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Game Info
Year
2013
Collection
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Description
Players begin with a ship, and travel from planet to planet, hiring crew, purchasing ship upgrades, and picking up cargo to deliver (jobs) all in the form of cards. Some crew and cargo are illegal, and can be confiscated if your ship is boarded by an alliance vessel. Travelling from planet to planet requires turning over "full burn" cards, one for each space moved. Most do nothing, but you can also encounter an Alliance ship, have a breakdown, or even run into Reavers. Completing jobs gets you cash. First player to complete the story goals wins.
Game description from the publisher:
In Firefly: The Game – based on the popular Firefly television series created by Joss Whedon – players captain their own Firefly-class transport ship, traveling the 'Verse with a handpicked crew of fighters, mechanics and other travelers. As a captain desperate for work, players are compelled to take on any job — so long as it pays. Double-dealing employers, heavy-handed Alliance patrols, and marauding Reavers are all in a day's work for a ship's captain at the edge of the 'Verse. Firefly: The Game is a high-end thematic tabletop boardgame from Gale Force Nine (GF9) and the first in a series of tabletop hobby board games and miniatures games from GF9 set in the Firefly Universe.
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All mentions
Browse transcript mentions, sentiments, pros/cons, mechanics, topics, quotes, and references.
Total mentions: 7
This page: 7
Sentiment:
pos 4 ·
mix 0 ·
neu 1 ·
neg 1
Showing 1–7 of 7
Video toRwT52xxBg
Ryan and Bethany Board Game Reviews Analysis at 0:36 sentiment: neutral
video_pk 99448 · mention_pk 276509
Click to watch at 0:36 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
neutral
Pros
none
Cons
none
Thematic elements
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Mechanics unknown.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- All right, so Bethany and I have been having a conversation where we think that certain things belong in certain seasons.
- We're going to test that idea with board games as well.
- Blank Slate. That feels like a summer game.
- Kanban EV. Winter. I want to say winter is you have Sandra there who's just mean and just kind of bristly and cold.
- Firefly: The Game. Let's say spring. I don't know why. It just feels like spring.
- Bites summer for sure. Picnic vibes.
- Ready Set Bet. When is the Kentucky Derby? Isn't that like late late spring? I'm going to say late spring.
- Um Isle of Cats. That could be fall. I could see that in the fall.
- All right, that was pretty fun.
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video UQ4BWxFWNv0
Board Game Critique Top List at 14:15 sentiment: positive
video_pk 81066 · mention_pk 199378
Click to watch at 14:15 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- Captures the feel of its source material
- Tonal authenticity
- Feels like running a Firefly episode
- Deeply personal crew assembly
- Going wrong in interesting ways is a compliment
Cons
- Jobs are morally ambiguous at best
- Random nav deck encounters can disrupt plans
Thematic elements
- Smuggling and adventure in the Firefly universe
- The 'verse
- Story card sets the overarching objective for the session.
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Crew management — You begin with a bare-bones crew and hire additional characters from the show's cast or the non-canon crew pool over the course of play.
- Movement — Mosey moves the ship one sector. Full burn moves further, but requires drawing more nav cards, which can fire alliance encounters or Reaver attacks.
- Pick up and deliver — Jobs come from five contacts on the board... legal delivery work and lucrative misbehaving options.
- random events — The map of the 'verse is enormous, divided into Alliance space and Border space, each with its own nav deck that drives random encounters as you fly through it.
- Story objectives — A story card sets the overarching objective for the session, which gives each play a different structural goal.
- Variable player powers — Every captain card has unique abilities.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- Genuine player-driven freedom, meaningful choice over how to play and what to pursue. An experience that changes because of what you decide at the table, not because some designer scripted three branches and called it open world.
- The sandbox quality is real, but it operates through a narrow lens.
- Gloriously random, outrageously fun, completely impossible to plan for.
- The stories aren't authored by players so much as they emerge from the chaos of the deck.
- Sitting down to Talisman feels like opening a fantasy novel that has been read by millions of people before you.
- Modern tighter designs cannot replicate that.
- The soul of this game is solo, and it's one of the finest solo games ever made.
