TTRPG Roll 23-44 – Getting Dirty with Scoundrels of Brixton SD2: The Clean Hands (RPG Ramblings, 2023)

The typical methods used in life by 20th century Terrans (thrift, dedication, and hard work) do not work in Traveller; instead, travellers must boldly plan and execute daring schemes for the acquisition of wealth and power.

“A Final Word,” (Classic) Traveller Book 3 (GDW, 1977), 48

I have always been a “scum and villainy” or “space cowboy” type of adventurer in my Traveller roleplaying games. My style of play was influenced by my early exposure to the original Traveller roleplaying game where the “game economy” kept money scarce thereby “encouraging” less-than-wholesome ventures. For example, there is a reason that skipping ship mortgage payments is discussed under ship’s finances! This was part of the reason I love the Serenity Role Playing Game (Margaret Weis Productions, 2005) using the Cortex Classic game engine and the later Firefly Role-Playing Game (Margaret Weis Productions, 2014) that uses the Cortex Plus game engine. The shared setting builds on a very similar approach to adventure drawn from the Firefly TV series: “A captain’s goal was simple. Find a crew, find a job, keep flying” (Season 1, Episode 2) or better yet, “A ship would bring you work; a gun would help you keep it” (ibid).

I seemingly, however, always come back to Traveller and more recent version of the core rules used by the Cepheus Engine System first released by Jason Kemp of Samardan Press in 2016. Cepheus Engine, like the original Classic Traveller, is setting-less (or at the least very setting-light). I have dabbled in a few settings for Cepheus Engine, especially The Clement Sector from Independence Games and HOSTILE from Zozer Games for much the same reasons as I loved Serenity/Firefly; they both can support scoundrel-style or edge-of-legal adventuring.

The reality is, as exciting as those settings are, they occasionally go in directions I am not so thrilled about. So I come back to my own home-brew settings that go “back to my roots” of that “scum and villainy” or “space cowboy” adventure. This week, I took in a new drop-in adventure supplement from RPG Ramblings that closely fits my gaming style. Written by Jeffrey Jones with art by Thatohora, Ian Stead, Tyler Furey, and Glynn Seal, Scoundrels of Brixton SD2: The Clean Hands delivers a “sci-fi setting of crime and conflict” that is perfect for dropping into my adventures.

Unlike Traveller/Cepheus Engine that commonly uses sectors of space with multiple star systems as a location for adventures, Scoundrels of Brixton uses a single star system. As book SD1: Under a Hard Sun explained: “Brixton is a star system…overrun with shady governments, corrupt corporations and gangsters who prey on downtrodden inhabitants…where even scoundrels keep one hand on their gun, and the other on their wallet.” The setting is expanded upon in Scoundrels of Brixton SD2: The Clean Hands which introduces, “a devious smuggling firm on the lookout for new henchmen, and a company town rife with corruption.”

Down and dirty of The Clean Hands

It is amazing what Jeffrey Jones and RPG Ramblings can deliver in a 40-page booklet. The 8.5″ x 5.5″ saddle-stapled book is just a bit smaller than the original Little Black Books of Classic Traveller but I find this smaller form factor comfortable on the gaming table because booklets literally take up half the space of a full-sized game book. The smaller, shorter book also streamlines adventure; no looking through a 600-page tome for that rule when the 50-page booklet delivers just enough to start an adventure. The editorial approach to Scoundrels of Brixton is “just enough” as in there is “just enough” to get an adventure started thanks to “just enough” to get creative juices flowing for the Referee and players. While some might say The Clean Hands is short on details, I see that as more opportunities for a Referee to take an adventure where needed.

If there is one thing I really appreciate about Scoundrels of Brixton it is the art. The color cover art is a decent mix of sci-fi and grittiness, admittedly a bit more cyberpunk than space cowboy, but still close enough to my concept of the “crime and conflict” theme to be acceptable. Moving inside the booklet—where all the artwork is greyscale—the map of the planet Deluvia looks like a retro D&D map which invokes a comfortable old-school RPG feeling. The one ship shown, obviously done by Ian Stead, is emblematic of his fine work.

The Clean Hands smugglers are detailed over 10 of the 40 pages of Scoundrels of Brixton SD2. In those 10 pages you get:

• Background to The Clean Hands
• Key personalities
• Setting background like “Smuggling in Brixton”
• A Referee’s briefing that includes how to handle threats
• Hooks for adventures
• Eleven premade one-paragraph adventures

The Clean Hands is but one of the organizations presented in Scoundrels of Brixton SD2. The booklet provides background, key personalties, and potential missions for four more criminal groups. There is also a deep dive on a location: Corptown M5. Scoundrels of Brixton SD2: The Clean Hands also contains other adventure seed material including yet more missions, a bestiary, and new weapons and equipment.

A dirty job best handled by Clean Hands

Scoundrels of Brixton SD2 is admittedly not for all everyone and almost certainly requires more mature players to appropriately handle some of the more “adult” aspects of the setting. If you tend to playing lawful characters or the like, well, you may want to take your flower-power raygun someplace else. As the publisher’s blurb to The Clean Hands tells us: “Space-going troublemakers can accept dangerous jobs as assassins, repo men, saboteurs, thieves, and eco-terrorists, pitting heroes and villains against bloodthristy crooks, cult fanatics, and rogue mercenaries.”

If you tend to playing lawful characters or the like, well, you may want to take your flower-power raygun someplace else.

RockyMountainNavy on Scoundrels of Brixton SD2: The Clean Hands

If you are looking to insert some criminal shenanigans into your sci-fi Cepheus Engine-driven tabletop roleplaying game, Scoundrels of Brixton SD2: The Clean Hands is a worthy, low-cost, sufficiently detailed adventure supplement that you should explore.

For more than a decade, the Clean Hands have operated under a cloak of virtual anonymity, with a few members and a select client list. But that’s about to change. In the Brixton System, there’s always the threat of being muscled out by other crime organizations, powerful corporations, or nefarious governments. To survive, the Clean Hands must expand the operation, establish franchises on Deluvia and elsewhere in the system. That’ll require manpower. New henchmen, cunning and ruthless. Scoundrels willing to prove their worth and, when necessary, go to the mat to keep the firm alive, merchandise moving, and credits flowing.

“Background,” The Clean Hands (RPGRamblings, 2023), 6

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Feature image courtesy RMN

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