# [M&M] Buffyverse game? (OOC) [Recruiting CLOSED]



## drothgery (Jun 15, 2009)

RG Thread
IC Thread

Due to some unemployment-induced idle time, I've been rewatching my Buffy and Angel DVDs lately, and about halfway through that I started kicking around ideas for a game in the BtvS universe. Probably in concept more like Angel (i.e. largely adult characters, and more episodic than 'big bad' focused), set here and now in 2009 (i.e. about 5 years after the shows went off the air) and ignoring anything other than the TV shows (i.e. comics, novels, etc.) because I haven't seen it.

Big Questions 

1 - System

I've got the Angel RPG, but have never used it (and don't have the Buffy RPG). Also, it's just the core rulebook; I don't have anything else (and I don't know if anything else was ever published). I've got and have played Mutants & Masterminds 2e, which is probably what I'd end up using here; nothing else seems sufficiently flexible (though I'd put a pretty strict limit on how many points could be spent on powers). The only other things I've got that might sort of work are d20 Modern, True20, and a hyper-tweaked SWSE.

UPDATE: It will be M&M 2e. PL8 characters, details down-thread.

2 - Setting

Real (mostly) or fictional (i.e. LA or Sunnydale)? If real, somewhere I sort-of know (which basically means San Diego, Cleveland, or upstate NY) or just wing it?

I'm going to assume that any major characters that didn't die on-screen are alive (with the exception of Gunn, who was both dying and heading into a doomed battle when we last saw him; Angel and Spike were heading into a doomed battle as well, but they don't seem to stay dead).

UPDATE: The game will be set in San Diego, CA, USA.

3 - Characters

Post-season 7 finale there are quite a few active Slayers, but I can't see have more than two as PCs (and that's pushing it). I'm thinking mostly unique characters; you could run someone who had a bit part and wasn't mostly evil. Angel showed a fair number of 'freaks' with some sort of psi powers (one major telekinetic and electro-girl Gwen come to mind) and both shows had well-trained normals that could hold their own in a fight with demonkind (Riley, Robin Wood, Gunn). Probably the ability to at least appear human would be required.

Anyway, would anyone be interested?

*Update: Tenative character mechanics guidelines*

Base PL8/120 points with the following restrictions

Attributes
- normal humans cannot have any attributes above 20 (either base or via the Enhanced Ability power), or more than one attribute above 16
- slayers, half-demons, and robots can have physical stats of up to 24

Skills
- no special restrictions

Feats
- only normal humans can take Fortune feats
- minions are not allowed

Powers
- I'm not going to have many hard and fast rules, as even a normal human might want some powers, perhaps bound in a Device (weapon or armor) or to learn some Magic, but try to stay in the range of things that good guys have had on the shows (and Dark Willow is not a good guy, nor is Illyria!); Slayers typically have Regeneration
- However, these are outright banned: boost, duplication, gestalt, mimic, mind control, mind switch, nullify, nemesis, possession, power control, space travel, summon (minion), teleport, transfer, any form of time travel/temporal control (some of these have been used in the shows, granted, but I don't think I want them in any good guy's stock abilities)

Equipment
- PCs should be able to live like middle-class Americans at minimum. This game is not going to be set in NYC, so it's probably a good idea to have a car. Guns don't kill vampires (and have limitted effects on heavily armored demons) but will probably be more useful in this game than they were on the show
- Unless you're an active member of a military organization, getting military weapons will be difficult. However, with some persistance, adult PCs should have no trouble acquiring standard firearms (non-autofire weapons), even in California.

*Character guidelines*

For one reason or another, your character has been dragged into the fight against things that go bump in the night, and is doing that in San Diego, California.


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## Shayuri (Jun 15, 2009)

Interested. Especially if it's M&M which is one of my favorite systems.

And yeah, 'slayers' are pretty generic in the aftermath of season 7. And Sunnydale's hellmouth was destroyed (along with Sunnydale), so probably not much reason to set it there. 

But the setting supports a whole lot of weird concepts. Creatures from other dimensions, lycanthropes, reformed demons, psychics, magicians, robots...and the source material suits most RPG's in that the shows all revolve around "gatherings of freaks," which is what most gaming groups wind up making anyway. 

(psst...coughstarwarsgamecough)


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## jkason (Jun 15, 2009)

I'm definitely a fan of Buffy-related stuffs, though I haven't played the systems listed (I keep hearing great things about M&M, though). So I guess, conceptually I'm interested; it'd just be a matter of how easy the system you picked was to learn?


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## drothgery (Jun 15, 2009)

Shayuri said:


> Interested. Especially if it's M&M which is one of my favorite systems.




... which I've run all of one PC in. I've got the coure rulebook and Ultimate Power; but since I don't regularly play the system, that's it. Not sure what supplements (if any) would be useful.



Shayuri said:


> And yeah, 'slayers' are pretty generic in the aftermath of season 7.




Well, they're generic in that there are a lot of them. I mean, no one would confuse Buffy, Kendra, Faith, and Kennedy. On the other hand, the rest of the former potentials (that lived) are pretty much blank slates.



Shayuri said:


> And Sunnydale's hellmouth was destroyed (along with Sunnydale), so probably not much reason to set it there.




Well, yeah, but 'generic SoCal exurb/college town' is pretty simple to set up, and can easily be extrapolated by looking out the window (I live a few blocks from the real UCSD).



Shayuri said:


> But the setting supports a whole lot of weird concepts. Creatures from other dimensions, lycanthropes, reformed demons, psychics, magicians, robots...and the source material suits most RPG's in that the shows all revolve around "gatherings of freaks," which is what most gaming groups wind up making anyway.




True, though Lorne was the ony signifcant character that couldn't pass as human to a casual observer. Angel and Spike had the classic vampire tell-tales as well, but I think I want to avoid adding to the vampire with a soul count...



Shayuri said:


> (psst...coughstarwarsgamecough)




Yeah, I know. The other reason I was watching a lot of Buffy and Angel was that I've been too out of it to do decent encounter design for the Star Wars game .


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## Rhun (Jun 15, 2009)

Huge fan of the Buffyverse here. I'm seen every Buffy episode multiple times, though I've not ever watch Angel all the way through. I've been looking for a good deal on the DVDs, though.

With that said, I only have d20 Modern. So if you decide to use that system, count me in. If you run with another system, I may be able to pick it up. It would just depend.


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## Shayuri (Jun 15, 2009)

Well, I didn't mean generic character-wise, yeah. More generic in terms of their powers. They all have basically the same abilities.

That's not a bad thing though, and I can definitely see that any group of 'demon hunters' would want a slayer at the nucleus. It is, after all, why they exist.

I concur on the 'souled vamp' thing too. Way overdone. The show already pretty much explored all the permutations of "vampire allies." It'd be good to get back to them being dangerous and implacable foes.

---

As for system, I'm open, but M&M is basically just a streamlined d20 with some different rules for combat and a point based ability acquisition system to replace classes. If you've played D&D or d20 modern, it's a cinch to pick up.


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## Rhun (Jun 15, 2009)

drothgery said:


> Well, yeah, but 'generic SoCal exurb/college town' is pretty simple to set up, and can easily be extrapolated by looking out the window (I live a few blocks from the real UCSD).




And we know there is another Hellmouth in Cleveland.


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## jkason (Jun 15, 2009)

Definitely the vampire en-souling is rather played out, though with all the hammering of 'vampires are evil, end of story' in the show, there seems to be a lot of ambiguity about the native evil-ness of demon-blood, oddly enough. Which could provide some interesting RP, since it's also unclear how those relatively benign demon species interact with the 'underworld community.' And the now-large Slayer community, for that matter.  

jason


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## drothgery (Jun 15, 2009)

Rhun said:


> And we know there is another Hellmouth in Cleveland.




If I don't set the game in Cleveland, then Robin Wood and Faith are guarding the Hellmouth in Cleveland.


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## Shayuri (Jun 15, 2009)

jkason said:


> Definitely the vampire en-souling is rather played out, though with all the hammering of 'vampires are evil, end of story' in the show, there seems to be a lot of ambiguity about the native evil-ness of demon-blood, oddly enough. Which could provide some interesting RP, since it's also unclear how those relatively benign demon species interact with the 'underworld community.' And the now-large Slayer community, for that matter.
> 
> jason




I dunno. Spike went 'good' before he ever had a soul. In fact, I found myself getting a bit annoyed with how the show set vampires up to be evil, then started backtracking and showing them as more sympathetic, less menacing (Harmony, anyone?).

I don't mind that a very few vampires either find redemption or at the very least aren't all THAT bad...but I think it undermines the whole premise if that happens a lot. It needs to be established that those incidents are very rare, and often ill-fated.


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## jkason (Jun 15, 2009)

Shayuri said:


> I dunno. Spike went 'good' before he ever had a soul. In fact, I found myself getting a bit annoyed with how the show set vampires up to be evil, then started backtracking and showing them as more sympathetic, less menacing (Harmony, anyone?).
> 
> I don't mind that a very few vampires either find redemption or at the very least aren't all THAT bad...but I think it undermines the whole premise if that happens a lot. It needs to be established that those incidents are very rare, and often ill-fated.




The Spike plot was something of a mess, largely because I think the writers were flailing for ways to keep the character around and only partially succeeded in maintaining his central appeal in the process. 

I think Harmony worked better for me because she answered a question I'd always wondered: where the hell does every vampire get super ninja training? I was amused that she acted good out of a survival need (the demon community would certainly have no problem literally eating her alive, after all) rather than any real moral compass.

The in-game question, I suppose, is: would having demon-y PC's undermine things, as well? I don't *think* so, but I'm sure I could be convinced otherwise. In general, I somehow always got the impression that vampires were the Buffyverse pirhanna (eat anything and everything that gets within bite range), while other demons were, say, various shark species: dangerous, but not necessarily always, to the same degree, and/or to humans specifially. I suppose flavor-wise, though, we'd want to figure that out early-ish.


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## Rhun (Jun 15, 2009)

jkason said:


> The in-game question, I suppose, is: would having demon-y PC's undermine things, as well? I don't *think* so, but I'm sure I could be convinced otherwise. In general, I somehow always got the impression that vampires were the Buffyverse pirhanna (eat anything and everything that gets within bite range), while other demons were, say, various shark species: dangerous, but not necessarily always, to the same degree, and/or to humans specifially. I suppose flavor-wise, though, we'd want to figure that out early-ish.





I don't think demon PCs would undermine anything. There were plenty of example of good and/or non-evil demon characters in both Buffy and Angel. The key, as Drothgery mentioned, would be to ensure they could at least pass for human.


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## Shayuri (Jun 15, 2009)

Yar, don't get me wrong, Harmony cracked me up.   But she did sort of make vampires cute and fluffy.

As for "demony" PC's, I think it's fine. I am considering a PC who's got demonic heritage, for example...maybe even half-demon. The term 'demon' in Buffy is very broad. Lots of demons seem relatively sanguine, if alien, and are content to leave people be if they're left be. Some seem like they're just refugees from other dimensions, rather than an evil spirit from hell.

By the end of the show, Sunnydale had a complete sort of 'demon underground,' which the main characters were well aware of and which functioned with their tacit approval (ie - they let it go on with the understanding that they wouldn't kill and eat people, and in return the slayer wouldn't come and shove sharp things in tender places). So there's clearly FDA-approved doses of demon that are acceptable.


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## Rhun (Jun 15, 2009)

Shayuri said:


> By the end of the show, Sunnydale had a complete sort of 'demon underground,' which the main characters were well aware of and which functioned with their tacit approval (ie - they let it go on with the understanding that they wouldn't kill and eat people, and in return the slayer wouldn't come and shove sharp things in tender places). So there's clearly FDA-approved doses of demon that are acceptable.




Angel also established that Los Angeles had a "demon underground" as well. So it goes to say that there could be an underground just about anywhere.


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## Velmont (Jun 15, 2009)

I could be interested. I'm not quite a fan nor very knowledgeable about Buffy. Last episode I've seen was years ago, but I like that kind of world. Lately, I've been reading the Dresden Files, and it have put me in a mood for such a world. I would be interested, and I might play someone who just discover the world of vampires and demons to represent my lack of knowledge about the Buffyverse. Except of new born slayer, what else could fit that?

I am pretty familiar with M&M 2e.


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## Shayuri (Jun 15, 2009)

Lots of possibilities. You could be a mutant or psychic of some kind. Or a mystic just awakening to his powers. You could be an extra-dimensional who just got warped in...perhaps due to some ill-advised spell miscast, or a trinket of mad science running amok. You could be an ex-soldier, discharged because you've seen too much. 

Or...you could be the Xander.


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## Rhun (Jun 15, 2009)

Shayuri said:


> Or...you could be the Xander.




The Zeppo!

Xander was actually one of my favorite characters. No special skills at all, but still right there fighting evil night after night.


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## Shayuri (Jun 15, 2009)

Rhun said:


> The Zeppo!
> 
> Xander was actually one of my favorite characters. No special skills at all, but still right there fighting evil night after night.




If by 'fighting' you mean 'cowering and quipping.' 

But yeah, he had heart. And later on they matured him in ways that were gratifying to watch. Good stuff.


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## Jemal (Jun 15, 2009)

Very big buffy/angel fan here.  
I presume you'll be ignoring anything that's happened in the whedon comics that took place after the series?  They do flesh out a lot more stuff that's happened since the shows, and anybody who hasn't read them would be at a loss for what's currently happening.  
Probably be the best idea to just start clean-slate timeline at the end of the angel series. 

I agree that extra souled-vamps is a bad Idea, but I think having vampire/demon/whatever PC's would make the game more interesting.  Maybe some of the PC's come from a background that's more commonly thought of as 'evil' but are working with the 'good guys' for their own reasons? ('The enemy of my enemy', 'lesser of two evils', etc).

As far as system goes, I don't have access to the buffy/angel RPG's, but either D20 Modern or M&M would work fairly well, and be accessible to most people.  If you're wanting 'special' characters (Psychics, demons, super-humans), then M&M would probably be more appropriate.  If you're going for more of a "Normal people VS the supernatural" approach, then I'd suggest d20 modern.

Another alternative could be using the world of darkness rules.

In anycase, I'd very much enjoy being a part of such a game, maybe as the resident mage/mystical expert.


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## drothgery (Jun 15, 2009)

Shayuri said:


> Or...you could be the Xander.




Eh. I liked Xander as a TV show character, but as an RPG character, he's more than a bit underpowered.


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## Rhun (Jun 15, 2009)

drothgery said:


> Eh. I liked Xander as a TV show character, but as an RPG character, he's more than a bit underpowered.





