Scum: The Masquerade

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History

The official rule document for Scum: The Masquerade says "Scum: the Masquerade is a game that was created at a happy little place we lovingly call CTY Lancaster. One problem with this joyous, lovable place is the illegality of role-playing games. Many of the students shared a love of these so-called "RPG's", namely Vampire: the Masquerade, and would find a legal way to play them, no matter what. Another thing that these CTY students shared was a love of card games, especially a certain game called Scum. This was a freeform game that lent itself to the adaptation of many new twists. So then, the ever mind-boggling question was answered: What happens when you stick Vampire: the Masquerade and Scum together in a blender? And yes, the outcome was Scum: the Masquerade. This game quickly caught on at CTY and is now played by a vast number of CTYers. This version of the rules borrows heavily from the text of the rule set by Adam Leeds and Vinay Patel, which is in turn based on the third edition rules by Josh Symonds and Mike Mishkin; however, whenever possible, I have tried to take the actual tabletop Vampire rules into account as far as powers and rules, so I felt the differences were great enough to warrant calling this rule set version 4. The following is a description of how this game is played:

Scum, also known as Chinese Poker, Capitalism, Asshole, President, Presidents and Assholes, The Great Dalmuti, and Scum, is an incredibly fun game. Scum isn't too hard of a game to understand, the hard part is the Masquerade. Already knowing how to play one of the games listed above does help to understand Scum: the Masquerade, but you should still read over the basic rules due to some minor rule variations.

Scum can be played with anywhere from four to eight players, though playing with six or more requires that two decks be used. Cards are dealt evenly amongst the players, and the object of the game is to be the first player to get rid of all your cards."

S:tM Lexicon

(note: this is not alphabetical rather by words you'll need to build on)

• S:tM- Scum: The Masquerade.
• Disciplines: Powers in the game, chosen before each player picks up a hand, they can only be chosen if a player ascends from Scum, to Prince, or to Justicar, and no player can have more than three. Disciplines fall into three categories, clan disciplines, common disciplines, and mortal scum disciplines. Clan disciplines are unique to each type of Clan, and cannot be chosen by anyone outside of that type of clan. Common disciplines can be chosen by anyone besides the scum, and scum can choose from the scum disciplines, which are generally weaker.
• Justicar- The highest position in the game (for Camarilla), the Justicar has the right to choose what rule set will be used for as long as he is Justicar, he also has first pick of Clan. Justicar can also grant Boons. Normally the Justicar leads with the first hand of a round but the Justicar may choose any other player to lead.
• Mortal Scum- The scum is the lowest position and object of scorn.
• Catiff- The second lowest position, it is the duty of the Catiff to insult the other players, especially at the request of players with higher rank.
• Prince- The second highest position in the game, the Prince may choose a clan and also has the power to call a Blood Hunt. A Blood Hunt calls the game to vote a player out.
• Clan- A Clan is chosen by the Prince and Justicar, each clan has it's own set of three disciplines, a clan may have it's own unique disciplines that people outside the clan may not choose.
• Revolution- When the scum becomes Justicar the round ends and all ranks are reversed.

Rank order

Camarilla

• 4 players: Justicar, Prince, Caitiff, Mortal Scum
• 5 players: Justicar, Prince, Seneschal, Caitiff, Mortal Scum
• 6 players: Justicar, Prince, Seneschal, Sheriff, Caitiff, Mortal Scum
• 7 players: Justicar, Prince, Seneschal, Sheriff, Harpy, Caitiff, Mortal Scum
• 8 players: Justicar, Prince, Seneschal, Sheriff, Harpy, Primatene, Caitiff, Mortal Scum

Rules

One deck

The rules of S:tM include the basic gameplay of [[Scum] to form a framework for this game. There are quite a few differences however, for instance the order of highest to lowest number value goes 2,A,K,Q,J,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3 (two has no special values). Also there is a hierarchy of suit (Hearts is the highest, then spades, then diamonds, then clubs). S:tM also adds two more playable hands: a Straight (five in a row) and a full house (two of a kind plus three of a kind). The first round is played without any disciplines chosen, in the second round each player chooses a clan or a set of three disciplines. Each clan comes with three disciplines. Note: the bellow is a list of only the Camarilla Disciplines and clans, with inclusion of scum disciplines. After the cards are dealt the Justicar and Prince choose their clans (or disciplines) then you progress picking disciplines by order of rank highest to lowest.

Clans:

Camarilla

• Brujah (Disciplines: Celerity, Potence, Presence)
• Malkavian (Disciplines: Auspex, Dominate, Obfuscate)
• Nosferatu (Disciplines: Animalism, Obfuscate, Potence)
• Toreador (Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Presence)
• Tremere (Disciplines: Auspex, Dominate, Thaumaturgy)
• Ventrue (Disciplines: Dominate, Fortitude, Presence)

Disciplines:

• Animalism: Allows player to "summon" one card of value 10 or lower from the pile into their hand (or "crypt").
• Auspex: Allows player to look at another player's hand.
• Celerity: Allows a player to play one card and then immediately play another card. That player must then pass their next turn.
• Dominate: Allows a player to force another player to play a card, if possible according to the basic rules. If the "victim" is of a lower rank, the player may may force them to use it with the highest possible card, or the lowest possible card, using both basic rules and the victim's own disciplines.
• Fortitude: Allows a player to take a card back into their hand, if another card has just been placed on top of it.
• Obfuscate: Allows a player to ignore the of the card currently on top, and play a card underneath it, as long as it could have been placed on top of the preceding card. Essentially, the player may play as if the top card had not been played. This may not be used if there is only one card in the stack.
• Potence: Allows a player to increase the value of their card by 1. Note that when used on a 2, the card does not become a 3 but rather gains the ability to beat a 2.
• Presence: Allows a player to prevent one person from playing a card. The victim must pass. This cannot be used after the victim has already played a card.
• Protean: Allows a player to increase or decrease the value of a card by 1, in order to play it. Thus, a King and Queen may be played as if they were a pair the same value.
• Thaumaturgy: Allows a player to apply any of the other standard disciplines, but only to hearts. For instance, the player may use Presence if all the cards the "victim" was going to play are hearts.

A more thorough set of the rules, as written by the original creators of the game, can be found here.