Hi all, I'm new here, and I mean a total rpg newbie and i need help.

My wife got a stack of buffy rpg books for xmas and has been nagging me to do it. She has never played and i have never played let alone run a game.

Do I need to memorise all the rules or do you just remember a couple of major points and look everything up all the time? its a huge rule book!

I dont even know if only having 1 player will work.

I feel kind of lost about everything and what i need to do to make it 'work'.

Any helpful hints would be great, I feel like an alien in a strange world. It sounds like it could be fun but I just have no clue.

- How do I deal with her doing things I don't want, or a situation I have no idea about?
- Can you not roll the dice every couple of minutes to make it faster and just arbitrarily say 'you fail/succeed'?
- How do I decide when to give experiece or level the player up?
- How do I point her in the direction I have the story setup? Do I need backup tangents if she goes off on something totally different angle? is that how you guys do your stories?

I'm sure I'll have more q's later, I've only flicked through the book to see what I have got myself into.

Right now I'm trying to come up with an corny adventure to fit the buffy theme. I'm not all that enthused with dancing vampires and buffyisms, its been a long time since i was 15 and I was never into broadway and the tony awards or neutered 'good' vampires.

I tried google first (I read some of the posts here first before joining and you guys kinda intimidate me with my newbyness) but rpg is such a broad term and my google search failed utterly.

I guess overall i'm afraid its going to turn into some bland back and forth at the dinner table.

Can you make buffy work with dungeons and dragons? amazon have a dummies guide to 4th edition. The nearest game store is an hour away so I tend to buy online, and I feel kind of odd asking the store owner how to play. I'm at your mercy here.

Is it easier to play the new dnd or something else other than buffy?

I'm off to go look for some dice to get.

Welcome!

It can be overwhelming at first, but you've already eliminated some points.  Firstly, you already have the game chosen and, at least, one player.  Another cool thing is that the Unisystem is fairly simple, from a mechanical standpoint.

No, you don't have to memorize every rule or detail in the book.  Think of it as a salad bar.  All you really need to call it a salad is lettuce on your plate.  The rules are the lettuce.  Read the rules once through.  Concentrate on character creation so you understand how a character is built and functions in the Buffverse.  Just familiarize yourself with rules, and note where you can find a rule when you need it.

Everyone, experience or novice, refers to the books or manuals during play.  It's natural.  However, you don't want looking up rules to grind the game to halt.  Look for it, but if it's taking to long then just make a ruling on the fly that everyone is happy with, and track down that specific rule after the session.  

As far as inspiration goes, just watch old episodes of Buffy.  It will help get a feel for the Buffy thing, give you some ideas, and help you in creating a living and immersive world for your players.

Some big advice here: you cannot account for every thing a player, and their character, will do in a session.  So, you develop a general outline, or plot line, of how you'd the adventure to progress.  Make yourself a flow chart.  You have to always be ready for your players to want to go off the edge of the map.  You have to develop your improvisational skills and wing it on the fly when they step outside the scope of your adventure, or detailed materials.

Welcome, Scuzz!

Quote from: Scuzz;292672Do I need to memorise all the rules or do you just remember a couple of major points and look everything up all the time? its a huge rule book!

Read enough to get the gist, and don't worry about mistakes in play.  You might have to look up a few things during a session; that happens.  It always helps to review the rules after a session to take care of any nagging questions you might have in the back of your mind.

You might want to start with just the core rulebook, and leave any supplementary material for later.  Baby steps.

In that vein, go through the rules a piece at a time.  Spend one night making characters, another fighting a sample combat.  Get comfortable with the rules.

Quote from: Scuzz;292672I dont even know if only having 1 player will work.

It will.  It's a bit different than playing with a group, but it works just fine.  I GM my girlfriend, an RPG newb, using Traveller.

Quote from: Scuzz;292672- How do I deal with her doing things I don't want, or a situation I have no idea about?

Let your players do what they want, but don't be afraid to show them consequences for their actions just as there are in real life.

For situations you're not sure about, my rule: when in doubt, formulate the sitaution as a yes/no question then roll a die, any die.  If it's even, say "yes," if odd, say "no."

