First, an announcement: after a long time in the brewing pot, a new pantheon is now available for download. Huzzah! The world just got a little bit fuller!
But as we move on to the next thing, I need to level with you guys for a second. For months, you guys have been voting over to the right on the next pantheon to be tackled, and I've totally been paying lots of attention to the results, but our lives have been so crazy lately that things have gotten totally out of whack. See, I had this pipe dream, a couple of months ago, that we were going to get the last pantheon completed just before we got married in June. This was the dream of a crazy person. We got very close, but there was no way in hell we were going to be able to handle pre-Columbian South America at the same time as our relatives.
But, because we were really close to finishing and I had such high hopes that we would complete the supplement, I decided to be proactive about getting set up for the next one. I made the rounds of the local public and university libraries and collected source material; I made some preliminary notes; I even set up this sweet timetable (I am the kind of person that likes timetables. Don't judge). That way, I figured, we'd be set to dive right in after all the wedding and honeymoon hubbub had died down. And that was not untrue.
But the problem is that the voting polls took a distinct turnaround during our absence, so by the time we got home all my careful preparations were for a pantheon that was no longer winning the voting. So here I now sit, with a logarithmic shit ton of material and notes on the pre-Islamic Arabs, and you motherfuckers went and voted the Maya up over them when I wasn't around to do anything about it. This is a situation wherein Prophecy would have been very useful in real life.
So, while I don't want to disappoint anyone, it seems silly to scrap all this and start over with someone else, so I think the Arabs are going to get their day in the sun (hee) anyway. However, I'm hoping to make it a quick journey with a fabulous product, and in the meantime a new (and much slimmer, containing only the main contenders and a few personal favorites of mine from last time) poll is up awaiting your opinions.
And this time, I promise, I'll avoid being so on the ball that I drop it.
Did I miss the Apu's Divine Scent? I was gunna add it to my index.
ReplyDeleteDamnation, no. I just always forget about that knack and to date have never remembered to include it in any of the new supplements.
DeleteThe Apu smell like rich cocoa beans and sound like the distant rumbling of an earthquake.
Awesome. The Apu have been added to the Expanded Quick Reference and the Divine Scent Index. Fun.
DeleteSweet!
DeleteAlso missing associated abilities for Vestiges of a Distant Past for most (all?) of the JSR fan pantheons. And Scent the Titanic for the Titan of Destruction.
DeleteWe haven't been updating the Scent the Titanic impressions lately because we're working on a big overhaul/rewrite of all the Titans, and things are likely to change. However, I'd say for those using them right now that minions of Pakiy cause the sudden sensation of being torn apart by many hands (though of course no actual damage is dealt).
DeleteHmm, that's a good point - I had totally forgotten all about Vestiges. Let me get back to you when John gets home from rehearsal and we can consult on the particulars.
Okay, here're our Vestiges picks:
DeleteThe Anunna: Academics, Art, Craft, Politics, Presence
The Apu: Athletics, Awareness, Fortitude, Occult, Survival
The Bogovi: Awareness, Empathy, Integrity, Occult, Survival
The Elohim: Brawl, Command, Fortitude, Melee, Presence
We'll update the table over in Magic to include the Anunna, since they're already up on the website. Thanks for noticing the omission!
Hey, while you're at it, what are the Codes of Heaven for those guys? Any ideas?
DeleteOh, dear. That one I totally forgot about. Why doesn't my brain-index update automatically?
DeleteThe Anunna: Disrespect toward the gods, abuse of authority, rebellion
The Apu: Destruction of sacred places/objects, laziness, theft
The Bogovi: Interference with mortals, wanton destruction, murder
The Elohim: Disrespect toward the gods, conspiracy, trespassing
The Bogovi are obviously having a lot of problems these days with their need for Scions conflicting with their usual no-interference-with-humanity clause, so gods may decide to waive or enforce that on a case-by-case basis.
I am so very very happy right now. Particularly your version of Huaca, something I've tried and failed miserably at crafting myself.
ReplyDeleteAnd while I personally voted for the Maya, do what you've prepared for.
And I'm so happy you like it! PSPs that involve places that don't move are really hard, so believe me when I say I feel your pain. Silly Incas.
DeleteVote for them again. I can't promise they'll win, and I'd love to work on anybody on that list, but I'd definitely find a little bit of ironic fun in finishing the Maya pantheon before the end of the thirteenth revolution of the Long Count.
Hokay, now that I had the chance to actually read the PDF on a computer monitor while seated comfortably rather than a smartphone screen on a midnight train heading home from a party, I have some questions regarding the pantheon, particulatly Huaca...
DeleteFirst of all, where do you put Urcaguary? Obviously not a Legend 12 god, but I have a soft spot for treasure guarding deer-snakes, so I want to know where/what he is.
Yachay (1) - Not so much a question, so much as an ironic musing, since when I first proposed this PSP a loooooooong time back and came up with a similar Boon you responded that we don't need another Unlidded-Eye-Replacement
Quqarikuy (3) and Kallpa (4) - Does the Scion need to be physically present at the huaca they've created in order to reap the benefits of these Boons? It's implied, but not outright stated.
Also for Quqarikuy, is it possible for Legend 12 gods to circumvent the limit of Legend towards autosuccesses this Boon provides? That seems the kind of thing the biggest gods could do...
