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Fixed the Staking System
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wistol, who brainstormed an elegant solution for the game-breaking stake attack mechanics in the Buffy game!
Here's how. The basic problem is that, for anyone other than the Slayer to ever land a dramatic staking shot, the rules for staking have to give it enormous power. It is, by nature, a one shot kill.
The consequence is that even a starting-level Slayer can dust infant vampires as easily as breathing, and even a very strong vampire can go down on the first or second shot. She has no incentive to try any other moves, and your lovely villain that you crafted so maliciously suddenly fits in an ashtray with no dramatic buildup.
The clever clever solution is adding a quality for vampires called Name Tag. To paraphrase Michael Caine, "I mean, look at you! You haven't even got a name tag! Why don't you just fall down, son?" A vampire with a name tag, if he has at least half his hit points left, can spend a drama point to avoid being staked. It's not a dodge modifier. You just can't stake him.
This flies in the face of combat monkeys everywhere, but, let's face it, combat monkeys are not playing a game that considers "Big Ass Gun" an acceptable weapons spec.
As a side note, does anyone know anyone that knows anyone else that actually runs (or even plays) the official Buffy RPG? I've met several sourcebook owners, but I've never met anyone outside of the group I run who has actually played it. I'd enjoy swapping experiences, and see if we've run into the same trouble spots. If you know anyone, throw them my way.
wistol, who brainstormed an elegant solution for the game-breaking stake attack mechanics in the Buffy game!Here's how. The basic problem is that, for anyone other than the Slayer to ever land a dramatic staking shot, the rules for staking have to give it enormous power. It is, by nature, a one shot kill.
The consequence is that even a starting-level Slayer can dust infant vampires as easily as breathing, and even a very strong vampire can go down on the first or second shot. She has no incentive to try any other moves, and your lovely villain that you crafted so maliciously suddenly fits in an ashtray with no dramatic buildup.
The clever clever solution is adding a quality for vampires called Name Tag. To paraphrase Michael Caine, "I mean, look at you! You haven't even got a name tag! Why don't you just fall down, son?" A vampire with a name tag, if he has at least half his hit points left, can spend a drama point to avoid being staked. It's not a dodge modifier. You just can't stake him.
This flies in the face of combat monkeys everywhere, but, let's face it, combat monkeys are not playing a game that considers "Big Ass Gun" an acceptable weapons spec.
As a side note, does anyone know anyone that knows anyone else that actually runs (or even plays) the official Buffy RPG? I've met several sourcebook owners, but I've never met anyone outside of the group I run who has actually played it. I'd enjoy swapping experiences, and see if we've run into the same trouble spots. If you know anyone, throw them my way.
no subject
So I would make some sort of rule that a fully denfending vampire is very hard/impossible to stake. You need to get them stunned and weak. The rule you've got is pretty good for simulating that though. Not sure if your rules make it worth the Slayers time to just keep trying to stake them and burn their drama points though...
no subject
the main time i have had problems is if they do happen to dodge. if so, ours have started to take off running to another location and we actually have to chase them to finish the job off (potential for other problems arising in the process i guess -an ambush and/or demon or lots of vamps showing up, although to this point we can usually get 'em fast enough with a bow or just by chasing)
it really seems like vampires are not ment to be a challenge to the slayer at all in this game
no subject
Also, you can do what I've ended up doing, which is rolling for villains in secret and fudging when it really counts (in either direction), which is kind of like using drama points only dirtier. This does not work if your players love mechanics, but if they're much more interested in good story, as mine are, a nudge here and there can be helpful.
no subject