Quote from: Scuzz;292672- Can you not roll the dice every couple of minutes to make it faster and just arbitrarily say 'you fail/succeed'?

You could, but that takes away from the role-playing.

You'll develop a feel for when you can gloss over events vs. role-playing them in detail.
 

Quote from: Scuzz;292672- How do I decide when to give experiece or level the player up?

Not familiar with Buffy in particular, but most games have rules for this.  Don't worry too much at start.

Quote from: Scuzz;292672- How do I point her in the direction I have the story setup? Do I need backup tangents if she goes off on something totally different angle? is that how you guys do your stories?

An easy way to hook a player into an adventure is by using a patron (e.g. a friend needs help, contact by myserious people asking for help, etc.).

Players will ALWAYS do things you didn't plan for.  Don't be afraid; just improvise.  Over time, you'll develop little techniques and bits that you can use to deal with these situations.  If you have to take a break for a minute in the middle of a session to figure out how to deal with a truly unexpected turn of events, do so!

The most important advice is to just have fun.  It's a game.  A lot of us seem to take this hobby more seriously than we really do on these boards...

Quote from: Scuzz;292672Right now I'm trying to come up with an corny adventure to fit the buffy theme. I'm not all that enthused with dancing vampires and buffyisms, its been a long time since i was 15 and I was never into broadway and the tony awards or neutered 'good' vampires.

If there's a risk of epic fail for your first experience as Game Master I'd say it is this. If you don't care for the show and the genre you won't enjoy running the game. Plain simple. I think you should figure out a genre or a show/movie that both your wife and you enjoy. There's almost nothing worse than a GM that runs a game as a chore.

No worries mate. It's easier than you'd think to pick up. The main thing for new players is not to get discouraged.

Part 1:

You can play RPGs with only two players - one who plays the protagonist, and one who controls everybody else (the PC and GM, respectively). You're GM, from what you've described. She's the PC.

What you do:

1) Pick a good time and place IRL. Around the kitchen after work sounds like fine in your situation. Make sure you've got a good amount of space, some dice (Buffy uses 10-sided dice, not the regular six-sided kind), some pencils and scratch paper, and the rulebook. Figure that you'll probably be playing for between 2 and 4 hours your first time.

2) She needs to come up with a "character concept" for the protagonist, while you come up with some supporting characters, some enemies and a setting. The Buffy RPG has write-ups for everyone from the show IIRC, so you can just use those if she just wants to be Buffy, but a lot of the fun of RPGs comes from making your own unique characters up.

You should do that some time before you play, so that you've got time to prepare. A day or two in advance works for some people, but you may want to give yourself a couple days lead time so you can figure out the rules. Figure that it'll take about 4-6 hours of prep (total) your first time, because you'll probably be looking things up in the book, wracking your brain for ideas, etc.

You're not dealing with rules yet though, just with ideas.

On the Buffy show, the main character is Buffy. Her character concept is that she's (originally) a silly teenage cheerleader who has superpowers (the Slayer). Her supporting characters are Xander, Willow, Giles, etc. Xander is "the ordinary guy", Willow is "the smart girl", Giles is "the British guy who knows all about vampires", etc. Simple is good here.

The setting is Sunnydale. Sunnydale is a small town in California that's full of vampires and demons. Still pretty simple, right?

The enemies should be pretty simple too, especially for your first game. Basically, figure there's one guy who has a name. He is the Big Bad. He has some minions who do the dirty work and who the PCs can beat up before getting to him. So, Glory in the 5th season is the Big Bad, and the dopey demons who work for her are her minions.

3)Now that you've got the basics there, you should flip open the rulebook and try to come up with some stats for the enemies and the supporting characters. This is usually what takes the longest amount of time, but don't sweat it. You'll be using these a lot, so hold onto the sheets between sessions, and recycle stuff whenever possible.

Protip: Write these stats out on blank 8.5x11 paper in pencil. Follow the rough format of the write-ups you see in the book, but leave tons of room. Then take a pen and write what each one does next to it.

i.e. Str 8 <- This helps with damage.

4)Now, you've got a whole bunch of little LEGO bricks, and it's time to build Dragon Fortress with them.

Welcome Scuzz!

