BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
RUPERT GILES
The Watcher
Val CHA Cost Roll Notes 13 STR 3 12- Lift 150 kg; 2 1/2d6 HTH Damage 15 DEX 15 12- OCV: 5/DCV: 5 13 CON 6 12- 10 BODY 0 11- 18 INT 8 13- PER Roll 13- 15 EGO 10 12- ECV: 5 15 PRE 5 12- PRE Attack: 3d6 14 COM 2 12- 4 PD 1 Total: 4 PD (0 rPD) 4 ED 1 Total: 4 ED (0 rED) 3 SPD 5 Phases: 4, 8, 12 6 REC 0 26 END 0 24 STUN 0 Total Characteristics Cost: 56 Movement: Running: 6"/12" Swimming: 2"/4" Cost Powers & Skills Martial Arts: Fencing Maneuver OCV DCV Damage 3 Cut +2 +1 Weapon Strike 4 Disarm -1 +1 Disarm,+10 STR 4 Parry +2 +2 Block, Abort 4 Riposte +2 +2 Weapon +2 DC Strike, Must Follow Block 47 Ritual Magic: Variable Power Pool 40 Points + 20 Point Control Cost Gestures (-1/4), Incantations(-1/4), Requires A Magic Skill Roll (-1/2), Requires Time In Library To Change (-1/2), Variable Limitations (-1/2 On Control Cost, -1 In Other Limitations) Perks 11 Contact: The Watchers' Council (useful skills/resources, has own Contacts, +3; organization, x3 = 12) Talents 3 Resistance (+3 to EGO Rolls vs. interrogation) Skills 9 +3 with Fencing 10 +2 with HTH Combat 3 Breakfall 12- 3 Bureaucratics 12- 3 Concealment 13- 3 Conversation 12- 3 Cryptography 13- 3 Deduction 13- 3 Demolitions 13- 3 Interrogation 12- 3 Inventor/Spell Research 13- 3 Paramedics 13- 3 Persuasion 12- 9 Power/Magic Skill 16- 2 PS: Guitarist 11- 2 PS: Librarian 11- 3 PS: Researcher (INT-based, 13-) 2 PS: Singer 11- 3 Shadowing 13- 3 Stealth 12- 6 WF: Common Melee/Common Missile/staffs/pistols 3 Scholar 1 1) The Academic World (11-) 1 2) English Literature (11-) 2 3) Occult Lore (INT-based, 13-) 1 4) The Occult World (11-) 1 5) Slayer Lore (11-) 2 6) Watchers' Lore (INT-based, 13-) 1 7) Vampire Lore (11-) 3 Linguist (other languages possible) 1 1) Ancient Greek (conversational) 2 2) French (complete w/accent) 1 3) Gaelic (conversational) 2 4) German (complete w/accent) 1 5) Hebrew (conversational) 2 6) Latin (complete w/accent) 1 7) Sumerian (conversational) 3 Well-Connected 10 1) 10 points worth of other Contacts and Favors in the Academic and Occult Worlds 196 Total Powers & Skills Cost 252 Total Character Cost 50+ Disadvantages 5 Age: 40+ 10 Hunted: by the Watchers' Council, 8 (More Powerful, NCI, Watching) 10 Hunted: by Ethan Rayne, 8- (As Powerful, Harm/Kill) 15 Psychological Limitation: Protective of Buffy (common, strong) 10 Psychological Limitation: Scholarly Curiosity (common) 152 Experience 252 Total Disadvantage Points
Background/History: When the mysterious Council of Watchers found that Buffy Summers was going to move to Sunnydale from Los Angeles, they sent the Englishman Rupert Giles to be her new Watcher. Giles arrived in town in advance of Buffy and became the librarian at Buffy's high school, an occupation which provided the perfect cover for his occult research and Buffy's extracurricular training as Slayer. This job also exposed Giles to Buffy's Sunnydale friends, Xander, Willow and Cordelia. At Sunnydale High, Giles also met an outspoken young teacher named Jenny Calendar, who became quite attracted to him and eventually got him to date.
