What do you think?
Rate this book
Firefly Role-Playing Game: Gaming in the 'Verse
The Firefly Role-Playing Game is based on the popular Fox television series created by Joss Whedon. For more information about this game.
Thank you for picking up a copy of the Gaming in the 'Verse!
This unique, limited edition game book includes two Firefly adventures from the Echoes of War line and material from the upcoming Firefly RPG.
Character Creation includes all nine crewmembers, 12 pre-generated archetypes, and original character generation.
Ship Creation includes step-by-step information on how to build your boat along with game rules for Serenity.
Episode Guide preview for "Serenity" and "The Train Job" comes with recap adventure seeds, and character/ship rules.
Basic Rules provide everything you need to run and play a scenario in the 'Verse.
Wedding Planners, written by Margaret Weis, is a five-act Echoes of War adventure.
Shooting Fish is also a five act Echoes of War adventure, written by Andrew Peregrine.
Appendix includes Design Essays, Glossary, FAQ, Chinese Translation Guide, and the White Sun System Atlas.
Thank you for picking up a copy of the Gaming in the 'Verse!
This unique, limited edition game book includes two Firefly adventures from the Echoes of War line and material from the upcoming Firefly RPG.
Character Creation includes all nine crewmembers, 12 pre-generated archetypes, and original character generation.
Ship Creation includes step-by-step information on how to build your boat along with game rules for Serenity.
Episode Guide preview for "Serenity" and "The Train Job" comes with recap adventure seeds, and character/ship rules.
Basic Rules provide everything you need to run and play a scenario in the 'Verse.
Wedding Planners, written by Margaret Weis, is a five-act Echoes of War adventure.
Shooting Fish is also a five act Echoes of War adventure, written by Andrew Peregrine.
Appendix includes Design Essays, Glossary, FAQ, Chinese Translation Guide, and the White Sun System Atlas.
- GenresRole Playing GamesGaming
272 pages, Paperback
First published August 15, 2013
1 person is currently reading
26 people want to read
About the author
Monica Valentinelli
73 books34 followersMonica Valentinelli is a writer, editor, and game developer who lurks in the dark. She writes both original and media tie-in fiction and works on games and comics, too. To date, she has over seven dozen creative credits with more on the way.
Monica is best known for her work related to the Firefly TV show by Joss Whedon. She was the lead writer and developer for the award-winning line of Firefly RPG books, and also wrote the Firefly: The Gorramn Shiniest Language Guide and Dictionary in the ‘Verse which was released from Titan Publishing in April 2016.
Published stories and games include “Tomorrow’s Precious Lambs” for Extreme Zombies, “The Dig” for the Lovecraft Zine, Dread Names, Red List for Vampire: the Masquerade, and Unknown Armies Third Edition. Monica also completed a successful Kickstarter campaign for a co-edited anthology titled Upside Down: Inverted Tropes in Storytelling from Apex Book Company which will be released in December 2016. Her debut comic "Last /Man/ Zombie Standing" was published in 2013 as part of the Unfashioned Creatures: A Frankenstein Anthology from Red Stylo Media.
You can discover more of the author’s creative works through her website. Her books, comics, and games are available on Amazon.com, DriveThruFiction.com, DriveThruRPG.com, Barnesandnoble.com, and wherever books are sold.
Monica is best known for her work related to the Firefly TV show by Joss Whedon. She was the lead writer and developer for the award-winning line of Firefly RPG books, and also wrote the Firefly: The Gorramn Shiniest Language Guide and Dictionary in the ‘Verse which was released from Titan Publishing in April 2016.
Published stories and games include “Tomorrow’s Precious Lambs” for Extreme Zombies, “The Dig” for the Lovecraft Zine, Dread Names, Red List for Vampire: the Masquerade, and Unknown Armies Third Edition. Monica also completed a successful Kickstarter campaign for a co-edited anthology titled Upside Down: Inverted Tropes in Storytelling from Apex Book Company which will be released in December 2016. Her debut comic "Last /Man/ Zombie Standing" was published in 2013 as part of the Unfashioned Creatures: A Frankenstein Anthology from Red Stylo Media.
