Prepping for Buffy at ConQuest

[John Kim]

So my other game at ConQuest will be Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG.  I'll be running the third in a series of games I've been doing set in Santa Cruz, which I originally dubbed The Slayerbot Series.  My short pitch for the program was:

Barb is a Slayer from 50s New Jersey, reincarnated in modern-day Santa Cruz into an android body.  For the past several months, she has fought evil in Santa Cruz with the help of a circle of friends.  But now there suddenly appear to be two of her.  She and her friends and... other her now have to figure out what happened and what to do about it. 

This is a role-playing-intensive event in the spirit of early Buffy, with high school drama and relationships.

My device here is that there will be two players each of whom are playing one copy of the central character, Barb.  The cool thing is that since this isn't a campaign, neither player clearly has the "real" Barb.  My idea is to use that ambiguity to contrast them.  In short, one Barb is ostensibly the "modern" Barb (who only remembers since her reincarnation) while the other is the "fifties" Barb (who only remembers before her reincarnation).  However, I leave open the possibility that one of them may be an imposter who has stolen the memories. 

As is usual in these games, I'm trying as much as possible to encourage playing out in-character romantic relationships.  Because it's a random mix, I always try to make sure each PC has several options for relationships.  My experience is that in a convention setting, it is rare for a matchup of PCs to actually have an interesting dynamic in actual play.  i.e. I can say that PC X and PC Y have a relationship, and that will be acknowledged by the players, but it won't actually go anywhere interesting.  So by providing a lot of options, hopefully one or two of them pay off. 

I am currently pondering several details.  One is that I want an eigth PC option, which is a male Hero guest star who is somehow from the fifties.  Another is how to keep pacing fast without distracting from the important PC-vs-PC relations.  I'm thinking of having some sort of time limit device (i.e. they only have two hours before something big will happen) -- so they can interact freely during that time and won't be overwhelmed with external plot, but it gives a sense of urgency to the interactions. 

[Mike Holmes]

Another is how to keep pacing fast without distracting from the important PC-vs-PC relations.

This sounds tough. You're using the normal Unisystem rules?

What I think you'll have to do is to set up situations that emphasize the character relationships. For one, and pretty obvious, have things happen that pair them off alone in different combinations so that they can interact alone. Then have the situation remind them of their backgrounds in such a way as to get them thinking about their character's lives.

Have the time constraints be dramatic. That is, don't "charge" them any time while they're developing their characters in dialog. Just keep the sense of time pressure by narrating the end of scenes as the time pressure element getting nearer.

So, for example, I'm envisioning the characters all being trapped in the basement of the school or someplace as water is slowly rising from burst watermains or somesuch. They can't stop the rising water, they have to find a way out. So their best bet is to split up into pairs and search the basement looking for vents and such that lead up. While alone, they are allowed to play out interactions without it "costing" them any time, but you simply frame from one scene to the next by having the water wash the characters around the basement as doors burst and such. This allows you to introduce the drama of the time element, and to mix the character combinations up when you feel that things need to change up - they just wash into different groups.

Basically telegraph that what they do really has no bearing on whether or not they actually get out. Don't make any rolls or anything, just have each scene automatically give a clue that leads to the obvious solution at the end.

I dunno, still sounds dodgy. Maybe the strongest thing you can do is to lean heavily on the player backgrounds. Hand them each a sheet with not just what their character is like, but having sorta LARPY goals like "George is desperate to find himself a girlfriend."

Mike

[John Kim]

Another is how to keep pacing fast without distracting from the important PC-vs-PC relations.

This sounds tough. You're using the normal Unisystem rules?

Normal Buffy rules, yes.  It's difficult but not too bad -- I have a fair amount of experience with trying out this sort of thing.  The key is in keeping the potential pairings open.  Having planned matches of PC X with PC Y doesn't usually work in my experience, because chances are good that the player of X and the player of Y aren't open to playing out such a thing.  On the other hand, once you start having some romantic issus in a game at all, that makes the atmosphere much more supportive of other romance. 

Basically telegraph that what they do really has no bearing on whether or not they actually get out. Don't make any rolls or anything, just have each scene automatically give a clue that leads to the obvious solution at the end.

I dunno, still sounds dodgy. Maybe the strongest thing you can do is to lean heavily on the player backgrounds. Hand them each a sheet with not just what their character is like, but having sorta LARPY goals like "George is desperate to find himself a girlfriend."

I mostly agree about the time limit, with a slight modification.  What they do can have some bearing on what happens, but it is guaranteed to not be critical.  That is, things will move ahead one way or another when the time limit is reached.  For example, they might know to be at the junkyard in two hours, when they know the bad guy will show up.  They can do things to investigate or prepare -- but even if they just show up it will get them somewhere. So there is momentum to go and do things, but room for a lot of sidetracks. 

I am definitely thinking of the written backgrounds as important.  You can see some of the descriptions I wrote for the last convention game with these characters in Slayerbot Main Cast Page.  For each character, I specifically note their relations with each of the other PCs.  These will be rephrased somewhat with different emphases for the current event.