I played what I assume is an early version of this at a con, which had each beast tagging 3 items, 3 traits, and 3 skills. It seems this is now reduced to only one of each! I haven't played this current version, but that seems like a really major change. Can you talk about it?
Hey DM Spice!
The 1st edition of Scurry (2021) gave players 1 Skill*, and 3 of each Tag (Tools, Talents and Traits).
For the 2nd edition (2023), I chose to streamline character creation to 1 of each tag - 1 Skill, 1 Tool, 1 Talent, 1 Trait.
My aim was to reinforce the game's core philosophy - single session heists that start quick and end quicker. Reducing the number of choices from 10 to 4 eases cognitive load for newer (and often younger**) players, and helps different characters feel unique from one another.
Fundamentally, gameplay remains the same. Beasts are describing how they navigate problems, rolling the scurry die, and (usually) getting into trouble.
The change was prompted by a mixture of both running the game and seeing the game played over the last two years, and player-submitted feedback.
*Skills are also a Tag, but the first time the beasts use a Skill during a scurry it provides an auto-success rather than rolling the scurry die. After the first use, all Skills are treated as tags, and provide advantage when rolling the scurry die.
**One of the more surprising pieces of feedback I've received over the last two years has been that Scurry has been the first TTRPG parents have placed down in front of their kids, either to play as a family or for them to play with friends.
That's not surprising to me! I have a very small daughter, still far too young for RPGs, but I definitely had the thought "in a few years she'd love this."
Maybe I need to go re-read (or maybe it was being houseruled or just done incorrectly in the game I did play), but do tags not exhaust? The way we played, if you used a tag you crossed it out.
Either way, thanks for the reply -- all makes sense in the context of those goals!