Drama Points

One of the most fun, cinematic, and risk enducing aspects of this game is by far the Drama point. It is one of my if not my most favorite part of the UNI system. This long winded description applies to how they are used in that system. During play testing the new drama point system will be finalized and then recorded here.

the following text will be edited for format later, for now it is being added so that it is included.

Sometimes a character needs to succeed at something, no matter what odds. In a movie or TV show, the scriptwriter just decides the character succeeds, period. In the Unisysterm, we simulate this with Drama Points. When you use a Drama Point, your character gets a huge bonus to her chances—think of it as the universe lending a helping hand. The impossible shot hits the target, the charging vampire trips and falls right into the stake, the bullet that hit your character was deflected by a lucky coin pendant hanging from her neck. . . all those things are possible when you spend a Drama Point.

The current plan for Drama Points is that they will be used in a small number of ways. The first way is to regain a small set amount of health and stamina in exchange for one point. The second will be a specific bonus amount added to a roll. Lastly will be the ability to perform, or atleast attempt, a complex action.

Up to this point, the rules mostly simulate “reality”— the reality where people get punched and lose teeth, and  where people fail at the most inappropriate moments and  suffer and die as a result. In the Buffyverse (and most  action movies and TV shows), the Cast has the scriptwriters  on their side. The heroes survive against impossible  odds or perform incredible feats at just the right  moment, especially when it’s dramatically appropriate. This affects things beyond deeds. Sometimes the cavalry  arrives in the nick of time, or a vital clue is discovered  just when the characters need it. Then there’s the magical  recovery time—up and about the next day. While  Slayers have supernatural recovery powers, the Scooby  Gang should, by all rights, suffer numerous casualties  every time they come into conflict with vampires or  demons. Yet, they usually escape with little more than a  few bruises. Under “normal” circumstances, Xander and  Willow should have gotten killed or been severely injured  during Season One. With Drama Points, the Cast can  temporarily “short-circuit” reality and perform heroic  feats—do the impossible and win the day. Think of Drama Points as “script aids”—they prevent  the heroes from suffering ignominious, meaningless  deaths because of bad luck. They do not make the characters  unbeatable, however. For one, players get a limited  number of Drama Points, so they have to be used  with great care or the characters may exhaust their good  fortune before the dramatic finale. Also, the bad guys  have Drama Points; this allows even a lowly vampire to  threaten a Slayer with a lucky punch, or the head villain  to escape certain death.

Characters start the game with 10 to 20 Drama Points.

These points are not regained automatically. Drama

Points have to be earned. They may be awarded for performing

heroic feats. They are also given as “payment”

for the times when tragedy or misfortune strikes the Cast.

When bad things happen to good people, the Cast may get

some Drama Points as a “karmic payment.” Finally, Drama

Points are earned when the players help recreate the feel

of the BtVS TV show, by helping develop storylines and

subplots beyond the basic “kill the monster” scenario.

White Hats can really shine here, befriending the more

heroic types and helping them bear their burdens.

Using Drama Points
How can players use Drama Points? Let me count the

ways. Five (short count). Used judiciously, they can

snatch victory from the fanged jaws of defeat. They

include Heroic Feat, I Think I’m Okay, Plot Twist,

Righteous Fury, and the ever-popular Back From the Dead.

As the Director, you have veto power over the use of

Drama Points. Usually, if something bad is slated to happen

to the character, using Drama Points won’t help her

get out of the situation. The consolation prize, however,

is that those situations earn the character extra Drama

Points. So, if Buffy is meant to get blindsided and

knocked out by a hidden villain, Buffy’s player doesn’t

get to use Drama Points to escape her fate, but instead

gets a Drama Point for her troubles. Okay, she’s not

rolling in puppies, but she does have something.

Heroic Feat
Sometimes, a character really needs to land that punch,

disarm the time bomb with ten seconds left on the clock, or

shoot the oxygen tank in the shark’s mouth before it swims

over for a bite. When the Cordelias of the world have to

stake a vampire on the first try, invoke the Heroic Feat.

By spending a Drama Point, the character gets a +10

bonus on any one roll or value. This can be an attack or

defense roll, or any use of a skill, or even a Fear or

Survival Test. The Heroic Feat can also make things

hurt more; the +10 bonus can be added to the base damage

of a single attack strike in addition to any Success Level bonuses (then armor, damage type, and other modifiers

are applied).

A player has to announce her character is using a

Drama Point during the Intentions phase of a Turn (see

p. 128), or before rolling during non-combat situations.

Also, only one Heroic Feat may be performed in a Turn.

It can be used either for attack, defense, or damage, but

not for more than one of those in the same Turn.

EXAMPLES “R” US: Season Five Dawn is being terrorized

by a demon. In a burst of desperate speed,

she kicks it in the groin. Dawn’s player spends a

Drama Point, and she gets a +10 to her Dexterity and

Kung Fu roll (3 and 1 respectively). Before Dawn’s

player even rolls the dice, she has a +14 bonus. Not

surprisingly, the kick lands, and the demon doubles

over with a very surprised expression on its face.

Dawn runs. Cue the Slayer.

I Think I’m Okay
The bullet didn’t hit any vital organs. The character

rolled with the impact and the baseball bat didn’t crush

her skull. The spear got caught in the knight’s chain

mail and no serious damage was done. Somehow, the

injuries that should have killed a character or at least put

her out of commission are not as bad as she thought they

were. Or maybe she got her second wind—a few bandages

on her bloody but largely harmless wounds and she

is ready to go. Whatever the rationale, I Think I’m Okay

allows Heroes, White Hats, and normal humans to get

back into action after enduring beatings that would have

sent a pro football player to the hospital.