Yeah, but look at how often he got to use that Profession (Carpenter) skill in the later years!


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## Shayuri (Jun 15, 2009)

I meant it as a joke.


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## drothgery (Jun 15, 2009)

Velmont said:


> I could be interested. I'm not quite a fan nor very knowledgeable about Buffy. Last episode I've seen was years ago, but I like that kind of world. Lately, I've been reading the Dresden Files, and it have put me in a mood for such a world. I would be interested, and I might play someone who just discover the world of vampires and demons to represent my lack of knowledge about the Buffyverse. Except of new born slayer, what else could fit that?




Fred (Winifred Burkle from Angel) was banished to another dimension by an evil professor, and hooked up with Angel after being rescued.

Xander overheard Buffy and Giles talking Slayer stuff in the first episode of Buffy. I'm not quite sure how Willow or Cordellia flipped over into the 'clued-in' side, but they weren't they high-powered individuals they'd become later.

Kate Locksley (Kate the cop from Angel) kept running into Angel on 'weird' cases and eventually put two and two together.

Nina and Oz were bitten by werewolves, but did't know anything prior (well, Oz may have known a little by virtue of being in Sunnydale).



Jemal said:


> Very big buffy/angel fan here.
> I presume you'll be ignoring anything that's happened in the whedon comics that took place after the series?  They do flesh out a lot more stuff that's happened since the shows, and anybody who hasn't read them would be at a loss for what's currently happening.
> Probably be the best idea to just start clean-slate timeline at the end of the angel series.




Yeah. I haven't read them, so it'd be too easy to break continuity with them. Heck, I'm almost certainly going to. 



Jemal said:


> I agree that extra souled-vamps is a bad Idea, but I think having vampire/demon/whatever PC's would make the game more interesting.  Maybe some of the PC's come from a background that's more commonly thought of as 'evil' but are working with the 'good guys' for their own reasons? ('The enemy of my enemy', 'lesser of two evils', etc).




Maybe, but I think I want vamps to be pretty much 'if it's not Angel or Spike, it's okay to stake them on sight, and probably a good idea'. Every game needs its stock disposable villians, and vampires are it in the Buffyverse.



Jemal said:


> As far as system goes, I don't have access to the buffy/angel RPG's, but either D20 Modern or M&M would work fairly well, and be accessible to most people.  If you're wanting 'special' characters (Psychics, demons, super-humans), then M&M would probably be more appropriate.  If you're going for more of a "Normal people VS the supernatural" approach, then I'd suggest d20 modern.




I was thinking M&M more because it seemed like it might be possible to have 'normal' characters that are roughly balanced with supernatural types.



Jemal said:


> In anycase, I'd very much enjoy being a part of such a game, maybe as the resident mage/mystical expert.




Cool.


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## Shayuri (Jun 16, 2009)

If I do the half-demon thing, I'd probably be a headbasher. A "slayer" in all but name.


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## jkason (Jun 16, 2009)

Any inkling about what kind of group we might be? I know you mentioned Angel as a template, would this be an investigative group? A less official club of supernatural fans and / or victims? Something else entirely?


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## Rhun (Jun 16, 2009)

What about the whole super soldier thing? I kinda like the idea of playing one of those guys. Of course, if you do M&M I will have to pick up the rules, and that may change my opinion on that.


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## drothgery (Jun 16, 2009)

jkason said:


> Any inkling about what kind of group we might be? I know you mentioned Angel as a template, would this be an investigative group? A less official club of supernatural fans and / or victims? Something else entirely?




I'm not sure whether it'd be best to try and come up with an idea, and then let people pick charcter concepts to go in that kind of group, or to see what kind of characters people want to run, and then build a group they all fit in to. Though I guess the big factor is whether the characters have 'normal' lives, or whether they've pulled off some whay to fight evil full-time (it might well be a mix, too; a PC might be employed by the Watcher's Council or the military but have to maintain a cover).

The big things about Angel vs. Buffy as a template, in my book, were
- On Angel, Angel wasn't always in charge, and Wes, Cordellia, and Gunn were quite willing to question his authority; the major characters were a lot more equal than on Buffy, where Giles quickly ceded final authority to Buffy, and she held on to it almost the entire series, even when Willow became a power in her own right
- generally speaking, the series was a lot more episodic; it tended to smaller, largely independent episodes with some small tying arcs rather than an overarching 'big bad' (other than season 4)


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## drothgery (Jun 16, 2009)

Rhun said:


> What about the whole super soldier thing? I kinda like the idea of playing one of those guys.




Doable, though the big question with playing one of them is why he's on his own. If he's no longer in the military (and it certainly was pretty strongly implied that Riley's group was offically Army -- though there might be something similar in other branches of the service, and maybe even a group in the FBI and/or some intelligence service), why not?

I suppose one idea for the game might be a sort of X-files on steroids.


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## Jemal (Jun 16, 2009)

I prefered the general tone and feel of Angel; darker, more adult.  The Buffy series was stuck in high school until the very end (Hell, they even went back to their roots and had the 'final battle' in the school).
Angel also has, as you pointed out, the benefit of being more even as to how the characters(PC's) interacted and who was in charge, which leads better to a campaign IMO.


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## Rhun (Jun 16, 2009)

drothgery said:


> Doable, though the big question with playing one of them is why he's on his own. If he's no longer in the military (and it certainly was pretty strongly implied that Riley's group was offically Army -- though there might be something similar in other branches of the service, and maybe even a group in the FBI and/or some intelligence service), why not?
> 
> I suppose one idea for the game might be a sort of X-files on steroids.





Agree that they were probably Army, though the Initiative soldiers were certainly "Black Ops." So perhaps the PC could be undercover, as you had earlier stated. Or maybe even assigned to keep watch on a certain "hot spot." As the episode with Riley and his wife showed, apparently they soldiers are sometimes sent on missions of their own. I'm sure we could come up with something to make it work.


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## Vertexx69 (Jun 16, 2009)

No surprise that Im a big fan of the Buffyverse as well  

I'm familiar with D20 modern and played M&M once a couple years ago, but not with the actual Buffy or Angel RPG rules. 

I'd like to try the shapeshifer with a measure of control idea, like Oz. Those herbs, charms and incantations he found in Nepal weren't designed just for him, so other werewolves must have sought them out over the years too. 

The super soldier could actually be assigned to an investigative team by the government as both support and a set of eyes inside an organization thats dealing with the shadier side of the world.


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## Walking Dad (Jun 16, 2009)

I'm interested, too. With a Xander meets Gladstone Gander character. Lot of ranks in the luck feat and an unconscious probability control. Not doing the right things, but will work out in the end. Watched Buffy until Willow's girlfriend got killed.


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## jkason (Jun 16, 2009)

drothgery said:


> I'm not sure whether it'd be best to try and come up with an idea, and then let people pick charcter concepts to go in that kind of group, or to see what kind of characters people want to run, and then build a group they all fit in to.




That was partly why I was asking. I noticed folks have started fiddling with concepts, but I've been kind of holding off not wanting to invest in something that would run contrary to the group concept.

Personally, I kind of like the loose association idea, rather than anything official. You could still have, say, the local Initiative agent or pro supernateral PI there who's getting paid for this, but then have others who have either glommed on because they're obsessed with this stuff (the local wiccan, maybe?) or just wandered into it and stuck around for mutual survival (half-blood demon character looking to keep himself safe from his demon kin).

Folks have already spoken up for a couple of ideas I'd been milling, so I guess I should forward something, group dynamic or no: 

Maybe a robot / cyborg-y character. Maybe someone got ahold of Ted and / or Warren's robot specs and improved them? I only say improved because it'd be no fun to play a robot without any kind of free will. 

It also occurs to me that there's no real 'healers' in the Buffyverse, but that my D&D experience tends to rely on the concept. Not sure if it's as necessary from what I'm gleaning of M&M, but some sort of twisted demonish healer character ('pain-eater'?) might be fun, too.


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## Shayuri (Jun 16, 2009)

As for what we are, or what we represent...I have some ideas about that.

The Watcher's Council has been basically destroyed by the events of Season 7. Giles and maybe a few other members who were out and about are the only survivors. Adding to this, there's suddenly hundreds (I recall the number 1800 being thrown around somewhere) of girls of varying ages who suddenly have acquired the abilities of slayers, most of whom have no idea what the heck's going on.

I propose that in the face of the daunting task of training all these...and equally important, those still to come...slayers, the original 'Scoobs' will start a new organization. It could take several forms, but here's my thoughts on it...

It consists of several parts.

The 'hub' of it would be sort of a "slayer academy," intended to give as many slayers basic training as is feasible at a time. Basic training just means _'here's what happened to you, here's why, here's how to live semi-normal lives without breaking all your stuff by accident, and here's how not to die when things attack you...thanks for coming.'_ Those that want to stick around for advanced monster-hunting classes are free to do so. I figure Giles and Buffy feature here, with Giles covering the knowledge part, and Buffy the physical portion. She's already had experience training potential slayers after all.

Then we'd have a "recruiting" arm, headed up by Willow and Xander. Willow uses mojo to find slayers, and Xander goes out to lure them in with his one-eyed pirate charms.

And finally, monsters didn't just stop coming, so we'd need a militant arm that still goes out and monster hunts. I expect they all contribute to this, which basically consists of organizing small squads of mostly-independent monster hunters and sending them to trouble spots where they set up shop and...try to stop the troubles.

Here's where the PC's come in.


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## Rhun (Jun 16, 2009)

I've always wanted to run a Future Slayer style game...you know, way in the future, with demons having overrun most of the earth, and humankind trying to fight back from a few last bastions of strength. Hmmm...maybe one day.


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## Vertexx69 (Jun 16, 2009)

And there are still completely independent hunting parties out there at the same time, like Riley and his wife's team of army guys in South America. There are bound to be squads like that all over the world. Who was putting down the demon biker gangs on the east coast while the scoobies and the buffybot were tangling with one in Sunny-D, during Buffy's cloud nap? food for thought 

@ Rhun - that could be awesome to play with a shadowrun style.


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## jkason (Jun 16, 2009)

Shayuri said:


> And finally, monsters didn't just stop coming, so we'd need a militant arm that still goes out and monster hunts. I expect they all contribute to this, which basically consists of organizing small squads of mostly-independent monster hunters and sending them to trouble spots where they set up shop and...try to stop the troubles.
> 
> Here's where the PC's come in.




I like this idea for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it attaches the PC's in some way to the actual characters from the series, though that connection is fairly vague and tenuous, so "The Stars" need never make an appearance but this is clearly 'Buffyverse' stuff and not just a random world with monsters and monster hunters.

Also, if the groups are more or less contracted, it lets us define our own group in any way that best suits us. I imagine there are some very structured, business-like agencies as well as more rag-tag, slapped-together groups. My preference RP-wise is the latter, in that it maps to early seasons of both shows and allows for a lot more directions of growth as the PC's come into their own and become _more_ than a bunch of random supernatural folk flailing blindly against the bump-in-the-nights. I mean, it seems like both shows had a kind of undercurrent of "underdogs make good" to them, which would be nice to carry through to a game.


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## drothgery (Jun 16, 2009)

Okay, so I think I'm going to tweak Shayuri's idea and run with it.

Mechanics question for those more M&M-savvy than I am (I haven't played it a lot) - I'm thinking about PL8 seems right for a minimally trained Slayer or a highly trained/experienced normal. PL10 is M&M default, but it seems to me that a PL10 normal is pretty nearly Batman, and even Riley's not Batman.


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## Shayuri (Jun 16, 2009)

Yeah, PL10 is 'standard' M&M, but that's for superhero games. 

PL 5 would be right for "normal folks" with relatively ordinary abilities...strengths and weaknesses, but nothing out of the norm.

PL 6 and 7 is good for well trained and equipped soldiers and martial artists and such. Some lower level Buffy characters could be here, including the rank and file vampires and lesser enemies.

PL 8 is low level supers territory. Most 'main' characters in Buffy would fit comfortably here. 'Name' enemies would usually be here.

Higher than PL8 would be truly powerful beings...usually Big Bads. Sometimes good guys might buff up this high (such as against Adam, or Dark Willow), but not generally for very long.


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## Velmont (Jun 16, 2009)

Sharuyi analysis seems good to me too.

So, the starting lvl will depend on how much powerful you want us to be, and how quick you want us to evolve.


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## Rhun (Jun 16, 2009)

So M&M 2nd Edition then, right? If I want to play I guess I need to start looking for a copy.


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## drothgery (Jun 16, 2009)

Rhun said:


> So M&M 2nd Edition then, right? If I want to play I guess I need to start looking for a copy.




Yup. That's what I've got, and that's the current edition.


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## Rhun (Jun 16, 2009)

drothgery said:


> Yup. That's what I've got, and that's the current edition.





Thanks. I'll see what I can find.


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## drothgery (Jun 16, 2009)

Off-the-cuff character creation rules...

Base PL8/120 points with the following restrictions

Attributes
- normal humans cannot have any attributes above 20 (either base or via the Enhanced Ability power), or more than one attribute above 16
- slayers, half-demons, and robots can have physical stats of up to 24

Skills
- no special restrictions

Feats
- only normal humans can take Fortune feats
- minions are not allowed

Powers
- I'm not going to have many hard and fast rules, as even a normal human might want some powers, perhaps bound in a Device (weapon or armor) or to learn some Magic, but try to stay in the range of things that good guys have had on the shows (and Dark Willow is not a good guy, nor is Illyria!); Slayers typically have Regeneration
- However, these are outright banned: boost, duplication, gestalt, mimic, mind control, mind switch, nullify, nemesis, possession, power control, space travel, summon (minion), teleport, transfer, any form of time travel/temporal control (some of these have been used in the shows, granted, but I don't think I want them in any good guy's stock abilities)

Equipment
- PCs should be able to live like middle-class Americans at minimum. This game is not going to be set in NYC, so it's probably a good idea to have a car. Guns don't kill vampires (and have limitted effects on heavily armored demons) but will probably be more useful in this game than they were on the show
- Unless you're an active member of a military organization, getting military weapons will be difficult. However, with some persistance, adult PCs should have no trouble acquiring standard firearms (non-autofire weapons), even in California.


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## Velmont (Jun 16, 2009)

I think I'll go with a policeman who had been running for some times on strange cases, unable to find any solution, or at least, any acceptable solution for his superiors. In a recent case, he fall on the group and team with them to stop the creature. He had to disobey an order and as he had no reasonable explanation to give to his chief for his insubordination, he was suspended for an undetermined time.

