As someone pointed out above, dis-trust of a new PC should not be an issue.
As for introducing yourself, you could just walk up to the ship and say "Hey, I'm good with guns and in a fight and want to get off this planet - you hirin'?" Paraphrase as needed. ;)
@ Conrad, maybe you were in the same unit as me. I also am a browncoat.
Are there holsters? wrist holsters? concealed holsters? That sort of thing. I have 1400 to spend. Those wrist holsters that are concealed that slide the guns into his hands would be cool, but I'm not sure if that is setting appropriate.
Hadn't thought about that...there are regular waist holsters. Also ankle holsters for pistols (or just stuff a gun in your boot), -2 to Notice. I've been toying with the idea of a strap-to-your-arm holster that would slide a Derringer into your hand (like in the old Wild Wild West show), -4 to Notice. Let's say that a quality one that has no chance of jamming costs 200p.
Daisy has a holster for fancy parties while wearing a nice dress... She won't give any details on where that holster is...
I imagine if you searched old Western movies and TV shows, you could find someone with a contraption to extend a derringer from up a sleeve. It would not be a difficult device to make, even in the late 1800s America. Most likely it would be seen in the old Wild Wild West show or maybe the more recent movie.
My teaching schedule changes to M-Th mornings until 11 AM or 1 PM. So my posting should even out. I'll try to post every afternoon or evening, and check in the early morning as I'm having my coffee for any quick posts I can make.
Added a derringer and two wrist holsters.
Thanks.
Between grading and working on taxes, I've not had a good opportunity to compose a good RP post. I'll try to get something up soon. If Arabella needs to make a roll, let me know.
Wow, you still do your own taxes? What with the Marketplace and other things, I gave up on that about 5 years ago....
I still do mine. Divorced, my daughter is over 18. Even with the house the newer high standard deduction is the best bet. Takes me no time at all.
Of course, as soon as I have all my info in early February, I do it. I've had my fed and state returns for a while now..
I have used TurboTax for a number of years. It makes it all go quickly. Our taxes are pretty simple.
sorry i have not been on. dealing with a death in my family
So sorry for your loss. Take as much time as you need.
Sorry to hear about a death in your family.
Will be monitoring, but please don't expect any responses until after friday.
Thank you for the well wishes.
So, I've just re-watched the series, and here are some take-aways :
In the first episode, Mal says "we do the right thing", and in the second episode, when they discover that they've stolen medicine badly needed by the locals, Mal returns them despite the personal risk and loss of money that will cause.
In one episode, the crew protected a town from marauders, not for money, but for unspecified (presumably relatively cheap) "gifts".
In another episode, Mal sells enough food to feed a town for a month, and got only 200p for it, and the crew seemed very happy about the income.
So my impression is that the Mal/the crew will :
- Do the right thing, no matter the personal cost
- Protect those who can't protect themselves, even for no payment
And, if 200p is all they got for a shipment that significant, 400p from the mayor (and maybe less from future people-in-need) seems in-line with that.
I want to run something by everyone - what if you were required to take the Heroic Hindrance to reflect the above attitudes, and got a free Edge in exchange?
Or would that be hindering PC agency too much?
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I have a question.
Are you just trying to emulate the Firefly story as closely as possible, or do you just want to really really run Paladins in Space! and want the story and characters to reflect that?
If the Space! one, then that is what you want to do and we all must needs plan accordingly. In that case, I'd council taking the free edge since we're going to be playing heroically anyway.
If not, then it seems, to me, that there is room for debate on what the series was actually doing.
In that case, then I see several counter-points that could be made, and even gone into. I see no downside to this as it's a fun series to gronk out on.
Such as, at the beginning of Serenity they rob a bank. And Mal seems quite gleeful as the prospect of all that "cash-y money". This is not the action of an altruistic type whose primary drive is improving the lives of others. Here we see that he actually is interested in going and being bad guys, even as he tries to listen to his moral compass once the crime is engaged. But there is still to be crime. And payment.
If you're talking about Our Mrs. Reynolds, where they are paid for a brief shoot out, it's not really said how much, but as a side benefit the entire town turns out for a feast in their honor, so much so that no one much notices when Saffron performs a well-known bridal ceremony in his honor. (Hmmm. I'm seeing a tight correlation between marriage and crime. Coincidence???)
Apologies if I'm getting too gronky, but, alas, sometimes I am cursed with remembering, and Firefly seems to have some prime real estate in my brain-pan.
