Like many gamers – heck, most geeks – I’m a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff show Angel. I was a fan of the movie, and after a season or so I finally checked out the show and was hooked. Granted, it’s not always the greatest thing since sliced bread – I’m beginning to get that uneasy feeling I got about the X-Files a few years back, where it seemed like they’d covered everything and there was nothing left to do but fiddle with the metaplot – but it has a lot of good moments.
Nevertheless, although I’ll do a future column on adapting the Slayer herself to various game systems, and explain why that column doesn’t contradict this one, the show would make for a horrible campaign. Examining why is a good exercise in the art of gamemastering.
On Buffy: Willow finds a neat orb and uses it to give Angel his soul back so he’ll be all broody and charming again instead of broody and evil.
In your game: Player characters spend the next two sessions tracking down as many of the orbs as they can find so they can make a whole bunch of cursed-with-a-soul vampires. The next time a PC dies, the player petitions you to let his new character be an evil dark vampire lord who’s been given a soul so he can fight on the side of truth and justice.
On Buffy: When Buffy “dies” briefly, before being …