SCARTOWN Play Free

Frequently asked questions about Scartown

What this free browser RPG costs, what it needs, and what it does to you. If the answer is not here, the guide to playing Scartown is longer.

Is Scartown free to play?

Yes. Making a character and playing the game costs nothing, and there is no trial that runs out. Credits exist and can be bought, but nothing sold for money decides a fight. They buy donator days, refills, cosmetic things and convenience, never damage, accuracy or the attribute mods.

Do I have to download or install anything?

No. Scartown runs in a browser tab. There is no client, no launcher, no plug-in and nothing to patch. Open the page and you are in the city.

What is a text based role play game, exactly?

A role play game made of words, menus and numbers rather than rendered graphics. You read what happens and choose what to do next. It means the game loads instantly, runs on anything, and can describe things no budget would let it draw.

Is Scartown a mafia game?

Not literally. There are no families, no dons and no oath to swear. What it has is the shape people mean when they say text based mafia game: a browser tab, energy and action points on a clock, crime, jail, hospital, gangs with a vault and a war to fight, and other real people who can hit you. Scartown's version of it is street gangs in a city the law walked away from rather than organised crime with a rank structure. If mafia games are how you found this corner of the internet, you will recognise everything here except the vocabulary.

I came from another text based crime game. Is Scartown like that?

If you arrived from Torn or one of its neighbours, it shares the skeleton and it is fair to say so. Browser tab, no download, energy and action points that refill on a clock, a gym, crimes, jail, hospital, gangs, and other real people who can hit you. If that shape is what you liked, you will not be lost here. What is different is where the hours go. The centre of Scartown is missions, a run down through floors of one of nineteen sites toward a boss, deciding after every floor whether to walk out with the bag or push one more. That is where the gear comes from, and the attribute mods that go in it, and none of it is sold in a shop. There are no unique weapons and there never will be, so nobody arrives holding something you cannot get. The city is also young and small, which cuts both ways: less to do than a game twenty years deep, and nobody so far ahead that the ranks are already spoken for.

Is Scartown player-versus-player?

Yes, and it is open. Anybody can attack anybody, with nothing to switch on and nothing to switch off. An attack only reaches somebody standing in your own district, and never somebody in your own gang, but beyond that the city is fair game.

Can I be attacked as soon as I start?

No. Nobody can touch you for your first three days, which is worked out from when your account was made, so there is nothing to claim. It is one-sided on purpose: you can attack whoever you like from the first hour, you just cannot be attacked back until the window closes. Use it to get a weapon, some armor and a few levels first.

Can I play on my phone?

Yes. The whole game is built to work at phone width, with a notification counter beside the mailbox for the things worth interrupting you for. Your character lives on the server, so you can start on a laptop and carry on from a phone.

How long does it take to reach the top?

There is no top, which is the honest answer. Levelling has no ceiling and each band of levels costs roughly twice the one before it, so the first few go by in an afternoon and the ones after that are a project measured in years rather than weeks. Most of what makes a character is gear and mods anyway, not the number beside their name.

What is a mission?

A run through one of the city's nineteen sites. You load four belt slots, go in, and fight down through floors of rooms toward a boss. Your health carries between floors and only your belt heals it. After every floor you choose to extract with what you are holding or push deeper. Get carried out and you keep the experience and lose the bag.

How often can I run a mission?

One every three hours, and the clock starts the moment you go in rather than when you come out. Missions cost no energy, so the limit is the clock and nothing else.

What can I actually find in there?

About four or five things a run, mostly salvage and components. On top of that the site rolls for rare consumables, attribute mods, boosters, keycards and relic fragments. Roughly half of all missions end with nothing rare in them, which is intended. Boosters in particular have no other source anywhere in the game.

Are there unique weapons?

No, and there deliberately never will be. Every weapon and every piece of armor is ordinary and takes one mod. The thirty attribute mods are the thing worth hunting, and they run from +1 in the Old Quarter up to +6 under Vantar Spire.

Do I need to play every day to keep up?

No. Nothing decays, nothing expires and no character is deleted for inactivity. You will fall behind people who play more, the way you would in any game, but nothing you built goes away while you are gone.

Can I lose my character?

Not to the game. Losing a mission costs you the bag and a hospital stay, never the character. The only thing that removes an account is a suspension for breaking the rules.

Is there a gang system?

Yes. You apply to a gang and whoever runs it accepts you. Gangs share a vault, hold a hideout, and declare war on each other. A war is won by raiding the rival hideout with action points and beating their members in the street until one of the doors comes off.

I found a bug. What do I do?

Report it. Nobody is punished for finding a hole and telling us. Working one for profit after you have found it is a different matter and is treated as cheating.

Is the game finished?

No. It is built and rebuilt in public, and the news page carries every change with a date against it. Balance moves, sometimes sharply, and when it does it is written down there.

Listed on BrowserMMORPG

Scartown is listed in the BrowserMMORPG directory. The card above is their widget and shows the rating players have given the game there.

Still curious?

The fastest way to find out what a text based crime RPG feels like is to run one mission. It takes about five minutes.

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