Question: So were the Vanir basically their own complete pantheon like the Dodekatheon or Amatsukami, and the Aesir just decided to put a flag down in their territory? Could this conceivably happen to other Pantheons?
Yes and no. In Norse mythology, yes, absolutely; the Vanir were another distinct pantheon and the Aesir conquered them, thus gaining their best deities to add to their own ranks and the security of knowing they could never attack them. In history, not so much; while the well-known Vanir (Freya, Freyr, Njord, Nerthus, etc.) were historically worshiped alongside the Aesir, they're not separate discrete pantheons but rather all the gods of the Norse and Germanic religions together, making them a single pantheon that just happens to have a story about once having been something else. Basically, the Vanir and the Aesir are both gods worshiped by the same set of people, often at the same time, and are not separate pantheons in a historical sense, but in mythology, they started as separate pantheons and were fused after the Aesir victory over the Vanir.
The Aesir like to sell their conquest of the Vanir in simple, easy terms, like, "We kicked their asses because they're sissy nature gods!" and "We are the best at battle ever!", but it was not even close to that clear. Both the Vanir and the Aesir fought well in the war against one another and neither side was clearly winning; there are fearsome figures on both sides (the Vanir broke in the walls of Asgard, in fact. It was serious business), and the end result was that they called a truce rather than either side "winning" through sheer brute force. The two sides exchanged hostages (Freyr, Kvasir and Njord went to the Aesir and Hoenir and Mimir went to the Vanir) and declared that they'd be held in trust, so that if one side started getting uppity, the other could threaten the hostages to keep them in line.
Unfortunately, the Aesir did get uppity, and the Vanir ended up killing Mimir as a result, which turned out to be bad for them as the Aesir clearly did not give a damn and now they had that much less bargaining position left. The Aesir win, basically, because they are able to keep the Vanir hostages (joined by Freya, who one assumes must be there to hang out with her Aesir husband) and the Vanir dare not move against them, and therefore the Vanir get to fade quietly into obscurity while the Aesir do whatever they want. For the Vanir, a shitty deal gone wrong; for the Aesir, a pretty sweet setup.
Theoretically, while these sorts of political shenanigans could certainly happen among any of the pantheons, it's highly unlikely that any of them are going to invade one anothers' Overworlds and win a decisive victory that subjugates another entire pantheon. Pantheons are ridiculously powerful conglomerations of ridiculously powerful people, and trying to have a war between them escalates way past nuclear really quickly. Even if somebody eventually won, nobody would win; the collateral damage and insane destruction would make sure of that. And no pantheon operates in a vacuum, and starting such a war would certainly escalate out of control as each pantheon's allied pantheons got in on the action (and those who weren't involved took their own shot at taking over some real estate while everyone else was busy). Most pressingly (at the moment, at least), doing such a thing would be incredibly stupid when the gods need to be focusing all their energy on fighting the Titans rather than each other.
This does not, of course, mean that no pantheon will ever decide to go for it anyway, but there are a lot of hefty deterrents against it, so just as all the nuclear powers of the World don't blow each other up because it's a bad idea for everyone, so most of the pantheons don't declare outright war. It's just bad for business all around.
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Friday, June 29, 2012
Last Night in Tollan
Question: How do you handle interaction between the Toltec and Aztec pantheon, or is there not much of a Toltec pantheon left?
Sadly for them, the Toltec pantheon is pretty much catsmeat at this point; Huitzilopochtli certainly delivered on Quetzalcoatl's and Tezcatlipoca's prophecies when he and the Mexica curbstomped the living shit out of Tollan. Historians are not even really sure there ever was such a people as the Toltec (as distinct from the Zapotec/Mixtec/Huastec and so on) or if the Mexica invented them as part of their mythology, that's how thoroughly they are no longer doing business.
The sole remaining person who can really convincingly claim to be Toltec is Quetzalcoatl himself, who may or may not have been king of the Toltecs and their chief deity at the time that they were destroyed by the Mexica (depending on whether or not you like the idea of Quetzalcoatl the hero and Quetzalcoatl the god being the same guy). Some of the other Aztlanti were probably worshiped in Tollan (like Tlaloc, for example... dude has his toothy fingers in every pantheon aroud there), but Quetzalcoatl is really the representative of their culture, and it's not coincidental that he's a culture-teacher and figure of learning for the Aztecs, who considered Toltec civilization an awesome thing to plunder for their own edification.
While a resurrection of the Toltecs would certainly be an interesting plot, the lack of Toltec gods to draw from means you'd need to either invent a bunch of them from nothing or borrow deities from other local pantheons to make up their ranks. I'd suggest the second, as it's more likely to be close to the truth; "Toltecs" is probably just what the Mexica referred to the people they'd just conquered as, rather than what the people referred to themselves as.
Which is ironic, considering that the Mexica themselves are now referred to as Aztec despite never having called themselves that, either. Mesoamerica's long, proud tradition of conquerors attempting to totally rewrite history continues.
Sadly for them, the Toltec pantheon is pretty much catsmeat at this point; Huitzilopochtli certainly delivered on Quetzalcoatl's and Tezcatlipoca's prophecies when he and the Mexica curbstomped the living shit out of Tollan. Historians are not even really sure there ever was such a people as the Toltec (as distinct from the Zapotec/Mixtec/Huastec and so on) or if the Mexica invented them as part of their mythology, that's how thoroughly they are no longer doing business.
The sole remaining person who can really convincingly claim to be Toltec is Quetzalcoatl himself, who may or may not have been king of the Toltecs and their chief deity at the time that they were destroyed by the Mexica (depending on whether or not you like the idea of Quetzalcoatl the hero and Quetzalcoatl the god being the same guy). Some of the other Aztlanti were probably worshiped in Tollan (like Tlaloc, for example... dude has his toothy fingers in every pantheon aroud there), but Quetzalcoatl is really the representative of their culture, and it's not coincidental that he's a culture-teacher and figure of learning for the Aztecs, who considered Toltec civilization an awesome thing to plunder for their own edification.
While a resurrection of the Toltecs would certainly be an interesting plot, the lack of Toltec gods to draw from means you'd need to either invent a bunch of them from nothing or borrow deities from other local pantheons to make up their ranks. I'd suggest the second, as it's more likely to be close to the truth; "Toltecs" is probably just what the Mexica referred to the people they'd just conquered as, rather than what the people referred to themselves as.
Which is ironic, considering that the Mexica themselves are now referred to as Aztec despite never having called themselves that, either. Mesoamerica's long, proud tradition of conquerors attempting to totally rewrite history continues.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Marching with the Gods
Question: Did the Dodekatheon and the Nemetondevos physically fight it out during Ceasar's campaigns, or are the Nemetondevos just upset that the Romans were better at this whole war thing? (Similar question with Shen and Amatsukami and WW2?)
I see you, there, sneaking in two questions for the price of one. You're not fooling anybody.
The Nemetondevos and the Dodekatheon probably did not directly fight much over the wars in continental Europe; just as in the Trojan war, it's more likely that they wielded their mortal champions and seldom interfered personally unless things were looking dire. Fatebonds were still a problem then as they are now, after all, and killing other gods is usually bad for business anyway, considering the Avatar rampages that follow (especially killing them in the World!).
That doesn't mean they were entirely absent, however; in particular, one Roman account of a decisive Gaulish victory claims that they lost because a couple of the Gaulish gods came down to personally kick their asses (so it's not our fault, guys, honest), and of course the Romans in turn claimed that the gods were behind their own unassailable victory over the Gaulish territories later. Just because they weren't there in person doesn't mean they weren't involved; dudes like Julius Caesar and Vercingetorix are prime examples of Scions or chosen mortals that the gods might choose to work through.
Considering the Nemetondevos' habit of being very close to their people, their furious upset with the Dodekatheon probably has more to do with Gaul being subjugated, Romanized and taken away from them than it has to do with any personally-traded slaps.
The Shen and the Amatsukami, on the other hand, are a different situation; I would not assume that any of them were directly involved in the Sino-Japanese wars or World War II, and in fact they seem to have been conspicuously absent (for example, the kamikaze pilots referred to themselves that way in reference to Hachiman having prevented previous fleets from invading Japan, but in a tragic irony this time he did not do so). Considering that it's very close to the modern era and certainly well past the point that the gods entered into their hands-off policy on the World, I would imagine that they did not get their hands dirty (though you'd better believe that the Amatsukami probably screamed bloody blue murder to anyone who would listen once the atomic bomb hit and severely damaged half their ancient territory).
In general, if there's a myth of a god being directly involved, then huzzah! He or she totally was! But if there isn't, it's usually better to assume that they weren't, or were working from afar or through intermediaries (unless, of course, you have a totally rad story plot that involves them being involved, in which case fire away).
I see you, there, sneaking in two questions for the price of one. You're not fooling anybody.
The Nemetondevos and the Dodekatheon probably did not directly fight much over the wars in continental Europe; just as in the Trojan war, it's more likely that they wielded their mortal champions and seldom interfered personally unless things were looking dire. Fatebonds were still a problem then as they are now, after all, and killing other gods is usually bad for business anyway, considering the Avatar rampages that follow (especially killing them in the World!).
That doesn't mean they were entirely absent, however; in particular, one Roman account of a decisive Gaulish victory claims that they lost because a couple of the Gaulish gods came down to personally kick their asses (so it's not our fault, guys, honest), and of course the Romans in turn claimed that the gods were behind their own unassailable victory over the Gaulish territories later. Just because they weren't there in person doesn't mean they weren't involved; dudes like Julius Caesar and Vercingetorix are prime examples of Scions or chosen mortals that the gods might choose to work through.
Considering the Nemetondevos' habit of being very close to their people, their furious upset with the Dodekatheon probably has more to do with Gaul being subjugated, Romanized and taken away from them than it has to do with any personally-traded slaps.
The Shen and the Amatsukami, on the other hand, are a different situation; I would not assume that any of them were directly involved in the Sino-Japanese wars or World War II, and in fact they seem to have been conspicuously absent (for example, the kamikaze pilots referred to themselves that way in reference to Hachiman having prevented previous fleets from invading Japan, but in a tragic irony this time he did not do so). Considering that it's very close to the modern era and certainly well past the point that the gods entered into their hands-off policy on the World, I would imagine that they did not get their hands dirty (though you'd better believe that the Amatsukami probably screamed bloody blue murder to anyone who would listen once the atomic bomb hit and severely damaged half their ancient territory).
In general, if there's a myth of a god being directly involved, then huzzah! He or she totally was! But if there isn't, it's usually better to assume that they weren't, or were working from afar or through intermediaries (unless, of course, you have a totally rad story plot that involves them being involved, in which case fire away).
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Religious Diversity!
Question: How do you handle the difference between "living" pantheons (ones whose myths still seem to be in flux among their followers) and more "dead" ones (ones whose myths seem to be set)? I mean, does it show that the Shen and Loa are more active since their stories are still being added to while the Dodekatheon and Aesir are static, or is this just a mortal thing?
It really depends on the needs of the story. In general, continuing mythoses are a human thing; the Devas happen to be the gods of a religion that is still strongly active in the world, so sometimes new stories are invented about them or new temples raised to them without them even having to do anything. The religion's established and it runs itself mostly without them - it has to, because they're certainly not doing nearly as much interfering with it as they used to, because like all other pantheons they don't want to get mired down in the swampy suck of Fatebonds. That doesn't mean that some new legends might come from something one of the gods actually did, but as a general rule, that kind of thing would be very rare. Which is fine, because that's what we have Scions for, right?
I'd also point out that "dead" pantheons all still have active worshipers in the world, even if their numbers aren't as impressive. In fact, here's a quick estimate of the number of worshipers each pantheon boasts:
All numbers courtesy of The Internet, so take 'em with a grain of salt. But the point is that none of the religions of Scion's pantheons are truly "dead", and while it's certainly easier to set a story within the massively thriving Hindu religion, there's nothing stopping you from bringing in one of the two remaining Kemetic temples in the U.S. as a plot point or a center of divine activity. The only case in which a pantheon is outright affected by their worship (or lack thereof) is that of the Aztlanti, who are having to endure a world with little blood sacrifice and probably not liking it one bit. In pretty much every case, you don't need to do anything special to mark the fact that there are more Shinto worshipers than Asatru; the world itself is already doing that for you.
In the end, it seems simplest to me to treat the difference between "living" and "dead" religions in Scion exactly the way it's treated in the real world: some religions were wiped out by time, conquerors and conversion, while others continued on because of favorable social conditions that made it possible. The gods, who are all avoiding the World to avoid the pain of Fatebonds, simply didn't have much to do with it; they let humanity do what they wanted, and today's religious landscape is the result of that.
The Trimurti probably still try to rub it in everyone's face, though.
It really depends on the needs of the story. In general, continuing mythoses are a human thing; the Devas happen to be the gods of a religion that is still strongly active in the world, so sometimes new stories are invented about them or new temples raised to them without them even having to do anything. The religion's established and it runs itself mostly without them - it has to, because they're certainly not doing nearly as much interfering with it as they used to, because like all other pantheons they don't want to get mired down in the swampy suck of Fatebonds. That doesn't mean that some new legends might come from something one of the gods actually did, but as a general rule, that kind of thing would be very rare. Which is fine, because that's what we have Scions for, right?
I'd also point out that "dead" pantheons all still have active worshipers in the world, even if their numbers aren't as impressive. In fact, here's a quick estimate of the number of worshipers each pantheon boasts:
| Devas (Hinduism) | Approx. 1 billion |
| Shen (Shenism/Taoism) | Approx. 460 million |
| Shen/Devas/Amatsukami (Buddhism) | Approx. 400-500 million |
| Loa (Candomble/Santeria/African Traditional, etc.) | Approx. 70-100 million |
| Amatsukami (Shintoism) | Approx. 4 million |
| Yazata (Zoroastrianism) | Approx. 137,000-138,000 |
| Tuatha de Danann/Nemetondevos (Celtic Reconstructionism) | Approx. 100,000-300,000 |
| Aztlanti (Mesoamerican folk religion) | Approx. 10,000-30,000 |
| Aesir (Asatru, Odinism, etc.) | Approx. 14,000-24,000 |
| Dodekatheon (Hellenistic Reconstructionism/Roman Reconstructionism) | Approx. 5,000 |
| Pesedjet (Kemeticism) | less than 1,000 |
| Anunna (Mardukism/Mesopotamian Reconstructionism) | less than 1,000 |
All numbers courtesy of The Internet, so take 'em with a grain of salt. But the point is that none of the religions of Scion's pantheons are truly "dead", and while it's certainly easier to set a story within the massively thriving Hindu religion, there's nothing stopping you from bringing in one of the two remaining Kemetic temples in the U.S. as a plot point or a center of divine activity. The only case in which a pantheon is outright affected by their worship (or lack thereof) is that of the Aztlanti, who are having to endure a world with little blood sacrifice and probably not liking it one bit. In pretty much every case, you don't need to do anything special to mark the fact that there are more Shinto worshipers than Asatru; the world itself is already doing that for you.
In the end, it seems simplest to me to treat the difference between "living" and "dead" religions in Scion exactly the way it's treated in the real world: some religions were wiped out by time, conquerors and conversion, while others continued on because of favorable social conditions that made it possible. The gods, who are all avoiding the World to avoid the pain of Fatebonds, simply didn't have much to do with it; they let humanity do what they wanted, and today's religious landscape is the result of that.
The Trimurti probably still try to rub it in everyone's face, though.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Bad Boys
Question: What fun and memorable villains have your Bands encountered and overcome?
Oh, man, let's journey through the halls of NPCs!
The two perennial favorites, both dripping Epic Charisma and oozing charming villainy, are Jay Ortiz (a Scion of Tezcatlipoca) and Kane Taoka (a Scion of Amaterasu). Kane's one of White Wolf's started antagonists, but he's gone through quite a barrel of transformations in our games, starting with his marriage to Alison Margaritas, continuing on through Geoff Matheson and his band foiling his plan to raise Atlantis, and continuing on until the present day, when Geoff's band has realized that they have no idea where he is or what he's up to and they should really check before something blows up in their faces. In contrast to the one band's relative successes against Kane, various bands have historically fared poorly with Jay; he killed the entire complement of Jolie-Pitt children, fucked up Sora's band's business in Japan when he was visiting, and is currently in a sort of cold war of dislike with Geoff, who can't do anything to him with Sangria apt to interfere.
Of course, both of them also help PCs sometimes; Jay acts as mentor to Geoff's daughter (what he doesn't know won't hurt him, right?) and Kane has been known to help various Scions when it suits his purpose. Darn these shades-of-grey villains!
The Spring King, king of one of the fairy courts, was one of our more terrifying villains, having raped Kettila, stalked the band across the country and then tortured Aurora to within an inch of her life. Luckily for everyone's peace of mind, he was vaporized by Aten when Aurora used Deus Ex Machina to call for help, but his spectre lingers on; everyone in the band has an extraordinarily itchy trigger finger for all fairies of his particular species, and more than once Illusion has been used to summon up his image and make people run screaming off into the trees.
