E.S. Wynn is an editor and the author of over seventy books in print.

Lookin' for some jing chai ideas to use in your next bout of Firefly or Serenity-themed RPG match? Maybe you're one of them folks that just needs a little inspiration to get your brain a-movin' on a space-cowboy adventure of a mighty grand scale. Either way, you don't need to look no further than here—even if your game isn't set in the Firefly/Serenity universe or isn't anything close to a good old-fashioned space western in flavor, you might find something mighty pleasing here you can twist or that might give you just the push you need to come up with the ultimate adventure for your go se ship and it's intrepid crew of kuh wu frontier types.

1. The Basics

Every spacer worth his mi tian gohn knows that when you're running a ship in the ‘verse, you got to make money any way you can. Here's a few ideas for "legal" assignments your crew might be able to get to earn a few credits when things get tight, or when they're saving up for that part they just can't quite afford. Payment is generally divided into two halves- the half you get when you pick up, and the half you get when you deliver.

Haul Ass: (any world to any world) Some union hauler busted his boat and left his load on the world the crew is on! (Random shipping company) The shipment is 250 tons, and needs to be delivered as fast as possible! Payment is 120 cr. with an extra 100 cr. bonus if the delivery is made on-time. If delivery is a week or more overdue, the company blacklists the ship.

(any world to any world) Some union hauler busted his boat and left his load on the world the crew is on! (Random shipping company) The shipment is 250 tons, and needs to be delivered as fast as possible! Payment is 120 cr. with an extra 100 cr. bonus if the delivery is made on-time. If delivery is a week or more overdue, the company blacklists the ship. Postal Run: (any world to any world) The post has more than it can handle and is looking for shippers, independent or union, who are willing to help out the state. Payment is 1 cr. /ton for 1d20 tons of available weight. Failure to deliver on time forfeits second half of payment. Week or more overdue is a federal crime (Alliance puts out a warrant for the ship).

(any world to any world) The post has more than it can handle and is looking for shippers, independent or union, who are willing to help out the state. Payment is 1 cr. /ton for 1d20 tons of available weight. Failure to deliver on time forfeits second half of payment. Week or more overdue is a federal crime (Alliance puts out a warrant for the ship). The Big Oops :(any world to Beylix.) Looks like some chwen big union shipper ran into some trouble and smashed up his boat real good. Oh well, right? More credits for the crew. The insurance paperwork has come through, the shipper has declared the rig totaled, and some scavenger on Beylix has bought what's left for parts. A towing harness (halves the speed of your boat) will be affixed in orbit and cut loose in orbit of the destination planet. Payment is 2 cr./hour with a 50 cr. bonus upon delivery if on time. Payment stops at maximum amount for time allotment. If three days overdue, the ship is blacklisted with the scavengers (and makes enemies)

:(any world to Beylix.) Looks like some chwen big union shipper ran into some trouble and smashed up his boat real good. Oh well, right? More credits for the crew. The insurance paperwork has come through, the shipper has declared the rig totaled, and some scavenger on Beylix has bought what's left for parts. A towing harness (halves the speed of your boat) will be affixed in orbit and cut loose in orbit of the destination planet. Payment is 2 cr./hour with a 50 cr. bonus upon delivery if on time. Payment stops at maximum amount for time allotment. If three days overdue, the ship is blacklisted with the scavengers (and makes enemies) Pulling Pork : (from border world to core) The boys at Allied Pork need a shipment of genetically-engineered hogs shipped to some core world, and all the union haulers are tied up at the moment. The pigs are crated and self-contained, so as long as the ship keeps atmo and the temp don't get too extreme, they won't spoil. Allied Pork is willing to pay 1 credit per ton of what's shipped, and if the hogs are delivered on time, there'll be a 50 cr. bonus waiting for the crew when they arrive. If they arrive late, Allied Pork won't pay the second half, and the crew gets no bonus. If the pigs are a week or more overdue, Allied Pork will blacklist the ship and sue her captain for damages.

