Pen & Paper Roleplaying by GorramIndependent

FIREFLY UNIVERSE

Pen & Paper Roleplaying

POSTED BY: GORRAMINDEPENDENT
UPDATED: Thursday, August 25, 2005 14:20
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Sunday, May 9, 2004 9:40 AM

Howdy,

I'm a greenhorn to "Firefly," having been recently converted by the mighty fine DVD series, in which I just started the fourth and last DVD. I reckon I'll be done soon, but knowing that it may be a spell before I can see new stories, will have to be content with what I've got.

I'm looking at pen & paper roleplaying "Firefly" using one of the following systems:

(1) GURPS Traveller
(2) Star Hero
(3) Future World (Chaosium's BRP sub-system that is floating around on PDF)

My bias is towards (3), but there is no support for this system. Star HERO looks interesting, but I haven't played a HERO type system since the first edition of CHAMPIONS. I still have bad memories of point-buying systems. GURPS Traveller seems closer to the bill, but it requires buying a lot of books to make a complete game.

What should I do?

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Sunday, May 9, 2004 10:19 AM

PBI

Quote:
Originally posted by GorramIndependent:
Howdy,

I'm a greenhorn to "Firefly," having been recently converted by the mighty fine DVD series, in which I just started the fourth and last DVD. I reckon I'll be done soon, but knowing that it may be a spell before I can see new stories, will have to be content with what I've got.

I'm looking at pen & paper roleplaying "Firefly" using one of the following systems:

(1) GURPS Traveller
(2) Star Hero
(3) Future World (Chaosium's BRP sub-system that is floating around on PDF)

My bias is towards (3), but there is no support for this system. Star HERO looks interesting, but I haven't played a HERO type system since the first edition of CHAMPIONS. I still have bad memories of point-buying systems. GURPS Traveller seems closer to the bill, but it requires buying a lot of books to make a complete game.

What should I do?

Check out the forums at www.travellerrpg.com. There's been a rather recent, active discussion on Firefly Traveller.

If you can survive death, you can probably survive almost anything.

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Monday, May 10, 2004 2:50 AM

MJD

I like to kid myself that T20 (or any other version of Traveller) could model Firefly quite well.

Indeed, if I wasn't writing & playtesting the official T20 game materials, I think I'd be running a T20 Firefly game about now.

http://travellerrpg.com/

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Monday, May 10, 2004 4:10 AM

CAPTAINCERENTZ

I am running a Firefly themed 'Star Wars the Role-Playing Game, 2nd Edition' campaign right now. Themed in that it is episodic, with similar character interactions designed into the story. I find the WEG d6 rules to be well-suited to the kind of episodic game style that Firefly 'asks' for.

If this campaign works out well, I plan on creating a full-on Firefly 'verse campaign that may or may not include a trip to 'The Earth That Was'.

The difficult thing will be getting the players into the idea of having, or at least starting, with an unarmed ship, especially when there are things like the Reavers out in the Black.

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Monday, May 10, 2004 4:27 AM

SITTINGDUCK

May I recommend Savage Worlds? It's a any genre system in the manner of GURPS but a lot easier. In fact, someone has designed a Firefly themed Savage Worlds character sheet: www arcanetimes com SavageWorlds SWsheets jpg HighRezSavageFirefly jpg

To keep it from being a rutting huge graphic, I removed the dots and slashes and replaced them with spaces. You should be able to figure out which goes where.

You have the right to the remains of a silent attorney. If you cannot afford one, tough noogies!

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Monday, May 10, 2004 4:53 AM

GUNHAND

Quote:
Originally posted by CaptainCerentz:
I am running a Firefly themed 'Star Wars the Role-Playing Game, 2nd Edition' campaign right now. Themed in that it is episodic, with similar character interactions designed into the story. I find the WEG d6 rules to be well-suited to the kind of episodic game style that Firefly 'asks' for.

If this campaign works out well, I plan on creating a full-on Firefly 'verse campaign that may or may not include a trip to 'The Earth That Was'.

The difficult thing will be getting the players into the idea of having, or at least starting, with an unarmed ship, especially when there are things like the Reavers out in the Black.

