Thanee
First Post
Could you elaborate a bit, on what you found broken?
We had no real problems at all, when we used the Cortex rule (pretty much as is).
Bye
Thanee
Comparing Potential Systems for a "Serenity"/"Firefly"-based Campaign
- Thread starter innerdude
- Start date
Could you elaborate a bit, on what you found broken?
We had no real problems at all, when we used the Cortex rule (pretty much as is).
Bye
Thanee
Shades of Green
Explorer
Mongoose Traveller (and Classic Traveller, on which it was based) use a relatively rules-light system, with most tasks (combat or otherwise) resolved by rolling 2d6 plus/minus modifiers for skills, attributes, difficulty, conditions etc; a roll of 8 or more is a success. Character generation is almost a game unto itself and resolves your character's previous career - unlike D&D, you very rarely start at the age of 18 in Traveller - you start as an older guy with serious professional experience under his belt. Classic Traveller chargen is FAST once you get to know it well, about 5 minutes (!) on average; Mongoose Traveller chargen takes somewhat longer because it is more detailed, but is still quite fast.
The great thing about Traveller is that it has A LOT of rules for starships - ship design, ship combat, cargo capacity, interstellar trade, passenger services, you name it... It also has good and fast rules for detailing worlds and/or generating worlds randomly. The tech level is also perfect for Firefly, with emphasis on low-tech slugthrowers (including shotguns and revolvers... IN SPAAAACE!) rather than energy weapons and without too many cybermods, biomods or robots milling around. It also has rules for psionics if you want to model River Tam or the Agents.
Traveller can be used to run a very wide variety of sci-fi campaigns, from mercenaries.military to trade to exploration. That said, the default campaign is having a tramp trader and going between the stars doing speculative trade, smuggling, odd jobs, adventures and passenger transport. Just like Firefly.
Also, if you use 15mm miniatures like Traveller suggests, you can get a lot of Firefly-like minis from Ground Zero Games and Splintered Light Miniatures.
The great thing about Traveller is that it has A LOT of rules for starships - ship design, ship combat, cargo capacity, interstellar trade, passenger services, you name it... It also has good and fast rules for detailing worlds and/or generating worlds randomly. The tech level is also perfect for Firefly, with emphasis on low-tech slugthrowers (including shotguns and revolvers... IN SPAAAACE!) rather than energy weapons and without too many cybermods, biomods or robots milling around. It also has rules for psionics if you want to model River Tam or the Agents.
Traveller can be used to run a very wide variety of sci-fi campaigns, from mercenaries.military to trade to exploration. That said, the default campaign is having a tramp trader and going between the stars doing speculative trade, smuggling, odd jobs, adventures and passenger transport. Just like Firefly.
Also, if you use 15mm miniatures like Traveller suggests, you can get a lot of Firefly-like minis from Ground Zero Games and Splintered Light Miniatures.
Having it be a single star system with many worlds actually makes that more complicated, rather than less. If you're travelling between star systems, you do not have to worry much about those stars moving - you can have fixed travel times (or distances) between Star A and Star B. With the number of worlds in the 'Verse, all in one system, if you wanted to be picky the orbits would matter a lot - Going from planet A to planet B might take days or months, depending on their positions in their orbits.
And genre style. Honestly, did you ever see Mal talking about exact cargo mass, and details of delta-V?
Yes, Firefly is a sci-fi show, with spaceships. But it is also a Western - and in a Western your cargo is either non-existent, a full wagon, or Just Too Damn Big. Simple, elegant, and enough for purposes of supporting the drama.
Cam Banks
Adventurer
Obviously I would suggest that if you want to play a Firefly/Serenity campaign, you should check out the RPG we published that actually deals with this license, but there are some good points folks have raised. The biggest one that leaps out at me is your description of your play group. If you're a hard core crunch fiend type, the Cortex System's probably not going to be meaty enough for you.
Traveler is a solid, robust system that handles sci-fi action and adventure very well, but it doesn't bring anything to the table regarding dramatic support. By that I mean it has no real rules for supporting specific dramatic play, rather it aims to provide the "physics and science" mechanical framework so that you can let it take care of things like how to hit things, speed of things, use of trained skills to accomplish tasks.
This is what many people expect an RPG to handle, and so I think it'd be just fine for Firefly. Savage Worlds, similarly, goes straight to the heart of pulp action and functions much like a less-bulky d20 (sans the d20), with some scene editing tricks much like Cortex uses in Serenity. The more you head toward games like Diaspora (Traveler's spiritual heir) and Dogs in the Vineyard, the more you encompass character and drama-centric play with game mechanics that address social and plot-responsive outcomes.
