Ten Questions with Excited Waving Arms

On today's blog, project updates, future possibilities, a call to action for you guys, and a whole bunch of questions!

Question: How do you handle "secrets" in myth? Things that supposedly certain gods do not know (and would have extreme reactions if they found out) yet are an established part of the myths about them?

Question: How do you explain the story of King Midas? I mean, the guy's an ordinary mortal who gets the power to turn anything he touches into gold. What Scion powers can give such a power to a mortal?

Question: Can you kill a death god? Should you be able to kill a death god? Does killing a death god really accomplish anything?

Question: What do you think would happen if a Scion, who has not yet received a Visitation, were to simply stumble across a Birthright relic that doesn't belong to an active Scion? Could that result in a kind of "triggered activation" of the Scion's divine blood? Or would nothing happen since it isn't a true Visitation?

Question: How do you determine the damage from some of the more extreme attacks that Scion's power allows? If my Strength monster picks up the Empire State Building and hurls it at a Titan Avatar, or some other powerful foe, how do I determine how badly such an impact hurt the target? If I used Create Earth to conjure up a mess of diamonds, then threw the diamonds into a tornado conjured by Tornado Tamer and hurled the whole thing at a bad guy? How would I determine THAT damage?

Question: How far is too far for you guys at GothamByNight when it comes to PC morality? When do you take one of your Players to the side and ask them if their PC could still be considered "a good guy/aligned with the Gods" and not some Chaotic Evil Titan in waiting that is deserving of a Dark Virtue or two? For example, do you think that a God-level PC Band's active attempts to wipeout humanity or kill off their parents for their own ambitions justify them gaining Dark Virtues?

Question: Do you guys have anyway of setting apart gods and goddesses of hunting mechanically? I'm working on some homebrew and I feel like these hunt gods need some association to really drive the point home, but I don't know what. I almost find myself wanting to make a Hunt Purview, but that's a heck of a lot of work. But what else to use? Is War fitting? An attribute that most fits their hunting style? I'm really at a loss here.

Question: You said in an earlier vlog that the difference between Followers/Creatures and Guides were that Creatures and Followers were below you and Guides were beings above you. Now what if I have a character who's got contact to the Valkyries as a Guide from Hero - would it be possible at Demigod that they turned into more like an equal ally type of thing? That instead of them just giving you good advice, they help you out physically when you really need it.

Question: Nut is a Titan, Shu is a Titan, and Geb is probably going to be a Titan as well - but the most ancient of them, Ra, is not?

Question: So! If everyone on Earth, for whatever reason, suddenly got a point of Legend, and the Gods were then able to get up to their old tricks without having to worry about Fatebinding, would they? If they could without having to worry about Fatebinding, would the Gods return to Earth? Related question, is there anything you can think of from any mythology that would be capable of giving everyone on Earth a legend point? Some Uber Relic or ritual that, if done, would give everyone that kind of power?

To our sixth questioner, we now realize that while we talked about PC morality in answer to your question, we didn't really address Dark Virtues. Our rule of thumb is that Dark Virtues are something PCs gain by contact with Titans or otherwise through magical events, so for the most part we would not give them any Dark Virtues automatically just because they're being jerks. It is entirely possible for Scions (and gods, too!) to be sometimes or even often malicious without actually having Malice, just as it's possible to be interested in knowledge and learning without having Intellect or to bravely run into battle without having Courage. However, Scions who are consistently evil or often do things that are in line with the goals of the Titans are likely to attract their attention, in which case it is entirely possible they might end up corrupted by a Titan Virtue later on.

If you want to email us boons, do it here! Go nuts!

Storytelling and Such

Vlog attack! We're about to move to a new house next week so this is the last time you can enjoy our beautiful checkered curtains and depressing walls. To celebrate, we answer a bunch of questions about Storytelling and character creation.

Question: There's an NPC I'm considering for a future game that is a Scion of Mictlantecuhtli. At Hero-level he'd basically serve as a divine messenger boy, at Demigod he'd upgrade to delivery boy, and at God he'd go about trying to break away from the pantheon altogether. The thing is, though, he's not transferrring to another pantheon. In your opinion is that a good idea all around? If so, in what way and if not in what ways?

Question: I know it's a very general question, but how do gods treat Scions? Do they view them as children in the dark, or might some of them consider them adults who just need a nudge? I know they wouldn't treat them as equals because of the power disparity.

Question: I'm not sure if you've explained this before, but how do badass star-level relics work? What does a single star represent? Can uber-talented crafter PCs make them when they're high-enough Legend?

Question: As a Storyteller, I'm having some trouble coming up with events tied to Scions' Fateful Auras that don't involve some kind of Titanspawn or combat encounter. what are some examples of non-combat events that your Scions' Fateful Auras have attracted? And is there a good way to tie Fateful Auras into the heroes' current story arc without them feeling like random encounters? Thanks!

