Overview

Buffy the Vampire Slayer CCG is a two-player collectible card game where one player controls the heroes (Buffy and friends) and the other controls the villains. Players build custom decks, deploy characters across the town of Sunnydale, engage in fights, face challenges, and collect Destiny Points. The game features a day/night cycle that affects vampires, a location-based movement system, and a talent-based combat resolution. The first player to 10 Destiny Points or to control Sunnydale Park for 6 consecutive turns wins.

Components

• Resource Deck (custom-built deck of action, skill, item, event, episode, character, and location cards)
• 7 Challenge Cards per player (shuffled into a Challenge Deck)
• Essence Card (tracks Destiny Points, 0-10 scale)
• Main Character card (level 1 starting character)
• Day/Night card
• Playmat with 4 location spaces per player plus Sunnydale Park

Setup

1. Build a deck (or use a starter deck, removing First Patrol logo cards).
2. Shuffle your 7 challenge cards face-down to form your Challenge Deck. Flip the top card face-up.
3. Separate out your location cards (0-8 allowed, only 4 playable during setup).
4. Shuffle your Resource Deck and offer opponent the chance to cut.
5. Both players simultaneously reveal their Essence card and level 1 Main Character card. Place Essence card at 0 on the Destiny Point tracker.
6. Determine the active player: Villains always go first. If no Villains, use any random method.
7. Starting with the active player, place level 1 Main Character cards on one of your 4 empty location spaces in Sunnydale.
8. The active player chooses whether the game begins during day or night. Rotate the Day/Night card accordingly.
9. Alternating with the active player going first, play location cards on your location spaces (you may leave some empty). Unused location cards go to the Crypt.

Turn Structure

Both players go through all steps together, alternating “watches” (sub-actions) within each step. The active player goes first in each step. When all players consecutively pass in a step, proceed to the next step.

Step 1: Prologue Step

• Mandatory: Place a challenge from your Challenge Deck into play on a legal location space and flip the next challenge face-up. If you cannot legally place it, put it on the bottom and flip the next card (only once per Prologue Step).
• Play an event card.
• Play an action card playable in this step.
• Use an effect of a card in play.

Step 2: Draw Step

• Choose 0-5 cards in your hand to keep; discard the rest.
• If you have fewer than 5 cards, refill to 5 from your Resource Deck.
• If the Resource Deck runs out mid-draw, reshuffle your discard pile into a new Resource Deck and continue drawing.

Step 3: Refresh Step

• Mandatory: Refresh all your fatigued cards (turn horizontal cards vertical). Done once per step.
• Play action cards or use effects playable in this step.

Step 4: Movement Step

• Move a character to an adjacent location space or to/from Sunnydale Park.
• Only 1 character may move per watch. Characters move 1 location space per watch.
• Vampires cannot move during the day but may move 2 times per turn at night.
• Non-Vampires move 1 location space per turn, day or night.
• Moving from Sunnydale Park to an opponent’s location fatigues your character; other moves do not fatigue.
• Play action cards or use effects playable in this step.

Step 5: Resource Step

• Place a level 1 character on one of your 4 location spaces.
• Place an Episode Part 1 card into play.
• Ascend a character (advance to next level if you hold the next level card and meet the Destiny Requirement).
• Attach a skill to a character (fatigues the character; 1 skill per character per turn).
• Attach an item to a character (does not fatigue; max 2 items per character).
• Swap an item between characters at the same location (1 swap per watch; each item swapped once per turn).
• Resurrect your Main Character from the discard pile (place level 1 card back into play; once per turn).
• Play action cards or use effects playable in this step.

Step 6: Conflict Step

• Fight one of your opponent’s characters (see Fight Phase below).
• Face a challenge with your characters (see Challenge Phase below).
• Play action cards or use effects playable in this step.

Step 7: End Step

• Play action cards or use effects playable in this step.
• After all players pass, turn the Day/Night card. The active player shifts to the left.

Actions

Fight Phase

Fights resolve through 5 stages:

A. Fight/Choose: Defender may choose a Stunt-Double (fatigue another character at the same location to fight instead). Play action cards/effects playable in this stage.

