GURPS Firefly/Serenity Homebrew?

[ray53208]

there used to be quite a few sites online where fans would post there take on firefly gaming. seems that most of those are gone.

i know MWG has the official game out, but i dont know... the rules are a tad wonky. im hoping the BSG game fixes a lot of the issues, but i aint holding my gorram breath.

i know yahoo groups has a gurps firefly thing going on but it really doesnt do much for me. every once in a while someone asks a question and it gets answered, but nothing terribly relevant to firefly using the gurps mechanic... or at least nothing i can use.

ive got all the gurps 4e books in pdfs. the TLs seem a little constraining for the verse which has TLs across all the spectrums depending on your lot in life and how close to the coreworlds you live. where would serenity (the ship) fit into all of that? i mean, accoring to the many books i have/shows i have watched:

1. serenity is propelled through space by a gravitational differential and possesses artificial gravity and can counter inertia effects on passengers and crew.
2. serenity uses hydrogen for fuel and hydrogen fuel cells throught the ship. these can power the ship for about six months of regular use before refuel/recharge is needed.
3. the firefly effect is from the engines being kicked into high gear for full burn. the engine powers the gravity drive.
4. inside the atmosphere, serenity uses the ramjets (?) on the extended nacelles on both sides to manuever and for thrust. i assume gravity control is also used to some degree since a firefly doesnt look incredibly aerodynamic (but i still love her.)
5. life support is very reliable (IF you pay attention and maintain the ship regularly. a ruttin' compression coil is a nuthin' part till you aint got one.) air and water seem plentiful on most trips barring accident. IIRC septic flush is a regular part of the docking fees. radiation and tempurature seem easily regulated.

does anyone have any ideas or input?

[ShneekeyTheLost]

It would be hard to quantify the TL of the 'verse because these various things you pointed out come from different TL levels themselves.

Here's what I would do...

*Ditch the whole TL system. It's all just guidelines and waiting to be broken anyways any time you get more modern than 7-8

* Put in whatever tech you want to be made available at the level of minituization you would like them to have. Keep in mind that this will vary widely depending on the location. Jaynestown, for instance, is mostly TL 4, except for Boss Higgens and his select few. The Core Worlds, on the other hand, are significantly more advanced.

*Have fun. GURPS, ironically, lends itself well to Firefly/Serenity with the extreme lethality of combat and a compatable skillset which can be used cinematically.

[ray53208]

yes, i too feel that gurps lends itself especially well to playing in the 'verse. ive been wanting to play there for years and after much thought and many attempts to utilize various systems, i feel that gurps may just be the best possible mechanic.

wouldnt ditching the TL system be difficult? its tied into many skills and a few advantages/disadvantages. with the exception of space travel most core worlds of the anglo-sinese alliance are somewhere arounf TL 9... although some things seem a bit of a stretch. the frontier rimworlds are usually about TL 6.

there is no FTL, yet there is slow and dirty terraforming. there are holographic full medical scans, but there dont seem to be any full-scale clones. minor psionics seems to be about as fantastical as the 'verse gets.

it seems to me that the biggest breakthrough of the age is TL 11 contragravity. it isnt miniturized, but it can be used in a great many vehicles and even on entire estates.

[Damionte]

Why convert to Gurps when there's already a Firefly game.


Then again I've read it and it's not much of a game. More a lose campaign setting with vague rules.

[ray53208]

Why convert to Gurps when there's already a Firefly game.


Then again I've read it and it's not much of a game. More a lose campaign setting with vague rules.

good sir, i do believe you have answered your own question. while i do appreciate the work and love that went into the MWG product, and it is an awful shiny book with lots of pictures and quotes, the mechanics leave me rather cold and are full of holes and in DIRE need of errata. i realise that liscensing issues are at the heart of the matter and that saddens me on a whole new level... but i digress.

id rather not use the MWG rules. i tried d20 and while it has many virtues, it doesnt allow for the kind of character creation needed to maintain the flavor. gurps really is the best system in my humble opinion.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

wouldnt ditching the TL system be difficult? its tied into many skills and a few advantages/disadvantages. with the exception of space travel most core worlds of the anglo-sinese alliance are somewhere arounf TL 9... although some things seem a bit of a stretch. the frontier rimworlds are usually about TL 6.

