Episode 5: Heaven Bleeds
Willow (calmly): You hurt Tara. The last one who did that was a God. I made her regret it.
- Willow and Tara: The Dragon and the Phoenix, Episode 5 “Heaven Bleeds”
February 2, 2003 Sunday. Imbolc.
Assassins are sent to kill Tara and turn Willow back to evil or kill her as well. Tara and Anya learn more about the truth of why she was allowed to take Exile so easily. They learn that there is more to Tara’s exile than the cast (including Tara) knows and that she and Willow have an important role to play in the final battle with Leviathan. Willow, Tara and Buffy are sent back in time to see the battle Yoln had with a Slayer protecting a weapon powerful enough to kill a god (the Spear of Destiny). Willow and Tara meet themselves in a past life. After threats and physical abuse from D’Hoffryn, Anya leaves the cast.
Story Arc elements: Dawn’s psychic power begins to emerge. Willow and Tara learn they have a role to play in the final battle (though not yet what that will be). The Slayer from the past, Morgan calls Buffy "sister" the same thing that she is called by the Mormo demons later in Episode 7.
Game design elements: Cinematic Old Soul and Anamchara spell casting rules.
Quote Runner up: Anya: Demonic lizard tastes like chicken.
Notes and Comments:This one was big. Full of new monsters, spells and characters. We get to see Willow and Tara’s past life hinted at in “The Dark Druid”, though the Liath and Bodhmal of this time have not yet fostered Fionn. The assassins were an idea we kicked around for a few episode ideas, plus we also wanted a tangible threat to Willow and Tara and make sure that Willow did not have to go all black magic to solve it.
This also marks the last time we see Anya for a while. She has work to do and hanging around a bunch of demon hunters in bad for business (plus she was a way too powerful NPC). Plus I got tired of the whole "Demons are just different kinds of people with funny faces" stuff we saw so much of the last season. Demons are supposed to be evil, they are supposed to be vile. D'Hoffryn had become a crazy grandfather type; so we turned him abusive. If his demons didn't toe the line and kill the cast he would kill them himself. So Anya, expressing some concern about this, gets beaten by D'Hoffryn for her troubles.
Now normally I have this rule, No Time Travel unless I am playing Doctor Who. But for this one I could not help it. Plus I love the visual of Willow, Tara and Buffy falling into a book and reliving the events in it.
This confronting their previous incarnations gave both girls the "Old Soul" Quality.
If Sass is the quintessential Willow author, then Lisa is the same for Tara. Lisa’s Tara is bold and willing to fight for the woman she loves. And no one does Tara-in-peril better than Lisa. While Lisa’s Tara is not quite the same as my Occult Scholar Tara, or Garner’s more reflective Tara, Lisa does do an excellent Liath; Tara’s past life.
Now we know who all the players are and pieces are all on the board, from here on out it is pushing the plot. It is also the last time (till the end) that Willow and Tara are 100% happy. The stress of what is happening is setting in. Before this they were still on their "honeymoon" with Tara back. Now she is back and she and Willow have some issues that need to work out. After all, Willow killed for her and Tara was considering leaving to go back to Heaven in Episode 1. Thess issues have not been forgotten, and they are coming back up.
Next Time: Love Stinks.
New Spells
Brigit’s Hands of Flame
Quick Cast: Yes
Power Level: 5
Requirements: A command word in Gaelic, “Adhain!”
Effect: Upon utterance of the command word flames erupt from the hands of the witch causing 4 x caster’s Will of Life Point damage, double to vampires and other undead.
The flame leaves the hands in a fan like pattern. The length of the fan is in yards equal to the Success Levels.
Brigit’s Waves of Flame
Quick Cast: No
Power Level: 6 or 7
Requirements: Level 6: Blessed water drawn from Brigit’s well and dung from her fields. Level 7: The blood of a saint or other quasi-divine being replacing the water.
Command words: Latin “Incindar” or Gaelic “Adhain”
Effects: Brigit is the Celtic goddess of fire, water and life. To her there can be no greater insult than the undead. This spell is actually a purifying one designed to burn out the offensive creatures. By using her blessed water and dung her witches perform the same ritual they perform to ready the land for growth every Imbolc (Feb. 2). This spell adds the extra kick of turning her sacred water into a wave of flame that will race out 50 feet + 10 feet per SL from the caster. The flames are soundless, and produce no heat unless the affected victim is undead (Vampire, Zombie, Skeletons) then they take fire damage of 2d10 (12) initial damage and additional damage at the rate of 6 +SL life points every turn in the flames. Demons take only the initial damage.
Level 7: The first version of this spell was discovered when Ireland was still Celtic and Pagan. Once the Goddess Brigit was transformed to the Catholic Saint Bridget her followers discovered that using her blood not only increased the casting level, but also increased the effectiveness of this incantation. In addition to the undead taking lasting damage now so did demons. Damage is increased to 3d10 (16) and recurring damage at the rate of 7 + SL LPs every turn.
Note: This was a 1st Ed AD&D spell that my then DM created called Sheets of Flame. In fact it was his character E'fir Enur tht had "created" it. I felt it was good to bring back as attribute it to Brigit.
Protection of the Goddess
Quick Cast: No
Power Level: 7
Requirements: A chant repeated by two or more witches. Not available to non-witches.
Command words: “Goddess above, ruler of all, protect your humble servant, as love becomes wall.”
Effect: A defensive ritual with an offensive bite, this magic shows that the Goddess protects what is Hers. This ritual once cast and activated will not allow any aggressive action taken upon those within its confines. Melee attacks turn back on the attacker, spells backfire or effect the hostile caster instead. Beneficial spells and magic will continue to work and others, ones not protected nor involved in the casting of the ritual, can effect each other as they please.
Witches and those they choose to protect may not attack others, but they can force out attackers. Anytime during the duration of the ritual the lead witch can say a command word or phrase and all those of hostile intent are removed from the area of effect.
The effects will remain dormant until the first act of violence is committed or until one of the witches present at the original ritual activates it. Often the coven chooses to activate it once the ritual is cast. After that time the effects persist a number of hours equal to the effective Sorcery Level + the total Success Levels.
The effects of the spell appear to be a dome of magical energy large enough to hold all the casters in close quarters, typically 5’ radius per caster.
Note: This spell is presented as an alternate to the Energy Barrier spell from The Magic Box Sourcebook..
New Qualities
Anamchara
“The only thing more frightening than meeting a Celt in battle is meeting a Celt in battle with his wife at his side.”
- Attributed to Pliny the Elder, 1st Century CE
Variable Point Quality (2 Base Points)
Prerequisites: Love (Romantic or Platonic, but not Tragic), both must take Quality
Anamchara (“on-um-kor-ah”), or soul-mate, is the Gaelic term used to describe a deep and powerful bound shared between two people. This goes beyond mere companionship and even beyond love; the souls of the two people are connected at a deep and fundamental level. Some occult scholars even speculate anamchara share one soul between two physical people.
The anamchara (singular and plural) are often aware of each other on a preternatural level. While this not a full blown telepathy or even empathy it is beyond what the normal senses would allow. This manifests itself in mundane ways as two lovers humming the same song at the same time with no outside influence, husband and wife completing each others sentences, separated twins living parallel lives, or even one sibling knowing her other sibling is about to walk into a room before the event happens.
Anamchara can be, and often are, lovers, but they are not limited to that alone. Some anamchara can also be very close siblings or very deeply devoted friends. Sometimes the connection can be forged in battle, giving rise to a “brothers-in-arms” effect. The Anamchara can also have a deep connection resulting from life times of being together, often both having the Old Soul Quality.
The only prerequisites for this Quality are the two characters must love each other, as represented by the Love drawback (but never Tragic Love).
This quality offers several benefits
Extension of the senses (“I Will Always Find You”). This acts like a mild form of Empathy or a lesser Situational Awareness that extends only to their anamchara. This grants +2 to locate their anamchara via mundane, magic or psychic means. This also gives each anamchara a broad sense of the other’s health and well being.
Boost Morale (“I’ll Stand By You”). When anamchara are together even dire situations do not seem as grim. With a soothing word or even a knowing look a character can grant his anamchara +10 on any one test. Best of all, he can do it after the player has already made this test. The granting character spends his Turn explaining he is doing this to aid his beloved. This can only be done once per game session per character.
These effects cost two (2) Quality Points. In addition the anamchara must choose one or both of the effects below. These are extensions of this quality, but must be trained in order to be used. Training is represented in a point cost and some time devoted to the pursuit.
Combat Effects
The benefits detailed above have some application in combat as well. The Situational Awareness and Empathy translate into making the anamchara a particularly effective fighting team. In order to gain this benefit the anamchara actually need to train together in a fighting style. Players should decide which style (martial arts, medieval weapons or even guns) they will train together in. This training offers a +2 bonus to all attacks of that type and damage for each. Both can also effectively fight against one opponent with out penalty due to room. Anamchara naturally avoid each others weapons.
Cost: 1 Quality or Skill Point
Magic or Psychic Effects
When anamchara cast magic together it is more than mere cooperative casting in the same way an orchestra is more than a few instruments playing the same song.
To use their magic together anamchara must be able to grasp hands and concentrate. It is a simple matter of rolling a normal 1d10 + Perception + Occult roll. If they both roll a 9 or higher they are in synch. Keep track of the average Success Levels as this is their Synchronicity Score. This only needs to be rolled once per magical situation. Such situations like scrying, or lifting a rock together or one session of combat would qualify.
When anamchara cast they can add their Synchronicity Score to the spell’s Success Levels after figuring out all the effects of casting together. This results in a little extra bookkeeping during game play, but also some amazing effects. For Directors that want less bookkeeping, anamchara can roll their Synchronicity score at the beginning of each game session and use it throughout. This could be part of a special ritual used to “tune” each other’s magic.
This is added even to spells where two or more casters is required. As a “side effect” of this magical synchronicity anamchara can use each other’s ritual tools without penalty.
Cost: 2 Quality or Skill Points
Sidebar: Using Ghosts of Albion Magic rules
If you are using the Ghosts of Albion RPG you can opt to use the “William and Tamara Casting Together” rule in this case in place of the rule above.
