Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[kv]

Serenity is a roleplaying game set in Joss Whedon's Firefly universe (also the movie Serenity), which my brothers and friends and I have been trying to start a regular game with for quite a while.

My friend came closest- we played twice a few years back, when that roleplaying group was having problems and people couldn't come regularly. So that game died.

Anyway, last weekend, Ruski and I (and my wife and one of our other brothers and some friends) started playing it again. It was a lot of fun.

Have any of you played it/heard of it?

  -kv

[Jester]

no, didn't even know they had a roleplaying game out. What kinda system they use and who makes it?

[kv]

Actually, oddly enough, Margaret Weiss, one of the writers of Dragonlance, is the co-creator.

It's a unique system - rather than using a handful of d6s, or a d20 for everything but damage, Serenity uses d2-d12, one for each skill, and one for each attribute. You roll two dice for everything (attribute+attribute, or attribute+skill), and you have target numbers based on how hard a particular tack is. 3 is the easy target number, 7, 11, and so forth.

It's a fun system, where penalties and bonuses are dealt in 'step dice,' so if you have a -1 step penalty on your d6, you instead roll a d4. If you have a +1 step bonus on your d6, you roll a d8 instead.

It's a fun system.

  -kv

[Ingo Monk]

Reminds me a little bit of Deadlands if you played it.  Used a range of d2 to d20.  Neat character creation system, you were dealt a hand of cards and depending on what cards you got it determined your scores.  You also deal hands of cards for initiative, you'd roll your initiative first and depending on how high you rolled you got a number of cards.. then the initiative turn would start at A's and go down all the way to 2 with jokers being the wild card that can interrupt any action at any time.

[Jester]

reminds me more of Earthdawn. It owrked in steps like that too

[kv]

I like that it's roleplaying-heavy, so if two characters have the exact same stats:

Agility   d10
Strength   d6
Vitality   d6
Alertness   d8
Intelligence   d8
Willpower   d6

They can still be completely different:

Black Betty (assets and flaws):
Assets
Born Behind the Wheel [Minor] (+2 Step to Agility when driving ship)
Fighting Type [Major] (Take one non-combat action each round without -1 penalty)
Lightning Reflexes [Minor] (+2 step agility for all initiative rolls)
Steady Calm [Minor] (+2 Willpower to avoid being shaken)

Complications
Chip on the Shoulder [Major] (-2 step penalty to all actions in tense situation, berserker)
Greedy [Minor] (Greedy greedy – will take almost any opportunity to acquire money)
Hooked (Cigarettes) [Minor] (Addict, -2 step to all attributes for days not getting fix)
Prejudiced [Minor] (Hates Law Enforcement of any kind)
Twitchy [Minor] (-2 step penalty in social situations)


Crazy Ivan (assets and flaws):
Assets
Born Behind the Wheel [Minor] (+2 Step to Agility when driving spaceship)
Fighting Type [Major] (Take one non-combat action each round without -1 penalty)
Heavy Tolerance [Minor] (+2 step vitality to resist drugs, alcohol, knock-out gas)
Tough as Nails [Minor] (2 extra life points over normal total)

Complications
Chip on the Shoulder [Major] (-2 step penalty to all actions in tense situation, berserker)
Crude [Minor] (-2 step penalty to influence whenever refined social behavior is required)
Prejudiced [Minor] (Hates Law Enforcement of any kind)
Stingy [Minor] (never give up money- beg, bargain, and steal)
Superstitious [Minor] (Minor Omens give -2 or +2 step penalty to all attributes for one action (omens determined by GM))

These two even have similar assets and complications (both are pilots), and they're almost completely different. Betty is a paranoid greedy chain smoker, one who hates feds, and goes into a blind rage when people hit her- she's a hell of a pilot, though, and good to have in a fight, since she keeps her head, and has fast hands. Ivan is a tough, heavy-drinking russian crazy man. He's crude, stingy, superstitious, and hates law enforcement. Even with the exact same stats and skills, these two characters would interact very differently.

That's what I like about Serenity.

  -kv

[Jester]

wow, sounds fun. But I doubt anyone I know would want to run that.

[kv]

Well, Ruski is a big fan, and I'm pretty sure he'd be willing to run it on the boards here, if Ingo was okay with that.

If not, and there are more than the two of us interested, I can run it.

  -kv

[Jester]

naaa, never been a big fan of playing games through a message board. I did wind up getting the rulebook. I won't say where I got it, but I got it.