of the play anymore.  Jon stopped playing in High School when he got a job.  Bob and I played all through High School and then somewhat into college.  But they lead me down a path that eventually got me to Ghosts of Albion and one of the reasons I bought the outfit I did.  It all comes around I guess.

But in any case.  Yeah. Busy week coming up.

Willow & Tara: The Dragon and the Phoenix

Note: Work still keeping me busy.  Here is one I have been meaning to post for a while. Enjoy!

A lot of what I put up here is based on my playtest of Buffy and Ghosts of Albion.  Those playtests were part of a larger series I ran featuring the characters Willow & Tara.  I started them out in a WitchCraft game back in 2001 which led to Buffy and then to Ghosts.  But I thought I'd post the game summaries, playtest notes and actual play reports here to give context to the crunch I have posted and for the crunch I'll continue to post.

These games ran between 2001 and 2006 and reflect a lot of what was going on in my life and in my own RPG freelance career.   I hope you enjoy.

Willow and Tara: The Dragon and the Phoenix

The Dragon and the Phoenix originally began as the means for my Buffy playtest group to tell a Willow & Tara centric story in a new way. Originally titled "Road Stories", it began with the death of Tara's father and then followed Willow and Tara in their cross-country trip across the Southern US in Robert Maclay's (Tara's father) old 67' Thunderbird.

There would be some strangeness along the way. That is of course till March 2002 came around and we heard that Tara was going to be murdered. Now I was (and still am) a huge Willow and Tara fan, but most of my playtesters were even bigger fans than I was. We were angry as all hell, so we changed course rather quickly. Road Stories was scrapped, and we worked to come up with a new idea. In our talks (and we were less concerned now with playtesting and more with providing ourselves with something we had lost) The Dragon and the Phoenix was born. We were going to bring Tara back. We decided rather early that there were not going to be any of the issues that plagued Buffy herself the season before. As Lisa, one of my playtesters and the brain behind the episode Heaven Bleeds, stated "without Willow even Heaven would have seemed like Hell to Tara".

The ideas flowed in pretty quickly. The name of the series, the "past episodes" of the demonic army and Yoln came from an AD&D game I had played in the 80s just before going off to college. One of my characters, Morgan, had been a character that I had set up to die and have regretted it nearly the instant it happened and ever since. So to bring her into this and make her death parallel to Tara's (and to some extent Buffy's) was poignant on a personal level but also because I felt I could do a much better job of it. In AD&D Morgan had been a Bard (1st Edition) with a particular hatred for vampires. In The Buffy game I retconned her into a Slayer.  The death Morgan was something that had bugged me forever.  I can even recall a time walking to class in 1994 thinking I had done her wrong and that had been 7 years ago at that point.

The choice of Leviathan as the big bad was also pretty easy. I loved old Godzilla movies and had this vision in my head of the Cast standing, looking up and facing a giant monster like that. I was also using the Armageddon Playtest docs in my game, so it seemed an obvious choice. Adding that Willow and Tara are the only ones to stop it was also my snarky remark that anyone playing in a world without a resurrected Tara was doomed to be consumed by the Mad God.

My playtest group was also watching a lot of Charmed, so quite a bit of those mythos entered into our games as well. The Demonic Wasteland influenced Leviathan's plane. Warlocks became more Charmed like with their quasi-demon heritage (and thus ok to kill by characters taking a Geas never to take a human life) and witches were given other choices as a secondary power other than just TK. As development in the Buffy game progressed, so did the Dragon and the Phoenix. Each adventure was designed to take advantage of the new rules in the books. Want to play the next adventure, well you'll need to pick up the next book. But we moved from that when Buffy development slowed down. Eventually we moved all moved on to Ghosts of Albion where we were joined by the kindred spirits of Amber Benson and Chris Golden. There are a number of new rules and things we wrote for Willow and Tara that later were tweaked for William and Tamara. Given the parallels, we all felt that this was very appropriate. Did we make Willow and Tara Protectors? No, that was never considered, plus given the Anamchara casting rules there was no need. Once Ghosts got into full swing The Dragon and the Phoenix had to take a back seat but when the core of the rules were laid out we went back to it. We dropped Willow and Tara into the Ghosts of Albion world and used their current stats with the magic-richer world of Ghosts. To quote my co-author of Ghosts and Dragon Garner Johnson the amount of power they could summon up was "just sick". We knew we had done good.

We tried out the other adventures with a mix of unpublished Buffy books and Ghosts rules. In "Enemy Within" we compared Thom Marion's revised Werewolves with the Ferals of Ghosts of Albion. We used Army of Darkness' mass combat rules to detail how an army of demons and angels could fight an army of tainted demonic dragonmen. Magics were mixed and matched. The episode Silent Lucidity added cinematic Bast, but while they were nice the rules for them never gelled for us.  A lot of things worked and they ended up in the Ghosts of Albion book and some I have posted here.  Other things didn't.

