'Hang on, Travellers!' by SergeantX

FIREFLY UNIVERSE

'Hang on, Travellers!'

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POSTED BY: SERGEANTX
UPDATED: Sunday, January 1, 2006 08:10
SHORT URL: http://goo.gl/WuTdL
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Friday, May 14, 2004 5:52 AM

Some of us have been discussing the possible connection between Firefly and the classic science fiction RPG "Traveller". I was hoping to get a role call here of all the board members who've played the game.

For those not familiar Ranger has links and talks about it here:

http://www.fireflyfans.net/showblog.asp?b=159

SergeantX

"Dream a little dream or you can live a little dream. I'd rather live it, cause dreamers always chase but never get it." Aesop Rock

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Friday, May 14, 2004 6:34 AM

HANS

Oh yeah, I'm a Traveller player from way back, and love the similarities between the game and show. By the way, there's been lots of discussions about Firefly as a role playing game (including the connection to Traveller) on the rpg.net site. Go to the forums, do a search for "Firefly" in the thread title on the "roleplaying open" forum and you'll find a bunch of articles.

Hans

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Friday, May 14, 2004 6:51 AM

SERGEANTX

Yes, RPG.net is a fun place. I particularly enjoyed SteveD's Firefly Diary.

SergeantX

"Dream a little dream or you can live a little dream. I'd rather live it, cause dreamers always chase but never get it." Aesop Rock

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Friday, May 14, 2004 7:09 AM

GUNHAND

Think I've played every version of Traveller except the T20 stuff, just because...well because.

Yeah SteveD's Firefly diary was good, I was just going crazy waiting for him to finish watching them so I could speak without spoiling. Hehehe.

I've ran Firefly games in both D6 and Unisystem, had good fun every time but I'm holding off on doing any more work on it until I see the new D6 space and the Eden Unisystem space-western (their words) minigame in their new magazine.

I'm also hoping Eden will finally just bite the bullet and do the damn game, but that means they'd need more world info...so maybe when Serenity comes out they'll do something.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
"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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Friday, May 14, 2004 7:11 AM

ASTRIANA

I played Traveller once a long time ago. I had a bad experience with a particularly horrible GM, and chose not to continue the game.

~A~
El Jefe Magnifico's Mistress... of Communications and Harems...

...I'm still free,
You can't take the sky from me.

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Friday, May 14, 2004 7:20 AM

GUNHAND

I never had any problems with Traveller GMs that I can recall, well except this one time that I threatened to bludgeon everyone at the table to death with a desklamp if they didn't quit debating some Star Trek technical doohicky thing from the show the night before.

Otherwise all good.

Don't get me started on some of the WoD people I've had run-ins with though...

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
"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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Friday, May 14, 2004 7:23 AM

SERGEANTX

I've been hearing about D6 Space. Sounds interesting. I actually have a Firefly game put together (ok about half done, but the main system's are all in place) that really gets into the kind of characterization that whedon does. I'm a little leery about putting it out there. I'm not sure about copyright and legal status and such.

SergeantX

"Dream a little dream or you can live a little dream. I'd rather live it, cause dreamers always chase but never get it." Aesop Rock

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Friday, May 14, 2004 7:47 AM

GUNHAND

Quote:
Originally posted by SergeantX:
I've been hearing about D6 Space. Sounds interesting. I actually have a Firefly game put together (ok about half done, but the main system's are all in place) that really gets into the kind of characterization that whedon does. I'm a little leery about putting it out there. I'm not sure about copyright and legal status and such.

SergeantX

"Dream a little dream or you can live a little dream. I'd rather live it, cause dreamers always chase but never get it." Aesop Rock

Same here, well I don't have time to come up with a completely new system all on my own, but putting them up can get you looked at by those evil lawyer types. Personally I think Joss would probably see one and say,"Oh shiny." While Fox lawyers would say,"Ohhh pictures and IP."

I think the best mix of what's out there now (barring Eden doing it) would be a mix of D6 Space and using some of the Unisystem special abilities like "Hard to Kill" mixed in with it and adding a dash of drama points.

I've run it more with D6 from the old Star Wars 2nd Rev. but there was something very fitting about Unisystem's character creation. The ammount of points you get depends on the "badassedness" of the character and having the guys make Big Damn Heroes was funny.