You can discover more of the author’s creative works through her website. Her books, comics, and games are available on Amazon.com, DriveThruFiction.com, DriveThruRPG.com, Barnesandnoble.com, and wherever books are sold.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 23, 2015
Cortex Plus is rapidly becoming one of my favorite generic RPG systems. The Firefly RPG is less precisely aimed than Leverage, but the quality of presentation and setting details make this a great book for RPG geeks and Firefly fans.
You're probably familiar with the cult-favorite cancelled before it's time show Firefly, but in case you're not, it's a Space Western about idealistic criminals trying to survive on the rim of space. In the RPG, you can play as Mal and the gang on Serenity, or stat up your own crew and ship. The book has pretty much everything you'd expect in a RPG (core rules, character creation, sample adventure), with one twist in presentation. The first hundred pages are a gameplay tutorial and recap of the show, walking new players through the Cortex Plus system and demonstrating how scenes from the show play out with the support of the rules. For setting fans, the book also has a map of the 'Verse with 200 named planets and moons, as well as a dictionary of Chinese phrases for cursin' with. The writing is top notch, clear and perfectly in the style of the show. Glossy stills of the cast and some decent artwork add visual flair.
The Cortex Plus system is a dead simple dicepool. Roll Stat + Skill + Distinction + Assets and keep the 2 highest. Spend plot points to add more dice to your total and try and beat the opposition. Rolling 1s introduce Complications but also give you plot points to use when it really matters. There are 3 stats (Physics, Mental, Social), 19 skills, and a whole passel of Distinctions that help distinguish who your character is. The basic gameplay structure is about getting enough plot points in hand to throw ludicrous numbers down on the table when it matters. Big Damn Hero dice are awarded for exceptional successes, and can be banked long term to future moments. The GM and Players need to be on their toes when introducing Assets and Complications, making sure that they're interesting and not too broad or too narrow. For someone coming from a more traditional RPG like Dungeons & Dragons, the Cortex system is going to be a shift, but it's not entirely narrativist gaming without a net.
There are quite a few interesting bits here. Ships are handled like another character, with Engines, Hull, and System stats and Distinctions of their own that are combined with the crew member's Skills and Distinctions to get a dice pool. Gameplay is structured like a TV show, with an episode made up of scenes made up of beats. Characters can be Taken Out by losing a high stakes contest, or having a Complication go above d12. Conversely, there are some parts of the system I'm less sure about. Not all skills are created equal. Influence comes up every time a character tries to get an NPC to go along with with them, Throw is a lot less useful. Fortunately, there are enough skill points to go around. Default untrained is d4, and characters get 18 step-ups, meaning they could get to d10 expertise in 6 skills, which is a fairly broad area of expertise. My second quibble is that while its okay for the system to abstract away the "broke and struggling" aspect of Firefly, the show is really about a group of people finding out that they're more than a crew, they're a family. The RPG could've used some more solid rules for building relationships between characters and encouraging people to help each other out. I might hack in a version of the Apocalypse World relationship system to add another way to introduce plot points.
Final verdict: If you like Firefly or Cortex Plus, this is a game that's worth your time.
You're probably familiar with the cult-favorite cancelled before it's time show Firefly, but in case you're not, it's a Space Western about idealistic criminals trying to survive on the rim of space. In the RPG, you can play as Mal and the gang on Serenity, or stat up your own crew and ship. The book has pretty much everything you'd expect in a RPG (core rules, character creation, sample adventure), with one twist in presentation. The first hundred pages are a gameplay tutorial and recap of the show, walking new players through the Cortex Plus system and demonstrating how scenes from the show play out with the support of the rules. For setting fans, the book also has a map of the 'Verse with 200 named planets and moons, as well as a dictionary of Chinese phrases for cursin' with. The writing is top notch, clear and perfectly in the style of the show. Glossy stills of the cast and some decent artwork add visual flair.
