Question: How do you feel about Scions wielding relics from cultures other than their own?
We feel just fine about it, provided there's a reason they have those foreign relics. There's nothing in the rules that says you can't have a relic that came from Ireland if you're Norse or vice versa; it's all a matter of roleplaying and setting flavor.
If you have a good reason for your Indian Scion to have a Japanese relic - his father is besties with a Japanese god in this game's setting, for example, or he spent a long tour of duty working in Japan before he was visited, or his parent didn't have a relic for him but they got together with a foreign god to provide one, thus setting things up for that debt to need to be paid in the future, or he has a Japanese item of particular sentimental value that he wants turned into his relic - then there's no reason at all not to run with it. As long as he's been properly bound to the item with Birthright Bond, it'll work for him as well as any other relic would.
If, however, the player in question has no idea why they would have this foreign relic, you might want to work with them. By far the most common reason for that is that they really wanted to be playing a Scion of Pantheon A, but decided to play a Scion of Pantheon B because they wanted a specific set of associateds or a different PSP; in that case, you may want to gently talk to them about the aspects of the culture they're going to be representing and suggest alternatives (either for them to start loving Pantheon B for itself or to go back to Pantheon A where they wanted to be in the first place). It's a bit of a powergaming cop-out for a Scion to play in every way as if Japanese except for getting to have Itztli, so I would discourage that strongly; and if they go for it anyway, as the Storyteller I'd make sure that the Aztlanti are all up in their cheerios at every turn, and that the pressures of being a pantheon's divine child are strongly present to make that choice by the player matter.
But if you have a good, fun reason and the player's being creative rather than trying to fudge for mechanical benefit, then there's no reason at all to prevent Scions from having cross-cultural Birthrights. Our PCs often have them themselves (though they more often get them through actual play and contact with other pantheons rather than starting with them).
I notice that you destroy birthrights. Are birthrights purchased with BP reasonably safe from destruction or are they just as vulnerable as the free birthrights?
ReplyDeleteThey're just as vulnerable as any other Birthright; the out-of-game knowledge that you spent bonus points on it doesn't affect the in-game mechanics of scary giant powers that can break magical items. Of course, it's very difficult to destroy a relic - usually it requires boiling lava, Titanrealms or purview Avatars to accomplish, and the more dots a relic has, the harder it is to destroy - so it doesn't happen much, but all relics are subject to the same rules, whether you started the game with them or not.
DeleteOur PCs tend to gain new relics through play once in a while, often enough that they don't always need or want all of them, but they have lost a few. And oh, the murderous hatred those three players still carry for Pele and her magical lava bombs!
How do Gods know how to get their children the 'right' relics? For example, supposing a Scion of Kali has no interest in any of her favoured Purviews, but instead wants to have relics channeling Stars, which he intends to use as his mainstay. Kali could easily get him a relic for it eventually by asking Surya to help out, but it's unlikely she has a relic for channeling exactly that Purview on her person during the Visitation. What justification is there for a Scion to basically get the perfect relic setup for just the powers he wants to channel on the day of his Visitation? And it's not like Kali can leave Sumeru Parvat every day just to deliver relics. In fact, how, according to you, do Gods decide which Birthrights to give their children?
ReplyDeleteWell, except in the cases of derpy gods, they probably plan for the children. Sometimes very far in advance. So generally the parents are giving the kid the relics that the parents want to give them. It doesnt matter if johnny hero wants to learn stars, if his parent doesnt want him to, then he doesnt. Pretty plain and simple(however if the PLAYER wants stars to be his mainstay, then the parent will probably also want that, so itll end up working out). Remember that until god, the scions are pretty much the whipping boys for their parents. There shouldnt be much "I want" as much as "my parents want".
DeleteTo answer your final question. Gods give their kids exactly the relics they want to in order to get the job they want done.
Yeah, if the player wants to have certain purviews, then it's on the Storyteller to find out why the parent provided for that; they'll always have a reason, even if it's one the Scion doesn't know about. It's a place where you have to let the player's initial choice dictate things a little, because obviously you don't want to tell new players they can't have X purview because their parent wouldn't give it to them. (Unless you do in very specialized areas, like Huitzilopochtli being against Stars or Marduk against Chaos, but in most cases it's better to let the PC take the scary choice and deal with the fallout rather than stopping them. Deciding how that came about is up to the Storyteller, who is in charge of what gods do and why.)
DeleteBut yeah, generally, Scions are there to be tools of their parents' until they can throw that yoke off at late Demigod/early God. Their parents therefore should be giving them access to powers with specific purposes in mind in most cases.