Approaching Scum & Villainy

These days I like to choose games to run where the challenge is in the execution not in just memorising the rules. This tends to mean I’m selecting games where the rules aren’t just in the background. They are an active part of the experience.

Since the challenge is in the execution I like to break the game apart in my head and then put it back together in a way I understand and I would approach it.

This is the outcome of that process for the Forged in the Dark game Scum & Villainy.

Disclaimer

From this point onwards this post will reference Scum & Villainy only. This is just to keep the text simple and since I’m specifically talking about Scum & Villainy it keeps it accurate. Despite this, I do think this post applies to the majority of Forged in the Dark games. It especially applies to Blades in the Dark. Having played Blades in the Dark and engaged in discussions about it some of the challenges people see in the structure also apply to it.

My Scum and Villainy goals

If I was to run Scum & Villainy I’d want the following to be true about the actual play experience.

• I’d want it to be intense.
• I’d want it to have pace.
• I’d want it to be passionate.
• I’d want to ensure we play the scene.

These are some principles I’ve been looking to deliver in a game but I think they are specifically pertinent for Scum & Villainy.

This is because if you watch Forged in the Dark actual plays (since many tend not to be specifically Scum & Villainy) they are the opposite of that. They involve a bit too much writing discussion (and I’m all for those), take ages to resolve singular action rolls and the result is fewer scenes are actually played and it becomes less passionate and more distant and abstract.

The Actual Play Model

One of the challenges of reading Scum & Villainy is it feels very prescriptively constructed. The model of actual play is taken as being dictated, formulaic and very restrictive and as a result, a number of things happen.

1. Everyone becomes a slave to the structure
2. The structure restricts what can happen
3. The play steps back to just executing the structure

If we step back to my goals for running Scum & Villainy it’s obvious I want none of these things to happen. It’s going to be hard to have intensity, pace and passion with a focus on playing the scene if we’re slaves to the structure and just check-listing the structures.

To avoid it, it’s important for me to understand the model of actual play in the game so it can be executed to get the outcomes I want. The diagram below is how I’d execute Scum & Villainy. I’ll leave it to others whether it’s the fundamentally ‘correct’ approach.

In the proceeding sections, we go into each part, but it’s important here to understand how much structure there is: –

1. When in free play characters talk to each other, go places, do things, and make rolls as needed. This is just the regular play we all want.
2. A score is literally just an engagement roll. That’s literally ALL it is.
3. Downtime should come after the score
4. Downtime has actions that can’t be done elsewhere

This suggests the monolithic structure boils down to: –

1. An engagement roll before a score
2. Downtimes actions and their placement after the score

That’s it. I’d argue the way the book describes free play leaves a vacuum of intent which people fill with the idea it’s a small bit of stuff you do before you get to the serious stuff of a score and downtime.

Personally, the framing the book should have provided is that you’re ALWAYS in free play. So let’s look deeper at each part of the diagram and how it supports looking at it this way.

It’s all free play

I’d say the best way to approach Scum & Villainy is you are always in free play. The game is always characters going places, doing stuff, playing the scene and making rolls as necessary. All that changes is the nature of the tools that come in that shape some of those rolls and, in the case of downtime, its position after the score.

We can look at free play to back up that approach.

Free play is essentially unfolding narrative as a conversation. This continues purely as a conversation presented both in the third and first person until something triggers a roll. Two things trigger a roll: –

• Uncertainty
• Threat

If neither of things arises then just happily continue with your unfolding conversation. The use of an action roll when there is a threat and a fortune roll when there is not is exemplified by gathering information which uses both. It explicitly says that: if there is an obstacle an action roll is used while a fortune roll is used if there is no obstacle.

When there is a threat

Whether an action roll is inserted into the unfolding conversation depends on there being an opposing threat. There has to be a threat to incur a roll. This can be an active threat or just the fact it needs to be done under time pressure. Once the intent and the danger are defined the position and effect should not be too much of a difficult conversation and even implications should be clear.

Also, keep in mind that in some free play situations it may be more controlled rolls exist. I’m not saying this has to be the case, but if players are looking to achieve the right things with the right contacts and resources this is always an option. The other option is there is no threat in such situations just uncertainty. It’s important to consider these things due to the stress horizon we’ll discuss when we come to downtime.

