Fame!

Question: How do you deal with Scions who are already famous (for whatever reason) before their Visitation? Does it simply make Fatebinding that much more of an ever-present concern, or are there other things to take into consideration?

We treat them pretty normally, actually. Fame is something that, like wealth, education and mortal family members, is up to the player to decide at character creation. Some characters are moderately famous, some are international superstars, and others are anonymous and unremarkable; it really depends on what the players wants to do and who the character is.

Having a character who was famous as a mortal has the usual challenges of any game with famous characters in it; the Storyteller should have an idea what kinds of circles he's famous in, what sorts of paparazzi or inquiries he might have to deal with and where his money and obligations lie, the better to make sure that he's being treated as realistically as everyone else. Being famous makes it harder to move around without people noticing, harder to get away with doing things out of the ordinary and harder to avoid the pursuits and jobs that made you famous in the first place. Make sure you keep up with the effects his fame has on him as he moves through the mortal world; whether it's screaming fans, tabloid smears or irate personal assistants, different kinds of fame will present challenges within the mortal world, especially for Hero-level Scions.

As far as Fatebonds go, though, there's no real difference. Being famous as a mortal won't make you more susceptible to Fatebonds, nor will it make you come into the game with Fatebound expectations or anything. Remember, you need to spend Legend to get Fatebound to someone, and their vision of you will most of the time be based on what you were doing when you spent that Legend. It's possible that famous PCs might have a little more chance of being Fatebound to the ideals of their famous persona before they were visited as Scions, but only if the things they're doing now aren't strong enough to override those old perceptions. If a famous politician spends a bunch of Legend on things that the mortals don't really see, then sure, most of them will probably default to believing he has Charisma and Politics; but if he's lifting trucks or setting enemies on fire, they're going to notice that a lot more than that rousing speech on environmental relations he made last year.