I've used that as well and it works pretty easilly. I pretty much redid the whole 2nd Edition Revised and Expanded and took out the Star Wars stuff and replaced it with 'Verse stuff. Where there were things that needed filled in that weren't explained so much in the shows I just went wild. Played well and everyone had a good time.

Another system I've used for it was the Unisystem Light rules from the Buffy game, it also worked well in my opinion and I liked having some of the extras that it gave over D6 such as the "hard to kill" perk and whatnot. Another thing I liked with the Buffy rules was the Drama Points (although I just renamed Force points in Star Wars and used them about the same way) and the genre emulation for snappy dialog, seeing people use Chinese to boost their drama points was a cool and appropriate thing to me.

But I didn't do as much with it as with the WEG Star Wars rules, but I do love those Buffy-like perks. The new D6 system coming out over the summer is going to have advantages that I can build like Buffy perks so I can have my cake and eat it too once I get my grubby mits on them.

But then again Eden is coming out with a magazine that has rules in it for a "very Firefly-esqe setting" so I'll be giving that a look as well.

So right now I'm kinda torn between Unisystem and D6 for running it. Either works really well and the relative lightness of the rules lets the thing flow like an episode of Firefly.

In a perfect world Eden would do a licensed Firefly game, they already have done Buffy and Angel. But they hadn't been interested in Firefly at all, although the BDM movie announcement and the DVD sales seem to have them going from "not interested" to "hmmm...maybe just maybe." Personally I think they're floating the "Firefly-esque" setting in their new mag to guage possible interest (as in would buy it not a just sounds cool kinda interest) in a Firefly game from people.

But that's just my guesstimations and nothing officially offical.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
"Oh hey, I got an idea. Instead of us hanging
around playing art critic till I get pinched by
the Man, how's about we move away from this
eerie-ass piece of work and get on with our
increasingly eerie-ass day, how's that?"

My eerie-ass website:
http://gunhandsfirefly.homestead.com/Index.html

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Monday, May 10, 2004 5:02 AM

SHINY

Slightly off-topic, but for my fellow D&D geeks out there, here's a bit of nostalgia:

http://www.angelfire.com/wa2/haroog/wormy.htm

Please help Haken keep this site running by occasionally clicking on some of the sponsored ad links on the side of the page!

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Monday, May 10, 2004 5:06 AM

GUNHAND

Oh man, I used to [l]love Wormy when it was in the back of the old Dragons.

Now I feel old.

Hehe

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
"Oh hey, I got an idea. Instead of us hanging
around playing art critic till I get pinched by
the Man, how's about we move away from this
eerie-ass piece of work and get on with our
increasingly eerie-ass day, how's that?"

My eerie-ass website:
http://gunhandsfirefly.homestead.com/Index.html

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Monday, May 10, 2004 6:52 AM

GORRAMINDEPENDENT

Interesting! I had forgotten about the Eden Studios game connection. The application of "Drama Points" sounds intriguing. Thanks to everyone who posted

Quote:
Originally posted by Gunhand:

In a perfect world Eden would do a licensed Firefly game, they already have done Buffy and Angel. But they hadn't been interested in Firefly at all, although the BDM movie announcement and the DVD sales seem to have them going from "not interested" to "hmmm...maybe just maybe." Personally I think they're floating the "Firefly-esque" setting in their new mag to guage possible interest (as in would buy it not a just sounds cool kinda interest) in a Firefly game from people.

But that's just my guesstimations and nothing officially offical.

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Monday, July 12, 2004 1:44 PM

NECROMANCERBOB

Yeah, an Eden RPG would be okay. I'm not really fond of their system...and I've actually seen the drama point concept done better in other games.

As for myself, I've tossed out an idea for a Firefly-style Fading Suns game (appropriate since it was the FS list that got me started on Firefly). Not so much using FS to run Firefly, but running a game set in the FS universe with similar themes (a bunch of good-hearted folks with an old broken-down ship out to make a dishonest buck). It actually seems to fit quite well, but we haven't had the chance to run it yet.