When there is uncertainty

Sometimes things sit in a strange middle ground. It’s not that there is a full-on worthwhile threat worthy of some sort of risk and potentially the depletion of stress but something is uncertain. It’s not that the character might fail, it’s more that the degree of success is uncertain or interesting to let the dice decide.

This is what fortune rolls are for. These can be used to add a random element into free play without constantly and incorrectly inserting action rolls into proceedings which have much bigger consequences.

The score, let’s go!

You have not exited free play when you go into a score. The reason this is true is the score is literally no different to free play but for the fact: –

• You did an engagement roll to start it
• It’s assumed it’s a group activity for a goal
• It allows you to do downtime afterwards

Beyond those things what actually is the difference? You’ve rolled an engagement roll and then you’ll continue to go places, do stuff, play the scenes and make rolls as necessary. Yes, it’s probably the case things will be more tense and more action rolls will be required as the threat will be more present but the model of actual play is just action rolls insert themselves into your unfolding conversation more often.

The fundamental pattern of play has not changed.

You can even insert 100% free-play elements into the score. If you meet a character in the score and you want to flashback to a scene that establishes your relationship with them you can do that even if it’s not to increase your chances of success. If you can find a fictional moment within the score you can even have a purely free-play scene to resolve a conflict between two characters. The example I like to use is Gandalf and Frodo’s chat about Gollum in the middle of Moria in a momentary break.

Pure, personal story scenes can feature while the score is unfolding.

The media Scum & Villainy is based on does this all the time. A score does not mean ‘drop all the story outside achieving the goal of the score’ as that is done in this other thing called free play. The whole of Han and Leia’s relationship was defined by interactions and moments that if not part of a score certainly took place within activities that had the intensity and threat of a score.

You’re in free play, it just got a bit more focused, intense and involves more threat.

It’s worth noting at this point that I realise a score results in outcomes like a payoff, upkeep, heat and entanglements but these are done as opening outcomes in downtime.

Downtime, and relax

The complex structure in Scum & Villainy isn’t the score it’s downtime. This is because it has a specific set place in the structure and a number of actions that are stated as only happening in downtime. If there is an elephant in the room with the Scum & Villainy structure it’s downtime.

The stress horizon

Challenge one is the stress horizon.

A character’s available stress will not refresh until downtime and that doesn’t happen until after a score. This means the threat horizon is across all of free-play including that which takes place in the more focused score. This means you do have to consider things like how much threat arises in your play as a conversation between downtimes. This tends to come down to how much threat is outside of the score purely because the score tends to be focused, intense and feature developing threat.

You can have free play for three sessions before getting to a score but the stress pool of the characters will not be refreshing.

I believe this does mean you have to be quite careful with how much threat is pushed or incurred before the engagement roll occurs and it also means you shouldn’t have too long before a score.

Choosing downtime actions

The act of choosing downtime actions can really disrupt the unstructured actual play as a conversation model as the players will choose their actions in relation to what other people do and how well they succeed which often means some level of rotation across the group. Then throw in the fact players may add more downtime actions via purchasing them with credits.

Since the outcome of downtime rolls is NOT dictated via playing the scene you can be flexible with how many of them go to playing the scene and in what order you do that against what order the rolls were resolved.

Explore through free play

Remember, the focus is on going places, doing stuff, playing the scenes and making rolls as necessary. Does this really change in downtime or is it just the nature of what you’re making rolls about becomes a bit more structured?

Purely personal scenes can happen.

This is why it’s more fluid. Scenes can be introduced while characters are off doing various downtime activities. As long as you don’t use it to impact their downtime rolls all is well. A past love with a dire problem is encountered while indulging their vice at the casino on the intergalactic cruise liner. A relative delivers a mysterious message while the character is neck-deep in her ur-bot project.

Downtime activities should be viewed as sets awaiting additional, personal and interesting free-play elements when it’s appropriate.

And, Finally…

Ultimately my overall argument is that the lack of focus on free play in the rule book and the fact the descriptive model is of exiting free play to enter the score and downtime gives the wrong impression of how to execute the game in actual play.

Personally, I think the better way to describe it is you’re always in free play with the ability to talk to people, do stuff, play the scene and make rolls as necessary all that happens is some parts of the game give these things a bit of focus. Whether it’s the score which adds the engagement roll and a focus of purpose and threat or downtime which allows specific things to be undertaken. Neither of these things means free-play activities don’t occur it’s just they come with some framing.

I think it works better as an explanation. I’ll leave it to others as to whether they agree.