Evil Hat Productions Scum and Villainy, Game

I'm a regular D&D player and DM who has been looking for more compact RPGs to play episodically. A sci-fi setting was on my mind as well. Scum and Villainy scratched my itch. This book is all you need to play. Rules for players and GMs. The Forged in the Dark system sets your characters up to be the scum and villainy. You are pulling heists, smuggling, and general acting like Han Solo. All the character playbooks and setting materials you needed are free to download at the Evil Hat website. Grab some d6s and you're good to go. The book itself is beautiful and high quality. I love seeing it on my shelf or table. My only quibbles with S&V are that (like most RPGs), some things could be explained better. The book jumps into the rules before giving a quick but comprehensive overview of the system and setting. This is a common shortcoming IMHO of many RPGs--certainly the granddaddy of them all, D&D, is a culprit as well. But in such a small package, I would love to see a quick overview to help pique interest before having a bunch of rules thrown at you.

The book is smaller than you'd expect for a core rulebook for a system (roughly half the size of DND 5.0 core, but just as thick) but that doesn't mean you're getting less! This is easily one of the most well thought out systems that provides Game Masters so many tools to easily create content and methods to keep that content interesting. Some big standouts: - There is an action to literally have a flashback to flesh out a situation you're currently in. Need the codes for this door? No problem! Have a flashback real quick with a few rolls to see if you were successful in obtaining them... or making things even worse. - "Clocks" or methods to track events, ideas, actions, concepts, etc and an elegant system that has skills/abilities tied directly into advancing (or disrupting) these clocks. Fail a roll to hack a console? The GM might tell you to start a clock with 4 sections called "discovered by security" and then ask you if you want to push your luck and try again. - Extensive tables with roll values to allow you to populate an absurd amount of content just from the dice roll. Not even about the product, but my experience with the company: I contacted Evil Hat on their website for a long shot request, to obtain a copy of the PDF files due to purchasing the book. They fulfilled this request no problem, and it was even a co-owner of the company that reached out!

This uses the blades in the dark system which is a very fun and fast paced RPG system, with fewer rules than D&D but honestly way more fun. If your party wants to drink beer and make jokes while blasting their way through star wars style adventures, this is for you! Which isn't to say the game is easy per se, it can be very hard. Its just more about meaningful choices than stats and dice rolling. The book itself is well made, has good art, and is a sturdy hardback. Only disappointment is the rules feel a little light. Would love to have additional lists of items, artifacts, other ships, enemies, etc. in order to facilitate a larger campaign and not have to think on your feet so much. The game has rules as well as a description of planets and factions on them, which is enough to get you going for sure. Very fun game. My group loves it.

The 'Forged in the Dark' ruleset is decent and captures the sense of playing as a team, running missions, very well - which is precisely the premise of this game. Moreover, this is probably the best iteration of the rules, with a little more fleshing out and an added metacurrency to wield for dramatic moments. I would have liked a bit more in the way of its setting but that's never been the focus of this series, so I wouldn't expect much more. A solid addition to your FitD game collection.

A fantastic, dense but elegant space opera rpg that builds on the ‘Forged in the Dark’ framework. For both longtime rpg fans and newcomers, this system will give you back just as much as you put in. It really is a great framework for telling a story where basically anything that happens has a way to play it out in the rules. At the same time, the rules don’t get in the way of the story. The book itself is a high quality hardcover with a logical, ordered layout and just enough evocative art. Highly recommend!

Please don't let the 1-star review discussing quality deter you. I've had my hardcover for 6 months and it's holding up great. Scum & Villainy is an elegantly designed, beautifully made, fun to play game. Blades in the Dark experience not necessary. For those of you interested in Forged in the Dark systems, but with a few minor (in my opinion, all for the positive) tweaks, this is highly recommended.

Scum and Villainy is a great system for playing fast paced and high stakes space operas of all sorts. The players make individual characters and then collaborate to create the space ship on which they serve. It's a hack of the Blades in the Dark ruleset and does a wonderful job of keeping what still works from that system and adding what is needed to create your own stories.

Borrowing a lot of mechanics from other RPGs, this still comes in booming with a ton of content and a perfect addition to the Sci-Fi genre. Reading the lingo and moves will constantly have your brain pinging nostalgic references from many classic Science Fiction moments. The book is bound beautifully and the pages are slick. I love the artwork and style of the entire layout. It's easy to reference and carry around. Beam me up! Great job!