Buffy the Vampire Slayer Take Two

Blacksheep · Mar 26, 2023

Mount. Elements said:
Xander did reinforce the memories shortly after he got them, but he hasn't been using the more academic skills recently so they've probably faded a bit.

As for talking to a priest, I'm not really looking to make Xander religious. That would lead to the question of which religion/sect of Christianity to go with, which feels like a really divisive issue to introduce to the quest.

On the topic of deities in this quest, I feel I need to do a small explanation

There are three categories of deities in this world.

The Powers That Be, who tend to be what poses as the good guys and acts as the primary tenders of this world. Extremely powerful, and have the ability to look into the future, but they can make mistakes and tend to flail when people like Xander who aren't meant to be important mess up their neat and orderly future

Named deities, which tend to be calling upon a deity to take on a specific avatar and personality. This would be Poseidon, Inari, etc

And The UnBound. They tend to be all aspects of whatever their nature is: all types of storms good and bad, all ways the ocean is kind and cruel, all animals. They tend to be difficult to interact with and understand, because they live on such a large scale. They rely very heavily on Named deities to help them successfully communicate with sapient beings. Drawing their attention is really dangerous, and the Powers That Be's greatest success was in cutting off this world from the direct impact of the UnBound

Blacksheep · Mar 26, 2023

Scheduled vote count started by Blacksheep on Mar 25, 2023 at 9:21 PM, finished with 9 posts and 6 votes.

4 people have voted
[X] Plan Friends, Job, and Van Helsing
-[X] Spend time with your friends and your girlfriend Cordelia.
-[X] Get a job to help save up some money. It would be nice if you could help Giles a bit with the costs of the apartment too.
-[X] Seeing Amy as a kitsune has reminded you that you also were affected by Halloween. Maybe you should review all of the skills and knowledge you got from your time as Van Helsing to reinforce them. Your research skills have probably faded a bit so you'll need to spend extra time on that.
- gale
- Mount. Elements
- Thule
- Swedish15
2 people have voted
[X] Plan Workout
-[X] Try to get a part time job.
-[X] Spend your free time with your friends and girlfriend.
-[X] Talk to Giles about meeting a priest to make sure nothing can try to claim his soul like last time.
-[X] Spend your mornings training
- Gunman
- spudman

Gunman · Mar 27, 2023

Mount. Elements said:
Xander did reinforce the memories shortly after he got them, but he hasn't been using the more academic skills recently so they've probably faded a bit.

As for talking to a priest, I'm not really looking to make Xander religious. That would lead to the question of which religion/sect of Christianity to go with, which feels like a really divisive issue to introduce to the quest.

It was not about making him religious and what version would have depended on whoever Giles knew. I avoided getting specific on purpose. It would not be a problem if nobody including the QM did not want it to be. Religion comes up in the show so it is not like it is something weird. It was something Xander could have done to protect himself.

Mount. Elements · Mar 27, 2023

Gunman said:
It was not about making him religious and what version would have depended on whoever Giles knew. I avoided getting specific on purpose. It would not be a problem if nobody including the QM did not want it to be. Religion comes up in the show so it is not like it is something weird. It was something Xander could have done to protect himself.

Here is your original post on the subject.

Gunman said:
Christianity, Islam and Judaism are as prominent in our timeline as they are in the TV show. Something let them convert the majority of the world from multiple pantheons, whether that is divine support or something else. The religious order that was related to the Key had some supernatural powers. There are one or more gods interested in having Xander. This can be a great way for him to protect his soul and body.

This sounds like having Xander devote himself to one or multiple gods in order to get their favor, which is pretty much him becoming religious. The mention of a priest in your write-in doubles down on the religious implications.

If you're interested in having Xander look into soul protections, I suggest making the write-in more open-ended. The GM can decide how they want soul protections to work in this quest, and then the voters can choose which, if any, options they want to go with. Something like:

[] Ask Giles if there's any protections you can get to keep stuff like what happened with Poisedon from happening again.

Blacksheep · Mar 27, 2023

I would absolutely allow Xander to become a devotee of a god! It may come with some extra restrictions, but it's allowed, and would come with bonuses!

Gunman · Mar 27, 2023

Mount. Elements said:
This sounds like having Xander devote himself to one or multiple gods in order to get their favor, which is pretty much him becoming religious. The mention of a priest in your write-in doubles down on the religious implications.

