Trashdome - Buffy TVS vs Betrayal At House On Hill

Unlike most of the voters, I actually own and have played both games. Both games are great, stupid fun. Both are dripping with theme. However, in this contest, if I could choose only one, the choice would be easy.

Vote: Betrayal at House on the Hill

It is fast, fun, and there is really not much else like it out in the gaming world (Other than Chill: Black Morn Manor, which I have not played.) As Octavian said, maybe one out of four haunts will get messed up due to poor writing or such, but the other three games are some of the greatest gaming experiences I've had. (Seriously, I don't think the rules issues are as big as people make them out to be. There may occasionally be a bit of puzzling out, but it is nothing gamebreaking.) The variety of scenarios is vast, and there is a lot of replayability. I've probably played it at least 20 times.
Buffy, on the other hand, has two scenarios.

Scenario 1: Kill the Master.
Scenario 2: Find an item and destroy it. The item will probably attack you when you find it. If the bad guys get it, Kill the Big Bad who wakes up (Adam, The Judge, or The Mayor).

Fun, but not a lot of variety. I may be oversimplifying a bit, but I'm not going to go look at the rulebook to check.
Every time I play Betrayal, it is exciting; the house setup will be new, the haunt will probably be new, and I will have a unique experience. Even if I just need to accomplish 5 might checks in the upstairs Underground Lake (This is the single greatest moment in adventure gaming... discovering an underground lake it the attic. Why is an underground lake in the attic? Does the attic follow Euclidean geometry? Are Time and Space distorted by the power of the evil?), the journey, and the story of how I got there are different each time. And while some of the scenarios are campy and cliche (not necessarily a bad thing), some are moderately disturbing (also not necessarily a bad thing). Buffy doesn't do that for me. Not even with a rocket launcher.

Maybe the difference is that I'm a die-hard horror fan, but don't really care for Buffy: The Series. I even held off on playing this one for a while, because I was embarrassed by the source material. I never would have even picked it up if it weren't for many positive reviews I have read, and the fact that I got it for two dollars. I probably wouldn't miss it if it were gone, though.

A quick show of hands please from anyone who thinks that the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer was in any way supposed to have a "horror" theme.

Sag.

Sagrilarus wrote:

A quick show of hands please from anyone who thinks that the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer was in any way supposed to have a "horror" theme.

Sag.

If you were really familiar with the show, you would understand that the light-hearted treatment of horror is just the surface. Beneath the surface is a subtext equating the high school experience itself with horror. That's part of the reason why the show lost its way when Buffy went off to college. But you were probably distracted by the attractive young women delivering Whedonesque quips and totally missed any deeper meaning.

Played Betrayal once. It was sort of fun but ended rather abruptly.

Never played Buffy, never saw the show, but I don't like the idea.

Hence, in the spirit of this thread

Vote: Betrayal At the House on the Hill

Betrayal:

Now here's a game with a great theme.... with mechanics that are seriously messed up. Fun to look at; zero fun to play.


Buffy:

I can barely bring myself to write it, much less play it. Are you boys kidding me?


Gun: Russian Roulette

Oh, I don't know. Guess which one theoretically wins?(LOL)

A+ for excitement level.

---

VOTE: Going outside and tossing the football around, taking a hike or riding your bike around the block or something. Something.

This just in. A Swindon man was arrested late last night for breach of the peace and had his megaphone confiscated. Police could appreciate why he was bellowing "you fucking trainspotter" in the general direction of Didcot, but were concerned to discover why this was immediately prefaced by "I have an unpunched Buffy". The man was released without charge.

In America, Michael Barnes announces his intention to run for congress. His reason for this change of career is cited as his new found love for agriculture. In a press conference earlier, Mr Barnes announced that his party slogan will be the bizarre and evocative "He fucking dick then vote ATOE". Political commentators have described his play for the two voting blocs of farming and fetishism as either a stroke of genius or the work of a madman.

Meanwhile, in other news, beuks' mother . . .

Somehow Betrayal side-stepped the rocket launcher that ubarose tossed to Buffy. This combined with Southernman voting on the same side as Octavian is probably how it managed to be victorious here.

Betrayal At House On The Hill = 17
Aarontu
Shellhead
Michael Barnes
Rliyen
Columbob
mrmarcus
Southernman
MattLoter
Death and Taxis
NeonPeon
mjl1783
Octavian
lj1983
Ska_baron
LordVonTush
Beisaic
Tamburlaine

Buffy - The Vampire Slayer (US) = 14
dysjunct
metalface13
KingPut
Juniper
mads b.
Space Ghost
ubarose
Mr MOTO
Sagrilarus
Ken B.
Notahandle
Bullwinkle
Hatchling
MrZir

Mad Dog,
How are you going top the last two Trashdomes? I can't wait til Monday.

Mad Dog wrote:

... This combined with Southernman voting on the same side as Octavian is probably how it managed to be victorious here.

Octavian had a little visit from da Family and he is now seeing things from a correcter perspective.

The bar is raised! Mad Dog, you've done it again my friend!

Looks like once again the right game won...you know, there's a pattern emerging in these Trashdomes- if Ken B. votes for it, it's going to lose.

Except AToE, and in his heart he probably voted for it anyway but just wanted to look "cool" for voting LNoE.

KingPut wrote:

Mad Dog,
How are you going top the last two Trashdomes?

There is no spoon.

once again the wrong game wins.