Pirate and Bounty Hunter Mechanic

The fact that Firefly The Game is coming out with a Pirates and Bounty Hunters expansion in March 2014.  However, that is still three months away and my fellow players are desiring more Player versus Player action right now.

So I got together with another of my regular players and we came up with a new mechanic to institute into the game.  This set of rules allows players to become pirates and actually attack each other for loot.

Now, I know that Firefly-Class Transports do not have any weapons on them.  The principle guiding this mechanic would be that the pirate ship is forcibly boarding the defending vessel.  Of course, we did not want players to be able to stock up on a single skill then run out and start pillaging every other captain in the 'Verse.

So there is a necessary amount of randomness attached to this, but that is more in the interest of balance.  Feel free to leave your feedback in the comments section of the blog.

 

Firefly: Pirate Wars Rules

Purpose:

In order to instill more Player vs. Player interaction in the game, the following rules can be enacted by unanimous decision at the start of the game.

These guidelines are in addition to the standard rules as laid out in the Firefly: The Game instruction manual.

Rules:

I.                    Players can only be attacked by another Firefly if the two ships are occupying the same sector of space.

II.                  A player wishing to attack another player must use one of his or her actions to commence the attack by declaring “Pirate Attack”.

III.                The sequence of combat will be performed as follows:

a.      If the defender chooses, he may opt for an Evasion Roll.  If successful, the Defender evades to an adjacent sector of space.  See chart below.

b.      The Attacker rolls for the “Skill Test Determination”.  See Chart below.

c.       The Defender rolls for the “Loot Determination”.  See Chart below.

d.      Both the Attacker and the Defender roll a dice and then add that number to applicable skill set as determined in Step III.B.

e.      The winner is whoever has a higher score.

f.        Winner receives the loot, as determined by the Loot Determination Roll in step III.C

IV.                If the loser cannot pay the loot, re-roll the “Loot Determination” roll.

a.      If the player has no loot that can be claimed by any Loot roll, the loser’s captain is disgruntled.

b.      The Attacker is free to negotiate his loot reward, instead of re-rolling the “Loot Determination” roll.

V.                  The Winner will evade upon completion of the attack to an adjacent space.

VI.                Neither player can hire disgruntled crew from the other once hostilities have commenced.

 

Special Rules and Addendums

1.      If the Defender wins, the Attacker receives a Warrant (unless the Defending Ship has an active Warrant award for pirating).

2.      If a ship (that has no Warrants) attacks a ship that has received a Warrant (and still has that Warrant) from pirating, they can claim a $500 bounty from Harken if they successfully beat the pirate ship.

a.      This will also make the winning non-warranted ship captain solid with Harken if they were not already.

b.      The bounty will double if the player is already solid with Harken.

c.       This bounty is paid by the bank to the player and is in addition to any loot obtained during the attack.

d.      This bonus does not apply to Defending ships.

3.      If the loot to be received is an enemy crew member:

a.      If the winner does not have space on his ship for more crew:

                                                              i.      The winner can kill one of the loser’s crew.
                             OR

                                                            ii.      The winner can kill one of his own crew if he is in open space to make room for the new crew member.
                             OR

                                                          iii.      The winner can dismiss one of his crew if the ships are in a sector occupied by a planet or space station, to make room for the new crew member.

b.      If the winner chooses to kill a crew (either his or his opponent’s), all of his Moral Crew are disgruntled and you become Solid with Niska.

4.      The winning ship cannot loot or destroy cargo for which he does not have room for on his ship.  For example, if an Attacker wins all of the loser’s 4 Cargos, but only has 2 spaces to store them on his ship, he may only take two Cargo and leave the other two on the loser’s ship.

5.      If the Loot is Cash, that money is taken from the loser’s cash reserves, and not from the bank.

*If the loser has a Ship Upgrade to expand their Stash, cargo and contraband stored in there will not be looted.

