Serenity - Out in the Black.pdf - Serenity - RPG

OUT IN THE BLACK

WRITTEN AND DESIGNED BY

Tracy Hickman & Laura Hickman

BASED ON THE MOTION PICTURE SCREENPLAY WRITTEN BY

Joss Whedon

Game Development: Jamie Chambers, Nathaniel C.J.S. Rockwood

Editing: Margaret Weis • Proofreading: James Davenport

Cover Art & Interior Graphic Design: 11th Hour (Susan Renée Tomb)

Layout & Typesetting: Jamie Chambers • Art Direction: Renae Chambers

Illustrations: Lindsay Archer, Dan Bryce, Larry Elmore, Tracy Hickman, Ryan Wolfe

Playtesting: Dylon Abend, Eben P. Alguire, Dennis Allen, Marney Allen, Charles Baldwin,

Kelly Barron, Damon Black, Matt Bohen, Carl “Browncoat 1” Boothe, Jesse Buetow, Adam Cohen,

Peter F. Daigle, David Dankel, Nick Fietzer, Jason Giardino, Chris Goodwin, Digger Hayes, Stephen Herron,

Jason “Padre” Driver, Neal Haggard, Jack Kessler, Wayne Kruger, Lianne McDonnell, Tobin Melroy,

Jason Mical, Andrew Morris, Mike Nudd, David Osteen, Andrew Peregrine, Angela Rienstra, David Ross,

Micheal Shannon, Ben Short, Matthew W. Somers, Richard W. Spangle, Jennifer L. Stevens, Kevin Stoner,

Scott Suehle, Jeffrey A. Webb, Floyd C. Wesel, Richard E. Wilhite III, Mitch A. Williams, Yuri Zahn

Special Thanks: Lizz Baldwin, Natalie Baldwin, Cindy Chang, Aaron Hendricks, Christina Hendricks,

Alta Griffiths Hickman, Dr. Harold R Hickman, Gary Lokum, Joss Whedon, Ken Whitman

Margaret Weis Productions and the MW Logo are trademarks owned by

Published by

Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd.

253 Center St #126

Lake Geneva, WI 53147

First Printing—2006

Printed in the USA

CONTENTS

BOOK ONE: SAFFRON'S STAR . . . . . . .3

Here’s the Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Your Story and Your Crew. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Making Friends (Relationships) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

The Tellin’ of the Tale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

A Footnote on Footnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

A Word About “Brigit” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

The Story and the Town . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Episode One: Haulin’ Ice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

ACT I: What’s Done is Done (flashbacks). . . . . . . . . . . . 7

ACT II: Snowball Flight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

ACT III: The Lullabelle Mine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Episode Two: Boomtown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

ACT I: One Fine Reception!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

ACT II: Welcome to Frisco, Honey!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

ACT III: Here’s the Deal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Episode Three: Sidetracked . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Act I: Beylix Atmo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

ACT II: No Dust Settling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

ACT III: Killing on the Green . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Episode Four: Mine Drift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Act I: Change Ain’t Always Good. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

ACT II: Down the Glory Hole. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

ACT III: A Place Called Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

BOOK TWO: FRISCO TOWN . . . . . . . 56

Lay of the Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Beyond the Horizon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

About the Town . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Bowden’s Malady in Frisco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Faro: King of Rim Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Sideshows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Doing What Needs Doing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Random Acts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

FOLKS AND RASCALS. . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Major Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Minor Characters: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Plain Folks: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

NEW AND USED GEAR. . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Pandora: The Cursed Treasure of Serenity Valley . . . 98

Benny Xiau’s Game Piece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

AFTERWORD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

CHARACTER INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

THE WAY IT IS

There’s things in the dark of the ground

what’s best left there, despite which the mind

of man always seems to be conjuring ways to

drag it into the light if the payoff is big enough.

