Esoteric Campaign

Rather than the mischief of rascals and thieves, an esoteric campaign will take on quite a different tone. The focus here will be on the belief systems of the populace, and the mysteries of the universe. Which seems fascinating but a lot of those mysteries really, really should stay hidden for a reason.

These ancient tombs, puzzling artefacts, weird events, and insanity-inspiring monstrosities all fall within the purview of esoterics, both the skill and the general concept. Such gloomy visions can offer amazing insight, great power, and also terrifying consequences. It is also the purview of the mighty sorcerer-lords, many of whom are unlikely to appreciate novices snooping into their grand schemes.

Players will likely confront all manner of strange and bizarre stuff, probably in crumbling ruins, or in far-flung and desolate locations, hidden things, lost things, and colossal things best left undisturbed. But… that’s the crux, isn’t it? How to know what rewards great power, and what might simply unleash a ravenous tide of unrelenting destruction. The answer is: you can’t know until you get there.

One aspect of this type of campaign may also be leading smaller groups of cultists or acolytes, in a vaguely similar fashion to that of a military campaign, only on a much, much smaller scale. Such units may be used to enforce the will of a preacher, in the vein of a commander, or be sent to gather intel like that of an intelligence officer.

More information on the military campaign is available here.

Abilities tied to the vast dark

Players will likely take on roles such as preachers, ascetics, missionaries, or prophets, spreading the word of their chosen cult in order to draw more support (and favour) for the largely unknown, and unknowable, power who drives their devotion.

Others might be assassins and spies, working to manipulate factions from within, or by forces. Still others may roam as mystics with strange powers or alluring words, or act as revolutionaries whose ideology and speech makes them iconic firebrands for the downtrodden. Still others may be musicians or poets, crafting art inspired by their faith, in the hope of gaining favour and winning hearts in the same manner.

The Sorcerer-Lords

The sorcerer-lord Anekh-tor executes the leader of the resistance on Nemesh IV, as their apprentice looks on.

Perhaps it goes without saying, but the mightiest purveyors of such dark and mysterious power are the dreaded sorcerer-lords of legend. These are true masters of the depths of the void, for better or worse. Many are wise and sagacious, yet just as many are also bent, broken, or have fallen into madness, insanity, and megalomania.

Such beings naturally make for terrifying enemies, as most of them are. However, such is the nature of the unknowable “wisdom” of the void. Nothing exemplifies this dichotomy more than those who have searched its greatest depths.

A different focus

This style of campaign would not be focused on the acquisition of money or power (at least not for its own sake), nor would it descend into endless violence (unless absolutely necessary). Instead, it would be address notions of belief, unearthing mysteries, taking incredible risks to get to a certain kind of truth.

As an example, consider an alternate downtime activity:

Touch The Divine. You can spend one downtime action to attune to your devotion, through meditation or service. Recover 2 devotion, +1 for each of the following (only once):

• converted a citizen to your cult since your last downtime

• enacted one of the core values of your devotion

• donated 1 coin to your cult

• compelled the faith of an acolyte

If you acted against the core values of your devotion, recover 1 less devotion.

Military Campaign

An alternate option to rogue traders, smugglers, and assassins, a military campaign will likely have quite a different focus. For starters, casualties are likely to be a lot higher—on the battlefields of brutal warfare, the entire environment is hostile. In this type of campaign, players should expect to control several different characters, who switch in and out of missions as necessary.

For the characters, rank and hierarchy will play a much larger role. Depending on the focus, the characters may begin as mere rookies, working their way up through the ranks, earning medals and commendations for their actions—and their willingness to sacrifice themselves or their soldiers for whatever mission objective has been placed before them.

Or, they may play as officers, who themselves guide the nature of the shifting fronts of a battle on a planet. Perhaps they have arrived to lay siege to a particular world, or are fighting off their enemies. In these cases, the campaign is likely to have an overarching objective—the highest of which is always “win the war”, but the reality of war is that they are rarely “won”. Just fought to an imperfect standstill.

A pair of Idrenan-class cruisers launch long-range artillery strikes against orbital defence platforms.