- The most mechanically innovative game on the list. A pirate sandbox built on top of a deck-building engine unlike anything else in the genre.
- That feedback loop between exploration and crew development is elegant.
- It's not a gimmick, one of the most thematically appropriate combat mechanisms we've ever played with.
- Watching cubes cascade through it during a high-stakes boarding action generates a tension dice cannot replicate.
- A pirate who moves faster than anyone can catch is a pirate who controls the board.
- It does not force you to choose who you are before the game begins.
- The number of ways to accumulate glory is the game's real genius.
- The glory stash mechanic is the best hidden information system on the list. The player who appears to be losing is often the one actually winning.
- The box literally describes it as an open world sandbox tabletop adventure, and for once, that description is not marketing overstatement. It is exactly what this game is.
- Every system serves the theme.
- Western Legends validates every approach at once, and that is extraordinarily hard to design.
- The game we reach for when someone asks us what open world really means in a board game, not as a marketing term, not as a description of a large map with multiple things on it, as a design philosophy carried all the way through to the rules.
- The galaxy builds itself around the decisions the players make.
- Fame points are the victory currency and the number of ways to earn them is the game's crowning achievement.
- Each NPC type has a personality card that governs its behavior. They move, they pursue, they create friction between players without any player requiring to antagonize another directly.
- Xia does not tell you what kind of captain to be. No scenario card, no story objective, no prescribed arc. It gives you a ship, a galaxy that grows as you explore it, and a fame track. Everything else is yours.
- Every single one of those sessions told a story nobody scripted. That is what the top of this list looks like.
- If you're new to this category, Western Legends and Merchants and Marauders are the best entry points.
- And if you want the purest, most complete expression of what a sandbox board game can be, Xia Legends of a Drift System is the answer every time.
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video hv-oS4SZipw
The Dice Tower Top List at 18:14 sentiment: positive
video_pk 80090 · mention_pk 194343
Click to watch at 18:14 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive, but hampered by playtime and complexity for its core mechanic
Pros
- Perfectly captures the feel of the TV show
- Building a crew and taking risky jobs
- Incredibly thematic
- Open world structure allows players to create their own stories
- Relaxing and immersive
- Every game becomes a memorable smuggling adventure
- Loved by anyone who has seen Firefly
Cons
- Longer play time for a simple pick-up-and-deliver game
- Rules have small, tough-to-remember details for new players
- Lots of decks of cards, large table presence
- Requires players to know and love the IP
- Requires players to enjoy sandbox games
- Large footprint, many decks to put out
- Long playtime for a fairly simple game
Thematic elements
- smuggling and adventure in the Firefly universe
- the 'verse
- open world structure allows players to create their own stories
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Crew building — You're building a crew
- Open world — It's got an open world structure that lets players kind of create their own stories.
- Pick-Up and Deliver — it's a very simple pick up and deliver game.
- sandbox — This one is pretty much a sandbox game.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- my shame is going to come out right now, and you probably have games like this, too. But these are my top 10 games that I wish I played more.
- Oathsworn right here, this story is rich, dark, full of meaningful choices that really impact the whole story.
- It feels like a hybrid of a premium fantasy novel RPG campaign and a tactical boss battling game.
- First off, on a personal level, my minis are everywhere.
- This is Firefly, Firefly the game.
- it perfectly captures the feel of the TV show.
- Every game becomes a memorable smuggling adventure.
- Shadows of Brimstone I did not I mentioned before I did not grow up playing D&D or an RPG. I wasn't allowed to, but Shadows of Brimstone it gives me that.
- Shadows of Brimstone is a fantastic blend of western horror, science fiction, and fantasy.
- There is a a massive setup and teardown.
- This is one of the the most rewarding D&D style games out there.
- These are the type of games that type of games that create stories that you'll be talking about years later.
- Give me your shame. Let your shame come out in the comments. Tell me the game that you want to play more because but you just can't.
