Friday 27 September 2013

Episode (Session) #3 - May contain Echoes of War spoilers


Floris & Eli saw off Blake and his compatriots but the survivors made a run for their ship. Floris gave chase but lost them, increasing the severity of his earlier MUSCLE STRAIN Complication in the process.
Meanwhile on the Bei Xiang Judah musters the crew to fly in a shuttle over to Blake's ship and try to take control of it. They leave Bean and Tuck on board with instructions not to touch anything but as they go Dr Norris slips back and gives them the keys to Judah's wardrobe.
The shuttle heads to the Scorpio Salvage craft but they are soon hailed by "Crazy Frog" Gillespie, the pilot. Unfortunately it seems that the Doctor's "distraction" stopped Tuck from jamming the Salvager's sensors...
Judah, Crazy Frog and Dr Norris exchange words; the doctor and Judah trying to convince (SOCIAL+INFLUENCE) Gillespie to let them dock so that they can negotiate in person while their adversary is busy threatening them (Salvager d6+Difficulty d8). The Crazy Frog eventually cuts comms and it appears that the salvage vessel is leaving (Blake having returned).
On the Helse Bergen Floris climbs outside to see Blake's Ship departing however he fails (MENTAL+NOTICE) to detect a shudder in the bowels of the wreck.
The shuttle docks with the wreck and the crew board.  Leo taps into the ship's Cortex records and downloads the logs and manifest (MENTAL+OPERATE+Cortex Speciality+Custom Cortex Terminal Signature Asset) but is getting a bit spooked "out in the field" and gains a "Gettin' scary" Complication.
The crew go to secure the cargo but find that the hull has been breached by multiple explosions and the cargo is ruined. Floris curses Blake for the pettiness of spoiling what he couldn't have. But every cloud has a silver lining; the Helse Bergen itself might be worth the trip and directed by Leo (rolling MENTAL+FIX+SALVAGER+Tool Belt Signature Asset) they have soon loaded the Bei Xiang's hold with very saleable ship parts and components. Further activity is halted by the detection of an Alliance ASREV in the near vicinity and so the crew high tail it out of there. Eli accepts an offer of transport to a nearby world in thanks for his help with Blake and Co.
There's a fair amount of interaction on the ship and the crew are largely in high spirits after a reasonably successful job so we let that play out with some scenes between the captain and his cousin & pilot, Judah having to restore his wardrobe, Floris discussing how to offload the parts with Leo and the Doctor having fun at various crew member's expense.
Eventually their reverie is interrupted with a Wave from a nearby planet, Newhall.  The message is full of static but it appears that it is a Shepherd who allegedly knows Floris' father.  He needs help and was overjoyed to detect Floris' father's ship nearby.  He wants to call in a favour and provides the crew with landing coordinates.
Floris figures that Newhall is pretty much en route back to Beylix and as good a place as any to try to off load some of these parts so they set course to the Shepherd's location.
Thus we began the Echoes of War Episode; "Shooing Fish"
The Bei Xiang touches down on Newhall and Eli bids the captain farewell. Floris, Judah and the Doctor head to the Shepherd's orphanage while Leo takes Bean and a selection of sellable parts into the near by town of Endurance.
The Captain's party encounter a group of orphans who come out to meet them and eventually get directions to where Shepherd Rust may be found.  He comes brings them into the orphanage refectory and offers refreshments while he explains the problems he is having with the local mayor, Buzzard Lake.  The only hope to pay off the orphanage’s debts will be to enter the mayor's boat race and win the prize money. A sizeable purse that should also serve to recompense the crew for their trouble.  Floris agrees to help.
Meanwhile in the town Leo has been able to befriend an abrupt and obstructive shop owner & mechanic by impressing him with his mechanical knowledge.  He is able to get a fair price for some of the parts and has made a potentially useful contact...

Monday 23 September 2013

Episode (session) #2

So when we left our crew they were on their way off the planet Beylix to try to secure themselves some illegal salvage....

