Post/Author/DateTime	Post
sampy 07-28-05, 05:38 PM	After watching a lot of Firefly (the whole show twice in the span of about a month) I've decided to jump in to Eberron by running a game patterned after Firefly: a sense of freedom from authority, bandits with a heart of gold, high action, character driven stories, etc. To that end, I'm trying to find a good replacement for Serenity, the ship from Firefly. I think that it's key that the players have some sort of mobile base that they can go home to and can get them places. I was thinking about having them acquire an airship early but everything I've read on them (which isn't much) seems to indicate that they aren't readily available for normal people. Also, there are concerns about piloting and repairing but I can always use NPCs for that. So I figured that I'd ask the Eberron experts here 1) what they think of my idea, 2) if they have any general suggestions for the game, and 3) what can I use to replace a space ship? Thanks in advance!
Dhakaani Heir 07-28-05, 05:56 PM	IMO there are two ways you could run the "Serenity" 1) Its an elemental Ship, This means it flys but airships are very expensive, rare and above all new so I don't think it would fit with the scrouging the Firefly crew have to do 2) My other idea would be to set the campaign in the Lahzaar principalities and possibly Q,barra both on the fringes of civilisation, where the local crimeboss is usually incharge of each island and the region is full of rebels, deserters and people who wanted no part in the war. In this case Serenity is a cargo ship. Taking it a step farther Mal and Zoe are Cyrians, the losers from the war with nothing to go back to.Also River could be a Psyhically gifted young women pursued by the Dreaming Dark because she escaped them I think thematically the 2nd choice is a better choice
Charles Phipps 07-28-05, 06:05 PM	Part of the problem is that Firefly is distinctly part of its setting and it incorporates a great deal of cliches that are uniquely part of a star faring game. You're stretching a great deal to try to set it in Eberron. The Best solution I can think of is to dramatically increase the number of Airships in Eberron with things like flying islands and also to create an Alliance of the Four Nations to curtail piracy and other illegal actions. You need the Alliance to have the danger to freedom.
Killer GM 07-28-05, 08:14 PM	The way I'd do it is just to give the players a medium-sized airship, make it understood that this is going to be a mobile campaign, and tell the players that their characters should either be on the run from something, or living lives that make them want to keep moving. Remeber, Firefly is a western first and a sci-fi series second. The major themes tend to be "making your own way in the world" and "who you used to be isn't always who you are now." Eberron has enough different cultures and area that finding new "colonies" shouldn't be a problem. And I don't think you have to make up a world-wide government to be against piracy...I'd imagine that the individual nations wouldn't really be too happy with it.
Bobitron 07-29-05, 01:05 PM	I'm working on an Iron Kingdoms game based on Firefly, using a riverboat as the focus instead of a flying vessel. Lots of work to get it going. :(
The White Sorcerer 07-29-05, 01:44 PM	What you need for a Firefly party is: Male human fighter (so as not to break a long standing Eberron tradition, this character is a disillusioned former member of House Deneith) Female human fighter Male half-elf rogue with the dragonmark of Storm Male dwarf fighter Male halfling healer with the dragonmark of Healing Female halfling wilder Female gnome artificer EDIT: And a cleric
Slayen 07-29-05, 02:44 PM	What you need for a Firefly party is: Male human fighter (so as not to break a long standing Eberron tradition, this character is a disillusioned former member of House Deneith) Female human fighter Male half-elf rogue with the dragonmark of Storm Male dwarf fighter Male halfling healer with the dragonmark of Healing Female halfling wilder Female gnome artificer EDIT: And a cleric I'm assuming that the dwarf fighter is supposed to be Jayne? If so, than I'd say a half-orc fighter would fit better.
