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A game by Incertae Sedis
 Scoundrels
A fast-paced, rules-light TTRPG for lucky rogues
Welcome to Scoundrels – a game for lucky rogues. This TTRPG is made for short one-shot-style stories
that move fast and get more intense as the game carries on, and your crew of scoundrels run short on luck.
Originally made for a sci-fi setting, players take the role of a cast of thieves, bounty hunters or general reprobates
living on the fringe of the law, or well outside of it. Together with your ship, your crew dives head-long into trouble,
deliberately on the hunt for coin or credits, or accidentally as trouble finds you. Scoundrels rely not just on their
skills and abilities for success, but also their abundance of luck, which can help them succeed where an ordinary
person would fail. But luck is a fickle and scarce resource, and when its gone, there is little separating a rogue from
their fate, whether at the other end of a blaster, in the heat of an explosion, or in the bitter void of space.

Game Rules successfully perform, and have the player make a

In Scoundrels, only situations in which the
player character has a chance of failing are subject to
a skill check.
All skill checks in Scoundrels are performed
using 2d6 dice (Table 1). A score between 7 and 11
represents a flat success – the attempted action is
successful, period. If the skill check results in a
number between 3 and 6, the action is successful,
but there is a complication. Narratively, a
complication can be described as something that
doesn’t go quite to planned; for example, a player
trying to pickpocket a target might be successful in
swiping their prize, but could draw unwanted
attention to the crew as a complication.
Complications also have in-game mechanical
impacts, covered in the Luck section.
A critical success on a skill check occurs when
the player rolls a 12. This action is incredibly
successful. It’s a good chance for the GM to
narratively show how slick or impressive the
scoundrel is in their action – or potentially hand the
reigns off to the player to explain how amazingly
they succeeded at their plan. Conversely, rolling a 2
is a critical failure on the skill check. The action fails,
often spectacularly, usually representing an
unexpected setback for the group.
The GM can decide that an action
attempting by a player is very difficult for them to
1 If a player simplifies a challenging roll, it becomes a
standard roll.
challenging skill check. For a challenging skill check,
the player rolls 3d6 instead of 2, but must take the
lower two numbers for their roll. Players can also use
some of their own resources – their character’s
talents (learned skills) and tech (tools on their
person) – to make a roll easier for themselves. In
these situations, the players can make their roll
simple: the player rolls 3d6 instead of 2, but they
must take the higher two numbers for their roll.1
Details on character features and traits are covered
in the Making Your Scoundrel section.
Critical Success with Flat Critical
failure complication success success
2 3-6 7-11 12
Table 1: skill check results (from 2d6 dice rolls) and
their meaning
Most skill checks are made solo, as one
scoundrel attempts to perform a task, but
sometimes it is necessary for the crew to work
together on a singular action. In these situations, the
crew can perform a group skill check. The group
result is the consensus of the crew’s rolls (for
example, if 2 scoundrels succeeded but 1 succeeded
with complications, the group result is a flat success).
In a tiebreaker situation, the lower result takes
priority (for example, if there were 2 complications
and 2 successes, the group result is a complication).2

