Old Time-y Game

So, I'm working on this idea about a game of Scion set in North America during the height of the american slave trading and plantation-era. Do you think that could work, and do you have any advice concerning major events or other things I should consider about this kind of game?

This is a very old question. And Im sorry its taken so long to get to it.

Our eastern promises game actually plays in this time period. So.....Im gonna say yes it could work. It is more difficult though. For both players and ST. There is a lot of research involved to get the feel of the time period right, and to not mire yourself in a stack of complications through play.

There are tons of major events going on at this time period....like just....endless.
I suppose first job is to choose a start date. The slave trade lasts a long time and syncs up well with the rise and fall of colonialism and the time of empires. But its a massive 300+ year period in which so much happens all over the world that its tough to talk about what major events you might work with

I can tell you about Eastern Promises though:
Eastern promises started in 1850 and has run through 1854. It deals with some crucial world events.

Civil war is coming up. Yay america goes bananas
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War

The crimean war(YES! the one that is basically happening all over again right now) starts for the first time in 1853
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_War

We are between opium wars but the effects are felt and soon the next one will start
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_Wars

Suez Canal is being built
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_Canal

AND TRAINS! Trains started as a kinda new thing, but are growing everywhere
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_rail_transport

Eastern promises travels all over the world, but even if your game chooses to stay in north america(a difficult task, scions love to roam) you're gonna really want to study up on history from all over the world because the more influence it can have on things, the better and more enriched the world will feel.


Final Thought: Make sure you know why you're using the time period. Sometimes it can just be fun or a change of pace. But older time periods can be a great tool for exploring different themes and you should think about those themes before you start, it'll all you to weave them into the story more seamlessly and will end up better in the long run.

Eventually we plan to release a supplement to help players in this time period(and others). ....you know.....eventually.

Scion AMA: Eastern Promises, Mark II

And finally, it's time for the current crop of Eastern Promises kids, as well as several of their previous cronies! They are all about answering some questions. Enthusiastically!

Scion AMA: Eastern Promises, Mark I

The first round of Eastern Promises characters are here to tell you about their experiences! We'll hear from some members of Faruza's merry globe-trotting, cow-collecting band, as well as Alvin's group of high-class miscreants in a world that really ought to be catering to their needs way better than it does. Also, bonus Yadi.

The one drawback of the Eastern Promises rotating roster is that when characters are out of play, we all miss them and want them to come back and be ridiculous all at the same time.

Scions About Town

You guys want to see something adorable? Good, because we have it for you!

In the Eastern Promises game, Padma Billingsworth, Scion of Lakshmi, was raised as a proper British young lady, who in spite of her slightly unladylike preference for books and disinterest in getting married would never have dreamed of doing anything surprising or socially questionable. When a bunch of Scions turned up in London and told her she needed to go with them to go perform heroic deeds and do magical stuff, she was polite and sorry to turn them down, but explained that she simply couldn't go traipsing off to god knew where unchaperoned, and that her father would probably have a heart attack if she even suggested it.

So Shadan, secret prince of Persia, gambler, rapscallion and all-around rascal, put on his best Epic Manipulation face, went over to her house, and managed to not only convince her father that he was secretly a Duke of England and a very important person, but also that he should hand over Padma's hand in marriage because it was an awesome match, and furthermore, when her father started making noises about planning the wedding, that they were already married because they were totes in love and had eloped because they couldn't bear to be apart.

Her father totally bought it, and Padma found herself being swept off her feet and carried away by her new "husband" with very little input in the matter and a Shadan who was much too pleased with himself. And now you can look at a picture of that hilarious triumph of social knacks.

By Steph!

In the ensuing two years, Padma and Shadan have developed a weird but kind of sweet relationship... at least, when they aren't driving one another insane with their incompatible approaches to things like laws and the importance of learning.

Vintage Portraits

Are you guys ready for super awesomeness? Today we've got a gorgeous set of portraits for the current Eastern Promises group. They are some good-looking divine adventurers. (Well, except for Haji.)

Alvin:


Haji:


James:


Leona:


Mrs. Young

All by the fantastic Julian Lancaster. We can't decide what we love most about these - Alvin's smarmy face, James' aristocratic sneer, Leona's cat-with-cream smile, Mrs. Young's unconquerable misanthropy, or the fact that Haji is apparently wearing a coat with nothing under it. Everything is wonderful.

They Have Opinions

Okay, you guys, today we're doing a vlog treat (one day late, but we needed to ambush the star-studded cast). Today's vlog is being performed totally unplanned and unscripted by three of our fabulous players, who took time out from their busy schedule of being screwed over by other king gods to answer some player-centric questions. In fact, they were so awesome at it that it was over an hour long when it was done, so we split it into two parts and you'll get to see the second half next week.

In the meantime, here are some questions!

Question: Does high positive/negative Appearance usually affect internal band interactions? Or is it often forgotten/shrugged off by players and their PCs? For instance, does Woody often find himself getting lost in Geoff's eyes, or is he just used to it?

Question: Have you used Gods in your games as NPCs, actually involved alongside the PCs, not just as observers/catalysts, and if so, which ones?