So, he will be a normal human, without superpower, but really competent and skilled. A bit clueless about the paranormal but aware of it.

If you need a reference, Sergeant Murphy in Dresden Files.


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## Rhun (Jun 16, 2009)

Well, my local game store has two copies of M&M 2e, so you can most likely count me in. Hopefully, if I am spending the cash for the game, you can guarantee me a spot in it?


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## Rhun (Jun 16, 2009)

Velmont said:


> If you need a reference, Sergeant Murphy in Dresden Files.




Or perhaps a Detective Lochley from Angel?  Sounds pretty close.


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## drothgery (Jun 16, 2009)

Rhun said:


> Well, my local game store has two copies of M&M 2e, so you can most likely count me in. Hopefully, if I am spending the cash for the game, you can guarantee me a spot in it?




Heh.


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## Jemal (Jun 16, 2009)

Any problems with a surviving council member at home in Canada when the rest of the council got offed?  I'm thinking the team's "mentor type", skilled in both technology and magic.  He's moved to the states to help out in the 'power vaccum'


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## drothgery (Jun 16, 2009)

Jemal said:


> Any problems with a surviving council member at home in Canada when the rest of the council got offed?  I'm thinking the team's "mentor type", skilled in both technology and magic.  He's moved to the states to help out in the 'power vaccum'




Sure.

If you wanted to throw in a bit of a tragic background, he might have taken one of the potentials who didn't survive the battle at the Hellmouth to Sunnydale.

Probably worth noting is there's a bit of a mini-rivalry in the council between the surviving 'old school' watchers (those who came up through the Watcher's Academy, and survived both the attacks on the potentials and the attack on the council) and the 'new school' watchers (people like Xander and Andrew, sort-of drafted from the clued-in segments of society).


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## drothgery (Jun 17, 2009)

Unless anyone has a strong objection, I'm going to be a bit lazy and set the game here in San Diego.


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## Shayuri (Jun 17, 2009)

Sounds good to me.

So far my 'half-demon' is winding up very slayer-esque. I wonder if I should just cave in and make her an actual slayer. Hee.


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## drothgery (Jun 17, 2009)

Shayuri said:


> Sounds good to me.
> 
> So far my 'half-demon' is winding up very slayer-esque. I wonder if I should just cave in and make her an actual slayer. Hee.




Really, Angel notwithstanding, a Buffyverse game without a slayer seems a bit weird.


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## jkason (Jun 17, 2009)

I should be able to download the M&M rules PDF tomorrow, then I'll start crunching. 

If Shayuri does go with a Slayer, I might lean toward a half-demon rather than the robot/cyborg. I'm kind of liking this 'pain-eater' concept I'm toying with. Basically, a demon race who manipulate / feed off pain and adreneline and that sort of thing. The side-effect would be something like a buffer, I guess, but I want to see how the rules actually work before I commit to something. 

jason


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## Walking Dad (Jun 17, 2009)

Walking Dad said:


> I'm interested, too. With a Xander meets Gladstone Gander character. Lot of ranks in the luck feat and an unconscious probability control. Not doing the right things, but will work out in the end. Watched Buffy until Willow's girlfriend got killed.



Character concept fine?


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## drothgery (Jun 17, 2009)

Walking Dad said:


> Character concept fine?




(I had to look up Gladstone Gander; didn't catch the reference right away)

I'm not sure; someone that's both a reluctant hero and has little in the way of knowledge/powers doesn't seem like a great fighter of the forces of evil.


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## jkason (Jun 17, 2009)

Downloaded the PDF, and I think my concept may have legs. Slightly twisted legs, if I'm lucky:

A half-demon whose mother was a Pain-Eater Demon (common name, obviously. I'd have to come up with something else for the actual species name), creatures who 'feed' on organically-generated pain. The side effect is actually healing, though the species in general isn't necessarily benign. Some certainly serve as demon medics (like his mother, I would think), but the more bloodthirsty of them will kidnap victims, torturing them in order to feed on them, which heals the victim up so they can feed over and over again on the same individual. 

The same species has the ability to also project pain. While they're known to use this ability as self-defense, its traditional purpose has been to feed their young (I kind of love the Ew factor of that bit). 

In practice, I think the Life Control power would be his primary ability (probably handicapped with Touch range), with an Alternate power array of things like Healing, Fatigue, Stun, maybe Drain (so he can hurt someone or heal someone, but only to the exclusion of the other abilities). I'm still figuring out how Alternate powers affect power point cost, so I'm not sure. I was toying with some sort of Fade mechanic, but since 'charging' the pain power would be through healing his allies, it seems a little too beneficial to be a full-fledged Flaw.

Also thinking about using Super-Senses to give him a "pain-radar," something his species would have used for finding their next meal.

Anyone more familiar with the system see a lot of problems / have any advice?

jason


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## Jemal (Jun 17, 2009)

hmm, here's an idea.. assuming Shayuri decides to go the slayer route.

My watcher had just discovered a potential (Shayuri's character) when I got news of the council's destruction and the attacks on potentials.  We went on the road, moving from place to place to stay ahead of them and help out where we could, only recently figuring out what exactly had happened, and managing to get ahold of Giles and what's becoming the new council.


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## Velmont (Jun 17, 2009)

jkason said:


> In practice, I think the Life Control power would be his primary ability (probably handicapped with Touch range), with an Alternate power array of things like Healing, Fatigue, Stun, maybe Drain (so he can hurt someone or heal someone, but only to the exclusion of the other abilities). I'm still figuring out how Alternate powers affect power point cost, so I'm not sure. I was toying with some sort of Fade mechanic, but since 'charging' the pain power would be through healing his allies, it seems a little too beneficial to be a full-fledged Flaw.





Pretty simple.

Let's say you have blast 10 with area extra, that would cost 30 PP. You take 2 alternate power. Each alternate power can be build with the same amount of PP than the primary, excluding the Alternate power PF itself. In this casse, it would be 30 PP.

So you could decide to have Teleportation 14 in alternate power with 2 power feat for 30 PP and (Flight at 10, ForceField at 10) for the other AP. Yeah, more than one power can be part of one alternate power. Now, if you teleport, you cannot blast of fly. If you blast, you cannot use your forcefield or teleport. If you use your forcefiel, you could fly, but not blast and teleport.

Now, if you spend 2 PP on each Alternate power, you can distribute your PP among all the power, so you could Blast at 5 (for 15 PP) while have a Forcefield at 10 (10 PP) and slowly flying over your enemy (Flight 2, for 4 PP).


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## drothgery (Jun 17, 2009)

jkason said:


> Anyone more familiar with the system see a lot of problems / have any advice?




I think it should work.



Jemal said:


> hmm, here's an idea.. assuming Shayuri decides to go the slayer route.
> 
> My watcher had just discovered a potential (Shayuri's character) when I got news of the council's destruction and the attacks on potentials.  We went on the road, moving from place to place to stay ahead of them and help out where we could, only recently figuring out what exactly had happened, and managing to get ahold of Giles and what's becoming the new council.




Sounds good, though five years or so is a bit of long time to be out of the loop.


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## hero4hire (Jun 17, 2009)

I have an idea for a character. Joe Average guy who dies and comes back as a free-willed zombie (revenant?).


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## Rhun (Jun 18, 2009)

hero4hire said:


> I have an idea for a character. Joe Average guy who dies and comes back as a free-willed zombie (revenant?).




Kinda like a Jack O'Toole type?


Also, Droth...I think I'm going to bow out of this one, since I don't have the M&M rules. It looks great though, so I may just follow along to see how it goes!


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## Shayuri (Jun 18, 2009)

Jemal said:


> hmm, here's an idea.. assuming Shayuri decides to go the slayer route.
> 
> My watcher had just discovered a potential (Shayuri's character) when I got news of the council's destruction and the attacks on potentials.  We went on the road, moving from place to place to stay ahead of them and help out where we could, only recently figuring out what exactly had happened, and managing to get ahold of Giles and what's becoming the new council.




I like this.

Though the GM's note on time is true. My suggested fix is this:

Watchers learn of threat to Potentials and send out agents to try to save them (this happened in the show). Jemal's Watcher is sent to my character. Somehow we survive the Harbingers...cleverness and pluck, most likely. We return to the Council to find...oops, the Council's been slaughtered. So we go on the run. We wind up back in the States, but low on cash without the resources of the Council. We're heading for Sunnydale to link up with The Slayer and her Watcher, but our plane landed on the East Coast...so it's a long ride.

On the way, he gives my character the background info, and trains her as best he can in what she'll need to know, should she be Called. And then...lo and behold, she IS Called! Of course ALL potentials are; but we don't know that. All we know is that suddenly my character got the Slayer powers. So we assume Buffy got dead, and keep busting cheeks to get there. By the time we get to Sunnydale, it's a crater in the ground. This doesn't look good to us, since we don't know the circumstances of why the town was destroyed.

So we lay low a bit longer, still training and now also fighting monsters when and where we find them, until finally...FINALLY...we learn what's going on. Most likely my character was located by the new Watcher Council's "potential pinpointer," be it Willow (perhaps using the Scythe's link to the slayers for a spell to track each 'line of power' down) or some other agency that finds new potentials as they're born/come to age.

At that point, we join the effort.


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## Jemal (Jun 18, 2009)

Works for me. 

My character probably gets along fairly well with the 'new' watchers.  He never fit exactly as the old watchers wanted.. he was one of the watchers who wondered why they just watched, and actually wanted to DO, learning magics and swordplay to aid in the fighting  should the time come - and when it did, he was ready.


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## drothgery (Jun 18, 2009)

Vertexx69 said:


> I'd like to try the shapeshifer with a measure of control idea, like Oz. Those herbs, charms and incantations he found in Nepal weren't designed just for him, so other werewolves must have sought them out over the years too.




Could work.



Velmont said:


> I think I'll go with a policeman who had been running for some times on strange cases, unable to find any solution, or at least, any acceptable solution for his superiors. In a recent case, he fall on the group and team with them to stop the creature. He had to disobey an order and as he had no reasonable explanation to give to his chief for his insubordination, he was suspended for an undetermined time.
> 
> So, he will be a normal human, without superpower, but really competent and skilled. A bit clueless about the paranormal but aware of it.




So could this.



hero4hire said:


> I have an idea for a character. Joe Average guy who dies and comes back as a free-willed zombie (revenant?).




... but I'm not sure on this one. Buffyverse zombies tend to be pretty obvious, and not too bright.



Rhun said:


> Also, Droth...I think I'm going to bow out of this one, since I don't have the M&M rules. It looks great though, so I may just follow along to see how it goes!




Well, I can defintiely see not buying new rulebooks for a PBP game, but thanks for the interest.


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## drothgery (Jun 18, 2009)

Jemal said:


> Works for me.




Works for me, too.

I guess it's about time to turn ideas into serious character proposals. Stats aren't needed yet, but if you want to, that's fine. What I definitely need are

- name
- background (including where you're from, how you got to San Diego, what you do for a living -- the Council will pay slayers and watchers enough to keep them off welfare, but watchers definitely need a 'cover' job, and adult slayers who don't want to be full-time students -- and aren't wealthy, ala Kennedy -- do, too)
- skills and abilities


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## Shayuri (Jun 18, 2009)

Actually, remember the dead boys in the episode that focused on Xander stopping a bomb under the school while the other Scoobys saved the world?

They were definitely undead, but weren't vampires. They could be thought of as 'revenants' or well-preserved, sentient zombies.


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## Shalimar (Jun 18, 2009)

I think the episode was zeppo.  I'm pretty sure they were zombies though, brought back with a magical ritual.


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## Shayuri (Jun 18, 2009)

Yeah, but I was just saying, they weren't rotting, nonintelligent, shambling eaters of brains. Zombies like them would be technically playable, though it may be that such creatures have thematic problems that make them unpaletable for the game.


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## Velmont (Jun 18, 2009)

Sergeant Riley O'Connell

-=-=-= History =-=-=-

Riley is a member of San Diego Police Department. He has gain his title of investigator five years ago. His first case have been a strange case of murder. His investigation lead him to an inconclusive proof about the killer. The case wasn't closed but left aside. A year after that, he got a second case with similarities, than a third. His inability to find the killer irritated his superiors. The things was Riley got to the conclusion that the killer wasn't a human. It looked like it was a creature and it wasn't an animal.

His superior gave him all the strange case and he finished with a pile of open case without conclusion. Riley understood that things happened in the streets that no one would believed. Pushing his investigation, he fall on one of the killer of his case. The creature, he would learn later to be a vampire, got accidentally killed in a fight, leaving no body behind, and thus, no killer for his case.

During his last case, he felt in the hideout of one creature, and he survived just by a great luck, as a slayer had followed the same track and arrived just a moment after him. With the slayer's group, he was able to dispose of the threat.

-=-=-= Description =-=-=-

Riley's Irish heritage is obvious. He has short red hair, he is tall and muscular. He has even a small accent even if it is his grand parents who arrived in the USA over fifty years ago.

Riley's had a mention at the police academy. His investigation skill are great and he has an open mind. He also keep training, keeping good shape, doing different style of martial arts. He also won once the shooting contest made among the San Diego Police Department members.


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## jkason (Jun 18, 2009)

*Name*: Gavin Peterson 

*Background*: Raised by his human father, Gavin didn't know about his true heritage until a drunken prom drive ended in disaster. Or nearly so. Though the car was demolished, all four teenagers in it survived unscathed. What Gavin kept from his classmates was his own part in their survival. Overwhelmed by a massive hunger, he had touched them, relished their pain, and only afterwards realized his feast left them all remarkably whole.

Gavin's father, however, seemed to know what had happened. He revealed that Gavin's real mother had been a Poena Epulum ("Pain Feast") demon. One of her species' more benign members, she met Joshua Peterson in a hospital after a fire left his body covered in second and third degree burns. She bonded and mated with him in the euphoria of feasting on so much pain, but left the seemingly-human child behind, fearing it would not survive the demonic world.

Hoping to control his hunger and learn about his mother, Gavin set off in search of his demon-kin. He found them, nomadic demon medics, 'psychic surgeons', all pointing him West in the search for his mother. There, in Los Angeles, he also discovered the nastier side of the Poena Epulum: sadistic torturers maiming innocents, healing them through feasting, only to torture them further. 

He fled South, wound up in San Diego where he used his natural talents to gain work as an EMT, trying to live a 'normal' life. But he couldn't un-know about the other world, and eventually he found himself once again drawn into it. This time recruited by the new Watcher's council. His ability to sense pain helps him find those in need, while his 'feasting' makes him a solid medic for the fighting which inevitably occurs.

