Scum and Villainy Play-test
Hey you all. You might know I’ve been working on a hack of Blades in the Dark with Stras Acimovic; it’s meant to recreate the spacefaring adventures found in Firefly, Star Wars, and Guardians of the Galaxy. We play-tested it about a week ago and it was pretty great.
Out of the gate, we have a number of classic playbooks. I played the dashing Scoundrel, ever fortune’s favorite. My table-mate Mike played the clever Mechanic, whose engineering antics were clutch to pull us out of the fire a number of times. Avedan played our mysterious Mystic with unsettling powers.
The initial situation for S&V is fun – we started in the middle of a shoot-out, having just stolen an Ur artifact and having several disputing factions trying to kill us for it. Our GM started a clock to track our getaway. I laid down some suppressing fire while our mechanic overrode the safety settings on a hoverlift. Cue dramatic title sequence as we rode over a nearby cliff.
We hustled through the crowded streets of the bustling city-moon to a gambling den (further advancing our clock), until we found a gambling den to hide in. We were stymied at the door until our Mystic managed to bring in her noble background and masquerade as a high-roller and get us off the street.
One of the new mechanics in S&V is the gambit mechanic. The crew starts with a pool of gambits that represent a little bit of tangible luck. These gambits can be spent in various ways, such as to gain a die, or to activate specific playbook powers. My playbook has the unique ability that it gives the crew an extra gambit. It’s not a flashy power, but it felt really nice to have that extra support and it felt like we had a little more depth when things got out of hand.
We took the opportunity to do downtime actions. We investigated the nature of this artifact and found out that it had the ability to shut down star gates used to connect systems in the empire. After arguing about whether we could sell it, the only thing we could agree on was getting off planet. Our ship was still on lockdown in the local spaceport, so our hacker figured out what we could do about it. Our Mystic brought in a friend to help seal the deal. For my part, I spent some time figuring out how to make money while we’re there.
Our engagement roll was pretty good, and we got all the way to our ship before things became serious. The Mechanic started to work our way around the spaceport’s security systems, but not before a member of the Nightspeakers – a cult of mystics that have nefarious designs – arrived, seeking the box. Our Mystic managed to use the Way to bend our enemy’s mind, giving us time to work.
The mechanic overrode the last of the locks while I started our plan to steal some conveniently located fuel. I managed to con some droids into loading a few crates onto our ship, but around that time (and after a borderline roll) the Nightspeaker broke free of the confusion and unsheathed it’s energy sword. A battle ensued, culminating in our Mystic bending space around the unearthly warrior and tapping enough of her own life force that she could barely stand. Our Mechanic finally popped the locks. Running through a barrage of laser fire we manage to blast off to space.
In all, it was an incredible time. The Blades core really pushes towards the interesting middle ground and the extensions we’ve made – between the new playbooks and the gambit mechanic – really capture the dynamism in the source material. I’m really excited about what we’ve got here.
This sounds really cool! Some questions about your hack:
1. Does ist include factions? I assume that if yes, they will be more generic and not “Original Star Wars Factions(TM)” or “Original Firefly Factions(TM)”, right?
2. Is the hack playable with young players (like age 10+)? I ask because my boys really like the Star Wars RPG and up til now I thought they are too young for gritty-dark BitD. Youre hack may change that now…
Anyone play as an alien; what kind and how do you handle alien features in play? How do you recover Gambits?
@”star gates” and “the way” sounds great! Blades is robust and holds up so great when you switch out the fiction, and I think hacking this game is the most fun I’ve had hacking a game. Ever.
Stefan Struck Yes, it includes a bunch of factions, such as the Nightspeakers mentioned above, or the Cobalt Syndicate, or the 51st Legion.
As for younger players, that’s exactly right. One of the things that’s important for me is to capture the light-hearted sense of adventure, so it’s definitely a goal for us.
Mark Cleveland Massengale No one played an alien this time out! I’m eager to see how it works the next time we playtest. In play, aliens have their starting power replaced with one that allows them to describe their alien heritage, and it works sort of flashback-y, with stress costs allowing you to bring in your alien physique.
As for gambits, you recover them by making sixes on risky rolls. It was just the right amount of recovery. A few playbooks also have moves that allow them to gain gambits under certain circumstances.
edit NB: normally you can’t gain gambits on a roll you spend a gambit on. The Scoundrel has a power that defies that.
I am very much looking forward to seeing this flavor of BitD in person! Thanks for the session report.
Another question I have is: what is the fictional difference between a Tier 0 crew and a Tier 5 crew in S&V? is the starship size associated? or maybe just quantity/quality of personnel like in vanilla Blades?
Crews don’t have Tiers in S&V. Only factions do Mark Cleveland Massengale.
Stras Acimovic so when comparing quality/tier to determine effect, I can probably assume the crew isn’t always at a disadvantage – so I take it the GM.. compares what the fiction has said their tools and ship quality is?
Newp. It’s mostly mechanical. Your ship has a number of quality ratings which you then compare to opponents tier for gear purposes (forex: so what’s the quality of your Armory vs their Tier). There’s a bit more to it, but it should give you the gist. ^_~
This is also how small ships of high quality where it counts can go up against much, much larger ships (or you know … small-moon-sized-battle-stations) with the right gather info, setup, pushes and assists <_ <
Ah, I can see how a bunch of tier-like ratings instead of one might work
Hm. So what of ship size; another tier-like rating, but one that doesn’t really change?
Yep. The (eventual) Pirates playbook will have a big ship, with room for crews within it. But the first playset just has a small trader (cough-smuggler-cough) vessel.
Hi Stras Acimovic and John LeBoeuf-Little. I’m thinking of running a one-shot Scum & Villany game for a mini-con in December with what you already have shared. Would it be possible for you to share the smuggler vessel for the playtest? And any advice for running it for cons at this stage? Oliver Granger
Narayan Bajpe I am right there with ya; I have several players wanting to try Scum and Villainy
Yeah, sorry to restart this old thread and piggyback on Mark Cleveland Massengale and Narayan Bajpe, but after seeing the (sort of) open playtest on the Big Bad Con schedule I got really excited about the possibility of playtesting the first playset. I know there hasn’t been a call for an actual open playtest, so I’m guessing it’s still too early to get excited. Also John LeBoeuf-Little and Stras Acimovic, if you guys want to use groups you’re already familiar with and whose feedback you can rely on, that’s perfectly understandable. However, if I have a chance to participate in an open playtest I have a group that’s very eager, not only to play but to work with you on playtesting (I know Stras is very particular about how to do that right) and we would all be super excited to work with you on giving the kind of feedback that you need.
It’s not too early Johannes Dalsgaard. The first release candidate went to John Harper last week though folks have given me a bunch of feedback and small fixes that need to go in before backers get it (so it’s WAY further along than this).
So backers should get it long before Dec Narayan Bajpe. And there’s a starting scenario included – which has been pretty popular at cons so far.
Thanks Stras Acimovic, that sounds awesome.
That sounds awesome Stras Acimovic! Too bad I didn’t see the Kickstarter until it was too late to back it. Don’t suppose there’s still a chance to get to playtest or otherwise have access to the playset when it goes out to backers? Also, is December when it’ll be released publicly, for newbie non-backers like me?
I’ll talk to John, but we’ll probably put it up on drive thru for non-backers once we figure out how to do that and it’s gone out to backers.
I’d expect the quick start before Dec.