The most hilarious villains are usually other Scions; there's a lot of fun to be had for a player in besting someone on his level and then waving it in their face as much as possible. Geoff was at odds with Victor Fingers, a Scion of Ares, for years after the latter challenged him and Sangria to a contest of athletics and was roundly beaten by a pregnant woman; they've only recently made up, after they came out even in a god-level contest of their war skills. Amleth, a mad Scion of Vidar who has been roaming the deep dark Norse forest for centuries and is haunted by the ghost of his mad father, ran into Aurora once and tried to kill her after he realized she could see the ghost, too and must be a witch; she retaliated by using Fate Prison to tie his father to the spot, preventing them from being able to leave (but oh, man, he is going to be so angry with her if he ever sees her again).
Now that they're gods, things are getting scary; PCs are starting to choose Titan Avatars as their enemies, which is a whole new ballgame. Sowiljr wants to go after Aten, Terminus recently gave the Fates the finger, Folkwardr plans to fight Surtr in person and Eztli has once again decided that this town ain't big enough for two bat-gods and Itzpapalotl has got to go. Those are villains that will be terribly difficult to overcome more than temporarily, but they've always set their sights high, these kids.
Also: Bladvaettr, a svartalfar with delusions of inclusion in Muspelheim, was meant to be a big bad villain with his plot to let the fire-realm open a door beneath Centralia, but he turned into a sad sympathy story. He was smitten with Kettila as soon as he saw her, begged her to marry him (to which she agreed to keep him distracted while Woody was cover-opping around underground), and then ended up getting murdered by the entire band on his wedding night when she led him into an ambush. RIP, Bladvaettr. Your life could have gone better.
Oh, man, let's journey through the halls of NPCs!
The two perennial favorites, both dripping Epic Charisma and oozing charming villainy, are Jay Ortiz (a Scion of Tezcatlipoca) and Kane Taoka (a Scion of Amaterasu). Kane's one of White Wolf's started antagonists, but he's gone through quite a barrel of transformations in our games, starting with his marriage to Alison Margaritas, continuing on through Geoff Matheson and his band foiling his plan to raise Atlantis, and continuing on until the present day, when Geoff's band has realized that they have no idea where he is or what he's up to and they should really check before something blows up in their faces. In contrast to the one band's relative successes against Kane, various bands have historically fared poorly with Jay; he killed the entire complement of Jolie-Pitt children, fucked up Sora's band's business in Japan when he was visiting, and is currently in a sort of cold war of dislike with Geoff, who can't do anything to him with Sangria apt to interfere.
Of course, both of them also help PCs sometimes; Jay acts as mentor to Geoff's daughter (what he doesn't know won't hurt him, right?) and Kane has been known to help various Scions when it suits his purpose. Darn these shades-of-grey villains!
The Spring King, king of one of the fairy courts, was one of our more terrifying villains, having raped Kettila, stalked the band across the country and then tortured Aurora to within an inch of her life. Luckily for everyone's peace of mind, he was vaporized by Aten when Aurora used Deus Ex Machina to call for help, but his spectre lingers on; everyone in the band has an extraordinarily itchy trigger finger for all fairies of his particular species, and more than once Illusion has been used to summon up his image and make people run screaming off into the trees.
The most hilarious villains are usually other Scions; there's a lot of fun to be had for a player in besting someone on his level and then waving it in their face as much as possible. Geoff was at odds with Victor Fingers, a Scion of Ares, for years after the latter challenged him and Sangria to a contest of athletics and was roundly beaten by a pregnant woman; they've only recently made up, after they came out even in a god-level contest of their war skills. Amleth, a mad Scion of Vidar who has been roaming the deep dark Norse forest for centuries and is haunted by the ghost of his mad father, ran into Aurora once and tried to kill her after he realized she could see the ghost, too and must be a witch; she retaliated by using Fate Prison to tie his father to the spot, preventing them from being able to leave (but oh, man, he is going to be so angry with her if he ever sees her again).
Now that they're gods, things are getting scary; PCs are starting to choose Titan Avatars as their enemies, which is a whole new ballgame. Sowiljr wants to go after Aten, Terminus recently gave the Fates the finger, Folkwardr plans to fight Surtr in person and Eztli has once again decided that this town ain't big enough for two bat-gods and Itzpapalotl has got to go. Those are villains that will be terribly difficult to overcome more than temporarily, but they've always set their sights high, these kids.
Also: Bladvaettr, a svartalfar with delusions of inclusion in Muspelheim, was meant to be a big bad villain with his plot to let the fire-realm open a door beneath Centralia, but he turned into a sad sympathy story. He was smitten with Kettila as soon as he saw her, begged her to marry him (to which she agreed to keep him distracted while Woody was cover-opping around underground), and then ended up getting murdered by the entire band on his wedding night when she led him into an ambush. RIP, Bladvaettr. Your life could have gone better.
Monday, June 25, 2012
The Floor is Theirs
Question: what is it like when the rulers of the pantheons (Hutzilopochtli, Amaterasu, Zeus, Odin, whichever Loa is acting as king at the moment) get together?
Nervous for everyone else, mostly. Here, I'll use a metaphor:
Imagine that you are going to a U.N. meeting. Once you get there, you discover that nobody will agree on anything, including what to disagree over, that everyone seems to have an insanely magnetic personality that makes it impossible to ignore or argue with them, that the walls are covered in gigantic charts of every gesture, phrase or idea that is secretly offensive but that nobody is paying attention to avoiding any of them, and that there is no moderator. Also, there are huge fleets of cars full of armored troops in the parking lot, all fanning themselves and waiting to hear about the results of the meeting. Also, all the representatives are pointing nuclear rocket launchers at one another.
Meetings of pantheon leaders are a lot like that. There's an insane amount of divine power and force in one room, and they seldom have any interest in anyone's ideas but their own. They want what they want, they want it now, they're used to being on top of the world, and they don't like taking no for an answer.
But, luckily, most of them have Ultimate Charisma, so when they're actually together in person it's very difficult for relations to be anything but cordial; they're all so impressive, likeable or awesome that it takes genuine insults or acts of war to make them throw diplomacy to the winds and actually act against one another. It's a lucky break for the world (though not so much for any hapless person who happens to wander in; that much Epic Charisma in one place is sort of mind-blowing).
So, in general, when they get together they have a great time shooting the shit and telling each other how great they are, and usually agree to help each other if they need it. It's when they're at home, away from one anothers' influence, that they pull the real shenanigans.
Nervous for everyone else, mostly. Here, I'll use a metaphor:
Imagine that you are going to a U.N. meeting. Once you get there, you discover that nobody will agree on anything, including what to disagree over, that everyone seems to have an insanely magnetic personality that makes it impossible to ignore or argue with them, that the walls are covered in gigantic charts of every gesture, phrase or idea that is secretly offensive but that nobody is paying attention to avoiding any of them, and that there is no moderator. Also, there are huge fleets of cars full of armored troops in the parking lot, all fanning themselves and waiting to hear about the results of the meeting. Also, all the representatives are pointing nuclear rocket launchers at one another.
Meetings of pantheon leaders are a lot like that. There's an insane amount of divine power and force in one room, and they seldom have any interest in anyone's ideas but their own. They want what they want, they want it now, they're used to being on top of the world, and they don't like taking no for an answer.
But, luckily, most of them have Ultimate Charisma, so when they're actually together in person it's very difficult for relations to be anything but cordial; they're all so impressive, likeable or awesome that it takes genuine insults or acts of war to make them throw diplomacy to the winds and actually act against one another. It's a lucky break for the world (though not so much for any hapless person who happens to wander in; that much Epic Charisma in one place is sort of mind-blowing).
So, in general, when they get together they have a great time shooting the shit and telling each other how great they are, and usually agree to help each other if they need it. It's when they're at home, away from one anothers' influence, that they pull the real shenanigans.
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Extended Family
Question: In what unique ways does each pantheon ruin its childrens' lives?
Heh, I said that they all have them in jest in a previous post, but it's true: there are specific challenges for Scions in every pantheon that sometimes make them longingly wish they'd been born to gods halfway around the world.
Some are easy to pinpoint: the Aztlanti insistence on blood sacrifice freaks a lot of modern Scions right out, since killing people and feasting on their still-beating hearts is not exactly the kind of thing that most people in the current era find socially acceptable. Their emphasis on proper sexual and societal behavior is also archaic in the extreme for a lot of modern Scions, and their notoriously harsh punishments - death never goes out of style! - make them chafing for many.
Then there are the Dodekatheon, whose penchant for casual rape and incest, not to mention track record of vengeance-induced murder, is not exactly a selling point for them when it comes to modern Scions who find those kinds of things repugnant. They're also judgy. Very, very judgy.
The stifling court manners of the Amatsukami can be not only restrictive and antiquated for new Scions, but also downright incomprehensible; more than a few have put a single foot wrong and then been socially punished for it for years, often without even knowing what their offense was. There's very little upward mobility among the Japanese gods, who prize seniority and tradition, and Scions of the Celestial Bureaucracy have similar problems, facing literal miles of red tape to get anything done and laboring under the stressful realization that there are so many laws and layers of government that the odds are good they're always doing something wrong according to somebody who can make their lives hell for it.
Anunna arrogance can be positively off the charts, and while they might listen to their children and indulge them out of parental pride, they're just as likely (well, no, a lot more likely) to totally ignore them, no matter what they're saying or doing or how important they claim it is, simply because they're children and they clearly have no idea what they're talking about. They're so cute. Look at them, they think they're people!
The Tuatha come with their own built-in pantheon-specific hell when it comes to having to make sure their geasa don't get out of control, but their family's no picnic, either. Sure, they're awesome - they super fun! They love a good story and a nice round of alcohol and a good boasting and an oh my god, why is everyone just disembowling everyone else? what's happening? when did the Nemetondevos get here and why are they not helping even slightly?
The Yazata are brutal because you can't lie, ever, ever ever ever, or you face divine disapproval and retribution. Your wife does look fat in that dress, your boss's business plan is asinine bullshit, and your divine parent is being a douchebag. Your only hope is to shut up forever or accept that everyone is kind of going to hate you sometimes. God help you if you have poor Empathy skills. Oh, and don't think the Deva Scions are getting off easy, either - kids from both pantheons have inherited a nasty dispute with their neighbors that has been going on for so long that they have no hope of escaping it or even of really understanding what started it.
The Loa might be fine, except that A) everything they do with human cults and possession looks straight out of a horror movie to many middle-of-the-road modern Scions, and B) Vengeance. With a nice helping of C) insanity, since the king is kind of a psychopath and almost nobody in the pantheon is free of stories about frankly reprehensible behavior. The Pesedjet also might be fine, but in addition to sharing much of the Anunna snootiness toward silly young things, they also tend to leave their Scions twisting in the wind; after all, if the kid is worth his salt, he'll work it out on his own, right? And if he doesn't... oh, the aged disdain and disappointment.
And then, of course, there are the Aesir. What's that? You wanted to do something? You know, we would, but we're busy with Ragnarok right now. You have news? Can't talk right now, Ragnarok. You object to what we're doing? Too bad, has to be done because Ragnarok. You want to make different plans or strike out on your own? ARE YOU UNAWARE OF THE RAGNAROK? GET BACK OVER HERE AND GET UNDER THIS BUS CALLED RAGNAROK.
So, yeah. There are also distinct advantages to all the pantheons, and of course these are broad generalities that differ considerably depending on the Scion's personality and the specific godly parent involved, but in general, nobody's relations with their pantheon are ever an easy, stress-free ride. They're gods, and they're old, complicated and free of a lot of annoying morals and conscience issues that Scions have. There can't help but be conflicts.
Man, starting your own pantheon just looks better and better, doesn't it? Just think: in a few centuries, you can start having and torturing your own Scions with your idiosyncratic ways!
Heh, I said that they all have them in jest in a previous post, but it's true: there are specific challenges for Scions in every pantheon that sometimes make them longingly wish they'd been born to gods halfway around the world.
Some are easy to pinpoint: the Aztlanti insistence on blood sacrifice freaks a lot of modern Scions right out, since killing people and feasting on their still-beating hearts is not exactly the kind of thing that most people in the current era find socially acceptable. Their emphasis on proper sexual and societal behavior is also archaic in the extreme for a lot of modern Scions, and their notoriously harsh punishments - death never goes out of style! - make them chafing for many.
Then there are the Dodekatheon, whose penchant for casual rape and incest, not to mention track record of vengeance-induced murder, is not exactly a selling point for them when it comes to modern Scions who find those kinds of things repugnant. They're also judgy. Very, very judgy.
The stifling court manners of the Amatsukami can be not only restrictive and antiquated for new Scions, but also downright incomprehensible; more than a few have put a single foot wrong and then been socially punished for it for years, often without even knowing what their offense was. There's very little upward mobility among the Japanese gods, who prize seniority and tradition, and Scions of the Celestial Bureaucracy have similar problems, facing literal miles of red tape to get anything done and laboring under the stressful realization that there are so many laws and layers of government that the odds are good they're always doing something wrong according to somebody who can make their lives hell for it.
Anunna arrogance can be positively off the charts, and while they might listen to their children and indulge them out of parental pride, they're just as likely (well, no, a lot more likely) to totally ignore them, no matter what they're saying or doing or how important they claim it is, simply because they're children and they clearly have no idea what they're talking about. They're so cute. Look at them, they think they're people!
The Tuatha come with their own built-in pantheon-specific hell when it comes to having to make sure their geasa don't get out of control, but their family's no picnic, either. Sure, they're awesome - they super fun! They love a good story and a nice round of alcohol and a good boasting and an oh my god, why is everyone just disembowling everyone else? what's happening? when did the Nemetondevos get here and why are they not helping even slightly?
The Yazata are brutal because you can't lie, ever, ever ever ever, or you face divine disapproval and retribution. Your wife does look fat in that dress, your boss's business plan is asinine bullshit, and your divine parent is being a douchebag. Your only hope is to shut up forever or accept that everyone is kind of going to hate you sometimes. God help you if you have poor Empathy skills. Oh, and don't think the Deva Scions are getting off easy, either - kids from both pantheons have inherited a nasty dispute with their neighbors that has been going on for so long that they have no hope of escaping it or even of really understanding what started it.
The Loa might be fine, except that A) everything they do with human cults and possession looks straight out of a horror movie to many middle-of-the-road modern Scions, and B) Vengeance. With a nice helping of C) insanity, since the king is kind of a psychopath and almost nobody in the pantheon is free of stories about frankly reprehensible behavior. The Pesedjet also might be fine, but in addition to sharing much of the Anunna snootiness toward silly young things, they also tend to leave their Scions twisting in the wind; after all, if the kid is worth his salt, he'll work it out on his own, right? And if he doesn't... oh, the aged disdain and disappointment.
And then, of course, there are the Aesir. What's that? You wanted to do something? You know, we would, but we're busy with Ragnarok right now. You have news? Can't talk right now, Ragnarok. You object to what we're doing? Too bad, has to be done because Ragnarok. You want to make different plans or strike out on your own? ARE YOU UNAWARE OF THE RAGNAROK? GET BACK OVER HERE AND GET UNDER THIS BUS CALLED RAGNAROK.
So, yeah. There are also distinct advantages to all the pantheons, and of course these are broad generalities that differ considerably depending on the Scion's personality and the specific godly parent involved, but in general, nobody's relations with their pantheon are ever an easy, stress-free ride. They're gods, and they're old, complicated and free of a lot of annoying morals and conscience issues that Scions have. There can't help but be conflicts.
Man, starting your own pantheon just looks better and better, doesn't it? Just think: in a few centuries, you can start having and torturing your own Scions with your idiosyncratic ways!
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Tick Tock
Question: I never understood how to combine the ticks system with stunts, do you have any examples to illustrate how that works? Thanks for the great work and happy honeymoon!
Thanks for your well-wishes - we're probably on a plane to Greece right this very second. Cross your fingers that nobody kills us in an flash riot!
Stunting and ticks are the simplest thing in the world to combine: just don't do any extra work. Actions already have their tick value spelled out for you, either based on a weapon's speed, a boon's stated speed or good old Miscellaneous 5-tick Action. A stunt doesn't change or modify that speed at all; it takes five ticks to stab somebody with a normal sword, and it also takes five ticks to stab somebody with a normal sword while flipping over their shoulders and bellowing a battle cry. Stunts never need to take up any extra tick-time on their own; they're just cool descriptions of actions that already have a tick value, so you don't need to penalize the player's creativity by making their action take longer.
If a PC specifically wants to go for a stunt that will definitely take some extra time - stopping to paint something on a wall in preparation for a ritual in the middle of combat, for example - then you'll need to make an on-the-spot decision about how long that takes to complete. It's easiest to just say that a tick and a second are about the same, so if you think it might take him ten or fifteen seconds to do that, let him know that it'll take him out of the combat for that many ticks unless he finds a condensed way to do it.
