I'm sure many of us are fans of both Star Wars and Firefly--I was thinking about what a great model the Serenity crew is for a party of adventurers in Edge of the Empire, so I thought I'd do some brainstorming about how to model them.

Captain Mal is a Smuggler, obviously. Jayne and Zoe are Hired Guns, IMO. Wash is probably an Explorer Pilot. Simon is an Colonist Doctor. Shepherd Book is probably a Colonist Scholar. Kaylee's a Technician.

River Tam is probably a bit more unique, I'm not sure exactly how I'd model her, but one thing is for sure, she and Simon each have LOADS of Obligation.

Mal has plenty of Obligation as well but I think he tends to manage it--paying it off a bit and then gaining more.

But when Simon and River came on board, the party's total Obligation shot through the roof, so it kept cropping up in their adventures as a serious challenge, and then in the movie Serenity, finally became the main plotline they had to deal with.

What do you think?

I'm sure many of us are fans of both Star Wars and Firefly--I was thinking about what a great model the Serenity crew is for a party of adventurers in Edge of the Empire, so I thought I'd do some brainstorming about how to model them.

Captain Mal is a Smuggler, obviously. Jayne and Zoe are Hired Guns, IMO. Wash is probably an Explorer Pilot. Simon is an Colonist Doctor. Shepherd Book is probably a Colonist Scholar. Kaylee's a Technician.

River Tam is probably a bit more unique, I'm not sure exactly how I'd model her, but one thing is for sure, she and Simon each have LOADS of Obligation.

Mal has plenty of Obligation as well but I think he tends to manage it--paying it off a bit and then gaining more.

But when Simon and River came on board, the party's total Obligation shot through the roof, so it kept cropping up in their adventures as a serious challenge, and then in the movie Serenity, finally became the main plotline they had to deal with.

What do you think?

Mal will be easier to define after AoR I suspect. His base career is an officer and I think he crossed into smuggler after the war. Otherwise you pretty well nailed it I think. I guess you could argue River has some Force stuff.

Yeah, in Star Wars, River would probably have Force powers. I'm not sure she's the kind of character a player could create at character generation, though, just because of the extent of her powers--she's such an expert at martial arts and gunfighting, but without really having access to those powers all the time.

Then again, maybe she just got loads of XP by taking on so much Obligation!

I've managed to put together decent representations of the crew of Serenity taking no more than +5 Obligation each. (Of course, with a 9 character cast, that's the maximum additional obligation, anyway.)

It's certainly not the final word, and I'm sure they could use some tweaking. For example, there's several where I haven't figured out how to word their Obligation, and Zoë is sitting on XP that I can't decide how best to spend. They have a grand total of 65 Obligation out of the gate, with 20 of that explicitly being related to River, and more having the potential to be related to River (Mal's). To my mind, Ariel wasn't actually Simon or River's Obligation being rolled, it was Jaynes. He's got that whole desire to hit a big score, and he gets stupid when the money gets big.

Note: To properly represent a couple, I had to house-rule that humans could buy down a base stat (Intellect for Jayne, and Willpower for River) to 1. I think that this house-rule makes sense for the humans-only 'Verse.

Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds
Career & Specialization(s): Smuggler/Scoundrel
Characteristics (60): Brawn 2, Agility 3, Intellect 2, Cunning 2, Willpower 2, Presence 3
Skills (15): Deception, Knowledge (Underworld), Streetwise, Vigilance, Cool, Ranged (Light), + Resilience, Negotiation, & Perception, Coercion, Skulduggery
Talents (35): Black Market Contacts, Quick Draw, Convincing Demeanor, Hidden Storage
Obligation (base): Family (the ship & crew)
Total XP Cost: 110

Zoë Alleyne Washburne
Career & Specialization(s): Hired Gun/Mercenary Soldier
Characteristics (60): Brawn 2, Agility 3, Intellect 2, Cunning 2, Willpower 3, Presence 2
Skills (20): Athletics, Piloting (Planetary), Ranged (Light), Ranged (Heavy) x2, Vigilance, Discipline x2, + Medicine, Knowledge (Lore)
Talents (20): Command, Second Wind, Point Blank, Side Step, Confidence
Obligation (base): Duty (Mal)
Total XP Cost: 100

