Firefly works a lot better when you completely ignore the "one giant system" idea and go with the jump drive. Just drop a void around a cluster of systems and boom - pressure cooker of terraforming every world they can. On 2/6/18, Catherine Berry <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote: > I definitely agree that "Firefly" was a scientific/technological mess. The > storytelling was so good that I managed to get past it, but I winced a lot. > It's too bad, as setting up a plausible 'verse for the same narrative would > have been relatively easy. I ended up just retconning a lot in my head. :) > > And yes, the two-part recipe for role-playing happiness is: > > 1. The GM and players are in rough agreement about the style of game > they want. > 2. Within the expectations and conventions of that style, the GM keeps > things mostly consistent and predictable, so that the players can > suspend > disbelief enough to experience the world their characters inhabit. > > It happens that the closer the game world is to our world, the easier it is > (on average) to keep things mostly consistent and predictable. Even a > careful, conscientious GM is going to have problems when too much magic (or > magical technology) is involved. In Traveller, why doesn't every serious > war involve cracking planets with near-c rocks? In a lots-of-magic fantasy > setting, why do e.g. armies of foot-soldiers and walled cities exist?* And > so forth. Every step you take away from well-known history (or the present > day), from well-known science, is an opportunity to accidentally introduce > contradictions and paradoxes that send suspended disbelief crashing to the > ground. Successful games either involve players who are more interested in > "living" in the world as it's presented without too much questioning and > envelope-pushing, or a GM who is really, *really* good at thinking on their > feet and steering players away from situations that make the problems > obvious. > > * My brother actually took an interesting run at answering this question > <https://gridlore.dreamwidth.org/1934471.html>. > > On Tue, Feb 6, 2018 at 6:06 PM, Kelly St. Clair <xxxxxx@efn.org> wrote: > >> On 2/5/2018 9:02 PM, Kurt Feltenberger wrote: >> >>> On 2/5/2018 1:59 PM, Catherine Berry wrote: >>> >>>> Joss Whedon once said that spacecraft in "Firefly" travel at the speed >>>> of plot. That to me captures perfectly the narrative approach to >>>> role-playing. The GM decides how long the trip should take, within >>>> broad >>>> parameters of plausibility and consistency, and the players take that as >>>> a >>>> given and create their narrative within that framework. "Gaming" >>>> players >>>> would instead start pulling out rulebooks and calculators to >>>> second-guess >>>> the stated duration. >>>> >>> >>> While I tend to agree with this (despite despising Whedon), there must >>> be >>> some framework for future continuity or the "world" (i.e. the system, >>> stellar arm, etc.) suddenly ceases to have any real form other than GM >>> fiat. >>> >>> >> I used to be a Whedon fan; now I'm not. >> One of the reasons for this, though minor compared to some of the others, >> is that he loves to throw in little teasing bits of accurate detail about >> space travel... and then completely fudge and handwave the other stuff, >> per >> the quote, resulting in a setting which is (to me) a maddeningly >> inconsistent casserole of mildly hard SF and not-even-close. >> >> According to what we presently know about astronomy and planetology, the >> star system(s) in which Firefly takes place is about as realistic, and >> requires as much divine fiat, as the Discworld. And you know that PTerry >> at least put some thought into the latter, and the implications, rather >> than just "eh, whatever." >> >> Oh look, we circled back around to "celestial configuration"... >> >> ObTrav: figure out what tone, level of hardness, etc etc you're going >> for >> and /stick with it./ >> >> -- >> --------------- >> Kelly St. Clair >> xxxxxx@efn.org >> >> >> ----- >> The Traveller Mailing List >> Archives at http://archives.simplelists.com/tml >> Report problems to xxxxxx@simplelists.com >> To unsubscribe from this list please go to http://www.simplelists.com/con >> firm.php?u=PltOdItWBSgOP4y0Q6abkGbDI1eus0lz >> > > > > -- > "Eternity is in love with the productions of time." - William Blake > ----- > The Traveller Mailing List > Archives at http://archives.simplelists.com/tml > Report problems to xxxxxx@simplelists.com > To unsubscribe from this list please go to > http://www.simplelists.com/confirm.php?u=DZZu00eGt8rDmt14P7liTVEolKKLZVUJ