Even the crusty geezers here were all noobs once so don't worry about asking all the questions you need.   Here's my take on your situation.

1) RPGs are awesome fun.   They are worth the time put into the learning curve.

2) It is much easier to learn RPGs by playing with experienced gamers who know the rules and who can help explain how everything works.   However, it's not 1980 anymore and many of the concepts of RPGs have filtered through into video games and murder mystery games.  You will be surprised how much you already know.

3) It is harder to run a RPG (called being the Game Master) than it is to be just a player.  However, those of us who love to GM feel that the reward is worth the effort.   Being a GM is a skill.   You start pretty crappy and with experience you can become really impressive.   Fortunately, modern RPGs like Buffy and the new 4th edition of Dungeons & Dragons have big chapters full of advice for GMs.

4) You can play RPGs with 1 Player and 1 GM, but the real fun kicks in with group dynamics. RPGs are generally best with 3-6 players and the GM.   It gives the players an ability to team up, work together and bounce ideas around while interacting with the GM who presents everything happening the game world (aka, the GM is the Writer/Producer/Director and the players are Actors, but they make up their lines and actions as the game goes along).   So congrats, your wife is Player #1 so go get two more people!  

5) A good GM builds his adventures around the strengths and weaknesses of the characters and the desires of the players.   Some players love combat, so giving them a murder mystery or love triangle isn't going to excite them.   Other players want to explore and be surprised by weird creatures, odd magic and lost civilizations.   However, a good GM makes sure to challenge both the character and the player along the way.  Make it tough on them!  But not so tough that they have no chance of winning.

6) Players ALWAYS do stuff the GM did not expect.  Players miss clues, they decide that the bartender was lying to them when he wasn't, they pursue their own agendas, they pick fights with monsters too big for their level or fighting ability, etc.   Good GMs learn to roll with the punches.  However, sometimes you need to say No to keep the adventure on track.

7) Dice are your friend.  They are the randomizers of fate that help decide if actions succeed.   Only roll the dice when you are okay with some action failing.   AKA, if a character runs across the street, you don't need an Running roll.  But if the same character is running across the freeway with cars rushing by while being chased by demons, you'll want that roll.

The best way to start is to read the Main Book from cover to cover.   Stuff will confuse you.   That's okay.  Some people play Buffy here and there are official Buffy RPG forums on the web that you should probably visit as well.

9) I like the Buffy game, but not the Buffyverse.   I like my vamps more like Nosferatu or Underworld.  I do not know how someone who isn't a Buffy fan would run a good Buffy game.   Go watch some Angel and more Buffy and see what you like most from the shows.

10) Rarely are RPG games compatible with other RPGs.   D&D and Buffy have very different rules with little common ground, other than they are both RPGs and use dice.   Its like how World of Warcraft is different than Halo.  Both are video games, but how they play is quite different.  

11) I suggest seeing if your not-so-local game store has any RPG groups who meet there for games and shoot them an email.  Most stores have a sign-up board where people advertise they are looking for players.   Also, many RPG websites have forums where people post looking for games.  

12) As RPGs go, Buffy is one of the better games for beginners.  It is not overly complicated and can follow the show easily.   The new D&D is a great game, but it is very tactical and depends on the use of boards and miniature figures and certainly has more rules than Buffy.  However, finding players for D&D and finding D&D groups is easier because the game is so popular.

Good luck!

Part 2:

Planning a session / Figuring out how to play the game

1) Individual sessions are like episodes of a TV show. Most people leave the number of sessions totally open-ended when they play (just like most TV shows are designed to be able to go on forever), but it might help you to plan for a definite number, say, 3 or 4 sessions. Figure each session will be around 4 hrs, at least to start.

2) Planning a session gets to be pretty easy over time. Don't get discouraged by the fact that it might be a bit tricky at the start.

3) You're going to need to think of some things that happen in the course of the session. This is basically just like thinking up a story, with a quirks.

First, you need an event or scene, or a couple of events, that introduce the main characters. This means the protagonist, the supporting characters, and the villain.