Question: Has your PCs been in a Avatar vs. Avatar fight?

Question: Sowiljr has a keycard for the handsome gods club. What is that? A cult for him or a mens' club for gods? Or what?

Question: Okay since every pantheon seems to be big messed up families I gotta ask: who is your "unfavorite" in each pantheon?

Awesome shout-out props to Alex Preston-Bosch for the fancy new opening credits - he is awesome!

Places, Everyone!

Today, we're having some fun with charts! One of our players, who happens to be a graphic design wizard, got to thinking after some of our recent posts about the different roles various characters play in games - who's the social mojo-mover, the physical ass-kicker, the mental note-taker, the magical occult-bender. We have a general awareness that various characters fall into various categories, but we've never really sat down and done the math to see exactly who and how much.

He came up with these super neat venn diagrams of what all the characters in our most prominent games (sorry, Hong Kong and Red Sun) do and how they stack up against each other, and we're sharing them with you because it's our blog and we can do that if we want to.

Wow. Apparently Gangs has way too much brains for its own good, which balances out with Strawberry Fields, which had none (I guess that's what happened to them). And that social/physical job must be pretty difficult to maintain, because Kebo stands stoically alone. It's also very neat to see very different characters that are still of the same "type" - there's a lot of range to be hand among different personalities!

And that's not all! Remember a while ago, when we made that ridiculously complicated flowchart of the relationships between all the Scions in our main game's universe? Well, the same intrepid player just put one together for Gangs of New York:

It's much smaller because they're just baby Scions, but they're already weaving themselves a tangled web, aren't they?

Dancing in the Streets

Oh, man, you guys, do we ever have some more art for you tonight! From two different artists and two different games, and both are fantastic.

First, we have one of our all-time favorite scenes from Better Next Time, starring everyone's favorite pain in the ass, Goze! After discovering that Raijin and Fujin had seized control of the skies over Japan and were pretty much drowning the entire area in a constant hurricane, Geoff's group went to try to stop them by infiltrating in an undercover mission. However, they were pretty sure that one or both of them would notice if a rogue band of Scions suddenly appeared in their territory, so Goze was split off to go on a solo distraction mission. Upon arriving at their base, Goze spent several minutes almost getting eaten, and finally hit upon the idea of keeping the none-too-bright ogres occupied with tricks and flim-flammery. Finally, in desperation, he started busting off tribal dance moves he had learned from an Australian goddess, and poured everything he had into a crazy high roll to succeed. And succeed he did - so well, in fact, that both Raijin and Fujin joined in. They then proceeded to dance so energetically and for so long that Goze was forced to create a doppelgaenger of himself to leave there, eternally dancing with them while he made his escape.

Which leads to this incredibly awesome picture of a giant Japanese monster dance party:

By Samantha Braithwaite!

But that's not all! Over in Eastern Promises, we also have a great new picture of James Howard, Duke of Norfolk, squiring the Lady Leona Middleton about town on the lovely streets of Charleston, before the many Great Irritations of America started harshing all over their courtship. Mrs. Young, acting as chaperone, really does look like she operates under a constant raincloud of dislike and crankiness.

By Steph!

Guys, I am just completely bowled over by how awesome these artists are, and how incredibly neat it is that they want to draw things for our games. If they lived close enough, I'd hug both of them, and everyone they know. Give them a round of applause!

Status Report: Still Flailing at the Unknown

Question: Can we get an update on what is happening in your three games?

We sure can - in fact, let's ring in the new year with one!

Things are rough in the god-level game, where our Legend 11 superstars are having serious trouble juggling their loyalties, their secret missions and their political obligations. They're still on a secret mission from their parents, who charged them with gathering the omphalus stones of each of the Titanrealms in order to use them in a ritual to reinforce Tartarus, which is in danger of breaking open again now that they've managed to get a bunch of Titans back into it but nobody really bothered to go and spackle up the cracks they got out of last time. Going to Titanrealms is dangerous and difficult and takes up a whole lot of time, and in the meantime Sowiljr's position as king of the Aesir is suffering because he's not around to do it. They recently also figured out that removing a realm's omphalus stone makes it more powerful, so they're just beginning to realize they may have royally screwed some of the other pantheons who were fighting those Titans and just got suddenly overwhelmed by extra power. And while they have a few friends among the gods, they know that their parents are still incognito after Ragnarok and they're not allowed to tell anyone they're alive, which means they can't ask for a lot of help with their mission without having to field uncomfortable questions. Already some of the Bogovi are angrily trying to stop them, because what they're doing is pretty much directly opposed to both Harmony and the usual Bogovi mindset of not touching things that aren't yours.

