Are there any advantages to pursuing a more specific animal for the animal purview? For example, choosing the more specific peregrine falcon over the more general falcon?
Mechanical advantages? No, probably not. If you took peregrine falcon, id probably give you plus +5 dice to it, but -5 dice to other falcons. Not something set in stone in the rules, but its what Id probably do. I like to reward specificity. We have some ideas for an animal purview rewrite that arent at all set in stone but being slowly worked on. Its very VERY not complete, but I can give you a sneak peak. It would go something like.
Level 1 animal: You choose very specific animal(you cant choose bear or falcon, you have to choose grizzly or peregrine).
Level 3 animal: You can get a bonus to your specific animal, or grow out to animals like your specific animal. All bears or all falcons.
Level 7 animal: You can get a larger bonus to your current animals or go out towards more diverse animals again. All birds of prey or all bear-ish creatures(maybe racoons, red pandas)
Level 9 animal: Getting even better at animals you already have or spread out again. All birds or all large omnivorous mammals.
Level 10 or ultimate animal: Get EVEN better at the animals you already have or go up a step again, possibly to all animals.
I felt the current level 10 boon of automatically all animals was abrupt and there should both be rewards for staying true to one animal type, but also rewards and systems for spreading out to other like animals. Nothing is set in stone and I obviously need hours and hours of work on it til it fits the system(and itll come with an overhaul of the purview as well. Lookin at you giant nerf to animal aspect). But its something Ive been brewin' for a while and am pretty excited about.
That looks very VERY good!
ReplyDeleteThe only problem I can see is that there will inevitably be that one player who wants to use Animal (Bird) to create Dinosaurs at Legend 4.
What do we say to that player?
DeleteNot today!
Yeah, on that topic...
ReplyDeleteIf I chimera lets say... a gorilla crocodile.
And have Protean Understanding.
Can I really Create Animal (Gorillashark) now? Can I Epic Enhance one? Or Typhonian Beast one?
Or, to put it simple: once a new species has been chimera'd, is it viable as an Animal for... well, Animal.
-----
With the new system: Is it allways an 'or' decision, or can I have both when I spent the ton of EXP nessecary?
What do you do about cultures (scandinavian, celtic, slavic, native american, or even 'saints') that have Heroes who can talk to any animal they want?
ReplyDeleteHmm, I thought I answered this comment and it's now gone!
DeleteThere actually aren't many I know of that can do that, and most of them are through the intervention of outside forces which would probably be Relics or potions in Scion. Sigurd, from Norse legend, is a good example: he doesn't learn to understand all birdkind because of anything he does, but rather because he tastes some of a magical food (dragon's heart) that grants that power.
People that actually have the ability to talk to all creatures are few and far between, and probably ought to be up in the Protean Understanding range.
I used to have a scion (Daughter of Cernunnos) with a 3 Dot Relic Cloak which allowed her to communicate with all animals. This was set in Roman invasion of Britain sorta time, and she was actually mute (or at least unable, or unwilling to speak with humans) due to her past.
DeleteShe was a very fun character to play. I don't think I abused the whole speaking to all animal things, and had a whole lot of fun with the muteness and playing of charades/drawing stick figures with her spear in the dirt.
I think the other players enjoyed it too, and luckily it wasn't too much of a bar on us actually working as a team. Which I totally realise it could have been without such an awesome group!
I dont think its "the most broken relic" but it does kinda shit on anyone else who takes animal. Which sucks....its great that they're cool with it, but still unfortunate balance wise. Also its a relic that is like 500 xp....which does seem broken.
DeleteThe problem is that people like Sigurd, Melampus, Gwyrhr, King Solomon, and Saint Francis all have the relic that DomHeroEllis described... or there's some other way that these guys are talking to any animal they want.
DeleteAnd that does not include generalized groups like indian shamans speaking to animals, or celtic druids speaking to animals. If 'all myths are true' it's probably not fair to say they were all high on drugs or liars.
When a myth specifically says, "Here is a thing, and it made this person able to talk to animals," it would be pretty bizarre to assume it was secretly a boon that did it and not the thing.
DeleteThe problem with generalized groups is that they're... well, general. There're few specific tales to give us a good idea of what they're actually talking about. A few accounts mention that druids were able to "talk to animals", but it doesn't say what animals, how or with what range; does that mean they could talk to all animals everywhere, or does it mean that they could talk to a few specific animals? Does it mean they had an all-encompassing power, or does it mean they were seen to talk to a bear one time? There's no detail, so it's hard to make a call one way or the other.
Also.....most of the things you're listing, arent known as scions. They would get they're powers from else where. Im certain a titan of beasts could talk to all animals, and could give his titanspawn titan-curropted person a relic to talk to all beasts.
Delete@Anne. When a myth specifically says "Here is a thing, and it made this person..." I generally assume within the context of Scion that the thing is a relic that lets you channel a purview. Especially since Heroes cannot channel purviews without said thing.
Delete@John. That's honestly kind of a cop out, though. It's extremely easy to say "That was not a Scion, that was something else" in every situation that is not a cut and dry example where they outright say "He is the son of soandso".
Thats not a cop out...thats just factual. We cant assume anyone who has a story about them ever is a scion and then we should fit all of them somehow into cannon as scions and all their powers as scion.
DeleteYou also can't assume anyone who has a story about them ever is not a scion. There are plenty of stories where the origin of the creature/person/whatever is not clear of obvious, and storytellers have to make a personal call.
DeleteExcept if that kind of relic is imbalanced and doesn't get allowed, or the boon doesn't let them do it, then they just can't be like Sigurd/Saint Francis/whoever.
The only thing about this set up is that irks me, now that I think about it, is that lower legend animal boons are the ones that benefit most from diversity of animals. I mean, it doesn't matter that much, mechanically anyway, if you use Create Animal to create a lion or a tiger. It's highly unlikely that one could do something the other can't. On the contrary, Animal Communication for only Manx cats is unlikely to ever prove very useful.
ReplyDelete