(Our players sometimes find it useful to condense the idea down to "actions", basically just chunks of 5 ticks, so we might say, "Okay, that sounds awesome, but it'll take an extra action (i.e., 10 ticks instead of 5), do you still want to go for it?" You don't need to use that kind of terminology, though, especially if your players play other games where actions are actually a measure of combat time and you don't want them getting confused.)
And, of course, if a stunt is happening outside of combat, there's no reason to worry about how many ticks it requires unless you're planning for something to jump the stunter in the middle of the proceedings; just call it "then we stopped for five minutes while Roger did his thing" and leave it at that.
The key is not to get bogged down. The tick system is fabulous about keeping combat moving and everyone involved - don't make it harder for your players, and don't make it harder for yourself. Most of the time, stunts don't have to cost you a thing, and that includes seconds; only make it an issue when a stunt clearly needs more time than the action it's attached to, and check with the player to see if they want to take the hit to go ahead with their cool idea or come up with an alternative to keep from falling behind.
Thanks for your well-wishes - we're probably on a plane to Greece right this very second. Cross your fingers that nobody kills us in an flash riot!
Stunting and ticks are the simplest thing in the world to combine: just don't do any extra work. Actions already have their tick value spelled out for you, either based on a weapon's speed, a boon's stated speed or good old Miscellaneous 5-tick Action. A stunt doesn't change or modify that speed at all; it takes five ticks to stab somebody with a normal sword, and it also takes five ticks to stab somebody with a normal sword while flipping over their shoulders and bellowing a battle cry. Stunts never need to take up any extra tick-time on their own; they're just cool descriptions of actions that already have a tick value, so you don't need to penalize the player's creativity by making their action take longer.
If a PC specifically wants to go for a stunt that will definitely take some extra time - stopping to paint something on a wall in preparation for a ritual in the middle of combat, for example - then you'll need to make an on-the-spot decision about how long that takes to complete. It's easiest to just say that a tick and a second are about the same, so if you think it might take him ten or fifteen seconds to do that, let him know that it'll take him out of the combat for that many ticks unless he finds a condensed way to do it.
(Our players sometimes find it useful to condense the idea down to "actions", basically just chunks of 5 ticks, so we might say, "Okay, that sounds awesome, but it'll take an extra action (i.e., 10 ticks instead of 5), do you still want to go for it?" You don't need to use that kind of terminology, though, especially if your players play other games where actions are actually a measure of combat time and you don't want them getting confused.)
And, of course, if a stunt is happening outside of combat, there's no reason to worry about how many ticks it requires unless you're planning for something to jump the stunter in the middle of the proceedings; just call it "then we stopped for five minutes while Roger did his thing" and leave it at that.
The key is not to get bogged down. The tick system is fabulous about keeping combat moving and everyone involved - don't make it harder for your players, and don't make it harder for yourself. Most of the time, stunts don't have to cost you a thing, and that includes seconds; only make it an issue when a stunt clearly needs more time than the action it's attached to, and check with the player to see if they want to take the hit to go ahead with their cool idea or come up with an alternative to keep from falling behind.
Friday, June 22, 2012
Dude Looks Like a Lady
Question: What are the different pantheons' takes on sex and gender? There are several stories of gods changing sexes and sleeping with other gods or beings. How do they view this and how does this mesh with the patriarchal systems prevalent in many of the pantheons?
A complicated question, and one I'm not sure I understand the intent of. I can actually only think of one or two true sex-swaps in myth similar to the one you describe, like Vishnu appearing as Mohini to seduce Shiva, and I'm not sure if even that counts since Mohini was an avatar and not actually his normal body in the first place.
A pantheon's "take" on sex and gender is insanely complicated, but if you want to boil its simplicities down, it's not hard to understand: ancient gods have ancient attitudes, which generally means that men are considered stronger and more capable than women, while women are considered better at nurturing and representing sexuality than are men. Ancient societies were all quite sexist, though the degree varies between them, and while badass ladies exist in mythology, they are the exception. Another of the very rare sex-swap stories, that of Caenis, illustrates this pretty well: when she was raped by Poseidon, she demanded that he turn her into a man so that she would have the power to defend herself in the future, which he granted, surprised by her moxy. The underlying social theme is not just that men are more powerful than women, but that women would really prefer to be men in the first place anyway, and just aren't that lucky. (And even Caenis doesn't get to really swap sexes forever - when she's later seen in the Underworld, she seems to have been reverted back to female again.)
Actually, two previous posts probably help answer this question a lot better: check out our earlier discussions on women in positions of physical or military power in mythology and ancient attitudes toward homosexuality in myth.
Which leaves us with transgender gods and how that works out, exactly, which is an interesting question. In most cases, I think, it's basically a non-issue; for Vishnu, for example, there's no conflict because it's Mohini having sex with Shiva, not Vishnu himself, so it's not like he's actually giving up any of his manliness to do so (the great thing about avatars is that they both are and are not you, so you can get away with a lot of this kind of bullshit). Zeus transforming himself into Artemis in order to get into Callisto's pants is another fudging area - it's hard to tell if he really transforms or just uses and illusion, and either way it's moot because he turns back into himself when it's time for the sexing, making it clear that the switch between sexes was a temporary ruse, not a genuine swap.
The Africans, however, are a special case: for example, Obatala transforming himself into a woman and not only having sex with Aganju but actually bearing a son to him is definitely transgenderism, and nobody seems to mind one bit. The reasons behind this are twofold: for one, nobody cares if Shango's mother was actually a dude, because the idea of him having two fathers is an intentional one to highlight his own masculinity - he's SO MANLY that he could not have a woman involved anywhere in his conception (though even that, of course, is revealing - even though he has all the womanly parts and is even giving birth, Obatala is still considered male there despite his female form, because otherwise the symbolism doesn't work). The other is a peculiarity of indigenous African religion, in that the sex/gender of deities often appears to be totally fluid and basically unimportant. It was very confusing for European settlers and colonists to hear stories about Oduduwa the fecund mother of gods and then wander over to the next village and hear stories about Oduduwa the mighty male warrior; the Africans simply didn't think that assigning a gender to their gods was all that important, because they were gods and gods kind of transcend gender. What the god does and represents is way more important than whether or not it looks like a man or a woman to humanity, and while some gods, like Shango, have always been considered firmly one sex, others weren't solidified into a constant gender until after colonial expansion had seen Europeans write down stories of the gods as one particular sex and influenced the locals into beginning to change their worldview. There are still some traces of this general disregard for choosing a side even in the New World versions of African religions - Obatala, for example, is syncretized with Our Lady of Mercy in modern Santeria, because the fact that both figures are white-robe-wearing bringers of comfort, mercy and the promise of freedom is more important than the fact that one is traditionally a dude and the other traditionally a lady.
So, for Scion's purposes, I'd say that Loa Scions are in a uniquely good position if they want to play with gender roles and swapping between them. While male Loa are still more likely to be in powerful positions and respect one another than female Loa, the fact that female Loa could simply become male to tip the scales and what that might mean to a modern feminist or modern transgendered person is an interesting question.
And Loa aren't the only ones, either; while there would surely be some stigma in many pantheons attached to changing sexes - males who became females would probably be treated derisively, much like homosexuals in many cases, while females who became males would probably still not have the same level of respect as already-male gods - the instinctive patriarchal attitudes at play may still cause gods to instinctively respond better or worse despite knowing that this isn't a Scion's or god's original form. And really, once you've been a lady for more years than you spent as a mortal dude, who really has room to argue?
Keep in mind, however, that these are sensitive issues for some people and any players or Storyteller who want to tackle them have to know their fellow gamers well enough to know if it's going to press buttons. That shouldn't stop anyone, but, like all sensitive issues at the gaming table, it also shouldn't be ignored.
Man, I hope some of that is coherent. Writing about transgenderism in mythology at six a.m. after a long night of wedding planning and being sick is kind of a mind-melting experience.
A complicated question, and one I'm not sure I understand the intent of. I can actually only think of one or two true sex-swaps in myth similar to the one you describe, like Vishnu appearing as Mohini to seduce Shiva, and I'm not sure if even that counts since Mohini was an avatar and not actually his normal body in the first place.
A pantheon's "take" on sex and gender is insanely complicated, but if you want to boil its simplicities down, it's not hard to understand: ancient gods have ancient attitudes, which generally means that men are considered stronger and more capable than women, while women are considered better at nurturing and representing sexuality than are men. Ancient societies were all quite sexist, though the degree varies between them, and while badass ladies exist in mythology, they are the exception. Another of the very rare sex-swap stories, that of Caenis, illustrates this pretty well: when she was raped by Poseidon, she demanded that he turn her into a man so that she would have the power to defend herself in the future, which he granted, surprised by her moxy. The underlying social theme is not just that men are more powerful than women, but that women would really prefer to be men in the first place anyway, and just aren't that lucky. (And even Caenis doesn't get to really swap sexes forever - when she's later seen in the Underworld, she seems to have been reverted back to female again.)
Actually, two previous posts probably help answer this question a lot better: check out our earlier discussions on women in positions of physical or military power in mythology and ancient attitudes toward homosexuality in myth.
Which leaves us with transgender gods and how that works out, exactly, which is an interesting question. In most cases, I think, it's basically a non-issue; for Vishnu, for example, there's no conflict because it's Mohini having sex with Shiva, not Vishnu himself, so it's not like he's actually giving up any of his manliness to do so (the great thing about avatars is that they both are and are not you, so you can get away with a lot of this kind of bullshit). Zeus transforming himself into Artemis in order to get into Callisto's pants is another fudging area - it's hard to tell if he really transforms or just uses and illusion, and either way it's moot because he turns back into himself when it's time for the sexing, making it clear that the switch between sexes was a temporary ruse, not a genuine swap.
The Africans, however, are a special case: for example, Obatala transforming himself into a woman and not only having sex with Aganju but actually bearing a son to him is definitely transgenderism, and nobody seems to mind one bit. The reasons behind this are twofold: for one, nobody cares if Shango's mother was actually a dude, because the idea of him having two fathers is an intentional one to highlight his own masculinity - he's SO MANLY that he could not have a woman involved anywhere in his conception (though even that, of course, is revealing - even though he has all the womanly parts and is even giving birth, Obatala is still considered male there despite his female form, because otherwise the symbolism doesn't work). The other is a peculiarity of indigenous African religion, in that the sex/gender of deities often appears to be totally fluid and basically unimportant. It was very confusing for European settlers and colonists to hear stories about Oduduwa the fecund mother of gods and then wander over to the next village and hear stories about Oduduwa the mighty male warrior; the Africans simply didn't think that assigning a gender to their gods was all that important, because they were gods and gods kind of transcend gender. What the god does and represents is way more important than whether or not it looks like a man or a woman to humanity, and while some gods, like Shango, have always been considered firmly one sex, others weren't solidified into a constant gender until after colonial expansion had seen Europeans write down stories of the gods as one particular sex and influenced the locals into beginning to change their worldview. There are still some traces of this general disregard for choosing a side even in the New World versions of African religions - Obatala, for example, is syncretized with Our Lady of Mercy in modern Santeria, because the fact that both figures are white-robe-wearing bringers of comfort, mercy and the promise of freedom is more important than the fact that one is traditionally a dude and the other traditionally a lady.
So, for Scion's purposes, I'd say that Loa Scions are in a uniquely good position if they want to play with gender roles and swapping between them. While male Loa are still more likely to be in powerful positions and respect one another than female Loa, the fact that female Loa could simply become male to tip the scales and what that might mean to a modern feminist or modern transgendered person is an interesting question.
And Loa aren't the only ones, either; while there would surely be some stigma in many pantheons attached to changing sexes - males who became females would probably be treated derisively, much like homosexuals in many cases, while females who became males would probably still not have the same level of respect as already-male gods - the instinctive patriarchal attitudes at play may still cause gods to instinctively respond better or worse despite knowing that this isn't a Scion's or god's original form. And really, once you've been a lady for more years than you spent as a mortal dude, who really has room to argue?
Keep in mind, however, that these are sensitive issues for some people and any players or Storyteller who want to tackle them have to know their fellow gamers well enough to know if it's going to press buttons. That shouldn't stop anyone, but, like all sensitive issues at the gaming table, it also shouldn't be ignored.
Man, I hope some of that is coherent. Writing about transgenderism in mythology at six a.m. after a long night of wedding planning and being sick is kind of a mind-melting experience.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
The Anarchist Godbook
Question: Who is the most world-destroying, shit-wrecking, I kill you just to watch you die fear me Legend 12 god of every pantheon, and who is the worst of them all out of all the pantheons?
Ooh, one of the classics, second only to the Which God Would Win in a Fight question! It's very subjective, but opinions are fun. Let's opinionate away!
I'm going to assume that Titan Avatars don't count, since otherwise they just always win.
The Aesir: There really isn't a god that fits your bill among the Aesir; none of the juggernaut world-wreckers are inclined to do it just for fun, and the guys who like pranking the universe for fun aren't particularly good at being juggernaut world-wreckers. The closest possibility is probably Thor, who is very good at accidentally trying to destroy important things (get off the goddamn rainbow bridge and stop poking the Midgard serpent!) and has something of a temper control problem. He's still generally too benevolent for your description, though.
The Amatsukami: Susano-o, obviously. Wrecking things like the biggest cosmic douchebag is his career of choice, and he also has a history of murdering (or attempting to murder) people without much of a justification. It's not that he doesn't try to sometimes be useful... but he really doesn't succeed much.
The Anunna: I wanted to say Nergal, times a zillion. Remember that one time he just started ceaseless wars across the entire planet, and then refused to apologize because obviously everyone should have known he was going to do that? But I think his psychotic brother Ninurta might be almost as bad, being a super badass with a reputation for blowing up everyone and everything in order to win and not giving even the tiniest damn about destroying the entire landscape as long as he gets to kill whatever he's trying to kill. I can't choose between them. They are the Destructo Brothers.
The Aztlanti: It sometimes feels like everybody among the Aztlanti has blown up the world at least once, but Tezcatlipoca continues to be the reigning king of Bad Idea Bears, with a penchant for destroying the entire world when he gets pissy or is, like, bored that day. He's not nearly as much of a murder machine as Huitzilopochtli, who could cheerfully murder a thousand dudes with their intestines and not experience even a shred of remorse, but in terms of sheer fucking things up scale, I think he still comes out ahead.
The Bogovi: Like the Aesir, the Bogovi really have no gods with much of an interest in ruining everything for everybody; there are a few with personal vendettas against one another and a few others who occasionally make semi-disastrous mistakes, but on the whole they're too strongly attached to the idea of harmony to go about destorying it that thoroughly.
The Celestial Bureaucracy: Everyone's favorite pantheon superstar, Sun Wukong, is the obvious choice here; he does indeed wreck shit, destroy things and occasionally kill people just because he feels like it. He's a little better now, what with all that Buddhism and meditation calming him down as well as general grudging membership among the gods, but I doubt anyone in his pantheon trusts him not to go off the rails again at a moment's notice.
The Devas: When there is a dude called the Destroyer in your pantheon, he seems like he's probably the best bet, but it's not Shiva that needs the most worry directed his way; it's Kali. She is a force of insane nature directed outward at destroying anything and everything that she comes into contact with. Shiva's actually the responsible one in that relationship, which should probably terrify everyone.
The Dodekatheon: The obvious answer here is correct, however: Ares, as the personification of ravening berserker bloodlust and wartime savagery, is not boasting any restraint or critical thinking that might prevent him from leveling everyone and everything in his area if nobody stops him. In fact, it's really just the facts that he spends half his time at Aphrodite's place and that he's not very bright that keep him from blowing things up more thoroughly.
The Elohim: Oh, jeez, can I vote for all of them? The Elohim are one of the bloodiest pantheons by far, but the prize probably goes to Anat, who is said to wade in and ingest the remains of the hordes of her slain enemies and who not only murders people (with no regard for the cosmic order that needs them alive!) but also indulges in vengeance-fueled corpse mutilation. Also, Carthage.
The Loa: I don't think these guys technically have a real world-destroyer on their hands, either, but their next best thing is definitely Shango, a dude who is fully willing to murder anyone and everyone around him with axes for such sins as trying too hard to please him or being too good at their jobs. (And that's the guy who's in charge of the whole pantheon. Good job, Loa!) He ultimately preserves order (as long as its under his control), however, so he really doesn't fit your criteria fully.
The Nemetondevos: There's really no such god among the Nemetondevos, either; hot tempers and bad moods abound, sure, but nobody's much of a murder-for-fun or world-destruction-hobby type of a person among the continental Celts.
The Pesedjet: Egypt gives us the unrestrainable Sekhmet, a bloodbath-begetter so nuts that she almost cleared the entire planet's population and could only be distracted by the promise of blood to guzzle before she was gotten under control. The Pesedjet (specifically Ptah) keep her on a magical super-relic leash these days to prevent that sort of thing from happening again. Sowiljr saw her let off the leash once in a Titanrealm. He hopes never to see it again.
The Tuatha de Danann: There's no competing with the carrion crow-goddess and her penchant for destructive violence and complete inability to give a fuck about it. The Morrigan just wants to watch the world burn.
