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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SteveC" data-source="post: 3460022" data-attributes="member: 9053">Jamie!Thanks for coming into the discussion. I don't get the chance to talk with game authors very often, so I'm feeling bad for being critical of the system...but... I just disagree.I just have to say that Serenity characters only fail when it might be funny or generate plot complications to fail, but when it's all on the line, they just don't fail, ever.In the scene where Mal shoots the Alliance agent that has a gun on River, he just succeeds at it. Bang, it happens and it's over. It happens that way because it's required by the plot, and it also happens because it exemplifies two of Mal's primary aspects: he's the reluctant hero, and he's deceptively good with a gun.In the Serenity system, it would be hard to do that, even with the plot point rules.Now I'm not just singling Serenity out for this, this is a problem with just about every role playing game that's ever been made. To my mind, what would make more sense would be for there to be more randomness and more chance for exceptional success or failure in less important circumstances. That's where a lot of the conflicts and the humor from the show come from.I'm also going to disagree with the notion that Serenity should be a game where characters only reluctantly enter combat. Firefly has countless examples (I'd say almost every episode) where the crew start out with a plan, and intend to avoid combat, but they usually fail, and end up shooting. And when they're shooting, they come out of the situation alive. Maybe not with their goal intact, but alive.In a mechanical sense, the problem I have with Serenity is the same one I have with Savage Worlds: a small number of dice make it more likely that you'll fail any time you roll, even if you're very good. I typically favor a bell-curved system, because I like the chances for extreme results to be unlikely. I just haven't seen that with Serenity. That makes it just not my kind of game in the end.However, I love the work you've done with the game, and I love the fact that you're obviously a fan. I'm just going to be running my Firefly game with Spirit of the Century... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> --Steve</blockquote>

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