Filling in the Details

• Chains & Heat (from Rust Hulks)
• Contacts (from Scum & Villainy)

As members of a coterie live and work together, they will form bonds and connections.

These relationships formed among coterie members are called chains.

Chains have two values: tightness and heat.

• Tightness is the general feelings of the relationship
• Heat is the intensity of those feelings.

Tightness comes in three levels: slack, taut, and choking.

• A slack chain is a good chain; it’s a friendly, caring relationship: friends or lovers or family.
• A taut chain is a good chain with issues; it’s a once-friendly relationship souring: friends with qualms, lovers on the rocks, family with grudges.
• A choking chain is a bad relationship; one that may have been good (or not) but now has gone very bad: harsh rivals, despised enemies, or staunch antagonists.

Chains will move from slack to taut to choking and back again. Usually chains only move one level at a time.

• Loosening a chain means to move taut to slack, or choking to taut; it

means make it one better.

• Tightening a chain means the opposite: slack moves to taut, or taut moves to choking; it means make it one worse.

Heat is measured numerically from +0 to +3

• A chain with +0 heat is a relationship with no strong feelings Casual, very relaxed, very uncaring. * No matter what the tightness of the chain is, the intensity is always low: casual acquaintances at best and mild nuisances at worst. * A chain with +3 heat is all strong feelings Passionate, fiery, and full of emotion.
  • A slack chain with +3 heat is closest family, dearest friends, and profound love. Flip that over, and a choking chain with +3 heat is the most hated rivals, the most loathed detractors, and the most bitter of broken hearts.

Like tightness, the heat of a chain will go up and down as the relationship heats and cools; coterie members that once were close might drift apart or become closer.

• Heating a chain modifies heat by +1
• Cooling a chain modifies heat by -1

Heat and tightness may change independently of each other. It’s entirely possible that a chain with +3 heat will go all the way from slack to choking with no change in heat; likewise, a taut chain can go from +0 heat up to +3 heat with no change in how tight the chain is.

It’s easier for lovers to turn to rivals, just as it’s unlikely faint annoyances become deepest friends instantly. The feelings of the relationship and the intensity of the relationship move independent of each other, and that should be embraced.

Chains and their heat are the main source of mechanical interplay between player characters. On long, boring waits between missions, chains will still be heating and cooling and tightening and loosening, and that will spark drama.

It will often get messy and uncomfortable and you should embrace that messiness.