Plus with Unisystem you get Drama points by genre emulation, so I gave the guys and gals little notecards I'd made beforehand with Chinese and English on one side, and then just the translation on the other to show the other players. That way they could sprinkle Chinese in their conversations, get points, make it feel more like Firefly and everyone else would know what they were saying. Worked out very well.

Only downside to Unisystem keeping me from going completely over to using it is there aren't any rules for spacecraft. So I'll see what I can see when Eden gets that magazine out. Should be later this month or next.

EDIT: Although usually for "non-profit" fan made games the companies usually ignore it. Also with the new D6 system the licence for using the system and publishing with it is only $500. System license is usually easy though, the actual license from Fox would probably be a healthy chunk of change.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
"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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Friday, May 14, 2004 7:49 AM

GORRAMINDEPENDENT

I enjoyed the original, Marc Miller Traveller game many moons ago. After watching and enjoying "Firely," it got to me thinking: This is Traveller!

I am poised on re-starting a "Traveller" game in the "Firefly" universe. From all the talk online (and it's all just talk until we a book is published), you'd think there would be an official game by now. I don't have any experience with Eden's system for the Angel/Buffyverse, but the reviews have been generally positive. As mentioned earlier, the mechanics are there, but we need more information on the "Firefly" 'Verse. I'm sure Whedon and Co. are working on it...

”Well, Jayne ain’t a girl. If she starts in on that girl’s name thing, I’ll show her good and all I got man parts.”

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Friday, May 14, 2004 8:00 AM

GUNHAND

I have both the Buffy and Angel games, which is sorta ironical because the only time I've ever seen either was the movie version of Buffy.

Sorta weird but I'd been a fan of Eden before because C J Carella has to be one of the best RPG writers ever. Plus the system is so good it can be used for just about anything, we even did a Call of Cthulhu game using the Buffy rules one time.

They also are about the best laid out books out there, easy to find information and they ooze coolness.

But the "hard" info is pretty much the stumbling block. It doesn't have to be NASA verifiable science but for a game to work you have to know how the ships get from planet to planet, how to cut travel time, more info on each planet, details of the War, etc. etc.

On the stuff I've written I've used everything "canon" that I can find, but on those areas where I have to go off the page so to speak I have it marked as such with a box and a little Shepard Book making his "Isn't that special." Face.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
"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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Tuesday, June 1, 2004 4:58 AM

EVILMASTERMIND

I've recently started running a "Firefly-inspired" campaign using the GURPS Traveller system of rules. The system is IMHO very well suited to creating Firefly-like adventures and characters to play in them.

The only "hand-waving" I've had to do was with the FTL Drive issue. None of my players wanted to "be stuck" in one big solar system so I ended up going with the "galaxy of Earths" and tweaking the GURPS Traveller Jump Drive rules to make it a bit more "Fireflyish".

I decided that when Serenity did a "hard burn" and the whole back of the ship lit up was when the FTL Jump Drive was being used. I also made each "Jump-Unit" equal to 5 lt yrs because I was using a 3D map.

"Curse your sudden, but inevitable betrayal!"

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Tuesday, June 1, 2004 7:41 AM

FORRESTWOLF

Old traveller gamer here...I never got to play a serious campaign, though. Always loved reading the rules and imagining running a game...yes, gaming geek :)

Once again (I've said it elsewhere on fff), I'll say that we've got a Neverwinter Nights Firefly system working just great! It's based on Traveller T20 - uses those rules with few changes - and I and others have run 4 very successful DM'd (refereed) one-shot games. One DM'ed campaign run by Eliandi is underway, and mine is starting in two weeks. Eleven of 13 standard T20 classes, and almost all feats/skills (including psionics) are available in the system.

If you want the NWVault download site, go to
http://nwvault.ign.com/Files/modules/data/1080769905000.shtml

It's also got the link to the Yahoo group there, and you can go to www.neverwinterconnections.com and ask for Eliandi if you want more info on the games we run. OH, and the Blue Sun room has my images, too (and the game log).

Traveller is a great way to play Firefly, I think, on the computer or off - Gurps would certainly work too.

And I really do think Joss played Traveller back when he was playing D&D, and likely was inspired by it - if not, then he and Millis were inspired by the same sources for sure.

- Forrestwolf

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Tuesday, June 1, 2004 9:22 AM

SERGEANTX

For anyone interested, I have a system ready for playtesting that was inspired by Firefly. I've done some funky things with personality traits and character secrets that I hope will produce gameplay more like the stories we've see on the series. If anyone would like to take a look at it, or perhaps set up a game and test it out, I'd be much obliged for the feedback. Just e-mail at:

sergeant_x@hotmail.com

and I'll set you up with a prelim copy. We're still a little short on details like equipment lists and the like, but the basics are there.

