Anyways I was thinking about running a Buffy game, but to be honest would prefer the simplicity and streamlined-ness of Feng Shui. I think it's an easier system for new people to get to grips with (even if UniLite is simple), and takes less investment of reading.

The only bit I really want to rip out of it (besides the setting) are Drama Points (which would replace Fortune Dice), to allow full Dramatic Editing.

I'd also put in a custom-build in place of archetypes (prefer them to be mechanically-balanced, with my eyeball to prevent abuses - and closer to the source material). Not sure how I'd handle schticks yet, though I'd be dumping everything but Sorcery, Creature Powers and gun/weapon. That means stat-wise everything but Magic disappears from the Chi primary.

I was thinking vampire mooks could be dusted on an Outcome of 6, rather than 5. Would that massively unbalance things? And perhaps downed on a standard 5, so easily finished with an additional (3-shot) action.

Any ideas?

well, i havent watched much buffy (though ive seen the first 3 seasons of angel...lol)

i can see ditching what youi have, except Fu.... granted, there wasnt ALOT of Fu in what ive seen, but martial arts is a big thing in that universe.... possibly make your own paths... basically toning things down.... or do unarmed Schticks.... not Fu... but things similiar to gun schticks..

like say "Fists of Carnage" (carnival of carnage)... ya dig?

Well I was going to keep the Weapon schticks (they're a given for any game I run, nowadays), but I don't think something similar for unarmed is really appropriate.

We never see the Slayer or anyone else wading through scores of opponents unarmed (beyond the usual mook-age). For real carnage they tool up.

Thing is even while there's a high martial-arts content to the shows, it's purely mundane. We never see anything mystical from that angle, all that jazz comes from magic and the supernatural.

Naw. I always use a modified mook-death number for tougher mooks. (I for one never believed that all mooks are pansies. Some unnamed dudes don't go down without a fight.)

I use "Outcome 6 Mooks" for bodyguards and whatnot. Still mooks, but they last a bit longer, and allow their important NPC employers to get away while the characters try to get past them. Works pretty well.

well, my idea wasnt to replace the weapon schticks, but to add more..

ive found rules on the net for melee weapon schticks, basically someone took gun schticks and altered them for melee weapons... one step futher would be to alter them to be unarmed as well... but anyways.

"ive found rules on the net for melee weapon schticks, basically someone took gun schticks and altered them for melee weapons"

That's exactly what I was talking about with weapon schticks.

But as I said, using them unarmed doesn't really fit the theme. We see mook-monsters go down like tenpins, and they do in FS anyway. But that's more a factor of the character's skill, not any supernatural investment or anything else.

Besides which, that also loses the ability to disarm the master swordsman.

Using Gun schticks for hand-to-hand weapons comes from Golden Comeback- although it only references the schticks in the core rule book. Other gun schticks can be used just as easily.

Other than that, run with it. Although Arcanotech cannot be used per se, you could use the mutation rules for dread magic that corrupts. If you like.

Re: +6 outcome to down a vampire mook, i've been doing this for ages with unnamed supernaturals. I call it 'unnamed death resistance' and for each schtick the outcome to drop goes up by 1. Damage immunities also work well, as do abysmal claws/ teeth, (suddenly those mook vamps hit hard and don't go down so easy - players beware)justified extra damage because of strength.

Buffy vamps did not fly, go incorporeal/insubstantial, have swarms of critters or animal forms. Some were seemingly capable of dominating/ hypnotising, all were pretty damn strong and agile. In later series of Angel (after series 2) he started doing big leaps (prodigious/ abundant leap as creature power? i think i've seen that on the net somewhere). I would give all vamps transformation to switch between teen heartthrob mode and 'big forehead, pointy teeth' mode. Blood drain is also pretty obvious, as is corruption. When i think of anything else i'll post it up.

Also remember, vamps were not the only baddies (although they were the best - Spike and Drusilla?)to trouble the scooby gang - werewolves (tranimals with some creature powers?), spirits (ghost archetype), other teens dabbling with the dark arts (scrappy kid/ sorceror as baddie - tell me you wouldn't love to kick a scrappy kid's ass) and of course any variation of a demon from the underworld (take your pick of supernat. creatures or abominations)

Also, the 'Institute', the shadowy paramilitary bunch of monster hunters from the series when Buffy goes to college, rogue slayers (anyone who never gave Buffy a chance missed out on Eliza Dushku as Faith), the machinations of the watchers council, and if you really want to push the boat out, Glory (exiled God) or the Mayor (immortal smart-ass with vampire minions who turned into a giant snake)or the First Evil (Unkillable evil who opens the hellmouth).

Go mad. Just remember all the girls are gorgeous and all the guys are hunks OR goofy fools.

Cheers for that. I've got Buffy (and I've seen it and Angel in their entirety), so it's more a case of stealing the bits I like. There was actually a Buffyverse Vampire page on the 'net I stole a while back.

I'm thinking of retaining a few of the Fu schticks that I like for use as Creature Powers, Prodigious/Abundant Leap being one of them. Both the Slayer and numerous demons (Vamps included) seem capable of super-jumps and that's the best way to do it.

It's the custom build that's going to cause the biggest headaches. I mean as far as stats it's going to look something like this (retaining the three power levels):

White Hat
Attributes: 18, Skills: 20, Qualities: 10, Max Drawbacks: 10 DPs: 20

Hero
Attributes: 23, Skills: 30, Qualities: 20, Max Drawbacks: 10 DPs: 10

Experienced Hero
Attributes: 27, Skills: 50, Qualities: 25, Max Drawbacks: 10 DPs: 20

Attribute points are Primaries, which can be broken down into three Secondaries. There are only really three Primaries now, with Chi only having Magic in it.

