Hey All,
Here are the characters and general ideas we have thus far. Quite the rowdy crew we have forming here. Everything looks good so far. Lets discuss and narrow a few items down shall we?
Things to Discuss
- Character Roles
- Campaign Ideas
- Custom Ship
- Do the characters know each other (vote, see below)
Characters
FantasyChic: Career Lawdog, Freelance Investigator, or Blue Sun Corporate Assassin
Rusty Tincanne: Asteroid miner or off world farmer (2nd Mechanic, Dark-Humor Support Cast)
Jack: Captain in debt, former POW
Marallus: Soldier and tactician without a cause (Meat and Potatoes, side of Fungi). Fighting/Firearms, Influence, and Notice with balanced attributes
FantasyChic: Career Lawdog, Freelance Investigator, or Blue Sun Corporate Assassin.
Rusty Tincanne: Asteroid miner or off world farmer. Maybe they would have some mechanical knowledge and could help work on the engines and lift heavy things. Then add in one entirely unrelated skill that represents a failed dream or why they left their old life - perhaps he plays harmonica. Too soon to tell yet. Basically, I am happy to play a supporting cast member, adding in a bit of dark humor as warranted.
Jack: A captain doing mostly pickup and delivery jobs, some smuggling, and the odd salvage when spotted. Struggling to pay off the debt from buying the ship. Zhào Percy was a political prisoner before the war, and his prison became a POW camp during the war.
Marallus: The idea is that he was a specialist in the war and given combat-enhancing drugs that unlocked a latent reader talent. He was a good solider and helped win the war... in the process he saw the secrets of his Alliance upper brass enough to disenchant him to their entire organization. Post-war, he was a soldier and tactician without a cause. He lays low because he doesn't want recognition as an alliance hero, tacitly associating with post-war browncoats (or even perhaps he was a double-agent among them). He gravitated to the rim looking for obscurity, ended up on a ship in the Black because the noise of people's minds around him is too much, and ended up with this captain because the captain has earned his trust (and the captain's secrets are minimal/aligned/don't bother him/something he can believe in). I see him as a strong in Fighting/Firearms, Influence, and Notice with balanced attributes.
Character Creation: Custom
Reader: Most seem open to one.
Campaign Ideas
Marallus: I see the format as based around our ship, with the planet/site being fungible based on each session. So the ship is wherever you want it to be. I am particularly fond of struggling with the Alliance, though. I may be outnumbered and am okay going with the group.
Jack: I like the idea of starting in the middle of a conflict, on a world and not in space, with all the PCs except one knowing each other very well. That one PC maybe switching sides to join us (like Jayne in Out of gas), which would allow for some natural exposition with that PC asking the others about themselves, the ship, and their regular contacts (like Book and Simon).
Rusty Tincanne: I am really open to most anything, depending on what others want to do. I am usually drawn to the story of the "little guy" who gets in over their head, but I don't need to do that. Also, the show focused on a band of smugglers, which is what I assume we will be doing, but there is nothing stopping us from playing an alliance patrol group or something.
FantasyChic: Open to anything
Rusty Tincanne: Having played games where everyone starts out knowing one another (so there is no "what is your backstory" mystery floating around) and the standard, "we all just me in the bar and now we are heading into the wilderness" type of RPG, I can say I don't have a huge preference. Both can offer plenty of opportunities for conflicting motives and role playing through them. If we are voting on that, my preference is that we either all know one another or we are all
GM: I'm thinking we could start out with a semi-clunker ship that Jack's character owes money on. Maybe he paid too much, just needed to get moving, his POW time continually creeping up on his tail. We might throw in a serious complication that cripples, or hinders the ship, or perhaps it's DOA with no hope for survival, and now Jack's character has a debt and no ship. Perhaps the party members are stranded somewhere and they work together, getting to know one another in the process, to get back in the air.
Just a couple of initial ideas, after reading through everyone's posts. Let's brainstorm this a little more together.
Ship Creation
Marallus: Open (as long as he doesn’t have to do it)
Jack: Would like to help create a custom ship
Rusty Tincanne: Open (fine with Jack doing it)
Character Knowledge of Each Other
Seems to be half-n-half and on the fence. I kind of like the idea of starting things out in a pinch (though I'm not set on it) and have the characters thrown in together, for one reason or another. I think the dynamic would work nicely, considering where everyone is going with their characters so far. I feel this should be a vote though...
They all know each other:
YES or
NO