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Monday, July 12, 2004 2:10 PM

EVILMASTERMIND

My suggestion is to go with GURPS Traveller. IMHO it is worth the cost. I have been running a Firefly-GURPS Traveller campaign for some time now. It is set in 3418 instead of 2518 and merges both Traveller Canon and Firefly Canon.

Here is the background info I provided to the players:

Here’s how it was…

2097 AD –Terran/Vilani “First Contact” occurs at Barnard’s Star.

2302 AD - Jump 3 FTL technology is achieved. Interstellar Wars end. Terrans seize control of the collapsing Ziru Sirka (a.k.a. - First Imperium).

2317 AD – Grand Admiral Ulysses Adair of Mars establishes the Second Imperium.

2323 AD - Jump 4 FTL technology is achieved.

2344 AD - Adair's aide-de-camp, Commodore “Stormrider” Boone, assumes the title Emperor Ulysses II.

2350 AD - After consolidating his position, Emperor Ulysses II transfers the government from Earth and Vland to a newly built Imperial Capital in the center of the Imperium. Sol's very distant companion, a Brown Dwarf called Nemesis, was detected. Orbital projections showed it plunging through the Oort Cloud and into the outskirts of the Sol System. Aside from the millions of comets and Kuiper Belt Object s, Pluto/Charon, Uranus, and Neptune would also be disturbed by its passage. Terran humanity had about 150 years to do something. Naturally, the best and worst traits of our species came to the fore.

2351-2524 AD - “The Terran Diaspora” - Roughly half of Earth’s massive population is evacuated from the planet. The Second Imperium focused all its resources to save the population of the Terran Homeworld. The Imperium brooked no interference from ANY source political, religious, or cultural. Equatorial regions were seized in South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia for the construction of beanstalks. Those projects and the involuntary imposition of a contraceptive bioengineered from a rhino-virus which was hurriedly and controversially deployed as a way to make the Diaspora more easier - left a bitter feeling in many minds.

A crash program of colonization aimed to find permanent homes for the refugees from Earth. As Terran refugees spread through Charted Space, Terran diseases decimated Vilani populations on every world on which the Terran refugees were settled. Further projections of Nemesis' orbit and its effects on the Sol System led to fears that one or more planets would impact Sol itself. No one could really say what that may trigger, so even more distant colonies were planned as a safeguard.

Back on Earth the wheels began to come off. The Imperium began to experience increased resistance both within and without its member polities. Some believed that Nemesis was a hoax and that the Imperium was engaged in ethnic cleansing on a grand scale and that certain minority cultures were being deliberately left behind to perish. Others felt that humanity's resources should be used to 'defend' Earth from the effects of Nemesis' passage rather than on interstellar colonization.

Finally, too many others fell under the sway of various 'millennial' religious sects who believed that various prophecies from dozens of belief systems were to come true during Nemesis' passage and that removing humanity from the Sol system was a 'sin' or 'taboo'. These last gave the Imperium the most trouble of all.

After a generation, recruitment rates for colonies dropped off markedly and the Imperium was forced to send in troops to round up people to fill the transports. The people collected in this manner were not only unwilling, they were unskilled too. Anyone who had the slightest connection to any Diaspora critical job or support effort could (usually) avoid the sweeps. These sweeps only further exacerbated feelings against the Imperium.
These later colonies followed a standard pattern; trained Imperium personnel would land at a prospective colony site, begin to build the necessary infrastructure, and hopefully be ready to receive tens of thousands of unskilled, sullen, people kidnapped from dozens of cultures within a standard year. These new colonies were powder kegs and after a few massacres, the Imperium began deploying troops as part of every colony mission.

The Imperium was able to keep the lid on for nearly a century, almost turning Earth into a single purpose, centrally directed, economic and political unit wholly dedicated towards interstellar colonization. As Nemesis drew closer and its effects began to be seen; primarily a spray of comets passing through the inner system at once and illuminating Earth's night sky, the various opposition groups coalesced and struck. A bewildering and massive series of actions ranging from civil disobedience to labor strikes to terror bombings swept across the planet. Open warfare broke out in several regions and civil order failed nearly worldwide. The Diaspora fell apart with the various member polities either falling into disarray or retreating into isolation.

