Serenity/firefly RPG?

[Darius]

So a Firefly RPG could be done, and with more content and a better system, this would sell

It would follow that if you like Firefly, you would have seen Serenity. Further, if you wanted to play a Firefly rpg, you would have bought Serenity. Therefore, there is no reason to suspect that a Firefly rpg would sell anymore than what Serenity has.

While Serenity cannot refer to things in the series, it can still use and develop the universe. Fans have also seen the show. Joss Wheedon hates Fox and so it is not like he will hand anything other to a company that has a Firefly license - which would be from Fox.

 

[BP]

Firefly can be setup quite nicely in Traveller - drop the jump drive and strand the culture on the fringes in a J-7 island and you could recreate the whole verse.

Goram it, we're not needing a seperate game.

Rather Mongoose publish a Traveller world generation system (so we could detail the verse)!

 

[Brisco]

"Serenity" is already out there, but what about a rules conversion for Traveller? I just bought the (Mongoose Traveller) Traders & Gunboats book to use with Serenity and plan to get more. I'd rather dumb down Traveller than clutter a short, simple campaign (Firefly/Serenity) with too many rules.

(Why dumb down? As a mental holiday from the complexities of other systems, notably D20.)

I can image a "Firefly" RPG that is merely a second edition of the "Serenity" game, but it aint gonna happen for reasons already mentioned.

We will soon be able to buy the generic Cortex rules (used in Serenity/Battlestar Galactica/etc) and adapt it to any campaign. When that happens, we could see how compatible Cortex & Traveller are and consider conversion notes.

If the Cortex rules become open licence, Mongoose might be able to publish under those rules, but it seems unlikely to happen.

What I would also like to see are deck plans for Traveller by somebody like Ryan Wolfe (of 'Future Armada' fame), but such an illustrator wouldn't come cheep.

The schematics used in "the Jovian Chronicles" are highly effective in black and white.

Cheers,
Brisco.

 

[BP]

Brisco - thanks for the lead - looks like Ryan Wolfe is a Firefly fan -
http://ki-ryn.com/Future_Armada/Gallery.htm

 

[Donkeykong]

My son is a Serenity fan.
He tried to recreate Serenity type play using Serenity rules for his friends. This met with good initial success but the Background was soon limiting, perhaps in the same way Wild west rpg's don't run for long - range war, heist, rob train, protect wagon train, rob bank, protect innocent ranchers/ladies, showdown...then what.
He also tried using Traveller with its far richer background but struggled to initially paint the universe to the uninitiated.
The best balance seems to be an extensive independent system in the Traveller universe. The players (and most NPC's there) have non-jump capable ships. When the possibilities run dry players can Jump out to other systems leaving them with a very vivid picture of one system among sudden multitudes and the ref with lots of options. This also allows the ref to design the Planetary system - same deal as Serenity but more usefully created.

 

[Oaty_bars]

So a Firefly RPG could be done, and with more content and a better system, this would sell

It would follow that if you like Firefly, you would have seen Serenity. Further,

Okay. Logical assumption, but still assumption

if you wanted to play a Firefly rpg, you would have bought Serenity. Therefore,

Like many fans of Firefly and Serenity I did,

there is no reason to suspect that a Firefly rpg would sell anymore than what Serenity has.

WRONG!, Myself like many other Browncoats felt more than a little disappointed by MWP's product, Something I feel could be more than well done via this version of Traveller, (it would be hard to do worse than MWP, but easy to do much better after all)

While Serenity cannot refer to things in the series, it can still use and develop the universe.

Needless to say, as it has many of the same characters and uses the same setting, but for Serenity it is limited to only the contents of the single movie and the comic books, While Firefly can draw from the whole 14 Episodes (thats well over 600+ minutes, compared to the 119 min Serenity) Firefly is also where the bulk of the fan base comes from,

Fans have also seen the show.

? lol, can't be a fan without seeing the show,

Joss Wheedon hates Fox and so it is not like he will hand anything other to a company that has a Firefly license - which would be from Fox.

Its not just up to him,(in fact I don't think he would have a lot of control over it, he wanted to call his movie Firefly but the studio stopped him after all) the studio owns the rights to Firefly, And its a seperate licences

 

[Oaty_bars]

Goram it, we're not needing a seperate game.

For some yes, but for other people who would not normally play RPG's
but are fans of the show it DOES need its own game,

You've got to remember not everyone who would be buying this book would be buying it to play, Many fans don't play, But will still buy this game

 

[Oaty_bars]

"Serenity" is already out there, but what about a rules conversion for Traveller? I just bought the (Mongoose Traveller) Traders & Gunboats book to use with Serenity and plan to get more. I'd rather dumb down Traveller than clutter a short, simple campaign (Firefly/Serenity) with too many rules.

(Why dumb down? As a mental holiday from the complexities of other systems, notably D20.)

I can image a "Firefly" RPG that is merely a second edition of the "Serenity" game, but it aint gonna happen for reasons already mentioned.

That woold be the worst thing you could do, if you were going to try doing that it would be a total waste of time and money

The whole point of having a new Travveller version of Firefly would be to do this franchise RIGHT

We will soon be able to buy the generic Cortex rules (used in Serenity/Battlestar Galactica/etc) and adapt it to any campaign. When that happens, we could see how compatible Cortex & Traveller are and consider conversion notes.

What?! Why would you want that?, would you convert Traveller over to cortex? (don't think so lol)

If the Cortex rules become open licence, Mongoose might be able to publish under those rules, but it seems unlikely to happen.

?? Again, Why would you want to do that?, the cortex system is crap

What I would also like to see are deck plans for Traveller by somebody like Ryan Wolfe (of 'Future Armada' fame), but such an illustrator wouldn't come cheep.

The schematics used in "the Jovian Chronicles" are highly effective in black and white.

Cheers,
Brisco.

Don't know about that, I know nothing about Ryan Wolfe

 

[sergeant_x]

I remember watching the pilot for the first time... my thought at the time - "MY gawd. This is TRAVELLER!!"

A renegade tramp freighter crewed by ex-military, mercs and people with shady pasts? Relatively realistic, semi-"hard" sci-fi - it was all there.

I remember the first thing that caught my attention with the little black box was the desperate, lonely SOS call on the back of the box. That sense of being all alone "out in the black". I honestly DO think it's possible Joss Whedon was inspired in part by the original game. I know he played RPGs in boarding school. Could be Traveller was one of them. In the opening scene of the pilot (after the flashback), Wash fires up the engines and announces over the intercom "Hang on, Travellers!"

A shout out?

Anyway, Traveller is near perfect for Firefly in my opinion. The Serenity game could have been good, but MW got involved and started overriding her designer's ideas. Traveller's stripped down rules, the lack of an advancement ladder (can you imagine anything worse than a "10th level Mal"?), the focus on ships as utilities and workhorses, the attention to differing "tech levels" - Traveller has everything you need for Firefly.