17 thoughts on “Stras Acimovic, I have a few players who are bugging me about Scum and Villainy.”

  1. Scum and Villainy v1.6 should be out hopefully end of Feb.

    It will have some universe stuff (some Xeno and Way examples), rules for building drones, 2 new ships with crew specific jobs, Permissions, some stuff we missed (rules for debt – whoops!), a few more examples (including a detailed downtime) and of course cleanup and updates on a number of things. It should be what we consider rules complete (IE it has everything we planned for core S&V sans core Blades rules).

    We were going to have an update out at the end of January … but then Blades V8 hit Jan 30th, and there were a ton of changes. So it took us a week or two to digest the 336 pages of Blades Core text which leaves us with having to go through S&V and do two things:

    1) We’re going to update some powers to match v8.

    2) Now we have to add certain rules that are no longer in v8 (we’re using the old version of healing, because in Space Opera you spend some time in a Bacta Tank and you’re fine, rather than having long lingering wounds that slowly heal and affect you over time) – which means more pages to write up, which means more time.

    Still we’re guessing end of Feb you’ll see 1.6. If you’re a backer your folder should magically update. If you bought it via DriveThru you’ll get a notification and be able to just download the new version.

    In good news, I might post some sneak peeks at Band of Blades soon ^_~ Let me know if you have any Qs.

  2. End of Feb gives me a good date to placate the guys (they want me to run a game, and I am more than happy to oblige.)

    I’m also looking forward to Band, so that’s more good news.

  7. Ahoy Stras Acimovic. I’m pumped about finally getting to play Scum & Villainy. We may start a lunch-hour ongoing game at my workplace today. I could delay a week too however, if our timing is just a little too early for a 1.6 release.

  8. Gimme a week. I’d give you a preview but updated powers will happen late this week – next week should be assembled but non-edited 🙂 once there’s an edited pass it should go out to everyone.

  12. Sure!

    First up there’s the Cerberus, which has things like Licensing to Bounty Hunt, and small personal flyers, a brig, and stun weaponry. It’s a sweet tough little ship with a new starting position chasing an Ashen Knives assassin named Cho Tyrek who went off-job.

    The other new ship is the Firedrake, which is the biggest ship to date (it starts with a shuttle). Its crew has real problems with the Hegemony, and tends to host firebrands that like to stick it to the man (one might say they have a spark of rebellion in them). It tends to go for the hearts and minds of people. Hint: it has a very Blake’s 7 starting position.

    Feel free to ask questions ^_~

  13. Awesome Stras Acimovic! Consider my excitement enflamed. I hadn’t considered that each crew type would have its own starting position to launch a particular flavor of campaign. That’s so great.

    Those both sound like great additions to my players tastes since they’re leaning toward more the political game more than the rim world, getting-by vibe.

    Will these come with an enhanced list of possible ship upgrade/module options that suit their flavors but could apply to any of the other ship types? Also, does each ship have the same system of debts, or maybe different core crew impetus, like the Firedrake may have duty, allegiance, or progress of their campaign/movement beyond themselves, and the Cerberus may have more emphasis on rank, prestige, etc.? Maybe I’m thinking too much of the way the FFG game applies the obligation system differently across the various books (duty in Age of Rebellion and whatever I’m forgetting in Force and Destiny), but that could be a neat easy shift of focus for the different ships (and could easily be interchangeable if someone really wants a Firedrake whose main perpetual story impetus is debts like the Stardancer).

  14. Each ship has some individual modules (forex Cerberus can have personal vehicles, Stardancer can have Dark Hyperspace Lane Maps), but no new ‘systems’ really. Those are easy enough to mod though if you really feel they need more of a specific feel or you just have new module ideas (which I’d love to hear about actually, and some might get added!)

    And no – no new impetus.

    Fun fact, a long time ago at the start of S&V I brought up that the one bit of the FFG game I wanted to transfer was exactly that system, and John LL and I sat down and looked at it, and what we realized is that this is actually already built into the playbooks/ships (rivals, friends) and is easy enough to run on an individual level (using entanglements/faction-clocks to push on some of those arcs). There’s was really nothing specific we need to do.

    With the new crew-specific jobs, and a section on how to run each, plus the different abilities – the different ships should play very differently. 🙂

  16. Stras Acimovic Cool beans. Here are some other upgrade/module ideas I’ve been chewing on.

    One of the other modules/upgrades ideas in mind is something like BitD’s cohorts, maybe flavored for each ship, such as gaining command of a cadre of marines/troopers, scientists, crooks, mystic adherents, service or protocol bots, diplomats, fighter pilots, etc.

    This could also pretty handily accommodate players commanding a convoy or fleet: their ship is flagship with cohorts serving as shorthand for other ships or groups of ships with quirks and ease of tracking damage/morale just like Blades’ mini-gangs.

    Another module/upgrade idea is planetside holdings, which could serve as bases, hideouts, businesses, drydocks, fortresses, trade depots, supply caches, crime/intel networks, school, lodgings for impressing guests, etc. These could just be a single generic upgrade with a blank for any description and therefore invite related narrative interactions and entanglements. Basically a cohort/module constrained to one planet, which could operate a little like some of the Blades’ claims, but mostly just generate drama, story potential, and entanglements.

  17. The previous ideas could just be auxiliary modules, or could slot into the Crew quality rating, like other modules slot into the other systems. Tying to Crew is nice since it’d clear up some fuzziness I feel about what that rating fictionally represents as explained in 1.5. With it tied to some of those cohort-type upgrades, it’d then represent loyalty, clout, morale, and general level of aptitude of the PCs’ influence and followers/employees.

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