"Yep, Firefly is Traveller" Topic

Was reading through the classic LBBs yesterday and hit this phrase in Book 0: "… or simply ply the space-lanes with s single decrepit free trader, desperately trying to keep one step ahead of their creditos while dreaming of the deal to end all deals."

Sounds like Captain Mal and crew.

Just in case there was any doubt.

"Just keep flyin'."

Traveller has Jump drive, Firefly is strictly STL.

Just sayin'

Some time back Joss Weadon was quoted in an on-line interview as stating that Firefly`s origins go back to an (unnamed) major RPG that Weadon played back in his college days.
Given the time period, Traveller is by far the most likely rules system to have been used.
So, while no conclusive proof exists it`s a relatively safe bet to assume that Firefly/Serenity was influenced by Traveller to a degree.

And the rest as they say, is history. Yes I could see Traveler as the world of Firefly.

Not all vessels in Traveller are jump capable.

I think you got it.

In one of the first few episodes the crew even refereed to spacefarers as simply "Travellers".

Take away jump drives and the corresponding fuel, and the design system would allow ships very similar to the firefly.

Understated computers – check.

Lasers exist, but are only rarely worth the trouble – check.

No R2-D2 – check.

Big empire that may or may not have the people's interests at heart – check.

Large megacorporations following their own political agenda`s and generally up to no good – check.

Psionic abilities exist but largely underground with some clandestine Government/Megacorporation R&D going on behind the scenes – check.

I created the Firefly crew in Classic Traveller a few years ago, I was going to set them in a system just outside the Third Imperium. The system was a pre-FTL tech level (unless I wanted to throw in a conspiracy that the government just hid FTL from its citizens), and have a storyline about the PCs jumping to it, rescuing the Serenity crew and bringing them to the wider Traveller Universe.

Don't role-play at all anymore, but I have the crew in 15mm, so they will find their way into my Traveller Gruntz gaming eventually.

That sounds like a hoot, boywundyr. Shame it's not ging to get a roleplaying outing

John T

It was fun as a design exercise, like so much of CT was.

One wonders if firefly had lasted 4-5 seasons if they would have added aliens or FTL at some point.

Most fans would probably respond with a 'oh hell no'.

Still, they could have been interesting plot lines if they avoided rubber suit aliens-of-the-week and just using the warp drive to get anywhere over a commercial break.

I never got around to it, but trying to fit the canon star system from Firefly into Traveller might have been interesting. I think even planet slot would have been filled, and then the moons.

While not having FTL, Firefly got around it by just bringing the destinations closer, in an improbable planetary system with hundreds of habitable planets and moons (terraforming handwave aside). And it appears that the vessels had some kind of variation in propulsion system to go from some sort of orbital and suborbital speeds to full bore interplanetary travel in an instant. So the show had the equivalent of "jump drive" without having to deal with FTL concepts.

(Of course, all spaceships in novels, TV, movies and RPGs travel at The Speed of Plot.)

Gravity manipulation was clearly prevalent and usable on a planetary scale.

Not sure what star systems are within 'realistic' non-FTL range of Earth that have multiple stars that might allow the 'Verse to exist. Has Wheadon or anyone else ever tried to retcon which system they were in?

If you could change a planet's gravity, that allows an atmosphere (if you have the volatiles).

Next question is heat from a star. Solar mirrors / lenses? Never mentioned in the show, but they wouldn't be ON the planets.

Needed a refresher after all the Firefly chitchat.
link

And this acapella version is fabulous: YouTube link

Don't forget:

* Social Standing based interactions (usually involving Inara)
* Nobles who duel with swords
* Low Berth (one episode featured one, at any rate)
* Anti-gravity vehicles

None of those are exclusive to Traveller, of course.

Also, ships do have a "very fast" drive that's used in addition to the standard "thruster" drives, even though it's not really an interstellar drive.

Air Raft, Serenity, the escape from theReavers scene.

-ACR (advanced Combat Rifle) "Vera" from "Our Mrs. Reynolds"
-Sonic Stunner Rifles (2300AD) from "Ariel"
-Imperial Warrants--as being carried out by the "blue gloved men" and "Serenity"'s The Operative.
-Red Zones: the planet Miranda from "Serenity".
-In a paradoxical reaction to Paxilon G23 Hydrochlorate on the planet Miranda, a small atypical response population fraction get permanently hyped up on what amounts to a Super Combat Drug--see Double Adventure #3 Death Station/The Argon Gambit.

Sonic stunners appear in Traveller to in one of the Double adventures…

Vera was actually a Saiga-12, capncarp, so a combat shotgun.

On a related note, a friend (and recent Firefly convert) named his recently-acquired DPMS AR-15 'Veronica'. How coincidental.

Setting a campaign in the Firefly universe is a good way to get folks to play Traveller.

Perhaps the "Aliens" that the folk of the 'Verse encounter may be Vegans (no, not the people who choose not to consume animal-derived products, the bipedal tentacle-fingered race that is native to the Vega system), or one of the other Minor non-human races. And as having the secret to FTL travel (which the Alliance seeks to keep secret), they are aggressively sought for isolation, and perhaps elimination by the Alliance Intelligence community. Or propagandized as "blood-sucking pestilential monsters, shoot on sight, do not approach under any circumstances, and notify Alliance authorities immediately!!!!"
Que music, roll opening credits for "The Day the 'Verse Stood Still".

Just checked the map of the 'Verse, and one of the planets is named."Regina".

My suspicion is that if aliens were ever introduced into firefly, it would have been sort of an X-files vibe.

Could have been that the aliens themselves never actually appeared, just a few artifacts that may or may not have had any value other than proving aliens did exist.

How about this- the earth governments knew that the 'Verse could not have developed naturally in its current configuration. With no current signs of habitation, that's one reason it was selected.

Parliament has been searching for any signs of how the 'verse came to be, and one of the driving factors for unification was that they didn't want someone not under their jurisdiction finding the evidence before them.

One map of the 'Verse has 4 stars and their planets orbiting a central slightly larger star, which also has a few of its own planets.

With gravity control, one might suppose that an artificially-induced high gravity point within a drive mechanism/power plant could act as a fusion "spark plug" for cheap fusion power.

Fun Fact: The Serenity made a cameo appearance in the premier of the rebooted Battlestar Galactica.

link

The Ancients would be a good explanation for the configuration of the 'Verse.