[OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

This is a space adventure game set in Joss Whedon's Firefly 'verse. The players will form a crew for their ship and take odd jobs to keep themselves going. Possibly very odd. The flavor will be gritty--normal people trying to survive without losing their dreams.

This campaign has a full crew. If you're interested in buying a passenger ticket or shipping some freight please post in the OOC thread.

Rules will be GURPS 4e supplemented by GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars for spaceship and gear stats when necessary. This is not a Traveller game. Ships move at the speed of plot, the story will be episodic, and profits are "big," "enough," or "taking a bath." Players won't need anything other than GURPS Lite to play unless they want to do something fancy. Characters are limited to 150 points with 60 points of disadvantages. Unspent points can be used in play as cinematic points. The setting is mostly TL9. Cinematic traits are generally off-limits (but if you can point to an example in the show you can ask).

(obsolete info)


Crew so far:

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Dibs on the ships engineer slot! She's poor, so not a ship buyer. But she'll work cheap cause she's in love with the ship.

Jeff

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Interested and more than willing to play.

I'm placing dibs on medic/military surgeon , who is currently freelancing.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

I might be interested... I'll think about it.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

I may be interested. I was thinking of a hard nosed ex-military (Brown shirt) Ground pounder. He will be the Jayne type.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Is it 55 disadvantages and 5 quirks or 60 disadvantages and 5 quirks?

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

I'm trying to decide between a pilot character or the captain.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Ok, I'm going with an experienced leader type. If he doesn't become the captain he'll probably be first mate or quartermaster or something like that.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

How about being a capt'n, Dorin? :D

And Skull, I believe he meant 55+5 by that. If it isn't written, then the whole number usually includes quirks in it.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

It just depends on how things go in the IC thread.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

What are the likely background planets/cultures for characters here? I don't want to accidentally be a mortal enemy of some of the other chars :P

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

That's what I thought but wanted to make sure.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Sixty negative points, in whatever size chunks you like. :)

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Thanks,
What about equipment? Is all TL 9 equipment fair game or is there restrictions?

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

TL9 equipment is available in the core and border worlds. Paquin's in the border. Rim worlds have some TL 9 gear imported but usually can't make or maintain it. TL 10 items might appear as plot devices. I have Ultra-Tech and Bio-Tech if there's anything specific you want. Contragravity gear is available but only for vehicles, no antigrav belts.

Unless your wealth is Struggling or below let's not track gear down to the penny, we can assume you have the basic supplies to use your skills. Just list stuff over $300.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

TL 9 starting wealth and equipment then?

What languages and CF's are there? or is it all generic 'Verse?

Everything at one G or zero G? From what little I recall the series pretty much had universal language, culture, and world gravity.

Jeff

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Well Rayna Esclamado is Filipina by name and complexion, but I don't know the 'Verse well enough to have a planet picked out. And I see her as having bounced around the spaceways for most of her life.
Non-mortal enemies can be fun to play though.;)

Jeff

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Yep. We're all one happy 'verse with everything in common. On the Rim you'll find settlements preserving some language or ethnic group but they'll have a few English-speakers to deal with strangers.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

If none of these appeal feel free to make up a planet. There's a few dozen unnamed ones in the 'verse.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

It's a minor detail, really, she's been travelling around for twenty years or so. Santo has the right sound to it though.

Jeff

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

This is intended to be overheard.:)

So someone can hear and start up a conversation.

Jeff

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

I'm finalising my character but I have a few more questions:

If my char is the captain, does he need any Rank? Or does that come with the territory?

How likely is combat in this campaign?

What are the likely reasons for my char to be buying the ship and likely ways to finance it? I'm going to be taking the 35 point version if I get to be the captain.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

The 35-point Owner advantage comes with two free levels of Merchant Rank.

That's up to y'all. Unless we have an NPC captain you get pick which jobs you take so you don't have to get in trouble all the time. If you're working out on the Rim there will be the occasional attempted robbery and innocents needing defending.

Simpliest reason for an experienced captain is that he's tired of being a hired hand and wants to take charge of his own destiny. Finance options are:

1. Commercial bank. Reasonable interest but will insist on all paperwork being in order at all times (flight plans, master and engineer licenses, registration and inspection, etc, etc).
2. Underground lender. Better interest, no paperwork, but harsher toward defaults and will want occasional "favors" in lieu of interest.

I think the job's yours.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Malachi Jones won't be part of the crew. He's a local wheeler-dealer and makes a lot of his money arranging connections between people.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Whats a supercargo?