I'm cool with being all heroic if you want to go that route. :)
I'm good with being heroic. I am not at all an expert on the series, more of a casual fan, but I think what we see is that they do what is right, helping the little guy, fighting against large scale governments but not local government, fighting banks, corporations, big wigs.
Emma - the Heroic Edge says "help those in need". I see no conflict between that, being a thief/smuggler, and "doing the right thing" (quote from the series) for people "who can't help themselves" (a phrase in the explanation of the Heroic Edge). Robin Hood was kind of like that.
And, yes, I am trying to emulate the Firefly story as much as possible. But not if anyone will resent being required to be Heroic.
I'm cool with the edge for heroic hindrance trade.
In DnD terms, Mal seems chaotic good. He'll break the law and commit crimes if it's not hurting people who are just trying to survive. I believe Robin Hood is often used as an example of CG alignment.
I have rewatched the first few episodes, through the one where they salvage from a transport ravished by Reavers. I also now know (sort of) what the "blue hands" reference was although not the specifics, just that River keeps repeating, "Two by two. Hands of Blue."
Should I make the rolls for a new job?
Arabella - I was just about to ask you to do that, thanks!
Later on in the series, you'll see the "blue hands" in action - truly powerful and horrifying.
Regarding Heroic, I haven't heard from Harold (dealing with family issues), and Emma hasn't said definitively that she wouldn't mind...
Well, I am back. Will need a day to catch up.
However, I have not issues with the trait.
Charismatic Reroll
+2 from Shepherd edge
-2 Location Rim
Result: 6+5+2-2 = 11 Success + raise
Found an employer directly, avoid the middleman cost.
1=Core, 2=Border, 3=Rim
Destination: Border.
Then roll a d4, plus one for each Raise on the Networking roll to determine the kind of job :
- 1 : Steerage passengers expect to camp in the cargo hold and generally provide their own food. They pay 15p per week. You can find 2d8 of them.
- 2 : Second class passengers expect to live as the crew lives; they pay 30p per week. You can find 2d6 of them.
- 3 : Salvage : someone wants you to go to the wreck of some spaceship in space, and recover something from it.
- 4+ : Freight (the items are being sold by one person to another person – you are just delivering them) : a lot takes 10*d10 tons of cargo space.
+1 / raise on Networking (got 1 raise)
Result: 3
Salvage
It's a salvage job in the border region. GM can take it from here. Or I can come up with an idea, but I need to know if this planet has Cortex access or would any job prospects have to be based on direct contact with people on the planet.
You're currently on a Rim planet, so there is no Cortex access here.
Some Border planets have a strong Alliance presence, those planets would have Cortex access.
Another idea I'm toying with : since firing projectile or laser weapons in an in-ship battle could puncture the hull, or damage sensitive equipment, how about a "taser baton"?
It's about 18" long, 1" in diameter. You use Fighting for hits, which are always non-lethal unless the head is targeted, doing Str+d6 damage. On a Raise, the taser automatically goes off, requiring the target to make a Vigor-2 roll or be Stunned, which involves :
- Target subtracts 2 from all Trait rolls until the end of his next turn.
- Actions and attacks against the target are made at +2 until the end of his next turn.
- Target falls prone.
- Target can’t move or take any actions until he makes a successful Vigor roll.
I know it's not canon, but realistically you should never have a ranged-weapon fight in-ship.
Thoughts?
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They have guns-shooting on ships all the time in the show and no one even cares.
I keep up on some of the new space-faring tech that planet Earth is developing and, to make a long story short, anything that can survive going really fast in the junkyard that is space can survive something so minor as gunshots.
Like, having a hull that can absorb space dust going Mach 20 means it could take a bullet.
But the idea of a stun baton is good!
Agreed, a stun baton would be a good idea.
As for the hull getting punctured, they are usually thick enough to absorb/ricochet shot.
The electrical bits on the ship, getting damaged, makes sense as well.
A stun baton sounds like a fine idea to me.
An FYI: I'll be taking two out of town trips almost back to back between Friday the 12th and Sunday the 21st. I'll have a computer with me and will be checking in but may be a little slower.
Stun batons for everyone!
Since this is a ret-con, I'm not going to make you pay for them, let's say there's 10 batons in a cabinet in one of the ship's corridors. They are fairly obvious, and no good in a shoot-out, so you'll probably not want to take them off-ship. Use the specs above in combat.
Note : since fighting Reavers is life-or-death, guns are the preferred method of dealing with them, even if you're in a ship.
