Some thoughts on River Tam (Firefly)

[Susano]

I just finished watching all the Firefly episodes except for "Heart of Gold" (the weakest episode IMO). My impression of River's powers are as follows:

 

CHARACTERISTICS:

Above average DEX -- look at how easily she masters dance. Not to mention her martial arts skills seen in the SERENITY trailer.

 

High INT (like nearly 30) -- she is a true example of high INT = speed of thought. She watches the country dance for about 15-30 seconds, and then knows exactly how to dance it.

 

Higher than average EGO -- she is unfazed by events others find unnerving and/or frightening. Of course, her fears of of things that are even more frightening.

 

PRE only to resist PRE attacks -- see above. In many ways, she is fearless around normal people and doesn't pay attention to most threats.

 

POWERS:

Clairsentience -- she seems to know of/about things happening nearby as they happen. The arrival of the "two by two, hands of blue" for example (which might be Danger Sense). At other points she seems to know what people are doing far out of sight and/or hearing.

 

Danger Sense -- she is also aware of bad events happening before they happen. See above. Her DS is covers an entire hospital, but seems to be limited to specific threats -- such as the "hands of blue goons."

 

Telepathy -- she can read minds, and specifically, can read memories. The episode where she and Simon are kidnapped shows this in detail.

 

TALENTS:

Eidetic Memory -- Simon says she can't forget.

 

Lightning Calculator -- not specified, but a logical power, considering how her brain seems to work. See Jayne's comment on "She killed them with mathematics?"

 

SKILLS:

Acting -- one could argue that River's ability to switch personalities is a form of acting, especially some of the stunts she pulls later, like in "Objects in Space."

 

Mimicry -- she does a passible imitation of Badger, for example.

 

Skill Levels -- River picks up a pistol, takes a quick glance to sight in on three attacking thugs, closes her eyes, and shoots all three dead. This sounds a lot like Overall Skill Levels, defined as "Masters New Skills Instantly" (as per Simon in "Serenity Parts 1 & 2"). The closing the eyes part might be a form of Spatial Awareness that only allows her to "see" the last thing she looked at.

 

Thoughts? Any additions? Comments?

[OddHat]

Re: Some thoughts on River Tam (Firefly)

 

Mostly agreed, especially as far as many (5+) Overall skill levels are concerned. I also think she as a boat load of skill enhancers (Scholar, Scientist, Linguist) to reflect that perfect memory. She has Enraged, and probably some problems reflecting her disconnection with reality as a phys limit. Her Danger Sense is Any Area, and I think her Clairsentience is precognative but maybe vague and unclear (or maybe her phys limits prevent her from acting on it more effectively).

 

Allmost all of her power uses except the reading of the little girl's mind an some of the clair effects could just about be described using high levels of various skills (deduction, acting, mimicry, breakfall, acrobatics, probably many others). She also has TF:Vac Suit, and probabably many others. WF as well. I wonder if she wasn't in taining to become an assassin (Objects in Space and a few moment in other eps made me think so), but it hasn't been said out explicitly anywhere (afaik).

[Sociotard]

Re: Some thoughts on River Tam (Firefly)

 

Go to Jackalopes firefly website. he has a writeup of River that isn't too bad. I think I'll hold off doing any writeups of my own until after the movie comes out, since apparently we'll learn a lot more about her then.

 

"It's worse than you know"

"It usually is."

[keithcurtis]

Re: Some thoughts on River Tam (Firefly)

 

Any River write-up seems necessarily to be a WIP. There's obviously a lot we don't know yet. As for your power and skill choices, I like most of them, but would add "No Conscious Control" or "Unreliable" to a lot of them.

 

Keith "nice start" Curtis

[Susano]

Re: Some thoughts on River Tam (Firefly)

 

Any River write-up seems necessarily to be a WIP. There's obviously a lot we don't know yet. As for your power and skill choices, I like most of them, but would add "No Conscious Control" or "Unreliable" to a lot of them.

 

Argh... I forgot to mention that "Limited Conscious Control" (-1) should be required for almost all of her powers.