Note: The Combat and Magic bonus are not cumulative in the case of combat magic.
Roleplaying the Anamchara
Anamchara are best suited as Cast members (PCs) and not a combination of Cast and Guest Stars (NPCs). When playing these characters it is vital to understand that, sages’ hypotheses to the contrary, they are in fact two people. They are subject (maybe even more so) to all the pitfalls of love (the emotion) and Love (the Drawback) as everyone else. Arguments can and do erupt. In fact it is also recorded in the same pages describing the anamchara that a Celtic male expected his wife to be able to stand up to him and speak her mind (though no Celtic couple would argue in public).
Any situation that would turn Love to Tragic Love also would result in the loss of benefits for the Anamchara Quality. Though mythology and history is replete with tales of the extremes one would go through to retrieve their anamchara from the grasps of death.
Old Soul
4-points/level Quality
Prerequisite: Magic/Sorcery (Cinematic)
“Of course! It would have to be you two!” the giant Celt gathered both girls into a giant bear hug.
“Y-You know us?” Tara said.
“Know you? Know you! My dear sweet Liath, I would know you if my eyes had been plucked from my skull! Do you not know me? It is I, Fionn. Your Demne!”
“Fionn. Ok, so who are we then?” asked Willow.
“My dearest Bodhmal! Always with the riddles, ok I will play. You both are my mothers! We must celebrate, your son has returned and our family is one again!” He said as he pulled the two, very confused, girls into another enthusiastic bear hug.
- The Dark Druid
These characters have been reborn many times. As a result, their souls have become stronger. Old Souls tend to be very mature and precocious for their age. It would be nice to believe that age invariably provides wisdom, but Old Souls are equally likely to be depraved or insightful, cruel or kind. Whatever their orientation, it is usually be more extreme, having been refined over several lifetimes.
This Quality can be acquired multiple times during character creation (but it cannot be acquired afterwards, see below). Each “level” represents some 3-5 previous lives lived before the character’s current incarnation. Every level gives one “magical” past life and 2-4 “mundane” ones. The player can determine who these former selves were, where they lived, and what they know, or she can leave such information in the hands of the Director. From a roleplaying point of view, creating a “past lives tree” can be interesting.
Anyone with this quality can call upon the magic of her past lives to aid her in casting spells. They can add 1 sorcery level for every magical past life they have. So every level of Old Soul adds one level to your Sorcery level.
To call on the power of the old soul cost 1 Drama point (or one Essence Point for games that use Essence).
Successive lives tend to increase the character’s overall insights and understanding—for good or ill. For example, Tara has 5 levels of the Old Soul Quality. This gives her 5 more points to put into her mental Attributes (and 30 more Essence Points).
An Old Soul is sometimes able to tap into the knowledge of her previous lives. These attempts require the character to pass a single Test using both Willpower and Intelligence as modifiers, and each attempt drains the character of 1 Drama Point, which is regained normally (via play). When attempting to perform an unskilled Task, the character may receive a flash of knowledge from one of her previous lives. If the player took the time to decide what her character’s previous lives knew, then the character gains, for that one Task, a skill level equivalent to the character’s Old Soul level, but only the skills that the character knew in her previous lives are available. If the previous lives are not known, the character uses only one half of the Old Soul level (rounded down), but virtually any skill might be known. The only exception would be high-tech Skills that a previous life would be unlikely to know. Asking one’s ancestral memories how to hack into a computer system is not likely to work very well .
For example, Tara, with 5 levels of Old Soul, has about 20 past incarnations, six of which were magic users. Tara’s player has figured out that at least half (10) were peasants. These include Belen, a priestess in the Temple of Diana in ancient Greece, Liath, a Celtic warrior woman, Jing Jin a Chinese sorceress, Teamhair a Daughter of the Flame from Christianized Ireland, Fiona Maclay a witch from 18th century England and Tamara of 19th century London.
During an adventure Tara needs to play a game of fidchell against a demon to rescue her friends. Fidchell is an ancient Celtic game similar to chess and Tara does not know how to play. But Liath was an expert. If she passes the Willpower and Intelligence Test, she can play with an effective skill (Wild Card: Fidchell) of 5, at the cost of 1 Drama point. The skill lasts as long as the game lasts. If later in the day she needs to play it again a new Test and an expenditure of Drama Points are required. If Tara had not fleshed out the past incarnations, she would have been able to play fidchell, but with a skill of only 2.
Generally, only human beings can have Old Souls. Long-lived supernatural beings rarely reincarnate, or do so only over spans of millennia.
This quality is not accessible to vampires, demons, zombies or robots (who have no souls), werewolves in werewolf form, and one can argue Slayers. Slayers by their very nature have a bit of the Old Soul quality in the Slayer quality.
Awakening the Old Soul
Not every character will or should have access to this at character creation. There are some circumstances in which the character’s Old Soul can be re-awakened.
When this quality is first added to the game the Director will need to have a good in game or storyline reason for allowing the character access to this. These reasons could also be used for characters that wish to acquire this Quality later, but directors are urged to only limit this to characters during the character creation process.
1. Meeting a past life. The karmic and dharmic energies released when a soul meets a previous or future life is usually enough to jar that soul awake.
2. Exposure to a psychically tainted object related to that old soul. Example if a person picks up a dagger that was used to kill one of her past lives.
3. Psychic regression. No not the type done in less reputable psychiatric offices or even calling Shirley McClain or Ms. Cleo. A real psychic, such as a member of the Cabal of the Psyche, must help with the past life regression.
After this point Old Soul should be limited to character creation only.
For crossovers with other Unisystem games this can be interchanged with the Supernatural Quality “Old Soul”, on which this is based.
New Monsters
Devil
Devils are fiends, similar to demons. Devils though, unlike demons, are ordered and fit into a strict hierarchy of Hell. They are the creations of the original angels that rebelled in Heaven and were cast out into the pits of Hell.
Devil, Barbazu (Barbed Devil)
Motivation: To guard and protect the populace of Hell
Creature Type: Demon (Devil)
Attributes: Strength 5, Dexterity 3, Constitution 4, Intelligence 6, Perception 4, Willpower 7
Ability Scores: Muscle 16, Combat 16, Brains 12
Life Points: 50
Drama Points: 3
Qualities: Hard to Kill 4, Armor Value 8, Sorcery 4
Drawbacks: Attractiveness -2
Skills: Getting Medieval 3, Kung-fu 4
Combat Maneuvers
Name Score Damage Notes
Claw (2) 7 10 Slash/stab
Bite (beard) 7 15 Stab
Punch 7 10 Bash
Dodge 6 - Defense action
Barbed Devils are monsters in the truest sense. Vicious, armed and armored, these devils chief duties are to attack as guards or protectors of other devils. They have two massive claws ending in viscous dagger-like claws. They are covered in terrible spikes, have two large sharp horns, a long tail covered in barbs and a thick leathery hide.
Barbed Devils attack with a claw/claw/bite routine. Any successful hit the Barbazu can cause their victim to experience fear (a Fear Check will be required). Typically they will use this on their first attack to terrify their victims and make them easier targets.
Barabazu can also cast Hold Person and Jet of Flame (from The Magic Box Sourcebook p. 76 and p. 79).
Devil, Osyuth (Bone Devil)
Motivation: Fight for the greater glory of Hell
Creature Type: Demon (Devil)
Attributes: Strength 7, Dexterity 5, Constitution 7, Intelligence 3, Perception 3, Willpower 4
Ability Scores: Muscle 20, Combat 17, Brains 12
Life Points: 71
Drama Points: 3
Qualities: Hard to Kill 4, Armor Value 9, Sorcery 5
Drawbacks: Attractiveness -3
Skills: Getting Medieval 4, Kung-fu 3
Combat Maneuvers
Name Score Damage Notes
Claw 8 14 Slash/stab
Kick 7 16 Bash
Bone Hook 9 18 Slash/stab
- Grapple 10 - Capture
Tail 16 21 Poison (Str loss)
Dodge 15 - Defensive
Bone Devils, also known as Osyuth, are a lesser devil employed by the armies of Hell. They look like skeletons with dry leathery skin stretched over their thin frames. What sets them apart from a skeleton is their height, 9' tall and a large scorpion like tail.
They typically attack with their large bone hooks which they wield with deadly effectiveness. If a hit roll has 3 or more Success Levels the victim becomes trapped by the hook. Trapped victims are subject to a tail or kick attack.
The tail of the Bone Devil has a poison that reduces the victim's Strength score. In addition to damage the victim temporary looses 1 point of Strength.
Bone Devils are also capable of the following magics (from The Magic Box Sourcebook) Glamour, Magical Disguise, Quick Illusion (used to make Invisible) and can cause Fear (victims must make a Fear Check).
The devils appear in the "Flashback" sequence.
Umu Demons
Motivation: Guard dogs
Critter Type: Demon (Guardian)
Attributes: Strength 4, Dexterity 5, Constitution 4, Intelligence 3,Perception 7, Willpower 4
Ability Scores: Muscle 14, Combat 15, Brains 16
Life Points: 48
Drama Points: 3
Qualities: Hard to Kill 2, Armor Value 2, Acute Senses
Drawbacks: Attractiveness -4, Honorable (Rigid)
Skills: Getting Medieval 4, Kung-fu 3
Combat Maneuvers
Name Score Damage Notes
Big Sword 9 25 Slash/stab, can use one-handed
Bite (2) 8 17 Must Grapple first
Punch 8 8 Bash
Kick 6 10 Bash
Dodge 9 - Defense action
Grapple 8 - Resisted by Dodge
Lower level demons employed by the Uttuki, Umu demons act as guard dogs-a job they are perfectly suited for. Each Umu demon stands 6' to 7' in height. Their skin is covered with a fine dark fur, often black or dark brown. They are very muscular and often dress in ancient Babylonian or Sumerian garb; open toe sandals, papyrus kilts and bare chested. What sets these demons apart are their four heads. The heads most often resemble that of a Doberman, but some have been reported with jackal heads as well. All faces feature prominent snouts with dozens of needle like teeth. Each head faces a different direction, thus the Umu is never surprised. Their senses are as acute of that of a dog's (sharper sight, hearing and smell) only four times over. They are loyal to their demon employers and thus very much in demand by those that have things they want guarded. Each head is independent of the other. So heads can eat, carry on conversations and even sleep separately of the others.
