hobbitguy1420
2008-03-11, 11:32 PM
Yes, I know Serenity already has a system. I put this together for fun, and as a rulebuilding exercise. I'd like some input from those who're familiar with the NWoD d10 system, especially on the subject of balance.
Oh, and just for reference, anything here that isn't owned by the owners of Firefly or by the owners of White Wolf is (c) me 2006. I don't own either of those groups' material, and I'm not trying to profit from it.
So don't sue me!
Turning the Screw
Part 1
Dusty was the first word that came to the captain’s mind as he looked around the cellar. Dust coated every trunk, shelf, and bottle in the place, as well as drifting in the air, highlighting the meager sunlight that made it through from the upstairs, as well as the beam from Zoe’s flashlight. “Likely we can ignore the most of this,” he said to Jayne and Zoe, who had come down with him. He had to hold back the urge to spit on the floor as the staleness of the airborne dust hit his mouth. He noted Jayne (who was never so good at holding back urges) hocking for a great big spit, and gave the man a suppressing stare until the big bu xun jia[i] swallowed it with a grimace. “The folks who owned this place probably kept what we’re after in an atmo chest to keep it good, so check those first.”
The three spread out, checking chests and boxes. It wasn’t long before Zoe’s voice rang out. “Here.”
She turned toward the captain, holding the lid of a chest open. The bottles inside glinted in the glare from her flashlight, dulled slightly by many years’ accumulation of dust. “No question, Sir, they’re early Alliance. Two hundred fifty years old, at least.”
“Still good?” Mal asked.
Zoe checked her hand sensor. “Should be, according to this.”
Mal nodded, satisfied. “This is worth to keep us in the sky a good six months. Nine, we find a buyer desperate enough to have ‘em.” He stood, brushing some dust off his knees.
Jayne stepped up to look at the box, and made a face. “Well, that’s worth a whole load of nothin’. Who’d go after a old box fulla old bottles don’t even have whiskey in ‘em?”
Mal rolled his eyes and turned toward the big man. “Jayne, I ain’t payin’ you to get in the minds of our esteemed paying customers. I’m payin’ you for…” he thought for a long moment and drew a blank. “…Well, it don’t matter. Folks’ll buy these.”
[i]“Hey, Mal,” said the vox at the captain’s side in Wash’s voice, “I’m seeing another ship parked down there. You might get some company soon.”
Well, this was a gorram mei zhong bu zu if there ever was one. “Any particular reason you didn’t notice this before we got ourselves shut up in a very cramped, very vulnerable basement?”
“Hey!” the pilot said, indignant, “they’d shut her down, let her go cold. Only reason I found ‘em at all without the drive running is I recognized the silhouette. She’s a Capisson 5-26 Bumblebee. Probably private freight.”
Private freight – to Mal’s mind, that meant smugglers. Probably after the same thing he was. “All, right – prep the boat, Wash. I want to be out of here in five minutes. Jayne, you move on ahead, keep an eye out for company.” Right, that was why he paid Jayne. He beckoned to Zoe. “Here, I’ll get the other handle. We got any luck in the ‘Verse…”
“Mal,” Jayne called from the doorway, dashing any hopes on the whole “luck” score. The captain looked up from the chest to see a quintet of well-armed men walking Jayne back into the cellar, with large and ugly-looking guns pointed in his direction. This did not look good.
“Cap’n, I got some bad news,” Wash said over the vox. “That ship is flagged on the Cortex. Looks like it belongs to the Larson gang. Watch your backs, they sound like real rough and tumble fellows.”
The newcomers grinned nastily at this, and Mal winced. Ta ma de.
Why couldn’t things ever just go smooth?
Storytelling
This game uses the Storytelling system, created by White Wolf publishing. The focus of this system isn’t fighting others (although conflict can and does happen in these games on a regular basis), nor is it in building powerful characters (although it is certainly possible to create very powerful characters in this game). The game focuses on telling a story, and character interaction and the drive of plot are of prime importance. The players control their characters, describing their actions and providing their voices. The storyteller provides the plot, portrays other characters, and keeps things organized.
Themes
There is a theme in all stories, whether based on gothic horror or on frontier action. The theme is the question you explore or the moral you wish to teach. There are many possible themes for a Firefly-based Storytelling game, from the nature of authority to the decline of good men in hard times. Tailor the theme of your game to fit your particular group and Crew; a hard-bitten group of hired guns might be less interested in themes of family than they would be in man’s brutality toward other men. On the other hand, the crew of gunmen might develop into a family of sorts themselves. It all depends on your crew.
