The Beatin' Stick

Question: I'm running a Hero-level Scion game where several characters have been breaking all sorts of laws while still staying within their Virtues. I want them to encounter a Demigod who focuses on Justice and can deliver some righteousness on them if need be. However, they mainly focused on their Epic physicals and rarely if ever use Willpower or their Virtues. Is there really anything I can use against them besides Star Chamber?

First of all: we've heard you guys. Justice's low levels suck. We have put it on the giant list of Things That Need Fixing, and hope to do so sometime before the death of the universe. But in the meantime, let's look at what we can do here as a Demigod-level Scion.

To begin with, while not using Virtues might take some of the low-level Justice powers out of the game, bleeding Scions of their Willpower can still have a major impact. There are powers that cost Willpower, and even if they don't have any of those, having no Willpower will make them very prone to Virtue Extremity. Justice isn't the only thing that can de-Willpower a Scion; your just-beatdown-minded Demigod could also employ knacks like Opening Salvo, Scathing Retort or Knowing Glance. If you're really looking for ways to make sure these Scions suffer some of the consequences of their actions, they don't even have to break their Virtues; if they're low on Willpower and the Demigod punishing them breaks their Virtues, they'll have just as much of a spiritual crisis on their hands.

But anyway, on to the main event: Justice boons and how to use them on people who don't care about anything but their punching stats. First of all, if there's a particular misbehavior that your Scions are often guilty of that isn't technically illegal, you'll want to give this Demigod Code of Heaven so he can kick their asses even if they haven't strictly broken a law. If one of their favorite shenanigans is listed on the Code of Heaven table, consider making your Demigod from that pantheon so that they have a free ticket to clock these kids one if need be. This prevents the dreaded Lawyering.

Punishments in the Justice purview often depend on what the person did and what your goal is in punishing them. Are you trying to make them realize there are consequences for doing that thing, or just consequences for misbehaving in general? Are you trying to rehabilitate them, or just slap them one for being bad? Are you trying to punish them as in doing something that inconveniences them, or something that devastates them, and is it okay with you to punish them in a permanent way, or are you trying for something severe but temporary?

Depending on the answers to those questions, you have several options. Scarlet Letter is a hilarious good time, and while it won't necessarily prevent them from enjoying their beating-stuff stats, it can instantly torpedo their social interactions, or at the least very thoroughly embarrass them and make others not trust them as much. Banish is a great choice for use against a Scion in a retaliatory way; it keeps them away from whatever it is they may have just screwed up, and can be vastly inconvenient or dangerous for them, especially if they have to do things within that banishment area, and instead they're separated from some of their group and can't help the mission succeed or ride to anyone's rescue (or have anyone else nearby to rescue them, for that matter). At best, the whole group will have to stay outside the area of the banishment until he can participate, which will suck and possibly make them miss windows of opportunity, and which often gets the whole group on the "let's not do that again" bandwagon since they were all affected even though only one person actually had the boon used on him. For the high-level Justice Demigod, Psychic Prison is an absolute devastation maneuver; it not only causes significant psychological harm to the person it was used on (but actually only takes a few minutes of real time to happen, so whatever mission they're on isn't even impeded!), but also drains away social stats to represent that damage. These may be primarily physical Scions, but I'd lay odds that at least some of them would not be pleased to suddenly lose dots they previously possessed. And, also at that high level of Demigodhood, Sanctify Oath is another bombshell, and visits endless botchery on Scions who break promises (which the Demigod should, of course, ask them to make when he suspects they're going to misbehave).

However, for a whole group full of mostly physically-oriented people who need a love-tap from Justice, I think your best possible choice might be Sympathy Pains, which ties several people together so that all of them suffer pain and damage simultaneously. Tie them to innocent bystanders, so that if they get hurt everyone suffers; tie them to their enemies, so that they have to accept their punishment if they want to win the day; tie them to the Demigod himself, so that he's untouchable to them unless they want to punch themselves in the face. Sympathy Pains is designed to be used against physical characters who think with their fists and need to be reined in by forcing them to confront that what they do hurts others, so it's flexible enough to be used in a lot of situations for these characters.

Of course, they may find a way to pull one over on your Justice-y Demigod, and if so, well, them's the breaks - sometimes the PCs take out a lovingly-crafted NPC, and that's that. But since Justice is designed to deal with people who have managed to get away with some bullshit in spite of their other obligations or Virtues, using it on Scions who are consistently being dicks is just the way the gods intended things to be.

Murderdeathkill

Question: Sorry for the short question, but why, under Code of Heaven for the Tuatha de Danann, are murder and betrayal seen as offences to be punished? The Irish can't betray or kill?

Oh, they certainly can. They do, in fact, all the time, because they have bad tempers and a critical cultural failure to think about things before they do them.

