GenCon Feedback of Firefly RPG by Thalos

FIREFLY UNIVERSE

GenCon Feedback of Firefly RPG

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POSTED BY: THALOS
UPDATED: Tuesday, October 5, 2004 08:32
SHORT URL: http://goo.gl/D1laR
VIEWED: 6634
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Monday, August 23, 2004 7:21 AM

My friends and I were the GMs of this game and are looking for some feedback.

I thought the games went well, and all the players efforts made the game extremely fun.

Our analysis was that the 4 hour timeslot was not quite long enough, should have grabbed a 6 hour slot. The ending could have been written a little tighter so as to wait until the last possible moment to reveal the big twist.

How did players feel about the "Teaser Scene", did it help get players into the "minds of the characters"?

I think Cyberpunk is an excellent system for writing characters since the system gives you "mature" characters set in a futuristic enviroment. The short comings of Cyberpunk is that there is not a lot of psyonics rules which there should be for River. And of course you do not use the cybernetics part of the rule book as Firefly takes the "Cyber" out of Cyberpunk.

Any and all comments are appreciated and will be used to make a better game.

"Whoa, good Bible."

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Monday, August 23, 2004 7:42 PM

CALDEEN

Gorram it! Now I am wishing that had gone to Gencon. Would have been worth it just to play Firefly set in cyberpunk system.

Did you take all the cyberware and bioware out? In my game I haven't done this. Just made it much more expencive.
http://www.geocities.com/homealone111/Firefly.htm

Do you live in or near Dallas Tx by any chance? :)

I am not worried about the bullet with my name on it. Just the thousands marked "Occupant".
http://www.geocities.com/homealone111/
http://www.keepflyinggames.com

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Tuesday, August 24, 2004 2:57 AM

THALOS

In this adventure, the PCs were playing our favorite crew and so no cyberware was present.

I had not yet decided if Cyberware would be in the Firefly 'verse. There has never been any on the shows so I am very hesitant to include it, although I think you are right there may be some on the core planets for alot of money.

I found that finding adaquate rules to account for River's abilities was the lone stumbling point. Although, the players who took River did an excellent job of having her say ambiguous things that were profetic.

"Whoa, good Bible."

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Tuesday, August 24, 2004 7:14 PM

ELIANDI

Never considered using Cyberpunk for FF roleplaying. Interesting.

We are using Traveller t20 because it supports having non-combat PCs with stuff to do (Wash, Simon, etc), mixed tech levels (revolvers on a space ship :) ), as well as having psionics rules close to FF (we toned it down). You do need to keep the Traveller tech from taking over the game, but that is a DM expectation setting issue. In fact, our games have been very rp focused and character-driven, as befits the show.

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Wednesday, August 25, 2004 5:38 AM

THALOS

I think Cyberpunk is the best system, although admittidly I have very little knowledge about the Traveler system.

Cyberpunk though has all the correct character classes, especially if you include the supplements: Techie (Kaylee), MedTechie (Simon), Soldier (Solo)(Mal, Zoe) Nomad (Jayne), Religious Leader (Book), Pilot (Wash), Prostitute (Inara), plus many many others.

And the fact that you get "mature" characers is another bonus, again, the only real hurdle is a River character, and since in a campaign not based on our BDH's there should not be any "empathic beings" this should present even less of a problem.

However, my bottom line is this: Firefly is great because of the character interaction and development, as long as any gaming system you use is structured toward "role" playing and not "roll" playing it should work out fine.

"Whoa, good Bible."

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Wednesday, August 25, 2004 7:24 PM

CALDEEN

Very true. Admittidly I am biased tword Cyberpunk. Perhaps should have taken the cyberware out all together but then would have probebly had to reset the firearms back to the damage in the books. I wont allow my chars to have psychic abiliteis. One tried to sneak that in by taking a ward who was part of the blue sun program. He is really regretting that now.

My games are about the characters and stories, with some fights to keep it going. The captain is in the midst of a moral delima as we speak....hehe

You don't think Jayne is a solo?

