GURPS Firefly: Doctor Tam

[omorka]

Okay, I know way-back-when I said I'd do these two as a two-fer. I'll try and do them both in the same calendar day, which is going to have to count - I realized I may have to delve into the Powers book to properly do River.

But here's her brother to tide you over:

Dr. Simon Tam

ST 10 (0 pts)
DX 12 (40 pts)
IQ 15 (100 pts)
HT 11 (10 pts)

Advantages: Ally: River (special case, 0 pts), Appearance: attractive (4 pts), Fearlessness, 2 levels (+2 to all fear checks, 4 pts), Perception +1 (5 pts), Single-Minded (5 pts), Talent: Healer, 1 level (10 pts), Status 1 (5 pts); a pre-rescue Simon would also have Wealth: Very Wealthy (30 pts), but by the time he joins the crew he has lost this (see disads)

Disadvantages: Dependent: River (special case, 0 pts), Enemy: the Blue Sun Corporation (large corporation working closely with the Alliance, appears moderately often on the core worlds but rarely on the border and outer worlds, -30 pts), Gullibility (-10 pts), Sense of Duty (to River and the crew, in that order, -5 pts), Vow: Hippocratic Oath (-5 pts), Wealth: Struggling (-10 pts)

Languages: English (Native, 0 pts), Mandarin (Accented, 4 pts)

Quirks: Shows little emotion to anyone but River (-1 pt), Still dresses as if he were wealthy (-1 pt), Very dry sense of humor (-1 pt)

Skills: Acting - 14 (1 pt), Administration - 14 (1 pt), Area Knowledge/Core Worlds - 16 (2 pts), Area Knowledge/Ariel - 15 (1 pt), Area Knowledge/Osiris - 16 (2 pts), Biology/Biochemistry - 14 (4 pts), Biology/Genetics - 14 (4 pts), Body Language - 15 (1 pt), Brawling - 13 (2 pts), Chemistry - 14 (2 pts), Computer Hacking - 13 (2 pts), Computer Operation - 16 (2 pts), Computer Programming - 13 (1 pt), Dancing - 11 (1 pt), Diagnosis - 17 (8 pts), Electronics Operation/Medical - 16 (4 pts), Electronics Operation/Scientific - 15 (2 pts), Finance - 14 (2 pts), Games/Cards - 15 (1 pt), Guns/Pistol - 13 (2 pts), History/Core Worlds - 14 (2 pts), Mathematics/Applied - 14 (2 pts), Pharmacy - 16 (4 pts), Physician - 18 (12 pts), Physics - 12 (1 pt), Physiology - 17 (8 pts), Psychology - 14 (1 pt), Research - 15 (2 pts), Savoir-Faire - 15 (1 pt), Singing - 11 (1 pt), Surgery - 17 (12 pts), Teaching - 14 (1 pt). [Note that his default for Occultism, which is what general knowledge about psionics would fall under in this universe, is 10; as of the end of the show, he hasn't had the opportunity to spend any points on it yet.]

Total: 216 pts



Comments: Simon points out low for this crew because he has huge disadvantages; no GM would ever let a PC take this many points of disads as a starting character. I'm assuming this GM (Joss?) let him lose his Wealth and gain his Enemy and Struggling disads "in play" in his starting solo adventure (which we see a recording the very end of in Serenity). He probably used to have more Status, too, but it appears that doctors are thought of highly enough even on the outer worlds to merit his still having one level. The Fearlessness advantage represents Simon's unnatural calm under (non-social) stress and his utter lack of squeamishness about blood and gore (he was a trauma surgeon, after all). If "City Slicker" were a disad, he'd have that, too, but no such luck. Note that Simon has Gullibility, not Honesty or Truthfulness; he has no trouble bending the law or even breaking it, and he can lie quite convincingly - but only when he has time to prepare himself (Acting, but not Fast-Talk).

River is generally inconvenient but occasionally saves his butt, so I've counted her as both an Ally and a Dependent for Simon and assume that point-wise it all cancels out.

Comments

[memeslayer.livejournal.com]

Where does the Blue Sun thing come from? Serenity?

[omorka.livejournal.com]

Huh? No, by the time we get to Serenity, things are quite clearly taken back out of Blue Sun's hands and the Parliament has stepped in. (Although given that this is a semi-corporate dystopia, we have no real idea how intertwined the Blue Sun corporation and the Parliament really are.)

I think we see at least one Blue Sun logo in the pilot episode, on the Crybaby can, and I think again in the background on Persephone. It crops up everywhere, repeatedly - and whenever River sees it she flips out. In "Shindig," for the best example, she notices that the crew has a large number of cans of Blue Sun foods and starts ripping their labels off, mumbling on and on about how "no one sees" but they "get inside of you," culminating in her going off into the "two by two, hands of blue" rhyme and Shepherd's comment about the mystery meats. River clearly associates the Blue-Handed Men with Blue Sun, not with the Alliance directly.

For a more dramatic example, when River slashes Jayne and comments that he looks better in red, he's wearing a Blue Sun t-shirt.

Although there is, of course, one clear reference in Serenity, exactly where you would expect a food company to crop up. Blue Sun are the producers of Fruity Oaty Bar - and the commercial that sends River into her homicidal dance in the bar on Persephone.

[starfreak359.livejournal.com]

Wow. I never put that together but that makes so much sense. You figure that out yourself, or did you pick it up somewhere?