The Yazata: The Persian gods are pretty much the antithesis of destruction and chaos, so none of them are close to fitting the description. They would tell you righteously that anyone who does is clearly an agent of the daevas and should probably be put down. There's a reason they don't hang out with anyone else on this list.
It's a very good thing that most gods are about preserving the world instead of blowing it up (after all, that's what Titans are for). If there were a lot more than these guys, things would become unmanageable very quickly.
Ooh, one of the classics, second only to the Which God Would Win in a Fight question! It's very subjective, but opinions are fun. Let's opinionate away!
I'm going to assume that Titan Avatars don't count, since otherwise they just always win.
The Aesir: There really isn't a god that fits your bill among the Aesir; none of the juggernaut world-wreckers are inclined to do it just for fun, and the guys who like pranking the universe for fun aren't particularly good at being juggernaut world-wreckers. The closest possibility is probably Thor, who is very good at accidentally trying to destroy important things (get off the goddamn rainbow bridge and stop poking the Midgard serpent!) and has something of a temper control problem. He's still generally too benevolent for your description, though.
The Amatsukami: Susano-o, obviously. Wrecking things like the biggest cosmic douchebag is his career of choice, and he also has a history of murdering (or attempting to murder) people without much of a justification. It's not that he doesn't try to sometimes be useful... but he really doesn't succeed much.
The Anunna: I wanted to say Nergal, times a zillion. Remember that one time he just started ceaseless wars across the entire planet, and then refused to apologize because obviously everyone should have known he was going to do that? But I think his psychotic brother Ninurta might be almost as bad, being a super badass with a reputation for blowing up everyone and everything in order to win and not giving even the tiniest damn about destroying the entire landscape as long as he gets to kill whatever he's trying to kill. I can't choose between them. They are the Destructo Brothers.
The Aztlanti: It sometimes feels like everybody among the Aztlanti has blown up the world at least once, but Tezcatlipoca continues to be the reigning king of Bad Idea Bears, with a penchant for destroying the entire world when he gets pissy or is, like, bored that day. He's not nearly as much of a murder machine as Huitzilopochtli, who could cheerfully murder a thousand dudes with their intestines and not experience even a shred of remorse, but in terms of sheer fucking things up scale, I think he still comes out ahead.
The Bogovi: Like the Aesir, the Bogovi really have no gods with much of an interest in ruining everything for everybody; there are a few with personal vendettas against one another and a few others who occasionally make semi-disastrous mistakes, but on the whole they're too strongly attached to the idea of harmony to go about destorying it that thoroughly.
The Celestial Bureaucracy: Everyone's favorite pantheon superstar, Sun Wukong, is the obvious choice here; he does indeed wreck shit, destroy things and occasionally kill people just because he feels like it. He's a little better now, what with all that Buddhism and meditation calming him down as well as general grudging membership among the gods, but I doubt anyone in his pantheon trusts him not to go off the rails again at a moment's notice.
The Devas: When there is a dude called the Destroyer in your pantheon, he seems like he's probably the best bet, but it's not Shiva that needs the most worry directed his way; it's Kali. She is a force of insane nature directed outward at destroying anything and everything that she comes into contact with. Shiva's actually the responsible one in that relationship, which should probably terrify everyone.
The Dodekatheon: The obvious answer here is correct, however: Ares, as the personification of ravening berserker bloodlust and wartime savagery, is not boasting any restraint or critical thinking that might prevent him from leveling everyone and everything in his area if nobody stops him. In fact, it's really just the facts that he spends half his time at Aphrodite's place and that he's not very bright that keep him from blowing things up more thoroughly.
The Elohim: Oh, jeez, can I vote for all of them? The Elohim are one of the bloodiest pantheons by far, but the prize probably goes to Anat, who is said to wade in and ingest the remains of the hordes of her slain enemies and who not only murders people (with no regard for the cosmic order that needs them alive!) but also indulges in vengeance-fueled corpse mutilation. Also, Carthage.
The Loa: I don't think these guys technically have a real world-destroyer on their hands, either, but their next best thing is definitely Shango, a dude who is fully willing to murder anyone and everyone around him with axes for such sins as trying too hard to please him or being too good at their jobs. (And that's the guy who's in charge of the whole pantheon. Good job, Loa!) He ultimately preserves order (as long as its under his control), however, so he really doesn't fit your criteria fully.
The Nemetondevos: There's really no such god among the Nemetondevos, either; hot tempers and bad moods abound, sure, but nobody's much of a murder-for-fun or world-destruction-hobby type of a person among the continental Celts.
The Pesedjet: Egypt gives us the unrestrainable Sekhmet, a bloodbath-begetter so nuts that she almost cleared the entire planet's population and could only be distracted by the promise of blood to guzzle before she was gotten under control. The Pesedjet (specifically Ptah) keep her on a magical super-relic leash these days to prevent that sort of thing from happening again. Sowiljr saw her let off the leash once in a Titanrealm. He hopes never to see it again.
The Tuatha de Danann: There's no competing with the carrion crow-goddess and her penchant for destructive violence and complete inability to give a fuck about it. The Morrigan just wants to watch the world burn.
The Yazata: The Persian gods are pretty much the antithesis of destruction and chaos, so none of them are close to fitting the description. They would tell you righteously that anyone who does is clearly an agent of the daevas and should probably be put down. There's a reason they don't hang out with anyone else on this list.
It's a very good thing that most gods are about preserving the world instead of blowing it up (after all, that's what Titans are for). If there were a lot more than these guys, things would become unmanageable very quickly.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Alphabet Soup
Question: How do you deal with gods who were clearly important in their mythologies, but whose records are scattered to this day. To give a specific example, a number of Maya "alphabet gods" are found scattered across stelae and pottery and clearly serve a large function in the religion, but their names have been lost to history. Is it even possible to acknowledge them in Scion?
I think it is possible to acknowledge them, and even important to, as they represent what happens to every culture that falls out of the record and could conceivably happen to the PCs if they stop doing awesome things and start being boring layabouts. Our assumption in Scion for any god who doesn't have enough evidence to really know much about him or her is that they simply weren't Legend 12; they would be minor gods of Legend 9 to 11, depending on what they have going on, who never quite made it to the celebrity status necessary for their legends to survive to the modern day. Because of the way Legend works, it's a perfect setup: if we don't know enough about them, it's because they weren't high enough Legend for their myths to endure long enough for us to know about them. QED.
But in Scion's landscape, that doesn't mean they aren't still around, doing whatever it is gods do when they aren't actively being part of your PCs' storyline. Each pantheon probably has at least as many "little gods" as Legend 12 superstars - the Romans and Greeks are famous for it, but the Maya gods you mention are another good example, as are the slews of minor Celtic deities or stacks of minor African nature personifications. They give you tons of ready-made allies, antagonists or points of contact for PCs in those pantheons, either as go-betweens for the very busy Legend 12 gods or peers once the Scions have become minor gods themselves. Humanity may not know their names, but that doesn't mean they don't have any.
Those kids of gods can be great plot points, actually; they may draw the PCs into their schemes to become as relevant as their more famous relatives, or their plans to jump ship to another pantheon with more upward mobility, or even reveal that they're a Scion's true parent and the Legend 12 god they've always thought was their blood is only an adopter. Since they have very few legends of their own, they're perfect places for players to write new ones, using characters that aren't so well-established and intimidating as the Legend 12 gods.
So save some love for poor old God N. Nobody may know who he is now, but that doesn't mean he can't change the world with your Scion later!
I think it is possible to acknowledge them, and even important to, as they represent what happens to every culture that falls out of the record and could conceivably happen to the PCs if they stop doing awesome things and start being boring layabouts. Our assumption in Scion for any god who doesn't have enough evidence to really know much about him or her is that they simply weren't Legend 12; they would be minor gods of Legend 9 to 11, depending on what they have going on, who never quite made it to the celebrity status necessary for their legends to survive to the modern day. Because of the way Legend works, it's a perfect setup: if we don't know enough about them, it's because they weren't high enough Legend for their myths to endure long enough for us to know about them. QED.
But in Scion's landscape, that doesn't mean they aren't still around, doing whatever it is gods do when they aren't actively being part of your PCs' storyline. Each pantheon probably has at least as many "little gods" as Legend 12 superstars - the Romans and Greeks are famous for it, but the Maya gods you mention are another good example, as are the slews of minor Celtic deities or stacks of minor African nature personifications. They give you tons of ready-made allies, antagonists or points of contact for PCs in those pantheons, either as go-betweens for the very busy Legend 12 gods or peers once the Scions have become minor gods themselves. Humanity may not know their names, but that doesn't mean they don't have any.
Those kids of gods can be great plot points, actually; they may draw the PCs into their schemes to become as relevant as their more famous relatives, or their plans to jump ship to another pantheon with more upward mobility, or even reveal that they're a Scion's true parent and the Legend 12 god they've always thought was their blood is only an adopter. Since they have very few legends of their own, they're perfect places for players to write new ones, using characters that aren't so well-established and intimidating as the Legend 12 gods.
So save some love for poor old God N. Nobody may know who he is now, but that doesn't mean he can't change the world with your Scion later!
The Pen and the Sword
Question: This is similar to a previous question about if you were a real life Scion who would you like your parent to be. If you were a god, what type of god do you think would be? What type of god would you want to be? Which purviews and attributes would you favor?
Last time I asked John what his answers would be, but since he's busy madly running around with his dudes doing groom stuff at this point, I'll guess him myself. He can always come in and correct me later. :)
I imagine that if I were a deity I would probably be one representing book-learning in some degrees - associated with libraries, schools, the collection and understanding of knowledge, and that sort of thing (a Sarasvati or a Seshat, if you will). I might be associated with Epic Intelligence or Mystery, though I can't think of any others (that's the problem with trying to stat humans. They just aren't very impressive and I have no way of knowing what godly feats and doings I might have participated in to change that). I'd probably favor Academics, Art, Empathy and Occult.
John, on the other hand, would probably be a creator god a la Brahma or Svarog, bringing things into being from the raw force of his own will. He'd probably lean toward being associated with Charisma and Chaos or Justice (maybe even both!), and favor things like Command, Investigation, Politics and Presence.
There, today's silly self-indulgent exercise is now out of the way. :) Anybody else want to stat themselves?
Last time I asked John what his answers would be, but since he's busy madly running around with his dudes doing groom stuff at this point, I'll guess him myself. He can always come in and correct me later. :)
I imagine that if I were a deity I would probably be one representing book-learning in some degrees - associated with libraries, schools, the collection and understanding of knowledge, and that sort of thing (a Sarasvati or a Seshat, if you will). I might be associated with Epic Intelligence or Mystery, though I can't think of any others (that's the problem with trying to stat humans. They just aren't very impressive and I have no way of knowing what godly feats and doings I might have participated in to change that). I'd probably favor Academics, Art, Empathy and Occult.
John, on the other hand, would probably be a creator god a la Brahma or Svarog, bringing things into being from the raw force of his own will. He'd probably lean toward being associated with Charisma and Chaos or Justice (maybe even both!), and favor things like Command, Investigation, Politics and Presence.
There, today's silly self-indulgent exercise is now out of the way. :) Anybody else want to stat themselves?
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Wave-Treader
Question: Despite several mentions in the Elohim supplement, Asherah didn't get a write-up, though her city, Elat, did. Though I imagine it's probably because she isn't suitable as a Scion's parent, I was curious as to what your views on her and what her stats might look like are.
This week, I stat all the people.
I seriously considered Asherah as both a playable goddess and a Titan Avatar, but ended up setting her as a goddess who simply isn't participating in the war on either side at the moment. Part of this was due to the realization that she's in an odd and possibly untenable political position as El's wife but a faithful mother to her children, and part of it was due to the realization that she didn't have very many identifiable associated powers but was also clearly too important not to be Legend 12.
Asherah's most obvious associated power would be Water, as "she who walks the waves" has strong links to the ocean. Manipulation also seems like an easy fit based on the myth of her standing up in council and convincing pretty much everybody to resolve their angry Vengeance-fueled vendettas her way instead of by murdering everyone involved. Past that, however, it becomes difficult to ascribe any other associations to her with real confidence. She's described as beautiful in the myth of her marriage to El, so maybe Appearance? She seems to wield some power as Queen of Heaven, so maybe Justice? She's the mother of all the Elohim and has links to fecundity, so maybe Health? Asherah's role is mostly a secondary one to El, so it's hard to pin down what else she might have uniquely done or represented (especially with the glut of angry Biblical scholarship out there!). As far as abilities go, I'd run with Command, Empathy, Medicine, Politics, Presence and Survival.
My intention with Asherah was to give her enough plot hook places that she could be a strong plot element but still allow every Storyteller to make a call on whether she was leaning toward Titanic or remaining on the side of the gods, and exactly where she might fall politically on that spectrum. She was a hard figure to include, but she should definitely be part of any Canaanite-heavy story in some way.
Bonus suggestion: some scholars like the theory that Asherah and Qedesh are the same figure, just filtered through an Egyptian lens in the second case, so you could rule that she had been Fatebound into that new role and was no longer a part of the Canaanite pantheon proper. I think the theory's specious myself and based on pretty sketchy linguistic evidence, but it's an avenue that could be explored in a Scion game for some interesting results.
Second bonus suggestion: if you run Yahweh as a separate god rather than an aspect of El, you can include a shocking hanky-panky scandal based on the mentions of Asherah as Yahweh's consort!
This week, I stat all the people.
I seriously considered Asherah as both a playable goddess and a Titan Avatar, but ended up setting her as a goddess who simply isn't participating in the war on either side at the moment. Part of this was due to the realization that she's in an odd and possibly untenable political position as El's wife but a faithful mother to her children, and part of it was due to the realization that she didn't have very many identifiable associated powers but was also clearly too important not to be Legend 12.
Asherah's most obvious associated power would be Water, as "she who walks the waves" has strong links to the ocean. Manipulation also seems like an easy fit based on the myth of her standing up in council and convincing pretty much everybody to resolve their angry Vengeance-fueled vendettas her way instead of by murdering everyone involved. Past that, however, it becomes difficult to ascribe any other associations to her with real confidence. She's described as beautiful in the myth of her marriage to El, so maybe Appearance? She seems to wield some power as Queen of Heaven, so maybe Justice? She's the mother of all the Elohim and has links to fecundity, so maybe Health? Asherah's role is mostly a secondary one to El, so it's hard to pin down what else she might have uniquely done or represented (especially with the glut of angry Biblical scholarship out there!). As far as abilities go, I'd run with Command, Empathy, Medicine, Politics, Presence and Survival.
My intention with Asherah was to give her enough plot hook places that she could be a strong plot element but still allow every Storyteller to make a call on whether she was leaning toward Titanic or remaining on the side of the gods, and exactly where she might fall politically on that spectrum. She was a hard figure to include, but she should definitely be part of any Canaanite-heavy story in some way.
Bonus suggestion: some scholars like the theory that Asherah and Qedesh are the same figure, just filtered through an Egyptian lens in the second case, so you could rule that she had been Fatebound into that new role and was no longer a part of the Canaanite pantheon proper. I think the theory's specious myself and based on pretty sketchy linguistic evidence, but it's an avenue that could be explored in a Scion game for some interesting results.
Second bonus suggestion: if you run Yahweh as a separate god rather than an aspect of El, you can include a shocking hanky-panky scandal based on the mentions of Asherah as Yahweh's consort!
Mountains Totter, the Sea Convulses
Question: The Poem of Erra and the Seven is some pretty crazy stuff, but Erra doesn't show up in your Anunna Pantheon, even as a Titanspawn. How would you handle him and the Seven?
We're actually big fans of the scholarly theory that Erra is just another name or title for Nergal, making "Erra and the Seven" an exciting tale of Nergal blowing everyone's shit up and then not being even slightly repentant about it afterward. Considering his general behavior and temperament, this falls right in line with his usual modus operandi, and gives us a great example of a Chaos/War god's idea of good clean fun.
The Seven, on the other hand, are distinct creatures of their own, and I'd assume they're all Legend 9-11 minor gods with very specific functions, similar to Phobos and Deimos and their ilk over in the Greek pantheon. They're not given individual names, but you have one in charge of terror, one in charge of flame, one in charge of looking hideously scary, one in charge of strength, one in charge of blasting wind, one in charge of flooding and one in charge of venom. You could easily slap names on them by just calling them the Akkadian words for those things they do (so, Anunu, Ishatu, Melemmu, Emuku, Askulalu, Abubu and Shamtu, something like that?). They'd be considered children of Anu, so therefore part of the pantheon and legitimate, but probably not much liked by anyone else (much like Lamashtu).
Or, alternatively, you could run with the idea that the Seven are super badass Follower birthrights belonging to Nergal, given to him by Anu to get his ass moving when he was trying to go back to bed instead of helping out around the Overworld. They certainly exacerbate his bad behavior, I imagine, as they're all apt to encourage one another to mayhem.
Oh, Nergal, you are just terrible to be around, aren't you?
