Hello, I'm hurting in a big way. I'm going to be GM for my group and I need some plot ideas for my Buffy The Vampire Slayer RPG. Each session is like an episode, so I need a basic foundation. I need to just get a basic idea so that I can accatually do a good job. I also need something that will fit my group, which is one of the weirdest groups I have ever been in, accatuly the only group I've been in. If you have any ideas, post and if you want to know about some of the odd adventures that we have done, and odd things that we end up doing during the game, just ask.
Buffy RPG
- Thread starter browndj3
- Start date
Evilhalfling
Adventurer
A friend of mine ran a season, where buffy had never come to sunnydale,
but most of the same monsters showed up. The party is a group of exchange students and one is living with Joyce Summers. Of course the English librarian was asked to run the international student organization -
He had a tendency to combine several villans at once, but stuck mostly with the plotline, sans Buffy. Im pretty sure the climax was the invisable girl kidnapping cordillia and a pretty new girl (actually the daughter of the mantis teacher) and hijinks insuing. The master was freed and one PC gave thier life to rebottle the hellmouth.
The last I heard one of the students belonged to a family of warlocks - and they were headed off (over the summer) to bulgaria to confront them.
Alternatly I have always herd that Cleveland is a hotbead of demonic activity.
but most of the same monsters showed up. The party is a group of exchange students and one is living with Joyce Summers. Of course the English librarian was asked to run the international student organization -
He had a tendency to combine several villans at once, but stuck mostly with the plotline, sans Buffy. Im pretty sure the climax was the invisable girl kidnapping cordillia and a pretty new girl (actually the daughter of the mantis teacher) and hijinks insuing. The master was freed and one PC gave thier life to rebottle the hellmouth.
The last I heard one of the students belonged to a family of warlocks - and they were headed off (over the summer) to bulgaria to confront them.
Alternatly I have always herd that Cleveland is a hotbead of demonic activity.
WayneLigon
Adventurer
I'll also assume you've seen the show, and Angel. You might want to look at The Magic Box supplement if you are going to have more than one spellcasting type, or want a broader range of psychic powers.browndj3 said:
Some plot ideas:
1. Switcheroo. Ethan Rayne has returned to Sunnydale and decides that the Slayer and her buddies need to be taken care of first: he casts a spell that causes them to switch bodies, resulting in embarrasement, shock, chaos (of course) and concern. Hopefully it will keep the White Hats distracted while he steals a valuable artifact from the museum.
2. Chill. It's snowing in Sunnydale! While dusting the shelves at The Magic Box, Clumsy White Hat Jerry knocks off and breaks a jar containing a hoard of powerful Winter Demons. They escape after freezing Jerry solid, and plan to bring back the Ice Age. They have to be stopped and someone has to lug along the frozen carcass of Jerry so he'll be cured when the last Winter Demon is destroyed.
3. Devil With A Blue Dress On. A cursed dress causes the wearer to be possessed by a powerful demon spirit with a taste for savage murder. The Slayer's price-conscious dad found it at a flea market sale for next to nothing and decided it would make the perfect birthday gift. Now the White Hats have to either find a way to break the curse... or fight the Slayer.
4. The Replacement. A small group of Watchers, disappointed by the Slayer's progress/unwillingness to follow their orders/whatever, decide to activate a new Slayer - by killing the old one.
5. The Howler In The Mall. A new perfume makes a splash debut and every girl in school wants some. It makes them more popular and boys flock around anyone wearing it (guys, don't get any splashed on you...). The more you use, the more popular you are. Of course, only the first bottle was so cheap...
6. The Amulet of Stravok. A vampire cult discovers the Amulet; if placed around the Slayer's neck, it will destroy her powers until sunlight touches it once more. During a fight, one of the cultists manages to put it on her. Now she and the White Hats must live until sunrise while pursued by the cultists.
7) Vampyre-Slayer? News reports are coming in, from all across town, that someone is shooting up the place with the strangest weapons!... The perpetrator hasn't been seen, but odd things have been turning up, like piles of dust with rumpled clothes, penetrated by a multitude of broken toothpicks... Other incidents have involved blasts of silver, as if from a shotgun, laced with garlic; broken glass; bloody two-by-fours sharpened to a point; some odd sorts of crossbow bolts; wooden 9mm slugs, and... wheelchair tracks?
If the PCs cant figure it out, some more modern-day do-gooder is also battling the overbites, but doing it with firearms, infrared night vision scopes with IR, explosives, a wheelchair, and a VERY bad attitude! Can the PCs find him before the cops and/or the vamps do?
If not, headlines will appear, from a few days to a few weeks later, detailing the rantings of a newly-arrested "crazy old man" who claims that vampires are common place in the city, and turn to dust when "toothpicked". The police will be very hush-hush about his methods, and the PCs will be unable to get in to see him, or his equipment... which (oddly enough) seems to have been "misplaced" by the Evidence Room!
A week or two after that, the "crazy old man" will "disappear during transport", becoming a two-week wonder, and then be forgotten...