Umu typically kill and eat anyone that comes too close to the thing they are guarding, making no distinction between friend and foe. Only their employer, the demon or witch that bound them are immune to their attacks.
There is also a rumor that there are three-headed varieties that serve the Goddess Hecate.
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Friday, September 24, 2010
Friday, September 17, 2010
The Dragon and the Phoenix: Episode 4
Episode 4: Identity Crisis
Willow: So you are saying that whole season of ‘Facts of Life’ was nothing more than unrequited lesbian love between Blair and Jo?
Tara: Absolutely, they were totally into each other, that’s why they fought so much.
Willow: Now you’re just playing with my emotions.
- Willow and Tara: The Dragon and the Phoenix, Episode 4 “Identity Crisis”
January 8, 2003 Sunday
Willow’s first big dive back into magic is to recreate Tara’s identity and remove all references of her death. A magical surge created by Yoln, the Shadowreaper, causes the magic to go awry and creates a duplicate of Tara who believes she is Kara, Tara’s twin sister. A magic ID provided by Anya also goes awry and the personality of a dead stripper is imprinted on Tara. In addition, the cast have to deal with hungry snake demons, a small gang of mobsters and a 7ft tall, one handed killing machine.
Story Arc elements: Establishes Tara’s “twin” sister Kara and Murl the demonic identity merchant. Introduces Yoln.
Notes and Comments:This is the adventure that made me forget that the show was even still on TV. Once we got to this episode things were moving great. The ideas flowed much faster. This was also our most comical episode despite the fact that it began with a dead stripper. We have "two" Taras running around, demonic identity merchants, would be gangsters, and a 7 foot tall man in armor with one arm. Plus there is the whole Tara-as-a-stripper scene.
The identity merchant was a great idea. These are demons that make a living integrating other demons into human society. They do it by having the demon assume the identity of someone that had died and they get all their effects, basically becoming that person. Anya gets the id of a recently killed japanese stripper. We also wanted to do one "Willow's magic screws up" episode and ehen never do it again. She is supposed to be the most powerful witch on the planet afterall. In truth her magic didn't screw up it was the combination of her magic, the dead stripper's id and the magic of Yoln.
Special note: Because of this episode Tara can still speak fluent Japanese, Amber Benson made a remark at a con a while back along the lines of "well I guess I can speak Japanese" when talking about the afterlife of fan fic. Wish I could find the link for you all.
Yoln of course is the proxy for our big bad. We find out more about him next episode, but we learn he is the "Hand of Leviathan" whom he calls "The Whispering God". Yoln was also an old D&D NPC that plagued my characters.
Kara, Tara's "straight" sister was an inside joke that began on the Kitten describing the soap oprea like plotting we were seeing in the show up to Season 6. We decided in the alternate past that Kara had a hugh crush on Giles. The ophidians were an old AD&D monster of mine.
The author of this adventure, Sass, has a better grasp on Willow than anyother author I have ever met. She gets her on such a fundamental level that her fiction should be required reading for anyone wanting to play Willow in a game.
Kara was not just a proxy for dead Tara, but Dawn as well. We established that she was as real to everyone, including memories, as Dawn, and a spell took her away. This was part of the alienation plot for Buffy and Dawn. Both were feeling like they were less and less human than the people around them, though for different reasons. I disliked the Slayer-as-demon (the episode where the girl was raped by a demon to make her a Slayer had not happened yet) and wanted to go a different direction, so we began by having Buffy become stronger and faster than before, becoming something other than human, or so she thought. For Dawn it was the start of her psychic powers. I wanted both characters (via the players) to struggle with what it means to be human, or maybe no longer human.
And true to our cause here "Candy", the dead stripper, gets avenged in the end and her killers are met with justice at the hands of the Yakuza. Tara also gets a marker from the Yakuza boss. The boss was named Tatsou which means "Dragon". There is no connection, just a pun on my part to keep some element of the overall plot in every episode.
The quote above is an in-play quote between Willow and Tara. All this terrible stuff is going around them and they are having a discussion about the lesbian sub-text of the Facts of Life.
In this episode we also established that Willow & Tara's favorite indie band is Lipkandy. They were playing the night after Tara's birthday.
At this point we began to insert a lot more crunchy stuff to our games. Previously we had been content to use the playtest material of Buffy, but now we were moving along at good pace. Episodes 4 and 5 were our playtests of the new Magic Box book, but we wanted to add more.
New Monster
Ophidians
Motivation: Eat humans
Critter Type: Demon
Attributes: Str 7 Dex 6 Con 6 Int 2 Per 2 Will 5
Ability Scores: Muscle 20 Combat 14 Brains 15
Life Points: 70
Drama Points: 1
Special Abilities: Armor Value 10 (scales) Qualities: Hard to Kill 3
Dodge: 14
Claw: 16 18 dam Str x 3
Bite: 15 21 dam (Str + 1) x3,
Poison
Tail slap: 15 14 dam
Ophidians are said to be a young race by demon standards, thought to exist only for the last 3 or 4 thousand years, since early Egyptian times. They are an isolationistic race, known to spend time only with their own kind, and have little regard for other demons. While most demons are decidedly carnivorous, the Ophidians are one of a few whose diet is thought to consist solely of the flesh of human beings. It is known that almost all Ophidians worship some sort of a serpent deity, but whether this is Set or Leviathan is unclear.
These Ophidians worship leviathan, but it can’t be a coincidence that many also worship Set and the cast just dealt with Set.
New Spells
Magic Missile
Quick Cast: Yes
Power Level: 2
Requirements: Witches and Warlocks need only shout “dissolvo.” Other magicians also need to meditate for one minute.
Effect: A ball of light shoots from the caster’s hand and shoves the target one foot per Success Level rolled. This spell could knock someone down or push them free from someone who was holding them. It normally does no damage, but if the target is shoved into a wall or some other hard surface, she takes double the casting roll’s Success Levels in Bash damage.
Note: This is the spell Tara used in “Bargaining”. It is assumed that Kara has it as well.
Sleep
Quick Cast: Yes
Power Level: 1
Requirements: Command word calling on the gods of sleep (Hypnos, Morpheus, or ‘the Sandman’) and a bit of sand.
Effect: Target must make a Will check. If failed the target falls into a deep sleep for one hour per level of sorcery skill.
Note: This spell is know to both Tara and Kara.
Undo Spell
Quick Cast: Yes
Power Level: 5
Requirements: Witches and Warlocks need only to command that the spell be ended. Others need to concentrate on the spell for 1 minute per power level of the original spell. If the caster does not have the sorcery levels required she can bring in other casters.
Effect: Undoes one spell or magical effect.
Since the magical effect in not natural, the magic is easy. But the witch needs to be able to overcome the level of the original spell as a resisted check.
Next Week: Tara and Willow are targeted by assassins and they learn more of their mission here.
Willow: So you are saying that whole season of ‘Facts of Life’ was nothing more than unrequited lesbian love between Blair and Jo?
Tara: Absolutely, they were totally into each other, that’s why they fought so much.
Willow: Now you’re just playing with my emotions.
- Willow and Tara: The Dragon and the Phoenix, Episode 4 “Identity Crisis”
January 8, 2003 Sunday
Willow’s first big dive back into magic is to recreate Tara’s identity and remove all references of her death. A magical surge created by Yoln, the Shadowreaper, causes the magic to go awry and creates a duplicate of Tara who believes she is Kara, Tara’s twin sister. A magic ID provided by Anya also goes awry and the personality of a dead stripper is imprinted on Tara. In addition, the cast have to deal with hungry snake demons, a small gang of mobsters and a 7ft tall, one handed killing machine.
Story Arc elements: Establishes Tara’s “twin” sister Kara and Murl the demonic identity merchant. Introduces Yoln.
Notes and Comments:This is the adventure that made me forget that the show was even still on TV. Once we got to this episode things were moving great. The ideas flowed much faster. This was also our most comical episode despite the fact that it began with a dead stripper. We have "two" Taras running around, demonic identity merchants, would be gangsters, and a 7 foot tall man in armor with one arm. Plus there is the whole Tara-as-a-stripper scene.
The identity merchant was a great idea. These are demons that make a living integrating other demons into human society. They do it by having the demon assume the identity of someone that had died and they get all their effects, basically becoming that person. Anya gets the id of a recently killed japanese stripper. We also wanted to do one "Willow's magic screws up" episode and ehen never do it again. She is supposed to be the most powerful witch on the planet afterall. In truth her magic didn't screw up it was the combination of her magic, the dead stripper's id and the magic of Yoln.
Special note: Because of this episode Tara can still speak fluent Japanese, Amber Benson made a remark at a con a while back along the lines of "well I guess I can speak Japanese" when talking about the afterlife of fan fic. Wish I could find the link for you all.
Yoln of course is the proxy for our big bad. We find out more about him next episode, but we learn he is the "Hand of Leviathan" whom he calls "The Whispering God". Yoln was also an old D&D NPC that plagued my characters.
Kara, Tara's "straight" sister was an inside joke that began on the Kitten describing the soap oprea like plotting we were seeing in the show up to Season 6. We decided in the alternate past that Kara had a hugh crush on Giles. The ophidians were an old AD&D monster of mine.
The author of this adventure, Sass, has a better grasp on Willow than anyother author I have ever met. She gets her on such a fundamental level that her fiction should be required reading for anyone wanting to play Willow in a game.
Kara was not just a proxy for dead Tara, but Dawn as well. We established that she was as real to everyone, including memories, as Dawn, and a spell took her away. This was part of the alienation plot for Buffy and Dawn. Both were feeling like they were less and less human than the people around them, though for different reasons. I disliked the Slayer-as-demon (the episode where the girl was raped by a demon to make her a Slayer had not happened yet) and wanted to go a different direction, so we began by having Buffy become stronger and faster than before, becoming something other than human, or so she thought. For Dawn it was the start of her psychic powers. I wanted both characters (via the players) to struggle with what it means to be human, or maybe no longer human.
