Potential Buffy Game

[Seraphim73]

@bad-at-lurking It could be witches, some evil witches, which is ridiculous, 'cause witches they were persecuted and wicca good and love the earth and woman power and I'll be over here.

[Bobotron]

@seraphim73

You win the internet!

[magee101]

@zombiegenesis So you say you have a buffy DB and I have tried to find but havent been able to what system or codebase you are going to be using for the game if you decide to open it.

[Waller]

Hmm. The Cleveland Hellmouth is, as already said, canonical.

So if it moved, then you have two probable options:

Evil Dayton witches moved it to Dayton, or

Good Cleveland witches closed the Cleveland Hellmouth, and Hellmouths never really go away.

(My theory is they closed the Hellmouth in 2016. Why the hell do you think the Cavs (and Monsters, heh) won?)

[Cupcake]

There actually was a hot mess of a Buffy game set in Cleveland (all Buffy games are hot messes to date, yes, ALL of them): Covenant. Which is worth noting if you want to avoid locales previously played.

[Wizz]

This isn't the place for old war stories probably, but holy shit was the one set in Vegas an actual dumpster fire.

[Waller]

@cupcake I'm part of the problem when it comes to games set in real cities. I'm a Cleveland native. I looked at that Cleveland Buffy game and noped right out.

[Jonah42175]

A Cleveland-based Buffy game sounds oddly familiar. I just can’t find digital proof to jar the noggin.

[Cobalt]

@wizz said in Potential Buffy Game:

This isn't the place for old war stories probably, but holy shit was the one set in Vegas an actual dumpster fire.

Was that Let The End Times Roll? Heavens was the head ST crazy.

[ZombieGenesis]

@magee101 It's a TinyMUX codebase and I'd be using the Cinematic Unisystem with some slight tweaks (mostly modifying multiple actions).

So I'm heavily leaning towards moving forward with a game based in Dayton, OH. I'm trying to keep things realistic, however. For instance, at the moment I'm the lone staffer. That won't stop me from doing it but it does mean that until I get other people to run plots there will probably only be 1 set day for plotty scenes (Sunday or Monday nights).

I have the next couple of days off of work so I'm gonna look into how I'd like to model the grid (which will likely be equal parts Dayton and then a mini-grid within Dayton representing a college or university) and maybe getting the wiki ready.

[ZombieGenesis]

Minor update, I'm still looking to move forward with this I've just been doing research on some things and trying to find a good map to base the grid on. I've also had some people ask if I'll be allowing Highlander style immortals and I'm undecided. I tried that with the last Buffy game I ran and...it didn't go so well. But we'll see. Anyway, just wanted to let people know that this project is still in the works it's just progressing at a leisurely pace.

[ixokai]

@zombiegenesis said in Potential Buffy Game:

Minor update, I'm still looking to move forward with this I've just been doing research on some things and trying to find a good map to base the grid on. I've also had some people ask if I'll be allowing Highlander style immortals and I'm undecided. I tried that with the last Buffy game I ran and...it didn't go so well. But we'll see. Anyway, just wanted to let people know that this project is still in the works it's just progressing at a leisurely pace.

Oy, personally, nothing would kill my interest more quickly then turning it from a Buffy game into a generic urban fantasy game.

You can play almost any urban fantasy concept in Buffy if its got a bit of demon in it, but you start introducing other IP's into the game and it just muddies the whole theme of what the game is. If a couple people want to make a Half-Demon race who have Getting Medieval and some Can Only Kill By Beheading (forget this quality's name) and a couple things like that, and write the story that they are all descended from Agamoth the Betrayed, and as they kill their breathren they absorb more of Agamoth's essence so that one day they will be Agamoth Reborn?

That's a Buffy story. It totally fits in the shenanigans that demonic races get into in Buffy and how varied/weird they are.

The Highlander style Immortals just don't... fit if you're just expanding the universe to include them. Next someone will want Beacon Hills and Supernatural and and and. I love those shows and would play the hell out of either game but blurring them all together as if they were one theme that made sense in one world? Blah.

[ZombieGenesis]

Well, as I said, I haven't had good experiences allowing them in the past so they are unlikely to be part of the final game. Like you said there are options to emulate if it some people really wanted.

