I know there's the Cortex version out there, but I really don't care for it. And I do care for Savage Worlds. However, I really want mechanical support for the conventions of Firefly.
If you haven't seen Firefly, stop reading my blog and go watch it right now! It's a space western, a blend of hard sci-fi and the old west. The quick version is that when Earth-That-Was couldn't support its people any more, they left, in search of a new system. They found a cluster of several stars with dozens of worlds and hundreds of moons. They terraformed them and settled. The large central worlds had the bulk of the technology, and an Alliance between them became the dominant power. The rim and border worlds on the frontier were poor and sparsely populated. They tried to resist alliance control and were soundly beaten. The grip of the Alliance is there, but still loose enough for some independent operators to make their way without anyone telling them what to do.
That is the game I want to run, a ragtag group of people out in the Black making their way the only way they know how. And that's just a little bit more than the Law will allow.
The first problem with running a game like this is that someone has to be the Captain. And in my experience, just putting one PC in a position of authority over another is a recipe for disaster. So here's how it's going to work in Savage Serenity.
During the first session, every player who wants to be Captain will present to the other players his Captain's concept, the name of his ship, and a description of their mission. Maybe they're just like Mal, a bunch of good hearted (deep down) scoundrels who just want to be free. Or they're a band of Browncoats, wanting to strike out at the Alliance. Or a crew of Bounty Hunters, trying to make their fortune hunting dangerous criminals. Every player votes for the Captain they want to sign up with. Once that's decided, we then make the characters.
There's a little more to the Captain. He'll have to take the Captain edge of course, which gives him a small Firefly-class transport ship. If he takes any of the Leadership edges, he can apply their bonuses to his crew so long as they're following orders as well. For the Crew, there's a new rule that is intended to defuse a situation. If a player clearly disagrees with the Captain but he conceded 'Aye Captain' rather than arguing about it, he'll earn a Benny. If the Captain works with his crew well and spends the entire session without needing to invoke 'Aye Captain', the Captain will receive an additional Benny at the start of the next session.
That's the basics of Captaining that I have down. I'm contemplating imposing a -2 penalty to social rolls regarding jobs or the ship if anyone except the Captain tries to do it. It will reinforce the role, and most people are going to want to deal with the Captain personally, not one of his crewmembers.
I still have a lot of work to do. I have some ideas for keeping track of the food, drugs, fuel, and parts that a ship needs to keep flying. There are stats to create for Alliance soldiers, Reavers, and all sorts of scoundrels. I've done a lot as well, rules for creating Pilots and Mechanics as well as other ship roles, Edges and Hindrances made for Serenity, and skill clarifications. I'll be posting about them soon, so if you're interested stay tuned!
