Serenity Is a Place
Serenity is the name of the small spacefaring cargo ship at the heart of the TV show Firefly. Unlike most spaceships on television, Serenity is not full of an endless maze of halls that all look the same, and the spaces on Serenity are not connected by elevators that whisk characters between them so that one never really learns the location of one room relative to another.
On Serenity the rooms are connected just like the rooms of a house, one right next to another, always in sight of each other through the doors that connect them. And just like the rooms of a house, the rooms on Serenity are lived in. Lots of action takes place in every room of the ship. We become intimate with them all, meals shared in the galley, decisions made on the bridge, wounds bandaged in the infirmary, games played in the cargo bay. Serenity is often considered the tenth member of the show's ensemble.
Imagine my disappointment when I discovered that the map of Serenity used in Firefly Clue scuttles the sense of place so lovingly created by the show. Disappointment, wide as a steer's rear end.
This is what they done to the lovely lady:
Clue is a game that emphasizes setting. Players move from room to room to gather data. This movement is essential to play, and it regulates the pace of the game. The setting of the original game, a grand mansion, suits this mechanic and is easily represented on a game board as rooms surrounding a foyer.
There is no foyer on Serenity!
Begin the cut and paste! Move this here... that there... create some corridors, an airlock or two... and voilà: Serenity, fore and aft!
Now players can imagine they're actually on Serenity as they move their player marker (representing one of her storied crew) from one of its rooms to the next, instead of executing some kind of remote scan of the rooms... and positioning themselves into/onto the scan?... as the original board seems to suggest. Sense of place restored.
Instead of secret passageways, I added two airlocks as shortcuts across the board. The secret passageways were always my favourite part of Clue, because who doesn't love a secret passageway? But, again, I think an internally consistent theme is essential to any imaginative exercise, and although Serenity has lots of secret hidey-holes, it does not have secret passageways between the galley and the engine room, or between Mal's room and Inara's shuttle!
A Better Premise
The original game of Clue is a classic whodunnit. A group of strangers are stranded in a remote location; the lights go out; there is a thud in the dark; the lights come back on; a body lies dead in the middle of the group. One of you is a murderer, but who?
This premise does not port well to a tight group of friends such as the crew of Serenity.
The rules for Firefly Clue start, "The Alliance has spent years trying to locate River Tam and now one of the members of the Serenity crew has finally betrayed her to the Alliance."
Sure. Jayne betrayed River and Simon once. He's a greedy S.O.B. But he has a good heart. He learned his lesson and the incident only underlined how protective the rest of the crew is of the fugitive Tams.
Sure. A plot could be conceived that backs one of the crew into giving up the Tams to the Alliance. But this would strain the characterizations of any of the crew, even Jayne after his first mistaken attempt at betrayal. "Even I ain't dumb enough to try that again."
How to implicate one of Serenity's crew in a murder without pitting them against each other, and without staining them morally? I think a better premise would go like this...
Lawrence Dobson has been found dead aboard Serenity. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.
We though he was dead some time ago, Mal having shot him through the eye and left him for Reavers. But here he is, wearing an eye patch, dirty clothes, and the distinctive pallor of death. He must have slipped aboard to sabotage the ship, kidnap River, or kill Mal. Probably all three.
We dumped his body out the gate again —good riddance to bad rubbish— but who killed him? No one’s fessin’ up. He had an Alliance Agent ident card on him and we’re afraid the Feds’ll come looking for their man. The less we know the better.
Still, our curiosity’s pokin’ at us. As the heat lifts we can’t help but look for clues around the ship and start askin’ each other sly questions about who an’ what was where an’ when. One night over dinner, we all decide the one who figures out who done it, where, and how, will get out of chores until next we dock.
I elaborate on this sketch in Dobson Does the Dishes, a piece of fanfic I've added to the ongoing adventures of Serenity and her crew that are accruing from our plays of Firefly Adventures.
This premise also has the benefit of including all the main characters of Firefly in the game. In Firefly Clue, in addition to River being absent from the game (having been kidnapped), Simon and Book are also absent for some reason. The characters in Firefly are so well drawn and so varied that fans of the show often have a favourite. It's not really fair that someone who loves River or Simon or Book can't choose to play them when this game comes off the shelf. Now they can!
