Scoundrel

A scrappy and lucky survivor

Neither the most reputable nor the one to choose the safe route, you’re a smooth-talking criminal and luck is just one of your many skills. You might be a charming rogue out for themselves. You might be the convict on the run who always has a trick up their sleeve. But while it’s true that anyone in Procyon can get into trouble, you always get into the very best kind.
When you play a Scoundrel, you thrive when you address challenges with charm or audacity. Ramp up the daring and be quick on the draw with a catchy one-liner. You shine brightest when the situation is just about to get ugly.

PLAYING A SCOUNDREL

Scoundrels are one of the most versatile playbooks in Scum and Villainy—your innate luck and daring can give you a chance to shine in many situations. Learn when to push your luck and when to let things ride. Be a risk-taker, but consider the kinds of risks you’ll take and why. Are you always willing to put it on the line for a larger payout? Do you carry a grudge over slights long past?
Strong characterization goes a long way for the Scoundrel. Describe your character’s attitude, their look, and how they walk into a room. Make them big and bold and let everyone have to deal with them. Do you have something to prove? Is your sense of importance earned or bravado? Are you smooth and friendly or brash and rough?
Desperate actions play into many of your abilities. Don’t shy away from them! Rely on armors (special and gear), resistance rolls, and your crew to mitigate the worst of it. A broad ability base helps with resistances and getting away with bad decisions.
For Actions, focus on active skills—rig, scrap, even command. skulk will let you play a familiar pickpocket and card shark. The ship captain stereotype leans on helm. A good scoundrel is always in the thick of it acting with a hare-brained plan, rather than reacting.

STARTING ABILITY

SERENDIPITOUS
Your crew starts with +1 gambit when the pool resets.
This increases the crew’s starting gambits on a job. You’re just plain luckier than other people.

SPECIAL ABILITIES (PICK ONE)

NEVER TELL ME THE ODDS
You generate gambits on desperate rolls. You may also generate gambits even if you spent a gambit.
Normally you only generate gambits on risky rolls for which you have not spent a gambit. Your ability to “stretch” gambits, regenerating them on rolls you have already spent them on, gives you the ability to put yourself in situations others might not even want to consider.
I KNOW A GUY
When you first dock at a port after being away, pick one and ask the GM about a job: it’s not deadly—it pays well enough—it’s not a rush job—it comes from a faction you trust—it targets an enemy you have. You may spend 1 cred per additional feature.
Though you keep an ear to the ground, sufficient time has to pass for new jobs to crop up at a port (usually a downtime or two). The GM will tell you how you hear about the work; it might be a publicly available bounty or something a contact reaches out about.
TENACIOUS
Penalties from harm are one level less severe (though level 4 harm is still fatal).
When harm penalties are applied to action rolls, treat them as one level less than you’d expect, so level 1 harm is ignored, and level 3 harm is -1d. Level 4 harm, also called lethal harm, is still lethal unless you can use armor or a resistance roll to reduce it first.
WHEN THE CHIPS ARE DOWN
You gain a second use of special armor between each downtime.
This allows you to use a second special armor OR use the same special armor twice.
DEVIL’S OWN LUCK
You may expend your special armor to resist the consequences of blaster fire, or to push yourself when talking your way out of (or running from) trouble.
When you use this ability, tick the special armor box on your playbook sheet. Blaster fire can extend to pistols and being shot in any way, and running from trouble can be via spaceship as much as your feet. If you use this ability to push yourself, you get one of the benefits (+1d, +1 effect, act despite severe harm) but you don’t take 2 stress. Your special armor is restored when you select your load at the start of a job.
DAREDEVIL
When you make a desperate roll, you may take +1d. If you do so, do not mark xp in that action’s attribute.
You need to make the decision before your roll. You may only take this extra die if the final position of the roll is desperate, so if you use a setup to change the position to risky, for example, you may not take the extra die.
SHOOT FIRST
When you attack from hiding or spring a trap, take +1d. When there’s a question about who acts first, the answer is you (two characters with Shoot First act simultaneously).
To attack from hiding, your target must be unaware of you. If you’re springing a trap, your target must be unaware of the trap.
ASK QUESTIONS LATER
When you consort to gather info, you gain +1 effect and can in addition ask: Who might this benefit?
When you ask your own question, you learn the answer to that, as well as to the question “who might this benefit?” Since you gain potency, the worst a normal gather information roll can produce would be standard results.

STARTING ACTIONS

2 Sway
2 Skulk

"FRIENDS"

• Nyx, a moneylender. Are you a favorite client? Or a deadbeat with a debt?
• Ora, an info broker. Always coming to you with juicy tip?
• Jal, a ship mechanic. Have they always helped you with your ship? Or is the ship theirs, and they want their due?
• Rhin, a smuggler. A trustworthy source that passes on tips? A rogue that came up in the ranks with you? Or a rival in your line of work?
• Battro, a bounty hunter. Have they let you go before? Are they looking for you now?

SCOUNDREL ITEMS

Always gotta look good, and be ready for action. Scoundrels come with things to get them in trouble, and get them out—while looking good doing it.

• Fine blaster pistol (or matching pair). Customized or strange. Can fire mystic ammunition. What do they fire? Where in your travels did you get them? Did you name them? [1 or 2 load]
• Fine coat. A heavy but well-made and well-kept coat. Distinctive and with a history. Where did you get this coat? Was it a gift, an impulse purchase, or something you won in a bet? Is it decorated with any insignia or logos? Make sure it’s got a memorable look or color. [1 load]
• Loaded dice or trick holo-cards. Gambling accoutrements subtly altered to favor particular outcomes. Luck is one of your many skills. Sometimes it just needs a little help though. When’s the last time these got you into trouble? [0 load]
• Forged documents. Reasonably well-made facsimiles of documents that would never actually be given to someone like you. Who made these for you? Do you still owe someone for them? Or did you steal them from someone? [0 load]
• Mystic ammunition. A large-caliber shell, designed to be fired from a specialized gun, which releases mystic energies when it hits. Grants potency against mystic targets. Who makes your mystic bullets? Why are they potent against Way energies? [0 load]
• Personal memento. A keepsake you cherish. A locket, small holo, music from your homeworld. For someone so tied to the spaceways, what about this memento makes it so important? Who does it remind you of? Why do you still hold onto it? [0 load]