[James Gillen]

Re: Some thoughts on River Tam (Firefly)

 

Skill Levels -- River picks up a pistol, takes a quick glance to sight in on three attacking thugs, closes her eyes, and shoots all three dead. This sounds a lot like Overall Skill Levels, defined as "Masters New Skills Instantly" (as per Simon in "Serenity Parts 1 & 2"). The closing the eyes part might be a form of Spatial Awareness that only allows her to "see" the last thing she looked at.

 

Thoughts? Any additions? Comments?

 

Zen Riflery?

 

JG

[Max Callahan]

Re: Some thoughts on River Tam (Firefly)

 

Skill Levels -- River picks up a pistol, takes a quick glance to sight in on three attacking thugs, closes her eyes, and shoots all three dead. This sounds a lot like Overall Skill Levels, defined as "Masters New Skills Instantly" (as per Simon in "Serenity Parts 1 & 2"). The closing the eyes part might be a form of Spatial Awareness that only allows her to "see" the last thing she looked at.

 

Thoughts? Any additions? Comments?

 

I have been working with the impression that she has Detect Minds, sense, targeting, and her closing her eyes is her conscious mind trying to ignore the horrible things her body had been programed to do reflexively.

[Herolover]

Re: Some thoughts on River Tam (Firefly)

 

I love Firefly and can't wait for Serinity so I am really happy to see this post.

 

For those not in the know Serinity will, as I understand it, be a kind of pilot for a new show. They aren't going to re-write any of the material in the TV show, but then they aren't going to go strictly by the TV show either. They are going to reveal a lot of information, but aren't going to give everything away.

 

As far as her write-up I don't think we know enough of what happned to her. I would write her up using mainly Overall skill levels and Psionic powers.

 

How would you write up her disadvantages?

[Vanguard00]

Re: Some thoughts on River Tam (Firefly)

 

For those not in the know Serinity will' date=' as I understand it, be a kind of pilot for a new show. They aren't going to re-write any of the material in the TV show, but then they aren't going to go strictly by the TV show either. They are going to reveal a lot of information, but aren't going to give everything away.[/quote']

This was revealed where...?

[Vanguard00]

Re: Some thoughts on River Tam (Firefly)

 

SKILLS:

 

Thoughts? Any additions? Comments?

Bear in mind I'll need to watch the DVDs again myself, but IIRC I would think that "Dancing" (both PS and KS) is appropriate. I think she's displayed some decent acrobatics in the past, or at the least gymnastics. Wasn't she a scholar/prodigy? History, literature, art...oh, and medicine. She picked up a bunch from her brother.

 

Gawd, I can't wait for the movie. And you're not helping.

[JohnTaber]

Re: Some thoughts on River Tam (Firefly)

 

I think Overall Levels are perfect. You could even throw a limitation on them like No Concious Control or something similar.

[Susano]

Re: Some thoughts on River Tam (Firefly)

 

Mostly agreed, especially as far as many (5+) Overall skill levels are concerned. I also think she as a boat load of skill enhancers (Scholar, Scientist, Linguist) to reflect that perfect memory. She has Enraged, and probably some problems reflecting her disconnection with reality as a phys limit. Her Danger Sense is Any Area, and I think her Clairsentience is precognative but maybe vague and unclear (or maybe her phys limits prevent her from acting on it more effectively).

 

Allmost all of her power uses except the reading of the little girl's mind an some of the clair effects could just about be described using high levels of various skills (deduction, acting, mimicry, breakfall, acrobatics, probably many others). She also has TF:Vac Suit, and probabably many others. WF as well. I wonder if she wasn't in taining to become an assassin (Objects in Space and a few moment in other eps made me think so), but it hasn't been said out explicitly anywhere (afaik).

 

Many of her "powers" could be "super-skills" but there are two scenes that lead me to think she's a telepath -- the bit where she states the one village elder killed the old village elder, and when she comments on Jubal Early's personality and history. As for assassin training... it's possible. The Hands Of Blue guys are certainly Alliance black ops and as "Ariel" shows, can and will kill anyone who might know anything about River. At the very least the Alliance was experimenting on her purely to examine how her brain works. At worst, they were trying to turn her (and others?) into weapons for the state. "I can kill you with my mind" might be more than just exaggeration...

 

Oh, and yes, her Clairsentience might just be Precognitive. I wondered if her knife attack on Jayne was because she had a flash of what he was going to do later....

