Scum & Villainy – questions and comments after session 1
Questions:
1. The ship sheets say “For each level of damage, mark a ship system”. Is there a specific way we’re meant to mark this?
2. … and what does ship damage do? (if you want an example, we have rogue nanobots in the engine compartment. On a PC I would model as level 2 harm, perhaps – it won’t just go away.)
3. Shields, Lucky Charm etc cost multiple “Upgrades” to buy, right? Partial upgrades have no defined effect?
4. Are we expected to treat spending Gambits purely mechanically, or is there an intent that they correspond to some fictional action? There’s nothing explicit in the text, but the main example of play includes lines like “he’s already described being a little reckless and taking a chance” as if that’s something that justified the Gambit spend. (Personally, I like to be sparing with completely dissociated mechanics; OTOH, this is a non-trivial system and justifying every little bonus will cost a lot of airtime)
Comments, mostly for Stras Acimovic et al as they work towards 1.7:
1. Generally, we found the most confusion on the ship sheet, rather than on the character sheets. Probably because the character mechanics are closer to Blades, and although I haven’t played that I’ve studied and watched more.
2. I got muddled with the terms System, Module and Upgrade. I think I got it right, but I’m still not 100%. In particular, “Upgrade” is overloaded in that it can also mean “Module”, but it’s not clear to me if it always does.
What I think in my head right at this moment:
* There are four Systems (hull, engines, comms and weapons)
* There are various Modules available for each system, some of which are already listed on the ship sheet with checkboxes (e.g. “Fake Transponder” on the Stardancer)
* There are are 28 Upgrades, including e.g. “AI module” and “False Ship Papers”.
* When creating a ship, you choose 2 “Upgrades” which maybe can be either Modules or Upgrades? (it’s not clear)
* When advancing a ship (triggered when you 8 crew xp), you get 2 “Upgrades”, which (explicitly) may be Modules or Upgrades
3. There’s nothing on the sheet that labels “Systems” or “Modules”. I think this is part of my confusion.
4. The formatting of the Upgrade list, although a clever use of space, confuses me. The grey background is more prominent to my eyes than the heading bar, so the rightmost column looks like part of the former.
5. Generally, I find that the sheet overpowers the pencil marks — the marks look small and insignificant while the grey blocks look important. I think that even in tho it’s playbook-format sheet (with useful rules etc all over it) we’d be better off with parity here.
6. When we first got to downtime the players had some cred to spend, and I found it hard to quickly answer their question “what can we spend it on?”. Probably best for players to learn that this is not the key question (that’s “what can I attempt this downtime?”) but it’s a likely early one.
7. As written, it’s not obvious that Unstoppable and the like give you the normal Push Yourself bonus as well as the ability specific one. I guess in the full version you’ll do a Blades-style expansion of these abilities, tho, and the Blades one does clarify this.
Re the Questions (just my personal outlook on them):
1.) A cool example can be found on Roll20 where the Ship sheets have two rows of blocks for each system. The top row is a cool Blue is the level of the system that the crew’s ship has; the bottom row lights up Emergency Red to show levels of damage taken. I think that this is also how the printed ship sheets are supposed to work: the Stardancer starts with 2 Hull, has the potential for upgrades up to 4 Hull. The row below that is for marking off damage.
This could probably be better templated in the book to demonstrate how the system is meant to work.
2.) Since you’re marking ‘down’ a System level for each point of damage sustained (between 1-3 most times) then ship damage in a literal sense is progressively crippling your systems. For example: your Stardancer with Level 3 Engines is pursued by Maelstrom Pirates (Faction level 3). The ships are an even contest until your Stardancer’s engines take damage temporarily reducing them to level 1. Now the Pirates are at a major advantage to chase and outmaneuver you (opposing pilot skills notwithstanding).
Relative value of your Weapons systems might reduce your Effect level when trying to damage a Faction’s ship… receiving damage there could overload targeting systems or power relays and make it harder to have useful effect against a rival ship. Damage to Hull threatens integrity of the ship, and if that rolls to 0 it should result in the GM telling players they’re leaking oxygen or suffering incidental Crew Harm. Comms matters for detection of threats, etc.
3.) Half of a bonus stress point/gambit/etc. should still round down to 0, otherwise why would the party ever bother paying the full price?
4.) GM should ask the player! Sounds like a question for the group.
And now for my own personal questions:
A.) Why does the Cerberus only have 1 Gambit starting unlike the Stardancer and Firedrake’s 2?
B.) Why does the Stardancer have the potential for 13 total System value (all possible upgrades), while the Cerberus and Firedrake only up to 12?
C.) What’s the valuation on the Firedrake being a larger size class vessel then the other two at start? Is that meant to be part of the balance consideration or not? Why only 2 maximum Hull for a frigate-scale warship? Popular Support (3-box Upgrade) and Sympathizers (Special Ability) have a LOT of thematic overlap, is this intended?
Thanks, that all makes sense.
I have another one I’m curious about: the Heavy armor boxes on the playsheets. Are those unusable outside the Loaded for Bear upgrade on the Cerberus?
Of course as GM I can always state to the players that it’s an open question for them: perhaps inspiration for a character to rig up a special suit or pursue a legendary mystic/artifact armor or the like. Just would be nice to see clarity on it.
Re: Modules/Upgrades – when you create a ship, you fill in two boxes. That might mean the two boxes for shields, for example, or it might mean two different modules IF you have the system quality to support those systems. (At creation, I don’t think you do, but you might after upgrading the system quality.)
7: Yes, we will explain this fully in the book, but yes, whenever you push yourself, you also gain the bonus die or effect.
I think the rest of your questions were answered already. Sorry for the delay in getting back to you!
Charles Simon
a) Because we think the Cerberus is a less ‘lucky’ crew. They do start with an extra system to compensate.
b) It’s not a big concern for us to have parity in the total possible systems, but if I had to justify it, it’s the reduced maximum weapons capacity.
c) Size is a mixed bag. It’s appropriate for the Firedrake, which is absolutely going to get into some fights. The point about hull is interesting: I’d envisioned it more like a gunship, rather than a battlecruiser.
c.2) Popular Support and Sympathizers do have a lot of thematic overlap. Yes, that’s intentional. The crew is much more rabble-rousing / anti-Hegemony than the other crews.
Charles Simon
Regarding heavy armor, you can’t use those unless you have a way to use them. The only way we really provide at start is Loaded for Bear.
That said, this is perfect fodder for a long-term project! Heavy armor for a sci-fi setting would probably be high-tech, powered, and possibly more regulated than regular armor.
Seems like something that should make its way into the book for sure.
Thanks for the answers, John LeBoeuf-Little.
Further question for you — I have some further comments, more subjective, more about how the game feels to me in play. Is the best place for those in public here, or do you have an email (etc) you’d like me to send them to.