I let the travel in the Black play out for a while, running some roleplay scenes between the crew to help the players solidify how they were playing their characters and how they related to each other.  In no particular order:
  • We saw how the pilot, Captain Floris' cousin; Emery, doesn't seem to think much of Floris abilities as a businessman or captain.  She seems a lot more "worldly" and Rim-savvy than her cousin and obviously holds a torch for Judah, the Companion & first mate.
  • Bean (doped up on the Doctor's tranqs) spent most of the session swinging from the rafters in the cargo bay, teasing the Captain (She could see his "bald patch" from up there) and playing something that became known as "The pickle game" with Leo (repeatedly saying the word pickle which Leo repeated and she would tell him whether he got it wrong or right - the rules seem to be completely indeterminate).
  • Judah detected a smell aboard which was intruding into his cabin and accused Turk - it turned out however that it was the captain's dogs.
  • Turk/Tuc/Tock was found stealing biscuits at night by Emery. She managed to get a look at the notebook he was scribbling in but it all appeared to be gibberish.
The Bei Xiang approached the wreck and the crew could see that it was a derelict bulk cargo transport registered as the "Helse Bergen".  Leo started scans of the wreck (MENTAL+OPERATE+Salvager Distinction+the Ship's SYSTEMS+his Cortex Terminal Signature Asset vs a Difficulty of d8 + DERELICT SHIP d8) and was interrupted by Turk/Tuc/Tock "fiddling" - he attached some sort of home made device to the scanner which provided reams of data - far too much for Leo's poor little terminal (rolling a 1 earnt him a DATA OVERLOAD d6 Complication). Eventually between Leo and Tuck/Turk they figured out that the ship was powered down and could see huge holes in the hull.  The Captain decided to take a party over to investigate in a shuttle. Leo volunteered to stay behind and "Bean-sit" while Emery flew the shuttle.

Dr Norris disappeared quickly to get the suits ready, giving Judah's best (& most flamboyant) suit to Turk/Tock.  The Companion was not amused and the rivalry between the doctor and first mate was further reinforced.

Floris: "What sort of man would have a spacesuit with lapels?"
Judah: "What sort of man wouldn't?"

So they docked with the Helse Bergen and began to explore.  With the power out Floris had to make a number of (PHYSICAL+LABOUR vs DERELICT SHIP d8+Difficulty die) rolls to wrench open doors and clear wreckage to get them through. They found numerous bodies, all torn, cut and savaged.  The doctor examined them (MENTAL+KNOWLEDGE+ Medicine Speciality) and was able to determine that although most may have died from decompression they were certainly attacked by one or more vicious blades.  Even though the characters don't believe in such spacer tales I think the players were suspecting Reavers.... ;)

It was then that they discovered the only survivor.  Hiding away, surviving by replacing his air canisters for those on the unused space suits was a man who introduced himself as Eli Cole. He wore a slick combat spec. space suit and wore a Jian sword on his back.  Judah interrogated him and learnt that he was a merc hired by the crew and that one of them had gone crazy aboard the ship, killing and wounding his crew mates and scuttling the ship. Eli could see were things were heading and hid rather than face off against an obvious psychopath.  Judah checked him out (SOCIAL+NOTICE+Registered Companion vs Eli's SOCIAL+TRICK+Undercover speciality (more on who Eli is in a future post...)) and discerned he was telling the truth, although it might not have been the whole truth.

With Cole directing them the crew continue to search the ship and find the only modular cargo ay with anything in; a series of sealed freight canisters.  Roughly 8 tons of unmarked but undamaged cargo.

At that point Leo, back on the ship, gets hailed.  Another ship had snuck up on them (Leo had been failing NOTICE+SYSTEMS rolls, Complicated as he still was.  Each time he cleared a Complication he seemed to get another - I ruled it was a reoccurring headache...). The ship was a Scorpio class Salvage vessel and the captain, Blake, alleged that he'd been sent by the Helse Bergen's owner to recover their ship. Leo patches him through to Floris and the salvage ship levels it's guns (mounted on two "Hull crawlers" - little mobile tanks with magnetic tracks that are manoeuvring along it's outer hull) at the Bei Xiang.  Floris "agrees" to Blake's demands and the crew leave the Helse Bergen.  Well most do...Cole and Floris remain hidden aboard....(Cole spends a Plot Point to create an Explosives d6 Asset)

Judah gets Emery to move the Bei Xiang away from the Helse Bergen as Blake and his crew board the wreck.

