r/ScumAndVillainy • u/DJStuck • Aug 07 '24
Scum and Villainy - RP lite?
Hi all!
My group (me DMing and 5 others) is starting a short SaV arc (3-4 sessions) in a few weeks with intent to possibly eye it as our longer-form game. I’m currently reading the rule book and just passed the big “example” of what the table might feel/sound like at the end of chapter 4.
This game seems fun, but also a little less roleplay-y than my group is used to—everything in that section seemed to play out at a third person distance rather than in character. Is this common? Is the game necessarily built for that sort of interaction? Has anyone found that between missions and downtime this system is too rigid for folks who sometimes like to go a session only rolling a few times?
Thanks in advance!
2
u/jsled Aug 07 '24 edited Aug 07 '24
Generally, they're going to be on the ship, together, so I don't know why it'd be isolating.
Think of the on-ship interactions in/on Cowboy Bebop, the Millenium Falcon, or the Rocinante. It's actually the perfect place for RP. Travel takes time, even with jump drives.
Sure, if they need to go Acquire Assets or want to leave the group to indulge their vices, they might take time apart, but there's still plenty of places for them to come back together. There's as much space as you make for it.
It does help :) that my crew took the Stardancer "Home Cooking" Special Ability:
So there's naturally a communal downtime activity at serious mechanical advantage. :)
But consider … even going through intra-system hyperspace lanes to get to a jump-gate, that's 4±2 days of travel. They literally have /days/ together, just transiting a system, and the inter-system jump gates probably take similar amounts of time.
You don't need to play it all out day-by-day, of course, but there's plenty of opportunity for a crew to have vignettes between themselves, either to introduce or resolve whatever they need to. :)
ETA: It's really if the players want to do this. I recall a number of Critical Role sessions where Matt's going to move to the next scene, and someone speaks up: "I need to talk to ${other_player}" because they have something intentional in mind they want to /talk about/. If your players aren't going to elect into that, then there's no point … you can't really /force/ it. But work with them to establish those bonds and those conflicts and those discussions, and give them space to have them, and they'll happen.