Literally me making sure there are no inconsistency in the timeline of Iridium Moons, knowing the probabilities are very low that players will ever encounter a single year number.
#ScumAndVillainy
I think there is a pretty big sandbox campaign structure in Scum and Villainy, with the clocks, factions, heat, and entanglements. But I might need more actual experience with the game to really grasp its full extend and potential.
While thinking about how to set up a custom world for #ScumAndVillainy, it occured to me that the game is inherently designed for sandbox campaigns.
You're just not exploring hexes on a map, but instead interacting with and navigating the factions. Which is why the Procyon Sector has 36 of them. With every job, you can improve your standing with one faction while decreasing it with another faction. You can't step anywhere without stirring up the system of relationships.
#scumandvillainy #scumandvillainycantina #hollywood #la #losangeles #doomloop #sfhellscape #sfba #funko #funkospop #sanfrancisco #sanfranciscobay #esseff #thecity #bayarea
#scumandvillainy #scumandvillainycantina #hollywood #staypuft #la #losangeles #doomloop #sfhellscape #sfba #funko #funkospop #sanfrancisco #sanfranciscobay #esseff #thecity #bayarea
#scumandvillainy #scumandvillainycantina #hollywood #bluemilk #la #losangeles #doomloop #sfhellscape #sfba #funko #funkospop #sanfrancisco #sanfranciscobay #esseff #thecity #bayarea
#scumandvillainy #scumandvillainycantina #hollywood #calcreamin #la #losangeles #doomloop #sfhellscape #sfba #funko #funkospop #sanfrancisco #sanfranciscobay #esseff #thecity #bayarea
Trying to relearn the rules of #ScumAndVillainy after two years took me over a week.
Relearning #Dragonbane took me an hour!
I remember why I was so taken with it when I first read it. It's only 80 pages, and the main structure of attributes, skills, and hit points is very conventional, making it easy to see the big picture. But its combat, magic, and advancement mechanics still promise a very different and much faster play experience than D&D.
@yora You know this rules book you’re reading that you were surprised you couldn’t find a version more recent than thirty years ago? That’s because they changed the title in the latest revision. It’s now called “Lawyers and Insurance.” 😛 #ScumAndVillainy
I did it! I've worked myself through the #ScumAndVillainy rulebook front to back, and I think I now understand it and have it memorized enough to run and teach it, without having to look up things. At least until the game would get to the first downtime. 😅
Took me nine days, but I got there.
Though I guess if I wanted to learn D&D from the books, it would take me considerably longer than that.
While I love making my own settings for #ttrpg campaigns, I find the Procyon Sector from the #ScumAndVillainy rulebook quite impressive.
It's only 47 pages in a giant font (I'd say 10-12 pages in a D&D book). It has 12 planets, that come to one paragraph worth of description each. And 36 factions! That each get three or four sentences of description each.
And somehow this works! I feel I understand this world and its complex power dynamics, and could run a great game with just this.
The ship upgrades rules of Scum and Villainy imply that private mercenary and cargo ships regularly look like messy metal chimeras. When you add a cargo hold and landing bay to a ship, where do you put them? How much unnecessary stuff could you tear out to make space? Do you weld them onto the outside of the hull?
You could add both to a Cerberus. Plus a Coherence Cannon. It would be stupid, but you could.
The Stitch's "Welcome Anywhere" ability in Scum and Villainy should be renamed "Stitches get Bitches".
Scum and Villainy is so hard to learn...
Some insight into FitD Action Roll difficulty
https://spriggans-den.com/2025/04/20/some-insight-into-fitd-action-roll-difficulty/
@blackcoat And of course, you can always trade position for effect. That might actually be a much more important mechanic than I thought.
A quick Flashback can easily get you Increased Effect, which you can trade to change the Position to Risky or even Controlled.
If your action has a Controlled Position, you can't really screw it up. You always have the choice to just try something else when you fail.
It's just becoming clear to me that any circumstantial advantages or disadvantages in Blades in the Dark and Scum and Villainy only impact the Effect level of a successful action roll, but not the chance of getting a success.
Success chance is only increased by Pushing Yourself, using a Gambit, or getting Assistance from another character.
It will take some time to wrap my head around how to apply that in practice.
Why does every place that sells #ScumAndVillainy pdfs all include a single page character sheet for The Muscle in which the names for weapon items are replaced with a blank line?
Why is this needed if the names for NPC allies and enemies are still printed on the sheet? (As they are on all the other class sheets as well.)
#ScumAndVillainy is a great #ttrpg system that covers about anything you could need in one book.
But are there perhaps any kind of resources for GMs for the game anyway? Not necessarily more game material, but also perhaps just enlightening commentaries on things easily missed or overlooked.
Even though I had learned the Blades in the Dark rules once and read the Scum and Villainy rulebook three years ago, reading it again now really isn't a trivial task.
The rules are actually fairly simple, but like all PbtA games I've read, the organization makes it quite tough to follow. Important concepts can be mentioned to explain something in three or four different chapters before they are actually explained themselves.
Client Info
Server: https://mastodon.social
Version: 2025.04
Repository: https://github.com/cyevgeniy/lmst