Here's what you do:

Most of the skills that are tied into TL are mechanical/repair/creating stuff. Things like Blacksmith to Engineering, and maybe the Piloting skills.

There really aren't many ads/disads geared to TL, because TL can get so broken so fast. Disallow any advantage which gives a TL bonus.

Core Worlds are assumed to be Standard TL.

Rim Worlds tend to be TL -1, for the purposes of determining penalties for various technical skills.

You may spontaniously declare any planet or base either Standard or an appropriate penalty.

This lets you have 'barbaric' disads with TL penalties, comming from a Rim World wherein the most technological device was a rifle, where everyone went by horse rather than by hovercraft. Or you could be from a 'modern' Core World or similarly advanced base/installation.

You can also have someone from a mostly backwater planet who has been trained on 'modern' equipment, and so would buy off the TL penalty disadvantage.

effective TL penalties only affect skill modifications. The GM decides which items are or are not available there seperately, although taking it into consideration.

[ray53208]

you are a gorram genius! why arent you out there killin' purplebellies with your brain?

that is a really nifty way to do the deed. i will most certainly think about doing just that.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

you are a gorram genius! why arent you out there killin' purplebellies with your brain?

that is a really nifty way to do the deed. i will most certainly think about doing just that.

Ya can't stop the signal... and I am the signal.

Really, I did this in several space opera games, because I saw how unwieldly the TL system was for my 'verse. It never takes into account how race A could have been from a low-g planet and so needed some form of counter-gravity before they could get off planet due to the massive g-force necessary in early space exploration... or how race B had considered energy weapons to be 'sissy' and so eschewed them in favor of truely wicked ballistic weapons.

[ray53208]

well, that is a great way to handle TLs.

any ideas about possible character templates?

like what exactly would be required to be a member of shepherd books order, a companion, a programmed psychic killing machine, a reaver, or even an operative?

how about some stats for mals pistol, zoes mares leg, jaynes beloved vera, or the lassiter antique laser pistol?

i welcome all you folks out there to crack this little nut and give hope to all of us out in the net who would love to play in the 'verse. ill be working on it too.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

well, that is a great way to handle TLs.

any ideas about possible character templates?

like what exactly would be required to be a member of shepherd books order, a companion, a programmed psychic killing machine, a reaver, or even an operative?

how about some stats for mals pistol, zoes mares leg, jaynes beloved vera, or the lassiter antique laser pistol?

i welcome all you folks out there to crack this little nut and give hope to all of us out in the net who would love to play in the 'verse. ill be working on it too.

There's an advantage called Clerical Investment which, at least for this 'verse, is pretty much a social advantage. For 5 points, it grants a +1 on all reactions to 'civilized' folk, but a -1 on anyone who has a reason to destain religion. For 10 points, your order is more famous/infamous, and it goes up to a +2/-2 respectively. However, I'd bet Shepherd Book also had a Security Clearance, which would also be a hefty advantage and was likely seperate from his religious stuff.

Companions would likely need to have at least Attractive as an advantage, with a heavy leavening of social skills.

Reavers would likely have a -2 or even -3 to Tech Level, have the advantages of High Pain Threshold and Combat Reflexes with the penalties of Berzerk, Reputation -OMG, and likely a +1 to Str, Dex, and HT and a -2 on IQ.