The Strategic Layer

Each Legion might include specific roles or ranks, some of which could be:

The commander (who could in fact be one of a number of specific ranks), who directs the strategic objectives of the Legion, including the placement and movement of units, assigniment of missions, the gathering of field intelligence such as reconaissance, and ensuring the reinforcement of critical areas of the battlefield.

The liaison officer, who manages troop morale, assigns Legion personnel to missions, awards ranks and medals, and which soldiers lead missions. They are also the means by which the military forces interact with their civilian counterparts.

The quartermaster, who is responsible for stocks and supplies, including weapons, ships, and other vehicles. The critical logistics of an entire army or fleet are in their hands.

The intelligence officer, who keeps a stable of spies, and manipulates objectives through any means necessary before the Legion even arrives at an objective. They soften enemy positions, or make powerful enemies vulnerable, exposing their weaknesses. They play the long game, and make strategic moves against other high-ranking enemies.

The sorcerer-lord is both feared and respected in equal measure, and whose role is to understand, control, and direct the unseen, dangerous, and mystic powers in the universe to the advantage of the Legion. They are also often powerful individual combatants who can be deployed by the commander to assist particularly critical missions. They are also likely to be central figures in an esoteric campaign.

More information on the esoteric campaign is available here.

To begin with, these roles would be ascribed to players separate to their actual characters in the game. That is, they represent the players’ agency via abstract “officers” whose orders they must follow but otherwise do not control directly. The officer class may be considered of a “strategic level” compared to the actions of the regular soldier-characters on the “tactical level”.

It is interesting to consider how playing an “officer” character effectively may not necessarily mean making decisions in the best interests of the same player’s own soldier-character(s).

Enemy Forces

While most of the critical decision-making will be handled by the players themselves, the opposing forces also have their various strengths. Many of the foes the soldiers will face will be just like they are; grunts and specialists fighting in the field toward some specific objective. These objectives will be evident, and discoverable by the players—even underhanded or tactical moves will be clear enough; it will simply be up to the players to counteract them.

At the enemy’s disposal will be a range of resources, including:

regular troops, which fulfil the same role as rookie and veteran roles in the Legion. These are the standard array of enemy troops, and well-trained soldiers can often take on several at once. They count as threat 1 opponents.

elite troops are the hardened veterans and special forces of the enemy army. That is, highly trained, very dangerous, and not as simple to overwhelm as regular forces. Such troops are best handled by a group, or with careful skill. They count as threat 2 opponents.

champion troops are any individual unit which could overwhelm an entire regular unit single-handedly. A battle-mech, armoured assault vehicle, beast of the warp, or an infamous, well-equipped and highly elite enemy unit. Only a well-equipped group with a good plan would consider taking on such foes. They count as threat 3 opponents.

nemesis troops are truly formidable enemies who may command or accompany multiple squads, and will often have their own specific agendas, capable of shifting their objectives when necessary. They are truly dangerous, whether they manifest as powerful individual soldiers, cunning masterminds, or a tactical genius. Such enemies, even if they are overcome, are likely to take many of their enemies with them. They count as threat 4 opponents.

legendary troops are those at the apex of an army and are truly terrifying to confront. They almost always lead the army they accompany, and if a combatant are almost invincible, like an unleashed kaiju; if cunning, will have plotted countless manoeuvres like a chess master. The mighty sorcerer-lords are counted among these forces; when such beings appear in person they will frequently annihilate the enemy before them, unless countered by a similar opposing force. They count as threat 5 opponents.

Xenos

Overview

In the base game, a character can play a member of an alien species, known as a ‘xeno’, by replacing the starting ability of a playbook with the following:

You may spend stress (0-2) to perform an inhuman feat which only members of your species can undertake.

Note that such xeno abilities must be discussed with the GM and likely the rest of the table to determine what the common traits of such a species are. It matters less what those specific abilities are and more that they suit the setting and are balanced.

Xenos retain the special abilities and the starting action dots on the playbook as normal. So basically they replace their character type’s special ability with something only their species can do.

Alternatively, players can of course play a xeno with no mechanical change at all, with only their appearance or nature or cultural heritage being different in game terms to a regular human.

