It's true. The art is spectacular, and I was shocked that even the maps have different styles throughout it. It's precisely the kind of anthology I was wanting out of it. Looking forward to getting to run some of them, too.
I’m truly astounded by the people who don’t like the Mallards in their campaigns. That’s what got my group to even give the system a shot. That said, I do like the idea of them being cranky humans if there needs to be a palette swap.
I'd say Scum and Villainy would be your best bet, tbh. I haven't ever tried the actual Firefly game itself, but I know that S&V is pretty much a spiritual successor that is truly fantastic and takes a lot of inspiration from the 'verse.
I'm all for short campaigns. I am working on adapting the Starfinder "Year of Era's End" metaplot into a level 6-10ish 2e adventure path for my group. It has a very specific end-point in it that would wrap our campaign up right as Gen Con happens with the full launch of second edition.
It will...
I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing to undo the adventuring day and leave it more free-form. I do hope they continue to define what a standard length of time is, though. One of the best things I've pulled in from Dragonbane is the simple idea of a stretch/shift of time, a 15-minute...
I did genuinely not notice that. Holy crap. How have I missed something so fundamental? Dang.
Also, super excited to see the Psi Knight in there. It's one of my (theoretically) favorite fighter subclasses.