Posts Tagged ‘serenity’

There a couple of different people/groups currently working on different 'verse maps that I know of, and it's gonna be fun watching them get sorted out. But in the meantime Josh Awtry of the incredible FireflyRPG site — where all the extra stuff you need to make your Serenity RPG amazing are there, for free — has produced a couple of great ones.

Shown above is the new Habitable Worlds map, depicting some of the notable worlds in the Core, Border, and Rim areas, with details. Even more astounding to me is the Astral Navigation chart to help you figure out how long it'll take for your characters to get from here to there in a moving universe. That's one you'll want to have printed as a poster, it's that good. And, like everything else at FireflyRPG, it's free!

I've mentioned Stevo's Toys (formerly The Toy Smith) here before, but he's been adding more stuff. If you're making your own set of Firefly dolls or if you just want Ken and Barbie to have some protection against those shady Bratz girls, you definitely need to stop by.

Stevo designs sci-fi and movie-inspired weapons and accessories in 1:6 scale, perfect for 12" figures.  First up, Mal's gun.

It's got the familiar outline and, being made of pewter, it's got some heft. Way better than G.I. Joe's plastic stuff. It's sold separately or as a set with the custom holster rig.

We wouldn't want Zoe going around unarmed, so her modified Winchester Carbine is ready to go. Again, it's available separately or with her very distinctive holster rig with that unique leather coloring.

So far, Jayne's just got a knife. But it's a really nice one, complete with tooled leather sheath. I can only hope that Vera is on her way…

As someone who has been working on a set of Firefly Barbies for some time — or rather, watching in amazement as my wife creates them — I have to say these are easily the finest replica weapons I've seen. We had to make do with close-enough versions from other toy dealers, but I'm thinking we'll be upgrading.

Stevo also had a wide range of other items including Dirty Harry's .357 magnum, pirate gear, a wide range of classic and modern weaponry, even a selection of felt hats. Check it out!

> Chris says "Want to jump into the 'Verse and start roleplaying your own Serenity games, but you don't have people handy to play with?"
> Chris says "No problem! Just get into the SerenityMUSH and get started!"
> Chris points to www.serenitymush.com for more information.
> You are welcomed into an online, text-based, multi-user world of Browncoats, purplebellies, Companions, Shephered, Reavers, Readers, and more, all laid out and ready for you to play.
> You log in to telnet://serenitymush.com:2020 with your free MUSH software client, available from several sources such as PennMUSH, and you create your character by choosing your archetype (think "character class," but not as limiting) and generating your stats, feats, skills, background, appearance, etc. Your brand new character will get dropped at the Persephone spaceport and then it's time to get going, you've got a life to live and it ain't easy, out in the black.
> Chris says "SerenityMUSH" puts a heavy emphasis on roleplaying, to the point where you have to get permission to be Alliance or a Companion (since they both require higher-than-average RPing skills) and you can't be a Reader without Admin invitation, and then only after you've proven yourself for awhile. There's a wide variety of settings, planets, situations, and other people to interact with, and the system uses HSpace for 3D ship navigation, combat, repairs, etc."
> Chris smiles wryly. "That said, I've never played a MUSH, including this one, so I can't speak from experience, although I'm sure that like any RP game a lot depends on getting the right group of people together. However, there's a nice review of the game here, and according to this reviewer the SerenityMUSH, like most Browncoat endeavors, seems to attract good people."
> Chris spread his hands and asks "Anyone out there tried it? What did you think?"

Bought a copy of the early, 190-page script of Serenity that Joss wrote and then cut down bigtime to fit into the time and budget. Lots of changes were made, a lot of great dialogue cut (although some of the best lines were added in later versions) and in this version everybody lives.

Posted a long recap, with excerpts, here.

While I love the movie, there's a lot of stuff here I'd have loved to seen included.

MAL
One of you has the code to that
vault. You might make yourself
known at this point.

No one moves.

MAL
(continuing)
Okay, there's a couple of things
I'd like to make clear. First, we
don't want to hurt anybody. Second,
my large friend over here really
does wanna hurt somebody. He
kinda craves violence.

JAYNE
It's a flaw in my character.

MAL
It is a little disturbing. So I
strongly suggest the trade agent
make themselves known now, or my
boy'll be picking victims at random.

JAYNE
I'd like to mention I also hit women.

MAL
Good point, let's factor that in.

Today's the day when the manic folks at www.serenityday.org are urging Browncoats everywhere to pick up another copy of Serenity to cause a spike in sales, thereby reminding the good folks at Universal that we're still out here and we still have cash to blow.

To make things easier, Amazon currently has it on sale for $11.88, so you have no excuse. And it's Joss' birthday today, and you know you didn't remember to get him anything…

If the widescreen DVD doesn't work for you, I've got links to more formats here.

Just got back from the FX convention in Orlando where I met Summer Glau (River) and Alan Tudyk (Wash) from Firefly and Serenity. Read my long review (with pics!) here.

Sigh.

Since much of my waking time has been taken up lately with hunting for and telling other people about merchandise relating to Firefly and Serenity, I went ahead and whomped up a site for it.

SerenityStuff.com focuses specifically on merchandise, whether official or fan-made, with availability and personal reviews and photos whenever possible. News on new stuff (like the Zippo lighter and Serenity ornament coming out soon, or the

I'm happy. The Serenity movie site just had a contest to win props from the movie; 1st prize was a complete Alliance uniform, runner-up prizes were chopsticks used in the movie. The assignment was to write a report from the point of view of an Alliance officer on the day River Tam escaped from the Academy, with a limit of 10,000 characters.

Here's my runner-up-winning entry: Read the rest of this entry »

Got my Serenity one-sheet poster from the movie site and it wasn't exactly as described. It was listed as being signed by Joss Whedon, and this was true.

It was also signed by the rest of the cast except for Alan Tudyk, Ron Glass and Chiwetel Ejiofor.

I may have let out a girly scream.

Can't afford the framing it deserves, not before Christmas and the annual car collapse (which also happens every year but the dates change depending on when we have the most cash on hand and which car's failure would cause us the most inconvenience) so I threw it into a $20 poster frame and stuck paper between the poster and the cardboard. After Christmas it'll get the acid-free archival treatment.

Sigh.

I'm having a geeking out moment. Bear with me.

Of course now I have to stalk Ron Glass and Chiwetel Ejiofor. And David Krumholtz and Michael Hitchcock and Sarah Paulson and Yan Feldman and Raphael Feldman and Nectar Rose and Tamara Taylor and Glenn Howerton and Hunter Ansley Wryn and…

"Serenity" is ready for preorder from Amazon, and sadly Universal has gone with the silly, designed-by-someone-who's-never-seen-the-movie cover. Right off I'm noticing:

A heavily Photoshopped River who now seems to have been reprogrammed by Revlon
Serenity firing on other ships
A Reaver ground war
And a complete lack of one of the biggest advantages they have, the "two thumbs up" from Ebert and Roper

Still, it's a DVD and we get to buy it. Life is good.