Scum: The Masquerade

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History

Scum: The Masquerade, or more simply called Masquerade, is a game that was devised to get around the ban of roleplaying games at CTY: Lancaster. The basic rules are those of Scum, also sometimes called Asshole or Capitalism, or one of many other titles. However, in 1996 some enterprising LLRTers, including Dennis Clark, Christine Lee, Noah Lesgold, Tom Lotze, and Ariel Segall, decided a simple card game wasn't good enough, and that they wanted to break a rule, namely that there are no roleplaying games (D&D, etc.) allowed at CTY. So, they stole the concept of disciplines and powers from the game Vampire: The Masquerade, incorporated them into Scum, and thus Scum: The Masquerade was born.

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.

Clans:

• Brujah (Disciplines: Celerity, Potence, Presence)
• Gangrel (Disciplines: Animalism, Fortitude, Protean)
• 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.