And for our dear little River Tam... let's start with things like Combat Reflexes, high all-round stats, and lots of combat/weapon and technical skills... break out GURPS: Martial Arts for combat styles, then we move on to the psionics. I'd say she had a telepathy power of at least 10, with the associated disadvantage: gets confused about which mind she is in, requiring IQ checks at -5 or even more to focus herself into this reality, which would halve the cost of the telepathy power. She'd also have a fairly high ESP power as well, with the disadvantage: untrainable to offset power cost. Finally, you'd have several disadvantages, Secret (government project), Hunted (by the government), Enemy: (Two by two... hands of blue), Compulsion: falls asleep when she hears the safe word, and probably others. To be honest, she's probably the highest point character around.

And for the Operative... like River, high stats all around, lots of combat oriented advantages, combat/weapon skills and Martial Arts Combat Styles. He's also got the advantage Law Enforcement Agent at high enough levels that he has super-user access to darn near any legitimate system he wants to get into. He has a liscense to kill, and is immune to legal prosecution for his actions. He also has the disadvantages Duty (to his Cause), Sense of Duty (to his Cause), Fanatic (to his cause), and probably Overconfidence as well. The one in the movie likely had a Code of Honor from the way he treated his opponents.

As for the stats on the guns... Mal had a standard Colt .45. Zoe's gun was your typical lever-action sawed off shotgun, using solid sabo rounds rather than shot. Vera I'd stat as a heavy rifle, then add at least an extra d6 to the damage and fiddle with ACC and snapshot numbers. For the Laser pistol, well... it is a standard laser pistol found in any of the GURPS books.

In General...

Rim-Worlder: 0 points
Barbarism, -1 tech level
+1 HT
They may not be as technologically advanced, but they are more hardy from growing up in such a hostile environment

Core-Worlder: 0 points
+1 IQ
Intolerance: Rim-Worlders

In general, core-worlders are smarter, but look down their noses at rim-worlders.

BTW, I'd put Serenity, heck the whole Firefly class, as a -1 TL ship. It's an old baby, certainly not something new.

[Damionte]

Another question.

There's nothing special about the Firefly universe. So why would you need any special rules for running it in a similar styled campaign world. I mean You could just take core gurps rules and just run the firefly story as is.

It's a real world game so you could essentially take any cyberpunk type game and run firfly.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Another question.

There's nothing special about the Firefly universe. So why would you need any special rules for running it in a similar styled campaign world. I mean You could just take core gurps rules and just run the firefly story as is.

It's a real world game so you could essentially take any cyberpunk type game and run firfly.

The problem is in the Technology Level system of GURPS. Certain advances are equated with certain Tech Levels, or TL's. As he pointed out, in the Firefly/Serenity series, they had some things from TL 12+, like contergrav, and yet other things only seemed to be TL 7ish, like a distinct lack of an FTL drive. this mish-mash is quite realistic, but is not properly handled by the GURPS system, which is why I suggested the special rules for handling it.

And yes, many different types of cyberpunk games would be able to run in the Firefly 'verse (although they didn't really have neural cyber implants, they had to use a GUI much like we do today).

[jindra34]

The problem is in the Technology Level system of GURPS. Certain advances are equated with certain Tech Levels, or TL's. As he pointed out, in the Firefly/Serenity series, they had some things from TL 12+, like contergrav, and yet other things only seemed to be TL 7ish, like a distinct lack of an FTL drive. this mish-mash is quite realistic, but is not properly handled by the GURPS system, which is why I suggested the special rules for handling it.

And yes, many different types of cyberpunk games would be able to run in the Firefly 'verse (although they didn't really have neural cyber implants, they had to use a GUI much like we do today).

Read campaigns on split TL's it has all the info you would need.