: (from border world to core) The boys at Allied Pork need a shipment of genetically-engineered hogs shipped to some core world, and all the union haulers are tied up at the moment. The pigs are crated and self-contained, so as long as the ship keeps atmo and the temp don't get too extreme, they won't spoil. Allied Pork is willing to pay 1 credit per ton of what's shipped, and if the hogs are delivered on time, there'll be a 50 cr. bonus waiting for the crew when they arrive. If they arrive late, Allied Pork won't pay the second half, and the crew gets no bonus. If the pigs are a week or more overdue, Allied Pork will blacklist the ship and sue her captain for damages. Get Along Little Doggie: (Any world to any world*) On the core worlds, folk tend to think of real live, un-tampered meats as delicacies, but on the rim, there ain't no easier way to get meat than to raise it on the hoof. Either way, it needs shipping, and that means jobs for ships with cargo space. When shipping animals, it requires that you purchase the animals (cost of support gear figured in) from the farmer and get reimbursed (plus the shipping fee) when you arrive. Note: Some worlds will pay more for live meats in smaller quantities.

Livestock Cost:

Cattle: 15 cr./head

Sheep: 10 cr/head

Pigs: 10 cr./head

Chickens: 1 cr./head

Turkeys: 2 cr./head

Dogs: 4 cr./head

Snails: 20 cr./ton

Livestock Shipping Cost: (weight includes support equipment)

Cattle: 1 cr./head. 2 head/ton

Sheep: .5 cr./head 6 head/ton

Pigs: .5 cr./head 6 head/ton

Chickens: 1 cr./ton 400 head/ton

Turkeys: 1 cr./ ton 100 head/ton

Dogs: 1.5 cr/ton 100 head/ton

Snails: 1 cr/ton 100,000 head/ton

Destination Requirements

Rim world: none

Border world: Animals must be papered.

Core world: Animals must be papered, vaccinated, and pass a health inspection on arrival. (Rejected animals are worthless in the core, but can be incinerated for a cost of 1 cr./head)

2. Target Practice

A friendly doctor approaches the characters and tells them he needs a starship to test his newest invention! Turns out it's a weapon- a high-frequency laser, one that's decades ahead of anything the Alliance has, and he can't think of a better ship (or a better crew) to test it! The reward? Well, other than the distinct honor of being at the forefront of science, is $500 in straight, untraceable credit chips he'll hand over at the end of the trial. If they agree, he gives them the coordinates for the test and tells them he'll see them tomorrow, when his team will do the install. When they return in the morning, there's already another ship there, a shiny new boat parked just outside the landing pad. As they put down, the doctor rushes out to meet them, a group of seven rough-and-tumble looking spacers a couple of paces behind him. Turns out the other ship (and crew) are the boys who'll be carrying the laser, and our heroes are just being hired for target practice! If they start a firefight, someone gets to the other ship, fires her up, seals the doors, and starts carving holes in whatever he/she can hit. If they try to leave, the doctor goes ahead with the test anyway. There's no dissuading the shee-niou bastard- they agreed to do the test, and he's got a voice recording of the agreement (which makes it a valid contract.) If the crew decides to do anything but get back to the ship, the doctor will either take legal action (using the local sheriff,) or he'll threaten to blow up their ship right there. No matter what happens, the weapon can only fire a few times before it shorts and fries itself, obliterating the ship that it's on. (A good mechanic is likely to realize this, if the laser somehow ends up on the ship the players are flying. Once the test is over (if the players agree) the doctor isn't happy about the loss of his prototype, but he keeps his end of the deal and pays up without a fight.

3. Purple Haze

A client who runs a mushroom farm wants to get his latest crop of Criminy and Shitake to his distributor on Ariel (core). He's an old friend of one of the crew members, so he's probably trustworthy, even though he's always talking about peace and love and ending his ta ma duh sentences with the word "man." If they take the job, he'll fill up their cargo hold with his mushrooms, and it's not until they're well on their way to Ariel that the crew finds out that at least one crate of mushrooms he packed is actually a super-hybridized form of psilocybin with spores that will eat through the feh wu crate housing and fill the ship with heavy hallucinogens. This could make for a lot of fun encounters, real or imagined!