At this exact moment, Sowiljr and Jioni are in Gimli (the renamed Asgard, post-Ragnarok), trying to get it ready for the Kingsmoot, a meeting of all the pantheon heads that Sowiljr has called in an effort to get everyone to make some policies, alliances and plans that help the overall war, not to mention solidify his own tenuous position as king of like two people. Folkwardr has likewise called, or is trying to call, a Magemoot to deal with the problem of the Titanrealm of Fate having been severely screwed up by Theoi shenanigans, making the Fate purviews not work properly, but he's unable to get much going on that since he's currently trapped in the Titanrealm of Illusions with Eztli, who he's desperately trying to get out since he knows she's ill-equipped to do so herself. Eztli, in turn, almost got out once but refused to go when she realized that Tonatiuh, the sun god of her struggling pantheon, was trapped there, too; she refused to leave him, and all three are now fighting to survive and remember who they are before the Titan eats them whole. Sowiljr is miserable over Folkwardr and Eztli being stuck in there, but knows that he both can't really help them and that he doesn't dare not show up to this major political event he's throwing, so he's just doing the best he can and trying not to Loyalty extremity every day. Jioni's just tired. Of everyone.

In Eastern Promises, the current band consists of Alvin, James, Leona, Mrs. Young and Haji, the same misfits from the last adventure, who have just begun a new saga in order to fulfill requirements asked of them by Fate after James used Deus Ex Machina to save their lives in the last story. They've been sent to go to the Garden of the Hesperides and retrieve a box for Ishtar; they have no idea what's in the box, nor are they feeling great about going to the Garden of Hera Kicks Your Ass, but Fate wants what Fate wants. They've just begun to get some clues that not all of the gods may be around, although where they are and what happened to them is anybody's guess, and that they're largely on their own when it comes to dealing with their supernatural problems. Most recently, James attempted to get permission from Queen Victoria to marry Leona, only to be told in the politest terms possible that he wasn't about to get permission to marry anyone who's half brown and he has a duty to the Crown to marry someone more suitable in case his children come up to inherit the throne one day, which he's trying to combat by finding a way to prove that Leona is descended from the pharaohs and therefore appropriate marriage material; and Alvin, in order to save his drowning comrades from an angry Proteus, agreed to spend a night with the god as his eromenos and is exploring a strange but interesting new world of sexuality. Mrs. Young hates everyone and wants to go home. Haji's good, though.

Finally, the Gangs of New York game just brought their story, starring Zoe, Skylar, Russel, Isaac and Anton, to a thrilling conclusion where somehow most people survived. Isaac accidentally got himself dragged into a world where he exists as pure computer code, and there met the mistress of the giant technological web, who turned out to be Arachne; she offered him the chance to stay with her and influence the web (and thus the world) from within, which he accepted, bowing out before the final game session. Back on earth, where all the Scions of the current story are duly appointed superheroes (codenamed Containment Prime) in the employ of the United States government in charge of defending New York City from supernatural threats, Skylar fled a monster attack that destroyed an Army base and was subsequently sentenced to death for abandoning his duty; Zoe and Anton made a desperate helicopter trip from New York to Washington, D.C. in an hour and half in a stolen military jet, being attacked by monsters all the way, to barely make it in time to stop Congress from voting in his execution. Zoe made an incredible patriotic speech about Skylar's value to the country and the need for superheroes, successfully saving him from death and the group from disbandment, and Anton made sure it went viral so that the United States as a whole is now on the superhero bandwagon. Meanwhile, Russel and Skylar, defending New York on their own, teamed up with a surprisingly skilled human cop they ran into to take on the last of the fire demons that have been plaguing the city recently, in a fierce battle that nearly killed all of them but finally managed to take her down and save the day.

At the end of the story, Zoe was recalled to Washington to coordinate political concerns for the new group (and deal with the fact that Isaac has gone AWOL and, since he's a former terrorist, that's super not good), Anton went with her as bodyguard and chauffeur, Russel missed his opportunity to try to tell Zoe he has feelings for her because of Skylar's bionic interference, and all was well in the Big Apple. The next story will rotate characters again, so Zoe, Isaac and Anton will go out and Russel and Skylar will stay in, and we'll pick up with a new crisis and set of heroes next week.

So, you know, they're keeping busy.

It just occurred to me that this post is queued, so there might have been a game or two between when I wrote it and when it goes live, but that just adds to the mystery, I think.

Scion Symphony

Question: In a previous vlog you had mentioned that many of the characters have a "theme song" without the knack itself. Could you share some tunes for your characters who are not rocking Theme Music?

I hope you guys are ready for this! We got all the players involved, went to our own giant playlists of character theme songs, and even after slimming it down (WAY down) we still have an awesome musical journey going on here. I'm not kidding when I say that John and I have songlists that are literally five or more hours long for each of our games, including songs for each character, for their relationships and for their great deeds. We love epic musical soundtracks!

Don't mind the videos for these. We're talking about the music, not the silly band dances.

Better Next Time:

There's a pretty neverending stream of music for these guys; you can sit through our iTunes list for them for about six hours without even being able to see the end of the tunnel. In addition to Geoff's official theme music - "How You Like Me Now" by The Heavy and "Lover of the Light" by Mumford & Sons, depending on his moon - we also like Natasha Marsh's "He Moves, Eyes Follow" and Rise Against's "Savior". The last one in particular is a great song for describing his relationships with his family members (mostly women) over the course of his life.

Sangria has a cocktail of songs about physical badassery and determination, but our top favorites would be "No Gringo" by Vienna Teng, "Indestructible" by Disturbed and "Titanium" by Sia/David Guetta.

