Help me roleplay Jayne Cobb

[Warehouse23]

In a moment of unabashed geekiness I did once find myself thinking:

Jayne: ranger (good track, move silently, ranged attacks)

Zoe: Fighter/Rogue with more emphasis on rogue

Mal: Fighter/Rogue with more emphasis on fighter

Glad to know other folks out there are pondering it. I'd go ranger with Jayne, low int and low cha. Remember, the ladies he's popular with a either prostitutes or mudders.

 

[Pielorinho]

Zoe is LN with Good tendencies (i.e. the loyal soldier with something of a conscience), and Book and Wash are probably the closest to Good (maybe Kaylee as well).

You're forgetting the character who, on a life-or-death mission to save his sister, risks everything to stop and save a dying man. The guy who, on finding out that a party member had betrayed him and his sister in a way that almost got them killed, tells this party member that the traitor need never fear him.

Simon's the lawfulest goodest guy on the show. Sure, he engages in a few criminal capers, but it's pretty dang clear he's not happy about it.

Daniel

 

[Brother MacLaren]

You're forgetting the character who, on a life-or-death mission to save his sister, risks everything to stop and save a dying man. The guy who, on finding out that a party member had betrayed him and his sister in a way that almost got them killed, tells this party member that the traitor need never fear him.

Simon's the lawfulest goodest guy on the show. Sure, he engages in a few criminal capers, but it's pretty dang clear he's not happy about it.

Daniel

Good point about Simon. I don't know about Lawful, but he certainly is Good.

 

[RigaMortus2]

Mal is Neutral. He won't go out of his way to help someone (Good), but he'll try to avoid hurting people if he can help it (neutral).

Tell that to the guy that jumps on their ship trying to get away from the Reavers... You know, the one he physcially KICKS off the ship... and then when the reavers grab him, he shoots!!! Yeah, I know it was a mercy killing, but would a neutral person have no problem with that?

Not to mention when he attacks an unarmed man (who happened to be wearing body armor, unbeknownst to him)...

Seems kind of evilish too me... The only difference I see between Mal and Jayne is that Mal doesn't stab his friends in the back.

 

[RigaMortus2]

Good point about Simon. I don't know about Lawful, but he certainly is Good.

If the Law enforcers are corrupt, and you are fighting against them, what does that make you?

 

[Sejs]

If the Law enforcers are corrupt, and you are fighting against them, what does that make you?

An outlaw.

Doesn't indicate anything about your alignment, though.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

In my d20 Modern game, one of the guys decided to roleplay Jayne. The problem was I had never seen Firefly. I had no idea what he was trying to do. From my perspective, he was trying to act like an idiot who was highly competant. Looking back, I can see what the PC was trying to do and I wasn't playing off of him in a way that would flatter the character.

So all I'm saying is make sure your DM has seen the show.

 

[Henry]

...You know, the one he physcially KICKS off the ship... and then when the reavers grab him, he shoots!!! Yeah, I know it was a mercy killing, but would a neutral person have no problem with that?

In my opinion, not a bit of problem. Both of the below statements are not in conflict with Malcolm "You're on my crew, or NOT on my crew" Reynolds.

People who are neutral with respect to good and evil have compunctions against killing the innocent but lack the commitment to make sacrifices to protect or help others. Neutral people are committed to others by personal relationships.

A neutral character does what seems to be a good idea. She doesn’t feel strongly one way or the other when it comes to good vs. evil or law vs. chaos. Most neutral characters exhibit a lack of conviction or bias rather than a commitment to neutrality. Such a character thinks of good as better than evil—after all, she would rather have good neighbors and rulers than evil ones. Still, she’s not personally committed to upholding good in any abstract or universal way.

He shoots the man because he believes it's doing the most humane thing for the man possible, while not risking himself in the process.

As for Jayne, I can easily see him as evil, possibly Neutral Evil. At first, the one thing that keeps him in line is fear of Mal - it's only through the actions of the recent movie that shows he's grown into a person with some feeling of concern on the part of Simon and River, but I think it's more because he feels respect and obligation to both them and Mal, for not killing him no matter his previous actions to sell them out.

***This assumes that one were trying to apply D&D alignments to this rather 3-dimensional lot of characters anyway...

 

[melkorspawn]

Here's my 2 cents:
Mal: ChG
Zoe: ChG
Kaylee: NG
Jayne: ChN
Simon: Lawful Good on the path to Chaotic Good (Hits NG in Pilot, Hits CG in Ariel)
Book: LG (On the surface, at least... too bad we'll never find out now)
Wash: NG

My opinion is that Jayne is not necessarily evil... he's motivated by personal wealth, but so are most Rogues, and the most prevalent rogue class is Chaotic Neutral. If a good act was going to pay more than an evil act, he'd sway that way.

Wash was actually the most difficult for me, because he was kept tucked away from the action for most of the show... but War Stories clinched it for me.

 

[Pielorinho]

I agree that Simon can be LG, NG, or CG depending on the way you read the law-chaos axis. I put him as LG because he seems to follow a very strict internal code. It's that code that risks his safety in both the examples I gave above; it's also that code (among other things) that makes him such a lousy flirt.

Daniel