Moods
The mood of your game can fluctuate almost as much as the theme does – anything from wry humor to utter terror and back again can (and often does) show up in the ‘verse. Try to vary your mood from story to story – if you’ve just finished a nostalgic look at Earth-That-Was, try for an intense encounter with bounty hunters next. If you’ve just let the crew escape from agents of the Alliance with barely a ship to their name and more holes in them than they have credits to their name (on the other hand), try injecting some whimsy into the next storyline; perhaps the crew runs into an interplanetary snake-oil salesman. Life in the Rim can run a man through every extreme of feeling humans can feel, and this game is a perfect way to explore that.
Skills:
A character’s skills are the basic things she knows how to do: anything from picking a lock to bashing in a skull to riding the cortex to starin’ folk down falls under one skill or other. The majority of these Skills are listed in the World of Darkness corebook on pages 54-87. There are only two exceptions. The skill Occult no longer applies: It has been replaced with “’Verse Lore.” Pilot, indicating skill with the controls of a spaceship, has replaced Drive.
‘Verse Lore
Wash read the data from his scan on the other ship. “I read it as an older model, Trans-U.” He pushed back from the screen and looked up at the captain, confused.
“I didn't think Trans-U still operated,” the captain said.
Wash replied, “They don't.”
The captain’s eyes narrowed as a disturbing possibility revealed itself. “Get me a visual,” he said, and rubbed a hand over his mouth. If he was right…
Wash began working the controls. “They're still too far out to – “
“Get me something!” the captain interrupted, not in the mood for explanations.
Pushing his chair over to a more detailed scanner console, Wash pulled up what data he could get. “I'm picking up a lot of radiation.” The captain stepped up behind Wash to read the screen himself as the pilot continued. “They're operating without core containment, that's… kuang zhe de, that's suicide.”
His worst fears realized, the captain stepped over to the main cockpit window, watching the gleam of starlight on the other ship’s hull. For a moment, shock stopped his voice, but he managed a single word, all that was really needed.
“Reavers.”
A man can't wander the 'Verse without picking up a couple things about the worlds around him. This Skill reflects such knowledge of the 'verse. 'Verse Lore deals with "official" knowledge, such as which planets are being colonized by the Alliance, and also folklore and "urban legends," such as the Reavers or conspiracy theories regarding the Blue Sun Corporation. Those without this Skill are sheltered or ignorant. Those with high levels of the skill probably have knowledge (or at least conjecture and rumor) on any number of worlds.
Possessed By: Pilots, mercenaries, ship captains, criminals, law enforcement personnel
Specialties: Reavers, colonization efforts, Rim worlds, the Core
Roll Results:
Dramatic Failure: Your character remembers completely inaccurate information. He believes an area of space is a trade route when it's actually Reaver space, or thinks an unoccupied planet is actually a vital settlement.
Failure: Your character doesn't remember anything useful about the subject or planet.
Success: Your character recalls useful facts about the subject at hand.
Exceptional Success: Your character remembers especially obscure or relevant information. For example, not only does he recall that a planet was the site of a bloody battle in the war, but also that the Independent forces had a particularly large and well-equipped base there.
Pilot
The Reaver ship snapped at Serenity’s heels like a rabid wolf. “They’re on us,” Zoe said, her voice tight.
Wash was in his element, guiding the controls nearly effortlessly. “Kaylee?” he said, but the com remained silent.
“…Come on come on come on come on…” the captain’s anxiety was palpable as the Reaver ship drew ever closer. Wash grimaced slightly at the proximity detector, where a particular number kept getting lower and lower.
“Okay,” came Kaylee’s weakened voice, and Wash ran with it immediately.
“Everybody hold on to something,” he said, and then, with more than a little taunt in his voice, he addressed the Reavers. “Here’s something you can’t do.”
He threw a control forward with all his strength, and one of the thrusters on Serenity’s sides rotated 180 degrees. The ship turned on its axis until it directly faced the Reavers. Wash reversed the thruster again, and as the two ships passed one another, shouted “now!”
As Serenity went into hard burn, the blowback started an inferno around the ship, knocking the Reavers away like the hand of the Almighty and pushing the ship into space and safety.
“Knew I hired you for something,” the captain chuckled.
This skill deals with the character’s ability to guide a ship rocketing around the cosmos, as well as driving smaller land vehicles. A character without the Pilot skill may be capable of driving a land vehicle, but he cannot pilot a ship – the controls and readouts are too complicated for the untrained. This skill also deals with “stunt” piloting, such as pulling a “crazy Ivan” to avoid a Reaver attack or guiding the ship perfectly so it lands in dock without power.
