Quote from: brettmb;631511I don't get it. They had Serenity. How is Firefly any different. Sounds like a bunch of nothing.

It isn't. There's probably more setting info in Serenity alone than the 14 episodes.

Quote from: J Arcane;631516yeah. It's sort of like how the LOTR licenses don't cover all the other stuff like the Silmarillion.  

I don't think that's a fair comparison. The Silmarillion is a huge(ish) origin story for the entire setting. Firefly is just more of what you get in Serenity. It doesn't really explain how the setting 'came to be'. They didn't really explore River or Book in those 14 episodes (natch).

Quote from: Mistwell;631540Oh wait, you mean he DID direct a billion dollar movie and say at comic con one of his options now is buying Firefly and making more of it at his whim?  And then he discussed what such a show would be, and how it would pick up after Serenity? And how all the actors necessary look like they may have a window of opportunity open to do this in the future?

Er, ok dude. Calm down.

If he can bring the show back (set it before Serenity so that you don't have to deal with the obvious problems and ruin the chemistry that was there) then good luck to him. But that's a long ways off and a lot of wishful thinking.

Quote from: Caesar Slaad;631544It's a fine, fun show and you sell it short. That being said, I think you are right. The power of the show didn't come from the setting but the characters. So any value the license adds to an actual game experience seems minimal to me, since it will be only as good (or bad) as the players make it.

I enjoyed the show and I enjoyed the movie. But it's not a detailed or difficult setting. Nor is it meant to be. It wasn't intended to be far future technobabble and complex politics; the setting wasn't meant to be hard to grok.

Personally I would much rather have had 7 full seasons of Firefly, and its a real tragedy that BSG became incerasingly pretentious and silly after the first season, and there's been no decent space opera (that i'm aware of) in that time. Even Enterprise died before it's time given that season 4 was really starting to turn the show around.

Quote from: Ian Noble;631551And, frankly, compared to MWP buying the Leverage license -- a show that about 48 people watched total -- this current decision is full of win.

It helped that the guy behind the show is a gamer.

Quote from: Ian Noble;631551And, frankly, compared to MWP buying the Leverage license -- a show that about 48 people watched total -- this current decision is full of win.

Actually both shows had viewing figures of about 4-5 million on their first series. And Leverage at least had the virtue of being in a genre/style which is generally under-represented in RPGs. And not being the second attempt at a license on the same property. And still being on air at the time of the license.

Of course they don't have Serenity anymore. I think MWP are very sensible to let licenses lapse when they end, no point flogging a dead horse. But with this they can resurrect a 'property', explore some elements unexplored, try a variant rpg system, and wave a new rush of fanboy money.

Quote from: tzunder;631566Is Cortex really a storygame? Seemed like a bog standard modern roll high and succeed/fail game with hero points.

(Leverage) C+ is wierd. You have to play it kinda sat on your character's shoulder; you're doing all the regular roleplaying stuff, but you've also got to sit just outside "immersion" and look for opportunities to create assets and ways to play off opportunities you're given.

(To clarify: you can spend "plot points" to create temporary assets to aid you character - for example, if sneaking across a lobby, you could spend a plot point to take advantage of the planters around the walls. If you're worried that your players will create stupid assets out of thin air, that's a player-side issue, not a game-side issue. Essentially the system lets you invest in your own die roll bonuses, but every die you roll is another chance of rolling a "1" and earning a complication - a negative asset the GM can use against you - and you only get to count the best two die as your roll anyway.)

I kinda like it, and it gives a genre-savvy play group the opportunity to bring in all sorts of emulative elements, but it's an odd system that won't be to everyone taste, especially not here. It isn't a storygame, but it's not a "regular roleplaying game".

Quote from: Ladybird;631596(Leverage) C+ is wierd. You have to play it kinda sat on your character's shoulder; you're doing all the regular roleplaying stuff, but you've also got to sit just outside "immersion" and look for opportunities to create assets and ways to play off opportunities you're given.