Hoban "Wash" Washburne
Career & Specialization(s): Smuggler/Pilot
Characteristics (60): Brawn 2, Agility 3, Intellect 2, Cunning 2, Willpower 2, Presence 2
Skills (10): Astrogation x2, Piloting (Space) x2, Coordination, Perception, Vigilance, + Ranged (Light), Computers
Talents (45): Full Throttle, Skilled Jockey, Let's Ride, Skilled Jockey, Rapid Recovery, Natural Pilot
Obligation (base + 5): Family (the ship & crew), Family (Zoey)
Total XP Cost: 115

Kaywinnet "Kaylee" Lee Frye
Career & Specialization(s): Technician/Mechanic
Characteristics (70): Brawn 2, Agility 2, Intellect 4, Cunning 2, Willpower 2, Presence 2
Skills (10): Computers, Discipline, Mechanics x2, Knowledge (Outer Rim), Skulduggery, Perception, + Resilience, Streetwise
Talents (30): Gearhead, Fine Tuning, Solid Repairs, Redundant Systems,
Obligation (base):
Total XP Cost: 110

Inara Serra
Career & Specialization(s): Colonist/Politico
Characteristics (90): Brawn 2, Agility 3, Intellect 3, Cunning 2, Willpower 2, Presence 3
Skills: Charm x2, Negotiation, Leadership, Knowledge (Education), Coercion, + Pilot (Space), Coordination
Talents (20): Kill With Kindness x2, Plausible Deniability
Obligation (base):
Total XP Cost: 110

Jayne Cobb
Career & Specialization(s): Hired Gun/Bodyguard
Characteristics (40): Brawn 3, Agility 3, Intellect 1, Cunning 2, Willpower 2, Presence 2
Skills (30): Athletics, Brawl x2, Ranged (Light) x2, Vigilance, Perception, Ranged (Heavy) x2, + Cool, Streetwise, & Gunnery, Melee
Talents (40): Toughened, Barrage x2, Durable, Grit, Hard Headed
Obligation (base + 5):
+1000 credits

Total XP Cost: 110

Shepherd Derrial Book
Career & Specialization(s): Explorer/Trader
Characteristics (90): Brawn 2, Agility 2, Intellect 3, Cunning 2, Willpower 3, Presence 3
Skills (5): Cool, Knowledge (Lore) x2, Knowledge (Outer Rim), Perception, Knowledge (Underworld), + Ranged (Heavy), Discipline, &Negotiation
Talents (15): Know Somebody, Convincing Demeanor, Smooth Talker (Charm)
Obligation (base):
Total XP Cost: 115

Simon Tam
Career & Specialization(s): Colonist/Doctor
Characteristics (70): Brawn 2, Agility 2, Intellect 4, Cunning 2, Willpower 2, Presence 2
Skills (10): Charm, Knowledge (Core Worlds), Knowledge (Education) x2, Negotiation, Medicine x2, + Skullduggery, Knowledge (Underworld)
Talents (35): Surgeon, Grit, Resolve, Stim Application, Surgeon
Obligation (base + 5): Family (River)
Total XP Cost: 115

River Tam
Career & Specialization(s) (20): Scoundrel/Thief + Force Sensitive Exile
Characteristics (40): Brawn 2, Agility 3, Intellect 3, Cunning 2, Willpower 1, Presence 2
Skills: Deception, Skullduggery x2, Stealth, Computers, Coordination, + Brawl, Ranged (Light)
Talents (35): Uncanny Senses, Uncanny Reactions, Convincing Demeanor, Sense Danger
Force Powers (20): Sense Upgrades: Control [2,2]
Obligation (base + 5): Bounty (Alliance secret psi-ops project, wanted alive)
Total XP Cost: 115

Mal is a smuggler/scoundrel

Jayne is obviosly a hired gun, and I guess a merc makes the most sense there. He's not melee or much of a protector. There may be something in AOR that fits him better. A true soldier build that favors weapons over leadership, but for now the merc tree works.