By everyone except the Initiative, that is! They have "acquired" him, using his inventiveness to help along their weapons program, and he has used them to learn new and better ways to kill the vamps... AND avoid the authorities! The PCs may run into him, again!
Alternately, the PCs (or police) may come across a lifeless, bloodless body in a dust-and-clothes-filled alley, somewhere, and gain his equipment. Analyzing it might give some clues on new ways to stop the fang-gangs.
Or, the PCs might actually get to him before anyone else, either rescuing him while out on patrol, or being saved/aided by him... Can they convince the crotchety old coot that they're the good guys, and all can work together? (Beware, if Angel, Spike, or any other vampire is in the party!)
http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=82232
(Link added for the "final" encounter, if the PCs don't interfere! "Grampa" T. Rex Jones will be hauled off to jail at the end of this scenario, if the PCs do not intervene.)
If the PCs cant figure it out, some more modern-day do-gooder is also battling the overbites, but doing it with firearms, infrared night vision scopes with IR, explosives, a wheelchair, and a VERY bad attitude! Can the PCs find him before the cops and/or the vamps do?
If not, headlines will appear, from a few days to a few weeks later, detailing the rantings of a newly-arrested "crazy old man" who claims that vampires are common place in the city, and turn to dust when "toothpicked". The police will be very hush-hush about his methods, and the PCs will be unable to get in to see him, or his equipment... which (oddly enough) seems to have been "misplaced" by the Evidence Room!
A week or two after that, the "crazy old man" will "disappear during transport", becoming a two-week wonder, and then be forgotten...
By everyone except the Initiative, that is! They have "acquired" him, using his inventiveness to help along their weapons program, and he has used them to learn new and better ways to kill the vamps... AND avoid the authorities! The PCs may run into him, again!
Alternately, the PCs (or police) may come across a lifeless, bloodless body in a dust-and-clothes-filled alley, somewhere, and gain his equipment. Analyzing it might give some clues on new ways to stop the fang-gangs.
Or, the PCs might actually get to him before anyone else, either rescuing him while out on patrol, or being saved/aided by him... Can they convince the crotchety old coot that they're the good guys, and all can work together? (Beware, if Angel, Spike, or any other vampire is in the party!)
http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=82232
(Link added for the "final" encounter, if the PCs don't interfere! "Grampa" T. Rex Jones will be hauled off to jail at the end of this scenario, if the PCs do not intervene.)
Last edited:
Ao the Overkitty
First Post
I may be misreading your post. I'm not certain if this game has been going for a while or if it will start soon. It is hard to come up with stuff when you don't know the characters; especially for Buffy. I didn't write my campaign until after all of the characters were completed.
I guess I'll continue on the assumption that the game hasn't started yet. I can't really give you episode ideas without knowing the group, but I can give some advice.
Hmm.. this is a tough question. You'd do well to pick up the Buffy RPG Director's screen. The insert has some very good advice on crafting the game and a season. The Slayer's Handbook is really more of the GM tool that a players book as well. A large chunk of it is campaign settings and ideas.
Basically, my advice is get your group together and discuss with them what type of game they want to play and you want to run. It could be a 1930s pulp hero game (with private eyes, mad scientists, gangsters, and the slayer). Maybe it takes place in Victorian London (watchers council, jack the ripper, jeckyl and hyde, high society). Wild West with vampires? Post season 7 group of people clueless to the events of the series? (this is my game)
Lots of ideas. Find out what types of characters they want to play and have them work with eachother on the creation process. They could be all heroes, all white hats, or some combination of both. Have them write up some details of their backstories. They don't need everything, since things come out over the course of several seasons about characters (we didn't learn about giles or jenny until into second season). Just enough to get a feel for their characters and how they'll interact.
Next, you'll need a big bad. They can be as grandeose as the Master, as vain as Glory, or as bumbling as the trio. You just need someone for the group to work against (preferably with minions). Regardless of who they are, they'll need a weakness (the master was trapped, angelus was too obessed with the torture and waited too long for the kill, the mayor had his fatherly love). Introduce the baddy slowly (minions work well).
Joss is a big fan of the twist, so use it. Maybe the big bad they've been working against is really just one of those necessary evils (he likes the world the way it is, just wants his little share of it). It is really his lieutenant who is trying to end the world. Or perhaps the lieutenant has been covertly helping the players to off the big bad, just so he can seize control. But keep the players guessing. Maybe, sometimes, the twist is there is no twist at all.
Don't be afraid to steal from fiction (new and old), fairy tales, history, and even buffy and angel episodes. Hell... Steal from fan fiction if you want. I've found fanfic writers actually can have a lot of good ideas, even if they are not good at presenting them.
My last bit of advice is devise a rough outline for the season. Don't overplan. Be flexible with your ideas, cause the players will never go where you expect them to. Just have some notable personalities and descriptions of a couple of cast members for the group to interact with. With just a little bit of plot, the players will practically write the episode for you.
