Saturday, August 18, 2012

[Leveraged Serenity] What's it all about?

So I recently started two separate games with two separate groups running the Serenity RPG with the Leverage RPG rules. But this isn't the first time I've played Serenity.

A while back, I was involved in a Serenity game (1, 2, 3) that ended shortly after it began. I was invited by friend and co-worker H to join in. There were only a couple of sessions but one of the things I got out of it was meeting some new and cool people, like my friends C1 and C2. I managed to poach the pair of them when I formed another game group and we've been gaming together for several years now, except when C2 moved off to one of the square brown states in the midwest.

When I made my character, Arthur Wellington Frayn, for that Serenity game, I sent out the backstory to the other players and the GM, along with a 3x3 of friends, contacts and enemies. C1 really surprised me with his PC, which he dovetailed quite neatly in the gaps of my character's background. And all this without ever meeting each other!

During that first game session, hosted by H, I walked in and met them all. C1 and I started riffing, in character, before play even started, talking about people we knew without getting into any specifics ("That Phil. Did he ever tell you the time he ...." "Yeah, that was classic! And then he ...." "I know! Who'da thunk he had it in him? Well, last week, I heard from him and he ...."). This went on for a while and someone around the table said "You guys just met, right?" Both C1 and I blinked and said "Yeah. So?"

Here we are, two years later and I decided to run a game of Serenity so that finally, C1 can get to play the game. But I didn't want to use the system straight. A while ago I got the Leverage RPG and really liked the simple system - characters had roles (Hitter, Hacker, Grifter, Mastermind and Thief) and a guy online (Steve D) came up with a bunch of free resources for the game (adding Wheelman and another NPC filled supplement called Suitcase Full of Cash).

Looking through the Serenity and Leverage books, it was obvious that the crew broke down as follows:

  • Wash (Wheelman/Thief)
  • Kaylee (Hacker/Grifter)
  • Mal (Mastermind/Hitter)
  • Inara (Grifter/Thief)
  • Zoe (Hitter/Mastermind)
  • Book (Grifter/Hitter)
  • River (Hitter/Hacker)
  • Simon (Hacker/Mastermind)
  • Jayne (Hitter/Thief)

It was so easy! All it took was throwing most of the Serenity Rules out the window (I kept the combat and wound system but chucked the rest) and used most of the Leverage Rules. It took me a while to write-up all the stuff (including new character sheets, lists of various Distinctions, Talents and Specialities) and make a packet for each PC for ease of use.

I plan on posting both groups' actual play sessions but only have the Wretches of the Provenance written up so far.

Stay tuned!

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