[WGP] Joss Whedon's Firefly?

[xlii]

I remember reading that WGP had been playtested running Buffy the Vampire Slayer Games. I'm underwhelmed with the Official Serenity/Firefly RPG and was wondering if anyone had run a similar game on WGP. It seems like a good match and would yeild Firefly style stories.

Thoughts?

[Michael S. Miller]

Hi, Forty-three!

I'm a big fan of pretty much all of Joss Whedon's stuff, including Firefly & Serenity. I certainly think that the potential in angst is there in the material. F'r instance, Mal could be a lot of fun with his dueling motivations.

Conviction: Live free or die.
Duty: Protect Serenity and my crew.

The biggest difference I see would be on the villian side of things. Often, Firefly episodes revolve around a particular situation ("Out of Gas" or "Ariel") rather than the nefarious schemes of a villian ("War Stories" or "Objects in Space"). I think WGP will work fine, so long as you can conceptualize the entire situation as the villian, with the individual characters that oppose our heroes functioning like Lieutenants of the villain/situation.

Also, WGP can get unweildy with more than 5 players. Nine is right out.

If you run this, please let me know how it goes.

[xlii]

Thanks for the quick reply, Michael. I'm hoping to get a group of 4 to play. The suggestion of using the whole situtation as the villian makes a lot of sense. I'm feeling really jazzed about this idea. I'll definetly let you know how it goes once I make it happen.

Btw, this is a really neat game. Thank you for making it.

[xlii]

So, more thoughts:

I'm figuring the tactics might need to be altered a bit. Maybe these would work: (Each Line is a seperate Tactic)
Persuasion
Threatening
Accusing
Bribing
Dodge/Manuver
Punching/Striking/Kicking
Grappling/Tackling
Melee Weapons/Objects
Firing Guns

For Example:
Mal has just completed a job for Badger that didn't go exactly smoothly. His stake is while he doesn't get paid for the job he makes sure Badger stops pulling stunts like this with him (This would further jeporadize Mal's Keep Flyin' aspect. If he isn't paid, Serenity won't be able to make the needed repairs to get offworld before the Alliance picks them up). Badger's stake is to keep the goods without paying Mal and to hurt his pride enough keep him from trying this sort of thing again.
We join the scene, already in progress...
Mal plays 5H, Threatening "I did the Job, now I want my money, Badger."
Badger (GM) Plays 7D and 4D, switching to Accusing. "And I wanted my product on time. Which you were not able to do for me, Mr. Reynolds."
Mal plays 6D, Accusing "Well, I would have had it for you sooner if I'd known I was going into a gorram reaver nest."
Badger plays 10C&QC, threatening "I'd walk out that door if I were you, Mr. Reynolds," Badger says, as his henchman raises a very nasty looking gun.

Scene is yielded, or combat continues from there per normal rules.

This type of conflict makes sense to me, so far. Add a few more verbal ways to have conflict, remove the more specifically super-powered ones.

What about a scene like in the Train Job, where Mal and Zoey are handing off cargo to Jayne, who has been lowered on a line from Serenity (being flown by Wash)? Would this just be an enrichment scene, priming an aspect relating to living outside the law?

Thanks,
-Sam