Power Plays

Our vlogging spree continues! This is only the second of the many vlogs we filmed at the same tinme, so we barely look fatigued at all yet! This week's theme is boons, knacks and powers, because you guys never run out of questions about those things. Never.

Question: If a player wants to dip into a new general purview, how should accessing these new powers be handled? Do they always need a new relic, or can divine forces add access to new purviews to old Birthrights? If the latter, is there any mechanics involved or is it a strictly storytelling decision when that happens?

Question: So, Scion of Hermes/Mercury. Super speedster, concept of "Flash wannabe". Assuming maximized Dexterity, Epic Dexterity, and Psychopomp to facilitate dash speed, what are your thoughts on the Justice League "around the world punch"? Ultimate Dexterity? Use of The Way? What about speed-based bonus damage? When you punch a person at Mach 17 in Scion, what happens?

Question: What kind of penalty/bonus should exist for sexual orientation? If Zeus tries to sleep with a straight guy or gay girl, do they get some moderate +X bonus to resist?

Question: The writeup of Emamu mentions "attacks made by Death or Health boons". Obviously negative Health boons can be used offensively, but what Death boon can hurt something that isn't a ghost?

Question: How many Avatars do you have to pop to make a planet? How do you accomplish anything meaningful in space without constantly using Avatars and Ultimates?

Question: Is it possible for a craft god like Hephaestus to use the Creator to "forge" a full grown adult Scion with human blood along his own ichor? The idea came to me when I read about Hephaestus' sentient robo-maids in the Iliad and thought it would be a neat concept. So, would this actually create a Scion, or would it be some kind of Lesser Immortal or construct?

Question: I have been immensely curious about something lately as I am going back through and reading the core rules, specifically about Animal. I've noticed that as the Scion Seth Farrow goes through his ascension, he begins to naturally look much more like a snake, which to me it seemed was implying an evolution in his natural state over time. How would this be done, handled or represented from both a player perspective and a ST perspective?

Question: Is it possible that Machu Pichu could be a massive Huaca (possibly to Inti)?

Question: In Scion, would you have storms without storm gods? That is, are ALL storms caused by storm gods, or are some (most?) storms natural unless the local storm god chooses to intervene? In Scandinavia, would ALL lightning be directly caused by Thor, or just some? As a corollary, if all storms are directly created by the storm gods more or less at their whim, how come meteorology often works? (This obviously goes for other phenomena as well, like sunrise or love, but storms make a nice example.)

Wandering from cosmology to sexuality to space travel. We are like frontier vlog pioneers.

Nodes and Leylines

Question: Could an ancient standing stone be both an ansab for an Alihah god and the center of a huaca for an Apu god? Also, can an ansab be placed in a Terra Incognita?

Ooh, good questions. No matter how thorough we try to be when we write something new, you guys always come up with possibilities we didn't consider.

While the powers of Huaca and Hajj don't technically overlap, we would still rule that no, you can't have the same object be both a huaca and an ansab. Both huaca and ansab are uniquely dedicated magical things that are tied to their patron deity only; they are part of that god's Legend and are intrinsically tied only to him. Just as you can't tie a relic to two different people by giving it two different sets of powers, you can't tie a single stone to both an Inca god and an Arab god. One of them will just have to be gracious and let the other one have the pretty rock (although that's a turf battle that could get ugly really quickly - these are two pantheons who are very serious about their pretty rocks).

Whomever consecrated the stone to themselves first would be the one who ended up "owning" it. John suggests that if you want to open the door to inter-pantheon rock wars, you could also allow a huaca or ansab to be "stolen" by the other pantheon's powers, provided that Scion or god attempting to do so rolls their Legend when they use the boon on it. If they get successes equal to twice the rock's current owner's Legend (or just the owner's Legend if he or she happens to be dead), they can steal it and make it their own permanent huaca or ansab, and its original owner will suffer the painful consequences of losing it. If they fail, the stone is too strongly connected to its current owner and spurns their attempt to magically make off with it.

I am shuddering at the thought of the insane political and military backlash just waiting to happen if anyone seriously tries to steal one anothers' sacred loci of power. Seriously. These people have Harmony, Vengeance and no previous positive interactions. They will take this to the next level of insanity.

In happier news, though, ansab and huaca aren't completely incompatible. A Scion with the Yachay boon would be able to recognize an ansab as a form of foreign huaca even if she doesn't know exactly what it's all about, and would even be able to gain bonuses by honoring it with the Kawsay boon. An Alihah Scion, in turn, would be able to use his Ahtram Shym and Tawaf boons at an Inca god's huaca just as easily as he could at one of his own peoples' shrines, provided he recognizes and respects it for what it is.

As for where you can have these things, you're in luck: ansab can be put anywhere you want, no strings attached. Unlike huaca, which are part of the natural forces of the World and can't leave it, ansab may be placed anywhere the god who owns them wishes, allowing him to move them to a Terra Incognita where they may be safer from danger or to provide a link from a foreign locale to his own Overworld. They're more often found in the World, the better to use them to affect matters and mortals there, but as long as a god can lift it, he can move it.

Which may not always be a plus for an Arab god, actually, as it's entirely possible for enemies, pranksters or people who don't recognize the ansab for what it is to steal it and put it somewhere he wasn't intending it to go. But that's the price you pay for portability.