Smuggler Archive
Thread: Firefly: the show that defined what a SWG smuggler should be
Why not make this into its own thread?
Going on from our comments in the Smuggler Theme Song thread, I think now's a good time to recognize Joss Whedon's Firefly as the definitive model of everything we have ever wanted SWG's smuggler class to be.
Lets take a look at it:
If you're completely unfamiliar with the show, Firefly was a short-lived television series on the Fox Channel. It could be described at the simplest level as a "western in space", much as Star Wars once was. (Personally I think of Star Wars as a Samurai-Western-in-Space, with way too much Samurai lately, but I digress)
It centered around Captain Malcom Reynolds, and his crew of fugitives, wanderers, and desperados, as they travel the outer rim of the galaxy, looking for any sort of work they can find. Though its off the air, we have a theatrical movie version of the series coming this fall, entitled "Serenity", so the world will yet get a chance to see Firefly in action. But for now, lets look at why Firefly the series defined everything an SWG smuggler should be:
1. Finding Work - Mal and his crew go from planet to planet, looking for jobs. That can be anything from delivering cows to robbing trains to smuggling fugitives. No matter how pedestrian the job, there's always the risk the 'Alliance', the galactic authority with their giant ships and gray uniformed faschists, will harrass them. At times, the more illegal jobs turn out to be *too* immoral, and the crew turn on their employer. When this happens, the employer becomes enraged, and sends bounty hunters to kill the smugglers. (The smuggler mini-game with NPC and player bounties assigned for failed jobs)
2. Dirty Fighting - No one on Firefly fights clean. If your opponent takes cover behind a horse, you shoot the horse and let it fall on them. If you're losing a duel with a master fencer because you can't fence, have your woman distract him than give him a roundhouse punch. That villain you're letting go free promising he'll be back and will kill you in your sleep? Push him into the ships air intake and let the fans deal with him. (Novel methods of making dirty fighting effective)
3. The Civil War - Malcom and his second in command Zoe are survivors of a galactic civil war between the Sepperatists and the Alliance. Their side lost, and the Alliance is now the powerful galactic empire. Though they no longer fight in that war, it defines who they are, and their clothes include numerous bits and pieces of their old faction uniforms. Their place in the GCW hasput them on the opposite side of the galactic empire,but also given themold war-buddies to get jobs from.(Connecting smugglers to the gcw)
4. Avoiding the Authorities - With half the ship wanted by the Alliance, and bounty hunters looking for them, the crew have to avoid inner-core system worlds. When they go there, they're at much greater risk of being caught. Consequently, they stick to the outer moons and planets, where they can go unnoticed. When they travel in space, they take the long way around, piloting manually and plotting their own course, rather than taking the direct easy routes that will get them caught. (An explanation for manual flight instead of using the Travel button)
5. The Ship - Serenity, the aged Firefly class freighter the show takes place in and around, is almost a character itself. It is where the characters live, play, fight, die, you name it. Once a course is plotted, the crew can get up and move around in the ship and socialize. Dinners are held at a single big table for the whole ship. The ship has secret compartments to rival the Millenium Falcon, and those are necissary when Alliance ships board and search the ship on routine inspections. Most of all, the ship is not something cheap, without it all of the characters lose their means of making a living, as well as their home. (Smugglers and their ships need to be moreclosely linked.The ability to dock a small fighter to a multiplayer ship, to join friends already in space, and the ability to land the ship on the ground and walk around outside of it, add immeasurable value to the ship)
That's what I can think of right now. When one watches the show, it's like someone took Han Solo, and expanded his role to a series, in the way Jedi are the focus of KOTOR. For those who haven't seen the series and are curious, its available on DVD, and I highly recommend it even to those who didn't like Joss's other shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.
For fellow fans, can you think of other tid bits from the show, that would make for excellent smuggler material in SWG?
-Dalnara
Message Edited by WarHokie on 06-14-200508:29 PM
Message Edited by WarHokie on 06-14-200508:39 PM
Message Edited by WarHokie on 06-14-2005 08:39 PM
Taln2 wrote:
Good show but I believe it got pwned by the network (UPN or WB? I forget) in it's first season.