I guess I'll continue on the assumption that the game hasn't started yet. I can't really give you episode ideas without knowing the group, but I can give some advice.
Hmm.. this is a tough question. You'd do well to pick up the Buffy RPG Director's screen. The insert has some very good advice on crafting the game and a season. The Slayer's Handbook is really more of the GM tool that a players book as well. A large chunk of it is campaign settings and ideas.
Basically, my advice is get your group together and discuss with them what type of game they want to play and you want to run. It could be a 1930s pulp hero game (with private eyes, mad scientists, gangsters, and the slayer). Maybe it takes place in Victorian London (watchers council, jack the ripper, jeckyl and hyde, high society). Wild West with vampires? Post season 7 group of people clueless to the events of the series? (this is my game)
Lots of ideas. Find out what types of characters they want to play and have them work with eachother on the creation process. They could be all heroes, all white hats, or some combination of both. Have them write up some details of their backstories. They don't need everything, since things come out over the course of several seasons about characters (we didn't learn about giles or jenny until into second season). Just enough to get a feel for their characters and how they'll interact.
Next, you'll need a big bad. They can be as grandeose as the Master, as vain as Glory, or as bumbling as the trio. You just need someone for the group to work against (preferably with minions). Regardless of who they are, they'll need a weakness (the master was trapped, angelus was too obessed with the torture and waited too long for the kill, the mayor had his fatherly love). Introduce the baddy slowly (minions work well).
Joss is a big fan of the twist, so use it. Maybe the big bad they've been working against is really just one of those necessary evils (he likes the world the way it is, just wants his little share of it). It is really his lieutenant who is trying to end the world. Or perhaps the lieutenant has been covertly helping the players to off the big bad, just so he can seize control. But keep the players guessing. Maybe, sometimes, the twist is there is no twist at all.
Don't be afraid to steal from fiction (new and old), fairy tales, history, and even buffy and angel episodes. Hell... Steal from fan fiction if you want. I've found fanfic writers actually can have a lot of good ideas, even if they are not good at presenting them.
My last bit of advice is devise a rough outline for the season. Don't overplan. Be flexible with your ideas, cause the players will never go where you expect them to. Just have some notable personalities and descriptions of a couple of cast members for the group to interact with. With just a little bit of plot, the players will practically write the episode for you.
Stormborn
Explorer
browndj3 said:
The big question is: are you playing "Buffy" or just "buffy-verse"? IOW will the PCs be characters from the show, or will they be something else, but based on the show(s)?
I played in a one shot based on the Hong Kong segment of Masks of Nyaralothotep set in the 20s. I was a ex-cultist Watcher and my wife played the slayer, a young chinese girl.
If your group is interested in exploring the possibilities you might consider a "history of the chosen ones" game... each arc lasts 3-4 eps and focuses on a different slayer and her allies. That way people could rotate being the slayer and try out different characters. Each PC need not be a close friend of the slayer, but maybe only a temporary partner. I am picturing a mideaval pesant girl, her priest/watcher, a templar, and a Cathar mystic; an egyptian priestess slayer, her watcher acolyte, and her bodyguards; a Watcher "consulting detective", a cockny slayer, a Scotland Yard detective, and the girls ex-boxer father; etc.
Thanks!!! you guys really have helped, yeah I've seen the Angel show, and I'm getting the other books. The game is going to start tomarrow, so I'll tell you how it went. The group is strange in the way that one of our group members just threw down a stick of TNT into a basement and then after it exploded, just jumped on down after it. Also, in our D&D game, we have a talking badger in our tower. We found this out by getting him drunk one night. Yeah, that's just a very small sample of what we do. Any thing else you can add, that would be great!!!
More odd things
Our D&D game has 4 characters. One is a Barbarian Bard Dwarf who is scotish, plays the bag pipes, and wears a kilt. Our monk is a were-wolf stuck in were-wolf form. Our Halfling wizard/rouge rarely uses spells and has only stolen a feather pen. And my cleric is a member of the "goat" god religion. Not satan, just the goat. The dwarf got invited to play at a ball, the halfling has a hat of disguse. The halfling ends up going as a very small and convincing Death. I went with a goat head mask. Oh yeah, my cleric is an elf, so the elvin community doesn't like me too much. My character was also won in a poker game, that is how I was entered into the game. That is what I get for not choosing my entrance.
Our D&D game has 4 characters. One is a Barbarian Bard Dwarf who is scotish, plays the bag pipes, and wears a kilt. Our monk is a were-wolf stuck in were-wolf form. Our Halfling wizard/rouge rarely uses spells and has only stolen a feather pen. And my cleric is a member of the "goat" god religion. Not satan, just the goat. The dwarf got invited to play at a ball, the halfling has a hat of disguse. The halfling ends up going as a very small and convincing Death. I went with a goat head mask. Oh yeah, my cleric is an elf, so the elvin community doesn't like me too much. My character was also won in a poker game, that is how I was entered into the game. That is what I get for not choosing my entrance.
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