River is a colonist/scholar who also has the marauder skill set. When she trips out she goes ballistic with melee/brawl. She probably needs some connection to the force too.

Simon is obviously colonist/doctor.

Book is pulling the wool over everyone's eyes. He's a hired gun/merc all the way. He just has the scholar skill set. He's handy in a fire fight, he's very charismatic, and he has ties to the Empire.

Kaylee is obviously a Technician/mechanic. You could swing for outlaw tech too as she's pretty handy in making her own adjustments to the ship and what not.

Zoe has to be a hired gun/merc also. Good in combat, natural leader. It fits her much better than Jayne.

Wash is a smuggler/pilot. Again, he may actually place better in AOR under a pilot class/skill there. He's not a smuggler at heart, he's a clean, good willed pilot that just gets hooked up with this crew.

Under the current rules though, that would be my builds. Honestly, to make the characters actually feel like the characters from serenity, you can't start them at the base character build. You'd have to give them all like another 100xp after character creation to spend developing the actual character archetypes.

Book is pulling the wool over everyone's eyes. He's a hired gun/merc all the way. He just has the scholar skill set. He's handy in a fire fight, he's very charismatic, and he has ties to the Empire.

Haha great point!

This is one of those things that might be a huge challenge to roleplay effectively, because unless you create a whole 'shadow character sheet' which keep secret Book's abilities as a fighter, it's hard for it to be a surprise to the players.

So then it's up to how well the players can roleplay their surprise, which is cool if they're up for it!

For Jayne, look at the effects of the Talents, not names. He's tough as nails, stubborn as hell, and dangerous when armed. All of that fits Bodyguard better than Mercenary Soldier.

I don't think you need to spend all that much bonus XP to get the characters to the point where the have the right feel for what we've seen in the show & movie. Sure, more XP makes them that much more effective/dangerous, but the show wasn't about a bunch of uber-beings with all the right skills and abilities kicking ass and taking names, it was about relatively normal folks at the edge of civilization, with circumstances thrust upon them. You could probably accurately model them through the entire run of the show with no more than 50 extra XP. The only way you'd really need to go above 100 XP would be to give River full control of her faculties with regard to the Sense power.

In "The Train Job", they took one look at the Alliance soldiers on the train and went, "WTF!!!". It was a major problem that they were there. Those are stormtroopers.

River isn't necessarily a combat monster, and she doesn't need to be. Throw in Boost dice from the other *EIGHT* players' rolls, and you've got someone who, when lucky, can do amazing things, even in the face of 'impossible odds'. Her player simply has a tendency to roll well (including Triumphs) when fighting minions, and the GM loves the 'Rule of Cool'. The guys in the bar? The mass of Reavers chasing down the crew? The guy's guarding the airlock at Niska's place? Minions.

Book is pulling the wool over everyone's eyes. He's a hired gun/merc all the way. He just has the scholar skill set. He's handy in a fire fight, he's very charismatic, and he has ties to the Empire.

Haha great point!

This is one of those things that might be a huge challenge to roleplay effectively, because unless you create a whole 'shadow character sheet' which keep secret Book's abilities as a fighter, it's hard for it to be a surprise to the players.

So then it's up to how well the players can roleplay their surprise, which is cool if they're up for it!

You don't need the 'shadow character sheet'. In my write-up, he's an Explorer/Trader, and has ranks in all the skills you see him make regular (or exemplary) use of throughout the show. Being Human means that even when your Career & Specialization don't include combat skills, you can easily grab a rank or two where you need them for your concept.

He's certainly competent with that shotgun, but not visibly more so than Wash was when they went back to rescue Mal from Niska. Remember, he was an *officer*, not a grunt. His skill set certainly *includes* guns, but it doesn't revolve around them the same way that Jayne's does.

The additional abilities (that we never see him use) would show up as his player bought those capabilities with accumulated XP. As he stands, Book is primarily a talker, but he can back it up with force as necessary, even if it isn't his preferred mode of interaction.