Question: I understand you might cut back on the War purview to focus on the war aspect rather than the lone warrior aspect. If you do end up doing that, what will happen to boons like Riastrad?

Question: When creating new Hero-level Scions, do you require relic Birthrights to have a unique name or just a description?

Question: What are the rules for having a creature as both the Creature Birthright and the Guide Birthright? Is that an inefficient use of points?

Join us next time from our new residential palace, decorated in Cardboard Box Fantasy!

Guiding Light

Question: I had an idea for using Historical figure ghosts as Birthrights, the one problem I'm seeing is as they are "mortalish" it would be hard to justify upgrading them as the character transcends the status of Hero. Any justification you guys can think of to keep Homer for example relevant as Guide?

Guides can be really tricky. They provide useful information and guidance and are experts in their field, but at the same time they're distinct NPCs and have fairly static levels of power and knowledge, meaning most of them won't scale up their level of know-how as a Scion evolves.

First of all, we give all Guides an extra ability: they grant a small number of automatic successes (equal to the Guide's Birthright rating) to three purviews associated in some way with them. For example, Shmashana, a minor Deva associated with cemeteries and cremation, grants Faruza +3 successes to all boons in the Death, Health and Sky purviews; Faruza's close association with and guidance from a being that is so strongly aligned with death and the disposition of the dead gives her an advantage in using those boons. In Homer's case, if he were a three-dot Guide you could say that he grants bonuses to War (for his stirring preservation of the greatest battles of the Dodekatheon), Death (because he's a ghost and dispenses his wisdom from beyond the grave), and... well, I don't have a great suggestion for the third one because you picked a hard example, but you get the drift.

When it comes to the Guide's advice and ability to help Scions with knowledge, that question's a little harder, though. Guides who are already fairly high Legend - having Thoth for a Guide, for example, or some other god - will still have things to teach a Scion most of the way through her career, but mortal Guides don't have the luxury of coming from a higher level of knowledge. Homer would undoubtedly be a great help to his Scion while she was a Hero or even a Demigod, giving her insight into the workings of the Dodekatheon, the exploits of heroes gone before and the laws of ancient Greece, but once she's a goddess it's unlikely that he can tell her anything she doesn't already know.

There are a few things that can mitigate this. If your Scion happens to be fairly stupid (especially with Fatebonds against Intelligence, Academics, Occult or any combination thereof), she can probably still benefit from Homer's advice, even though other gods her level probably wouldn't (but at the same time, if she has smarter people in her band that probably won't come up much). You can also try to widen the scope of the Guide's information; if these are all ghosts of previous heroes or historical figures, they may have key information about the Underworlds they reside in that wouldn't be available to others. If you feel like a Scion's Guide is too useless, you may also want to include some important clue to the current situation that only they would know about, such as some thing they witnessed way back when they were alive, though you should make sure not to overuse that device since it can be frustrating if they don't think to ask the Guide and therefore can't move the plot along. Things may or may not be happening to or around the Guide during the course of your stories as well, so if they would have been in a position to learn important things about current events, you could call upon them for that (much as Vivian used to call her Guide, who she knew lived in the Overworld, to check on current events among her pantheon members).

Guides are a great Birthright because they're very freeform and give the Storyteller many opportunities for how to help the Scion who owns them, so we're always in favor of encouraging Scions to have and talk to them.

They Grow Up So Fast

Question: How do you guys handle Birthright Creatures, Followers, Guides? Do you allow them to progress with the Scion, or do they just progressively suck as the Scion ascends the divine ranks? (If not do you have a formula for how they advance?)

Birthright Creatures and Followers do indeed progress along with a Scion! Our basic formula is on the House Rules page, but I'll reproduce it here for ya:

Followers and creatures gain in power along with their controller. One to two followers are 2 Legend behind their Scion; 3 to 4 followers are 3 Legend behind, and 5 or more followers are 4 Legend behind.

That gives you the basic shape, but it doesn't give direct guidelines for increasing the stats of Followers or Creatures. You're not alone, however - we've had many questions on the subject, so here are a bunch of old posts about it:

Follower/Creature Basics
Groups of Followers/Creatures versus Single Ones
Upgrade Process for Followers/Creatures
Follower/Creature Character Sheets
Stats for Creatures of Various Levels
General Usefulness of Followers

Hopefully you'll find something in there that helps, and you can also try the search box over on the right to parse through old posts if there are other keywords that might get you the results you're looking for.

Guides, on the other hand, do not automatically increase as you go up in Legend. A Guide's rating should be based on how powerful and knowledgeable the Guide is and how easy they are to contact; a Guide who is simply a mortal expert will not become a Legendary expert over time, though he'll still be useful for mortal-level knowledge. You can try to get them upgraded at the Demigod and God jumps, though, which are usually when we throw around a bunch of Birthright points.

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.