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A game by Incertae Sedis
 Making Your Scoundrel
Scoundrels is intended to take little time to prepare
and start, including the process of character
creation. Every scoundrel needs the following
features to be a formidable, functional member of
the crew:
• 1 trait: a notable physical quality or
ability, which might reflect a scoundrel’s
build, appearance or even their species.
Examples: intimidating form, many arms, tiny size
• 1 trigger: a powerful motive, drive,
moral position or commitment that is
significant to the scoundrel.
Examples: “I won’t tolerate someone hurting my
crew”, or “I do bounty hunting to afford college”
• 3 talents: honed skills acquired over the
scoundrel’s lifetime
Examples: pickpocketing, chemistry, playing the
bassoon
• 1 tech: a useful piece of equipment on
the scoundrel’s person that they have
moderate familiarity with.
Examples: handy blaster, hackbot 3000, graffiti kit
Traits and triggers differ in function from
talents and tech: Traits and triggers are one-time use
features that, when used, let the scoundrel instantly
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succeed on a skill check – even before the check is
made! These are powerful features that the
scoundrel leans on often in the most dire of
moments. Talents and tech on the other hand are
features the scoundrel can rely on repeatedly to
simplify a task or action.
In addition to these useful, positive features,
no scoundrel would be complete without a few vices.
Every scoundrel also needs 3 faults, which can come
in a variety of forms (whose decision is up to the
player, and approved by the GM):
• A vice or addiction
• A sordid past with certain people or factions
• A physical weakness
• A considerable debt or bounty
• Neuroses, phobias or problematic
personality traits, etc.
Faults serve no valuable function to the
scoundrel, but do serve a narrative function. The GM
is encouraged to use faults to make skill checks more
challenging for their respective scoundrels, where
appropriate. For example, if a scoundrel has an
irrational fear of reptiles or struggles in humid
environments, the scoundrel would face
considerable challenge trying to escape from a
rampaging giant lizard on a jungle planet, and thus
should roll challenging skill checks instead of
standard ones.
The Ship
Every crew of scoundrels needs a good ship!
Often the pride of the crew, essential for many jobs,
and sometimes even the home of the scoundrels
themselves, the ship could even be thought of as
another member of the crew.
At the start of the game, the crew decides on
essential features of the ship together, including the
ship’s name, its stations and unique modules.
• Stations: a ship has a number of stations
equal to the number of scoundrels in the
crew. At least one of these stations must be
2 In group skill checks, an individual scoundrel rolling a
complication does not impact the complication counter
A game by Incertae Sedis
 the cockpit, and the crew must jointly decide starts at a size of 6 at the beginning of an adventure,
on the other stations.3 Examples include: with the crew starting with 6 luck tokens. The pool
o An engine room increases by 1 with every scoundrel added.
o A med bay
o A weapons battery Luck tokens can be gained, lost or used by
o An armory the crew to gain an edge in a situation. Players can
o A long-range comms station use luck tokens in three ways:

Every member of the crew must pick a • BEFORE A ROLL: a scoundrel can use a
station to be their specialty – the station they are luck token to make a skill check simple.4
most experienced and capable at using. Skill checks • AFTER A ROLL: a scoundrel can use a luck
made using this ship station are standard checks, but token to reroll a skill check as a standard
skill checks made using a station a scoundrel is not roll.
experienced with are challenging. • A scoundrel can use a luck token to
narratively explain a situation or flash
• Modules: a ship has a number of modules back to a previous moment where they
equal to the number of scoundrels in the acquired a new tech. This tech is added
crew. Each player picks one module to add to their list of tech. Each scoundrel can
to the ship. Examples include: only perform this action once.
o An extreme speed boost button
o A high-spec cloaking device
o A comm-jammer probe
o Deployable mining drones
o A radiation containment unit
Modules, similar to a scoundrel’s trait and
trigger, are single-use features to grant an instant
success on a skill check. Once used, the module
provides no additional bonus, although it can still be
used narratively when appropriate (GM’s discretion).

Luck
Scoundrels are an unusually lucky bunch, a
quality that helps them survive and even thrive in a
dangerous, cutthroat world. However, luck only lasts
for so long – the more a scoundrel pushes luck, the
more it’s likely to run out, leaving them wishing they
still had it.
The crew of scoundrels together possess a
luck pool, an amount of luck the crew has. The size
of the luck pool scales with the number of scoundrels
in the crew: for a crew of 3 scoundrels, the pool Luck can also be lost by acquiring too many
complications. The GM keeps track of the number of
3 A ship lacking an engine room does not lack engines. It lacks complications the crew has acquired. Successes with
a station that can be manned and operated by a crew complications (3-6 on a skill checks) give one
member. complication, while critical failures (2 on a skill check)
4 Using luck to make a skill check simple overrules a give 2. After 3 complications, the GM removes 1 luck
challenging skill check. token from the luck pool.

