Before I even opened up this PDF to look at the game, I'd heard mixed reviews. People I know seemed to be even divided between "I absolutely love it" and "I utterly dispise it". No one could give me any specifics about what drove their passions, however. Was it the system? The interpretation of the setting material? As I've already reviewed the Cortex System that powers the game and found it worthwhile, and think Firefly is one of the best science fiction shows, if not one of the best television shows in general, ever, I brought a lot of my own expectations, hopes, and fears to the process of reading and reviewing this game.
I've previously reviewed the Cortex core rulebook, and this product uses a variation of those rules, so I have nothing new to add on that front. A major difference is that the names of various abilities are given in "Mal-speak": theology is "Religiousity", the delusion disability is called "Leaky Brainpan", and so forth. I gives the rules some flavor and combined with the actual flavor text, much of which is written as excerpts from an interview with Malcolm Reynolds, adds a lot of character and is kind of cute. This might be what some people dislike, however. Why would someone interview Mal, and why would he consent to an interview? And the very fact that it's a cute conceit to use to write the book might be too much for certain tastes.
The PDF is 234 pages, and the first 136 pages of that is introduction, character creation, equipment, and vehicles. As stated in a previous review, I'm neither a gun fondler or a gearhead. When I see equipment lists, I sort of assume that the stats are correct and balanced within the game, and as a player (or gamemaster equipping an NPC) I pick stuff more for visual effect or feel rather than statistical crunchiness. I see gear as an extension of character creation, and in a game about spaceships the vehicle section gets lumped in together as well. Which means, in my head at least, over half the book is character creation stuff. Nothing wrong with that. Just sayin' . There's lots of pretty pictures of guns and spaceships, and that's the kind of art I find useful.
Pages 137 to 159 are rules. 22 pages of rules. Not too bad for a pretty crunchy game system.
The part I was most interested in was background on the 'Verse and information on how to run this game. Stuff that I couldn't just figure out on my own from watching the TV series and the movie. Expanded background, Plot hooks. That sort of stuff. There's an appendix with Chinese curse words and other slang. There's a nice Technobabble table, to let you make up what broke and what it means (Example: the grav stabilizer seized, meaning there's an engine fire, but it can be repaired). That's all pretty superficial. There's explanations of science fiction and western themes, and how they fit together. There's a bit on campaign concepts, and then a section of building crew characters as a group -- which, in my opinion, probably should have been in the front of the book, at the start of the character creation system.
The adventure design section -- a couple of pages -- is basically a "beat chart" to help the gamemaster outline an adventure, and then the blanks can be filled in with the types of things needed in certain types of scenes. This is pretty solid for new to mid-level gamemasters who need help with story structure. There are story hooks and plot types provided, as well as stock characters (both generic types like "Alliance Officer" and specific characters from the movie, which this is licensed from) and some pregenerated player characters (the crew of the "Aces and Eights").
From page 197 on, we get the meaty background stuff. A timeline of the 'Verse and its history. Information about organizations. A listing of the planets in the 'Verse and a bit about each one. It's more than you could suss out from watching Firefly repeatedly, but it's not so overly detailed as to lock out a gamemaster from adding his own stuff in there. A decent balance, leaning toward the light side.
Here's the thing: I come away from the game after reading it through a couple of times with mixed feelings. On the up side, I like it and I'm going to be running it in the near future. On the down side, it pretty much feels like a generic game with some setting-specific bits of color hung on it. It's nice to have, but I don't feel like I couldn't have run this game using any generic system and some information mined from repeated viewings of the show and the internet. I can see why people really, really like it -- if you're not an experience gamemaster with a talent for worldbuilding, or if you don't want to spend time or effort doing your own research, it's awesome. If you're more experienced, or would rather do it yourself than spend money, you could give it a pass. If you fall into the latter category, I will say that one thing it has for you is lots and lots of color pictures - it is oh so very pretty.
My verdict is Good Touch, then. It does what it needs to do, it gives you everything you need to run the game, and the system is solid.
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Comments
I've avoided it simply on the fact that even though I love Firefly, I didn't see the setting have the legs in an RPG. The joy of Firefly and serenity was the characters and their quirks, the setting was still being revealed and honestly didn't have hardly any of the elements that make for a long-term successful space game, there were no aliens, no creepy monsters and the planets and ships themselves had only began to be detailed. I'm sure that had the show made it a few seasons, things like that would have been added, but as-is I think a better homage would be to take a different space game... say something from Savage Worlds, or Starblazer Adventures and add a bit of space cowboy action yourself and go from there.
"I don't feel like I couldn't have run this game using any generic system and some information mined from repeated viewings of the show and the internet." Exactly. I'm of a mind that says the game system should reflect what the game experience is supposed to bring about; the Cortex system is the backbone of both the Serenity game and the Supernatural game. Two very different shows in style and content, yet using the same generic game system. If I wanted to play a generic game system set in the Firefly universe, there's nothing in the Serenity RPG that tells me why I should choose this over GURPS Space, WEG's d6 Star Wars, or Cinematic Unisystem and then adding in the two Firefly Official Companions.
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