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Behind the scenes at the Buffy Roleplaying Game - M Alexander Jurkat tells us about the making of the game.
Starting Up
My partner George Vasilakos heard that Score Entertainment (publishers of the Buffy collectible card game) held the RPG license but were looking for an outside design team to handle it.
We have done a bit of RPG development in our time, and figured we were the best for the job. We submitted a proposal. It wasn’t easy and we had some tough competition, but in the end our blatant grovelling and obsequious mewing got us noticed.
We approached our good friend CJ Carella to handle the writing chores. CJ is a top-notch game designer, creator of Eden’s house game system (the Unisystem). Better yet, he is a freaky Buffy fan and didn’t give a second thought to offering his soul to write the book.
Pleasing Buffy Fans
We were confident that many of our existing Unisystem fans were going to enjoy the Buffy RPG. We also figured that a number of roleplayers were going to give it a shot.
But we wanted more! We wanted Buffy fans who weren’t familiar with roleplaying to try our game. So we decided the Buffy RPG would be specifically designed for the non-gamer. Lots of introduction, explanations, examples, easy-to-understand language — all to get Buffy fans in a roleplaying frame of mind.
As I realised when we got the Buffy license, a tremendous byproduct was the opportunity to work with some of my favorite people in producing the book. We quickly rounded up a quality team of writers and designers. When Christopher Golden agreed to help out by penning an introductory story for the Buffy Corebook, I was the first one up with my Snoopy dance of joy.
Testing it out
Next up was playtesting. The scores of playtesters went through the materials with a fine-tooth comb ironing out kinks, suggesting improvements, spotting confusing passages, and even doing a bit of writing here and there. Best of all, the playtest reports revealed just how much fun they were having.
Now, games are supposed to be fun — that’s why folks play. But the process of getting a game lean, mean, and polished is work. Often parts of the game aren’t fun because they are still in development. Even so, we were pretty sure we had something special.
While the playtest comments were streaming in, I was doing that editor thing. As always with CJ, the core writing was solid. I worked in the revisions based on comments, then cleaned, straightened, pressed as needed.
Pleasing Fox
With the text finalized, it was time for 20th Century Fox’s review. If they didn’t like what we had done, we were back to square one. Fortunately, they did. Even better, they worked through the huge amounts of pages in record time and, by all accounts, not only approved but actually enjoyed their reading.
Now it was time to turn things over to my partner George, the layout and art whiz around here. He studied the Buffy Style Guide provided by Fox and was psyched about the tools he had to work with.
He would have no problem maintaining the stylistic consistency that was the hallmark of all Buffy products, while at the same time adding his own creativity to the mix to make the graphics fresh. CJ, the playtesters, and I did our dangdest to make the Buffy Corebook fun to read and play; George and his artists truly made the book shine.
Launch day
One more pass through the Fox approvers (speedy and well pleased again), and the book was ready for the printers. Everything was set for our grand premiere party at the Gen Con game convention in Milwaukee.
Naturally, the books didn’t show up until the first day of the Gen Con game convention. As they were opening the doors to let in the hordes of rabid gamers, we were running along the aisles with cases of Buffy Corebooks on our shoulders!
Well, the release happened and we were overwhelmed with the reception. We were proud of what we had accomplished, delighted with the final product, and thrilled at the kind words we received. It was time to kick back and enjoy ourselves. For a good minute and a half that is... then we rushed back to our desks to all those Buffy RPG supplements finished. After all, Buffy fans are a demanding lot and we aim to please.