Att'n Firefly fans

[kafka47]

I have just seen the first two DVDs of Firefly and I am a convert (as well as my wife who generally hates SF). I must say I really find it very Traveller-esque but I would add the need for realistic aliens and Ancient mysteries (to make it more like my Traveller Universe).

Some conversion notes and deckplans can be at this web page that I happened to stumble upon when crusing the web.

I wonder if Hunter/MJD has sent off a copy of T20 & Gateway to Destiny to further inspire Joss Wheldon...as I heard if this upcoming movie is successful...he is considering a trilogy...and it would be my dream to see Traveller on the Silver Screen.

 

[bubbawny]

is it really that good?

i was staring at the DVD box and didn't purchase. If it really is Traveller-esque, i'd like to give it a go. Somewhere else someone said it's like a space western or something.

can you give a little more on it?

thank you!

 

[Malenfant]

I got the Firefly DVDs blind - I'd never seen it before, I just got it because I'd heard it was Travelleresque.

My first impressions weren't that good - Mal and Jayne initially pissed me off no end. Also, there is a very strong 'western' element in the first part of the series, which I didn't like much. Basically, the core worlds are high tech (but high society and clothing styles is kinda like 19th century Earth), and the frontier worlds are low tech and all look like the wild west for some reason. It's a bit of a mish-mash of styles that takes some getting used to. There are obvious parallels with the wild west elsewhere (the Alliance is obviously the equivalent of the Union, while the Independents are the equivalent of the Confederates).

However, it did pick up and become more sci-fi. I'm not really sure how Travelleresque it is in practise. The initial episode has them picking up passengers and cargo, but then they seem to spend the rest of the series "doing crime" - running somewhat dubious packages and making under-the table deals. That said, the ship itself is very much the equivalent of a Far Trader in Traveller.

Where it really shines is in the character development and the backplot (which sadly we'll never find out about). Mal does grow as a character and becomes less of a prick and more humane, Jayne goes from being obnoxious idiot to thuggish comic relief, and the relationships between the other characters gets more involved. Simon and River are especially interesting, but they're basically what the whole plot revolves around. For me, I think the turning point was the "Ariel" episode, though some of the earlier episodes (especially "Bushwacked") were good.

So yeah, it's a bit western (some are really obviously Western stories, like The Train Job and Heart Of Gold), but the sci-fi side is really quite good.

Don't expect another Buffy or Angel though - the style is quite different. The characteristic humour pops up more later in the series, but the start is a bit dry. One good thing about the series though is that it does actually remember what happened in previous episodes and you have recurring characters.

Speaking as someone who was completely new to it, I'd say grab it and grit your teeth through the parts you don't like - it's worth it in the end. Then watch the special features on the last disk and start wishing all manner of gruesome death on the idiots at Fox for killing the series practically before it started.

 

[kaladorn]

Originally posted by Malenfant:
I'm not really sure how Travelleresque it is in practise. The initial episode has them picking up passengers and cargo, but then they seem to spend the rest of the series "doing crime" - running somewhat dubious packages and making under-the table deals.

Not a CT player? If I recall correctly, 76 Patrons plus a lot of JTAS:Casual Encounters could easily be considered 'invitations to illicit or larcenous activity'....

Where it really shines is in the character development and the backplot (which sadly we'll never find out about).

Until, of course, the upcoming feature film?

 

[Vargas]

Originally posted by Malenfant:
Then watch the special features on the last disk and start wishing all manner of gruesome death on the idiots at Fox for killing the series practically before it started.

You have been watching Firefly, your starting to pick up the speech patterns. . .

 

[Malenfant]

You're kidding. Is that a line from the series?!

I must admit, I'm saying "ooh, shiny!" a lot now . I'd use some of those chinese curses if I could figure out what they were saying... though handily enough the Firefly character sheet on the site linked to in the original post has a list of them on the back!

Kaladorn - I've never actually played any form of Traveller in my life, I just talk about it lots

. Hence why I wanted to see the series, since I was hoping it'd be a nice easy window into what sort of things get done in Trav games...

 

[clementk]

Originally posted by Malenfant:
I'd use some of those chinese curses if I could figure out what they were saying...

