Hey, everybody!
By popular demand (by which I mean a few people who emailed me so I'm sure you know who you are), we're going to start announcing when new fiction comes out here on the blog, both so it's more apparent for those not paying a lot of attention to the Updates page and so there's somewhere for commentary and people who want to tell us about typos. Exciting!
To inaugurate this new practice, today we have the new story Fathers and Sons. It is a tale of light in the darkness, familial responsibilities and mysterious regicide, and stars Geoff Matheson with appearances by Sangria Tecuhtli, Sophia Archimedes, Mitchell Gozer, Marcus James and Aurora Dahl.
For those of you interested, happy reading!
Friday, August 31, 2012
Less than Blatant Favoritism
Question: Out of all of the pantheons (in the world, not just in your games) what is your favorite?
Oh, now, that one's just too loaded to answer! We can't pick a favorite pantheon; they represent religions and stories from across the world, from myriad cultures and myriad ideals, and everyone one of them has something amazing and unique to love about them. How could we choose the Tuatha as our favorites and forget about the savage but communally loyal badassness of the Aztecs? How could we choose the Devas and forget about the intricate, mysterious workings of the Amatsukami? How could we choose the Tibetans and not give the same love to the stoic, harsh yet eternally hopeful myths of the Inuit?
It's just not possible. We love mythology as a whole - we love stories from all kinds of different places and gods from every culture under the sun. Trying to choose one would be like looking at a beautiful piece of art and choosing a single brushstroke to be your favorite. Sometimes we're in the mood for the no-holds-barred storytelling craziness of Benin, sometimes we're interested in the ritualized gold sacrifices of Peru, and sometimes we just want to hang out and watch Sun Wukong wreck things, and they're all part of that special fuzzy feeling that studying the religious thoughts of all eras of humanity brings us.
We cannot be monogamous with any one mythology. We have to be free to play the field.
Oh, now, that one's just too loaded to answer! We can't pick a favorite pantheon; they represent religions and stories from across the world, from myriad cultures and myriad ideals, and everyone one of them has something amazing and unique to love about them. How could we choose the Tuatha as our favorites and forget about the savage but communally loyal badassness of the Aztecs? How could we choose the Devas and forget about the intricate, mysterious workings of the Amatsukami? How could we choose the Tibetans and not give the same love to the stoic, harsh yet eternally hopeful myths of the Inuit?
It's just not possible. We love mythology as a whole - we love stories from all kinds of different places and gods from every culture under the sun. Trying to choose one would be like looking at a beautiful piece of art and choosing a single brushstroke to be your favorite. Sometimes we're in the mood for the no-holds-barred storytelling craziness of Benin, sometimes we're interested in the ritualized gold sacrifices of Peru, and sometimes we just want to hang out and watch Sun Wukong wreck things, and they're all part of that special fuzzy feeling that studying the religious thoughts of all eras of humanity brings us.
We cannot be monogamous with any one mythology. We have to be free to play the field.
Fastest Tongue in the West
Question: What three acts did Ishtar do to justify her getting Wits associated?
Ah, Ishtar, the most reactionary of all split-second bad decision-makers. Nothing is quite as worrisome as a person who has all the socials, is fully willing to wreck things when she doesn't get her way, and who always seems to be doing things before you have a chance to stop her.
Ishtar's associations with Epic Wits are littered throughout her stories. The most obvious to point to is the tale in which she tricks Enki into giving up his me to her; Enki had originally come to her house to chastize her for her misbehavior, and she not only figured that out when she saw him coming, but was already ready to treat him to a party and steal all his shit the minute he walked in the door. And Enki himself is a witty, witty, dude with a habit of quick-thinking his way around rules and situations that might stop him from doing what he wants to do; being able to head him off at the pass is not an accomplishment to sneeze at. Really, this story by itself is almost enough to make us give it to her - we do try for the three-example system, but when you outwit the guy most famous for wits, you're looking pretty good from the get-go.
Then there are numerous times that Ishtar is already doing things before anybody else has a chance to properly react - and not on a small scale, but large, important things that ruin everyone else's day. Another good example is the fact that Tammuz doesn't get to so much as open his mouth before she has him dragged into Irkallu; her temper is so lightning-quick that the poor guy never had a chance. Ishtar is legendarily swift about having a volatile, reactionary response to things said or done around her, and while Ultimate Wits is one of the Epic Attributes that's hardest to find examples of gods exemplifying, in her case we felt it was more than justified.
If there was ever a goddess you do not want visiting the crippling disdain of a Scathing Retort/Last Word combo on you, it's Ishtar.
Ah, Ishtar, the most reactionary of all split-second bad decision-makers. Nothing is quite as worrisome as a person who has all the socials, is fully willing to wreck things when she doesn't get her way, and who always seems to be doing things before you have a chance to stop her.
Ishtar's associations with Epic Wits are littered throughout her stories. The most obvious to point to is the tale in which she tricks Enki into giving up his me to her; Enki had originally come to her house to chastize her for her misbehavior, and she not only figured that out when she saw him coming, but was already ready to treat him to a party and steal all his shit the minute he walked in the door. And Enki himself is a witty, witty, dude with a habit of quick-thinking his way around rules and situations that might stop him from doing what he wants to do; being able to head him off at the pass is not an accomplishment to sneeze at. Really, this story by itself is almost enough to make us give it to her - we do try for the three-example system, but when you outwit the guy most famous for wits, you're looking pretty good from the get-go.
Then there are numerous times that Ishtar is already doing things before anybody else has a chance to properly react - and not on a small scale, but large, important things that ruin everyone else's day. Another good example is the fact that Tammuz doesn't get to so much as open his mouth before she has him dragged into Irkallu; her temper is so lightning-quick that the poor guy never had a chance. Ishtar is legendarily swift about having a volatile, reactionary response to things said or done around her, and while Ultimate Wits is one of the Epic Attributes that's hardest to find examples of gods exemplifying, in her case we felt it was more than justified.
If there was ever a goddess you do not want visiting the crippling disdain of a Scathing Retort/Last Word combo on you, it's Ishtar.
Drought of the Soul
Question: What is your conceptualization of Vritra? According to a previous post, you now have the titanrealm of illusion opposing the Devas, which I thought made more sense. Nevertheless, many seem to have issues with how Vritra was presented in the books. However, it's still on your Scent the Titanic table, so how did you use him in the game or envision him?
Vritra and his minions actually haven't been used in our games; the Deva PCs of Eastern Promises are too young and low in power to really run up against such a terribly powerful foe yet, and after one disastrous encounter with defenders from the Indian pantheon, the god-level PCs in the other games consistently avoid India and its deities and monsters (unless Vishnu and Shiva get all up in their faces, then they just cry). The realm appears on our Scent the Titanic table right now for completeness' sake, but we've been intending to replace it for quite a while.
There are several issues with the way Vritra is presented in Scion: Companion. For one thing, Vritra is very concretely a person/monster, not a place, which makes setting him as the greater Titan instead of the chief Titan Avatar a weird and nonsensical choice. (Not that Ravana isn't cool, because he is, but that's no reason to demote Vritra's personhood.) Vritra should definitely be an active antagonist for the Devas (unless you prefer to assume he's dead, but since drought did not stop being a thing in the universe, it's probably better to see his "death" as a metaphor for Indra dropping him into Tartarus), but redesigning him as a location doesn't make very much sense, especially since he never resembles one in the myths surrounding him.
Past that, though, Vritra suffers from the same problem as a lot of Scion's later Titans; as a realm, it really can't compete with the others and is built on a shakier, less fundamental scale. Drought, while a scary idea, is not an idea that really pops as one of the Fundamental Powers of the Universe, which is what Titanrealms are. Droughts can be caused by a lot of things, most of which other Titanrealms already have the power to control. The added idea of Vritra representing a kind of drought of the soul, making others desperate and greedy for things to fill that inner void, helps a little bit, but it's not enough to elevate the place to an equivalent level with, say, Muspelheim, and it's weirdly shoehorned in there since Vritra himself, in myth, is about literally taking water away, not tempting people to overindulge spiritually. Overall, it's an effort by a writer to take a character that is undoubtedly one of the biggest bad guys the Devas have ever faced and make him relevant in a cosmic sense, but since they were crippled by the need to invent a new Titanrealm and Vritra really isn't overly suitable for one, they ended up with the hot mess that we can read in the book today.
Incidentally, we've been having a lot of discussions about the Deva Titanrealm antagonist lately, going around a few different ideas. The realm of illusion certainly makes a lot of cosmic, fundamental sense when it comes to modern Hinduism, but is it as good an antagonist for the ancient Vedic deities like Indra and Surya? If we try to work with figures like Vritra or Ravana that are more suitable for those old Vedic tales, how can we keep those relevant to the new guard Devas like Ganesha or Shiva?
We've been having a lot of discussion with people of the Hindu persuasion lately, and the question of a Hindu Titan is more complex than it is for a lot of other Titans - Hinduism has had a millennium more to grow, change and abstract as a religion that the myths of the Dodekatheon or Pesedjet haven't, and as a result there's a lot more disparate ground to cover.
Vritra and his minions actually haven't been used in our games; the Deva PCs of Eastern Promises are too young and low in power to really run up against such a terribly powerful foe yet, and after one disastrous encounter with defenders from the Indian pantheon, the god-level PCs in the other games consistently avoid India and its deities and monsters (unless Vishnu and Shiva get all up in their faces, then they just cry). The realm appears on our Scent the Titanic table right now for completeness' sake, but we've been intending to replace it for quite a while.
There are several issues with the way Vritra is presented in Scion: Companion. For one thing, Vritra is very concretely a person/monster, not a place, which makes setting him as the greater Titan instead of the chief Titan Avatar a weird and nonsensical choice. (Not that Ravana isn't cool, because he is, but that's no reason to demote Vritra's personhood.) Vritra should definitely be an active antagonist for the Devas (unless you prefer to assume he's dead, but since drought did not stop being a thing in the universe, it's probably better to see his "death" as a metaphor for Indra dropping him into Tartarus), but redesigning him as a location doesn't make very much sense, especially since he never resembles one in the myths surrounding him.
Past that, though, Vritra suffers from the same problem as a lot of Scion's later Titans; as a realm, it really can't compete with the others and is built on a shakier, less fundamental scale. Drought, while a scary idea, is not an idea that really pops as one of the Fundamental Powers of the Universe, which is what Titanrealms are. Droughts can be caused by a lot of things, most of which other Titanrealms already have the power to control. The added idea of Vritra representing a kind of drought of the soul, making others desperate and greedy for things to fill that inner void, helps a little bit, but it's not enough to elevate the place to an equivalent level with, say, Muspelheim, and it's weirdly shoehorned in there since Vritra himself, in myth, is about literally taking water away, not tempting people to overindulge spiritually. Overall, it's an effort by a writer to take a character that is undoubtedly one of the biggest bad guys the Devas have ever faced and make him relevant in a cosmic sense, but since they were crippled by the need to invent a new Titanrealm and Vritra really isn't overly suitable for one, they ended up with the hot mess that we can read in the book today.
Incidentally, we've been having a lot of discussions about the Deva Titanrealm antagonist lately, going around a few different ideas. The realm of illusion certainly makes a lot of cosmic, fundamental sense when it comes to modern Hinduism, but is it as good an antagonist for the ancient Vedic deities like Indra and Surya? If we try to work with figures like Vritra or Ravana that are more suitable for those old Vedic tales, how can we keep those relevant to the new guard Devas like Ganesha or Shiva?