Possessed By: Pilots, ship captains, first mates, law enforcement personnel, mechanics,
Specialties: Land vehicles, pursuit, Hard Burn, scout ships
Roll Results:
Dramatic Failure: Your character loses control of the vehicle while attempting a maneuver. The ship might run into a convenient meteor or spaceship, or the engines might stall, or a blowback might damage the ship.
Failure: Your character doesn't complete his intended maneuver. The direction the ship travels (if it goes anywhere at all) is determined by the Storyteller rather than by your character.
Success: Your character completes his intended maneuver.
Exceptional Success: Not only does your character complete his intended maneuver, he gains much more ground than expected. Perhaps he cuts between two asteroids, executes a perfect three-sixty turn, and hits Hard Burn smoothly.
Merits and Flaws:
Merits are strengths a character possesses, beyond simple ability or training. Perhaps one character is well-connected in the Alliance, while another knows a bit about boxing or fencing. Most of the Merits listed on pages 108-117 of the World of Darkness corebook apply without changes or alterations. Listed below are any alterations to the rules in the corebook, as well as new, ‘Verse-specific Merits for the Firefly Storytelling System.
Also included is a new Flaw for use with the optional Flaw variant system, detailed on pages 217-219 of the World of Darkness corebook.
Certain Merits from other World of Darkness supplements might be applicable to Firefly characters; these should be evaluated by the Storyteller on a case-by-case basis. Fighting Style merits from Armory, for example, might be appropriate for certain martially-oriented characters, whereas psychics such as River might be constructed using some of the Merits detailed in Second Sight. While we invite players and Storytellers to purchase these books, as the information they contain can be quite useful, they are not essential to the creation or running of a Firefly game.
Unseen Sense: The merit Unseen Sense doesn't apply in the 'Verse. While there's all manner of unpleasantness can befall a ship or a crew, all of it's perfectly normal and human-like. 'Less you count Reavers. Or psychics. Or maybe those blue-handed men they keep rumoring about in the Rim. But other than that, nothin' supernatural as a vampire or ghost is going to affect the crew, so characters cannot (and probably won’t want to) take this Merit.
Alliance ID: (• to ••••)
Effect: Somehow, you’ve got your hands on an Alliance ID card with your name on it. It could be an expert forgery purchased off the black market. It could be someone else's ID, which you’ve had reprogrammed with your own info. It could even, heaven forbid, be your own honest-to-goodness ID, although that'd usually fall under the Status merit. However you own the thing, you find that it smoothes things out quite a bit when you’re trying to deal with official types. Note that these identifications are not cure-alls in Alliance space – an ID card with a crime on it is just as damning as an open warrant sent to the Rim.
The one-dot version of the merit will withstand a cursory inspection, but not a deep background check; it tends to shore up one’s standing in the eyes of “civilized” folk. In rules terms, the one-dot merit grants a +1 bonus to all Socialize, Persuasion, and Subterfuge rolls when dealing with Alliance officials or functionaries. An alliance officer attempting to recognize a false card for a forgery must make an extended Intelligence + Computers or Investigation roll, and achieve 11 or more successes for a one-dot ID.
The two-dot version is a standard ID with enhanced security – it can stand up to any investigation the Alliance throws at it. Anyone attempting to recognize the forgery must achieve 22 or more successes on the Investigation or Computers roll. This merit offers the same +1 modifier as the one-dot version.
The three-dot Alliance ID states that the bearer is special in some way – a military officer, government functionary, or some such position of importance. The card offers a +2 to Socialize, Persuasion, Subterfuge, and Intimidation rolls when dealing with Alliance functionaries. Any attempts to discover the forgery must obtain 11 successes, as per the one-point Alliance ID (it is difficult to access the high-level databases this sort of information is stored in, thus cards of this level tend to be less secure than some other cards).
The four-dot version of the ID is equal to the three-dot version, but with the security reworked (22 successes are needed to see through it).
Direction Sense (• or ••)
Effect: The single-dot version of this Merit functions as per the World of Darkness corebook. Dot two gives the character a basic facility at instrument-less navigation in space – he can’t point the ship directly at Beylix from a random location in space, but he can certainly figure out the general direction he needs to go by following the stars, and he’s always got a good idea where his ship is. He has an innate sense of position, and can also probably sense if the ship has come to a stop.
