Firefly D20?

[TheAuldGrump]

It doesn't matter... I'm trying to emulate, stat-wise, two things with River. First, the "sleeper agent" plot device -- usually she's a mostly useless and crazy girl, but sometimes she turns into a cold-blooded killing machine. Second, her fighting ability -- within the scope of movie that means the ability to pull some fancy moves and take down an entire room full of mooks... Oh, and beat up Jayne.

And... Now that the "filter" is removed, slowly realizing her full potenital would be essentially equivalent to gaining additional levels as a Soldier.

It's not a full stat block, but here's a rough sketch of how it might work in SC 2.0, using the standard SC 2.0 point buy. I went with level 7, to give her a few extra cool feats, but it feasibly could have been done at as low a level as 3rd. The important part is the "alternate idenity" part of her Test Subject origin... It allows her to switch between her two main roles (power levels) in the show.

Plus, all her "psychic" insights and suh can be modeled easily modeled through Action Dice.

Also notice that most of the feats chosen are nto necessary feats... Many of them could be swapped out for other feats in order to better portray anyone's personal ideal of her fighting style.

Drat you Pbartender, I was going to suggest SC2! Then you had to go one further before I even had a chance to post. It would be a good system for the game, and Firefly is even mentioned as inspiration for one of the genres.

I have to admit that I was not altogether thrilled with the system in the Serenity RPG. Not my cup of tea, not at all. Not sorry that I got the book, but definitely eying a conversion....

The Auld Grump

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

River's a DM PC.

 

[Storyteller01]

Looking to run a Firefly D20 campaign for my next game in the coming year. I love the show, but admit I am not an uber fan and didn't take notes on all the hardware and names in the show. Also I would like to use D20 Modern and D20 Future as the base rules of the game.

Regarding the weapons and equipment in general, anyone found a conversion listing for D20 Modern/Future?

You might want to look at OGL Wild West. It's based on the d20 modern system, and has stats for a variety of fire arms. It also has rules for non-magical healing involving infections and amputations. For those far off independant planets . It should mix fairly seamlessly. It's open content, so I can type up an answers to questions you may have.

I would like to retain the action of the show, lots of shooting with lots of missing and thus melee still has a role. What would you suggest as a modifier for weapon's fire, -2, -4? Especially since in the show and in D20 there is no raise dead or resurrection.

OGL Wild West has luck points for this.

What in your opinion would be good psionic rules for Firefly?

Given River's observed capabilities, I'd use AE's akashic, with some DM 'foreshadowing' thrown in for those times she knows things know one else would have (like the fire in the ship). The ability to mix and match feats and skills goes a long way to help explain her abilities. You could also explain her abilities as her being higher level than the others. She did start much earlier than the rest. Her time at the 'academy' may have stalled her level advancement.

PS: MGP's Quintessential Sorcerer has rules for playing children as well as the Child Prodigy feat. She could start with that and work up.

I loath the monetary system of D20 Modern, any alternate systems that can easily be dropped in?

Can't help you there.

For flavor I believe I got that covered pretty well, but what in your opinion made the show, appealing, different, and want to watch? Besides the great background music...

For me, it was the interaction between the crew members that kept me interested.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

I loath the monetary system of D20 Modern, any alternate systems that can easily be dropped in?

How about Sidewinder: Recoiled's Cold Hard Cash rule?

 

[Tetsubo]

I got an email from one of the Serenity RPG play testers. He said that they felt River shouldn't even have stats. She should just be a DM tool to move the plot forward. Need something odd done? River does it. Need some obscure info? River knows it... that sort of thing. Her abilities are just so varied and near god-like...

 

[Committed Hero]

A solution which will satisfy everyone except those who want to play a character like River's.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I have to ask: "why include River at all?" A Firefly RPG should be about the players, not the high profile NPCs.

 

[Storyteller01]

Her abilities are just so varied and near god-like...

This I don't really see. See reads minds and events, and fights very well. She did great, but her combat ability didn't overshadow anything you'd see in a japanese samurai film.

 

[Ranger REG]

I have to ask: "why include River at all?" A Firefly RPG should be about the players, not the high profile NPCs.

Well, to put this in analogy, you can't really write a Star Trek RPG without Kirk & Crew. Otherwise, it would be Star Fleet Battles/Prime Directive RPG.

 

[stonehill_troll]

How about Sidewinder: Recoiled's Cold Hard Cash rule?

Well damn I totally forgot about D20 Sidewinder, I bought it last year but no one in my group seemed interested in playing a straight western game. Thanks for the reminder.