^_^ <Asu scoots out of a nearby access hatch and wavies>

Wei! Ni hao ma? <bows> Shi Mayami Asuiti Huatian. Yu mei-de wai guo ren ben ben bo lan. Ma shong!

translated from something resembling Mandarin using Pin Yin romanization and dropping the tonal numbers: [Hey! How are you? <bows> My name is Mayami Asuiti Huatian* . You have not the knowledge so hurry hurry and go read extensively. Quickly!]

Firefly RPG Resources thread

Enjoy! I find adding in snippets of different languages into an online game (Ursula and Endeavor are IRC games) adds to the game and highlights that the 3I is not monolithic culturally. Though Asu is Solomani she is far from 100% ethnically Chinese and was born a subsector over from Sol.

Casey

* Asu was created as a pc and later a npc partially so I could use Chinese and other Firefly words in character. Blue Sun has been spotted as a drink on both Ursula and Endeavor.

The name roughly translates to like this with Huatian meaning "Pretty Chinese Flower" or somesuch.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

"is it really that good?"

No.

It's better.

 

[TJP]

I've been watching Firefly on the TV for couple of months now (latest episode was "War Stories", ep. 9) and definitely intend to watch the rest of the series. I've been taping the episodes, but now I guess I'll buy the DVDs instead, if nothing else than to get the extras (and better picture quality and a more lasting format).

Firefly is a series that needs a bit of time, so to speak. My first impressions of Firefly were much like Malenfant's, not good (except Jayne and Mal didn't bother me that much - the pilot guy (Wash? Walsh?) did). The space-western theme really rubbed me the wrong way at first, but as the series progressed I got used to it and was able to see beyond that. There are still times it bothers me, but nowhere near as much as it did before.

The main forte of the series is (as said before) in character development and story arcs. It's main fault in bad science (not that unusual in TV/film SF) and overt western elements. YMMV.

The cast could have been trimmed a bit. There are too many main characters, IMHO. Not surprisingly, I would have kicked the pilot guy out first (and let his wife take his piloting responsibilities) and perhaps booted the engineer chick (Kaylee) out as well (and given her job to Jayne). But that's just me.

A series always gets "bonus points" from me if it has a memory, i.e. episodes aren't isolated from each other and don't end in status quo. The individual episode stories have their highs and lows, naturally, but it's really the backstory that keeps the series interesting. It's kind of depressing to watch Firefly on TV knowing that the series has been cancelled and the story arcs won't get finished (the movie probably will be a stand-alone story, not that I know anything about it tho').

All in all, Firefly is a welcome addition to TV sci-fi.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

I really, really wanted (and expected) to like Firefly - I'd heard so many good things about it, and hey, Joss Whedon is God - but the first ep didn't quite grab me. It was okay, but I didn't like the music, there were too many characters, and the 'cowboys in space' thing didn't work.

By ep 2, it was growing on me.

By ep 3, I was singing along with the music and totally hooked.

 

[Shade1970]

When I first heard about it coming out, I didnt want to see it because it was made by Joss Whedon, someone I think is highly overrated. I gave it a shot though, and luckily I recorded it so I could watch again on Sat night with my gaming group.

The people who watched it for the first time on my tape, then asked to watch it a second time since all of the players began talking about the gigantic similarities between the show and Traveller and missed portions of it.

It then became a ritual for everyone to come by on Saturday nights, not to game, but to watch my tape of Firefly from Friday nights.

We've since all gotten together again to rewatch on DVD.

It IS that good or perhaps far better. I'm still not a Buffy or Angel fan, but I'm a diehard Firefly fan now.

John

 

[daryen]

Originally posted by Malenfant:
I've never actually played any form of Traveller in my life, I just talk about it lots

. Hence why I wanted to see the series, since I was hoping it'd be a nice easy window into what sort of things get done in Trav games...

I think this is where the biggest confusion about Traveller and Firefly comes from.

When people say Firefly is "Traveller-esque", they don't mean the tech matches up, the settings match up, etc. (Though some aspects of the setting does correlate well. E.g. trading and the slug throwers.)

