Our next game would ordinarily be D&D on Friday, May 22nd. Eric’s currently scheduled to make it in early Friday night, which throws off ordinary plans. For now, assume the game is canceled for this weekend, unless you get a call otherwise.
Eventually, we’ll resume where we left off, shortly after the strange dwarf/wolf encounter on the road. A pair of fireballs did their job, but a few of the beasts seem to have escaped. Are you ready to continue up river, into the heart of dwarven territory?
The upcoming game is Serenity. We just assembled a crew and have our first contract: a quick dog delivery to Whitefall. We’ll soon have a hold full of them– and we have just two hours before we hit the black. I’m really looking forward to seeing our crew come together.
Please let us know if you’ll have any problem making it. Ben, this weekend you’ll have Emily, right?
The upcoming session will be a belated return to our D&D Game, resuming shortly after your week of recovery and setting up the freed city for survival. It currently looks like we’ll head to a birthday Brunch/Movie on Saturday, which is particularly good given the difficulty in rescheduling away from Friday. Can everyone make it Friday night?
Serenity’s character creation night ran really well– especially for juggling one book. I like the assortment of characters that we’ve assembled and look forward to seeing how our characters interact and see what flaws everyone secretly picked. I’m looking forward to seeing them in action soon. (The additional material that wasn’t in the core rulebook, Kev, is in the Firefly Fanbook.)
I’ve started a quick wiki for our Serenity game here.
We’re looking at creating characters for the upcoming Serenity game, run by Dad, on Friday. If you’re not going to be able to make it, please let us know! Ben plans on bringing Emily; Kev can you arrange for Christian’s evening?
If you have ideas for character concepts, please share them in comments. So far, Mike mentioned an interest in playing a “Jayne like” character– which part interests you Mike? Are you looking to be the gun bunny with a love of grenades, or are there other aspects of the character that you’d like to bring over too? [Obviously, all of the concepts we offer up– particularly for me– are subject to change to fit the group.]
More Notes: Jennifer is looking at playing the Captain, probably with an ex-military, the bed should have hospital corners, type personality. I think it’ll be fun to have one of our quieter people step out and lead in the new game.
Dad is talking about looking for more complex backgrounds and characterization this game. Be ready to spin outlandish stories about your past… we’ll obviously help if you’re stuck on place details or something. Another change Dad mentioned is that we’ll play a little less “open table”– Advantages and Complications will be separate from your character sheet and only known to you and the GM. (Though some, like quick draw, will be obvious the first time a fight brews…) We’ll also try to spend more time in character, even when we’re discussing a job and how to deal with opposition.
All in all, it sounds like a very different game than our current D&D game– with great variety between the two.
Listings:
Fireflywiki.org
John Kim’s list
Cortex System Forums Lots of useful threads, requires registration.
Sites:
Fireflyrpg.com, a great site with lots of useful information. Fan ships, vehicles, quick references and more.
Dragonlairdgaming.com, site of Jim Davenport, a Serenity RPG designer.
Waves in the Black: Cargo Hold (Lots of useful downloads– character sheets, sample crews, plots, etc.)
Scott Metz’s link page, with links for Serenity, D&D, and more.
Serenity themes and premises, an investigation/discussion.
Ki_Ryn’s ships
Peracles RPG, several scenarios and extensive campaign logs.
Serenity RPG 101 Links, merchandise, and info.
Sean’s Gallery, lots of ship pictures.
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.
Update: We’ll get together Saturday night at 7 pm (or so), have a BBQ, eat, and discuss our plans.
Since the discussion about “Are people too busy?” was canceled for people being too busy, it looks like a discussion we should have. Let’s have it on April 24th [the next day everyone currently expects to be available]. If you can’t make it, chime in and let us know!
Recently I’ve had strange thoughts cross pollinating and thought I’d share. The common theme is the end of the world– in a transformative way.
The idea was inserted into my brain by Joshua’s quick overview of Children of Men. That, in turn, brought back memories of Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang, a different book about a humanity that just stops reproducing and slowly dwindles. It’s a cool look at cloning and social biases– not on the same point as Children of Men (as I understand it), but closely related.
Recently I’ve been reading The Wraiths of Will and Pleasure, a book about the Wraeththu. After reading some good critiques of the original series and overall setup, I know I’m reading the new book with a somewhat tainted mind, but it’s still interesting. In the backstory, a successor race (the Wraeththu) emerges from the midst of humanity and starts competing and killing it off. It’s kind of a “vampire/zombie plague” like spread, and is a fascinating look at the struggle between humanity’s remnants and its heirs.
In that, it reminded me of Darwin’s Radio by Greg Bear. In Darwin’s Radio, a few people giving birth to Homo Sapien’s (assumed) successor, strange children with talents as different from us as we are different from Neanderthals.
The other thread it sparked was the fantasy twist– the Patryns and Sartan from the Death Gate Cycle. They too are descended from humanity, grow up in its midst, and eventually blow up and recreate the world in a new pattern. (That’s all backstory!) The Deryni series is another story of insiders… thinking of the Wraeththu and Patryns and Sartan makes me wonder if their history, shadowed and paralleling the larger humanity’s, would also work.
So, five or six threads came to mind, none of which match together smoothly. The Deyrni are different from the rest– but always close to my heart I guess– I’ll set them aside. The rest are about a huge upheaval, the changing of the world.
On further thought, I can think of one RPG that kind of fits this mold– including the ambivalent role of a newly emerging superrace. White Wolf’s Aberrant is reputedly straight on target– super beings emerge in a relatively “realistic” world of today. It’s a bit like X-men (at least the movie versions I’m familiar with), with their interactions in larger society a little strained, with everyone trying to figure out how to pigeon hole them.
I wonder if an interactive history style game would work. For the first four ideas (humanity dies out, what replaces it), it’d be interesting to have a general timeline [maybe play out society wide stuff Reign or Aria style], then dip into specific characters at times of crisis in the history. So maybe start with a short series centered on the eruption of the alternate race, with the PCs playing both sides of the fence. Then hop forward a few decades or centuries and play characters in the new situation, as the balance between the new and old changes.
Anyway, I’m not actively planning anything along these lines at the moment– strangely, this came up just as I was studying the very heroic Spirit of the Century. I wonder if my interest is as a balance to the optimism of the pulps. Or just getting hit with similar plot ideas several times in succession.
Update: Both Kev and Ben canceled, so we’re canceling altogether. Next week wouldn’t have worked for Ben or Kev either, so we’ll discuss this (and hopefully game) on the 24th.
The previous meeting (for April 3rd) didn’t work out. We’ll game as normal this week, but we also need to look into game scheduling changes due to life changes.
Recent key life changes: Ben will be available to game on only the second and fourth weekends of the month. The other weekends he’ll have Emily.
Jennifer’s work now extends to 6pm and often runs over. Should we push the official start time back to 7 pm?
I know there are others; Mike has work and car issues, Kevin is juggling school and work schedules, etc.
So, let’s put our thinking caps on. Do we need to meet less often? Can everyone coordinate their schedule for most Fridays except Ben? If so, do we want to run different games on alternating weeks? Do we think that gaming more often (like adding a Sunday game) is the direction to go?
If you have ideas about a game or campaign for the alternate weeks, and think you’ll have time to run it, let’s talk about it. The previous games we’ve played would be cool to pick back up, though there would be some character additions and subtractions that we’d need to work in.
If you know people who’d love to play, a new game start is the best time to consider expanding or contracting the group.
If you have other thoughts– I’m sure I missed obvious ideas and consequences– chime in by phone, email, or comment. Thanks!
Last minute update: I have called everyone to cancel. See the post above for more on this topic.
After a tough fight in the heart of the dwarven keep at the city’s center, the leader of the town has fled and his companions lie dead. This Friday we’ll see how you wrap up the remainder of the fight for this town (since the army is assaulting in parallel to you) and see what you plan to do next.
Let us know if you’ll have any trouble making it on Friday.