And true to our cause here "Candy", the dead stripper, gets avenged in the end and her killers are met with justice at the hands of the Yakuza. Tara also gets a marker from the Yakuza boss. The boss was named Tatsou which means "Dragon". There is no connection, just a pun on my part to keep some element of the overall plot in every episode.
The quote above is an in-play quote between Willow and Tara. All this terrible stuff is going around them and they are having a discussion about the lesbian sub-text of the Facts of Life.
In this episode we also established that Willow & Tara's favorite indie band is Lipkandy. They were playing the night after Tara's birthday.
At this point we began to insert a lot more crunchy stuff to our games. Previously we had been content to use the playtest material of Buffy, but now we were moving along at good pace. Episodes 4 and 5 were our playtests of the new Magic Box book, but we wanted to add more.
New Monster
Ophidians
Motivation: Eat humans
Critter Type: Demon
Attributes: Str 7 Dex 6 Con 6 Int 2 Per 2 Will 5
Ability Scores: Muscle 20 Combat 14 Brains 15
Life Points: 70
Drama Points: 1
Special Abilities: Armor Value 10 (scales) Qualities: Hard to Kill 3
Dodge: 14
Claw: 16 18 dam Str x 3
Bite: 15 21 dam (Str + 1) x3,
Poison
Tail slap: 15 14 dam
Ophidians are said to be a young race by demon standards, thought to exist only for the last 3 or 4 thousand years, since early Egyptian times. They are an isolationistic race, known to spend time only with their own kind, and have little regard for other demons. While most demons are decidedly carnivorous, the Ophidians are one of a few whose diet is thought to consist solely of the flesh of human beings. It is known that almost all Ophidians worship some sort of a serpent deity, but whether this is Set or Leviathan is unclear.
These Ophidians worship leviathan, but it can’t be a coincidence that many also worship Set and the cast just dealt with Set.
New Spells
Magic Missile
Quick Cast: Yes
Power Level: 2
Requirements: Witches and Warlocks need only shout “dissolvo.” Other magicians also need to meditate for one minute.
Effect: A ball of light shoots from the caster’s hand and shoves the target one foot per Success Level rolled. This spell could knock someone down or push them free from someone who was holding them. It normally does no damage, but if the target is shoved into a wall or some other hard surface, she takes double the casting roll’s Success Levels in Bash damage.
Note: This is the spell Tara used in “Bargaining”. It is assumed that Kara has it as well.
Sleep
Quick Cast: Yes
Power Level: 1
Requirements: Command word calling on the gods of sleep (Hypnos, Morpheus, or ‘the Sandman’) and a bit of sand.
Effect: Target must make a Will check. If failed the target falls into a deep sleep for one hour per level of sorcery skill.
Note: This spell is know to both Tara and Kara.
Undo Spell
Quick Cast: Yes
Power Level: 5
Requirements: Witches and Warlocks need only to command that the spell be ended. Others need to concentrate on the spell for 1 minute per power level of the original spell. If the caster does not have the sorcery levels required she can bring in other casters.
Effect: Undoes one spell or magical effect.
Since the magical effect in not natural, the magic is easy. But the witch needs to be able to overcome the level of the original spell as a resisted check.
Next Week: Tara and Willow are targeted by assassins and they learn more of their mission here.
Friday, September 10, 2010
The Dragon and the Phoenix: Episode 3
Episode 3: The Serpent of Destiny
December 13, 2002 Friday
The cast are transported to the legendary Thebes of the Gods. Here they learn that the god Set has been corrupting Willow with magic for his own nefarious needs. The God Osiris also has issues with Willow. The Goddess Isis intercedes when they learn that Willow and Tara’s battle with Leviathan was foretold on millennia old cartouches. Isis gives Willow an amulet to protect her from dark magic.
Story Arc and Game Design elements: Willow receives The Ankh to protect her from “dark magic”. Try to make some sense out of “dark magic addiction” to a group that has a collective 90+ years on writing about magic and witches. Do away with magic addiction rules.
Soundtrack: Santana “Black Magic Woman”.
Notes and Comments:I can't tell you how much I hated the magic addiction rules. Well, not the rules themselves, but the concept from the show. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid! It was everything I felt went wrong with the show. Playtesting rules for them was like polishing a turd. We opted for a different metaphor. We originally wanted to go with Taint from WitchCraft. But for various reasons we didn't. I think if I were to do this again I might go with Taint and the Ankh would still draw off the Taint from Willow. The Ankh plays a greater role in the Willow-centric episode "Shadows in the Rain" later in the season.
We also wanted to add more mythos for other cultures to our game, this is the Egyptian one. Dealt with the whole Osiris nonsense. We began more myth building here and establish that Willow and Tara had been through other lives before and were together then too. Their connection to Leviathan via Set is also established.
Author Kirk Baldridge was one of the people that helped me with the Road Stories ideas and this was his second adventure. His first was second season episode, Deep in the Heart.
The cover was designed by Kitten artist Shinnen, whose work I have always liked. The interior art was done by me and featured some Egyptian cartouches that detailed the events coming up in the series. These disparate events and prophecies became part of the larger Elder Prophecies which has appeared off and on throughout all my games. Again basically saying that if a world does not have a living Willow and a living Tara it is doomed to be consumed by Leviathan. Sorry for your world if this not the case. ;)
The plot kicks up next week in Episode 4 where we meet our enemy and Tara becomes a stripper.
December 13, 2002 Friday
The cast are transported to the legendary Thebes of the Gods. Here they learn that the god Set has been corrupting Willow with magic for his own nefarious needs. The God Osiris also has issues with Willow. The Goddess Isis intercedes when they learn that Willow and Tara’s battle with Leviathan was foretold on millennia old cartouches. Isis gives Willow an amulet to protect her from dark magic.
Story Arc and Game Design elements: Willow receives The Ankh to protect her from “dark magic”. Try to make some sense out of “dark magic addiction” to a group that has a collective 90+ years on writing about magic and witches. Do away with magic addiction rules.
Soundtrack: Santana “Black Magic Woman”.
Notes and Comments:I can't tell you how much I hated the magic addiction rules. Well, not the rules themselves, but the concept from the show. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid! It was everything I felt went wrong with the show. Playtesting rules for them was like polishing a turd. We opted for a different metaphor. We originally wanted to go with Taint from WitchCraft. But for various reasons we didn't. I think if I were to do this again I might go with Taint and the Ankh would still draw off the Taint from Willow. The Ankh plays a greater role in the Willow-centric episode "Shadows in the Rain" later in the season.
We also wanted to add more mythos for other cultures to our game, this is the Egyptian one. Dealt with the whole Osiris nonsense. We began more myth building here and establish that Willow and Tara had been through other lives before and were together then too. Their connection to Leviathan via Set is also established.
Author Kirk Baldridge was one of the people that helped me with the Road Stories ideas and this was his second adventure. His first was second season episode, Deep in the Heart.
The cover was designed by Kitten artist Shinnen, whose work I have always liked. The interior art was done by me and featured some Egyptian cartouches that detailed the events coming up in the series. These disparate events and prophecies became part of the larger Elder Prophecies which has appeared off and on throughout all my games. Again basically saying that if a world does not have a living Willow and a living Tara it is doomed to be consumed by Leviathan. Sorry for your world if this not the case. ;)
The plot kicks up next week in Episode 4 where we meet our enemy and Tara becomes a stripper.
Friday, September 3, 2010
The Dragon and the Phoenix: Episode 2
Episode 2: The Dead of Night
November 13, 2002 Wednesday
A group of necromancers (the Order of Six) is using zombies of people killed by the cast, including Ben/Glory, and a shape shifting spirit to try and unlock a portal to Leviathan’s plane.
Story Arc and Game Design elements: Monster of the week (mostly). Necromancy rules for Cinematic Unisystem. Establishes that Tara keeps a Journal that she writes in religiously. Also introduces the Codex Albius and the first of many cults.
Notes and Comments: This adventure was written by Garner Johnson based on a draft he was doing for a story. It was designed as our playtests of "Monster Smackdown".
We featured a weak shape shifter as our first among many jabs at “The First”, but mostly we wanted to deal with some glaring issues, such as why some people get do all the killing of normal humans they like and never be held accountable for it (Spike, Buffy), while others are treated like pariahs (Faith, Willow).
We also wanted to do a “zombie” episode since we were all getting into AFMBE by this time and really just wanted a monster of the week one. The title was my idea and Garner objected, but he saw it my way after spending a week trying to come up with something better.
The episode itself doesn't advance the arc much save for the fact that we established that others are going to be interested in what is going on here. This was part of my "your characters do not live in a vacuum" philosophy. This was stage building.
The idea was to have the characters have to deal with the deaths, accidental or otherwise, that they have caused, but it didn't quite work out like that. The players saw zombies and zombies had to be destroyed.
Tara's journal writing was one of those things that seem to come out of several different places at once. Lisa (our Tara) and Sass (our Willow) both talked about it. Later on it was reinforced when we began work on Ghosts of Albion and Tamara Swift also kept a journal. In fact the Journals of Tamara Swift became magical tomes in their own right, as did the Journal of Megan Maclay would in the next season.
Yes. I know there is a typo in the cover. I have been meaning to fix it for years.
November 13, 2002 Wednesday
A group of necromancers (the Order of Six) is using zombies of people killed by the cast, including Ben/Glory, and a shape shifting spirit to try and unlock a portal to Leviathan’s plane.
Story Arc and Game Design elements: Monster of the week (mostly). Necromancy rules for Cinematic Unisystem. Establishes that Tara keeps a Journal that she writes in religiously. Also introduces the Codex Albius and the first of many cults.
Notes and Comments: This adventure was written by Garner Johnson based on a draft he was doing for a story. It was designed as our playtests of "Monster Smackdown".