*Skills & Abilities*: Gavin is naturally observant, but also possesses extra senses through his demon heritage. His EMT training gives him a decent grounding in medicine, and as he's not a naturaly fighter, he's developed a fair number of defensive strategies, from bluffing to learning how to roll with the punches he does take.

Poena Epulum demons have the ability to 'feast' on organically-generated pain, which has the side effect of healing. They can sense pain at a distance, and can project pain of varying forms at a distance--partly as a means of self-defense, but mostly to feed their young. Gavin inherited the pain-sense, but his own ability to heal and project pain (Nausea, Stun, etc.) is limited to physical contact.


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## hero4hire (Jun 19, 2009)

Shayuri said:


> Yeah, but I was just saying, they weren't rotting, nonintelligent, shambling eaters of brains. Zombies like them would be technically playable, though it may be that such creatures have thematic problems that make them unpaletable for the game.




Yeah I was going for a fully intelligent, preserved but dead approach. (like the Crow?)

But if it doesn't fit NP.


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## Shalimar (Jun 19, 2009)

*Name*: Gale Tuuli

*Character Type*: Half-Demon (Slyph)

*Background*: Gale Tuuli was born to the matriach of the Tuuli clan. The Slyphs are an all female race of demons that mate with humans to reproduce. Left to their own devices Slyphs are rarely dangerous, in fact, they are so flighty that their long term plans tend to extend only to the next day, an extraordinarily patient slyph might be able to plan for a week ahead, and only the most exceptionial could even follow a plan that far in advance without something distracting her. Gale never knew her father, and to the best of her knowledge he never knew of her. Her mother having forgotten about him by the time her pregnancy was revealed.

Gale grew up in L.A. knowing fully what she was, a demon, an outsider, but seeing as neither her mother nor her extended family of cousins didn't let that bother them, she decided it wouldn't bother her either. Unlike most of her race, Gale has patience, at least in certain areas, enough patience to see through what she starts, even if her speed makes that less onorus than those tasks would normally be.

When she was 15 Gale's mother moved the clan to San Diego where they could play with the new area's breezes, a move that happened every five years or so. Currently Gale is still living with her mother, selling her artwork, and performing whenever she can. She recently observed a slayer and her watcher fighting a monster and it pricked her curiosity, wondering why the young woman was doing such a thing. Since then she has endeavored to watch this Slayer when she could, trying to understand what motivates her. She has already killed a Demon that had moved to attack the Slayer when the girl wasn't paying attention since that would have ended the fun she was having observing her.

*Skills & Abilities*: Gale's natural agility as a part Slyph makes her graceful enough to do just about anything. She is a natural gymnast and acrobat without putting any effort into thanks to her physiology, though she is no match for a mature Slyph for whom gravity is merely a suggestion and not a law.

Growing up within the fringes of L.A.'s demon community Gale is generally fairly knowledgeable about what is going on, but she has really studied it, mostly just keeping her ears open. She spent a lot of time at Caritas honing her singing voice and since moving to San Diego has become the lead singer in a band. Gale is also a highly skilled artist making a living selling paintings and sculptures, a venture aided by her supernatural speed.

As a Slyph, Gale is a being of air and strengthened by its presence. By borrowing speed from the air around her Gale can do things roughly ten times faster than humans, including running, jumping, and even flying. She can also use her enhanced speed to put more force behind her attacks, and can turn even a paper clip into a deadly projectile.

*Character Stats:*
[sblock]
Gale Tuuli - PL8 (120 pts)

Abilities: 
STR 14 (+2)
DEX 20 (+5)
CON 14 (+2)
INT 12 (+1)
WIS 12 (+1)
CHA 16 (+3)

Combat : 
18 Defense (2 Base +6 dodge focus, Uncanny Dodge (Hearing))
Base Attack +4 (+8 Melee, +8 Thrown Objects)
Attacks: 
Strike: +8 attack; Toughness DC 23
Thrown: +8 attack; Toughness DC 23

Saves: Toughness +8 (+2 flat footed), Fort +6 (4pp), Reflex +11 (6pp), Will +6 (5pp)

Skills: (44 ranks) 
Acrobatics +15(6); Bluff +11(4)*; Craft(Artistic) +7(6); Diplomacy +11(6)*; Drive +6(1); Knowledge (Arcane Lore) +5(4), Knowledge (Pop. Culture) +4(3); Languages(1); Notice+7(6); Perform (Singing) +10(3); Sense Motive +7(6)

* = 1 rank of attractive
Languages: English, Skye (Demon)

Feats: Acrobatic Bluff, Attack Focus (Melee) (4), Attack Specialization: Thrown (2), Attractive (1), Defensive Roll(6), Dodge Focus(6), Evasion (2), Move-By-Action, Rapid Acrobatic Bluff*, Throwing Mastery (6), Uncanny Dodge (Hearing)

* Removes the -5 penalty from bluffing(feinting) as a move action

Powers: 
Quickness Rank 3(3pp)
Flight Rank 3 (1 AP; 7pp)
-AP: Speed 3 + Leaping 3
Strike 6 (PF: Mighty, PF: Subtle, 1 AP; 9pp)
-AP: Air Control 4
Enhanced Skill 2 (Acrobatics 4, Perform Singing 4; Power Loss: confined spaces; 1pp)

Complications:
Salt: As the element of earth, rock salt can weaken or disrupt Gale's powers

COST: 28 Abilities + 11 Skills + 34 Feats + 20 Powers + 12 Combat + 15 Saves = 120/120 

[/sblock]


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## Walking Dad (Jun 19, 2009)

drothgery said:


> (I had to look up Gladstone Gander; didn't catch the reference right away)
> 
> I'm not sure; someone that's both a reluctant hero and has little in the way of knowledge/powers doesn't seem like a great fighter of the forces of evil.




Let me re-phrase:

(Never meant for him to be a reluctant hero)

With a Xander meets Gladstone Gander character. Lot of ranks in the luck feat and an unconscious probability control. He makes big plans that never end as he thought, but will work out in the end. Is in the hunting because he is a good guy and he likes ladies / slayers


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## Jemal (Jun 19, 2009)

There will be changes (most specifically to fix the fact that I'm currently a point over limit), but this is what I've got so far in case you want to make any veto's/suggestions.
I'm also thinking of working in minor weather or elemental control to his magics.  Thoughts?
[sblock=first draft stats]
James Caine  - PL8 (120 pts)

Abilities:  
STR 14 (+2)
DEX 14 (+2)
CON 14 (+2)
INT 18 (+4)
WIS 14 (+2)
CHA 14 (+2)

Combat : 
19 Defense (4 Base +5 dodge)
Base Attack +4
Attacks: 
Silver Sword: +8 attack; Toughness DC 21 (Crit 19-20)
Lightning: +8 Attack; Toughness DC 21
Fireball: +8 Attack; Toughness DC 22
(+2 Damage DC vs Demons/Undead)

Saves: Toughness +7 (3 Equipment +2 con +2 feat), Fort +6 (4 base +2 con), Reflex +6 (4 base +2 dex), Will +6 (4 base +2 wis)

Skills: (68 ranks) 
Computers(+8/4); Disable Device(+6/2); Drive(+4/2); Gather Information(+10/8); Intimidate(+10/8); Knowledges: Arcane Lore(+14/10), Physical Sciences(+8/4); Technology(+8/4); Theology/Philosophy(+8/4); Languages(2); Notice(+6/4); Search(+6/2); Sense Motive(+8/6); Sleight of Hand(+10/8)

Languages: English, Spanish, Fyarl Demon

Feats: Accurate Attack, All-out Attack, Attack Specialization: Sword, Contacts, Defensive Attack, Defensive Roll(2), Dodge Focus(5), Equipment(3), Favoured Opponent:Vampire(2), Favoured Opponent: Demon(2), Improvised Tools, Power Attack, Ritualist, Second Chance: Rituals

Powers: 
Silver sword of Lyra : Device Rank 2 (6 pp) *Easy to loose*
 - Strike 4 (9 points): Mighty, Thrown, Incurable, Accurate, Improved Critical
 - Only usable by mages (1 point)

Quickness Rank 3(1pp): Limited: Creating Rituals(-2)

Flight Rank 1 (2pp)

Magic Container(18 pp)
 - Telekinesis Rank 4(16): Area(+1), Selective(+1)
 - AP: Fireballs: Blast Rank 7 (16): AccurateX2, Autofire(+1), Full Action(-1), Fire
 - AP: Lightning Blast Rank 6(15):  AccurateX2, Split Attack, Electrical

Equipment: 15 EP
Reinforced Trenchcoat[Protects as undercover vest] (4EP)
Sports Car w/ Alarm (9 EP)
Cell Phone(1 EP)
Laptop, (1 EP)

Drawbacks: Power loss(Magic & Flight; when unable to speak and gesture to cast spells: -2 points), 
Tradeoffs: +1defense/-1 toughness; 
COST:  28 Abilities + 17 Skills + 23 Feats + 27 Powers + 16 Combat + 12 Saves - 2 drawbacks = 121/120[/sblock]

Background

Five years ago, the Watchers learned of the threat their organization was in from the Harbingers.  Among the agents they sent to protect the potentials was a young watcher by the name of James Caine.
Through a combination of magic, quick thinking, and sheer luck, he and his charge were able to survive the Harbingers attacks.  Before they could return to the Watchers council, however, disaster struck and the majority of the council was killed.  Unsure where to go next, James decided to take his charge to Sunnydale, to the relative safety provided by the Slayer.  They travelled slowly overland, avoiding detection as James trained and informed her as best he could about what was going on, should she be Called.  A short while into their trip, much to both of their surprise, she began to display immense physical strength and speed - she had become the Slayer!  Fearful of what could have happened at the hellmouth to defeat the Summers girl, James and the new slayer wasted no time in completing the rest of their journey, only to discover upon arrival that the entire hellmouth has collapsed, taking the town with it.  

From there, the pair went East to Ohio, James recalling that there was a second hellmouth in cleveland and deciding that if this one was closed, That one would be the best place for the Slayer to be while he searched for other survivors of the council.

The duo stayed relatively low profile for a few years, doing what they could to battle the supernatural evils of Ohio until the new Watchers Council managed to contact them and invite them aboard.  

James is a talented mage and swordsman, having learned as much in his five years with the Slayer as he has taught.  Both his magical and physical skills have been put to the test repeatedly in the dangerous underworld that the two frequently delve into, and he has picked up many other skills along the way.  Without the resources of the council to fall back on, he could not just sit back and let her do all the heavy lifting - Not that he ever felt quite right about that part of the 'deal' when the original council WAS around.

James has mastered several magic incantations, and has always been somewhat of a prodigy when it comes to performing magical rituals.  While he and his slayer were in Cleveland, he managed to wrest a powerful demon-slaying sword(Among its powers is the ability to negate supernatural healing and regeneration) from a demonlord that they (barely) managed to overcome.  The silver sword's true power raises with the arcane might of its wielder, and so James has taken it for his own, as in the Slayers hands it would be just a normal blade.

*Will input Slayers name when Shayuri tells me what it is  *


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## drothgery (Jun 19, 2009)

Walking Dad said:


> Let me re-phrase:
> 
> (Never meant for him to be a reluctant hero)
> 
> With a Xander meets Gladstone Gander character. Lot of ranks in the luck feat and an unconscious probability control. He makes big plans that never end as he thought, but will work out in the end. Is in the hunting because he is a good guy and he likes ladies / slayers




Okay, that sounds more workable.


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## Shalimar (Jun 20, 2009)

If its helpful these are the ideas people have put out there:

Hero-4-Hire - Revenant
Vertexx69 - Shapeshifter (with control)
Walking Dad - Lucky Everyman
Shayuri - Slayer
Jemal - Watcher/Mage
Shalimar - Half-demon (Slyph)
Velmont - Cop
JKason - Half-demon (Pain-Eater)


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## drothgery (Jun 20, 2009)

*Proposals summary*

Okay, here's what we've got so far

proposals with backgrounds and stats
Jemal - James Caine, Watcher (swordsman/mage)
Shalimar - Gale Tuuli, half-demon (slyph; can fly, fast, acrobatic)
jkason - Gavin Peterson, half-demon (pain-eater, can heal, inflict pain/nausea/stun)
Shayuri - Taylor Marsh, vampire slayer

proposals with backgrounds

Velmont - Sergeant Riley O'Connell, police officer

incomplete ideas

Walking Dad - lucky/unscious probability controller/regular guy
hero4hire -a fully intelligent, preserved but dead approach. (like the Crow?)
Vertexx69 - shapeshifer with a measure of control idea (like Oz)

(ninja'd)


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## Shayuri (Jun 20, 2009)

*Taylor the Vampire Slayer*

Taylor Marsh was a fairly normal student attending high school in Connecticut. Her family was not phenomenally well off, but they got by. Taylor herself was on the social fringes of her school, a bit too shy and awkward to fit in. As a result she drifted, feeling undefined and directionless. Feeling rejected by more socially successful kids, she rejected them in turn and hung out with the other outcasts. She may have gone down a bad road in time, but fate had no intention of giving her that time.

In her junior year, at a school dance, her life skidded off its tracks and went into the ditch at the side of the road where it burst into flames. The dance was interrupted by what seemed to be terrorists at first...short men in weird monk-style robes that seemed obsessed with going after none other than Taylor herself! When the guy she'd gone with (who she wasn't sure if she really liked, but he was okay) tried to stand up to them, they gutted him like a pig. Right there on the gym floor.

Then came flashing lights and a sound like thunder. Taylor found herself grabbed as she fled, and watched as a man with a sword...a SWORD of all things...killed one of the terrorist monks! As it fell, its hood rolled back and she realized with dawning horror that these things weren't terrorists at all. They weren't even human!

The man that had saved her quickly dragged her to a waiting car as more of the monk-monsters disgorged from the gym, seeking her out. They made it away, and her strange savior introduced himself as James Caine...a 'watcher,' whatever that was. He asked where she lived, and while Taylor was reluctant to tell him at first, she relented when he said the 'harbingers' would have gone to her house too, just in case.

Sure enough, there were several there as well. James killed two, but as more spilled out of the house, he was forced to retreat....leaving Taylor's house and family behind, and leaving Taylor herself in a state of complete shock.

For the next two days, she fell into a listless state of despondency. James babbled on about 'slayers' and 'watchers' and all kinds of stuff, but none of it mattered. He was going to take her to England, he said, where a council would protect her. She didn't bother telling him he was too late. Most of her was already gone. The girl in the seat beside him was the least part of what she'd been. That's how it felt anyway.