If you're interested in having Xander look into soul protections, I suggest making the write-in more open-ended. The GM can decide how they want soul protections to work in this quest, and then the voters can choose which, if any, options they want to go with. Something like:

You are using language that makes me think "religious" carries stronger connotations for you than I intended. I mentioned that religious order as a canonical example of there being followers of other religions like Christianity with some sort of supernatural power. I do not think he would have to become a monk, a zealot or very religious to protect his soul. That would have to be one of the easier things to get. Maybe he would have to follow the religion to some degree to get that protection? I did not bring it up as a way to disrupt his relationships or the quest in other ways.

Blacksheep said:
I would absolutely allow Xander to become a devotee of a god! It may come with some extra restrictions, but it's allowed, and would come with bonuses!

Xander asks Giles to get him in contact with a priest to protect his immortal soul. What kind of benefits and restrictions would he get from following a religion like an average member of it?

What if we did what I think you and Mount. Elements meant, where Xander decided to devote a greater part of his life to it? That would be like becoming a monk if it is devoting his entire life. What if it is equivalent to a full or part time job where it is temporary in length? Where he could quit from it?

Blacksheep · Mar 27, 2023

Xander has Attention on him. He's not going to get away with anything casual.

As for quitting, all that would require is not keeping up with the commitments he makes in return with whatever god he ties himself to. No official cut off required

Mount. Elements · Mar 28, 2023

Gunman said:
You are using language that makes me think "religious" carries stronger connotations for you than I intended. I mentioned that religious order as a canonical example of there being followers of other religions like Christianity with some sort of supernatural power. I do not think he would have to become a monk, a zealot or very religious to protect his soul. That would have to be one of the easier things to get. Maybe he would have to follow the religion to some degree to get that protection? I did not bring it up as a way to disrupt his relationships or the quest in other ways.

Yeah, I guess we're viewing this differently. I'm a pretty religious person, and Xander caring about religion doesn't fit my image of him. Also, religion in fiction is often reduced to caricatures, stereotypes, and jokes so I usually prefer for religion to be left out of the story instead. I've never actually watched the show so I'm not sure how religion was treated in the show.

Blacksheep · Mar 28, 2023

Gonna be slow working on the reply sorry for the delay

Blacksheep · Mar 29, 2023

Buffy leaves for the summer to be with her father again, and Sunnydale seems peaceful and quiet over the summer. For now you can keep at least a slightly lighter schedule for checking on the supernatural and any disasters that might choose to go running around. You wonder why it's calmer in the summer. Perhaps the shorter nights simply mean there's less time for vampires to cause trouble in, or no one wants to spend summer doing anything that could approximate work when instead they could be lazing around. Either way you're more than happy to take advantage of it to focus on other things.

Like the job you managed to snag at one of the many graveyards. You're a groundskeeper, meant to help keep the graves nice and tidy. You go in in the mornings, do some weeding, and take the chance to stake any new graves to prevent vampire fledglings from rising up in the graveyard you've got. You also learn the horrifying fact that old gravestones are regularly removed to have new people buried in old plots. The grave digger you're working with assures you they only take out graves that are fifty years old or so, and it does explain why the town isn't more graves than houses at this point, but it was definitely a little horrifying.

You did have more money for going out with Cordelia and your friends at least. Cordelia was thankfully lenient on the fact you couldn't spend as much money as her other boyfriends, claiming you made up for it by being more intelligent and interesting to be around. It was nice to actually get a chance to see movies when they were newly out in theatres instead of waiting to rent them. Playing board games like Life was a lot more interesting with Amy willing to spice things up with illusions too.

The reveal of Amy's kitsune nature did get you buckling down for a short time on looking over what you remembered from your time as Van Helsing. Most of the physical knowledge had been kept in good shape, but you decided to refresh yourself on your first aid and research skills with Giles just in case. You did still make sure to steer clear of the apartment when Giles went out with Ms Calendar. The pair were really getting serious.

You did have a surprise near the end of the summer when a girl you didn't know turned up to one of the few vampire hunts you did over the summer to stake your prey. She warned you that this wasn't something for civilians to be poking their heads into, offending you and Willow. You thought you did pretty good for normals!

[ ]Ask who this girl thinks she is
[ ]Ask why she thinks you're civilians
[ ]Leave it, it's probably someone just passing through
[ ]Investigate, the girl is suspicious how she showed up
[ ]Write-in

gale · Mar 29, 2023