Firefly Characters #1 of 7: The Captain

In preparation for this year's Christmas Game, I'm going through the process of converting the crew of Betty from the Serenity system to Firefly. In effect, this actually means rebuilding the characters from the ground up, but that's okay. Nonetheless, it may be worth comparing to the previous version.

As I discussed in my previous post, it is my intent to build these characters by first working out the three most important things about the characters, and using that to select Distinctions. Further, as a rough rule of thumb, I intend to select two of these from the depiction of the characters in "Alien: Resurrection", and add a third to better suit the character's use in home games.

In the case of Elgyn, then, the two Distinctions from the film are simple: we know he's the Ship's Captain, we know he has at least one Friend in High Places, both of which are existing Distinctions. For the third, I have selected Not to be Crossed, to represent his vendetta against Silas Cho-Zhu. So that's done. Even better, it's relatively easy to select appropriate triggers for those Distinctions, the skills match up reasonably well, and so the character basically falls into place:

Frank Elgyn: Mercenary Captain

Attributes

Mental d8
Physical d8
Social d8

Skills

Craft d4
Drive d4
Fight d6
Fix d4
Fly d8
Focus d8
Influence (Leadership) d10
Know (Bureaucracy) d8
Labour d4
Move (Running) d6
Notice d6
Operate d4
Perform d4
Shoot (Pistols) d6
Sneak d4
Survive d6
Throw d4
Treat d4
Trick d6

Distinctions

Ship's Captain
A natural leader, you're responsible for the Crew and the ship you all fly in.
Lead the Crew: When one of your crew directly follows one of your orders, spend 1PP and give that Crewmember an asset equal to your Influence die rating.

Not to be Crossed
Just so we're clear: if you cross me, I will end you.
To the Edge of the Black: When you pursue someone who crossed you into obvious danger, create a d8 Asset for the scene.

Friends in High Places
The Alliance thinks highly of you. That's the only opinion that matters.

Signature Assets

Betty: d8
Elgyn has a close connection to his ship, an Auriga class mid-bulk transport, and won't allow just anybody to fly or fix her.

Roleplaying Notes

Elgyn was born and raised on Shadow, and would have made for a natural Browncoat were it not for a deep survivalist streak in his nature. He saw the forces arrayed, and calculated that the Purple Bellies had the manpower, the ships, and the technology. Knowing that a neutral could never benefit from the war, he signed up quickly, and made sure to seek a nice, safe, administrative role.

Make no mistake: Elgyn's no coward. He's tough, and more than willing to get his hands dirty. But he's also smart, and he knows good and proper that the only sure way to live through a fight is to be elsewhere.

Having found himself an undistinguished role as lieutenant in the Alliance Quartermaster's Corps, Elgyn quickly learned the value of contraband. In every war, there are always those who will profit, and there are always luxuries that cannot be easily had. So, with the tacit (and well-paid) approval of Captain Perez, he got his start. And after the war, he made the smallest of career changes, and carried right on making money.

Elgyn has been doing this for a good number of years now. He has a ship, and he's found a crew. The jobs come - they come with some difficulty, especially since the Alliance got that bloody nose a few years back - but they come.

He prides himself on his good name. He doesn't claim to have much honour, but he knows that he's good at what he does, and he knows that other people know it also. He would hate to see that tarnished. And on those rare occasions when his conscience does trouble him, he reminds himself of his two golden rules. Either that, or he drinks his troubles away.

What Are The Three Most Important Things About Your Character?

One of the things I like most about the Cortex+ system used in Firefly, and probably the thing I like most in the character creation system, is the use of "Distinctions". Basically, a Distinction is a short description of the character, which could be a role the character fills, a relationship with another character, a personality quirk, or something from the character's background.

Each character has three Distinctions, and so character creation becomes a matter of picking the three most important things about the character. For example, Mal Reynolds' three distinctions are "Ship's Captain", "Things Don't Go Smooth", and "Veteran of the Unification War". But it's easy to see how, by simply switching out one or two of these, you can get a very different character - switch out "Things Don't Go Smooth" for, say, "Friends in High Places" and you get a well-connected captain who served on the other side of the war.

