Serenity Role Playing Game. What is the good, the bad, and the ugly?

[buzz]

Suggestions would have been nice.

IIRC, the book does explicitly state that there's no fixed ability-to-skill combos, though there are some that are called out for things like combat.

Of course, the only person at the table empowered to decide what ability goes with what skill in a given situation is the GM. Which, of course, is weak sauce, IMO.

 

[an_idol_mind]

I thought the system was okay, but Savage Worlds is much better for a Serenity-style game, IMO. Off the top of my head, I had the following issues with the system:

-Competency: While the characters in Firefly do have moments of incompetence, they are rarely awful at what they do best. Wash might suck at a lot of things, but he's a darned good pilot. Mal doesn't accidentally shoot his own people. Kaylee doesn't screw up when it comes to fixing the engines, and so on. The die + die mechanic of the skill system in Serenity gives such a wide variation of results that it is very probable that your character will have issues with stuff that they're supposed to be very good at.

-Plot Points: I like the idea of Plot Points, but the system seems very reliant on them. First of all, it seems that you're expected to use them quite often to avoid the competence problems mentioned above. That means that the GM has to give out a lot of them, which makes them less special than receiving them for good role-playing/clever ideas/the stuff that the book mentions as worthy of gaining extra Plot Points. Additionally, since they're tied to advancement, I found that players are very reluctant to use them -- it's sort of like spending XP in D&D. I would ahve preferred that Plot Points be fairly rare bennies rather than something that is necessary to keep the game running smoothly.

-The Book's Layout: I got my copy about a month after they hit the shelves, so this might have been fixed in later printings. However, the lack of an index or even a well-described table of contents is a huge problem when it comes to looking things up quickly during a game.

That said, the three sessions I ran with this system would have gone on to be a much better campaign if I hadn't made some key errors as a GM. However, having since looked over Savage Worlds, I think it's a much better system for a Serenity game. It does a lot of what the Serenity system tried to do, but without some of the bigger bugs.

 

[DragonLancer]

I played Serenity for a couple months of weekly sessions last year and to be fair, I found the system quite poor. Too much random dice rolling basically, and it ensured that the system didn't fit the setting very well.

 

[jdrakeh]

In that case, you'd think they'd have had enough time to make it a decent system.

In fairness, AD&D was around for a very long time and was pretty nebulous on what attribute checks to use for what actions and so forth (i.e., it sports pretty much the same kind of clarity issues that people have with Cortex). Longevity is no guarantee of editorial oversight, nor is popularity. Conversely, excellent editing and design is no guarantee of longevity or popularity. Fandom is fickle and, more often than not, totally illogical.

 

[RodneyThompson]

One thing I think the system did do well was the way it handled flaws. Typically, I think perks & flaws systems almost always fail with what they set out to do. I liked that in Serenity your flaws really provided you with benefits when they came into play during the session. I thought it encouraged you to make sure your flaws cause hindrances, since you want to get that benefit of having the flaw come into play. It's pretty rare to find a flaws system that makes you want to see it come up, and I think Serenity had an interesting take on it.

As for the system as a whole, it's another one of those systems I enjoy playing one-shots or 3-4 session adventures for, but I struggle to play long campaign with it.

 

[SavageRobby]

In fairness, AD&D was around for a very long time and was pretty nebulous on what attribute checks to use for what actions and so forth (i.e., it sports pretty much the same kind of clarity issues that people have with Cortex). Longevity is no guarantee of editorial oversight, nor is popularity. Conversely, excellent editing and design is no guarantee of longevity or popularity. Fandom is fickle and, more often than not, totally illogical.

You'll have to pardon me, but a comparison to a 3 decades old system has to do with me thinking Serenity being a crappy system how, exactly? Old Coke used to have Cocaine in it too, but that isn't exactly relevant to whether I like Dr. Pepper today or not.

 

[Dragon Snack]

Point Of Information - There is no "." in Dr Pepper. The "." was dropped in the 1950s...

I do think the cortex system as presented in Serenity needed work (even if it has been around for a while, this was it's big coming out ceremony), but I'll stand by my opinion that it works for the setting. In the series the BDH's did fail - a lot. And combat was deadly - very deadly. I don't see that coming across if you use d20 or Savage Worlds as the system.

 

[buzz]

In fairness, AD&D was around for a very long time and was pretty nebulous on what attribute checks to use for what actions and so forth (i.e., it sports pretty much the same kind of clarity issues that people have with Cortex).

Serenity has 20+ more years of design precedent to draw upon, though.

Someone from MWP can obviously contradict me, but Cortex exists because they wanted a system over which they had ownership and could leverage for future RPG releases. That they are tying it to various licenses is indicative that it wasn't designed to "do" Firefly.

 

[jdrakeh]

You'll have to pardon me, but a comparison to a 3 decades old system has to do with me thinking Serenity being a crappy system how, exactly? Old Coke used to have Cocaine in it too, but that isn't exactly relevant to whether I like Dr. Pepper today or not.

The criticism that you made earlier was that Cortex has had plenty of time to iron out the wrinkles since its inception. The point that I'm making is that time in print/production does not automatically equal vast mechanical refinement of systems (the assumption that serves as the basis for your criticism).

AD&D was published in 1976. In 1996 (i.e., 20 years, two editions, and thousands of products later) it still had many of the same issues that you're damning MWP for not smoothing out in ten years. Likewise, RIFTS is a game that is currently in print yet hasn't changed in any meaningful way since 1982 with regard to system mechanics.

While MWP hasn't addressed some significant issues with Cortex (and, yes, I think that sucks) but it likely has very little to do with time. More likely, it has to do with a perception at MWP that the things many of us see as problems. . . aren't.

 

[SavageRobby]

The criticism that you made earlier was that Cortex has had plenty of time to iron out the wrinkles since its inception. The point that I'm making is that time in print/production does not automatically equal vast mechanical refinement of systems (the assumption that serves as the basis for your criticism).

Actually, my criticism wasn't based on time, nor am I damning them for not fixing issues. I simply said that I think the system stinks, and I likened it to a bad Savage Worlds ripoff. After a few folks pointed out that the Serenity system came first, I made the tongue-in-cheek statement that they should have bettered it by now. For some odd reason you've decided to turn that into an issue and bring up all kinds of irrelevant examples (to the discussion at hand) to support that. <shrug>


So ... regardless of whether there has been sufficient time or desire to make it better or not, the OP asked about the Serenity system. Me, I think one is better served to use a better designed system, regardless of when it was published, and use the Serenity fluff, much of which I like - particularly the way they described the drives worked, and how that mostly fit into the episodes, like Out of Gas.



Dragon Snack - Didn't know that about DP, and I've been drinking it for almost 3 decades. Learn something new everyday.