Success: Playing Savage Worlds in the Firefly Universe

[innerdude]

Some of you may recall that I asked a few months back about running a Firefly/Serenity campaign and the various rules systems for it.

Ultimately I determined that we'd try out Savage Worlds, using a fan conversion mod for some of the equipment and vehicles.

Tonight, after working out some lingering group dynamic issues, we had a smashing success.

I've set the players up to all be Alliance military, with a twist--they're a Special Ops platoon specifically set up to hunt down and "enlist" the gifted (they're looking for River Tam clones).

Using the psionic arcane background, and limiting the available powers, it's been easy to create characters that can plausibly do things that River Tam could, but have them interact well with the other heroes without making the other heroes feel useless.

The combat options are fast, but robust enough to engage player tactical thinking, and we had a great session this week as the group infiltrated a criminal compound, looking for a psion child the criminals had kidnapped.

I don't know how well the variety of player options will hold up over an extended campaign, but the ability for the players to totally free form their skills, traits, and edges means they don't feel "straightjacketed" by class restrictions, and they can explore things with their classes and characters that will be interesting in the future.

So far, our group is really enjoying the system, and it's been a great fit for the more high action / high character concept that Firefly is known for.

 

[rptroll]

Sounds like a great campaign. I have the Firefly RPG and it is very Savage-like. I've considered Savaging the universe myself. <sigh> So many games so little time.

 

[Talysian]

Sounds Great! we've recently done the same thing with Strands of Fate, we've completed our first episode so to speak, we are playing a group of browncoats who managed to hook up after the war, who generally decide to make trouble for the alliance, and do odds and ends jobs to keep them a float. We recently raided the vault of the major horse going on on Persephone, escaping with a bunch of mad security guards and alliance on our tails.. gonna be interesting in the next episode!

So anyhow I'm just glad to see the rpg getting some LOVE! Even if it's not in the original system ;P

 

[Rel]

I've considered this idea as a possibility but the rest of my game group aren't as a big fans of Firefly as I am.

However I have re-launched my Space:1889 games thanks to the release of the Savage Worlds version of that setting and my cast of characters for that borrow pretty heavily from the characters of Firefly.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Someone pulled The Universe's copy of Starblazer Adventures off the shelf last night, and that got me to jonesing to run a FATE based Firefly campaign.

 

[havard]

Firefly using the Savage Worlds rules sounds like a great idea. I think I might prefer having a group of gifted being hunted by the Alliance rather than the other way around though

-Havard

 

[scourger]

Yep, Savage Worlds is awesome. I like the spin you're using of having the heroes be Alliance Special Forces essentially rescuing the gifted from the criminals. That's a nice reversal of the story lines from the TV series & movie. It also seems to free you from the main thing that I couldn't get around with a game using a ship--that is, what does everyone else do while the pilot flies? And, how to keep it from being a campaign-ender if the pilot fails a big test. With your model, the heroes can just get transport to wherever the action is and deal with it.

 

[innerdude]

Yeah, I was trying to avoid simply re-enacting the TV series, per se, though if my players wanted to go that direction I'd be totally down with it. I also thought starting them off as Alliance made for some more interesting character choices, both initially and down the road.

I'm excited to see how my two psionic characters react when they find their target--do they actually bring the child in, knowing that she's going to be faced with the same brutal "tests" they've been going through, or do they let her go?

 

[Mythmere1]

Does SW have a supplement with spacecraft, or are you just winging that?

...erm, "winging that" ... sorry. Wing, spacecraft, wings. Never mind.