At first, Giles considered Buffy to be hopelessly undisciplined while she became frustrated with his constant invocations of her legacy and "duty." But as the two helped each other survive various deadly encounters, their relationship became one of deep mutual respect. So at one point, Giles confessed to Buffy that he could sympathize with her frustration, since he himself came from a long family line of Watchers who expected him to train, study hard and take up the family legacy in becoming a Watcher. What Giles didn't tell Buffy was that during his college years, he rejected his duty and studies, falling into the London nightlife, joining a punk band under the name "Ripper" and falling in with a shady group of amateur occultists (including one Ethan Rayne). Ethan and Ripper discovered a ritual to summon a spirit demon known as Eyghon the Possessor, after which the group got together frequently, summoning Eyghon, taking turns allowing Eyghon to "ride" them for kicks. This came to an end one night when Eyghon took over one member of the group and refused to leave the body, forcing the cabal to kill their friend in order to stop Eyghon from wreaking havoc on the world at large. The cabal broke up and Giles returned to his studies, becoming a scrupulous Watcher. However, Eyghon was not actually destroyed, and years later it returned to Earth in order to destroy the rest of the cabal. It followed both Giles and Ethan to Sunnydale and eventually managed to possess Miss Calendar. Giles told Buffy everything he knew, but he didn't know how to eliminate Eyghon without also killing Jenny. Fortunately Willow thought to recruit Buffy's vampire boyfriend Angel (q.v.) and get him to attack Eyghon in order to provoke the demon into possessing him. As a vampire, Angel was effectively demon-possessed already, so Eyghon disintegrated for good when it tried to control Angel. However, Miss Calendar was extremely disturbed by the whole experience, and Giles had to spend a lot of time wooing her back.
Unfortunately, by the time Jenny and Giles started dating again, Buffy had accidentally caused Angel to lose his soul and turn evil. At this point Jenny was forced to reveal herself as a member of the very Gypsy clan that had cursed Angel with a soul in the first place, sent by her elders to keep track of his activities. Buffy was enraged that Jenny had been concealing that critical information, and Giles took Buffy's side in the dispute. Trying to make amends, Jenny researched the original Gypsy ritual, but Angelus got wind of her plan, and hunted her down. He then paid a visit to Giles' house. When Giles returned home, there was opera playing on his phonograph, a romantic note on his dresser, and rose petals and candles over his staircase. Thinking Jenny had come over to consummate their relationship, Giles went upstairs- and saw Jenny's corpse, left on his bed as a calling card. Giles almost got himself killed trying to take out Angelus, and later when Angelus needed to solve an occult riddle to open a gateway to Hell, he kidnapped Giles and tortured him for hours, attempting to gain his "advice." Angel was eventually restored to his good self, but the once strong working relationship between him and Giles took a long time to repair.
As Buffy entered her senior year of high school, Giles reached a new point of crisis. By tradition, when a Slayer reaches her 18th birthday, the Watchers have her stripped of her powers- without her consent or knowledge- and pitted against a captive vampire that she must defeat using only her native abilities. As Buffy's Watcher, it was Giles' duty to hypnotize her and drug her with muscle relaxants to cancel her powers. Then he had to watch her panic as she realized she might be permanently helpless against her enemies. When the Watchers' vampire escaped, a desperate Giles confessed everything to Buffy and begged to have the test canceled. Ultimately, Buffy destroyed the vampire (by tricking it into drinking holy water) but it turned out that she wasn't the only one being tested: Giles' superior decided that his attempts to interfere in the result proved that he was "too fond" of his charge and incapable of judging her interests objectively. Giles was fired as a Watcher immediately. Of course, he retained his job as librarian of Sunnydale High and thus remained in daily contact with Buffy and her friends. Giles eventual replacement as Watcher was Wesley Wyndham-Pryce, a prim, officious Englishman whose know-it-all attitude was exceeded only by his lack of field experience. Buffy, deeply unimpressed by Wesley and still pissed by the Council's treatment of Giles, gave absolutely no regard to Wesley's authority and continued to treat Giles as her real mentor- an attitude that Giles himself did nothing to discourage.
This all came to a head when Buffy argued with Wesley over the best tactic to defeat the evil Mayor of Sunnydale, and rather than submit to his authority as Watcher, Buffy made the final decision to quit the Slayer's association with the Watchers' Council. And when she helped plan the Graduation Day battle, Giles was called upon to booby-trap the school library with explosives while Buffy lured The Mayor inside- thus Giles literally destroyed his other career by blowing up the school to stop the demonic Mayor. For over a year after that, Giles remained in Sunnydale but had no real role in life, cut off from the Watchers' Council and realizing that while Buffy and her friends still wanted him around, they didn't actually need him anymore. He lived off his savings, played guitar in the Student Union at UC Sunnydale, and remained the scholarly expert of the Scooby Gang. However, he was getting homesick for England and while he had little place at home as an unemployed ex-Watcher, he wasn't sure what more he could do in California. Soon, what had been unthinkable to Giles became a greater and greater desire, and he started making plans to leave Sunnydale- and Buffy.
