Watcher Council Challenge – WWC1

By Holly Boehmer (scullyangel), evil sister of Watcher X

Watcher’s Council Challenge – WWC1

Recently I sat down with WatcherX, creator of the official Watcher’s Council Challenge, and force...er, asked really nicely if he would detail the instructions. He refused to divulge any information until I kindly reminded him that I had his keys, at which point he made a rather nasty face, sighed dramatically and said, “Fine.”

So here’s the dirt! J

The Watcher’s Council Challenge is a special format challenge issued by a Watcher and played by four players using Hero aligned decks. The individual players construct the Hero aligned decks in advance choosing whichever essence they wish and following the normal rules for deck construction. All Buffy CCG cards are legal, but no virtual cards should be used. Ideally, the four players will have no advance knowledge of what the challenge will be like, and simply be told that they will need a Hero based deck.

The Watcher plays The First Evil. The Essence of The First Evil, available for download at http://members.aol.com/pandorasboxol/thefirstevilessence.jpg , is not legal for normal game play or tournaments that allow Score virtual cards, and is only intended to be used in this format.

Deck construction for The First Evil:

2 separate decks are used.

Deck 1 is a character deck and consists solely of Villains and minions.

·         One copy of any version of every Villain and minion should be included in the deck, but not more than one version of any of the characters. (Ex: You may not include Mayor L1 if you already have Mayor L3 in the deck.) Characters may be placed into play ignoring restrictions or the need to ascend. For example, you may choose to include Principal Snyder L2 and Mayor Richard Wilkins L3. The Judge may be played without defeating the Jigsaw Judge.

·         Four copies of The Harbingers are needed, but kept separate from the deck until play set up.

Deck 2 is a resource deck and consists of actions, items, skills, and events - the total number of these cards should equal the total number of cards in your Villain / minion deck. Each Watcher may decide what method and cards they would like to use. WatcherX recommended a lot of movement and fight cards, with a focus on additional actions providing Butt-Kicking with items boosting weirdness, smarts and charm. The following are some of the cards WatcherX used in the official version of this challenge.

·         X-Only card: All Buffy only cards

·         Fight: Testosterone, Creep Factor, Been There Killed That, The Dead Have Risen, Disturbing Features, Love Tattoo

·         Movement cards: Old Madison Body Switch, Electrical Tunnel Schematic, Fast Pace, Giles Mobile, I Quit, Run Fast, Spike’s Car, Grounded, Drive Like Crazy, Compound Bow, Mobile Tracking System, Sunset, Full Moon

·         Weapons: Stake and Crossbow, Quarterstaff, Balthazar’s Amulet, Faith’s Knife, Chains

Remember, the Essence of The First Evil allows all her supporting characters to ignore talent requirements when attaching or using cards, so it’s no problem for Balthazar to attach and use a Compound Bow or play “I Quit” in order to bail on a fight and advance another location!

Setting up the challenge.

The First Evil and Essence are placed closest to the Watcher, facing the four challengers. The Watcher chooses four starting characters from his personality deck. WatcherX started the challenge with Spike L3, Drusilla L3, Angelus L2, and The Judge. The personality deck is then shuffled. Once shuffled the four Harbingers are inserted into the deck. The first Harbinger approximately ¼ from top, the second Harbinger at the center of deck, the third ¾ from top, and the last within the bottom 5 cards of the deck. The four chosen characters are placed face up in front of The First Evil - this is considered to be the Hellmouth. The “Commencement Ceremonies” challenge is placed in front the Watcher’s character lineup and is considered to be atop the Hellmouth.

Essence - The First Evil L1

Character 1 Character 2 Character 3 Character 4

Commencement Ceremonies

Location 4 Location 3 Location 2 Location 1

The four challengers are then informed of the rules.

1.      Players will not need to use their challenge decks for this event.

2.      The First Evil has taken up residence in Sunnydale and even the Big-Bads are heading out of town before the final showdown.

3.      Working alone or together, the players must prevent the bad guys from escaping Sunnydale and defeat The First Evil by completing the challenge “Commencement Ceremonies.”

4.      After the rules of the game have been explained the players may roll for placement or may decide amongst themselves as to seating and order of play.

5.      At any time during the game players may confer and strategize with each other. (During his event, WatcherX did not announce this to the players and only acknowledged that it was fine to do so when asked by one of the players.)

6.      Each player will be allowed to place one location into play. Player #1 places location #1, the location furthest from the Hellmouth. Player #4 places the location closest to the Hellmouth.

7.      All four main characters will start the game at location one.

8.      Play steps are the same as used in a regular game of Buffy: Prologue, Draw, Refresh, Movement, Resource, Conflict, and End.