Mechanical Sensitivity (•••)
Prerequisite: Crafts •• (Mechanics)
Effect: The character possesses a deep, almost spiritual connection with engines and machinery. This connection allows her to subconsciously notice whines, rattling components, and other signs of potential malfunction before they can cause trouble. With this merit, the character is entitled to a wits + composure roll when in the presence of a machine which is malfunctioning, or will malfunction within the scene, as long as the circumstances causing the malfunction are already in place (so a character with this merit would have no warning before someone smashed the coffeemaker, for example). When regarding ships' engines, the entire ship counts as "nearby." A separate Crafts roll is needed to diagnose the exact problem.
Dramatic Failure: The character believes that the machine in question is in better-than-average condition, or that some other machine is actually malfunctioning.
Failure: The character fails to notice the malfunction until/unless it becomes evident.
Success: The character knows that something is wrong and may roll to figure out what the problem is, possibly pre-empting any malfunctions entirely.
Exceptional Success: The clues the character picks up are so detailed, they give her a vague idea what might be the trouble. The character gains a +2 bonus to rolls to diagnose the malfunction.
Licensed Companion: (• to ••••)
Prerequisite: Academics ••, Empathy ••, Persuasion •• (seduction), Striking Looks ••
Effect: You’ve been licensed by The Guild, and are free to practice as a Companion on most planets. This opens many doors to you: There are lots of people who’d accept a Companion in town before they’d accept a merchant (or a smuggler), and you have certain… methods… to persuade folks to see your side of things.
Drawback: Not everybody feels comfortable with a Companion’s duties. Certain old-fashioned or prudish folk, not to mention more traditional Shepherds, react badly to Companions – some social rolls performed against these people take place at a -1 penalty, to account for the distrust and dislike they feel.
Zero-G Training (••)
Effect: The character has been trained in negotiating null gravity. He can use a reflexive action to stop after moving his full speed, instead of a full instant action, and receives a +2 on the roll to avoid damage while stopping. He never needs to roll Resolve + Stamina to avoid nausea in zero gravity.
Ship (varies; special)
Effect: Your character has put money, effort, or both into maintaining and upgrading the ship on which you live. This merit is shared by each member of the crew – you all live on the same boat, and any effort which improves the ship helps the whole crew. Each dot placed in this merit grants you two Ship Points to spend on the ship, allowing you to improve it in any number of ways. Full systems for creating a ship are found below.
The Ship merit is purchased separately from other merits, and it has special pricing: every dot in this merit costs 3 XP. This applies no matter how many dots the character has already spent toward the Ship merit. These dots are pooled with those of other characters to create and improve the ship.
If a character dies or otherwise leaves the ship, all points he has spent on the Ship are lost, plus one extra Ship Point.
Flaw – Alliance Fugitive: Your character is actively hunted by Alliance Enforcement. Needless to say, this constitutes a considerable source of anxiety. An experience point is garnered when the character has to seriously sacrifice other causes to avoid Alliance attention.
Zero-G rules:
No matter what you see in the vids, mankind wasn’t built to live without gravity holding him down. That’s why folks came up with Grav generators in the first place. Human bodies move awkwardly without the counterbalance of Gravity, unless they’re secured in some other way. Zero-G disturbs our sense of balance and causes motion sickness in the short term. A lack of gravity also makes it hard to start moving, and once you’re moving it’s a lot harder to stop.
In game terms, a character endures a -2 to all Dexterity-based rolls while in Zero-G, unless she is secured via a harness, magnetic boots, a handle, or in some other way. In addition, each time a character leaves gravity’s influence, she must roll her Stamina + Resolve to avoid experiencing nausea. On a failure, she endures a further -2 to all rolls (this stacks with the Dexterity penalty). The Iron Stamina Merit applies to this penalty, but not to the Dexterity penalty.
When in Zero-G, a character’s Speed is effectively reduced to half normal (rounded up). If she wishes to move faster, she must take an instant action to stop, making a Strength + Athletics roll. If this roll fails, the character takes damage as though she had endured a fall
The Zero-G Training merit alleviates or eliminates many of these effects: see the Merits and Flaws section above.
Distances in Space
The main unit used to measure the distances between planets is the Planetary Measuring Unit, or PMU. One PMU is about 8,000 miles, the approximate diameter of the planet Londinium (which is nearly identical to that of Earth-That-Was). The distance between two worlds can be anywhere from a few hundred PMUs between a planet and its closest moon, to millions of PMUs between planets on opposite sides of the System. Distances of 1,000 PMUs or more are often measured in Kilounits of 1,000 PMUs, sometimes called “clicks.”