The salvagers head straight for the untouched cargo and spot Eli (failed a PHYSICAL+STEALTH roll vs Blake's MENTAL+NOTICE+PIRATE 4D6 for his accompanying crew) who spins them a tale about Floris' crew abandoning him there, while Floris attacks from behind!

Combat ensues.  Over two rounds of combat, between Floris and Cole they manage to Take Out three of the salvagers as Blake sacrifices them instead of being Taken Out himself, but both the captain and mercenary are now sporting Complications.  Meanwhile Judah has had Emery turn the ship around and is heading to dock with the Scorpio!

We should find out what happens next later this week....

Friday 13 September 2013

Defining relationships

Howdee,

I may have mentioned before that I think relationships between the characters are key to the feel of gaming in the 'Verse - it's how the nine "crew" reklate to each other, and to Serenity that defines the show, to my mind. Therefore as I planned to start our crew off as a "going concern" - even if some of the crew are greener than others I figured that it was important that everyone identfied what their character's relationship is with each of the other crew.

Essentially I planned to do a "lift and shift" from the ol' Serenity RPG supplement "The Big Damn Hero Handbook" (great supplement btw...) but while that book uses this concept of defining "Relationship Traits" as a basis for an ongoing game mechanic for managing relationships, and their changes and intensities, I was only concerned that we define our starting points - essentially capturing a little of "what has gone before".

Each character would define their Relationship for each other crew character and then one additional important relationship for an inanimate object or important supporting character (i.e the ship, a piece of gear or an NPC/GMC). Each Relationship is written as a single sentence.
Here are a few points to remember:

  • Crew characters do not need to share the same relationships with each other. One character might have “I’m madly in love with him” and the other has “I don’t know she exists.”
  • The Relationship is JUST the most important or interesting aspect of how you deal with the other character, it’s not supposed to encompass every last little detail.
  • The Relationship is changable and emotive, so don’t select something like, “Zoe is Wash's wife.” While that may be true, this fact is not as important as the way Wash interacts with Zoe and what he thinks about her. It’s extremely important to develop these cooperatively with the other players - and thus while I got the players to think up their initial ideas alone we shared them all as a group and some made sadjustments after hearing what the others had to say.

As mentioned, a Relationship like this is expressed as a sentence mentioning both people and summarizing how one (the owner of the Relationship) feels about the other. Keep it to one sentence, though it can be a complicated sentence if you want it to be. For example, some of Kaylee’s Relationships might be:
 
  • Inara is Kaylee’s surrogate sister.
  • Kaylee has a huge crush on Simon but is intimidated by his intelligence.
  • Kaylee hurts when Serenity hurts.
 
Be careful when composing compound sentences; if someone is using the conjunction “and,” you might be wrapping up multiple Relationship aspects rather than explaining a single complicated one.

There is no defnitive list of Relationships. The best Relationships are those that can cut both ways, and all Relationships should be subject to change. Here’s a few examples. These relationships belong to the Mechanic character, Leo:

  • Leo enjoys the company of Doctor Norris
  • Leo considers Captain Floris a good friend
  • Leo is often finds Bean annoying
  • Leo doesn't enjoy being around Judah
  • Leo takes pride in working on the Bei Xiang's engines

Hopefully you all get the idea.  It was useful for us as it gave us a start point - these people knew each other, and while there's work to be done to examine those relationships, how they were formed and how they will change it allowed us to have a head start at how they all relate to one another (and immediately defined a rivalry between Judah & the Doctor...but more on that as it develops)

Wednesday 11 September 2013

The White Elephant soundtrack

I asked the players for suggestions for signature music tracks for their characters and the game as a whole (working the "TV show angle" a little) and was inundated with great suggestions.  To that end I've started to compile a Spotify playlist of the tracks (where available).  Take a listen here:

Tales of the White Elephant

Tramp Freighter

The presence of our "pet-tramp"; Tuck/Truck/Tock/Tug/Tuc/Trog/whatever-his-name onboard the ship was a little bit of a shock to the players but there was a method in my madness. I explained it to the players thus;
 
I pictured that the crew found him one day, tucked away in a makeshift den, when they were out in the Black, days from a port, but then what do they do with him?