By the time they arrived in London, Taylor was starting to bounce back a little. There was some interest just being in England for her, so new was everything. And she was wondering more about this 'council' he was taking her to. When they arrived though, it was James' turn to be horrified. The chambers where the Watcher's Council had met were in ruins. The bodies, they were informed, had been taken away before. It had only been a few days.

With nothing else to do, they returned to the United States. James, still trying to process his loss, mentioned there was a slayer in California...he'd heard some 'potentials' had gone there for protection as well. It was all he had to guide them with. James had some money, but not an infinite supply. Flying would simply be too expensive, at least until they got closer. James also pointed out that a plane was too dangerous to risk...even one Harbinger on board could be disastrous since he couldn't use his best weapons safely in the cramped, pressurized environment of an airplane.

Before they ever got to Sunnydale though, the unthinkable happened. As Taylor and James were doing some training exercises in the late evening, she felt something change. Like a wind blowing through her...or more accurately, blowing INTO her; filling her up. She nearly broke one of James' ribs with her next jab. Taylor had become the Slayer. Which could only mean Sunnydale had fallen.

A few days later they confirmed this with their own eyes. Sunnydale had collapsed...leaving only a crater in the ground. Awed and dismayed by this apparent triumph of evil, the two left the scene. This time they were bound for Cleveland, where apparently ANOTHER Hellmouth was located, and where James hoped to be able to regain contact with any other Watchers that might still be alive.

They stayed there for three years, fighting dark things and evil spirits. Their greatest challenge was a demonic warrior who staged sadistic underground gladiatorial combat rings featuring mismatches between humans (both willing and kidnapped) and demons. He himself was the ultimate warrior, emerging only when a challenger arose from the matches. Only those who could defeat "the gauntlet" would win the prize. So Taylor entered the ring and fought through match after match of progressively stronger foes. She and James both assumed that 'the gauntlet' referred to that long hard slog...but it turned out that there was a LITERAL gauntlet, a demonforged magical weapon that he wielded, in conjunction with a corrupted magical sword!

Taylor and James stood against this demon lord, and through teamwork and some guile...and maybe some luck...were able to defeat him. They claimed his weapons for themselves, and permanently disbanded the fights. Not long after that, they were discovered by a former high school principal-turned-Watcher named Robin Wood, and a woman named Faith...another slayer! Things had changed in the world, more than they knew. They'd done well on their own. Now it was time for them to join the larger effort to hold the shadows at bay.

[sblock=Sheety Type Thing]*Name*: Taylor Marsh
*Gender*: Female
*Age*: 18
*Size*: Medium	
*Height*: 5' 5" 
*Weight*: 124lbs
*Hair*: Black / dyed
*Eyes*: Hazel
*Nationality*: USA
*Ethnicity*: White

*Power Level*: 8
*Power Points*: 120
*Experience Points*: 0
*Hero Points*: 1

*ABILITIES *46
STR 22    (12 PP)
DEX 20    (10 PP)
CON 20    (10 PP)
INT 14    (4 PP)
WIS 16    (6 PP)
CHA 14    (4 PP)

*SAVES *10
TOUG +8 (5 Con + 3 Feat)
FORT +8 (5 Base +5 Con +0 Feat +0 Power)   (3 PP)
REF  +8 (5 Base +5 Dex +0 Feat +0 Power)   (3 PP)
WILL +8 (4 Base +3 Wis +0 Feat +0 Power)   (4 PP)

*COMBAT *20
INIT +5
BASE DEF +4 (8 PP)
DEF 18 (10 + 4 Base + 4 Feat + 0 Power)
FLAT-FOOTED 12
BASE ATT +6 (12 PP)

*SKILLS *40 SP (10 PP)
Acrobatics +10 (5 ranks)
Climb +10 (5 ranks)
Computer +5 (3 ranks)
Drive +6 (1 rank)
Gather Information +5 (3 ranks)
Intimidate +5 (3 ranks)
Investigate +5 (3 ranks)
Knowledge (popular culture) +5 (3 ranks)
Knowledge (arcane lore) +3 (1 rank)
Notice +10 (7 ranks)
Sense Motive +4 (1 rank)
Stealth +10 (5 ranks)

*LANGUAGES *(0 ranks) 
--English

*MOVEMENT*
SPEED 30/60/120

*FEATS *(12 PP)
Attractive 1
Attack Focus (Melee) 2
Dodge Focus 4
Defensive Roll 3
Uncanny Dodge 2

POWERS (22)
*Sense Demons *
_The point is, a Slayer should be able to see them anyway. Without looking, without thinking. Can you tell me if there's a vampire in this building?_
- Super Senses +6 (detect, acute, extended, ranged, radius, tracking) 6pts

*Slayer Healing*
_I mean... I have bruises...  I don’t see a scratch on you._
Regeneration +4, 4pts
- Recovery Roll Bonus: +5 (Con)
- Bruised 1/rnd (1)
- Unconscious 1/rnd (1)
- Injured 1/5min (2)

*Gauntlet of Fan'kor the Gladiator*
_A bizarre looking construct of metallic tendrils and spines all tangled together apparently randomly that fits over the wearer's right hand and forearm up to the elbow. The Gauntlet can animate in response to the will of its wearer, lashing out with sharp metal, or even firing metal spikes singly or in sudden bursts. It can form claws that will dig into walls, making them excellent for climbing. It can also animate as a swarm of tentacles that dig tunnels quickly and through almost any substance._
- Device +3 (Hard to Lose, 15pt capacity) 12pts
Blast +6 (12)
- AP Blast +6 (Touch range, Cone Area Effect) 1
- AP Strike 2 (Penetrating, Mighty, Reach 1) 1
- AP Super Movement +2 (Wall Crawling 2), Burrowing +3, Immovable +2, Strike +2 (Mighty)

COST
Abilities [46]
Combat [20]
Saves [10]
Skills [10]
Feats [12]
Powers [22]
Drawbacks [0]
Total [120]
Unspent [0][/sblock]


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## jkason (Jun 20, 2009)

*Gavin stats, first pass*

This is my first try at generating an M&M character, so hopefully I haven't botched it too badly. I didn't do much with flaws / drawbacks / trade-offs, since I was already suffering from a bit of option overload. :

[sblock=Gavin Peterson, first draft stats]

Str 13 (+1)
Dex 15 (+2)
Con 24 (+7)
Int 12 (+1)
Wis 18 (+4)
Cha 14 (+2)

Base Attack +2 (+4 touch)
Defense 18
Attacks:
* Life Control (Nauseate), Drain, Fatigue, Stun, Suffocate: Fort DC 18
* Illusion, Paralyze: Will DC 18
* Knife, Crossbow: +2 attack, Toughness DC 18 (Sneak attack 20)

Saves: 
Toughness +8 (+7 Con, +1 Def. Roll)
Fort +12 (5 ranks, +7 Con)
Ref +7 (5 Ranks, +2 Dex) (no dmg on success, 1/2 dmg fail)
Will +9 (5 ranks +4 Wis)

Skills: Acrobatics 5 (+7), Sense Motive 5 (+9), Drive 1 (+3), Know: Life Sciences 1 (+2), Medicine 1 (+5), Notice 5 (+9), Profession (EMT) 1 (+5), Bluff 5 (+7)

Feats: Attack Specialization 1 (touch), Defensive roll 1, Evasion 2, Precise Shot 1, Move-By Action, Sneak attack 1, Diehard, Equipment 5, Uncanny Dodge 1 (Olfactory) .

Powers: 
* Life Control 8 (Range Touch (-2). Alt Powers: Drain Con 8, Illusion (touch, sustained) 8, Fatigue 8, Healing 8, Paralyze 8, Stun 8, Suffocate 8), 
* Super-Senses: Detect Pain 6 (Track normal move +2, Radius +1, Extended +1, Free action +1), 
* Immunity 1 (Pain Demon projections)

Equipment: 
Cell Phone, Night Vision Goggles, Flashlight, Multi-tool, knife, crossbow, Motorcycle (hidden compartments)

Power Points: Abilities 36 + Skills 6 + Feats 14 + Powers 29 + Combat 20 + Saves 15 = 120

Gender: Male
Age: 24
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 190 lbs
Hair: Black
Eyes: Green
Ethnicity (apparent): Caucasian
[/sblock]


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## Jemal (Jun 21, 2009)

Good background, Shayuri. I like how you expanded upon the things I'd only alluded to, very nice. 

My only concern is that if Taylor's 18 now, wouldn't that make her 13 when she was first called?  I know the slayers get called young, but that seems VERY young to me..  I seem to recall the potentials being around 15.


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## drothgery (Jun 21, 2009)

Jemal said:


> Good background, Shayuri. I like how you expanded upon the things I'd only alluded to, very nice.
> 
> My only concern is that if Taylor's 18 now, wouldn't that make her 13 when she was first called?  I know the slayers get called young, but that seems VERY young to me..  I seem to recall the potentials being around 15.




Yeah, if she was called as a high school sophomore (i.e. 14 or 15 unless she skipped a grade somewhere) during season 7 of Buffy (which was in 2003), she's 20 or 21 now (Buffy was Sunnydale High class of 1999 in season 3, and her tombstone showed a birth year of 1981).

The only other thing is for plot purposes I'm going to say that Faith and Robin Wood were 'officially' assigned to watch the Hellmouth in Cleveland, and they're the ones who discovred Taylor and James. Other than that, it looks good.


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## Shayuri (Jun 21, 2009)

My bad. I messed up on the chronology. 

I'll make her 20 now.


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## drothgery (Jun 21, 2009)

Shayuri said:


> My bad. I messed up on the chronology.
> 
> I'll make her 20 now.




Cool.

[sblock=story fragment]
Sandusky, Ohio (about an hour west of Cleveland)
July, 2005 (a little over two years after the battle at the Hellmouth in Sunnydale)

The sun had set long ago, but the Cedar Point amusement park was open late in the summer. Rides ran, vendors called out for games, and even the giant ferris wheel still spun. And a tall, athletic, fair-skinned woman in her mid twenties and an African-American man in his early thirties got off the park's most recent effort at the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world.

The woman was singing the coaster's praises to her companion when she suddenly stopped.

"Robin, we came out here for fun, right? I mean, the creepy crawlies have been awfully quiet for a town with a Hellmouth. You weren't planning to buy me some cotton candy and then tell me a few pale guys with messed up foreheads had taken up residence here?"

"No. I think I can safely say that there were no undead involved in my plans for the evening."

"Then why is there a girl beating up on a few vamps over there?"

"You did say she was beating up on the vampires, not the other way around?"

"Yeah, but even B can have trouble with 3 or 4 unless she's really mad." Faith said, Robin following behind her as they ran to the obscured area between attractions where Taylor and James were fighting four vampires. She picked up a vaguely stake-like wooden object from a souvenier shop as she was running through. "I'll pay for this in a few minutes, I swear." She told a clerk.

The young slayer and her watcher were holding their own, but the numbers were giving them a bit of trouble. Still, they were somewhat surprised when half of their opponents turned to dust, but reacted quickly, staking the remainder seconds later.

"You don't know what went down last spring, do you? You thought your girl was the one and only?" She said, when James had obviously put two and two together.

"I'm Faith. The vampire slayer." She said anyway.

"Robin Wood." He added. "Nikki Wood's son, if you're curious." Taylor didn't recognize the name, but James knew quite well who had been the slayer in the late 1970s. "And unless I miss my guess, you're James Caine. The list of watchers that are unaccounted for is pretty short. You were last seen in England, in the company of a young woman, presumably a potential slayer. We thought the bringers had caught up to you, but no one ever found your bodies, so you were on the watch list."
[/sblock]


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## Shayuri (Jun 21, 2009)

Hee hee

Cool deal! I also added some flavor text and a description of Taylor's demonforged goody. The italic quotey lines, except for the gauntlet's, are actual lines from the show. Found a site that has episode transcripts.


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## Jemal (Jun 21, 2009)

Would it be possible to put the meeting with Robin & Faith in 2005?  I was kinda picturing Taylor and James having been on their own for a couple years before finding out - Long enough to train, get used to each other, have some heavy adventures (a'la The demon gladiator pit), etc.

Also, If it's ok with you, drothgery, I'm planning on leaving James' 'before' background (before the harbingers), pretty vague/blank at this point, so we can insert interesting tidbits through the game/series (I figure the 'mysterious past' thing worked pretty well for the other two watchers.)


BTW, how's everyone else's characters comin?


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## Jemal (Jun 21, 2009)

Reprinted from Drothgery's post on previous page: 
proposals with backgrounds and stats
Jemal - James Caine, Watcher (swordsman/mage)
Shalimar - Gale Tuuli, half-demon (slyph; can fly, fast, acrobatic)
jkason - Gavin Peterson, half-demon (pain-eater, can heal, inflict pain/nausea/stun)
Shayuri - Taylor Marsh, vampire slayer

proposals with backgrounds

Velmont - Sergeant Riley O'Connell, police officer

incomplete ideas

Walking Dad - lucky/unscious probability controller/regular guy
hero4hire -a fully intelligent, preserved but dead approach. (like the Crow?)
Vertexx69 - shapeshifer with a measure of control idea (like Oz)

**

OH, One More Thing: I'm wondering if we should all be working on connecting our backgrounds (IE 'how did X meet Y and why are they working together now), or are we planning on having the characters meet IC/On screen?


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## drothgery (Jun 21, 2009)

Jemal said:


> Would it be possible to put the meeting with Robin & Faith in 2005?  I was kinda picturing Taylor and James having been on their own for a couple years before finding out - Long enough to train, get used to each other, have some heavy adventures (a'la The demon gladiator pit), etc.




Sure. Though if I do that, by the time Faith & Robin meet up with you, you've probably had enough 'near misses' that both James & Taylor and Faith & Robin are suspecting another player in the area.



Jemal said:


> Also, If it's ok with you, drothgery, I'm planning on leaving James' 'before' background (before the harbingers), pretty vague/blank at this point, so we can insert interesting tidbits through the game/series (I figure the 'mysterious past' thing worked pretty well for the other two watchers.)




Sure.


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## drothgery (Jun 21, 2009)

Just as an FYI - recruiting isn't officially closed, though barring something really strange happening, James and Taylor are definites.


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## Jemal (Jun 21, 2009)

> Sure. Though if I do that, by the time Faith & Robin meet up with you, you've probably had enough 'near misses' that both James & Taylor and Faith & Robin are suspecting another player in the area.



