Tommy's Take on Buffy the Vampire Slayer Revised Corebook

No, a new Buffy RPG didn't come out. This is the one that came out...holy crap...eleven years ago, from Eden Studios. This is not an old review, though. Yes, this is a brand new review of an eleven year old RPG that I got when it was brand new.

Why?

Because it's badass, and you can still get copies for cover price on Amazon even though it's out of print. You can also get the PDF for $20 at RPGNow. (Disclaimer: That last one was an Affiliate link.)

#RPGaDay Day 20: Favorite Horror RPG

Favorite horror RPG? I could say Deadlands Classic or Witchcraft or All Flesh Must Be Eaten, but - mechanics-wise - those games were supplanted by other RPGs for me. And I love Ravenloft, but I've never been in love with the *games* attached to Ravenloft. So I am torn. So I'm going to split the difference again:

Savage Worlds and the Cinematic Unisystem have a major thing in common: They both have a metagame currency that can scale the whole thing up into the high level of heroic...but if you take that away, the game gets deceptively brutal and frightening. A Buffy campaign with all White Hats and scaled back drama points can get out of control, fast. Savage Worlds with a stifled bennie flow can do the same. The best part is, I know both systems well enough to get the "feel" for how to push and pull them to get what I want.

tremulus was alllllmost there, but honestly, I'm only a so-so Cthulhu guy. If it were veered for more "standard" horror than Lovecraftian, we might be having a different conversation. Fantastic game, though. Ghostories 2nd Edition, by Precis Intermedia Games, is another one that I want to toss out there from *reading*, but I've never actually *played* it, so it would be disingenuous of me to call it my "favorite".

#RPGaDay Day 11: Favorite RPG Writer

I have no one, single "must buy" writer. I don't even have a small list of them. So in order to answer this one, I believe I'm going to go with CJ Carella, whose WitchCraft books were just packed full of story seeds, and whose work on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel RPGs ranks among some of my favorite.

#RPGaDay Day 6: Favorite RPG I Never Get To Play

I'm taking "play" to mean "GM", as I rarely play and I'm okay with that...and, again, I'm giving two answers instead of one, but there's a good reason for that.



Like the TV shows, the RPGs can be taken separately or complimentary with each other (in fact, my actual favorite combo is Angel combined with The Magic Box supplement for Buffy). These RPGs hold a very special place in my heart, in part because I love the shows to death, and in part because the larger Buffyverse line holds my first RPG writing credits (including a Buffyverse related article for Eden Studios Presents vol. 2 and an additional writing credit on Angel). Three times I have attempted campaigns (one a Buffy playtest campaign, one an IRC based online game and one an Angel game), and each time they just never "clicked", even though I was super enthused and everyone said they were having a great time. I even prepared a fourth campaign, which could be best described as The Dead Zone meets Friday the 13th The Series meets Beauty & The Beast, but we never even made it to our first session. I had grown quite adept at getting the Cinematic Unisystem to do the things I wanted it to do.

I still have all the Buffy books, all the Angel playtest files, and occasionally poke around them and get ideas, but I know better than to go down that trail again *sigh*.

Actually, The Angel RPG led directly to my Savage Worlds obsession, in a funny story. I caught wind that the Angel GM screen was on clearance at a game shop and when I went in to pick it up, I saw Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition. I had traded away my original Savage Worlds rulebook (I just HATED it. The rules were bad, the characters were all the same and there was NO flavor. Yeah, I was every guy I've argued with since), but I had seen all this buzz on the internet about the Savage Worlds settings and I figured $20 for the screen I wanted (but would never use) plus the Savage Worlds rules seemed like a good enough deal...and grew hooked on Savage Worlds.

Probably one of the reasons I can't get a Buffy/Angel game going *now*.                                                                    

Tommy's Take on Buffy the Vampire Slayer Board Game

Let me preface this by saying that this review is the first review I had ever written of anything, and appeared at RPG.net over 12 years ago. Since then, I have encountered a number of board games that trump this one, but I still maintain that this game was head and shoulders above the licensed games and typical Wal-Mart shelf fare available at the time (or, y'know, now).

Enjoy my first ever review. Ever.

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Looking around a nearby game shop not long ago, I found the Buffy the Vampire Slayer board game from Hasbro. Looking it over, I wound up putting it back on the shelf due to lack of funds. A couple of months later my girlfriend picked it up for me, since she's a fan of board and card games, if not RPGs.

Man, I love her.

Just A DBloC Update

Just some bullet points to hit:

- It is so fun watching WWE now that Angelus cares about it. Especially since I don't mind Cena, who is one of Angelus' favorites.

- We have shattered my previous traffic record, thanks in part to DBloC and thanks in part to the Leverage RPG review being the most read post I've ever had.

- I played the MWAHAHAHA! card game by White Wolf this weekend with Russ...it's not bad, but they made EVERYTHING way too wordy. A little brevity (and clarity) would have gone a long way.

- I am currently way too busy for the amount of compensation I am getting...and it's not even like I'm working towards anything right now, because I'm not...just treading water. Something's gotta change somewhere.

- There is no defending the new Buffy reboot...especially when the series is still ongoing in comic book format.

- Check out my wife's blog over on the Blog List...Faith got to try out a communication device today, which we will hopefully get approved for, and she will hopefully benefit from.

- The Walking Dead hopefully put to rest any concerns that it was too "slow" after last night's episode...it all kinda went to pot. Still some stuff that doesn't quite click, but overall it's great.

- Anyway, nothing big today, because I am very, very busy and way, way behind...just keeping up with DBloC.