CATALOGACIÓN DEL ESPACIO

Whether the battle continues to the bitter end or only until one side gives in, what exactly does it mean when an army suffers Disruption?

Well, there are a few possibilities. Disruption can represent dead folk, simple enough. But it can also represent units that got scattered to the wind. They can’t fight effectively, but still manage to survive. Soldiers could be captured

A Matter of Drama

Even large scale combat, whether you’re talking ground-troops in Serenity Valley or fleet clashes between the Alliance and Reavers, should be about the dramatic, dynamic story you and your players are creating. Unless the action is entirely in the background— and the players only hear about it later or watch from afar—scenes that involve Big Damn Battles should still take the crew into account. Remember, you don’t have all the pretty pictures from the silver screen or professional special effects, but you do have the imagination and description to do even better. Only problem is, dice rolls don’t always make for the most inspiring descriptions, while randomly rolling to see which space fleet wins a battle might derail the plot if the Reavers eat everyone.

In short, this is the Serenity Role Playing Game, not a miniatures wargame or a real-time strategy computer game. For the players, the most important part of any combat comes from the point-of-view of their characters. Massive battles are certainly dramatic, but in a role playing game, they are more plot device than game mechanic. Engagements on such huge scales occur mostly in the background, while the focus remains on the personal level. The same is also true for battles between ships, cruisers, and fighters.

During any large group or spacecraft battle, Game Masters should describe the overall action, but “run” only small scenes at the character’s eye level. Imagine Wash and the crew of Serenity trapped between warring Reaver and Alliance special-forces ships. The players succeed if Wash makes his rolls to pilot through the chaos, Kaylee keeps the engines running, Mal can keep everyone on-task. Then, while that is happening, the Game Master could cut to a scene where the Operative has to make Alertness-based rolls to pick out the best targets. If he fails to spot them, his ship will quickly be overwhelmed.

Then zoom out. Stitch these individual scenes together with description of the

overall direction of the battle, the dramatic moments where Reaver weapons rip Alliance ships apart or where skilled Alliance interceptor pilots take out key Reaver aggressors. These moments aren’t rolled-for directly, but are descriptions based on plot necessity and influenced by the successes or failures of the ‘key rolls’ that happened in the small scenes. For example, if the Operative spots the right target, describe his ship blowing the Reaver vessel to the hot place. If not, describe his ship being sliced practically in two by a high-energy weapon. Don’t bother rolling for the actual attacks or damage.

And then remember to zoom back in to the crew. Don’t be afraid to set real and deadly challenges, but be sure that a single failed roll doesn’t instantly end the game—or the players’ fun! For example, if Wash fails a piloting roll, maybe an EMP blast clips Serenity and knocks out her power. Spiraling out of control is a bad thing, but it gives Wash and Kaylee both a moment to shine, pulling off the most heroic actions of their lives.

It’s all a matter of setting-up drama, resolving a few actions, shifting away at

appropriate moments to create bite-size cliffhangers, then repeat. Players should be eager to see what happens next, whether this involves their characters or others.

The only time a roll is needed is when something dramatic is about to happen, when there’s a real question to be resolved. But remember, don’t roll if a failure would ruin the story or the fun. Just let the event happen. If a scene calls for a Reaver vessel to crash headlong into the Operative’s ship and destroy it, don’t roll for piloting or damage, just let it happen and focus on the Operative’s race to his escape pod!

instead of killed or maybe they lost morale and routed. This is a role playing game, so keep the story in mind here.

After the battle is over, decide what the remaining Disruption totals actually mean to each army. If you like, bring the players in on this too, and have them decide the fates of their opponents if they lost at least in general terms. If the players lost, they can narrate that as well. What do the survivors from the losing side do? Even if they can’t fight as an army, they might still refuse to surrender and wind up being hunted down, or escaping into the black. There might be pockets of heavy resistance, especially if the crewmembers were involved on the losing side! In fact, a well-known valley became legendary as the result of one particular sergeant refusing to lay down arms.

Special

Considerations: Crew

In The Hot Zone.

The point of using these rules for Big Damn Battles is to avoid having to roll for every single attack or action that all have to happen in

3-second turns of combat, acted out in Initiative order—for potentially thousands of troops. But even then, if you want to make a big tussle like a U-War battle go fast, the crewmembers aren’t gonna want to sit by and twiddle their thumbs. If you’re using these rules, here’s how the crew makes a difference.

During Step 3, while leaders are taking their turns whacking at each other with their armies, give the players a chance to act as well, just before their leader rolls. If the leader is a crew character, he doesn’t get to participate in this step, since he’s busy leadin’!