Oh, and just for reference, anything here that isn't owned by the owners of Firefly or by the owners of White Wolf is (c) me 2006. I don't own either of those groups' material, and I'm not trying to profit from it.
So don't sue me!
Turning the Screw
Part 1
Dusty was the first word that came to the captain’s mind as he looked around the cellar. Dust coated every trunk, shelf, and bottle in the place, as well as drifting in the air, highlighting the meager sunlight that made it through from the upstairs, as well as the beam from Zoe’s flashlight. “Likely we can ignore the most of this,” he said to Jayne and Zoe, who had come down with him. He had to hold back the urge to spit on the floor as the staleness of the airborne dust hit his mouth. He noted Jayne (who was never so good at holding back urges) hocking for a great big spit, and gave the man a suppressing stare until the big bu xun jia[i] swallowed it with a grimace. “The folks who owned this place probably kept what we’re after in an atmo chest to keep it good, so check those first.”
The three spread out, checking chests and boxes. It wasn’t long before Zoe’s voice rang out. “Here.”
She turned toward the captain, holding the lid of a chest open. The bottles inside glinted in the glare from her flashlight, dulled slightly by many years’ accumulation of dust. “No question, Sir, they’re early Alliance. Two hundred fifty years old, at least.”
“Still good?” Mal asked.
Zoe checked her hand sensor. “Should be, according to this.”
Mal nodded, satisfied. “This is worth to keep us in the sky a good six months. Nine, we find a buyer desperate enough to have ‘em.” He stood, brushing some dust off his knees.
Jayne stepped up to look at the box, and made a face. “Well, that’s worth a whole load of nothin’. Who’d go after a old box fulla old bottles don’t even have whiskey in ‘em?”
Mal rolled his eyes and turned toward the big man. “Jayne, I ain’t payin’ you to get in the minds of our esteemed paying customers. I’m payin’ you for…” he thought for a long moment and drew a blank. “…Well, it don’t matter. Folks’ll buy these.”
[i]“Hey, Mal,” said the vox at the captain’s side in Wash’s voice, “I’m seeing another ship parked down there. You might get some company soon.”
Well, this was a gorram mei zhong bu zu if there ever was one. “Any particular reason you didn’t notice this before we got ourselves shut up in a very cramped, very vulnerable basement?”
“Hey!” the pilot said, indignant, “they’d shut her down, let her go cold. Only reason I found ‘em at all without the drive running is I recognized the silhouette. She’s a Capisson 5-26 Bumblebee. Probably private freight.”
Private freight – to Mal’s mind, that meant smugglers. Probably after the same thing he was. “All, right – prep the boat, Wash. I want to be out of here in five minutes. Jayne, you move on ahead, keep an eye out for company.” Right, that was why he paid Jayne. He beckoned to Zoe. “Here, I’ll get the other handle. We got any luck in the ‘Verse…”
“Mal,” Jayne called from the doorway, dashing any hopes on the whole “luck” score. The captain looked up from the chest to see a quintet of well-armed men walking Jayne back into the cellar, with large and ugly-looking guns pointed in his direction. This did not look good.
“Cap’n, I got some bad news,” Wash said over the vox. “That ship is flagged on the Cortex. Looks like it belongs to the Larson gang. Watch your backs, they sound like real rough and tumble fellows.”
The newcomers grinned nastily at this, and Mal winced. Ta ma de.
Why couldn’t things ever just go smooth?
Storytelling
This game uses the Storytelling system, created by White Wolf publishing. The focus of this system isn’t fighting others (although conflict can and does happen in these games on a regular basis), nor is it in building powerful characters (although it is certainly possible to create very powerful characters in this game). The game focuses on telling a story, and character interaction and the drive of plot are of prime importance. The players control their characters, describing their actions and providing their voices. The storyteller provides the plot, portrays other characters, and keeps things organized.
Themes
There is a theme in all stories, whether based on gothic horror or on frontier action. The theme is the question you explore or the moral you wish to teach. There are many possible themes for a Firefly-based Storytelling game, from the nature of authority to the decline of good men in hard times. Tailor the theme of your game to fit your particular group and Crew; a hard-bitten group of hired guns might be less interested in themes of family than they would be in man’s brutality toward other men. On the other hand, the crew of gunmen might develop into a family of sorts themselves. It all depends on your crew.
