Today was the final prep for a game set in the space-western universe of Joss Whedon's Firefly. We spent a couple hours talking about how the characters know each other and then did some off-the-cuff exposition and introductions.

If you've never seen the show (shame on you), you can read up on it some at www.fireflyfans.net.

Here's the characters. They're soooo cool. I want to watch this show.

Cyrus Vance

Vance fought for the Alliance during the war, as a marine corps
medevac pilot. He was at the battle of Serenity Valley, and saw the horrors there up close and personal. After the Independents surrendered, Alliance command left them in the valley for two weeks. Many died from their wounds and from starvation. Vance smuggled food across the lines, but was eventually caught. He was sentenced to 4 years in military prison, and a stint of indentured service after that. Since he was capable pilot, Vance was assigned a surveyor position for his service, and given a ship.

Traits:
- Marine Corps Medic [unit tattoo on forearm]
- Combat Pilot [flybot lingo]
- Ex-Con [dangerous look]
- Voracious Reader [magazines scattered all over ship]
- Had a Bellyfull of Killin' [thousand yard stare]
- Loyalty ["You take care of the man next to you."]

Liberty Woo Appleyard

Liberty spurned her wealthy upbringing to become a school teacher in the isolated town of Shinbone. As the war dragged on, things grew progressively harder for the town. After a group of Alliance soldiers attempted to walk off with the remaining food stores, including the town's last pig, Liberty shot one of the soldiers. She fled Shinbone to avoid capture. Two years after the war ended, Liberty returned to Shinbone to find the town deserted and the graveyard populated with gravestones for many of her students. Liberty has only two goals in life: to find her remaining students and to kill those pig stealin' soldiers.

- school marm (fond of the book learnin')
- driven by blood vengeance
- fine manners
- takes care of her own
- studies Wushu (currently has a book called 'Improve Your Kicking
Technique' next to her bunk)
- keeps a small dog named Silas Highpockets

Earl Truax

"Security is two inches behind your belt, where you either keep your guts or you don't. The rest is eyewash."

Earl doesn’t really know what the above quote means, but he lives by it anyway. He is a miner by trade, although despite his decades of experience, has yet to strike it rich. The claim that will net him his deserved riches may be just around the corner of the galaxy, but if he thought about it he’d realize that in the end he’d just sell it and use the profits for booze and cards.

Traits

1. A prospector looking for his own personal claim.
2. His experience in prospecting has given him a beneficial side talent. He can detect a multitude of natural and unnatural elements in the terra – noxious gases, pollutants or minerals in soil, etc.
3. Lonely: If too much time passes in one place, an itch to move on sets in. The itch has never not been scratched.
4. Drunk: Has a binge drinking problem; passing out from too much drink has saved his life on more than one occasion.
5. Broke: Will always give his last cent to someone who needs it more.
6. Believes himself to be a mentor to young men starting out, although more often than not just turns them into a version of himself (lonely, drunk and broke).

Wyatt Johanssen

Wyatt is the son of famous lawman Magnus Johanssen, the sheriff who brings justice to the border planets. Although MAgnus left the family when Wyatt was very young, Wyatt grew up wanting to be a lawman just like his dad. Wyatt is not technically a member of the Alliance, but he has sworn to uphold the law. He worked odd jobs to earn the money to buy passage on a transport so that he could roam the galaxy and make his name as a lawman. He had just enough money left over to buy a suit of fine clothes. Wyatt is a crack shot; he's an expert with any type of gun he encounters.

Traits:

Son of famous sheriff Magnus Johanssen
Young and idealistic
Lawman
Greatest shot in the "west"
Encyclopedic knowledge of Alliance regulations
Orphan in search of a father figure

For the game to capture the spirit of the original show, we agreed that the characters should all be travelling from place to place on a ship. The idea was pitched that it could be a survey ship of some kind, drawing on the idea of railroad surveyors in the old west who had the power to make or break a town, depending on whether a railroad would eventually pass through it.

John, playing Cyrus, volunteered to be the surveyor, and everyone else built stories and relationships on top of that. The group has some cohesion as well as room for individual stories.

We're using the Puddle with a few mods:

1. A player, before rolling, must state what he or she wants to narrate. This instead of rolling on behalf of the character's attempt to succeed. Thus you can roll to gain the right to explain how your char gets captured, or swindled, or heartbroken. The player also suggests a bad outcome. If the player succeeds at the roll, he or she narrates. If not, the GM narrates.

2. Stealing a rule from Primetime Adventures: A player who fails a roll can add a detail into the narration, either before the GM narrates, or at some point during. The GM also can do this when a player narrates. The detail can't contradict the stated goals of the roll. For example, if you're rolling to narrate how you get captured and fail, the detail shouldn't be "I get captured."

3. We're using the idea roll rule from TQB, so that players can affect the plot, and not just the immediate actions of their characters. In order to keep every player from trying to affect a situation, the players bid dice from their pool. Whoever's willing to roll the most gets to make the roll, and no other players. IF that roll fails, the GM gets to establish fact.

I really really dig how the anti-pool mechanic creates an economy of narration rights. Much like in Universalis, if you want a hand in the tellin', you have to pay for it. I'm interested in seeing how the ebb and flow of dice will look in further play, and how an abundance or scarcity of pool dice will affect player choices.