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

I decided to make the character more towards a spacer than a ground pounder solider so I will take dips on maybe co-pilot/obtainer (i.e. he is good at finding things under the radar.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

^^ A supercargo is sort of a bookeeper and cargo handler on a ship, I believe.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Yep, the supercargo is in charge of getting cargo on and off and stored safely.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

What kind of Underground lenders are we talking about? My char has some military background: probably a former first mate or something like that. His exact backstory will depend on how things work out with the ship.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Dorin

I am trying to retool my character to make him more useful. I orignally started off as a mercenary with some spacer skills....do you want this type of crewman on board who is good in a fight and can do soem rudimentary spacer things but not much good any where else or do you want my second idea of someone with a fair piloting skill and a talent at finding things that other need and dealign witht he criminal undeground.

your choice,.

Edit: I worked it so the solider has some piloting and navigation skills so he is more useful than before. Let me know which one you prefer.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

In the Docks area you deal with the Two Moons Tong. The leader is Mao Fang. If you have Streetwise you know he's said to be fair, always keeps his word, treats his underlings well, and has never staked someone out on a landing pad under a descending superliner who didn't really, really deserve it.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Required skills.

Every member of the crew should have:

Spacer
Freefall
Vacc Suit
Computer Operation

The crew needs to have at least one person with each of these skills:

Piloting (spaceship)
Shiphandling (spaceship)
Mechanic (spaceship)
Navigation (space)
Electronics Repair
Freight Handling
Electronics Operation (Communications)
Merchant
First Aid

You should also check out this list of adventurer skills.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Both versions of my character have the piloting skill and Navigation at a decent level (12 or above). One of the versions also has merchant depending on what Dorin needs.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

I've refined my char a bit.

He is a doctor by profession, but because of bureaucracy and some complications, the only job he could get was as a military medic. He served 15 years, obtained a rank of an officer and is now retired, although he lusts for action.

He has medic skills, Diagnostics, First Aid, Surgery and Physician.

The other skills are mostly basic Electronics and Navigation, but the back up are his military skills like Tactics and Strategy.

Sounds ok to you guys?

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Sounds good to me. both versions of my character also has cooking...an invaluable skill for long space missions...

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Rayna is good at finding ship parts but not passengers, cargo, or jobs.

Check
And everything in bold. Her Merchant is specialized in starship machinery though.
So does Rayna.:) Do you want to be the cook or can we share?

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

His skill is not that high (11) he could help out.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

She's at 12. so they're both decent.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

You can't cook i fyour fixing somehting and in turn I can't cook if I am piloting so between teh 2 of us we should be able to burn something for everyone.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Sounds like you may want to put points in Scrounging rather than Merchant.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Scrounging AND Merchant w/optional specialization in Starship Machinery, thank you very much.

Jeff

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Is there space for another player?

What skills would be associated with the supercargo job?

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Accounting, Merchant, Freight Handling.

Also 'face' skills if we carry passengers.

Jeff

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Sure. If none of the specialty jobs appeal there's always room for a deckhand (ie, basic crewman).

As Jeff said, Merchant and Freight Handling. If you want a formal certificate you'd also need Hazardous Materials. If you're doing this informally you might have Smuggling. Driver (forklift and/or truck) is also useful.

For passengers you'd want Diplomacy and Savoir-Faire(servant). Carousing, Cooking, Detect Lies, and Streetwise might be useful.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

I've just sent you the 1st part of my character sheet, I'll send the rest in 2-3 days time. Mayhaps even tommorow, if I'll have time.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Do you want character sheets posted publicly or sent privately?

Jeff

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Private, please.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Crew so far:
I'm going to put this in the first post and keep it updated there for reference. I'm reserving blue text for the Cortex since that's "official" game info.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Sorry for calling your character Jayna instead of Rayna in IC thread, Jeff, my bad. You are dealing with a Warcraft lore junkie here, hehe.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

There are two directions I can go with this character, and they depend heavily on whether this ship is going to be operating within the law or not.

In Firefly the crew isn't terribly interested in the law -- so long as they aren't getting caught and they don't feel like they're being bad people, it's all good. Is that what we're expecting for this?

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

I don't mind actually. I can cope with both, to be honest.

Whatever suits you the better, friend. I, personally, lean more towards the "chaotic", law-breaking way.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Either character can work in either setting, it would just be nice to match more closely. So, I'm gonna hold off on sending a character sheet until I find out what Dorin (who seems to be set up to be in charge) has to say.

I don't need to know details, just whether the character has Honesty or something.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

I'm visualizing this as a Chaotic Good campaign in RPG terms. So smuggling and tax evasion okay, slavery and murder for hire not. Most violence will be self-defense and defending others rather than tactical assaults. Think of the Firefly episodes "Bushwhacked", "Shindig", "Safe", "Our Mrs Reynolds", "Out of Gas", and "The Message". Reasonably honest work in the sense of giving a fair shake to everyone you deal with, even if not always legal. Doing "capers" would require a different skill set then we've seen in any of the PCs so far.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

I'm fine with that. Rayna's loyalty is to her team.

