Byron Falls
Byron Falls
Byron Falls
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Byron
Falls
About Supernatural Drama
A Little Game
John Wick
Contents
The Town . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
The Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
Interests. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
Finished! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
The System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
Grade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
Adults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
Injury & Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
Narration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
Allowance & Jobs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
Stuff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
Summer Vacation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
Monsters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
Soul Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
Vampires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Werewolves. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Warlocks & Witches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Mummies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Animated Monsters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
Everybody wants to be Mister Black . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
My Byron Falls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
The Town . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
Byron Falls High School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
Lastly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Character Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
Page Henley
Most Likely to be
President of the
United States
In the small town of Byron Falls, Minnesota, theres more going on than most
suspect. Witches and warlocks, vampires and werewolves, mummies and ghosts haunt
every corner. And, of course, brilliant, beautiful young girls who want desperately to fall
in love with them.
Im sitting here writing Byron Falls because I was dared to. On Discordia Day
(May 5th, 2010), I did my traditional Discordia Day thing by accepting any and all dares.
Rob Justice (of the Bear Swarm podcast) actually dared me to write this game down.
They heard me talking about it at a convention and thought it was a pretty good idea. So,
here I am, a few months later, actually writing the thing down.
Also, I should mention that this game owes a lot to Nick Watts and his playtest
group. They played the hell out of this game and gave me a ton of suggestions that made
it into the final draft.
So, a big thanks to Nick, Surena, Jason, Monica, Ken, Kelly, Alan and Michael.
The Town
Byron Falls is like any other small town with a whole bunch of supernatural
creatures running around in it. Theres a reason supernatural things are lured here, after
all. In all the world, no small town has more gorgeous, brilliant, witty and lonely girls
than Byron Falls.
Byron Falls also has more than its share of gorgeous, sensitive, artistic and deeply
alienated boys, but nobody really pays much attention to them. Theyre all eclipsed by
the girls.
The town has a grocery store, a barber shop, a public library, a beauty salon, a
soda jerk station and everything else youd expect in a small town. No Starbucks. No
Kentucky Fried Chicken. Even McDonalds missed this little burg. No, sir. Everything
here is family-owned. And we like it that way.
The Characters
To play Byron Falls, you need to make a character. Make a photocopy of the
character sheet, get a pencil and get ready.
Remus
KnightFall
Most Likely
to find the
Mathematical
Solution to
the End of the
Universe
In this game, you play a normal high school student who has been swept up in the
secret world of the supernatural. You dont have any supernatural powers (yet) and you
must rely on others to help you survive.
Name
First, write your characters name on the top of the sheet. Make sure it has a secret
symbolic meaning that only a few people will figure out.
Interests
Next, were going to figure out what kind of student you are. There are five
Interests you can invest in. You get three points to invest in Interests. They are:
Sports: Whenever you want your character to do something physical, use Sports.
Drama: Whenever you are trying to convince someone, use Drama.
Art: Whenever you make something or are handy, use Art.
Studying: Whenever you want to know something, use Studying.
Detention: Whenever you are doing something you shouldnt, use Detention.
Morgan
Starbuck
Most Likely to
Win a Duel to the
Death
Friends
Finally, take a look at the five circles on your character sheet. Each of the circles
on your character sheet represents a Friend. You only have five circles because you can
only have up to five friends.
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Im giving you ten points to spend on your Friends. The more points you spend on a Friend, the
closer you two are. A five point Friend has a more potent relationship with you than a two point Friend.
You cannot put more than five Points into a single Friend.
You may pick Friends from the other players or invent NPC Friends. Whatever you like.
Enemy
You must also pick one Enemy. Again, this may be one of the other players or it could be
someone else
Or, screw it. You must pick one of the other players as your Enemy. Doing this any other way
would be wimpy.
Grade
Also put your characters grade on the sheet. All characters start as Freshmen. Ninth grade.
Finished!
Youre all set now. Ready to head off to Byron Falls High School, meet a dreamy monster, and
start not having sex!
The System
Now to the juicy part. How to get things done in the game.
Whenever your character takes a risk in the game, you get to roll dice.
Well, you dont always get to roll dice. Sometimes you dont. It depends on your Interests and
your Friends.
If you have an Interest thats appropriate to the risk, you can roll a number of dice equal to the
points you invested in your Interest.