For a mere Drama Point, the character heals half the

Life Point damage she has taken up to that point. Round

fractions in the character’s favor (23 points of damage

becomes 11). The character is still bloody and battered,

but she can act normally. I Think I’m Okay can be used

only once per Turn, but it can be used several Turns in a

row, each use halving whatever damage remains. If the

character had suffered enough damage to be incapacitated

or unconscious, however, healing does not necessarily

awaken her. You as Director decide if the time is right for

the character to revive and join the action. Also, if the

injuries were life threatening, you may decide that the

character has to go to the hospital at some point, although

she can wait until the action (or the Episode) is over.

DELUXE EXAMPLE: A sword-wielding vampire runs

Riley through. The wound inflicts 40 points of damage,

and Riley had already been injured for another

36 points previously, so he’s in really bad shape. Not

wishing to see the end of the Initiative Agent, Riley’s

player spends a Drama Point. The 76 points of dam-age are reduced to a “mere” 38 points—not exactly

unhurt, but not dying, either. The sword must have

missed Riley’s vital organs. Next Turn, Riley’s player

could reduce it even further to 19 points, and a

Turn later, to 9 points. This would take three

Drama Points, though—a pretty hefty expenditure.

Plot Twist
The killer accidentally dropped a valuable clue at the

scene of the crime. When the three vampires were about

to finish off Buffy, Angel showed up in the nick of time.

The local thrift shop just happened to have a copy of the

Pergamum Codex on a back shelf. Heroes often find help

and information from the most unlikely places or at precisely

the right time. Once per game session, each character

can spend a Drama Point and get a “break.” This

is not a Get Out of Jail Free Card. If the heroine stupidly

walked into a vampires’ lair and she is surrounded by a

horde of bloodsuckers, a Plot Twist won’t allow her to

escape unscathed. The vampires might decide to keep

her alive, however (after beating her soundly to get some

cheap thrills), and her friends might somehow realize

where she is and come to her rescue. By the same token,

sometimes clues are available, but they cannot be found

at that time. If you decide that a Plot Twist is not possible,

the player gets the Drama Point back.

Righteous Fury
I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore.

Nothing is more deadly than a pissed off heroine; even

the humblest White Hat can become a fearsome enemy

if properly motivated. It takes a lot to drive a character

over the edge, but when it happens most fictional heroes

become unstoppable engines of destruction.

By spending two Drama Points, the character gets a +5

bonus to all attack actions, including magical attacks, for

the duration of the fight. These benefits are cumulative

with Heroic Feats, above. Problem is, an appropriate

provocation is necessary to invoke the Righteous Fury

rule. A player can’t decide her character is pissed about

the existence of vampires, or global warming, or even the

mystery meatloaf they served at school that morning. She

needs to be truly provoked—a brutal attack on a loved

one, an unexpected betrayal of trust, or crimes so horrible

they go beyond the usual vampiric and demonic mayhem.

Back from the Dead
Sooner or later, everybody dies. In the Buffyverse, it’s

usually sooner, but sometimes they manage to come

back. It doesn’t happen often, but it is possible. There

are also ways in which a character remains dead, but she

(or somebody much like her) can still be part of the Cast.

A character who dies may, by spending Drama Points,

make a triumphant return. No return from the grave is without complications, however, and not even Drama

Points can erase the problems that result from cheating

the Grim Reaper.

The sooner the character is back from the dead, the

more Drama Points it costs. Coming back next Season

costs one Drama Point (that means the player is going to

need a new Cast Member until then). Returning for the

next Episode costs five Drama Points. Bypassing death

in the same Episode as one’s demise costs 10 Drama

Points. At your option, a Cast Member with insufficient

Drama Points can pay in installments—all Drama Points

she has now, and any Drama Points she gets in later

Episodes, until the debt is paid. Spending the points is

not enough; you and the player need to work out the

details behind the resurrection. Some possible explanations

follow.

MIRACLE AT THE ER: The hard-working docs at

Sunnydale General Hospital (or the local body and fender

shop) got that heart pumping after some electroshocks,

heart massage, and pure force of will. The character

might have seen visions of the future or the past,

spoken to dead friends and relatives, or undergone some

type of Profound Mystical Experience during the brief

time she was dead.

GHOST WITH THE MOST: The character is dead and buried

but her soul lives on, and she’s not going anywhere. Or

the character may rise as some type of undead. Vampires

are possible, but it’s very hard to be a good vampire.

Zombies tend to stink up the place. But maybe some mystical

force brings the character back as an undead instrument

of vengeance (maybe named after a black carrion

bird?). The character gets at least 10 points’ worth of new

Qualities, and possibly more. Those ain’t free, and must

be paid for with unspent experience points (see pp. 150),

or paid in installments with earned experience points.

GREATER POWER: Perhaps some greater power decides

that the character has not fulfilled her destiny yet. The

reason for the return could be unknown to the character for a while, and thus unexplainable to her friends. The

downside is the greater power’s motivation. Depending

on what’s expected from the resurrectee, it might be better

to have stayed dead. ..

TWIN SIBLING: At the character’s funeral, before you

can say Laura Palmer, there she is, looking sad but perfectly

alive! Well, it’s not really her, just her long-lost

sister/cousin/clone/alternate dimension stand-in/so on

and so forth. The character should be adjusted somewhat,

to reflect the different life story (some skills or

Attributes might be modified).

All these options could be very useful to generate

drama. How will the character’s miraculous return

affect the Series? How will the rest of the Cast react?

What terrible price must be paid for the life that has

been given back?

Earning Drama Points

Once a player spends her Drama Points, they are gone

for good. To get more, she is going to have to work

for them. Fortunately, they can be obtained in a number

of ways.