Game Set-up
- Before playing your first game of Curiosity, print the new player cards above, and sleeve them along with the Clue cards from Firefly Clue. Also print and assemble the "No Dishes!" envelope. And print the Curiosity game board shown above.
- Place the Curiosity game board in the middle of the game table.
- Collect the Casual minis from your copy of Firefly Adventures, and the Item pieces from Firefly Clue.
- Let each player choose one of the nine characters to play in the game.
- Each player then takes their mini and corresponding Item and places them on their starting location on the game board.
- Mal starts in the Galley where he is cleaning his Six Shooter.
- Zoe is in the Cargo Bay. She is wearing her Leather Necklace.
- Wash is on the Bridge playing with his Model Dinosaur.
- Kaylee is in the Engine Room adjusting things with her Wrench.
- Jayne is in his Bunk polishing Vera.
- Inara is in her Shuttle practicing her tea ceremony.
- Simon is in the Infirmary restocking his Med Kit.
- River is having a nap in the Common Room. She is having a nightmare.
- Shepherd Book is in the Passenger Dorm reading his Bible.
- Place the minis and Items not being used by players in their starting locations on the board too.
- Sort the Clue cards by type into three decks. Shuffle each deck. Take the top card from each deck and without looking at it place it in the "No Dishes!" envelope. Place the envelope beside the game board.
- Set aside the game's Intrigue and Power cards; they are not used in Curiosity.
- Choose a starting player (whoever was last in space, last rode a horse, or last watched an episode of Firefly) and give them one six-sided die.
Rules of Play
Play procedes in turns clockwise around the table until the murder of Dobson is solved.
On a player's turn, they may take one of the following actions:
- 1) move, and if they enter a new Room, make a Suggestion;
- 2) make a Suggestion if they have not already made one in that Room; or
- 3) make an Accusation.
A player may not make more than one Suggestion per Room visit. If a player returns to a Room later in the game, they may make another Suggestion there. A player may not step out of a Room and immediately return to it on the same turn.
When a player enters a Room on their turn, they do not have to make a Suggestion. They may pass through a Room on their way somewhere else.
MOVEMENT
To move, a player rolls the die and moves their player mini up to that number of connected spaces on the game board. Each area surrounded by blue on the game board, large or small is considered a space. Spaces joined by blue are connected. The large airlock beside the Cargo Bay is connected to the small airlock near the Engine Room as if they were adjacent.
Spaces with names are Rooms. All other spaces are Corridors. Any number of player minis can occupy a Room. Only one player mini can occupy a Corridor space, with one exception: the large airlock beside the Cargo Bay can hold any number of minis.
Players may move their mini through another player's mini on their way to an eligible space.
A player may stop moving before using all of their roll.
MAKING A SUGGESTION
To make a suggestion, a player selects an Item and moves that Item's piece to the Room they are in. Then they select a suspect, perhaps even themselves, and call them to the Room. Move the suspect mini to the Room. They then ask the other players for information about this suspicious arrangement (the Room they're in, the Item they've found, and the person they suspect).
For example, they might say, "Kaylee, I found the Teapot here in the Passenger Dorm. It had grease on it. Can anyone tell me anything about this?"
The player to the left of the player making the Suggestion checks their hand for any of the cards (person, place or thing) mentioned in the Suggestion. If they have one the cards, they must show it privately to the player making the Suggestion. If they have more than one of the cards, they choose one to share. If they have none of the cards, they say, "Can't help you," and the next player at the table checks their hand. After a card has been shared, play continues with the next player's turn. If no one at the table can help, play continues without a card being shared.
MAKING AN ACCUSATION
To make an accusation, a player must be in the Room in which they think Dobson was murdered. They move the Item they think was used to kill Dobson to that room. Then they call everyone together. Move the mini of the accused person, and the minis of the other players to the Room. They then announce that they've solved the case.
For example, they might say, "I know who did it. It was Inara, in the Cargo Bay. She killed him with an overdose from the Med Kit!"
The player making the Accusation then privately checks the contents of the "No Dishes!" envelope. If their Accusation is correct, they win the game. If it is wrong they replace the contents of the envelope and play continues with the next player's turn. The player who made the incorrect Accusation may no longer make Suggestions, but they continue to show cards from their hand if required to do so by another player's Suggestion.