Yeah, that was kinda the impression I was on too, and was what i thought of when I read Faith's quote of 'I mean, the creepy crawlies have been awfully quiet for a town with a Hellmouth.'


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## drothgery (Jun 22, 2009)

Jemal said:


> Yeah, that was kinda the impression I was on too, and was what i thought of when I read Faith's quote of 'I mean, the creepy crawlies have been awfully quiet for a town with a Hellmouth.'




I guess my original thought was in summer of 2004, Faith's been in Cleveland for about 9 months; in summer of 2005, she's been there a year and nine months. It's a difference between having a vague suspicion something's up, and being darn near certain there's another player in town.


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## Shalimar (Jun 22, 2009)

JEMAL said:
			
		

> OH, One More Thing: I'm wondering if we should all be working on connecting our backgrounds (IE 'how did X meet Y and why are they working together now), or are we planning on having the characters meet IC/On screen?




Were the characters suppoused to be knowledgeable about each other, and have been sent to San Diego together, or is that really only for the Slayer and Watcher?  I ask because Gale's backstory and personality make her unlikely to be part of such an organization, she is merely helping out of boredom at first, and doesn't even believe that the others know she is there.


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## drothgery (Jun 22, 2009)

Shalimar said:


> Were the characters suppoused to be knowledgeable about each other, and have been sent to San Diego together, or is that really only for the Slayer and Watcher?  I ask because Gale's backstory and personality make her unlikely to be part of such an organization, she is merely helping out of boredom at first, and doesn't even believe that the others know she is there.




It's entirely up to you. None of the other potential PCs proposed would have been sent by the Watcher's Council; if they've met and/or befriended Taylor and/or James and/or each other, it was on their own.

At this point, Taylor's been in San Diego a while (it's up to Jemal and Shayuri to decide how long; at least a few months, it could be as long as three years, figuring a year or so on the run and at least two years in Cleveland, but it's probably a year or two). Taylor really wasn't 'sent' to San Diego so much as given a bunch of potential trouble spots that didn't have a slayer in residence and asked to pick one (there was a previous San Diego based slayer from late 2004 until a few months before Taylor showed up, but she left for one reason or another; mostly likely she went away for college or joined the military).

[sblock=Shayuri/Jemal]
Taylor and James may have spent some time in Cleveland after meeting Robin and Faith, working with Faith on Slayer 101 and with Robin on getting Taylor's non-Slayer life back in order -- i.e. finishing high school and getting her transcript into a shape that at least with a little prodding from the Council, some college somewhere will take her.
[/sblock]


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## hero4hire (Jun 22, 2009)

Jemal said:


> Reprinted from Drothgery's post on previous page:
> 
> 
> incomplete ideas
> ...




I was under the impression that the revenant idea didn't quite fit with what Drothgery had envisioned.


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## Walking Dad (Jun 22, 2009)

Sorry, I will bow out of this one. You already have a good range of concepts and finished characters. Happy gaming


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## Velmont (Jun 22, 2009)

I'll submit stats later tonight, and starts to read others background and see where my character could fit.


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## jkason (Jun 22, 2009)

drothgery said:


> It's entirely up to you. None of the other potential PCs proposed would have been sent by the Watcher's Council; if they've met and/or befriended Taylor and/or James and/or each other, it was on their own.




I think Gavin could be pretty easily worked in, background-wise, given his job / abilities and the tendency for folks in the demon-fighting business to get banged up but not wanting to maybe seek normal medical attention.

Actually, I could see a rather interesting first meeting between Taylor, James, and Gavin given Taylor's demon-senses and relative greenness. Suppose James wound up really torn up after a fight (nearly incoherent, say), and Gavin, 'smelling pain' went to see if he could help? 

Taylor can tell he's demon-y, misunderstandings occur, etc (though eventually James would put a stop to things once Gavin had him at least partially healed. Heck, maybe healing James was necessary to keep Gavin on his feet).

After that, Gavin starts acting as an (initially unwilling) medic for them: they keep his secret, he keeps theirs, as it were, until Gavin's own desire to make up for his heritage (and his realization that The Slayer is making a difference) get the better of him and he signs on.


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## jkason (Jun 22, 2009)

Got inspired. I didn't give Taylor much to say 'cause I didn't want to steamroller over characterization Shayuri might be working on:

[sblock=When Gavin met Taylor]As Gavin parked his motorcycle, the scent of pain was unmistakable. Okay, it wasn't really smelling, but Gavin found that to be the closest human sense he could relate it to. In any case, whoever was giving off this much pain was probably on his last legs. 

"You're off-duty," Gavin insisted. "Anybody getting himself torn up in a garbage-filled alley is not someone you want to know."

Despite what Gavin thought was a well-reasoned argument, he nonetheless found himself grabbing a first aid kit from the bike and turning toward the alley the 'scent' was coming from. The source was obvious on sight: a young woman was kneeling beside a man broken and cut and bruised to within an inch of his life. Instinct and training took over.

"I'm an EMT," Gavin said as he knelt on the other side of the man. "What happened here?" Preternatural senses pointed him to the parts that hurt most, but it was his real-world experience that told him the searing chest pain was a broken rib pushing on a lung, that the gash in his leg had by sheer luck avoided the femoral artery. 

He was busy grabbing gauze out of his kit, so he didn't see her boot coming until it hit him in the chest, the kick throwing him up against a wall. 

"How stupid do you think I am?" the woman said.

"Well, your friend's bleeding out and you just assaulted an EMT," Gavin said, forcing himself back to his feet. "I'm guessing: not a MENSA candidate."

"You look human, but I know you're a demon, so you can stop pretending."

"Oh, crap ... Look, I don't know how you ... seriously, I promise it was just a fling my dad had, and I'm completely harmless -- beneficial, even. If you let me see your friend, I can--"

He barely dodged the girl's flying kick. 

"Are we sure I'm the only who's not human here?"

"I'm a Slayer," she replied. "As in 'slays demons.' Like you. You're not eating my Watcher."

"If you don't let me near him, the worms will be, though. Seriously, his pain's fading, and since I haven't treated him, that means it's because _he's_ fading." It was clear, however, that talking wasn't going to get Gavin anywhere. 

"Double crap," Gavin muttered. He held his ground this time, and as the fist connected with his chin, Gavin used the contact to send a wave of nausea through this 'Slayer.' 

He knew it wouldn't buy him much time, but while the Slayer reeled for a moment and tried to keep her lunch down, Gavin dove for her companion, grabbing his ankle. The rush was instant and intense as Gavin's nerves sang from the feast of pain. When he let go, the leg wound had sealed itself, and he could tell the man's rib was knit back together. 

No time to savor anything, though, because the girl was back, and had him pinned against a wall, stake poised to skewer Gavin. 

"Taylor?"

She and Gavin both looked to see the man struggling to his feet. 

"See?" Gavin said. "Beneficial! I made him better! No need for Filet Gavin, right?"

"Taylor, what's going on?"

Taylor released her grip on Gavin, though the stake remained at the ready. 

"We need to talk."[/sblock]


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## drothgery (Jun 22, 2009)

hero4hire said:


> I was under the impression that the revenant idea didn't quite fit with what Drothgery had envisioned.




True, but I decided I'd like to see what you'd do with the idea before rejecting it out of hand.



Walking Dad said:


> Sorry, I will bow out of this one. You already have a good range of concepts and finished characters. Happy gaming




Okay.


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## Velmont (Jun 22, 2009)

Here a draft of my stats:

[SBLOCK=Stats]Str	14	+2
Dex	16	+3
Con	14	+2
Int	16	+3
Wis	20	+5
Cha	12	+1

Toughness	+2 (+4/+7)
Fortitude	+6
Reflex		+7
Will		+9

Attack:		 8
Defence:	 8

Skills				
Acrobatics			 2 (+5)
Bluff				 2 (+3)
Climb				 2 (+4)
Computers			 5 (+8)
Diplomacy			 2 (+3)
Drive				 8 (+11)
Escape Artist			 2 (+5)
Gather Information		 5 (+6)
Investigate			12 (+15/+17)
Knowledge (Behavioral Sciences)	 5 (+8)
Knowledge (Civics)		 5 (+8)
Language			 2 [English, Spanish, Japanese]
Medicine			 5 (+10)
Notice				 8 (+13)
Profession (Investigator)	 8 (+13)
Search				 8 (+11)
Sense Motive			 8 (+13)
Stealth				 5 (+8)
Swim				 2 (+4)

Feat
Accurate Attack
All-Out Attack
Defensive Attack
Power Attack
Defensive Roll x2
Equipement x5
Luck x4
Teamwork x2
Eidetic Memory
Benefit (Police Records)
Connected

Equipment:
Knife
Heavy Pistols
Undercover Vest
Midsize Car
Investigation Tools, mw


PP:
Attributes: 32
Saves: 12
Attack: 16
Defence: 16
Skills:24
Feats: 20
Powers: 0
Weakness: 0

Total: 120

[/SBLOCK]

Is still need to read everyone background and see where he fits the best.


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## Jemal (Jun 23, 2009)

wow, that's one lucky cop.


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## Jemal (Jun 23, 2009)

Velmont, I Went over the math on your character and found one problem, with your equipment.

Knife = 3 EP
Heavy Pistols = 8 EP each (Not sure how many you have)
Undercover Vest = 4 EP
Midsize Car = 7 EP
Investigation Tools, mw = ? Not sure which book these are from.

So assuming you only have one of each of these things, you have 22 points of Equipment plus whatever the tools cost, but your 4 ranks of the equipment feat only give 20 EP.


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## drothgery (Jun 23, 2009)

Jemal said:


> Velmont, I Went over the math on your character and found one problem, with your equipment.




Thanks for checking the match, Jemal.


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## drothgery (Jun 23, 2009)

Okay, I'm leaving recruiting open one more day for proposals, and that's it.


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## Velmont (Jun 23, 2009)

Jemal said:


> wow, that's one lucky cop.




He is a bit clueless about what happen behind the shadow, he has a boss that doesn't like him, and he is not the most charismatic cop you have met, so he need something to save his skin.

Thanks for the equipment count. I think I had in my head that the pistol worth 4 EP... The masterwork tools cost 1 EP. The total is 23 EP. I might add a PDA and a camera or something like that.

I have made a slight change. Reduce all save by 1 to get 3 feat. Equipment (correction to above mistake), Benefit (really forgot that one, I need an access to Police Records) and Connected (well, police help each other, you know).


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## drothgery (Jun 23, 2009)

Okay, I've created a Rogue's Gallery thread here. Shayuri and Jemal can put Taylor and James there now, and if I don't get any more proposals (and the people who tossed out ideas but didn't build complete proposals don't finish theirs), then the rest of the complete characters can go over there this evening.


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## drothgery (Jun 24, 2009)

* poke *

Last chance; one hour to go. You don't need to get stats in before recruiting closes, but you do need concepts and background about as detailed as everyone else has posted.


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## drothgery (Jun 24, 2009)

Okay, it looks like I didn't get any more proposals, so all people who did complete write-ups can post your characters in the Rogue's Gallery thread

Just to recap, that's

Shayuri - Taylor Marsh, the Vampire Slayer
Jemal - James Caine, Watcher
Shalimar - Gale Tuuli, half-demon (slyph; can fly, fast, acrobatic)
jkason - Gavin Peterson, half-demon (pain-eater, can heal, inflict pain/nausea/stun)
Velmont - Sergeant Riley O'Connell, police officer

I'll try to have the in-character thread up this weekend. Feel free to create cross-links among your characters (or ask me any plot questions, or hash out M&M rules) here in the OOC thread.


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## Jemal (Jun 24, 2009)

I have a couple questions.

A: What would be a good demon language to speak?  Or should I go with some ancient language?  I've currently got Fyarl as a placeholder.

B: I'm just checking your take on something.  I think I have it right, but better run it past the GM: I have Ritualist, Second chance: Rituals, and Quickness: Rituals(Rank 3 = 10X speed).  If i try to make a ritual, it takes me 24 minutes/power point to design, and 1 minute/point to perform (Total time 25 minutes per power point).  If I try to jury rig it, the DC increases by 5 but the time is reduced to 1 round/10 power points (No design needed).

In either case, I get to roll two arcana checks and take the highest due to second chance: Rituals. 
Do you see things differently, or see something I'm missing?  I want to make sure we're both on the same page about the rituals before this comes up in game.

C: Since we've been in the city for a while (Unless Shayuri wants to say otherwise, I'm gonna go with ~2 years, giving us about a year of training/travelling between Cleveland and San Diego), have we encountered any important organizations/big bads/powerful players in the area?



			
				Velmont said:
			
		

> He is a bit clueless about what happen behind the shadow, he has a boss that doesn't like him, and he is not the most charismatic cop you have met, so he need something to save his skin.
> 
> Thanks for the equipment count. I think I had in my head that the pistol worth 4 EP... The masterwork tools cost 1 EP. The total is 23 EP. I might add a PDA and a camera or something like that.
> 
> I have made a slight change. Reduce all save by 1 to get 3 feat. Equipment (correction to above mistake), Benefit (really forgot that one, I need an access to Police Records) and Connected (well, police help each other, you know).



I was thinking of giving my watcher connected, but I figured that all of his 'favours' either died with the old council or were used up keeping him & Taylor alive for that first little while.  He's managed to rebuild a fairly decent network of informants, though (Contacts feat + Cell phone = cool)
I'm thinking that if Riley's been noticing stuff for a while, he might have run into the slayer/watcher before.  Were you planning on starting him at the "pretty sure there's something supernatural going on out there" stage, or KNOWING the supernatural exists due to experience?

As to the MW tools, I see them now, I'd thought MW was only available using the wealth rules, but i finally found it - Hmm, apparently I've been doing tools wrong, I always pay EP for my tools but you only have to do that for MW tools *L* whoops.


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## drothgery (Jun 24, 2009)

Jemal said:


> I have a couple questions.
> 
> A: What would be a good demon language to speak?  Or should I go with some ancient language?  I've currently got Fyarl as a placeholder.




I'd go with an ancient language; demons are likely to be invented as the story goes along. You might take the Comprehend power for demon languages instead (though I think it's a bit under-costed).



Jemal said:


> B: I'm just checking your take on something.  I think I have it right, but better run it past the GM: I have Ritualist, Second chance: Rituals, and Quickness: Rituals(Rank 3 = 10X speed).  If i try to make a ritual, it takes me 24 minutes/power point to design, and 1 minute/point to perform (Total time 25 minutes per power point).  If I try to jury rig it, the DC increases by 5 but the time is reduced to 1 round/10 power points (No design needed).
> 
> In either case, I get to roll two arcana checks and take the highest due to second chance: Rituals.
> Do you see things differently, or see something I'm missing?  I want to make sure we're both on the same page about the rituals before this comes up in game.