When news reached the Imperial Provincial HQ in the Dingir system, the staff there was at a loss. Ships and troops were dispatched to Earth, but they had nowhere near the strength to pacify the entire planet. Instead, only controlled polities proven to be friendly to the Imperium were assisted and defended. The work of Diaspora continued, albeit at a much smaller scope.

2361 AD - Jump 5 FTL technology is achieved.

2385 AD – The Aslan begin space explorations.

2450 AD - Jump 6 FTL technology is achieved.

2421-2672 AD - The Second Imperium fails to settle on a formal method of choosing an emperor. Succession struggles routinely cause massive civil unrest and economic dislocation.

2521 AD – First contact between Zhodani and Vilani traders on the Spinward frontier. The Aslan obtain FTL technology.

2525 AD – Nemesis swept through the Sol System right on schedule, causing far more havoc than even the most pessimistic estimates had imagined. Despite the efforts of the previous 150 years, almost 10 billion Terrans on Earth died in this period. So did 99% of all other life on Earth in the greatest mass extinction since the Permian Era Extinction. Towards the end, the Imperium was simply rounding people up at gunpoint and placing them in emergency low berths.

The Sol System is barely recognizable to anyone from the 21st Century. Pluto/Charon is gone, slung into interstellar space. So is Neptune. Flung from her orbit, she and her moons were the biggest comets of all moving through the inner system and eventually impacting Sol. This resulted in a solar flare of almost unimaginable proportions. Neptune’s “Death Ride” also changed the orbits of Uranus, the Asteroids, Mars, Earth, and Mercury. Almost 900 years later, those orbits have still not completely stabilized.

Uranus orbits nearly 25 degree out of the ecliptic and passes inside the orbit of Saturn for part of its year. Saturn's rings were damaged too. Neptune dragged nearly 10% of the Main Asteroid Belt along with her during her “Death Ride”. A similar number of planetoids impacted Jupiter, upsetting that giant's moons, atmosphere, and its magnetosphere in various ways. Still more planetoids were flung into wildly skewed orbits. Mars ended up in the Main Asteroid Belt where her gravity field sweeps up the remaining planetoids, leading to a steady bombardment of that world. Once a almost completely terraformed planet on the verge of becoming a “Second Earth”, Mars has returned to her pre-terraformed status of a frozen and poisonous hell-world. Fortunately most of her population had the common sense leave before Nemesis’ arrival. Luna was lost to Earth and now orbits Sol at 0.9 AU. Venus lost most of its atmosphere to planetoid and cometary impacts. Mercury orbits near Venus now, but nearly 90 degrees out of the ecliptic.

As for Earth, she is in another an Ice Age. Uranus nudged her orbit outward; she orbits at nearly 1.2 AU now, and various cometary/planetoid impacts played their part too. The Imperium was able to divert or destroy many potential Earth impactors, but they couldn't stop them all. Someone from the 21st Century would be hard pressed to recognize Earth's coastlines and landmasses. Nine centuries of greatly increased tectonic activity and volcanism are still remaking Earth's surface. Only a few carefully preserved remnants of Earth's pre-Nemesis past still exist.

2541 AD – First documented Human/Aslan contact.

2671 AD - Lack of cooperation between member worlds of the Second Imperium becomes more common. The Solomani Rim loses contact with the Central Government.

2672-2745 AD – Imperial succession struggles become much worse. Up to a dozen individuals may be vying for the throne at any given time.

2719 AD - First documented Human/Hiver contact.

2721 AD - Resurgent nationalism among minor human and alien races becomes common.

2722 AD – The Border Worlds of the Second Imperium start refusing off-world currency.

2745 AD – The financial collapse of the Second Imperium occurs when the Imperial Treasury on Capital refuses to acknowledge a monetary issue from the branch treasury at Antares. This is generally regarded as the date for the fall of the Second Imperium.

2745-3021 AD - The first stages of the Long Night are marked by warfare among the Second Imperium’s small successor states, sometimes no more than large-scale piracy. Interstellar trade ceases in most areas. Some worlds, not self-sufficient, simply die; many worlds' economies are ruined; most lose the technology to construct starships.
2831 AD – The Terran Mercantile Community is established on the Solomani Rim.