The player using Book would need to be a face for the party. Sure, Mal does the talking when meeting with the the criminal underworld, but if you are dealing with politicians or the empire, then Book jumps in to be the more legitimate face.

Most of the time in combat situations he'd just be using his merc/scholar abilities to aid other players. If stuff got heavy, then he'd suddenly end up with a gun in his hand and a lot of people without kneecaps. I suppose in the SW universe he'd just use the stun setting.

I forgot about Inara altogether...that makes me sad. Colonist/Politico seems the most fitting.

The bonus XP is to account for the abilities you see in the show. River for instance has force traits, melee combat skills, but is utimately a colonist. Thats going to take a TON of xp right from the start effectively gimping the character.

Wash isn't a rookie pilot, he's obviously quite accomplished. He had an extensive resume.

Mal and Zoe have fought in the war. Jayne's been working as a two-bit thug for some time (he's even a hero in some communities)

Kaylee's natural talents should be represented from the start.

Book has a whole past life to be wittled out.

The show was brilliant because the characters were not just 1 dimensional cliches. But that multi-dimensional layer to the characters means starting a character out at base creation can't even begin to capture the essence of those characters. You need to add a little XP, and build an EOTE character that would truelly represent them.

Book was (presumably) a former Operative, so I'd make him a Bounty Hunter Assassin with Scholar or Politico sub specialization.

The bonus XP is to account for the abilities you see in the show. River for instance has force traits, melee combat skills, but is utimately a colonist. Thats going to take a TON of xp right from the start effectively gimping the character.

Wash isn't a rookie pilot, he's obviously quite accomplished. He had an extensive resume.

Mal and Zoe have fought in the war. Jayne's been working as a two-bit thug for some time (he's even a hero in some communities)

Kaylee's natural talents should be represented from the start.

Book has a whole past life to be wittled out.

The show was brilliant because the characters were not just 1 dimensional cliches. But that multi-dimensional layer to the characters means starting a character out at base creation can't even begin to capture the essence of those characters. You need to add a little XP, and build an EOTE character that would truelly represent them.

Take a look at the builds I posted up near the top of the thread. None of them require more than 115 XP, and they account for the characters being good at what they're good at in the show. A starting character can have all *sorts* of stuff that he's done in his backstory. That doesn't necessarily mean he needs to have a load of bonus XP. His backstory is how he came to be what he is at the end of character generation.

• Mal is quick with his gun, cuts a dashing figure when he needs to, and knows the best places to hide contraband on board the ship.
• Zoe is good with a gun, and stands to be the sensible voice of reason that she so often was on the show.
• Wash is about the best pilot you can make without ignoring other aspects of the character.
• Kaylee is a hell of a mechanic, and knows her way around the 'common folk', but doesn't have much in the way of book learning, and isn't going to be your first choice to get your back in a fight. (Though she'd be passable if she could get past whatever issue keeps her from being able to use a gun.)
• Inara has all the social graces you'd expect, and the ability to talk people down.
• Jayne is a hell of a ranged combatant, and more than able to hold his own hand to hand.
• Book has strange contacts, and knows a whole bunch about a whole lot, and can still handle a gun.
• Simon is a heck of a surgeon, and smart as a whip.
• River's build includes melee & pistol abilities *and* her ability to apparently read surface thoughts.

It's all there. Heck, Zoe has 10 XP left that I haven't been able to decide how to spend.

Book was (presumably) a former Operative, so I'd make him a Bounty Hunter Assassin with Scholar or Politico sub specialization.

Book was NOT a former Operative (confirmed in The Shepherd's Tale).

Although there's definitely room to multi-spec for a lot of these folks, I've tried to keep it simple. One spec per character (except River... of course).

