Scum: The Scum Maker

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Like Rats...

...the Scum are without number.

Such is the brutal nature of this game that its likely that at least one player will lose at least one character during a game session. A single knife wound or drug overdose will put a player character in hospital, and leave him out of play for at least as long as most Scum stories.

For this reason, character generation has been designed to be ultra-fast. With just five D6 rolls, you can make your character. When your player character dies or is hospitalised, the game stops for one or two minutes, and you roll up a new one.

Introducing new characters

Because the game is set entirely on the Estate, and because the Estate is full of Scum, its pretty easy for new characters to turn up. One Scum texts another, or maybe just turns up while wandering the streets. They're brought up to speed in efficient style, and they join the game.

For example, a phone conversation where Darryl brings Mikey into the game:

• Darryl: "Oi, Mikey. Pub?"
• Mikey: "Yeah, alright."

Job done!

No grudges

In a game where the character's lives are cheap, and where the most likely cause of hospitalisation is another player character, it is absolutely essential that everyone knows, from the outset, that you can't carry a grudge between players. Each player character is considered a blank slate, nothing to do with that player's previous characters.

Rolling Up

Just to clarify, we're not talking about weed and rislas here. Well, not mostly. We're talking about making your characters. There are just ten attributes for each Scum, that will tell you pretty much everything you need to know about them. They fall into five pairings.

To generate the first attribute in a pair, roll a 6-sided dice. This sets that attribute.

To generate the second attribute in a pair, you need to deduct the first attribute from seven. For example, if you have a Nutter attribute of 5, then you'd have a Sneaky Bastard attribute of 2.

The pairings are as follows:

• Nutter .... Sneaky Bastard
• Well Shaggable .... Good mate
• I'll cut ya! .... Not bovvered.
• Pisshead .... Stoner
• Shrapnel .... Drugs

So, for example, if you rolled in sequence 5, 2, 4, 1, 3, then your character sheet would now look like this:

• Nutter 5
• Sneaky Bastard 2
• Well Shaggable 2
• Good mate 5
• I'll cut ya! 4
• Not bovvered 3
• Pisshead 1
• Stoner 6
• Shrapnel 3
• Drugs 4

Bear in mind these are just your initial values in game - they'll change as the game goes on.

So what do these attributes mean?

The Nutter attribute represents how likely you are to hurt someone when you attack them. Its not really skill at fighting (as these are just Scum kids, not martial artists) but more the willingness to stick a knife in someone's gut, or a boot in their face. You use this attribute when you want to hospitalise someone.

The Sneaky Bastard attribute is used to avoid being detected (stealth) but also to avoid being the one that stands out (social camouflage). If you're trying to move unnoticed past a guard dog, you'd use this attribute, but also if you're standing in a police line-up and hoping not to be the one the old granny picks out, you use this attribute as well.

The Well Shaggable attribute describes how sexually appealing you are.