WombatZone

Look and Feel
The book is a pretty hardcover, with glossy full-color pages and a mix of movie stills and original art. Fiction bits written by Margaret Weis open each chapter. Some feature the Serenity crew, others the crew of Aces & Eights (the other sample ship and crew detailed in the book). The vignettes in the former category seem to get the characterization right, including the all-important Whedon-esque humor.

Like Eden Studios' Buffy and Angel RPGs, the Serenity RPG is written in a style that's supposed to mimic the feel of the source material -- in this case, a space-cowboy dialect with the occasional bit of profanity in phonetically rendered Chinese. The device works well, and does not seem jarring.

I'll review the rest of the book chapter by chapter.

Here's How It Is
The book opens with this quick overview of the game and the 'Verse. Here we get the filled-out character sheets and page-long descriptions of the nine main characters of the series and movie. The histories seem to include facts not revealed onscreen (though I still haven't watched the three unaired episodes of Firefly). We also get each character's full name, some of which seem to have changed compared to earlier background information I've seen. ("Zoe Warren" and "Meria Book" seemed to be the fan-accepted full names of those characters during the run of the TV series, but here they are "Zoe Washburne" -- maiden name "Alleyne," so the change isn't just the use of Wash's name -- and "Derrial Book.")

Find a Crew
This is the character-creation chapter. Character creation is point-based, with three possible power levels ("Greenhorn," "Veteran," and "Big Damn Hero"). Refreshingly, the characters from the show seem to be Veterans with some experience. Many licensed games present the "stars" of the setting as having stats far beyond those possible to even an experienced PC, even though the draw of such games is presumably the chance to engage in exploits similar to those of the screen heroes. Attribute ratings are bought as die types, from "d2" (any die rolled for a "high or low" result) to "d12+d12." Skills are rated the same way, but they are bought with their own pool of points. Traits are your standard advantages/disadvantages, called Assets and Complications in this game. They come in Minor and Major flavors, respectively costing (or granting) two or four extra points to spend on Attributes. Finally, every character starts with six Plot Points, which are used to buy extra dice on a roll, reduce damage from injuries, or perform "dramatic editing." Entertaining play earns a player extra Plot Points, up to 12, but only 6 can be held over to a subsequent session -- the rest become experience points.

Traits & Skills
The actual Skill and Trait descriptions get their own chapter, which has become semi-standard in RPGs since White Wolf started following the practice in the early 90s. The skill list is short, and the skills very broad, another way in which the game is comparable to the Buffy and Angel RPGs. However, a general skill can only be bought up to a rating of d6; the higher die types come only with specialization, and each specialization must be bought up separately from the rating of the general skill. Sample specializations are given with each skill, as are examples of tasks at each level of difficulty (a concept dealt with further in the rules chapter).

Traits have appropriately "Western"-sounding names, and cover a wide range of special capabilities and disabilities. A Minor Asset generally gives a +2 bonus to certain die rolls, while the Major version of the same Asset gives a new way to spend Plot Points in order to insure a certain outcome. Complications limit the character, but grant additional Plot Points whenever they prove a hindrance in play. The use of Plot Points to "power" Major Assets actually helps reflect the way TV and movie characters sometimes fail to make the most efficient use of their established abilities, or wait until the last minute to pull out the big solution. For example, the "Engineering Miracle" Asset can allow a character to make a machine do just about anything, but costs Plot Points in proportion to the improbability of the stunt. So the mechanic may not be able to fix a problem early in the episode, but can whip out a fix near the end, after she has spent plenty of time role-playing and dealing with her Complications in order to earn Plot Points.

There is a "Reader" Asset, to represent River-style telepathy, but it is available only with GM permission, and the GM is encouraged to require attached Complications (like, say, "thoroughly nuts" and "hunted by really dangerous folk"). The Minor version only grants bonuses on tasks where being able to "read" people would be an advantage, and could represent someone who isn't consciously telepathic at all. The Major version allows deliberate mind-reading, but only once per session and at a Plot Point cost.