We featured a weak shape shifter as our first among many jabs at “The First”, but mostly we wanted to deal with some glaring issues, such as why some people get do all the killing of normal humans they like and never be held accountable for it (Spike, Buffy), while others are treated like pariahs (Faith, Willow).
We also wanted to do a “zombie” episode since we were all getting into AFMBE by this time and really just wanted a monster of the week one. The title was my idea and Garner objected, but he saw it my way after spending a week trying to come up with something better.
The episode itself doesn't advance the arc much save for the fact that we established that others are going to be interested in what is going on here. This was part of my "your characters do not live in a vacuum" philosophy. This was stage building.
The idea was to have the characters have to deal with the deaths, accidental or otherwise, that they have caused, but it didn't quite work out like that. The players saw zombies and zombies had to be destroyed.
Tara's journal writing was one of those things that seem to come out of several different places at once. Lisa (our Tara) and Sass (our Willow) both talked about it. Later on it was reinforced when we began work on Ghosts of Albion and Tamara Swift also kept a journal. In fact the Journals of Tamara Swift became magical tomes in their own right, as did the Journal of Megan Maclay would in the next season.
Yes. I know there is a typo in the cover. I have been meaning to fix it for years.
Friday, August 27, 2010
The Dragon and the Phoenix: Episode 1
So my Fridays are likely to be very busy so I am thinking of going through my big CineUnisystem adventure season The Dragon and the Phoenix. These will be mostly plot summaries and some actual play reports. Keep in mind that these games are now almost 10 years old. I wrote and ran these a long time ago. They were the playtest bed for Buffy, Angel and Ghosts of Albion. Plus I have talked about these for so long I assume everyone already knows everything about them and that is really not the case. So sit back a enjoy.
Episode 1: Will We Burn In Heaven?
Willow (crying): I thought…I thought I had lost you!
Tara (kissing her face): I’ll find you. I will always find you.
- Willow and Tara: The Dragon and the Phoenix, Episode 1 “Will We Burn in Heaven?”
November 7, 2002 Thursday
(Ran this during Summer 2002, right after the Dark Druid)
Willow and Buffy have just been visiting Tara’s grave when they get two unexpected visitors, Cordelia and Tara. Tara comes back from Heaven to help the cast defeat a group of fallen angels bent on finding the Enochian Tablets and destroying all of creation with the Word of Unmaking. Tara helps, but is torn between her duty to the Creator and Creatrix and her love for Willow. Te tablet is found, in the hands of a magical merchant named E'rif E'nur. He is found dead and his local contact, Spike is horribly burned. Anya is later found also burned. Tara is able to heal her by touch, but both Spike and Anya tell her that they are "afraid" of her now. The fallen angels are found and there is a great battle. An angel tries to burn Willow, but Tara gets in the way and engulfed in flames. She walks out of the flame, unharmed, and in full angelic form to fight back. The fallen angels are defeated with daggers given to them by Anya. The tablet is destroyed and Tara must choose whether to return to heaven or remain. In the end Tara chooses Exile; she gives up her powers and angelic life force to be human again.
Giles discovers that the dead god Leviathan will be entering our reality.
Story Arc and Game Design elements: Introduce the new Ascension, Other Worldly and Geas quality/drawbacks.
Soundtrack: Foo Fighters “Learning to Fly”, Enya “Exile”
Notes and Comments: This is the first adventure and it is fairly linear, but also fairly combat heavy. What is new here is the first time we have seen angels in the game or universe, and they are evil ones. We also see the return of Tara and her exile. One thing quickly became obvious to us that a demonic Anya is not a playable character. She can't die, she is totally beholden to her demonic master D'Hoffryn and really she should be out to kill the Cast. Finding things to do with Anya was a problem. Another problem was Dawn. We had big plans for her, but no one wanted to play her. Spike gets burned pretty badly in this episode by the angels so we could have an excuse not to have him. The focus of this of course is the return of Tara and how Willow could deal with it. In the begining I wanted Willow to be completely de-magicked; unable to cast any spells. It would have been great for a story, but for a game people want Willow to have spells. So we comprimised and had Willow's magic reduced. Throughout the series she begins to gain it back. Tara shows off some of her new powers too here, the ability to heal and her "otherworldlieness". We liked the idea that every demon and vampire in town was now terrified of Tara. Later in Episode 4 Spike describes her as appearing as if she was on fire.
Some elements from my old AD&;D game appear here. Luna is a former character and E'fir E'nur was an NPC. E'Fir E'nur was also going to be part of the D'jinn arc as a summoneer and binder of Iffrits.
Like the D'jinn series, this also had a tie to the Dark Druid episode that was published in July of 2002. The Dark Druid, with your cast, acts a prelude to the D'jinn or with the original cast as a prelude to this.
Tara Maclay
Keribum (Ascended Human Witch)
Life Points 71
Drama Points 20
Strength 5 Dexterity 4 Constitution 5
Intelligence 4 Perception 3 Willpower 5
Qualities Ascended
Attractiveness +3
Empathy
Fast Reaction Time
Hard to Kill +7
Nerves of Steel
Sorcerery 5
Drawbacks Adversaries (lots) 5
Honorable (Serious)
Geas
Minority (Gay Wicca)
Obligation (Major)
Otherworldly
Skills
Acrobatics 2
Art 2
Computers 1
Crime 0
Doctor 2
Driving 2
Getting Medieval 3
Gun Fu 0
Influence 2
Knowledge 3
Kung fu 3
Languages 1
Mr. Fix it 0
Occultism 5
Science 1
Sports 0
Wild Card (riding horses) 3
Combat Dodge +7 -
Magic +15 varies
TK +10 2xSL
This is Tara at the beginning of the first episode of the Dragon and the Phoenix. She has returned as a Keribum (or not exactly a Kerubim from WitchCraft) to stop the Knights of Elohim from the Unmaking. Or at least she (and we) think so at first. She allowed to go into exile but keeps the healing touch power of the Keribum and demons and vampires still fear her.
After Episode 1 her stats return to what appears in the Magic Box or revised Core (which were based on the above stats in the first place).
I also made a print quality pdf of her character sheet.
Episode 1: Will We Burn In Heaven?
Willow (crying): I thought…I thought I had lost you!
Tara (kissing her face): I’ll find you. I will always find you.
- Willow and Tara: The Dragon and the Phoenix, Episode 1 “Will We Burn in Heaven?”
November 7, 2002 Thursday
(Ran this during Summer 2002, right after the Dark Druid)
Willow and Buffy have just been visiting Tara’s grave when they get two unexpected visitors, Cordelia and Tara. Tara comes back from Heaven to help the cast defeat a group of fallen angels bent on finding the Enochian Tablets and destroying all of creation with the Word of Unmaking. Tara helps, but is torn between her duty to the Creator and Creatrix and her love for Willow. Te tablet is found, in the hands of a magical merchant named E'rif E'nur. He is found dead and his local contact, Spike is horribly burned. Anya is later found also burned. Tara is able to heal her by touch, but both Spike and Anya tell her that they are "afraid" of her now. The fallen angels are found and there is a great battle. An angel tries to burn Willow, but Tara gets in the way and engulfed in flames. She walks out of the flame, unharmed, and in full angelic form to fight back. The fallen angels are defeated with daggers given to them by Anya. The tablet is destroyed and Tara must choose whether to return to heaven or remain. In the end Tara chooses Exile; she gives up her powers and angelic life force to be human again.
Giles discovers that the dead god Leviathan will be entering our reality.
Story Arc and Game Design elements: Introduce the new Ascension, Other Worldly and Geas quality/drawbacks.
Soundtrack: Foo Fighters “Learning to Fly”, Enya “Exile”
Notes and Comments: This is the first adventure and it is fairly linear, but also fairly combat heavy. What is new here is the first time we have seen angels in the game or universe, and they are evil ones. We also see the return of Tara and her exile. One thing quickly became obvious to us that a demonic Anya is not a playable character. She can't die, she is totally beholden to her demonic master D'Hoffryn and really she should be out to kill the Cast. Finding things to do with Anya was a problem. Another problem was Dawn. We had big plans for her, but no one wanted to play her. Spike gets burned pretty badly in this episode by the angels so we could have an excuse not to have him. The focus of this of course is the return of Tara and how Willow could deal with it. In the begining I wanted Willow to be completely de-magicked; unable to cast any spells. It would have been great for a story, but for a game people want Willow to have spells. So we comprimised and had Willow's magic reduced. Throughout the series she begins to gain it back. Tara shows off some of her new powers too here, the ability to heal and her "otherworldlieness". We liked the idea that every demon and vampire in town was now terrified of Tara. Later in Episode 4 Spike describes her as appearing as if she was on fire.
Some elements from my old AD&;D game appear here. Luna is a former character and E'fir E'nur was an NPC. E'Fir E'nur was also going to be part of the D'jinn arc as a summoneer and binder of Iffrits.
Like the D'jinn series, this also had a tie to the Dark Druid episode that was published in July of 2002. The Dark Druid, with your cast, acts a prelude to the D'jinn or with the original cast as a prelude to this.
Tara Maclay
Keribum (Ascended Human Witch)
Drama Points 20
Strength 5 Dexterity 4 Constitution 5
Intelligence 4 Perception 3 Willpower 5
Qualities Ascended
Attractiveness +3
Empathy
Fast Reaction Time
Hard to Kill +7
Nerves of Steel
Sorcerery 5
Drawbacks Adversaries (lots) 5
Honorable (Serious)
Geas
Minority (Gay Wicca)
Obligation (Major)
Otherworldly
Skills
Acrobatics 2
Art 2
Computers 1
Crime 0
Doctor 2
Driving 2
Getting Medieval 3
Gun Fu 0
Influence 2
Knowledge 3
Kung fu 3
Languages 1
Mr. Fix it 0
Occultism 5
Science 1
Sports 0
Wild Card (riding horses) 3
Combat Dodge +7 -
Magic +15 varies
TK +10 2xSL
This is Tara at the beginning of the first episode of the Dragon and the Phoenix. She has returned as a Keribum (or not exactly a Kerubim from WitchCraft) to stop the Knights of Elohim from the Unmaking. Or at least she (and we) think so at first. She allowed to go into exile but keeps the healing touch power of the Keribum and demons and vampires still fear her.