Sophia's image song has always been Daft Punk's "Harder Better Faster Stronger", which really captures her attitude (and lack of normal human-like function). At the point where she became (according to John) infatuated with a particular Scion who shall remain nameless, we also started playing Adele's "Set Fire to the Rain" a lot.

Goze's playlist is as multiple-personality as he is, but Jim's Big Ego does both of his major songs, the frenetic "Stress" and the introspective "The Ballad of Barry Allen". When he impersonated Geoff, we also used to always play Maroon 5's "Moves Like Jagger" to illustrate his hilarious impersonation of his more charismatic friend.

Marcus James' unofficial theme song was always "I'm On a Boat" by The Lonely Island, which covered his bombastic crazy-ass personality traits, but in his sadder moments we also associate him with "I Need a Dollar" by Aloe Blacc. His player has also been known to remark that any song by Jay-Z is relevant to Marcus' life.

Eastern Promises:

There are a ton of characters in this game, so we'll try to be brief and split them up by group.

Mohini is all about some high-energy dance music (if techno dance beats had existed in her time period, she'd have been all over them); she has a lot of similar songs on her list, but some of the most often-played are "Come and Get It" by Selena Gomez and "Turn Me On" by Nicki Minaj/David Guetta. Shadan, the ever-irrepressible, rocks out to "Crown on the Ground" by Sleigh Bells, while Kebo's easy-going nature lends itself to "Movin' Right Along" by The Muppets and Cassara of course has to be "Food Glorious Food" from the musical Oliver! Padma's player wasn't sure what song to use for her, but said that she and Shadan should totally be the subjects of "Something There" from Beauty and the Beast. Akhi's song is Peter Gabriel's "Here Comes the Flood", which handily contrasts with Faruza, who obviously has to go with Alicia Keys' "Girl on Fire". Samuel, scourge of the skies on his ornithopter, is heralded by Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries", while Darrius' secretive nature lends itself to the moody "Hideaway" by Passion Pit. Mshai's player suggests "Your Hand in Mine" by Explosions in the Sky for his brief run, and Alvin, the suave son of a bitch, gets "In the Air Tonight" covered by Nonpoint. Adorable Yadi is Natasha Bedingfield's "Pocketful of Sunshine", and old, crochety, adventurous Paniwi rolls along to "Muddy Water" from the musical Big River. Lionel's grossness is aptly represented by Radiohead's "Creep" and "Brand New Day" from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, and Mrs. Young's creepy personality makes everyone uncomfortable with "Danse Macabre" by Saint-Saens, rounding out our unpleasant team members. James' player suggests several upper-crust classical pieces for him, including "Dawn" by Dario Marianelli, and "Rule Britannia" by Thomas Arne; Leona of course gets Katy Perry's "Roar".

Terry's player totally did not okay it, but we play "Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)" by Big & Rich for him anyway.

Gangs of New York:

The first Gangs group, full of socialites with poor decision-making skills, was of course headlined by Michael, whose official theme song is Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now" and whose unofficial followup is Franz Ferdinand's "Michael". Sexy mysterious Valentina gets "Die Another Day" by Madonna, poor displaced party boy Nic gets "All I Ever Wanted" by Airborne Toxic Event, and psychotically vengeful James gets "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley.

The second group, which was more of a moving demolition derby than a set of semi-human beings, has an accordingly sadder and more dystopian list of music. Poor Winona's song is "Grey Street" by Dave Matthews Band, with "Down" by Jason Walker/Molly Reed as a secondary choice. Alan's song is Great Big Sea's "Wave Over Wave" or "Nautical Disaster" by Tragically Hip, while Jake (and everyone else in the group, eventually) gets Radioactive by Imagine Dragons and Simon's player informs us that, now bereft of his only true love in death, his character will be represented by Puff Daddy's "I'll Be Missing You".

Our current group (the... good group?) in that game is slightly less depressed about their lives. Anton's song is "Stickshifts and Safety Belts" by Cake, Isaac's is "The Future Soon" by Jonathon Coulton, Skylar's is "Hannah's Theme" by The Chemical Brothers, and Zoe's is "By the Sword" by Emilie Autumn.

Land of the Red Sun:

Alison and Colin have an entire album dedicated to them, but a few highlights for the fractious son of Dionysus include "Frontier Psychiatrist" by The Avalanches, "Magic" by B.o.B. and "Unwell" by Matchbox 20. Alison's official theme music is "Pumped Up Kicks" by Foster the People, but she's also partial to "I Am a Scientist" by The Dandy Warhols, "Control" by Poe and "Sunny Came Home" by Shawn Colvin.

Of the Japanese crew, only Saki ("Bumblebee" from DDR) and Hachiro ("This Is Halloween" covered by Marilyn Manson) have the Theme Music knack. The rest of the group wasn't played for long and didn't have a strong musical set yet, but the Japanese group was so consistently ice-cool that we enjoy playing Far East Movement's "Like a G6" for them as a unit.

