A Useful Resource

One of the questionable joys of running a one-shot adventure lies in creating the characters. On one hand, you get to use the characters to set the tone of the game, you can tie the characters far more intimately to the story than is usually the case, and you get to be somewhat experimental with them, creating characters you otherwise wouldn't use. On the other hand, it's a lot of work for characters that generally won't see much use.

For my first two Serenity one-shot games, I went to the trouble of creating a crew tied specifically to the story, and that worked well each time. However, for the third one-shot, I have done something different.

Unlike the previous two games, which had a particular premise that more or less required a crew built for the story, this third one-shot would work equally well with just about any crew (ironically, except for the crews I created previously). And, I reflected, it seems likely that I'll run Serenity as a one-shot several times in the future, where those stories might, or might not, call for a custom crew roster.

In light of this, I felt it would be a good idea to put together a 'default' crew suitable for one-shots - a set of characters that can be picked up and used for all manner of adventures going forward. Ideally, such a set of characters should have something of the Serenity 'feel' to them, but it is also preferable that they not be Mal Reynolds et al.

Fortunately, as I noted on my other blog, there's a set of characters who are ideal for this purpose, having been created by Joss Whedon himself. I refer to the crew of Betty, the ship from "Alien: Resurrection". There's a good mix of characters there, they feel very much like a Serenity crew, and they're also obscure enough that a group of players can run with them in a great many ways.

(Of course, there is one sticking point, surrounding the character of Call. In the film, she turns out to be an Auton - an artificial person. Which would represent a somewhat jarring addition to the 'Verse, where the LoveBot represents the closest they come to such a character. However, fan theory has it that the 'Verse is actually part of the same setting as the "Alien" films. And it does make for a suitable Dark Secret complication, so I've decided to go with it as-is. Depending on how the next one-shot plays out, I may adjust that in future.)

Over the next little while, I think I might well post each of these character in turn - that seems a good mini-series for the blog to follow. Plus, it might allow for some refinement of my ideas, tweaking the characters for better use.