But the point of Code of Heaven is that it's for punishing the things that a culture considers its most important and unforgivable sins, and for the Tuatha, betrayal and murder are some of those most unforgivable transgressions. Betraying a comrade, liege lord or family member is a heinous crime in Irish myth, one that is almost always followed by swift and painful retribution; Irish people absolutely can betray someone if they want to, but if they do they are breaking one of the most important unwritten laws of their ancient culture, and a Justice god who knows they've done so can punish them for it. Similarly, murder - straight-up, unprovoked murder, not killing on the battlefield, which is a different matter - is not okay in ancient Irish society, and someone who murders someone else (whether because they hate them, they want to take something they own, or for any other reason) has committed a crime by those standards and should be punished.

Code of Heaven is actually designed to let Scions who possess it punish people of other cultures who commit those crimes - it's meant to let you visit your own culture's brand of justice on those who don't necessarily belong to it, so that a horrified Scion of the Tuatha could punish an Aztec who had performed a human sacrifice even though that was not technically illegal for the Aztec to do. It doesn't really apply to your own people much, unless they happen to have fled to a neighboring culture in order to find somewhere that their behavior is not considered criminal, in which case Code of Heaven would allow you to hunt them down and kick their ass with Justice regardless of their current jurisdiction.

At its base, Code of Heaven is simply about being able to apply your own culture's morals to someone else who might not share them; it doesn't tell anyone what they can or can't do, simply represents what crimes a given culture's Scions can always punish thanks to their culture's abhorrence of them.

Hey, Look, Another Reason

Question: For the Code of Heaven Justice boon, what are the offenses for the pantheons you have created like the Anunna?

We've actually posted those up here before, but I don't blame you for not finding them in the primordial soup of our archives. For you, and anybody else that might have missed it, check out this post for not just the Code of Heaven offenses, but also Scent the Divine/Scent the Titanic sensations and Vestiges of a Distant Past abilities.

All the Fiddly Bits

Question: Well, now that the Inca gods are up (all hail the Apu!), I Gotta ask one simple question. What scent and sound does Scent the Divine register for them?

Oops, sorry. We talked about this in the comments of the post announcing the Apu, but it probably should be up here where everybody can see it. I tend to forget to include Scent the Divine/Scent the Titanic/Code of Heaven/Vestiges of a Distant Past information for new pantheons in their supplements - or not really forget as much as say, "Oh, well, that'll just get added to the table for that power on the site, not here," and then later John will say, "They're not in play yet, don't add them to the table," and then here we all are.

So! Here, the specifics not just on the Apu but on the Alihah, Anunna, Bogovi and Elohim as well, for anyone who missed them!

Pantheon	Scent the Divine
The Alihah	Sweet dates and the distant cry of an owl
The Anunna	Cedar wood and the sudden crack of thunder
The Apu	Rich cocoa beans and the distant rumble of an earthquake
The Atua	Sea salt and the calling of ocean birds
The Bogovi	Rain and the sound of a turning wheel
The Elohim	Cooling ash and the sound of clashing weapons
The Inue	Blubber oil and the gnash of glaciers
The K'uh	Warm honey and the cries of jungle animals

Titan	Scent the Titanic
Emamu (Anunna)	The breath of a predator on your neck
Pakiy (Apu)	The sensation of being torn apart by many hands
Paroro-Whenua (Atua)	The brief certainty that the sky is crashing down on you
Sedeq (Elohim)	The impression of unyielding barriers surrounding you
Stvaranje (Bogovi)	A sudden flash of morbid inspiration
Ukiuq (Inue)	The sudden sensation of intense, frostbitten cold
Whedh (Alihah)	A sudden sensation of the world rushing toward you
Xibalba (K'uh)	The sudden stopping of heartbeat and breath

Pantheon	Code of Heaven Crimes
The Alihah	Betrayal, breach of hospitality, violation of religious customs
The Anunna	Abuse of authority, disrespect toward the gods, rebellion
The Apu	Destruction of sacred places or objects, laziness, theft
The Atua	Cannibalism, familicide, violation of a taboo
The Bogovi	Interference with mortals, murder, wanton destruction
The Elohim	Conspiracy, disrespect toward the gods, trespassing
The Inue	Disrespect toward the gods, environmental damage, incest
The K'uh	Disrespect toward the gods, murder, theft

Pantheon	Vestiges of a Distant Past Abilities
The Alihah	Art, Control, Fortitude, Stealth, Survival
The Anunna	Academics, Art, Craft, Politics, Presence
The Apu	Athletics, Awareness, Fortitude, Occult, Survival
The Atua	Athletics, Command, Control, Presence, Survival
The Bogovi	Awareness, Empathy, Integrity, Occult, Survival
The Elohim	Brawl, Command, Fortitude, Melee, Presence
The Inue	Animal Ken, Control, Fortitude, Integrity, Survival
The K'uh	Athletics, Craft, Empathy, Politics, Thrown

There we go. All caught up!