Mal = Hired Gun/Mercenary Soldier. He is LITERALLY a soldier who is now a mercenary! The mix of skills (leadership, ranged attacks, recovering from getting beaten a lot -- it's like the tree was made for him! Although it's tempting to make him a Smuggler, he's actually really pretty terrible as a smuggler most of the time, and if career = what you do, Smuggler doesn't seem to quite fit)

Zoe = Hired Gun/Bodyguard (and it's often Mal she's guarding)

Jayne = Bounty Hunter/Assassin (people often forget that Jayne is the one with a lot of the street-level skills: he's good at getting through security, making forged documents, etc. He's also a crack sniper. That's his biggest combat asset, and what makes him unique from Mal and Zoe in a fight. It's also the only career/spec combo that offers three of the four skills I see as key to Jayne: Skullduggery, Streetwise, Ranged (Heavy) -- I guess he had to pay extra for Coercion!)

Wash = Smuggler/Pilot

Kaylee = Technician/Mechanic

Inara = Colonist/Politico

Simon = Colonist/Doctor

Book = Colonist/Scholar (at least as depicted in the series. Although he's handy with a weapon, what Book mostly brings to the table is an insane amount of knowledge that a priest shouldn't have [when you know that he's been street thug, a rebel, and a military man, a lot of it makes more sense]. With all due respect to the Explorer/Trader approach, it's interesting, but he has no real connections, so in practice he should be a build about knowledge skills, with a smattering of social skills)

River... Ah, River. Also Colonist/Scholar, with but Force-Sensitive Exile, with a heavy emphasis on Sense.

I think Gwek nailed it. I agree with every career and spec he posted.

I think it's easy to get distracted by the career titles and forget that they are supposed to show who the character is at heart, not what his/her current day job is.

This is one of those things that might be a huge challenge to roleplay effectively, because unless you create a whole 'shadow character sheet' which keep secret Book's abilities as a fighter, it's hard for it to be a surprise to the players.

So then it's up to how well the players can roleplay their surprise, which is cool if they're up for it!

A little off topic, but IME character secrets are best when all of the players know about them (out of character). When players try to surprise each other it backfires and creates resentment and mistrust between players. When players know that a character has a secret, they are usually very good about roleplaying their ignorance, and everyone can enjoy the drama when the secret gets out.

Thanks, man!

The downside to players knowing secrets out of character is that it can influence PC actions. One of the most entertaining player secrets I was involved in saw our Bothan scoundrel secretly using the group ship to smuggle spice (he owed a crime lord a lot of money). When the PCs discovered the stash, they assumed it belonged to one of their NPC passengers -- the secretive runaway -- and the Jedi flushed it into space. Had she known it belonged to a PC, her actions likely would have been very different... and I would have been deprived of the joy of the Bothan's PC writing me desperate notes trying to save his beloved spice.

On the other hand, I HAVE seen PC secrets really, really screw up a party... but those are almost exclusively of the "My character is so cool you don't even know variety. In a particularly terrible one (compounded by a DM who was not familiar with a lot of the dynamics of D&D), our 2nd level party had a member who was actually a 12th-level Illusionist in hiding. Unfortunately, every time he cast a spell, there was a chance that "the Wizards Guild" might send agents to capture him. 2nd level PCs vs 9th level Wizards is not cool.

Yeah, in Star Wars, River would probably have Force powers. I'm not sure she's the kind of character a player could create at character generation, though, just because of the extent of her powers--she's such an expert at martial arts and gunfighting, but without really having access to those powers all the time.

Then again, maybe she just got loads of XP by taking on so much Obligation!

She's Force Sensitive (20pts) and has a base of Bounty Hunter - Assassin. She's raised Ag and Int to at least 4 each (140 pts), and has Melee and ranged Light at at least 2 each, probably 4 or so. (35-50 points each). Yeah, she's got some extra Obligation...

Actually, at start, she's probably NOT paid for FSE... but she starts in on it immediately.

I guess it depends on if you want to play the character quick and dirty from the show, or if you really want to build the character. Do you want the 1 dimension that you get from a single episode, or do you want the full character that includes their background.

River was a noble from the core worlds. She's incredibly intelligent and has a vast knowledge base. She was way smarter than Simon even.

You could just build her as you see in the movie. A seriously bad-arse melee combatant with force powers. Or you could build the deeper real character. If you want the rich, deep backstory, then you need to build her as a colonist/scholar. She'd need to spend all her starting character creation points this way. Then she needs the bonus XP to add the force skillsets she needs and the marauder skillset. Yes, she's talented with a blaster, but more often than not she's wailing on people with melee or brawl even when she has access to ranged weaponry.