Skeins of Fate:

Aurora has hours of music all by herself, but in addition to her official theme music (Kelly Sweet's cover of "Dream On"), I'm also fond of Sara Lov's cover of "My Body is a Cage" for her, while John loves Michael Card's "The Prophet". We actually made the saddest double CD of music about her and Wolf several months ago, but listening to it made us turn to drink.

Woody, the old soldier that he is, has always had "Carry On Wayward Son" by Kansas as his main song, but songs about war almost always suit him; some of our other favorites are Billy Joel's "Goodnight Saigon" and Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son".

Vivian's official theme song is the 30 Rock Theme, which suits her awesomely, but she is a lady of many and mercurial moods. We also love Nightwish's "Slow Love Slow" for her, and of course "Lady Marmalade" from Moulin Rouge.

People often forget that Will actually has Theme Music - Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water" - because he doesn't use it very often. Bonus: John Doe's unofficial theme song was "Going Down" by Sick Puppies... and he did.

Kettila's adorable theme song is "I Won't Grow Up" from Peter Pan, and her creepy childhood schtick dominates her playlist. We also recommend "In My Arms" by Plumb, "Fields of Innocence" by Evanescence and "I Want My Innocence Back" by Emilie Autumn.

Strawberry Fields:

Cheerful Dierdre is the frontrunner here, with either "The Elfin Knight" by Kate Rusby or "Turn Loose the Mermaids" by Nightwish. Seamus is gloomier with "Save Yourself" by Stabbing Westward or "Disarm" by Smashing Pumpkins. The other Irish kids were sort of cannon fodder in Seamus' ruthless quest, so they didn't end up with many songs of their own.

I'm serious, this could go on for a very long time, but that's not very surprising. Lots of players and games have theme songs for their characters, so our list is only impressive because of the sheer number of characters making it massive.

Eastern Art and Gang Graffiti

Artwork day! Woohoo! We have three new awesome pieces of art for our games today, and I am way beyond excited about them!

First, two pieces of Eastern Promises - the first ever Eastern Promises fanart, in fact!

Nisha, hiding in the jungle, tries to imitate Mohini's morning dance routine! (Art by Steph!)


Faruza teaches Paul Bunyan the holy scriptures, while he tries to impress her with his manly charms! (Art by Julian Lancaster!)

How much do we love these? So goddamned much. Look at Paul's big goofy face. Look at Nisha's adorable awkwardness. Look how awesome they are. I'm drowning in my glee.

And let's not forget Gangs of New York, which has a piece that I put up in the art section recently and somehow forgot to feature here on the blog (so shame on me).

Michael, shapeshifted into a woman, rallies a mob of mortals to fight the U.S. Army personnel trying to lay siege to the Metropolitan Museum! (Art by Samantha Braithwaite!)

Michael (or Michelle, as the band referred to him/her at this point) don't play around, you guys. He is a menace to society.

Artists, we love you and we love your fanart and we are so full of love we will probably float away into the universe. I heard from a little bird that even more new art is on the way, and we are pretty much just entirely floored by talented artists who feel like being awesome for our players and characters. You guys are excellent.

By the way, we were fiddling with some pretty lightbox effects in the artwork section of the site, but unfortunately it was loading at a snail's pace and we were too frustrated to keep it. The new artwork section is a little less fancy but much quicker and cleaner, and we'll keep tinkering with it as we go along.

Yay, artists!

Moral Sunday

Question: Hey, you guys haven't done an alignment chart for your new PCs yet. It would be awesome to see which side of good and evil they lie on.

Fun side project time! After we did the original alignment charts way back in the dawn of time, we didn't think we'd be revisiting the fun, but we have new crops of baby Scions and they run the gamut of outlooks and morals.

Here's a chart (co-ed, because there are fewer characters than in the main game universe) for Eastern Promises:

Several other characters could fill some of these roles - Akhileswar, Cassara, Darrius, Kebo, Layla and Padma are probably Neutral Good, Mohini and Haji are probably Chaotic Good, Mrs. Young is likely to be Lawful Neutral and Samuel's probably rocking the True Neutral with Paniwi.

Gangs of New York is so young that we don't have enough folks to fill out the chart yet; there's been nobody in that game who could really be considered Neutral Evil, for example. However, I'm sure they'll grow into it - they'll spread those baby Scion wings and start being evil any day.

Govern Thyself

Question: What does the mortal world think of your various characters? Also, are all of your characters in the same universe/continuity? Finally, what do mortal governments tend to think in general of Scions during that time when the governments know about them but the general public doesn't know yet (assume they ever get to that point)? Thanks for all your hard work!

Hey, you're welcome. Hard work can be fun, sometimes!