(To clarify: you can spend "plot points" to create temporary assets to aid you character - for example, if sneaking across a lobby, you could spend a plot point to take advantage of the planters around the walls. If you're worried that your players will create stupid assets out of thin air, that's a player-side issue, not a game-side issue. Essentially the system lets you invest in your own die roll bonuses, but every die you roll is another chance of rolling a "1" and earning a complication - a negative asset the GM can use against you - and you only get to count the best two die as your roll anyway.)

I kinda like it, and it gives a genre-savvy play group the opportunity to bring in all sorts of emulative elements, but it's an odd system that won't be to everyone taste, especially not here. It isn't a storygame, but it's not a "regular roleplaying game".

I don't get how spending plot points breaks immersion at all. Anymore than rolling dice.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;631599I don't get how spending plot points breaks immersion at all. Anymore than rolling dice.

Excellent another Amber fan.

Quote from: jibbajibba;631600Excellent another Amber fan.

never played the game nor read the books.

Quote from: Ladybird;631596(Leverage) C+ is wierd. You have to play it kinda sat on your character's shoulder; you're doing all the regular roleplaying stuff, but you've also got to sit just outside "immersion" and look for opportunities to create assets and ways to play off opportunities you're given.

-snip-

I kinda like it, and it gives a genre-savvy play group the opportunity to bring in all sorts of emulative elements, but it's an odd system that won't be to everyone taste, especially not here. It isn't a storygame, but it's not a "regular roleplaying game".

Not only that, but C+ is just a very basic framework and all three of the current C+ games (Smallville, Leverage, Marvel Heroic) are heavily customized to emulate the genre, so have varying amounts of what people here would call "storygame" mechanics.

Personally by my understanding of the RPGSite position, I would consider Smallville more a storygame, Marvel Heroic more a RPG, and Leverage somewhere in between. (Even MHRP would be considered a Narrative RPG on this site probably.)

Quote from: Emperor Norton;631644Not only that, but C+ is just a very basic framework and all three of the current C+ games (Smallville, Leverage, Marvel Heroic) are heavily customized to emulate the genre, so have varying amounts of what people here would call "storygame" mechanics.

Personally by my understanding of the RPGSite position, I would consider Smallville more a storygame, Marvel Heroic more a RPG, and Leverage somewhere in between. (Even MHRP would be considered a Narrative RPG on this site probably.)

I don't really see MHRP as a storygame, since actions determine outcomes rather than narrative control. I just see it as a very, very abstract system in the style of HeroQuest.

Quote from: Dan Davenport;631663I don't really see MHRP as a storygame, since actions determine outcomes rather than narrative control. I just see it as a very, very abstract system in the style of HeroQuest.

I agree, personally. It does have narrative mechanics in it, but not an extraordinary amount. Things like creating resources get called that anyway. I'm personally not anti-narrative mechanics as long as they are used well to emulate genre, so to me personally, the distinction isn't important.

(Leverage has quite a lot of genre emulating narrative mechanics, like the whole flashback thing, which works well to make the game feel like heist movies/tv shows, but can cause some of the people on this site to freak out.)

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;631599I don't get how spending plot points breaks immersion at all. Anymore than rolling dice.

It's not the act of spending points, it's the reason you spend points. You have to "look around" the scene, for possible asset hooks, and decide what to invest your limited stack of points in; it's not like fishing for bonuses in other, more conventional, systems.

It somewhat forces you to take a little bit of authorial and directorial stance while you play. Not much, mind, but certainly a non-zero amount.

As Norton also points out, you have things like flashbacks to consider, which again means that you have to think in the authorial stance, to invent a bonus to give to yourself. Unlike the show, however, you can't plan this in advance, because you don't have one overall scriptwriter - because it's certainly not a storygame, you aren't telling a story in it.

Like I said, I like it, but it's not for everyone.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;631573If he can bring the show back (set it before Serenity so that you don't have to deal with the obvious problems and ruin the chemistry that was there) then good luck to him. But that's a long ways off and a lot of wishful thinking.

Naw he said it will be set after Serenity, not before.  I don't think it will ruin chemistry.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;631599I don't get how spending plot points breaks immersion at all. Anymore than rolling dice.

Or having a character sheet in front of you.

Or staring at the 300 lb cat piss man across the table who's pretending he's a teen elf girl.

I'm so entirely sick of the bullshit immersion excuse.