So now we have the base character. She needs to buy the marauder skillset and the force powers, so thats going to be like 50 xp right there. Then you're going to need to give her a couple talents to make her fit those rolls a bit and a skill point or two here and there which is where the other 50 is.

Like I said though, there's 2 ways to do it. Quick and dirty where you give them each the 1 most obvious career/spec and character creation is perfectly fine then.

If you really want to build the in depth characters with the backstories, you're going to need to build them with their hidden career/spec and then give them a bonus stock of XP to flesh out the obvious specs they have now.

I'm changing my take on Jayne too. He's a hired gun sure, but not a EOTE hired gun. He's a bounty hunter/assasin. That fits his role much better. Although I bet we'll have a better fit for him in AOR.

River could be colonist/scholar with sub classes of Marauder and FSE

I'm doing exactly this... However, River Tam will be a male Twi'Lek for obvious reasons. (My daughter wants an Oskara look a like, so that will be his sister.... )

I'm planning to start the adventures with the player not in control of his force powers, not until 'Miranda'. In the mean time I will be handing little yellow stickies to the player with role playing suggestions, and odd things to say. "What's on the ship?" "Ghosts."

So.. Twi'Lek Marauder (he always liked to dance), Force Exile, with Sense Power. (Don't look so much at offence... look at the defence. Vibro Sword, armour, and force powers will make this character the ideal melee marauder.)

Other characters can be mix and matches with the groups requirements. I decided to dump Book into the doctor and the mechanic.

Rodian Doctor (Medicine, Knowledge, Perhaps some stun grenandes).

Droid Mechanic (Pit Droid, PD-40) Mechanic, Knowledge, Slicer.

Human Smuggler Captain (hodge podge of negotiation, combat and cunning)

Twi'Lek Bounty Hunter (Gadgeteer, Heavy weapons)

Twil'Lek Marauder (messed up brain)

This is all I have so far.

What's the obvious reason that River will be a male Twi'lek?

The other member of the crew is often not mentioned. Serenity

The official ship blue prints are available here;

http://blog.quantummechanix.com/backgrounders/Serenity_Ref_Pack_Backgrounder.pdf

Since the ship is Narrative, I'd pick what ever makes your game fun.

I found a lot of good ships plans from this guy here;

http://www.rpgnow.com/index.php?cPath=1607_9905

None of these are terribly Droid friendly. So make sure your droids can climb ladders or fly up stairs. Also note that many have one or two variant plans. The Wayfarer has a two man variant with a bigger cargo bay.

The ' Venture ' is pretty close to a YT1300. I'd make it a newer model. The cockpit also doubles as a shuttle.

The ' Exciter ' is defintely a Wayfarer equivalent. It has huge cargo capacity, and a shuttle bay (hint hint).

the ' Jo Lynn ' is a pretty close YT1300 (for performance) it doesn't have shuttles, but it does have a lower vehicle bay in addition to the rear bay.

The ' Midnight Rose ' is also an excellent choice. I'd give it a YT1300 performance, it also has front cargo doors which could double for a vehicle bay.

The ' Wayfarer ' is a decent smaller vessel with a rear bay for either cargo or a vehicle. I'd give it Firespray performance.

The Argos II space station 'may' be useful for a scenario or two.

The 'Misfortune' gives you a good idea about how you might run an adventure on a cargo vessel. They are not exactly adventure friendly...

What's the obvious reason that River will be a male Twi'lek?

The player's Sister wants to play a twilek... :-) Presence 3 can be useful. This character is stated with lots of 3's since I'm going with the slight of build kind of character.

River could be colonist/scholar with sub classes of Marauder and FSE

That's how I'd do it, because it's only half-way through the series where she becomes good with guns, and only in the movie is she good at melee combat. I'd start her off as Colonist-Scholar/FSE.

I know folks want to give her Marauder, but I think most of what she does can be replicated with the FSE tree.