It looks like jury-rigging takes 1 rnd/power point. Quickness can't apply when jury-rigging (or when performing a ritual that you designed normally or with the help of quickness), because you can't take 20; it can only apply when you design a ritual.



Jemal said:


> C: Since we've been in the city for a while (Unless Shayuri wants to say otherwise, I'm gonna go with ~2 years, giving us about a year of training/travelling between Cleveland and San Diego), have we encountered any important organizations/big bads/powerful players in the area?




About the only organized evil (beyond your average demon clan or vampire gang) you've run into is the San Diego offices of Wolfram & Hart. You don't know a lot about what goes on there, but apparently it was a small, minor office until 2004 (because dimensional HQ was just a few hours away), but has been growing since then. Rumor has it that the original expansion was due to projects moved away from the LA office because they didn't want Angel to know about them, but even with Angel no longer involved in LA, and even in the recession, the office is still growing.



Jemal said:


> I'm thinking that if Riley's been noticing stuff for a while, he might have run into the slayer/watcher before.  Were you planning on starting him at the "pretty sure there's something supernatural going on out there" stage, or KNOWING the supernatural exists due to experience?




That's really up to Velmont, though if he's still in the 'strongly suspects but doesn't know' stage, the first adventure is extremely likely to change that.


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## Shalimar (Jun 24, 2009)

I'm going to have Gale observing Taylor sporadically for the last 2 months, with it increasing more lately.  Its possible she might have a feeling that there is someone around some times, but she hasn't been noticed directly yet if thats ok.

Depending on how long he has been in the area, Gavin may know of the clan of Slyphs in the area and recognize Gale as such.


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## jkason (Jun 24, 2009)

Shalimar said:


> Depending on how long he has been in the area, Gavin may know of the clan of Slyphs in the area and recognize Gale as such.




I figure Gavin's been in SD at least a year, probably two. Prior to his run-in with Taylor and James, he's mostly been trying to steer clear of demon involvement and be 'normal,' but part of that would have to involve his figuring out where the demons were in order to avoid them. Makes sense, then, that a fairly siginificant demon clan moving into the area would be something he might recognize. So he may realize what Gale is, but he probably wouldn't have interacted with her other than to swing wide of her clan.


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## jkason (Jun 24, 2009)

Posted Gavin to the RG with a few small changes. Mostly, I realized that the narrative piece I wrote for meeting Taylor had me describing some of his abilities a little differently than the crunch would reflect. I don't think any of it's major:

* I took out the second level of Track and made Gavin's pain sense Acute instead (he recognized that James had pain in his chest and leg, which would seem to be Acute observations if I'm understanding the game definition of those).

* I gave his Healing the Total extra and the Distracting flaw. The point total doesn't shift, since they balance each other out. I figured the 'rush' I keep describing when he pain-eats was a likely detriment. I'd been toying with an obsession / addiction drawback, but 'addicted to healing' felt rather contrary to the spirit of drawbacks, whereas this one has more reliable negative consequences. Total didn't seem too unbalancing to me, since it requires higher rolls the more you heal, so it's not like every time he touches someone they're whole again or anything.

I do, though, have a Dodge question. Gavin didn't take any Dodge feats, but the rules say that half the Defense bonus (rounded down) is your dodge bonus. Does that mean that Gavin losing his dodge bonus lowers his defense to 14, or that his max Defense is actually 22 (if the latter, does PL restrict that back down to 18)? I wasn't quite clear on how that worked. \

thanks,

jason


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## drothgery (Jun 24, 2009)

jkason said:


> I do, though, have a Dodge question. Gavin didn't take any Dodge feats, but the rules say that half the Defense bonus (rounded down) is your dodge bonus. Does that mean that Gavin losing his dodge bonus lowers his defense to 14, or that his max Defense is actually 22 (if the latter, does PL restrict that back down to 18)? I wasn't quite clear on how that worked.
> 
> thanks,
> 
> jason




Your defense is 18, and since you didn't acquire it in a way that skews in favor of Dodge (buying Dodge Focus), it's 14 when you're denied your dodge bonus.

Two quick notes
- I'd prefer that every character have a 'vital stats' block, ala...

Name: Gavin Peterson
Gender: Male
Age: 24
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 190 lbs
Hair: Black
Eyes: Green
Ethnicity (apparent): Caucasian

or

Name: Taylor Marsh
Gender: Female
Age: 18 20
Size: Medium 
Height: 5' 5" 
Weight: 124lbs
Hair: Black / dyed
Eyes: Hazel
Nationality: USA
Ethnicity: White

- Taylor's still listed as 18, not 20-21 (if she was in high school during season 7 of Buffy, and wasn't a prodigy, she's at least 20 by now).


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## Shayuri (Jun 24, 2009)

Odd. Thought I fixed that.


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## Shalimar (Jun 25, 2009)

Since it ties in to Gale's ability to observe Taylor without getting a pointy stick in an orifice or worse a non-orifice adjacent vital organ I figured it would be a good idea to be on the same page about how Taylor's demon sense works rules wise.

As written its a non-accurate sense that extends around you in a pretty large circle, so while you can sense what flavor of demon is in the area and tell apart the flavors, you cannot tell who specifically is a demon and who is a human.

Does that mesh with everyone elses reading of the rules?


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## Shayuri (Jun 25, 2009)

Hmm...maybe I should make it Accurate instead of Acute...

My feel for what I'm going for is that she can tell if a person is a demon...but not necessarily what type. It's more like "Human...human...human...human, but ugly...human...demon..."

She should be able to sense the presence of a demon in an area, and track that presence down to a specific person. Identifying type of demon...I don't see it working that way. So Acute's probably a mistake on my part.

Accurate would let her target demons even without being able to see them though, which may not be appropriate.


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## Shalimar (Jun 25, 2009)

Up to you, though it will make it a bit harder for Gale to observe Taylor without getting a sharp and pointy.


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## Velmont (Jun 25, 2009)

I would see Riley to be the new character of the season. It was during the last episode that he appears. So whatever have been the last problem Taylor have solved, she has met Riley during it. So he is still green to the slayer business but start to realize the strange cases he had was far from being simple case.


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## jkason (Jun 25, 2009)

Shayuri said:


> Hmm...maybe I should make it Accurate instead of Acute...
> 
> My feel for what I'm going for is that she can tell if a person is a demon...but not necessarily what type. It's more like "Human...human...human...human, but ugly...human...demon..."
> 
> ...




I had the same problem trying to figure out the right descriptors for Gavin's pain sense, particularly with Accurate allowing for targeting. Originally I'd been thinking it should be accurate, too, but then realized tracking worked better. I wonder if just leaving Taylor's deomn sense as Tracking would be enough? 

I mean, I realize that a move speed is associated with tracking, but at some point a hunting dog recognizes the fox is at the top of the hill rather than simply 'in that direction.' Being able to point to someone within range of your normal and super-senses and say "that's the demon" sounds like a reasonable function of Tracking, I'd say, and it's distinguished from Accurate because, while you can say "that guy in the corner is a demon," if said guy turned out the lights, you could tell where he was ('crap, he left the room!' 'He's heading north,' etc) but couldn't aim anything at him other than a generic lob in his direction.

And as for Gale, I think it might be reasonable to say that Taylor sensed her on occasion, but never knew for sure who it was / never felt threatened enough to track it down. Since tracking slows you down, I think it's safe to assume tracking requires some level of concentration, which Taylor may not have been expending in Gale's direction. She might have at times discounted the tingle as being due to Gavin's presence, for example, or perhaps decided that a vague 'there's a demon around' feeling was the nature of the increasingly-demonic San Diego and didn't worry about it if there wasn't a clear threat associated with it?


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## drothgery (Jun 26, 2009)

Okay, I'm working on the first in-character post, and should have it ready this weekend if not tomorrow.


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## Jemal (Jun 26, 2009)

is it can be gaem tiem now pleese?


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## Shayuri (Jun 26, 2009)

i can haz gaem?!?!


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## drothgery (Jun 26, 2009)

Jemal said:


> is it can be gaem tiem now pleese?






Shayuri said:


> i can haz gaem?!?!




Okay, San Diego will need a new slayer and watcher, after Taylor and James are brutally murdered by the grammar police.


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## jkason (Jun 26, 2009)

Clearly our first demonic enemy will have to be the LOLca'at demonic infection spreading across San Diego.


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## drothgery (Jun 26, 2009)

Okay, the IC thread is up.


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## Jemal (Jun 26, 2009)

Drothgery - I've been thinking since your response about rituals, and I'm not sure if I should continue forward with it.  The problem I have with it is that the time it takes means it'll be used maybe one in a hundred times - I've rarely found times in a game when you have enough 'setup time' before a fight, AND know what you're going to need.

My original plan had been to use it and my high knowledge check as an alternate to power stunts: spend 3pp(Ritualist, Second Chance, Quickness) to be able to make a knowledge check as a full-round action to gain a minor power (10pp).  
I think what I'll do is drop the ritual stuff and take a few luck feats, with the limiter that they can only be used for power stunts on my magic array - hows that sound?  It accomplishes exactly what I was trying with the rituals, but a lot more easily and frequently.



> Okay, the IC thread is up.



Woot! And you'll be pleased to know that I have managed to remove the curse affecting myself and the slayer.  The lolca'at influence shouldn't return anytime soon.... we hope.


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## drothgery (Jun 27, 2009)

Jemal said:


> Drothgery - I've been thinking since your response about rituals, and I'm not sure if I should continue forward with it.  The problem I have with it is that the time it takes means it'll be used maybe one in a hundred times - I've rarely found times in a game when you have enough 'setup time' before a fight, AND know what you're going to need.




Well, that's pretty much how complex magic went down on the shows. Research often took days or weeks, casting times were minutes or hours, and it's largely for non-combat actions (summoning, locating, opening portals, manipulating souls, etc.). I mean, the only combat uses of a ritual that I can think of were the enjoining spell they used against Adam and the 'activating' of all the potentials -- both of which were researched over an extended period, and then took at least a few minutes to cast.



Jemal said:


> My original plan had been to use it and my high knowledge check as an alternate to power stunts: spend 3pp(Ritualist, Second Chance, Quickness) to be able to make a knowledge check as a full-round action to gain a minor power (10pp).
> I think what I'll do is drop the ritual stuff and take a few luck feats, with the limiter that they can only be used for power stunts on my magic array - hows that sound?  It accomplishes exactly what I was trying with the rituals, but a lot more easily and frequently.




Well, if you want some on-the-fly versatility with magic, that probably makes more sense. But I'd kind of encourage you to keep ritualist, even if you drop the quickness power and second chance, because it's likely that at some point you'll need Big Complex Magic for something, you probably don't want to subcontract that if you can avoid it, and calling Willow for anything short of an apocolypse may just get her mad.


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## Jemal (Jun 27, 2009)

Good points.  Allright, I think I'll drop quickness and Second chance for some limited luck.

BTW, on that note: I've done it in other peoples campaigns, but do you allow using the power flaw Limitted on ranked feats?  It seems it would work the same as with a 1pp/rank power (Making it cost 1pp/2ranks for a limited: -1 flaw).
What I'm thinking is Luck 4(Limited: Only usable on Magic Array)= 2pp?
That would mean i could use those 4 uses of hero points for improved re-rolls, power stunts and Increased Power as they pertains to Magic, but wouldn't give me any of the other uses of hero points... I think that's much more than half-limited.


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## Jemal (Jun 27, 2009)

That brings another question to mind: 

Tabletop M&M resets hero points for each game session, how often do you plan on them resetting in your online game?  day/scene/episode?  It'd be nice to know roughly how long I have to stretch my powers out for.


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## drothgery (Jun 27, 2009)

Jemal said:


> Good points.  Allright, I think I'll drop quickness and Second chance for some limited luck.
> 
> BTW, on that note: I've done it in other peoples campaigns, but do you allow using the power flaw Limitted on ranked feats?  It seems it would work the same as with a 1pp/rank power (Making it cost 1pp/2ranks for a limited: -1 flaw).
> What I'm thinking is Luck 4(Limited: Only usable on Magic Array)= 2pp?
> That would mean i could use those 4 uses of hero points for improved re-rolls, power stunts and Increased Power as they pertains to Magic, but wouldn't give me any of the other uses of hero points... I think that's much more than half-limited.




I don't think I'm going to allow that, mostly because stunting a new combat spell every other combat or so is interesting, but doing it three or four times per combat scene would be a bit much. 



Jemal said:


> Tabletop M&M resets hero points for each game session, how often do you plan on them resetting in your online game?  day/scene/episode?  It'd be nice to know roughly how long I have to stretch my powers out for.




I think I'm going introduce a 4e-ism here and say every milestone. Which is to say every two major combat encounters (if you're facing a significant threat, it's a major encounter) or at the end of the episode.


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## Shalimar (Jun 27, 2009)

Besides, as a mortal you have more in the way of luck than us demons/half demons do.  You don't really need the extra especially if they are refreshing that often.


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## Jemal (Jun 27, 2009)

Well, I think I've made all the changes that need to be made to the character, hopefully it'll be acceptable.



> Besides, as a mortal you have more in the way of luck than us demons/half demons do. You don't really need the extra especially if they are refreshing that often.



Mortals don't automatically get more luck just for being mortals, Drothgery just made it so that humans CAN take the luck feat.  They still have to pay for it. 

Also, every two 'major' combat encounters isn't exactly 'often'.. that's about once every 8 encounters in an average game (1 'major' encounter out of every 4).

Not complaining, just pointing out.


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## drothgery (Jun 27, 2009)

In case anyone was wondering, everyone's stats seem okay to me (though this is the first time I've run an M&M game, and I haven't really played a lot of it, so I could have missed something). So you're okay to post in the IC thread whenever.

James still needs a physical description, but that doesn't have any mechanical impact.


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## Shalimar (Jun 27, 2009)

Since it really isn't reflected in my character sheet, I figure I should give the powers/abilities of a mature slyph since I don't consider Gale to be a mature slyph.

Flight (Running + leaping)

Air Control (with various power feats)

Immunity - Aging:  All slyphs tend to look to be in their late teens regardless of age due to their small size and features despite living for thousands of years

Clairaudience:  with enough effort slyphs can hear anything said in the open air, though it takes just about forever to find a specific conversation if they don't know where it is.

Super Senses: Sight, Smell, and Hearing are all extended, and accurate.  Touch is ranged.