The Cortex Plus system is a dead simple dicepool. Roll Stat + Skill + Distinction + Assets and keep the 2 highest. Spend plot points to add more dice to your total and try and beat the opposition. Rolling 1s introduce Complications but also give you plot points to use when it really matters. There are 3 stats (Physics, Mental, Social), 19 skills, and a whole passel of Distinctions that help distinguish who your character is. The basic gameplay structure is about getting enough plot points in hand to throw ludicrous numbers down on the table when it matters. Big Damn Hero dice are awarded for exceptional successes, and can be banked long term to future moments. The GM and Players need to be on their toes when introducing Assets and Complications, making sure that they're interesting and not too broad or too narrow. For someone coming from a more traditional RPG like Dungeons & Dragons, the Cortex system is going to be a shift, but it's not entirely narrativist gaming without a net.
There are quite a few interesting bits here. Ships are handled like another character, with Engines, Hull, and System stats and Distinctions of their own that are combined with the crew member's Skills and Distinctions to get a dice pool. Gameplay is structured like a TV show, with an episode made up of scenes made up of beats. Characters can be Taken Out by losing a high stakes contest, or having a Complication go above d12. Conversely, there are some parts of the system I'm less sure about. Not all skills are created equal. Influence comes up every time a character tries to get an NPC to go along with with them, Throw is a lot less useful. Fortunately, there are enough skill points to go around. Default untrained is d4, and characters get 18 step-ups, meaning they could get to d10 expertise in 6 skills, which is a fairly broad area of expertise. My second quibble is that while its okay for the system to abstract away the "broke and struggling" aspect of Firefly, the show is really about a group of people finding out that they're more than a crew, they're a family. The RPG could've used some more solid rules for building relationships between characters and encouraging people to help each other out. I might hack in a version of the Apocalypse World relationship system to add another way to introduce plot points.
Final verdict: If you like Firefly or Cortex Plus, this is a game that's worth your time.
December 22, 2022
An intriguing system that I look forward to playing. As others have noted, the most relevant chapters appear later in the book, to the point that the initial "episode guide" chapters might be better skipped.
The GM guide chapters are some of the best I've seen in print. Describing game sessions in terms of TV episode structure and tropes is a fantastic way to visualize successful game mastering.
Recommended for those interest in a more story driven RPG.
For Browncoat gamers, it's a must have.
Shiny!
The GM guide chapters are some of the best I've seen in print. Describing game sessions in terms of TV episode structure and tropes is a fantastic way to visualize successful game mastering.
Recommended for those interest in a more story driven RPG.
For Browncoat gamers, it's a must have.
Shiny!
September 12, 2016
For those browncoats who are sufficiently passionate about the world of Firefly [1] that they are willing to play a die-based tabletop game that takes that television as the basis of adventuring in the format of episodes [2], this game offers a large amount of information to creating new adventures from the Firefly universe as well as ways that the episodes of the television show--not including the events from Serenity, it should be noted--would look as a role playing game adventure with various major and minor characters, various complications, rules on the use of dice ranging from d4 to d12, as well as a great deal of practical advice in the different roles the GM has as a writer, a director, a producer, and as an audience member judging the entertainment the players provide in order to give plot points to reward good play with the possibility of re-rolling and other benefits. It would be difficult to imagine a more helpful or complete guide based on the groundbreaking and immensely entertaining television show, and will likely provide many hours of entertainment to the show's legion of fans.
The book's contents, as a core book, are as to be expected about making it possible for a somewhat novice GM and group of players who are nevertheless fond of Firefly to make some evenings of gameplaying at the pace of an episode a night, showing an attention not only to the structure of each episode but also attention made to multi-episode story arcs and even season-length campaigns that allow characters to develop and grow. The book opens with an introduction to the 'Verse, then contains a detailed episode guide, including character breakdowns for the major NPCs in each episode, detailed information on finding crew, including sample character sheets for 24 different kinds of characters of all manner of loyalties and skills, organized by what part of the universe they are likely to be found--the core, the border planets, and the rim. Then there are discussions about finding a ship, finding a job, dealing with complications and keeping flying, sailing into the black, a detailed breakdown of an unaired and unfilmed episode called "What's Mine Is Yours," and some supplementary information including a detailed Chinese vocabulary for the game, frequently asked questions, a glossary of terms, a master distinction list, schematics for Serenity, system maps, and a sample ship sheet and crew sheet. With this book in hand, someone could pretty easily run an extended set of pretend episodes of Firefly, and that is certainly an enjoyable way to spend evenings with friends, to be sure.