Them that do may not have the seemliest

of reputations, so far as civilized folk are

concerned, and might ind themselves staring

down the wrong end of the law. If that’s the

case, could be they ind themselves planted

right back there in the ground again on a more

permanent basis. Guess there’s a lot of sins

hidden up in the dark and that’s likely why the

law is there to keep everything where it belongs.

Trouble is that the gleam from that shiny badge

sometimes blinds one to the blackest of hearts

— ‘specially in places where no one wants to

see the light.

What Is This? My friend, you are holding

an adventure for the Serenity Role Playing Game .

It’s a story that you — the Game Master — play

with a group of friends. The players can use the

crew of Serenity , the sample Aces & Eights crew,

or even characters of their own creation. Study

this adventure, do a little prep, and you’ll be

ready to send your crew Out in the Black .

or group touched by the news that isn’t on the

hunt — and not above letting you take a bullet

if it helps their cause and hinders yours.

I wouldn’t trust the new sheriff — most

likely he’s the one on the other end of the

bullet that’s headin’ someone’s way. Above all,

keep clear of the local school marm, ‘cause

her ABC’s are Assassination, Backstabbin’, and

Cheatin’.

Your Story & Your Crew

This here is a story told in the Serenity ‘Verse

and, as Game Master, you’ll be the one telling

it. It’s a story that’s told in many different places

and, as the way of stories goes, the telling of it

changes dependin’ on who’s doing the telling.

That’s shiny — it don’t matter what chwen joo

told the story elsewhere or how he told it. This

is your story and you’ll be tellin’ it your way.

No one quite remembers who was in the

story in the irst place, so you and the players

in your game will be tellin’ it with the crew that

you choose. Maybe they’re all big, damn heroes

or maybe they’re all greenhorns just startin’ out.

(This tale is meant to be told for a Heroic crew,

so if you tell this tale with characters of less

stellar capabilities, then you’ll need to ease up

on them a mite — or make things tougher for

Big Damn Heroes.)

HERE’S THE STORY

This adventure tells the tale of how the lost

treasury of the Independents ended up lost in

the irst place — and perhaps the ‘Verse was

better for it.

In the independent mining boom-town of

Frisco, located on the far side of Regina, there

are more shadows than light — a ine place to

lose something and let it stay lost. Unfortunately

that can also easily include someone’s life.

There are four factions in Frisco that have

lots to do with the story so might as well tell

about them now. One is the Mine Owners — a

stubborn group allied with the Mining Guild,

they spit in the face of the mighty Corone

Mining Consortium. Another is the Miners —

workers who have led the slave-like conditions

of the Corone camps for the freedom of the

Guilds. Another is the 14 K Triad Tong — a

Chinese merchant organization looking to

take over the mine, and last but not least the

Townsfolk — just regular folk trying to bring

civilization to the uncivilized frontier.

All these folk were gettin’ along more or less

good when a rumor started that has proved

as volatile as a shaped-charge in a mine drift.

Seems the lost treasury of the Independents

ended up here in Frisco and there’s not a soul

Making Friends

(Relationships)

Funny how people you’ve known in the past

slip your mind for the longest time and then

— jahn! — you suddenly remember that bar

ight on Regina and it all comes back. That sort

of thing runs true in the telling of this tale. The

crew is going to meet people new to the players,

but not necessarily the crew.

Point is that the crew is going to meet people

they have met before — even if they don’t

recall doin’ so right away. Crew members who

have Friends in Low Places (or High Places for

that matter!) are going to ind themselves face

to face with these friends whether they like it

or not. Sometimes it’s good to have friends

— sometimes it ain’t.

As the GM for the game, whenever the

crew meets an NPC the story says they already

know, you should encourage the crew in “story

language” to pick up the relationship, letting

them know this person is someone they have

not seen in a long while, but who obviously

knows them well. Have the NPC use phrases

like:

• “Oh, sure, you remember me, Mal! Of

course, you were pretty drunk at the time...”

• “You always were a kidder, Zoe! As if you’d

ever forget your old (pal, war buddy, iancé)”

• “Oh, you don’t have to pretend on my

account, Jayne! I’ve gotten over it! I’ve learned

to forgive you for what you did to me.”

