From the Blurb
Scum and Villainy is a Forged in the Dark game about a spaceship crew trying to make ends meet under the iron-fisted rule of the Galactic Hegemony.
Work with the members of your crew to thrive despite powerful criminal syndicates, warring noble families, dangerous aliens, and strange mystics. Explore the ruins of lost civilizations for fun and profit. Can your motley crew hold it together long enough to strike it big and insure your fame across the sector?
From the Book
The year is 1261 since the founding of the Galactic Hegemonic Alliance. The Hegemony united the warring factions of the galaxy out of the Dark Age that preceded it. Near the center of the galaxy lies the seat of the Hegemon, who rules with the Grand Council—a consortium of powerful families, greedy merchant Guilds that control entire categories of technology, and the heads of powerful state-sanctioned Cults.
The Procyon sector, however, is too many jumps away from the Core to matter to those important players. There are a few well-mapped Hyperspace lanes, four systems, and jumpgates to more and less fortunate parts of known space. This far out, there is less of a Hegemonic presence, and local powers include pirate queens, criminal syndicates, and legitimate corporate interests.
The worlds here are peppered with ruins of the Ur—an ancient civilization officially referred to as the Precursors—and mystics claim the flow of the Galactic Way lines are strong in the sector. Humans and aliens live and work side by side in common interest against both Hegemonic rule and the organized criminals that prey on the weak.
- 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.
- Stiches are spacefaring healers and scientists.
- Stardancer: Illicit merchants, smugglers, and blockade runners.
- Cerberus: Bounty hunters and extraction specialists.
- Firedrake: Labeled as criminals, these rebels fight the Hegemony
From the GM
About the System
Now that I'm settled in and have a better idea of what I can handle in terms of threads, I thought I'd check for interest in another system I want to play. Scum and Villainy (prepare for me to misspell that title several times) is a Forged in the Dark game that takes inspiration from sci-fi stories about small crews in the hostile environment of space, fighting against mounting odds to depose tyrants, make it big, or just to afford their next meal.
Named touchpoints for the setting include Cowboy Bebop, Firefly, Star Wars, Guardians of the Galaxy (MCU), and Outlaw Star; I'd also include the Imperial Radch series, and maybe Becky Chambers's Wayfarers books.
Notable aspects of the system include:
- A three-part play structure. Play starts in free time, where characters go about their daily lives. At some point during free time, the crew will decide on a job to carry out; after preparation is complete, the party attempts to carry out the job. Once the job is over, downtime establishes the consequences of the crew's actions, both good and ill. Wash, rinse, repeat.
- A focus on the crew. Each character has their own progression, but the ship (shared in common between the crew) and the party's reputation are just as important to their success.
- It's hard out here. Your characters are going to have to push themselves beyond their limits in order to fulfill their mission--and even then, they're still going to take some knocks. How do your characters deal with the stress of survival out in the great void?
About Me
- I'm still new to GMing play-by-post, so I may not have the same expectations as someone who's been doing this for a while.
- That said, I'm very open to suggestions and good-faith criticism. If at any point, what I'm doing isn't working for you, I'd much rather you bring it up to me than just stew on it.
That doesn't just go for negative stuff, either--if something jumps out at you as a cool opportunity or concept that you want to visit, please let me know and we can hash it out together. - My position on tabletop RPGs is that the most important thing is having fun, and the second most important thing is telling an interesting story.
Nothing should get in the way of everyone having fun, and nothing besides that should get in the way of telling a good story. - Regarding posting frequency: As I mentioned, most of my GM experience is with tabletops, and mostly with PbtA-inspired games.
As such, I'm not a stickler for turn order--I'd prefer everyone post when it makes sense for them to take a turn, and I'll do likewise. That said--if you're not going to be able to post for a week or longer, I'd appreciate a heads up so we know who we're waiting on.
From the other direction, if someone is behind the action, please don't leave them in the dust--either give them a day or three to take their turn, or confirm with them that they're ok with the action continuing without them. - On a similar note, if you don't want to be in the campaign any longer--for whatever reason--please just give me a heads up. We're just playing pretend online, so I don't hold ill will towards anyone who want to drop out for any reason, but I'd like to avoid waiting on someone who will never post.
As a general rule of thumb, I'll reach out to anyone who hasn't posted in a week; if two weeks go by with radio silence, I'll assume you're no longer interested in the thread. (Of course, if you need a month or two off, that's fine--I just ask that you let me know ahead of time instead of disappearing). - I'm not strict on posting length. If what you want to get across requires five paragraphs, I'm fine with that--but if you only need one to get your point across, then I'm fine with that too.
What's more important to me is that you're responding to the other PCs and to the world around you, that you're developing your own character, and that you're helping move the story forward by giving me and the other players something to respond to.
I do have a strong preference for proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation, but that's mostly a readability thing, and I'm not about to criticize anyone for whom English is a second language. - Please don't let any of the above make me sound strict. I'm a pretty laid-back person, and like I've said above, we're all just playing pretend online, so the stakes could not be lower. If you're following the site rules and generally not being a dick, we'll get along just fine.
Other Info
- I'm looking for 3-5 players for this; once I have at least three that agree on a tone for the campaign, I'll write up an OOC and we can go from there.
- If you want to just post a bare statement of interest, that's fine. However, I'll give priority to anyone whose interest check includes a list of the crew types they're interested in playing, ranked 1 (most interested) to 3 (least interested). If a crew type doesn't appeal to you at all, feel free to leave it off your list. (This is so I don't end up with four people who are all wanting to play completely different types of stories.)
I'm almost certainly forgetting something, but this is already a lot of text for what is supposed to just be an interest check, so I'll leave the rest for people to ask about.