It is clear that this book is mainly oriented that that intersection between fans of the Firefly series and fans of tabletop role playing games. That happens to be a large group of people, not least because Firefly had such an inventive and rich worldview in mind with its blend of Western and Chinese culture with elements of the Western and the struggle between the desire on the part of the Alliance to control and tax the universe with the desire of business to exploit territories for profit and the desire on the part of some people to be free from burdensome restrictions and regulations. The cultural and political worldview of Firefly, with its tension between a paternalistic state engaged in deeply corrupt behavior, and various libertarian and anarchic opposition to effective government on the part of gangs, freedom loving settler colonists, or even the chaotic Reavers, is one of great relevance in our particular day and age. It is a shame that the series did not even manage to complete its first year, as it had a lot of promise, promise that remains for fans who remain loyal to the show even after all these years.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
[2] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
The book's contents, as a core book, are as to be expected about making it possible for a somewhat novice GM and group of players who are nevertheless fond of Firefly to make some evenings of gameplaying at the pace of an episode a night, showing an attention not only to the structure of each episode but also attention made to multi-episode story arcs and even season-length campaigns that allow characters to develop and grow. The book opens with an introduction to the 'Verse, then contains a detailed episode guide, including character breakdowns for the major NPCs in each episode, detailed information on finding crew, including sample character sheets for 24 different kinds of characters of all manner of loyalties and skills, organized by what part of the universe they are likely to be found--the core, the border planets, and the rim. Then there are discussions about finding a ship, finding a job, dealing with complications and keeping flying, sailing into the black, a detailed breakdown of an unaired and unfilmed episode called "What's Mine Is Yours," and some supplementary information including a detailed Chinese vocabulary for the game, frequently asked questions, a glossary of terms, a master distinction list, schematics for Serenity, system maps, and a sample ship sheet and crew sheet. With this book in hand, someone could pretty easily run an extended set of pretend episodes of Firefly, and that is certainly an enjoyable way to spend evenings with friends, to be sure.
It is clear that this book is mainly oriented that that intersection between fans of the Firefly series and fans of tabletop role playing games. That happens to be a large group of people, not least because Firefly had such an inventive and rich worldview in mind with its blend of Western and Chinese culture with elements of the Western and the struggle between the desire on the part of the Alliance to control and tax the universe with the desire of business to exploit territories for profit and the desire on the part of some people to be free from burdensome restrictions and regulations. The cultural and political worldview of Firefly, with its tension between a paternalistic state engaged in deeply corrupt behavior, and various libertarian and anarchic opposition to effective government on the part of gangs, freedom loving settler colonists, or even the chaotic Reavers, is one of great relevance in our particular day and age. It is a shame that the series did not even manage to complete its first year, as it had a lot of promise, promise that remains for fans who remain loyal to the show even after all these years.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
[2] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
May 20, 2014
NOTE: This review is of the complete Firefly Roleplaying Game rulebook released in April 2014.
Disclaimer: I don’t play RPGs these days, and haven’t for quite a few years. Alright, basically not since college (lack of hours and a gaming group, really). However, I still buy RPG rulebooks–they are an excellent source of detail and often contain quite a bit of serious discussion on things writers are interested in–like motives, pacing, character development, which guns do more damage… As mentioned before, I used GURPS Supers as a primer when creating the Post-Event setting of my Wearing the Cape series of books. Which brings me to the Firefly RPG. Am I now writing a wild-west space opera? No. But I am using Cortex Plus–the game system the Firefly RPG is built on--as the foundation of Wearing the Cape: the RPG. This made for a very good excuse.