Xeno Abilities

Prior to the first game the xeno will take part in, discuss the specific abilities of the species with the table. Some guidelines are as follows:

0 Stress: These are either constant abilities or adaptations which don’t affect the game significantly. Breathing water. Seeing in the UV spectrum. Having a prehensile tail, multiple eyes, or four arms that work independently. A heightened sense of smell.

1 Stress: These are abilities which aren’t constant, and require a degree of exertion or concentration to maintain or engage. Good candidates are using 0 stress xeno abilities outside of their normal parameters, or pushing them to their limits. A desert xeno pushing their heat immunity to dive into an engine fire without taking damage. An underwater xeno using sonar to try and sense guards down a metal corridor. An animalistic xeno running faster than their prey, or leaping through the branches of a jungle planet.

2 Stress: These abilities tend to be things that humans couldn’t even attempt. If this only enables you to take an action and a roll is still required, take +1d or +1 effect to it (player’s choice). Ripping chains apart through sheer strength. Breathing fire or generating a sleep venom under your claws. A deep-sea xeno using their incredible lung capacity to temporarily ignore the knock-out gas being pumped into the room.

Optional Rule: Any significant weakness which could take you out of a scene or cause great trouble for you (level 2 or 3 harm equivalent) will also generate a gambit for your crew when it comes up in game. This is a good way to simulate certain extreme allergies, issues with atmosphere, and severe social problems or prejudices. Heat sickness. Calcium deprivation that causes you to hunt your crew. Not being able to leave the ship or enter into key areas of a planet without a disguise.

Future Intent

A future iteration would classify these groups a little more, not necessarily listing an exhaustive list of specific aliens, but to create templates from which characters could then specify more detail about their particular type of alien species.

For example, a “lizard-like” species might have a trait related to regeneration—that’s it, that’s their thing, and beyond that the nature of their lizard-like species is up to the player. Particularly powerful abilities might be paired with some kind of drawback, whereas more modest abilities would simply serve to distinguish such xenos from regular humans.

It should be noted that in this setting, humans enjoy an inherent cultural advantage simply because they are the dominant life form. There are some parts of the galaxy where a xeno of any kind simply will not be welcome.

Dice Rolls

Overview

There are five types of rolls which are used in the game.

Action Roll

When a character attempts an action that is dangerous or troublesome, an action roll is made to determine the outcome. Action rolls and their effects drive most of the game.

Downtime Roll

After a job, the characters are at their leisure, and can perform various activities or tasks in relative safety. However, the number of these they can make is limited. A downtime roll determines how much a character can get done in their spare time.

Engagement Roll

At the very beginning of each job or mission, the Crew make an engagement roll to set the initial conditions of their activity. This jumps past the planning to get straight into the action, where the first twists and complications of the job begin to strike. Characters can use flashbacks to illustrate what they did previously to prepare for the job.

Fortune Roll

One of the few rolls made by the GM, the fortune roll is a way of finding out what happens if it has not been preordained. In other words, if the GM doesn’t want to make a decision and leaves it to fate, this is the roll they make. How valuable is this information? How close has the bounty hunter got to the Crew?

Resistance Roll

Whenever a character suffers a consequence they don’t like (and they will dislike a lot of consequences), they can make a resistance roll to deny that consequence. Note that the consequence is always reduced or avoided—this roll simply determines how much stress they take in doing so.

More information on the dice and their mechanics is available here.

The Dice

Overview

When you need to determine the outcome of a character’s action, a player rolls a pool of six-sided dice. Only the single highest result matters; the rest are discarded.

Therefore, a larger dice pool is universally better than a small one. Players should always be aware of any means by which they can increase a dice pool (though some involve costs so it’s not always the best decision).

There are three types of outcome:

• If the highest die is a 6, then the result is a full success. Things go really well and the character definitely succeeds at what they set out to do. If you roll more than one 6, then the result is even better—it’s called a critical success and the character will get an even greater advantage.

• If the highest die is a 4 or a 5, then the result is a partial success. This means that the character will basically achieves what they set out to do, but there’s some kind of consequence associated with it. More trouble, harm inflicted, reduced effect, etcetera.