Our characters are not all in the same continuity, but rather in three distinct universes. I'm not going to link to all of them because that's a lot of linking action, but here's the breakdown of who's where:

Continuity One: Better Next Time, Skeins of Fate, Strawberry Fields, Land of the Red Sun and Hong Kong. This is the big motherlode universe, involving the most of our characters and by far the dominator of our fiction section; it's set in the modern day and has been played in consistently for the past 4+ years of our games running, involving a modern world in which the resurgance of the Titans causes the ancient and magical to suddenly spill back over into everyday life. Its PC characters include Geoff Matheson, Sangria Tecuhtli, Mitchell Gozer, Sophia Archimedes, Marcus James, Chuck Clark, Aurora Dahl, Woody Anderson, Vivian Landry, Kettila Blomgren, John Doe, Theo Arnoux, Will Nordstrom, Dierdre O'Riordan, Seamus McMann, Alaina Bertrand, Killian Corvinus, Luke Honre, Ian Jupiter, Sam Striker, Najarat Sekhar, Amunet Ipi, Iggy Rex, Auggie MacDonough, Jude Shriver, Tyler Hamilton Orton, Art Eclipse, Lapis, Darcy Jolie-Pitt, Hime-Kame Jolie-Pitt, Carlos Jolie-Pitt, Cora Champagne, Maximus Giovani VII, Sora Sato, Saki, Hachiro Taro Koga, Hiro Subaru, Aisu Sutoraiku, Ahuiliztli Matheson, Chuck Clark Jr., Charlie Gozer, Alison Margaritas, Colin Margaritas, John Shimoda and Raymond Dent. There's also a much-too-large host of NPC and side characters fleshing out the stories, with the most famous being Jay Ortiz, Kane Taoka and Wolfgang Amery.

Continuity Two: Eastern Promises. This is our second longest-running universe, and is set in the middle of the nineteenth century, incorporating elements of steampunk and political intrigue into the tale of Scions trying to save the world without anyone noticing. Its PC characters include Mohini Misra, Shadan Ferma, Penelope Young, Padma Billingsworth, Kebo, Cassara Mitchell, Terry Gaither, Faruza Alinejad, Samuel Vanderbilt, Shanti Paavatika, Nisha, Kitty Sanders, Sanjiv Nayak, Mshai, Ahkileswar, Layla Wahab, Lionel Cuthbert, Darrius, Leona Middleton, Paniwi Bayteru, James Howard, Haji, Zahed Al-Azif and Yadi. They don't have quite the giant backlog of famous NPCs yet (although there are a few - hi, Paul Bunyan) and don't have a ton of fiction stories yet, but they're heading toward being a force to be reckoned with.

Continuity Three: Gangs of New York. Our most recent game is another modern-day, normal Scion setting, but set in a different universe from Continuity One to allow a new crop of Scions a chance to blow up landmarks. Its PC characters include James Keenan, Valentina Radic, Nic Mason, Mabel Grey, Michael Chambers, Alan Parillo, Winona Nelson, Simon Rockwell, Jake Devon, Rick Nolan and Adira Bazzi. They don't yet have any fiction (although believe me, I have notes on them), and are still babies in Scion terms, with the most powerful scarcely Legend 4.

So, yeah. For the most part, you'll see us talking about the folks in Continuity One the most, because there are the most of them and they've done the most things over time (some have made the journey all the way from Legend 3 to Legend 11 now, in fact!), but the other games are also awesome and we love their different possibilities.

As for what the mortal world thinks, I won't do a full rundown because it would take forever, but it's about what you'd expect. The government, once it realizes that there are superpowered people running around, tends to react with paranoia and immediate steps taken to understand and contain any threat Scions might be to the world, which works better in some areas than others. Entire armies have scrambled to try to take down Sangria or hunt Michael out of the streets of New York, with very limited success; on the other hand, the Strawberry Fields game's plot revolves strongly around the government's new Dangerous Supernaturals Division and its attempts to understand and combat magical phenomena by capturing and experimenting on Scions and Titanspawn alike. Some Scions, like James Howard, are actually members of the government themselves, allowing them to influence national and even global policy, and even where the Scions aren't pulling the government's strings, very often some supernatural agency is. In the nineteenth-century Eastern Promises game, different countries are still trying to figure out how to handle the possible dangers of Scions; some, like Russia, are embracing the supernatural and are employing magical beings of their own to serve the country, while others, like England, have instituted strenuous registration and behavior restrictions on Scions and punish any infractions as threats to the Commonwealth.

These are all possible reactions any government might have; it's always scary for mortals to find out that there are things way more powerful than themselves running around, and since a government's job is to protect its people and enforce law and order, they're almost all going to have to have a knee-jerk reaction to try to contain, control or even eradicate such frightening threats. But since Scions themselves are fully capable of involving themselves in the mortal government as well, either front and center or from behind the scenes, how the world at large views and treats them is as much up to them as anyone else.

The Children Who Are Our Future

Question: What's happened to all the characters from your Eastern Promises campaign? They all seem to have changed much more often than those in the other stories.

Indeed, they have! We're trying something new with our Eastern Promises game and its characters. When we started this game, we wanted to experiment with the ideas of a lot of interwoven characters in the same story and with the idea of a much more harsh and less Scion-ready world, so you're seeing that in action.

