D&D Firefly-ish Campaign?

[Nad]

Hi all,

I am not looking for a d20 system of the show Firefly.

What I am looking for is D&D campaign setting that is similar to Firefly or any materials that would be helpful running a campaign as such.

For those of you who don't know Firefly, I'm looking for a very pioneerish campaign. Think Wild Wild West but with Medieval technology… and monsters, magic, etc. There are occasional splotches of advanced civilization but most of the world is dark and unexplored.

[Citizen Joe]

Pirate campaign in a group of islands would be a medieval equivalent. Much like Pirates of the Carribean.

[Kiero]

Would Spelljammer of old be any use?

[Kurald Galain]

Yes! Spelljammer fits very well with Firefly. Well, except for the beholders

[Curmudgeon]

Yes! Spelljammer fits very well with Firefly. Well, except for the beholders

... or any D&D monster, really. Firefly intentionally omits any alien life forms. All the monsters are strictly human.

[Citizen Joe]

I only just got to see Serenity the other day. It explains a lot of the background information that I missed in the show. I think the lack of aliens that you could kill without reprecussions may have been part of the downfall.

Anyway, fast pirate ship, group of colonized islands, imperial fleet (slightly outside their boundaries), and reavers (cannibals).

[Yakk]

Spelljammer is too cheesy.

If you want flying ships, go with a world built out of floating-in-air islands.

The ship/non ship provides you with the Firefly-like multiple-phase world. When you are traveling, you are in a different state than if you are at an actual place.

Here:
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48218
WoO is building a shattered world.

[Nerd-o-rama]

I'd recommend a bandit campaign set in Eberron, presumably involving an airship, though it lacks the oppressive centralized empire without moving the campaign to Sarlona (which has much less information than the core continent of Khorvaire.) Setting the game strictly in one kingdom (Karrnath, probably) could fix this, as could setting it a hundred and some years in the past, during the waning days of the Kingdom of Galifar. Although the latter would be even harder than Sarlona, and lacks airships...

Spelljammer could work, although the presence of all those "alien" races lends itself more to Star Trek or Star Wars-style creature-features.

[Lord Tataraus]

well there is a serenityrpg, its not D20, but it is the official rpg.

[Kurald Galain]

Spelljammer is too cheesy.

Of course it is, that's the whole point! Plus it has elaborate wonky physics...

[fireinthedust]

How about Eberron? You've got flying ships there in a game setting that is close to Firefly.

DnD has monsters... however, if you use the races as intellegent races you're fine. Orcs as bodyguards or thugs, other monster races as ideas of what trading partners could be like (sneaky ratmen, snake-like medusa oracles, minotaur gatekeepers, etc.). Then they're colorful charicatures (spelling?) of Wild West themes.
Eberron is kinda set up like that already, with alignment not affected by race or class (read: evil clerics of LG deities, kindly drow, etc.)

Read the Last War as a more complicated Civil War on earth, or the Alliance vs. the brown coats. Mal would totally be from Cyre!!! You've got an artificer for the engines, Jayne is a Shifter barbarian, while Simon is fleeing with his Kalashtar monk sister River (read kalashtar in Races f eberron; they're escaping the dreaming dark); Heck, whatshername the Companion is a dragonmarked elven member of the spy house (or make up a new elven or Changeling dragonmark for, like, geisha).

Plot ideas for Eberron: The PCs start with an Airship, robbing the lightning rail, herding cattle. Then they run into a beautiful farmer's daughter who, it turns out, is a changeling assasin trying to steal the airship (familiar?).
Their cargo is destroyed, but their boss says they can recoup their debt to him by breaking someone out of prison... darkhold prison!!! (there's an issue of Dragon with it detailed)
To escape the law of one land they flee to another... Karnath, the land of necromancers and undead!!!

[fireinthedust]

I'd recommend a bandit campaign set in Eberron, presumably involving an airship, though it lacks the oppressive centralized empire without moving the campaign to Sarlona (which has much less information than the core continent of Khorvaire.)

I thought of that, but if they're pirates they'll be oppressed everywhere; just give the ship they bought a bad rep.

Sarlona/the dreaming dark can be the blue-glove guys chasing them. They were secret in the show anyway, rather than the Alliance-station guys (who could be any sheriff's office anywhere they travel).

I've got a campaign going in a floating-island world, on another site; the PCs seem to want to stay in the city, though, and one hates the idea of floating ships. sigh.

[Kiero]

Spelljammer is too cheesy.

It's as cheesy as you choose to make it. I don't see how airships are inherently superior to spaceships.

[Citizen Joe]

It's as cheesy as you choose to make it. I don't see how airships are inherently superior to spaceships.

Weird gravity effects on spelljammer ships make catgirls cry.

Also, airships have that nifty fire ring that you can kick someone into to make some sort of point during negotiations.

[Brianish]

I think the lack of aliens that you could kill without reprecussions may have been part of the downfall.

Yeah, who wants complexity and consequences in storytelling?

The FOX Network was the cause of the downfall.

[MaximumTaco]

Have you considered using something like Deadlands d20?

It sounds like it could be right up your alley.

[Hopeless]

Hi all,

I am not looking for a d20 system of the show Firefly.