I'm inclined to think there are three keys to making this system work well:

1. You should probably try to write down those "three things" as your first step in character creation, and probably without reference even to the master list of Distinctions.
2. Having written down the "three things", you should check if any match with the master list. If there isn't already a good fit, then rather than trying to force a "best fit" you should probably just go ahead and create a custom Distinction. After all, it's not that hard.
3. Conversely, if there does exist a Distinction that seems to match one of your "three things", but it doesn't quite work for you in other ways (because you don't like the Triggers or, more likely, the keyed skills), you shouldn't hesitate to customise the Distinction to fit your character, rather than either go for something that you're not happy with, or changing your character to better fit some other Distinction.

(Incidentally, it's best if at least one, and preferably all, of your Distinctions can be read as both a negative and a positive in at least some situations. Because every Distinction has a Trigger whereby you can use it to add a d4 instead of a d8 to your Dice Pool and thus gain a Plot Point. And since Plot Points are officially nice to have, it's best to have that option. Especially since it is the player who chooses whether to apply that option or not.)

So What Now?

In the last few weeks, my D&D 5e game has lost both of the two original players. This takes us back down to only two players, which is really less than I would like to continue the game with. I've put out a call for more players, but there weren't any takers, nor do I really expect there to be.

The most likely consequence of this is that the game will simply stop. Indeed, unlike the Star Wars campaign earlier in the year, this one will not be brought to any sort of a conclusion - it will simply die. Which is a real shame, but given that we're only two sessions in, that's not too bad.

As far as I can see, the root cause of the issue here is simply one of bandwidth: we have several campaigns running concurrently, and people simply don't have the ability to commit to one more. Plus, given that my schedule basically restricts me to alternate either Tuesdays or Wednesdays, this further limits the number of people who can attend.

Unfortunately, I can't see that changing. And I really don't want to set up a campaign and then find myself scrabbling around for a quorum every session - the ideal is to have a group of five players signed up and be assured that we'll reliably have four of those (not necessarily the same four) in attendance at each session. But that dream scenario really seems like an impossibility just now.

The consequences of that are... less than ideal. Firstly, in the immediate term, it looks like that D&D game is dead. I'll give it to the weekend, but if we don't get at least one more sign-up then I'm going to call it.

Secondly, my plans to run two mini-campaigns next year are also shelved for the time being. The mooted Firefly game in February has attracted surprisingly little interest, and since it should be the more popular of the two there seems little point in even contemplating the other. There's obviously just too much else going on, and I just don't have the fortitude for a third fizzled campaign.

That leaves the question of one-shots. Again, this year hasn't been terribly successful - neither "A Lament for Lustivan" nor "Ultraviolet: 2XS" managed to attract a quorum. I'm still hopeful that the Christmas Game will go ahead, but we'll need to see - Christmas is always a tricky time for gaming. Beyond that, though, I'm not planning any one-shots.

The answer to the question "so what now?" once again seems to be an enforced break from gaming. I'm not entirely sure that that's such a bad thing.

Firefly: The Lost Years

I'm hoping to run two short campaigns next year, of which the first will be the imaginatively named "Firefly: Season Two". As the name implies, this will be a Firefly RPG campaign, and will pretend to be some sort of a continuation of the series, albeit with the oddity that it's a new crew and a new ship. (Hmm... perhaps "Phase Two" would be a better name, mirroring the aborted Star Trek project of the same name...)

Anyway...

One of the things that I have done with my various one-shots to date is that I've maintained a loose continuity with the existing series, advancing the timeline at the same rate as real time. That means that since "Firefly" was broadcast in 2002 and "Serenity" was released in 2005, "Season Two" will take place 13 years after the series and 10 after the film. That, in turn, places it (apparently) 17 years after the end of the Unification War, and in the year 2530.

Which begs the question: what happened in the intervening years?

Well, here are my basic ideas. I should note that I've lifted just a couple of things from the Firefly "expanded universe" - specifically a name and two ideas from the unproduced episodes section on Wikipedia. However, for the most part I'm ignoring all that material, largely by virtue of being completely unfamiliar with it.

For what it's worth, the below is essentially how I would lay things out for the start of a real Season Two, if I were somehow to be charged with bringing back the show. Which sucks if you were a Wash/Book fan, sorry.

The Alliance: Immediately following the Miranda scandal, the Alliance went into a media lockdown, clamping down hard on unauthorised broadcasts of all sorts. The official story was that the Reapers don't exist, and that any hand the Alliance may have had in creating them was therefore a hoax. At the same time, things became increasingly difficult for independent spaceship operators, who found their margins squeezed, their ability to travel restricted, and increased graft and corruption throughout.