I'm sure that the Captain possibly flew into a temper - especially as the first indication there was something amiss may have been that his dogs acted strangely. Then again it was probably around the time that the bitch had her puppies so Floris might have initially dismissed any peculiar behaviours as that....
But the crew found him.....what then? I can't imagine anyone on the crew callous enough to space him - regardless of the captain's rage (I imagine Judah was a placating voice at that point). Bean could tell he was no threat and they soon found that he'd escape from anywhere they locked him in. Caught on the hop Dr Norris probably didn't want to risk wasting sedatives on him (especially considering how fickle and unpredictable Bean is) - plus Tuck smells - who wants to get close enough to administer drugs? (and tranq darts might not get through all the layers of rags and assorted clothes). So the crew were probably forced to leave him alone until they reached their destination.
Once in port they probably sent him packing (may be with a coin or too pressed into his hand - after all in a way they'd sort of become fond of this odd interloper) and carried on with business. Then after lift off they'd find he'd be back ("The cat came back, the very next day...."). This possibly happened a couple more times until they just gave in. He seems harmless, he's occasionally helpful (Leo finds some stuff fixed or modified (especially around the ship's sensors)) when he hasn't tounched them and the Captain's dogs seem to love him.
We may play out the discovery of him as a flashback at some point but for now, that's the way of things.

Tuesday 10 September 2013

Episode (session) #1

It's now a week since we began our new Firefly campaign. Most of the first game session was spent introducing the characters and the ship, finishing character generation off, talking through the layout of the ship and as we decided that the characters were an existing crew with a  bit of history we did a "relationships" exercise to define what these people think of each other at the minute (I'll cover that in detail in another blog post).
The regular crew we have is:
Floris - the shp's captain, hailing from the Core worlds and of noble birth.  See the "O captain, my captain!" post (http://whiteelephanttales.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/o-captain-my-captain.html) for more details.
Judah - the 1st mate but also a Registered Companion, the social assistant/advisor to the captain. He tempers Floris' violent tempers and outbursts and is trying to civilise the captain. More details in a future post...
Dr Norris - A cosmetic surgeon from the Core - now hiding out on the Rim for reasons undisclosed. Clever, ascerbic, very unprincipled and worthy of a full post in the near future....
Bean - A reader, rescued by Floris when he left the Core. She appears to have companion training but Judah doesn't have a record of her in the Registry.... more to come on her too
Leo - Ship's mechanic, check out a bit more about him on the "Holdin' it all together" post (http://whiteelephanttales.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/holdin-it-all-together.html).
A very social focussed crew to be honest - but due to the layout of the Bei Xiang and the Companion's insistance that he has a seperate room on the ship for his wardrobe, they don't have much passenger space (two berths), but we'll see how that pans out.
After all that we managed to get about 30-45 mins of actual play in.
The crew had arrived on Beylix, the 'verse's dumping ground. The planet is mostly waste and salvage tips with a few scattered farmsteads.  Floris and I had previously agreed that due to his love of critters and beasts he would take livestock jobs where possible so the crew had just finished a delivery of cattle to a farm and were pondering what to do next.

