BRP Firefly & Serenity In The 'Verse?

[samwise7]

How hard do you think it would be to come up with a Firefly & Serenity game using BRP?

Has anyone done it?

I imagine it would be fairly simple to do, but I may be missing something.

I've used this map of the 'Verse for a white wolf version of the game.

http://www.fireflyrpg.com/RPG/Maps_files/Versemap.pdf

Here's my Firefly & Serenity PBP game if anyone is interested in doing some PBP reading.

Firefly & Serenity (White Wolf)

[sladethesniper]

It shouldn't be that difficult at all, mostly just a setting overlaid on very well tested rules and some add-on stuff that is easily gathered from the downloads area or from soltakss...his SciFi stuff fits very easily into the TL of Serenity/Firefly.

-STS

[Byron Alexander]

Oddly enough, a friend of mine is planning to do so but hasn't yet. He seems pretty confident that it would be easy enough to do and I don't see why not. In a lot of ways BRP is the perfect system for a gritty setting like that.

[DirkD]

I like the Serenity RPG very much, but even if you want to play it with BRP-rules the books will be a great help. They are put together well and the system is more descriptive than rules-heavy.

If I would want to convert them to BRP, the following steps come to mind:

Characters: Most of the character-descriptions can be taken over as they are. The only things that need attention are attributes, skills, and traits. I would make a conversion-list for each of them, so that you can easily convert characters from adventures and books. Since the system is skill- and traits-based, these shouldn't be hard to make.

Gear: can be taken over as is. You may need a table for weapons and armor. I would probably take over the availability-system, too (less work and players aren't aware of it).

Ships: Most of the stats are descriptive, but similar to characters you have to find a way to convert traits. That may be a little bit more complicated. I have never played sf with brp, so I don't know if there is a system to give ships cool abilities and flaws that make them unique. If there is such a system, you basically need a conversion table and you are done. Otherwise you may try to use the Serenity system, but adjust it to BRP (use percentages and brp-appropriate skills).

All in all, I think the Serenity system should be easily converted to BRP. The way it is written makes it still very useful. For example a page-long character-description has usually only 10 lines (2 column) that are system specific (namely abilities, skills, and traits). You are probably ready to use all the books if you make 6 tables: abilities, skills, traits, weapons, armor, ship-traits.

[samwise7]

It shouldn't be that difficult at all, mostly just a setting overlaid on very well tested rules and some add-on stuff that is easily gathered from the downloads area or from soltakss...his SciFi stuff fits very easily into the TL of Serenity/Firefly.

Wow, there was a lot of info with that SciFi link.

Also, thanks for all the suggestions DirkD. I think it would be possible to run a game without the Assets & Complications, but it might loose some of the feel of you playing a Big Damn Hero.

Hehe, I was hoping someone had done all the work for me.

[samwise7]

While looking around for Firefly stuff, I found an "Official Map of the 'Verse."

Looks like I may have to get my hand on that bad boy...

Official Map of the Verse

[Jason D]

While looking around for Firefly stuff, I found an "Official Map of the 'Verse."

Looks like I may have to get my hand on that bad boy...

Official Map of the Verse

It is very nice, and provided a lot of the framework for the work I did on planet/community generation in the Big Damn Heroes book for the Serenity RPG.

Yes, the intersection of Firefly/Serenity and BRP is of special interest to me, given my work on both game lines in the last year.

[samwise7]

Wow, that's awesome. I've been meaning to pick up all the Serenity stuff, but the wife keeps yammering on about my RPG spending. hehe.

[samwise7]

I think I'm going to try to kick this off again. I now have just about all of the Serenity books (including Big Damn Heroes). So I'm going to give it a shot.

[samwise7]

I'm going to use Power Points as Plot Points (similar to the Plot Points in Serenity) but I have to figure out when they refresh, or how they get new Plot Points. I'm sure I will come up with something.

I also am going to bolt on the Serenity Assets & Complications mainly for flavor and character developement, but I'm also going to try to roughly translate them to skill bonuses in BRP.

My question, is what kind of bonus should a Minor Asset give you, vs. what kind of bonus a Major Asset should give you? The same goes for the penalties for Minor and Major Complications.