Money & Gear
This is the equipment-list chapter. It begins with a very helpful discussion of economics in the 'Verse, from the Alliance credits used in the Core to the silver, gold, and platinum coins preferred on the Rim. A full page box-out treats the economics of running a tramp freighter in enough detail to be fun and playable, but without going to the extremes that, say, Traveller does. (Even so, the author points out that the rules are only for those who enjoy actually including their incomes and expenditures in the game, and can be dispensed with in favor of only bringing up the crew's wealth (or lack thereof) when it serves a story point.) The equipment descriptions cover pretty much everything we see in the 'Verse, from the acidic "sticky" used to burn through hulls in vacuum to Mr. Universe's LoveBot. Guns are treated in surprisingly little detail, with only basic categories like "pistol," "rifle," and "shotgun." The sample character sheets do encourage PCs by example to give some distinction to their personal weapons, though; for example, Jayne's sheet describes and gives stats for Vera.

The final section of the chapter covers "Newtech." This is basically a set of rules for customizing equipment, with modifications categorized by how much they multiply the cost of the final product. Players can use these rules to stat out personalized gear (like good old Vera again), and GMs can equip the Feds on their tails with the latest in cutting-edge weaponry and tracking equipment.

Keep Flyin'
We come now to the rules chapter. The basic mechanic is pretty familiar -- add Attribute and Skill, and try to beat a difficulty number. Since Attributes and Skills are rated in die types, this means rolling two different dice and comparing the total to the difficulty. Bonuses can add extra dice or (more often) improve or degrade one of your dice to a different type. Difficulty numbers start at 3 and increase in increments of 4 (3, 7, 11, 15, etc.). For contested rolls, you are, as usual, trying to beat the other guy's roll. Beating your difficulty number (or the other guy) by 7 or more is an extraordinary success, which has specific effects in combat and otherwise just means you succeed really well. Plot Points can be spent before the roll to add an extra die (at a cost equal to half the die type -- 1 for an extra d2, up to the maximum of 12 for two additional d12s). Plot Points can also be spent after the roll, but then they only add 1 to the result per point spent.

Combat is moderately complex, but not too bad. Characters have two damage tracks, Stun and Wound. Stun is counted up the page and Wound down. When they meet (or when Stun fills up, if the character has no Wound damage) the character falls unconscious. When Wound damage is filled, the character is at death's door. An attack is a contested roll; damage equals the amount by which the attacker beat the defender on the roll, plus a die roll for weapon damage. Damage type can be either Stun (all stun), Basic (half and half, favoring Stun), or Lethal (all Wound), depending on the weapon. If attack beats defense by 7 or more, some kind of lasting wound effect occurs, in addition to points of damage. Plot Points can be spent to reduce damage taken, in the same way they are spent to add to die rolls: you "buy" a die or two with Plot Points, then roll them and subtract that much from the damage. The usual combat options (aiming, cover, firing into melee, and so forth) are described, usually modifying the die type the player rolls.

Boats & Mules
The vehicles chapter. In a bit of brilliance, the author has taken the "ship as a character in the show" idea quite literally; vehicles are statted in exactly the same way as characters, with the same Attributes and Skills (though they do have a few more ship-specific Traits). Translating the human Attributes into vehicle stats is a little weird, but there are detailed descriptions of what each rating of each Attribute means for a ship. (Perception is sensor quality, for example, and Willpower -- my favorite character-to-vehicle translation -- represents redundant systems that allow a boat to keep flyin' even when shot to hell.) The best new ship Trait, picking up on Mal's coda to the film, is "Loved," which allows any member of a ship's established crew to spend Plot Points on the ship's actions, even if not actually involved in operating the ship at the time.

A decent number of ships and land/air vehicles are statted out in the chapter, including both the generic Firefly and Serenity herself -- turns out she's a medical variant from the War, explaining that fully-stocked infirmary. Also described -- with deck plans -- are the smaller Bumblebee-class transport, the Aces & Eights (a wealthy gambler's private vessel), and the El Dorado-class luxury liner, useful for both high-class vacationin' and robbin'. The land vehicles include both standard and hover mules, a generic aircar, and the Reaver skiff.

