Editing Scum: We Is Scum (section)

=Where is Scum?=
==21st Century Britain==

This game was written in 2009, though the setting it depicts could have been from any time in the last 10 years, and probably will be relevant for at least a few more years yet.

Britain in 2009 is hit hard by the credit crunch, just like anywhere else in the world. Prime Minister Gordon Brown is head of a sinking ship, as the bank systems freefall into crisis after crisis, and the government throws billion after billion into jumpstarting the economy.

In a way, this isn't important for the ''Scum'' game - socially, they exist as far from the halls of Westminster as its possible to be. A good proportion of them would be hard pressed to name more than two politicians, and to them financial planning means borrowing fifty pence till tomorrow for a portion of chips. The setting of 21st century Britian is important to a GM though, as it is effects the world which the scum live in.

The world of ''Scum'' isn't the real world as such, but rather one based on the tabloid perception of it. The Daily Mirror will (between Princess Diana conspiracy theories) rave about the "chavs" on the street who "are a social disease", and will convince you that to go into town on a Friday night is to risk being stabbed and raped by gangs of rat-faced teenagers. The Sun will tell you that police are overwhelmed with bureaucracy, and can't do anything to "keep our streets safe from these scum."

People lock their doors and windows and stay in. If they have to go out, and they see a group of teenagers, will cross the road to avoid them. Because of the media, the nation lives in fear.
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==The Estate - an Urban Setting==

The ''Council Estate'' is where the nation used to hide its poor - blocks of flats would be built in the cheapest and most run down areas. The nature of the area and the population would drive down property prices, and determine the services. High street clothes shops would be replaced by discount-shops and charity shops. Restaurants would be replaced by chippies and kebaberies.

These days, thanks to some bright spark in government, every new build site has to have an area of "affordable housing". Instead of lumping all the poor in one place, they're everywhere. The net result is the same as the poor are still ostracised by middle class neighbours, except now the communities of the poor are that much smaller.

The setting of ''Scum'' is either in the inner city or in a sizeable town, but always focused around a specific small geographic area. We're not looking at the conurbation as a whole, but just at the ''Estate''.

Everyone round there is poor, though the borders between the estate and the world of the middle classes is now blurred - you could walk five minutes and find yourself "up market", and then walk another five and find yourself in the next estate along.

It doesn't really matter though - the lines that keep the scum in are lines of psychological territory. The ''scum'' know that this is where they belong, and that these are their streets. They gather at the same places every night, and subconsciously patrol the same routes.

For this reason, a ''Scum'' game scenario is normally set within a limited area, with a few notable locations that the player characters will know well. Its presumed to be a small scale setting, in that all the Player Characters and all the major NPCs know each other by name. There's nothing to stop GMs or players taking it bigger, but essentially this is a game about local affairs with local people.
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