2995 AD - The last governmental body claiming to be the Second Imperium (on Sylea) ceases to exist. Interstellar ships can no longer travel (on average) more than one year (perhaps 30 parsecs) without being attacked and the net growth of industrial output throughout the former Second Imperium is negative; factories are closing faster than new ones can open.

3010 AD – Solomani traders contact the Darrians.

3021 AD - The wars in most of the former Second Imperium are over. Most of the old starships have broken down and no one knows how to repair them. Only a few scattered areas have managed to keep FTL technology and rarely are any of these pocket empires close enough to interact with one another.

3403 AD – The First Aslan Border War begins.

3411 AD – The Terran Mercantile Community on the Solomani Rim becomes the Union of Allied Worlds.
Reasons for the Collapse:
The Vilani interstellar state had been on the path to collapse for millennia. The new blood that the Terran conquerors infused managed to stave off that collapse for another 400 years, but the Terrans could not stop the inevitable. After so many millennia of stagnation and corruption, the collapse was inevitable. The problems of sheer size, stagnation and corruption, which brought about the fall of the First Imperium, continued to plague the Second Imperium.

Financial Chaos:
The 2745 AD date for the end of the Second Imperium is arbitrary, and notes the financial collapse of the central government. Monetary circles lost confidence when the Imperial Capital's Treasury refused to honor a monetary draft of the Antares branch treasury.

This marked the end of large-scale interstellar trade, and of effective government power within the Second Imperium. Although it lasted for many years, the Second Imperium had ceased to be a viable interstellar community. The period known as Twilight had begun.

The Twilight (2745 to 2995 AD):
The failure of the Second Imperium triggered the collapse of interstellar civilization. Twilight, the period of collapse, began in 2745 AD and lasted for two and a half centuries. Financial collapse ended large-scale interstellar trade within the Second Imperium. Government lost efficiency, businesses failed or retrenched, and the public was content to wait out the problems around them. Actions were seen as building a new and better order, but without agreement on what was being built or why. The public lacked confidence in existing institutions, but it also lacked confidence in the new ones that were created. Both collapsed, leaving nothing in their place.

Vargr Corsairs:
Vargr raids and colonization increased after the Second Imperium collapsed. By 2621 AD, Vargr pillaging had stopped. The Sack of Gashikan in 2579 AD, however, demonstrated why Vargr Corsairs became a byword for pillage and violence.

A Redirection Inward:
The many worlds of the Imperium turned inward. Interstellar travel and commerce continued, but at a greatly reduced rate. Interstellar trade retracted to local markets, leaving a lawless waste open to piracy and raiding. Many worlds died, unable to maintain their previous standard or to recapture the lower technological levels necessary for survival. Some worlds did not even know for sure that the Second Imperium had fallen; communication ships simply stopped coming.

Some worlds banded together in pocket empires, mere shadows of the Second Imperium. Some of these pocket empires fought for the scraps of empire that were left. The fighting and the turmoil lasted nearly 250 years. The end of Twilight is commonly accepted as 2995 AD, when the last governmental body claiming to be the Second Imperium ceased to exist.

The Long Night (2995 AD to ?):
Historians consider this the point where true darkness begins for two reasons. First, industrial output throughout the former Second Imperium declined. Second, trade ships could not travel over one year (30 Parsecs) without being attacked. Virtually all humans in the former Second Imperium pulled back from space. Some small human governments retained their starship technology, and served their own worlds (usually no more than twenty or thirty) and their neighbors. Interstellar trade ceased otherwise, unless taken over by aliens (usually intermittently.) Vargr traders visited (and sometimes raided) the Coreward sectors.

Contact with the Aslan:
In 2541 AD Terrans made contact with the Aslan to Spinward, beginning a long and often stormy relationship. The Daibei Sector was on the frontier with the expanding Aslan. When human and other races resisted Aslan settlement, a series of low level raids became the norm. The Aslan settled and raided incessantly, and the sector launched incessant raids into Aslan territory in retaliation. Aslan traders wandered through the Rimward sectors. In 3403 AD, the Aslan discovered the route across Great Rift and the raids gave way to large-scale migrations/invasions.