4. The Debt

A happy client takes the crew out for drinks and things get a might bit wild. One of the crew members wakes up in a dark room with one cheong bao ho tze of a hangover and a couple of goons staring down at him. Turns out when he got really drunk, he gambled and lost so much that he's not only completely out of money, but in debt, and the owner of the establishment managed to convince him (while he was drunk) to be the next big cage fighter so he can pay off his debt. Trying to get out of this tsway niou situation without going through with the cage fighting is going to cost the crew a lot, but there might be fun alternative ways out of this mess. For maximum fun, make the character going into the cage the captain or the pilot. Someone who the boat won't fly without.

5. Against the Lawman

While parked on some niou se backwater rim world, a local rich man puts the squeeze on the men and women working in his mine (higher taxes, harder work, longer hours, etc.) and it erupts in a bloody strike that the local lawmen get involved with. Only problem? The tah mah duh hwoon dahn rich fellow owns not only the mine, but the whole tah ma duh town, including every judge, sheriff, and deputy in the system. In fact, the only thing he doesn't own is the crew or their ship, and since they've got guns, the miners are bound to come to them for help. What they do is up to them, but it could turn into a really exciting run along the lines of Heart of Gold. Or they could just leave- or maybe even take the rich fellow's side in the hopes of making a handful of dirty, dirty money.

6. Reavers? Why Did It Have to Be Reavers?

Some locals on a rim or a border world approach the characters and ask them for help. Turns out they've been raided- several times, and by Reavers. Though these Reavers are different- they only kill when they have to, and they seem to have some kind of rank and file, which is very unlike any Reavers anyone in the ‘verse has ever run across. Those folk who've seen them report that they're led by a girl, a "half-breed," they call her, who is about as vicious as they come. The locals want to make a stand, but the local alliance military camp isn't interested, and the folk round about town don't have enough guns or hands to use them, and they're ready to make a deal with outsiders if it means having the characters and the ship on their side. In truth, the kuh wu woman leading these false Reavers is a half-breed, a miraculous survivor of a Reaver's brutality, and her band is actually a pack of corrupt soldiers from the local Alliance military camp with nothing better to do than pick on the local colonists, so there'll be no cavalry to speak of, especially since one of the ranchers is in cahoots with the false Reavers, and he's been supplying inside information to them since day one...

7. Find the Finder

A major archaeological firm contacts the characters while they're either on-route to a rim world or parked on one, and offers them a job tracking down a wayward archaeologist who's gone missing on that planet while looking for something stashed there during the war, something that might be valuable. If they find him and he's found the stash, then the firm is willing to cut them in for twenty percent of the loot, but if he's dead... well, that might be grounds for a little renegotiatin'! There's a lot you can do with this- maybe the guay tuh guay nown archaeologist found the stash and realizes he can get a better cut by selling it to someone else, and maybe he got himself killed trying to do just that, and now the site's swarming with huen dahn gang-folk trying to figure out the best way to fence the cache...

8. Long Arm of the Law

The characters are flying along on some relatively uneventful run between worlds when a ee da tuo da bien Alliance cruiser intercepts them out of the blue. And not just one of those little ones- one of the big, official, and extremely well-armed ones. They're told to power down and prepare to be boarded- why is never made clear, but the fact that they'll be blasted out of the black if they try to run for it is. Once the commanding officer comes on board, a detachment of alliance soldiers tears the ship apart from top to bottom, looking for something. (What is it? That's up to the Referee, but it should be something they can't find, like fugitives or a shipment of weaponry stolen from an alliance research outpost.) They might turn up all kinds of illegal things while they're tearing the ship apart, but it doesn't matter- they've got one thing on their mind, and that's it. The kuh wu commanding officer might even get violent or resort to torture to get the info he needs, but whatever happens, by the time they realize it's all a case of mistaken identity (I guess there's a lot of ships like yours out there, folks!) the whole boat is a mess, and none of the alliance goons feels like sticking around to clean it up. This might be a way for the characters to pick up a tip on a new way to make money as well, either from a soldier who needs something done or just from overhearing the details of what the officer is after.

