Ran session 1 of a Scum and Villainy campaign last night and it went really well. I’m setting it in a homebrew setting. How many systems to you guys tend to run? I’d like to have more than the book, but with Heat being tracked in each system it seems like the players could just keep outrunning consequences if they had too many. Do other GMs keep the number of systems on the smaller side, or do you use other things to give them incentives to keep heat down/stay local? I can see new start up costs, getting new contacts, etc. being used for that.
Ran session 1 of a Scum and Villainy campaign last night and it went really well.
Ran session 1 of a Scum and Villainy campaign last night and it went really well.
The way our GM has been doing it is by having mission span systems. A High Lord in System A hires you for a bounty on a traitor, and when then group starts researching it turns out they ran to System B where the group has high heat – do they risk entering the high heat system, or the wrath of the High Lord for breaking the contract?
Other options is to daisy chain missions together – group is hired to ‘liberate’ a scientist from the Hegemony. And when they return to the patron, they get offered a lucrative contract to break into a different Hegemony site to steal the precursor chemicals the scientist needs – do they turn down the opportunity because of their exposure or do they take the chance for credits?
It is not about forcing players on to rails, but rather giving them risky opportunities that can have a large pay off.
Just because you go to a clean system doesn’t mean trouble can’t or won’t follow you.