I was thinking of giving a 10% bonus for Minor, and 20% for Major, but that might be on the low side. Not all of the Assets and Complications affect skills, but what do you think I should give for skill bonuses for them?

[ORtrail]

I've got the main Serenity book, though I never bothered to learn the game system. Mainly I wanted to encourage you to keep on with a BRP version.

While I understand the appeal of "bolt[ing] on the Serenity Assets & Complications mainly for flavor and character developement" it seems to conflict a lot with BRP being skilled based.

Does having "Healthy as a Horse" asset mean a bonus to just your CON rolls, or do you get a higher CON (and thus Hit Points too)? A "Mean Left Hook" adds a damage bonus? Or an hit percentage bonus? Or both?

I always liked adding Disabilities to the super hero characters when playing Superworld (it does add flavor) but all the "bonuses" actually get reflected in the Stats, skill rolls, or super powers.

[pansophy]

We had something similar for discussion a bit earlier, when I wanted to introduce the FATE Aspects into BRP. Turned out it's not a good idea to do it, because they change BRP in a way how it usually works.

In my opinion it's the same with Dis-/Advantages. They are to add flavour, but should not change existing rules. My players can still add them to their characters, and when they come forward with a good idea how to involve them, they get rewarded. But there is no hard rules for them. It is a case by case decision which works fine all the time.

Otherwise: Serenity/CORTEX System is simple to change over to BRP. Attributes: d4=8, d6=11, d8=13, d10=16, d12=18; add +/-1 due to Dis-/Advantages. Skills:d4=20%, d6=35%, d8=50%, d10=75, d12=90%. Weapons and armor can be converted by looking at BRP weapon tables and find something equivalent. The rest is fluff ...

[Jason D]

I was thinking of giving a 10% bonus for Minor, and 20% for Major, but that might be on the low side. Not all of the Assets and Complications affect skills, but what do you think I should give for skill bonuses for them?

Maybe +20% for Minor, and +40% for Major.

It seems high, but Major traits are defining characteristics for characters, so if they're skills, a character with a skill affected by a Major trait should be remarkably competent using it.

[frogspawner]

I can't help thinking a simple bonus of +20%, +40% or even more to skills is just a bit dull for something so intrinsic to a character. How about Major Traits making related skills Easy (i.e. double chance)? And Minor Traits - erm, tricky - maybe also Easy but only half the time (flip a coin!)?

[samwise7]

Does having "Healthy as a Horse" asset mean a bonus to just your CON rolls, or do you get a higher CON (and thus Hit Points too)? A "Mean Left Hook" adds a damage bonus? Or an hit percentage bonus? Or both?

I always liked adding Disabilities to the super hero characters when playing Superworld (it does add flavor) but all the "bonuses" actually get reflected in the Stats, skill rolls, or super powers.

I haven't gone through all of the Assets and Complications and translated them to BRP (that would be a lot of work). What I am going to do however, is wait till the players tell me which ones they are interested in taking and then translate them. This way I don't do any unnecessary work. I plan to be rather rules-lite with the Assets & Complications, but for the ones that bump up skills, I am going to have them bump up the BRP skills.

I'm going to use Power Points for Plot Points, so that part of the Assets & Complications will worth the same (roughly).

Maybe +20% for Minor, and +40% for Major.

It seems high, but Major traits are defining characteristics for characters, so if they're skills, a character with a skill affected by a Major trait should be remarkably competent using it.

That sounds pretty reasonable. I think I'm going to go with that.

We had something similar for discussion a bit earlier, when I wanted to introduce the FATE Aspects into BRP. Turned out it's not a good idea to do it, because they change BRP in a way how it usually works.

If the Assets and Complications blow up in my face, I'll let you know, hehe. I'm going to give it a try though.

I added in the extra Assets & Complications from Big Damn Heroes, because many of them sounded really cool.

[samwise7]

I can't help thinking a simple bonus of +20%, +40% or even more to skills is just a bit dull for something so intrinsic to a character. How about Major Traits making related skills Easy (i.e. double chance)? And Minor Traits - erm, tricky - maybe also Easy but only half the time (flip a coin!)?

That is an interesting idea... hmm...