Apamuy (6) - If the lower level Huaca Boons are not usable through the item huaca (You mentioned Kawsay and Quqarikuy specifically, Kallpa isn't mentioned, and Tukuy specifically does not require physical presence) then what, precisely, is the gain from an item huaca? What can a Scion do with an item huaca and how does giving it to a mortal or anyone else benefit the recipient?
Churay (8) - First of all, I want to say that this is perhaps my favorite Boon of the bunch. So, my question is whether or not the power banks made via Churay are replenishable at all after their use. Is the huaca so empowered only available once-and-only-once, or is it possible to reuse that huaca after a certain amount of time, such as, say, once per Story?
re: Yachay: Just a guess, but it seems likely to me they didn't want Apu Scions to need to take Magic to make the most of their PSP, or to be less huaca-savvy than magic users of other pantheons.
DeleteRe: Urcaguary, I couldn't find any real mention of him anywhere except on the internet, which was discouraging because he sounds pretty cool. I ended up not doing anything with him because I couldn't verify his authenticity, but I'd probably put him at Legend 9 or 10 if I wanted to include him. I imagine he's probably a supporter of his pantheon, but kind of antisocial and insular thanks to his somewhat solitary duties.
DeleteYachay - You are so right, I actually looked it up earlier today and saw that, which is double ironic. In general, I really don't like adding more "see stuff" boons to the game, because there are a lot of them already and they're really hard to make interesting for players past a certain point. We had a PC once (Seamus) who stared the game with The Unlidded Eye, Brehon's Eye, Death Senses and Night Eyes, and he found it rather disgruntling that all the level one powers for his chosen purviews just let him look at things instead of doing anything. But, in the case of Huaca, I ended up at the same conclusion as you eventually, which was that there needed to be some way for Inca Scions to interact with and recognize Huaca even if they weren't mages, so a seeing boon ended up being necessary. I tried to give it some extra utility with the recognition of other sacred sites and the ability to figure out customary sacrifices, which may be very important for huaca maintenance and power-drawing later.
For Quqarikuy, yes, a Scion has to be physically present at the place he wants to make a new huaca in order to use the boon; being in Turkey and thinking, "Gee, I'd really like to consecrate Niagara Falls" won't cut it, even if he's been there before. Kallpa, however, can be used if the Scion isn't physically there (something I maybe should have worded more explicitly) - as long as he's actually tied to the huaca with Quqarikuy and is facing the constant spectre of its endangerment, he can also draw upon the bonuses of being linked to it. The link is active even if he leaves, since the site is specifically a personal huaca to him now.
Hmm, that's a good question about circumventing the Legend rating. While huaca themselves tend to help keep a god from going overboard on them - having ten thousand huacas is a good way to get fried with aggravated damage when something happens to even a few of them - I added the Legend rating as a precautionary measure against abusing the system too much. I'd say that perhaps living huaca created with Hukman can go over the limit? Would that be a reasonable way for the most powerful gods to supersede that limitation?
DeleteThe major benefits of Apamuy are to give the Scion a constantly moving range of sight and/or teleportation; he can "see" and "interact" through Tukuy anywhere the item is taken, which is much more flexible than being stuck at whatever hidden grotto in Chile he other huaca might be, and can arrange for it to be taken to places in order to teleport in effortlessly, which is a major bonus for those who don't have Psychopomp (or don't want to pay more than a single Legend for it). The Scion may also use Ceque on the item huaca, so for mortals there's the constant ability to communicate with and venerate their god while they carry it around, and he may reach larger populations of people to call upon if it leaves his normal home turf.
Churay huaca are empowered only once, when first created, but after that they act as a "bank"; you can always dump resources into them and have them available later, especially useful if, say, you think the story might be about to end and you have a surplus of Legend, or you know a nice bandmate will replenish your Willpower so you can drop all your current Willpower as an emergency stash for later. Played smartly, even without automatically refilling, huaca used with Churay can build up awesome resources that allow Scions to have way more Legend, Willpower, channels or deeds than they would normally be allowed for their Legend rating or maximum traits. The banking game isn't for everyone, but it's got loads of possibilities, and I figure even those who don't feel like keeping up with it will enjoy the one-time bonuses whenever they create a new sacred site.
I'm thrilled to hear you're doing the Arabs! Should be a really awesome Pantheon. I voted Australian because I feel like Australia is kind of Without Gods (North America has the Aztecs, South America now has Incas, Africa has the Pesedjet and the Loa, Europe has the Tuatha de Danann, Dodekatheon, Aesir, and Bogovi, the Middle East has the Elohim, Anunna, and the Yazata (and soon Arabs!) and Asia has the Celestial Bureaucracy, Devas, and Amatsukami) I think it would make the world "more fuller" to see Australia's aboriginal Gods. Perhaps one day!
ReplyDeleteI agree - Australia needs representin'! I chickened out on putting them in the voting this time around because they didn't get a ton of votes last time and they're one of the harder groups to work with, thanks to being really a bunch of different tribes instead of one coherent religion, but they'll definitely be back on the table in the future. I think our PCs are done just thoroughly ruining the Australian pantheon in our games, so hopefully someday another game will be able to enjoy them less violently.
DeleteI'm pretty excited about the Arabs; they'll be a bit of an experiment for us, since they have few stories remaining thanks to the weighty banhammer of Islam wiping them out for the past few centuries, but I think there's some super interesting stuff to be done with them nonetheless.