|
Here's how it is. This is going to be my campaign journal for the Serenity game I'm running. It's for my own memory as much as for others to read but I figured if I'm going to type it up I might as well put it somewhere others could see it if they cared. I am going to try to keep things in line with the series as much as possible but being that there's so little official content, I'll be making some up on the fly and I'm going to try to retcon as little as possible. That being said: Here's my little write up of Athens that I sent the players prior to the game.
Athens: Before the Unification War, Athens was known as 'The Jewel of the Rim” It is a large planet that took well to terraforming, supporting a great host of life from Earth-that-was. Vast oceans, sweeping plains interrupted by wide slow rivers, and steep heavily forested mountains dominate the largely temperate planet, and other than rapidly shifting weather and unfortunately frequent tectonic activity, it is as receptive to human colonization as could be hoped for. Originally settled as a scientific outpost to study the flora and fauna in hopes to recreate this degree of success elsewhere, Athens is now home to several Buddhist temple communities in the mountains, a few trading posts serving the sprawling ranches and marble quarries, and a handful of growing cities patterned after the solar panel lined skyscrapers and shining tube lines of the capital metropolis, Edensgate.
Athens supported Unification and became a hotly contested battleground through most of the war. After a flawlessly executed surprise attack, the Browncoats captured Edensgate, and in a grinding ground campaign eventually succeeded in claiming the whole planet. Rather than commit the resources to liberating Athens, the Alliance elected to withdraw, but not before orbitally bombarding all major population centers killing untold numbers of Independents and innocent civilians alike. Refugees flooded to the smaller untouched rural communities or set up shanty towns on the edges of the ruined cities. Three years after Unification Day the Alliance gave rights to Unified Reclamation to license legal salvage operations in the ruins, resulting in a boom of scrappers and smugglers come to pick over the ruined metropolis.
My PCs are a kind of eclectic lot, (as PCs tend to be) but I think they'll do. I'll write them up next time.
Shiny.
I'm also working on a d20 Modern/Future version of Firefly. Mind if I swipe (or swap) some ideas from you? My campaign takes place a year after the events of Serenity, with a whole new crew on a whole new ship. I have 6 PCs, but we probably won't be playing it until I'm done with my Crater Sea D&D campaign.
|
|
By all means pilfer away! I'll be interested to see what you do with the setting as well. My initial concept was for a gradually expanding scope for the game - For the first 2 sessions they'll be confined to Athens until they get their hands on a ship - which has a blown pulse drive limiting them to Athens and it's four moons until they can scrape together enough cash to get her repaired and off into the rest of the verse - Even then I am probably going to invent some licensing issue that restricts them to the Rim for a while until they can resolve it. Since there isn't a whole lot written up about the Verse, I thought this would be a good way for me to portion out detailing it as well as letting the players learn how it looks from 'eye level'.
As promised, the PCs:
Rose Robertson: Born to a couple of theater managers on Paquin, Rose never took to the arts at all and instead applied for and was accepted to the MedAcad on Sihnon. She had largely completed her training and was undergoing final certification when she was literally struck by lightning. She was hospitalized for several weeks afterward and even when totally physically healed, the jolt had blown a fuse or two in her brain and while she still had the technical know how to perform surgery and the like, she rather pointedly lacked the discipline and composure. Lacking her official certification she returned to Paquin where she studied holistic medicine from a collection of Gypsies and Houdoun. She got itchy feet and traveled for a spell finding herself on Athens during the Independent Invasion. She took up residence in the Buddhist community of Wu Li Song outside of town and tended to the civilian casualties of the war. She has maintained a small home decorated with herbs, medical gear, and sundry bits and trinkets she picked in her wandering days.
Johnny Farham Jr.: Johnny was raised in a pacifist Buddhist community on Hera, but when the Unification War started he found that the Independent's cause resonated deeply with him. He lied about his age and joined the Browncoats. He had always had a knack for piloting and this landed him advanced training in the army - he was soon running reinforcements, supplies, and medboats through some of the hottest battles on New Shanghai. He was on his home planet of Hera resupplying the Serenity Valley when Independent High Command called a surrender. His sensors showed that there was still pitched fighting ahead and he wanted to make one last run, but his copilot pulled a handgun on him in the cockpit and demanded that he comply with orders. The Independents were disbanded and Johnny was turned out into the Verse with nothing but disillusionment and a long brown duster to show for his trouble. He hired out as a pilot for a while eventually flying for a drug running outfit, but they were nabbed by the Alliance and he got a year in the lockdown. When he got out an old Independent buddy waved him and got him a job running ore to orbit and back from Athen's 2nd moon, Pyrrhic. A boring job to be sure, but it's been keeping him in credits and out of trouble until the next thing comes along.
Helen Roth: Born on Beylix - the Alliance's unofficial trash planet - Helen's family made a living salvaging the junk that littered their homeworld. Her mother died when she was just a child and her father's health steadily deteriorated from a combination of contaminated water and soft radiation leakage that was very nearly unavoidable on the planet. Helen learned the basics of scrapping when she was just a child, and after she managed to find and repair a Cortex mainframe, she taught herself as much about mechanics and repair work as she could. She had a quick mind and nigh inexhaustible spare parts and she soon gained a reputation for getting things running again - maybe not as they were initially designed but running none the less. It was a grim hard life - caring for her ailing father and acting as the sole breadwinner but Helen persisted and made things as comfortable as possible. When her dad's health finally gave out, Helen resolved to get off this rock that had killed both her parents. She did an overhaul on a fairly wealthy private vessel that had made an emergency landing on Beylix, asking only a berth in trade - passage to wherever they were headed. She landed on Athens and made a respectable life for herself running a mechanic's shop before the Alliance bombed it to a smoking crater. Now Edensgate looks a bit too much like Beylix and Helen is contemplating her next move.
Wow, a nice collection of characters!
I like the idea of slowly expanding the 'verse as they slowly gain mobility. That's a great idea, actually.