Inspired by Firefly

When you’re a fan of science fiction and you have a series like Firefly, it can be hard not to evangelize folk about it. In a very short span of episodes, Joss Whedon gave us a series that combined the Wild West, hustling, science fiction tropes and genuinely likeable characters. It struck a cord – probably more than one.

Putting together our All Rolled Up game rolls, we’ve been keen to find ways to celebrate the series without necessarily finding actual Firefly (or Serenity) fabric. I mean, there isn’t any out there – unless you trawl the pages of Spoonflower uncovering those made by fans. What do you do when you’re a Browncoat fan with Firefly games to play and dice to carry around?

Wash: [as Dinosaur 1] Yes… Yes… This is a fertile land and we will thrive. We will rule over all this land and we will call it… This Land. [as Dinosaur 2] I think we should call it your grave! [Dino 1] Ah, curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal! [Dino 2] Ha ha ha, mine is an evil laugh, now die! [Dino 1] Ahh, no God. Oh, dear god in heaven.

Well, we have taken to nods and winks to the loyal crew of the Serenity. A good example is This Land, which on the face of it would appear to be a dice bag covered with cartoon dinosaurs. However, pilot Wash filling the dull hours of waiting with a little roleplay of his own, telling the tale of dinosaurs seeking out a new home after a terrible disaster – well, we couldn’t help but make a connection.

multi-coloured cartoon style dinosaurs on a black background
This Land – All Rolled Up

And, we were sufficiently excited that we even made a small one, too! More than enough room for a single set of polyhedral dice to play a session of the Firefly Role-Playing Game.

interior of dice bag game roll with cartoon style dinosaurs and a green interior
This Land – Tiny All Rolled Up – Inside

When we got another fabric with dinosaurs, it seemed wrong to leave Wash’s memorable playtime alone. When I saw the trio of dinos on the material with the befanged T-Rex looking all too innocent, the coin dropped and the connection was made. This was the Inevitable Betrayal.

colourful cartoon-style dinosaurs against a dark blue background
Inevitable Betrayal (Red) – All Rolled Up

Now, sometimes we have a less obvious connection. After we produced a couple of initial waves of new designs, we had a string of comments from people wanting dice bags without a pattern on. People wanted something a little less ostentatious – although, it seems to be me that if you have a shiny new dice bag you should make it more attention grabbing!

Anyway – we always listen to our customers and when we hear the same comment enough, we do something about it. In this case, we started seeking out some plain and robust no-nonsense fabric. We have Forest Green, Abyssal Black, Midnight Blue, and Fire Red – all simple and pattern free fabric.

The Plain Jane name came up – but, somehow that didn’t communicate the right level of rugged simplicity we wanted. Thus, the Plain Jayne – named after Hero of Canton, our favourite almost dependable mercenary Jayne Cobb – came to be.

plain green dice bag game roll with black herringbone tie
Plain Jayne – Forest Green All Rolled Up

Finally, our Orbital Velocity All Rolled Up might owe something to general science fiction, the classic computer game Elite, or maybe slingshot diagrams from the Star Trek movies. I’d like to think it has something to do with the cramped ‘verse and the business of travelling in-system.

dark blue dice bag game roll with white orbital objects, patterns and trajectories
Orbital Velocity – All Rolled Up

Jayne: You know what the chain of command is? It’s the chain I go get and beat you with until you understand who’s in ruttin charge here.

We aim to misbehave, so we’ll be on the look-out for more potential fabric candidates suited to nodding toward the ‘Verse.

2 thoughts on “Inspired by Firefly

  1. Pingback: Inspired by Time | All Rolled Up

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