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NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.
So anyone get ahold of the Serenity RPG?
- Thread starter ecliptic
- Start date
Ok so lets dump some info.
i picked up three copies at dcon this last weekend. unfortunately i flew out monday so no chance for hickman's game.
As to the game...
first off, its purty. Smack dab gorgeous in fact. lots of pics, some art, and the floorplans for ships are very very shiny. (Hickman had a huge vinyl map with the full color floorplans serenity to scale... drool!)
fiction pieces by chapter written by Margaret Weis herself.
Writing style of text and rules is enjoyable and in theme. You can almost hear mal's voice.
this is NOT a game designed to be highly precise with mechanics for everything spelled out. its not afraid to say "let the gm handle this" and is very much a "get you close and let you run it from here" level of game. if you are looking for spucraft 2 or iron heroes high detail heavy mechanics, you are in the wrong damn bar bucko.
intro: the usual stuff.
crew of serenity with backgrounds for each given by mal. Shiny. good writeups in general. fun to read and i haven't done the fine tooth comb but no glaring mistakes. two pages per character.
chapter 1: Find a crew aka chargen. Simple, downright elegant system with attribute, skills assets and complications (A & C cost points or give bonus pts. ) point buy system three scales with greenhorn, veteran and big damn hero.
chapter 2: traits and skills: goes thru the basics, every skill has example tasks of the difficult levels. gotta love a system with a trait called "leaky brainpan." Emphasis on "simple and fluid" and style.
chapter 3: gear and money: the stuff. petty good and fairly slick differentiating between core and rim prices. Also a fairly neat and simple tech level add on for handling more advanced stuff.
Chapter four: boats and mules: vehicles ans ships. looks pretty solid. Essentially they are handled like characters just a difference in scale. Ship scale handles ship vs ship just like character scale handles character vs character. moving between scales is, again, simple and fluid.
Chapter 5: keep flyin': the basic rules for combat and such stuff. are they perfect and highly detailed and precise? nah. are they close enough to give you the firefly action feel, IMO, yup! Now my two benchmarks... can they do the out of gas scenario and can they do the mal shoots hobson hiding behind kaylee. Answer, YES on both counts, so i am sold.
Chapter 6: out into the black: how to gm serenity. good advice and good style. ought to get any average gm into the serenity/firefly frame of mind quickly.
Chapter 7: Brief guide to the verse: emphasis BRIEF. Enough to get started, absolutely. detailed and precise encyclopedia.. nope. System(s) explained... yeah. detailed starmaps with grids and everything for precise distances and masses of planets? huh? what game do you think you are playin'. Favorite quotes from the serenity rpg seminar at dragon cons How much does the planet Ariel weigh??? Why? Are you gonna lift it? and Ships travel at the speed of plot.
The appendix lists lost of shiny chinese swearing.
The basic system is simple and quick.
Six attributes rated by DICE from D2 to D12 and beyond to D12+D4.
Skills also ranked in DICE, same scale, with their being parent skills like athletics and subskills like jumping, running and dodge. You can buy the parent skill to d6 and then buy the subskills higher.
Roll to succeed is relevent ATT+ relevent skill vs a TN of 3 easy, 7 average, 11 etc... like i said earlier, skills have examples for each difficulty level.
GM applied adjustments for ease or difficulty are done by changing the TN.
Player provided adjustments (like say from assets) change the dice type up or down a size.
Example: you can do multiple actions in a round by lowering the skill die for every action by one for each extra action.
Dodge/block is an active thing, taking an action, and lowering dice for other actions. this gets you opposed rolls.
Damage applies the amount you beat the to-hit roll and a dice for the weapon/attack (plus strength if melee.) Damage is either stun or wounds/lethal or "basic" which means half and half. special hits and called shots are there and they seem pretty nice.
Plot points allow significant alterations and can save your damn big hero's hide. But, if you save them up, you turn them in for "xp" or advancement points. It looks like advancement is slow.
all in all, it really seems to be workable as is, with little tweaking overtly called for. But, if you are a precison rules kind of guy who doesn't like leaving the Gm a lot of wiggle room... expect to be doing some house rulification.
it seems a very good fit and feel for a firelfy/serenity game.
caution: consider this based on a cursory read thru, so its not necessarily terribly exact, but i can look up specifics.
questions?
i picked up three copies at dcon this last weekend. unfortunately i flew out monday so no chance for hickman's game.
As to the game...
first off, its purty. Smack dab gorgeous in fact. lots of pics, some art, and the floorplans for ships are very very shiny. (Hickman had a huge vinyl map with the full color floorplans serenity to scale... drool!)
fiction pieces by chapter written by Margaret Weis herself.
