Lewiston - Rim
Flying into Lewiston, once you get low enough, is difficult, captain. There is constant wind sheer through the valleys. You have to fly careful, as the wind will slam you into a mountain side faster than a card player tossing in a bad hand. Of course the town you want to get to, Porsen, is the very worse. So best we land in Ramsy territory on the Blue Diamond Lake there, and take the mule up the "road" to Porsen. I just hope the Ramsy and the Regina towns arent feuding any more. I hate dodging bullets that arent even meant for me.
A Firefly Planet
This planet was tectonically transactive, but has been stabilized now. It is full of rocky mountain ranges, deep valleys between them, and the occasional flood basalt areas (slow, low, oozing of lava from the ground). Thanks to an overabundance of hydroletic comets in the system, it has more than enough water, locked into snowcaps and the deep mega-lakes (mountain ringed seas). The planet was high seeded with a number of tree-types which have taken hold and taken over.
Because of an administrative glitch, the contract for the Lewiston colony was sold a record 14 times. Thus there are 14 small colonies that form the human population here. Note: The colony deeds were sold during the war, with most sold right at the end. Those that had deeds waited until the fighting died down before they moved in. The colony groups are quite diverse, to quote the Colonial Bureau. That could be an understatement. The differences between the groups can cause a great deal of tension between the town states of Lewiston.
Note: The colony deeds were sold during the war, with most sold right at the end. Those that had deeds waited until the fighting died down before they moved in.
The largest colony is The Town of Arco. They are devout followers of The Book, and the Orange Book at that. They have access to several seas (in which they have stocked fish), the planet's larges basalt flood plain, and a few mines. They follow the Great Shephard on Deseret. In fact, some are from his original followers on Earth and the others are from Deseret.
The second largest group is found in Ketchum. The colony was founded by a "retired" company of Alliance Military Men. They bought their lands with their mustering out pay. They and their families are having a tougher time than they thought settling in, as their patch of colony is more rocky than most. So they are trying to expand into other areas, including those areas which could be claimed by other groups. The Militia, as they call themselves, have access to paramilitary equipment of a grade better than normally can be found this far out.
The third group largest is The Whitem Group. They are devout followers of The Book. They are lead by a council of religious leaders. While one would think they and the people of Arco would get along. However they find each others interpretation of The Book as wrong. It normally stays civil, though argumentative, but sometimes contact becomes heated. They also have access to a lot of geothermal power to heat their homes and power their tech.
The Porsen City group is a moderately sized group. There seems no theme to their colony other than it is a place to work and make your stake to get ahead in the world. These people have become miners of renown. Due to their towns central location, it has become a town where miners come to relax. Thus it is a place where any number of things the people of Whitem and Arco disapprove of. It is quite a wild town. It is being rebuilt in brick after a massive fire swept through a year or so ago.
Ramsy and Regina colonies are two nondescript colony towns. They are more into timber than anything else. But they dabble in farming, mining, and manufacturing. However the only reason anyone remembers their name is that they are actively feuding with each other. There are a number of causes for the fighting, everyone of them sounds kind of legitimate. If you didnt have to land in either Ramsy or Regina to get to Porsen the easy way, everyone would avoid them.
The Bodhi group is the smallest, but the best off group. It is a Buddhist temple group, with associated families. There are quite well off when compared to most colony towns. They have access to some of the best farmland on the planet. Well, the best farmland for potatoes anyways. Others are often poaching on their lands.
Most of the remaining groups are roughly the same size. Those groups not commented on are left for the GM to fill in. Each only has one or two interesting features, and a dislike for one or two other groups. This leaves seven groups for the GM to find their own person conflicts for.
The Wealth
Lewiston is often called Lewistone or the Gem Planet because of the number of semi-precious gems and other minerals that are found in its mines. Mining conglomerates are unable to "squeeze" into the planet because of the complex paperwork caused by the overbooking of the colonial land rights. Thus all mining is run by local concerns, using lower tech mining equipment (circa 1880s). Each colony has a stake or two, except The Bodhi, and the rest are private concerns.