Personality: Giles was created as a stereotypical English academic authority- traditional, stuffy and devoted to books, possessed of an acid wit but charmingly shy around women. However, because of the writers- and the masterful performance of Anthony Stewart Head- Giles turned out to be much more complex, and became one of the more fascinating characters in the BUFFY series.
However, the stereotype is still accurate. Giles is devoted to knowledge for its own sake, and appreciates people who have similar goals (giving him a strong working relationship with Willow). He does have an acid wit and does not suffer fools gladly (making his working relationship with Xander difficult).
It should be noted that Giles has a melancholy streak, and when he feels truly despondent or helpless (e.g. the Eyghon case, or much of Season 4) he tends to drink. This never happened so much that Giles became an alcoholic, but it happened often enough to be noticeable.
Even before Giles' dark past was revealed, he proved to be fiercely protective of Buffy, even ruthless when he had to be. At first, he justified this as the proper attitude of a Watcher towards his Slayer, but as the two became closer, Giles accepted his role as Buffy's de facto father figure (especially as Buffy's real Dad became increasingly distant from the family). Giles saw no reason to apologize for this attitude when Buffy was in high school, but after she stood up to the Watchers' Council and planned the Graduation Day battle, Giles realized that Buffy had grown up. He continued to stay in Sunnydale, but over Buffy's first year in college, he became convinced it was time to move on. He actually made plans to leave as early as fall 2000 (early Season 5) but then Buffy suffered a series of crises, starting with the appearance of Glory, that undermined her ability to cope and eventually left her both emotionally and financially dependent on Giles. Giles realized that it wasn't healthy for Buffy to be so dependent at a time in her life when she was supposed to be coming into her own as an adult- and he also realized that because of his own feelings, he wasn't inclined to stop her from leaning on him. So, at the midpoint of Season 6, Giles made a clean break and moved back to England. However, over the remainder of the series (especially the last season) supernatural threats made it necessary for Giles to reenter Buffy's life.
Quote: "For God's sake (Wesley), she's 18. And you have the emotional maturity of a blueberry scone."
Powers/Tactics: Giles was Buffy's weapons trainer, and is especially skilled in the art of Fencing. With a sword in hand, Giles can slay monsters with the best of them. Unfortunately, swords are a lot harder to conceal than stakes, and barehanded, Giles isn't that much tougher than Willow. Giles is best used as the team's general occult scholar, able to translate several obscure languages and possessed of both extensive training and a vast library of reference materials on monsters, Slayer/Watcher lore, and useful spells. It is in this latter capacity that Giles was given a Variable (Magic) Power Pool, which should be treated as optional. Giles justifies the Magic Pool the same way a Gadgeteer in Champions might justify a Gadget Pool. That is, Giles (unlike Willow) doesn't have any innate magical abilities, but his occult knowledge is such that he can often find just the spell he needs for a given purpose by consulting his books, and can cast it with a fair chance of success. Thus the Control Cost takes "needs time in library to change". Likewise, most of the spells are ancient formulae that require Extra Time, Expendable Foci and other ritual requirements in addition to the spellcasting itself. (Ethan Rayne would be built along similar lines as Giles but would be much more malicious in his use of magic.) In any event, Giles never used magic as much as Willow- either because he just wasn't as powerful as Willow, or because, unlike Willow, he'd learned the virtue of restraint. (Since the character is most likely to be used as an NPC, the GM could also hand-wave Giles' occult skills by letting him use Spell Research to design the spell he needs and Magic Skill to see if it works, without needing to spend points on the VPP at all) One other trait of Giles that has often been helpful to the Scooby Gang is his extensive number of contacts, mostly in the academic community back home in Britain, but also including some strange characters from his past. None of these are higher than 11-, since Giles could never rely on his connections that often- yet it was often surprising to discover which ones he had. Ironically, his most important Contact- the Watchers' Council- also had probably the worst relationship with him, with Giles often being the last one to find out about something that had happened to them back in England. Of course for the second part of Season 3 all the way through the midpoint of Season 5, Giles was fired and that Contact was inactive. In Season 5, Buffy convinced the Council to reinstate Giles with back pay, but he didn't rely on the institution as much, preferring to work with individual Watchers and a coven of English Witches he'd allied with after returning home.
Appearance: Rupert Giles is almost 6 feet tall and rail-thin, with a creased face, ice-blue eyes and dark brown hair that gets increasingly gray over the course of the series. He speaks quietly, with a cultured English accent. While he was a Watcher and school librarian, Giles played up the role of the English scholar, wearing round spectacles and dressing in nice tweed suits (with elbow patches) and vests. After Season 3 (when Giles was no longer librarian or Watcher) he became much more prone to dress casually.
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