DragonWatcher 07-29-05, 02:51 PM	1. I think that a Firefly campaign would be a lot of fun. 2. Stripping out the setting specifics of Firefly, the main thrust of the show is that it is a story of smugglers and pirates. The crew of Serenity are anti-heros, which works very well with the blurry alignment in Eberron. Each character is an outlaw for one reason or another (even if in some cases the reason is simply association with the rest of the crew). The thing that really makes the story work is that the crew are opposing one specific force (in the case of the show, it's the Alliance). I could see the crew of a water vessel opposing the Lhazaar Princes, and striking against their ships, smuggling items that the Lhazaar pirates are supposed to have a stranglehold on, etc. Alternatively, either a water vessel or an airship could be opposing either House Lyrandyr (sp) or all of the Dragonmarked houses, seeing them as monopolistic. Of course there are many other organizations that also make good opponents, and might be a bit more traditional, such as the Emerald Claw, Lords of Dust, Dreaming Dark, et al. These groups would also be a bit more obvious and heroic to oppose. 3. I would suggest that the replacement for Serenity be either an Airship or a Sea vessel as well. If you don't mind being limited to the coastline, then a water vessel would be the best way to go (it also wouldn't be terribly overpowering). However, an airship would provide the most freedom, making you harder to track, and allowing you to go almost anywhere. However, it is also much easier to abuse. If you go with the airship, I wouldn't worry about them not being too common or available to the general public. Just come up with a good story as to why the group has one. In other words, don't make them more common or widely available. The group is an exception to the rules in many ways, they are the Hercules, Jason and the Argonots, Aragorn, and Merlin of the setting. They can (or will be able to) do things that others can only dream of. If you want them to start with some kind of vessel, then they should have it. In other words, be careful, because an airship can really make your life as a DM difficult, but if you want to do it, don't make life even more difficult because you feel that you have to adjust the entire setting.
Liane the Wayfarer 07-29-05, 03:03 PM	Depite the fact that airships are relatively new, there are already airship pirates (I believe the Spellcarved Soldier example character in the Races of Eberron book is part of a pirate crew). Airships were part of many nations' forces, so it's easy to imagine some being "lost". You have two easy ways to provide a villainous organization on the level of the Alliance: 1) If they're airship freebooters, they could be going up against House Lyrandar and their monopoly on airships. Individual members of House Lyrandar are, of course, going to make their own decisions, but the majority of the House's members aren't going to want to risk expulsion. That provides a possible overarching menace. 2) The Aurum has its fingers in many, many pies all over the civilized nations, controlling trade and the flow of wealth to the benefit of its members. I could easily see the Aurum in a similar capacity to the Alliance, a group with many loyal soldiers (mercenaries in the case of the Aurum) and "high technology" (magic) at their beck and call. In any case, to avoid the possibility of entanglements with whichever organization you make the villain, the players would do well to stay in the frontier areas: the Eldeen Reaches, Q'barra, and the Shadow Marches, for instance.
The White Sorcerer 07-29-05, 03:25 PM	I'm assuming that the dwarf fighter is supposed to be Jayne? If so, than I'd say a half-orc fighter would fit better. Ah, so it would.
TheShark(tm) 07-29-05, 03:53 PM	BRILLIANT idea to run Eberron / Firefly. As settings go, this one lends to it more than anything. :D What you COULD do if you were a real Firefly purist (and not against twisting the current Eberron world setting a bit) is basically create a Galifar Unification movement and then have the underdog be the Browncoats.. Draw a parallel between the battle at Serenity and the day of Mourning and give the gang an airship. The only problem is MAN, you'd really have to tweak out the world. Basically, the Five Kingdoms would be united, but the further out you got, the more rough and rowdy it became. Doing this might reduce the amount of interaction with Sharn and more populated areas, because the party (the crew of the Firefly) would want to stay as far away from the major cities and rules they represent as possible. *shrug* Great great idea. I'm very excited to hear how it turns out. Two of the best things to come around since sliced bread. Firefly and Eberron. PS- Doing a "Firefly" style Eberron game was one thing that was heavily debated for our game. However, not to the extent you're talking about doing. It was more of a Firefly 'themed' game. Didn't end up going with that idea though. :ahem:
a_psh 07-29-05, 08:56 PM	If you're going for an airship, a good way to make the party outcasts and outlaws is to include either a rogue Lyrandar heir (IIRC, there was already one who stole an airship in the Lhazaar Dragonshard) or an aberrant with ties to House Lyrandar (probably someone of mixed birth, e.g. a Medani/Lyrandar half-blood). On an unrelated note, the war angle should be played up massively. Cyrans are natural here, of course, though disillusioned Karrns work well, too. Reachers, I think, are closest to the Browncoat philosophy, but they did sort of win their own little war, so it's a bit different. I kind of like the Swords of Liberty (see Breland in Five Nations if you've got it) for a past association, too.