[James Gillen]

Re: Some thoughts on River Tam (Firefly)

 

I think Overall Levels are perfect. You could even throw a limitation on them like No Concious Control or something similar.

 

I've been thinking of doing writeups on the crew but unlike Mike, I don't have the DVD for reference. But it occurs to me that you could have the No Conscious Control (or Limited Conscious Control, -1) on most of her abilities, and her enhanced Intelligence and Combat Skills with LCC and Accidental Change (under certain combat situations).

 

This is because most of the time, River is more a liability to the crew than anything else, and can't use her brain effectively (a Physical Limitation caused by the experiments). I wouldn't give her more than an 8 INT in most conditions. But when she flips into "combat mode" she thinks on a higher level and might have up to a 28 INT. (So +20 INT would be subject to a Limitation.)

 

JG

[Curufea]

Re: Some thoughts on River Tam (Firefly)

 

River's psychic powers make her open to everything around her. I think the skills she shows are picked up from those around her. Possibly as a gestalt. I'd make the Overall Skill Levels have the limitation "not applicable to skills unknown to those around her", but I would let her have conscious control of which skill to apply them too, of those avialable.

[Legendsmiths]

Re: Some thoughts on River Tam (Firefly)

 

As a player, specifically using the gun scene as an example, she had total control over how those skill levels are applied, not to mention she did it blinded. It's just that she often "flakes out" or cannot control when the powers get used all the time.

 

I think that lack of reliability is about a -1, but when her abilities do manifest she has control over them, so it's almost like the inverse of how LCC is defined (which says you can turn it on and off you just don't know what will happen).

[Herolover]

Re: Some thoughts on River Tam (Firefly)

 

This was revealed where...?

 

Sorry, just saw this.

I will have to look up where it was first revealed. It might be that is what Joss said at a convention. It has been pretty common knowledge among the browncoats (firefly fans.)

[Legendsmiths]

Re: Some thoughts on River Tam (Firefly)

 

This browncoat hadn't heard that before.

[Susano]

Re: Some thoughts on River Tam (Firefly)

 

This browncoat hadn't heard that before.

 

Ditto.

 

But I'd love to see a new TV series.

[Susano]

Re: Some thoughts on River Tam (Firefly)

 

How would you write up her disadvantages?

 

Suggestions:

DF: Acts child-like and/or "spaced-out"

Hunted: Alliance

Phys: Periodic Hallucinations and/or Waking Dreams (see "Objects in Space")

Phys: Unable To Forget Memories

Psych: Fearless

[Chris Goodwin]

Re: Some thoughts on River Tam (Firefly)

 

IFor those not in the know Serinity will, as I understand it, be a kind of pilot for a new show.

 

This turns out not to be the case.

 

They aren't going to re-write any of the material in the TV show, but then they aren't going to go strictly by the TV show either. They are going to reveal a lot of information, but aren't going to give everything away.

 

While it's probably intended to be a standalone film, you really need to be familiar with the series to get more out of it.

 

If people don't mind some minor film spoilers, I can give two more ideas for her writeup. PM me if interested.

 

Edit: Make that three. (the third would be a still minor though more significant spoiler)

[Chris Goodwin]

Re: Some thoughts on River Tam (Firefly)

 

Oh crap. I didn't mean to kill the thread.

[Susano]

Re: Some thoughts on River Tam (Firefly)

 

I'd really not hear any spoilers, that's all. Although I do have the word of someone who has seen the advance film that SERENITY is well worth seeing.

[Glupii]

Re: Some thoughts on River Tam (Firefly)

 

Whoever is responsible for that malicious rumor that so built up my hopes of a new Firefly series, only to have them dashed on the cruel cliffs of reality, may Orca the Killer Whale relieve himself on your toothbrush.

 

[Susano]

Re: Some thoughts on River Tam (Firefly)

 

I have heard of Serenity being part one of a possible three...

 

And there is the chance of a TV show deal....

[Chris Goodwin]

Re: Some thoughts on River Tam (Firefly)

 

It's my understanding that the agreement was that, in order for Fox to agree to allow them to do the film(s) there would be no new series for 10 years. I don't know if that's no series in the 'verse or no series with those characters.