The Human Touch

Question: Here's my conundrum as a storyteller - I can't think of nearly enough good and compelling plots to throw at Hero-level Scions! I'm talking straight from the visitation Legend 2 Scions. The books' sample antagonists seem to be set for Scions who are already Legend 3 or 4, but what about just some sample ideas for a band of straight-from-visitation Scions? What kind of trials would they deal with?

This sounds like it's not a fun solution, but bear with us: the answer is humans.

Legend 2 Scions are almost entirely still humans themselves. They're near the peak of what humans can do, but very seldom are they even a little bit over the cap that a normal mortal with good luck and genetics might achieve. They're still fragile like mortals, dumbfounded like mortals, and politically maneuvered like mortals; they're among the most gifted humans in every area, but they are still fundamentally mortal.

So other mortals are their best antagonists. Bringing in monsters this early almost always ends in tears; they just don't have the resources or equipment to deal with much outside the realm of normal human problems yet, so normal human problems (albeit the coolest ones possible) are their best mainstay when they're just starting out. Mob bosses, corrupt politicians, street gangs, athletics competitions, drug cartels or military antagonists are all challenging and appropriate for Legend 2 Scions (though be careful - more than a couple of humans at once can easily take down a Legend 2 Scion, especially if they have modern weapons). Imagine your Scions are Jason Bourne or John Nash or La Femme Nikita; that's about the level of mortal antagonism they should be able to handle at most, depending on their skillsets.

But worry not - this doesn't mean that they're going to be bored, or that you're going to be bored Storytelling for them. This is a key part of a brand-new Scion's development, when they come up against other humans and discover that they're stronger, smarter, suaver than they are. It's the time when they get to realize that, thanks to those one or two supernatural talents they have, they outclass mortals, at least one-on-one - it's the moment they realize they're superheroes. And that's awesome! It's fun, it's freeing, and it makes it much more of a great experience for both character and player than starting out being able to trounce humans without a thought and never getting that moment of superior realization. Let them fight humans so they can realize that they themselves are superhuman; it's one of the first steps on the road to Awesometown. After a story or two fighting mainly mortal opponents (with perhaps a low-level Legendary antagonist pulling the strings from above), they're ready to rock on to Legend 3 and start opposing creatures that are more surprising and disturbing than mere mad scientists or unethical businessmen.