Arcane Guyver 07-30-05, 09:20 PM	Truthfully, you don't even need an airship to do something in the vein of Firefly. A good analogue, I think, would be a group of Cyrians who are fighting against this false peace (via criminalistic means), with their freedom to roam Khorvaire being of paramount concern. It'd be all too easy to give the party a wild card NPC that everyone - every nation, secret organization, and mercantile house - wants to get a hold of.
EvilDrPuma 07-30-05, 09:51 PM	Truthfully, you don't even need an airship to do something in the vein of Firefly. A good analogue, I think, would be a group of Cyrians who are fighting against this false peace (via criminalistic means), with their freedom to roam Khorvaire being of paramount concern. It'd be all too easy to give the party a wild card NPC that everyone - every nation, secret organization, and mercantile house - wants to get a hold of. This is much like my own thoughts on drawing inspiration from Firefly for an Eberron game. I kind of visualize a "flashback" first session in which the PCs have to abandon their posts and find their way across the Cyran border on the Day of Mourning with the devastation advancing behind them. They could even be wanted for desertion or as "illegal refugees," depending on how the setup went. From there, they spend a few years taking odd jobs on both sides of the law just to survive without ending up in High Walls, New Cyre, or some other refugee community.
MarkB 07-31-05, 12:37 PM	Instead of an airship, how about a small but manoueverable elemental sea-going ship, one which could equally well cruise the inland trading routes of the Dagger river and Lake Galifar. Most of the party's less-than-legal operations take place out on the borders, like Lhazaar and Q'barra, even Stormreach, but when the mission calls for it, they'll visit more central spots like Sharn or Passage. Making the Mal-equivalent character an ex-Cyran soldier - a Mourner in Khorvairan parlance - is a great fit, and there are loads of possibilities for the rest of the crew. A non-House-member Lyrandar heir as pilot, married to the ship's XO, who served with the captain in the war an amoral Warforged with a gender-ambiguous name who seems to be on board purely as muscle a lowborn gnome engineer who knows more about elemental binding than any ten other artificers a Sovereign Host priest who you strongly suspect has multiclass rogue levels but are never quite sure and a highborn House Jorasco healer, on the run from agents of the Chamber and/or Aurum with his sister, whose aberrant dragonmark seems to attract inordinate attention. The ship's launch is rented by a House Phiarlan changeling, who conducts her business around the ship's schedule.
The White Sorcerer 07-31-05, 12:41 PM	Just a random thought... Mal sounds a lot like a changeling name, doesn't it?
Joni-san 07-31-05, 07:04 PM	Yeah, it 'sorta does remind one of a Changeling name :thinks: One question: Who should substitute the Zealous Mob that tried to burn River
a_psh 07-31-05, 08:02 PM	One question: Who should substitute the Zealous Mob that tried to burn River Bumpkins. Err, try the preacher-guy in Q'Barra?
Kinger 07-31-05, 09:43 PM	I'm sure one should have little trouble finding a lynch mob willing to burn an abberant heir. "Burn the unclean, the tainted! Cleanse it from this world!" Wherever the crew happens to go (say the Talenta Plains, assuming you can reach them by river...), there'll likely be a group of 'marked "purists" that would be happy to get rid of anyone with an aberrant mark. Maybe the local head of a Ghallanda enclave is a real old-schooler, looking to continue the War of the Mark.