Psionics:
Until c. 3320 AD, Psionics was little studied in most regions, except on a disorganized level (parapsychology, the occult, spiritualism, etc.) It was known and practiced by the Zhodani and some minor races, but it was by no means widespread. Many races (human and non-human) turned introspective, and began to study Psionics seriously. Study revealed much about the empirical nature of the phenomena, and Psionics assumed scientific validity. The principles involved were, and remain, little understood: Psionics remained a backwater science.

The self-defeating nature of piracy eliminated it as a threat by 3121 AD. There was no longer enough commerce to make piracy viable. The Long Night continued for another twelve hundred years. Worlds turned in on themselves, developing local resources and moving in their own directions.

A New Dawn (3411 AD to Present):
There were several false dawns: worlds expanded, met apathy or financial losses or armed opposition, and abandoned the projects. The first successful dawn occurred on the Solomani Rim. The Long Night came early to the Solomani Rim, which lost contact with the central government about 2671 AD. The provincial government at Dingir continued to rule in the Emperor’s name for another 150 years until years of ruinous budget deficits left it unable to maintain the provincial fleet. Throughout the Long Night “The Terran Core” retained at least TL9 FTL and was the center of a quite sizable interstellar trading sphere more than 20 parsecs across. Then in 2831 AD this was formalized with the foundation of the Terran Mercantile Community.

The next 250 years passed relatively quietly as planetary governments concentrated on recovery.

3360 AD - Shepherd Book is born.
3377 AD - Jayne Cobb is born.
3384 AD - Zoe Warren is born.
3385 AD - Malcolm Reynolds is born.
3386 AD- Jerry Lee “Wash” Warren is born.
3388 AD – “Ruby” is born.
3390 AD - Simon Tam is born.
3394 AD – Inara Sera is born.
3397 AD - Kaywinnit Lee Frye is born.
3400 AD – River Tam is born.

In 3411 AD, the most powerful worlds in the Terran Mercantile Community decided that it should reconstitute itself into a true interstellar government. The result was the Union of Allied Worlds that controls 61 inhabited systems from Lagash to Hanuman and from Twylo to Thetis. Other interstellar states also emerged at this time as not all members of the old Terran Mercantile Community desired inclusion in the new Union of Allied Worlds.

As a result, the long and bitter Interstellar Civil War was fought. In it the Union of Allied Worlds won a substantive, but far from total victory. In its aftermath the Dingir League, the Ganesh Federation and the Ishkur Dominate have signed a mutual defense pact to guard against aggression by the Union of Allied Worlds. The powerful but distant interstellar states of the People’s Republic of Rurirshuz and the Easter Concord are political wild cards and the non-human Vegan Polity has survived the Long Night relatively intact with 28 inhabited systems, but their prevailing foreign policy is one of strict isolationism.

3417 AD – Late May – “Serenity”
3417 AD – Unification Day – “The Train Job”
3417 AD – Late August – "Bushwhacked"
3417 AD – Mid-September – "Shindig"
3417 AD – Early October – "Safe"
3417 AD – October 18 to 20 – "Our Mrs. Reynolds"
3417 AD – Mid-November – "Jaynetown"
3417 AD – Late November – "Out of Gas"
3417 AD – Mid-December – "Ariel"
3417 AD – Late December – "War Stories"
3418 AD – April 21 to 24 – "Trash"
3418 AD – Late April – "The Message"
3418 AD – Mid-May – "Heart of Gold"
3418 AD – Late May – “Objects in Space” (Ruby joins the company of Serenity.)

Today, in 3418 AD the Solomani Rim is continuing to pull itself up by its bootstraps, but it is in a state of armed peace not unlike that on Old Earth more than 1500 years ago.

"Okay, I'm lost. I'm angry. And I'm armed."

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Tuesday, July 13, 2004 2:27 PM

NECROMANCERBOB

Ruby? Who's Ruby?

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Tuesday, July 13, 2004 2:45 PM

EVILMASTERMIND

My bad.

I should have mentioned that the first player to sign up for my campaign was a "Galactic Gumshoe" (Private Detective) by the name of Ruby Wu. River found her in a "freeze-tube" in the trunk of Jubal Early's ship. She has been a member of the company of Serenity ever since.