We're actually big fans of the scholarly theory that Erra is just another name or title for Nergal, making "Erra and the Seven" an exciting tale of Nergal blowing everyone's shit up and then not being even slightly repentant about it afterward. Considering his general behavior and temperament, this falls right in line with his usual modus operandi, and gives us a great example of a Chaos/War god's idea of good clean fun.
The Seven, on the other hand, are distinct creatures of their own, and I'd assume they're all Legend 9-11 minor gods with very specific functions, similar to Phobos and Deimos and their ilk over in the Greek pantheon. They're not given individual names, but you have one in charge of terror, one in charge of flame, one in charge of looking hideously scary, one in charge of strength, one in charge of blasting wind, one in charge of flooding and one in charge of venom. You could easily slap names on them by just calling them the Akkadian words for those things they do (so, Anunu, Ishatu, Melemmu, Emuku, Askulalu, Abubu and Shamtu, something like that?). They'd be considered children of Anu, so therefore part of the pantheon and legitimate, but probably not much liked by anyone else (much like Lamashtu).
Or, alternatively, you could run with the idea that the Seven are super badass Follower birthrights belonging to Nergal, given to him by Anu to get his ass moving when he was trying to go back to bed instead of helping out around the Overworld. They certainly exacerbate his bad behavior, I imagine, as they're all apt to encourage one another to mayhem.
Oh, Nergal, you are just terrible to be around, aren't you?
Monday, June 18, 2012
Your Move, John
Question: When you'll be making Turkic&Mongolian deity update? We love your work, best regards from Turkey :)
Aww, this submission made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside! Thanks, guys - it's super awesome to know that folks from all the way out in Turkey are looking at this site - we're waving at you from the USA right now!
I do not keep it a secret that I love Hittite mythology, which is native to Turkey, and I would love to do a pantheon for it! Gods like Teshub, Hannahannah and Arinna have great stories that most of us out west here have never heard of, and they connect to other pantheons in fun and surprising ways (Sutekh, who so heavily influenced Egypt's Set, is a Hittite deity, and the story of Kumarbi castrating his father to rule is directly related to the story of Uranus and Cronus). So far I've had to wait since there are more well-known pantheons that the players would like to see soon, but I hope one day I can spend some time on these guys!
The Turkic/Mongolian deities are a lot more influenced by Mongolian tribal religion, but they're also very cool, from Tengri right on down to Erlik Khan. I hope to do them someday soon, too - I think that they might have a shot at being voted in eventually, since I think people here are more interested in them.
I'm looking forward to getting to one day play with these pantheons! Thanks for letting me know I'm not alone!
Aww, this submission made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside! Thanks, guys - it's super awesome to know that folks from all the way out in Turkey are looking at this site - we're waving at you from the USA right now!
I do not keep it a secret that I love Hittite mythology, which is native to Turkey, and I would love to do a pantheon for it! Gods like Teshub, Hannahannah and Arinna have great stories that most of us out west here have never heard of, and they connect to other pantheons in fun and surprising ways (Sutekh, who so heavily influenced Egypt's Set, is a Hittite deity, and the story of Kumarbi castrating his father to rule is directly related to the story of Uranus and Cronus). So far I've had to wait since there are more well-known pantheons that the players would like to see soon, but I hope one day I can spend some time on these guys!
The Turkic/Mongolian deities are a lot more influenced by Mongolian tribal religion, but they're also very cool, from Tengri right on down to Erlik Khan. I hope to do them someday soon, too - I think that they might have a shot at being voted in eventually, since I think people here are more interested in them.
I'm looking forward to getting to one day play with these pantheons! Thanks for letting me know I'm not alone!
The Best Defense is a Good Offense
Question: It strikes me as a little odd that none of the Elohim have Guardian, especially when the Warden of the Walls boon seems to perfectly complement the Malak PSP. Is there a reason none of them have it?
There is a reason, and that reason is that none of the Elohim are even a little bit compatible with Guardian. It's just not something they do.
As a collective and as individuals, the Canaanite gods are just not defenders of anything. They're about war and breaking things and determining who's in charge. They're about kingship, authority and who has the most potent weapons. They're about killing monsters and, almost as often, killing each other, but they're not about protecting other people or places. Most of the cities that they acted as patron of sought their blessings for harvests or transactions and their strength in war, but they didn't regularly ask the gods to defend them; rather, they made offerings and sacrifices to prevent the gods from getting mad and punishing them. It's basically a whole pantheon that operates on the exact opposite principle from Guardian. (They do, however, have Vengeance, so while they will not save other people from getting murdered, they will by god avenge them after the fact if they get upset about it.)
It's basically the same reason that nobody in the Dodekatheon except Athena has Guardian, despite the fact that many of them had dedicated poleis themselves; they're volatile people who are concerned first and foremost with themselves and only with others when it affects themselves. The only god among the Elohim I could see with even a vague aspiration is Resheph, solely on the idea that he supposedly guards the gate of the Underworld that Shapshu passes through each day, but I don't know if that's enough for me all by itself.
It is indeed an odd conundrum, considering that Guardian would make the lives of gods whose PSP depends on a specific place and people a whole lot easier. I'd keep in mind that some of them probably have lower-level Guardian boons - up to Come Running seems only prudent - but that in general they have to rely on the powers of Malak itself to deal with their lands. It's only strange from a mechanical point of view: conceptually it makes perfect sense, as the Elohim aren't necessarily concerned with the individual lives and buildings of the cities they own, but rather with the fact that they represent their sovereignty and divine right.
In short, you can attack the Elohim all you want; they won't stop you, they'll just stab you in the face shortly thereafter.
There is a reason, and that reason is that none of the Elohim are even a little bit compatible with Guardian. It's just not something they do.
As a collective and as individuals, the Canaanite gods are just not defenders of anything. They're about war and breaking things and determining who's in charge. They're about kingship, authority and who has the most potent weapons. They're about killing monsters and, almost as often, killing each other, but they're not about protecting other people or places. Most of the cities that they acted as patron of sought their blessings for harvests or transactions and their strength in war, but they didn't regularly ask the gods to defend them; rather, they made offerings and sacrifices to prevent the gods from getting mad and punishing them. It's basically a whole pantheon that operates on the exact opposite principle from Guardian. (They do, however, have Vengeance, so while they will not save other people from getting murdered, they will by god avenge them after the fact if they get upset about it.)
It's basically the same reason that nobody in the Dodekatheon except Athena has Guardian, despite the fact that many of them had dedicated poleis themselves; they're volatile people who are concerned first and foremost with themselves and only with others when it affects themselves. The only god among the Elohim I could see with even a vague aspiration is Resheph, solely on the idea that he supposedly guards the gate of the Underworld that Shapshu passes through each day, but I don't know if that's enough for me all by itself.
It is indeed an odd conundrum, considering that Guardian would make the lives of gods whose PSP depends on a specific place and people a whole lot easier. I'd keep in mind that some of them probably have lower-level Guardian boons - up to Come Running seems only prudent - but that in general they have to rely on the powers of Malak itself to deal with their lands. It's only strange from a mechanical point of view: conceptually it makes perfect sense, as the Elohim aren't necessarily concerned with the individual lives and buildings of the cities they own, but rather with the fact that they represent their sovereignty and divine right.
In short, you can attack the Elohim all you want; they won't stop you, they'll just stab you in the face shortly thereafter.
Sunday, June 17, 2012
The Most Spiteful Doctor
Question: Hey, I was just wondering why you guys have Dian Cecht grayed out? Is it because he is quite possibly the worst father ever of all time in the Tuatha? Or is he a Avatar in your games?
Neither, actually; we decided in our Tuatha rewrite that Dian Cecht is a god, but that he's probably only Legend 10, not a full Legend 12 god-parent for Scions.
Mostly this was because Dian Cecht does one and only one thing: Health. What else would you even give him as an associated power? Sure, he has the well, but that's probably a badass relic (and even if it were a result of the Water purview, you only need a level 4 boon to pull that off). He predicted that the Morrigan's baby had to be put down because it was going to be a horror, but is that really Prophecy or is it just being confronted with a really ugly baby? He's a gigantic asshole, but there is no purview for that. I could maybe, maybe see Magic on the strength of the badass ritual involved in killing said baby, but I think even that might be a stretch, and I can't think of a single Epic Attribute strong enough in his stories to definitively say that Dian Cecht possesses it.
So Legend 10 he became, and that's where he'll stay for now. He's still around, doctoring the Tuatha when they need it and glaring venomously at any Scion of the pantheon who dares try to build up Health, but he can't compete on the same level as dudes like Lugh and Manannan mac Lir.
Neither, actually; we decided in our Tuatha rewrite that Dian Cecht is a god, but that he's probably only Legend 10, not a full Legend 12 god-parent for Scions.
Mostly this was because Dian Cecht does one and only one thing: Health. What else would you even give him as an associated power? Sure, he has the well, but that's probably a badass relic (and even if it were a result of the Water purview, you only need a level 4 boon to pull that off). He predicted that the Morrigan's baby had to be put down because it was going to be a horror, but is that really Prophecy or is it just being confronted with a really ugly baby? He's a gigantic asshole, but there is no purview for that. I could maybe, maybe see Magic on the strength of the badass ritual involved in killing said baby, but I think even that might be a stretch, and I can't think of a single Epic Attribute strong enough in his stories to definitively say that Dian Cecht possesses it.
So Legend 10 he became, and that's where he'll stay for now. He's still around, doctoring the Tuatha when they need it and glaring venomously at any Scion of the pantheon who dares try to build up Health, but he can't compete on the same level as dudes like Lugh and Manannan mac Lir.
Master of the High Seas
Question: I'm playing a Scion of Tangaroa in a new game, and I was just curious as to what your write-up of him (or other Polynesian gods) might be?
Man, these poor Polynesians seems to be popping up everywhere; the players over here want writeups of them, too (in fact, they would like an entire pantheon posthaste, please, probably while I'm on my lunch break). While a full workup on them would take a lot of time and research, I can give you a quick-and-dirty on what I'd probably start with for Tangaroa!
Firstly, I'd syncretize like a motherfucker. Tangaroa, Takaroa, Tagaloa, Tagroa and Tangaloa are all clearly sprung from the same root god and are just regional island variations on the same theme, so I'd count them all for purposes of figuring out who Tangaroa is and what he does. (Possibly Hawaii's Kanaloa as well, though I need to do more research to decide if he's different enough to be his own thing at this point.)
As far as associations go, he clearly has all the Water in the universe as the ruler of the seas and opposition to the land. I would also give him Fire on the strength of the stories in which Maui must take it from him (as the sole owner) to distribute it to humanity, as well as descriptions of him appearing wreathed in flame. While for many gods I avoid it based on sketchiness, in Tangaroa's case I think it's legitimate to give him Animal (Fish) as well, since several of the island cultures view him as the progenitor of all fish (if you are syncretizing him with Kanaloa, Animal [Squid] is another possibility). Finally, several different islands give him connections to the dead, either as ruler of the Underworld or collector of ghosts, so Death and Psychopomp (I'm leaning toward Death more, though I need more research to be sure) are also possibilities. He has strong stories as a cosmic creator god, so if you use a Creation purview, he'd need that, too.
As for attributes, I'd be most inclined to give him Intelligence (for his creator and order-creating roles) and Wits (for his epic facility at escaping when situations get too nasty for him), and possibly Strength for his story of half-murdering his brother and nearly crushing Maui to death. For abilities, my quick first-round guess is Animal Ken, Awareness, Control, Craft, Melee and Survival.
Man, I really need more time for pantheon-building in my life. All this generalization and only-vaguely-researched stuff is giving me the scholarly heebie-jeebies.
Man, these poor Polynesians seems to be popping up everywhere; the players over here want writeups of them, too (in fact, they would like an entire pantheon posthaste, please, probably while I'm on my lunch break). While a full workup on them would take a lot of time and research, I can give you a quick-and-dirty on what I'd probably start with for Tangaroa!
Firstly, I'd syncretize like a motherfucker. Tangaroa, Takaroa, Tagaloa, Tagroa and Tangaloa are all clearly sprung from the same root god and are just regional island variations on the same theme, so I'd count them all for purposes of figuring out who Tangaroa is and what he does. (Possibly Hawaii's Kanaloa as well, though I need to do more research to decide if he's different enough to be his own thing at this point.)
As far as associations go, he clearly has all the Water in the universe as the ruler of the seas and opposition to the land. I would also give him Fire on the strength of the stories in which Maui must take it from him (as the sole owner) to distribute it to humanity, as well as descriptions of him appearing wreathed in flame. While for many gods I avoid it based on sketchiness, in Tangaroa's case I think it's legitimate to give him Animal (Fish) as well, since several of the island cultures view him as the progenitor of all fish (if you are syncretizing him with Kanaloa, Animal [Squid] is another possibility). Finally, several different islands give him connections to the dead, either as ruler of the Underworld or collector of ghosts, so Death and Psychopomp (I'm leaning toward Death more, though I need more research to be sure) are also possibilities. He has strong stories as a cosmic creator god, so if you use a Creation purview, he'd need that, too.
As for attributes, I'd be most inclined to give him Intelligence (for his creator and order-creating roles) and Wits (for his epic facility at escaping when situations get too nasty for him), and possibly Strength for his story of half-murdering his brother and nearly crushing Maui to death. For abilities, my quick first-round guess is Animal Ken, Awareness, Control, Craft, Melee and Survival.
Man, I really need more time for pantheon-building in my life. All this generalization and only-vaguely-researched stuff is giving me the scholarly heebie-jeebies.
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Subject to Change
Question: Since the Maya are on my mind, I have to ask... how are Maya-Aztec relations in your game? Are Scions of gods like Tlaloc or Quetzalcoatl considered Scions of the Maya pantheon, at least nominally, if not in PSP?
Oh, dear. Maya-Aztec relations in our games are not good at all. The more warlike Aztlanti tend to view the Maya pantheon as less-powerful failures who couldn't keep their territory as a result, and while the real Aztecs didn't subjugate most Mayan territory since it was out of their way in the jungle, the Aztec gods have had no compunctions about declaring themselves the sole overlords of Mesoamerican myth and have over the years killed off most of the less important Maya gods (sometimes to squash uprising, sometimes to make points, and sometimes just because conqueror cultures get really bored without anything to do). It's fairly similar to the situation between the Dodekatheon and the indigenous Italian gods; in theory everyone "gets along" and "lives together", but in practice one side is way more powerful and the other really can't do much about it.
(Note that it's looking like I'll be working on a Maya pantheon sometime in the future, and that while we have plenty of ST notes on what we do with the Maya and their gods in-game, we haven't previously done the full in-depth pantheon workup treatment. So some of this landscape may change significantly for that supplement, but I'm running here with what we've been doing in our games to date.)
Those gods among the Aztlanti with Maya roots (Quetzalcoatl, Tlaloc, Xochiquetzal) are considered full members of the Aztec gods, and have indeed been in the pantheon as long as it's existed, but they're likely to also consider themselves members of the previous pantheons as well (not just Maya but Zapotec, Toltec and Mixtec as well, depending on the god) and to be somewhat more sympathetic toward them than purely Mexica gods like Huitzilopochtli or Tlazolteotl. They aren't active in the older pantheons anymore, but are sort of nominally members of them anyway, the way Vayu might be considered a Deva despite being a member of the Yazata or Lugh might be considered an honorary Nemetondevo despite being firmly one of the Tuatha. Gods have occasionally also used iconography from their previous incarnations when they appear or interact with their Scions, including Tlaloc using a turtle (traditionally associated with Chaac) to talk to Kettila or Xipe Totec leaving artifacts for Scions to find that look suspiciously like the tonsured Maya maize god. I could absolutely see one of their Scions choosing to identify with a non-Aztec version of the god, either on their own or because the god presented him- or herself that way, just as a Scion of Kalfu might view themselves as a child of Eshu or a Scion of Haoma think of themselves as the offspring of Soma. (They would still have Itztli, though, unless they wanted to go the full nine yards and switch pantheons to the Maya permanently.)
Sadly, PC interaction with the Maya deities has invariably been violent and unpleasant. Two of the Maya gods have been killed by PCs - first Camazotz, who made the mistake of trying to be the dominant bat over Eztli, and then Ix Chel, who was dismayed to discover that the negligible Legend 3 Norseman she'd used as captive breeding stock was now Legend 9 and really upset about seeing her again. Camazotz got better (until Eztli made him dead a second time, anyway); Ix Chel didn't. (To the PCs' knowledge, anyway, but they haven't checked on the Maya situation in quite a while.) I suppose, in a game with the poster-child for Aztec world dominance, none of that should be very surprising, but no one's really bothered to investigate what the Maya pantheon is doing or how exactly the political situation stands at the moment.
I'm very much looking forward to one day getting a Maya supplement together to do more with all this, probably taking some of it in different directions. Maybe it'll be my birthday present to myself to finish it - except that since my birthday's December 21st, I'd just be fueling all the silliness if I shot for that date, wouldn't I?