[Coin]

@ixokai said in Potential Buffy Game:

Beacon Hills

Unisystem would lend itself really well to Teen Wolf, although honestly, that show's lore is such a fucking weird mess that making a system out of it would take some bullshit amount of work.

[Arkandel]

@ixokai said in Potential Buffy Game:

Oy, personally, nothing would kill my interest more quickly then turning it from a Buffy game into a generic urban fantasy game.

That's the thing though. What makes Buffy Buffy is a very specific blend of themes without which it is just a generic urban fantasy game. It needs the drama, the camp elements, and IMHO the teenage factor else what separates it from being a Hunter MU* is precious little.

In fact unless the game is carefully designed to specifically cater those tropes it would feel very generic.

[Coin]

@arkandel said in Potential Buffy Game:

@ixokai said in Potential Buffy Game:

Oy, personally, nothing would kill my interest more quickly then turning it from a Buffy game into a generic urban fantasy game.

That's the thing though. What makes Buffy Buffy is a very specific blend of themes without which it is just a generic urban fantasy game. It needs the drama, the camp elements, and IMHO the teenage factor else what separates it from being a Hunter MU* is precious little.

In fact unless the game is carefully designed to specifically cater those tropes it would feel very generic.

Again, you really need to watch Angel because when people talk about a "Buffy MU" they are talking about a "BuffyVERSE MU" (usually, some people may differ) and some of those elements you feel are crucial, aren't, when you can add other elements to compensate.

[Arkandel]

@coin But I did watch Angel. Those are two very different shows, and they'd lead to (or should) different kinds of MU* altogether.

To me - and obviously YMMV - when we discuss a Buffy game we mean a Buffy one, and if not we need to make that clear.

[Coin]

@arkandel said in Potential Buffy Game:

@coin But I did watch Angel. Those are two very different shows, and they'd lead to (or should) different kinds of MU* altogether.

To me - and obviously YMMV - when we discuss a Buffy game we mean a Buffy one, and if not we need to make that clear.

The thing is, it's clear to pretty much everyone. so far I think you're the only one who's watched both shows and who thinks there needs to be a distinction.

I could be wrong, I guess? But while I do think they are different shows, I think their core is the same, which is why they can co-exist in a MU.

[Arkandel]

@coin said in Potential Buffy Game:

@arkandel said in Potential Buffy Game:

@coin But I did watch Angel. Those are two very different shows, and they'd lead to (or should) different kinds of MU* altogether.

To me - and obviously YMMV - when we discuss a Buffy game we mean a Buffy one, and if not we need to make that clear.

The thing is, it's clear to pretty much everyone. so far I think you're the only one who's watched both shows and who thinks there needs to be a distinction.

I could be wrong, I guess? But while I do think they are different shows, I think their core is the same, which is why they can co-exist in a MU.

I mean it's possible I'm alone in this, sure. But - again, IMHO - Angel is basically every WoD MUSH ever with maybe fewer politics; good guy monsters fighting the good fight with their friends who sometimes have powers, magic, etc of their own. It would be way harder to create something which stands out thematically so that its players would go "oh yeah, this totally feels different than that City by Night MU* I played a dozen times already".

Buffy is not like that. It could turn generic very easily, mind you, especially if staff aren't careful about the direction it takes but it stands a fair chance of standing out, for better or worse. That's why I'm making the distinction.

If I'm wrong it wouldn't be the first time, or the last!

[faraday]

@arkandel said in Potential Buffy Game:

That's the thing though. What makes Buffy Buffy is a very specific blend of themes without which it is just a generic urban fantasy game.

Like @Coin said - what makes a show special is different to different people. The characters, the snappy writing, the campiness, the teenage coming-of-age drama, the smallish-town setting, the idea of the Slayers, the Scooby Gang stuff... these things and more are components of Buffy, but everyone values some of them more than others.

Battlestar Galactica, for instance, obviously puts a great deal of emphasis on the Top Gun fighter pilot aspect. But you could do a completely non-military BSG game and it would still, IMHO, be "A BSG Game". It may not be what you or anyone else sees as "what defines BSG to me", but that doesn't make it illegitimate or anything.