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video r5YZFIgA1KM
Top List at 12:11 sentiment: positive
video_pk 70397 · mention_pk 167339
Click to watch at 12:11 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- so fun
- great merger of IP and gameplay
- always have a good experience
- enjoyed the gaming experience
Cons
- doesn't get to the table often because it needs to be planned out
- might not be a top 10 without the Firefly theme
Thematic elements
- space western adventure, smuggling, and delivering cargo
- Firefly 'verse
- based on the Firefly TV series
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Campaign play — Multiple scenarios and objectives.
- Pick-Up and Deliver — Taking on cargo or contraband and trying to deliver it.
- Worker Placement — Assigning crew members to tasks.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- This is the quintessential uh example of that this is our both of our number one favorite game because of the way we played it and the play the the great design of it.
- It was so hilarious we got into the text when you're reading what's happening in the story as it's growing out we had different voices we roll played all the voices and all the dialogue and gave him all voices.
- Something happened in the game and it messed with me like on an emotional level and I remember being at work the next day being all like I can't believe that happened and I couldn't explain to people at work that I'm really down because of this thing that happened in the game I was playing.
- I had to teach it to people because everybody needs to know about River Valley Glass Works and how awesome this game is.
- There's no part of this game that isn't cool I love it.
- If you're one of those people who doesn't like that try this one because this might change your mind. This does a really great job of BL blending the digital and the analog in a great way to made us feel very very satisfied.
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video pqZHW69452g
Board to Death TV - Board Game Reviews Review at 1:21
video_pk 60244 · mention_pk 152669
Click to watch at 1:21 · YouTube ↗
Pros
none
Cons
none
Thematic elements
- Array
- Array
- space opera frontier contracts, piracy, reputation, and moral choices
- Array
- Firefly universe aboard the Serenity; captains hire crews, take contracts, and navigate a frontier galaxy.
- Array
- Array
- Array
- negative
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Mechanics unknown.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- Opening the box, we saw the good quality components, easy enough to read rules, and we quickly set up the game and jumped right in.
- The game might be better suited for a three-player game, but quite honestly we were way too spent after the first four player game to try a new one.
- It's a long game.
- There is nothing worse than losing your whole crew and starting all over again.
- There's the illusion of choice, but there really isn't.
- The theme is well represented, but it wasn't enough.
- Firefly sadly gets five mosy on over out of 10.
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video u8prvgHcVZs
The Broken Meeple Discussion at 16:10 sentiment: negative
video_pk 12870 · mention_pk 37640
Click to watch at 16:10 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
negative
Pros
- Strong Firefly IP and theming
- Rich quotes and flavor from the TV series can enhance play
Cons
- Lengthy playtime (3+ hours per session) and heavy luck
- Not the reviewer's preferred style; perceived as a luck-fest
- Shipping/pricing challenges for some buyers
Thematic elements
- Crew-based exploration and cargo management
- Firefly universe, space western
- Campaign-like experiences across missions
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Dice-based luck — Die rolls create a luck-based layer to outcomes
- long playtime — Extensive play sessions with ongoing campaign arcs
- Worker Placement — Assign crew to tasks across the ship and missions
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- grim and dark is what they kind of do best
- two hours one to four players
- three chapters each 10 to 12 hours
- wow that's cheap
- I would have rather there was a good custom insert in the box at retail as well
- it's an interesting little theme
- I like the Miko's artwork when it comes to this sort of thing
- this is polyamino by the looks of it
- the key itself is fine and I do like the printed components
- not evolving a damn thing
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video SY172E5a3oI
The Dice Tower Top List at 9:01 sentiment: positive
video_pk 2812 · mention_pk 8216
Click to watch at 9:01 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- engaging IP, thematic immersion
- ample replay value
Cons
- long play time
- some may find it too long or complex
Thematic elements
- crew operations and open-ended exploration
- Firefly universe, space frontier
- open-ended, sandbox
Comparison games
- Open-world space games
- Other IP-based large games
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- open-world-like progression — players decide path through a universe with multiple objectives
- pick-up-and-deliver with branching choices — players manage a crew and ship actions to complete jobs
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- This is not necessarily a list of games that suck and just we keep them around because we have connections to them.
- opening to the rabbit hole.
- Jaws is a better game than your game, dude.
- Bang was our thing. Bang was the party game that our family played.
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Transcript Navigation
Showing 1–7 of 7