B. Fight/Draw: Both players draw 5 cards from their Resource Decks.

C. Fight/Battle: Players alternate placing cards into talent stacks to boost one of four talents (Butt-Kicking, Smarts, Charm, Weirdness). Action cards boost by their icon value; skills, items, and episodes boost by 1. Play action cards/effects playable in this stage.

D. Fight/Resolve: Play action cards/effects. When both pass, resolve: the character with the highest resolving talent (default: Butt-Kicking) wins. The losing character is discarded. Winner gains 1 Destiny Point. If a Main Character is defeated, their owner also loses 1 Destiny Point. Ties mean both characters are discarded with no Destiny Points gained.

E. Fight/Discard: Mandatory: discard down to 5 cards. Play action cards/effects. If the attacker won, their character fatigues.

Challenge Phase

Challenges resolve through 5 stages:

A. Challenge/Choose: Play action cards/effects.

B. Challenge/Draw: Attacking player draws 5 cards; defending player draws 3.

C. Challenge/Battle: Attacker places cards into talent stacks to meet challenge’s talent goals. Defender places cards to raise the talent goals. Defender can only boost talents that appear on the challenge.

D. Challenge/Resolve: If the combined talents of facing characters meet or exceed all talent goals (plus opponent’s boosts), the challenge is defeated. Defeating a challenge earns Destiny Points printed on the card. All characters involved fatigue.

E. Challenge/Discard: Mandatory: discard down to 5 cards.

Character Ascension

• Characters ascend from level 1 to 2, then 2 to 3, etc.
• Requires the next level card in hand and meeting the Destiny Requirement printed on it.
• Each character may ascend once per turn and cannot skip levels.
• If Destiny Points later drop below the requirement, the character does not lose a level.

Scoring / Victory Conditions

Victory Condition 1 – Destiny Victory: Reach 10 or more Destiny Points. You win immediately.

Victory Condition 2 – Park Victory: Control Sunnydale Park at the end of the turn for 6 consecutive turns. “Control” means only your characters are in the park at end of turn. If any opponent’s characters are present or the park is empty, the count resets to 0.

Destiny Points Sources

| Source | Points | |——–|——–| | Win a fight | +1 DP | | Opponent’s Main Character defeated in fight | Opponent loses 1 DP | | Defeat a challenge | Points printed on challenge card |

Destiny Points can never go below 0.

Special Rules & Edge Cases

• The Golden Rule: Card text always overrides the rulebook when there is a conflict.
• Day/Night Cycle: Vampires cannot move during the day. The Day/Night card flips at the end of every turn.
• Fatiguing: Fatigued characters (horizontal) cannot start fights, face challenges, or have skills attached. Fatigued characters can defend when attacked and have items attached.
• Stunt-Doubling: The defender may fatigue another character at the same location to fight in place of the originally attacked character.
• Mandatory sub-steps must be performed before a player can pass in that step.
• Resource Deck recycling: When the Resource Deck runs out, reshuffle the discard pile. If both are empty, play with remaining cards.
• Duplicate challenges: No duplicate challenges may be in Sunnydale at the same time. After a challenge is defeated, another copy can be placed later.
• One event per game: Only 1 copy of any event may be played per game by any player.
• Each player may face each challenge only once per turn.
• Ditching a fight: If a character leaves a fight due to a card effect, the fight resolves immediately and that character automatically loses but is not discarded.
• Ties in fights: Both characters are discarded, no Destiny Points gained, but a defeated Main Character still costs 1 DP.
• Items: Characters carry up to 2 items. Items can be upgraded by swapping directly from hand.
• Skills cannot be swapped between characters once attached.

Player Reference

Turn Sequence: Prologue → Draw → Refresh → Movement → Resource → Conflict → End → Day/Night flips

Talents: Butt-Kicking, Smarts, Charm, Weirdness

Victory: 10 Destiny Points (immediate) OR control Sunnydale Park for 6 consecutive end-of-turns

Step	Key Mandatory Actions
Prologue	Place challenge if possible
Draw	Refill hand to 5
Refresh	Refresh all fatigued cards
Fight/Discard	Discard to 5 cards
Challenge/Discard	Discard to 5 cards

Combat Default: Butt-Kicking is the default resolving talent (can be changed by card effects).