Hello, I’m after my first session with Scum and Villainy, We started with stardancer and made starting situation, my players liked it kind of, but I think I didn’t do very well. I treated PCs too much like a group and didn’t make “now you” spotlight moments, which would be good especially during crazy chase through Warren.
Apart from some translation issues, as my pack is not 100% english speaking I noticed that position/effect discussion was throwing my players off immersion like a lot, they even said me that after session. I was GMing Blades for another group and we are ok with everything
So I wanted to ask you for advice about GMing SaV and position/effect discussion, actually any would probably be super helpful.
PS
I also wanted to ask, how do you understand the detail from social plan, or other way – how do you translate it into engagement situation?
Thanks for any help, tips, opinions, you guys are all awesome 🙂
Even after eight or nine sessions, I still have trouble remembering that Action rolls need to have Position/Effect. I’ll usually forget to set it up at least once per session. My players never remind me, which makes me think that they’re not very comfortable with that part of the game either.
When I do remember, I usually try to explain Position and Effect from a ‘fiction first’ standpoint. That is, when a player wants to do something, there are two possible results: things go well, or they don’t. I just use Position and Effect to tell them what’s likely to happen in either case. I solicit their feedback sometimes too, so that they’re thinking about both fiction and game.
So, if they’re hacking a door lock in an enemy base, I’ll say something like, “This isn’t that hard to do, but you’re trying to do it quietly, right? You never know when a guard will come around the corner. That sounds Risky to me, because you might get caught.” Or, “She’s going to listen to your offer, and she probably won’t leave if it’s not good enough. You’ll get to try again, so I think this is a Controlled roll.”
For Effect, I might say, “He’s wearing thick body armour and a helmet, and you’re only using a light blaster pistol. That’s going to have a Limited Effect, don’t you think?” Or, “You did your research and brought her some nice cigars. That’s going to improve your Effect from Standard to Great.”
The point is that you’re all trying to tell a story, and Position and Effect are meant to tie the story together with the mechanisms of the game. If you can make that connection more real for the players, they might find Position and Effect more important.
Scott Wheelock I am trying same thing, but I’ve heard from one of my players “why you tell me what can happen if I fail? Just go with it” and I’m wondering, maybe that’s because they are new to system. With my other group I GM for (Blades in the dark, not SaV) they don’t have problem with that, and are often adding detail to action to change position and/or effect. So this make me seek help how I can make this part of the game better. Thanks for your interes 🙂
Przemek Bryl It seems like they don’t like that mechanic of Blades. Talking about what can go wrong from an Action is encouraged for the GM. If they don’t like it, you can just not tell them what might happen but instead just tell them the position without justification. When they fail the roll, then tell them what goes wrong.
TBH, I don’t usually mention position & effect, because they are usually evident from the fiction, so unless a player asks or I want to draw attention to something, I omit the specific declaration or just give it a brief mention (“so you want to court Milady Helena? Okay, you’ve been properly introduced and she’s already kind of fascinated by you, so it’s not very risky”).