First, some background. I encountered Firefly when the series originally premiered, and managed to catch most of the episodes that aired despite the studio’s completely messed-up scheduling. The idea of a wild-west space opera was ridiculous, but Joss Whedon sold it by embracing it and playing it dead-straight serious (a lesson I learned for my own books: if you want the reader to take your story and characters seriously, you’ve got to commit).
And as a history-buff with an unused master’s degree, I instantly recognized what Joss was doing; ignore the sci-fi trappings, and he was telling a story of an America that never was, one with an alternate history.
“What?” you may ask. It’s simple; imagine US history without the Louisiana Purchase–which, along with the later Mexican War, gave the US everything west of the Mississippi. If instead the Louisiana Purchase territory remained a European possession, one almost completely neglected, it would still have been settled by a bunch on land-hungry Yanks–but not under US jurisdiction.
So imagine instead a bunch of state-sized territories that eventually announce their own independence from France, Mexico, and whoever else officially owned the land at the time. Being a bunch of pioneers, cowboys, miners, roughnecks, and generally independent sorts, they have no interest in joining the US (a lot of them moved west to get away from it)–and eventually the US decides that it needs to bring peace and civilization to the truly Wild West beyond its western boarder. And there we have the Alliance vs. the Browncoats.
Naturally the US would win, but it would be a bitter fight and the US government would then be faced with a vast territory it could only police lightly, focusing on core cities. With the primary source of Law and Order being the hated federals, the Wild West would have been much more wild, probably for much longer. They would have been interesting times; maybe I should write a book…
Piào liàng, it sure was shiny. Lit a fire in the minds of a lot of folk, which explains why there was such a fuss when the suits shut it down. It was a dream as real as anything we’d seen, because it was a dream from our own sort-of-past; it connected with the cultural and historical zeitgeist of a legion of self-proclaimed Browncoats. Thus the movie, the comics, the market for all things Firefly that just wouldn’t die. And I have got me some of that.
Which finally brings us to the Firefly RPG. As mentioned elsewhere, Margaret Weiss Productions has displayed an absolute gift for converting fiction properties into games for the fans (Smallville, Leverage, and last year Marvel Comics). They do it by starting with a very basic core concept (Traits and Dice Pools) and then customizing like crazy to get the exact feel of the stories, characters, and settings they bring to the fans. No two Cortex Plus games are alike. I wanted to see how well MWP managed to translate The ‘Verse into a tabletop roleplaying game, and what it could teach me.
And? Zāo gāo, I need to find me a gaming group. Now. The system is modular, logical, and stays out of the way while you engage in thrillin’ heroics–and is simple enough that different gaming groups can tailor all sorts of house-rules to make it just right for them. And talk about a fire in your mind; the book itself provides so much information about The ‘Verse you start dreaming about it all over again. I recommend it to non-gaming Firefly fans as well as long-time gamers. You can purchase the PDF at Drive-Thru RPG and be breaking atmo’ in a week with your own stories or the stories MWP is providing for you.
Disclaimer: I don’t play RPGs these days, and haven’t for quite a few years. Alright, basically not since college (lack of hours and a gaming group, really). However, I still buy RPG rulebooks–they are an excellent source of detail and often contain quite a bit of serious discussion on things writers are interested in–like motives, pacing, character development, which guns do more damage… As mentioned before, I used GURPS Supers as a primer when creating the Post-Event setting of my Wearing the Cape series of books. Which brings me to the Firefly RPG. Am I now writing a wild-west space opera? No. But I am using Cortex Plus–the game system the Firefly RPG is built on--as the foundation of Wearing the Cape: the RPG. This made for a very good excuse.
First, some background. I encountered Firefly when the series originally premiered, and managed to catch most of the episodes that aired despite the studio’s completely messed-up scheduling. The idea of a wild-west space opera was ridiculous, but Joss Whedon sold it by embracing it and playing it dead-straight serious (a lesson I learned for my own books: if you want the reader to take your story and characters seriously, you’ve got to commit).
