Jubal Early

Jubal is a (rightfully) arrogant bounty hunter who snuck on board Serenity and quickly disabled her crew in a search for the fugitive River Tam. Early had been tracking Serenity since the heist on Ariel and finally catches up to them in the brilliant Objects In Space.
He got into bounty hunting for the power and the pain he could invoke on others.
Jubal claimed River was the smallest but most troublesome bounty since he tried to bring in pyromaniac midget.
He was partial to spouting analytical philosophy to those he encountered, often similar to River’s ramblings.

Traits: Agility d10, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d8, Vigor d8

Skills: Fighting d10, Guts d10, Intimidation d12, Investigation d8, Notice d8, Piloting d8, Shooting d12, Stealth d10, Streetwise d10, Taunt d8, Tracking d8

Pace: 6 Parry: 7 Toughness: 6 Charisma: -2

Hindrances: Greedy, Mean, Overconfident, Quirk (philisophical pretensions)

Edges: Alertness, Dodge, First Strike, Quickness, Quick Draw, Strong Willed, Trademark Weapon

Basic Benchmarks

I began discussing benchmarks in the last post and have received some feedback with ideas for a basic chart for Savage Worlds. Having a "basic SW" chart is one of the basic steps in character conversion, so let's look at a proposal by therealtony:

Savage Worlds Benchmarks

Savage Worlds Attribute	Description
1d4-2	Feeble
1d4	Weak
1d6	Average
1d8	Above Average
1d10	Expert
1d12	Elite
1d12+1	Legendary
1d12+2	Mythic/Human maximum potential

Tony's chart seems to meet with what, on the Savage Worlds Community Boards, has come to be the "accepted wisdom" regarding the meaning of the levels of the abilities. But I sometimes like to "buck the system." I wrote in the last post that a 1d6 roll (with Wild Die) and an "average" difficulty 4 makes a "hero" successful 50% of the time. I don't have a problem with the "average hero" succeeding at a good number of tasks 50% of the time (or 17% for difficult tasks), but I do think that is too frequent for the "common man." So I would amend the chart as follows:

Savage Worlds Benchmarks

Savage Worlds Attribute	Description
1d4-2	Feeble
1d4	Average Normal/Weak Hero
1d6	Average Hero
1d8	Above Average
1d10	Expert
1d12	Elite
1d12+1	Legendary
1d12+2	Mythic/Human maximum potential

I might not even call d4 average normal and just call it average, because Wild Cards get to roll a d6 Wild Die on any Attribute or Skill roll. Essentially giving a minimum of d6 (on any and all attribute/skill rolls) to any "hero." So there is little "mechanical" loss in setting d4 as "average" for any given setting. This is especially true given the d4 has a 25% chance to "ace." I created a "house rule" for this which has Wild Cards roll actual d4s while everyone else rolls 1d8/2 and only "aces" on an 8. Thus the statistical average of the "roll" remains the same, but the chance of an "ace" is less than with a d6. But that might be a discussion for another time.

DC Hero Conversions

DC Comic Book Character Conversions: A Conversation

As a fan of Clint Black's recent foray into the realm of 4-color comics, I have begun planning a series of DC Comics character conversions. I am not the only person to have an interest in this subject, "therealtony" on the Pinnacle Forums has done a wonderful job. But being that there can be no correct conversion of any given character, I will more than likely be repeating some of the same characters he selects from the hat.

I will be using a couple of resources, other than the comics themselves, for assistance in my conversions.

The DC Comics Encyclopedia

Comics Between the Panels by Dark Horse Publications

The All Star Companion edited by Roy Thomas (If you don't own this you are not a "real JSA fan).

The DC Heroes RPG 3rd Edition (my favorite Superhero system)

The DC Universe RPG by West End Games using their excellent d6 system.

The first and the last of these books will be used to help with "background" information, it is much easier to look to a single source than to delve into the issues. The second will be used with regards to conversions of abilities and statistics.

Given any media to game, or game to game, conversion you have to have certain guiding principles; here are mine.

1) I must come up with "benchmarks" for each system. Where such benchmarks are provided, I will follow them as close as possible. An example can be seen in the "Carrying Capacity/lift" chart in Necessary Evil.

2) When converting from one system to another, ensure that you take into consideration the "core mechanic" of each. i.e. d20 vs. Hero have different base systems. What those differences are should effect conversion.

Okay...so let's start with the second principle.

In Savage Worlds the "average" difficulty for any given task, under normal conditions, is 4. A d6 roll averages 3.5 (open ended 4) so d6 is the baseline for task resolution of 50% of a standard task. One could argue that this means d4 is actual human average since people don't tend to succeed 50% of the time on tasks which require (in RPG terms) a "roll," but that is a separate discussion. In this case, d6 will be considered average for ability scores and skills.

In Savage Worlds combat difficulties when attacking the opponent are less than 50% All Things Being Equal. What do I mean by this...a fighter with a Fighting skill of d8 has a parry of 6 attacks another fighter with a Fighting skill of d8 has a 37.5% chance of success (excluding wild card bonus die). The odds become 50% at the d12+2 level of skill. So "on average" the PCs have a slightly worse than 50%. In DC Heroes, they are exactly 50%. All things being equal, the character will need to roll 11 on an open ended on doubles (excepting double ones) 2d10 roll.

What this means is that d8 vs d8 isn't the same as 8 vs 8 in the DC system. To reconcile this small difference, I will "bump up" some characters and "bump down" other characters who are borderline within their areas of expertise. Is Batman a d12+2 type? Is Blue Beetle a d10 or d8 fighting? These questions will be asked after the application of broad benchmarks.

Now for the benchmarks:

DC has Nine Statistics and Savage has Five covering the same elements.

To convert one must decide whether, in the case of a "combined" statistic, to take the highest or the average. I tend to use averages, but review on a case by case basis.

DC to SW Attribute Correlation

Savage Worlds	Agility	Smarts	Spirit	Strength	Vigor
DC Heroes	Dexterity	Intelligence	Average of Will and Mind or Aura and Spirit	Strength	Body

Saffron

Mal's nickname for the young lady we are introduced to in Our Mrs Reynolds as "Saffron". She is a consummate con-artist who gets her kicks not from making the big score but in proving that she's better and smarter than the people she fools.


The crew narrowly manages to avoid the fate that Saffron leaves them to in Our Mrs Reynolds, but Mal doesn't kill her when he catches up to her—he's just a softie.

We next meet up with Saffron in the episode Trash. Now, her name is "Bridgette" and she's married to Mal's old war-buddy Monty. After Mal ruins her honeymoon, she talks him and the rest of the crew into helping her out with a big theft. During the caper, we find out that she was also married to the Alliance commander they're stealing from—under the name Yolanda.

Yolanda... Saffron... Bridgette. Yo Saf Bridge. Get it?

Traits: Agility d8, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6

Pace: 6 Parry: 7 Toughness: 5 Charisma: +4

Skills: Fighting d8, Guts d6, Intimidation d6, Investigation d8, Notice d8, Persuasion d12, Piloting d6, Repair d10, Shooting d6, Stealth d8, Streetwise d10, Taunt d8

Hindrances: Greedy (minor), Overconfident, Quirk (nihilistic)

Edges: Attractive, Block, Companion Training, Dodge, First Strike

Shepherd Book

We first meet Shepherd Book on the Eavesdown Docks on Persephone. He had just left the Southdown Abbey and decided to get out into the world... bring the word to those as need it told...

Less than two days later... "I've beaten a lawman senseless, I've fallen in with criminals. I watched the captain shoot the man I swore to protect... I think I'm on the wrong ship."

He wasn't, but was he even a shepherd; a man of the cloth? Jubal Early surely didn't think so (Objects In Space). There's a lot of history there that doesn't have much to do with being a preacher.

Book signed on to Firefly as a passenger before Simon did, which on the surface appears to rule out his being there specifically because of the Tam siblings. Kaylee could read his body language rather well, and her intuition told him he was a good soul who was more interested in the ships than in the destinations. He admits to her that he had once sailed on a Firefly ("Long before you were crawling.") He admitted to having been "out of the world for a spell."

So, who was (or is) Book?:
An undercover agent for the Alliance?
A double agent for Independents who had infiltrated Alliance trust?
A retired Alliance officer (or Alliance Federal Marshal) who 'got religion'? (My personal theory. -Doyce)
An operative of Blue Sun, keeping an eye on River and Simon?
Perhaps a ex-con? Perhaps at one time worse and more sadistic than Adelei Niska, but who had since found religion?

What do we really know?

Was being a shepherd just a cover or had Book joined the Abbey for a few years, perhaps immediately after the end of the war, and sincerely set out to live a life of moral and spiritual enlightenment, only to find himself fall into this "den of thieves"?

He's definitely not what meets the eye. On the surface Book appears to be an ordinary man of God in an extraordinary situation, dealing with people straddling the fine line between good and evil, but there are other indicators that, while inconclusive, do persuade one to believe he may have ulterior motives. For one thing, when Book finds himself suffering from lead poisoning without a medic on board (in Safe), Malcolm Reynolds orders Wash to the nearest Alliance outpost for medical help, expecting to eat crow. Just as the Alliance officers deny medical assistance, Book has them check his Ident Card. He's almost immediately wheeled into the operating room, no more questions asked. (Not common Alliance treatment even for men of the cloth.) Also take note of the teaser of War Stories and his pro-active stance towards rescuing Mal.
He knows a fair bit about the criminal element of the 'verse.
He knows how to shoot (and well), and can identify relatively rare weapons merely from the hole they leave in a man.
We know he never married and therefore has no children or grandchildren. (Or so he says.)
We know his religious order requires he not cut his hair.
We know he studies a version of the Christian Bible (which apparently survives another five hundred years relatively intact) but we don't really know the name of his denomination.
He knows his way around a spaceship, especially a Firefly class. He's been on one before, but it was an older model.
We know that he felt prepared to take up arms to defend a friend. He implied, though we do not know for sure, that he would not go as far as cause another's death.

He will sometimes resort to foul language (in Chinese).


Traits: Agility d8, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d8, Vigor d8.

Skills: Fighting d8, Guts d8, Intimidation d8, Investigation d6, Knowledge (Theology) d8, Notice d8, Persuasion d8, Repair d4, Shooting d8, Stealth d6, Streetwise d8.

Pace: 6 Parry: 6 Toughness: 6 Charisma: +2

Hindrances: Curious, Pacifist (minor), Poverty, Vow (major, monastic).

Edges: Connections, First Strike, Marksman, Shepherd.

Adelai Niska

Episodes: 'The Train Job', 'War Stories'

Above the planet of Ezra was Adelei Niska's Skyplex. Niska was a sadistic, cruel and terrifying crime lord. He would have people tortured for the smallest things, and prolong the pain for as long as he could. So when Mal went to him for a job, he was determined to have it go right. The job was to steal Alliance supplies from a train travelling to the mining community of Paradiso. What Mal didn't know was that a full unit of Alliance men were also on the train and that the supplies were much needed medicine. Having successfully completed the mission, Mal decided to hand back the supplies to the settlers and hand back the cash in hand Niska had given him. It wasn't enough for Niska. He had Mal and Wash kidnapped and brought to his skyplex, where they were tortured. Zoe came to the rescue with as much money as the crew could find, but it was only enough to buy back one man. Zoe chose Wash and left Mal to die - literally. Niska had Mal brought back to life so he could be tortured more, but the crew of Serenity launched an attack and rescued him. Even though Mal regretted it later, he left Niska alive.


Traits: Agility d4, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d4, Vigor d4

Skills: Guts d8, Intimidation d8, Knowledge (Philosophy) d6, Notice d8, Shooting d4, Streetwise d8, Taunt d10

Pace: 5 Parry: 2 Toughness: 4 Charisma: -4

Hindrances: Bad Eyes (minor), Elderly, Greedy (major), Mean, Ugly, Vengeful (major)

Edges: Filthy Rich

River Tam

A hyper-intelligent child of privilege, River found the Academy she was sent to to be more of a torture center than a school. No one knows yet what The Academy did to her before her brother Simon stole her back, because she's still too traumatized to tell them.

