Out in the Black (Serenity Role Playing Game) [Paperback]

Laura Hickman (Author), Tracy Hickman (Author)

Book Description

Series: Serenity Role Playing Game | Publication Date: March 15, 2006

There are lots of stories about the final days of the Unification War. Some tell about lost treasures of uncountable wealth. Some tell of curses and damnation. Others still tell of mutiny, treachery, and pirates. But only one legend combines them all, a story that leads to Frisco - the most dangerous, lawless mining town in the 'Verse. Here it will take fast-thinking, careful diplomacy, and a steady gun hand to walk away breathin'. Everyone in the town has an agenda, even the little red-headed school marm who seems awfully familiar... Out in the Black is an adventure for the Serenity Role Playing Game (sold separately). Authors Tracy Laura Hickman drew on the actual history, tales, and legends of a real silver mining town in the American West - told to Tracy by his father and grandparents from when he was a child - as the foundation for many of the events and locations in this new adventure set in Joss Whedon's incredible 'Verse. - Maps based on the actual maps of the original town and mine. - Separate "Frisco" town section for use of the town as a campaign setting beyond the adventure. - Extensive footnotes regarding the historical sources for game events!

Product Details

• Paperback: 104 pages
• Publisher: Margaret Weis Productions (March 15, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931567522
• ISBN-13: 978-1931567527
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #587,117 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

`Dragonlance' originators Tracy and Laura Hickman have been publishing game designs and stories together for over thirty-two years - nearly as long as their marriage - and thus started them both on a life of adventure and imagination.

Tracy is a NYT Best-Selling co-author (with Margaret Weis) of many Dragonlance novels including the original `Dragonlance Chronicles', `Dragonlance Legends', `Rose of the Prophet" and "Darksword" trilogies as well as the seven-book "Deathgate Cycle".

Tracy and Laura are remembered together for their role-playing game designs in `Dragonlance' and the `Oasis of the White Palm' series but are perhaps best known for their classic adventure, the original `Ravenloft.'

Life now has provided them the opportunity to fulfill a dream: to write novels together. Tracy and Laura work from adjoining offices in their home and answer questions on their work through their website at www.trhickman.com.

Visit www.dragonhearthproductions.com for information on our monthly podcasts.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great first addition to the Serenity RPG, September 25, 2006

By 

Les Howard "podcaster" (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Out in the Black (Serenity Role Playing Game) (Paperback)

This is a fantastic addition to the Serenity RPG. It is half adventure and half sourcebook. If you are a browncoat but not an RPG player, I still believe there is a lot you can get out of this work. One of the favorite recurring characters from Firefly is central to this adventure and it is great to see what sorts of complications she can work up in a different setting. I particularly enjoy the appendix on the authentic old-west card game Faro.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Serenity the RPG, September 20, 2006

By 

Charles Warrington (New Jersey, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Out in the Black (Serenity Role Playing Game) (Paperback)

I love this book the serenity RPG is the closest thing at this time to a new movie or series and is full of adventure. RPGs are not infantile as much as the other review says search After Serenity and The Signal in iTunes Podcasts and you will see that I am right

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A lot of Work for a lot of Fun, May 28, 2010

By 

W. Lancaster - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Out in the Black (Serenity Role Playing Game) (Paperback)

A good adventure. There's a whole lot of detail here and a lot of options for the characters. The writing style is very much in the firefly style and the little historical notes they give show how much research was put into this. It helps with the realism.

Now, the bad parts.
This is a challenging adventure for a DM to run. Right in the middle it loses it's linear flow (Right when the crew gets to frisco) and branches out all over the place. It gives the players a lot of options but it requires the DM to flip through the book at lightning speed.

The organization of the book is a little lacking. It seems good at first glance and is ordered logically but "Logically" doesn't help when you're playing the game. The book is split into two sections, the adventure and the town layout. Right in the middle though, you need both so right off the bat you need to have the book open in two places. Additionally the buildings in the back are numbered up one side the street and down the other. So if you start at the spaceport end of the street on the characters left is location 1 and on their right is location 30. Naturally in the book, location 1 is at the front of the town section and 30 is at the end with 15 pages or so in the middle. Now, the plot is set up so the first time the characters enter the town they'll walk from one end of the street to the other and back (my players did) so you have to flip back and forth through the town section, oh, and naturally, the special encounters section is then after that.

It all feels very natural and organized when you read through it. It's not until you play it that you realize that you need to have the book open to four places at any given time and none of them are next to each other.


There is a well known and interesting character from the main show in this adventure. As a warning, this character is an absolute bitch to play properly. (And really, any DM will want to play the character properly as the character is incredibly entertaining.) It's just not easy.

Finally, the overarching plot isn't well integrated with the rest of the story. There isn't anything that really hooks the players into the Lucias Newberry and lets them believe they might actually find it. My players basically said `Our characters hear of a mysterious lost treasure ship? Who's going to pay attention to those old rumors?' The story turned into three adventures rather than one overarching one.

All that being said, I give this adventure 4 stars because it was incredibly fun, I only knocked a star off for the organizational reasons. A lot of the weaknesses presented above are actually strengths as well. This adventure does NOT try to lead the characters around by the nose, it presents interesting and well developed NPCs, it gives those NPCs realistic motives and a clever backround plot. All of this gives the players a lot of options on how they want to proceed. However, as the old RPG adage goes, the more options the players have the more work the DM has to do.