EVASION ROLL CHART:

Conditions	Results
No Modifiers	Roll a “6” and discard 1 Fuel to evade.
Pilot	Roll “5” or greater and discard 1 Fuel to evade
Pilot + Mechanic	Roll “4” or greater and discard 1 Fuel to evade.
“Wash”	Roll greater than “4” to evade.  No fuel needed.
CRY BABY in Alliance Space	If a “6” is rolled (and only a 6), the Defender can discard their Cry Baby to call the Cruiser to their position.  The Attacker will have to play through the Alliance Encounter Card, however, they will have to treat ALL crew as Wanted Crew.
CRY BABY in Border Space	If a “6” is rolled (and only a 6), the Defender can discard their Cry Baby to call the Reaver Cutter to their position.  Both players must perform the Reaver Encounter Card. Neither ship can evade into the same space.

SKILL TEST DETERMINATION ROLL CHART



 

Dice Result	Description	Result
1 – 2	The Pirates forcibly board their victim’s vessel, armed and ready to fight…	Fight Skill
3 – 4	The Pirates stealthily sneak aboard their victim’s vessel, hoping to steal some loot without detection…	Tech Skill
5 – 6	The Pirates hail their victims and attempt to negotiate their immediate surrender…	Negotiate Skill

LOOT DETERMINATION ROLL CHART:

Dice Result	Winner will take from loser:
1	All fuel and parts the loser has in his cargo hold and stash*
2	All cargo and contraband the loser has in his cargo hold and stash*
3	One Equipment / Gear of the winner’s choosing.
4	One Crew of the winner’s choosing.
5	One Ship Upgrade of the winner’s choosing
6	Cash equal to $500 multiplied by the difference between the Attacker’s score and the Defender’s score.

 <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<  End of Instructions  >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Try out these new rules (which will probably be made obsolete with the next expansion) and tell me what you think about them.

If you haven't read our other articles on Salvage Ops, please give it a read-over.

Stay Shiny, folks!

~ Captain Paddy Bardic

Salvage Ops: Money Making Tax-Free

In today's edition of A Leaf on the Win!, we are going to discuss Salvage Ops.  If you are like most people that I have played with, you are always in a hurry when you are sailing across the 'Verse.  Most players will do whatever they can to get from Point A to Point B as fast as possible.

When burning through the Black, you will occasionally flip over a Salvage Op card, that will give you the option to either keep flying or full stop and pick up some goodies.  It is tempting sometimes to ignore the loot and keep flying onto your destination.  After all, there is crime to be done and every turn you spend stopped in the black is another turn you are not getting paid for working.

Salvage Ops (Normally, Ops stands for "operations", but I like to call them "opportunities") can be highly profitable, especially with the right crew and ship upgrades.

What are the rewards?

Without any Ship Upgrades or special crew, the cards will usually provide either 1 to 2 Contraband / Cargo, 1 or 2 Fuel / Parts, or possibly a free ship upgrade.  However, you can augment your ship and crew to gain additional materials.

One of the reasons most players will blow past these opportunities is because they fail to see the value or profit of it.  However, this is because they are too focused on Mission Rewards.  Do you view that cargo or contraband with a dollar sign attached to it?

If you draw a Derelict Ship navigation card, you can choose to "Load 2 Cargo and Full Stop" or "Keep Flying".  If you stop and load the cargo, you have 2 Cargo that you can sell to a Solid Contact.  If you are Solid with Amnon Duul, you can sell those cargo to him for $600 apiece.  That is a nice $1200 without being taxed by your crew taking a cut.

So if you chose to "Keep Flying", you passed up as much as $1200 that would only cost you a single action and ZERO risk.

How to maximize your profit:

If you are looking to make a nice side hustle with Salvage Ops, you will need to equip your ship with some upgrades and crew.

The first upgrade to get would be the Onboard Chop Shop.

 

 

As you can see from the image above, the Onboard Chop Shop allows you to Load 1 Contraband and collect $500 after any successful salvage operation.  You can get this from Regina.  As you can see, the Chop Shop costs a whopping $1600 but you will make that investment back very quickly.  After two salvage operations (if you sell the contraband to Niska) you will make $1000 and two contraband, worth a maximum of $700 apiece.  This will net you $1100 profit after just TWO salvage operations.

 

The Sky Hook and the 4WD Mule do not give you anything for Salvage Operations, however, if you are doing crime jobs, you'll get extra Contraband and Cargo when performing these missions.  So I include them in my upgrades.

 

The next thing that you can do to increase the amount of profit that you can obtain from Salvage Ops is crew.

 

 

 

Jesse and Billy get bonus during Salvage Ops, Bree lets you sell parts.