9. Ten Pounds of Trouble in a Five-Pound Saddlebag

One of the character's contacts has a job offer for the crew, and it's a take-it-or-leave-it kind of job with no questions asked that needs to be done yesterday. There's a crate he needs delivered half-way across the ‘verse, and it's big enough to fill the whole cargo bay (or one whole cargo bay.) The contact tells them to make sure not to open it, to not even touch it, but if that isn't enough to convince the crew to take a peek in flight, the fact that a couple of fat, inquisitive kids start appearing on the ship might. Turns out that the crate is full of fat little kids packed into tight little enclosures, complete with food, water, and in-flight entertainment. Why they're there is up to the Referee- are they another wong ba duhn Alliance experiment on psychics, or are they something more insidious, like product being shipped to people with a taste for a meat that doesn't grow on the hoof or wing...

10. Take My Love, Take My Land...

A friend of the characters gets in touch with them and tells them that some chai neow people calling themselves the "Church of the New Science" are trying to convince him to join their bizarre, new-age religion and give up his land to the church... and they're awfully persistent. Why, just the other day they sent the local sheriff (who they seem to own) up to his ranch to "check things out" in an awfully suspicious way, and after that, there was that wong ba duhn coreworlder he caught sneakin' around in the bushes... anyway, he needs their help, figures a starship and a handful of guns might scare off these silver-suited creeps before things start getting out of hand. (Whether it does or not is up to the referee... it might just make them that much more persistent about trying to convert people to their bizarre faith...) Maybe, if bullets start flying, what he'll discover he really needs is some help shuffling furniture real quick, and the fastest ticket offworld he can get.

11. Two by Two...

The characters are chartered by a bureaucratic-type who's a guay tuh guay nown da shiong la se la chwohn tian if the characters have ever seen one. He's paying for passage for himself and three others- a pilot, a shady soldier type (maybe a merc from the war who fought for the Alliance and then got dumped when they won the war) and, laugh all you want, a paleoxenologist. (Everyone knows there's no intelligent life but humans in the ‘verse, and even some of them ain't too intelligent.) She doesn't care that they're laughing- she has a job to do, but what that job is exactly, is kept pretty secret. Anyway, the bureaucrat pays the charter and offers a retainer to keep the ship and crew on site to pick them up or ferry in equipment as necessary. Somehow, during the trip, it gets leaked that the reason why this group of passengers is going to that particular middle-of-nowhere is because something's been found there that's old... really old, and it's probably non-human in origin. When they reach the site, they figure out the value of the item, and it is mighty juicy, so the arguing and the persuading begins. The Bureaucrat wants to sell the thing to the highest bidder or acquire it for his corporation, the paleoxenologist wants to see it cataloged and put in a museum, the merc's been instructed to acquire it for a private collector, and the pilot, who is secretly a government agent, has been given instructions to kill everyone involved and seal up the site so this particular secret stays a secret. If he can't manage it in time, that's okay- it won't be long before the agents of Alliance government show up and start liquidating people.

Other Ideas

The ‘verse is home to whole slew of ideas- just think back to books you've read or movies you've watched and pick out that one series of plot twists you could turn into something to make your jaunt through the black just that much more interesting. You might also check out my 11 Steampunk Adventure Seeds, 11 Cyberpunk Adventure Seeds, or 11 Horror Adventure Seeds for some other downright nifty ideas you might be able to twist or change or even use raw next time you take your boat through atmo.

Just remember, keep flyin', ‘cause it don't matter how far out in the black they put ya, ain't no one who can take the sky from you.

Castiron on December 28, 2010:

and 1 other note,

the sorce of the alliance cruisers losing power in "here comes the calvalry" is pirates, a group of rather technically minded badguys has been developing a new weapon tha can overload the engines of a ship at range and short out the ships power system with a microwave transmitted blast. the conclusion of the scenario is the heros putting an end to the threat posed by the pirates and either destroyign the only copy of the weapon and the plans ,... or by destroying the plans and takign the weapon or by taking both.

in any event the threat of the weapon is eliminated or atleast supposedly as in some cuircumstances the weapon and its plans fall in the hands of the heros.

in that last set of events mayhaps the heros better keep that part to themselves.

