I would assume Discord, seems to be the norm these days. But I don't necessarily have my heart set on that. If the interested people want to do threads, that wouldn't bother me.
Looks like we have enough interest that I'll start setting things up.
The group should discuss what type of crew they want to be. The roots of the system are in a criminal game (Blades in the Dark), but Scum and Villainy does support legitimate traders, mercenaries, tomb raiders or rebels. But of course, you can also be a Blades-like drug gang, assassins, professional thieves, brothel-ship, maybe a casino-ship, smugglers, pirates, etc.
Scum and Villainy has 12 'actions' that you can have points in. These are fairly broad categories. At chargen, no action can have more than 2 points. Your playbook will come with 3 points assigned, one 2-point in the iconic action for that playbook, and a 1-point in a secondary action. You are allowed to convince the GM why one action might be appropriate in a non-obvious situation (like a warning shot might use Scrap in place of Command to threaten someone).
- Attune - Using the Way, working with Precursor artifacts, other weirdness. 2-point for Mystic playbook.
- Command - Intimidate, threaten, lead, order, dominate. 1-point for Speaker, 1-point for Muscle.
- Consort - Socialize with contacts, friends. Make new ones. 2-point for Speaker.
- Doctor - This is both the action for medicine AND for science. 2-point for Stitches.
- Hack - Computers, security, hacking. No playbooks come with points in this, though the Mechanic's starting talent gives Hack bonuses.
- Helm - Piloting, using vehicular weapons. 2-points for Pilots.
- Rig - Mechanics, not just ship engineering, but any mechanical device or hardware. Software is usually Hack, instead, but there is some acceptable overlap, especially for simple systems. 2-points for Mechanics, 1-point for Pilots.
- Scramble - Athletics, Acrobatics. Jumping, swimming, running, hurdling, climbing, etc. 1-point for Mystics.
- Scrap - Combat, at least non-vehicular combat. 2-point for Muscle.
- Skulk - Sneaking around and avoiding notice. 1-point for Scoundrels.
- Study - Research, investigate, notice details, see through deception. 1-point for Stitch. 1-point for Mechanic.
- Sway - Influence someone with guile, charm or logic. 2-point for Scoundrel.
Play is generally divided into missions (these were called heists in Blades in the Dark) and downtime. Your group generally picks a mission to go on. This can be completely player driven ... let's go rob the Governor's Mansion! Some might be requests from other factions. Some might even be "requests" - do it or else. Once you have a mission, the players have a lot of agency in how to approach the goal. Rolls in Scum and Villainy are for big stuff. You're not going to be asked to roll at every door you want to bypass, you'll have a roll for "Gain entrance to XYZ" ... and that could be Rig (for lockpicking), Hack (for getting the access code), Sway (for talking your way in), Attune (
wave hand: these are the VIPs you were waiting for), Consort (we *know* the VIP they're waiting for, and we're their entourage) or even Scrap (if you're not feeling particularly covert today).
Then maybe you have a roll for "Locate the objective inside the secured area". Study (for clues), Attune (for using extra-sensory perception), Hack (getting the computer to help), Sway (getting directions from someone).
A short mission that goes well might be 8 - 12 rolls long, distributed around the players. One that doesn't go well will have more rolls as you try to fix the situation before it spirals out of control.
Speaking of which, most missions will run against the ticking clock. Most of the time more than one. Not a literal measure of time, depending on the mission it might be time (not literal real world time, but in game actions). But more often it will be things like 'Vault lockdown', 'Grand Poobah's patience', 'System police awareness' often followed by 'System police response'.
I will track these as a pool of segments, most of the time you get to see these. Nail your hacking roll and maybe the clock ticks once. Flub it and maybe it ticks 4 times. If someone else steps in to report the alarm as false and the guards buy it, maybe it only ticks twice and the 'Guards grow a brain' clock ticks once instead.
For
@kckolbe , in theory if you want to "have no speciality" you could always do Stitch, whose starting ability (called "I'm A Doctor, Not A ...") lets them consume resources to use Doctor instead of any other skill, and then spread your points out in single bunches. The Mystic and Scoundrel starting talents are also very general boosts that apply well outside their "speciality".
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