Wizardman 08-01-05, 01:22 AM	I've been thinking about this for a while now. Mal- CG human fighter/rogue. I picture him as being loyal to Galifar- he's the type that would have headed off to Q'Barra if he was born anywhere but Cyre, whose heir had the rightful claim to the throne. He's a warrior, but with some social skills (not enough to serve him well in high society, but they do more than well in common or criminal company), so a small number of rogue levels. He operates in a number of enterprises both legal and criminal, but his conscience works just fine, and he's very compassionate (though he sometimes tries not to be). Zoe- She's a little harder to pin down. She's a straight-up fighter, probably better than Mal. She's probably human, but she could be of any race. Alignmentwise, she's definitely lawful. I'm not sure if she's LG or LN. You could argue it either way. Wash- CG half-elf rogue. Dragonmarked (Storms) but not connected to House Lyrandar. He's happy-go-lucky, but can be intense under the right circumstances. Kaylee- CG gnome artificer. She has little formal schooling, but loads of natural brilliance and talent. What formal education she does have came from her father, so- gnome. Jayne- NE (with N leanings) half-orc barbarian. NE should be obvious- he'll side with anyone and do anything so long as it's in his best interests, he's willing (even a bit eager) to torture, and he will sell his companions out for the right price. That said, over the course of the series he starts to change, so NE with N leanings. I might put him as Warforged, but he feels like the war doesn't matter- mostly because he never fought in it. He almost cannot be a Warforged. Half-orc, then. Barbarian because he has great prowess at fighting but doesn't come off as being trained the way Mal or Zoe were, and he has some wilderness skill. Vera is a greatsword of some kind, masterwork at the very least. Inara- NG elf bard or LG elf rogue. She's Dragonmarked. Leaving aside the specifics of what Companions do, on an organizational level they sound a lot like a Dragonmarked House. She's very disciplined in some ways, but she's on Serenity for a reason. Is it because the formal duties of the House chafe at her in some way, or has she made a high-ranking enemy or two? We don't know. Simon- LG halfling expert/rogue/Dragonmarked Heir. At first he's an expert/Dragonmarked Heir, but he gains a rogue level or two as a result of his adventures on Serenity. River- halfling psion (telepath). She's a little beyond alignment at the moment. I have an idea of how River was trained: she had great potential, the Dreaming Dark got ahold of her, the rest is history. They wouldn't train a wilder, so she's telepath. Book- LG? changeling cleric?/rogue?. Thematically, changeling fits him very well. There's a facade, but also a question as to what is beneath the surface. He could be of any class or combination. He acts LG, but is he really? Being a cleric with a possible smattering of rogue levels is certainly possible, but who knows? Serenity is an airship, mostly based out of Q'Barra but will work just about anywhere. Simon is hiding his sister from the Dreaming Dark, not that anybody knows what the Dreaming Dark is yet, or even that there is a Dreaing Dark.
stevelabny 08-01-05, 01:47 AM	I've been planning on running Firefly NPCs through my upcoming Eberron campaign. Originally they will be met individually, then later they will get their hands on the airship Serenity. Malerie Reynolds, female Cyran ftr/rog (now she'll probably be a Cyran Avenger). Bitter and angry veteran of the Last War. Zo, female changeling fighter. Has been by Malerie's side since the War. Recently married to Vvash. VVash d'Lyrandar, male expert , a flighty guy who's given up his postion in the family to tag along with his lovely changeling wife. J'Cobb, male shifter barbarian. He's tough, not bright, and is interested in two things. Coin and women. Kail male-personality warforged artificer. He's naive but good at fixing things. Tam d'Jorasco, male halfing expert. formerly a spoiled rich kid, now he's on the run with his sister... Dagger, female psion halfling. she's been experimented on by an underground department of the Brelish military. Nara, female "expert". I believe the word is *****. Tome, male ? (cleric of the Silver Flame? other? not sure yet) A man of mystery...and the cloth. I switched up the names and genders just a little to keep my players off balance. Nara will obviously remind them of Inara. I'm not sure if J'Cobb will instantly bring up the idea of Jayne. (unless he comes from Canton) Switching genders on Mal is probably enough to hide her under their noses until the ship is found. And turning Simon and River Tam into Tam and Dagger (like the river, silly) a pair of halflings will surely not be caught. Spelling Wash's name with two Vs will make some of the players think of Vash the Stampede of anime fame. And Zo is a pretty simple changeling name, On the very edge of Cyre, Malerie knows of a prototype airship that was