So it’ll certainly be no surprise to anyone who’s read more than, like, two sentences here that I was a fan of the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” TV show. But I also, back in the day when I had more free time, was a fan of the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” board game. What’s that? You ask, “There was a BtVS board game?” Well of course there was.

In fact, I liked this game so much that I bought a backup copy, since the materials are mostly cardboard and subject to degradation by things like soda spills, getting abducted by the dog, or being exposed to sunlight and bursting into flames. Well, maybe not that last one.

Anyway, despite the fact that I have two copies of this game, I haven’t played it in years. So why am I thinking about it now? Because Amazon asked me a question about it, on behalf of a potential purchaser of the product, who wondered how many people can play. I didn’t actually remember the answer to the question (Survey says: Vampire. No, wait. Survey says: 2 – 5 players.),  but being a former D&D geek, and having at some point realized that there were plenty of story arcs and characters not represented in the board game (it came out before Season 5, so it was missing Glorificus, or Dark Willow, or those three nerdy guys who brought on Dark Willow … well, maybe it wasn’t actually missing the three nerdy guys), there really wasn’t any reason I couldn’t add my own scenarios. So after leaving an answer to that effect for the person inquiring about the number of players, I thought I would dust off one of those old scenarios and post it here, on the off chance that anyone still plays the BtVS game and might be interested in expanding its horizons a bit. And where better to start than with the Season 2 Big Bad?

The Angelus Scenario as a PDF

Angelus

A 2nd Season Scenario for the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” Board Game from Hasbro

Having lost his soul, the good vampire Angelus has turned evil, and plans to destroy the earth by unleashing the demon Acathla.

Evil Set-up:

Angelus starts on the Judge’s start space in the Factory.

Angelus starts with Drusilla and Vamp X as minions. He may summon additional minions if he obtains the required cards.

Special Artifact:

Use any Story Artifact card to represent Acathla and three other non-story artifact cards. Acathla has no abilities of its own.

Evil Objective:

Angelus must return Acathla to the Vamp X start square in the Factory and successfully roll his Magic dice plus at least one point of damage or a fang on his fight dice to unleash Acathla and destroy the world.

Good Set-up:

Substitute Spike for Oz. Spike gets 2 Fight dice and 1 Magic die. Like Oz, Spike can carry 1 card of each type. He gets 8 Life points (use the Werewolf / Oz track to record these). If Spike ends his movement on a black circle, he gains 1 Life point (to a maximum of 15). Spike is a “Good Vampire”, so he can be burned by the sun, but he may also enter private homes. Spike starts on the “Oz Start” space in the Bronze.

Good Objective:

Destroy Angelus, or restore his soul.

RESTRICTIONS:

When you roll three small flames, you may also move Angelus.

Living Flame research cards cannot be used to destroy Acathla.

Buffy can attack Angelus, but only until he becomes wounded; then she must break off her attack and return to the nearest ally’s start square before resuming normal movement. Once he is wounded, Buffy can no longer attack Angelus or use magic to harm him. Buffy cannot attempt to dust Angelus. These restrictions are removed once Angelus gains control of Acathla.

Spike and Drusilla can attack each other, but if either reduces the other to X life points, the character is considered unconscious, not dead. At this point any adjacent character may “pick up” the unconscious character and carry him or her until the character wakes up again. By picking up Spike or Drusilla, the other character must discard any Research or Weapon cards carried; if the unconscious character is not picked up, he or she remains on the square where the knockout occurred. Other characters may freely move over the unconscious one, but cannot stop on the square, attack the unconscious character, or attempt to retrieve an artifact or draw a card from the square. The unconscious character discards all cards except permanently-attached Artifacts, and cannot use any cards until he or she awakens. (Non-permanent artifacts are returned to a corner as per the rules for killing a character.) The unconscious character will wake up the next time the moon phase changes. The amount of life he or she will awaken with depends on the moon phase:

• Sunrise: 1 Point
• New Moon: 4 Points
• Other: 2 Points

Restoring the unconscious character’s life points (e.g., by a healing spell) will cause him or her to awaken immediately. If the pawn is being carried by another character, that character may drop it at any time in an adjacent square; once the unconscious character wakes up, it must be dropped immediately in an adjacent square. If there is no adjacent square available, place the formerly-unconscious pawn in the nearest empty square. The unconscious pawn’s player chooses in the event of a tie. (If it is sunrise and no indoor square is available, the unconscious vampire is destroyed. Similarly, if caught outdoors and not immediately adjacent to a building entrance, the vampire being carried is destroyed. If Spike or Drusilla is being carried by another vampire and sunrise occurs, and a building entrance is immediately adjacent, place the formerly-unconscious vampire in the square nearest the door and the carrying vampire in an adjacent indoor square.)

Spike and Drusilla can be destroyed normally by other characters; no other pawns are subject to knockout.

Yeah, I actually wrote that up like some sort of technical spec, with a surprising number of paragraphs devoted to Spike carrying Drusilla around and vice-versa.  (If you watched the show, you know that used to happen.  A lot.)  Like I said, I seem to have had way more time on my hands fifteen years ago than I do now. Unfortunately, right now a lot of that reads like gibberish to me, but I’m sure if I actually took the game down off the shelf and read through the instructions, I would remember how to play, and then this scenario would make sense again.

So. Anybody up for a game of “Buffy”? I call dibs on Willow!