After Episode 1 her stats return to what appears in the Magic Box or revised Core (which were based on the above stats in the first place).
I also made a print quality pdf of her character sheet.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Willow & Tara: FUDGE
FUDGE
Fudge is a “Universal” RPG, designed to emulate any world, any genre and put the focus back onto characters and story rather than rules or rolls of the dice.
To me Fudge, and it’s younger sibling Fate, were just another one of those “games without a soul”. By that I don’t mean it is a soulless monster, but rather if you held it up to a mirror it wouldn’t reflect anything. At least not to me.
This puts it, in my opinion with GURPS, Action! and Fuzion. They all do what they do well, and a lot of things good, but maybe not "great". All these games have some similarities, and even similarities to d20 and Unisystem, but what I feel they all lack is a cohesive theme or look and feel. Tri-Stat in BESM is very much “Anime” flavored, as Unisystem is modern horror. Action! is a little bit better, but True 20, GURPS, Fudge, and Fuzion seem to lack a theme element.
Because of this I never cared much for these games. That is until I looked into a Fudge based game called “Now Playing”.
I liked it.
I then looked into other Fudge/Fate games and I’ll detail what I found in them later.
In particular I'll talk about Fate when I do a big long review on The Dresden Files RPG.
About Fudge
Fudge used to be known as FUDGE, the Freeform, Universal, Do-it-yourself Gaming Engine. Created by Steffan O'Sullivan, back in 1992 it is notable as being one of the first game systems to be released for free on the internet. It even had an open licensing agreement (though not as open as the current OGL which Fudge now uses) which is interesting since it was released in a climate when most game companies were still trying to figure how to use the internet and control their IP.
Reading the basic (and free) Fudge rules is better than reading the d20 SRD. It is reminiscent of another “universal” game, GURPS. While the SRD is not d20 nor is it D&D, Basic Fudge is a fully playable (if soulless) game. This is where games like Now Playing and Heart Quest can shine. Like Unisystem (there’s that Universal thing again…) what really makes it work are the settings. While I am fan of most Unisystem games, I do have my favorites (namely WitchCraft, Ghosts of Albion), Fudge is the same way. I should note that there is a Fudge SRD as well, it reads like Basic Fudge but is twice as long.
Heart Quest
I mentioned Heart Quest when I discussed Anime RPGs a while back. It is still a good choice and it's different tenor plays off well with Now Playing to create the series I want. More on that in a bit.
Now Playing
Now Playing is a Fudge based RPG that claims it can emulate any TV show or style with their simple ruleset and guidelines. They might be right. While the Buffy RPG is the Gold Standard when emulating a supernatural drama television show, Now Playing handles everything else rather well. Action shows, Sitcoms, Reality TV, cops shows, lawyer shows, Sci-Fi, and yes Supernatural Drama are all covered in this book. There is a newer version out now called "The Unexplained" and it looks very similar, but maybe a touch darker. I don't have it and I have spent all I can on my RPG budget. I would love to have a look at it in detail, until then I'll stick with Now Playing.
Since I want to focus on this game as my premier Fudge game, I’ll turn back to mechanics.
Attributes
This one is so simple that it barely is worth mentioning, but I will just to illustrate the point.
Follow these up with the level conversions above and a Brawn of Fair is Strength 3. You almost don’t even need a new sheet. This illustrates Fudge conversion abilities well and Now Playing’s ability to emulate most TV shows and TV show games.
Luck Points vs. Drama Points
The mechanic differs slightly, but the intent is the same, allow the player a chance to “re-write” the scene. In general for conversions sake, 5 Drama Points = 1 Luck Point. Of course there is a higher level of danger in a Horror Drama than a Situational Comedy, so it might be about the same realy.
Skills
As mentioned before Fudge is flexible when it comes to Skill lists. Now Playing offers something that looks like a cross between Cinematic and Realistic skills. Now Playing has 91 some odd skills to chose from compared to Buffy’s 18. Yikes! Skills can be bought the exact same way, though some start out as Poor or Non-Existent. Anyone can try a skill with a level of Poor, but you need training to use a Non-Existent skill. Training is reflected in the 30 points given to characters to improve skills. Without getting too deep into the math this about equal between the games, with the edge going to Now Playing characters. Skills though can be grouped together.
Skill Conversions
For a truly cinematic game my advice to Now Playing characters is to take the 91 Now Playing Skills and group them into Buffy’s 18 skills as Skill Groups per the Fudge rules.
Buffy skills are listed first, with Now Playing Skills in parentheses. For example, does anyone really care which type of Kung-Fu Kim Possible or Batman uses (they both know many kinds), no, just that they can kick some butt.
Buffy players can use these groups to specialize in one or more areas.
Acrobatics (Acrobatics, Balance, Jump)
Art (Perform, Photography)
Computers (Computer Use)
Crime (Breaking & Entering, Escape Artist, Forgery, Gamble, Haggle, Hide Traces, Pick Lock, Pick Pocket, Shadow, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, Streetsmarts, Surveillance)
Doctor (Autopsy, Diagnose, First Aid, Surgery)
Driving (Drive, Pilot , Ride Animal )
Getting Medieval (Weapon)
Gun Fu (Weapon)
Influence (Bluff, Hypnosis, Interrogate, Intimidate, Oratory, Pantomime, Persuade, Seduce, Tall Tales, Uplift Spirits)
Knowledge (Area Knowledge, Business Sense, Culture, Etiquette, Gather Information, Knowledge , Nature Lore, Primitive Tools, Profile, Psychology, Religion , Research)
Kung Fu (Brawl, Martial Art)
Languages (Decipher Script, Innuendo, Interpret Language, Language, Read Lips, Write)
Mr. Fix-It (Craft, Demolitions, Disable Device , Engineering , Repair Device )
Notice (Direction Sense, Navigate, Notice, Sense Motive)
Occultism (Cryptozoology, Occult Knowledge, Parapsychology, Ritual, UFOlogy)
Science (Science)
Sports (Climb, Fish, Run, Sail, Swim, Throw)
Wild Card - anything
There are others that didn’t quite fit. Some are dependent on the situation used. For example Appraise in NP would part of Art if it is used to appraise a piece of art, but part of Occultism if used to appraise an ancient occult artifact. Animal Care could be a Wild Card, or part of Influence. There is a whole “animal” axis of skills as well as some social skills that could be covered by Unisystem qualities.
Directors of either game will have to re-parse out Skill points to accommodate for the reduced or increased number of skills.
When converting characters have a Now Playing character take the max or average of the skills in a skill group to represent their Buffy skill and for Buffy characters they should record their Buffy skill level in each of the Now Playing subskills, re-distributed based on character concept. No Now Playing skill should be higher than its Buffy skill counterpart.
Skills in Fudge work differently than Unisystem. In Unisystem a “Skill roll” is the skill + an attribute. In Fudge it is just the skill. All Unisystem skills start at 0. Fudge skills have different starting levels, some can’t be used untrained others can, but at the lowest possible level.
Qualities and Gifts
Qualities convert to Gifts and Drawbacks to Faults like outlined above. I am happy to note that Resources converts to Income very nicely. In fact Buffy players should look into Now Playing’s income ticket mechanic for purchasing items based on income/resource level as opposed to actual money. A good model of “TV Economics”.
Magic
Now Playing adopts, mostly, Fudge’s magic system. To me this is where it falls flat. There is a Magical Aptitude Power (roughly equal to The Gift, Sorcery or Magic Qualities) and a skill roll (again, roughly equal to Occultism). Already I see two separate checks to see if the magical power can be gathered and then used. This doesn’t really work for me. Let’s look at some magical TV shows. I don’t recall Piper, Phoebe or Paige needing to go through all of this. A “Power of Three” spell (their most powerful) does require a ritual (grasping hands and reciting the spell) and sometimes it does not work (Cole was able to break free at one point), but no gathering of mana. And I don’t believe that Samantha or Sabrina even did that much. So a simpler mechanic is really needed to mimic the Cinematic Unisystem magic system better.
Now I’ll be honest. The magic system in WitchCraft is the best I have ever used or read. The magic system in Buffy and Ghosts of Albion runs a very close second. So in my mind anything else is going to need work. Hell, I think the Buffy RPG does a FAR better job of explaining magic and how it works than the Buffy TV show. That being said here is a way to convert Buffy magic to Now Playing.
Magical Aptitude is a Power with the default level of Terrible. It effectively combines the old Magical Aptitude and Handle Mana Skill. It can be taken in levels (Terrible to Legendary) just like a skill or attribute. In order to cast a spell the character needs to match the level of the spell cast (also Terrible to Legendary). Some things can adversely effect this, such as concentration during combat (usually -1 to -4), stress, fatigue, or other factors. Other things can help such times and places of power (as described in either book).
So to cast a Legendary spell or a simple spell with Legendary effects, one must have Legendary Magical Aptitude, or at least be able to roll up to that. The same rules apply to critical failures and success. To convert a Buffy Spell take it’s Power Level and use the conversion matrix above. So a starting character with MA of Terrible (0 in Unisystem terms) only has the appitude, they can’t cast a Poor level spell (1 in Unisystem terms) unless they roll at least 1 +.
Putting it all Together
I used the Now Playing rules, with some cues from Heart Quest, Shoujo Anime and other Fudge games to create a new Series than can be run under Fudge or Unisystem. As usual I will stick with something I know well.
Using the Now Playing guidelines on spin-offs I created a Buffy-spin-off, or actually a spin-off of my spin-off. “Willow and Tara: Generation HEX” is a spin off set around 2006 or 2018 with the two lead characters Willow and Tara. I did this with "The Dragon and the Phoenix" and "Season of the Witch", but this one has a bunch of new rules.