• If the highest die is a 1, 2 or 3, then the result is a bad outcome. Things go really poorly. This doesn’t mean a character necessarily fails, but if they want to succeed it’ll hurt somehow. It will involve hard decisions; in most cases the cost will be too great, and so the character won’t achieve their goal and will still suffer complications, too.

If a character’s dice pool is zero for some reason (or even negative), then they can roll two dice and take the single lowest result. Note that it is impossible to roll a critical success with such a roll.

It is important for new players to know that even with larger pools, the most common result is 4/5, a partial success. Success at a cost, basically. Players should be encouraged to embrace the costs of their success, because more drama just adds to the story, even if it involves short-term pain. On the other hand, even one single die will offer a 50% chance of some sort of success (ie. a 4/5 or a 6), which isn’t bad.

In the vast majority of cases, dice pools will be made up of:

• a skill rating like attune or scrap

• an attribute rating such as prowess or resolve

• a ship's crew quality

• the wealth of the system the Crew are currently in

You take up dice equal to this rating, and may have extra dice from various abilities or circumstances. And then you roll them to see what the outcome is!

More information on the type of dice rolls characters can make is available here.

The Ship

Overview

As players of Edge of the Empire will already be familiar, a great Star, uh, let’s say Cosmic Conflict game often revolves around the Crew being tied to a particular ship. One which they usually don’t own—perhaps they’ve stolen it, borrowed credits to buy it, or owe some sort of debt. This debt plays a part in motivating the characters to take risks for credits, or stay on their toes or one step ahead of their creditors.

In Scum & Villainy the ship itself is much like a character, and can be substantially upgraded to provide various benefits or facilitate additional downtime actions. It also tends to determine the type of jobs you’ll likely be focused on.

The stardancer is a ship best suited for illicit merchants, smugglers, and blockade runners. This is much like Han Solo's Millennium Falcon.

The cerberus is the ideal ship for bounty hunters and extraction specialists. It's like Boba Fett's Slave I.

The firedrake is a much larger ship, the smallest of the capital-classes, like Princess Leia's Tantive IV. It is for criminals, or "freedom fighters" as you'd call yourselves, to fight the Emp, uh, the Hegemony.

Note that choosing one or another doesn’t mean you can’t engage in a different style of mission. It just means that your particular ship will be more effective at those types. But there’s nothing stopping a smuggling crew from taking on bounty hunter jobs.

However, the core activity of the ship is how the crew will most frequently earn cred and xp toward advancement.

Future Intent

I would like to work on some of these ship types to create a far greater variety, especially as the other “modes” come online. In some, the ships won’t be quite so important in terms of their function (ie. if the group were military types on some colossal super-capital ship in orbit of a planet they’re defending or laying siege to). In others it might still be important, but not in the sense of having to maintain it financially (ie. in the case of a refitted civilian shuttle if the group were undercover spies or something).

Rather than naming them, I would likely create categories, such as “freighter”, “light cruiser”, “assault shuttle”, or “battleship of the line”, and give each of those categories particular strengths and weaknesses (relative to the others), and advancement options of their own.

Characters

Overview

There are seven character types to choose from, each of which has what’s called a “playbook”, which is a set of particular abilities available to that character type, as well as equipment or other details pertinent to playing that kind of character in the game.

A character is also composed of a heritage, which indicates the culture they grew up in, and a background, which is the profession they took on before taking to the stars in pursuit of a life of grand adventure.

Characters also have allies and rivals, some of whom they determine during character creation.

Note that in terms of their species, the game assumes that all characters are human, but there are options for becoming what is generically called a xeno, which needs to be discussed with a GM before the game begins. More information is available here.

Here is a very basic summary of each of the character types:

mechanics are gearheads and hackers.

muscles are dangerous and intimidating fighters.

mystics are galactic wanderers in touch with the Way.

pilots are ship-handling wizards and danger addicts.

scoundrels are scrappy and lucky survivors.

speakers are respectable people on the take.

stitches are spacefaring healers and scientists.

There is no limit (as there are in some other similar games) as to how many of these types can exist within a given Crew.

Character types also determine things like the availability of some gear, and various suggestions in regard to how each type operates.

