Serenity/ Firefly RPG

[Ailric]

Has anyone played or looked at the Serenity Roleplaying game by Margaret Weis Productions? I picked it up a few months ago, it looks pretty good (rules wise), but lacks a lot of detail. I like the plot points rule.

Just curious if anyone's given it a whirl. A lot of GURPsiness to it (which I like).

[Anders]

Just don't let Sean "Serenity made me hurl" Punch review it... :)

[RelFexive]

I've got it, and I'm running it. It's not a perfect system, and many things are lacking (including good website support, soon to be fixed as I understand it), but it does run quite smoothly, and everybody seems to be having fun.

I'd recommend it to all RPers who like Firefly/Serenity for definite.

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Asta Kask

Just don't let Sean "Serenity made me hurl" Punch review it... :)

Lots of bad movies make great game settings. Lots of fun game settings would be crap for the movies. I'm one of those odd ducks who feels that games, movies, and novels differ so much that if a good setting for one is good for another, it's a total fluke. For instance, while it's nigh unto heretical to say so, I feel that LotR is probably the worst game setting ever. To be honest, it was a somewhat dry and over-long story for a novel (even though I must've read it three times). It made a pretty cool movie, though.

[MIB 1473]

Serenity is an okay game, but not good at emulating the source material. Worse, it's a crappy sourcebook for the setting. Very disappointing.

[RelFexive]

From my experience that's the minority opinion. Most folks I know who've got it have said the opposite.

[Running Wolf]

Originally Posted by Kromm

Lots of bad movies make great game settings. Lots of fun game settings would be crap for the movies. I'm one of those odd ducks who feels that games, movies, and novels differ so much that if a good setting for one is good for another, it's a total fluke. For instance, while it's nigh unto heretical to say so, I feel that LotR is probably the worst game setting ever. To be honest, it was a somewhat dry and over-long story for a novel (even though I must've read it three times). It made a pretty cool movie, though.

Oh man... OK someone else admits that about Tolkien! Three pages to describe how the smoke curled out of someone's pipe!

On of the problems I have when trying to convert a movie/book/tv show to an RPG setting is how much I can actually capture the essence of the source but still have a good idea on the plot lines of adventures.

For me it's a matter of Frankenstiening stuff from various sources.... Firefly would be a good setting to use a lot of the Traveller resources but would come out as a hybrid between the two... I'd keep out the Traveller aliens and basically have the rough and tumble "Space Western".

[Ze'Manel Cunha]

Originally Posted by RelFexive

From my experience that's the minority opinion. Most folks I know who've got it have said the opposite.

Yep, I bought it as a source for a GURPS traders type campaign I'm running and I don't have any complaints.
Then again, I really don't do much beyond really glancing at the books, I just like having them around to weigh down my shelves...

[Ailric]

Originally Posted by Kromm

Lots of bad movies make great game settings. Lots of fun game settings would be crap for the movies. I.

Few video games (I can think of at the moment) ever make good movies. Is it the writer's/directors and the fanboys they want to please, Hollywood's desire for a quick cash crab, or the poor storyline of the games themselves that lead to this.

Originally Posted by Kromm

To be honest, it was a somewhat dry and over-long story for a novel (even though I must've read it three times). It made a pretty cool movie, though.

In trying to emulate Middle Earth as a place for epic saga, I agree. The movies I loved, the novels: love them, but I agree that Tolkien could have used an editor. They are different mediums and what works for one doesn't always work for another. Similarly, I'm having a hard enough time adding an epic feel to my D20 Star Wars (which I wish I was using GURPS).

-My opinion is just that, It's flexible based upon new information.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Kromm

For instance, while it's nigh unto heretical to say so, I feel that LotR is probably the worst game setting ever.

Actually, that opinion was a fairly popular one in the town I grew up in. LotR was held to have too much detail and history to allow playing before the Ring War. During the war seemed even worse - you know how it's going to turn out, and what the major events are. Playing after the war, in the Fourth Age (as ICE recommended in MERP) was the best option, but at that point all you've got is a generic fantasy with a lot of history and peotry written for it.

IME Middle Earth is actually a good setting, but I'd choose the First Age and run it as mythic superheroics, or do what Mr Stoddard did and change the 'ending'.