Sorry, think I am hijacking your tread. How did the games go at GenCon?

I am not worried about the bullet with my name on it. Just the thousands marked "Occupant".
http://www.geocities.com/homealone111/
http://www.keepflyinggames.com

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Friday, August 27, 2004 3:06 AM

THALOS

No hijacking of the thread here. All worthy conversation.

I do have Jayne listed as a Solo in the game I wrote for GenCon. But the more I thought about it the more I wonder if he is more like a Nomad. He was not in the military so no formal training, his background reminds of the Nomad Santiago from the core rule book.

The games at the con went quite well. As you stated we used the original damage for weaponary. Since Firefly is shown as 1 shot can kill you and hardly anyone has armor (except Zoe

) I think a handgun doing 2D6+1 damage is about right. There was also absolutely no cyberware in the game, since I did not see any in the show, it didnt feel right having it in the game.

I also imported the Fuzion rules, which I believe are a precursor to Cyberpunk Version 3 rules. It has cool things like complications and talents which bring alot of depth to the characters.

As far as your game, it sounds very interesting, and it certainly would not be a cybrpunk game if the PCs were not coming across some tough decisions that will ultimately lead to their demise.

"Whoa, good Bible."

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Friday, August 27, 2004 10:01 AM

CORONE

Just posting to say how much I enjoyed the cyberpunk game.
Had a great time being a crazy girl! :-)

If you missed it, don't miss next time it runs!

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Tuesday, August 31, 2004 7:50 PM

CALDEEN

Jayne as a nomad. I will have to think about that. As for armor think most of them had it. If you remember when they were assalting Niska's skyplex you hear Jayne shouting about how they shot his gorram leg but he isn't even limping later.

I would like to look at the Fuzion rules. Is there a website? Will look it up. We use the advantages and disadvantages to round out chars, is optional though. Also I like the life path in book.

One shot can kill is a big thing. That is why we upped the damage on the firearms. We got tired of having to use a rifle to get through 1 point of damage. Check it out on my homepage if you want.

I am not worried about the bullet with my name on it. Just the thousands marked "Occupant".
http://www.geocities.com/homealone111/
http://www.keepflyinggames.com

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Monday, September 13, 2004 4:55 PM

WMARSHAL

Thalos,

I played Jayne during the Friday night session of the Firefly game, and I enjoyed it immensly even though I had only a little knowledge of the Cyberpunk system beforehand. By the time we finished I had felt like I had received an extra episode of Firefly.

I thought the teaser scene worked well. Though most of us at that session had seen the entire season (and we probably all owned the DVDs), and therefore knew the characters, it was still good to have the direction of the game set up early on.

To be honest, I'm somewhat more of a "roll"-player than a "role"-player. I think it'd be especially difficult to "role"-play at a convention where usually you're given a pre-generated character that you otherwise know nothing about, and only have that character for a few hours. A knowledge of the characters from the TV series helped greatly to get us into the roles, but I think the teaser scene still helped even those of us who were familiar with the show. (I found this familiarity with the setting helped with the Farscape game I signed up for as well.) For players not familiar with the setting I think teaser scenes are a must, and I try to use them when I start a new game with my players.

I have a quick question. Were you my game-master for the Friday night session? The GenCon book has the game listed as being by "Abend, Roter & Kay", but I have no idea which one ran my game. My friend (who played Book) and I have pretty much decided that you guys ran such an awesome game at GenCon that we'd be interested in attending any game that you run. (Though more Firefly would always be great.)

Aurë entuluva,
Wes

__
When a man lies he murders part of the world

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Tuesday, October 5, 2004 8:32 AM

NYNAEVE

Thalos, I don't know where you're located, however, I do want to make the following proposal.
There is a sci-fi convention (ConClave) in Lansing, Michigan the weekend of October 22-24th. My hubby is in charge of the Gaming room, and I know that we've got enough gamers/FF fans for at least 2 good games.
Are you interested?

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