Castiron on December 28, 2010:

also the Primae can carry 2 cargo cans with the towing pads on its wings,... the cans can be 20,000ton each (for planetary landings) or 50,000tons each if no planetary landing is needed. cans larger than 50,000 tons cannot be hauled via the towing pads as the mass exceeds what they can pull.

Castiron on December 28, 2010:

=HERE COMES THE CALVALRY=

the heros ship is traveling along when they pickup a distress beacon, it appears to be coming from an alliance cruiser, when the heros arrive they discobver the ship has lost all power.

the heros,... have a choice. try to raid the ship for some ubber aliance gear or help them out of their own good nature (not bribed by the shipps commander as it will come to if the heros arrive and are reluctant to help)and try to get the ship repowered. assuming they do the later(of their own wfree will , not outa bribes) there will be one gratefull alliance colonel or major out in the black with nothun but good ta be sayin about the heros and their ship. (or with a vendetta and a warrant if they plundered)

over the course of the next month there will be a rash of this event say sumthin like 9 cruisers. then it happens. the mother lode, the alliance cruiser Arbalest

onboard is star admiral kalla birimal. and this is where the heros gain honorary ranks in the alliance millitary.

should the heros and/or their ship have the "cortex specter" trait Kalla wil lflag them/it as a blacks opps qualified ship and the crew should have no more problems with that trait and the alliance,.... the letters of commendation from say 1 star admiral, 7 colonels and 3 majors of the resqued ships wil lcarry aloitta weight with getting the heros freight from the alliance. at the standard ?3/ton rate as well as the occasional expedited / high security / and or high value jobs that pay even more once in a blue moon as much as ?16/ton.

from there on out its pretty much smooth sailign for the crew ,... an alliance job paying well or access to emergency medical or repair services wont ever bee too far from the heros fro mthat day on ofcourse assuming the heros dont ever ruin their good name with the alliance. and those affore mentioned med /repair sevices may be avail but they still wont be cheap.

this also opens the crew up to other alliance based adventures they may or may not be to the heros liking, such as:

Law and Order: a mission to do some law enforcement on a colony of miners or other poor oppressed folk that have revolted.

On the lamb: a mission to hunt down a know criminal by the name of

Black Opps: a mission to extract an alliance opperative i nsome extreamly hostile location.

Recon: the heros must go,... gather information on this or that and report back.

Reaver we may roam: the heros are sent to investigate a loss of communications at a new colony in , and arrive to find theres just been a dinner party,........ so to speak.

keep in mind the alliance takes offence at a declined mission reguardless of the reasons, they have no concern for the heros "moral reservations" however the heros after "here comes the calvalry" wil lhave a VERY good name and it would take a huge ammount of turn downs or seriously botched missions for them to lose alliance favor enough to lose their welcome at the alliance shipping officers desk.

=mission #2 in the castiron collection=

Castiron on December 28, 2010:

falling down is a reaver crawl,.... suitable for 1 chr to an entire crew,..... here's the deal.

the crew is on vacation on the passenger liner or for whatever reason is the second victim hit by pirates and shot down after being boarded and robbed. however somehow the heros managed to be offcourse and well into reaver space,... the pirates mentioned are not the brightest in the verse and thus failed to notice where they had followed their targets to.

(for 1 Chr you are either one of the pirates (and could be an infiltraitor to the pirates ranks looking to gather evidence on them for the alliance) or a passenger on the liner that has become lost and wandered into reaver space. in the infiltraitor scenario the pirates are on to you and turn on you after the heist and leave you to be shot down with the liner.)

the pirates after finishing their robbery shoot out the engines on the liner and leave to to crash into a planet they are orbiting atm. in the crash several lives are lost, say out of the 20,000 passengers and 300 crew only 1300ish survive the crash. after that the reavers will claim 100s of lives as the captain and remaining crew fail to lead the survivors to saftey (saftey: a false illusuon on planet reaver) and setup a survivor camp,..... as the survivors are butchered in 2 or 3 reaver encounters the commanders of the liner are killed

eventually the hero(s) are the only leader types left and must lead the remainder of survivors to salvation.