I also introduced the crew to "Tuck" (or Tog, Tug, Tock, Turk no one is quite sure of what he originally mumbled when they asked his name) a tramp who they picked up at some point in their travels and lives in a den he's made for himself, tucked away under the stairwell between the Infirmary and passenger dorms. He appears harmless and seems to be a bit of a savant, randomly fixing or "adjusting" parts of the ship...
Leo comes back from a run for parts to one of the salvage yards with news of a possible job. The Salvor needs a ship for a run out into the Black but his own vessel is out of action The job is apparently urgent and the repairs to his own vessel will take too long so he's looking to out source. The Captain, Bean and Leo head to see the guy and find out more about it.
The salvage yard was owned & run by "Toestep & Son" and there they met Alphonse and his son Howerd (I make NO apologies...  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steptoe_and_Son). Hercules, their Bernard class Salvage & Rescue vessel, is out of action and a client has provided the co-ordinates for a potentially profitable piece of salvage. As this is unsanctioned and unlicensed salvage it is highly illegal and so they need to get it fast before the Alliance or United Reclaimation get it.
Toestep snr. is a "dirty ol' man" and negotiations break down quickly (Our captain's SOCIAL + Influence letting him down a little but our crew just didn't like the guy...so that made for some great roleplay) so Bean just lifts the coordinates from his mind (Paying 1 Plot Point to use her Secrets, Secrets Trigger to roll MENTAL + Know to read the details from his mind) and they return to the ship (but with Bean suffering from acute Paranoia as a side effect of brain skimming (she succeeded but rolled a "1" and gained a d6 Complication). After a brief discussion with the crew Floris decides that they will go after the salvage themselves and they lift off into the Black....

I wanna play...

It occurs to me that I rattle on like this with posts telling you all about our game when you might be asking how you can set up your own...

Well wait no longer dear reader....check out the Gaming in the 'Verse: Firefly Gen Con 2013 digital copy (available here:)

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/114257

Then check out http://www.margaretweis.com/ for news of future releases and developments.

Holdin' it all together...

Today's character focus is none other than our Ship's Mechanic, Leo Valdez.  Created and played by my 12 year old son Leo is a cross between the Percy Jackson character of the same name and a certain Firefly mechanic by the name of Kaylee...

His background's a little sketchy at present but I'm told he hailed from Beylix, the waste tip of the Core and treasure trove of the Rim, and learnt his skills hanging around the scrap yards and scrounging for bits and pieces.  He's always tinkering with *something* and has a knack at finding, or modifiying the parts needed to keep the Bei Xiang running in the Black.

MENTAL d10 PHYSICAL d6 SOCIAL d8

Fix (Engines) d12
Focus d6
Influence d6
Know (Engines) d8
Move d8
Operate (Cortex) d10
Survive d6
Treat d6
Trick d6

SALVAGER d8
Gain 1 Plot Point when you roll a d4 instead of a d8.
This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things: Turn one of your Assets into a Complication of the same die rating to gain 1 PP.

SHIP’S MECHANIC d8
Gain 1 Plot Point when you roll a d4 instead of a d8.

SWEET & CHEERFUL d8
Gain 1 Plot Point when you roll a d4 instead of a d8.
Straight-Shooter: Gain 1 PP when you openly tell the truth even though it might be to your greater benefit to lie or conceal it.

SIGNATURE ASSETS:
Toolbelt d8
Modified Cortex terminal d6

Friday 6 September 2013

All I ask is a tall ship, and a star to sail her by...

So we have our captain, what about his ship?

While the ship is associated with the crew as a whole, in our case it is most closely connected to our captain. Therefore the player and I worked together to lay the groundwork of what the ship was, where it came from and how it came to be in the captain's possession.

That said, an early suggestion from my son (who plays our Ship's Mechanic) was that the ship itself ought to be a Firefly class. I could immediately understand the rationale: it's familiar to everyone who's seen some of the show or the movie, it's a prolific ship within the setting, multiple "standard" versions have been documented and it's stated that they are easily customisable, plus I have all the stats from the Firefly RPG Gen Con exclusive and the poster size floor plans from the Serenity RPG. That said I also wanted to make sure that this was our own ship and not just Serenity with a different crew. It had to be unique.

Therefore we came up with the concept that this ship was, for all intents and purposes an ol' Firely but Flori's father had a hobby of renovating old starships (using high quality newtech components hidden behind the original bulkheads) so it became a bit of a mismatch leading the player of our Doctor to suggest it was a "White Elephant" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_elephant) and so it was christened the Bei Xiang (and hence the name of this blog...).