We've been having a lot of discussion with people of the Hindu persuasion lately, and the question of a Hindu Titan is more complex than it is for a lot of other Titans - Hinduism has had a millennium more to grow, change and abstract as a religion that the myths of the Dodekatheon or Pesedjet haven't, and as a result there's a lot more disparate ground to cover.
Thursday, August 30, 2012
The Art of Seeing
Question: I have considered merging the Mystery and Prophecy purviews into one purview (Vision maybe?). What do you think are the pros and cons of this idea and why didn’t you decide to merge the two together?
We have never combined Mystery and Prophecy because they're completely different ideas that are expressed by completely different gods across world mythology in completely different ways. So that.
I see where you're coming from, because when you boil them down and remove all their context, they sound like very similar powers; they're both about magically learning knowledge as a result of poking around in Fate's innards, and under that lens it sounds silly to have two specializations. But when you widen that scope to look at how Mystery and Prophecy manifest and are used across world mythology, it quickly becomes apparent how very different they really are. Instances in which the one accompanies the other are extremely rare, and practices involving the two are very different.
The easiest comparative example is a favorite of classicists everywhere: Apollo and Dionysus. Apollo is the epitome of Prophecy; he is the power behind the Oracle of Delphi, the dispenser of visions of the future that was famed and revered across not just Greece but most of the ancient world. The oracle (and prophetic Apollo himself) dispensed warnings and glimpses of things yet to be and was sought out to help make decisions that affect the future. Dionysus, on the other hand, is a perfect example of Mystery in action; he is associated with seeing beyond the veil of normal perception and discovering secret knowledge by subjecting himself and those around him to the warping influences of inebriation and madness. He is representative of the idea of learning secret truths and mysteries by altering himself and the world around him, and is accompanied by more mystery cults and rites than you could shake a stick at.
They're both awesome, but they're also very much not the same. Nobody goes to Apollo or any of his many oracles to ask about what their neighbor is thinking right now or solve the mysteries of the universe; they ask what will happen if they take a particular action, or what their eventual fate will be, because Prophecy is about things that will happen, not things that exist now. And in the same manner, nobody is looking to Dionysus to have prophecies of the future in his drunken stupors, because that's simply not how Dionysus works; he's about enlightenment and understanding of secret ideas, not knowing what's going to happen next Tuesday. They are both strongly associated gods who clearly have one of those purviews but clearly not the other.
And they might be the easiest examples, but they aren't the only ones. Odin, who hung himself from the World Tree for secret knowledge and was the possessor and dispenser of the secret wisdom of the runes, still has to go dig up a dead prophetess and threaten her in order to get any idea what's going to happen in the future. Zeus may be one of the most widely celebrated prophets and oracular gods in all of ancient Greece, but he obviously can't just figure out things that are happening in the here-and-now, or Prometheus would never have been able to taunt him with the hidden knowledge of the identity of the mother of his fated son. Xochipilli is a god of learning secret knowledge through the ingestion of sacred hallucinogenics, but he has no whisper of knowledge of the future associated with him at all, while Manannan mac Lir is able to make pronouncements of Lugh's future with aplomb, but nobody ever calls him up for help with profound questions, instead going on quests to those who can.
In fact, of all the currently playable gods on our site, only one, Cernunnos, has both Prophecy and Mystery. That's how seldom those ideas overlap.
So while Visions is a nice idea, it's not one we ever considered seriously; the separation of Mystery and Prophecy is too deep and significant in world mythology to ignore, and keeping them as separate purviews is something we're very grateful to the original game for doing (however poorly executed those purviews might have been). The con for the idea is simply that it doesn't reflect world myth at all, and that it would be oversimplifying to a depressing degree and adding connotations to an alarming number of gods that they just don't have.
The major pro, I'm sure, has already occurred to you: Visions, as a combined purview, would be simpler. Having only one "seeing magic stuff" purview would mean that Scions could invest in a single purview instead of two, saving them XP, and the Storyteller would have fewer individual ideas to worry about if the two powers were just combined. But it wouldn't be that much simpler - it's not as if it would cause there to be fewer powers happening in play, after all, or making them take less time - and what you'd lose in mythic meaning and flavor wouldn't be nearly made up for by gaining a little XP for those few PCs who want to pick up both.
I've seen suggestions about combining these purviews before (some even want to fold Magic in and call the whole mess Fate), and my advice is always the same: don't lose sight of the setting of Scion in favor of non-essential mechanics, because that setting is what we're all here to love. Prophecy and Mystery are very different ideas and are represented by very different gods; just as you would expect a Scion who wanted both Guardian and Justice to purchase both purviews, so a Scion who wants to be both an oracle of the future and a master of the world's mysteries should commit to both of those different powers.
We have never combined Mystery and Prophecy because they're completely different ideas that are expressed by completely different gods across world mythology in completely different ways. So that.
I see where you're coming from, because when you boil them down and remove all their context, they sound like very similar powers; they're both about magically learning knowledge as a result of poking around in Fate's innards, and under that lens it sounds silly to have two specializations. But when you widen that scope to look at how Mystery and Prophecy manifest and are used across world mythology, it quickly becomes apparent how very different they really are. Instances in which the one accompanies the other are extremely rare, and practices involving the two are very different.
The easiest comparative example is a favorite of classicists everywhere: Apollo and Dionysus. Apollo is the epitome of Prophecy; he is the power behind the Oracle of Delphi, the dispenser of visions of the future that was famed and revered across not just Greece but most of the ancient world. The oracle (and prophetic Apollo himself) dispensed warnings and glimpses of things yet to be and was sought out to help make decisions that affect the future. Dionysus, on the other hand, is a perfect example of Mystery in action; he is associated with seeing beyond the veil of normal perception and discovering secret knowledge by subjecting himself and those around him to the warping influences of inebriation and madness. He is representative of the idea of learning secret truths and mysteries by altering himself and the world around him, and is accompanied by more mystery cults and rites than you could shake a stick at.
They're both awesome, but they're also very much not the same. Nobody goes to Apollo or any of his many oracles to ask about what their neighbor is thinking right now or solve the mysteries of the universe; they ask what will happen if they take a particular action, or what their eventual fate will be, because Prophecy is about things that will happen, not things that exist now. And in the same manner, nobody is looking to Dionysus to have prophecies of the future in his drunken stupors, because that's simply not how Dionysus works; he's about enlightenment and understanding of secret ideas, not knowing what's going to happen next Tuesday. They are both strongly associated gods who clearly have one of those purviews but clearly not the other.
And they might be the easiest examples, but they aren't the only ones. Odin, who hung himself from the World Tree for secret knowledge and was the possessor and dispenser of the secret wisdom of the runes, still has to go dig up a dead prophetess and threaten her in order to get any idea what's going to happen in the future. Zeus may be one of the most widely celebrated prophets and oracular gods in all of ancient Greece, but he obviously can't just figure out things that are happening in the here-and-now, or Prometheus would never have been able to taunt him with the hidden knowledge of the identity of the mother of his fated son. Xochipilli is a god of learning secret knowledge through the ingestion of sacred hallucinogenics, but he has no whisper of knowledge of the future associated with him at all, while Manannan mac Lir is able to make pronouncements of Lugh's future with aplomb, but nobody ever calls him up for help with profound questions, instead going on quests to those who can.
In fact, of all the currently playable gods on our site, only one, Cernunnos, has both Prophecy and Mystery. That's how seldom those ideas overlap.
So while Visions is a nice idea, it's not one we ever considered seriously; the separation of Mystery and Prophecy is too deep and significant in world mythology to ignore, and keeping them as separate purviews is something we're very grateful to the original game for doing (however poorly executed those purviews might have been). The con for the idea is simply that it doesn't reflect world myth at all, and that it would be oversimplifying to a depressing degree and adding connotations to an alarming number of gods that they just don't have.
The major pro, I'm sure, has already occurred to you: Visions, as a combined purview, would be simpler. Having only one "seeing magic stuff" purview would mean that Scions could invest in a single purview instead of two, saving them XP, and the Storyteller would have fewer individual ideas to worry about if the two powers were just combined. But it wouldn't be that much simpler - it's not as if it would cause there to be fewer powers happening in play, after all, or making them take less time - and what you'd lose in mythic meaning and flavor wouldn't be nearly made up for by gaining a little XP for those few PCs who want to pick up both.
I've seen suggestions about combining these purviews before (some even want to fold Magic in and call the whole mess Fate), and my advice is always the same: don't lose sight of the setting of Scion in favor of non-essential mechanics, because that setting is what we're all here to love. Prophecy and Mystery are very different ideas and are represented by very different gods; just as you would expect a Scion who wanted both Guardian and Justice to purchase both purviews, so a Scion who wants to be both an oracle of the future and a master of the world's mysteries should commit to both of those different powers.
Let's Get Some More Eels and Octopi Up in Here
Question: What is your opinion of the current Polynesian writeup: the Atua?
This will probably sound very weird coming from us, but we haven't read it.
It's not out of neglect, or disinterest! I've been watching the Atua take form as a community project, helmed by the excellent Pashupatastra and Ptah1888 on the White Wolf forums, for lo these many months and years, and they've put in a remarkable amount of time and effort. The Polynesian/Hawaiian/Maori/general islands in that area pantheon is a major area of the world that Scion simply doesn't address in the books, which is a crying shame, and I cheer anyone who wants to fill in those holes in the world, because lord knows I do. The game needs the ability to Tangaroa it up once in a while, and these guys are on a mission to make sure it has that.
The major reason we haven't actually sat down and given that fan supplement a good, thorough read is that we just aren't ready for Polynesia yet. We're on other projects at the moment, and while a Polynesian pantheon is totally a necessary part of the mythic world, we haven't yet had time to start messing around with one. It was temporarily a priority during Sverrir's unscheduled shenanigans in Hawaii, but since he's gone to inactive and his player has moved, it probably won't hit the forefront of our needs again until either another PC wants to get involved in the islands, or you fine folks vote Polynesian in the new pantheon poll over to the right of this blog.
I don't feel right reading things before I'm ready to work on them, because it tends to make me sloppy. I forget things, or I remember them wrong, or I absorb someone's editorializing and don't realize that it's a modern interpretation instead of a legitimate myth. I have no doubt that I'd totally enjoy reading the fan Atua, but until I can actually devote some attention to that area of Scion's world, it probably wouldn't help much and I'd just need to reread it when it was time anyway. Fan supplements, even when well-researched and well-written, are also never first on my reading list when looking at new material for Scion; I like to make sure I have as firm a grounding in the source myths as possible before I start looking at interpretations, and while I've got a good handle on the Pacific badasses that are the Atua, I would be more comfortable raiding several libraries before I seriously get into it.
So it's not you, Atua: it's me. The supplement is saved on my hard drive along with a zillion other things, and I can't wait to unzip it and take a look one day soon, but since it's not a top priority for our game and the writers of the Atua haven't asked for input, it'll remain there until I struggle out of the deserts and jungles of Arabia and Mexico.
For those of you who do want to take a look right now, though, you can find the Atua supplement available for download over here. I know of several games that use it, and it's just waiting for you to take a look at and dig into.
This will probably sound very weird coming from us, but we haven't read it.