Does that sound ok?  Its what I will be building her towards.


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## drothgery (Jun 27, 2009)

Shalimar said:


> Does that sound ok?  Its what I will be building her towards.




Shouldn't be a problem as a goal, though I doubt I'll ever increase the PL beyond 8, so your characters will be mostly acquiring breadth (or improving existing powers/abilties up to the PL limits) rather than becoming strictly more powerful as the game goes on.


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## Shayuri (Jun 27, 2009)

Seems in line with the show mythology. The characters that increased measurably in power were the ones that were noticibly lacking in it previously.

The ones that started out tough didn't really get tougher, exactly...just smarter and more experienced.


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## Shalimar (Jun 27, 2009)

Its nice to not have to worry about going up in PLs. In games where your PL increases you generally have to devote 4/5ths of everything to just staying at the same relative power level.


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## Shayuri (Jun 29, 2009)

Moving my questions here, so as not to clutter IC too much.

1) Does/did Taylor sense the presence of a demon when Gale was lurking around? Even if she didn't narrow down on it?

2) I think I'm familiar with James and Gavin well enough to get a feel for their relationships. I'm less sure where Taylor and Riley stand, or some of the others.


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## Velmont (Jun 29, 2009)

For Riley. I would tell he has met everyone during the events that precede this episode. Riley is now aware that demons and vampire lurk in the dark of San Diego, but is not yet aware of most of the details. He would knows the other four are a team that try to control the evils of the city. He would knows that everyone have some kinds of power, would have heard the term slayer probably without knowing all the details of it. He might not be aware of the source of power of our half-demonic friends, but Riley is more pragmatic type. 

If you are a demon that respect the law, he will gives you a chance... that might change over the episodes, but for now, it will be that.


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## drothgery (Jun 29, 2009)

Shayuri said:


> Moving my questions here, so as not to clutter IC too much.
> 
> 1) Does/did Taylor sense the presence of a demon when Gale was lurking around? Even if she didn't narrow down on it?




Yes.



Shayuri said:


> 2) I think I'm familiar with James and Gavin well enough to get a feel for their relationships. I'm less sure where Taylor and Riley stand, or some of the others.




If I'm reading their backgrounds right, I'd guess...

Gale - Taylor's probably seen or sensed her before, but probably hasn't put together that the vague and non-threatening demonic presense she sometimes senses is Gale.

Riley - Riley knows Taylor is suprisingly strong and fast, and has taken out vampires one on one, but knows nothing of Slayer lore, and has only recently come around to believing vampires are real. Taylor and James probably think he's the closest thing they've got to a friend with the police, but don't know how far to trust him yet.

As for the NPCs of any note...

Dawn - this isn't the first time Taylor met her, but the last time was when you were training with some of the other Slayers, between the time Faith & Robin found you and the time you moved to San Diego.

Kelly - Riley didn't know her before this case, so no one but Riley has met her before.

Vin the demon snitch (Merle's cousin) - Taylor has met him before, but they don't get along.


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## Shalimar (Jun 29, 2009)

Gale has no knowledge of, or interest in Riley at the moment. She hasn't met him, and would have had no reason to interact with him so far given that Demons tend to avoid the cops to stay off the radar and that Gale doesn't really do anything against the law...aside from stalking a vampire slayer 

Gale is not part of any team, and would only have a vague sense of Gavin, and even she and he are unlikely to have met more than once or twice. He would know she is part of the alrge family of slyphs that moved to town within the last few years.


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## Shalimar (Jun 30, 2009)

Dave, does Gale hear or notice anything interesting going on in the hospital?


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## drothgery (Jun 30, 2009)

Shalimar said:


> Dave, does Gale hear or notice anything interesting going on in the hospital?




Depends if Taylor decides to go look for Gavin, or waits for his shift to end and have him come looking for her. If she waits, it's likely she'll see Riley and Kelly leave before Gavin finds her, but that's dependent on what Riley and Gavin do. Also depends on how interesting she thinks the 'normal' events at a hospital are (and Scripps is one of the better hospitals in San Diego, so there may very well be people with interesting but mundane medical problems).

Also FYI, James is a few hours ahead of everybody else. He's around noon; the rest of you are at about 9:30 am.


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## Jemal (Jun 30, 2009)

i always was ahead of my time.


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## Shalimar (Jun 30, 2009)

Gale is looking for interesting in the sense of 'this could be the reason taylor showed up' anything that could have been caused by something super natural.


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## drothgery (Jun 30, 2009)

Shalimar said:


> Gale is looking for interesting in the sense of 'this could be the reason taylor showed up' anything that could have been caused by something super natural.




She doesn't see anything right away, though both Gale and Taylor notice there is a police car parked near the hospital entrance.


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## drothgery (Jul 6, 2009)

Hmm... it looks like James is going to be out of action for a while, but I think the next logical thing to do (once you're done talking among yourselves) is to hook the rest of you guys up with him.

I'm not sure how to play this.


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## jkason (Jul 6, 2009)

drothgery said:


> Hmm... it looks like James is going to be out of action for a while, but I think the next logical thing to do (once you're done talking among yourselves) is to hook the rest of you guys up with him.
> 
> I'm not sure how to play this.




Well, if we're looking to kill time, it strikes me that there's only so long the group would let Gale follow them (especially since she sets off Taylor's demon-sense) before confronting her in some way, which one assumes would lead into integrating her. Perhaps now is the time to do that, since it wouldn't necessarily require James to do?.

jason


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## Shayuri (Jul 6, 2009)

That could work, though it might be easier to convince Taylor to 'take on' another demon if James is around. 

That said, I don't plan on being difficult about it. 

We will need to see James eventually though. You could NPC him, perhaps...or maybe he's called to the Council for some reason, and they send a temp Watcher in his place?


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## Shalimar (Jul 7, 2009)

I kind of figured that Taylor would pick up on Gale in the hospital, its not like the corridors by the morgue are going to be all that crowded.  I was kind of hoping though that the other demon would point out that Slyphs are harmless before it gets too far.


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## Jemal (Jul 17, 2009)

Sorry bout that guys, I'm back on duty now, provided things don't get worse again.  For future reference, if I do bug out again feel free to npc my character(s) in games as needed.

And just for the record, James is Canadian, not british - Though he went to school in Britain (And trained there with the watchers council), so kinda talks/thinks part Brit


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## Vertexx69 (Jul 22, 2009)

I just got the M&M 2nd edition book today. I don't know if you guys would still accept the werewolf into the group, but skimming the IC thread you aren't even through your meet and greet yet.

I do have a couple questions though about 2nd edition rules:

1. Does the total attack/defense/damage bonus thats based on power lvl mean all mods can only total +8, or does it mean a max of +8 base, +8 stat, +8 power modifier?

2. How much less would shapeshifting cost per rank (normally 8) if it was limited to a single other form (the crinos werewolf hybrid)? 

I could have Daniel Wang the rock climbing, zoologist done by sometime tomorrow.


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## Velmont (Jul 22, 2009)

1. +8 for attack, +8 damage, +8 toughness save, +8 defence. With the master approval, you can do some trade between attack and damage or between toughness save and defence. If you want to do a clumsy Hulk, you could easily have +10 to toughness and damage but only +6 to attack and defence.

2. I wouldn't go for shapeshifting. I would rather buy each power individually and then use a drawback to represent your shapeshift ability. Shapeshift is more for a person who can switch to a lot of form.


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## drothgery (Jul 22, 2009)

Vertexx69 said:


> I just got the M&M 2nd edition book today. I don't know if you guys would still accept the werewolf into the group, but skimming the IC thread you aren't even through your meet and greet yet.




I don't think I'm looking for any additional players at this time.


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## drothgery (Jul 29, 2009)

jkason said:
			
		

> ((OOC: Sorry. Having a heck of a time getting the boards to load for me.))




Everyone has. Don't worry about it. Until ENWorld's performing reasonably, I'm perfectly okay with a somewhat irregular posting schedule.


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## Shalimar (Jul 29, 2009)

The Mecha and Manga PDF for Mutants and Masterminds is now out, and I have to say its outstanding.  It has mechanics to fill in some of the holes in the Mutants and Masterminds system, like fleshed out Mecha building rules, rules for varying tiers of play in a single game, transformations, etc.

I really like it a lot.  The flavor stuff is really great, it captures a lot of the things that make Anime/Manga as mediums stand out from character quirks to feats and powers that mimic staples like the Flash Step, Substitution, and Shadow Clone powers.


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## drothgery (Aug 5, 2009)

(repeating from my Star Wars game thread...)

Okay, it looks like ENWorld is finally responsive. If this holds up, I'll be out of excuses for not moving my games along.


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## Shayuri (Aug 6, 2009)

YAY!

We're back!

I'll get to updating asap!


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## drothgery (Aug 6, 2009)

Cool.

(Cause, really, I'd like you and/or your watcher to post before moving on, so I have a better idea of what you're doing)


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## drothgery (Aug 16, 2009)

Shalimar said:


> The Mecha and Manga PDF for Mutants and Masterminds is now out, and I have to say its outstanding.  It has mechanics to fill in some of the holes in the Mutants and Masterminds system, like fleshed out Mecha building rules, rules for varying tiers of play in a single game, transformations, etc.
> 
> I really like it a lot.  The flavor stuff is really great, it captures a lot of the things that make Anime/Manga as mediums stand out from character quirks to feats and powers that mimic staples like the Flash Step, Substitution, and Shadow Clone powers.




Cool. Wonder when the print version will be out? I got a print copy of Warriors & Warlocks today; looks nifty.


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## Velmont (Aug 17, 2009)

Still here... I am looking at Taylor and Gale. But with our missing watcher, I can only have a discussion with the Gavin, as I suppose we are both with the watcher at the moment, right?


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## drothgery (Aug 17, 2009)

Velmont said:


> Still here... I am looking at Taylor and Gale. But with our missing watcher, I can only have a discussion with the Gavin, as I suppose we are both with the watcher at the moment, right?




The Plan (tm) was for all of you to meet up again after Taylor's classes (and your work) was done for the afternoon (it's now late afternoon). Nothing has happened to prevent you or Gavin from making the meeting on time. I haven't decided whether to plot device Jemal's absense into James not making the meeting; for now, he's running late.


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## Shalimar (Aug 18, 2009)

Gale is just following Taylor through her day, its not like she pays attention in the class or is working towards a degree.  SHe is only looking for the people who are tailing Taylor really, and you said she lost the person.


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## drothgery (Aug 24, 2009)

Shayuri? Taylor's up.

Also, since Jemal hasn't been to ENWorld for over three weeks, I think I'm going to have to plot device James out of action for a while.


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## Shayuri (Aug 24, 2009)

Yar, sorry! This weekend was hectic. My mom and grandma's coming up this week and I'm frantically trying to get ready. I'll get caught up today though.


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## drothgery (Sep 6, 2009)

Mini-bump because I hope the game's not dead, but I'm going to be out of town Tuesday and Wednesday.


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## Shalimar (Sep 7, 2009)

I think I'm waiting on a response from Taylor.  It'd be rough to move on without the Slayer and the Watcher though, especially since the Slayer is Gale's whole motivation.


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## Shayuri (Sep 7, 2009)

*waves*

Holiday weekend means I'm not at the computer as often as usual on weekends. I'm alive though, and will get caught up asap.


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## Shayuri (Sep 13, 2009)

Famous last words. This time for real.

Had some very important RL and online issues to work out...and now they are worked out, for better or for worse. 

Thanks for being patient.


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## drothgery (Sep 19, 2009)

Shayuri said:


> Thanks for being patient.




No problem. I'm going to try and get beter about making sure there's an update from me every two or three days at the latest.

Also, Jemal still hasn't appeared at ENWorld since July 30th, so assuming the game gets moving again, I think I'm going to end up writing James out.

And I picked up Mech & Magna, so my mini-M&M book collection is at 4 books (the core book, Ultimate Power, Warriors & Warlocks, and Mech & Magna). Some fun stuff in there.


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## drothgery (Oct 4, 2009)

I think I'm going to shut this game down; I'm not posting enough for it, and if a game goes a week without anything from the PCs, it's a problem.


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## Velmont (Oct 5, 2009)

Sorry, I worked 68 hours this week, so I had to focus more on my game on Living world... but thanks for the game.


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## Shayuri (Oct 5, 2009)

Argh...

Droth...it's your decision and all, and okay, but the last post from you was a bit ambiguous. We'd gotten the demons in the car and...you didn't ask for a roll or anything. So I figured you'd either narrate us getting where we were going, or maybe you were waiting to see where we were going, but...I wasn't sure what the holdup was.

Damnit.


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## jkason (Oct 5, 2009)

I'll apologize for not being as responsive. I've been enjoying the game, but I think I may just not be very good at fully-free-form investigative stuff. I think a couple different times I've sort of not known what to do next, which lead to a lot of standing around on Gavin's part (especially when he was off on his own). 

Thanks for the opportunity in any case, drothgery.


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## drothgery (Oct 7, 2009)

Velmont said:


> Sorry, I worked 68 hours this week, so I had to focus more on my game on Living world... but thanks for the game.




Life happens. When I kicked this game off, I was unemployed. Now I'm working 40 hours a week again.



Shayuri said:


> Argh...
> 
> Droth...it's your decision and all, and okay, but the last post from you was a bit ambiguous. We'd gotten the demons in the car and...you didn't ask for a roll or anything. So I figured you'd either narrate us getting where we were going, or maybe you were waiting to see where we were going, but...I wasn't sure what the holdup was.
> 
> Damnit.




It's not just that there wasn't much activity in this game. It's also that I wasn't keeping this game or my Star Wars game updated, and another game I was in seems to have failed to get going. I'm not sure I can run multiple PBPs concurrently.

But if you're ever in one of my games again and it's been silent for a few days and you don't know what to do -- PM me or post to the OOC thread.



jkason said:


> I'll apologize for not being as responsive. I've been enjoying the game, but I think I may just not be very good at fully-free-form investigative stuff. I think a couple different times I've sort of not known what to do next, which lead to a lot of standing around on Gavin's part (especially when he was off on his own).
> 
> Thanks for the opportunity in any case, drothgery.




I'm not sure I really know how to write them either.

Sorry I couldn't make this one work.


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## Shayuri (Oct 7, 2009)

Mew. Okay. Sorry for the fuss. It's frustrating to lose a game that I'd made special effort to keep, but I know too well how hard it is to keep multiple games going.

If accepted to another of your games in the future, I will be sure to be more conscientious about using the OOC thread and/or PM's.


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