We decided to "release" the adventures for people to play since there was quite a bit of controversy over Tara's death and most of the people we knew gave up watching the show at this point (myself included), so this was our replacement. Outside of Garner and myself none of playtesters had ever gamed before, but all had written fan-fiction. I grabbed them for a few reasons, first if the Buffy game was going to work it had to appeal to non-gaming fans. The fact that they learned to play the game and even get to a point to where they were working on adventures is a testament to the game. Secondly I wanted fan-fic authors, and good ones at that, because they understood dialog and plot. Most RPG adventures make good dungeon crawls but terrible "books". I wanted people to feel like they were IN the show that the adventure and drama was now indeed their own. How well did this work? I was driving home one day after going to the store and I had just been given the first draft of "Identity Crisis". The main author, Sass, had pitched to me as an excuse for Tara to do a strip tease for Willow and the two of them get caught. I had read it and of course I was amused, the dialog was great the B-plot was snappy as hell and I was building up the A-Plot (the Buffy part) and then it dawned on me. Tara was alive and well and I soon could care less what was going on in the "canon", the Dragon and the Phoenix was the only thing that was "real", anything else was just a rumor.

We also had some surprising help. Amber Benson  remarked that Garner and I now knew Tara better than anyone (except maybe for Chris). We even had a writer on the show that was sending us scripts long before the shows would film. So we worked spoilers for the other Season 7 into the narrative and mocked them. The writer has asked to remain anonymous and that is the way it will stay. This person agreed with us but was powerless to do anything. We were also hearing about how toxic the set had become and how most people were counting down the days till the show was over.

Similar to the authors I got Willow & Tara fans (collectively known as "Kittens") to do the covers for the adventures, you can see them all here.

There are a lot references to music and songs in the episodes. I do my best work to music. I wrote my dissertation while listening to the Ramones and "Ghosts of Albion" was written on a steady diet of Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden when I needed horror elements and Sinéad O'Connor, Enya and Máire Ní Bhraonáin (I guess we are distantly related), and Lorrena McKinnett for when I needed to write about the fae or ancient history. Dragon had a lot of influences, but mostly I listened to a lot of Linkin Park.

The Dragon and the Phoenix was a great success in my mind. Of the adventures we released, 1 through 5, it has been translated into German, French and Spanish. There are two "unauthorized" fan-fics by authors not related to the project set in the same universe not to mention the works of the authors involved from the dramatic ("Unexpected Consequences") to the silly (Willow and Tara's drunken adventures in a adult book store by Sass) to Lovecraftian inspired horror (Garner's "Those that Feed"). Plus two more series and a mini-series that comprise what we call "Willow & Tara the Series". "Road Stories" was later revived as "Season of the Witch" and the ghost of Robert Maclay is added to the cast. "Mid Semester's Night Dream" was a mini-series featuring a semi-retired (from monster hunting) Willow & Tara being asked to investigate a suspected vampire at a private boarding school. This lead to "Generation Hex" where Tara is still teaching at the school and they have help the next generation of hunters of the supernatural.

Series Details
The Dragon and the Phoenix - Buffy game with original cast set in an alternate season 7. Tara comes back to help the Cast defeat Leviathan. A mix of "Buffy" and "Armageddon". (2002 to 2003).

This Season is designed with the idea of bringing back the character of Tara Maclay who was murdered near the end of Season 6. This Season takes place in a different Sunnydale, though the history is the same, the future is new. The Cast must deal with the notion of what love is and what it means to be a family. Other issues are of course, working together and the handling or mishandling of power.

The following information is for all the episodes.

Special Guest Stars
Though the character of Cordelia Chase should be played as an NPC. Notes will also be given for playing Giles and/or Anya as NPCs.
Tony Foster. A rookie officer on the SD Police force who stumbles into the Slayer's world. Knows a little bit about what goes on in Sunnydale (ie not a dumb cop). Is attracted to Buffy.
Luna. A Seraphim that may be aiding the cast.
Kara Maclay. Tara's "twin sister".

Little Bads
The Knights of Elohim. These three fallen angels provide most of the problems for the cast in the first episode and reoccur in a later one. They seek to return the Earth to the demons so that they may be first in the eyes of God again.

Strawberry Switchblade. She was a friend of Dawns (introduced early) and was killed by the Vampire Chicas. Now she is pissed off at Dawn and Buffy for letting her get killed. Wants to kill or turn Dawn.

Yoln. The Hand of Leviathan. Yoln was a human general in the armies of Hell. He was part demon himself. During the Dark Ages he attempted to seize control of Earth, but during a pivotal able battle in Gaul (France) he met a girl. This girl was the only person who ever bested him in battle. They fought, but Yoln ran her through with his sword, Pillager. Though she knew she was dying, she took his sword from her body and she fought him back to his dimensional portal with his own sword. She even managed to wound him, cutting off his right hand and broke his sword in the process. This girl, Morgan, died after defeating Yoln. She was also a Slayer.

Big Bad Leviathan. Ancient. Colossal. Primordial. Leviathan is a dead god. But dead does not mean the same to gods as it does to mortals. "He" is being drawn into this world. Doing so destroys everything. The world, the cosmos, everything. He has cultists spanning the globe and there is a prophecy that he will reawaken and his birth will be heralded by the death of the Slayers. (Same Leviathan from Armageddon.)

