Our Continuing Quest…
So in our gaming group’s continuing quest (or perhaps it’s my quest, since I’ve been guest-GM for a couple months now) to explore new games, we sat down to play the Leverage RPG. I’d never seen the show, heard a liveplay, or played it myself, but I was fairly confident given my comfort level with Marvel Heroic RPG so, hey, why not?

Leverage is a Cortex Plus game, firmly wedged in the evolution between Smallville and Marvel, but with a nod towards “conventional” games in the form of standard abilities and roles that everyone has. To that end, it’s still definitely a Cortex Plus game, with Plot Points and game elements named on the fly. I tell you what, when I picked up and read through the Serenity RPG, I pretty much put it right back down. Didn’t make sense to me. This though? This works. And it works for the Firefly world.

“Really, angille?” you might be thinking. “But, there is in fact a game made for Firefly. And a game made for Leverage. And you’re gonna shoehorn one into the other?” Honestly, not a big leap. Leverage-style cons and jobs are pretty much exactly what the crew of Firefly do all the time. In fact, looks like Craig Payne over at Exploring Infinity has already put together a Serenity Smallville/Leverage hack. I decided to use Leverage as-is, however. Didn’t even rename anything. (Scroll on down to Retrospective for the tl;dr version without our personal game session)

The Recruitment Job
I decided to run the players through a “Recruitment Job” style game. The point of this is to start with a partially filled character sheet. You assign dice to all your Attributes (Agility/Alertness/Intelligence/Strength/Vitality/Willpower), but only assign a d10 and d8 to two Roles (Grifter/Hacker/Hitter/Mastermind/Thief). You name one Distinction, but not the other two, and not your two Talents or two Specialties. Yet. This is all established as you are playing the first adventure. Genius.

We were down a player from our usual entourage of five, so the Mastermind and Hitter both picked up Grifter d8, and then each proceeded to burn their first talent on Chewing the Scenery (which lets you bring your primary d10 die into certain Grifter rolls). Trust the guy playing a Mastermind in a narrative RPG to find the way to game the system.

The Con
We worked together on picking the planet where everyone was stuck (main motivation for the con would be getting a ship), then I let the group call the job. Thankfully, the group’s other GM was the Mastermind, so collaborative world-building went pretty smoothly. The mark was mayor of a small town, a ways away from any starport. Randolph Whittier by name, and lo, a slave trafficker by trade. Major scum. Mayor d8, Slaver d8. The town (as yet unnamed) got to carry Remote d6 and Looks the Other Way d6. Oh, have I mentioned how easy it is to adlib and improvise in Cortex Plus? Amazing.

The group caught onto the whole “flashback” mechanic pretty quick. Their hacker (my wife, who actually played Kaylee for Halloween a few years ago) got to answer the question “How’d you get so good at data networks?” with a story about time spent learning from Mr. Universe himself. BAM! – new Distinction: Can’t Stop the Signal. For the hitter, “Where’d you get a nickname like Kitten?” turned into Always Lands on Her Feet.

Assets and Complications
The very first roll of the night involved enough 1s that things started getting interesting quickly. The hacker modified the pickup times in communications between the slavers, allowing the group to intercept both parties in the transaction. She was able to leave a Back Door to the Mayor’s System d8, but evidently Threw a Red Flag d6.

Everyone except the thief met the slave-runners at the original rendezvous point, ready to receive the slaves. During negotiations, the thief used her Hitter d8 to distract everyone with shots fired, sending everyone running into the slave-runners’ ship, convinced by the mastermind’s and hitter’s Grifter d8s. At this point, the thief noticed the result of the Threw a Red Flag d6 – another agent preparing to call back to Whittier with the situation! She took him out with her rifle, grabbed his comms unit, and neutralized the Threw a Red Flag d6 after assigning her Hacker d6. Sweet!

This situation allowed the mastermind/grifter to sit down with the mooks aboard their ship. A few war stories later, and he’d picked up the distinction All For One, and One For All, as well as spinning the Mooks’ Mercs d6 into the much more helpful Sympathizer d6. As long as the crew of this ship got a cut, and weren’t implicated in going against Whittier and his supplier, Georgio, they were in. Shiny.

The Grift
The player crew showed up to the second rendezvous point with only half the slaves Whittier was expecting – and unbeknownst to him, their hitter was disguised as one of the slaves! After some relatively unsuccessful bartering, Whittier left with his slaves, and a new Suspicious d6. The hacker left with Whittier’s bodyguard (in my mind played by Billy Zane), and kept him… occupied for the night. Thankfully, she’d already pulled plans of the mayor’s complex through the Back Door to Mayor’s System d8, so the rest of the crew were prepared.

The hitter, holed up with the new and previous slaves in the mayor’s harem, had to wait for her chance. Because of the unfortunate Suspicious d6, double the usual amount of guards were posted. She managed to lure a couple into the room with a good grifter roll, then poured on the awesome with a heavy hitter roll, dropping both of the guards! (we still have not tried a complex contested action) The hitter’s luck held through, using her relatively weak Thief d6 to lead the slaves almost out of the complex. But! They still had to get across a heavily patrolled courtyard!

All in a Day’s Work
It’s a good thing the mastermind and thief (the thief with her Perfect Timing talent) were ready outside. Between shots fired, bricks thrown, and “This is what Georgio thinks of your deal!” called out, the guards were totally distracted away from the slaves’ exodus. The end result was a very angry Whittier, a very angry Georgio, and a very happy crew with a bunch of freed slaves. After orchestrating a meeting between Whittier’s and Georgio’s men at high noon downtown, the crew snuck back into Whittier’s compound, relieving him of a ton of funds while laying out all the proof of the slavery. Skedaddling away from the huge firefight downtown, the crew made an anonymous call to Persephone’s media and law enforcement, taking care of Whittier once and for all.

The Mjolnr, Thor’s Hammer
The only thing left at this point was procuring a ship. Something to take this band of scallywags across the Black. I skimmed through the Serenity book looking at ships, but the traits didn’t feel right for Leverage. So… I made some up. Just scribbled them on the whiteboard, and put a list of dice on the other side. I left for a bio-break, leaving the players with instructions to fill it out – came back to a long-range, burly, maneuverable ship, with about as much weaponry as Serenity and the moniker “Mjolnr”. Nice. The resident 3d artist immediately started on his rendition of Thor’s hammer, cast in ‘Verse ship form. (image to come – I guess he wants to get his particle effects *perfect* first)

Retrospective
I gotta say, I like Marvel Heroic RP a lot better than Leverage. There are more crunch and fluff hooks to hang things on, while simultaneously feeling more free-form. I like the Doom Pool. I like Milestones.

That said, I also can’t wait for the Hacker’s Guide! I’m proud to be a backer of the Kickstarter, and I’m excited to be able to use it in future games! I think that the huge array of awesomeness that the combination of Cortex Plus Drama/Action/Heroic can unleash is going to be mind-numbing.

So far, Leverage RPG (aka Cortex Plus Action) seems… very simplistic for the Cortex Plus line. Unlike Drama, there aren’t five stress tracks, half a dozen Values, or an intricate relationship web. Unlike Heroic, there’s no Doom Pool, no Milestones, no Effect Die. Perhaps… perhaps that’s a trait in favor of Cortex Plus Action RPG. The players all get it. Play goes boom-boom-boom.

Well, we’re gonna keep playing it. The group has been itching for more than one-shots, so the crew of the Mjolnr – John Carter, Tesla, Kat, and Rayn – will be flyin’ the Black for just a spell longer.