Scum: Hurting People

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Overview

Scum emphatically is not a game of dramatic duels and high power combats. The characters in Scum are just scrawny kids, and not seasoned fighters by any means. When stabbed, a Scum will go down bleeding, and not get up again. He'll either end up in hospital, or if the guy stabbing him is enough of a nutter to keep stabbing him, he'll end up in the morgue. Either way, a single stab is enough to put a Scum out of the game session for good.

Of course, this is the modern world, and the only people likely to stab you are other Scum (aka the other player characters), and even then this is only likely to happen when there's a "good reason" for it.

Before any player character is allowed to stab any human being (including NPCs, yes), there are three obstacles he has to pass.

• 1) He must justify it in his own mind.
• 2) He must find his target and avoid being diverted.
• 3) He must overcome his nerves.

If he beats these three obstacles, then his victim is as good as dead!

Justifying Murder

To justify killing a human being, the Scum's player has to first come up with the reason wy the Scum sees murder as a reasonable course of action. This can be almost anything you like! For example:

• "Cos he shagged my sister!"
• "Cos he's got more money than me!"
• "Cos he wouldn't share his Cider!"
• "Cos he's ginger!"
• "Cos he wouldn't let me shag his sister!"

As you can see, these don't have to be good justifications, they just need to be any old excuse.

Next, once you have that justification, you test the "I'll Cut Ya!" attribute.

If you fail, then your Scum decides that it's not worth killing someone over. On a failed test, you can still try to justify murder to yourself again later, but you can't use the same excuse. You have to find (or make up) a fresh one.

If you succeed, then your Scum has convinced himself that murder is justifiable. This is a permanent shift in menta state, and from now on you can always attempt to murder that indivdual (i.e., you never need to test self-justification for murder with regards to that victim again).

Note that becase (as mentioned in the Core Rules)all dice rolls are made in the open, there is no way to hide your murderous intent! Your victim-to-be knows that you're out to get them! In-game, this is justified via such things as the rumour mill, MySpace blogs, Facebook rumours and the fact that Scum aren't very good at keeping secrets...

Hutning and avoiding being diverted

Once you've justified killing someone, you need to go find them.

That's generally the easy bit, as the Estate isn't that big, and Scum can generally find each other fairly quickly (phone mum, ask the lads where someone is, that sort of thing).

However, it is possible to avoid detection through an attribute check:

• You can take a Sneaky Bastard check to make yourself hard to find. If you pass this check, for the next hour no-one can find you unless you want them to.

Out of character, the others may still know where you are, but in character, they won't encounter you unless you want them to.

If the would-be murderer catches up with you then you still have options. You can be dismissive, you can be seductive, you can be matey, or you can share some alcohol/weed. However, you can only try ONE of these strategies, and if you do so, then you can't attempt to murder the other person either!

• To be dismissive, take a Not Bovvered check. If you succeed, the would-be murderer fails to get your attention, and they can't attack you for the next half hour. Psychologically, a Scum wants you to be intimidated and frightened just before they stab you. What's the point otherwise?

• To be seductive, make a Well Shaggable check. If you succeed, you convince the would-be murderer to "get jiggy" with you instead. This takes the whole of the next half hour, during which you and the would-be murderer can't do anything else. You can only be seductive with Scum of the opposite gender! Though a Scum might not be heterosexual, in the bigoted world of the Estate no-one would ever dare admit such a thing.