The beloved TV franchise comes to your tabletop ~

Michael Eckenfels, 27 May 2017

A month or so back, I had the chance to get a copy of a Legendary Encounters game. At first, I was going to get the Aliens-themed one, though the Big Trouble in Little China version looked cool too, as did the Marvel version. Well, any of those three and the 1,674 (ish) other Legendary Encounters games. I almost told them I would look at the Aliens-themed one, but then I ran across Firefly, and it was a no-brainer for me.

The box itself is just like any of the other LE-type games. At least, I think it is. I played the Aliens version once before and can say it’s definitely the same size, as is the Big Trouble in Little China one too (saw the box, never played it).

I mean, come on. It’s Firefly. And usually that kind of statement will either elicit a response of “OH HELL YES” or “Huh?” The latter answer is the same, if they’ve never heard of this wonderful and short-lived series, or they have heard of it and just don’t get it.

The insides of the box are…well, okay then, cards, a mat, a rule book, and lots of packing materials.

Yep. I guess if I had a package to ship I could save some money using this stuff. Why would the box just not be smaller? Is it due to expansions?

That would be my ignorance talking. I know the cards are interchangeable between the games, which means you can put Marvel heroes in with Ripley and Colonial Marines. Or, Mal and Wash in some back alley Chinatown streets. I suppose the empty space is more in the hopeful chance that this Firefly base set will see an expansion…though anyone hoping for a ‘Serenity’-themed expansion will probably be waiting a while since the licensing is different between the movie and the series, unfortunately.

The rule book is pretty decent. I had heard the art was pretty terrible in this one, though. While I’ve yet to see if that’s true or not, this drawing of Zo looks pretty good.

Wash, though, looks like something out of a Paranoia RPG sourcebook. And why ducklings? Why not plastic dinosaurs, huh?

There’s five decks of cards included.

The art isn’t too terrible, but I’m afraid to admit I have no idea who that’s supposed to be at left there, holding the weapon.

Yeah, these don’t look all that great…which is kind of a shame. If you have licensing for this game and it’s title/characters, why can’t you use stills from the show instead of these fingerpaints? I’m enough of a Firefly fan to be able to look past this, but I see merit in the disappointment I’ve read about. Now I’m wondering how pervasive this is throughout the set.

There are larger card dividers, too, to help organize the cards once they’re out of their plastic wrappers.

Now, the game mat looks good at first glance. It is fairly simplistic, but so too are the other Legendary Encounter mats, though I think the Aliens one looks better than this; it at least has detail in the different spaces. The plan view of the Serenity looks good, but there’s little else here but space and vague interstellar bodies. This doesn’t really draw me in.

Better detail of the ship can be seen with this close up.

And a close-up of…nothing. Or, not much.

It’s a shame, because this could have easily been a home run, design wise, to pay better tribute to this show. I’ll reserve ultimate judgment until I get a chance to actually play it…hopefully the play will overshadow the design elements.

Chat about it below, or in our forums, or hit our FaceBook page >>