Firefly: After Miranda

[Cooper]

After being VERY disappointed with the RPG for "Serenity," my rpg group wants me to run a Firefly game using PTA. I own the game, but have not run it yet. I was just talking with everyone and said this out loud: "we should play the game as though Firefly got a 2nd season and we play the characters from the end of Serenity." Everyone was like "OMG! That would be shiny!!!" So, I know it is a big no-no to not create a TV show from scratch and have the players debate what they should have and what they should not, but my suggestion is exactly what they want (at least that is what they are telling me). All five of my players even know what characters they want to play.

So, my questions are:

• Is it really that bad to start my first PTA game like this? I know we could make up original TV shows, but two of my players just discovered Firefly, so the rest of us have the "bug" again. At least I can make good use of chapter 7 of the RPG book Serenity ;-)

• Has anyone any advice on how to make the characters that survived the end of Serenity into PTA characters? It seems pretty obvious what they should be, but I would always like other's input.

I really like this resolution system and thought it would be the best game to try out a Firefly like game (although the Buffy System from Eden would work too).

I tried asking for advice on the Serenity RPG forum, but I do not think anyone on that forum had ever heard of PTA. So, I did not get much of a response. You never know, maybe the creators of that game might be inspired to check out PTA and end up making better games because of that ;-)

[Moreno R.]

• Is it really that bad to start my first PTA game like this? I know we could make up original TV shows, but two of my players just discovered Firefly, so the rest of us have the "bug" again. At least I can make good use of chapter 7 of the RPG book Serenity ;-)

I never did that, but I think you could do it simply having a pitch session to play the second season of Firefly.

Why you should still have a pitch session? Because, even if you will play the follow-up of a real television serie, you'll still need to get on the same page. To talk about what you like about the show and what you want to see in this new serie. About how you see the characters and their issues. Don't give them pregenerated character, let them create together THEIR second season of Firefly, different from the second season that would be created by another group.

• Has anyone any advice on how to make the characters that survived the end of Serenity into PTA characters? It seems pretty obvious what they should be, but I would always like other's input.

Create them like normal new PTA characters. Pick an issue, some traits, and you're ready to go. But it's very important that these PTA characters reflect YOURS (as a group) vision of the character, not mine or the one of some critic.  You will enjoy the game much more playing "yours" Firefly than the "right" Firefly.

And don't be afraid to change things. To change issues, traits, to evolve the characters in the direction you choose. Only in this way they will be alive. After all, if everything staid stale, it wouldn't be Firefly, right?

[Alan]

Hi Cooper,

If your group wants to play Firefly with PTA, I would still have the pitch session. You could start with the givens about the concept and the universe and move on from there. I would really recommend not trying to fit your series in with any of the original material. Instead urge your group to pretend they are reenvisioning the series and starting "adventures in universe B." For more on this concept check out Michael Strakinski's proposal for Star Trek

http://bztv.typepad.com/newsviews/files/ST2004Reboot.pdf

And the general discussion at Story Games about "rebooting" a great series to make it your own:

http://www.story-games.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=4235&page=2#Item_45

It has two great advantages: 1) the players aren't shackled to the established cannon; and 2) the get the kind of ownership that only comes from making it up yourself.

- Alan

[Matt Wilson]

Hi Cooper:

The cancellation of Firefly is what inspired me to work on this game, so I'd definitely have to give the series idea a thumbs up.

I'd try to ignore all the fill-in stuff that fandom and sourcebooks like to create and constrain your group to "what has happened on screen" as the basis for your setting. That leaves you plenty of worlds and moons to describe as you need them. The setting didn't get so bloated that I'd worry about the reboot Alan's talking about.

For your pitch session, you have cool things to work out. What's everyone's issue this season? Will there be new starring characters? How do they fit?

[Valamir]

One good item for discussion in a pitch session is the need to set it AFTER Serenity.  Since Serenity the movie was really just all of Season 2 (and maybe even 3 and 4) crammed together in one movie (simultaneously both awesome and terribly disappointing), if I was in your pitch session I'd suggest playing as if the movie didn't exist and pick up with a real Season 2 following on the end of Season 1.

[Cooper]

I am really glad I asked this because there is some great advice so far. I was planning on having the players create their write ups for the cast, like Moreno R. recommended because it would make it more personal. My wife is happy that I am we are doing Firefly instead of our original idea for a show inspired by the comic "The Walking Dead" ;-)

The reason why I wanted to do this after the Serenity movies is because there are a lot of loose ends I wanted to explore. For the person who is playing Zoe, I thought of suggesting the flash backs of Wash being one of her connections. I thought the same could go for Malcome with Book, but I think he got over his lack of "something to believe in" by the end of Serenity.

After listing to the last Sons of Kryos (48), I thought of a cool cut scene when I bring Jubil Early back onto the show: The episode begins with him being rescued by a salvage team and after reviving him, he ends up taking over the ship to start tracking Serenity down (which takes a while, obviously). I thought of having the PCs play the crew of that salvage ship, although if it takes too long I may opt to not do that. Maybe just have him "succeed" when he gets to the bridge, so the game does not turn into a whole episode of him.

Thanks to everyone for the advice so far (and for those two links). This game has been on my long list of indie games to play and I am really excited.

[Cooper]

Okay, after several sessions of my friend's game of Warhammer, we finally came to a stopping point tonight. Which now means that it is my turn to run a game! So, while we still had a little time we decided to go through our series creation and started off with the Firefly idea that we had been talking about previously.

Well, for all of those who have played this game before, it should come as no surprise that we took a HUGE turn away from that series idea. I thought I would share what we came up with so far because it had me laughing so hard I was almost crying.

Here was the list of premises that we came up with in order: Firefly, Victorian Era, Walking Dead, Victorian Vampires, Little House on the Prairie, I.R.A., Civil War, WWI, WWI with zombies, Wild West Werewolves, disgruntled renaissance fair entertainers. Now, except for the Firefly and Walking Dead ideas, I have no clue were the rest came from (especially the Little House premise), but as soon as someone said the last one, the Ren Fair Entertainers, the whole room lit up. We have all worked at renaissance fairs some time in our musical lives, and we have all hated it.

Premise:
Disgruntled renies who hate the local ren fair and make their own living history fair to compete with the local one.

Shows Tone:
Comedy, tongue and cheek and will be modeled after The Office as far as feel and camera work.

Shows Title:
(this part is my favorite) "The Last Huzzah"

Now, we did not have time to make the characters tonight, but they will be some of the major stereo types of renaissance fair entertainers (Annoying period re-enactor, Pirate, over weight flabby belly dancer, etc.), but even worst. At one time they had worked for the local ren fair before getting kicked out for some reason. Now they are trying to get back at the local Ren Fair by starting their own lame fair.

We still have a lot of work to do, but it was so funny how the room just went crazy over this idea. I freak'n can not wait for the pilot episode!

[Matt Wilson]

That is one ingenious show idea.