If the risk you are about to take has something to do with a Friend, you also get to roll a number
of dice equal to the points you invested in that Friend.
Any evens you roll count as successes. You use successes to narrate the outcome of the risk. If
you dont get any successes, your Enemy narrates the outcome of your risk.
Grade
Finally, for any risk against another character, you get one bonus die per difference in grade. The
higher your grade, the better.
For example, if a 10th grader were picking on an 9th grader, the sophomore gets one bonus die for
the difference in grades.
If a senior (12th grade) were picking on a 9th grader, the senior gets three bonus dice.
Grade provides bonus dice for any risk against another student.
Adults
By the way, adults have their own grade. They get four dice against any student regardless of
grade.
Narration
When you take a risk in the game, you may get successes. Every success you gain allows you to
say one thing thats true about the outcome of your risk.
For example, if your character wants to hack the schools computer system and you roll two
successes, you can say two things about the outcome of your risk.
Another example. Your character wants to make friends with the captain of the soccer team and
you roll three successes, you can say three things about the outcome of the risk.
The Narrator gets to fill in the gaps between your details but the things you want to say are true
about the outcome are true. In other words, every player in the game gets to spend time being the
Narrator.
Using successes means the players really get to be the storytellers. The Narrator only moderates
the action. He also plays the NPCs. That means he plays the monsters.
When you get to narrate the outcome of a risk, remember that you must be responsible. Other
peoples characters are in your hands. Dont be a jerk.
5
(I suggest everyone having a job at the same place. That makes things easier and
means game sessions can take place all in the same area. Give them jobs at the local X
Mart or whatever.)
Stuff
Heres a bump for your character. If your character is using some kind of tool,
technology or equipment or weapon thats appropriate to the risk, you get a bonus die.
There. Something to spend your allowance on.
Summer Vacation
When you hit summer vacation, its time for everyone to change who they are.
This means every character can re-arrange points on the character sheet. Reinvent
yourself.
Todd BrentSmythe
Most Likely to
Star in Interview
with a Vampire
Monsters
Can vampires walk around in sunlight? Do silver bullets really kill werewolves?
And what do you do about sexy mummies?
All of these are answers that must be found in the course of playing the game. The
rules for all the monsters in Byron Falls must be discovered. Listing them here would
spoil the fun.
However, during playtest, the idea of players becoming monsters came up. Nicks
playtest group bent the rules about everyone playing girls (really more a suggestion than
a rule) and the group was filled with male and female characters. And then, one-by-one,
Nick started turning them into monsters. One of them was a vampire, one of them was a
werewolf and one of them was destined to become a mummy but The Flux switched
them out before that could happen.
Veronica
Valentine
Most Likely to
Own a Copy of
Every Creepy Old
Book in America
Nicks reports got me thinking about how to do this and create a system for it
that would be fun and reflect the literature we were trying to recreate. So heres my
suggestion.
Soul Points
First, all the characters have a new stat called Soul. Every character has ten Soul
Points. Players can use a Soul Point for an automatic success. Once its spent, its spent.
Gone forever. No way to get it back.
However, if two characters invest all ten Friend Points into each other (at the
expense of everyone else), those two characters can share Soul Points with each other.
We call these people soul mates.
(Yes, this breaks the rule about not being able to put more than five points into a
single friend. But you have to get someone else to do the same thing.)
If a human character runs out of Soul Points, they die (This breaks rule above, use
at your discression).
Vampires
Now, vampires dont have souls. Or, perhaps they do and those souls are dying.
Or perhaps the souls are hungry. Ill leave that up to you. Drinking blood is a symbol for
drinking the soul or, in our case, drinking Soul Points.
Every three days, a vampire loses a Soul Point. If he ever reaches zero Soul Points,
he vanishes into dust. He must drink bloodSoul Pointsto survive. He cant just drink
blood out of blood bags. Oh, no. He has to perform the ritual of drinking blood from a
human being. Remember: blood is just a symbol. Its the actual Soul Points he needs.
To use any vampire-like power, the monster has to spend a Soul Point.
So, what happens if a vampire eats more than ten Soul Points? Then, he has more
than ten Soul Points. Yes, the more you eat, the more powerful you become.