Ask each player to describe what it is he’s doing to help out in the fight. Could be anything from front-line combat to medical aid back in the tents. Then have the player make an appropriate roll, based on his description, against an Average Difficulty. The hotshot on the front

lines might roll Agility + Guns/Rifle, the doc might toss Intelligence + Medical Expertise/ Surgery. Each successful roll adds a +1 Skill step to the leader’s attack roll for that turn, while each extraordinary success adds a +2 Skill step. Unfortunately, a botch on this roll not only adds nothing to the leader’s attempt, but it also inflicts d6 Basic damage on the crewmember. Players can spend Plot Points on their own rolls if they want to do so.

This sort of thing also applies to any combat where you think half the players are just going to end up sittin’ there cooling their heels. Pitched ship to ship battle? Sounds like the ideal time for the doctor to step up to the plate. Let the Companion roll for the scanners. Everybody can join in!

Crafty Crew

Sometimes, especially if they get themselves involved in a long-runnin’ campaign, the crew might find an opportunity to use their Skills to make, build, or design a new piece of gear or even a vehicle. Whether they’re strictly practical in their goals or if they’re stretchin’ for the height of Newtech capability, the rules here might help you when it comes to deciding what exactly the crew can do and how much it’s gonna cost ‘em.

This section also includes an update to the “Patching Up” rules from Chapter Five of the

Serenity Role Playing Game, clarifying how folk heal

on their own without the help a good doctor.

Improving Stuff

One of the first things a ship’s engineer is bound to ask is: “Can I make her better?” Or maybe the crew’s local gun-nut wants to customize his very favorite gun. Either way, if you want to have some concrete rules to turn to, look no further. There’s still plenty of ways you can tweak these to fit what you want to work in your game, but the rules here should cover most things.

Step One

First, you need to figure the cost of the upgrade. For gear, consult the “Newtech” rules in Chapter Three of the Serenity Role Playing

Game and figure out what a new version of the

item would cost if the crew just up and spent their platinum on it. If the upgrade is too minor to qualify for Newtech, use the base price of the item as-is. Making the upgrade costs one half (1/2, rounded up) of the difference between the chosen price and the price of the base item (extremely minor upgrades are free). This cost is for spare parts, extra components, and scrap, which the crew can get by disassembling other items, searching a junkyard, buying outright. If they’re upgrading a ship, the cost in components is likewise one half the difference in price between ship’s new value and the ship’s original value (calculated as if it were a brand-new ship in both instances).

Step Two

Second, pick an Attribute and Skill combination, and then call for a complex action. Select a Threshold and tell the crew how much time each roll represents. Usually, Intelligence or Alertness fits the bill, and the Skill is Mechanical or Technical Engineering/ Design (or Construction, or Repair; you can be flexible here). The Threshold should match how complicated you think the process is: minor upgrades without a significant mechanical bonus should probably be Easy; upgrades equivalent to low levels of Newtech should be Average or Hard; more complicated or advanced-Newtech versions would require Heroic or higher. The time per roll for upgrades is usually thirty minutes to two hours or up to twelve hours if working on upgrading a whole spaceship.

Step Three

All that decided, the player doin’ the lion’s share of the work needs to start making rolls and beat that complex action. Generally, she can receive aid from others on these rolls, but only one crewmember can provide direct assistance.

Any others involved can provide only indirect assistance. It’s usually acceptable for significant time to pass between rolls, unless the player is trying to complete the project by a certain time. If she botches twice (resulting in automatic failure), the cost of the components has to be spent again to begin another attempt.

If one of the crew makes his character with the intent to spend a lot of time upgrading equipment or ships, you may want to spend some extra time fleshing out these rules with more specific details. You’ll want to consider the quality of available tools or the amount of time the crewmember has. Here’s some possible modifiers to these rules, which could be used whole, piecemeal, or modified:

Time

Doubling the amount of time spent per roll allows you to treat the first botch of the attempt as merely a failure.

Tools

Usually, crafting something requires the proper facilities, but you should be lenient for those crafty crewmembers looking as to make minor upgrades. It doesn’t take a full machine shop to attach a scope to a rifle! For those using better-than-normal facilities, lower the Threshold by one category to a minimum of Easy. Using inadequate facilities raises the Threshold by one category.

Components

Doubling the cost of the components adds a +2 Skill step to all rolls on the complex action. Spending only half the cost of the components imposes a –2 Skill step to all rolls or makes the upgrade impossible if you decide that the components are too vital to skimp on.

Making Stuff

If she fancies herself enough of a grease- monkey to make her stuff better, a Big Damn Hero might be of a mind to build her own gear from the ground up—guns, computers or even spaceships!

Fortunately, the rules for doing so don’t need to be a lot more complicated than the rules for upgrading gear. It’ll take longer and cost more, though. Follow the same steps as listed in “Improving Stuff ” but with these changes:

Cost

The cost of the components when building gear from scratch is one half (1/2) the final market value. As a guideline, you might let relatively normal gear uses a slightly cheaper price. Newtech-quality gear and all spaceships probably shouldn’t be discounted further (though see the sidebar Get Flyin’ for a description of how a new crew might use these rules to build their own ship). Also, if they’re building a ship, getting a hold of some of the parts might make a good adventure by itself!