Writing style of text and rules is enjoyable and in theme. You can almost hear mal's voice.
this is NOT a game designed to be highly precise with mechanics for everything spelled out. its not afraid to say "let the gm handle this" and is very much a "get you close and let you run it from here" level of game. if you are looking for spucraft 2 or iron heroes high detail heavy mechanics, you are in the wrong damn bar bucko.
intro: the usual stuff.
crew of serenity with backgrounds for each given by mal. Shiny. good writeups in general. fun to read and i haven't done the fine tooth comb but no glaring mistakes. two pages per character.
chapter 1: Find a crew aka chargen. Simple, downright elegant system with attribute, skills assets and complications (A & C cost points or give bonus pts. ) point buy system three scales with greenhorn, veteran and big damn hero.
chapter 2: traits and skills: goes thru the basics, every skill has example tasks of the difficult levels. gotta love a system with a trait called "leaky brainpan." Emphasis on "simple and fluid" and style.
chapter 3: gear and money: the stuff. petty good and fairly slick differentiating between core and rim prices. Also a fairly neat and simple tech level add on for handling more advanced stuff.
Chapter four: boats and mules: vehicles ans ships. looks pretty solid. Essentially they are handled like characters just a difference in scale. Ship scale handles ship vs ship just like character scale handles character vs character. moving between scales is, again, simple and fluid.
Chapter 5: keep flyin': the basic rules for combat and such stuff. are they perfect and highly detailed and precise? nah. are they close enough to give you the firefly action feel, IMO, yup! Now my two benchmarks... can they do the out of gas scenario and can they do the mal shoots hobson hiding behind kaylee. Answer, YES on both counts, so i am sold.
Chapter 6: out into the black: how to gm serenity. good advice and good style. ought to get any average gm into the serenity/firefly frame of mind quickly.
Chapter 7: Brief guide to the verse: emphasis BRIEF. Enough to get started, absolutely. detailed and precise encyclopedia.. nope. System(s) explained... yeah. detailed starmaps with grids and everything for precise distances and masses of planets? huh? what game do you think you are playin'. Favorite quotes from the serenity rpg seminar at dragon cons How much does the planet Ariel weigh??? Why? Are you gonna lift it? and Ships travel at the speed of plot.
The appendix lists lost of shiny chinese swearing.
The basic system is simple and quick.
Six attributes rated by DICE from D2 to D12 and beyond to D12+D4.
Skills also ranked in DICE, same scale, with their being parent skills like athletics and subskills like jumping, running and dodge. You can buy the parent skill to d6 and then buy the subskills higher.
Roll to succeed is relevent ATT+ relevent skill vs a TN of 3 easy, 7 average, 11 etc... like i said earlier, skills have examples for each difficulty level.
GM applied adjustments for ease or difficulty are done by changing the TN.
Player provided adjustments (like say from assets) change the dice type up or down a size.
Example: you can do multiple actions in a round by lowering the skill die for every action by one for each extra action.
Dodge/block is an active thing, taking an action, and lowering dice for other actions. this gets you opposed rolls.
Damage applies the amount you beat the to-hit roll and a dice for the weapon/attack (plus strength if melee.) Damage is either stun or wounds/lethal or "basic" which means half and half. special hits and called shots are there and they seem pretty nice.
Plot points allow significant alterations and can save your damn big hero's hide. But, if you save them up, you turn them in for "xp" or advancement points. It looks like advancement is slow.
all in all, it really seems to be workable as is, with little tweaking overtly called for. But, if you are a precison rules kind of guy who doesn't like leaving the Gm a lot of wiggle room... expect to be doing some house rulification.
it seems a very good fit and feel for a firelfy/serenity game.
caution: consider this based on a cursory read thru, so its not necessarily terribly exact, but i can look up specifics.
questions?
TracerBullet42
First Post
It's definitely a "rules-lite" system that just makes for fast-paced, cinematic action.
Lots of fun and a perfect fit for Firefly/Serenity.
Lots of fun and a perfect fit for Firefly/Serenity.
Broccli_Head
Explorer
so has anyone played it?
KaosDevice
Explorer
Broccli_Head said:
I was just fixin' to ask that. I've been looking around for playtest notes from GenCon to no avail.
TracerBullet42
First Post
I played in two games at Gen Con and we've already started up a Serenity home campaign. I haven't read the book "cover-to-cover" but I think I have a pretty good handle on the system. I could probably answer some questions for you, if you like.Broccli_Head said:
Also, there's a new messageboard devoted to the Serenity RPG at http://wavesintheblack.aimoo.com/
You can probably find help there, too.
So yes, I've played it, and it's lots of fun.
TracerBullet42
First Post
Well, I've not "playtested" anything before, so I'm not sure what I ought to tell you. Perhaps I should write and submit a review...KaosDevice said:
If you have any questions, though, feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer them.
shaylon
First Post
Thanks for all the great info. I have pretty much stuch to D&D as my hobby, mostly because of financial reasons, but I fear that this information may lead me to make a purchase. I was so excited for Margaret and Jamie at GenCon; the booth was packed all weekend, but I had no intention of ever playing the game. Now every time I watch reruns on Sci-Fi channel I think about ordering it. Seeing this is making it all the more tempting.
Crothian, you wouldn't happen to be getting a copy for yourself so you can run it would ya?
-Shay
Crothian, you wouldn't happen to be getting a copy for yourself so you can run it would ya?
-Shay
Darth K'Trava
First Post
I thumbed a bit through a friend's copy he got at Dragoncon. It looks good but since I'm not familiar with the show, it doesn't make much sense to me... But the book looks good, nice graphics, pics, etc. The friend got tagged to do artwork for any follow-up books. SWEET! 
