I got a chance to play Firefly Adventures recently while at my friend Troy's game night. Based on the short-lived TV series, this game attempts to capture the spirit and sci-fi/western theme of the Firefly TV show, characters and their adventures. Firefly the Show The TV series Firefly aired in 2002 - 2003. It ran for a single season, leaving its devoted fans screaming and crying for more. Though the series didn't return to TV, in 2005 the movie Serenity was released giving fans some semblance of closure. Since then, the series and movie have continued to maintain a cult-like following and relevance in pop-culture through DVDs, streaming services, games and the like. Here we are in 2019 and I'm posting about playing a game based on this intellectual property. Before I go any further, I want to provide full disclosure and state that I saw the movie Serenity, watching it in the theater when it was released. However, I haven't seen the TV series. After playing this game and writing this post, I have tasked myself with watching the TV series. I believe it's available via Amazon Prime Video. I'm looking forward to seeing how this show has held up some 16+ years later. Firefly Adventures the Game I'm not going to give a full rundown or review of this game. Instead. I'm going to give you some of the game basics and my overall impressions of playing it this one time. Firefly Adventures: Brigands and Browncoats is the full title of this game released by Gale Force Nine in 2018. This mission-based, tactical skirmish game is infused with theme. The single-biggest mechanic that differentiates this game from other similar ones is the use of a "Casual" and a "Heroic" mode for each character. The player mats are two-sided. One side shows stats and abilities for the character while in "Casual" mode and the other side indicates the "Heroic" information for the same character. In addition to the mats, there are two miniatures for each character. One mini (grey) is in a "Casual" pose while the other (green) sports a more "Heroic" pose. The bad guys in this game are collectively called Goons. The purple figures are Thugs while the brown ones are Cowboys. These enemies may have different roles to play in the many varied missions. Another thing to note about the game is that it is mission based. Missions can either be played as "one-offs" or strung together to form more of a campaign. We played two back to back missions, maintaining our items between games in sort-of a mini-campaign. The game utilizes time as a mechanic/resource. Each action requires a number of seconds or moments which advances your player's marker on the time track. Players typically receive two actions, then move their marker along the time track. Whoever is currently last along the time track will be the next player, including the Goons who may be chasing/attacking your team. Both of the missions we played had time stipulations for successfully completing them. I imagine that most other missions would be similar. The use of time was well implemented and straightforward adding to the difficulty and tension of each mission/scenario. Thoughts and Impressions In one night of playing two missions of Firefly Adventures, I can say I definitely got the "vibe" of the show. Even though I hadn't seen the TV series... through the player mats and figures and the aid of my teammates who had seen the show, I felt like I truly gained a sense of what Firefly episodes might be like. There is a little bit of "role-playing" that goes into these adventure-style games and this one is no different. I found myself trying to make decisions based on how my character might approach the situation as did the other players. My lack of knowledge of the TV show made little difference in my enjoyment of playing. If you are drawn to this type of action-adventure game and particularly if you loved the TV show Firefly, then you would probably enjoy this game. Those not interested in this genre of game or show would probably want to steer clear. If you are curious about the TV show and want to read more, I've provided a link to the IMDB page - Click Here. Likewise, if you'd like to get more information about Firefly Adventures the game, Click Here for a link to Board Game Geek. I appreciate your continued support of the King's GameNight gaming blog and the associated Facebook page. Please continue to watch for new posts and periodic updates in both locations. Provide any feedback about the post in the comments section or send me a direct message using the contact page.
Game on!
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