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Message: <blockquote data-quote="eyebeams" data-source="post: 3456333" data-attributes="member: 9225">The real problem is that Firefly (and BSG) are some of the least game-friendly series around. They're not worldbuilder friendly and do not associate character importance with the kinds of competencies familiar to gamers in any way, shape or form. That means traditional RPGs are mostly a bust. D20 Future classes aren't a great idea. Piloting skills are either utterly irrelevant or the center of attention, based on the episode, making such skills the ultimate example of GMs controlling character importance. And of course, somebody like Geata's got pretty much nothing unless you have very robust and specific social skills -- and this interferes' with some fans desire to be immersed in the role. For everyone's talk of trading and Traveller, it's at best background detail in Firefly.At this point, someone will talk about using Dogs in the Vineyard or some other story-control system, but that's a pretty stupid idea too, because both franchises emphasize the sense of alienation and struggle characters have with forces beyond their control. Using a narrative game to approach this is an aesthetically dishonest approach to the material. Characterizing, say, Walsh's or Starbuck's fates as some kind of "fallout" puts the player in the driver's seat, when the whole bloody point is about *not* being in the narrative driver's seat at all. I'm sure you could have some humdrum, non-surprising phony version of Walsh's death, which is kind of like seeing the movie with detailed spoilers, pausing the DVD player every three minutes to have smug discussions about the writing.So the best approach in terms of source emulation is probably:1) Eventful -- in the system, things don't always go according to plan. BSG and Firefly both rely on lots of "fickle finger of fate" moments.2) Used with discretion -- which means you don't roll to land on a featureless plain on a clear day. (I mean, does anyone think that was a good idea, with any system at all?)3) Unobtrusive when it comes to characters' emotional lives. That means that the system takes a backseat when the PCs have a conversation, and the GM must be willing to pull back the action to let it happen.Cortex does a decent enough job of this, but the issue is, of course, that I doubt that most people really want to play BSG and Firefly games. They want to play games with an attendant sense of narrative self-importance and the security blanket of story control, which is not what either property is really about.Really, the best "system" is probably moderated freeform chat and forum play, where IC conversation is the heart of the game -- just like each series.</blockquote>

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