Get Flyin’

If the crew starts out without a ship of their own, these rules can be used to give them a decent shot at putting one together, if you’re willing, and if they don’t mind having to use a little extra elbow grease to keep her in the air.

Have the players create or select a ship model and find the appropriate price. Chances are that even one half that market price will be beyond their means. If they want to build the ship instead of buying it, they can add the Seen Better Days Complication to lower the cost. As a Minor Complication, the ship’s market value drops to one quarter of its original price. Building it halves that again, making the price to build a ship with Seen Better Days [Minor] one-eighth (12.5%) the normal price of a new version.

On the other hand, the crew might be able to get their hands on a complete junker, a wreck of a ship with Seen Better Days [Major] that doesn’t even fly. That would cost 5% or less of the original market price (some might even be free, if they can drag it out of the scrap yard). Then they could ‘upgrade’ it to a ship with only the Minor level of Seen Better Days, meaning it would start working again . . . with a few quirks. In this case, the price of the upgrade would be about 7.5% of the ship’s market value. If you’re kind, you might round that to 5%, making this the cheapest option—especially because restoring a ship will be easier for a crew to do on their own and might not require a drydock facility if they’re lucky!

Putting a ship together themselves or restoring a scrapped hulk can be an incredible opportunity for character development, interaction between crew members, background scenes (see “Scenery” in Chapter Two of this book), or even to simply work a bit of personality into the ship itself. Both the crew’s intentions and the accidents of construction (in other words, your own whimsy and cruel plot twists!) build quirks, Assets, and Complications into the craft—which may not become apparent until she’s out in the black.

Keeping a ship with Seen Better Days flying requires higher maintenance costs, but crafting the ship almost always grants her the Loved Asset, though that would be your call based upon the actions and feelings of the crew. If you want to make the construction of the crew’s ship a part of the story, consider running several short adventures and pieces of scenery over the course of the building/repair process. Make certain each crew character is involved in at least one scene so that she can leave her mark on the ship somehow, whether it’s purchasing a fancy set of easy chairs for the ship’s mess or spending extra time to get the fuel intakes right.

Complex Action

The Threshold of the complex action shouldn’t be less than Average, and should be at least Heroic for the construction of a shuttle or vehicle, and at least Incredible for creating a larger ship like a Firefly Class transport. Also, the time spent per roll should range from one to four hours for gear and from one to five 12-hour workdays for a ship.

Tools

When it comes to building gear from scratch, the tools and facilities required are much more substantial. Crafting a gun takes at least enough machinery to shape and bore metal. Building a ship bigger than a shuttle requires at least a small drydock facility. Even crafting a shuttle requires access to power lifters and a crane to raise metal sheeting into position.

Patching Up

A few changes to the rules regarding medical attention as they’re described in Chapter Five of the Serenity Role Playing Game may keep Big Damn Heroes alive and kickin’ a little longer. In some cases, the following are more for clarification than actual changes.

First Aid

A successful Hard Alertness + Medical

Expertise/Specialty roll can stop a character from Dying, this usually comes about in the form of taking extra damage from an extraordinary success on an attack. It also stops the character from having to make Endurance rolls to stay alive if his Wound damage exceeds his Life Points, at least for the time being. Any further damage causes him to begin Dying again, making Endurance rolls every minute until he fails one and passes on. Even when stabilized by first aid, such a badly injured character needs surgery to get On the Mend. Otherwise, he’ll remain comatose and probably die eventually. Performing First Aid takes about a minute; the patient need not make Endurance rolls to stay alive until after the attempt is complete and then he only need to roll if the first aid attempt

Reviving the Dead

When someone kicks the bucket by failing an Endurance roll to keep from Dying, you might have a few minutes to bring him back. This takes the same roll and modifiers as first aid, but the Difficulty is Formidable and increases by +2 for each minute the patient has been clinically dead. If successful, the patient gets to make another Endurance roll at the same Difficulty as the one she failed, causing her to die. If she beats that Difficulty, she comes back to life. Unfortunately, she continues Dying (making Endurance rolls at the same increasing Difficulty) until a normal first aid attempt stabilizes her. Crew killed by massive damage (suffering more than twice their Life Points in Wound damage) can’t be revived. The doc can’t find enough of them to stitch back together.

Surgery

Surgery works as printed in the Serenity Role

Playing Game, but note that patients receiving

surgery don’t have to keep making Endurance checks to avoid Dying. They’re stabilized when surgery begins and continue Dying only if the surgery attempt fails, the surgeon stops for some reason or botches twice.

Movin’ Right

Along

Now that you’ve got a handle on some new tricks with actions, battles, and being beat up, it’s time to check out the next chapter. There’s whole