For a different take on projectiles in vicinity of space, see the TV series The Expanse. I don't recall if anyone fires a projectile gun inside a spacefaring ship, but ship to ship warfare includes machinegun like streams of projectiles which readily puncture the ship hulls, so much so that they have repair equipment handy to block the opening. These may be high-tech railguns firing spent uranium projectiles (a la "Reason" in Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash), which would be harder to stop.
Seems the hulls of the ships in Firefly are more like naval battle ships in space. One Alliance ship was like a series of skyscrapers compared to Serenity.
It reminds me of a game I moderated at an RPG con using a cyberpunk RP system (can't recall which one right now), and it included a trip into orbit that would involve technology similar to what's being used today.
Per the module instructions, I informed all players that firing any gun inside while in orbit risked decompressing the ship's atmosphere. Sure enough, at the beginning of a fight, one of the first things a PC does is start firing a gun. It would have resulted in TPK, so I fudged something and kept going. So I always listen to the GM when it comes to this kind of thing.
Stun batons are cool.
I originally intended to just post that I'm now teaching in the evenings for the next two terms (ten weeks), so my posts will be earlier rather than later, FWIW.
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It would have resulted in TPK, so I fudged something and kept going.
I think this is one of the main reasons that it is usually not a thing. You see, even when it is, the consequences are too game-breaking to enforce.
Also, if it was, then any time some stranger was on your ship (which seems to happen a lot) they could just put on a gas mask and hold a gun up to any wall and say "give up your ship or I'm going to decompress the ship and loot your corpses".
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Player: "I shoot!"
GM: "Are you sure?"
Player: "Yes!!!"
GM: "..."
Players: "..."
GM: "OK, everyone dies in a horrible decompression incident. Let's make new characters!"
Arabella - since you don't remember the system, these rules may have been in it, but if not you could have on your own created a "Dramatic Task" (copyright SW), where they have N rounds to find and patch the hole(s). Each round, make a Vigor/Constitution roll, or lose health points.
FWIW, that's what I specified in the Firefly setting document. Also, I think a "gas mask" just filters the air, but if you see someone donning a space suit for no reason, or start strapping an oxygen tank on their back...shoot(oops, no, stun) him quick! :)
I'm currently experiencing the medical problems that are resulting in not getting enough sleep most nights. I'm working with my doctor to find a medication that helps, but that may not happen right away. It's making it hard for me to use time I have during the day to catch up on PBP, so if necessary, please 'bot Arabella to keep things moving.
Arabella - since you don't remember the system, these rules may have been in it, but if not you could have on your own created a "Dramatic Task" (copyright SW), where they have N rounds to find and patch the hole(s). Each round, make a Vigor/Constitution roll, or lose health points.
FWIW, that's what I specified in the Firefly setting document. Also, I think a "gas mask" just filters the air, but if you see someone donning a space suit for no reason, or start strapping an oxygen tank on their back...shoot(oops, no, stun) him quick! :)
Good advice, but I was not familiar with the system (it wasn't SW, that I'm sure of) and it was a very limited time one shot, so I went with an option that kept things going.
On a family trip to vegas. Will be haphazard on responses
I'm going to be away from my computer from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon. Going to the beach for a few days of RnR. Hope it helps my burnout. 'Bot me if necessary.
Thanks, guys, for the heads-up. I'll wait a couple of days for the discussion in GamePlay to get going...
Sounds good.
I should be back on the 28th.
Continue to bot as needed.
Best approach that i can think of is engineering, then bridge.
Well, I have returned from my vegas trip.
Give me a day to get settled and caught up please
I just noticed I don't have anything in Arabella's header other than Female Human. What would the GM want for quick access? Do we have 3 bennies if we haven't used any for a while?
Parry and Toughness are always helpful, so I can tell at a glance what an attack does to you. I created the acronym RATN (Ranged Attack Target Number), which in this game is probably going to be 4, unless you have a Power or Feat which changes it (it comes in *real* handy in Supers and RIFTS games, where it's often much higher).
Anything else is up to you. You can list your Bennies there, as long as you edit it every time you use one.
FYI: I'll be at an actual face to face convention this Friday through Sunday. I'll be checking in so shouldn't be much change in my posting. :)
FYI: if it will speed up the game, I'm OK with the GM making rolls for my character when a roll is required, rather than telling me to make the roll. I'm not superstitious about the dice-roller.
I also don't mind if the GM makes any necessary rolls for me, if I am holding up the game, or if it is needed to push the game along.
Who knows, maybe it will make my poor rolls better. :)