Man, I feel bad because I have less of a giant missive to write about this one than the last two, and I know our intrepid question-asker is trying to rally the voters to his cause. But don't be fooled by the shorter list; Enech's updates are also on our list of Really Cool Stuff We Want To Do.
John's description of what is going to happen to Enech was, and I quote, "ball-busting and nerf-tastic."
- Nerf-tasticness. I know, I know, if you're playing a Tuatha Scion you love it, but... Enech is way hella broken right now, guys. It is overpowered like a son of a bitch. Even Itztli can't compete with Enech, and it's broken, too! Neverending Legend benefits for the whole band with no repercussions! Insane bonuses to literally anything you want to do, based on counter-checks that may or may not ever happen! Indestructibility! Immunity! Easily equaling Arete like it ain't no thang! Seriously, it's busted. Our goal is not to make Enech sad and unpowerful and boring (I mean, obviously, we never want to do that), but right now it's the personal candystore of the PSPs and it needs to be reined in.
- Geasa. Geasa are an indispensible feature of Enech and must be awesome and present, but they also can't stay in the form they're in now. Currently, geasa are heinously difficult to handle; not only are their benefits crazysauce most of the time, but their penalties basically don't exist, or exist too hard and ruin everything. Your only options with geasa at the moment are A) your Storyteller never enforces them, and you get free goodies forever, or B) your Storyteller enforces them and you die. It's total balls. It tells players that they're either going to auto-win forever or just die and start over, and it forces Storytellers to have to choose between letting their players be cheaterpantses or just murdering them off. It's seldom a good idea to make it the Storyteller's job to kill her players, but if she isn't doing that, Enech's just a free ride. It's a bad system that needs rewriting so that geasa can have their intended mythical resonance without handcuffing anyone at the table.
- Kingship. The basic concept behind geasa - and Enech, which means honor, in general - is that of sacred responsibility, and that's lost in the current incarnation of the purview. Sure, the geasa tell you you have responsibilities, but most of the other boons either ignore that idea (like Bard's Tongue, which is just playing off the idea of famous Irish bards without having anything to do with the purview) or actively subvert it (like Twist Geas, which makes no goddamn sense ugh kill it with fire). One of the major ideas of Irish mythology is that everybody is Spiderman: with great power, whether as king, hero or magician, comes great responsibility, and geasa are levied upon heroes as a way of ensuring that they continue to live up to those responsibilities. In Irish mythology, you live large and you live well or you don't live at all, and we'd love to make more of the purview reflect that idea of making sure you deserve your greatness each and every day.
- More Versatility. Do you want to be a Tuatha Scion who takes after the Morrigan or Ogma more than after all these bananas-ass social stats fools? Good. New Enech will not tell you that you have to be bad at half your PSP.
I know some Enech-users out there are probably feeling some trepidation, and that's understandable; when you love something, it's hard to take a reduction in power even if you know you probably should, and it's always a bit nerve-wracking to have your bread-and-butter powers change and shift around. But we hope that, whenever we get to do this, the end result will be more awesomely mythically Irish and still allow Tuatha Scions to do totally badass and amazing feats of derring-do.
When you say Honor, do you intend to include the overwhelming concept of Face and positive image that was violently important for everyone who was a part of that culture?
ReplyDeleteYes, actually - the one doesn't exist without the other in Irish myth. Your face is just the end result of your honor; be honorable, and your face is great, be dishonorable, and you turn into Bres. Irish mythology never lets anybody be dishonorable without everyone finding out about it.
DeleteNote: Irish definition of "honor" may not mesh with what modern Western Americans tend to think of "honor" as. See, blatantly violating the spirit of every spoken bargain EVER to get the most advantage out of it, while maintaining the words of it with the skin of your teeth. Not considered honorable today, was considered the best sign of being badass back then.
DeleteSo if Enech.2 ends up being more heavily based on ancient Irish conceptions of face and honor, there may be a need for some kind of guidelines on what is appropriate ancient Irish behavior.
With Face being included, do you think you guys are going to include the Foster Parent system as a Boon? Having the Scion's honor/face make some more powerful beings decide they could be worth mentoring. Like Likin (Tal'ich one) but for Guides rather then Relics?
DeleteNo, probably not. Having a foster parent is something that a lot of different cultures did for various reasons; it's something that Tuatha Scions might do in their backstories or as they grow to become gods, but it doesn't need to be a magical system. Mortals could and did have foster parenting as well.
DeleteHaving a foster parent as a Guide is a great idea for an Irish Scion, though!
Do you think Geasa will still be giving benefits? One thing that really bugged me about Enech's RAW Geasa is that (for all the reasons mentioned), they're seen as a thing to collect. You want to be better at X? Get another Geas!! Not awesome enough? MOAR GEASA!!!
ReplyDeleteIn myth, even having one Geas is playing life on Nightmare difficulty setting and having two at once is pretty much asking for horrible, doomy death. In Scion, I often hear of Tuatha PC's that have 5 or more Geasa to get all the sweet, sweet bonuses. That just blows my mind.
Nonsense! Having a Geasa was a great and incredible honor, even if they were sometimes handed out with somewhat nefarious intentions (looking at you Aiofe). If nothing else, having a Geasa should give you a pretty big reputation boost to those who care about Irish culture. :D
DeleteYeah, having multiple Geasa is a massive honor. The danger involved was irelevent, since you should be upholding them. An example of someone with many Geasa is Conaire Mor, from the myth "The Destruction of Da Derga's Hostel."
DeleteAh, but something being an honor isn't currently systematized in Scion. If the only benefit to a geas is that Irish NPCs respect you more, players would be totally justified in just buying Epic Charisma and avoiding all the annyoing consequences of geasa.
DeleteGeasa do need some kind of benefit - or barring that, some other kind of reason that a player wants to take them on rather than avoiding their problems. We're not sure what that'll look like yet, though, until we work on it. It could be ability/power bonuses for having geasa, social benefits that have some mechanical system behind them, Fatebonds or something totally different.
Y'all are of course right that having geasa is an honor, and that their primary purpose is to make sure people stay honorable, not to give prizes. We'll have to find a way to preserve that mythic flavor while still incentivizing them enough for the players.
I would like to suggest getting rid of the mix and match charts. Instead, go for something very personal and no more than two or three geasa max. This way you can make the geasa restriction very personal and tailored to the Scion.
DeleteI've found from experience as a player that having too many geasa just makes them feel bland. There were always one or two that felt really important to the character concept, and the rest were just kind of tacked on.
Oh, definitely, we want to discourage having too many geasa. Most gods and heroes only have one or two. I think we might leave it possible to have more, but highly unwise, since the odds tip sharply toward terrible things happening.
DeleteTotally agreed - at the moment, geasa are just things Irish Scions pick up as many of as possible for bonuses, rather than distinct mythic pacts. It's one of the things we really want to fix.
Ok, there's something that's been bothering me since I first read about geasa in the Tuatha supplement. How in the Overworld do you pronounce geasa?
ReplyDeleteIt's closest to "gaysh" or "gesh". One "gaysh/gesh", two "gaysha/gesha". Not to be confused with the Japanese geisha. ;)
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