Issue 14

So Ive written 13 issues all about my Serenity/FireflyDeadlands Reloaded campaign so far and I think they are going pretty well. Last issue, I wrote about some issues that I wasnt going to include in the game and heres some info on what I am going to do.

hammering the setting

You may think that Ive set up a pretty sweet deal for the PCs. They have access to Alliance supplies, a home base protected by armed satellites and free access to the Verse. Well, Ill admit that these things are pretty sweet. But theres a price that comes with that. The Alliance is a large bureaucracy and the military have a tendency to want to check up on their equipment and garrisons, even on Ita. So, at some point, an inspectorgeneral is going to come to town to see what General Zook and the 479th have been up to. And thats going to be fun. Then theres the problems with the troopers, stuck on a boring, hot, bright planet with no shade, little airconditioning and nothing to do but get into trouble. And they're all bad eggs, at least according to the military. Theres bound to be problems. Another point Im going to hammer on is the isolation and terror that spacetravel entails. Months on ship, between the planets, family and loved ones far away. What if the air pump goes out in midflight? Whats that knocking sound? Is that ship coming on us a bunch of Reavers or just pirates? At least with the pirates, theyll only space us. Dealing with the underworld, unreliable thieves, piginapoke cargoes, late shipments, not paying whats due, all these things can happen, too. Being your own boss has its downside, scraping for jobs and trying to please the investors (the 479th). Then there is the whispering voice in Xuns ear. Bloody and UnNatural Murder. Itll start slow. Casuallike You could just kill them. Then build a bit more. These people are murderers. They deserve to die. And keep at it with him. Itll be good! The others have their own problems. Zooks

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daredevil nature. Prosperos family wants him home, with a good job, not haring through the Black on a deadend rust bucket. Tara has his quest, which he has bent his whole will to complete. Caesar has dangerous friends, who keep getting him involved.

hammering the bad luck

The source material is all about bad luck. The Alliance shows up right when the crew of Serenity are robbing a derelict spacecraft. The food bars are Alliance marked and Mal didnt know about it. Badger wont take them off their hands because of the Alliance stamp. Theyre forced to deal with someone who shot Mal. They encounter a violent, unstoppable force in the Reaver ship. They get involved with the Tam siblings. A possibly mutiny during the trade. And thats just in one episode! Throughout the series and the movie, the crew is plagued by bad luck, poor planning, unreliable information, untrustworthy people, situations that cause them to look the wrong way and lose cargo as a result. Well, thats the whole thing with the setting. And I mean to get the game to focus on their bad luck. When something bad could happen, Murphy will pop up. Sure, I wont screw them intentionally (well, sometimes I might), but Im going to say, straight from the beginning, you are Legendary characters with a streak of bad luck a mile wide. I wont kill you (unless you deserve it by doing something so stupid its warranted) but its not going to be comfortable for you. And, before we start, you need to buy into that. This can get incorporated into the game by incorporating it into the dice mechanicthe failed die roll. Lets say the PCs are trying to break into a ship on an Alliancerun space station. The thievin PC fails his Lockpick roll. Ill say something like Yeah, it takes you some time but the lock finally goes *pop* and youre inside. But your messing with it made noise and a security guard just walked around the corner. Im not going to do that every time but Im going to do it enough to get the whole bad luck down on the game. Rest assured, Im not going to hose themit is their failure that will lead to a bad result. Witnesses when they dont want that. A dropped wrench when theyre trying to be sneaky. A contact avoiding them because hes heard something about them. A change in price during a deal. Theyre going to have to work doubletime to get ahead.