Publisher's blurb:
Starport Scum is a tabletop game of fierce space adventure, space pirates and salvage crews looking for the next big break.
Drawing on sources such as Traveller, Firefly, Trigun and Borderlands, it's a game about getting by on the outskirts of civilization, always on the look out for that next job.
Combining miniatures war gaming with role playing game touches, Starport Scum is playable as a conventional miniatures game, a narrative RPG or a hybrid beast combining the best of both worlds.
From the introduction:
Starport Scum is a set of story-driven rules for miniatures games with a heavy role playing element.
What does that mean? It means it incorporates elements of both role playing games and war games, though it leans heavier on the latter.
Whereas a traditional RPG tends to use combat scenes to support the story, we tend to view it the opposite way around: The story is here to support fun miniatures combat scenarios.