• “Somethin’ happen to you, Wash? You're

a little slow on the uptake. Run into a bulkhead

one too many times, eh?”

• “Oh, don’t be so modest, Kaylee!

Remember the time when you and I... (proceed

to tell an embarrassing story about the other

person—maybe that foofy pink ball gown...)

Note : Words in all capitals are either

Task Dificulty Levels (like EASY, HARD,

FORMIDABLE), or Skills or Abilities (like

AGILITY, PILOT, or LEAKY BRAINPAN).

Thus, when you read a phrase like: “Pilots ind

landing in the steep canyon FORMIDABLE...

this means that the Task Dificulty Level for

the described action is, indeed, Formidable and

requires a roll of 15 or higher to succeed. In this

way, you will know what’s what about rolling

dice without interruptin’ the low of the tale.

A Footnote on

Footnotes

This adventure has a number of footnotes

scattered about in it. Some of these are

translations of the Chinese words that crop up

in conversation from time to time. Others give

a little history of Earth-that-Was (ETW). These

notes are meant to clue you in on where the

tian di wu yohn authors got their ideas for names,

places, or story elements. It’s the real history

behind the myth.

Such “long lost acquaintances” will persist

in their insistence that the crew member knows

them until the crew member just gives into it

— and preferably starts telling stories about

their “new old friend” as well.

The Tellin’ of the Tale

This story is told in four episodes. Each

episode is divided into acts that may be

comprised of a single scene or several scenes

depending on how the act is played out. The

episodes and acts are given in the correct order

to make the story work. What takes place inside

the acts and especially in sideshow scenes may

happen in any kind of order — so it’s important

that you keep the whole picture of what is goin’

on in your mind as you tell the tale.

Acts that have only one scene and all scenes

and sideshows follow this order:

A Word About “Brigit”

There’s a little illy in this story we call

“Brigit”. No one really knows her real name,

though there’s a lot who know her by other

names — and some of them not that kindly.

In our story here she’s known as “Elizabeth”

or “Brigit” — and even by some as “Saffron.”

But no matter what name she’s usin’ at the time,

she’s a pretty, smilin’, connivin’ snake that will

sidle up to you sweet as cream one minute and

leave you naked in the desert the next.

Just to keep the record straight, any time you

see a woman’s name appear in quotation marks,

you’ll know that no matter what name you’re

reading, we’re talking about this same “Brigit”

just playing another part and making another

mark.

If the crew happens to include someone

from the crew from that particular Firely class

ship named Serenity then you should know that

Capt. Malcolm Reynolds and “Saffron” (as he

knows her) have an extra special relationship

— they were married on Triumph, although

the fact of it escaped the captain’s notice at

the time. Since our “Mrs. Reynolds” ended

up puttin’ Mal and his crew in a place where

they almost ended up dead, getting these two

together again should prove volatile.

On the other hand, if the crew is their own,

then your crew will have no history regarding

“Brigit.” Some things a body just has to learn

for himself. Put another way, if “Brigit” don’t

kill you, she’ll make you stronger.

• How It Is: This irst part sets up the scene,

paints the backdrop, and puts the chairs on the

stage, so to speak. It usually starts with boxed

text—colorful prose that you can either read to

the players or use as a guide for your own words

and fancy description.

• Problems: Things don’t stay peaceful for

long. Every scene has a problem or two for the

crew that they are goin’ to have to either get

past or get buried. Good or bad, rich or poor,

pleasantly helpful or downright ornery — here’s

where you’ll also ind the most important folks

populatin’ the scene the crew is in. Most often

as not, you’ll want to keep their stats in front of

you.

• New Way of Things: Now the crew has

to clean up the mess. When they come out the

other side of a problem — if they live through

it — then some things will have changed. In

this part of the scene, the crew examines the

results of what they did. Might be the problem

is solved or might be the crew now has even

bigger problems!

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