Unlike games focused on the advancement of a character which accrues greater and greater power over time, and has no real functional means of death beyond the rare event of it occurring in combat, Scum & Villainy, along with most games of its ilk, pay less attention to character abilities and power. Because the game is so story-centric, what a player decides to do with their character is often as important as the skillset used to do it.

Furthermore, characters have multiple means to be ‘taken out’ of play—they might die in combat; they might be captured and imprisoned; they might become insane or gather too many traumas and be forced to retire; the might simply die of old age. The point is that characters aren’t designed to be played over and over and over again, endlessly. They will get hurt, maybe killed, need to sit things out, or if they do survive for long enough, likely become so hardened by their experience that they retreat from life.

And that transience, strange as it may sound, is part of such a character’s beauty.

Future Intent

I would like for there to be a greater amount of customisation in the game (which is one of the downsides of a “playbook” style system, of which this is one). The actual archetypes themselves I may modify or even remove. This will also allow me to merge this lowlife scoundrels on a heist sort of system with something more akin to a brutal, bloody war in the stars type thing, whilst also allowing factional warfare to determine who sits on the throne, and stuff like that, which is currently beyond the scope of this particular game.

My eventual intent is to take most of the abilities from within specific playbooks and make them available to anyone, with perhaps just one or two core abilities remaining unique to a “type”. Which would facilitate someone playing, say, a muscle to incorporate aspects of the scoundrel's luck, or to dabble in hacking or healing.

That would allow for a far greater range of character options, which will be necessary if multiple “modes” are introduced.

I would also aim to tie heritage more directly to certain character types, or have them grant access to unusual or more specialised types (which might be flagged as “advanced”, to indicate they are more involved or have more complex mechanics than a regular character type.

Eventually, I want there to be an explicit mechanism to make time itself a resource. Characters will advance a bit faster, but will have a discrete limit on their lifespan—this will push games (on a long enough timeline) into a more dynastic approach, where the faction or ideals they fight for become more important than the design of any one particular character.

As an example of group concepts (as opposed to choosing a starship to determine the Crew’s focus), here are some from Blades In The Dark, which is about a group of criminals fighting for turf and coin in a deadbeat city:

assassins are killers for hire, who execute "accidents", disappearances, murders, and ransoms.

bravos are mercenaries and thugs, who execute battles, extortion, sabotage, and smash & grabs.

cults are acolytes of a forgotten god, who execute artefact acquisiton, auguries, consecration, and sacrifices.

hawkers are are vice dealers, who execute product procurement, covert sales, shows fo force, and social events.

shadows are theives and spies, who execute burglaries, espionage, robberies, and sabotage.

smugglers are contraband transporters who execute clandestine deliveries, territory control, and expeditions outside the city or planet.

As further examples, here are more character types from Band of Blades, which is about a legion of troops traversing a realm beset by an horrific and unstoppable undead invasion in order to make a final stand in their legendary keep:

rookies are fresh troops who still need to earn their stripes.

soldiers are general infantry who are tough but not yet a specialist (like all of the following types).

heavies are mighty bulkwarks who shine with might and determination against the dark.

medics are healers and researchers who get their fellow soldiers through a mission alive.

officers are the unit leaders who command their troops to victory even when they're up against certain death.

scouts are stealthy types who often work alone and see the enemy coming so the unit knows what it is up against.

snipers are skilled marksmen who are able to dispatch the most serious threats from afar.

Scum & Villainy

Overview

So what exactly is this strange game?

It works quite differently to something like Dungeons & Dragons in that it’s not based on a ‘wargaming’ system. Hit points won’t exponentially increase, you won’t end up with a massive list of skills and talents and abilities that need to be tracked.

Instead, it works from the principles first set out in Apocalypse World and further developed by others, wherein the scope of the game is firmly fiction-first. That means that most skills and abilities are gathered more generally and many game mechanics are abstracted.

This has some advantages and disadvantages, most of which are technically the same thing, just seen in different ways. For example, as regards the abstraction of abilities, if you’ve always enjoyed the notion of measuring your movement in five foot increments and tactically blocking out enemies and managing your resources over an intricate battle which runs for an hour and a half, then this may not be your game.

