Making Outer Veil more firefly like

[bestial warlust]

So I've been going through this product and I like ti very much. The feel and tech levels are just perfect for what I want to run. I'd like to make the setting itself a bit more firefly like. The tech levels are about right but I'd like to hear others suggestions on how to make it more like the tv series. Maybe make the FNH more along the lines of the alliance. But what else? It seems like most gun ships should be in the hands of the military. What goods too make illegal for smuggling? I don't want to do an exact clone but I'd like to capture some of the essence of the firefly universe.

 

[Golan2072]

So I've been going through this product and I like ti very much. The feel and tech levels are just perfect for what I want to run.

THANKS! :mrgreen:

I'd like to make the setting itself a bit more firefly like. The tech levels are about right but I'd like to hear others suggestions on how to make it more like the tv series. Maybe make the FNH more along the lines of the alliance. But what else? It seems like most gun ships should be in the hands of the military. What goods too make illegal for smuggling? I don't want to do an exact clone but I'd like to capture some of the essence of the firefly universe.

Note that the slow speed of travel and communications (which is particularly slow in Outer Veil with Jump-2 being the maximum and being quite rare), no interstellar organization could be monolithic. What this means in practice is that the local (subsector or world) FNH authorities are quite autonomous, and dependent on the local officials and organizational culture; and the local Secessionist party or group is also quite independent (despite what the FNH claims, there is no united Secessionist movement). In other words, if you want to cast the local FNH authorities as the Alliance and the local Secessionists as the Browncoats - this would be very feasible, as long as this does not develop into an all-out war (which will force the central authorities to intervene). Alliance-type corruption and abuses of power are very possible in local FNH administrations, as it is very difficult to internally police an organization this size in an effective way. Something along the lines of Pandora (from the Serenity movie) is unlikely, but illegal corporate research is quite likely and could possibly produce someone such as River Tam (cybernetics plus psionics). Oh, and FNH Marines can easily serve as Purplebellies ala the Train Job.

Smuggling depends on the local authorities. In open space, you can carry almost any personal weapons, and even some starship or vehicle weapons. Private (mostly corporate or licensed "private security", i.e. mercenaries) gunships are possible but their armament is limited not to include particle accelerators or nukes (both of which are WMDs). In other words, the off-planet law level is 1. Interstellar FNH patrols would consider only heavy weapons (especially unlicensed ones), drugs, slaves and illegal research tech to be contraband. That said, planetary authorities have a very wide latitude in what they allow on-planet, so on some worlds even a load of shotguns would be contraband. However, enforcement on the Frontier and Outer Veil is very lax, as most worlds lack the resources to run a tight blockade.

The wild west type of atmosphere which exists in Firefly is readily available in Outer Veil, as long as you keep to the Frontier and Outer Veil worlds; again, law enforcement on most remote colonies goes along the lines of a remote township in the old west: this is up to the local Sheriff-equivalent and whatever militia (posse) he or she could muster.

Reavers do not exist in the OV universe, but pirates abound, some of which could be nasty. Not as barbarous as the Firefly Reavers, but some gangs could come close to this.

 

[bestial warlust]

Awesome thanks for the info. The secessionists reminded me very much of the brown coats, though like you pointed out an all out war won't make sense. I don't want to do an exact copy of firefly anyway. I was kicking this idea around if I wanted reaver like people in my game. It's just a rough idea at this point. But with the amount of pirates in OV I might not bother.

Void Marauder

A failed colonization effort by Hydracorp on a planet just beyond the rim of the rana sector. As far as Hydracorp knew the colonists all died. They have been completely unaware that there were survivors and what happened to them. It is unknown what on the planet caused all of the colonists to be wiped. Hydracorp just wrote the planet off and never investigated any further.

Void Marauders – UPP 98C762

Humans that have been “infected” with a psionic disease. They have been transformed to savagery not seen in humans before. These creatures have minor psionic abilities that are always on and not in their conscious control. These follow as:

Void Marauder detection – A variant of life detection except that the Void Marauder has an instinctual feeling that the creature can be infected (see below) and will become one of them. The Void Marauders will leave that person alone. This is the closest thing that Void Marauders have to procreation.

Psionic infection – when encountering a Void Marauder for the first time non psionic creatures must roll a 2d6 (no DM) on a roll of 2 they are susceptible and become infected. If they pass that roll they never have to roll again when encountering void marauders. As they are not susceptible to the infection. Those that can be infected will be kept alive to witness the atrocities that the void marauders are committing. It is this long term exposure that causes the victim to become infected, and the void marauders enjoy the horror they inflict on those watching. Those that have been exposed to this will slowly loose their mind over the course of 2 weeks. At the end they will begin to mutilate their bodies and start seeking out victims and a ship to reach their brethren.

Berserk Fury – The Void Marauder doesn’t suffer the affects of DM reduction when damaged. The Void Marauder still takes damage and will die but due to a psionic ability they seem to ignore the effects of pain and damage until they drop dead.

Sense surface thoughts – this ability only works on Void Marauder to Void Marauder and even then it communicates primitive thoughts only among other void marauders only.

Because of their bestial and sadistic nature Void Marauders do not kill their victims, at least not right away. They prefer taking live captives to eat alive, kill and rape though not necessarily in that order. They will pass up dead targets

 

[Golan2072]

I like your idea of Void Marauders; this could serve you as a major plot. Just take into account the fact that once this gets exposed in the Core media, the FNH will probably crack down hard on Hydracorp. But maybe the campaign's goal would be to find evidence for all of this and expose it? Or maybe the players could be Hydracorp agents (or free traders hired by Hydracorp agents) out to catch whatever local company VP is behind this and conceal the truth lest major trouble would brew for the corp?

 

[bestial warlust]

I like your idea of Void Marauders; this could serve you as a major plot. Just take into account the fact that once this gets exposed in the Core media, the FNH will probably crack down hard on Hydracorp. But maybe the campaign's goal would be to find evidence for all of this and expose it? Or maybe the players could be Hydracorp agents (or free traders hired by Hydracorp agents) out to catch whatever local company VP is behind this and conceal the truth lest major trouble would brew for the corp?

I was thinking of a coverup by Hydracorp given their history. They don't need another disaster. I was thinking of having a patron hire them so they don't know they working for Hydracorp. get them in nice and deep : )

And having this unfold over the course of the campaign.