I've Demoed Serenity RPG- Any questions?

[Meloncov]

At Origins this year I was able to play a three hour long demo of Sovierghn Press' Firefly/Serenity RPG.
The system in short:

The game completely avoids numerical modifiers on rolls. Instead, you have a ability dice and a skill dice, both of which are between a d2 and a d12. You roll both dice, add them together, and compare to the DC. Circumstances can move your die up or down a varying number of points.

The system strongly empasis's plot points. These points are awarded when someone does somthing in charector, but not nessasairly beneficial, say when a charector with the Honest complication tells the truth when itwould be easier to bluff. They are also awarded at the GM's discretion for any other remarcable actions. They can be spent to improve die type on rolls, make scene edits to the situation the GM describes, and a balencing mechanism to allow charectors to take actions that would normally be unbalencing.

As far as I could tell, their were no levels.

Each charector has both traits, which are beneficial, and complications, which, though not always harmful, can lead to complications. Included in this catagory are moral codes, relationships, and enemies.


Though it was difficult to differentiate what was a product of the players and what was a product of the system, I left the game with a very high impression.

 

[MojoGM]

Can you tell us a little bit about the system and how it plays? What are the stats like? Is there any system that it closely resembles?

Also, what was the game you played in like?

I'm looking forward to this one...

 

[RodneyThompson]

Which demo did you play in? I also played it at Origins, and can answer any questions.

 

[Meloncov]

Can you tell us a little bit about the system and how it plays? What are the stats like? Is there any system that it closely resembles?

Also, what was the game you played in like?

I'm looking forward to this one...

Stats are: Agility, Strengh, Vitality, Alertness and Willpower. Again, each stat is a dice type; all of Malcom's stats fall between a d6 and a d10, but I think other charectors have a larger range.

The combat round is proably the games most unique feture. First, all players roll initiative. Then, they declare which to actions they will be taking,with dodging counting as an action. The charectors then act in initiative order, and suffer a penalty if they change their action from what they declared.

Attacks are made by comparing the attackers attack roll with the defenders defense roll. Like D20, the system also fetures damage rolls. All this leads to a fairly heavy dice load, but the system is intuitive enough that the pace is still fairly quick. Additionally, combat generally takes only a few rounds, so the total time spent ends up being less then that in D20 (or at least it felt that way-it is possible that an equal amount of time elapsed, as I did not have a watch.)

My expierence with non-D20 rpgs is quite limited, so I can't really make comparisons, but one of the people at my table said that it reminded them of the Buffy RPG.

Moridin, I played in the second round of games on Thursday. The one with a tall adolesent boy with long brown hair playing Mal.

I can post a full write up of the adventure we went through tommorow if anyone wants me to.

 

[Serendipity]

interesting. It sounds vaguely like the dice pools used in Earthdawn, but with (blessedly) FAR fewer traits.
How did it play?

 

[Wraith Form]

How did it play?

Yeah--the big question is, "is it cool?" lol

 

[Meloncov]

Copuld a moderator merge this thread with the other Serinity thread?

Though it is a dice pool system, I never had to roll more then two dice at a time -three would theoretically be possible, but it rarely happens. Theirfore, you don't have the massive dice pools that supposdy plagued some games.

Overall, I thought it was a great system. It was fairly rules lite, but still contained mechanics to handle most situations without making the GM improvise to much Ot is far more dependent on having good players and GMs then D20, which I supose is to be expected with any rules lite game.

 

[Macbeth]

Any thoughts on how the system feels? Just a gut reaction?

 

[Dagger75]

First: Hate you all who got to play the game Doubley if you saw the movie to.


Second: Strange question but is the game set up for players to play a rag tag bunch of traders trying to scrape a living, or could you play the Alliance if you wanted?

Third: Is there a starship combat section or anything like that. I am a sucker for spaceships and starship battles.

 

[Meloncov]

Macbeth: I got the feeling that the game is aimed more for an occasional pickup game then an ongoing campaighn, as I saw little evidence of much in the way of charector advancement.

Dagger: The game is desighned assuming that the charectors are on a ship like the Serenity, but it should still suport an Alliance crew.

The game includes star ship battle rules, but I know nothing about them; we quickly ran away from any enemy ships we encountered.