Moods
The mood of your game can fluctuate almost as much as the theme does – anything from wry humor to utter terror and back again can (and often does) show up in the ‘verse. Try to vary your mood from story to story – if you’ve just finished a nostalgic look at Earth-That-Was, try for an intense encounter with bounty hunters next. If you’ve just let the crew escape from agents of the Alliance with barely a ship to their name and more holes in them than they have credits to their name (on the other hand), try injecting some whimsy into the next storyline; perhaps the crew runs into an interplanetary snake-oil salesman. Life in the Rim can run a man through every extreme of feeling humans can feel, and this game is a perfect way to explore that.
Skills:
A character’s skills are the basic things she knows how to do: anything from picking a lock to bashing in a skull to riding the cortex to starin’ folk down falls under one skill or other. The majority of these Skills are listed in the World of Darkness corebook on pages 54-87. There are only two exceptions. The skill Occult no longer applies: It has been replaced with “’Verse Lore.” Pilot, indicating skill with the controls of a spaceship, has replaced Drive.
‘Verse Lore
Wash read the data from his scan on the other ship. “I read it as an older model, Trans-U.” He pushed back from the screen and looked up at the captain, confused.
“I didn't think Trans-U still operated,” the captain said.
Wash replied, “They don't.”
The captain’s eyes narrowed as a disturbing possibility revealed itself. “Get me a visual,” he said, and rubbed a hand over his mouth. If he was right…
Wash began working the controls. “They're still too far out to – “
“Get me something!” the captain interrupted, not in the mood for explanations.
Pushing his chair over to a more detailed scanner console, Wash pulled up what data he could get. “I'm picking up a lot of radiation.” The captain stepped up behind Wash to read the screen himself as the pilot continued. “They're operating without core containment, that's… kuang zhe de, that's suicide.”
His worst fears realized, the captain stepped over to the main cockpit window, watching the gleam of starlight on the other ship’s hull. For a moment, shock stopped his voice, but he managed a single word, all that was really needed.
“Reavers.”
A man can't wander the 'Verse without picking up a couple things about the worlds around him. This Skill reflects such knowledge of the 'verse. 'Verse Lore deals with "official" knowledge, such as which planets are being colonized by the Alliance, and also folklore and "urban legends," such as the Reavers or conspiracy theories regarding the Blue Sun Corporation. Those without this Skill are sheltered or ignorant. Those with high levels of the skill probably have knowledge (or at least conjecture and rumor) on any number of worlds.
Possessed By: Pilots, mercenaries, ship captains, criminals, law enforcement personnel
Specialties: Reavers, colonization efforts, Rim worlds, the Core
Roll Results:
Dramatic Failure: Your character remembers completely inaccurate information. He believes an area of space is a trade route when it's actually Reaver space, or thinks an unoccupied planet is actually a vital settlement.
Failure: Your character doesn't remember anything useful about the subject or planet.
Success: Your character recalls useful facts about the subject at hand.
Exceptional Success: Your character remembers especially obscure or relevant information. For example, not only does he recall that a planet was the site of a bloody battle in the war, but also that the Independent forces had a particularly large and well-equipped base there.
Pilot
The Reaver ship snapped at Serenity’s heels like a rabid wolf. “They’re on us,” Zoe said, her voice tight.
Wash was in his element, guiding the controls nearly effortlessly. “Kaylee?” he said, but the com remained silent.
“…Come on come on come on come on…” the captain’s anxiety was palpable as the Reaver ship drew ever closer. Wash grimaced slightly at the proximity detector, where a particular number kept getting lower and lower.
“Okay,” came Kaylee’s weakened voice, and Wash ran with it immediately.
“Everybody hold on to something,” he said, and then, with more than a little taunt in his voice, he addressed the Reavers. “Here’s something you can’t do.”
He threw a control forward with all his strength, and one of the thrusters on Serenity’s sides rotated 180 degrees. The ship turned on its axis until it directly faced the Reavers. Wash reversed the thruster again, and as the two ships passed one another, shouted “now!”
As Serenity went into hard burn, the blowback started an inferno around the ship, knocking the Reavers away like the hand of the Almighty and pushing the ship into space and safety.
“Knew I hired you for something,” the captain chuckled.
This skill deals with the character’s ability to guide a ship rocketing around the cosmos, as well as driving smaller land vehicles. A character without the Pilot skill may be capable of driving a land vehicle, but he cannot pilot a ship – the controls and readouts are too complicated for the untrained. This skill also deals with “stunt” piloting, such as pulling a “crazy Ivan” to avoid a Reaver attack or guiding the ship perfectly so it lands in dock without power.