9.      During play if a Villain or minion escapes Sunnydale by moving from location #1 to outside Sunnydale, the talents on “Commencement Ceremonies” are all increased by +1. (Ex: If Angelus and Drusilla have escaped the talent requirements would each be increased by +2, thus to defeat “Commencement Ceremonies” players would need to meet the new talents 9B, 9S, 9W, and 9C.)

10. No player may face “Commencement Ceremonies” if their main character is not at the Hellmouth facing the challenge. (Ex: A player using the Willow Essence is participating. The player’s Willow L1 and a supporting Xander L1 are both in play. Xander has made it to the Hellmouth, but Willow is still at location 4. This player may not initiate or participate in an attempt to defeat “Commencement Ceremonies” until Willow reaches the Hellmouth.)

11. When facing “Commencement Ceremonies” any number of players may face the challenge at the same time or players may face the challenge individually one at a time. During Challenge/Choose if a player decides to face the challenge she may ask any or all players who have a main character capable of facing the challenge if they would like to join forces. All players facing the challenge draw cards and may throw cards into talent stacks.

12. Whether facing the challenge alone or with another player, no one may attempt the challenge more than once per turn unless a card effect allows them to do so.

13. Any level of character will be allowed to face and defeat “Commencement Ceremonies.” This includes all Heroes and Companions.

14. During the Movement Step, if a character controlled by The First Evil can move, they must move. Normal movement for characters of The First Evil can only be away from the Hellmouth. (Ex: The Judge is at location #2. During his next movement step if he can move he must move to location #1 unless a card effect allows him to move elsewhere. He could however be placed back at location # 4 if he is switched with another character at location #4 by using “The Old Madison Body Switch.” Cards may only move characters to locations within Sunnydale; the Watcher may not “Body Switch” a character that has escaped Sunnydale with a character inside Sunnydale, nor may he “Fast Pace”, “Mobile Tracking System”, etc. a character out of Sunnydale, although he could advance the character from the Hellmouth all the way to location #1.)

15. When a supporting character for The First Evil moves from the Hellmouth to one of the locations, a card is drawn from the character deck and placed face down in the vacant spot.

16. Any face down cards in the supporting character line for The First Evil are turned face up during the Prologue step. When a Harbinger is revealed the spot is locked. The Harbinger may not move and may not be part of a fight, thus no new characters will ever be placed there. The First Evil may draw one additional card during the draw step for each Harbinger that has been revealed.

17. During the draw step and during fights and the challenge, The First Evil only draws from the resource deck and never from the character deck.

18. When a player or multiple players attempt “Commencement Ceremonies” The First Evil draws the same number of cards as drawn during the draw step plus one card for every player attempting the challenge. (Ex: If 2 Harbingers are revealed and 3 players are attempting “Commencement Ceremonies” The First Evil would draw 10 cards. 5 for the normal draw plus 2 cards for the revealed Harbingers, plus 3 additional cards for the 3 players attempting the challenge.)

19. When a supporting Villain or minion is discarded for any reason it is placed into the Crypt.

20. Play ends when one or more players defeat “Commencement Ceremonies” or when all Harbingers have been revealed and all characters not in the Crypt of The First Evil have escaped Sunnydale. If multiple players defeat “Commencement Ceremonies” all are considered to have defeated The First.

So there you go. Watcher’s of the world unite! I hope you all manage to host fun events around this challenge. Feel free to e-mail any clarification questions to PandorasBoxOL@aol.com.

Hmmm, next time perhaps I’ll abduct WatcherX’s laptop and issue a ransom note demanding the creation of a big bad event ensuring an exciting new challenge for fans of Villain decks. I’ll keep you posted! J

Good luck and happy slaying!

Happy Holidays

By Dave Gerspach (dgjedi), WCA Co-Chair

On behalf of the entire WCA I’d like to wish the entire Buffy CCG community a happy holiday season. One of the best reasons to still play the Buffy CCG is the opportunity to gather in playful competition with such a wonderful group of people. And remember, Buffy CCG products make for very economical stocking stuffers.

I can’t thank Holly enough for contributing to the newsletter. That is an open invitation to anyone who wishes to do likewise.

We’re about to complete our first year without active support from Score Entertainment, and I think we’ve held our own. We’re still finding new players and we’re still making our presence known in the gaming community. I’d like to think we can keep this going through 2005 and beyond.

Thank you.

Slayer Strategies

By (This Could Be You)

Let everyone else know how creative you are and share your strategies.

The next Newsletter (Volume 2, Issue 1) will hopefully be released sometime in January, 2005.J

All logos, characters, and likenesses thereof are TM & © Twentieth Century Fox. All game mechanics and card likenesses are © Score Entertainment. Use of these are without permission and are not meant as a challenge to any copyright held.