Out in the Black
This is the GMing chapter, and it's a fine one. Quite a few pages are dedicated to running adventures and campaigns in the Firefly/Serenity style, and the advice is all good. The genre conventions of both SF and the Western are discussed, with specific examples of how to incorporate them into a game. Plotting advice starts with finding a character's or group's "desire" and using it as a lure. Both "stock" and fleshed-out NPCs are discussed, with special focus on giving them motivations and agendas of their own. Finally, a huge section gives stats for both generic NPCs and specific ones from the movies, though these appear to be in no discernable order (even alphabetical). Even the generic NPCs have short descriptions that include sample motivations and role-playing hooks, and they come in several flavors (so the cynical Fed veteran gets a different entry from the gung-ho recruit, and the same for a backwater madam and the head of a Companion House). The specific NPCs included are almost entirely from the movie (Fanty and Mingo, Mr. Universe, The Operative). The inclusion of a Companion called Sheydra puzzled me at first, as I did not recall her from the movie, but later research indicates that her scene was cut. Series NPCs are not specifically named, but the descriptions of some of the "generics" strongly resemble favorites like Badger and Saffron.

(I actually can't figure out where the lines were drawn between "series" and "movie" information for purposes of the game. Sometimes it seems as though the author feels constrained to mention series-specific material only by implication, but other times names are used. Mal's sheet describes his "Deadly Enemy" Complication as "a certain sadistic old man with a skyplex," but the setting chapter's entry for the planet Ezra mentions Adelei Niska by name as a torture-loving crimelord who has moved in on the place with his skyplex. Possibly, assumptions about the Firefly-vs.-Serenity IP situation changed over the course of the game's development, and some sections were not updated.)

A Brief Guide to the 'Verse
This is a relatively small (25 pages or so) setting chapter. However, setting information and especially setting atmosphere are scattered throughout the book, so it's more than sufficient. Here we get the history of the 'Verse; a rundown of each planet and moon in the Core, Border, and Rim territories; a look at the Alliance government; information on corporations and guilds (including the Companion's Guild); and a little bit on religion in the 'Verse (with special focus on the missionary Order of Shepherds). There's a two-page spread that sort of functions as a map; one page is a reproduction of a viewscreen from the movie, with presumably the entire "system" shown but only Miranda magnified and named. The other page is a "menu" of planets and moons, with names and a little picture of what each looks like from space, but no indication of their spatial relation to each other (they're just in rows and columns, with different background colors that might indicate Core, Border, and Rim worlds, though that doesn't exactly seem to work).

There still seems to be some confusion over the extent of the setting -- a single star system, or several? The text mostly describes the former, in line with the movie. However, the travel-times table includes an entry for system-to-system travel, and the planet Ezra is identified as being in "the Georgia system." Furthermore, the quasi-map seems to show multiple stars, each with its own system of planets. (It's possible that "the system" simply has multiple stars, including one named Georgia, or that some of the apparent stars on the map are actually gas giants, but certainty on the matter seems lacking.)

Those who were fearing that an RPG specifically based on Serenity the movie would have to leave out everything from the series need fear no longer. While there isn't an episode-guide chapter or anything like that, the planets described include those visited in the series, and are easily identifiable by their descriptions. Likewise, the background information applies to the overall setting, and is not limited to things the movie focused on. (Inara's profession barely comes up in the movie, for example, but there's quite a bit of information on Companions in the rulebook.)

Appendix: Gorram Chinese
The last few pages of the book consist of a glossary of Serenity slang, including a large number of Chinese curse words and insulting phrases.

Overall Opinion
I like it. Every bit of the book pulls the reader into the Firefly/Serenity mindset, and the mechanics do cinematic space-action well. (With some renaming of Traits to sound a little less "cowboy," I think the system would work great for a classic-era Star Trek game, for example, especially with the "ship as character" notion.) I can see why some people might prefer a less traditional RPG system for the setting -- one that's all about character dynamics and spends no time at all on the specifics of ships'n'guns'n'such -- but this one works fine and will likely appeal to a larger audience, while still getting the nature of the setting across in tone and GM advice. The rule that one can accumulate 12 Plot Points but only keep 6 allows for "cool stuff points" and experience points to be the same without imposing the "succeed now or improve my character later" dilemma that some dislike. Working Plot Points into the Assets system is also a brilliant move, allowing characters to do amazing things but only by spending a limited resource, which keeps the amazing solution from being the first resort every time.