If Firefly were Traveller...

[castiglione]

...I'd ask the referee to switch the dice.

Because he seems to roll up a lot of random encounters.

I think 1/2 to 3/4 their shenanigans qualify as random encounters!

 

[casquilho]

Interesting take on the show. I did nto think of them as random, but then I know how I run things and some encounters that seem like random are not.

It get's the players looking for meaning in everything.

Daniel

 

[castiglione]

Lemme see...

WARNING!!!! SPOILERS IN CASE ANY OF YOU HAVE BEEN LOCKED IN A CLOSET WITH A RUBIKS CUBE FOR THE PAST FEW YEARS

Spoiler:

1) Serenity (Pilot episode) - Firefly crew attempts to fly from A to B to sell cargo...and run into a random encounter (fugitives on the run from the law and a lawman after them).

2) The Train Job - No real random encounters. Everything that happens is a direct consequence of a job they take from a patron.

3) Bushwacked - The entire episode is a consequence of a random encounter (derelict found floating adrift).

4) Shindig - Firefly crew arrives on world looking for work...and run into a random encounter in the form a local aristocrat who is offended, leading to a life-threatening situation.

5) Safe - Firefly crew arrives on world to save cargo and run into two random encounters - local law men who interrupt their business transaction and a bunch of inbred locals who kidnap some of their crew.

6) Our Mrs. Reynolds - Firefly crew runs into the mother of all random encounters - a crazy stowaway.

7) Jaynestown - No real random encounters...the entire story is driven by the background of one of the characters.

8) Out of Gas - RANDOM ENCOUNTERS GALORE - ship is disabled as a result of a random encounter and then the captain is shot by the crew of another random encounter.

9) Ariel - No real random encounters...just doing a job for a patron. Unless you count the presence of the guys with blue hands as a random encounter.

10) War Stories - No real random encounters - Firefly crew has to deal with the consequences of "The Train Job".

11) Trash - Not sure how this qualifies...I guess the entire episode is spurred on by a random encounter at the very beginning of the episode when the stowaway from Our Mrs. Reynolds shows up again...pretty randomly.

12) The Message - No real random encounters.. Story is driven by the background of the characters.

13) Heart of Gold - No real random encounters.

14) Objects in Space - No real random encounters unless you count the bounty hunter showing up as being a random encounter.

I make that around 50% of the storylines being spurred on by random encounters.

 

[far-trader]

Lemme see...

WARNING!!!! SPOILERS IN CASE ANY OF YOU HAVE BEEN LOCKED IN A CLOSET WITH A RUBIKS CUBE FOR THE PAST FEW YEARS

.

Drat, so close to solving it and you go and open the door :nonono:
.
:smirk:

Spoiler:

7) Jaynestown - No real random encounters...the entire story is driven by the background of one of the characters.

Possibly the classic "Gimmick" fame and fortune. Well Jayne almost got the loot back iirc. It's been a while.


9) Ariel - No real random encounters...just doing a job for a patron. Unless you count the presence of the guys with blue hands as a random encounter.

The Blue Hand (whatever they were called) are obviously "The Enigma", well them and River.


10) War Stories - No real random encounters - Firefly crew has to deal with the consequences of "The Train Job".

Probably "The Push" to get them to... ?


12) The Message - No real random encounters.. Story is driven by the background of the characters.

Bit of "The Pull" maybe. The whole series is a bit fuzzy to me now. I might have to rewatch to properly label them.


Anyway, I do recall the whole being very like the outline from The Ref's Guide to creating a campaign in The Traveller Book as constituted by The Gimmick, The Pull, The Push, and The Enigma. All built in part by Patron and Casual (aka random) Encounters.

 

[casquilho]

Like I said above, Interesting take on the show Castiglione. I just do not agree with your read on some of the things you are calling Random.

But I respect your right to see it how ever you want as we are talking about a TV show and not a real game.

Have a nice evening.

Daniel

 

[Ran Targas]

IMHO, Firefly shares many things with Traveller.

And I believe Joss Whedon gives Traveller a nod when in the first ten minutes of the episode "Serenity", right before clearing the wreck, Wash says, "Hang on travelers." No matter how you spell it, it sounds the same. Joss could picked any number of things for Wash to say but ... he didn't.

 

[Mithras]

Do we have Classic Traveller stats for Firefly anywhere online?

Surely ....!

 

[far-trader]

Well there were all kinds of posts on this board back when it came it out and after. Can't recall for sure but I think there might have been. A search for "firefly" or "serenity" should turn up the relevant threads.

 

[robject]

Yeah, search for Firefly here on COTI, it'll turn up some useful discussion.

Last I recall, Serenity could fit into a 400t hull if need be.

I generated a quadrant that contained the worlds of the Verse, as a pair of Traveller subsector maps instead of one big honking system. Almost got to play it in an online campaign too. The sector list might be on COTI.

I'd like to see a High Guard design of the Alliance cruiser, and their neat little gunboats. I'd also like to see Book 2 stats for Serenity, the Trans-U freighter, and others...

 

[boomslang]

Last I recall, Serenity could fit into a 400t hull if need be.

