Questions from actual players (mostly), Answers from the actual GM (we think)so would it be like the events of the show never happened or somehow the world has gone back to only one slayer at a time? Is there a town shaped hole in the middle of California?
Not never happened, but at a certain point the timeline was "corrected" by a Supreme Being; no Buffy, no Gang, no Hellmouth under Sunnydale. The storyline to this game deals directly with the consequences of that act by that Supreme Being. Buffy, Angel, Spike, etc, may be referenced, but more like legends from a lost, last, age than actual people from an actual fixed point in history.
Can we play a spellcaster? What's the deal with magic in this setting?
Spellcaster works just fine. Realize that you'll likely have all the freedom in the world for this character type. The Hellmouth causes funky physics, so while magic may have existed once in pre-history...your character will have very much been making it up as they go along. Say they started toying with magic just as many kids do trying to make fantasy reality.
Because of the Hellmouth, the shit actually works. But only in the area of the town. Fly to New York City, and no magic. Come home, and once again magic.
Your character will literally have to write their own book of magic, even if they can somehow get their hands on a book of primordial magic...like by stealing it from the private stock of a Watcher, or just finding the right PDF online. Lots of options for character, and even universe, crafting in this setup. So just be aware of how open ended this game is likely to be on that front.
So they wouldn't have Giles's watchers diaries then but old scoobies might be mentioned in a more obscure folklore type book? And I guess most importantly did Andrew ever release Buffy, Slayer of the Vampyres?
His diaries do, indeed, exist. They're locked away by the Watchers. As does that video. That video can actually be found on YouTube; uploaded by ShogunShorun, an account with only one video upload and no other activity.
So what's the status on things that Angel brings into the canon? Do Wolfram & Hart or TPTB have any particular sway on the world at this point, etc etc.?
Wolfram & Hart have the same sway they had prior to Angel, which is a lot.
TPTB always have sway; it's in the very name. Considering the "reset" didn't result in a hellverse, the Watchers postulate from that fact as evidence that TPTB may have been behind it. They know, mostly from Giles work, that reality was "tweaked"--they're just unsure how exactly and to what consequence. And if not them, something as powerful, or hard as it may be to imagine, something yet more powerful. Whatever the power level, something not inherently evil.
So, yeah, both of those elements of the universe are still factors.
Anything else Angel brought into the universe, and you'll need to ask specifically. (Like with TPTB and Wolfram & Hart.)
did LA go to Hell?
Technically, yes. Practically, no.
Technically yes, though no one would remember it, unless they were outside space/time. Some beings are, and some of those beings could, conceivably, share that knowledge through something like visions, or Giles' diaries.
Practically no, because none of the PCs will have access to such a vision or those diaries, unless it's set up specially for a certain PC between that player and the GM.
How big or small is Washington?
It's not tiny. It has pretty much one of everything you'd think a proper town should have. It has a mall, it has several movie theaters, and it's own school system comprising of several elementary schools, and two middle schools/junior highs that feed into the one high school. There's even a Community College, and not far outside the town, a state university. So not quite a city, but a very large town--about the same as Sunnydale. Maybe a touch bigger.
and how long before the game starts is this artificial hellmouth opened or is it happening after the game starts?
The hellmouth has been
opening for the past decade. Only in the past year has it gotten big enough for weird shit to start happening. It hasn't finished opening yet.
Any details about the Slayer?
Daughter of a single father, military officer stationed at the nearby base. At age 17 she's been dealing with her powers for a while now, but doesn't yet know the reason for them--she doesn't know what she is, or what she's supposed to be doing. She has fought a few fairly strong foes already, mostly slayer hunting vamps that used supernatural means to locate her once whispers started about a newly activated Slayer. She has no idea why these monsters attacked her. She moved to Washington in part because of her father's recent transfer--in part because her long time boyfriend was "randomly" murdered in a tragic, brutal, attack.
More with the CS on her, obviously.
Why an artificial Hellmouth?
A result from the "reality reset" mentioned above. The Deeper Well has gone from one giant tomb for Old Ones to many, many, Deep Wells containing one to a handful of Old Ones all over the world. One Deep Well of particular import just happens to be under Washington, Missouri. Someone may be wanting to use that to their advantage. A big, bad, someone.
Will we get any real info on how the "reality reset" went down?
Yes, actually.