supposed to provide her air support in Serenity Valley. When the Day of Mourning happened, the airship went down, and her and Zo were the only two of their squad to escape. Now that Mal and Zo have found a crew (J'Cobb, Vvash and Kail) they want to head back into the Mournland and recover the ship. The PCs can meet Nara in Sharn, Tome just about anywhere, and might even be the ones hired by Tam to rescue his "belongings" from captivity. Eventually, they might get recruited to help Malerie find the airship. And then they can choose if the Airship will be their base of operations, (and perfect source for NPCs for when a player can't make it, or someone wants to play a solo session) or if they will just call upon the Serenity at certain times. Might be too many recurring NPCs, but once the players realize who they are, the personalities are so ingrained, it should be easy for everyone to follow along. Seems like the perfect built-in subplot to the main campaign
sampy 08-01-05, 01:44 PM	Wow, great response! My players told me I was on to something cool when I suggested the idea but I didn't know it would get this kind of reception :) After reading this thread and thinking about it some more, I do think I'm going to give them an airship and have the first adventure be about getting their hands on it. I noticed the reference to sky pirates in the Spellcarved Soldier encounter too and once I saw that I figured it wouldn't be too hard to get them a ship. I have a few ideas for what the adventure is going to be and a way to get them the ship in such a way that they're not marked for death from the get go. I'd mention them here but some of my players know of this thread and I'd hate to spoil my twist ending :) As far as characters go, I'm more willing to twist Firefly than Eberron (but I *loved* the reccomendations for translating them into the game directly). Also, I only have 5 players so we're not going to cover everything. So far Mal is shaping up to be a female Cyrian warrior of some kind that led people out of Cyre on the Day of Mourning into Valenar only to watch them be slaughtered by the elves. How she survived is still in the works. The Zoe analog will be a Warforged Fighter/Wizard going towards spellsword who either fought with "Mal" during the war and just stuck with her or joined up later since he didn't know what else to do. He's more self-motivated than Zoe, wanting to perfect himself both magically and martially. The strangest combo so far has to go to our Human Artificer. He's combining the role of Kaylee as ship maintainer and expert on all things technical with Jayne's attitude and love for blowing things up and making cash. I'm really exicted about this chacter since the player behind him is a huge Jayne fan :) Anara is going to be a pretty literal translation and will cause our one tweak to Eberron: the creation of a companion guild similar to that in Firefly. We explored options of integrating it with one of the existing houses or power structures but the player prefers it to be independant. As it stands, they will be less of a power player than the Houses and more of a loose confederation of independant contractors. While there will most certainly be ambitious members, the guild itself won't be trying to take over the world or anything like that. Class-wise, she's probably going to be mostly a Telepath with maybe a little rogue mixed in to get some skills. I haven't talked to our final player in a few days so I'm not sure what she's planning yet. There are still a lot of roles left to fill so it will be interesting to see what she does. I'm really excited about this game and I'm going to be working on it during my vacation this week in Hawaii. I'll make sure to come back here and let you guys know how it goes. Thanks for all the great ideas!
Charles Phipps 08-01-05, 01:50 PM	Suggestions all round... The Dreaming Dark and Reidra for the Alliance: The players have acquired a young girl "mascott" who is completely helpless. She is a Kalashtyr. What the players don't realize is the fact that she's actually a newly "captured" Quori that was "caught" when it tried to possess a young girl with awesome psionic powers. The Quori are desperate to get back on of their overlords as the girl if she destroys it may actually become a threat to the entire Empire, even if her powers are only incredible in the Dreaming rather than the real world. The Men in Blue Gloves are Inspired and offer HUGE rewards. Reavers: I recommend ORC sky pirates. If you really want to make them disturbing, have the Reavers actually operating from a Sky-Citadel or Floating Island, perhaps controleld by a fiend or Illithid sect that explains their unnatural coordination and skill.
sampy 08-01-05, 01:58 PM	RE: Blue gloves as Inspired I totally imagined River as an escaped Inspired host. Simon could be more of a distant relative from the non-Inspired conclave on that continent (just read about it last night and don't have my books handy). But now that I read your idea, I think I like it better :)