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A game by Incertae Sedis
 The luck pool itself also shrinks steadily over
the course of the game. The GM is encouraged to
identify 4 major events in the adventure that trigger
the luck pool to shrink. These events are situations
where the pressure on the scoundrels ramps up, a
major hurdle is cleared, or a new threat begins to
loom – signifying that the situation grows more risky,
dire or dangerous for the crew. If the number of luck
tokens available is equal to the maximum size of the
luck pool, a luck token is lost as the pool shrinks.
However, sometimes a scoundrel finds a bit
of extra luck in a dire moment. If a critical success is
rolled, 1 luck token is added to the luck pool.5
When Luck Runs Out
At the end of the day, luck is fleeting, it
doesn’t last forever. When a scoundrel’s luck runs
out, their fate is often close at hand.
When luck reaches 0, the complication
counter instantly resets. Complications accrue as
normal, but when the counter reaches 3, the crew
has finally met its end, and the game is over. A game
over might mean being captured by the law or an
enemy, knocked unconscious and unable to assist
the crew any further, or worse – being killed
outright. The severity of the situation is context-
dependent, and up to the GM and player to decide
the scoundrel’s fate.
What loss means for the crew depends on
the GM, the players, and the story being told. It is
5 This does not apply to skill checks that already used luck.
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strongly encouraged to set expectations in advance
of the game’s start so no player is surprised by a
game’s tragic end, if one occurs.
Of course, if the crew survives their
harrowing adventure, making it out the other side
with their lives intact and a job done, the GM should
reward the players through narration, so the crew
can reap their spoils – after all, a surviving crew of
scoundrels may take on a new job another time.
Deviation and Experimentation
Scoundrels was originally designed to
support a science fiction setting, with elements of
ship combat and playing to ideas of interstellar
smugglers, galactic bounty hunters, and rough-and-
tumble rogues you’d find slamming drinks in the
back of a cantina on some backwater planet. But
there is no hard rule that a game of Scoundrels MUST
adhere to these concepts or settings! Following such
a rigid set of expectations? Fah! Scoundrels’ trigger
fingers grow restless at the very idea!
Scoundrels is just a set of mechanics to run
fast-paced games with minimal preparation from the
GM or players – where players take the roll of rogues
of any kind, working together for a common goal –
that goal is usually money, but it doesn’t have to be.
Some games, by the nature of the story the
GM wants to tell, will have no ships at all, and that’s
okay! For those games, we recommend removing
the ship module and station content entirely, and
instead allowing the scoundrels to pick up an
additional trait and tech in its place.
For more intense games, where the pressure
ramps up quickly and severely and death looms over
every scoundrel’s shoulder, consider making the luck
pool smaller at the start. Over the course of the
game, at important story milestones, continue
reducing the size of the luck pool until it reaches 1
instead of 2. A similar tactic is useful if your game is
anticipated to be quite short, and you still want to
have the scoundrels feel the danger.
A game by Incertae Sedis
 Getting Started
Devising a story to explore in any TTRPG can be challenging, especially when it’s the first time anyone has
run or played a particular game system. Thankfully, prompts are often useful to GMs preparing their own
games, helping people without a set plan in mind get started preparing a game. The following are just a few
prompts for a few interesting adventures that could make for an exciting game of Scoundrels:

A heist job is interrupted by bounty hunters trying to collect - and the one who posted
1 the bounty happens to be a good friend of the crew!

The crew is running protection for a research team, and scientists start going missing on
2 their watch, seemingly vanishing into thin air!

An old crew member has been captured, and it's time to bust them out before the captors
3 can extract dangerous info on the crew!

A job went wrong, and the whole crew has been arrested. Time to break out of prison and
4 get back to the free-living scoundrel life!

After taking a rogue blaster shot, the crew is stranded on a strange, hostile planet while
5 the ship is repaired - but they still need to recover cargo lost in the crash!

The crew is tasked with stealing a well-guarded, priceless artifact on a transport vessel -
6 but the buyer is hiding many secrets from the crew!

Two crews were hired on the same heist job! Steal the target and escape with the prize
7 before the other crew beats you to it!

It's a turf war in a valuable sector. Your crew and allies must get the upper hand on the
8 opposing faction, and put a stop to the violence so business can resume!

On vacation between jobs, the crew encounters a horde of hungry aliens that mimic other
9 people - now they must tell friend from foe and escape with their lives!

While scavenging a stranded cruiser, the crew finds the ship completely empty, save for
10 a murderous, nigh-unkillable alien monster!

On a bounty hunt, the bounty is so desperate to escape capture that they put an entire
11 space station at risk of a violent demise!

The crew has come into possession of a powerful, immensely valuable artifact, and one
12 faction will go to any length to take it from them!

Suspense and Strained Luck

As you prepare the adventure for your scoundrels, consider what important moments are likely to be particularly
intense, risky, suspenseful, unexpected, or even disastrous. These moments are perfect times to reduce the size
of the luck pool – making it clearer that the stakes are ramping up as the story progresses. Revelations, betrayals,
climactic events, and even moments of success like an escape from danger are particularly ideal.

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A game by Incertae Sedis