All - A few weeks back I commented on what I perceived to be the potential of
Scoundrels of Brixton for a criminally focused 2d6
Cepheus /
Hostile game. At the time I didn’t have copies of the games – I’d just seen the previews, read a review and seen the notes provided by the author so information was both fragmentary and second hand.
Since then I’ve bought copies of the rule supplement
Scoundrels: Making your Game Criminal and the 2 background supplements
Scoundrels of Brixton SD1: Under A Hard Sun and
Scoundrels of Brixton SD2: The Clean Hands. So I thought I would write a partial review of
Scoundrels. It is partial in both senses of the word. It is partial in the sense that this is not a full review of every aspect of the game because I’ve focused more on
Scoundrels than
SD1 or
SD2 and also I have subjective opinions on the game. All 3 books are written by Jeffrey Jones and published by
RPG Ramblings and available from:
https://rpgramblings.com/store/). There also appears to be an SD3 supplement coming out eventually as well, but I have no further details on this.
SCOUNDRELS –
Scoundrels I would describe
Scoundrels in several ways. It is a set of mini rules, random tables and detailed background to allow a GM (or even solo play) to create criminal focused games in a modern or sci fi setting. The book is divided into 3 sections (
The City,
Crime and
New Rules). Each occupies about a third of the book with the full book coming in at 92 pages of approximately A5 size. The text is quite small so, overall, there is a lot of information crammed in.
The City and
Crime are system neutral, though there is often use of d66 tables we are familiar with. So they would be very easy to use in a
Cepheus /
Hostile game.
The City section describes an unnamed city somewhere in the modern, or future, world. The different districts are sketched out with interesting locals you might meet there. Significant Institutions are described with more characters connected to them and finally the major Factions, essentially criminal gangs, that operate in the city.
The
Crime section allows a GM to set up a criminal adventure, called a Score or Job in the book, with tables for:
- Lists of common economic activity, really just crimes or rackets, in the city.
- Friends and rivals the players might meet or want to avoid.
- Background specialists that the Players might need to help them complete a Job.
- Locations that the Players might visit during the game.
- Complications that will inevitably arise as they go about their business.
- Crimes that might be attempted by the Players.
- Advice on Adventure Creation for the GM.
- A list of Job Seeds to get the Players’ first Job underway.
The
New Rules section includes a simplification of several
Blades In The Dark rules, which themselves focus on criminal games but in a lot more detail. The
New Rules are intended to supplement an existing set of rules such as
Cepheus /
Hostile, rather than stand alone as
Blades does. Due to the origin of these rules, there are frequent use of d6 tables and dice pools and as such these do not at first glance seem to fit easily into a 2d6 game. However these rules are so straightforward, and quite interesting too, so can easily be adapted as house rules and I think are worth the effort. The rules include:
- Dice Mechanics that describe the use of dice pools in the add on rules that follow. These are totally incompatible with 2d6 mechanics as they stand. The dice pool mechanic is used in most of the rules that follow, typically through Advantages or Disadvantages or a simple d6 roll. This seems to be a significant problem at first glance, if you are keen to stay with 2d6 mechanics. However the rules are simple and it is easy to understand the effects, which typically create advantageous or disadvantageous rolls. So I think that by regarding the Advantages and Disadvantages as plus or minuses to a 2d6 roll, instead of as part of a dice pool, then they can be easily converted to rules we are familiar with.
- Abstracting Money – this describes a simple money system to eliminate bookkeeping. this might be useful sometimes.
- Engagement – This is a simple way of bundling together a whole set of player activity including movement, preparation, actions, skill rolls, results (eg: casing a joint, forcing entry, sneaking about, getting away etc.) that altogether would make up a complete Job. To those of you familiar with Cepheus Solo or Hostile Solo you might recognise the similarity of this rule to “The Plan” or “Scene Resolution” which Engagement resembles. As such I intend to use the Cepheus / Hostile rule instead and ignore Engagement.
- Fortune – This is essentially a Luck mechanic. It is intended for a wide range of uses, often by the GM, to decide a random outcome in a situation where a Skill roll isn’t appropriate. This may also be used to determine the outcome of activities remote from the Players.
- The Crew – this is a rule to determine the relationship between the Players’ Crew (ie: criminal gang) and other gangs, law enforcement, institutions etc. A useful minor addition.
- After The Job – this is a set of simple steps that tie all the New Rules together.
- Procedure – This is a simple rule to determine how much the Players’ make from a successful Job.
- Heat – This is a rule to determine how much notice others (eg: rival gangs, law enforcement, corporates, victims etc.) take of the Players’ after they have completed their job. This is a great little rule and would make a great add on to the Cepheus / Hostile “The Plan” or “Scene Resolution” rules.
- Entanglements – This further develops the aftermath of a Job and is great for generating side adventures or seeds for whole new adventures. Again, it would be a useful add on to the Cepheus / Hostile “The Plan” or “Scene Resolution” rules.
- Downtime – a set of mini rules on what Players’ might get up to between Jobs and easy to integrate into either Cepheus or Hostile.
- Blades Conversion – Notes on using these simple rules with the original Blades game.
- Playbook Changes – Further notes to integrate the rules into a Blades game.
SCOUNDRELS OF BRIXTON SD1: UNDER A HARD SUN – this is the first supplement for
Scoundrels. As such it is much more closely designed to fit into a conventional 2d6 game, with most stats
Cepheus /
Hostile compliant. The only anomaly I could spot was the weird sub sector map, which doesn’t seem to have a name, in which the Brixton system can be found. SD1 is a typical system supplement that provides colour with local history, sub sector map, Brixton System schematic, description of the main planet Deluvia, details of the biggest Deluvian settlement called Sky City and finishing with a short list of possible missions in the system. Overall a useful addition if you decide
Scoundrels is a good game.
SCOUNDRELS OF BRIXTON SD2: THE CLEAN HANDS – This is a further supplement that details the eponymous Clean Hands gang as a potential gang that the Players could join or run. Factions opposing the gang, along with some suggested missions and some new gear and creatures are added to further develop play in the Brixton system.
OVERALL – The tone of all 3 supplements is no nonsense, full of detail and very game-able. The tone is gritty and reasonably realistic and especially suited to a
Hostile setting. So I would say the
Scoundrel rules supplement itself would be a great addition for any GM and Players that want to play criminal
Cepheus /
Hostile games. A little work is needed to integrate it into 2d6 mechanics, but not much and the results will probably be worth it for the extra fun they will create. The SD1 and SD2 background supplements are more mainstream 2d6 with no further
Scoundrel rules. If you are hooked by
Scoundrels then you may want these as well, but they are not essential.
I hope this updated and independent review was helpful.
Tim
