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mburnamfink's review
5.0
Cortex Plus is rapidly becoming one of my favorite generic RPG systems. The Firefly RPG is less precisely aimed than Leverage, but the quality of presentation and setting details make this a great book for RPG geeks and Firefly fans.
You're probably familiar with the cult-favorite cancelled before it's time show Firefly, but in case you're not, it's a Space Western about idealistic criminals trying to survive on the rim of space. In the RPG, you can play as Mal and the gang on Serenity, or stat up your own crew and ship. The book has pretty much everything you'd expect in a RPG (core rules, character creation, sample adventure), with one twist in presentation. The first hundred pages are a gameplay tutorial and recap of the show, walking new players through the Cortex Plus system and demonstrating how scenes from the show play out with the support of the rules. For setting fans, the book also has a map of the 'Verse with 200 named planets and moons, as well as a dictionary of Chinese phrases for cursin' with. The writing is top notch, clear and perfectly in the style of the show. Glossy stills of the cast and some decent artwork add visual flair.
The Cortex Plus system is a dead simple dicepool. Roll Stat + Skill + Distinction + Assets and keep the 2 highest. Spend plot points to add more dice to your total and try and beat the opposition. Rolling 1s introduce Complications but also give you plot points to use when it really matters. There are 3 stats (Physics, Mental, Social), 19 skills, and a whole passel of Distinctions that help distinguish who your character is. The basic gameplay structure is about getting enough plot points in hand to throw ludicrous numbers down on the table when it matters. Big Damn Hero dice are awarded for exceptional successes, and can be banked long term to future moments. The GM and Players need to be on their toes when introducing Assets and Complications, making sure that they're interesting and not too broad or too narrow. For someone coming from a more traditional RPG like Dungeons & Dragons, the Cortex system is going to be a shift, but it's not entirely narrativist gaming without a net.
There are quite a few interesting bits here. Ships are handled like another character, with Engines, Hull, and System stats and Distinctions of their own that are combined with the crew member's Skills and Distinctions to get a dice pool. Gameplay is structured like a TV show, with an episode made up of scenes made up of beats. Characters can be Taken Out by losing a high stakes contest, or having a Complication go above d12. Conversely, there are some parts of the system I'm less sure about. Not all skills are created equal. Influence comes up every time a character tries to get an NPC to go along with with them, Throw is a lot less useful. Fortunately, there are enough skill points to go around. Default untrained is d4, and characters get 18 step-ups, meaning they could get to d10 expertise in 6 skills, which is a fairly broad area of expertise. My second quibble is that while its okay for the system to abstract away the "broke and struggling" aspect of Firefly, the show is really about a group of people finding out that they're more than a crew, they're a family. The RPG could've used some more solid rules for building relationships between characters and encouraging people to help each other out. I might hack in a version of the Apocalypse World relationship system to add another way to introduce plot points.
Final verdict: If you like Firefly or Cortex Plus, this is a game that's worth your time.
You're probably familiar with the cult-favorite cancelled before it's time show Firefly, but in case you're not, it's a Space Western about idealistic criminals trying to survive on the rim of space. In the RPG, you can play as Mal and the gang on Serenity, or stat up your own crew and ship. The book has pretty much everything you'd expect in a RPG (core rules, character creation, sample adventure), with one twist in presentation. The first hundred pages are a gameplay tutorial and recap of the show, walking new players through the Cortex Plus system and demonstrating how scenes from the show play out with the support of the rules. For setting fans, the book also has a map of the 'Verse with 200 named planets and moons, as well as a dictionary of Chinese phrases for cursin' with. The writing is top notch, clear and perfectly in the style of the show. Glossy stills of the cast and some decent artwork add visual flair.
The Cortex Plus system is a dead simple dicepool. Roll Stat + Skill + Distinction + Assets and keep the 2 highest. Spend plot points to add more dice to your total and try and beat the opposition. Rolling 1s introduce Complications but also give you plot points to use when it really matters. There are 3 stats (Physics, Mental, Social), 19 skills, and a whole passel of Distinctions that help distinguish who your character is. The basic gameplay structure is about getting enough plot points in hand to throw ludicrous numbers down on the table when it matters. Big Damn Hero dice are awarded for exceptional successes, and can be banked long term to future moments. The GM and Players need to be on their toes when introducing Assets and Complications, making sure that they're interesting and not too broad or too narrow. For someone coming from a more traditional RPG like Dungeons & Dragons, the Cortex system is going to be a shift, but it's not entirely narrativist gaming without a net.
There are quite a few interesting bits here. Ships are handled like another character, with Engines, Hull, and System stats and Distinctions of their own that are combined with the crew member's Skills and Distinctions to get a dice pool. Gameplay is structured like a TV show, with an episode made up of scenes made up of beats. Characters can be Taken Out by losing a high stakes contest, or having a Complication go above d12. Conversely, there are some parts of the system I'm less sure about. Not all skills are created equal. Influence comes up every time a character tries to get an NPC to go along with with them, Throw is a lot less useful. Fortunately, there are enough skill points to go around. Default untrained is d4, and characters get 18 step-ups, meaning they could get to d10 expertise in 6 skills, which is a fairly broad area of expertise. My second quibble is that while its okay for the system to abstract away the "broke and struggling" aspect of Firefly, the show is really about a group of people finding out that they're more than a crew, they're a family. The RPG could've used some more solid rules for building relationships between characters and encouraging people to help each other out. I might hack in a version of the Apocalypse World relationship system to add another way to introduce plot points.
Final verdict: If you like Firefly or Cortex Plus, this is a game that's worth your time.
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