And as a history-buff with an unused master’s degree, I instantly recognized what Joss was doing; ignore the sci-fi trappings, and he was telling a story of an America that never was, one with an alternate history.
“What?” you may ask. It’s simple; imagine US history without the Louisiana Purchase–which, along with the later Mexican War, gave the US everything west of the Mississippi. If instead the Louisiana Purchase territory remained a European possession, one almost completely neglected, it would still have been settled by a bunch on land-hungry Yanks–but not under US jurisdiction.
So imagine instead a bunch of state-sized territories that eventually announce their own independence from France, Mexico, and whoever else officially owned the land at the time. Being a bunch of pioneers, cowboys, miners, roughnecks, and generally independent sorts, they have no interest in joining the US (a lot of them moved west to get away from it)–and eventually the US decides that it needs to bring peace and civilization to the truly Wild West beyond its western boarder. And there we have the Alliance vs. the Browncoats.
Naturally the US would win, but it would be a bitter fight and the US government would then be faced with a vast territory it could only police lightly, focusing on core cities. With the primary source of Law and Order being the hated federals, the Wild West would have been much more wild, probably for much longer. They would have been interesting times; maybe I should write a book…
Piào liàng, it sure was shiny. Lit a fire in the minds of a lot of folk, which explains why there was such a fuss when the suits shut it down. It was a dream as real as anything we’d seen, because it was a dream from our own sort-of-past; it connected with the cultural and historical zeitgeist of a legion of self-proclaimed Browncoats. Thus the movie, the comics, the market for all things Firefly that just wouldn’t die. And I have got me some of that.
Which finally brings us to the Firefly RPG. As mentioned elsewhere, Margaret Weiss Productions has displayed an absolute gift for converting fiction properties into games for the fans (Smallville, Leverage, and last year Marvel Comics). They do it by starting with a very basic core concept (Traits and Dice Pools) and then customizing like crazy to get the exact feel of the stories, characters, and settings they bring to the fans. No two Cortex Plus games are alike. I wanted to see how well MWP managed to translate The ‘Verse into a tabletop roleplaying game, and what it could teach me.
And? Zāo gāo, I need to find me a gaming group. Now. The system is modular, logical, and stays out of the way while you engage in thrillin’ heroics–and is simple enough that different gaming groups can tailor all sorts of house-rules to make it just right for them. And talk about a fire in your mind; the book itself provides so much information about The ‘Verse you start dreaming about it all over again. I recommend it to non-gaming Firefly fans as well as long-time gamers. You can purchase the PDF at Drive-Thru RPG and be breaking atmo’ in a week with your own stories or the stories MWP is providing for you.
June 12, 2014
Margaret Weis Productions brings us the Firefly RPG, using the Cortex Plus rules system. This book has everything you need to run through the stories of the TV series, run the crew of Serenity through new adventures and build your own ship and crew to begin your own adventures in the Firefly universe. If there's mischief to be had in the 'Verse, this is probably the place to get it started.
There is a lot covered in this book. The primary focus seems to be on running the crew from the TV show through the TV episodes or getting them caught up in new stories. There's a lot here for that, with each episode laid out very well and with high detail. The crew of the show is all stated out and ready to use for these episodes, and there are extra characters sprinkled through the chapters to help round out a crew if you want to change things up a little bit. Personally, that's not where my focus would be if I were playing this game, but it's nice to have to help learn the rules and to see how those adventures are set up.
You can read the rest of my review at Nerd's Domain
There is a lot covered in this book. The primary focus seems to be on running the crew from the TV show through the TV episodes or getting them caught up in new stories. There's a lot here for that, with each episode laid out very well and with high detail. The crew of the show is all stated out and ready to use for these episodes, and there are extra characters sprinkled through the chapters to help round out a crew if you want to change things up a little bit. Personally, that's not where my focus would be if I were playing this game, but it's nice to have to help learn the rules and to see how those adventures are set up.
You can read the rest of my review at Nerd's Domain
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews