You could hardly find a universe that is loved by geeks around the world more than that of Firefly's. Joss Whedon's short-lived sci-fi/western TV series's cult status was partially caused by the cancellation of the show after the first season but the truth is, its premise and cast was so exceptional, strange and yet well-done to just make it work. Cowboys in space became a defining moment in Nathan Fillion's and Summer Glau's careers and they had to work hard to get out of the same role in their following projects.Anyway, Firefly is dead but it doesn't mean it is really, really dead. The fanbase of all things Whedon is strong and still growing and geeks everywhere are quite probably still finding about the show even now. It is a bit weird that the board game came out last year, ages after the cancellation. Is it worth joining the crew of Cap'n Mal and others or should we stop beating the dead horse?
Whedon's fans aboard
That really depends whether you are a fan of the TV series, a person who just saw the show or somebody who has no idea what it is all about. Like another game I tend to mention a lot, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly too depends a lot on its narrative derived from a television series but unlike BSG that was blessed by 4 seasons and several films, Firefly only got one season and a film that did its best to tie up the loose story ends and show what the overarching plot would probably be about. The difference is that while there is a lot to BSG, the lore of Firefly is just not that deep and well... explored.
What that caused is that almost every character the crew of Serenity met on their televised adventures, every piece of equipment, every location is present in the board game. It doesn't matter that they were a secondary character in the 7th episode - they have a name and a face, so they are going to be on a card. Drowning in a sea of minor characters is hardly a major flaw but it shows that the game will probably please those that love the original TV show rather than other audience.
Other than the setting (which for better or worse milks its source), the game is a combination of long-term and short-term missions that players must do to earn money to equip themselves for more difficult missions and, in the end, reaching the final scenario goal. Each player is a captain of one of four Firefly-class spaceships and their task is given at the very beginning by one of several scenario cards that set the story of the game. One time you are desperadoes on a run from the law, other time you are trying to pull of three big heists, yet another time something different but, in fact, similar...The flow in the 'Verse
The overall feeling of the game isn't influenced by the scenario as much as in other games, such as A Touch of Evil or Arkham Horror. You always fly from a planet to planet, hire a crew, buy some equipment, take an odd job or two and try to finish them without spending too much of your resources.
The jobs you get usually require you either to transport something from one side of the 'Verse to the other or pass a skill check somewhere. There are three skills - negotiate, tech and fight and your crew and equipment give you extra points to your dice rolls so you might want to get the right bunch of people and gear when flying into a specific situation.
However, eventually you will find that higher risk means higher pay and as soon as you find a crew (and manage to pay each of its members their wages after finished jobs), you will get into the illegal jobs as the reward is much bigger. Illegal jobs will often want you to go somewhere and "misbehave", a nod to the show's great one-liner. Misbehaving is practically a deck full of sets of skill checks that can sometimes be avoided by having the right crew member or the right gear but most of the time, you just need to be prepared and have at least a little luck. Misbehaving is quite a challenge, it usually comes in a succession of several skill checks and failing one usually means you have to start over the next turn. Also it is dangerous and you might lose a member of your crew if odds are not exactly in your favour... But that is a different fandom, so let's just move on.
The tagline of the game is: "Find a crew - Find a job - Keep flying". Because, as everybody knows, the 'Verse is vast and potentially a dangerous place. The map is divided into variously sized sectors that the ships will navigate through. You may either mosey - fly slowly but safely or go full burn and fly fast which depletes your fuel. By flying full burn, you must draw an encounter card for each sector you visit. That are either blue encounters for what happens in The Halo, Alliance controlled part of the 'Verse or orange encounters in the outskirts where the Reavers roam. You may encounter anything from pirates, secret cargo caches, people in need to nothing at all but since moseying does not really get you anywhere, you'll be making sure to have a lot of fuel to get wherever you want soon.The Catch
Unfortunately, you spend so much time flying from one place to another, trying to finish your jobs just to have money to buy enough resources for the next one, that the feeling of repetition sets it rather soon. It seems as if the creators knew that there is not much to do with the foundation built by the short-lived show and tried to keep many elements streamlined. I'm talking about the possibility to look through discard piles of shopping and job decks and getting cards from them, instead of relying on the luck of draw. This keeps everyone informed where is the next piece of gear they need or that one job they can do immediately.
Still, it doesn't make for an exciting game. I imagine that if the creators put new material in the game, it would be called inaccurate. They stayed true to the source, worked with whatever they could and packed their game full of references to the show but I'm afraid that the result is not just that fun. The fans might like it, the non-fans probably won't.
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