Cheers,
Cam
PS: If I were to run Firefly, I'd use our new LEVERAGE RPG with a coat of Serenity paint.
Traveler is a solid, robust system that handles sci-fi action and adventure very well, but it doesn't bring anything to the table regarding dramatic support. By that I mean it has no real rules for supporting specific dramatic play, rather it aims to provide the "physics and science" mechanical framework so that you can let it take care of things like how to hit things, speed of things, use of trained skills to accomplish tasks.
This is what many people expect an RPG to handle, and so I think it'd be just fine for Firefly. Savage Worlds, similarly, goes straight to the heart of pulp action and functions much like a less-bulky d20 (sans the d20), with some scene editing tricks much like Cortex uses in Serenity. The more you head toward games like Diaspora (Traveler's spiritual heir) and Dogs in the Vineyard, the more you encompass character and drama-centric play with game mechanics that address social and plot-responsive outcomes.
Cheers,
Cam
PS: If I were to run Firefly, I'd use our new LEVERAGE RPG with a coat of Serenity paint.
CarlZog
Explorer
Alternity for Firefly/Serenity
Alternity was made for this kind of low-tech space opera.
It's got a very flexible combat system that is designed to be adjusted for as much or as little gritty realism as you'd like. It's got great rules for spaceships and ship combat that keeps all the players involved in the action. Its a heavily skill-based system that allows characters to improve with experience, but not become absurdly powerful. It has a great mechanic for complex skill checks that does a great job of adding dramatic tension to tasks, encounters and negotiations.
Its core setting, StarDrive, is based in a region of space very much like Firefly's. You could take whole planets and settings from it and plop 'em into Firefly universe with no adjustment.
Alternity's core books are all out of print, but easily available on ebay at very cheap prices.
I like Traveller, but I love Alternity!
Alternity was made for this kind of low-tech space opera.
It's got a very flexible combat system that is designed to be adjusted for as much or as little gritty realism as you'd like. It's got great rules for spaceships and ship combat that keeps all the players involved in the action. Its a heavily skill-based system that allows characters to improve with experience, but not become absurdly powerful. It has a great mechanic for complex skill checks that does a great job of adding dramatic tension to tasks, encounters and negotiations.
Its core setting, StarDrive, is based in a region of space very much like Firefly's. You could take whole planets and settings from it and plop 'em into Firefly universe with no adjustment.
Alternity's core books are all out of print, but easily available on ebay at very cheap prices.
I like Traveller, but I love Alternity!
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Thanee
First Post
Thanee
First Post
That one actually looks pretty cool. Thanks for the little "shameless plug".
Bye
Thanee
Pbartender
First Post
Sorry, I missed this post earlier...
Alright... I made a flippant mistake, but look at it from the view of a casual fan.
I've watched all the shows from beginning to end, and the movie as well. Now, while a bit of exposition in the movie explains about a big star system with "dozens of planets and hundreds of moons" long after the show ran its course, the show never really says one thing or another about the whole FTL thing. Kaylee talks about a "gravity-drive" at one point, but I don't recall it making much sense.
But l just take a look at what happens on-screen... Firefly is flying around on its thrusters, Wash pushes a buttonor pulls a lever, the ass-end of the ship gets all glowy, and then it zooms off into space at an incredible speed... Without Joss Whedon telling us otherwise, it looks an awful lot like Star Trek's warp drive or Star Wars' hyperdrive, doesn't it?
But the point is, it doesn't really matter whether or not they're traveling faster than light. The ships have two speeds... Slow for flying around planets, and Very, Very Fast for flying between planets. That's all we really need to know.
Alright... I made a flippant mistake, but look at it from the view of a casual fan.
I've watched all the shows from beginning to end, and the movie as well. Now, while a bit of exposition in the movie explains about a big star system with "dozens of planets and hundreds of moons" long after the show ran its course, the show never really says one thing or another about the whole FTL thing. Kaylee talks about a "gravity-drive" at one point, but I don't recall it making much sense.
But l just take a look at what happens on-screen... Firefly is flying around on its thrusters, Wash pushes a buttonor pulls a lever, the ass-end of the ship gets all glowy, and then it zooms off into space at an incredible speed... Without Joss Whedon telling us otherwise, it looks an awful lot like Star Trek's warp drive or Star Wars' hyperdrive, doesn't it?
But the point is, it doesn't really matter whether or not they're traveling faster than light. The ships have two speeds... Slow for flying around planets, and Very, Very Fast for flying between planets. That's all we really need to know.
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