Possessed By: Pilots, ship captains, first mates, law enforcement personnel, mechanics,
Specialties: Land vehicles, pursuit, Hard Burn, scout ships
Roll Results:
Dramatic Failure: Your character loses control of the vehicle while attempting a maneuver. The ship might run into a convenient meteor or spaceship, or the engines might stall, or a blowback might damage the ship.
Failure: Your character doesn't complete his intended maneuver. The direction the ship travels (if it goes anywhere at all) is determined by the Storyteller rather than by your character.
Success: Your character completes his intended maneuver.
Exceptional Success: Not only does your character complete his intended maneuver, he gains much more ground than expected. Perhaps he cuts between two asteroids, executes a perfect three-sixty turn, and hits Hard Burn smoothly.
Merits and Flaws:
Merits are strengths a character possesses, beyond simple ability or training. Perhaps one character is well-connected in the Alliance, while another knows a bit about boxing or fencing. Most of the Merits listed on pages 108-117 of the World of Darkness corebook apply without changes or alterations. Listed below are any alterations to the rules in the corebook, as well as new, ‘Verse-specific Merits for the Firefly Storytelling System.
Also included is a new Flaw for use with the optional Flaw variant system, detailed on pages 217-219 of the World of Darkness corebook.
Certain Merits from other World of Darkness supplements might be applicable to Firefly characters; these should be evaluated by the Storyteller on a case-by-case basis. Fighting Style merits from Armory, for example, might be appropriate for certain martially-oriented characters, whereas psychics such as River might be constructed using some of the Merits detailed in Second Sight. While we invite players and Storytellers to purchase these books, as the information they contain can be quite useful, they are not essential to the creation or running of a Firefly game.
Unseen Sense: The merit Unseen Sense doesn't apply in the 'Verse. While there's all manner of unpleasantness can befall a ship or a crew, all of it's perfectly normal and human-like. 'Less you count Reavers. Or psychics. Or maybe those blue-handed men they keep rumoring about in the Rim. But other than that, nothin' supernatural as a vampire or ghost is going to affect the crew, so characters cannot (and probably won’t want to) take this Merit.
Alliance ID: (• to ••••)
Effect: Somehow, you’ve got your hands on an Alliance ID card with your name on it. It could be an expert forgery purchased off the black market. It could be someone else's ID, which you’ve had reprogrammed with your own info. It could even, heaven forbid, be your own honest-to-goodness ID, although that'd usually fall under the Status merit. However you own the thing, you find that it smoothes things out quite a bit when you’re trying to deal with official types. Note that these identifications are not cure-alls in Alliance space – an ID card with a crime on it is just as damning as an open warrant sent to the Rim.
The one-dot version of the merit will withstand a cursory inspection, but not a deep background check; it tends to shore up one’s standing in the eyes of “civilized” folk. In rules terms, the one-dot merit grants a +1 bonus to all Socialize, Persuasion, and Subterfuge rolls when dealing with Alliance officials or functionaries. An alliance officer attempting to recognize a false card for a forgery must make an extended Intelligence + Computers or Investigation roll, and achieve 11 or more successes for a one-dot ID.
The two-dot version is a standard ID with enhanced security – it can stand up to any investigation the Alliance throws at it. Anyone attempting to recognize the forgery must achieve 22 or more successes on the Investigation or Computers roll. This merit offers the same +1 modifier as the one-dot version.
The three-dot Alliance ID states that the bearer is special in some way – a military officer, government functionary, or some such position of importance. The card offers a +2 to Socialize, Persuasion, Subterfuge, and Intimidation rolls when dealing with Alliance functionaries. Any attempts to discover the forgery must obtain 11 successes, as per the one-point Alliance ID (it is difficult to access the high-level databases this sort of information is stored in, thus cards of this level tend to be less secure than some other cards).
The four-dot version of the ID is equal to the three-dot version, but with the security reworked (22 successes are needed to see through it).
Direction Sense (• or ••)
Effect: The single-dot version of this Merit functions as per the World of Darkness corebook. Dot two gives the character a basic facility at instrument-less navigation in space – he can’t point the ship directly at Beylix from a random location in space, but he can certainly figure out the general direction he needs to go by following the stars, and he’s always got a good idea where his ship is. He has an innate sense of position, and can also probably sense if the ship has come to a stop.
