Yeah, InSpacers. I had this thought, you see. Firefly inspired, like about 60% of my ideas. A few solid thoughts, and welcome room for some brainstorming. If I'm drifting too far, just nudge me. <g>

I've read, but not yet played, InSpectres. I'm told the game creates some fun ad hoc exploratory play, and also addresses thematic questions about personal good vs. company good (the stress rolls, bank dice, etc.) How does this relate to Space Opera?

- If you imagine the small crew of a small space hauler, they're kind of like a startup, and certainly very precarious.
- An episodic nature (every session, you've got another "job"... with complications).
- Dangerous and unpopular work.
- The individual crew are firstly here for self-interest (they're working a job), but they're also relying heavily on themselves and establishing something of a home (they're creating a family). These can be at cross-interests.

Cool This last issues is interesting, so let's look at Stress/Cool Dice. As players get hit by excessively Stressful situations, they loose accrued Cool and deteriorate. (And Cool is the only way they can ever really grow.) Whereas, Cool allows you to shake off stressful situations and act awesomely. In this setting, Cool would correlate to how much you are relating to the people around you in terms of loyalty and friendship. (Should I rename this to Loyalty or Heart or such?)

Since Cool will move into a more central position, I could see occaisionally allowing actual Cool roles, maybe once per session, where you (more or less) roll your Cool, and add bonus die to an ally's attempt.

There still needs to be an description of the pressure that could push crewmembers away from each other. Any thought on how to formalize this? (Perhaps you can only spend a point of Cool to do better on something if you are somehow violating a promise or relationship, where these are just lists of details you spontaneously pick up.)

Violence I feel that there should be an opportunity for life to "be on the line" - whereas normal violent stuff could be put into normal narration, fatal violence should be on the table readily. I would say that each player has a Life Token - basically a visual aid of a chip that, if they put down, means they are really throwing down for the next action. Valid only for Stress rolls, they get double the benefit if they succeed, but if they fail the GM is entitled to take their life. (This would only be valid for some kind sof encounters.)

Abilities I'm not certain what would be the genre-appropriate abilities here, since the original four don't fit right. One good options seems to be Cover/Stamina/Will/Info; these 4 seems to cover broad enough "methods" of getting the job closer to done (the last one meaning information-gathering, either through alertness, social contacts, or tech skills). The "Cover" method also helps handle the issue of more specialized career abilities (mechanic?) in this setting; allowing "Culture" (relating to whatever your culture is) is another option.

If I could nail down the abilities, then I could figure out how the various Franchise dice fit in relationship to the ship. (I was thinking of leaving out the Bank Dice since they seemed complex. Am I wrong?)

That's pretty much what I have, and I'm eager to hear thoughts here. I think I've drifted a good deal away, so it's not impossible that I've started to come into my own system by now.

Thanks,
Dev