on this hell hole a ruined city can be found (several actually, but 1 inparticular) i nthis city several locations containing goods helpful to the survivors can be found, alliance weapons vaults, supply lockers, and even an experimental prototype ship hangar with a ship in it,...... despite being a ruin the locations have endured their abandonement quite well and the ship found is no worse of wear in its decades of abandonment, though the ship is barely more than a shell, most of its components still sitting in crates on the hangar floor

the heros must manage ot survive the reavers either by force or by stealth (stealth is recommended) and assemble the ship enough ot get off planet using the crated components and any salvage that can be brought in fro mthe wrecked liner,... all the while trying to avoid reaver attention.

in the end a thorough grp of heros can manage to procure several suits of advanced armor, weapons, some new ration packs that include the standarn nutrient bars + a carb bar and some hydration beads (would look the size on slices manderine oranges) these discoveres ration packs can not only keep a person from starvign for a month but keep them fully fed and hydrated. the primae prototye ship is a marvel of engineering its a large transport sized ship that is reconfigureable for "whatever purpose" this particular prototype was being setup

as a multi-function advanced support ship with micro reseach hospital/research lab,.. mini foundry, refinery, machine shop, hydroponics bay, water mill, and micro atmo prossessor. armor, weapons, as well as still having a decent ammount of cargo space.

the components found include 3 units of w and s armor aswell as 4 200lb cannons,... and 10 1000lb missile tubes. though as mentioned the components for al lthis are stil lcrated and would take extensive time to assemble,.. might say more time n you got. though it might be feasably possible for the heros to grab the stuff ,.. toss it in the ship,.. assamble the main engine ,... put a fuel can in there hooked ot the engine assemble the most basic of controlls and get outa dodge.

Background, the "ruined city" was in actuality an alliance R&D center and was lost durrign the war to an outbreak of a contagion,... the alliance intended to return once the planet would be clear of the contageon but somehow records of the existance of the base were lost and thus the place was forgotten,.... any experimental weapons, armor or the ship would have no record o nthe cortex of any kind, and thus all are cortex specters [MAJOR] (id give em a cortex specter [extreme] if such a thing existed.)

KEEP IN MIND, when this ship is found its a near bare frame these stats show what the primae "CAN BE IF" all the components are taken with the ship "AND" later installed. (sure to be a series of adventures and a whole lotta time n cost to get done) this ship represents end game material and should be a whole lotta fun and time getting completed.

Primae

Agility : d8

Strength : d12

Vitality : d12

Alertness : d12

Intelligence : d12

Willpower : d12

Length : 400

Beam : 280

Height : 120

tons : 67,600

Speed Class : 10[14]

Fuel Capacity : 2,520Tons[12,600Ton tank]

Cruise End : 1,200Hrs

Quarters : 3,875Tons (Crew 85 rooms, + captain(45) & Doctors Quarters(90), 40 C3 Passenger, 45 2C Passenger, 5 1C passenger.)

Cargo Space : 29,640² Register tons (1,051,200 Cubic feet)(Incliding 6,760 Register tons bonus cargo space.)

(291Tons Reserved Ship, 178Tons Resrved Crew)

Commons : 1,000 Register Tons (250 Cubic Feet)

Foundry : 1,000 Register Tons (250 Cubic Feet)

Machine shop : 1,000 Register Tons (250 Cubic Feet)

Refinery : 1,000 Register Tons (250 Cubic Feet)

MedBay : 1,000 Register Tons (250 Cubic Feet)

Research Lab : 1,000 Register Tons (250 Cubic Feet)

Cargo Coupling : X2 Coupling Array For upto 20,000/50,000 Register ton Cargo Containers.

(cargo containers must be 20,000 Register Tons or less for planetary Landings.)

(Cargo Cans of greater than 50,000 Register Tons cannot be coupled to the Primae.)

Weapons & Armor :

3pt W armor = 2028Tons.

3pt S armor = 2028Tons.

x4 200lb Electromagnetic Cannons, 60Shot magazines, 1600 Tons ea.

x10 Missile Launchers (20 shots per launcher).

x200 Long Range 1000lb missiles (20,000Lb ea).

