Group bounced off FitD/Scum & Villainy · Game Master's Laboratory

Group bounced off FitD/Scum & Villainy

We recently finished a disappointing 10 session run of Scum and Villainy (S&V), "a game about a spaceship crew trying to make ends meet under the iron-fisted rule of the Galactic Hegemony."

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐈𝐭 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐝

Coming off a 2 year 5E Curse of Strahd campaign (and primarily a 3 year homebrew 5E campaign before that), we wanted to do something different. We chose S&V because space opera ship crew seemed radically different than heroic fantasy and gothic horror and because I wanted the group to try a FitD game. S&V aims to emulate Star Wars, Cowboy Bebop, and/or Firefly. The group was the most excited about emulating Firefly so we decided to create a "mostly mundane" setting and use the "Stardancer" ship template.

We decided the provided setting was too big and varied for our tastes so we set off to create our own. We played a game of the Quiet Year and in the process created 3 sectors with 8 planets and a few notable space landmarks (giant satellite laser, asteroid belt, Remnant ruins, etc.) as well as 14 factions of varying strengths. Everyone had a great time authoring the setting collectively. After that session, I spent far too long filling in additional details for the setting. Every player created a great character with their own goals and significant ties to the setting. We were excited to play.

Checking over my notes, the campaign primarily consisted of 5 different jobs:

Stealing medicine (that treats an alien parasite that turns victims into rage monsters) from a "Hegemony" warehouse.
Recovering an encrypted drive from an abandoned mining station in the asteroid belt where the alien parasite originated.
Prison break to free an ally's ship captain and recover their confiscated ship.
Stealing an advanced robot (augmented with Remnant tech) from a party attended by nobility and high-ranking military officials.
Transporting the stolen robot through military blockade to an interested party.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐝

Investment in the collectively created setting and character ties to the setting.
𝘾𝙡𝙤𝙘𝙠𝙨: everyone sings the praises of FitD clocks and there's good reason to. The increasing tension and/or progress of clocks really worked at the table for my group.
𝘽𝙖𝙙 𝙊𝙪𝙩𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙨 (1,2,3): everyone reveled when a roll flat out failed and the crew's plans went truly off the rails. I really enjoyed the freedom to introduce truly wicked complications on a bad outcome in a desperate position.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐃𝐢𝐝𝐧'𝐭 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤

𝙀𝙭𝙘𝙚𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙈𝙖𝙭𝙞𝙢𝙪𝙢 𝙎𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙨: except for one player, players had their characters step back once their PC was close to maximum stress. Despite urging folks to drive their PCs like stolen cars, most folks wanted to protect their characters from trauma.
𝙈𝙚𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙯𝙚𝙙 𝘿𝙤𝙬𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚: in other campaigns, PC-to-PC roleplay primarily happens during downtime. When my group played S&V, each player rotated through their allotment of downtime activities with little interaction with others. I encouraged players to include other players in their downtime scenes but it felt very forced the few times it happened.
𝙇𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙤𝙛 𝙎𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙙 𝙂𝙤𝙖𝙡𝙨: this one has nothing to do with the system and in my opinion was the primary failing of the campaign. Every single character had great goals and ties to the setting but we were missing connective tissue between them. My very respectful players never wanted to prioritize their own goals over the others at the table and it felt like the game came to a standstill.
𝙎𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙙 𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙎𝙝𝙚𝙚𝙩: the shared ship character sheet always felt awkward and like an afterthought. It never felt like the group owned the shared character and none of the players were excited to answer the Crew XP questions at the end of a session.
𝙎𝙡𝙤𝙬 𝘼𝙙𝙫𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙏𝙤𝙤 𝙈𝙖𝙣𝙮 𝙏𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙨: S&V has many different ways to advance characters and the setting. Characters have XP tracks for each individual attribute AND XP for playbook advances (as well as the stress track and recovery track.) The crew/ship has its own XP track AND a heat track for every sector AND a wanted level for every sector. Factions have clocks that advance their plots and change the setting. In our retrospective on the game we felt the characters and the world advanced too slowly.
𝙈𝙞𝙭𝙚𝙙 𝙎𝙪𝙘𝙘𝙚𝙨𝙨: I never felt confident coming up with the consequence on "success with consequences" results. I ended up defaulting to ticking a clock or moving the crew into a worse position.
𝙉𝙤 𝙏𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡 𝙀𝙣𝙜𝙖𝙜𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩: one of my players greatly enjoys tactical play and nothing about the system made them feel like they had played the game well or made a smart decision. They played the Stitch (doctor) playbook and never felt like their doctoring made any difference to how well or poorly the job went. I'm not sure how I can make this player happy if we do play more narrative games in the future.

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐈𝐭 𝐄𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝

Throughout the campaign, we enjoyed spending time as a group but no one seemed to be having as much fun as we had in other systems.

I prepped very little for what ended up being the final session of the campaign. I was honest with the players that I didn't know where they wanted the game to go next and I was struggling to see how to bring the campaign to a satisfying conclusion. Everyone agreed that they weren't having as much fun with S&V as they had in previous campaigns and we should move onto the next thing.

I proposed that everyone would get a single 3d6 roll, with an additional die if another character chose to help in their final scene, and then would narrate what their character's final job was and the dice would determine how it went. I encouraged the players to take big swings and make meaningful changes to the setting. This ended up being great fun and everyone was excited for how much changed during this final session. In our retrospective, one player remarked that they had the most fun in the Quiet Year Session and the final session but very little fun in between (ouch.)

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐖𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐃𝐨 𝐃𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲

𝑺𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝑪𝒓𝒆𝒘 𝑮𝒐𝒂𝒍: I mentioned it earlier but the lack of a shared goal amongst the players was the primary failing of the campaign. Every individual's character and corresponding goals were awesome but it never ended up meshing.
𝙁𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝘼𝙙𝙫𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩: I'd cut the XP tracks, faction clocks, and heat tracks in half so both characters and the world advance faster after every job. I don't know if FitD games typically have campaigns that go for 10-20-30 sessions but I think my group would've had more fun if the world and characters advanced every 2 sessions rather than every 4.
𝘽𝙞𝙜𝙜𝙚𝙧 𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙚𝙨: I'd probably start the crew at a higher tier and make the stakes of each job bigger so that they really impact the setting. There was nothing inherently wrong with the jobs I created or the "realistic" goals the characters had. I realize now that my players have more fun when their characters' actions meaningfully change the setting.

𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧

I'm glad my group played S&V and now has experience with a FitD game. I'm not sure we'll play another FitD game anytime soon. We're currently gearing up for a Shadow of the Weird Wizard campaign. I'm working with my players to create proactive characters. ;)

I am curious how other groups have felt about their time with FitD games.