Topic: How does SM:P work in the Firefly universe?

[jasonbrisbane]

Hello All,

I have recently been re-watching the Firefly series and thought it would be cool to have a SM game in the Serenity universe.

Having a friend with the Serenity game all the core universe stuff (planets, tech level, etc) I will have but I was wondering about the Space Master end.

As Serenity doesnt have any explanation for "psychic" abilities, I thought it would be cool to have a River type character (NPC or player, whatever) in the game - but there would have to be rules for it, of course...

Have other people used SM:P in the serenity universe and how did it go?
Not having any SM:P stuff I wanted to know if there were any Psychic abilities in the core book? The Future law Book? Any at all?

What other books would ideally slot right into the Serenity universe ?(The Vehicle book says it has Salvaging rules so this would seem to be good in Serenity.)

What are your thoughts?

[yammahoper]

The core book covers psychic abilities.

My SM game is set in a developed Sol system, so it is a lot like Serenity politically.  I have had no problems with mechanics or coming up with adventures.  Rogue seperatist, autonamous corps, terrorist, pirates, espionage of all sorts be it between govt, corps, orbiting cities (which aften are autonimous nations in thier own right).  Add in alien artifacts found at scattered sights around the solar system and their are plenty of plot hooks and data to inspire the characters.

 

[Defendi]

If I was going to have a river-type, I'd make the character take flaws to reflect how their brain is different from other people.    That's just for setting flavor, though, the rules should work perfectly.

[markc]

 I also think that the SM:P rule set would work very well. I ran a serinity cross traveller type campaign in that the idea was that most of the universe was of lower tech but with enough yech to allow movement between planets. So the most common weapons were firearms but energy weapons were very expensive and if a PC was caught with one off their ship it was generally taken from them so the Gov could reengineer it. Most high tech was lost and the "verse" was recovering to pick up the pieces, the Traveller part.
 The big tech idea for the group was kinetic armor which ignores firearm crits if the round strikes a armored location. This allowed for more gun fights without a lot of fatalities, which IMO was a good thing for the PC's and NPCs alike. Another option that I introduced later was the sonic stunner was tech level dependant and recieved bonuses for bieng higher or lower tech than the sonic counter measures. Also most worlds had not developed sonic stunners or at least had not discovered them. This rareity allows the PC's more freedon in that they did not have to necessarly kill bad guys or try and fill them full or lead.

 The game was fun as it was exploration based and allowed for all types of games, even magical-fantasy that the PC never got to as it was very limited in resurgence.

MDC 

[jasonbrisbane]

If I was going to have a river-type, I'd make the character take flaws to reflect how their brain is different from other people.    That's just for setting flavor, though, the rules should work perfectly.

Hi,

I was thinking of having flaws for the character, as the Serenity book outlines them (in its game system).

I would almost certainly have to engineer my own flaws for her, but is there any book that has SM:Talents and Flaws (apart from RM Talents and Flaws)?

What have others done with the "River's Leaky Brainpan" thing...?

[Defendi]

Talents and flaws are in Future Law.

[RandalThor]

Talents and flaws are in Future Law.

Love that book! Serenity could be done real well in spacemaster. There is a game for it already that could be great source material. I think it is in a Savage Worlds-esq rules system now.

[Dark Mistress]

I am considering doing a version of this down the road. A game loosely based on Serenity/Firefly using our mix of SM2/SMP rules we use. Personally i think it is very doable the only thing is if you are going for a cinematic feel like the movie and tv series had, I don't think SM does that real well. It is a much more realism based rules than most games, in that you don't stand up in combat you duck and cover. So if you are going for that feel that could be a problem but other than that I think it would work well. Just a bit of work to convert some of the ships, tech ect into SM rules.

[markc]

Dark Mistress,
 In my low tech Fire Fly type game all my PC's got kinetic armor which allows them to ignore firearm crits. And when things got very hairy I sort of fudged the numbers so the bad guys hit the protected areas of the PC.

MDC

[Dark Mistress]

Yeah not saying you can't get the feeling, i only meant the game as is doesn't lend itself well to that style of play with out house rules. For me this is a good thing as I am not a fan of cinematic style combat and like the more gritty feel.