It's not out of neglect, or disinterest! I've been watching the Atua take form as a community project, helmed by the excellent Pashupatastra and Ptah1888 on the White Wolf forums, for lo these many months and years, and they've put in a remarkable amount of time and effort. The Polynesian/Hawaiian/Maori/general islands in that area pantheon is a major area of the world that Scion simply doesn't address in the books, which is a crying shame, and I cheer anyone who wants to fill in those holes in the world, because lord knows I do. The game needs the ability to Tangaroa it up once in a while, and these guys are on a mission to make sure it has that.
The major reason we haven't actually sat down and given that fan supplement a good, thorough read is that we just aren't ready for Polynesia yet. We're on other projects at the moment, and while a Polynesian pantheon is totally a necessary part of the mythic world, we haven't yet had time to start messing around with one. It was temporarily a priority during Sverrir's unscheduled shenanigans in Hawaii, but since he's gone to inactive and his player has moved, it probably won't hit the forefront of our needs again until either another PC wants to get involved in the islands, or you fine folks vote Polynesian in the new pantheon poll over to the right of this blog.
I don't feel right reading things before I'm ready to work on them, because it tends to make me sloppy. I forget things, or I remember them wrong, or I absorb someone's editorializing and don't realize that it's a modern interpretation instead of a legitimate myth. I have no doubt that I'd totally enjoy reading the fan Atua, but until I can actually devote some attention to that area of Scion's world, it probably wouldn't help much and I'd just need to reread it when it was time anyway. Fan supplements, even when well-researched and well-written, are also never first on my reading list when looking at new material for Scion; I like to make sure I have as firm a grounding in the source myths as possible before I start looking at interpretations, and while I've got a good handle on the Pacific badasses that are the Atua, I would be more comfortable raiding several libraries before I seriously get into it.
So it's not you, Atua: it's me. The supplement is saved on my hard drive along with a zillion other things, and I can't wait to unzip it and take a look one day soon, but since it's not a top priority for our game and the writers of the Atua haven't asked for input, it'll remain there until I struggle out of the deserts and jungles of Arabia and Mexico.
For those of you who do want to take a look right now, though, you can find the Atua supplement available for download over here. I know of several games that use it, and it's just waiting for you to take a look at and dig into.
Siblings of Victoria
Question: Question: In your Dodekatheon family tree, Nike is the only one of the 4 children of Styx and Pallas shown. I was just wondering if the other 3 are a part of your lore?
Unfortunately, it is completely impossible to include everybody on the Dodekatheon family tree and still have something that's readable and useful to the game at the end. We wanted to be as thorough as possible, but we had to compromise and leave out a lot of people just so that the table would be easily read and include the most important figures where they could be (at least somewhat) easily found. Nike is a familiar and popular figure (let me tell you, we saw a lot of statues of her in Athens), so we made sure she got a mention, but her siblings Zelus, Kratos and Bia are far less relevant most of the time and ended up being removed for space.
They're still out there in the universe, though, doing whatever it is is minor gods/titans do when they're not part of the current plot. They're available for any PC to interact with if they want to, and if that happens we'll work with them as the special snowflakes of martial might that they are. In particular, I could see Bia and Kratos being interesting figures, especially in plots relating to Prometheus, since in Aeschylus' retelling of the story they're said to have aided Hephaestus in binding the Titan.
Poor Kratos is probably kind of confused about his current video-game portrayal, though. It's likely that Sony just chose the name because it means "strength", not because they wanted their bepatterned son of Ares to have anything to do with one of the four Titanic enforcers of Zeus' will, but there's a whole generation who now think of him as a rebel against the gods instead of their loyal servant. He can get together with Anubis and they can have a drink and a good old mope about modern media portrayals.
Unfortunately, it is completely impossible to include everybody on the Dodekatheon family tree and still have something that's readable and useful to the game at the end. We wanted to be as thorough as possible, but we had to compromise and leave out a lot of people just so that the table would be easily read and include the most important figures where they could be (at least somewhat) easily found. Nike is a familiar and popular figure (let me tell you, we saw a lot of statues of her in Athens), so we made sure she got a mention, but her siblings Zelus, Kratos and Bia are far less relevant most of the time and ended up being removed for space.
They're still out there in the universe, though, doing whatever it is is minor gods/titans do when they're not part of the current plot. They're available for any PC to interact with if they want to, and if that happens we'll work with them as the special snowflakes of martial might that they are. In particular, I could see Bia and Kratos being interesting figures, especially in plots relating to Prometheus, since in Aeschylus' retelling of the story they're said to have aided Hephaestus in binding the Titan.
Poor Kratos is probably kind of confused about his current video-game portrayal, though. It's likely that Sony just chose the name because it means "strength", not because they wanted their bepatterned son of Ares to have anything to do with one of the four Titanic enforcers of Zeus' will, but there's a whole generation who now think of him as a rebel against the gods instead of their loyal servant. He can get together with Anubis and they can have a drink and a good old mope about modern media portrayals.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Hey, Man, Nice Shot
Question: This is probably dumb - Is there a reason you can think of that Marksmanship shouldn't require you to build up your ability in the way that Art, Science and Control do? I'm not sure I think you should need to, but it seems that different ranged weapons react in very different ways. For example, a pistol vs an AK-47 vs a bow vs the Aztec fling a big arrow stick (atlatl)? On a side thought, javelins should require Marksmanship and spears Melee, right? Thanks!
It's not dumb! This is something that every player and Storyteller runs into eventually, and it's an issue with the Storyteller System that Scion, like most of White Wolf's games, is based on. (Incidentally, new Scion under Onyx Path probably won't be on this system, but we have no idea what that will look like yet, so conjecture away.)
Yes, you certainly could diversify Marksmanship into Marksmanship (Handguns) and Marksmanship (Longbow) and Marksmanship (Gun Turrets) and anything else you want to; in the real world, those are all specializations that are basically the same idea - that is, shoot something that is far away with a ranged weapon - but that realistically require different skills. The problem with doing so is that you're looking at doing that for all the abilities, and that just isn't feasible from a gameplay perspective.
Because you can make that point about every ability. Academics could be Academics (European History) or Academics (Dead Languages) or Academics (French Poetry), right? Brawl could be Brawl (Boxing) or Brawl (Crane Style) or Brawl (Bar Scuffles). Why not Investigation (Crime Scenes) or Investigation (Internet Research) or Investigation (Paper Filing Systems)? Larceny (Security Systems) or Larceny (Lockpicking) or Larceny (Identity Theft)? Melee (Swords) or Melee (Spears) or Melee (Clubs)? Stealth (Camouflage) or Stealth (Disguise) or Stealth (Sneaking)?
And so on and so forth. And while there is a foolish part of me that loves that idea - because who doesn't love skills that are perfectly tailored to your character, right? - the more rational half of my brain knows that it's not a good idea. The reason the game doesn't specialize all skills is that it's unwieldy and inconvenient; it's a lot of extra bookkeeping that really only boils down to flavor, and it results in characters not having a useful ability far more often than they do. People whine enough about the skills we think need to be specialized, like Craft or Science - can you imagine the pathos if everyone needed to buy seven different kinds of Melee to really be sure they weren't going to be caught flatfooted in a fight? It wouldn't be good for the game; it'd actually detract from the playing experience, not enhance it.
Scion attempts to compensate for this some by applying a -2 dice penalty any time you use a weapon or item that's unfamiliar to you - that is, to use your example, if you have Marksmanship and are familiar with handguns but you have to suddenly try to use an AK-47, you'll have -2 to the roll as you try to figure out how this stupid thing works and still apply your knowledge of shooting. It's really only much of a hindrance for Heroes, but then again by the time you're a Demigod the bother of figuring out shortbow vs. longbow probably isn't a big deal anyway, all things considered. I've seen some Storytellers dispense with the dice penalty in the name of letting those skills shine no matter what the Scion is doing, and I've seen others up it to -4 dice or even more in order to make sure that they have a realistic handicap when learning a new weapon.
In the end, it's really not a good idea to add more specialized abilities to the game, fun though those specializations might be. It makes more sense for gameplay to let players stunt and decide where their dots come from in their backstories, and for the Storyteller to apply spot penalties where necessary for new or difficult situations.
As for spears, they would use Melee if you're using them to stab people, but they'd use Thrown if you were throwing them. Ditto javelins, and we also use Thrown for atlatl use, which is really a lot more like javelin-throwing than shooting. Don't forget about Thrown - it's an important combat skill, too!
It's not dumb! This is something that every player and Storyteller runs into eventually, and it's an issue with the Storyteller System that Scion, like most of White Wolf's games, is based on. (Incidentally, new Scion under Onyx Path probably won't be on this system, but we have no idea what that will look like yet, so conjecture away.)
Yes, you certainly could diversify Marksmanship into Marksmanship (Handguns) and Marksmanship (Longbow) and Marksmanship (Gun Turrets) and anything else you want to; in the real world, those are all specializations that are basically the same idea - that is, shoot something that is far away with a ranged weapon - but that realistically require different skills. The problem with doing so is that you're looking at doing that for all the abilities, and that just isn't feasible from a gameplay perspective.
Because you can make that point about every ability. Academics could be Academics (European History) or Academics (Dead Languages) or Academics (French Poetry), right? Brawl could be Brawl (Boxing) or Brawl (Crane Style) or Brawl (Bar Scuffles). Why not Investigation (Crime Scenes) or Investigation (Internet Research) or Investigation (Paper Filing Systems)? Larceny (Security Systems) or Larceny (Lockpicking) or Larceny (Identity Theft)? Melee (Swords) or Melee (Spears) or Melee (Clubs)? Stealth (Camouflage) or Stealth (Disguise) or Stealth (Sneaking)?
And so on and so forth. And while there is a foolish part of me that loves that idea - because who doesn't love skills that are perfectly tailored to your character, right? - the more rational half of my brain knows that it's not a good idea. The reason the game doesn't specialize all skills is that it's unwieldy and inconvenient; it's a lot of extra bookkeeping that really only boils down to flavor, and it results in characters not having a useful ability far more often than they do. People whine enough about the skills we think need to be specialized, like Craft or Science - can you imagine the pathos if everyone needed to buy seven different kinds of Melee to really be sure they weren't going to be caught flatfooted in a fight? It wouldn't be good for the game; it'd actually detract from the playing experience, not enhance it.
Scion attempts to compensate for this some by applying a -2 dice penalty any time you use a weapon or item that's unfamiliar to you - that is, to use your example, if you have Marksmanship and are familiar with handguns but you have to suddenly try to use an AK-47, you'll have -2 to the roll as you try to figure out how this stupid thing works and still apply your knowledge of shooting. It's really only much of a hindrance for Heroes, but then again by the time you're a Demigod the bother of figuring out shortbow vs. longbow probably isn't a big deal anyway, all things considered. I've seen some Storytellers dispense with the dice penalty in the name of letting those skills shine no matter what the Scion is doing, and I've seen others up it to -4 dice or even more in order to make sure that they have a realistic handicap when learning a new weapon.
In the end, it's really not a good idea to add more specialized abilities to the game, fun though those specializations might be. It makes more sense for gameplay to let players stunt and decide where their dots come from in their backstories, and for the Storyteller to apply spot penalties where necessary for new or difficult situations.
As for spears, they would use Melee if you're using them to stab people, but they'd use Thrown if you were throwing them. Ditto javelins, and we also use Thrown for atlatl use, which is really a lot more like javelin-throwing than shooting. Don't forget about Thrown - it's an important combat skill, too!