Protip: Steal good ideas from TV. In this case, as a new GM, your biggest problem is probably going to be introducing the villain in such a way that your wife doesn't immediately go "I attack him." In many episodes of Buffy and other TV shows, before the episode proper begins there's a "teaser" where the basic premise is introduced. For example: In a session where demons kidnap the principal and the protagonist & pals have to save him, the principal will be kidnapped and brought to the villain's lair where the villain will be revealed very briefly. The good guys aren't anywhere in the scene, and it's very brief, and then the session proper gets underway. That way, you and your wife got an idea of who the villain is or what he's done, but not in a way that immediately resolves things.

Second, you're going to want some developing events. Once everyone's introduced, some things need to happen. Broadly speaking, developing events / scenes are of the following types:

a) Discovery

Something alerts the good guys that bad stuff is happening. This can be subtle (the principal is missing and his office is trashed) or overt (a vampire attacks for whatever reason and your wife's character defeats him and finds a note mentioning that the principal's been kidnapped). You want this to lead to...

b) Investigation

The good guys start trying to figure out what's going on. Usually two or three of these scenes, each focusing on a different avenue of investigation, are all you need. The Slayer might get together with her team and plan. Someone searches for possible places they might be keeping the principal by exploring the spookiest places in town, while the rest of the team hits the books to find out what someone would want the principal for etc.

c)Twists and complications

These are the trickiest for new GM to come up with, but they become more natural in time. Basically, these are all the reasons that you can't simply bust in, punch out the bad guy and head home. These come up as you investigate, usually, and then get fleshed out in their own scenes or worked into others. Checking out the local mausoleum might reveal that the principal is there, but he's suspended over a giant vat of acid by a thin line that any one of the 30 vamps standing around could cut at a moment's notice. Or one of the good guys might turn out to be a bad guy and betray the rest of the good guys.

d) Interstitial Colour

One of the most overlooked, but fun, elements of roleplaying is the interstitial scenes that don't really develop the plot, but do develop the characters. This is the "Buffy has an argument with her boyfriend" type of scene. A couple of these sprinkled around help to flesh out the characters, develop little subplots, etc. Figure you're going to want two or three of these in a given session. Also, unexpectedly, these may take up more time than any other scene or event, depending upon how they go.

For example, I play Shadowrun, which is a game about professional mercenaries / criminals in the future who shoot people in the face for money. We play for 10+ hours at a time. Most of that is our characters grubbing around dismally failing to live relatively ordinary lives in a dystopian society, with the occasional bout of hyperviolent lawbreaking thrown in ("the plot").

e) Climax

The protagonist & co. know everything they need to know, and go in to resolve the situation. This usually involves a fight (though it doesn't need to). They confront the villain, and defeat him, though that doesn't necessarily mean they kill him. In fact, save yourself some hassle for next session, and think of a good way for the villain to escape right from the get go so that he can appear in future sessions.

f) Resolution

This is usually some sort of wrap-up, where everything goes to normal...until next time. These are, by the way, usually where experience is handed out.

4) Now that you've planned out a broad sequence of events, you should keep two rules in mind: No plan ever survives contact with the PCs; and build in redundancy.

Your wife is probably going to do at least one thing that you don't expect her to sometime during the game. It's important not to stress out over that, but to roll with it. If she ends up hating the Xander-like guy you put in, don't worry about it. If she figures out immediately where the most obvious place to keep the principal would be, don't worry about it. Alternately, if she just can't figure out where he'd be, or gets a totally incorrect idea, don't worry about it and just go with the idea.

Just remember to keep things moving from one scene to another rather than stressing about any particular one. In fact, one of the reasons I presented the list of scenes above so schematically is so that you don't focus on the details too much. In all honesty, it rarely matters if the bad guy is in the warehouse or the mausoleum, so long as he's somewhere out of sight, surrounded by his goons, with the principal in safely stored. It doesn't matter too much if it's Dopey Buddy #1 or Brilliant Jerk #2 that finds the ritual in the book that describes how the demons are going to sacrifice the principal to their demon lords.

Planning redundancies will help you avoid being surprised or stuck. That way, when you're actually playing (Part 3), you'll have a couple of options to pick from, depending upon how what your wife does or gets the other characters to do, so you can react to their actions appropriately.

