How To Build Your Scrappers Crew!

Example of Building a Scrapper Crew

Before Players can start a game of Scrappers, each needs to ‘build’ or ‘recruit’ his Scrapper Crew.  This is a step by step process that is done for each miniature on the Crew. All of the Game statistics for each model are written down on the Crew Manifest.

For this example of Crew building, Phil will start with a general theme of a Freelancer Crew that was recently formed by their leader Anton Jaeger. (Naming your models and giving your Crew its own backstory or theme enhances the overall Player experience).

Consulting the Crew Organization Table, Phil sees that his Crew must have a minimum of 3 models and no more than 15. He also must have 1 Commander and can have 0-2 Veterans and any number of Troopers. So, armed with his starting pool of 750 Supply Points, Phil starts assembling his force.

Choose a Faction

Phil chooses to make a Freelancer Scrapper Crew led by Anton Jaeger his Commander. He likes the idea of a team that goes after high value relics of the past that may not have much practical function but that will fetch a high price, such as Ancient art or cultural effects. He decides to call his band ‘The Reliquarians’. This thematic backstory does nothing mechanically, but enhances the experience as Phil rounds out the members on his Crew.

The Freelancer Faction gives Phil an extra Veteran model he can recruit, so now his Crew could have up 0- 3 Veteran models to start. Phil will also be able to start the Campaign with 0-2 Scarce pieces of Gear.

Choose Model Types & Lifeforms

Starting with his Commander, Phil decides he will build Anton as a True Human Lifeform. He notes this on his Manifest. After he finishes purchasing Anton’s Ratings, Traits, and Gear he will then move on to his next model of choice and go through the same steps for each model until he runs out of Supply Points. If he doesn’t use his entire starting SP allowance, then the remaining points go into his Crew’s bank of unspent SP’s.

Anton’s Ratings, Traits, & Gear

Next Phil will buy Anton’s Ratings. He wants a capable Commander in all three areas. Since this model is a Commander his Maximum Rating to start is 6. Phil buys a 5 Combat Rating for 15 SP, a 6 Command Rating for 18 SP, and a 5 Constitution Rating for 13 SP. Anton’s Ratings are filled in on the Crew Manifest as CBT 5, CMD 6, CON 5 for a combined total of 46 SP’s that are subtracted from his 750 total.

Next up are Jaeger’s Trait options. As the Commander of the Reliquarians, Anton Jaeger automatically gets the Commander Trait for free, but it does take up one of his 3 Trait Slots. Phil wants to buy a couple of Traits for Anton, and since he is a True Human those Traits can come from the Core and Champion Trait lists. As the Crew is a Freelancer Faction, Phil may also choose from the Freelancer Faction Trait list for Anton.

After reviewing the available Traits, Phil buys Weapon Expert (Longarms) for 15 SP’s and Dauntless+1 for 5 SP’s. This uses up all of Anton Jaeger’s Starting Trait Slots. In subsequent Games, Phil will be able to use any of Anton’s Experience Points to buy up higher Ratings and/or Traits.

Finally, Phil looks at the model he picked for Anton and buys the Gear he’ll need to survive the dangers of the Omega Zones. The figurine has a longarm rifle of some type, a sword, and some kind of body armor.  Phil buys Anton a Tac-Suit for protection at 20 SP, a Sword for 5 SP and an Assault Rifle for 40 SP. The model does not have any type of head gear other than a cloth beret, so Phil cannot buy Anton a Helmet because that would break the What You See Is What You Get rule. Phil also buys a piece of Scarce Gear for Anton in the form of Extra Ammo for 15 SP.

Adding all of the Supply Points up for Anton Jaeger, Phil will subtract 146 SP from his 750, leaving 604 SP to buy his remaining Crew. Phil checks the Encumbrance limit Anton has of 5 and compares it to the Gear he purchased. The Tac-Suit (1), Sword (1), Assault Rifle (1), and Extra Ammo (1) all add up to 4 pieces of Gear. This leaves Anton with 1 remaining Encumbrance to use for either carrying Scrap during a Game or for another piece of Gear acquired later in the Campaign.

Wash, Rinse, Repeat

Now that his mandatory Commander model has been purchased and logged on his Crew Manifest, Phil will move on to his next model. He decides to recruit his Crew’s first Veteran and chooses the Mutant (Bruiser) Lifeform Type. He names this model Hank the Tank and buys his Ratings. Since this is a Veteran model type the starting Maximum Rating is 5. So, Phil buys Hank a CBT 5, CMD 4, CON 5 Ratings Profile for a total of 36 SP.

Next Phil consults the Core, Mutation, and Freelancers Trait lists to see what Traits he can buy for Hank. He wants to capitalize on Hank’s ability to have Mutations and buys him the Gammahide+1 and Brute Mutation Traits for a total of 25 SP.