Important Items
The Codex Albius - The White Codex. The spellbook Tara returns from Heaven with. Provides all the new spells in the series. Normally in exile Tara would have had to give this up along with her healing power, but the fact she still has both leads to Cast to believe that Tara's exile may not be exactly what they think it is. This sets up the tension of will Tara need to return when the adventure is over.

The Ankh - Given to Willow by Isis. This prevents her from feeling the effects of the dark magic. Believed to have been influenced by Set, it is learned in time that the "Dark Magic" is in fact Taint and set up by Leviathan centuries ago to use Willow as his portal into this realm. The Ankh can be later used to stop Nox in episode 11 (cast choice).

Pillager - Yoln's Hellforged Sword. His first task in the series is to find the pieces he needs to reforge it. Once he has this he goes on a killing spree, killing every demon (who he feels betrayed him in the 7th Century) and supernatural creature he can find.

The Hand of Yoln - A gauntlet from Yoln's battle with the Slayer Morgan. She had cut off his lower arm with his own sword before knocking him into a portal to the Astral. The gauntlet has been protected by an order of Witch Knights, an order blending both Christian and Pagan beliefs. The gauntlet appears as a clawed hand and may be used to kill Yoln (cast believes), in fact it is the last piece Yoln needs to fully manifest into reality.

The Spear of Destiny - Also known and The Spear of Cúchulainn or the Gáe Bolg. This is the weapon the cast must find to kill Yoln. Buffy, Willow and Tara's first quest for it takes them to 7th Century Gaul were it is being protected by members of the Church and the Ban-Drui. Yoln was leading an army of demons to take it by force but is defeated by the Slayer of that time. She dies, but passes a bit of her soul on to Tara (who tires to heal her).

I will give episode summaries and actual play reports in the future.

Character Life-Span Development

So I am working on getting my Life-Span Development course up and running for the next term and it got me thinking about the life-span development of characters in games.
I know sometimes people just want the collection of numbers so they can beat the crap outta monsters and steal their stuff.  That is fine and I like to do that too sometimes.  Other times, most times I would say, I prefer to invest in a character and know what makes them tick.

Well this course, which I took as an undergrad many years before, has had me thinking; what effects a character at different stages of development?  Obviously we have a Nature vs. Nurture thing going on here.  In a game that can be viewed almost as Stats and Concept vs. Game system.
I have explored this a bit with my Willow and Tara conversions, but to do it properly I would need something different.  I want to look how a character develops over time, using different games.  For this I need a pretty strong character concept and games that help emulate reality at particular age levels.

Given a number of factors (games I have, books I read and interest) I would want to create a character in a modern supernatural fantasy setting.  One where magic is not known, but is real.  Why not use Willow or Tara or even characters like Rachel and Ivy or the Hex Girls?  Simple, their pasts are fixed and their futures often times are being determined by other factors; either by books or games.

But how should I do this in depth detailed life-span development of a character?  Well first I should see what games I have and what ages they cover.  I'll also use the stages from the course I am writing as a guide.  Why not.  I went to grad school for years, I rarely get to use that here.

So here are the stages and the games I think will cover them well.

Life Stage	Game
Infancy	NA
Childhood	Little Fears
Pre-Teen and Teen	Witch Girls Adventures
Adulthood	Unisystem / True 20 / Cortex / Savage Worlds
Later Life	???? maybe Mage to reflect the higher power levels?
After Life*	Giest; In Nomine

*Maybe I'll use this or not.

I am sure there must be others.
Any suggestions?

If I go with the above then I am certainly going with an urban supernatural deal.  Possibly some sort of supernatural character like a witch or vampire (shocked I know).  I did have an idea for this new game featuring two twin sisters that are witches.  Maybe I can develop them here.

Here is what I have so far.

Kim and Kelley's life had always been surrounded by the strange, supernatural and sometimes horrific.  They were both born on Oct 31, Kelley a few minutes before Kim and Kim a few minutes before her mother died.  Raised by their father Kim and Kelly began encountering ghosts at age 5.  They spent their life together learning about magic and monsters.  Then one day something happened to Kelley...

I obviously don't want to develop too much here since I want the games to help in the development.  Kim and Kelley are not a veiled reference to Kim and Kelley Deal, but they were certainly an influence.  They are more an allusion/homage to Kim Harrison and Kelley Armstrong, two of my favorite authors in this genre.  I wanted to have twins since I could assume the stats are mostly the same and then do different things in the world to them.  I plan to focus on Kim in terms of stats.  I have no idea what either of these girls look like or anything.  Kinda nice to make a new start here.

Plus I would want to include some games that detail world or character development very well.  Something like Dresden Files would be good or even OVA or Cartoon Action Hour.

Something to think about.

Problem Player, Part 2

Wow. Lots of posts on this. Both here and the redirect on Facebook.

I'll keep you all posted.  In the end though like I said, it is the GM's choice.