Advanced Mode Storytelling
Question: If someone ran an online game using JSR rules, would the two of you play?
Anne: I'd definitely give it a try, if it was in a timeslot I could make! Not that I don't have plenty of time playing Scion already, but somehow I usually want more.
John: Probably not? Maybe? Would it be awesome? When would it be? Don't toy with my emotions.
Anne: I mean, we both work a lot on employment and personal projects... but that's never stopped us before.
John: Are you planning to run a long-range game? Because if you only play a few sessions and then drop us I will hate you forever.
Anne: I feel like I should point out that we're high-maintenance players, though. I'll write backstories in the tens of thousands of words and construct entire plots without Storyteller input.
John: I am very suspicious of online games. Last time I was in one I had to leave because it turned out I hated everyone. Fair warning, I can be a horrible bitch to ST for. I try to be helpful, especially for new STs, but I have a low tolerance threshold.
Anne: And John won't write any backstory because he hates writing, but he will hijack your plot and sail it to Tortuga. Remember, his most-played character was Colin Margaritas and that fucker is crazy.
John: So the answer is yes, maybe, but at your own risk.
Anne: What he means is yes, if we have time, and we'd love you for offering even if it didn't work out.
John: Unless I hate you.
Anne: I'd definitely give it a try, if it was in a timeslot I could make! Not that I don't have plenty of time playing Scion already, but somehow I usually want more.
John: Probably not? Maybe? Would it be awesome? When would it be? Don't toy with my emotions.
Anne: I mean, we both work a lot on employment and personal projects... but that's never stopped us before.
John: Are you planning to run a long-range game? Because if you only play a few sessions and then drop us I will hate you forever.
Anne: I feel like I should point out that we're high-maintenance players, though. I'll write backstories in the tens of thousands of words and construct entire plots without Storyteller input.
John: I am very suspicious of online games. Last time I was in one I had to leave because it turned out I hated everyone. Fair warning, I can be a horrible bitch to ST for. I try to be helpful, especially for new STs, but I have a low tolerance threshold.
Anne: And John won't write any backstory because he hates writing, but he will hijack your plot and sail it to Tortuga. Remember, his most-played character was Colin Margaritas and that fucker is crazy.
John: So the answer is yes, maybe, but at your own risk.
Anne: What he means is yes, if we have time, and we'd love you for offering even if it didn't work out.
John: Unless I hate you.
The Swarm
Question: How do you deal with 'Swarms' in the Creatures Birthright? My players love to get 'Swarms of Bees' or 'Flocks of Seagulls' as creatures for their characters, but there are no stats for it in the book and it drives me bonkers!
There's a really good reason there are no swarm stats in the books: swarms are messy and difficult, and trying to generalize them just doesn't work very well. If you're going to have a swarm Creature Birthright in your game, you're going to have to tailor it individually, taking into account what the player's looking for, what those creatures could normally do, and how powerful other Birthrights in the band are.
If they're just mundane creatures, your work is easy and probably doesn't need too much time to rough something out. Decide how many of the creature there are; the more there are, the less powerful they should be individually, in order to keep them balanced against those who have only one Birthright Creature or Follower. They still have individual stats like any other creature; for seagulls you can probably just use the Small Bird template from Scion: Hero (page 329). The only adjustment you have to make for them as a swarm is how many of them are attacking a given target or doing a given action at once; you could roll these individually or simplify them down to a single average, but neither one takes a lot of extra work, really. Similarly, bees are very scary, but depending on the size of the swarm they probably won't be killing anyone who's mobile enough to escape them unless they descend on an unfortunately allergic victim. You don't really need stats for individual insects, because they're below the threshold of Scion's system (seriously, they probably cannot dish out a single lethal on their own, nor do they probably have even one healthbox equivalent to a human's). A generalized roll that represents how dangerous you think they should be as a unit, probably similar to the stats of any other small animal, will do just fine.
If they're going to be increasing in potency with their Scion owner, that's where you get into the real complications, because you need to make a large number of creatures into Legendary/Nemean versions of themselves without outshining other Birthrights. They have to be balanced with the other things that are going on, and that means there's no easy or simple method we can give you - you're just going to have to figure out what power level makes sense based on your game and what the other players in the band have, and tailor to suit. Players with swarms or groups of creatures should get their unique benefits - having many creatures to bear messages/run errands/do tasks/distract or hurt enemies - but they can't have those along with each creature being as powerful as the guy who only has a single Birthright elephant with an equivalent dot value, nor can they be more useful and badass than the relic shield of another character or the Birthright tattoo powers of another that are just as many Birthright dots, because that would be very unfair. Groups of creatures can't be back doors into getting more free Birthright than everyone else - and that means you can't use prefab stats for creatures and are going to have to come up with ones that work yourself.
So, alas, we have no system for you that will solve this one easily. The Birthright powers of a swarm of bees have to be individually suited to your game, the other Birthrights in play, and the specifics of the characters in question.
We've actually very seldom had large group Birthrights, oddly enough - Dierdre has her flock of hummingbirds and Folkwardr now has a troop of Follower giants, but that's been about the extent of it. They're just individualists, I guess.
There's a really good reason there are no swarm stats in the books: swarms are messy and difficult, and trying to generalize them just doesn't work very well. If you're going to have a swarm Creature Birthright in your game, you're going to have to tailor it individually, taking into account what the player's looking for, what those creatures could normally do, and how powerful other Birthrights in the band are.
If they're just mundane creatures, your work is easy and probably doesn't need too much time to rough something out. Decide how many of the creature there are; the more there are, the less powerful they should be individually, in order to keep them balanced against those who have only one Birthright Creature or Follower. They still have individual stats like any other creature; for seagulls you can probably just use the Small Bird template from Scion: Hero (page 329). The only adjustment you have to make for them as a swarm is how many of them are attacking a given target or doing a given action at once; you could roll these individually or simplify them down to a single average, but neither one takes a lot of extra work, really. Similarly, bees are very scary, but depending on the size of the swarm they probably won't be killing anyone who's mobile enough to escape them unless they descend on an unfortunately allergic victim. You don't really need stats for individual insects, because they're below the threshold of Scion's system (seriously, they probably cannot dish out a single lethal on their own, nor do they probably have even one healthbox equivalent to a human's). A generalized roll that represents how dangerous you think they should be as a unit, probably similar to the stats of any other small animal, will do just fine.
If they're going to be increasing in potency with their Scion owner, that's where you get into the real complications, because you need to make a large number of creatures into Legendary/Nemean versions of themselves without outshining other Birthrights. They have to be balanced with the other things that are going on, and that means there's no easy or simple method we can give you - you're just going to have to figure out what power level makes sense based on your game and what the other players in the band have, and tailor to suit. Players with swarms or groups of creatures should get their unique benefits - having many creatures to bear messages/run errands/do tasks/distract or hurt enemies - but they can't have those along with each creature being as powerful as the guy who only has a single Birthright elephant with an equivalent dot value, nor can they be more useful and badass than the relic shield of another character or the Birthright tattoo powers of another that are just as many Birthright dots, because that would be very unfair. Groups of creatures can't be back doors into getting more free Birthright than everyone else - and that means you can't use prefab stats for creatures and are going to have to come up with ones that work yourself.
So, alas, we have no system for you that will solve this one easily. The Birthright powers of a swarm of bees have to be individually suited to your game, the other Birthrights in play, and the specifics of the characters in question.
We've actually very seldom had large group Birthrights, oddly enough - Dierdre has her flock of hummingbirds and Folkwardr now has a troop of Follower giants, but that's been about the extent of it. They're just individualists, I guess.
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Stars of the Silver Screen
Okay, so... we are nothing if not proactive. If you wanted to see our faces in realtime and watch us talk awkwardly on camera because we're not used to it, we're about to answer your prayers, because we took a little time out this afternoon to try recording a first video blog. In it, we fiddle with camera and settings, answer two questions, and have a surprise guest appearance by Achilles, one of the JSR Mascot Cats.
Question: Are roleplaying restrictions a valid metric to use when balancing a knack or boon? For example, is it okay for a knack or boon to be more powerful than average because overuse will make NPCs beat you up?
Question: I have a question about Roleplaying epic mental attributes. On paper, they should allow the character to formulate plans so elaborate they'll be incomprehensible to a mortal man. To think with the speed and wisdom that make the modern super computer seem like an earth-worm. How are you supposed to play an entity whose decision making possess is so superior to your own?
We apologize in advance for the boring living room and shaky sound quality. Experiments!
Incidentally, we mention a scene from a recent movie that illustrates Epic Wits and Intelligence well in the above video; you can find the ending clip of it here.
Question: Are roleplaying restrictions a valid metric to use when balancing a knack or boon? For example, is it okay for a knack or boon to be more powerful than average because overuse will make NPCs beat you up?
Question: I have a question about Roleplaying epic mental attributes. On paper, they should allow the character to formulate plans so elaborate they'll be incomprehensible to a mortal man. To think with the speed and wisdom that make the modern super computer seem like an earth-worm. How are you supposed to play an entity whose decision making possess is so superior to your own?
We apologize in advance for the boring living room and shaky sound quality. Experiments!
Incidentally, we mention a scene from a recent movie that illustrates Epic Wits and Intelligence well in the above video; you can find the ending clip of it here.
I Think Maybe We're Being Trolled
Question: Why is Water a purview? Every other purview is some kind of important universal force. Even Animal, because all manner of worlds and dimensions probably have animals. Water is just one little element. It might make more sense if it controlled most fluid states, but it is pretty specific about applying only to water.
This question caused us no end of bafflement. Seriously, we are very confused right now.
What on earth makes you think water isn't an important universal force? It's one of the most important ones across all mythologies - it's water that we come from, it's water that is the most urgently needed thing to survive, and it's water that generally represents life and creation more than anything else. Water being "one little element" isn't a reason to discount it - the fact that all cultures agree on it as one of the core elements that make up the world makes it very clear that it's a big fucking deal. Why aren't you asking why we have Fire in the game, or Earth? They're just one element, too, but they're extremely important - and so is Water.
The fact that there are large numbers of deities expressly concerned with water ought to also be a clue that it's a really important issue for pretty much every culture. Gods represent the ocean; gods represent streams and rivers and aquifers, are in charge of purifying it so that it can be drunk to support life and of keeping it flowing so that the earth can renew itself. Gods like Enki, Sarasvati, Anahita, Oshun and more represent the need for water as a cosmic source of creation and support; there is no mythology that does not involve water in some form as an important element, nor any culture that doesn't care about it.
If you're just thinking of the fact that the Water purview itself has a lot of levels that just seem to be different forms of "make water do stuff", that's a legitimate concern - we've noticed that, too, and while we're always on the lookout for more varied powers that Water might encompass, it's one of the more difficult purviews to diversify. A lot of things that water does representationally in mythology are covered by Health (fertility and the waters of the womb) or Sky (rain), and while this does not make Water itself any less necessary, it does make it more difficult to come up with unique powers for it to include. We're still working on that one. We've considered the idea of Water affecting other fluids, but doing so doesn't make very much sense - usually those other fluids are controlled by other purviews, and water gods very specifically affect water, not gasoline or wine.
But even so, that doesn't make the purview superfluous or unimportant - it's so important that we are literally boggled by the suggestion that it shouldn't exist. Water is one of the great cosmic principles of mythology, has a whole contingent of gods associated with it and is absolutely necessary as an option for Scions. Removing it from the game would be like amputating a necessary organ.