What they mean is that the characters in Firefly are absolute, dead ringers for PCs we have played or ref'ed in Traveller games. The characters did exactly what we have seen and said almost exactly what we have heard PCs do and say.

This was especially true in good ole' Classic Traveller, where the PC ethics were looser. (For instance, what we now call an "Ethically Challenged Merchant" used to simply be called a "Free Trader".

)

 

[Ranger]

Yes, Firefly is That good.

It is, in many ways, what Traveller was like before the OTU took shape. In the original 3 LLB's there were no aliens and the Imperium was just a concept of overarching government (like the Alliance).

Watching The Train Job I thought I was watching an old Traveller adventure play out on TV. All the components of a CT adventure were there. The "easy job" that suddenly get hard, the twist that makes the crew question the whole thing. Too much fun.

It's not Traveller-esque in the sense that it is what Traveller is now, but it is what CT was like before the OTU took shape, aliens became common, and Traveller became as much a setting as a set of rules.

P.S. I've even been working on a set of Firefly Traveller conversion rules for CT to mesh the Firefly setting with the CT system for my next CT campaign (if I ever get to run one again), that's how Traveller-esque Firefly seems to me.

 

[kafka47]

Ranger,

Check out the original post that I made...someone has created a nice D20 Modern stats...converting those over to T20 would not be that hard.

Firefly is also Traveller-esque for the idea that the universe is not clean and the frontier is very wild. It also has the main protagonists not going into every firefight and backing away just as often. It also deals with psionics as a criminal activity. It also postulates that the main characters have to use ingenity over technology (think of the openning teaser). Having the characters as smugglers...ahem...independent free traders is more Traveller like. The characters reveal archetypes that form the composite of most Traveller crews.

I still think that Hunter & MJD should still send T20 & Gateway to Destiny as a way of inspiring more Traveller-like setting and maybe one of the old epics from Traveller's past.

 

[Shadowdancer]

At Gen Con, someone is running a Firefly adventure using the Cyberpunk 2020 rules.

 

[Shade1970]

Another reason I'll be very sad to miss GenCon this year.

John

 

[Flynn]

I'm sorry to hear that you won't be able to make it to GenCon. (Actually, you'd mentioned it earlier this year, but I'd forgotten momentarily.) I really enjoyed your presence at last year's GenCon, and was hoping to see you at the gaming table this year.

I hope all is well, and I'm looking forward then to next year, when you might be able to join us at the table again.

Take care, my friend,
Flynn

 

[Ranger]

Another thing that makes Firefly Traveller-esque is the significance of the individual charater's back story. All except River have a history that impacts their current place in the 'verse. That was the hook of the CG system of CT/MT, that you built a character history while you built the character. You can almost fit every character in the show into a CT career path.

Mal- 2 terms Army then 1 as a Rogue

Zoe- 1 term Marines, 1 term Army, 1 term Rogue

Jayne- 3 terms Rogue

Simon- 1 term college, 1 term med school, 1 term doctor

Ok, it doesn't quite work, but that's why I've been reworking the prior service tables/careers to make it work for the rest. But you get the idea.

 

[kaladorn]

Mal might have been a free trader for a term instead of rogue. The difference is not pronounced... (He just rolled "Smuggling" a lot, like one of my PCs....)

Do we know Jayne doesn't have any kind of military background?

And for what it is worth, Wash bothered me a little until I saw the episode where he and Mal get captured by the baddies and the nastiness follows. And the whole 'coming in ballistic' at the station and the station assault were awesome. And I love his Hawaiian shirts.

You know what bothers me most? I can't get the darn theme out of my head now....

"You can't take the sky from me, since I found Serenity...."

That's Traveller - probably a common attitude among spacers. And the whole confed/outrim attitude where they don't like alliance domination is very much how I envision Imperial client states to be...

 

[robject]

My wife and I liked Firefly enough to buy the DVDs, and while I didn't mind the overt Western theme, I don't care for some of the episodes at all. Luckily I like most of them.

It's an archetypical 'Far Trader in the frontier' situation. Another nice aspect is that they aren't the 'get-along gang', and many of them have some dark secret that hasn't been revealed to us, yet motivates them to do some of the things they do. Hm, maybe that's just 'character depth and background'.