Not sure if that's too many skill +s, we'll see how it pans out.

I'm retaining the Qualities and Drawbacks, most are for flavour rather than game-effect.

No idea how I'm going to handle schticks as yet, maybe give one for White Hats, three for Heroes and five for Experienced Heroes (aside from those which come with the Qualities/Drawbacks).

Brave indeed for doing custom characters - i assume your doing 'buffy - based' as opposed to letting your players be buff, willow, etc. Best way to go, otherwise you'll have the slayer and a bunch of not-so-powerful sidekicks. Best of luck on the creation.

Check 'Comrades in Arms' (linked from Atlas Games site) as i seem to remember it had Buffy character stats for FS, and also some takes on White Wolf Vampires and Werewolves, which could be useful.

Never really seen the appeal of playing "someone else's" characters myself. I mean I've always found them useful as a guideline on power levels and such, but I'm sure most people prefer their own creations.

Group of Heroes, possibly with a Slayer is the plan. I don't think the Slayer will outclass other characters in quite the same way in FS and they do in UniLite. Have to be careful of her AVs of course.

Entirely different danger specific to FS that if one character has AVs two or three higher than all the others then they'll have an easy time, or else everyone else will struggle.

I don't remember Buffy being one of those on Comrades in Arms, but I'll give it another look.

I had a go at straight conversion of the Qualities, using 2 for 1 on bonuses. I think it'll need some tweaking, or else they come out far too powerful (especially thinking about skill AVs and damage/Toughness).

I've only posted the conversion of bonuses, other stuff that comes with remains the same. I can see right away many need their values dropping...

Artist – 4 Primary points to distribute among Mental attributes, no more than 3 on any one attribute (max 12), +2 to the Artist skill, -1 Willpower rolls involving emotion.

Initiative Commando – 4 Primary points to distribute among Physical attributes, no more than 3 on any one attribute (max 12).

Jock – 4 Primary points to distribute among Physical attributes, no more than 3 on any one attribute (max 12), +4 to Sports skill, -1 AV to anything intellectual.

Nerd – 4 Primary points to distribute among Mental attributes, no more than 3 on any one attribute (max 12), +2 to any of the skills listed, -1 AV to social tasks.

Robot – +8 Strength and +4 Constitution, Toughness and Move, +2 REF, do not heal without Fix-it

Slayer – +6 BOD, +6 REF, +4 Willpower, +2 to Martial Arts (min spend 6), Regeneration I (as Creature Power), Vamp sense

Totem Warrior (12) - +6 Strength, +4 Toughness, Constitution, Move, +6 REF, Acute Senses, Fast Reaction Time, Hard to Kill III, +1 Martial Arts,

Vampire – +6 Strength, +4 Toughness, Constitution and Move, +4 REF, Damage Immunity (bullets), Regeneration I (as Creature Power), Transformation (game face)

Watcher – 2 Primary points to spend on physical attributes, +2 Martial Arts, +2 to any lore-Info

Werewolf – +8 Strength, +4 Toughness, Constitution and Move, +4 REF, Abysmal Spines II (in were-form), Acute Smell, Transformation (to animal form)

Lastly I'm not sure what to do with Sorcery; it's needed to fast-cast (ie do anything that isn't slow, ritual magic), but beyond that no idea how to handle it. I thought of it providing a +2 bonus to the Sorcery skill for every level, but beyond that I've no idea. Not least because the Magic trait represents a lot of the same stuff.

<i>I was thinking vampire mooks could be dusted on an Outcome of 6, rather than 5. Would that massively unbalance things?</i>

Unbalance things? Not at all. It's not the way I'd do it, though.

For me, <i>Blade</i> is a terrific <i>Feng Shui</i> movie: mooks galore, named bad guys, monsters that can still do terrific martial arts-style action, and lots of new mileage for guns and fu. The openings of the two <i>Blade</i> movies thus far are just examples of players and a GM having fun brainstorming disintegration descriptions for unnamed vampires. <i>Buffy</i>'s not a whole lot different, in my opinion.

First of all, the single best way to make mooks more difficult is to just up their AVs. The idea that all mooks have low AVs is a bad one for a GM to get stuck with. In <i>Feng Shui</i>, Martial Arts just measures your ability to hand-to-hand; it doesn't mean you're a kung fu master or a heavyweight boxer. The more important somebody is to the story, the higher their AVs should be (and, therefore, the harder they should be to remove from play).

This doesn't mean your vampires need fu schticks or constant wire effects. Visualize the moves of an AV 12 Martial Artist however you want.

Besides, the math is easier to do with the number 5 and all the heavy guns are based on that (plus some Fu schticks). Unless you want big guns to better at taking vampires than taking out ordinary people (Outcome 3+ means bigger savings against Outcome 6+), just up the AV.

The best solution to your quandry, though, is to just give your vampires a unique schtick that defines what does or doesn't kill them and whether they have extra Toughness against this attack or that attack or whatever. This is how we do it in the forthcoming <i>Feng Shui</i> book <i>Glimpse of the Abyss</i>. You'll even find vampires in there!

Cheers,
Will Hindmarch
Feng Shui Line Developer
Atlas Games

I choose to include them anyway, because people still know that I'm italicizing or bold-facing or whatever when they see them. Plus, I often save these sorts of posts in case I have to make them again (here or elsewhere), so it's easier to include the HTML now in case I use it in the future.

word,
Will Hindmarch
Feng Shui Line Developer
Atlas Games

*salivate*

On a related note, I experimented with hard-core mooks sho only go down if the positive dice rolled an even number first time (in addition to the normal requirement). Makes it less predictable and it's easy to check in play.