But she and Simon need to keep running—because the Academy wants their experiment back.

Even at a young age River had an exceptionally intelligent mind. While Simon was smart enough to become a gifted doctor, River was so bright she corrected her brother's homework when they were kids and even found errors in his textbooks. Their parents spoiled them and lavished them with luxuries, even signing River up for the best of all possible education programs: The Academy. Simon and his parents thought nothing of it; she was an exceptional child and belonged in a private education institution that could cater to her needs—but a few months after she had been away Simon began getting perplexing letters from her. There were misspellings and references to events or individuals who did not exist. Simon theorized that the letters were actually written in some kind of code. His parents were oblivious to any of this, and refused to entertain Simon's notions that his sister might perhaps be in some sort of trouble.

They were wrong.

While her family thought she was safe in a private education institution, in point of fact she had been taken to a scientific installation (possibly or probably funded by the Blue Sun corporation). Simon decoded his sister's letters and set out to try to get her back, seeking someone, anyone—even those living in Blackout Zones—who could help him help his sister escape. Money changed hands, and soon after Simon found himself captured by the local federal authorities—his father had to come down to bail him out. Upset that he'd had to tarnish his reputation, Gabriel Tam basically told Simon to either drop these absurd attempts to rescue his sister or not return home.

So.

Simon made arrangements, then made his way to Persephone and the Eavesdown Docks slums. There, he met with the people delivering cargo containing his sister in stasis from which she was later awakened on the Firefly Transport Serenity.

Unfortunately, the story of River Tam's history doesn't quite tell us who she is, but where she comes from. Exactly what River is now remains uncertain. River's brain was operated on countless times while The Academy had her in its clutches and she was treated for all intents and purposes like a laboratory animal. They still consider her their property, stolen by Simon Tam, and they will stop at nothing to get River back so they can finish whatever it was they were doing to her. (Simon knows for certain that, among other things, they cut into her brain. They even removed her amygdala, which is a part of the brain used to control emotional responses and 'filter' incoming information. As he describes it: "She feels everything; she can't not.")

Precisely why they did these things to her is unknown. The most likely purpose was to turn her into a sort of assassin or spy. However, since the series was unceremoniously cut short, any answers to the uncertainties of motivation are assumptive. We do know to a degree of what she is capable.

River has taken a firearm and, without looking, killed three men with three shots.
She has snuck on board a bounty hunter's ship without the bounty hunter's knowledge and thwarted his attempts to take her back to Blue Sun.
She has shown an aptitude for extraordinary assimilation of knowledge and data recall, empathy, and even what appears to be some form of psychic "reading" ability.
She has been known to make statements, sometimes cryptic and sometimes direct, which sound as if she can read someone's mind or know of events in a stranger's past which she could not have known.
She has never shown an indication of being able to predict the future, but she can seem to extrapolate probable outcomes based on past experience and knowledge.
She can just look at an individual and glean more about their history and personality than some could learn from a person in years of friendship. Sometimes her statements are hard to decipher because she talks in a way that she understands but others have difficulty comprehending.
And she's a hell of a dancer.

River's state of mind is inconsistent and unpredictable. Simon Tam administers semi-regular treatments of medication that seem to improve her ability to cope with her own mental damage for short periods of time, but these treatments have side-effects which leave her physically ill. When in good spirits, River likes playing with Kaylee and occasional practical jokes with the crew. She's potentially very dangerous, however. She's caused damage to Jayne on one occasion, slashing him in the chest with a large knife (but... was she attacking him or the Blue Sun logo on his shirt?).

Traits: Agility d10, Smarts d12+4, Spirit d12, Strength d6, Vigor d6.

Skills: Fighting d10, Investigation d10, Knowledge (Arts) d12, Knowledge (Sciences) d12, Notice d12, Shooting d10, Stealth d8.

Pace: 6 Parry: 7/8 Toughness: 4 Charisma: -2

Hindrances: Outsider, Phobia (major, Blue Sun products), Poverty, Small, Wanted (major).

Edges: Acrobat, Alertness, Danger Sense, Empathic, Jack-of-All-Trades, Precognitive Flashes, Scholar, Sensitive, Telepathic.