[Recursive]

And for our dear little River Tam... let's start with things like Combat Reflexes, high all-round stats, and lots of combat/weapon and technical skills... break out GURPS: Martial Arts for combat styles, then we move on to the psionics. I'd say she had a telepathy power of at least 10, with the associated disadvantage: gets confused about which mind she is in, requiring IQ checks at -5 or even more to focus herself into this reality, which would halve the cost of the telepathy power. She'd also have a fairly high ESP power as well, with the disadvantage: untrainable to offset power cost. Finally, you'd have several disadvantages, Secret (government project), Hunted (by the government), Enemy: (Two by two... hands of blue), Compulsion: falls asleep when she hears the safe word, and probably others. To be honest, she's probably the highest point character around.
River is actually quite easy to stat out in GURPS:

Character Name: River Tam

Advantages:
River Frikkin' Tam [+infinity]

Disadvantages:
River Frikkin' Tam [-infinity]

Point Total: +/- infinity

There! Absolutely faithful to the source material! :smallwink:

[ray53208]

River is actually quite easy to stat out in GURPS:

Character Name: River Tam

Advantages:
River Frikkin' Tam [+infinity]

Disadvantages:
River Frikkin' Tam [-infinity]

Point Total: +/- infinity

There! Absolutely faithful to the source material! :smallwink:

ta mah duh! there it is.

[ray53208]

i recieved another very awesome answer about TLs on the sjg boards that im going to xpost here. thanks to Sir Pudding for his continued help in my quest for understanding.

http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.php?p=437129&postcount=20

discussion also meandered onto topics of the HOBs and their HOBwands. the HOBs were minor telepaths or empaths maybe. those blue gloves give me the feeling that their telepathic abilities are limited to touch. i think that they look to be fairly in tune with eachother and couldnt outirght read minds like river could. the HOBwands are psionic amplifiers and the hands of blue are psionic agents. i would theorize that what was done to river tam was both in order to amplify her already impressive psychic abilities and make her more open to conditioning as a living weapon.

anybody brave enough to attempt a stat-out?

[Damionte]

like a distinct lack of an FTL drive

Hu? You can't do space sci/fi travel without FTL drives. When Firefly shoots that green stuff out it's butt, That's them going to light speed. How could you miss that?

[I_Got_This_Name]

Hu? You can't do space sci/fi travel without FTL drives. When Firefly shoots that green stuff out it's butt, That's them going to light speed. How could you miss that?

IIRC, they never leave the one star system, which is fully possible at sublight speeds.

Explaining how all of those planets fit and still get enough sunlight, now, that's a bit tougher.

[ray53208]

Hu? You can't do space sci/fi travel without FTL drives. When Firefly shoots that green stuff out it's butt, That's them going to light speed. How could you miss that?

actually no. its the engines running high for "full burn" which uses up more hydrogen fuel and makes the ship go faster, but not FTL. propulsion is based on a gravitational differential but still is limited by the speed of light.

[ray53208]

i know this is slightly off topic, but not entirely... and it seems a shame to create a new thread just to ask about a very closely related line of inquiry.

has anyone ever considered using the star wars saga system to recreate the 'verse? i mean youd have to get rid of alien species, the force, jedis, lightsabers, and FTL...
and youd have to tone down blasters, droids, and clones a lot...

but isnt it highly do-able? thoughts?

[ShneekeyTheLost]

i recieved another very awesome answer about TLs on the sjg boards that im going to xpost here. thanks to Sir Pudding for his continued help in my quest for understanding.

http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.php?p=437129&postcount=20

discussion also meandered onto topics of the HOBs and their HOBwands. the HOBs were minor telepaths or empaths maybe. those blue gloves give me the feeling that their telepathic abilities are limited to touch. i think that they look to be fairly in tune with eachother and couldnt outirght read minds like river could. the HOBwands are psionic amplifiers and the hands of blue are psionic agents. i would theorize that what was done to river tam was both in order to amplify her already impressive psychic abilities and make her more open to conditioning as a living weapon.

anybody brave enough to attempt a stat-out?

I always saw the Hands of Blue as very weak telepaths which need direct physical contact to do any form of telepathy to anyone. This is why they wear the blue gloves, to keep that contact from happening. This is represented by something like a Power of 2-3 in Telepathy.