Oh, dear. Maya-Aztec relations in our games are not good at all. The more warlike Aztlanti tend to view the Maya pantheon as less-powerful failures who couldn't keep their territory as a result, and while the real Aztecs didn't subjugate most Mayan territory since it was out of their way in the jungle, the Aztec gods have had no compunctions about declaring themselves the sole overlords of Mesoamerican myth and have over the years killed off most of the less important Maya gods (sometimes to squash uprising, sometimes to make points, and sometimes just because conqueror cultures get really bored without anything to do). It's fairly similar to the situation between the Dodekatheon and the indigenous Italian gods; in theory everyone "gets along" and "lives together", but in practice one side is way more powerful and the other really can't do much about it.
(Note that it's looking like I'll be working on a Maya pantheon sometime in the future, and that while we have plenty of ST notes on what we do with the Maya and their gods in-game, we haven't previously done the full in-depth pantheon workup treatment. So some of this landscape may change significantly for that supplement, but I'm running here with what we've been doing in our games to date.)
Those gods among the Aztlanti with Maya roots (Quetzalcoatl, Tlaloc, Xochiquetzal) are considered full members of the Aztec gods, and have indeed been in the pantheon as long as it's existed, but they're likely to also consider themselves members of the previous pantheons as well (not just Maya but Zapotec, Toltec and Mixtec as well, depending on the god) and to be somewhat more sympathetic toward them than purely Mexica gods like Huitzilopochtli or Tlazolteotl. They aren't active in the older pantheons anymore, but are sort of nominally members of them anyway, the way Vayu might be considered a Deva despite being a member of the Yazata or Lugh might be considered an honorary Nemetondevo despite being firmly one of the Tuatha. Gods have occasionally also used iconography from their previous incarnations when they appear or interact with their Scions, including Tlaloc using a turtle (traditionally associated with Chaac) to talk to Kettila or Xipe Totec leaving artifacts for Scions to find that look suspiciously like the tonsured Maya maize god. I could absolutely see one of their Scions choosing to identify with a non-Aztec version of the god, either on their own or because the god presented him- or herself that way, just as a Scion of Kalfu might view themselves as a child of Eshu or a Scion of Haoma think of themselves as the offspring of Soma. (They would still have Itztli, though, unless they wanted to go the full nine yards and switch pantheons to the Maya permanently.)
Sadly, PC interaction with the Maya deities has invariably been violent and unpleasant. Two of the Maya gods have been killed by PCs - first Camazotz, who made the mistake of trying to be the dominant bat over Eztli, and then Ix Chel, who was dismayed to discover that the negligible Legend 3 Norseman she'd used as captive breeding stock was now Legend 9 and really upset about seeing her again. Camazotz got better (until Eztli made him dead a second time, anyway); Ix Chel didn't. (To the PCs' knowledge, anyway, but they haven't checked on the Maya situation in quite a while.) I suppose, in a game with the poster-child for Aztec world dominance, none of that should be very surprising, but no one's really bothered to investigate what the Maya pantheon is doing or how exactly the political situation stands at the moment.
I'm very much looking forward to one day getting a Maya supplement together to do more with all this, probably taking some of it in different directions. Maybe it'll be my birthday present to myself to finish it - except that since my birthday's December 21st, I'd just be fueling all the silliness if I shot for that date, wouldn't I?
The Luck of the Devil
Question: Have you given any thoughts to Chaos boons meant to aid in gambling?
We have, but eventually decided that they would be superfluous. The Chaos purview, while it does have exceptions like Unlikely Pattern, is generally more about releasing and fomenting chaos, not forcing it to fall into ordered patterns. If you can control the outcome of something, it's not actually chaos at all, which is why we allow most Chaos boons to also affect their originator unless they have the presence of mind to pop Eye of the Storm first. We try to avoid introducing Chaos boons that specifically create predictable results instead of chaotic ones. A die roll, pachinko ball or roulette spin are all events ruled by general chaotic chance, but it wouldn't be very chaotic to use your Chaos powers to make them not chaotic anymore
So we've kept our gambling boon, Luck be a Lady, over in Magic, instead, which is the purview governing luck, fortune and messing with the outcome of the whims of Fate. It's low-level, so aspiring Chaos-gods who want to be associated with gambling can easily pick it up without having to also be magicians (though having both Chaos and Magic is a killer combination - just ask Loki or Tezcatlipoca!).
That's not to say that Chaos boons can't affect gambling very effectively, even if they aren't an instant I-Win button for the chaos-god using them. Murphy's Law will certainly start an epidemic of everyone losing in the casino (even the house!) as well as a general amount of things falling apart, Impassion might be used by the unscrupulous to encourage gamblers to wager much more than they normally should, and Sabot and System Failure could malfunction every slot machine near them (not to mention destroying any mechanical cheating devices a gambler or casino might be employing). Once you've got a few dots of Legend under your belt, mortal gambling is kind of child's play, anyway; someone with decent Epic Dexterity and/or Wits could probably roll dice so that they always land exactly as they want anyway, and so on and so forth.
There's definitely some conceptual overlap between luck and chaos - the first is really just the best possible outcome of the second in most cases, so it's easy to play with the interaction between the two. In the specific case of gambling, we think controlling its outcome belongs more to the former than the latter.
We have, but eventually decided that they would be superfluous. The Chaos purview, while it does have exceptions like Unlikely Pattern, is generally more about releasing and fomenting chaos, not forcing it to fall into ordered patterns. If you can control the outcome of something, it's not actually chaos at all, which is why we allow most Chaos boons to also affect their originator unless they have the presence of mind to pop Eye of the Storm first. We try to avoid introducing Chaos boons that specifically create predictable results instead of chaotic ones. A die roll, pachinko ball or roulette spin are all events ruled by general chaotic chance, but it wouldn't be very chaotic to use your Chaos powers to make them not chaotic anymore
So we've kept our gambling boon, Luck be a Lady, over in Magic, instead, which is the purview governing luck, fortune and messing with the outcome of the whims of Fate. It's low-level, so aspiring Chaos-gods who want to be associated with gambling can easily pick it up without having to also be magicians (though having both Chaos and Magic is a killer combination - just ask Loki or Tezcatlipoca!).
That's not to say that Chaos boons can't affect gambling very effectively, even if they aren't an instant I-Win button for the chaos-god using them. Murphy's Law will certainly start an epidemic of everyone losing in the casino (even the house!) as well as a general amount of things falling apart, Impassion might be used by the unscrupulous to encourage gamblers to wager much more than they normally should, and Sabot and System Failure could malfunction every slot machine near them (not to mention destroying any mechanical cheating devices a gambler or casino might be employing). Once you've got a few dots of Legend under your belt, mortal gambling is kind of child's play, anyway; someone with decent Epic Dexterity and/or Wits could probably roll dice so that they always land exactly as they want anyway, and so on and so forth.
There's definitely some conceptual overlap between luck and chaos - the first is really just the best possible outcome of the second in most cases, so it's easy to play with the interaction between the two. In the specific case of gambling, we think controlling its outcome belongs more to the former than the latter.
Friday, June 15, 2012
There Is Too Much to Sum Up
Question: What is the most inventive use of a Boon or Knack that you guys have seen in your games?
That's a really tough question - our players are awesomely creative and I've probably forgotten more of their badass stunts than I remember just because there are so many. A few favorites:
Early in his Demigodhood, Goze, who was heavily invested in Darkness and Psychopomp, made a passionate case for allowing him to use Come Along with Shadow Step to dart into a shadow and out of another one down the block in time to save a falling baby. We thought it was so cool that we made using Come Along with other travel powers a permanent feature of the boon.
At one point, Zwazo Fou Fou, spoiling for a fight, wanted to jump Ares in the woods with Eztli, but Sowiljr had told her not to attack anyone so she refused to get involved. Realizing that Eztli's memory is spotty at best and that she was only able to keep a solid grasp on it because of the extra Academics dice granted by her Astronomer's Eye boon, he used Cloud Sculptor to blot out the stars above them, causing Eztli to forget that she'd been ordered not to engage anyone and charge into battle with him. (Then everyone in the world blew Come Running like fifty times and there was lots of screaming.)
When she found one of the last survivors of a strain of fairy capable of giving impressive curses/blessings (drained a permanent Willpower and levied painful physical negatives, but also gave mad bonuses to Magic), Vala, who knew that her automatic resistance roll was too high for the fairy to overcome, immediately blew all her Prophecy boons at once in an attempt to give herself so many negatives from exhaustion that she couldn't resist the spell despite the fairy's low Legend. (She failed, but not for lack of trying - her band was running away from fire giants at the time and concerned that she seemed to be having multiple strokes, so they hauled her out of there before the fairy could successfully curse her.)
Oh, and there was also a point at which the current king of the slowly-reforming Aztec empire asked Geoff if he could help him find a wife (his exact words were, "You know, someone like Sangria," to which Geoff replied, "I really don't think you actually want that"). There were no unattached Aztec ladies of marriageable age available, and Sophia was tired of wasting time on the whole situation, so she marched off into the village, found a six-year-old girl, slapped Control Aging on her and said, "There, you can marry her in two months when she's legal, can we go now?"
Guys, there are too many, I just can't. If you're out there in comment-land, players, what are some awesomely creative moments I'm forgetting? What were your favorites?
That's a really tough question - our players are awesomely creative and I've probably forgotten more of their badass stunts than I remember just because there are so many. A few favorites:
Early in his Demigodhood, Goze, who was heavily invested in Darkness and Psychopomp, made a passionate case for allowing him to use Come Along with Shadow Step to dart into a shadow and out of another one down the block in time to save a falling baby. We thought it was so cool that we made using Come Along with other travel powers a permanent feature of the boon.
At one point, Zwazo Fou Fou, spoiling for a fight, wanted to jump Ares in the woods with Eztli, but Sowiljr had told her not to attack anyone so she refused to get involved. Realizing that Eztli's memory is spotty at best and that she was only able to keep a solid grasp on it because of the extra Academics dice granted by her Astronomer's Eye boon, he used Cloud Sculptor to blot out the stars above them, causing Eztli to forget that she'd been ordered not to engage anyone and charge into battle with him. (Then everyone in the world blew Come Running like fifty times and there was lots of screaming.)
When she found one of the last survivors of a strain of fairy capable of giving impressive curses/blessings (drained a permanent Willpower and levied painful physical negatives, but also gave mad bonuses to Magic), Vala, who knew that her automatic resistance roll was too high for the fairy to overcome, immediately blew all her Prophecy boons at once in an attempt to give herself so many negatives from exhaustion that she couldn't resist the spell despite the fairy's low Legend. (She failed, but not for lack of trying - her band was running away from fire giants at the time and concerned that she seemed to be having multiple strokes, so they hauled her out of there before the fairy could successfully curse her.)
Oh, and there was also a point at which the current king of the slowly-reforming Aztec empire asked Geoff if he could help him find a wife (his exact words were, "You know, someone like Sangria," to which Geoff replied, "I really don't think you actually want that"). There were no unattached Aztec ladies of marriageable age available, and Sophia was tired of wasting time on the whole situation, so she marched off into the village, found a six-year-old girl, slapped Control Aging on her and said, "There, you can marry her in two months when she's legal, can we go now?"
Guys, there are too many, I just can't. If you're out there in comment-land, players, what are some awesomely creative moments I'm forgetting? What were your favorites?
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Moon-Man
Question: Why is Sin wearing swim trunks in space?
Perhaps a better question would be: why wouldn't he be? Actually, I think those are meant to be boxer shorts, as in representing him as a dreamer or someone who has just fallen out of bed. Which makes sense for a moon-god, really.
I recommend checking out the artist, the fabulous Felicia Smith, and her other works over at her website. The portrait we use for Sin is there titled "The Man in the Moon".
Perhaps a better question would be: why wouldn't he be? Actually, I think those are meant to be boxer shorts, as in representing him as a dreamer or someone who has just fallen out of bed. Which makes sense for a moon-god, really.
I recommend checking out the artist, the fabulous Felicia Smith, and her other works over at her website. The portrait we use for Sin is there titled "The Man in the Moon".
Bullet Time
Question: What was a god's power like before they got their legendary relic (Mjolnir, Zeus's thunderbolt, Hades' helmet, etc)? Did they have the same level of access to the purview of their relic? And is Zeus's thunderbolt an actual relic? I thought it was an allegory for his mastery over the heavens.
All the answers, in bullet attack format!
All the answers, in bullet attack format!
- While having an awesome three-star relic to access your purview of choice is badass, all you need to access the purview completely and totally is to have a relic with that purview on it. Zeus' thunderbolt doesn't somehow give him more Sky than any other relic with Sky on it.
- The thing about super-awesome badass legendary relics is that they are legends unto themselves... but that doesn't necessarily mean that they make the god they're attached to less legendary (in fact, it should always be the opposite of that). A Legend 12 god is still a Legend 12 god, a being of extraordinary power and significance, especially if, like Zeus, Hades or Thor, they're cosmic gods who were never human to begin with. Any of those gods were incredibly powerful before they got their relics; the relics give them awesome bonus powers, but if you take away Zeus' thunderbolt, he's still the most badass of thunder-and-justice-gods ever to walk to halls of Olympus.
- Those relics probably give them awesome bonuses, though. Like, Zeus' thunderbolt probably adds all his Sky boons as autos to every Justice roll he makes, or Mjolnir lets Thor spend extra Legend to add his Sky boons as autos to damage when he hits something, or Hades' helmet of invisibility gives him his Death boons as bonus autos to all Stealth or Darkness rolls.
- Before that, they were still super awesome at those purviews, though, rolling along with their Avatars and their maximum Fatebonds. They would have been as good at those things as it is possible to be without a relic boost.
- It's basically the same idea as any Scion; you can be awesome all by yourself, but relics give you nice little boosts and bonuses. We all love boosts and bonuses.
- Those relics probably give them awesome bonuses, though. Like, Zeus' thunderbolt probably adds all his Sky boons as autos to every Justice roll he makes, or Mjolnir lets Thor spend extra Legend to add his Sky boons as autos to damage when he hits something, or Hades' helmet of invisibility gives him his Death boons as bonus autos to all Stealth or Darkness rolls.
- Zeus' thunderbolt is indeed a real relic, but it also represents his mastery over the heavens (so does Thor's hammer, in fact). Most famous relics and objects in mythology represent something about their owner, in fact; that's what they're there for in the story, to illustrate something about the god who owns them and represent what they support or oppose. They can do both handily; in Scion, there's no reason not to make a cool item a relic unless you just don't like the idea or don't want to have it in the game.
- Other fancy star-level relics that are representative include Odin's missing eye, Marduk's tablet of destinies, Huitzilopochtli's fire serpent, Poseidon's trident, Hermes' caduceus, Shango's axe, Anubis' scales and the Dagda's club. And many more.
- In some cases, you may want to rule that not all the items associated with a god are relics, though, or at least not huge-level relics. The Devas, for example, all come with a minimum of six richly representative and cosmically powerful things; you may want to scale them back lest the Trimurti be proven right about the vast power gulf between them and the other gods.
- On a related note, relics that are representative are way cooler than those that are not, so try to make that happen with your Scion's relics, too. A relic sword that has no attributes except bonuses to damage is boring. A relic sword that is made of wood because it was grown from the thorns of the suffering earth and represents your mastery over the wilderness is cool.
- Other fancy star-level relics that are representative include Odin's missing eye, Marduk's tablet of destinies, Huitzilopochtli's fire serpent, Poseidon's trident, Hermes' caduceus, Shango's axe, Anubis' scales and the Dagda's club. And many more.
- Bullets are fun.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Of All Time!
Question: Why on earth have you replaced all the parts in boons that base power on (Legend or Legend/2) with (# of purview boons/2)? I mean, most of the time, it looks like that will mostly even out, and it means less paperwork if you just use Legend which is already supposed to be a metric of your power to begin with.
Because, in our not very humble opinion, using total number of boons is a much, much better mechanic for all-purpose purviews.
When you use the total number of boons as your metric instead of Legend, you're actively giving characters a reason to want to invest in their purviews and rewarding them if they do. They don't have to buy up every power in their skillset, but if they do, they gain more power. It encourages PCs to choose focuses and specialties; it encourages them to choose things they want to be God or Goddess of, not just random abilities that might be useful. They are, of course, free to take whatever random powers might come in handy, and often those things are super useful and fun when applied, but they won't be as good at them as someone who is God Of that purview - and that's the way it should be.
Consider this comparison: Johnny Storm is Legend 10 and has all the Sky boons he can possibly have (a total of 19). His arch-enemy, Bobby Blaze, is Legend 11 and has only 6 Sky boons, just up to Levin Fury. They have an equal level of Epic Wits. If they decided to have a thunderbolt-smiting competition of epic proportions and were using the old Legend metric, Bobby would be better at zapping bad guys than Johnny - he'd be able to hit more of them at once because of his higher Legend rating, despite the fact that Johnny is way better at the Sky purview than he is. But using the number of boons metric instead, Johnny will be able to hit more than three times as many targets as Bobby, totally blowing him out of the water - and he should totally blow Bobby out of the water, because Johnny is a God of Sky and Bobby is not. Johnny is a sky god; he shouldn't be worse at Sky than Bobby, who is not, just because Bobby happens to be a single Legend higher than he is. That's ridiculous. If Bobby wants to be impressive, he should challenge Johnny to an Inferno contest, which he would no doubt win hands-down since he's probably a fire god, whereas Johnny, who concentrates in other areas, would probably look mediocre next to him at best.