Simon Tam

While Simon is a bright and talented surgeon (the hospital Simon joined after finishing his internship was called AMI. What AMI stands for is unknown; the MI could stand for Medical Institute, which would mean it was a teaching hospital), his sister River Tam was so bright she corrected his homework when they were kids and even found errors in his textbooks. Their parents spoiled them and lavished them with luxuries, even signing River up for the best of all possible education programs: The Academy. Simon and his parents thought nothing of it; she was an exceptional child and belonged in a private education institution that could cater to her needs -- but a few months after she had been away Simon began getting perplexing letters from her. There were misspellings and references to events or individuals who did not exist. Simon theorized that the letters were actually written in some kind of code. His parents were oblivious to any of this, and refused to entertain Simon's notions that his sister might perhaps be in some sort of trouble.

They were wrong.

While her family thought she was safe in a private education institution, in point of fact she had been taken to a scientific installation (possibly or probably funded by the Blue Sun corporation). Simon decoded his sister's letters and set out to try to get her back, seeking someone, anyone -- even those living in Blackout Zones -- who could help him help his sister escape. Money changed hands, and soon after Simon found himself captured by the local federal authorities -- his father had to come down to bail him out. Upset that he'd had to tarnish his reputation, Gabriel Tam basically told Simon to either drop these absurd attempts to rescue his sister or not return home.

So.

Simon made arrangements, then made his way to Persephone and the Eavesdown Docks slums. There, he had was met with the people delivering cargo containing his sister in stasis from which she was later awakened on Firefly Transport named Serenity.

Simon comes from a wealthy family with a privledged upbringing -- quite different from his life aboard Serenity (which he has taken to like a fish to... acid). He is fiercely protective of his sister -- he gave up a lucrative and successful life as a surgeon on Osiris to rescue her from The Academy.


Traits: Agility d6, Smarts d12, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6.

Skills: Guts d6, Healing d12, Investigation d8, Knowledge (Medicine) d10, Notice d6.

Pace: 6 Parry: 2 Toughness: 5 Charisma: 0

Hindrances: Big Mouth, Cautious, Pacifist (minor), Poverty, Tinhorn, Wanted (major).

Edges: Alertness.

Kaywinnet Lee Frye

Cheerful, energetic Kaylee (full name, Kaywinnit Lee Frye) is Serenity's ace mechanic, a tomboy who accepts anything the universe throws at her with a smile and a bounce. Trained by her father, she's a natural mechanic, which got her the job on the Firefly Transport ship Serenity despite her total lack of experience with either that model of ship or a Trace Compression Block engine. At the same time, she can be flummoxed by particularly difficult problems ("Sometimes, a thing gets broke, it can't *be* fixed.") or by someone who sets out to break a machine instead of fix it, which seems a fundamentally foreign concept to her. (As when Saffron sabotages Serenity... twice.)

The crew's occasional forays into crime don't bother her, though she's not much good in a gunfight. Kaylee is a 'glass is half full' kinda gal. No matter what is going on around her, she's usually able to see the positive side of the situation. When describing the more questionable behavior among her fellow crewmates, she makes even the most illegal behavior sound adorable.

Whereas other science fiction shows involve an engineer for the ship who often talks in complicated technobabble, Kaylee tends to describe her activity in the engine room in very simple, organic terms: there's still a sort of complicated code-like semantics to her wording at times, but it's more like listening to people talk about 20th century cars or a sick friend than futuristic machinery.

Kaylee has her own quarters on ship (decorated with Christmas lights and the like), but she also has a hammock set up in the engine room (probably because her room is located as far from the engine room as physically possible -- Doyce) and often can be found there working or communing with Serenity, which she treats like another member of the crew.

Traits: Agility d6, Smarts d8, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d6

Skills: Investigation d6, Notice d8, Persuasion d10, Repair d12, Streetwise d8.

Pace: 6 Parry: 2 Toughness: 5 Charisma: 0

Hindrances: Curious, Loyal, Pacifist (major), Poverty, Quirk (trusting).

Edges: Mcgyver, Mr. (Miss) Fix-It.