'Hang on, Travellers!'

POSTED BY: SergeantX
UPDATED: Sunday, January 1, 2006 18:10
VIEWED: 10426
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SERGEANTX

Friday, May 14, 2004 3:52 PM

Some of us have been discussing the possible connection between Firefly and the classic science fiction RPG "Traveller". I was hoping to get a role call here of all the board members who've played the game.

For those not familiar Ranger has links and talks about it here:

http://www.fireflyfans.net/showblog.asp?b=159

SergeantX

"Dream a little dream or you can live a little dream. I'd rather live it, cause dreamers always chase but never get it." Aesop Rock

HANS

Friday, May 14, 2004 4:34 PM

Oh yeah, I'm a Traveller player from way back, and love the similarities between the game and show. By the way, there's been lots of discussions about Firefly as a role playing game (including the connection to Traveller) on the rpg.net site. Go to the forums, do a search for "Firefly" in the thread title on the "roleplaying open" forum and you'll find a bunch of articles.

Hans

SERGEANTX

Friday, May 14, 2004 4:51 PM

Yes, RPG.net is a fun place. I particularly enjoyed SteveD's Firefly Diary.

SergeantX

"Dream a little dream or you can live a little dream. I'd rather live it, cause dreamers always chase but never get it." Aesop Rock

GUNHAND

Friday, May 14, 2004 5:09 PM

Think I've played every version of Traveller except the T20 stuff, just because...well because.

Yeah SteveD's Firefly diary was good, I was just going crazy waiting for him to finish watching them so I could speak without spoiling. Hehehe.

I've ran Firefly games in both D6 and Unisystem, had good fun every time but I'm holding off on doing any more work on it until I see the new D6 space and the Eden Unisystem space-western (their words) minigame in their new magazine.

I'm also hoping Eden will finally just bite the bullet and do the damn game, but that means they'd need more world info...so maybe when Serenity comes out they'll do something.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
"Oh hey, I got an idea. Instead of us hanging
around playing art critic till I get pinched by
the Man, how's about we move away from this
eerie-ass piece of work and get on with our
increasingly eerie-ass day, how's that?"

My eerie-ass website:
http://gunhandsfirefly.homestead.com/Index.html

ASTRIANA

Friday, May 14, 2004 5:11 PM

I played Traveller once a long time ago. I had a bad experience with a particularly horrible GM, and chose not to continue the game.

~A~
El Jefe Magnifico's Mistress... of Communications and Harems...

...I'm still free,
You can't take the sky from me.

GUNHAND

Friday, May 14, 2004 5:20 PM

I never had any problems with Traveller GMs that I can recall, well except this one time that I threatened to bludgeon everyone at the table to death with a desklamp if they didn't quit debating some Star Trek technical doohicky thing from the show the night before.

Otherwise all good.

Don't get me started on some of the WoD people I've had run-ins with though...

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
"Oh hey, I got an idea. Instead of us hanging
around playing art critic till I get pinched by
the Man, how's about we move away from this
eerie-ass piece of work and get on with our
increasingly eerie-ass day, how's that?"

My eerie-ass website:
http://gunhandsfirefly.homestead.com/Index.html

SERGEANTX

Friday, May 14, 2004 5:23 PM

I've been hearing about D6 Space. Sounds interesting. I actually have a Firefly game put together (ok about half done, but the main system's are all in place) that really gets into the kind of characterization that whedon does. I'm a little leery about putting it out there. I'm not sure about copyright and legal status and such.

SergeantX

"Dream a little dream or you can live a little dream. I'd rather live it, cause dreamers always chase but never get it." Aesop Rock

GUNHAND

Friday, May 14, 2004 5:47 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SergeantX:
I've been hearing about D6 Space. Sounds interesting. I actually have a Firefly game put together (ok about half done, but the main system's are all in place) that really gets into the kind of characterization that whedon does. I'm a little leery about putting it out there. I'm not sure about copyright and legal status and such.

SergeantX

"Dream a little dream or you can live a little dream. I'd rather live it, cause dreamers always chase but never get it." Aesop Rock

Same here, well I don't have time to come up with a completely new system all on my own, but putting them up can get you looked at by those evil lawyer types. Personally I think Joss would probably see one and say,"Oh shiny." While Fox lawyers would say,"Ohhh pictures and IP."

I think the best mix of what's out there now (barring Eden doing it) would be a mix of D6 Space and using some of the Unisystem special abilities like "Hard to Kill" mixed in with it and adding a dash of drama points.

I've run it more with D6 from the old Star Wars 2nd Rev. but there was something very fitting about Unisystem's character creation. The ammount of points you get depends on the "badassedness" of the character and having the guys make Big Damn Heroes was funny.

Plus with Unisystem you get Drama points by genre emulation, so I gave the guys and gals little notecards I'd made beforehand with Chinese and English on one side, and then just the translation on the other to show the other players. That way they could sprinkle Chinese in their conversations, get points, make it feel more like Firefly and everyone else would know what they were saying. Worked out very well.

Only downside to Unisystem keeping me from going completely over to using it is there aren't any rules for spacecraft. So I'll see what I can see when Eden gets that magazine out. Should be later this month or next.

EDIT: Although usually for "non-profit" fan made games the companies usually ignore it. Also with the new D6 system the licence for using the system and publishing with it is only $500. System license is usually easy though, the actual license from Fox would probably be a healthy chunk of change.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
"Oh hey, I got an idea. Instead of us hanging
around playing art critic till I get pinched by
the Man, how's about we move away from this
eerie-ass piece of work and get on with our
increasingly eerie-ass day, how's that?"

My eerie-ass website:
http://gunhandsfirefly.homestead.com/Index.html

GORRAMINDEPENDENT

Friday, May 14, 2004 5:49 PM

I enjoyed the original, Marc Miller Traveller game many moons ago. After watching and enjoying "Firely," it got to me thinking: This is Traveller!

I am poised on re-starting a "Traveller" game in the "Firefly" universe. From all the talk online (and it's all just talk until we a book is published), you'd think there would be an official game by now. I don't have any experience with Eden's system for the Angel/Buffyverse, but the reviews have been generally positive. As mentioned earlier, the mechanics are there, but we need more information on the "Firefly" 'Verse. I'm sure Whedon and Co. are working on it...

”Well, Jayne ain’t a girl. If she starts in on that girl’s name thing, I’ll show her good and all I got man parts.”

GUNHAND

Friday, May 14, 2004 6:00 PM

I have both the Buffy and Angel games, which is sorta ironical because the only time I've ever seen either was the movie version of Buffy.

Sorta weird but I'd been a fan of Eden before because C J Carella has to be one of the best RPG writers ever. Plus the system is so good it can be used for just about anything, we even did a Call of Cthulhu game using the Buffy rules one time.

They also are about the best laid out books out there, easy to find information and they ooze coolness.

But the "hard" info is pretty much the stumbling block. It doesn't have to be NASA verifiable science but for a game to work you have to know how the ships get from planet to planet, how to cut travel time, more info on each planet, details of the War, etc. etc.

On the stuff I've written I've used everything "canon" that I can find, but on those areas where I have to go off the page so to speak I have it marked as such with a box and a little Shepard Book making his "Isn't that special." Face.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
"Oh hey, I got an idea. Instead of us hanging
around playing art critic till I get pinched by
the Man, how's about we move away from this
eerie-ass piece of work and get on with our
increasingly eerie-ass day, how's that?"

My eerie-ass website:
http://gunhandsfirefly.homestead.com/Index.html

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