Jeff

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

I'm still finalising my char, but he has Shiphandling and basic ability in Piloting, Navigation, and Merchant.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Chaotic good sounds good to me. Captain Mendiblis has very strong principles but they do not include following the law.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

It seems to me that the soldier would be more useful, since we already have some chars with Merchant and people skills. We could use a little more fighting muscle.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Good I was hoping you would say that.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

BTW, my char does have Gigantism (SM+1) in case you were wondering.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Yeah I figured by the description.

Hey Cyratos how about one of those nice group pictures of yours.... :)

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

The fact that he was 7 feet tall pretty much made it obvious :P

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

At least 7 feet. The actual height I currently have marked on my char sheet is 7'5".

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Where does Mendiblis bid for the ship? He's not rich, but I'm assuming that he got a big bonus when he left the navy and is going to put it into a ship of his own.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

The clerk who gave him the documents is collecting bids. The auction will top out at 12-15 million. If you don't have the whole amount you'll need to get your loan in place before making the bid (which is why the banker from Bellerophon Mutual is hanging around).

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Ok, so basically I've got 35 points spent on my down payment, and -25 points in Debt/Duty to cover the rest. So if I arrange a deal with the bank, I'll have a somewhat larger Debt and my Duty will mostly invole paperwork proper protocols and such, but if I go with underground I'll have a bit lower debt and my Duty will involve occasional calls for "favors" and have worse consequences for default?

Am I understanding this right? Also, if he takes underground financing then how will that work in a roleplay sense? Maybe he's heard about this group while in the military, and is working for them from the get-go, or maybe one of the other chars has connections there and will suggest it?

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

What is our starting wealth? I thought is was 20,000 for a TL 8 or high I want to determine how much money my character has left after he bought his equipment. And if I have enough to by more?

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

TL9 is $30,000, I belive.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Yes. More specifically:
Ship Owner (60 pts) + Debt/Duty (-25 pts) = Ship Owner w/ Mortgage (35 pts)

See other thread.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Yep. Of which $6000 can go for adventuring gear.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Ok. Though in Captain Mendiblis's case, he has some Signature Gear.

A couple more questions as I put the finishing touches on my sheet:

Does Callous conflict with Sense of Duty? IE, he doesn't care about other people, but he does have principles of his own? I can replace it with something else if I have to, but Callous makes sense with the concept.

What kind of gear should my character have, besides weapons and clothes? I just put "basic personal stuff" and "basic captain's gear".

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

It can probably work. If it turns out to be a problem in play we can retcon it.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

This goes for everybody--I'd rather not be trying to track whether everyone remembered to pay for their toothbrush. Let's assume you've all got basic gear along with whatever you need for your skills. So if you take First Aid you get a kit, take Mechanic you get basic tools, take Research you have an encyclopedia, etc.

Guns(pistol) gets you a Auto Pistol, 9mm with ammo and a cleaning kit. If you want more firepower than that, buy it.

In the captain's case Shiphandling gets you a set of reference books on law and procedures for spacecraft.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Question if we have no home or personal vehicle where does the other 24,000 go? I assume we all are homeless and are expecting the ship to be our home so how do we spend the rest of the money?

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Well, most of Mendiblis's is going into the ship, the way things are looking.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Ok, thanks. I've PMed my char sheet to you. This answers my question about guns/beam weapon skill, so make it and the blaster Pistol.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Is the 30,000 the money we gain in a year 20% goes towards advanturing gear and the rest is ate up by the yearly cost of living? If so I guess the remaining 24,00 coudl go towards my travel expenses since he never stays in one place too long.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

Mendiblis's still-forming backstory is that he was a First Mate in the navy until recently when is ship was decommisioned, and now he's trying to set himself up in private life.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

By the way has the discussion of what the crew is oging to get paid come up? sorry if i missed it.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

That depends on what kind of job we can do with the ship. Maybe shares, or maybe fixed wages.

Re: [OOC] Keeping in the Black
 

It's how much you start the game with. If you don't have a house/car/furniture travel expenses probably did eat your savings. Your can blow your whole salary on guns and ammo after living expenses. :)

Some random notes: The Firefly setting is in one big system with dozens of planets and moons, no faster than light travel. Beam weapons are rare, usually limited to the government.

The ship has 2 double and 3 single size crew cabins and 4 double size passenger cabins. The cargo hold is 30' W x 45' L x 30' H and can hold 400 tons.

Survey time! Everybody please post your answers to these:
Have you seen any of Firefly?
Have you seen all of it including the Serenity movie?
Do you subscribe to JTAS?
Pick a term to describe your role-play style (butt-kicker, storyteller, method-actor, tactician, etc).