This question caused us no end of bafflement. Seriously, we are very confused right now.
What on earth makes you think water isn't an important universal force? It's one of the most important ones across all mythologies - it's water that we come from, it's water that is the most urgently needed thing to survive, and it's water that generally represents life and creation more than anything else. Water being "one little element" isn't a reason to discount it - the fact that all cultures agree on it as one of the core elements that make up the world makes it very clear that it's a big fucking deal. Why aren't you asking why we have Fire in the game, or Earth? They're just one element, too, but they're extremely important - and so is Water.
The fact that there are large numbers of deities expressly concerned with water ought to also be a clue that it's a really important issue for pretty much every culture. Gods represent the ocean; gods represent streams and rivers and aquifers, are in charge of purifying it so that it can be drunk to support life and of keeping it flowing so that the earth can renew itself. Gods like Enki, Sarasvati, Anahita, Oshun and more represent the need for water as a cosmic source of creation and support; there is no mythology that does not involve water in some form as an important element, nor any culture that doesn't care about it.
If you're just thinking of the fact that the Water purview itself has a lot of levels that just seem to be different forms of "make water do stuff", that's a legitimate concern - we've noticed that, too, and while we're always on the lookout for more varied powers that Water might encompass, it's one of the more difficult purviews to diversify. A lot of things that water does representationally in mythology are covered by Health (fertility and the waters of the womb) or Sky (rain), and while this does not make Water itself any less necessary, it does make it more difficult to come up with unique powers for it to include. We're still working on that one. We've considered the idea of Water affecting other fluids, but doing so doesn't make very much sense - usually those other fluids are controlled by other purviews, and water gods very specifically affect water, not gasoline or wine.
But even so, that doesn't make the purview superfluous or unimportant - it's so important that we are literally boggled by the suggestion that it shouldn't exist. Water is one of the great cosmic principles of mythology, has a whole contingent of gods associated with it and is absolutely necessary as an option for Scions. Removing it from the game would be like amputating a necessary organ.
Saint Brigid of Kildare
Question: Would Brigid being revered as Saint Brigit by Irish Catholics have a major impact on her personality? Would she be more tame and reserved than the rest of the Tuatha?
That entirely depends on how you want to run syncretism in your games.
Brigid's a very classic example of religious syncretism; while not one of the most important of the Irish gods, she became extremely well-known thanks to her syncretization and eventual absorption into the character of the Catholic Saint Brigid, who has plenty of magical tales and ideas attributed to her thanks to the ever-wonderful embellishing nature of Irish Catholicism. She magically heals people, she predicts the benevolent future, she curses bad people with misfortune, and so on and so forth, generally having a lot of magical elements, like most saints, to back up her holiness and divine favor.
You certainly could decide that these elements might have influenced and shaped the character of the goddess Brigid; after all, Scion's setting includes Fatebonds, so if she were to have accrued enough of them when St. Brigid's legends were being born, they might have caused her to change with them. But if you do so, you have to be aware of the implications for all other religions and deities, because Brigid is far from the only one who suffers from strange syncretization.
If Brigid is going to be affected by the persona of St. Brigid, then will you also be changing Tlazolteotl to better resemble the Virgin Mary? Will you be reframing Baldur as Christ, Baal as Beelzebub, Vishnu as Buddha? Will you be considering all later syncretized forms of Egyptian gods to be closer to how the Greeks thought of them than the Egyptians? What about the Hindu and Shinto pantheons - are they all only what later Buddhism may have made of them? Where are you planning to draw the line when it comes to what syncretization by humanity does and does not do to a god?
The rife cross-culturalization of many ancient religions means that we generally don't give deities powers and stories based on their associations as saints, demons or members of other pantheons, because doing so usually means losing much of their original, unique cultural flavor in favor of dragging in someone else's religious view of them. We prefer the gods in as close a form to their heyday among their own people as we can get them (which varies depending on source material, but we take what we can get!), because part of the fun of Scion is the vast difference between different mythologies and the cultures they come from. Then, too, there's the fact that Christianity and other syncretic religions like it are comparatively young; in Scion's setting, most if not all the gods should have stopped meddling in the World by the time they became popular, which means that they wouldn't be gaining Fatebonds and it doesn't really matter what humanity decides to associate them with because Fate's power isn't behind their syncretizations or comparisons. Just as we've talked before about treating monotheistic religions as largely human inventions, so would their associations and attempts to absorb other religions be mostly human happenings.
Now, I could see Brigid being affected by St. Brigid's stories, but there would need to be very good reasons for it. You'd need to know, as a Storyteller, why she was still running around in the World getting Fatebound when the pantheons had long ago withdrawn, why she did the things she did as St. Brigid, what it might have done to her personality and what the long-ranging effects of all this was, in more dimensions than just what she has associated for XP purposes and whether or not she has a lot of dots of Courage or Piety (also, note that having Piety makes it really, really hard to pretend you're part of a different religion). More importantly, you need a good reason to do all this work, especially if you aren't planning on doing it for every god in the game. If Brigid is directly involved in the plot due to PCs' origins or actions, then you have a reason to work on her - but the answers to the questions about need to have something to do with the plot and the PCs. If the PCs or the plot they're heavily involved in make it so that Brigid needs to be involved and needs to have something to do with Catholicism, then by all means, have at it - but if not, I would steer clear of it lest you open a can of neverending, ravenously syncretic worms.
Generally, we leave Catholicism, along with most other monotheistic and more modern religions, as human creations that probably don't affect the gods much, because it's simpler and stays closer to the themes and ideas we enjoy in Scion; the gods may use them when convenient (particularly the Loa are notorious for doing so), but they aren't defining factors of their personalities. You can certainly decide to make syncretism a major theme for a particular deity, but doing so is a large undertaking, and if you don't have a solid reason to do so, it more often than not may be a lot of window-dressing busy-work for the Storyteller that doesn't meaningfully connect to the game the Scions are playing in the first place.
More interesting to me than trying to stuff gods into their syncretic roles is exploring how they feel about them; some might find them amusing, others might be offended, and I imagine a lot of them feel it's more imperative than ever not to go getting Fatebound in the World if that's what people are going to turn them into when they do.
This is why they need Scions. They so do not want to get any of that on them.
That entirely depends on how you want to run syncretism in your games.
Brigid's a very classic example of religious syncretism; while not one of the most important of the Irish gods, she became extremely well-known thanks to her syncretization and eventual absorption into the character of the Catholic Saint Brigid, who has plenty of magical tales and ideas attributed to her thanks to the ever-wonderful embellishing nature of Irish Catholicism. She magically heals people, she predicts the benevolent future, she curses bad people with misfortune, and so on and so forth, generally having a lot of magical elements, like most saints, to back up her holiness and divine favor.
You certainly could decide that these elements might have influenced and shaped the character of the goddess Brigid; after all, Scion's setting includes Fatebonds, so if she were to have accrued enough of them when St. Brigid's legends were being born, they might have caused her to change with them. But if you do so, you have to be aware of the implications for all other religions and deities, because Brigid is far from the only one who suffers from strange syncretization.
If Brigid is going to be affected by the persona of St. Brigid, then will you also be changing Tlazolteotl to better resemble the Virgin Mary? Will you be reframing Baldur as Christ, Baal as Beelzebub, Vishnu as Buddha? Will you be considering all later syncretized forms of Egyptian gods to be closer to how the Greeks thought of them than the Egyptians? What about the Hindu and Shinto pantheons - are they all only what later Buddhism may have made of them? Where are you planning to draw the line when it comes to what syncretization by humanity does and does not do to a god?
The rife cross-culturalization of many ancient religions means that we generally don't give deities powers and stories based on their associations as saints, demons or members of other pantheons, because doing so usually means losing much of their original, unique cultural flavor in favor of dragging in someone else's religious view of them. We prefer the gods in as close a form to their heyday among their own people as we can get them (which varies depending on source material, but we take what we can get!), because part of the fun of Scion is the vast difference between different mythologies and the cultures they come from. Then, too, there's the fact that Christianity and other syncretic religions like it are comparatively young; in Scion's setting, most if not all the gods should have stopped meddling in the World by the time they became popular, which means that they wouldn't be gaining Fatebonds and it doesn't really matter what humanity decides to associate them with because Fate's power isn't behind their syncretizations or comparisons. Just as we've talked before about treating monotheistic religions as largely human inventions, so would their associations and attempts to absorb other religions be mostly human happenings.
Now, I could see Brigid being affected by St. Brigid's stories, but there would need to be very good reasons for it. You'd need to know, as a Storyteller, why she was still running around in the World getting Fatebound when the pantheons had long ago withdrawn, why she did the things she did as St. Brigid, what it might have done to her personality and what the long-ranging effects of all this was, in more dimensions than just what she has associated for XP purposes and whether or not she has a lot of dots of Courage or Piety (also, note that having Piety makes it really, really hard to pretend you're part of a different religion). More importantly, you need a good reason to do all this work, especially if you aren't planning on doing it for every god in the game. If Brigid is directly involved in the plot due to PCs' origins or actions, then you have a reason to work on her - but the answers to the questions about need to have something to do with the plot and the PCs. If the PCs or the plot they're heavily involved in make it so that Brigid needs to be involved and needs to have something to do with Catholicism, then by all means, have at it - but if not, I would steer clear of it lest you open a can of neverending, ravenously syncretic worms.
Generally, we leave Catholicism, along with most other monotheistic and more modern religions, as human creations that probably don't affect the gods much, because it's simpler and stays closer to the themes and ideas we enjoy in Scion; the gods may use them when convenient (particularly the Loa are notorious for doing so), but they aren't defining factors of their personalities. You can certainly decide to make syncretism a major theme for a particular deity, but doing so is a large undertaking, and if you don't have a solid reason to do so, it more often than not may be a lot of window-dressing busy-work for the Storyteller that doesn't meaningfully connect to the game the Scions are playing in the first place.
More interesting to me than trying to stuff gods into their syncretic roles is exploring how they feel about them; some might find them amusing, others might be offended, and I imagine a lot of them feel it's more imperative than ever not to go getting Fatebound in the World if that's what people are going to turn them into when they do.
This is why they need Scions. They so do not want to get any of that on them.
There are Not Enough Hours in the Day
So, I have a question for everyone, but first, a quick story.
I set aside 4 hours today to work on scion stuff(this is aside from anne and I's 2 hours of nightly titan work). This was supposed to check through my scion emails, work on some blog posts, and then spend the majority of it working on our scion games.
I have minor OCD(self-diagnosed, like all good nerds) and I always want to clear my inbox before I can work with a clear head(I often fail). But today I wanted to clear out my scion emails as best as possible before I got to work on the games. Then 4 hours later, after helping 3 different people with some very specific and detailed ST and gaming questions I realized I blew all my time....and was frustrated. So I had to figure out what to do. Lately the site has become much more popular, and so we're getting a ton more questions, and not just blog questions, also direct emails to us asking about stuff people dont want on the blog or need just faster answers to. And the questions are getting MUCH more in depth(which we enjoy).
So I started thinking of ways to work with this. We love helping people, and it feels great to have such a surge in great questions, thoughtful responses and great people to talk to and share experiences. Also to be completely honest, we love the attention, we are artists after all. I would hate to be at a point where a blog question doesnt get answered for a month(atm we have 40 questions in queue). Or me having to say I cant respond to emails at all cause there are too many and itd be unfair. Or that I couldnt respond in a timely manner so the answer became useless.
