And, you know, this guy's not exactly uncute, is he? [link]

Have we heard about the Fireflyverse RPG? [link] That might actually get me to try out this whole gaming thing.

Have we heard about the Fireflyverse RPG?

IIRC, Beej, her Fela, and some friends have been playing it and like it quite a bit.

JZ - that's a different RPG (this one is a video game).

brenda m, yeah. I'm interviewing them next week. If you've got any questions you'd like to answers to, shoot them over. It's funded by a bunch of people, and headed by James Cameron and... another famous movie director I've forgotten.

That said, I've had a good look into the technology behind it and it's actually not that great. Yet.

Because I'm such a control freak I've had to stop myself sending them mails saying THIS NEEDS FIXING, THAT'S CRAP etc. I've a pretty good idea of how I think they could make the idea work, but alas, none of the skill to do anything about it.

On a lighter note (and we could probably use one) today's Penny Arcade discusses the Firefly MMORPG. [link]

The picture of Mal giving the stink-eye to a troll cracks me up. But alas, I don't know what "roll shaman" means. Kalshane? Someone? Explain to the RPG-impaired?

It's a reference to World of Warcraft. Shaman is one of the character types in that game, and it's referring to the tendency among online RPG players to latch onto the most-powerful character-type instead of making cool and interesting characters.

Basically, they're saying even though playing a WoW-style Shaman in the Firefly-verse would make absolutely no sense, the vast majority of MMORPG players would play one anyway if they could, just because it's stronger than the other options.

hee. Thanks, Kalshane. I love PA, even though I hardly ever understand it.

Yeah. The Multiverse thing is going to be character driven (rather than spaceships, I think). Therefore, there's a real thing with everybody wanting to be Browncoats (rather than Alliance), and then everybody wanting to be females with River's powers.

From a game design point of view there's a nightmare here - you want something that could feel authentic to the Firefly universe, but at the same time you also want something to be actually enjoyable as a game.

My personal opinion, right now, is it should be kept simple: start the game. Choose a man, or a woman. Make the character develop depending on the way the player chooses to play the game. For example: make it an easier, but more limited path, to be based on Alliance worlds. Make being an outsider tougher.

Yep, we play the fleshy RPG. Have had a great time with it until last month when our game master moved away. She ruuuuled. The new guy is sweet but, um, can I take my living room and go home now?

Never having played an rpg, I had not idea how good I had it.

tendency among online RPG players to latch onto the most-powerful character-type instead of making cool and interesting characters.

This apparently happens in the wetware version too. One player, who we ultimately invited to join another ship, insisted on writing herself as a psychic companion...pretty much capable of outdoing every other character in the room without even trying.

Instead, we ended up with a very cool group with fun foibles and limited skill sets. My favorite parts were when the GM would say, "Whoa. That was unexpected...um...go with that!" And the way we almost always thought our way out of fights. Very, very clever people.

This apparently happens in the wetware version too. One player, who we ultimately invited to join another ship, insisted on writing herself as a psychic companion...pretty much capable of outdoing every other character in the room without even trying.

Yeah, powergamers are everywhere. I've run into them in table top games, in MMOs, LARPs and even chatroom-based games (where it's particularly silly because there's no real dice rolls and everything depends on player consent). The PA-guys were just refering to the MMO-contingent.

Some folks just always want to "win" no matter what, or be the "main character" or whatever, or somehow think the kewlness of their character will impress people. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy hewing through orcs by the dozen or whatever from time to time too, but if that's all there is it gets old really quick and it's been over a decade since numbers on a character sheet (or a list of special abilities) actually impressed me.