On the other hand, if you’ve always felt that combat in particular often drags on, or is unnecessarily complex or ends up being a slog to delete the last few hit points of a powerful enemy, then this abstraction will serve as an enormous relief. Often, a skirmish or brief combat will be handled in a single roll, after which you can take stock and think “no thanks”, and retreat. Or, push your luck and try to press on with a violent approach. The point being that combat itself is highly truncated.

Lastly, your relationship to your character is different. This isn’t a game where you might have ambitions to play one ‘epic’ character through countless levels and campaigns, gathering ever more power as you go. Characters in Scum & Villainy are like riding in a stolen car: their time is limited, so the point is to enjoy it while it lasts. You will almost certainly be playing several of them over the course of a campaign.

The key features of the game are:

• The game only uses six-sided dice. A pool is made up of various factors and the highest result rolled is the one which determines the outcome, so a larger pool is universally better than a smaller one. This is the game’s core mechanic. More information is available here.

• In terms of character, there is still something akin to “classes” in Scum & Villainy, called “character types”. These are the building-blocks of a character, their structure. More information is available here.

• Mechanically speaking characters are composed of a skill set, and various abilities, the former which are accessible to all characters, but the latter of which are only available to a given type. More information is available here.

• The playing group, called the Crew, are united in some sort of cause or profession, which is represented by the ship they own, or have loaned or stolen. More information is available here.

• The game itself is played using various types of rolls, using the core mechanic, which in turn are set up to determine particular outcomes which drive the narrative. More information is available here.

Campaigns

In the ‘default’ setting, Scum & Villainy is designed to represent the activities and nonsense which a group of scoundrels and smugglers are likely to get up to as they make a name for themselves in the galaxy. That is, they are wayfarers and wanderers, whose ship is their home, and who move from job to job as they increase their reputation (or notoriety) and keep their financial heads above water. Hence, it is assumed that unless otherwise specified, a subsistence campaign is how the game will proceed.

However, the setting is also full of conflict, and open warfare. Thus, the players may wish to partake in aspects of that warfare as well. While there’s nothing stopping their thieves and smugglers from assisting a particular faction or undertaking jobs which may influence some battle somewhere, it may also be of interest to them to make the strategic movements of a particular planet or system the focus of an entire military campaign. More information is available here.

Similarly, there are dark and unknowable forces in the deep void, things which might threaten even the combined forces of the various factions endlessly fighting one another throughout the Interior. While there are certain factions or beings who study such forces, or even tap into their power, by and large these things go unheeded. For to look directly at them is more than most could handle. Alternatively, this could focus on the nature of the spirit world, the mysteries, and the various cults which follow them. As with a military focus, the players may alternatively decide to undertake a esoteric campaign, the focus of which is on the discovery of these horrible beings and, if not their destruction, certainly holding them at bay. More information is available here.

But why stop there? The story could easily wander into an exploration campaign, wherein the characters concern themselves with wandering the far reaches of space in search of mysteries which might explain or even prevent the coming crisis. Or perhaps it’s about loot, and the saving of the galaxy thing is merely incidental?

The game might become something of a profit & power campaign, focused on gathering resources by any means necessary in order to promote a dominant faction and see it take territory, gain influence, or turn a massive profit. Or, with any luck, all three. Factional warfare would likely become a key component of such a campaign.

Fundamentally, an intrigue campaign would involve scenarios of political manoeuvring, perhaps the overthrow of governments—planetary, regional, or even galactic—from within or without, or the jockeying for political power. It might require bribery, blackmail, coercion, or assassination, but it would seek to ensure that the players’ faction comes out on top in the end… even if they don’t look like they’re on top.

Lastly, a horror campaign stares directly into the face of the rising threat of the apocalypse. Hence, its looming threat becomes the central thematic style of the game, and these scenarios would ramp up that tension and run with it. Such a campaign would be deadly… perhaps hopelessly so. The chances of victory would be slim, and perhaps the galaxy would slip into decadence or destruction or ruin for decades to come, if the terrible premonitions do come to pass.8

• Aspects of the sorcery skill, and the suspicion mechanic and its entanglements come from Blades of the Inquisition, a hack of Blades in the Dark.