Mistakes Were Made

 

Well, it wouldn't be a real RPG book if it didn't have errata, right?

It seems that in Skullkickers: Caster Bastards and the Great Grotesque (now available on a website near you), a couple artifacts from the previous relationships subsystem sneaked through into the final product. Fortunately, it's only embarrassing, as opposed to something that causes an actual problem.

The passages in question are on pages 45 and 47, but deleting the offending sentences is enough to fix it.
Here's the one on page 45, down in the last paragraph on the page.

If you can't see that, the two sentences to cut are these:

If a character has an NPC roommate, that NPC

immediately becomes an Acquaintance,

assuming the character spends a little time

getting acquainted with them. See Social

Studies (page 10) for what that means for the

character. 

The two on page 47 are more of the same.

Again, the sentences to cut are these:

Any character who spends a

good portion of the evening with an NPC

strengthens their relationship with them (from

Stranger to Acquaintance). They can

strengthen only one relationship this way.

Simple and straightforward! No updating to 2.0 required.

Updating to 2.0

Even without the old relationship subsystem, it's probably pretty clear what was meant by each of these two passages: use these scenes to encourage the players to interact with NPCs. The specific mechanics involved don't have to matter (and like I've said before, they were way too fiddly to be good in the first place, so I don't think you're missing anything).

Could Popularity, which replaced these old mechanics, do the same? Sure. The book even describes it as "a useful abstraction of the various acquaintances and friends they gain (or lose) over time." 

If you're interested in this, give the PC a few Popularity points (like 1d4) if their player makes a solid effort to socialize at the post-ceremony mixer. Simply meeting a new roommate or two is unlikely to have an effect on one's Popularity, but it's certainly possible to leverage those new acquaintances at the mixer, which would more or less result in the same benefit.

Alternately, you could treat the evening as an abbreviated Meanwhile activity -- probably Partying, but possibly Bootlicking. Use the results as a rough guide for how the PC's night goes, but don't feel obligated to stick to the tables as written. In particular, consider using any complications that arise as narrative flavor rather than A Thing That Happened. And definitely disregard any modifiers to their next Whiffle Sparks check.

For example, Rex's player says he drinks too much, dances on tables, and ends up wearing a metaphorical lampshade on his head by the end of the night. "Give me a Constitution (Persuasion) check," you, the GM, might say, and then Rex gets a 14. "Party buddies! Gain 1d6 Popularity." The player's 1d6 roll results in Rex gaining 3 Popularity. He's still a Nobody, but he's on his way. You can use the tables on page 10 to quickly determine the passions of his new party buddies, and fill in the details later, if needed.

Again, sorry for the error, but I hope this helps smooth things over. I'm proud of the job we did with the editing on this book, but pobody's nerfect, after all!