Low Level Scrappers will provide Fuel and Parts from Salvage Ops

These are not all of the crew that is available and gives a bonus for doing salvage ops.  Generic "Scrappers" can be found in the Space Bazaar, along with Jesse and Billy.  If you want to maximize your earning potential, I would get Jesse and Billy at the very least.  Not only will this allow you to get one 1 Contraband and 1 Cargo at each salvage event; you will have a Pilot and a Mechanic, which will allow you to escape the Reavers.

 

This fact leads us into the final point:

 

The vast majority of Salvage Opportunities is in Border Space

 

I may have miscounted but I found only one salvage card in the Alliance Deck.  There are six of them in the Border Space Deck.

While most Salvage Ops use a tech roll, some of them require a high Fight Skill.

Sorry for the fuzziness... these are supposed to be the easiest Salvage Ops

The only card in Alliance Space yields two contraband with no skill roll.  However, you are six times more likely to get a Salvage Op in Border Space, and those require Tech and Gun rolls.  So always make sure that you have a Pilot and a Mechanic before running out into the Black to pilfer some sweet left-overs.  If you get Jesse and Billy, you will meet that need and get awesome bonuses.

Thanks for reading, everybody!  I hope you enjoyed the tips.  If you enjoy reading the blog, feel free to promote the crap out of it for me.  :-)

 

Stay Shiny,

 

~ Captain Paddy Bardic

Choosing your Leader

One of the most important decisions you will make during the game is picking your leader.  Your leader's assets and skills will directly affect your early game play.  Each leader has different strengths, skills, and bonuses that determine your strategy.

As I previously pointed out, you will not always get your ideal leader since the person who rolls the highest gets to pick his Leader first.  However, all of them have viable strategies that will allow you to maximize your profit as you traverse the Black.


Malcolm

• Skills: 2 Fight, 1 Negotiate
• Keywords:  Pilot, Soldier, Moral
• Perk:  When you complete a Crime Job, collect $500.

Malcolm is easily one of the easiest Captains to play if you are looking to get money quickly via Misbehaving Crime Jobs.  He has the Pilot keyword, so all he needs to find is a Mechanic and he is free to roam the Border Space without worrying about Reaver attacks.  Also, Crime Jobs make up a large majority of the higher paying jobs, which will only further increase his bankroll towards the end game.

His biggest downside is the Moral keyword.  This prevents him from doing a lot of Niska's work without taking a Disgruntled token.

From what I have found, the best strategy for Malcolm is to get a well-balanced crew with a wide variety of keywords (like Transport, Hacking Rig, Firearm, and Fancy Duds) and start doing crime missions for Patience and Badger.

Monty

• Skills: 2 Fight, 1 Tech
• Keywords: Mechanic, Soldier, Moral.
• Perk: When you complete a Smuggling Job, Collect $500.

Monty is very similar to Malcolm in many respects, with more of an emphasis on Tech than Negotiation. His Smuggling bonus will come in handy along with his Soldier / Mechanic keywords to provide additional Mission cash.

Monty needs a pilot in his crew in order to evade Reavers.  He can be played a lot like Malcolm except that Amnon Duul and Badger will provide the best jobs for him (if you want his bonus money).

Nandi

• Skills: 2 Negotiate, 1 Fight
• Keywords: Companion, Moral
• Perk: Can Hire crew at no cost

Nandi has several advantages that the other leaders do not have.  First, she is the only leader with the Companion keyword.  This is beneficial for mission bonuses and some Misbehave cards.  It is important to note this, because Companions are easily the rarest of crew that you will find in the 'Verse.

However, she lacks both the Pilot and Mechanic keywords, so she will need to find both in order to safely cross through Reaver space.  Nandi does not pay for crew (though she still must pay them upon completion of a mission) so finding more crew to replace the ones that you have lost or killed will not be a problem.

While she excels in Misbehaving and Crime Jobs, she will be slowed down by Immoral jobs, since it will require an action to remove her disgruntled token.


Corbin

• Skills: 2 Tech, 1 Negotiate
• Keywords:  Mechanic
• Perk: Can Buy Drive Cores and Ship Upgrades at half price.

