Editing Scum: We Is Scum (section)

=Who is Scum?=
==The Disenfranchised Generation==

Every generation's youths feels special and different, though each approaches it in their own way.

The reader's generation probably recalls the punks, the mods and the new romantics, or if they're a bit younger, maybe the goths and the metalheads. These were all subcultures, embraced by a sizeable minority, and with the shared theme of the rejection of societal values.

The protagonists of this game are similar but different to those of previous generations. 

Like a punk, a chav has a certain style of dress that sets them apart from the general public. The male chav has his tracksuit bottoms, his reeboks, his hoodie and his baseball cap. The female chav either has her fake designer handbag, her white stilettoes, her mini-skirt and crop top, or just wears a female version of the male uniform. Like a punk, the chav knows that society despises and ridicules his or her dress sense, but the chav wears these things as a badge of pride.

Like a punk, a chav has his own musical genre. He claims certain genres of rap (especially white boy rap and UK garage music) as his own, though he isn't defined by these musical tastes.

However, unlike a punk, the chav isn't yet accepted into the mainstream. Also, unlike a punk the chav isn't in any way ''political''. The chav isn't looking to tear down the status quo, he's just looking to get drunk, have fun and do what he wants.

Also, unlike the punk, the chav has yet to take their monicker as a badge of pride. Call a chav a chav, and you'll get him angry. Call a punk a punk, and they'll be happy to be recognised.

In years to come, likely they'll be middle aged folk who look back to the chav generation and smile, and say how much worse "today's scum" are than the harmless chavs of yesteryear. For now though, the chavs are ''this decade's'' disenfranchised generation.
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==A Piratical Bent==

As roleplayers, we have to take our anti-heroes and turn them into protagonists that we can care about and relate to.

The approach that this game takes is to look at common media, and look for depictions of anti-heroes. 

A good match here is ''pirates''.


Like pirates, the chavs are seen as the ''scum of society''. They are feared and loathed, and exist outside of the system. Like pirates, the chavs are hedonistic, drunkard and money-grabbing. They both mix gregariousness with a treacherous nature. They both approach violence and sex casually.

Its a small step then to take elements of pirate stories, and to layer them onto the setting of ''Scum''. How much you want to do this depends on your style. 

A subtle GM might just take certain themes - buried treasure, mutiny and the like - and use them as background elements. This is the default approach, recommended by the author. Pirates are a useful mental placeholder to give you ideas as to how you can make villainous folk into protagonists that you can root for. Piratical fiction also runs the same gamut of styles and ranges that you might want to consider in a game of ''Scum'': humour balanced with darkness, and grime mixed with sexuality.

A GM who wants to emphasise the theme might take piratical tropes and modernise them. Perhaps walking the plank might be a gang's way of executing someone, but making them walk off a building's edge rather than into the sea. A map with X-marks-the-spot might be a London Underground map with a big X over one station. 

Finally, a heavy handed GM may want to lift elements wholesale, and hammer in the genre tropes. Perhaps a pub called the Admiral Benbow, or the boss chav being called "Cap'n" and having an eye patch. This approach, of course, lends itself better to heavy humour games, and ones which want to break further from realism.
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