When you add these in, you get just enough structure for players to build characters off of. Leverage has a similar mechanic, but when you change the genre, the purpose of the flashback changes as well.Īlso, some of the Distinctions in the book are tailor-made for interesting character moments (such as Hitched), and borrow heavily from the Distinctions that you can find in the Smallville RPG. It even points out how you can use a character-anchored flashback when you're creating an Asset: maybe when you create Veteran Training, you can go back for a quick flashback to your time in the Unification War. Assets and Complications are the easiest example-the book calls out something like I've Got Your Back as an Asset that you can make, one that connects two characters in a particular way. It's all in the little touches: the book is filled with explanations on how you can use the rules to make character-centered fiction. When I finally had a read through the book, I realized that they'd managed to put in just enough character drama to make it work alongside the mission-based skeleton of the game. Case in point: I was skeptical when I heard that the game would be based on the Leverage RPG, and not on something more drama-based like the Smallville RPG (which, aside, is a superb game about character drama, whether or not you like the source material). The most devoted fans of the show are probably listening for this section, because the dynamics between the characters are what keep the show tight and interesting. Along the way, you can spend Plot Points to create Assets: temporary advantages that can range from Got the Lay of the Land d8 to The Crew Believes in Me d10 That's exactly the sort of dynamic I'd expect from a Firefly game. The entire game sees the crew developing Complications and getting rid of them as they try to complete their mission. If you're doing something that could take a character out of the scene (like punching them in a bar brawl or denouncing them at a party), they get to roll to defend against you the loser can accept a Complication to keep going-it's sort of like a debt that you have to get rid of later. You go to do something, you figure out how you're doing it, you roll some dice, and you add the two highest. If you haven't played Serenity, maybe you just want to know how the rules feel in general. Plot Points are now an integral part of the game, and flow freely (if you're being savvy). Wounds and Stress are eliminated and replaced with the concept of Complications, dice that get rolled against you.
Advantages and Disadvantages are replaced by Distinctions, which give you specific abilities that you can unlock they also let you add a die to your pool, and you can decide whether it's a good die (which helps you do better) or a bad die (which earns you Plot Points). In Firefly, all of these are integrated far more tightly and smoothly. The Serenity RPG had Advantages and Disadvantages that provided specific bonuses and penalties, it gave characters Wounds and Stress which they suffered when they took damage, and it used Plot Points as a game currency to give bonuses in some occasions. The most obvious difference between the Serenity rules and the Firefly rules is a general streamlining of systems.
In general, Margaret Weis Productions has learned from their prior games and built a new game from those foundations. The new rules are most similar to the ones which power the Leverage RPG, with some tweaks and modifications that simplify it significantly. The rules changed significantly in tone and structure, while keeping the same core of "roll funky dice".
LEVERAGE ROLEPLAYING GAME MOVIE
The same company made a game based on Serenity, the movie made to follow up on the series that game came out about 9 years ago, and uses a much earlier version of the same mechanics.įirefly uses the Cortex Plus RPG framework, which is an evolution of Serenity's Cortex Classic rules. The general consensus is that the show was cut off before its time, but I don't plan on talking much about that, because this post is about the RPG.
LEVERAGE ROLEPLAYING GAME TV
That sound you hear is the wailing and gnashing of teeth by a legion of disenfranchised geek TV fans. My Play Experience: 2 sessions through Hangouts, 1 demo session at a conventionįirefly is a licensed roleplaying game based on a cult TV sci-fi show that aired on FOX for a single season. I've got a lot of ground to cover, and I only have one blog post to do it in! It's been out for a few months, people have been checking it out and doing things with it, but is the Firefly RPG the game you've been waiting for? Does it have any appeal even if you don't particularly like the show? (Spoiler: yes.) Buckle up this is gonna move fast.