This largely fizzled out with the very public capture, confession, and execution of Mal Reynolds, the fanatical Browncoat responsible for the hoax. His death largely put to bed the Miranda scandal, and things more or less returned to the status quo. That said, the years of the clamp-down had further increased tensions on the Rim, forced a lot of formerly-legitimate traders to supplement their incomes illegally, and generally pushed the 'Verse closer to a second civil war.

Last year, two events of particular note took place. The smaller of these was a much-publicised gunfight on the Rim moon Tombstone, where the local sheriff gunned down a trio of local thugs and then herself disappeared without a trace. This event, although of little significance in itself, has grabbed the public imagination in a big way, leading to many communities becoming much more pro-active in dealing with their problems. (And what is seldom said, but often thought: if they're dealing with their problems independently, then what do they need the Alliance for?)

The biggest event, though, was the assassination of the Alliance prime minister, Davis Andrews, on Ariel. With a single bullet, the 'Verse has been thrown into chaos, and it's not yet clear what will happen next.

Mal Reynolds: To be honest, he's looking pretty good for a dead man. Mal has spent the bulk of the last decade in a deep dark hole on Perdition. However, last year he was broken out by agents contracted by Inara, and he's now back on Serenity, quietly avoiding notice.

Zoe Alleyne Washburne: Under normal circumstances, Zoe would not have rested for a moment until Mal was recovered. However, the timing of events was such that she had a higher priority: barely a month after the death of her husband, Zoe discovered she was pregnant with his child. She therefore left Serenity, and so by the time she learned of Mal's capture it was already too late. Zoe therefore retired to the moon of Tombstone where she has lived quietly with her daughter Emma, eventually taking on the role of sheriff. That came to an end a few months ago, when Zoe learned that Mal had escaped Perdition. Immediately thereafter she took action against the local thugs who had been a nuisance to her community, and she and her daughter left to rejoin Serenity. At the present time, they are yet to do so.

River Tam: In the past decade, River has largely overcome her conditioning at the hands of the Alliance, and has become the pilot of Serenity. She remains a reader, and still has significant difficulties wist social mores and with crowds, but she's much more stable than she once was.

Simon Tam: Simon's relationship with Kaylee was depressingly short-lived, largely due to his almost complete inability to keep his foot from his mouth. It was, in short, a mess of mixed messages, unfulfilled longing, and general farce, with Kaylee eventually leaving the ship deeply hurt and Simon remaining to blame himself. Simon remains on Serenity with Mal, Inara, and River, serving as ship's doctor. His contacts in the underworld proved especially useful in tracking down Mal's prison and then in contracting a crew to rescue him.

Inara Serra: With Mal captured, Zoe left, and Jayne too self-centred to help, it fell to Inara to take charge and coordinate the rescue efforts. That has been her main focus, and increasing obsession, for the past several years. She has gradually burned through every contact and every resource, but has eventually rescued Mal. Inara now remains on Serenity, no longer as a Companion, but as a member of the crew and a fugitive along with the rest.

However, Inara has a significant problem: she suffers from a terminal, and contagious, disease that will take her life if not treated. It cannot be cured, but can be controlled with drugs that she once received from her order. No longer being a Registered Companion, however, she now has months to live.

(Note to self: There's a one-shot in there. Christmas Game 2015?)

Jayne Cobb: In the same misadventure when Mal was taken, Jayne and Kaylee were separated from the rest of the crew. Given the lack of profit in the fugitive lifestyle, and given Kaylee's recent heartbreak, they had little incentive to join up with the crew, and so instead Jayne jacked a ship, and went into business for himself. Jayne now travels with a team of four: himself, Kaylee, and a rotating crew of mercs who never quite seem to work out.

Kaylee Frye: As mentioned, Kaylee's relationship with Simon never quite worked out. Heartbroken, she left the ship with Jayne, and has been travelling with him ever since. Kaylee recently learned of Mal's escape, but has not yet decided whether to return to Serenity or stay with Jayne.

Five Ships

The consequence of this is that the setting, initially at least, has five significant ships flying around. These, and their crews, are:

• Serenity: Mal (captain), River (pilot), Simon (doctor), Inara (ex-Companion), plus a new mechanic.
• Violet: Jayne (captain), Kaylee (mechanic), plus a rotating team of two mercs.
• Mutt: Zoe (captain), Emma (passenger).
• Betty: Elgyn (captain), Christie (first officer), Sabra (pilot), Vriess (mechanic), Call (tech), Johner (merc).

and, of course, the PCs' boat, whatever that may be.

