Golden Anvil

Last monday was the first game of our GURPS firefly campaign. I promised to fill you all in on the characters in the group. I also need to fill you in on the story so far before we get another session in and I find myself falling behind.

Let me start with Mia, played by MrsKheldar. I'll start with her, because MrsKheldar already filled everyone in. See the last comment in my prior post about this game in case you missed it.

Of particular note is that Mia became friends with Hanabi Shimanouchi at college. Hanabi is played by a woman who is one of my co-workers. Hanabi is a small asian woman who was originally trained in psychology. However, when her brother was lost to reavers (and likely became a reaver himself), she became obsessed with finding him and figuring out a way to cure him. She taught herself a number of medical skills which will presumably help when the time comes. Also of note is the fact that Hanabi's family has a lot of Japanese "mafia" connections. Hanabi is still able to obtain help from these sources from time to time. Hanabi also daily spends time keeping up with her martial arts.

Mia and Hanabi were the ones that started up this entire venture. Together they petitioned Mia's uncle (well, actually, her husband's uncle) for money to lease a ship. He agreed, and sent along Pierre (the ship's cook/babysitter/butler, and also an NPC rather than a player character) to help out. Mia's uncle also put forth Keeda as the ship's captain and pilot.

Keeda is played by a 16 year old who is a friend of MrsKheldar and I. Not only is she the youngest player in the group, but her character is also the youngest in the party. And yet, here she is, captain of the ship. I'm sure this will make for some interesting times. Keeda is something of a loner. She is prickly at times, but mostly just with people she doesn't know. She's in this for revenge. Her family was killed by reavers, and she's looking for payback. She's a good, although not necessarily brilliant pilot, but she's acquired a reputation for being a great pilot.

Finally, we have Josiah Loung, played by another co-worker of mine (he and I have known each other since college). For those who have seen Firefly, think of Badger. For those who haven't, Josiah is a fine dresser, perhaps somewhat of a "dandy". Yes, he wears a bowler hat, or perhaps sometimes a top hat. His fancy clothing hides a somewhat uglier background though. Josiah worked for the alliance during the war. Although the other characters don't yet know the details, he was involved in some rather black ops type of stuff, and among some of the browncoats (the rebels during the war), he has a very nasty reputation. His weapon of choice are throwing knives, which he handles with impressive skill. For some reason, not yet revealed, he came along on the venture with Captain Keeda.

At this point, we're assuming that the group has been together about a year. I call this episode 1, but really it's like episode 2, in which the characters (having already been introduced) have some kind of interesting adventure to showcase the characters and how they interact. My intent is for adventures to be somewhat shorter (2-4 sessions in length) to try and capture a little more of the feel of a TV show.

Oh yes, one last thing for those familiar with the setting. We're playing this 5 years after the war. The events of the movie are assumed to not have happened. In fact, I'm coming up with a completely different explanation as to why reavers are as they are. After all, that's supposed to be the main mystery behind this campaign. I can't have the players knowing all the details already.

Last monday the group landed at Eavesdown Docks (where the TV show starts and all the characters come on board). They're looking for cargo and passengers. Things seem a bit slow, and they've only picked up one woman with somewhat of a non-specific destination. Then a young man came looking to hire them. He talked with Keeda a bit, who was extremely suspicious of him, since he seemed somewhat nervous. She suspected he was holding back some of his story.

He explained to her (and later to the rest of the crew) that he recently discovered that his father (a banker) had snuck a bunch of cash and family-owned artwork off planet and stashed it on a comet. His father died during the war, leaving a letter, which he only recently recovered. To his horror, he also discovered that the comet was scheduled to be destroyed, as its course would be taking it in a heavily trafficed area. Having been on his own since the war, and without any money to his name, he was desperately trying to find a ship that would take him out to the comet. He promised to split the contents of the stash.

A little detective work revealed the likely comet. It also revealed that the man was probably who he said he was. He had destroyed the letter though, so they only had his word on the details (about which he remained carefully (and understandably) guarded).

By the end of the session, the crew agreed to take him on. The woman passenger didn't seem to have a problem, as she was looking more for adventure than any particular destination.

Tomorrow the crew will head out to the comet and see what there is to find.