“Challenge Me” or making your own Firefly

Last night we were discussing Firefly and flaws that affect the group. One example was Jayne, and his motivation to sell the group out. We were discussing how a flaw like that would work– how do you have someone with a group destroying flaw and how can they bring it into the story without destroying the game.

I had an epiphany, and it really centers the show around Mal. From here on, I’m going to use the initial letter to indicate the player of the character. So Mal’s player is M, Jayne’s J, Inara I, etc.

So the group is sitting around the table, and they’ve sketched out their characters to each other. K says she’s going to play Kaylee the group’s Mechanic, M has talked about playing a businessman type ship’s captain, J says Jayne’s going to be good at blowing stuff up.

So around the table, they’re ready to pick out Merits and Flaws. (Or whatever Serenity system calls them.) They are throwing around ideas– maybe the ship is always short on cash, maybe they’re all outcasts from society, etc. Then M (playing Mal) says: “I’m going to be all about loyalty to my crew. Challenge me.”

Everyone around the table gets excited and thinks up ways to challenge this Merit/Flaw. J says, “Well, I was thinking that Jayne’s awfully mercenary– maybe the loyalty Mal feels toward Jayne isn’t really reciprocated. So I’ll challenge you by betraying you every once in a while.”

M thinks for a minute and says “Awesome, give me more.”

D says, “Well, Doctor and his sister could be in trouble with the law and start off outside the crew. So we’ll challenge you to stick with us even though we’re outsiders and cause you trouble.”

R chimes in, “And we’re talking about the Doctor being very protective of River, so he’ll want to protect River first, so our loyalty is to each other.”

Z says, “Well, Wash and Zoe are married, so our loyalty’s going to be to each other.”

I says, “What if Inara and Mal are in love? And she’ll get in trouble away from the ship, so you’ll have to debate risking everyone for me personally? Let’s keep our relationship stormy and conflicted, so I’m often doing other stuff.”

Later, J is looking at the flaws he’s debating taking for Jayne. He says, “Jayne’s very mercenary– how do we want to challenge that?”

R says, “Well, there could be a big reward for the capture and return of River. Maybe even payouts for information about me.”

M says, “Let’s make the business really marginal– Mal won’t be able to pay Jayne much, and when things go wrong, he won’t be able to pay at all for a while.”

K chimes in, “And the ship’s old and always seems to need new parts to stay running, so Mal has to pay for repairs first, or we don’t go anywhere.”

This is still sketchy– I’ll come back after some sleep– but this is the insight that woke me up last night. Basically, the insight is that flaws that challenge the group’s stability only come about in response to another player saying “Challenge me”. Jayne’s mercenary behavior is a bad flaw for the group unless it responds to someone else’s Challenge. If no one was playing Mal, then the debates about loyalty to the group shouldn’t be brought up.

Jayne’s mercenary flaw accents the challenge, and encourages players to twist their character’s problems or challenges in ways that will tempt Jayne. That will help make Jayne’s flaw and Mal’s come into conflict more, making them both happy.