Mechanical Sensitivity (•••)
Prerequisite: Crafts •• (Mechanics)
Effect: The character possesses a deep, almost spiritual connection with engines and machinery. This connection allows her to subconsciously notice whines, rattling components, and other signs of potential malfunction before they can cause trouble. With this merit, the character is entitled to a wits + composure roll when in the presence of a machine which is malfunctioning, or will malfunction within the scene, as long as the circumstances causing the malfunction are already in place (so a character with this merit would have no warning before someone smashed the coffeemaker, for example). When regarding ships' engines, the entire ship counts as "nearby." A separate Crafts roll is needed to diagnose the exact problem.
Dramatic Failure: The character believes that the machine in question is in better-than-average condition, or that some other machine is actually malfunctioning.
Failure: The character fails to notice the malfunction until/unless it becomes evident.
Success: The character knows that something is wrong and may roll to figure out what the problem is, possibly pre-empting any malfunctions entirely.
Exceptional Success: The clues the character picks up are so detailed, they give her a vague idea what might be the trouble. The character gains a +2 bonus to rolls to diagnose the malfunction.
Licensed Companion: (• to ••••)
Prerequisite: Academics ••, Empathy ••, Persuasion •• (seduction), Striking Looks ••
Effect: You’ve been licensed by The Guild, and are free to practice as a Companion on most planets. This opens many doors to you: There are lots of people who’d accept a Companion in town before they’d accept a merchant (or a smuggler), and you have certain… methods… to persuade folks to see your side of things.
Drawback: Not everybody feels comfortable with a Companion’s duties. Certain old-fashioned or prudish folk, not to mention more traditional Shepherds, react badly to Companions – some social rolls performed against these people take place at a -1 penalty, to account for the distrust and dislike they feel.
Zero-G Training (••)
Effect: The character has been trained in negotiating null gravity. He can use a reflexive action to stop after moving his full speed, instead of a full instant action, and receives a +2 on the roll to avoid damage while stopping. He never needs to roll Resolve + Stamina to avoid nausea in zero gravity.
Ship (varies; special)
Effect: Your character has put money, effort, or both into maintaining and upgrading the ship on which you live. This merit is shared by each member of the crew – you all live on the same boat, and any effort which improves the ship helps the whole crew. Each dot placed in this merit grants you two Ship Points to spend on the ship, allowing you to improve it in any number of ways. Full systems for creating a ship are found below.
The Ship merit is purchased separately from other merits, and it has special pricing: every dot in this merit costs 3 XP. This applies no matter how many dots the character has already spent toward the Ship merit. These dots are pooled with those of other characters to create and improve the ship.
If a character dies or otherwise leaves the ship, all points he has spent on the Ship are lost, plus one extra Ship Point.
Flaw – Alliance Fugitive: Your character is actively hunted by Alliance Enforcement. Needless to say, this constitutes a considerable source of anxiety. An experience point is garnered when the character has to seriously sacrifice other causes to avoid Alliance attention.
Zero-G rules:
No matter what you see in the vids, mankind wasn’t built to live without gravity holding him down. That’s why folks came up with Grav generators in the first place. Human bodies move awkwardly without the counterbalance of Gravity, unless they’re secured in some other way. Zero-G disturbs our sense of balance and causes motion sickness in the short term. A lack of gravity also makes it hard to start moving, and once you’re moving it’s a lot harder to stop.
In game terms, a character endures a -2 to all Dexterity-based rolls while in Zero-G, unless she is secured via a harness, magnetic boots, a handle, or in some other way. In addition, each time a character leaves gravity’s influence, she must roll her Stamina + Resolve to avoid experiencing nausea. On a failure, she endures a further -2 to all rolls (this stacks with the Dexterity penalty). The Iron Stamina Merit applies to this penalty, but not to the Dexterity penalty.
When in Zero-G, a character’s Speed is effectively reduced to half normal (rounded up). If she wishes to move faster, she must take an instant action to stop, making a Strength + Athletics roll. If this roll fails, the character takes damage as though she had endured a fall
The Zero-G Training merit alleviates or eliminates many of these effects: see the Merits and Flaws section above.
Distances in Space
The main unit used to measure the distances between planets is the Planetary Measuring Unit, or PMU. One PMU is about 8,000 miles, the approximate diameter of the planet Londinium (which is nearly identical to that of Earth-That-Was). The distance between two worlds can be anywhere from a few hundred PMUs between a planet and its closest moon, to millions of PMUs between planets on opposite sides of the System. Distances of 1,000 PMUs or more are often measured in Kilounits of 1,000 PMUs, sometimes called “clicks.”