SergeantX

"Dream a little dream or you can live a little dream. I'd rather live it, cause dreamers always chase but never get it." Aesop Rock

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Tuesday, June 1, 2004 5:59 PM

RANGER

Hmmm... How did I miss this thread when it first started? Been too busy I guess.

Unfortunatly, my Firefly Traveller efforts are suspended until I clear up some backed up work commitments. Hopefully this summer I will be able to get back to it.

I've been playing around with a lot of ideas in my head, but need the time to get them down on paper. Once I have it somewhat together I plan to share as well.

Some discussion along these lines is also going on at the COTI forums of the Travellerrpg.com site as well so anyone interested should drop by there too.

Just wierd image in my head:

MWM: Hey, people are using your Firefly show as a setting for my Traveller game!

Joss: Hey, people are using Traveller to roleplay my Firefly 'verse!

MWM & Joss: Hmmm... It works good!

Firefly and Traveller; Two great ideas that go great together!

Ok, probably time for me to go to bed.

Edit to add: Hmmm. I must have been really sleep deprived last night for that old peanutbutter cup comerical to have come to mind.

Traveller, if you go to Sparta, tell them you have seen us lying here as the Law commands.

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Saturday, August 7, 2004 9:28 PM

MICHIZURE

I not only play Traveller, I have writen for GURPS Traveller (Far Trader and Starships, plus a lot of smaller credits).

My Firefly-inspired GURPS Traveller campaign (currently on hiatus):

http://www.io.com/~thrash/Markab.html

The Browncoat RPG community should keep an eye out for SJ Games' new Interstellar Wars setting for GURPS Traveller. One, it's GURPS 4th Edition, so it should run a lot more smoothly (and with no weird cross-references to out of print books). Two, it's an open and exploratory setting -- much more the frontier flavor of Firefly than Traveller's previous default Third Imperium setting.

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Sunday, August 8, 2004 4:19 AM

EVILMASTERMIND

Quote:
Originally posted by Michizure:
I not only play Traveller, I have writen for GURPS Traveller (Far Trader and Starships, plus a lot of smaller credits).

Two of the BEST books in the GURPS Traveller lineup I might add!

Question Michizure: When will the first installment of the Interstellar Wars be out? The "Terran Free Traders" seem natural candidates for the Firefly-Class of ship.

I am running my own "Firefly-inspired" campaign using GURPS Traveller rules, but have set it in 3417AD with the Union of Allied Worlds taking the place of the Old Earth Union from Traveller canon.

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

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Sunday, August 8, 2004 5:45 AM

MICHIZURE

"Answer hazy. Try again later."

The release date was originally pushed back to allow IW to be brought into GURPS 4/e. Then SJ Games decided to make it "Powered by GURPS" rather than 100% backward compatible, which gave Jon and Loren the flexibility to address some of the biggest complaints about GT, but required another rewrite.

Last I heard it was supposed to be out in November, but since the playtest hasn't been announced I imagine the date may have slipped. That's not terribly unusual in the gaming industry -- Starships was delayed, what? 3 years?

Glad to hear you liked the books, though. I'm excited about Interstellar Wars -- I think it's going to be the best version of Traveller since the original.

--------
Kotoba yori tashika na koto michizure ni shite.

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Sunday, August 8, 2004 6:12 AM

TETHYS

Quote:
Originally posted by Gunhand:

Don't get me started on some of the WoD people I've had run-ins with though...

HAHAHA....sounds like we're on the same page, gunniemeboy!!!...

On the traveler...kinda misse dit here...too busy with D&D, the WoD games, yada yada.......

"You replaced Firefly with *barf* Fastlane?!"
Zoe:"Take me Sir. Take me hard" - War Stories

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Sunday, August 8, 2004 6:19 AM

SHOTGUNSTEVEN

I was just discussing this with a friend last night. He's written extensive material for Traveller over the last many years. He doesn't know about Firefly, though. I just told him about it this week, and he's going to check it out when he gets back to Washington.

He's created distinct, self-contained universes before. Once he gets hooked on Firefly, as I am sure he will, I hope to recruit him to help with a Firefly game universe.

