Hey all! More The Sword, The Crown, and The Unspeakable Power (SCUP) previewing. Once again, feel free to share.

Hey all! More The Sword, The Crown, and The Unspeakable Power (SCUP) previewing. Once again, feel free to share.

Something that Tom and I wanted to do to push the status and social capital elements of politics. We have a handful of ways for doing so that I’ll discuss here. 

First off, characters can have PATRONS. In other words, you can work directly for someone else. This can be another PC, or it can be an NPC that holds dominion over you somehow. When you have a Patron, you roll at the beginning of each session to see how your relationship with your Patron is doing. If they’re happy with you, you get a little coin in your pocket and all is well. If they’re displeased with you, however, they may call on you to fulfill your duties to them at some point during the session. If you refuse, it could hurt, or even break, your relationship with them.

Second, characters have PULL with each other. PULL is a mechanical gauge of social capital. You gain Pull on other characters by doing things for them, no strings attached.

“So good to see you, Pax. If I remember correctly, you wanted to know the name of that cook who’s been spreading rumors about you, right? Well I looked into it and his name is Zadkat, and he likes to spend his coin at that brothel down by the market. Of course! Happy to help! What are friends for, eh?” 

As you can guess, “no strings attached” isn’t how SCUP actually works. No strings attached just means they owe you, they just don’t know it yet! So when you do something nice for someone, you get Pull on them, representing their debt to you. You spend that Pull to cash in your social capital with them. That big, bad brute that you have Pull with? Are they about to put their sword through someone you need alive, at least a little bit longer? Perhaps spend that Pull to make them think twice about it. Do you want something of theirs that they don’t seem terribly willing to part with? Perhaps spend that Pull to remind them that they owe you. Status runs on the subtleties of social capital, and no one does anything for anyone for free when everyone is looking to climb the ladder. Pull is the mechanical gauge of how the webs of social capital, who owes who, effectively, crisscross through your game.

Finally, to give the MC a way to make social status come alive in SCUP, we have provided the MC with different lists of moves for low-status characters vs. high-status characters. Why? Because the perils of being privileged and oppressed are quite different, and we wanted oppositional moves that reflected the very different realities of those at the top of the pyramid and those at the bottom. 

For example, MC moves for elite status characters include things like “compel them to fulfill their duties” and “hint at vast conspiracies against them.” When you are at the top, you are always aware of what you stand to lose, the pressure of maintaining your status, and all those people below you smiling to your face but sharpening their knives when you turn you back.

For common status characters, it’s a very different set of problems, including “crush them with debt to those who have everything” and “put them in their place with degradation or humiliation.” When you are common, the boot of power presses down on your throat, robbing you of  your money, your power, and your pride. It’s enough to make someone go a little crazy, huh? 

Tomorrow, I’ll talk a little bit about how magic works in SCUP.