[Jaffer]

I don’t know if this is the best place to ask this, but I’ll give it a shot.

I’ve wanted to run/play a role play in the Firefly/Serenity universe ever since I saw the movie.  I found the official RP rules the other day (Thankyou bargain bins), but after looking through it, I don’t like the mechanics.

I like Shadowrun, and figured with a little modification, I could have it fit into the Serenity world.

The changes I would do are:
Only Humans.  (self explanatory)

Limit magic/resonance to a max of 2.  (I think River would have been an adept, maybe a mystic adept.  This limits starting characters strongly, and they can explore their powers much as river did in the series.  Kylee is the same but a technomancer “She says that the machines speak to her”)

No more than 2 essences can be lost to cyberware or bioware.  (There is a precedent in the comic for cyberware, where someone gets a partial cyberskull and cybereye due to an injury.  Bioware is hinted at in the TV series)

Most everything else will require GM approval, but my players will know the setting, and (hopefully) create characters with the setting in mind.


I’m looking for people’s thoughts on the idea, or if you have changed Shadowrun into a different game yourself.

Cheers,
~Jaffer

[CanRay]

The Serenity RPG?  Yeah, drop the mechanics!  Drop them hard and down the nearest deep pit mine shaft you can find!

Not too sure Shadowrun would be the best for them either.  Too many changes, no rules for spaceships.  (No offense folks, Shadowrun's good for Shadowrun, or even Saint's Row, but not Serenity.).  I'd suggest checking out WEG's D6 Space RPG.

[Crash_00]

Honestly, the rules for Serenity aren't that bad. I mean they aren't great, but they're far better than D20 or whatever 4E D&D is, and they're leaps and bounds better than savage worlds imo. The only issues I've found really were that many people don't understand/use plot points enough. When you get right down to it, the entire system is designed to be more of an "everyone tells the story" type system than most people are used to in an RPG.

If you really don't want to use them, I'd go with West End Games D6 system (formerly it was used for the Star Wars D6 system before Star Wars was licensed to become D20 trash). I've run a serenity game using the Deadlands: Hell on Earth rules before as well (very very brutal system), but that was before the actual RPG books came out. Another one that may work is whatever the old Buffy RPG used (I think it was like the Hero system or something similar) that was very story based.

[CanRay]

Damnit Crash!

I wanna play Deadlands:  Hell On Earth now...   

[Mirikon]

If you aren't a fan of the Serenity RPG, then I would go with Hero System, GURPS, or M&M instead of Shadowrun. M&M would be the hardest to adapt, but it could be done. I've never played GURPS, but always heard great things about it. Hero System would be quite easy to mold to the 'Verse, especially since they had sourcebooks like Star Hero in 5th edition (not sure if there's a 6th edition update yet), with sci-fi-centric rules. But you could do it easily enough with just the core book. Also, the core book has rules for vehicles/bases, which easily allows you to make ships. And there are already rules for firearms, hit locations, etc.

[Crash_00]

Damnit Crash!

I wanna play Deadlands:  Hell On Earth now...   

You aren't alone, although I'm a bit creeped out that you managed to pull up a relevant picture to that comment that has my name in it.
Was that intentional?

My last HoE group managed to destroy every single abomination I threw at them, then sadly got wiped out by a band of scraggers with bows and clubs. I've always wanted to play my tainted junker though. Hehehehe...must build more guns.

[CanRay]

Damnit Crash!

I wanna play Deadlands:  Hell On Earth now...   

You aren't alone, although I'm a bit creeped out that you managed to pull up a relevant picture to that comment that has my name in it.
Was that intentional?

My last HoE group managed to destroy every single abomination I threw at them, then sadly got wiped out by a band of scraggers with bows and clubs. I've always wanted to play my tainted junker though. Hehehehe...must build more guns.

Sorta-Kinda.  Crash on dA is a friend of mine that I met through the sight.  That's actually the first character I got to play, and he loved the idea of him and a beat-up VW Microbus of the Apocalypse, too bad I never could find a diesel engine for it.  .  A lot of his art actually talks to me.  (Before you ask, no, not the busty pics.  ).

The campaign I ran ended with the power-mad Psionic selling his soul to Death and becoming a Servitor.  I later ran the last adventure in HoE, and everyone asked, "Well, who takes over for Death?"  "Well, it's down to his old character, and Stone."  "Oh...  Shit."  "...  ...  ...  < Stone Voice >I don't want to handle the paperwork.  Job's yours. < /Stone Voice >"  "Well...  That went better than expected."