Problem: We have too much we want to do with this community, but its cutting into our time for other important activities including, sadly a little bit into our careers.
So...brainstorming. I came up with two possible solutions, and am up for hearing more.
Would you guys be interested in us doing less daily blogging(now we do 3-4 questions a day, we'd probably cut down to 2), if we did a weekly video blog where we answered a big handful of questions?
Would anyone be interested in short term ST classes. Meeting maybe once or twice a week over video chat in a small classroom format with weekly "office" hours where I was devoting time to your general questions or specific things for your game and also being available for contact so you could "drop in(virtually)" and talk. Ive been researching formats for this kind of thing and it seems like they range from 8-12 classes over a period of 6-12 weeks. If anyone was interested I could start putting together a sketch out of what a class might be like, and depending on students could contour it more to the kinds of things they wanted to talk about.
I have several years of K-12 teaching experience and about 2 semesters of undergrad level teaching experience. I also have a little bit of scion and STing experience.
I figured people had been donating a bit(which is amazing, thank you thank you thank you) and it helps run the site. Perhaps people would want to pay for a class and help us move more of our resources towards the site(and help us pay for a secret project we're saving for).
So lemme know. This is just some brainstorming that we had, that we are now involving you in :)
I set aside 4 hours today to work on scion stuff(this is aside from anne and I's 2 hours of nightly titan work). This was supposed to check through my scion emails, work on some blog posts, and then spend the majority of it working on our scion games.
I have minor OCD(self-diagnosed, like all good nerds) and I always want to clear my inbox before I can work with a clear head(I often fail). But today I wanted to clear out my scion emails as best as possible before I got to work on the games. Then 4 hours later, after helping 3 different people with some very specific and detailed ST and gaming questions I realized I blew all my time....and was frustrated. So I had to figure out what to do. Lately the site has become much more popular, and so we're getting a ton more questions, and not just blog questions, also direct emails to us asking about stuff people dont want on the blog or need just faster answers to. And the questions are getting MUCH more in depth(which we enjoy).
So I started thinking of ways to work with this. We love helping people, and it feels great to have such a surge in great questions, thoughtful responses and great people to talk to and share experiences. Also to be completely honest, we love the attention, we are artists after all. I would hate to be at a point where a blog question doesnt get answered for a month(atm we have 40 questions in queue). Or me having to say I cant respond to emails at all cause there are too many and itd be unfair. Or that I couldnt respond in a timely manner so the answer became useless.
Problem: We have too much we want to do with this community, but its cutting into our time for other important activities including, sadly a little bit into our careers.
So...brainstorming. I came up with two possible solutions, and am up for hearing more.
Would you guys be interested in us doing less daily blogging(now we do 3-4 questions a day, we'd probably cut down to 2), if we did a weekly video blog where we answered a big handful of questions?
Would anyone be interested in short term ST classes. Meeting maybe once or twice a week over video chat in a small classroom format with weekly "office" hours where I was devoting time to your general questions or specific things for your game and also being available for contact so you could "drop in(virtually)" and talk. Ive been researching formats for this kind of thing and it seems like they range from 8-12 classes over a period of 6-12 weeks. If anyone was interested I could start putting together a sketch out of what a class might be like, and depending on students could contour it more to the kinds of things they wanted to talk about.
I have several years of K-12 teaching experience and about 2 semesters of undergrad level teaching experience. I also have a little bit of scion and STing experience.
I figured people had been donating a bit(which is amazing, thank you thank you thank you) and it helps run the site. Perhaps people would want to pay for a class and help us move more of our resources towards the site(and help us pay for a secret project we're saving for).
So lemme know. This is just some brainstorming that we had, that we are now involving you in :)
Monday, August 27, 2012
Whuh?
Question: Who are Jesus and Ned?
We definitely googled this, but unfortunately we didn't come up with anything meaningful. If it's a reference to something, we didn't get it. If it's just you trolling us, we're only left puzzled.
I'm sorry, friend; we have no idea what you're talking about. Good luck on your internet travels.
We definitely googled this, but unfortunately we didn't come up with anything meaningful. If it's a reference to something, we didn't get it. If it's just you trolling us, we're only left puzzled.
I'm sorry, friend; we have no idea what you're talking about. Good luck on your internet travels.
A Breath of Fresh Air
Question: Vetervnuk. I can’t seem to find information on them anywhere. Is there any chance we could learn little bit more about them and perhaps some other Slavic critters.
The Vetervnuk are the winds of the world, Stribog's grandchildren and therefore some of his most potent tools (and quite potent for Scions he lends them out to, as well!). Slavic myth paints them basically as little wind daemons or elementals, nominally sentient but playful and mindless, only controlled by Stribog himself. They're similar to sylphs, air spirits or the Anemoi of Greek mythology - mostly formless because they're just air in the end, but animated by life and thought and obedient to the wind-god's commands.
They're probably not very bright, nor are they very good at things that air can't do - they probably can't lift a lot and aren't great for more than a distraction in combat - but they probably make useful and entertaining helpers, attendants and message-bearers (particularly the last, as I imagine they're quite good with Divine Threnody). They're more of a flavor Follower than one a Scion will probably be finding an absolute need for most of the time, but they're thematic and very, very cool. Having the air move things around for you or whisper in peoples' ears is badass even if it doesn't help you punch the monsters much.
We're always willing to talk about more Slavic creatures! If there are specific ones you're interested in, hit us anytime.
The Vetervnuk are the winds of the world, Stribog's grandchildren and therefore some of his most potent tools (and quite potent for Scions he lends them out to, as well!). Slavic myth paints them basically as little wind daemons or elementals, nominally sentient but playful and mindless, only controlled by Stribog himself. They're similar to sylphs, air spirits or the Anemoi of Greek mythology - mostly formless because they're just air in the end, but animated by life and thought and obedient to the wind-god's commands.
They're probably not very bright, nor are they very good at things that air can't do - they probably can't lift a lot and aren't great for more than a distraction in combat - but they probably make useful and entertaining helpers, attendants and message-bearers (particularly the last, as I imagine they're quite good with Divine Threnody). They're more of a flavor Follower than one a Scion will probably be finding an absolute need for most of the time, but they're thematic and very, very cool. Having the air move things around for you or whisper in peoples' ears is badass even if it doesn't help you punch the monsters much.
We're always willing to talk about more Slavic creatures! If there are specific ones you're interested in, hit us anytime.
She Who is Brought by Elephants
Question: How would you guys manage Devayani, of Hindu mythology? I've been curious about her, so I figure I should ask - what's she like, in this Scion game?
At the moment, not like anything, as she hasn't made an appearance; our Deva Scions are still all wee little Hero-level children running about in the World, and most of them haven't met any deities other than their own parents. Skanda/Murugan and his wife Devayani are certainly members of the Devas and will probably be involved in their lives at some point (especially Akhileswar, since they'd be his brother and sister-in-law), but for the moment they've got all they can handle just reconciling with the existence of one or two gods, let alone a whole pantheon of them.
Devayani probably isn't much higher than Legend 9; she's an interesting little figure, but not really one who does a lot or is pivotal in a lot of myths (unlike her husband, who is an important badass who frequently does importantly badass things). I don't know what associated powers she could have other than perhaps animal from her vague association with elephants, and she's mostly eclipsed by Skanda's other wife, Valli (who actually does have a coherent myth about her courtship and marriage, while Devayani just gets offered up by her father), anyway. I imagine she'd be interesting to talk to, and might be politically fun considering that she's kind of the daughter of both Vishnu and Indra in different incarnations, but beyond that I'm not sure there's a lot I'd be planning to do with her.
Skanda, though - that dude is all over the Deva landscape. He's definitely someone to watch out for, and if he's around, Devayani may not be far behind.
At the moment, not like anything, as she hasn't made an appearance; our Deva Scions are still all wee little Hero-level children running about in the World, and most of them haven't met any deities other than their own parents. Skanda/Murugan and his wife Devayani are certainly members of the Devas and will probably be involved in their lives at some point (especially Akhileswar, since they'd be his brother and sister-in-law), but for the moment they've got all they can handle just reconciling with the existence of one or two gods, let alone a whole pantheon of them.
Devayani probably isn't much higher than Legend 9; she's an interesting little figure, but not really one who does a lot or is pivotal in a lot of myths (unlike her husband, who is an important badass who frequently does importantly badass things). I don't know what associated powers she could have other than perhaps animal from her vague association with elephants, and she's mostly eclipsed by Skanda's other wife, Valli (who actually does have a coherent myth about her courtship and marriage, while Devayani just gets offered up by her father), anyway. I imagine she'd be interesting to talk to, and might be politically fun considering that she's kind of the daughter of both Vishnu and Indra in different incarnations, but beyond that I'm not sure there's a lot I'd be planning to do with her.
Skanda, though - that dude is all over the Deva landscape. He's definitely someone to watch out for, and if he's around, Devayani may not be far behind.
Blatant Favoritism
Question: Who is your favorite God or Goddess from each pantheon?
Oh, man, what a doozy of a question. It's really hard to choose "favorites" - I mean, they're all awesome, you know? But we'll try, just for you.
The Aesir:
Anne: Loki. He's one of my favorite mythological characters ever; interesting, complex, and mysterious because despite having great stories about all the things he does, half the time we have no clue why he decided to do something or what his master plan might have been. He's in some ways the lifeblood of the Aesir, keeping stories interesting and solving problems that more upstanding gods couldn't have. Also, without Loki, the Aesir are way more boring.
John: Odin. I like more complex, deep-waters kinds of gods, with lots of motivations and possibilities.
The Amatsukami:
Anne: Amaterasu. Sure, sometimes she has a tantrum and plunges the world into blackness, but in general the sun-goddess is one of the most super-badass people in the pantheon, able to back down even Susano-o if she really decides to get into it. She's powerful, she's not afraid to show it, and she echoes an ancient matriarchal social dynamic that modern Japan has mostly forgotten. She kinda of rocks.
John: Raiden. Most of the time the Japanese bore me, but Raiden is hilarious.
The Anunna:
Anne: Ereshkigal. I think she's an impressively cool lady - a female death god who demands the respect of her male peers, not to mention being the only person alive who refuses to take Ishtar's shit. She may be a little bit psychotic, but that tends to run in Mesopotamian ladies.
John: Marduk. He's King Big-Dick.
The Apu:
Anne: Supay. Where else do you find a dude who is not only mind-meltingly terrifying but also sometimes inclined to drop ridiculous blessings on your head only to ruin everything in a Faustian death-bargain soon after? He's all the riches of Hades, the horror of Hel and the stone-faced adherence to order of Yama in one terrible package, and he will make you a billionaire as long as you agree to die three days later. No other god is so awful in such a cosmic and well-ordered big-picture way.
John: Viracocha. Because before Anne started yelling about Incas he was the only one I had ever heard of.
The Aztlanti:
Anne: Huitzilopochtli. I can't help it - he's basically an expression of uncontrolled and ultimate power, and that's awesome. He's in charge, he's undefeatable, he's carrying the freaking world on his back and he still doesn't need more than paper armor to deal with any weaksauce opponents who dare come at him. He had literally hundreds of people sacrificed in his honor every year, and was yet one of the most beloved gods his people ever had. He's amazing.