TRAITS

Allure (MINOR ASSET)

Cortex Specter (MAJOR ASSET)

Fast Throttle (MAJOR ASSET)

Gas Guzzler (MINOR COMPLICATION)

Healthy as a Horse (MINOR ASSET)

Loved (MAJOR ASSET)

Memorable (MINOR COMPLICATION)

SKILLS 42

d6 Athletics

d6 Covert

d6 Heavy Weapons

d12 Knowledge

d12 Mechanical Engineering

d12 Perception

d12 Pilot

Complexity : x4.5

Life Points : 24

Maintanence : 50,700 Monthly (300 Hourly)

Insurance : 56,000 Monthly (50,000Monthly if paid 1yr infull)

Price/Value : 65,480,000

Avg Port Fee : 672

Full Fuel Fill : 12,600

Full Provision : 14421.4Cr

here's what she looks like

http://nomadicgamer.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/80...

Castiron on December 28, 2010:

well personally i like the site overall score 6/10.

a bit more info woulda been nice like some NPC stats ect

maybe some maps ect but hey this is free ideas so for what ya paid for ya got good by yer money.

a side note for postal run,...... the alliance pays ?3/ton for mail or alliance freight runs as a general rule. (trust me my ship knows =),.......

and id like to post here a few missions ive come up with for my crew.

wissentransfer on June 16, 2010:

Awesome hub! Thanks for sharing!

RL on March 02, 2010:

Ok...so "how it went"

PCs about crashed on Whitefall as an intro to the campaign. Campaign takes place right around the whole Serenity / deal goes bad with Patience episode (or was that in the pilot?)

At any rate, I added a bit to your premise. The reaver ship in that episode crashed in my game. There is an alliance base on Whitefall - remnants of the War. (It is loosely manned, mostly forgotten since the war and staffed with essentially war crime worthy soldiers that the Alliance just didn't want to deal with.) A sick, sadistic guy in charge takes his men out to investigate this explosion/crash.

The alliance patrol comes across the crashed reaver ship, finds one survivor - female reaver badly wounded. Sadistic bad guy takes Reaver prisoner and they come across Patience in the desert trapped under her horse.

Sadistic bad guy gets an idea - shoots Patience and lets the Reaver tear her up. Now he has greater control on Whitefall and the neat little Reaver excuse to run around and kill off other townsfolk who might challenge his supreme authority. He nurses the reaver back to health and through heavy sedation/psychotropic medication and good doses of torture "trains" it to follow him around and...."work" on command.

PCs show up - its a mess. Fun mess, but a mess. They eventually figure out what is going on and with their FedBand scanner pick up on encrypted transmissions that lead them to the badguys next target - a prominent rancher in the area.

They show up but not guns blazing. Its a messy fight where one PC (a Jane clone) does most of the shooting. The captain is trying to join up but the Twitchy Coward engineer keeps sabotaging the shuttle they are in until the capatin puts his gun to the guys head. The ships doctor manages to somehow save the rancher's life (the Reaver had a chance to get to him) but he will be out of commission for weeks (and unable to corroborate their story.)

By the way - a local computer with a holo suite made some nifty "Reaver Costumes" for the alliance feds and the PCs managed to get one intact (again I say it was a mess....frag grenades and an Alliance officer being used as a shuttle hood ornament...not much came out unscathed.)

Work out great, nice little inspiration...going to check out your list for some other ideas : )

Jeff Berndt from Southeast Michigan on February 22, 2010:

Nice article. You know, these ideas are equally usable for a smugglers' campaign in the Star Wars universe.

Trunfio from Pacific Northwest on February 07, 2010:

We're just about to start a Serenity game. Thanks for the great ideas. I sent a link to our GM.

Earl S. Wynn (author) from California on January 21, 2010:

AWESOME! Let me know how it goes. :)

RL on January 21, 2010:

Love the ideas - going to run a Serenity game next week and have been so busy I haven't put much thought into the general story. Going to go with the "Why did it Have to be Reavers?" : )