Re: Rationalizing a Firefly - Serenity type setting
 

I think you could play a game like this, but for me at least it wouldn't be the same game. There is something about imagining being on a space ship and making a living by travelling around in space that has real appeal for me.

Playing a crew of an ocean liner performing basically the same task takes allot away for me.

It'd be like saying, let's do star trek but under water in a submarine (which I realize they actually made that show). It just isn't the same.

Re: Rationalizing a Firefly - Serenity type setting
 

I think it's obvious that his father hurt him as a child, and a grade school science teacher flunked him. And he never forgave either of them making it his life's mission to get back at them via script writing.
It's the only explanation that makes sense.

Re: Rationalizing a Firefly - Serenity type setting
 

Spaceships are cool, true.

But what do you think of the first option; multiple worlds but they are not all hyper-Earthlike, ''shirtsleeve'' environments. Some require special gear or drugs. Some have high grav, some low. Different day night cycles. Alien biospheres on some, perhaps.
Exotic atmospheres (compared with Earth). Etc. Etc.

Re: Rationalizing a Firefly - Serenity type setting
 

That precludes crews from having adventures that cover more than a single planet. The time to adapt for just different pressures is often days or weeks.

Re: Rationalizing a Firefly - Serenity type setting
 

I'm ok with that, it would allow for a greater variety of environments to play in which I think is a good thing.

That being said, in the show/movie, when they dropped the "We found a new solar system with scores and scores of habital worlds" (and I'm paraphrasing that cause I don't remember the exact quote), I rolled my eyes and was like "come on guys".

From a certain point of view though it's no worse than in the traveller universe explaining away how humanti was spread throughout the galaxy by the "ancients".

I would've been happier if they had tacked on an additional sentence that said something to the affect "Knowone knew how such an occurance was possible, Earth's that was scientists were baffled." At least that would have clued the audience onto the fact that the environment is not normal, then my brain would've gladly accepted it just like I accept warp drives and artificial gravity.

Re: Rationalizing a Firefly - Serenity type setting
 

Does the fact that you have to dress like an Eskimo in Minnesota and a beach bum in Florida really add that much interest to adventures set in the contemporary US?

Re: Rationalizing a Firefly - Serenity type setting
 

Some people care about the story they're trying to tell vastly more than the implications of different aspects of the world they create in telling that story. In fiction, it's less of a problem because you can control what all of your characters do. In RPGs, where players are trying to get an intuitive enough handle on how a fantastic world "works" to make informed assumptions, it's a much larger problem. But even then, many players are just willing to go along for the ride and not really dig too much into the implications of stuff. Not my cuppa (or it sounds like yours) but it obviously works for fairly large segments of the population.

Re: Rationalizing a Firefly - Serenity type setting
 

It does, actually.

But I think we both know my list went a bit beyond warm or cool clothing.

:)

Special gear and drugs includes Antirad, Gravanol. environmental suits, high gravity harnesses, etc. Go to Mars, right now, with no environmental suit. You will DIE.
Even a partly terraformed Mars would probably be pretty hostile. And I think there is drama and fun to be had with that.

Re: Rationalizing a Firefly - Serenity type setting
 

Well it also extends into the 20th century as well. There are a bunch of third world countries. Whether it is a matter of a government sponsored hate or a corporate sponsored campaign of "not enough profit".

There is also the class divisions which have been with us since we went from a village setting to a city setting. "Those dirty fringe worlders don't want to be civilized like us!" & "Who wants all those fancy gadgets if you are a pawn of the government!"

It seems like the racial stuff isn't there (as it was with the Irish and Natives of the Americas, Africa, & Australia and to a lesser extent Asia). It seems like more of a cultural and political divide than that. I'd need to go back and re-watch the series but seems like the ethnic pool was pretty well split between both sides.

As for all the planets in a single system that is tricky and just has to be chalked up to hand waving for plot devices.... Although having a slow-ish FTL in a multi-system would still work. Having an FLT drive that can jump a parsec or two but still needing to get from your jump point to the nearest planet makes more sense.

Re: Rationalizing a Firefly - Serenity type setting
 

I'm sure I must have mentioned this up thread, but in case I didn't>:

The obvious 19th Century historical inspiration is the ACW/War Between the States/War of the Rebellion.

Alliance= Federals (the "Union")
Independents = Confederates

Browncoats= gray coats, butternuts, Unreconstructed

Space Western, Space Civil War.


Of course the particulars don't like up. Nor should they, IMO.