John: Tezcatlipoca. He's mysterious and powerful, complicated and unpredictable, and basically insane but somehow still one of the major people in charge of the universe. Awesome.
The Bogovi:
Anne: Veles. I love this guy. He's part of the essential universe and has one of the nicest houses on record, yet he is also all about laying down the smack when necessary and pranking the living shit out of his pantheon members to teach them lessons.
John: Chernobog and Bielobog. I know they're not playable, but that's not going to stop me.
The Celestial Bureaucracy:
Anne: Nüwa. She's a lot of fun things at once - a cosmic creator, a progenitor of the species, and a cranky vengeful lady who torments and murders people who sass her. Also, she's a dragon.
John: None. China makes me take naps.
The Devas:
Anne: Surya. I'm not sure if it's the old-school Vedic Deva-ness or the super awesomeness of a dude who is both the stars and the sun and still finds time to be everyone's friend, but Surya's the kind of badass I dig.
John: Ganesha. Because, like Raiden, he is totally hilarious.
The Dodekatheon:
Anne: Hera. I feel like Hera is kind of an unsung badass among the Dodekatheon, stuck with a shitty job and a badly behaved husband and a lot of centuries of people casting her as the bad guy but still a classy lady who doesn't have to take shit from anyone. She's awesome and I am jealous of everything about her except for Zeus.
John: Dionysus. He's the subversive of his pantheon, the id, subconscious and secret desire as well as the catalyst that forces those things to the surface. He's one of my favorite Greek god concepts (but seriously, I wanted to pick all of them).
The Elohim:
Anne: Kothar. A really hard choice - I love the Elohim - but when a guy is a badass who lives in another country and only drops in to totally change the tide of wars with his mad awesome magical weapons, I have to give him props.
John: Baal. Are there other Elohim?
The Loa:
Anne: Orunmila. Yes, he's not in the Loa as originally written, but that's because the Loa are a big bucket of mess as originally written. He's a super savant prophecy god in a culture that treats destiny as something you build rather than something built for you, and that's freaking cool.
John: Shango. I also love gods that are batshit insane.
The Pesedjet:
Anne: Sekhmet. Apparently this is my entry on the "we love crazy people" list, but there's something about the super unfettered but also very natural bloodlust of the lion-goddess that I really enjoy.
John: Set. Because he's also King Big-Dick. I love the Pesedjet, though, I want to pick all of them.
The Tuatha de Danann:
Anne: Nuada. Remember when things were good because the High King was this awesome justicey badass who ruled everything perfectly and was the only responsible person to be found in his pantheon? Those were good times.
John: Lugh. And then there was Lugh, who does what he fucking wants.
The Yazata:
Anne: Mithra. I'm a sucker for the old Indo-European Persian-Indian connection, and Mithra's managed to be awesome in no less than three major religions (those two, plus ancient Rome). He's a talented dude.
John: Vahram. I've been reading more about him lately, and he just turns into more and more of a crazy badass when I do.
But yeah, really we just read this question and spent two hours talking about how we wanted to pick everybody because they're all so awesome. How about you guys - who are your favorites?
Oh, man, what a doozy of a question. It's really hard to choose "favorites" - I mean, they're all awesome, you know? But we'll try, just for you.
The Aesir:
Anne: Loki. He's one of my favorite mythological characters ever; interesting, complex, and mysterious because despite having great stories about all the things he does, half the time we have no clue why he decided to do something or what his master plan might have been. He's in some ways the lifeblood of the Aesir, keeping stories interesting and solving problems that more upstanding gods couldn't have. Also, without Loki, the Aesir are way more boring.
John: Odin. I like more complex, deep-waters kinds of gods, with lots of motivations and possibilities.
The Amatsukami:
Anne: Amaterasu. Sure, sometimes she has a tantrum and plunges the world into blackness, but in general the sun-goddess is one of the most super-badass people in the pantheon, able to back down even Susano-o if she really decides to get into it. She's powerful, she's not afraid to show it, and she echoes an ancient matriarchal social dynamic that modern Japan has mostly forgotten. She kinda of rocks.
John: Raiden. Most of the time the Japanese bore me, but Raiden is hilarious.
The Anunna:
Anne: Ereshkigal. I think she's an impressively cool lady - a female death god who demands the respect of her male peers, not to mention being the only person alive who refuses to take Ishtar's shit. She may be a little bit psychotic, but that tends to run in Mesopotamian ladies.
John: Marduk. He's King Big-Dick.
The Apu:
Anne: Supay. Where else do you find a dude who is not only mind-meltingly terrifying but also sometimes inclined to drop ridiculous blessings on your head only to ruin everything in a Faustian death-bargain soon after? He's all the riches of Hades, the horror of Hel and the stone-faced adherence to order of Yama in one terrible package, and he will make you a billionaire as long as you agree to die three days later. No other god is so awful in such a cosmic and well-ordered big-picture way.
John: Viracocha. Because before Anne started yelling about Incas he was the only one I had ever heard of.
The Aztlanti:
Anne: Huitzilopochtli. I can't help it - he's basically an expression of uncontrolled and ultimate power, and that's awesome. He's in charge, he's undefeatable, he's carrying the freaking world on his back and he still doesn't need more than paper armor to deal with any weaksauce opponents who dare come at him. He had literally hundreds of people sacrificed in his honor every year, and was yet one of the most beloved gods his people ever had. He's amazing.
John: Tezcatlipoca. He's mysterious and powerful, complicated and unpredictable, and basically insane but somehow still one of the major people in charge of the universe. Awesome.
The Bogovi:
Anne: Veles. I love this guy. He's part of the essential universe and has one of the nicest houses on record, yet he is also all about laying down the smack when necessary and pranking the living shit out of his pantheon members to teach them lessons.
John: Chernobog and Bielobog. I know they're not playable, but that's not going to stop me.
The Celestial Bureaucracy:
Anne: Nüwa. She's a lot of fun things at once - a cosmic creator, a progenitor of the species, and a cranky vengeful lady who torments and murders people who sass her. Also, she's a dragon.
John: None. China makes me take naps.
The Devas:
Anne: Surya. I'm not sure if it's the old-school Vedic Deva-ness or the super awesomeness of a dude who is both the stars and the sun and still finds time to be everyone's friend, but Surya's the kind of badass I dig.
John: Ganesha. Because, like Raiden, he is totally hilarious.
The Dodekatheon:
Anne: Hera. I feel like Hera is kind of an unsung badass among the Dodekatheon, stuck with a shitty job and a badly behaved husband and a lot of centuries of people casting her as the bad guy but still a classy lady who doesn't have to take shit from anyone. She's awesome and I am jealous of everything about her except for Zeus.
John: Dionysus. He's the subversive of his pantheon, the id, subconscious and secret desire as well as the catalyst that forces those things to the surface. He's one of my favorite Greek god concepts (but seriously, I wanted to pick all of them).
The Elohim:
Anne: Kothar. A really hard choice - I love the Elohim - but when a guy is a badass who lives in another country and only drops in to totally change the tide of wars with his mad awesome magical weapons, I have to give him props.
John: Baal. Are there other Elohim?
The Loa:
Anne: Orunmila. Yes, he's not in the Loa as originally written, but that's because the Loa are a big bucket of mess as originally written. He's a super savant prophecy god in a culture that treats destiny as something you build rather than something built for you, and that's freaking cool.
John: Shango. I also love gods that are batshit insane.
The Pesedjet:
Anne: Sekhmet. Apparently this is my entry on the "we love crazy people" list, but there's something about the super unfettered but also very natural bloodlust of the lion-goddess that I really enjoy.
John: Set. Because he's also King Big-Dick. I love the Pesedjet, though, I want to pick all of them.
The Tuatha de Danann:
Anne: Nuada. Remember when things were good because the High King was this awesome justicey badass who ruled everything perfectly and was the only responsible person to be found in his pantheon? Those were good times.
John: Lugh. And then there was Lugh, who does what he fucking wants.
The Yazata:
Anne: Mithra. I'm a sucker for the old Indo-European Persian-Indian connection, and Mithra's managed to be awesome in no less than three major religions (those two, plus ancient Rome). He's a talented dude.
John: Vahram. I've been reading more about him lately, and he just turns into more and more of a crazy badass when I do.
But yeah, really we just read this question and spent two hours talking about how we wanted to pick everybody because they're all so awesome. How about you guys - who are your favorites?
Sunday, August 26, 2012
The Aztec Pantheon and the Art of the Empire (Getty Villa Exhibitions)
The Aztec Pantheon and the Art of the Empire (Getty Villa Exhibitions):
'via Blog this'
Great infotainment about two of our favorite Teotl(aztec) gods. Gay flower god and Huitz's sister.
'via Blog this'
Great infotainment about two of our favorite Teotl(aztec) gods. Gay flower god and Huitz's sister.
Sproutling
Question: So, whatever happened to Deirde in the end? I've been curious - I can't imagine her mother would stand for her little girl staying locked up.
I get tired of saying this (and I imagine you guys are tired of hearing it), but that would be telling. Dierdre still has more roles to play in the story and more oncoming issues to deal with that haven't yet made it into fiction format; she has at least one more story in the queue and is far from entirely absent from current events. Certainly there are several people who are not fans of seeing her in captivity.
As for Danu, she hasn't been heard of in quite some time; Dierdre was the last legitimate Scion she had before departing to join a Titanrealm, being a very ancient and mostly primordial figure herself. She's no longer a viable parent in our games and has not been directly seen by Dierdre or any other PC in a long time. The Tuatha aren't really sure what, if anything, they should do about it, nor whether or not they should be worried, but for the moment they've accepted that they're going to have to function without their ancient ancestral mother.
I get tired of saying this (and I imagine you guys are tired of hearing it), but that would be telling. Dierdre still has more roles to play in the story and more oncoming issues to deal with that haven't yet made it into fiction format; she has at least one more story in the queue and is far from entirely absent from current events. Certainly there are several people who are not fans of seeing her in captivity.
As for Danu, she hasn't been heard of in quite some time; Dierdre was the last legitimate Scion she had before departing to join a Titanrealm, being a very ancient and mostly primordial figure herself. She's no longer a viable parent in our games and has not been directly seen by Dierdre or any other PC in a long time. The Tuatha aren't really sure what, if anything, they should do about it, nor whether or not they should be worried, but for the moment they've accepted that they're going to have to function without their ancient ancestral mother.
Sweet Salacia
Question: I know she's nowhere near famous enough to be Legend 12, but what level of Legend and associated powers would you give Amphitrite? I ask specifically because I have a trio of players who want to play as Scions of The Real Housewives of Olympus, and while Hera and Persephone are fine, I can't find much to give Amphitrite other than Water.
I have a bit of a secret soft spot for Amphitrite myself, so I feel you; she's a pretty excellent lady and it's tragic that she doesn't get as much love as the other ladies among the Dodekatheon. She probably isn't Legend 12, but there are traces that many scholars believe suggest that she was the original goddess of the Mediterranean, and that Poseidon's marriage to her symbolized him taking on that mantle, rather than it being something he had always embodied. Apollodorus calls her a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, making her older and more cosmic a figure than any of the other goddesses except for Aphrodite, and she appears whenever important goddesses and female Titans are having a powwow, rubbing elbows with the likes of Rhea and Themis. Early Amphitrite myths set her as the supreme power in the sea; Poseidon's power comes from being married to her, not the other way around, though as time wore on and the Olympians became all-important, she diminished and Poseidon became the pre-eminent power over the waves.