Werewolves
Werewolves have two souls: a human soul and a wolf soul. That means they have
two sets of Soul Points. Werewolves use their Human Soul Points while in human form
and Wolf Soul Points while in wolf form. Werewolves have five Human Soul Points and
five Wolf Soul Points.
Dave
Waszwiszawatsziszick
Most Likely to
become the next
Iron Chef
Mannin Python
Most likely to
discover the Lost
Continent of
Atlantis
I should throw in a note here. Hey, Narrator? I trust you to make responsible
decisions. Im not going to throw arbitrary rules at you for spells. You make them up. I
trust you. Have fun.
Mummies
Whenever I think of mummies I think of Theda Bara. Go look her up. You wont
be disappointed.
7
Mummies also have Soul Points and can spend them to do mummy things. Like old Egyptian
magic. Except when mummies run out of Soul Points, they go to sleep and spend the next one hundred
years regenerating their Soul Points.
Thats one Soul Point per decade.
Animated Monsters
Golems, Frankenstein Monsters, animated dolls and sentient robots can be made from magic or
science. Either way, the Soul Points they have are infused into them by another. The powers they have
are determined by the creator. Using any powers costs a Soul Point. Of course, once the Soul Points run
out, the life leaves the animated creature. Perhaps the creator can add more Soul Points
My Byron Falls
Everyones Byron Falls is going to be different. This one is mine. I hope it inspires ideas of your
own.
The Town
My Byron Falls is located north of the Twin Cities, just above White Bear Lake. It has more old
buildings than new ones, more churches than bars and more traffic lights than cops.
The population grew quickly at the turn of the century with an influx of intel companies looking
for cheap land. The City Council kept the buildings at the edge of town, making town feel like a small
patch of wood and iron surrounded by steel and glass.
The Fallsas the locals call itcan be broken down into sections.
Theres Town Square, the oldest part of The Falls. This is where all the olde shoppes and
government buildings can be found. Theres the fire department, the sheriff s office, the county
surveyor, the town council building and the mayors office. All in one small circle of buildings.
Outside that circle is the richest part of the town. These are the tall, three story mansions built
during the early part of the 19th century. The houses are huge, the lawns go on forever and every
building has a wall around it. Old, stone walls. Except for where the owners bricked in the parts that fell
down.
The East Side of the town hedges on White Bear Lake and thats where the fishing industry is.
Large warehouses, boats and docks.
On the West Side, the modern buildings have crept in, bringing jobs and new money.
9
Earl knows nothing about the secrets of Byron Falls. Vampires, werewolves and
mummies? Nonsense. He sees the world as an engineer does. And when things get
broken, what do you do? You fix them.
Angel Dante
Most Likely to
be a Best Selling
Romance Writer
Diana
Rosensteel
Most Likely to
be the Next Miss
America
In my Byron Falls, the former is the case. Joy Hickey is an amazingly gorgeous
woman but her beauty is eclipsed by her modesty and her lack of self-confidence. Of
course, all the boys (and a few of the girls) are completely enamored with her.
She loves to paint, loves to draw, loves to sculpt, loves to do anything that results
in something you can hold when youre finished. She doesnt exactly understand video
games (Why devote so much time to an activity that doesnt produce something?) and
tries to encourage the students to make things with their hands.
The students also cant help but notice that shes Ms Hickey and not Mrs.
Hickey.
Because of the internet, most of his matches and promos from his wrestling days
are online. The students like calling him by his wrestling name, Mister Grim. At first,
he objected, but since then, hes come to accept it.
Mister Grim initially resented having to take a job as a PE Teacher, but hes since
fallen in love with helping kids. He hates bullies and punishes them with laps or sit-ups.
Hes also the coach for Byron Falls Highs three teams: the football team, the girls soccer
team and the baseball team. Hes tried starting a girls softball team but no luck so far.
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Lastly
A few people have asked me if Byron Falls is a response to a particular work. A specific piece of
popular fiction. I have to admit, it is.
The story of a beautiful high school girl falling in love with a monster and all the melodramatic
soap opera nonsense that follows is indeed the inspiration for this work.
So, thank you, Joss Whedon. I owe this game to you.
Friends:
Name:
Name:
Details:
Character Sheet
Name:
Details:
Soul:
Interests:
Art
Detention
Sports
Drama
Studying
Name:
Details:
Job:
Money:
Stuff:
Name:
Details:
Enemy:
Name:
Details:
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