Firefly RPG Core Rulebook

by Margaret; Valentinelli Weis

Keep Flyin'! Prepare for thrilling, new adventures in the 'Verse with the Firefly Roleplaying Game! Set six years after the Unification War, the Firefly Roleplaying Game faithfully branches story elements from the popular FOX television series, while simultaneously expanding on the Firefly setting. Powered by the Cortex Plus system, which emphasizes character interaction and story development, this core rulebook features everything you need to venture into the black, including character archetypes, ship stats and creation rules, locations and planetary systems, a detailed Episode guide, story hooks, and more.

Genres: Role Playing Games, Gaming, Science Fiction, Reference, Games, Westerns

360 pages, Hardcover

First published February 19, 2014

Reviews

[Diz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This roleplaying system based on the Firefly TV series focuses strongly on creating narrative roleplaying experiences. First of all, I really liked how they used an episode guide to teach the system. As you go through each episode, this book shows you how the situations in that episode would be portrayed mechanically. This makes it really easy to see how the system relates to the story, so it is quite easy for first-time game masters to pick up. Second, I like that this system doesn't have hit points. Instead, your characters may gain complications from poor rolls, and if you continue to roll poorly, the complication will increase. If a complication becomes serious enough, your character will be taken out of the scene. This doesn't mean that the character is killed. It just means that your character can't contribute much to the scene anymore.

One last thing that I really enjoyed was the approach to GMing that this book takes. One of the roles the GM is encouraged to take is to be the player characters' biggest fan. Ths is advice that would be useful with any roleplaying system.

[Hippocleides · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book, but I think the narrativist inclinations of Cortex Plus are a step backwards for something like Firefly. Among Firefly's themes is the idea of survival; being low on cash, and using what little you have to keep the ship running. Yet the Firefly RPG--with its zeal to engage in storytelling mechanics and be loosy-goosy with everything else--seems to think that the idea of an inventory, or money values for items, is beneath it. I ran a game a couple years back, and my party successfully finished a mission and found some money. After flipping through the pages of this book, I could only tell them they had found a "modicum" of cash which was roughly worth 1d8. This is a ridiculous level of abstraction, and I require a bit more simulationism in my rules than what Firefly offers. The Serenity RPG is much more to my liking.

[Doublehat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wanna fly the 'Verse? Wanna be Big Damn Heroes? This is the game for you.