General Statistics
Total Posts: 269181
Total Topics: 4552
Online Today: 24
Online Ever: 127, on March 13, 2007, 12:56:10 PM
Users Online
Totals
Users: 5
Guests: 17
Total: 22
Index — A Diceless RPG Set in the 'Verse Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 10
goo    Topic opened July 05, 2007, 07:45:57 PM
Game Master

Renown: +30/-0
Offline Offline

Posts: 2,223

You are Too my Monkey

Yes, you read the title correctly. I am going to be running a Roleplaying Game set in the Firefly 'Verse.

Before getting into the mechanics of the game, I'll talk a little bit about the world itself.

The game will start off immediately after the events of the Serenity movie. You will not be playing as the crew of Serenity.

Instead you'll be playing as characters much like the crew of Serenity, namely the flotsam and jetsam of the 'Verse. You are people who are unknown or trying to be unknown. At the start of the game you'll be responding to an advertisement for an old Firefly-class ship known was the Hole in the Ace that is looking for an entirely new crew.

Most likely your character does not have a lot of money, or at the very least does not have access to it, and so you're looking for a means by which to get away from whatever your present situation is.

Other than that, your options are pretty open. Your character can be a Pilot or a Doctor or a Companion or pretty much anyone else that would find themselves on such a ship.

You guys won't know any of the crew of Serenity, except perhaps by reputation, though you will most likely be aware of the events on Miranda and can react however you please.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the 'Verse but still want to play, first and foremost I highly recommend finding a copy of the DVDs and watching them if you can, because they're made of sheer and overwhelming awesome, but if you can't quite manage it, here's a link to a wiki that's a little sparse, but gives you some ideas.

http://www.fireflywiki.org/

Otherwise Wikipedia has some good stuff, and there's a whole internet full of fanboys and fangirls who have used all of their internet-foo to compile endless amounts of info.

The way the game will actually run will hopefully be in sessions, either one or two a week. There will be an initial mission that the group will go on, and then after that you'll be able to select from 3 missions to go on, and it'll run in kind of an episodic fashion, allowing players to come and go almost as they please, though hopefully people can stick around for at least whatever mission they're on.

I need at least 5 players to run, but anyone who wants to play can do so, though if by some miracle I get a lot of players, I might have to split the group up some into multiple crews.

There is also the option to go on individual or small-group side quests, which will likely be rather short journeys handled outside the game and most likely in AIM chat-rooms. These can be done whenever I'm around and up to it, your character isn't specifically engaged in a mission in the main game, and you have a good idea for a side-quest.

Info:

Current Stuff to Do
Current Jobs Available
Current Crew
The Ship
Leveling and Side-Quests
Last Edit: August 09, 2007, 03:30:31 AM by goo Logged

Firefly/Serenity RPG

OMG, Zombies! -  A new webcomic by Goo and The P.u.P.P

It has zombies in it (zombies)

8833_mr._gm.png
Adam the Alien Reply #1 in Firefly/Serenity RPG — Posted July 05, 2007, 08:09:26 PM

Renown: +29/-4
Offline Offline

Posts: 2,032

Penis.

Oh, Hell yes.

*wants in*
Logged

"I wonder if I should change [my personal text]."
"Just put, 'penis'"
"Why 'penis'?"
"Because it'll make everyone go, 'Why 'penis'?'"

HH2 Character: Drink ~~ Just Yell Fire

89649_mr._bugfinder.png
goo Reply #2 in Firefly/Serenity RPG — Posted July 05, 2007, 08:18:22 PM
Game Master

Renown: +30/-0
Offline Offline

Posts: 2,223

You are Too my Monkey

Rules and Character Creation will be forth-coming in a few hours, after I've finished getting them editted to ensure that they're understandeable and what-not.
Logged

Firefly/Serenity RPG

OMG, Zombies! -  A new webcomic by Goo and The P.u.P.P

It has zombies in it (zombies)

8833_mr._gm.png
Adam the Alien Reply #3 in Firefly/Serenity RPG — Posted July 05, 2007, 08:19:19 PM

Renown: +29/-4
Offline Offline

Posts: 2,032

Penis.

Isn't that what your soon-to-be-players and the "Modify" option on your posts are for? Cheesy
Logged

"I wonder if I should change [my personal text]."
"Just put, 'penis'"
"Why 'penis'?"
"Because it'll make everyone go, 'Why 'penis'?'"

HH2 Character: Drink ~~ Just Yell Fire

89649_mr._bugfinder.png
goo Reply #4 in Firefly/Serenity RPG — Posted July 05, 2007, 08:21:29 PM
Game Master

Renown: +30/-0
Offline Offline

Posts: 2,223

You are Too my Monkey

Yes, but I'm apparently a big girl. Shut up.
Logged

Firefly/Serenity RPG

OMG, Zombies! -  A new webcomic by Goo and The P.u.P.P

It has zombies in it (zombies)

8833_mr._gm.png
staticHD3 Reply #5 in Firefly/Serenity RPG — Posted July 05, 2007, 08:37:54 PM

Renown: +3/-0
Offline Offline

Posts: 396

I'm interested if I'm available.
Logged

Q: Look, look! Idea! *penis*
LoneCoon Reply #6 in Firefly/Serenity RPG — Posted July 05, 2007, 08:57:59 PM
Game Master

Renown: +21/-1
Offline Offline

Posts: 1,367

Foul Mouthed, Lab Coat Wearing Psycho

want want want want


You WILL let me do this. I'm totally resurrecting my Scarab: Devil to Pay character for this one.
Logged

Jesus Fucking Christ is our lord and fucking savior.
Yeah, well.. the metaphor "team player" is just a euphemism for slave. I don't want to be on your team; your team SUCKS. -Detour from Fark.com
Vision

8833_mr._gm.png
Vel Reply #7 in Firefly/Serenity RPG — Posted July 05, 2007, 08:59:07 PM

Renown: +58/-0
Online Online

Posts: 3,326

Minxatron

I still want to make playing.
Logged

"When I was around her, I felt like a goblin made entirely out of wicked genitals."
Breakneck, speed demon.
<-- I has too! (Click)
jabbaciv Reply #8 in Firefly/Serenity RPG — Posted July 05, 2007, 09:45:44 PM
All Klingon in the Pants

Renown: +68/-15
Offline Offline

Posts: 5,281

We can't stop here, this is bat country

Reckon I can resurrect my Browncoat combat medic for this. I know the war is done and over with, but no honest Browncoat ever stops being one, 'less he wants to kiss up to the purplebellies.
Logged

Don't confuse a position that is both a logically and morally defensible one with dogma.
"The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times." -SCOTUS Justice Kennedy
goo Reply #9 in Firefly/Serenity RPG — Posted July 05, 2007, 10:17:04 PM
Game Master

Renown: +30/-0
Offline Offline

Posts: 2,223

You are Too my Monkey

The game's a potentially long-running one, and eventually, depending on what you guys choose, we could start the war all over again.
Logged

Firefly/Serenity RPG

OMG, Zombies! -  A new webcomic by Goo and The P.u.P.P

It has zombies in it (zombies)

8833_mr._gm.png
toranoraneko Reply #10 in Firefly/Serenity RPG — Posted July 05, 2007, 10:18:32 PM
Genetically Altered

Renown: +38/-3
Offline Offline

Posts: 3,599

A lonely chord, without a song.

*humps*

I mean....I would like to play.
Logged

"Where will I hang up my raincoat when this day is over? Like a leaf without a tree, nothing to cover over me. I'm like a character from a story, I don't exist."
12595_mr._tester.png
goo Reply #11 in Firefly/Serenity RPG — Posted July 05, 2007, 10:19:56 PM
Game Master

Renown: +30/-0
Offline Offline

Posts: 2,223

You are Too my Monkey

Screw it. I'm tired of waiting.

The Rules:

So the most important thing in this game is the story itself. That being said, whenever possible I'm going to leave as much up to narrative as possible. For example if you're trying to persuade someone do something, you should speak or act persuasively. There is no automatic Persuasion roll that determines your success. Similarly if you look at something I'll assume your character is smart enough to see it (unless they're like... blind or something) and I'll leave it up to you to extract meaning.

But in order to increase the sense of peril and prevent the game from being a juvenile game of one-upmanship, there is a system in place. As mentioned previously, the system is entirely Diceless, so there is no real randomness into how things transpire. Here's how it works.

Attributes

There are three basic Attributes. Body, Weapons, and Mind. Your character will have a score in each of them, like this:

Body: 10
Weapons: 15
Mind: 10

This score will be used in one of two ways. Either for an Action: or for Combat.

Actions are doing stuff. If you want to lift a heavy boulder your Body score needs to be higher than whatever the rating of the boulder is. If you want to pilot a ship, your Mind score needs to be higher than the rating of the ship. For example:

Bob has the above stats. Bob wants to live a heavy boulder. The boulder has a rating of 10 Body. Therefore Bob lifts the boulder.
Alternately Bob wants to fly a space ship. The ship has a rating of 50 Mind, so therefore Bob can't pilot the ship.

Combat is any time that you're in conflict with someone else, be it another player or an NPC within the universe. In the most basic form, Combat works pretty much exactly like Actions, except instead of a random rating, you're pitting your stats against those of your opponent, and they're pretty straight-forward. If you're fighting hand-to-hand, you use Body. If weapons are drawn, you use Weapons. Combat is a bit more involved than that, but we'll get into it later.

Some of you are probably wondering how you can control your own destiny if everything is based on stats. Well here's how.

Cool Points:

Simply put, Cool Points let you do Cool Things. They are the device that allows you to be the cinematic badass you always wanted to be. Want to charge across a field of open gunfire without getting hit? Spend Cool Points. Want to fire your gun behind you while in zero G in order to ensure you get back to the airlock? Spend Cool Points. Want to John Woo it and dive across an open field while firing two semi-automatics and hit every bad guy on the field with unerring accuracy? Spend LOTS of Cool Points. Want to get laid? Get Extenz and start showering more often.

Cool Points work in three ways:

1. Narrative Badassery: If you want to do something really cool specifically related to the narrative of the game, like the above-mentioned Zero G maneuvering, you spend Cool Points. Cool Points allow you to slightly bend the laws of physics or probability in your favor. The more Cool Points you spend on something, the more spectacular the results.

2. Combat Badassery: If you want to pull off an especially awesome attack (or alternately some sort of impressive stat-based daring-do), you can spend Cool Points for a one-time bonus of +10 to whatever stat you like, per Cool Point spent.

3.[/b]Training[/b] (Badassery): Cool Points kind of work like Experience Points in other games as well, in that you can spend them to permanently boost stats or boost/buy skills. More detail on this later.

As previously indicated, Cool Points are disposable, so you'll probably wanting to obtain more at some point. You can do this by accomplishing missions within the game as part of the crew, or your character will also have specific narrative goals that once achieved will net Cool Points. I may occasionally award Cool Points for especially creative or cool things you do in game, but this is entirely up to GM fiat.

Combat:

Combat works largely like described above with a few modifiers and variables. They are as follows.

Range: There are three Ranges in combat. Long Ranged, Melee, and Unarmed. "Long Ranged" generally consists of projectile weapons like guns. Usually there is a limited ammo supply involved. "Melee" consists mostly of swords and bludgeons, though things like whips and such are included in the category. "Unarmed" relates to any combat involving bare fists and legs like martial arts or grappling. Unlike the other two which utilize the Weapons attribute, "Unarmed" utilizes Body.

Whoever has the longest ranged fighting implement decides the nature of combat. So if you have a sword and your opponent has a gun, it's Long Ranged combat. If you have a sword and your opponent doesn't have any weapons at all, it's Melee. If you don't have the appropriate fighting implement to fight back, you can still defend yourself, but you can't damage your opponent.

If you win a round of combat, and it's physically possible, (i.e. if you're barehanded and your opponent is attacking you with a knife, as opposed to being barehanded and 100 meters away from your opponent who has a gun), you can then change the nature of combat as you so choose.

Environment: Using your environment to your advantage if highly advisable. If you can duck behind a steel beam and make your opponent his the beam instead of your face, do it. If you can push your opponent off a cliff instead of standing there duking it out, go for it. This will usually result in a quick and dirty point bonus or sometimes a narrative consequence, and is generally left up to GM fiat. The most obvious (and possibly most vital) use of your Environment is cover, which depending on the quality could get you anywhere from a 1 (Chain Link Fence) to a 100 (meter-thick stone wall between you and opponent) point bonus. Highly useful for not dying in gunfights.

Teamwork: Teaming up is very straight-forward and easy. If you and your buddy gang up on one guy, you simply add your scores together. As you can imagine this is highly useful when it comes to winning. Note: This also applies to non-combat actions, like lifting something heavy or anything else you could theoretically do as a team.

Tools: In combat, Weapons are your primary tool. Weapons themselves carry their own bonuses to combat, ranging anywhere from 1 (Table Leg) to 100 (Anti-Matter Chainsaw Sword-Cannon-Chucks). Other equipment might have other effects like Body Armor or some other impressive device that you concoct that might have a narrative effect. Note: You can also have tools for non-combat related things, like actual tools for engineering or maybe a flight manual for piloting that'll give you a bonus to certain tasks.

Endurance:

Obviously we don't want Combat and such things to run on indefinitely. That's why we have the 4th Attribute Endurance. Endurance is similar to HP in traditional games, with a few minor differences. Most noticeably is that there will be far less points than your standard HP. This is because in general, you'll only be losing one point of Endurance per round.

If you lose a round of combat, you lose an Endurance point. The only exception to this is if you lose a round of combat really badly. If your opponent's score is 10 points over yours, you lose 2 Endurance points, and so on for every additional 10. So if they're 20 points over yours, you lose 3 points, 30 points of yours, you lose 4 points, etc.

If you get down to 0 Endurance Points, you fall unconscious. If you go below 0, you're either dead or shortly on your way there unless you get some immediate attention. Endurance points will naturally heal over time, at about 12 hours in game (or hopefully between sessions real-time) of complete rest per point. Alternately if you have a physician handy, they can repair most of the damage.

And that's pretty much all the rules . Next, character creation.
Logged

Firefly/Serenity RPG

OMG, Zombies! -  A new webcomic by Goo and The P.u.P.P

It has zombies in it (zombies)

8833_mr._gm.png
goo Reply #12 in Firefly/Serenity RPG — Posted July 05, 2007, 10:21:06 PM
Game Master

Renown: +30/-0
Offline Offline

Posts: 2,223

You are Too my Monkey

Character Creation

I'm taking a different approach to character creation than I normally do. Instead of having a big giant character sheet with lots of different rules and point allocation and checking back and forth between all the various rules and options and what-not, I just want anyone who wants to play PM or IM me with their idea for a character, and we'll flesh it out and add in point stuff from there.

For anyone who is absolutely stat-crazy and determined to go it alone, let me know and I'll send you an .rtf document with all the stuff.

Here's a few things to consider when coming up with your character:

Who Am I?

What's your character's name. What're they like as a person. Where are they from? What sorta stuff do they have lurking around in their history?

What am I good at?

What sort of stuff do you want your character to do. Are they a pilot? An engineer? A doctor? Whatever Jayne is? Alternately, does your character have any handicaps?

What's my motivation?

Good for fleshing out your character, and also important for things like getting Cool Points. Think of some potential goals or achievements that would be important to your character.

Whichever way you go, whether mostly alone, or with my help, DO NOT post your character in this thread or anywhere else. The only people who should have copies of your character sheet are you and me. This is because some of the other players might have ambitions that run contrary to yours.

Also, previous relationships between characters is encouraged, though not required.
Logged

Firefly/Serenity RPG

OMG, Zombies! -  A new webcomic by Goo and The P.u.P.P

It has zombies in it (zombies)

8833_mr._gm.png
Adam the Alien Reply #13 in Firefly/Serenity RPG — Posted July 05, 2007, 10:44:14 PM

Renown: +29/-4
Offline Offline

Posts: 2,032

Penis.

Quick question: can we assume the events of the movie are part of the past, or is this strictly Fox series 'Verse? I ask because the movie had more far-reaching effects, and all, which could affect both character creation and plot.
Logged

"I wonder if I should change [my personal text]."
"Just put, 'penis'"
"Why 'penis'?"
"Because it'll make everyone go, 'Why 'penis'?'"

HH2 Character: Drink ~~ Just Yell Fire

89649_mr._bugfinder.png
K Reply #14 in Firefly/Serenity RPG — Posted July 05, 2007, 10:45:40 PM

Renown: +81/-12
Offline Offline

Posts: 3,979

I call dibs on a Companion.

...I mean playing one, not playing with one.

Perverts.
Logged


"Kittens are so awesome. You know what's worse then kittens? TERMINATOR 3." - S*S
goo Reply #15 in Firefly/Serenity RPG — Posted July 05, 2007, 10:47:04 PM
Game Master

Renown: +30/-0
Offline Offline

Posts: 2,223

You are Too my Monkey

Quick question: can we assume the events of the movie are part of the past, or is this strictly Fox series 'Verse? I ask because the movie had more far-reaching effects, and all, which could affect both character creation and plot.

Quote
The game will start off immediately after the events of the Serenity movie. You will not be playing as the crew of Serenity.
Logged

Firefly/Serenity RPG

OMG, Zombies! -  A new webcomic by Goo and The P.u.P.P

It has zombies in it (zombies)

8833_mr._gm.png
LoneCoon Reply #16 in Firefly/Serenity RPG — Posted July 05, 2007, 10:50:29 PM
Game Master

Renown: +21/-1
Offline Offline

Posts: 1,367

Foul Mouthed, Lab Coat Wearing Psycho

How are we supposed to have previous relationships if we don't know who the other characters are?
Logged

Jesus Fucking Christ is our lord and fucking savior.
Yeah, well.. the metaphor "team player" is just a euphemism for slave. I don't want to be on your team; your team SUCKS. -Detour from Fark.com
Vision

8833_mr._gm.png
goo Reply #17 in Firefly/Serenity RPG — Posted July 05, 2007, 10:59:04 PM
Game Master

Renown: +30/-0
Offline Offline

Posts: 2,223

You are Too my Monkey

You guys can work it out some. Like if you find another person you want to create compliamentary characters with.

So like for example if two people wanted to make analogues of the Boondock Saints, talk to me about it, and I'll see what we can work out.

Also, if I get any characters that I think would be compliamentary, either as a result of backstory or nature, I'll give you guys the option to know each other.