We've played Traveller 2300, MegaTraveller, etc. We're both planning on picking up Traveller D20, but we always wind up going back to the original little black books that were published back in the 70s.

-ShotgunSteven

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Wednesday, September 15, 2004 8:08 AM

BROWNCOATTROOPER

D20 is an Alliance...repeat...Alliance plot to reduce RPG's to a uniform, mediocre level......to gather ALL games under one roof so they could be ignored equally!

LOL

I have run some Firefly-like Traveller games using the Wee Black Books (WBB) version and T4, both are shiny.....
I have also tried using a Morrow Project (weapons) and Cthulhu/TW2000 (roleplaying) blend.....with good results...Morrow is a great combatsystem and optimized for the level of weaponry carried by Serenity's crew.

And doesnt the old Empress Marava class free trader remind you of a fire-fly?
See we had an ex-scout captain and a large, gun-happy ex-marine......

What tatooed thug? You mean the one I left near the Engine intake?

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Monday, October 17, 2005 9:18 AM

RABBIT2

"Na, the lower tech Lord Somerset version was better than the Marava. Cleaner hull design which made for better handlin in atmo and with a similar internal arrangement. Trouble with them high tech hulls anyway was that they ran all the control circuitry for key systems through a single mainframe `puter. Shure they had triple redundancy in the software and could run with a smaller crew but if somethin fragged the goram hardware you were floatin in the dark with no power or life support and no way o bypassin."

Yup. I used to play an engineer.
Seriously though one of my first impressions of Firefly was "this is Traveller the TV series" since all the key elements appeared to be there.

The Imperium = the Alliance
Blue Sun = Typical Imperial megacorporation.
The Serenity = Free Trader or Far Trader class ship
The Crew = A fairly typical bunch of PC`s trying to keep their ship flying by doing any dodgy job going.
River = a renegade Psionic on the run from both the psionics insitutes and the Imperials.
The episode `The Train Job` always reminds me of a typical game session only difference being none of the players I know would have given Niska the money back.
Best version of the rules to my mind was T4 but I never had any problems mixing info from any of the editions.

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Monday, October 17, 2005 9:24 AM

HANS

Wow, I've been working on a Firefly/Classic Traveller mash-up called, you guessed it, "Hang on Travellers". I created a bunch of custom Firefly-esque professions (Shepherd, Companion, Rogue, etc.) and modified some of the existing professions to make them fit in with the Firefly universe. I also created a section of house rules to modify the character creation process to give more player choice, and another section to explain explain inconsistancies (i.e. how does psionic traning work, how do jump drives work in a non-FTL setting, etc.).

I was thinking of posting a link to it here one day if it ever gets polished enough.

Hans

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Tuesday, October 18, 2005 8:58 AM

RABBIT2

A very useful Traveller book to look for is Fire, Fusion and Steel, this was construction rulebook that allowed you to build anything from a handgun to a starship.
Two versions were published, one for the New Era rules and another for T4 although the rules in them were sufficiently generic to be used with any version of Traveller or other RPG`s. A good bit of info was supplied about the technical assumptions made in the game and some alternative suggestions were also covered.
I have a feeling the rules on fusion rockets would prove useful to anyone thinking of creating stats for a Firefly in Traveller or anything else.
Trouble is, both versions are out of print so if you can find a second hand copy I would recommend you grab it if you can.
On the other hand, I`ve got all the tools I need.
I think I might have a crack at this myself.

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Wednesday, November 23, 2005 11:48 AM

COLONELMASON

Shiny! I love the name for your campaign!

Quote:
Originally posted by Hans:
Wow, I've been working on a Firefly/Classic Traveller mash-up called, you guessed it, "Hang on Travellers". I created a bunch of custom Firefly-esque professions (Shepherd, Companion, Rogue, etc.) and modified some of the existing professions to make them fit in with the Firefly universe. I also created a section of house rules to modify the character creation process to give more player choice, and another section to explain explain inconsistancies (i.e. how does psionic traning work, how do jump drives work in a non-FTL setting, etc.).

I was thinking of posting a link to it here one day if it ever gets polished enough.

Hans

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Sunday, January 1, 2006 8:10 AM

BROMGREV

Well, now, been playing classic Traveller since long before it became 'classic'. In fact, the good old Citizens of the Imperium boads were what first alerted me to the existence of Serenity (and, thence, Firefly).

Let's not talk of love and flowers and things that don't explode ...

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