From the basics that we'd worked out we then took it to the group and everyone suggested which Distinction Triggers and Signature Assets we should have. Taking one suggestion from each player (except or Reader who wanted to leave it to the others) we ended up with our ship - which had become a little bit of everyone:

Bei Xiang  "The White Elephant"
ENGINES d10 HULL d8 SYSTEMS d6

FIREFLY CLASS TRANSPORT d8
Gain 1 Plot Point when you roll a d4 instead of a d8.
Connected Operations: When rolling to fix a ship’s Complication, you may step up the difficulty die to fix two Complications at once. Step up any Complication that results from this roll.

STOLEN d8
Gain 1 Plot Point when you roll a d4 instead of a d8.

EXPERIMENTAL d8
Gain 1 Plot Point when you roll a d4 instead of a d8.
Experimental Settings: When using a ship’s Signature Asset, you may step up or double that die. Step up any Complications that arise from that roll.

SIGNATURE ASSETS:
Medsuite d8
Pimp'd out thrust booster d8

Thursday 5 September 2013

O captain, my captain!

Well we've had our first session now, which was mostly finishing character generation and talking through how these people met, formed a crew and the ship they find themselves in. I figured that it might be best to introduce some of these folks and where best to start than with our captain....

Floris van Roozemond comes from a wealthy family, powerful in the alliance: effectively nobility.  He had a troubled upbringing but found pleasure in open spaces; he went riding; he played and hunted with hounds.  He became closer to them than to people.

One day he flew off in his father's old restored & rennovated Firefly. Perhaps his father wants him and/or the ship back, or perhaps, he just lets Floris go with it.

He had the noble bearing and enough money to pull a crew together, but more on that in future posts. 

But the truth of all this will probably be discovered during the game...

Attributes:
MENTAL d8 PHYSICAL d10 SOCIAL d6

Skills:
Fight d12
Fly d6
Focus d8
Influence d12
Labor d6
Move (Evasive) d12
Survive d6
Throw d6

Distinctions:
ANIMAL LOVER d8
Gain 1 Plot Point when you roll a d4 instead of a d8.

SHIP’S CAPTAIN d8
Gain 1 Plot Point when you roll a d4 instead of a d8.
Lead the Crew: When one of your crew directly follows one of your orders, spend 1 PP and give that Crewmember an Asset equal to your Influence die rating.

TEMPER d8
Gain 1 Plot Point when you roll a d4 instead of a d8.
Anger Issues: Gain 1 PP when you make a bad decision on account of the chip on your shoulder or your short fuse gets you in trouble.

Signature Assets:
Hounds & their puppies d8
Ship's pilot (a distant cousin & possible romantic interest) d8

Monday 2 September 2013

Memorable NPCs

Back in days of yore, when I was young and, in all likelihood, you were even younger (if you were even born...), the main RPG I ran was Marvel Superheroes Advanced by TSR (now Wizards of the Coast). At the time the company's house magazine was "Dragon" and while I wasn't a big D&D player I'd often fork out the cash to get it for ideas, especially if there was a Marvel related article.

One particular article, which I cut out and kept* to this day was all about making memorable NPCs.  The arguement was simple - the players could potentially meet hundreds of concerned citizens, scientific experts, pushy cops etc all of which could be cookie cutter stereotypes and easily forgotten but a simple way to lift your game above the usual is it make those pieces of mobile scenery or plot vehicles memorable.  I took this to heart and personally I use the following as simple benchmarks:

  1. Use memorable names - Stan Lee used alliteration when he named characters simply to help him remember his own creations names, if that works for you, great! Personally I tend to use plays on words (often I'm the only one who gets the joke...) or a reference to the role the character plays or some other aspect of the character. e.g the two contacts that the crew will be meeting for their first story will be Alphonse & Howerd Toestep - a pair of father & son salvagers directly based on the UK comedy characters "Steptoe & son".  
  2. Give each NPC a memorable trait - it doesn't have to be much, it doesn't have to be earth shattering but just something "different" - The dock hand who constantly has a lit smoke in hand, the war vet with the filligree'd brass cyberarm, when the rest of his replacement bionics are greasy brushed steel, the crime boss who always bows in the presence of a lady.  Don't overdo it though - just a single element can give a distinction to set the person out from the crowd but load them up with attributes and they become a parody which will detract from the overall story and flow of the game
  3. Act it - I'm a GM who tends to try to give his all; I tend to run games standing up, I move about, strike poses, rub my hands together gleefully as a scrap dealer, always hold a cup or glass in my hand when I'm slurring out the drunken commands of a gin-soaked pirate.  My players know me for my "memorable" character voices (when one of our guys first watched "The Phantom Menace" he was alledgedly heard to say "That's a Ben voice!" when Watto first spoke) I'm not good at impressions (my "John Peel" is abysmal) but they are memorable.  Voice conveys alot of character - it's a great shorthand for helping players get a gauge for what are otherwise just numbers and words rather than living people - the same with actions and body language. It doesn't need to be an oscar winning performnce just something that the players will remember for the next time they meet the character, or simply when they are relating the stories about the game to friends.  Now I know that there may be some reading this who will find this the hardest advice to take on board and implement but believe me once you start the easier it becomes and the more involved you will find the players becoming.  
An immediate question might be why bother?  These are after all the supporting cast, not the heroes of our tales.  I'd suggest the reasons are threefold:
 
  1. It helps the players - Bless 'em, there's a lot going on in plots and games - especially when you are sat on the player side and haven't got the advantage of seeing the "big picture" plot.  You'll probably have heard of the phrase "Putting a face to the name" - this is a way of doing that in game without having a cast of hundreds sat in your living room.  Having these memorable "tags" that the players can use to associate with NPCs will help them order the flow of events in their minds and keep abrest of what's going on, to who, where and when.
  2. It helps the GM - Memorable traits are as much a shorthand and aid memoir for a GM as for players.  You have a whole 'verse to run! If knowing that the arms dealer they last spoke in Persephone had a peg leg and clockwork parrot it's a mnemonic that will help trigger a whole bunch of other recollections about the character and what happened last time they met.
  3. It makes it a little more real - We know this is all a game. This is a fantasy setting where spaceships filled with gravity drives and atmosphere capable shuttlecraft are sailed through an ocean of black by a motley assortment of gunslingers, shepherds, bermuda shirt wearing pilots, psychics and ne'er do wells...this is by no means real.  However, in my personal experience rpgs are at their best when the players and GM have some sort of emotional investment in the game, something which is very hard to create when it is "only a game".  Having memorable NPCs can help to do that; you are adding a touch of uniqueness to these faceless characters just a small touch of individuality.  It will add a hint of realism to the campaign and it does pay off.
To be completely honest I think that trying to apply these techniques has been the source some of the success of my own games and I'll ahave a few specifics in forthcoming posts...
*Yes kids, there was a time before scanning and digital media...

Gettin' started

Welcome, settle yourself down and let Uncle Ben tell you a little tale...
 
For a variety of reasons, I was ending my current game (Trinity rpg, in case you were interested White Wolf, now Onyx path's sci-fi game).   I'd thoroughly enjoyed it and it was very much a  "vanity game" that our playing group had indulged me on. That said I think we all agreed that we managed to create some memorable characters and an interesting story.
But, on to pastures new - and "into the black" ;)
The new Firefly RPG from Margaret Weis Productions is *very* shiny and benefits from using a version of the Cortex+ system (which the Marvel Heroic RPG is also based on and we played A LOT until our daliance with Trinity...).  The system dovetails nicely with the way I GM and the way our group plays, and I think it captures the feeling of the setting far better than it's predecessor (the Serenity RPG - also from MWP) did.
 
Plus, I have all the materials for the old "Cortex Classic" Serenity RPG which are complementary to, if not directly compatible with the new game (conversion rules to follow, we are told). Now I've been a fan of The Firefly 'verse for a number of years (since the "Big Damn Movie") and I think that the setting holds HUGE potential for an ongoing game (especially considering the additional essays and material that's been written since, the comics, background notes etc etc) and so it's time to gather a crew and head off on into the Black...