In essence, the Eastern Promises game is set in a time that the world, in general, is not ready for and does not contain very many Scions. The Titans have not escaped their prison yet, the gods are for the most part not meddling in the World thanks to the threat of Fatebonds and their own complex political agreements, and the PCs are therefore sort of under the radar. They exist to do their parents' bidding, and at least one god has hinted that there may be potential problems with Titanspawn that they have to deal with, but they're kind of secrets from many of the other gods and may or may not be violations of some treaties or accords, and the setting is a far cry from the modern-day, no-holds-barred Scion overload that occurs in games that are responding to the Titan War.

So the Eastern Promises PCs are dealing with very different dangers and concerns than the PCs in the other games. For one thing, they're in the nineteenth century, which means much more restrictive social codes in regards to race, sex and social class; for another, they all come from cultures that are currently dealing with hefty political considerations of colonization and East versus West, trying to find their way in a world mostly dominated by faraway European powers that don't accept them. They can't count on very much (if any) help from their parents or other gods, most of whom are absent or pretending nothing is going on. So far their opponents have been smaller-time than some of those in the other games because there aren't active Titans out endangering them, but they're on their own in a big way.

So, with all this going on, we're trying an experimental PC model; when we started the game, we asked each player to make five different PCs from one of the pantheons the game focuses on (Anunna, Deva, Pesedjet or Yazata, any parent god they like). Each PC has a fully fleshed backstory, Visitation, and at least a few connections to mortals and mortal society (both good and bad) that make them part of this nineteenth-century world. In addition, each player needed to have at least one PC that could fill a necessary "role" for the Scion band - a leader, a healer, a pilot, a fighter and an intelligence character (they could, however, overlap these - for example, one character might be both a fighter and a healer, another both a leader and a pilot, and so forth).

At the beginning of each story, the only rule for characters is that each role has to be represented in the band; the players then get to choose among themselves which of their characters to play to get the proper makeup to be most likely to succeed (if they choose a character that hasn't been played yet, they get some XP to bring them up to speed with the others that have, and also get to come up with a rough sketch of what that PC was doing during the time between Visitation and now joining the story). We have a system in place to let those who had the hardest time in the previous story - lost a character, had the most difficult time surviving or the most dramatic problems, and so forth - choose first, but we've found that everyone generally works together to come up with a good group. The first two stories are concluded and the third one is about to finish next week (probably... unless Pirate Island is also Haberdashery Island), so soon you'll see the group rotate out yet again.

In the first story, the group consisted of Terry Gaither, Shadan Mirza, Padma Billingsworth, Mohini Misra, Cassara Mitchell and Kebo.
In the second story, Terry and Kebo stayed in the party, but the others rotated out to add Kitty Sanders, Faruza Alinejad, Nisha, Shanti Paavantika and Akhileswar. When disaster struck and Terry and Kitty died heroically trying to prevent spawn of Apep from taking over a small mining operation, they were replaced by Sanjiv Nayak and Penelope Young.
In the third (and current) story, Sanjiv and Shanti stayed in and the rest of the players rotated again to bring in Yadi, Paniwi Bayteru and Darrius. Sanjiv died tragically last game, so he'll be replaced next week, and then everyone will choose who to play for the fourth story.

Since each player already has five PCs that they created and are excited about playing, the fact that the world is a lot harder to survive in and there's not much chance of them being rescued from death is somewhat mitigated; even if they die (and we're expecting several PCs to die over the course of this), they'll still have someone they're happy to play to fall back on. Some players prefer to stick with a character through a few stories; others enjoy jumping to new ones to try out different roles or ideas they may not have played before. We expect that things will settle down some when we get on into Demigod - several PCs will probably be out of play, and players will probably start digging into and exploring their favorites instead of switching out so much - but until that time, it's a pretty fun, wild ride, and has had the effect of all these many PCs being vaguely connected to each other in a Kevin Bacon-like web of interaction.

So yeah, you guys think there are a lot of Eastern Promises characters now - you haven't even met the other fifteen or so that still might make appearances!

JSR Recruiting: We Want You!

Okay, last post of the day, we promise.

This is an open recruiting post for spots in our games. As you guys probably noticed when we were whining about it last month, some of our players moved away recently, which has left us with a few empty seats at our tables. We're looking to fill those seats, and since we know a weirdly disproportionate number of you folks are in North Carolina, we're putting out an open call to see if any of you are interested. Here are the games looking for new awesome members:

Eastern Promises: Our Hero-level game set in 1850; characters currently range from Legend 2 to 4. You'll be creating your own Legend 2 Hero and joining in the fun; John has a complicated character creation system for this particular game that I'm sure he will delight in explaining to you if you go for it. Open pantheons for this game are the Anunna, Devas, Pesedjet and Yazata. The game currently meets every other Wednesday night at 7 p.m., but will become weekly and may eventually move to Friday.

Skeins of Next Time? We're working on it: This is the combined god-level game currently populated by characters from both Better Next Time and Skeins of Fate (it'll get a new name of its own soon). The characters are currently Legend 10. Since there is a logarithmic shit-ton of backstory and prior events going on in this game that the other one does not have to deal with, you'll be coming in as a pre-generated character, made by John, who's already part of the story; this character will be Legend 8 or 9 and will probably be either Aesir or Loa. The god-level game currently meets every other Wednesday night at 7 p.m., opposite Eastern Promises, but will eventually be weekly and either remain on Wednesday or move to Friday.

