Rationalizing a Firefly - Serenity type setting

[pfharlock]

Originally Posted by combatmedic

Why not just set all the action on a single Earthlike world and give the PCs an ocean going tramp steamer?
The Alliance scales down to a major planetary power.

Maybe areas of the planet have been only partly terraformed, and are still very harsh.

Reavers become mutant bandits.

Drop overall TL several levels. Aside from the plot device spaceships and setting background gravitics and terraforming, how much really advanced tech do we see in Firefly?

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.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Crakkerjakk

...Aside from "because Whedon (who openly admits to not being overly concerned with realism or consistency in his world building) said so."
...

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.

[combatmedic]

Originally Posted by pfharlock

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.

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.

[Flyndaran]

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.

[pfharlock]

Originally Posted by combatmedic

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.

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.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by combatmedic

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.

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?

[Crakkerjakk]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

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.

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.

[combatmedic]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

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?

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.

[Running Wolf]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Both Whedon and the show make it clear that the Core is supposed to be strictly Imperialistic in it's goals. They support slavery, clearly not a way to make people see you as friendly and benign. Also Corperations warping science to force profitable answers (which of course either doesn't work or supresses better answers) is also a theme of the show.

No the Core Worlders clearly dispise the Fringe Worlders in much the same way the 19th century British elites dispised the Irish, or the way most Americans looked down on Native Americans through the 19th and early 20th centuries.

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.

[combatmedic]

Originally Posted by Running Wolf

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.

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.