5e is Great, But...

I'm very much enjoying running the 5e Starter Set adventure. I like the system a great deal, I like the group we've got together for this one. All in all, it's great. But...

I have no great burning desire to run 5e beyond this adventure, nor do I see that changing in the foreseeable future.

Part of the issue is simple boredom with D&D-style fantasy gaming. This is largely due to the (very successful) "Eberron Code" campaign I ran. As that game took three years to play through, it really burned me out on this style of play for some time. In theory, this should correct itself in time... hopefully giving nice time for WotC to publish the Eberron conversion guide for this new edition.

The other part of it, though, is that I'm not impressed with what I've seen of "Tyranny of Dragons" thus far. The inaugural adventure path (sorry, "story event") for 5e feels a great deal like a tired re-tread of the old Dragonlance story, mixed with something about dragon masks (which, sad to say, just screams "GO GO Power Rangers!" to me), all tied up in a nicely railroaded bow. It really doesn't grab me and make me feel "I must run this!".

And that's potentially a problem for this new edition. It does appear that WotC are intent on focussing more on the adventures for this new edition, which is a good thing, but they're very definitely playing catch-up with Paizo, who now have the art of writing an Adventure Path down to a fine art. And while I'm not hugely likely to ever actually run a Pathfinder AP, neither am I going to waste my time slogging through a WotC (or third-party) path if it is an inferior product.

It's possible, of course, that I'm maligning "Tyranny of Dragons". After all, I've not yet had a chance to read through and digest the adventure book, and it is true that I was wrong about the Starter Set and so may well be wrong here. But, for now, it does look like 5e is an edition for home-brewing adventures. Which is great, but for my lack of time.

On the other hand, I am very much looking forward to running some "Firefly", so things aren't all bad!

My First 5e Houserules

Now that I've actually played the game, I can confirm some of the house rules I'm going to be using for 5e.

• Inspiration points: As anticipated, I largely forgot to make any use of Inspiration last night. So, instead I'll be using Inspiration points. At the start of a session, each player gets 3 (actually, 1 per hour the session is expected to last). These can be spent at any time just as Inspiration is used currently, including giving them to another player.
• Alignment: Yeah, I'm not using it.
• Encumbrance: Yeah, I'm not using it.
• Ability Score generation: Each player can choose for himself which of three methods to use. You can only choose random rolls if you roll in front of the group, and the moment the first die falls you can't change your mind. The three methods follow:
• Random roll: 4d6-drop-lowest, arrange to suit. Reroll if your highest stat is 13 or lower, or if your net modifier is +0 or less (before racial modifiers).
• Standard array: The scores are 16, 15, 13, 12, 10, 8. Arrange to suit.
• Point buy: You have 28 points to spend. The costs are as per 3.5e: 8 -> 0; 9 -> 1; 10 -> 2; 11 -> 3; 12 -> 14; 13 -> 5; 14 -> 6; 15 -> 8; 16 -> 10; 17 -> 13; 18 -> 16.

I won't be using these for the remainder of the "Lost Mine of Phandelver", but intend to start with my next campaign. This gives me a little time to consider them further before confirming them. But I'm 90% sure this is the way I'll be going.

5e in Actual Play: First Impressions

I hosted my first game of 5e yesterday, playing through the first part of the "Lost Mine of Phandelver" adventure from the Starter Set. There were two players, both of whom elected to play custom characters (rather than pre-gens). It was a little disappointing to have three call-offs, but such is life.

The game played out largely as I had expected from my read-through of the Basic Rules and the Starter Set, which is to say that I was very, very impressed. This version of the game is refreshingly light and extremely intuitive (though I'm sure we got some things wrong!).

The adventure was also much as expected: the first part is indeed extremely cliched (an inevitable goblin ambush and then a dungeon crawl), but as I had expected the dungeon design allowed for plenty of choice on the part of the PCs as part of their exploration, and the relative lightness of the rules gave me more headspace for role-play and other interactions.

Sadly, the session ended in a TPK, probably because the group had two PCs and the adventure was designed for five - I did reduce the enemy numbers in several places, but the lack of some character roles still made itself felt.

All in all, I was hugely pleased with the game, and remain highly impressed with the adventure, which I still rate as one of the best I've seen (and probably the best ever from WotC). I'm looking forward to the next part, and also to getting together a proper campaign using the system.