Serenity Roleplaying Game

[Clueless]

It's one of those 'add two dice together to hit a target number' sort of systems - which can cause some oddball effects at the table as I'm not entirely sure the statistics of that sort of system are well thought out. With those sort of systems you can get a very 'feast or famine' situation going - where when the dice are with you they're *with* you, and when they're not, they're very very not, and there's no middle ground. To make up for it though, there are action points which a GM should give frequently and generously.

As a resource for the world it's pretty good at filling in a lot of blanks, though not enough but that's impossible to do within a reasonable page count anyways.

For the 'after a few rounds we had to run' problem - why on earth did your GM let your fights last that many rounds? In a modern setting it's much much much more effective to play in a covert ops/Shadowrun mode. Sneaky. It sounds like a badly planned encounter or approach to encounter combined with those funky statistics to cause that problem.

Over all - if you've got a group interested in playing, I'd pick it up for the resource and setting material at the least. If you already have a game system you prefer to use that would work for it and that your players are interested in - I'd be quite tempted to use to provide the rules structure and the Serenity book to provide the setting.

 

[Eridanis]

diaglo has a strong negative opinion on the game, but I don't recall having read an actual post from him elaborating why. I'll point him this way in case he misses it.

 

[rowport]

I agree entirely with pbartender: while the setting is really cool, the rules engine is horrifically awful. It does seem relatively easy to convert to another system, though, like maybe d20 Future or d20 Traveller. You could even use True20 if you wanted to keep the 'rules-lite' sensibility intact. The Serenity rule book production value is very cool, and background is well done, so it may be worthwhile as a setting book.

 

[Dragon Snack]

I'm having fun in the Serenity game I'm in (been playing for about 6 months now, every other week).

Sure, I can see the faults in the system (same with D&D), but with even a semi-competent GM that is easily avoided (our GM has some limiting "house rules" that were really just a poor reading of the rules - and it still works).

I'm not a fan of the botch (in any system, really), but if the GM plays a botch as a "things don't go smooth" situation (whether you have that Complication or not) it's much more palatable than if it shafts you over completely. I managed to fry another crewmembers earbud transmitter while trying a simple modification on it (despite a decent skill), but it was funny* and not a deal breaker (meaning it just made our covert mission harder, it didn't kill anyone or run us into a brick wall). The botch is a way for your charcter to be taken down a peg or two, if used "correctly". Obviously I would consider the GM having us crash the ship during a normal landing using it "incorrectly".

Combat seems to be very deadly, but I've seen all of 3 actions in combat (a short fist fight and a one shot kill with an assault rifle). If combat is your thing you want a different system, but I think it actually fits well with the setting - you didn't have heroic fights in the TV series (yes, the movie was an entirely different beast).

I'm guessing the biggest problem with the system is the amount of trust placed in the GM. If they are there to play along (epitomizing the role of facilitator and giving out plot points freely), then 'Things Go Smooth'. If not, the system falls apart...


*IMO, one of the reasons the Firefly/Serenity 'verse was so great was that almost EVERYONE was a foil at some point. If you don't want to play someone who looks foolish every now and then, you probably don't want to play Serenity.

 

[Technik4]

Got the Pilot skill? Then you don't need to roll to land your ship on a flat bit of land.

But its distressing to see that the mechanics are slighted against you. What if it was stormy, you were being chased, and you had taken some damage? Automatic crash-landing? Why roll the dice, if thats what needs to happen dramatically (or if there is no way in hell you'd be able to make the roll anyway).

The system sounds weird, though I haven't really read the book.

 

[NanocTheCivilized]

I've just completed a short Firefly campaign (7 episodes, about 12 play sessions).

I wasn't impressed by the Serenity rules - there's a whole lot missing, like chase rules and ship-to-ship combat. So I used Savage Worlds instead: if you're familair with both systems you will understand why conversion from Serenity to SW is easy

The only actual rule I adopted was splitting skills into specialties after the d6 level.

On the plus side, the Serenity RPG book has a lot of info from the film and TV series, plus an essential chapter on how to curse in Mandarin. Best use it as a rescource and run the game with a rules set you and your players are familiar with.

Nanoc

 

[Twowolves]

I haven't read the rules, but from what I've gleaned from reading reviews and posts here on ENWorld, a perfect match for a new rules system would probably be Savage Worlds.

 

[Dragon Snack]

I'm also currently playing in a Savage Worlds campaign (we're playtesting a setting) and have played through (completed) the '50 Fathoms' SW setting.

It's true it would be an easy conversion, but SW has it's own "issues" and some of the flavor of the Serenity sytem would be lost, IMO. It does different things.

 

[buzz]

I agree entirely with pbartender: while the setting is really cool, the rules engine is horrifically awful. It does seem relatively easy to convert to another system, though, like maybe d20 Future or d20 Traveller. You could even use True20 if you wanted to keep the 'rules-lite' sensibility intact. The Serenity rule book production value is very cool, and background is well done, so it may be worthwhile as a setting book.

FYI, I play in the same group as rowport. We've played two sessions so far, and two of us have also played in demos before.

As an RPG, I think Serenity is terrible. The rules are kind of a half-baked '90s-era design that really don't reflect the show at all, IMO. The rulebook is also pretty shoddily organized, and the writing varies from okay to confusing to cringeworthy. It saddens me that MWP is doing so well with the product. I have a feeling that a lot of Browncoats new to RPG'ing are buying the book out of fan loyalty, unaware that it's a poor representation of what the hobby has to offer.

I think that just about any d20 system would serve as a fine replacement; just pick the variant that suits your preferred level of crunch. There's a fan-created Firefly d20 already out there, too. I also think that systems like FATE, Primetime Adventures, and HeroQuest (there's an adaptation online) would also work really well. There was also an unofficial Unisystem adaptation that Eden Studios released.

If you do decide to buy the Serenity game, make sure that you get the 4th printing. There are a LOT of changes and corrections. None of which, by the way, are reflected on the GM screen, or a lot of the fan-created rule cheat-sheets out there. It's been kind of a hassle for our group.

 

[humble minion]

Have to agree that the system is pretty cobbled-togther and has holes you could fly a 747 through. It could work for a certain type of game, but for a fairly free-wheeling player-driven type affair (emulating the TV show), the internal inconsistencies will be disastrous. Watch for your players ALL making starship mechanic characters when they realise that mechanics charge 640 credits per hour - the equivalent of $16000. A friend of mine is running a Serenity campaign (hopefully with some of the kinks ironed out) and blogging her experience with the system at http://gamerchick.livejournal.com/tag/firefly. Check it out if you're interested in how it's standing up in the wild...