Plotlines
Rock, Paper, Sissors
: Find two groups where the players are and have them have a conflict. If the players are attached to one group great. If some of the crew is attached to one group and others are attached to the other, the fun is multiplied.
So you were Browncoats
: The Militia finds your ex-Browncoat status offensive and decide to do something about it.
The Company is moving in
: Corporate types, or guys hired by "Mr. Johnson", are harrassing the town or the town's outlying families. The idea is to get them to sell out to the colony. The characters could be on either side of this conflict, or just innocent bystanders.
Robbery
: Someone is flying out with gems in their hold. Some people might be breaking into the ship to get them.
X-Marks the Spot
: You have a map. It will lead to riches. Everyone knows you have it. Everyone wants it.
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? Responses (5)
First off, I must profess my ignorance of most things Firefly (I've seen Serenity, and read some of the wikia on it) so I dont rightly know what the Orange Book is, but i think I have the gist of it.
I like that the planet was overbooked, but i wonder why the situation hasn't stabilized itself (in the form of various groups forming alliances and power blocs, or just escalating into skirmishes and battles over territory. Do they have 14 space ports, or one or two that everyone shares? Just some questions.
Imagine if you would, 14 people each being sold an entire house. A few years after the sale, they move in and find out there are other people who say they own the house. No matter what, you can not get your money back. The house is pretty darn big, so each can have a room and possible some other space. So, you can live here and hope to get the best set of things OR you can cut your loses and leave (of course you have no place to live then). (Or you can play Big Brother, and try to drive out the other contestants.) Oh, and you just can't kill people outright. The law, minor though it is, is around. And then their next of kin own their rooms.
There could be power blocks, if you want, but right now, nobody has enough of an upperhand to warrent wasting your time with an alliance (and the eventual back stab). I set the groups up so they are mostly "against each other". That way no matter where you go on the planet, there is trouble brewing. (And if you were Browncoats, the Militia is against you no matter where you are on the planet).
Unless you have a lot more "civilization", a star port is nothing more than "The official field you are supposed to land in". Think of it as a dirt field where you can park your car and have to pay five bucks to do it. If you don't mind the hike, just park the ship a bit further out (and try not to crush someone's crops), and drive in.
Dropped Colonies all. There is not that much around here. If it wasn't for the mines, nobody would care.
Scrasamax does some internet research:
The Firefly class weighs about 285 tons empty, 475 tons fully loaded. She has four landing struts, putting 71.25/118 tons of weight on each strut. That's an impressive load. What is more impressive is setting that down in a grass field. I'm not going to try and find the surface area of the landing pads but I hope this might give a little picture of the point I would like to make. Put this ship down in a real grassy field and she will settle on her belly, dirt and grass wont hold her up. She needs either rock to land on, or a prepared concrete landing pad. From watching the movie, I know that the Firefly isnt the largest ship in service, nor is it likely to be the only one capable of landing on a planet.
It might be able to go between planets, but it isn't a shortbed 4X4 truck or a jeep.
resource here:
http://serenityverse.com/firefly/serenity-ship-specifications-and-plans/
A nicely detailed world. The various groups are good RPG fodder.
An okay place to visit while hunting some dingus. (Note: there is some duplication around paragraph three.)
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The Horton Family was a group of late comers, dubbed after their initial speaker, the name refuses to go despite the many families that make it. They had difficulty to find a large prosperous area, so they turned to fishing on a large scale, with little agriculture to round things out. They need to do a lot of trading, so they try to be friendly with everyone, but their sort-of-claim on the seas doesn't help it. True enough, they are quietly planning to take over this industry completely and style themselves as the best sailors and fishers anywhere.
With some of their catch exported, they are wealthier than the average. It's all because of the risk they say.