A Very British Serenity

[ffutures]

OK - one of the adventures I want to run in a few weeks will be a story of pioneering Americans heading off to the stars aboard their trusty spaceship, which may or may not be called Serenity. Their aim is to found a new American Republic in another solar system.

However, for game purposes America has been part of the Anglo-Saxon Empire and largely Anglicised for the last 150 years or so, and the gallant crew get most of their ideas of the romance of the Old West and America filtered through a very British lens.

So... I think that the Firefly crew would work for this, if suitably modified. E.g.
The Reverend Book (strict C of E)
Miss Inara Serra (of the Bombay Serras), a gentlewoman and adventuress
and so forth.

Anyone want to give me versions of River, Mal, Jayne, etc.?

Comments

[w00hoo.livejournal.com]

River could be some kind of child mystic, giving readings and the like, but prone to suffering 'from the vapours'.

Simon as the uptight surgeon brother barely needs to be changed :-)

Kayleigh would almost have to have come from one of those way out colonies where they let women do stuff.

Jayne could have been some kind of pony express equivalent. That would give the rough and tough bit and weren't they actually a bit more wild than the idea might suggest (or possibly a Texas Ranger ala True Grit but gone off the deep end.)

Wash could have been a river boat pilot or something similar and met Mal and Zoe after his last boat sunk.

Mal and Zoe would have to be military but could have been part of a regimental reshuffle to give them their sense of grievance. 'We were all for the Queen until they merged the 15th Indiana Hussars with the 23rd Maine Light Cavalry, we ride light Cavalry for no man...'

All worth what you paid for it :-)

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Thanks - Kayleigh is obviously a tomboy of some sort, really can't see Zoe as a soldier though, not in this setting. Maybe a famous eccentric and big-game hunter?

[w00hoo.livejournal.com]

Actually, keeping with the British/Western theme it might work to make Zoe a native american scout for Mal as the tracker/big game hunter. Would give them a reason to have that 'forged in combat' bond between them which gives the interest in the Wash/Zoe/Mal relationship, presuming Wash isn't a character you drop. It'd be possible that the job they've been doing is suitably on the edge that it creates that 'need to pioneer and be free' among the crew.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

That could work - and the Empire seems to be slightly less worried by race than you might expect, if I'm interpreting things correctly.

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

(a) Why shouldn't the Anglo-Saxon Empire have established some combat units made up of women? There was already a demand for equal rights and opening up of more occupations to women in the 19th century. You wouldn't need to have full integration to have some sort of women auxiliary troops.

(b) Alternatively, if you want them to have met on the battlefield, women served as nurses in war zones from the Crimean War on. It would give a different set of occupational skills to Zoe, but she and Mal could have been through a war together.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately there's nothing in the source material (a 1900 novel) to support the idea - women are presented throughout as decorative but pretty useless.

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

If you've got source material that specific, and on that point, I'm perplexed at your trying to adapt Serenity. You could just barely fit in Inara, maybe, but Zoe, Kaylee, and River are all capable in a nontraditional mode. Unless you want to just turn at least Zoe and Kaylee into men.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I think it's a challenge to do it, but I want to see if it's possible without straining the setting too badly.

[cobrabay.livejournal.com]

I assume Mal would look a bit like this http://thephobia.com/post/1300475634

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Yep, something like that.

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

Jayne as a bounty hunter/lawman for hire like the Earps or Doc Holliday only not so good or reputable

Mal as an ex senior NCO from the West or even California cashiered for disobeying an unlawful order given by an Eastern toff officer

Zoe a Native scout who worked with Mal

Wash riverboat pilot

River an Oriental with mystical and martial training unknown to most Westerners on the run from the Emperor's minions with her Doctor brother

Simon trained by Western Doctors in Shanghai and rescued his sister from the secret training program run by the Manchu Empire

Both had an American merchant father from San Francisco who married a Chinese woman he met after moving to Shanghai

Kayleigh raised by her widowed mechanic/blacksmith father who worked for a small mining railroad who used her as his assistant.