The wands, on the other hand, are interesting. I'd call them sonic disruptors, personally, bursting blood vessels within the body of the victim through sympathetic vibration. How the HOB avoid getting dying from the weapon, which is clearly area effect, is still not certain.

Perhaps the HOB wands are the focus for a Telekenisis power, bursting small blood vessels within the targets to cause a similar effect? However, this has contradictory problems... to do any sort of area effect telekenisis, you'd have to have a fairly strong TK power, like 10 or so, since it diminishes on a logarithmic scale. However, this would also equate chunking objects around almost like bullets, which they never did. It would certainly require a high skill in TK and in Physiology to pull off.

Give it perhaps a HT save for partial damage, although probably at penalties. There was only one of the presumabally healthy federal agents which survived initial contact with the weapon, which was then killed.

I'd give it about a five hex radius, HT-3 save for partial damage. 1st round: 1 point, none on save. 2nd round: 1d6-2, save for half. 3rd+ rounds: 1d6 damage, save for half. This damage ignores any and all DR and is applied to anyone within the radius, other than a HOB. Anyone failing a HT check must make another HT check-3 or be stunned and unable to act that round.

[ray53208]

yeah, the selectivity of the HOBwand is a tricky wicket.

i kinda figured it was more of a telepathic attack. do you think its possible that a psychosomatic trigger would cause hemmoraging and vascular damage of that kind? i mean a focused psionic blast.

i thought the live fed was the one that simon tam incapacitated by pressing his knee on the throat after knocking him to the ground. jayne had killed his fed. iirc by the time the HOBs caught up to that point they found the unconscious fed and killed him with the HOBwand. the fleeing tams and jayne could hear the scream down the corridors behind them. ariel was on today, the scifi channel had a mini-marathon (i love those).

[ShneekeyTheLost]

yeah, the selectivity of the HOBwand is a tricky wicket.

i kinda figured it was more of a telepathic attack. do you think its possible that a psychosomatic trigger would cause hemmoraging and vascular damage of that kind? i mean a focused psionic blast.

i thought the live fed was the one that simon tam incapacitated by pressing his knee on the throat after knocking him to the ground. jayne had killed his fed. iirc by the time the HOBs caught up to that point they found the unconscious fed and killed him with the HOBwand. the fleeing tams and jayne could hear the scream down the corridors behind them. ariel was on today, the scifi channel had a mini-marathon (i love those).

No, I don't think it would be a psycosomatic problem. It has to have some sort of physical effect, be it Telekenisis or sonic induced. And making the HOB's immune to it is going to be tricky too.

Going back and looking at my copy, I found that the DVD had been scratched and was acting up during this scene... which makes me a sad panda... however it didn't seem to definately say one way or the other if the one they found alive was the one that Jayne put down or not.

[ray53208]

No, I don't think it would be a psycosomatic problem. It has to have some sort of physical effect, be it Telekenisis or sonic induced. And making the HOB's immune to it is going to be tricky too.

Going back and looking at my copy, I found that the DVD had been scratched and was acting up during this scene... which makes me a sad panda... however it didn't seem to definately say one way or the other if the one they found alive was the one that Jayne put down or not.

scratched dvds make me sad too. i have two copies, one for loaning and one that no hands but mine shall ever touch.

i dont think its a sonic weapon. to me it looks like the targeting method is highly selective, which seems to indicate that it is a psionic amplifier of some kind and the HOB himself is the source of the psionic attack.

it can be safely assumed that river tam was a much more powerful telepath than the HOBs, i often wonder if she wasnt just taunting jayne when she said she could kill him with her brain.

oh, and heres an interesting bit of info: in the three part comic that chronicles events before before the movie (those left behind) the HOBs are referred to by the alliance as "independant contractors" and that blue glove material extends to cover the upper body (under the business suit).

i still think the HOBs are linked to the blue sun megacorp.