Corbin is probably the one leader I have never seen get picked.  He lacks any fighting skill, has a single keyword, and his perk doesn't seem all that useful.  I have seen a number of games where players have gone the entire game without buying an upgrade for their ship.

However, Corbin's perk and skill points provide a massive advantage in two areas: Speed and Salvage.  Since all ship upgrades and engines are half price, he can quickly upgrade his Drive Core, grab an Onboard Chop Shop and Sky Hook, and start hiring Scrappers.  If you throw in a 4WD Mule, you will find your ship loaded to bursting with lots of precious bits o' shiny.

Never underestimate the game changing effect that Salvage Ops can have on a game.  Selling 4 Contraband to Niska will net you a cool $2800 without having to pay your crew.  Corbin makes it cheaper to set up an effective salvage operation.


 Burgess

• Skills:1 Fight, 1 Tech, 1 Negotiate
• Keywords: Fancy Duds
• Perk: When you complete a Shipping Job, load 1 cargo.

Aside from being the biggest douche in the 'Verse, Burgess is a decent leader.  He is the only Leader that has one of each skill test and he has Fancy Duds.  It's a shame that he doesn't have a another Key Word.

However, Burgess is another captain who excels at making profit off-the-books.  With his perk, he gains 1 cargo for every shipping job completed.  Those extra cargo will add up quickly over time, netting a cool $600 each from Amnon Duul. Burgess does not offer much else though.

Marco

• Skills: 2 Fight, 1 Tech
• Keywords:  Transport
• Perk: You may buy gear with Explosives or Firearm at half price.

With Marco having Transport from the start and a perk that lets his purchase Explosives and Firearms at half-price, Marco is probably one of the fastest Leaders to be able to start Misbehaving.  Marco needs to take a quick lead, especially against leaders that have cash bonuses to their missions.

If you have him as your leader, I highly recommend starting in Silverhold and getting geared up quickly.  The faster you can start doing crime jobs with Marco, the better off you will be.

Womack

• Skills:  2 Fight, 1 Negotiate
• Keywords:  Soldier
• Perk: When you complete an Immoral Job, Collect $500.

Womack, in my opinion, is the best leader to have if you intend to be working for Niska (and all of his high risk, high paying jobs).  He gets a bonus for Immoral Jobs, which Niska provides the lion's share in this game.

He is also not hampered by being a Moral character, so you do not have to worry about having your leader becoming disgruntled when doing Niska's work. Even in the early game, Womack can take advantage of Harken's immoral jobs to increase his pay days.

Also, having two Fight Skill and 1 Negotiate comes in extremely handy when misbehaving.  He does need a pilot and a mechanic though, in order to keep him safe out in Border Space.

Conclusion

Those are all of the leaders thus far.  It is rumored that in the next expansion Firefly: Pirates and Bounty Hunters, will have new leaders.  When that happens, I will make a new post detailing the new Leaders.

Stay Shiny!  Tune in for the next issue which will discuss Salvage Operations.

~ Captain Paddy Bardic

Setting Up Firefly: The Board Game

Introduction:
Firefly: The Game is a sandbox tabletop board game, for 1 to 4 players (yes, this game does come equipped for solo-play.  It is based off of the TV show and the feature film, Serenity; references to both are heavy throughout the game.

Each player is the captain of his very own Firefly-class transport vessel.  There are numerous different storylines that can be played (allowing for a great replay ability).  We will go into these storylines in greater detail in the future, along with strategies for winning the game.

In order to accomplish the goals on whatever Goal Card you are using, the basics of the game remain the same:
        1.  Assemble and Equip a Crew
        2.  Find Work
        3.  Keep Flying...

Time to Play:
For first time players, I highly suggest that you carve out an entire afternoon and evening to learning the game and reading the rule book, which you can download here.

For our (my wife and I) first time, it took about 4 hours (we have toddlers and they are like mini-Reavers).  With a seasoned group of players, it usually takes around 2 hours to finish a single game.  One thing that no one has mentioned yet is set up time.  It can take a half hour to set the entire board game up (by yourself).

Set Up the Game:
Setting up the board and all of its pieces can take a fair amount of time.  You will need a lot of space so use a dining room table or its equivalent in terms of surface area. 