Thus far it has not been necessary to insert new characters because the other new players have been content to take on existing roles (Jayne and Zoe) for their PCs. However now I have one guy who REALLY wants to play a "reformed" Jubal Early who expereinced an epiphany while drifting in space and has decided to become a "disciple" of River.

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Wednesday, July 14, 2004 1:39 PM

NECROMANCERBOB

Ah. I see. I'm not a big fan of allowing players to take existing characters in a setting - I usually reserve those for NPCs. But then, I don't really run "outside" (licensed) settings...

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Wednesday, July 14, 2004 5:27 PM

CHOZSUN

I am in a group that is currently playing the Fading Suns ( http://www.holistic-design.com/FadingSuns.htm) non-D20 game.

In it, we have a 4 armed beast of an alien who rules as a mob boss of his own casino (that would be me), pilot, questing knight, cyborg engineer and a great navigator. Since we are all big fans of Firefly, we cannot help but to steer the session into a classic FF episode or two.

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Thursday, July 15, 2004 12:25 PM

NECROMANCERBOB

That's about what I had planned. Minus the Scraver Vorox, though. :D

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Thursday, July 15, 2004 12:30 PM

ELIANDI

My Firefly campaign based on Traveller t20 and using the Neverwinter Nights game engine begins in ~3 weeks. I've got 7 players and a co-DM, and couldn't be more excited!

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Thursday, July 15, 2004 1:26 PM

EVILMASTERMIND

Quote:
Originally posted by NecromancerBob:
Ah. I see. I'm not a big fan of allowing players to take existing characters in a setting - I usually reserve those for NPCs. But then, I don't really run "outside" (licensed) settings...

Well I certainly would not let a player run River (Too powerful and too crazy!) or Mal (Its his gorram starship!) I have no problem with these particular players running Zoe, Jayne and Jubal.

We did however talk about the very point you made when we were first considering this new GURPS Traveller campaign and the consensus was that it simply would not be FIREFLY without the actual characters from the show. So that's what we went with.

"Okay, I'm lost, I'm angry and I'm armed!"

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Thursday, July 15, 2004 1:45 PM

NECROMANCERBOB

I wouldn't think a River-like character would be too powerful. Thanks to her schizophrenia and relative innocence, if played correctly (and crazily), she'd be more likely to kill the rest of the cast than walk all over the bad guys.

For the record, yeah, one of my group is practically River in real life...aside from the uber-genius part. Sadly, she doesn't make it these days...

As far as the Firefly-Fading Suns (Freemen, I'm calling the campaign), the two characters we have so far are a Shepherd Book-like Hesychaist monk and a noble/techie (from House Al-Malik, the one closest to the merchant guilds). Since my players know d20 better, we're using that - I've already had to teach them two systems aside from d20 now.

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Thursday, August 25, 2005 2:16 PM

DARTHNADER

I absolutely suggest that anyone that wishes to roleplay FIREFLY should look into the Traveller rules as an viable option.

IMHO the Classic Traveller rules are the simplest, and therefore the most flexible to use if you are going to custom-tailor a campaign to the Firefly/Serenity setting.

GURPS Traveller may be a good choice also.

I personally know of at least 3 Traveller campaigns already in full swing with their Firefly-campaigns. A couple are playing their tabletop campaigns directly over the Internet (using some client-server software of course)

And last but not least.... the Traveller nerds on the Internet have already created bazillions of accurately modeled 3D ships and deckplans for the Firefly-class.

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Thursday, August 25, 2005 2:20 PM

UNCHARTEDOUTLAW

So, wait...who roleplays the pen and who the paper?

*runs and hides from the RPGers*

-Taylor

http://norcalriviera.blogspot.com
http://www.cafepress.com/norcalriviera

**Winner of That Other Shiny Caption Game #2**

River: "So we'll integrate non-progressional evolution theory with God's creation of Eden. Eleven inherent metaphoric parallels already there. Eleven. Important number. Prime number. One goes into the house of eleven eleven times, but always comes out one. Noah's ark is a problem."

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