Just found out that one of the players I was with still has his Doomie Staff.  Very nicely made, too.    If only he didn't nuke first and not bother with questions later.

[JustADude]

Just found out that one of the players I was with still has his Doomie Staff.  Very nicely made, too.    If only he didn't nuke first and not bother with questions later.

Yes, well, if you apply a sufficient amount of nukeificiation, questions become irrelevant, now don't they? 

[rasmusnicolaj]

We played Serenity for approximately 1½ years and used the basic WoD system plus the Psychic book for the River-type character (played by me - a sexy teen girl with no useful skills and a total weirdo  ).
That worked fine. I think we made up a few extra merits and flaws we thought was missing to give it a more western-like style.

Rasmus

[Crash_00]

Well I can definitely say the cards and poker chips when we used the Deadlands system gave it a nice western feel, but then again Deadlands and Hell on Earth are designed with that western feel in mind (Cowboys and Indians/Normies and Mutants respectively).

I was extremely let down by the Unity module. The only part I thought was good honestly was the...powering the ship scene which most people hated because of the...uhm...fuel source. Then again, I'm sadistic. When I ran through it our GM heavily modified it and old stone ended up killing young stone to break the cycle because he was tired of working for anyone.

[Black]

If you aren't a fan of the Serenity RPG, then I would go with Hero System, GURPS, or M&M instead of Shadowrun. M&M would be the hardest to adapt, but it could be done. I've never played GURPS, but always heard great things about it. Hero System would be quite easy to mold to the 'Verse, especially since they had sourcebooks like Star Hero in 5th edition (not sure if there's a 6th edition update yet), with sci-fi-centric rules. But you could do it easily enough with just the core book. Also, the core book has rules for vehicles/bases, which easily allows you to make ships. And there are already rules for firearms, hit locations, etc.

Used to love Hero system and yes, it can be used for just about anything, but I think Deadland's Hell on Earth would be closer match.  You have mind-benders, kick arse combat and more.  I think Shadowrun is not a bad match (I actually considered using shadowrun once for a low-powered dark champions type game).  The only issue is the space combat is not really covered, but maybe tweek the Shadowrun vehicle rules, use... hmm.. Arsenal's space rules,  I think its very doable.  Actually, I'm going to go with Shadowrun rules as the best fit....

Damn, I miss Deadlands:Hell on Earth.

[cyclopean]

Have you checked out Eclipe Phase at all? It's d100 (which I like a lot better than d20 or step die, although not as much as a huge handful of d6...) and has rules for space movement/combat, limited mental powers (more on the level of Firefly than Shadowrun at least), and (some) spaceship rules. I've been thinking of using it for a Firefly/Serenity game for a while. I also remember really liking the d6 Star Wars game that someone mentioned above, but it has been quite a while since I've played it.

[cyclopean]

Eclipse Phase also has rules for sanity checks, which should come in handy when your pc's encounter some reavers or horrifying Alliance experiments.

[Barracuda_Kali]

if you have changed Shadowrun into a different game yourself.

Ran a pseudo-medieval horror game where the matrix was the base layer of the astral realm, cyber and bioware were parts you chopped off/made from extradimensional monsters or chopped out of horrific mergings of yourself and said monsters (Essence loss was call "corruption" in-milieu), and most of the game took place in the half-astral city that literally was the last bottleneck for those same beings. Everyone ended up crazy and dead. Not necessarily in that order.

I'm planning a sort of post-apocalypse-lite Googie/Indigenous decaying American Dream campaign for which I will use Shadowrun minus the cyberware and matrix. There will be dinosaurs, Nazis, UFOs, reptilian humanoids, atomic-nuclear shaman robots, art deco and Googie everywhere, and the Uktena will try to eat people. There may also be roving bands of marauders who style themselves after greasers and fight with katanas. It's gonna be awesome.

Also, next time I run L5R, I will get a feel for characters, send them after a risen Fu-Leng, and then he will hurl the characters to a LAND WHERE EVIL IS LAW and I will hand everyone SR4 versions of their characters.

I love how modular everything is.


Also one day.



Everyone will make adepts with the geas "Ridiculous Outfit" and they will hunt down evil artifacts.

I WILL MAKE IT HAPPEN