I wanted to add a note about success and failure: You only should be rolling dice when there is conflict or question about success/failure. No one needs to roll to tie their shoes, or drive a car in normal, mundane, small city traffic--unless something else shows up and makes those things a challenge. (Meteors falling from the sky.)

In the BUFFY RPG case the Gm doesn't have to roll dice either. You simply use the fixed monster scores of make up your own monster scores and the player must roll with those scores MODIFYING their chance.  

Example: Buffy Dex 9 Kung Fu 9, tries to punch a Vampire Veteran with a Combat score of 16...She has 18 total before rolling dice. You now subtract Combat from that 18 giving her a mere +2 to her D10 roll. Then you roll the dice and try and get a 9 or higher (9-10= 1 success)   This speeds up combat a great deal as you both don't have to roll.

Other people have provided good advice. My suggestions are simple: Listen to your players and what they want to do, if you don't know how exactly something works, look it up if you have time, or fake it if you don't, then explain your mistake at a later point if necessary.


Welcome to gaming by the way.

Welcome to the hobby. Fortunately, this hobby has as many genres as any other form of art, you name it, you can run it.  And I have to agree with whomever said it, but, if you're not interested in the theme of the game, you may not run the game so well. Your interest will wane.
 
 And others here will suggest D&D 4th, or Traveller, or any number of games, but they might not be too suitable for a noob, as the systems can be rather complex. A generic system might be best suited, initially.
http://www.fudgerpg.com
 
 And from there, go to BRP or GURPS. A generic system CAN be the cheapest  way to roleplay, though, game set up will take considerable more time.
 
 If I was to refer a game, I'd refer Unknown Armies, because the system is so damn simple, a rpgnet mod could figure it out.
 
Here is a list of free rpgs on pdf...
http://www.darkshire.net/~jhkim/rpg/freerpgs/
 
One can find the TSR Marvel Super Heroes game on that site.
 
And anything else I can help with, PM me.

Welcome aboard, Scuzz!

Everyone else has given good advice and you'll have to wade through it all to see what works for you and what doesn't. I'll just give you Rule Zero of RPGs, the rule from which everything else should flow.

Quote from: Rule ZeroWe play role-playing games to have fun.

Follow Rule Zero and everything will work out fine.

Other people have given fine advice for adventures in general.  I thought I'd recommend my Buffy RPG page.  

http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/buffy/

You might look at the Play Aids section as it has some helpful summaries of things in the rules.

If I were you and you've never done it before, I'd start with something simpler like Risus. It's free, and it's very simple.

Buffy is a great game to get started with! A buddy of mine started playing RPG's the exact same way you did (except he was the Buffy fan), he then got  a whole group of newbies and now he's and they are hooked and continue to play to this day:D

My advice:

Go to the Hobby store or online and pick up some 10-sided dice, or D10s.


Read the rulebook, front to back, once.

Read you Director section in the book a couple times, it'll have good advice for newbie Directors (and veterans).

Think of a situation for you and you wife to do with the game that you think will be fun for both of you. Don't worry about getting the "buffyverse" right or anything like that.

Act out, describe some stuff, roll some dice and have fun together!

RPG's aren't board games or competitive at all, so getting the rules "right" is using them in a way that provides you and your wife the most fun. Fell free to look things up together as your learning how to play. Write quick notes down for reference if you think you'll need it again later.

So, don't get discouraged, keep it simple and, again, have fun!

Just want to thank everyone for their advice. I should add, I dont hate buffy, I just like my vampires a tad more evil than what is portrayed in the buffy show. Sometimes the cheese is too much but I have seen most all episodes (the wife calls it her 'comfort' show).

I have some dice coming a bunhc of everything from d3-d20 and duplicates of d10, d20 etc. The book didnt say if I needed more than one to make things easier but I went with 4 d10's anyway.

I've tasked myself with getting a story down as well as understanding the character creation over the weekend, hopefully if all goes well I'll have her create a character too but that might be a bit hasty.

I'm looking forward to it now more than I was the otherday! Less trepidation I guess.

thanks people!

There is also the Mythic GM Emulator if you just want to "Go With The Rolls" and not worry about "Planning Ahead".
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