You can pretty much squeeze everything you need into a Type A; just tweak the staterooms a bit (10 total, with double occupancy and no low) and carry about 20dt of small craft (a Firefly's launches are more in the neighborhood of 10 dtons each). You end up with about 70dt of usable cargo (not including the air/raft "mule"), which roughly corresponds to the main bay if I'm reading the deckplans right.

The fact that the Whedon 'Verse uses no day-to-day FTL is of course the major hurdle, but hey, if we can make Trav work for the Bebop, we can do it for Serenity...

 

[aramis]

The 'Verse may not use FTL, but it does uses both newtonian and constant speed MDrives, the latter being quite fast. Just a redefinition of what the J-Drive does, from Jump Space entry to Constant Speed drive.

 

[robject]

You can pretty much squeeze everything you need into a Type A; just tweak the staterooms a bit (10 total, with double occupancy and no low) and carry about 20dt of small craft (a Firefly's launches are more in the neighborhood of 10 dtons each). You end up with about 70dt of usable cargo (not including the air/raft "mule"), which roughly corresponds to the main bay if I'm reading the deckplans right.

The fact that the Whedon 'Verse uses no day-to-day FTL is of course the major hurdle, but hey, if we can make Trav work for the Bebop, we can do it for Serenity...

Totally agreed here.

Now, using a 400t firefly, I guesstimated volumes for other ships I see from the Pilot episode plus Bushwhacked:

The destroyed "Alliance Carrier" looks around 20kt.
The Alliance cruisers look to be 30 million-plus tons.
Their gunboats could be 40 tons (they look like F18s on steroids...)
I saw two traders that could be 300t and 500t.
The "Trans U" looks to be 1,000 tons.
The converted "short range scow" seems to be around 600t.

 

[Knightsky]

1) Serenity (Pilot episode) - Firefly crew attempts to fly from A to B to sell cargo...and run into a random encounter (fugitives on the run from the law and a lawman after them).

Definately not a random encounter... the Ref is introducing a new PC and his GMPC.

Spoiler:

3) Bushwacked - The entire episode is a consequence of a random encounter (derelict found floating adrift).

4) Shindig - Firefly crew arrives on world looking for work...and run into a random encounter in the form a local aristocrat who is offended, leading to a life-threatening situation.

5) Safe - Firefly crew arrives on world to save cargo and run into two random encounters - local law men who interrupt their business transaction and a bunch of inbred locals who kidnap some of their crew.

6) Our Mrs. Reynolds - Firefly crew runs into the mother of all random encounters - a crazy stowaway.

11) Trash - Not sure how this qualifies...I guess the entire episode is spurred on by a random encounter at the very beginning of the episode when the stowaway from Our Mrs. Reynolds shows up again...pretty randomly.

While any of these might be random encounter, they are at the very least just as likely to be planned encounters by the Ref. Quite frankly, in gaming terms I'd say it's much more likely that these were actually planned encounters by the Ref.

Spoiler:

8) Out of Gas - RANDOM ENCOUNTERS GALORE - ship is disabled as a result of a random encounter and then the captain is shot by the crew of another random encounter.

This is the only one I can actually buy as being a likely random event... the GM was using that table for 'random starship mishaps' that was in that one issue of JTAS... and then just winged it (not relying on random rolls) from there.

I make that around 50% of the storylines being spurred on by random encounters.

I daresay your methodology is based on faulty assumptions (i.e. what constitutes a random encounter).

 

[casquilho]

Yep Knightsky, I agree with your observations. But as I told Castiglione when he first posted his blow by blow: while I disagree with his view of what is random, it is his right to think those things because we are not talking about a real game where we can go ask the "GM" what happened.

Daniel

 

[Supplement Four]

If Firefly were Traveller, it wouldn't have been cancelled. Instead, Firefly would be constantly reinvented on different TV, cable, and satellite stations, all with a different cast and somewhat different tone but a shared universe.

:smirk:

 

[far-trader]

If Firefly were Traveller, it wouldn't have been cancelled. Instead, Firefly would be constantly reinvented on different TV, cable, and satellite stations, all with a different cast and somewhat different tone but a shared universe.

:smirk:

And of course we'd have to suffer through errata each season I suppose.

:smirk:

 

[casquilho]

And of course we'd have to suffer through errata each season I suppose.

:smirk:

Now that was funny! :rofl:



Daniel

 

[G. Fieendish]

If Firefly were Traveller, it wouldn't have been cancelled. Instead, Firefly would be constantly reinvented on different TV, cable, and satellite stations, all with a different cast and somewhat different tone but a shared universe.

:smirk:

And somebody would come up with a (very convoluted) storyline in which they all meet up.....:smirk:

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Definately not a random encounter... the Ref is introducing a new PC and his GMPC.

Ahhhh! But, the exceptionally skilled referee made it look like a random encounter....

 

[Knightsky]

Ahhhh! But, the exceptionally skilled referee made it look like a random encounter....

That's actually the mark of a good GM in my opinion... the ability to make a planned encounter seem random, and to make a random encounter seem planned.