Also, using boons as a measurement instead of Legend allows for more epic feats and totals, simply because there are always more than twelve boons in a purview, so PCs get bigger numbers from mastering their chosen purviews than they would in the old Legend system. It's a simple joy, getting a slightly bigger number, but one that players definitely appreciate.
I'm not sure what your paperwork objection is about - boon totals aren't changing during game or moving around a lot, after all, and our players usually just glance at their boon list or, at high Legend when they have more than 10, write the number next to the purview for quick reference (i.e., Moon [13] or similar). Quick, easy, no muss. Legend is easier still to keep track of because it almost never changes, I totally grant you that, but neither one is a hardship for a player.
We do still use the Legend rating metric in PSPs, however; there it makes much more sense, since a PSP is an inborn set of powers that all members of a pantheon have access to, and being more powerful as a god is the only thing that really makes a useful measurement in most cases. It's not like some Egyptian gods are better at being Egyptian than others, after all. And even outside of PSPs, Legend is still an important measure of power; it governs how many Legend points you have available to spend and what higher levels of boons and Epic Attributes you can buy. It's hardly crippled by not being the major mechanic for APPs.
We love the total number of boons mechanic in APPs, and we've never even considered going back to Legend rating. It's cooler, it makes more sense, it allows Scions to dabble if they want to but to always be better if they choose to really go for it, it gives lower-Legend Scions more of a chance to triumph against slightly higher-Legend opponents, and it makes the game about more than just what Legend rating you are. It's one of our favorite system changes of all time.
Because, in our not very humble opinion, using total number of boons is a much, much better mechanic for all-purpose purviews.
When you use the total number of boons as your metric instead of Legend, you're actively giving characters a reason to want to invest in their purviews and rewarding them if they do. They don't have to buy up every power in their skillset, but if they do, they gain more power. It encourages PCs to choose focuses and specialties; it encourages them to choose things they want to be God or Goddess of, not just random abilities that might be useful. They are, of course, free to take whatever random powers might come in handy, and often those things are super useful and fun when applied, but they won't be as good at them as someone who is God Of that purview - and that's the way it should be.
Consider this comparison: Johnny Storm is Legend 10 and has all the Sky boons he can possibly have (a total of 19). His arch-enemy, Bobby Blaze, is Legend 11 and has only 6 Sky boons, just up to Levin Fury. They have an equal level of Epic Wits. If they decided to have a thunderbolt-smiting competition of epic proportions and were using the old Legend metric, Bobby would be better at zapping bad guys than Johnny - he'd be able to hit more of them at once because of his higher Legend rating, despite the fact that Johnny is way better at the Sky purview than he is. But using the number of boons metric instead, Johnny will be able to hit more than three times as many targets as Bobby, totally blowing him out of the water - and he should totally blow Bobby out of the water, because Johnny is a God of Sky and Bobby is not. Johnny is a sky god; he shouldn't be worse at Sky than Bobby, who is not, just because Bobby happens to be a single Legend higher than he is. That's ridiculous. If Bobby wants to be impressive, he should challenge Johnny to an Inferno contest, which he would no doubt win hands-down since he's probably a fire god, whereas Johnny, who concentrates in other areas, would probably look mediocre next to him at best.
Also, using boons as a measurement instead of Legend allows for more epic feats and totals, simply because there are always more than twelve boons in a purview, so PCs get bigger numbers from mastering their chosen purviews than they would in the old Legend system. It's a simple joy, getting a slightly bigger number, but one that players definitely appreciate.
I'm not sure what your paperwork objection is about - boon totals aren't changing during game or moving around a lot, after all, and our players usually just glance at their boon list or, at high Legend when they have more than 10, write the number next to the purview for quick reference (i.e., Moon [13] or similar). Quick, easy, no muss. Legend is easier still to keep track of because it almost never changes, I totally grant you that, but neither one is a hardship for a player.
We do still use the Legend rating metric in PSPs, however; there it makes much more sense, since a PSP is an inborn set of powers that all members of a pantheon have access to, and being more powerful as a god is the only thing that really makes a useful measurement in most cases. It's not like some Egyptian gods are better at being Egyptian than others, after all. And even outside of PSPs, Legend is still an important measure of power; it governs how many Legend points you have available to spend and what higher levels of boons and Epic Attributes you can buy. It's hardly crippled by not being the major mechanic for APPs.
We love the total number of boons mechanic in APPs, and we've never even considered going back to Legend rating. It's cooler, it makes more sense, it allows Scions to dabble if they want to but to always be better if they choose to really go for it, it gives lower-Legend Scions more of a chance to triumph against slightly higher-Legend opponents, and it makes the game about more than just what Legend rating you are. It's one of our favorite system changes of all time.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Fate Untold
Question: You've spoken about a lot of house rules that do not appear on this website. What are some of the ones YOU think are really neat but have not yet been put up?
John may have another favorite, but my vote goes to our God-level Fatebond rules (which are not on the site yet because they're pending the whole Fatebond system revamp).
To give a basic sketch of the idea, instead of being based on individual mortals' expectations, once Scions become gods their Fatebonds come from cults, who collectively believe in specific qualities and weaknesses in the new god and enforce them through Fate. A single cult gives basically the same bonuses and penalties as a strength-10 Fatebound mortal used to, but they're impossible to ever get rid of (even if you kill everyone in the cult, they'll all still be in the Underworld, thinking what they think) and are usually leverageable in interesting ways in the World, since they probably worship or at least believe in the Scion's divinity and can sometimes be directed to do things for him.
All gods start with at least two cults and each new one (gained the same way as normal Fatebonds, by spending Legend around mortals, but more difficult as a Scion has to build up 200 or so Fatebound mortals with at least 10 of them at high strength in order to cause a new cult to apply Fatebonds) adds new Fatebonds and bonuses. It's a lot simpler than the pre-God version; no keeping track of distance, no keeping track of individual people, and no keeping track of different bonuses or penalties since everything is either adding or subtracting 10 dice and 10 automatic successes. Players usually just put a + or - on their sheet to show that a Fatebond affects that stat. The idea is that once you're a god, individual humans must band together into large groups to affect you and there's less personal interaction, but you're nevertheless firmly tied to humanity and affected by them and the Fate that they decide for you.
Oh, yeah, and also a cult always gives a Scion one behavioral reward based on what they do there; for example, Eztli gets a reward (usually Legend, Willpower or some other resource) when she heals Sowiljr in Iceland, Jioni gets rewarded when she brings Vala to Delphi and Vala performs a prophecy (a nice double-whammy, since Vala also gets rewarded for performing prophecies in Delphi!), and Folkwardr gets rewarded whenever he leads a sizable group of people away from their homes to live in his booming Danish settlement. So there's that, too.
So yeah, a lot of stuff that is really cool but just needs some extra time for us to finish hashing the system into readable format and then some more time on top of it for me to paste it to the internet with craft glue. I'm looking forward to it.
John may have another favorite, but my vote goes to our God-level Fatebond rules (which are not on the site yet because they're pending the whole Fatebond system revamp).
To give a basic sketch of the idea, instead of being based on individual mortals' expectations, once Scions become gods their Fatebonds come from cults, who collectively believe in specific qualities and weaknesses in the new god and enforce them through Fate. A single cult gives basically the same bonuses and penalties as a strength-10 Fatebound mortal used to, but they're impossible to ever get rid of (even if you kill everyone in the cult, they'll all still be in the Underworld, thinking what they think) and are usually leverageable in interesting ways in the World, since they probably worship or at least believe in the Scion's divinity and can sometimes be directed to do things for him.
All gods start with at least two cults and each new one (gained the same way as normal Fatebonds, by spending Legend around mortals, but more difficult as a Scion has to build up 200 or so Fatebound mortals with at least 10 of them at high strength in order to cause a new cult to apply Fatebonds) adds new Fatebonds and bonuses. It's a lot simpler than the pre-God version; no keeping track of distance, no keeping track of individual people, and no keeping track of different bonuses or penalties since everything is either adding or subtracting 10 dice and 10 automatic successes. Players usually just put a + or - on their sheet to show that a Fatebond affects that stat. The idea is that once you're a god, individual humans must band together into large groups to affect you and there's less personal interaction, but you're nevertheless firmly tied to humanity and affected by them and the Fate that they decide for you.
Oh, yeah, and also a cult always gives a Scion one behavioral reward based on what they do there; for example, Eztli gets a reward (usually Legend, Willpower or some other resource) when she heals Sowiljr in Iceland, Jioni gets rewarded when she brings Vala to Delphi and Vala performs a prophecy (a nice double-whammy, since Vala also gets rewarded for performing prophecies in Delphi!), and Folkwardr gets rewarded whenever he leads a sizable group of people away from their homes to live in his booming Danish settlement. So there's that, too.
So yeah, a lot of stuff that is really cool but just needs some extra time for us to finish hashing the system into readable format and then some more time on top of it for me to paste it to the internet with craft glue. I'm looking forward to it.
Parental Divorce
Question: You recently mentioned that some of the PCs have been tempted to switch pantheons. Which PC seems most serious about this, and what pantheon is s/he considering? How do you think this would affect his/her relationships with the band and with his/her current pantheon?
Our players loudly declaim that they're quitting their pantheon a lot of the time, actually, usually whenever the Legend 12 gods do something they think is particularly asinine or screw them over particularly effectively. Sowiljr quits the Aesir like once a week, Jioni threatens to abandon the ass-backwards Loa men to their own devices, and the Dodekatheon Scions are pretty vocally disgruntled with their pantheon, but despite all their mutterings they're usually not serious. Loyalty and Piety make it hard to bow out, and anyway most of the players chose that pantheon because they wanted to play inside it.
I'd say that the only one who's sort of seriously considered it is probably Terminus; his home life is kind of terrible, with Hermes continually denigrating him for being a fuck-up, Apollo and half the Greek Titans trying to murder him all the time, the entire Roman complement of the pantheon pranking the shit out of him for taking one of their names, gods constantly making unreasonable demands of him and then punishing or mocking him when he fails to deliver, no room to really do a lot of his godly activities because scores of other little gods are already doing them, and a lot of people whose Vengeance keeps conflicting with his hyperactive Valor. He's half-jokingly threatened more than once to defect to the Aztlanti; not that they wouldn't piss his Valor off just as much, but some of them (especially Tezcatlipoca, who has point-blank told Terminus that he's the son he always wished he'd had) are pretty fond of him, he has a solid function there as the designated psychopomp who brings the gods to the mortal world to help them, and he has a general feeling that they dick their children over less.
I doubt he'd ever actually make the switch, though, unless some trigger event with the Dodekatheon sent him over the edge. If he did, there'd probably be equal numbers of Dodekatheon gods swearing eternal revenge and those who barely noticed him in the first place and couldn't care less (he might get off the hook with the Romans, though!). But the Aztlanti would also expect him to start murdering people, Aiona would probably try to set him on fire for being a traitor, and he'd have Eztli constantly riding herd on him to try to turn him into a productive member of society, so I'm not sure it would be more of a fun time for him.
Pantheon-hopping is just such a big, irrevocable deal that most people don't really want to do it, even if they whine about it in moments of extreme upset or anger. And, sadly, a pantheon that doesn't ruin its childrens' lives doesn't really exist; they just all do it in their own unique ways.
Our players loudly declaim that they're quitting their pantheon a lot of the time, actually, usually whenever the Legend 12 gods do something they think is particularly asinine or screw them over particularly effectively. Sowiljr quits the Aesir like once a week, Jioni threatens to abandon the ass-backwards Loa men to their own devices, and the Dodekatheon Scions are pretty vocally disgruntled with their pantheon, but despite all their mutterings they're usually not serious. Loyalty and Piety make it hard to bow out, and anyway most of the players chose that pantheon because they wanted to play inside it.
I'd say that the only one who's sort of seriously considered it is probably Terminus; his home life is kind of terrible, with Hermes continually denigrating him for being a fuck-up, Apollo and half the Greek Titans trying to murder him all the time, the entire Roman complement of the pantheon pranking the shit out of him for taking one of their names, gods constantly making unreasonable demands of him and then punishing or mocking him when he fails to deliver, no room to really do a lot of his godly activities because scores of other little gods are already doing them, and a lot of people whose Vengeance keeps conflicting with his hyperactive Valor. He's half-jokingly threatened more than once to defect to the Aztlanti; not that they wouldn't piss his Valor off just as much, but some of them (especially Tezcatlipoca, who has point-blank told Terminus that he's the son he always wished he'd had) are pretty fond of him, he has a solid function there as the designated psychopomp who brings the gods to the mortal world to help them, and he has a general feeling that they dick their children over less.
I doubt he'd ever actually make the switch, though, unless some trigger event with the Dodekatheon sent him over the edge. If he did, there'd probably be equal numbers of Dodekatheon gods swearing eternal revenge and those who barely noticed him in the first place and couldn't care less (he might get off the hook with the Romans, though!). But the Aztlanti would also expect him to start murdering people, Aiona would probably try to set him on fire for being a traitor, and he'd have Eztli constantly riding herd on him to try to turn him into a productive member of society, so I'm not sure it would be more of a fun time for him.
Pantheon-hopping is just such a big, irrevocable deal that most people don't really want to do it, even if they whine about it in moments of extreme upset or anger. And, sadly, a pantheon that doesn't ruin its childrens' lives doesn't really exist; they just all do it in their own unique ways.
My Project
And I need a project also. Are there any things that happen in myth that you dont feel there are ways to accomplish in scion? What thing that happens in myth do you think is missing a boon or a knack to accomplish? Im always looking to fill the holes that need filling.
Some good suggestions may just be ultimates or avatars.
Not looking to add entire purviews. Just additions to current purviews/knacks.
Please make sure you have a myth to base your suggestion on. No cartoon antics ;)
Some good suggestions may just be ultimates or avatars.
Not looking to add entire purviews. Just additions to current purviews/knacks.
Please make sure you have a myth to base your suggestion on. No cartoon antics ;)
Monday, June 11, 2012
LAST CALL!
Soon (10 days!) Anne and I will be leaving for our honeymoon in Greece (yay ancient history! boo massive civil unrest!). We'll be uninterneted and so I'm certain Anne will be doing like 1000 posts and backing them up to still post while on our honeymoon. However, I don't think we have that many questions in the ol' question bank. So, if you have some questions, get them in by this weekend before we go into full wedding mode and they'll probably be answered in the near future.
A repost of something awesome
http://www.threatormenace.com/2012/06/10/gm-like-a-drag-queen-five-rules-for-bringing-the-drama/
Im so envious that I didnt write this first. Some great tips on STing that you probably already knew, but always need a reminder of. Plus he came up with an awesome title for it.
Im so envious that I didnt write this first. Some great tips on STing that you probably already knew, but always need a reminder of. Plus he came up with an awesome title for it.
Level Up!
Question: In your game, considering that Scions can beef up to God, can low level gods that have been around for a thousand years at Legend 9-11 use the times to revitalize themselves and reach Legend 12?
Yes, they certainly can, but they shouldn't unless that is in some way a useful or good thing for the PCs' story. Lower-Legend gods, while cool to interact with as NPCs, are not the stars of the show; the Scions are, so unless a Scion is involved in a lower-Legend god's ascension, they probably shouldn't be having one. You don't get Legend just for hanging around, after all; the Titan war is a great staging ground for the kind of awe-inspiring, insanely cool feats that cause a god to gain Legend, but the more of them you have being performed by NPCs, the fewer are available for the PCs themselves.
There are buckets of reasons Scions might be involved in that kind of a story, though; maybe they want to help a lower-Legend god make a name for themselves/get out of a rut/make a bid for political power. Maybe they become best friends with that god and call him in when shit is going down, leading to him being involved in a lot of the kinds of high-powered shenanigans that can cause Legend to increase. Maybe they marry lower-Legend gods and the force of their own fame and exploits helps carry them along. Maybe a lower-Legend god's attempt to rise to power is something that threatens the PCs or something they care about, leading them to oppose it.
But whatever it is, it has to be something that is about the Scions, not the lower-Legend gods. Otherwise, not only is it harder for your PCs to be cool (and trust me, if NPCs keep grabbing all the glory, PCs are going to get disgruntled pretty quickly), but they end up with the same problem of no gods their own Legend to interact with as they go up the ranks. If everybody is Legend 12 except the Scions, they have no one of an equal level to challenge them or become allies; they're still second-class citizens despite the supposedly important ascension to godhood at Legend 9. Gods at Legend 9-11 are very important to make compelling stories for PCs at that level, so if the plot doesn't have a very good reason that they increase in Legend, they probably shouldn't.