I have often wondered what a supernatural/horror series would be like in the hands of Television master David E. Kelley (“Boston Legal”, “The Practice”, “Ally McBeal”, “Picket Fences”…). So in DEK tradition, I moved the Series to Boston (something I was doing anyway for a variety of reasons, but this works well) and made it less about two witches fighting the supernatural and more about two women, who happen to witches, trying to lead a normal life while also dealing with the supernatural. Also, given the events of "Season of the Witch", Tara was pregnant. I did say it was going to be a new series. I debated on whether to do it right after Season of the Witch or later when the kids were teens. I ran part of it using Mutants & Masterminds and it was right after. The Now Playing stuff was written with 2018 in mind. Still don't know where to go on that yet.
Demons have been over-done, so I focused instead on other types of supernatural creatures: ghosts, spirits, faeries and the like. Heart Quest has quite a bit of guidelines for dealing with these types, Now Playing deals with your typical Cryptozoological beasties (much like Conspiracy X or Dark Matter) as well as faeries and spirits. Between the two there are plenty of creatures, threats and distractions so I never have to use a vampire or a demon. After all the point of a spin-off is to establish it’s own identity.
Let’s borrow another page (or two) from Heart Quest and set the series in school, maybe a school of girls, but certainly a school where magical things are happening. This would work well with the Magical Girl and Teen Romance options. Tara has been offered a job as a teacher and youth councilor (Girls Councilor if the school is co-ed). We can extend the DEK metaphor more and use “Boston Public” as a guide.
This type of setting allows more play than just a “girls fighting monsters”. My players tend to like social issues, so I’ll take a dramatic turn then. Dealing with the supernatural has become easy, almost cliché really. If it’s evil then kill it or send it back where it came from. What do you do if your character is sued by parent because their daughter claims the Cast Member made unwanted sexual advances at her? It’s not true, but it still a problem and you can’t just kill the student or parent. Now let’s say your character is a lesbian. How does that play out? How do you fight that battle? Certainly a courtroom showdown will be in order, complete with an impassioned monologue from the cast and their defense attorney.
Life though is not just drama, sometimes it is mundane. Sure we can do episodes of Willow recalculating her mortgage or Tara working in the garden, just like real life, but that would not make a fun game. Though the other moments in life are equally important and worthy of games. Life is funny, sad, calm, hectic, reflective, sedate, often loving, sometimes pornographic, but all in all much richer than what is on TV (or even should be shown on TV) but a game can reflect all of those facets.
Willow Rosenberg
Leading Character
Brawn: Mediocre Reasoning: Superb
Agility: Mediocre Perception: Great
Stamina: Fair Will: Superb
Luck: 3 Income: Great* (Willow sold her security firm for 7 figures).
Skills: Acrobatics (Fair), Brawling (Poor), Business Knowledge (Good), Computer Use (Legendary), Craft, electronics (Great), Crime, general (Poor), Cryptozoology (Great), Dechipher Script (Good), Engineering, electrical (Great), Engineering, mechanical (Good), First Aid (Mediocre), Handle Mana (Legendary), Influence (Fair), Knowledge, general (Legendary), Languages (English, French, Latin, Greek), Magical Rituals, most (Legendary), Melee Combat (Mediocre), Notice (Good), Occult Knowledge (Legendary), Parapsychology (Legendary), Religion, Jewish (Good), Science, general (Great)
Gifts: Ambidexterity, Attractive, Wealthy
Faults: Ambitious, Enemy, Minority (Lesbian, Jewish, Wicca)
Powers: Awakened, Anamchara, Magical Aptitude
Props: Brownstone House, Bike, Computers (servers and laptops), Subaru Outback (special hybrid converted model), Doll’s Eye Crystal.
Real Name: Willow D. Rosenberg
DOB: August 1, 1981 (Age 24 in 2006)
Identity: Public, but unknown as a witch
Occupation: Part time computer instructor; Private Computer Security Systems Analyst; Witch
Height 5’3”, Weight 110lbs, Eyes Green, Hair Red
Tara A. Maclay
Leading Character
Brawn: Mediocre Reasoning: Great
Agility:Mediocre Perception: Superb
Stamina: Fair Will: Superb
Luck: 3 Income: Great
Skills: Acrobatics (Fair), Art, creative writing (Good), Art, painting (Good), Art History (Great), Brawling (Poor), Computer Use (Good), Crime, general (Poor), Cryptozoology (Good), Dechipher Script (Fair), Diplomancy (Mediocre), Driving (Fair), Handle Mana (Legendary), Influence (Good), Knowledge, general (Great), Languages (English, Japanese, Latin, Greek), Magical Rituals, most (Legendary), Melee Combat (Poor), Notice (Good), Occult Knowledge (Legendary), Parapsychology (Legendary), Perform, dance (good), Perform, singing (Good), Profile (Good), Psychology (Great), Religion, Wicca (Good), Science, general (Great)
Gifts: Attractive, Wealthy
Faults: Code of Behavior, Enemy, Minority (Lesbian, Wicca), Soft Hearted
Powers: Awakened, Anamchara, Healing Touch, Magical Aptitude, Sense of Empathy
Props: Brownstone house, Bike, Occult Library (includes the White Codex, Journal of Tamara Swift and The Journal of Megan Maclay).
Real Name: Tara A. Maclay
DOB: 11/07/1980 (25 in 2006)
Identity: Public, but unknown as a witch
Occupation: Youth Counselor and Art instructor; Witch
Height 5’5”, Weight 125lbs, Eyes Blue, Hair Blond
Depending on when this is set they also have their daughter Brianna who is either 1 or almost 13 (depending when I decide to set this; gotta find some new players first).
Notes: As usual, I am going with “The Dragon and the Phoenix” versions of these characters.
Briefly: Tara is back from the dead, Season 7 never happened, they defeated the mad god Leviathan. This would be the start of my Series 3 with Willow and Tara. I used the Now Playing rules as the dominant feature in these conversions, but converting to Heart Quest (or any other Fudge game) should be easy.
Fudge is a “Universal” RPG, designed to emulate any world, any genre and put the focus back onto characters and story rather than rules or rolls of the dice.
To me Fudge, and it’s younger sibling Fate, were just another one of those “games without a soul”. By that I don’t mean it is a soulless monster, but rather if you held it up to a mirror it wouldn’t reflect anything. At least not to me.
This puts it, in my opinion with GURPS, Action! and Fuzion. They all do what they do well, and a lot of things good, but maybe not "great". All these games have some similarities, and even similarities to d20 and Unisystem, but what I feel they all lack is a cohesive theme or look and feel. Tri-Stat in BESM is very much “Anime” flavored, as Unisystem is modern horror. Action! is a little bit better, but True 20, GURPS, Fudge, and Fuzion seem to lack a theme element.
Because of this I never cared much for these games. That is until I looked into a Fudge based game called “Now Playing”.
I liked it.
I then looked into other Fudge/Fate games and I’ll detail what I found in them later.
In particular I'll talk about Fate when I do a big long review on The Dresden Files RPG.
About Fudge
Fudge used to be known as FUDGE, the Freeform, Universal, Do-it-yourself Gaming Engine. Created by Steffan O'Sullivan, back in 1992 it is notable as being one of the first game systems to be released for free on the internet. It even had an open licensing agreement (though not as open as the current OGL which Fudge now uses) which is interesting since it was released in a climate when most game companies were still trying to figure how to use the internet and control their IP.
Reading the basic (and free) Fudge rules is better than reading the d20 SRD. It is reminiscent of another “universal” game, GURPS. While the SRD is not d20 nor is it D&D, Basic Fudge is a fully playable (if soulless) game. This is where games like Now Playing and Heart Quest can shine. Like Unisystem (there’s that Universal thing again…) what really makes it work are the settings. While I am fan of most Unisystem games, I do have my favorites (namely WitchCraft, Ghosts of Albion), Fudge is the same way. I should note that there is a Fudge SRD as well, it reads like Basic Fudge but is twice as long.
Heart Quest
I mentioned Heart Quest when I discussed Anime RPGs a while back. It is still a good choice and it's different tenor plays off well with Now Playing to create the series I want. More on that in a bit.
Now Playing
Now Playing is a Fudge based RPG that claims it can emulate any TV show or style with their simple ruleset and guidelines. They might be right. While the Buffy RPG is the Gold Standard when emulating a supernatural drama television show, Now Playing handles everything else rather well. Action shows, Sitcoms, Reality TV, cops shows, lawyer shows, Sci-Fi, and yes Supernatural Drama are all covered in this book. There is a newer version out now called "The Unexplained" and it looks very similar, but maybe a touch darker. I don't have it and I have spent all I can on my RPG budget. I would love to have a look at it in detail, until then I'll stick with Now Playing.
Since I want to focus on this game as my premier Fudge game, I’ll turn back to mechanics.
Attributes
This one is so simple that it barely is worth mentioning, but I will just to illustrate the point.
| Now Playing/ The Unexplained/ (Fudge) | Unisystem |
| Brawn | Strength |
| Agility | Dexterity |
| Stamina | Constitution |
| Reasoning | Intelligence |
| Perception | Perception |
| Will | Willpower |
Follow these up with the level conversions above and a Brawn of Fair is Strength 3. You almost don’t even need a new sheet. This illustrates Fudge conversion abilities well and Now Playing’s ability to emulate most TV shows and TV show games.
Luck Points vs. Drama Points
The mechanic differs slightly, but the intent is the same, allow the player a chance to “re-write” the scene. In general for conversions sake, 5 Drama Points = 1 Luck Point. Of course there is a higher level of danger in a Horror Drama than a Situational Comedy, so it might be about the same realy.
Skills
As mentioned before Fudge is flexible when it comes to Skill lists. Now Playing offers something that looks like a cross between Cinematic and Realistic skills. Now Playing has 91 some odd skills to chose from compared to Buffy’s 18. Yikes! Skills can be bought the exact same way, though some start out as Poor or Non-Existent. Anyone can try a skill with a level of Poor, but you need training to use a Non-Existent skill. Training is reflected in the 30 points given to characters to improve skills. Without getting too deep into the math this about equal between the games, with the edge going to Now Playing characters. Skills though can be grouped together.
Skill Conversions
For a truly cinematic game my advice to Now Playing characters is to take the 91 Now Playing Skills and group them into Buffy’s 18 skills as Skill Groups per the Fudge rules.