For Gear, Phil uses his second Scarce Gear feature from his Freelancer Faction and buys a Machinegun for Hank the Tank. He then adds a Scrap Metal Armor, a Great Cleaver, and a Helmet for a total of 110 SP.

Phil adds up Hank’s Ratings, Traits, and Gear costs which total 171 SP. Subtracting this from Phil’s 604 remaining SP brings the new remainder to 433 SP.

Phil looks at the Gear on Hank and totals up the Encumbrance. The Scrap Metal Armor and Machinegun are Heavy and count as 2 pieces of Gear each. However, since the Bruiser Mutant Genotype allows Hank to negate the Heavy and Fatigue Traits on his Gear, those two items will only count as one Encumbrance each. Since the Helmet Gear is Light it does not count as a piece of Gear for determining Encumbrance. Hank the Tank’s total Encumbrance is 3 out of a maximum of 6 leaving him plenty of room to carry Scrap Tokens.

Remaining Models

Phil has two models built for his Scrapper Crew and 433 Supply Points remaining. He must have a minimum of 3 models on his starting Crew, but experience has taught him he should have a good number of additional bodies to help with his Rout Check threshold and also to be able to grab as much Scrap as possible to sell later for more Crew and Gear.

Keeping numbers in mind, Phil opts to just buy some Troopers instead of maxing out his available Veterans. He wants a fairly standard build for these Troopers since he will be able to tailor their Ratings and Traits between Games with Experience Points. This will also allow him to adapt his Crew to fight his friends’ Crews once they reveal what their guys can do in the first Game of the Campaign.

He wants to make a couple of Synthetic (Worker) models to carry more Scrap Tokens than the rest, and then one or two additional Troopers to round out his Crew. Phil’s Freelancer Crew can have any mix of each Lifeform Type limited only by the sub-type restrictions.

He takes 2 Synthetic (Worker) Trooper models with CBT 3, CMD 2, CON 4 for 16 SP. He gives them both the Mobility Upgrade (Roller) Structural Traits for 15 SP apiece. He then buys them each a Submachinegun and Piece Metal Armor for 40 SP each. Each model costs 71 SP. He names the two Synthetics Cargobot-X2 and Cargobot-X43.

Subtracting both from his remaining balance, Phil sees he has 291 SP to use for his last models. He wants to start the Game with 7 members on his Crew so he divides the remaining 291 by 3 and gets 97 SP to spend on each one.

He decides to make these rank and file TruMans. He gives them a CBT 4, CMD 3, CON 4 Ratings Profile for 22 SP each. He buys them the Marksman+1 Core Trait for 5 SP each. Finally Phil equips them each with a Tac-Suit, Helmet, Knife, Gas Mask, Ruck Sack, and Submachinegun for a total per model of 68 SP. Adding this up for all 3 models brings the total to 285 SP. He names them Bruce Was’ton, Dane of Vol, and Gritz Hammond. Since their Tac-Suits and SMG’s are the only Gear that isn’t Light, each Trooper has an Encumbrance of 2 leaving room for a couple of Scrap Tokens each.

Phil adds up all of the spent Supply Points on his Crew and totals 744 Supply Points. Phil writes down 6 SP on his Manifest to use later and his Reliquarians look like this:

The Reliquarians

Freelancer Faction

Anton Jaeger, True Human Commander

Ratings: CBT 5/CMD 6/CON 5 ARM 3

Traits: Commander, Weapon Expert (Longarms), Dauntless+1

Gear: Tac-Suit, Assault Rifle, Sword, Extra Ammo

Hank the Tank, Mutant (Bruiser) Veteran

Ratings: CBT 5/CMD 4/CON 5 ARM 4

Traits: Brute, Gammahide+1

Gear: Scrap Metal Armor, Machinegun, Great Cleaver, Helmet

Cargobot-X2, Synthetic (Worker) Trooper

Ratings: CBT 3/CMD 2/CON 4 ARM 2

Traits: Mobility Upgrade (Roller)

Gear: Piece Metal Armor, Submachinegun

Cargobot-X43, Synthetic (Worker) Trooper

Ratings: CBT 3/CMD 2/CON 4 ARM 2

Traits: Mobility Upgrade (Roller)

Gear: Piece Metal Armor, Submachinegun

Bruce Was’ton, True Human Trooper

Ratings: CBT 4/CMD 3/CON 4 ARM 3

Traits: Marksman+1

Gear: Tac-Suit, Helmet, Gas Mask, Knife, Ruck Sack, Submachinegun

Dane of Vol, True Human Trooper

Ratings: CBT 4/CMD 3/CON 4 ARM 3

Traits: Marksman+1

Gear: Tac-Suit, Helmet, Gas Mask, Knife, Ruck Sack, Submachinegun

Gritz Hammond, True Human Trooper

Ratings: CBT 4/CMD 3/CON 4 ARM 3

Traits: Marksman+1

Gear: Tac-Suit, Helmet, Gas Mask, Knife, Ruck Sack, Submachinegun