Editing Save the Last Slayer

A campaign setup for Buffy: The Vampire Slayer done Hip Hop Style. Jammin.  

<p>Buffy was a white girl in a rich white school because Joss wanted to deal with the Donna Reed issues of the old sitcoms his grandfather wrote. A more recent phenomena in teen movies is the outsider picture: a show focusing on either a white student in a mostly black or hispanic (and usually urban at-risk) school, or a non-white student in an all white (and usually upper crust) school. Save the Last Dance is one of the more successful uses of this formula, and so will form the basis "must see" for this Buffy campaign dealing with racism, inner city life, and big bad voodoo daddies. </p><p><strong>Formula</strong>: Save the Last Slayer is a series about fighting demons and vampires while struggling to fit in with all the normal teen angst with the addition of racial and cultural difficulties in a rough urban environment. Take two parts Buffy, two parts Save the Last Dance, and dashes of Boston Public, O, and Dangerous Minds and shake well.</p><p><strong>Theme</strong>: The themes of the series are all grouped around poverty, racism, and the process of ghettoization. Seasons will focus around questions like: Can teens of different backgrounds learn to work together? Who benefits from racism and segregation? Where does racism start, and how does it continue? While these are serious issues that doesn't meant that they have to be dealt with heavily, and the should not be dealt with philosophically. They should manifest as actual problems that have solutions in actions. Take, for example, the scenes from Save the Last Dance when Chenille and Sara get in a fight over Sara, the white girl, coming into the hood and snatching up the only college bound black boy in the school. It was a real issue, dealt with all sorts of problems, but did so in a practical way that was solved through character actions of patience and friendship. </p><p><strong>Production</strong>: Hip Hop, sly urban fashions, techno-revolutionishm, and voodoo syncretism will rule the day. The look will be slick, Buffyish but with a level of grime, against which the eye-popping slammin fashions of the characters will stand out. Hip Hop symbolizes the urban fusion of cultures, sounds, and moves that make up a unique but potentially binding fashion and way of seeing. Techno revolutionism takes the tech geek image but adds the wheels of activism and the cyberpunk ideal that "the streets find their own uses for corporate toys." Voodoo syncretism represents the aspects of cultural integration and belief, both good and bad, easy and scary, that replaces Buffy's (now) safe Wicca as the counter-cultural force of magical change. </p><p>The soundtrack will have lots of Missy Elliot, Outkast, Beyonce, Freeway, and Santana with occasional salsa and gangsta rap rounding out the diversity.  

</p><p><strong>Characters</strong>: General rules for Buffy characters should apply. Hero characters are good for slayers, tough ex-bangers, voodoo priestesses, and experienced watchers. White hats are fitting for everyone else, as even tough inner city kids are still teenagers and aren't really ready to take on vampires. </p><p>Genre convention characters would include: the white slayer who's new to the hood, the activist teacher/watcher who is informed, poetical, and down with it (Mr. Campbell or Mr. Morgan from 10 Things I Hate About You), the slayer's best friend who just happens to be a no-nonsense master of urban life, the good kid struggling to not get sucked into gang life, the banger who still has a heart, the activist kid struggling to make the hood a place worth living, the techno-revolutionary, the musician and/or dancer, the capoeira fighter, the bookish girl trying to get out of the hood through study, the jockish boy trying to get out of the hood through sports, the local cop who wants to help, the Obeah worshiper, the Umbanda magician. Really just about any Buffy type can be used, but they should be made hip, urban, and racially conscious in some way -- this isn't Sunnydale, biatch, it's Compton. </p><p>Hip Hop could be taken as a wild card skill that covers Acrobatics for dancing only, Influence for fashion and dealing with those in the scene only, Knowledge of fashion, music and clubs, and Language for slang only. It's potent in it's sphere, but that sphere is limited. Fashion Sense could be taken as a new advantage, working just like Appearance except that it works on anyone in the scene rather than just anyone sexually compatible. Thus it'll impress anyone at the club, girl or boy, but won't gain you crap from a cop or teacher. </p><p>Magic needs few changes, as much of the voodoo feel can be done with the existing rules. The feel may, however be quite different, and those wanting lots of info should check out the appendix of the Magic Box and GURPS Voodoo. Another route to go with voodoo characters is to make them Tribal Warriors (ala the Slayers Handbook quality) with abilities based on their Loa. A 15 point version of the merit could be taken by those that can switch their Loa (and rearrange their bonuses) with a 2ish hour ritual. </p><p><strong>The Big Bad(s)</strong>: Initial bads will focus on the typical inner city problematic, but with a Buffy twist. Corrupt cops working for sorcerers, vampiric gangs, land-developers and politicians who traffic with demons, and wicked country western pied pipers will all have appearances. Behind it all lurk a pair of really bad and really big forces: Zarabanda and Mbua. Zarabanda is the berserker, the murderer and foul-warrior who uses images of proud African warriors to drive gangs (mortal and vampire) to greater acts of violence, brutality, and racism. Mbua is the Great White Hunter who keeps men in cages before hounding them to death, he uses his image of power, exotic sport, and wealth to drive white developers and politicians towards greater and greater acts of greed and violence. The two are actually working together, playing one side of hate off the other to increase the pain and suffering in the hood until they can summon their brother Ikku -- Death. Once he comes the neighborhood will be turned into a demon realm, a place of endless suffering and death. That is, of course, unless those nosey kids do something to screw up their plans.