Both games are in-person and physically located in the Triad area of Greensboro. We'd need you to be able to commit to showing up regularly, and to being fun and awesome (probably not an issue for most of you). It goes without saying that we'll be using JSR's rules, but if you're not familiar with all of them (there are a lot, we know), don't worry, we'll be glad to help you ease into it.

It's a bit of a shot in the dark, we know, but we figured you guys are great, so it couldn't hurt to see if any of you happened to be being great nearby.

EDIT: Ought to give you a way to contact us, huh? You can email us to talk about specifics at ampstorytellers@gmail.com.

A Wind from the East

Question: Can you give more detail on the game that took place in the 19th century? It seems fascinating but there's so little about it on the site. What was the plot? Who were the antagonists?

Actually, you're probably going to be seeing more of the nineteenth-century game, Eastern Promises, in the very near future; it was on semi-hiatus while we dealt with the Great Ragnarok of 2012, but we're expecting that it will swing back into gear now and for the foreseeable future. Those wacky Victorian kids are far from out of play.

Since the game is set before the escape of the Titans, the Scions of this time are very rare and precious, and most of them are "under the radar" - that is, they're not really supposed to exist, since all the gods are currently operating under mutual agreement not to mess around in the World. They're all Scions of some of the more easterly pantheons - the Devas, the Yazata, the Pesedjet and others of that area - and dealing with Western civilization itself is still a big challenge for them.

They don't know much about the World, each other, and almost nothing about the divine landscape at all. They've learned there are monsters they never thought of and gods that they only dreamed, but beyond that they're still babes in the woods.

But, because that's the way Scions live... they're probably about to find out about a whole lot more.

Ashes to Ashes

Question: I was reading Faruza Alinejad's character sheet and it says her Guide Shmashana is a Yakshini. Isn't a Yakshini a Hindu figure? Did she get this Yakshini because of Vayu's strong Hindu identity? More importantly, how does the Yakshini feel about helping a Yazata Scion, or did Vayu convince her Faruza was actually a Hindu Scion?

Shmashana is indeed a yakshini and yakshini are indeed entirely Hindu; Shmashana in particular is the guardian yakshini of graveyards and cremations, death associations that match Vayu's (and Faruza's). She is summoned via a handful of ash from a sacred cremation ground, which Faruza keeps in a small box. She also has a bit of a 'tude whenever she's forced to show up.

Your guess is a good one - Faruza is running aroud with access to a yakshini thanks to Vayu's strong ties to the Devas, among whom he claims membership despite being one of the Yazata. While Shmashana is probably more likely to be closely associated with Shiva, who is the official lord of cremations and graveyards and other creepy things, Vayu's death connotations probably allow him to hold some sway over her as well (and one assumes he and Shiva are probably on at least passingly cordial terms anyway). Faruza herself is not really sure what Shmashana is, other than a strange magical being that sometimes appears in a cloud of ash and refuses to provide any useful information; if she realized she was hanging out with a servant of the dreaded daevas she'd probably panic, but for the moment she merely sees her Guide as an enigma that must serve some purpose if her father sent it to her.

Shmashana appears to be under orders (or possibly even magical coercion) not to reveal her true nature to Faruza, nor to in any way let slip that she isn't the kind of creature that would normally be friendly with a Scion of the Yazata. More than once she's caught her tongue or switched directions mid-sentence rather than say something that might cause Faruza to question her origins or loyalties. Nevertheless, she is obviously not very impressed by Faruza and usually makes it known that she considers her ineffective and a little bit stupid whenever she is summoned for advice. Faruza, in turn, wonders what Shmashana is supposed to do to help her when her response to any question is usually, "I don't know. Why aren't you smart enough to figure it out?"

Neither of them seems to know what to do with the other, though their relationship will probably grow more close and complex given some time. In the meantime, considering that Faruza is literally surrounded by Deva Scions (Nisha, Akhileswar, Penelope and Sanjiv; she is a lone Yazata lighthouse in her band), it's not outside the realm of possibility that she might learn to understand her Guide a little better, or that Shmashana might intentionally try to influence her into acting more like her companions than the devout Persian instructor she was in her mortal life.

Eastern Promise

Question: Will you put up Mohini and Paniwi on the character page?

Yes for Mohini, along with her Eastern Promise bandmates Cassara, Kebo, Padma, Shadan and Terry. They now appear on the character page; I hadn't added them before since their game was an infrequent side game and they're on hiatus at the moment, but they're under the Inactive Characters now if you'd like to peruse them.

Paniwi is still homeless and gameless; if she one day becomes a force in her own right, she'll make it to having her own character page.

Shiva Don't Give a Fuck

Question: Will we be seeing anything more of Paniwi or Mohini? They seem really interesting!

John suggested I just post a picture of someone looking enigmatically mysterious instead of answering.

But that would be cruel, so instead I'll note that while Paniwi is currently in stasis, Mohini is definitely alive and kicking and has the potential to poke her head out and say hello every now and then. We do love some Devas, especially since they somehow get so little attention in the Scion world!