Hey, an original post!
First, I have to talk about Serenity



Serenity freaking rocks. I loved the series Firefly (which sadly I missed when it was originally on) and the movie was just as good. The characters were the ones I had grown to love while devouring the DVDs, the story hung together very well, many - but not all! - of the dangling plot lines from the series were wrapped up, and the ending ended the chapter, but left open the possibility of more story.

I thought that making the reason the Alliance was so hot to get River back was because of something she MIGHT have picked up during her time in a research facility being a lab rat was great. The Alliance did not know what she knew, but they knew what the people who had been in her presence knew, and that the information getting out was much more dangerous to them that anything one 17yr old girl could do PHYSICALLY, no matter how programmed. That to me made WAY more sense than the Alliance wanting a lab rat back. It worked in the series b/c there was not a massive manhunt shown. For the escalation the movie brought there had to be more, and I really thought it worked well.

I also liked the new explanation for the Reavers. Men cracking on the edge of space never did make logical sense to me, but hey, it was a SF series so I was willing to give them a pass on it. Having them be broken in mind from a drug experiment gone wrong - liked that.

Great movie. I hope it does well, and that Joss keeps writing in this universe.



Next, I have to rave about the Confed role-playing session from last night. sara_merry99, you should make Abner read this. And tell him he wants to find a way to get up here next week.



My husband has written his own role-playing system (called GEARS) to play with, and his own universe (called Confed) to game in. We (he, I, various changing groups of friends over the years) have been playing in this game for YEARS. He started it in college when we were just friends and has kept it going (with the occasional really long pause between sessions) for over 15 years now.

Last night ROCKED. It's a SF universe (we play in the 38th century) where magic and psionics DO NOT EXIST but the science is pretty darn advanced. And last night's game was in the middle of a module designed around a starship race. It isn't a speed race. It's a fancy daredevil piloting race. Where the ships occasionally shoot at each other. Written by my husband who majored in Astronomy in college and knows a LOT about planets, stars, solar systems, etc.

There were five players last night.

Katie - my character. She is considered very much a child still by the standards of the game, as she is only 21, the age of majority has raised to 27, and people live darn near forever unless killed quickly and violently. She was the pilot. And being still a child in a universe where for all practical purposes humanity is virtually immortal, she BELIEVES she is immortal. And her character sheet specifically states she is brash, amoral, impulsive, and curious. So when they hit the stunt that required air braking through the "atmosphere" of a brown dwarf until half the velocity the ship started with was lost, she went in at .98C.

Taiwan - the engineer. The friend who plays Taiwan has had this same character since our college days, so he is good engineer now. So when Katie the pilot calls down to engineering to say more speed would be good, he does stuff that had another character turning white. The character is written and played as somewhat dim in general but an engineering genius. So he would do stuff that did work to make the ship go faster, but any smart, sane person would scream in horror and flee from. Some of the players have written different characters over the years, and one of the other people present said the character he wasn't playing hid under her bed when that character realized what Taiwan had done.

Alowzi (I KNOW I spelled that wrong) - the astrogator. This is the oldest continually played character in the game. She is really SCARY in terms of ability. Which is a good thing. Alowzi is one of the non-human characters. Her race is very strong, but in general supposed to be very calm and peaceful. Part of the character's background was that she was raised on the planet of another non-human member race of the Confederation whose main racial characteristics include hair trigger tempers and radical mood changes at the drop of a hat. The character is considered not quite sane by her own race's standards. She spent most of the session helping Taiwan ensure the ship didn't blow up (she was the one turning white under her fur at the modifications Taiwan was making to the engines), continually plotting the glimmer jump (FTL drive) to the other system where the race was to finish, or being back up on sensor systems trying to keep us from getting killed by the other racers.

Stephen. The character of Stephen is interesting. He is a professional spy for the nation the members of the party are from (most of them, anyway) who travels with the party because we keep getting involved in stuff way over our heads. At one point we were talking about doing something (I forget exactly what) that we decided would take more time than it was worth, and he said that if we had decided to do this he would have had to stop us as it was truly illegal and not just semi illegal like most of the stunts we do. Oh, yes, it was pirate another ship. That he would have been morally bound to stop he said. Of course my character promptly replied that we would have been kind and instead of expecting his help we would have stunned him unconscious so he would have his hands clean. Stephen was the main scanner guy, except when he was helping the gunner by programming improvements to the targeting system.

Lastly we had our newest player character, Carmella. The friend who plays Carmella has been a part of our circle of friends since college but never really got into role playing. Now that she is involved with Stephen's player, though, she figured she'd give it a try since it was something he loved. Carmella was manning weapons last night, and while her character might be new and therefore have the lowest overall skill levels, the player was doing well with the dice roles (thankfully!) and was also manning the communication board. Which since Katie was doing some truly crazy stuff with the ship, and not always getting the best dice roles while doing so, meant we got some interesting calls from the ship that was behind us most of the way. I especially liked the call she took after I clipped an asteriod with our grav mirror (think energy shield) while passing close by as the race required and sent out a spray of rubble right into the following ship's path.

Last night we did the first half of the race. Right now our ship is in glimmer space (the husband's name for hyperspace) heading for the solar system where the second half of the race will be. We have a good lead on the rest of the pack because Katie did that aforementioned crazy stunt and plowed through the "atmosphere" of a brown dwarf at .98C (which set said "atmosphere" on fire and made the rest of the ships wait a bit before trying it themselves - at a somewhat lower speed), which is good b/c Katie trashed almost all of the weapons and sensors doing it. But we have four days ship time in glimmer space to work on emergency repairs.

I am Soooo looking forward to next Saturday. Normally we game 2 weekends a month - the second and the fourth Saturdays, but we did a special session last night b/c I was sick last week and wanted to see people. Heh, heh, heh. Really looking forward to next Saturday.