Also keep in mind that all the ancient strictures that make it hard for gods to gain Legend are still in place. Fatebonds are still a terribly scary force in the World; they didn't go away when the Titans broke out, and the whole point of having Scions is so that gods (of any Legend rating) don't have to go down there and get whammied with all kinds of mortal expectations. The political structures of many pantheons may have shifted some in wartime, but most of them are basically the same, and it's not as if laws and customs have gone out the window. Low-Legend gods of the ancient pantheons certainly could gain Legend, but if they haven't done so in thousands of years, chances are they're not about to start now unless something (i.e., the actions of the PCs!) helps or forces them.
So yes, absolutely; any god can always increase in Legend if he's not yet Legend 12. But make sure you have a good reason for him to do so; if it serves the story, awesome, but if it's just because you want a bunch of gods to be Legend 12 and don't have a particularly good reason for that desire, it's better to rethink and scale back.
Yes, they certainly can, but they shouldn't unless that is in some way a useful or good thing for the PCs' story. Lower-Legend gods, while cool to interact with as NPCs, are not the stars of the show; the Scions are, so unless a Scion is involved in a lower-Legend god's ascension, they probably shouldn't be having one. You don't get Legend just for hanging around, after all; the Titan war is a great staging ground for the kind of awe-inspiring, insanely cool feats that cause a god to gain Legend, but the more of them you have being performed by NPCs, the fewer are available for the PCs themselves.
There are buckets of reasons Scions might be involved in that kind of a story, though; maybe they want to help a lower-Legend god make a name for themselves/get out of a rut/make a bid for political power. Maybe they become best friends with that god and call him in when shit is going down, leading to him being involved in a lot of the kinds of high-powered shenanigans that can cause Legend to increase. Maybe they marry lower-Legend gods and the force of their own fame and exploits helps carry them along. Maybe a lower-Legend god's attempt to rise to power is something that threatens the PCs or something they care about, leading them to oppose it.
But whatever it is, it has to be something that is about the Scions, not the lower-Legend gods. Otherwise, not only is it harder for your PCs to be cool (and trust me, if NPCs keep grabbing all the glory, PCs are going to get disgruntled pretty quickly), but they end up with the same problem of no gods their own Legend to interact with as they go up the ranks. If everybody is Legend 12 except the Scions, they have no one of an equal level to challenge them or become allies; they're still second-class citizens despite the supposedly important ascension to godhood at Legend 9. Gods at Legend 9-11 are very important to make compelling stories for PCs at that level, so if the plot doesn't have a very good reason that they increase in Legend, they probably shouldn't.
Also keep in mind that all the ancient strictures that make it hard for gods to gain Legend are still in place. Fatebonds are still a terribly scary force in the World; they didn't go away when the Titans broke out, and the whole point of having Scions is so that gods (of any Legend rating) don't have to go down there and get whammied with all kinds of mortal expectations. The political structures of many pantheons may have shifted some in wartime, but most of them are basically the same, and it's not as if laws and customs have gone out the window. Low-Legend gods of the ancient pantheons certainly could gain Legend, but if they haven't done so in thousands of years, chances are they're not about to start now unless something (i.e., the actions of the PCs!) helps or forces them.
So yes, absolutely; any god can always increase in Legend if he's not yet Legend 12. But make sure you have a good reason for him to do so; if it serves the story, awesome, but if it's just because you want a bunch of gods to be Legend 12 and don't have a particularly good reason for that desire, it's better to rethink and scale back.
Let's Pretend
Question: This is a question of two parts. If you could be a real life Scion, who would you like to be your parent, and who do you think your parent would really be?
Anne: Huh. You'd think I'd be a child of the Tuatha or Nemetondevos, just ethnically speaking, but none of them particularly fit my personality all that much (I'm kind of deficient in the drinking and fighting arenas). I'd probably be a Scion of someone like Sarasvati, soakin' up and pursuing the knowledges (and that music degree I have doesn't hurt, either). John also suggested Thoth (because I'm a a library basement-dweller), Amaterasu (because I'm all about getting things done and throwing war-dance tantrums when someone tries to stop me) or Parvati (because I put up with and redirect him, much like Parvati puts up with Shiva's ridiculousness).
As far as who I'd like to be a Scion of, I imagine that being the daughter of Hera would be pretty awesome. She's a great mother and family figure, historically goes to bat for her children and those heroes for whom she acts as patron, and has a great combination of Olympian political clout and good relations with even more ancient figures like Rhea or Tethys. She seems like she'd probably be a pretty awesome mom.
John: I'd like to be a Scion of Zeus. In reality, I would probably also be a Scion of Zeus.
Anybody else out there want to take a stab at profiling us (or yourselves)?
Anne: Huh. You'd think I'd be a child of the Tuatha or Nemetondevos, just ethnically speaking, but none of them particularly fit my personality all that much (I'm kind of deficient in the drinking and fighting arenas). I'd probably be a Scion of someone like Sarasvati, soakin' up and pursuing the knowledges (and that music degree I have doesn't hurt, either). John also suggested Thoth (because I'm a a library basement-dweller), Amaterasu (because I'm all about getting things done and throwing war-dance tantrums when someone tries to stop me) or Parvati (because I put up with and redirect him, much like Parvati puts up with Shiva's ridiculousness).
As far as who I'd like to be a Scion of, I imagine that being the daughter of Hera would be pretty awesome. She's a great mother and family figure, historically goes to bat for her children and those heroes for whom she acts as patron, and has a great combination of Olympian political clout and good relations with even more ancient figures like Rhea or Tethys. She seems like she'd probably be a pretty awesome mom.
John: I'd like to be a Scion of Zeus. In reality, I would probably also be a Scion of Zeus.
Anybody else out there want to take a stab at profiling us (or yourselves)?
Sunday, June 10, 2012
If We Had Three Wishes, We'd Use Them All for Paid Time Off
Question: You took the time to put up a poll to see what project we wanted most, but what about you guys? What project are you most excited to work on? What project is John? What project are your players?
Oh, man. When I went to ask our players for their opinions, I got a list full of explosive enthusiasm. In no particular order, their most-wanted upgrades for Scion are:
*A Polynesian pantheon writeup
*New knacks
*The full Industry rewrite we've been promising them forever
*Relic creation guidelines
*World maps for the current games (where the Scions have permanently changed the World's topography)
*A recording of a typical game session to put online
*The Scion card game John keeps threatening to build
*A simpler updated Fatebond system
At the end of the conversation, one player also suggested "Buy the rights to Scion so we can fix it forever and ever" and then everyone pretty much jumped on that bandwagon excitedly, but I don't see us being Paizo any time in the near future, I'm afraid.
For me personally, I want to deal with the shamefully second-class state of our far eastern pantheons; the Amatsukami and Shen need a full rewrite with extra gods added, associateds fixed, and a deep-dive edit of their PSPs. They keep getting put off because we don't have any PCs from over there at the moment, but them being sort of "unfinished" for us leaves a big ugly hole in the world and closes doors that I'd rather were open (the PCs might want to hang out with them even if they aren't Asian themselves, you know?). The half-assery in their sections on the website bothers me continually.
When I asked John this question, he went on a tirade about a torrent of things he wanted to get done, then on a different tirade about different things he wanted to get done, then gave himself a headache and suggested I just remind everyone that he actually put the poll on the blog because he wants to do all the things immediately and therefore needs other people to give him direction. He also wanted to make a statement that it's usually me that chooses a project and makes him work on it rather than vice versa, because otherwise he gets bogged down in the enormity of the things he has left to do and goes to play Diablo instead.
So that's our messy pile of stuff we want to do, and it's just a little chip off the huge mountain of things, really. One of the reasons we love opinions from you guys is that it gives us a new perspective on what the game really needs most (other than Industry, I promise guys, soon); and, as John noted, another reason is that it gives us somewhere to focus instead of madly trying to do all the things all the time.
Oh, man. When I went to ask our players for their opinions, I got a list full of explosive enthusiasm. In no particular order, their most-wanted upgrades for Scion are:
*A Polynesian pantheon writeup
*New knacks
*The full Industry rewrite we've been promising them forever
*Relic creation guidelines
*World maps for the current games (where the Scions have permanently changed the World's topography)
*A recording of a typical game session to put online
*The Scion card game John keeps threatening to build
*A simpler updated Fatebond system
At the end of the conversation, one player also suggested "Buy the rights to Scion so we can fix it forever and ever" and then everyone pretty much jumped on that bandwagon excitedly, but I don't see us being Paizo any time in the near future, I'm afraid.
For me personally, I want to deal with the shamefully second-class state of our far eastern pantheons; the Amatsukami and Shen need a full rewrite with extra gods added, associateds fixed, and a deep-dive edit of their PSPs. They keep getting put off because we don't have any PCs from over there at the moment, but them being sort of "unfinished" for us leaves a big ugly hole in the world and closes doors that I'd rather were open (the PCs might want to hang out with them even if they aren't Asian themselves, you know?). The half-assery in their sections on the website bothers me continually.
When I asked John this question, he went on a tirade about a torrent of things he wanted to get done, then on a different tirade about different things he wanted to get done, then gave himself a headache and suggested I just remind everyone that he actually put the poll on the blog because he wants to do all the things immediately and therefore needs other people to give him direction. He also wanted to make a statement that it's usually me that chooses a project and makes him work on it rather than vice versa, because otherwise he gets bogged down in the enormity of the things he has left to do and goes to play Diablo instead.
So that's our messy pile of stuff we want to do, and it's just a little chip off the huge mountain of things, really. One of the reasons we love opinions from you guys is that it gives us a new perspective on what the game really needs most (other than Industry, I promise guys, soon); and, as John noted, another reason is that it gives us somewhere to focus instead of madly trying to do all the things all the time.
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Fire in the Sky
Question: Is there a particular reason you chose to make Levin Fury's dice pool based on Marksmanship instead of Thrown despite the mention of hurling lightning bolts directly?
Well, blow me down, that's a mistake - sorry! Levin Fury should be activated with a roll of either Marksmanship or Thrown. It's correct in the in-house rules compendiums we keep for players, but seems to have slipped past me on the website. Fixed now!
The addition of Marksmanship was a no-brainer for us, because there are actually just as many thunder-gods who shoot their lightning as there are those who physically hurl it. Zeus and Baal throw thunderbolts directly and Thor throws his hammer and Perun his axe or apple for the same effect, while archers like Indra, Marduk, Lugh or Illapa shoot lightning from a cosmic sling or bow (often the rainbow). We figured there was no reason to mandate that Scions have to be locked into either style of thunder-godding.
I love it when you guys catch our mistakes. Keeps our heads from inflating too far.
Well, blow me down, that's a mistake - sorry! Levin Fury should be activated with a roll of either Marksmanship or Thrown. It's correct in the in-house rules compendiums we keep for players, but seems to have slipped past me on the website. Fixed now!
The addition of Marksmanship was a no-brainer for us, because there are actually just as many thunder-gods who shoot their lightning as there are those who physically hurl it. Zeus and Baal throw thunderbolts directly and Thor throws his hammer and Perun his axe or apple for the same effect, while archers like Indra, Marduk, Lugh or Illapa shoot lightning from a cosmic sling or bow (often the rainbow). We figured there was no reason to mandate that Scions have to be locked into either style of thunder-godding.
I love it when you guys catch our mistakes. Keeps our heads from inflating too far.
The Weight of the Crown
Question: Does John EVER get to play? I know he's posted plenty of times (in the FAQ and on this blog) that he's the main storyteller, but does anybody else in your group storytell on occassion? Anne seems like she'd be a more than capable storyteller.
John made a sad face when this question came in and went to get a donut to soothe himself. Unfortunately, he plays very seldom.
Our original introduction to Scion was in a game run by a friend of ours, which was the seed for the Skeins of Fate game which is now still going strong; John played Colin Margaritas in that, much to the immense frustration and discomfiture of people who were not prepared for the character's truly epic level of insanity. But once he moved to being the full-time ST for the games, he was no longer able to play Colin because he was devoting his time to Storytelling, and a few sad sighs were heaved. Around the same time, he also very briefly played Art in an online campaign, but the game folded quickly and with it went poor Art.
A year or so later, one of our players did indeed take a turn in the hot seat with the Hong Kong game, so John was able to play again, this time as Maximus Graziano Giovanni VII. His brief run was a blast, but unfortunately life pressures made the Storyteller need to step down, so Max was retired as well and John has been Storytelling ever since.
Because John works so hard on his games and entertains everyone free of charge to the tune of many hours a week, the players and I get together once a year around Labor Day to throw him an ST Appreciation Party, which mostly consists of beer, cake, and somebody else Storytelling so he can play all day. Last year, the ever-fabulous Brent Not Broken of Modern Mythos ran an all-day one-shot game for nine people to let him be the star of the show, which was a total blast (even though Vivian's player ended up murdering John's character in player-versus-player combat. He started it). We know it's not much, only getting to play reliably once a year, but it's the least we can organize to tell John how awesome he is. If you have a local buddy who always seems to be in the ST chair, consider doing the same thing to show your appreciation - it's lonely always being the driver and never getting to enjoy the scenery!
In the meantime, John's characters are no longer PCs but they aren't forgotten; once in a while they make appearances as guest NPCs and plot movers and shakers, which is always a pretty awesome time. Just recently Colin has been making Goze's and Geoff's lives something of a minor, confusing hell with his mysterious demands and enigmatic refusal to part with useful information, and Geoff in particular is developing something of a vengeful dislike of the kid that might prompt him to take unwise actions in the future. It's fun to see them live on, even if no longer in the form they once were.
I'm flattered, by the way, by your faith in my abilities, question-asker! I am a decent Storyteller (or so I like to think), but I seldom run games for John; in keeping with being one of the most awesome STs ever himself, he's also a very awesome player, but that means he's endlessly creative and carries all the rules ever around in his skull all the time, and frankly my Wits + Academics roll is not as good as his (the fact that we have been together for eight years and are no longer good at hiding things from each other for surprise plots is also an issue). While I'm totally willing to run games for him, most of the time we mutually decline; it would probably just turn into John giving me a master class on Storytelling instead of a game proper.
It takes a special Storyteller to run for John, because he is himself a very special Storyteller. We salute you for your awesomeness, John, and as always thank you for running awesome games and writing awesome stories for everyone to take part in!
John made a sad face when this question came in and went to get a donut to soothe himself. Unfortunately, he plays very seldom.
Our original introduction to Scion was in a game run by a friend of ours, which was the seed for the Skeins of Fate game which is now still going strong; John played Colin Margaritas in that, much to the immense frustration and discomfiture of people who were not prepared for the character's truly epic level of insanity. But once he moved to being the full-time ST for the games, he was no longer able to play Colin because he was devoting his time to Storytelling, and a few sad sighs were heaved. Around the same time, he also very briefly played Art in an online campaign, but the game folded quickly and with it went poor Art.
A year or so later, one of our players did indeed take a turn in the hot seat with the Hong Kong game, so John was able to play again, this time as Maximus Graziano Giovanni VII. His brief run was a blast, but unfortunately life pressures made the Storyteller need to step down, so Max was retired as well and John has been Storytelling ever since.
Because John works so hard on his games and entertains everyone free of charge to the tune of many hours a week, the players and I get together once a year around Labor Day to throw him an ST Appreciation Party, which mostly consists of beer, cake, and somebody else Storytelling so he can play all day. Last year, the ever-fabulous Brent Not Broken of Modern Mythos ran an all-day one-shot game for nine people to let him be the star of the show, which was a total blast (even though Vivian's player ended up murdering John's character in player-versus-player combat. He started it). We know it's not much, only getting to play reliably once a year, but it's the least we can organize to tell John how awesome he is. If you have a local buddy who always seems to be in the ST chair, consider doing the same thing to show your appreciation - it's lonely always being the driver and never getting to enjoy the scenery!
In the meantime, John's characters are no longer PCs but they aren't forgotten; once in a while they make appearances as guest NPCs and plot movers and shakers, which is always a pretty awesome time. Just recently Colin has been making Goze's and Geoff's lives something of a minor, confusing hell with his mysterious demands and enigmatic refusal to part with useful information, and Geoff in particular is developing something of a vengeful dislike of the kid that might prompt him to take unwise actions in the future. It's fun to see them live on, even if no longer in the form they once were.
I'm flattered, by the way, by your faith in my abilities, question-asker! I am a decent Storyteller (or so I like to think), but I seldom run games for John; in keeping with being one of the most awesome STs ever himself, he's also a very awesome player, but that means he's endlessly creative and carries all the rules ever around in his skull all the time, and frankly my Wits + Academics roll is not as good as his (the fact that we have been together for eight years and are no longer good at hiding things from each other for surprise plots is also an issue). While I'm totally willing to run games for him, most of the time we mutually decline; it would probably just turn into John giving me a master class on Storytelling instead of a game proper.
It takes a special Storyteller to run for John, because he is himself a very special Storyteller. We salute you for your awesomeness, John, and as always thank you for running awesome games and writing awesome stories for everyone to take part in!
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