What I am looking for is D&D campaign setting that is similar to Firefly or any materials that would be helpful running a campaign as such.

For those of you who don't know Firefly, I'm looking for a very pioneerish campaign. Think Wild Wild West but with Medieval technology… and monsters, magic, etc. There are occasional splotches of advanced civilization but most of the world is dark and unexplored.

Hmm Eberron does come to mind however to make that work you would have Mal a former Cyran soldier spending his accumulated wages thanks to it being stored in a House Kundarak bank on purchasing a used airship.
His former second and fellow survivor of the war joins him in his intention of using the airship to travel across Khorvaire and beyond so he can eventually find a place where he won't be reminded of the war.
Finds a pilot who takes a shine to his second whilst he "eventually" finds a good mechanic after being taken for a ride by a former House Cannith artificer before running into an artificer from Zilargo who proves a better artificer but is also an innocent whom the cap feels obligated to protect as a sort of pseudo daughter.
However things don't pick up and they're forced to do shady deals to keep the ship afloat even picking up a former mercenary who helps with the nasty stuff they stumble across.
Eventually they pick up passengers and this forces them to try their luck far and wide even as far as xendrik and even sarlona except this is where they pick up their two strays, one is a capable healer whilst his sister who has been rescued from an Inspired camp and is slowly showing signs of having been mind seeded something the cleric is trying to find a way to reverse before its too late as rivals are hunting him down to retrieve his sister who is an important pawn in their plans.
Sorry went a little too far there...

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I only just got to see Serenity the other day. It explains a lot of the background information that I missed in the show. I think the lack of aliens that you could kill without reprecussions may have been part of the downfall.

What, you mean like Reavers?

I don't think the D20 system lends itself to Serenity/Firefly. We had more luck with a GURPS translation (then again, with a system as complex as GURPS, everything is equally easy to translate, or rather, equally complex). You might also want to try the White Wolf system, using a whole new set of skills/talents/abilites/etc... to write it up, using a Skill + Stat # of D10's vs set difficulty, with number of successes judging how successful you are.

Now, you could do a midevil/fantasy version of Firefly, basically a pirate captain and a misfit crew sailing the seas, avoiding detection from the Confeds, avoiding the murderous headhunter tribes, etc... but D20 doesn't lend itself well to a system as dyanamic as Firefly.

[Dawnstrider_Moogle]

I think Spelljammer would work amazingly well, although really I just dig Spelljammer. I think part of the problem with trying to make a Firefly D&D game is that D&D is all about killing monsters...if you did Spelljammer, took out all non-human races, and set it in a single crystal sphere that could be like it, although straight-up Spelljammer with the elf empire in place of the alliance could still work. Although adding monsters to the Firefly milieu changes things, in that they're be a reliable source of work for mercenaries that isn't -against- other sentient beings...so hmm.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

The problem about D&D vs Firefly is that D&D is all about killing things. 2/3 of the book is combat rules, and the other third can be used in combat or to avoid combat or to help out in combat. It's gunch-heavy. Firefly is the exact opposite. Your usually not wanting to attract attention to yourselves by gunching people.

Unless you are playing a ship full of Reavers... then just have fun and gunch on everyone.

[supreme_war_pig]

Hi all,

I am not looking for a d20 system of the show Firefly.

What I am looking for is D&D campaign setting that is similar to Firefly or any materials that would be helpful running a campaign as such.

For those of you who don't know Firefly, I'm looking for a very pioneerish campaign. Think Wild Wild West but with Medieval technology… and monsters, magic, etc. There are occasional splotches of advanced civilization but most of the world is dark and unexplored.

-Fading Suns. Even though it is quite advanced in terms of technology, you could stage the campaign on a backward or lost (undiscovered) world
-I know many of you will shoot this down on sight, but I would advise a look. It is really quite a well done concept that you could use.

[Jimp]

... All the monsters are strictly human.

coughSPOILERScough

[Hurlbut]

Jayne as Half Orc...hmm...

[Kiero]

Jayne as Half Orc...hmm...

What would Vera be, though?

[Duke of URL]

What would Vera be, though?

A self-reloading heavy crossbow with mighty (+x) and maybe a nifty effect or two?

[Hurlbut]

A self-reloading heavy crossbow with mighty (+x) and maybe a nifty effect or two?

Exploding being the nifty effect

[fireinthedust]

River could be Kalashtar; the kalashtar-spirit passes down through children of the same gender, so River could be one while Simon isn't.

so if two Kalashtar got together, the boys would have the dad's kalashtar spirit while the girls would have the mothers. if the mother was kalashtar but the father was, say, a human, then you'd have a female Kalashtar (with part of the mother's kalashtar spirit) and a male normal son.

HOW ABOUT THIS: Mutants and Masterminds 2nd Edition, set in, like, Eberron. The system is more flexible for PC creation; you don't have to have dozens of weird feat trees, etc. BUT it's got the best parts of DnD, and combat goes fast (rather than HP and all the monsters, etc.). I mean, River and Simon don't translate precisely in DnD (a monk/psionic/etc.etc. who ISN'T ecl10? fuh!).

will you run it here on the boards?