Too true, I only recently discovered it sitting in the dusty shelves of my local library. I remembered it being on the air, and not being very impressed with it, but everyone had told me it was so good. Of course, I discovered the show gets a lot better when Fox isn't playing it totally out of order...
-Dalnara
i almost agree with all this, except for one thing. take 95% of that show (which was excelent) and add 5% pirates of the carabien. ARRrrrrr
and you get EXACTLY what this profession is about. cool outfits, awsome tag lines, cowboy hats, laser pistols, gunfights, brawling, flirting with the ladies or gents, and of corse the ship.
Love the show, and yup, there's a film coming in September - head over to the apple quicktime site and catch the trailer for a real taste of the show.
Sadly I only caught it after cancellation when it came out on DVD, but there's hope it may return.
Mal is a real influence on how I try and play Torvan. Add to that my ship names: Serenity for the yacht, Serenity Blade for my M22 Krayt and Serenity Saber for my JSF, and you might guess I'm a fan...
Shiny
The movie is coming out September 30th
More excited about this than i have ever been about starwars, hands down my favorite space show/movie ever
I've been basing my character and history off this show ever since i started playing
BTW: I want a Docking Bay Instance i can walk around my ship, and live in.. See Kotor.
Taln2 wrote:
Good show but I believe it got pwned by the network (UPN or WB? I forget) in it's first season.
FOX
One of far too many of their blunders (futurama, family guy well guess i can't use that for long)
Have to admit one of the alltime great shows cancelled before its time. Oh twell. such is life i guess. Am very happy to see it coming out as a movie. Great thread btw. completely agree with the idea of it.
Wyzcheky
It seems to me you are correct, any time you see a space smuggler he seems to always have some kind of contact, and old buddy that goes way back with him. So how about implementing mini-game based on this. It could work like this...
You're a smuggler, and you go from planet to planet picking up missions. Every contact you make earns you some loyalty points. So if you do missions for Talon Karrde for instance, and you do a good job for him, you get loyalty points. These points could be used to cash in Favors (i.e. I need some equipment, I know this guy on Tat who owes me a Favor) You can cash in your loyalty points for whatever the favor may be, kind of how you cash in Faction points for Faction perks, you could also use these loyalty points to help you complete your missions. Say you have to a mission to transport spice from Dant to Lok, when you get to the pickup you see that the guy has more spice than you actually need for you boss. But unfotunately you only have room in your cargo hold for the amount your boss needs. So you want to make a little extra money, but need the space you can cash in some loyalty points with the contact to increase the size of your cargo hold hence allowing you finish your mission, and also allowing you to get the extra spice that you can sell to other contacts.
In the same vain say you do a mission for Talon and you fail him time and time again well you get negative loyalty points. This increases the odds that the contact will betray you on a mission or send out competing smugglers for the same mission, or setup an ambush to get you back for being a bad smuggler, or even a bounty. Now if you decide to start working with a new contact you'll have to earn loyalty points from the beginning unless you were referred from another contact. If you do such a good job for one smuggler, he may decide to recommend you to an aly of his, and you will start out with some loyalty points instead of the typical 0 points. the loyalty system should work similialy to the freelance pilot missions. You start with a low contact. You gain enough loyalty points with this contact that he will recommend you to his boss, and so on and so on until you work for the king pin himself. You'll only be allowed 1-2 missions depending on the type of mission it is, and if you try to take more than one mission and you fail on the harder one, then your loyalty points will be effected.
Now this is pretty similiar to the proposed system in the in-concept forum. But I think the loyalty points will make it more personal and immersive, because you won't being using a random contacts you'll actually create your own network of contacts, and reuse them for new quests. Another addition to this would be to make contact with your contacts on missions that are available you can have a comm conversation with them similiar to how you do in space when you come to space station. You would have a menu you could pull from like a "little black" book of sorts, and select the contact, and click on comm, and they'll answer. You can decide whether or not you want to take the available missions, but your decision will affect your loyalty points with that contact.
I think the quests could be multi-tiered, so you can also get updates from the contact and maybe a change of plans which you'll have to deal with before you can complete the quests. I like that you're using the Firefly concept as an idea for this because since han solo I don't think you've really seen what a smuggler should be, unless you read the Eu books about Talon, and Lando.