• Take the board out of the box and carefully unfold it.  There is a high probability that you will tear the board if you do not maintain complete control of the entire board during the lay down.
• Next, there are three decks of cards:  1) Contacts Deck, 2) Buy/Shopping Decks, and 3) Travel / Misbehave Deck.  You should always keep them organized this way so has to streamline your set up process.
• SEPARATE the Contacts Deck into five individual decks organized by Contact (Harken, Amnon Duul, Patience, Badger, and Niska).  
• SHUFFLE each of these mini-decks (Do NOT mix them up together) and place them along the right side of the board.
• SEPARATE the Shopping Deck into five individual decks organized by location (Regina, Osiris, Persephone, Space Bazaar, and Silverhold).
• SHUFFLE each of these mini-decks individually and place them on the left side of the board.
• PLACE the Reaver Ship piece in the top-right corner of the board where the Firefly logo is.
• PLACE the Alliance Cruiser piece in the White Sun system at Londinium.
• ALLOT the following resources for each player:
• $3000 (We normally issue starting funds as follows: one $1000 Bill, three $500 bills, and five $100 bills.
• 6 Fuel Tokens
• 2 Parts Tokens.
• The Stock Drive Core card
• SEPARATE the Travel / Misbehave decks into three parts: 1) Alliance Space Cards, 2) Border Space Cards, and Misbehave Cards.
• SHUFFLE these decks (again, make sure you do not intermix them.) and place them in a convenient location.
• LAY OUT the Ship Cards, Ship Tokens, and the Leader cards.

Once all of the above has been completed you can start the game!

Tips for Speeding Up Set Up:

• PUT the Game back exactly as you found it when you are finished.  Consistency is key to maintaining efficiency during every subsequent game session.
• USE plastic baggies to store and segregate the tokens.  It keeps you from having to dig through tokens to find the correct one you need during the game.  We use the emptied game box tray to store the pieces during play.
• DIVIDE shuffling duties amongst the players.  This will cut your set up time in half.

Establishing Order of Rotation:
In order to start the game, every player will roll a die.  The highest number goes first and play continues from him in a clock-wise manner around the table.  Ties for first place are broken by a tie breaker re-roll.

Starting with the player with the highest roll, PERFORM the following actions:

• SELECT a Ship Card (and its color-equivalent token).
• SELECT a Leader and place him (or her) on the right side of the Ship Card.
• REPEAT until all players have selected a ship and a Leader.

Starting with the last player to pick their Leader and Ship, PERFORM the following action:

• PLACE your ship token on the board wherever you wish.
• DO NOT place your Ship Token in the same sector as the Reaver Cutter, nor the Alliance Cruiser, nor any space currently occupied by another Firefly.
• REPEAT this process, going counter-clockwise around the table until the first player has placed his ship token.

I will offer one helpful tip for initial placement of you ship tokens.  ALWAYS put your ship token on a planet or space station that has shopping opportunities (i.e:  Regina, Osiris, Persephone, Silverhold, or Space Bazaar).  This will let you buy gear on your first turn which will save you time in the long run.

Final Steps:
Now that all of that is done, there are a few more things left to do:

• UNCOVER the first three cards of each Shopping Deck and Contact Deck.
• PLACE them in their respective discard piles.
• DISTRIBUTE one mission card (face-down, not discard pile) from each contact to each player.
• DISCARD two of the five mission cards (so that each player has their pick of three of the five cards received). 

Now that everybody has their missions and their starting resources, you can start the game!

Stay Shiny!

~ Captain Paddy Bardic

A Leaf On the Win!

Good morning, fellow Browncoats!

If you have stumbled upon this page via a search engine, looking for detailed information on Firefly: The Game, it is because I am undoubtedly the only source in the 'Verse.  I spent many days looking for data and strategies on this shiny board game all over the Cortex, but very little can be found.

The only logical conclusion to be had was that I would need to create one of my own, to pass on to all my fellow Independent captains flying out there in the Black.

Over the next few weeks, I will be going over, in great detail, the in's and out's of Gale Force 9's latest creation.  We will discuss strategies, tactics, odds, story lines, and much more.

In addition to the board game, I will strive to include new and developing stories about anything Firefly-related, such as the Browncoat's Ball and celebrity appearances.

I hope you all enjoy reading and learning about this game.

Stay Shiny,

~ Captain Paddy Bardic