Buffy skills are listed first, with Now Playing Skills in parentheses. For example, does anyone really care which type of Kung-Fu Kim Possible or Batman uses (they both know many kinds), no, just that they can kick some butt.
Buffy players can use these groups to specialize in one or more areas.
Acrobatics (Acrobatics, Balance, Jump)
Art (Perform, Photography)
Computers (Computer Use)
Crime (Breaking & Entering, Escape Artist, Forgery, Gamble, Haggle, Hide Traces, Pick Lock, Pick Pocket, Shadow, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, Streetsmarts, Surveillance)
Doctor (Autopsy, Diagnose, First Aid, Surgery)
Driving (Drive
Getting Medieval (Weapon
Gun Fu (Weapon
Influence (Bluff, Hypnosis, Interrogate, Intimidate, Oratory, Pantomime, Persuade, Seduce, Tall Tales, Uplift Spirits)
Knowledge (Area Knowledge, Business Sense, Culture
Kung Fu (Brawl, Martial Art
Languages (Decipher Script, Innuendo, Interpret Language, Language
Mr. Fix-It (Craft
Notice (Direction Sense, Navigate, Notice, Sense Motive)
Occultism (Cryptozoology, Occult Knowledge, Parapsychology, Ritual
Science (Science
Sports (Climb, Fish, Run, Sail, Swim, Throw
Wild Card - anything
There are others that didn’t quite fit. Some are dependent on the situation used. For example Appraise in NP would part of Art if it is used to appraise a piece of art, but part of Occultism if used to appraise an ancient occult artifact. Animal Care could be a Wild Card, or part of Influence. There is a whole “animal” axis of skills as well as some social skills that could be covered by Unisystem qualities.
Directors of either game will have to re-parse out Skill points to accommodate for the reduced or increased number of skills.
When converting characters have a Now Playing character take the max or average of the skills in a skill group to represent their Buffy skill and for Buffy characters they should record their Buffy skill level in each of the Now Playing subskills, re-distributed based on character concept. No Now Playing skill should be higher than its Buffy skill counterpart.
Skills in Fudge work differently than Unisystem. In Unisystem a “Skill roll” is the skill + an attribute. In Fudge it is just the skill. All Unisystem skills start at 0. Fudge skills have different starting levels, some can’t be used untrained others can, but at the lowest possible level.
Qualities and Gifts
Qualities convert to Gifts and Drawbacks to Faults like outlined above. I am happy to note that Resources converts to Income very nicely. In fact Buffy players should look into Now Playing’s income ticket mechanic for purchasing items based on income/resource level as opposed to actual money. A good model of “TV Economics”.
Magic
Now Playing adopts, mostly, Fudge’s magic system. To me this is where it falls flat. There is a Magical Aptitude Power (roughly equal to The Gift, Sorcery or Magic Qualities) and a skill roll (again, roughly equal to Occultism). Already I see two separate checks to see if the magical power can be gathered and then used. This doesn’t really work for me. Let’s look at some magical TV shows. I don’t recall Piper, Phoebe or Paige needing to go through all of this. A “Power of Three” spell (their most powerful) does require a ritual (grasping hands and reciting the spell) and sometimes it does not work (Cole was able to break free at one point), but no gathering of mana. And I don’t believe that Samantha or Sabrina even did that much. So a simpler mechanic is really needed to mimic the Cinematic Unisystem magic system better.
Now I’ll be honest. The magic system in WitchCraft is the best I have ever used or read. The magic system in Buffy and Ghosts of Albion runs a very close second. So in my mind anything else is going to need work. Hell, I think the Buffy RPG does a FAR better job of explaining magic and how it works than the Buffy TV show. That being said here is a way to convert Buffy magic to Now Playing.
Magical Aptitude is a Power with the default level of Terrible. It effectively combines the old Magical Aptitude and Handle Mana Skill. It can be taken in levels (Terrible to Legendary) just like a skill or attribute. In order to cast a spell the character needs to match the level of the spell cast (also Terrible to Legendary). Some things can adversely effect this, such as concentration during combat (usually -1 to -4), stress, fatigue, or other factors. Other things can help such times and places of power (as described in either book).
So to cast a Legendary spell or a simple spell with Legendary effects, one must have Legendary Magical Aptitude, or at least be able to roll up to that. The same rules apply to critical failures and success. To convert a Buffy Spell take it’s Power Level and use the conversion matrix above. So a starting character with MA of Terrible (0 in Unisystem terms) only has the appitude, they can’t cast a Poor level spell (1 in Unisystem terms) unless they roll at least 1 +.
Putting it all Together
I used the Now Playing rules, with some cues from Heart Quest, Shoujo Anime and other Fudge games to create a new Series than can be run under Fudge or Unisystem. As usual I will stick with something I know well.
Using the Now Playing guidelines on spin-offs I created a Buffy-spin-off, or actually a spin-off of my spin-off. “Willow and Tara: Generation HEX” is a spin off set around 2006 or 2018 with the two lead characters Willow and Tara. I did this with "The Dragon and the Phoenix" and "Season of the Witch", but this one has a bunch of new rules.
Demons have been over-done, so I focused instead on other types of supernatural creatures: ghosts, spirits, faeries and the like. Heart Quest has quite a bit of guidelines for dealing with these types, Now Playing deals with your typical Cryptozoological beasties (much like Conspiracy X or Dark Matter) as well as faeries and spirits. Between the two there are plenty of creatures, threats and distractions so I never have to use a vampire or a demon. After all the point of a spin-off is to establish it’s own identity.
Let’s borrow another page (or two) from Heart Quest and set the series in school, maybe a school of girls, but certainly a school where magical things are happening. This would work well with the Magical Girl and Teen Romance options. Tara has been offered a job as a teacher and youth councilor (Girls Councilor if the school is co-ed). We can extend the DEK metaphor more and use “Boston Public” as a guide.
This type of setting allows more play than just a “girls fighting monsters”. My players tend to like social issues, so I’ll take a dramatic turn then. Dealing with the supernatural has become easy, almost cliché really. If it’s evil then kill it or send it back where it came from. What do you do if your character is sued by parent because their daughter claims the Cast Member made unwanted sexual advances at her? It’s not true, but it still a problem and you can’t just kill the student or parent. Now let’s say your character is a lesbian. How does that play out? How do you fight that battle? Certainly a courtroom showdown will be in order, complete with an impassioned monologue from the cast and their defense attorney.
Life though is not just drama, sometimes it is mundane. Sure we can do episodes of Willow recalculating her mortgage or Tara working in the garden, just like real life, but that would not make a fun game. Though the other moments in life are equally important and worthy of games. Life is funny, sad, calm, hectic, reflective, sedate, often loving, sometimes pornographic, but all in all much richer than what is on TV (or even should be shown on TV) but a game can reflect all of those facets.
Willow Rosenberg
Brawn: Mediocre Reasoning: Superb
Agility: Mediocre Perception: Great
Stamina: Fair Will: Superb
Luck: 3 Income: Great* (Willow sold her security firm for 7 figures).
Skills: Acrobatics (Fair), Brawling (Poor), Business Knowledge (Good), Computer Use (Legendary), Craft, electronics (Great), Crime, general (Poor), Cryptozoology (Great), Dechipher Script (Good), Engineering, electrical (Great), Engineering, mechanical (Good), First Aid (Mediocre), Handle Mana (Legendary), Influence (Fair), Knowledge, general (Legendary), Languages (English, French, Latin, Greek), Magical Rituals, most (Legendary), Melee Combat (Mediocre), Notice (Good), Occult Knowledge (Legendary), Parapsychology (Legendary), Religion, Jewish (Good), Science, general (Great)
Gifts: Ambidexterity, Attractive, Wealthy
Faults: Ambitious, Enemy, Minority (Lesbian, Jewish, Wicca)
Powers: Awakened, Anamchara, Magical Aptitude
Props: Brownstone House, Bike, Computers (servers and laptops), Subaru Outback (special hybrid converted model), Doll’s Eye Crystal.
Real Name: Willow D. Rosenberg
DOB: August 1, 1981 (Age 24 in 2006)
Identity: Public, but unknown as a witch
Occupation: Part time computer instructor; Private Computer Security Systems Analyst; Witch
Height 5’3”, Weight 110lbs, Eyes Green, Hair Red
Tara A. Maclay
Brawn: Mediocre Reasoning: Great
Agility:Mediocre Perception: Superb
Stamina: Fair Will: Superb
Luck: 3 Income: Great
Skills: Acrobatics (Fair), Art, creative writing (Good), Art, painting (Good), Art History (Great), Brawling (Poor), Computer Use (Good), Crime, general (Poor), Cryptozoology (Good), Dechipher Script (Fair), Diplomancy (Mediocre), Driving (Fair), Handle Mana (Legendary), Influence (Good), Knowledge, general (Great), Languages (English, Japanese, Latin, Greek), Magical Rituals, most (Legendary), Melee Combat (Poor), Notice (Good), Occult Knowledge (Legendary), Parapsychology (Legendary), Perform, dance (good), Perform, singing (Good), Profile (Good), Psychology (Great), Religion, Wicca (Good), Science, general (Great)
Gifts: Attractive, Wealthy
Faults: Code of Behavior, Enemy, Minority (Lesbian, Wicca), Soft Hearted
Powers: Awakened, Anamchara, Healing Touch, Magical Aptitude, Sense of Empathy
Props: Brownstone house, Bike, Occult Library (includes the White Codex, Journal of Tamara Swift and The Journal of Megan Maclay).
Real Name: Tara A. Maclay
DOB: 11/07/1980 (25 in 2006)
Identity: Public, but unknown as a witch
Occupation: Youth Counselor and Art instructor; Witch
Height 5’5”, Weight 125lbs, Eyes Blue, Hair Blond
Depending on when this is set they also have their daughter Brianna who is either 1 or almost 13 (depending when I decide to set this; gotta find some new players first).
Notes: As usual, I am going with “The Dragon and the Phoenix” versions of these characters.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Willow & Tara: Chill
Willow and Tara in Chill
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.
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.
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