Question: What kind of explanation do you think there could be for a Scion of one of the aggressive war gods (Ares, Nergal, etc.) to have little to no epic physical attributes? I find it hard to believe one of those war gods would adopt or give a Visitation to a physically weak Scion, but if they did how would you explain it?
That's actually not too difficult a dilemma at all - Scions come in all shapes and sizes and don't have to be just like dear old mom and dad at all unless you want them to.
The first option is just to never buy Epics in those things. Someone who was exceptionally physically fit for a human (4 or 5 regular dots) is going to rapidly become incredibly puny compared to Scions if he or she doesn't buy Epics. You could be the strongest any potential Scion could ever be and still end up a huge wimp in godly terms. Ares has no idea what you plan to spend your XP on, so he might expect that you're planning to buy all war capabilities and be surprised when it turns out that it just ain't so.
The second option is to keep in mind that most war-gods are not particularly perceptive or good at the fine arts of science and medicine. Can Thor, who routinely deals in combats where the average damage rolls are hovering around 200 and who is notorious for his terrible perception, even tell the difference between someone with Strength 2 and someone with Strength 4? Both numbers are so infinitesimal compared to him that they might as well be the same.
And, of course, many gods may just assume you'll get better. Set might just assume that no son of his could possibly fail to be a physical powerhouse. What, they wouldn't follow his mold? Preposterous!
And even if the god knows you're a wuss and doesn't trust you to improve, there's always the pressure of the Titan war to fall back on. Scions are Scions, and if you're sturdy enough to take even one punch or kill even one creature the gods don't have to deal with, you might be worth it as the battle heats up. (This might also be used for an adopted Scion, or else a god might adopt a Scion as a favor to their biological parent even if it isn't someone they'd have chosen for themselves.)
So it's actually pretty easy to come up with justification for a physically weak Scion of Ares (or a none-too-bright Scion of Athena or a pudgy, awkwardly unattractive Scion of Apollo; it works for any character concept). Of course, dealing with your divine parent's confusion, disappointment or disapproval is an entirely different story, but that's a lot of fun to play out - goodness knows we enjoy watching Hermes continually voice his displeasure in Terminus' idiosyncracies or Jioni avoid her father's disapproving pimp cane whenever she lets him down.
Being opposed to your parent's Favored and Associated powers isn't the only source of conflict. I actually have two PC's in my game that are very, very similar to their parents in terms of what they do and yet both of them hate their parents.
ReplyDeleteOur Scion of Chernobog is a murderous Batman, beheading evil-doers and criminals. His father loves that he's out killing people left and right, but hates that he's killing EVIL people. All the Birthrights from Chernobog push the Scion towards being evil. A bunch of ghostly KGB agents with potentially sinister motives, a people-eating dragon that enjoys tormenting its victims, an axe that hungers for blood of the innocent...
Our Scion of Lugh is a singer, a lover and a world-class runner, but he hates his father so much that he went through a Reshaping and a complicated ritual to destroy his divine connection to Lugh forever, making him a fatherless Scion. He earned himself a place on Lugh's permanent shit-list for that, and is constantly hounded (heh) by his ex-dad's Minions.
So, yeah, there's TONS of cool stuff to come out of not being what your parent thinks you should be. Plus, what's even the benefit to having all the children of Thor be big, strong Gods associated with storms? How many Thunder/Lightning/Wind/Storm gods does one Pantheon need?
An excellent point. We often remind our players that being too similar to your parents can actually be dangerous - just look at Dian Cecht's murder of Miach when he upstaged him with Health, or Huitzilopochtli's beatdown of Malinalxochitl when she tried to take over leadership of the Mexica. Most pantheons don't need a ton of the same kinds of gods, and the last thing you want is to end up getting the smackdown from your own parent because you're horning in on their territory.
DeleteAnd yeah, funnily enough, a lot of Scions absolutely hate their parents while simultaneously being just like them. Aurora and Odin are two peas in a pod, for example, but man does she hate his guts.