All this makes her a possible candidate to be a Titan Avatar, actually, what with the personification of the sea and the ancient origins and the supplanting of her role by the gods, but that doesn't help you out for Real Housewives much, so we'll look at her as a goddess instead. Water is a given, but considering that she is often described as "ox-eyed" or "beauteous" and that Poseidon chased her all over the place upon first seeing her, I would say that you could give her Epic Appearance associated without too much trouble. Any other associations are slim pickings; you might grant her Animal (Dolphin) based on the myth of it being the only animal that could convince her to come back and marry Poseidon, or perhaps Epic Dexterity on the strength of her ability to flee so quickly that even one of the three crowned Olympians couldn't keep up with her. There are some archaic references to her as the "goddess of the spindle", but since there's no Spinning purview, that doesn't help us very much.
If I were going to try to shoehorn something together, I'd probably go with her having Water and Appearance at Legend 10, or Animal (Dolphin), Water, and Appearance as a Legend 11, with Dexterity or Charisma as poor alternate options if you need more. She doesn't really fit the playable roster very well, but since you're working toward a specific idea, you can probably fudge a bit and your players will run with it happily. And, as I said, she's one of my favorites, so far be it from me to discourage her use as a major player in-game!
I have a bit of a secret soft spot for Amphitrite myself, so I feel you; she's a pretty excellent lady and it's tragic that she doesn't get as much love as the other ladies among the Dodekatheon. She probably isn't Legend 12, but there are traces that many scholars believe suggest that she was the original goddess of the Mediterranean, and that Poseidon's marriage to her symbolized him taking on that mantle, rather than it being something he had always embodied. Apollodorus calls her a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, making her older and more cosmic a figure than any of the other goddesses except for Aphrodite, and she appears whenever important goddesses and female Titans are having a powwow, rubbing elbows with the likes of Rhea and Themis. Early Amphitrite myths set her as the supreme power in the sea; Poseidon's power comes from being married to her, not the other way around, though as time wore on and the Olympians became all-important, she diminished and Poseidon became the pre-eminent power over the waves.
All this makes her a possible candidate to be a Titan Avatar, actually, what with the personification of the sea and the ancient origins and the supplanting of her role by the gods, but that doesn't help you out for Real Housewives much, so we'll look at her as a goddess instead. Water is a given, but considering that she is often described as "ox-eyed" or "beauteous" and that Poseidon chased her all over the place upon first seeing her, I would say that you could give her Epic Appearance associated without too much trouble. Any other associations are slim pickings; you might grant her Animal (Dolphin) based on the myth of it being the only animal that could convince her to come back and marry Poseidon, or perhaps Epic Dexterity on the strength of her ability to flee so quickly that even one of the three crowned Olympians couldn't keep up with her. There are some archaic references to her as the "goddess of the spindle", but since there's no Spinning purview, that doesn't help us very much.
If I were going to try to shoehorn something together, I'd probably go with her having Water and Appearance at Legend 10, or Animal (Dolphin), Water, and Appearance as a Legend 11, with Dexterity or Charisma as poor alternate options if you need more. She doesn't really fit the playable roster very well, but since you're working toward a specific idea, you can probably fudge a bit and your players will run with it happily. And, as I said, she's one of my favorites, so far be it from me to discourage her use as a major player in-game!
Academically Unjustified
Question: Can I cite some of your blogs on my research papers? What are your credentials?
Ooh. Our egos love you for asking, but our sense of academic self-preservation advises against it.
We're no slouches in the arena of mythology and religion; we have degrees and are no strangers to the halls of academia. But we are also heavily self-educated, standing on the shoulders of giants and devouring their books, so while we do our best to be scrupulously accurate and to source everything we use, it's kind of a toss-up whether your professor(s) would consider us a reputable source. Some professors hate internet sources; others love them. Some professors don't want to hear it from anyone who doesn't have a PhD, and some are interested in anything, even experimental craziness written by experimental crazies, as long as you're seeking out new ideas in your field. The area you're writing in may make a difference as well - we might be a great example for a research paper in some of the sociological fields, but not so hot for an archaeological paper that depends on cold, hard facts from people who have personally dug them up.
Blogs are hard to use as sources for research, because it's incredibly easy for anyone to write anything on a blog and still sound vaguely credible. We'd love to be part of your projects, but it's probably a much safer bet to just read the same things we're reading - we might not seem like a legitimate source to some professors, but the Harvard monographs we're reading definitely will. We're always happy to recommend sources on particular subjects if you need them; feel free to ask any time.
And hey, you can always just ask a professor; show him or her a blog entry or two of the kind you're thinking about citing and see what they think about it. The worst that can happen is you'll be told no, but maybe your professor will be impressed that you're thinking outside the box.
Ooh. Our egos love you for asking, but our sense of academic self-preservation advises against it.
We're no slouches in the arena of mythology and religion; we have degrees and are no strangers to the halls of academia. But we are also heavily self-educated, standing on the shoulders of giants and devouring their books, so while we do our best to be scrupulously accurate and to source everything we use, it's kind of a toss-up whether your professor(s) would consider us a reputable source. Some professors hate internet sources; others love them. Some professors don't want to hear it from anyone who doesn't have a PhD, and some are interested in anything, even experimental craziness written by experimental crazies, as long as you're seeking out new ideas in your field. The area you're writing in may make a difference as well - we might be a great example for a research paper in some of the sociological fields, but not so hot for an archaeological paper that depends on cold, hard facts from people who have personally dug them up.
Blogs are hard to use as sources for research, because it's incredibly easy for anyone to write anything on a blog and still sound vaguely credible. We'd love to be part of your projects, but it's probably a much safer bet to just read the same things we're reading - we might not seem like a legitimate source to some professors, but the Harvard monographs we're reading definitely will. We're always happy to recommend sources on particular subjects if you need them; feel free to ask any time.
And hey, you can always just ask a professor; show him or her a blog entry or two of the kind you're thinking about citing and see what they think about it. The worst that can happen is you'll be told no, but maybe your professor will be impressed that you're thinking outside the box.
Saturday, August 25, 2012
The Most Evil Eye
Question: Hi! Let's chat about Balor's Eye! What'd it do? I hear it has some kind of laser power. I'd love to know more about it. Is it a relic? Is it destroyed? Since it's mentioned as his Evil Eye, would it be related to the boon? I hear it's really great if you'd like to make a lake! Thoughts?
Oh, fun questions! Balor's (currently inert) eye has occasionally turned up in our games, but since it's approximately the size of a small house and violently dangerous, the PCs usually just leave it alone. It would certainly be a relic, and while you might rule that it's destroyed thanks to Lugh's stabbings, you could just as easily say that it survived (either as it was or in a diminished capacity) or that it's still attached to its dreadful owner in whichever Titanrealm he inhabits. I doubt it has anything to do with the Evil Eye spell, which is so-named in relation to the ancient concept of witches laying curses on others with the Evil Eye, not anything to do with Balor. Balor's eye, as you noted, shoots lasers, which are significantly different from curses.
Actually, Balor's eye has a writeup of its very own in the Elohim supplement, where it appears as a powerful artifact, currently being held in the Titanrealm Sedeq under the control of Bres the Beautiful. It's available in the supplement along with a lot of other cool stuff, but I'll repost it here to save you some time:
Bres' greatest weapon is the Evil Eye of his grandfather Balor, torn free of his head by the force of Lugh's attack when the fomorian king was slain. Bres rescued it from the battlefield with the aid of the few surviving fomorians, wrapping it in their ruined armor to avoid touching its deadly surface. The Eye is now mounted in the highest tower of Bres' fortress in Sedeq, two fomorians tasked night and day with keeping its monumentally heavy lid (pierced with an iron ring to allow them to touch it safely) propped open so that its baleful gaze burns down on the landscape around it.
With Balor's death and the wounding of the Eye itself, the organ has lost much of its original power but still remains extremely potent. Anyone who comes within three hundred miles of Bres' fortress must succeed in a Dexterity + Stealth roll against a difficulty of 80 to avoid its notice every hour that they are within its range; if they do not, Bres is immediately alerted that there are trespassers in his territory (though he does not gain precise knowledge of where they are). The mere gaze of the Eye can no longer instantly destroy those who fail to avoid it, but it is still a powerful weapon, inflicting 100 dice of lethal damage every five ticks. The only safe haven from the Eye is within the fortress of Bres itself, where the fomorian army remains garrisoned for the moment; the Eye is never closed unless Bres needs to move his troops en masse.
Construction on a very large project is currently underway within the great hall of Bres' castle; those who possess experience in crafts or sciences may discover, upon close examination, that the framework looks disturbingly like a mobile seige tower, precisely the right size for the Eye to be mounted on when it is finished.
So... yeah, duck.
Oh, fun questions! Balor's (currently inert) eye has occasionally turned up in our games, but since it's approximately the size of a small house and violently dangerous, the PCs usually just leave it alone. It would certainly be a relic, and while you might rule that it's destroyed thanks to Lugh's stabbings, you could just as easily say that it survived (either as it was or in a diminished capacity) or that it's still attached to its dreadful owner in whichever Titanrealm he inhabits. I doubt it has anything to do with the Evil Eye spell, which is so-named in relation to the ancient concept of witches laying curses on others with the Evil Eye, not anything to do with Balor. Balor's eye, as you noted, shoots lasers, which are significantly different from curses.
Actually, Balor's eye has a writeup of its very own in the Elohim supplement, where it appears as a powerful artifact, currently being held in the Titanrealm Sedeq under the control of Bres the Beautiful. It's available in the supplement along with a lot of other cool stuff, but I'll repost it here to save you some time:
Bres' greatest weapon is the Evil Eye of his grandfather Balor, torn free of his head by the force of Lugh's attack when the fomorian king was slain. Bres rescued it from the battlefield with the aid of the few surviving fomorians, wrapping it in their ruined armor to avoid touching its deadly surface. The Eye is now mounted in the highest tower of Bres' fortress in Sedeq, two fomorians tasked night and day with keeping its monumentally heavy lid (pierced with an iron ring to allow them to touch it safely) propped open so that its baleful gaze burns down on the landscape around it.
With Balor's death and the wounding of the Eye itself, the organ has lost much of its original power but still remains extremely potent. Anyone who comes within three hundred miles of Bres' fortress must succeed in a Dexterity + Stealth roll against a difficulty of 80 to avoid its notice every hour that they are within its range; if they do not, Bres is immediately alerted that there are trespassers in his territory (though he does not gain precise knowledge of where they are). The mere gaze of the Eye can no longer instantly destroy those who fail to avoid it, but it is still a powerful weapon, inflicting 100 dice of lethal damage every five ticks. The only safe haven from the Eye is within the fortress of Bres itself, where the fomorian army remains garrisoned for the moment; the Eye is never closed unless Bres needs to move his troops en masse.
Construction on a very large project is currently underway within the great hall of Bres' castle; those who possess experience in crafts or sciences may discover, upon close examination, that the framework looks disturbingly like a mobile seige tower, precisely the right size for the Eye to be mounted on when it is finished.
So... yeah, duck.
Knowing and Doing
Question: Wouldn't Craft make more sense than Command in Know-It-All? Knowing how things were built would definitely help you craft something; there's nothing wrong with having Craft in two knacks since they do not stack; intelligent characters would have more support for certain common archetypes; many types of craft are more about knowledge than talent.
You raise good points, but no, we're pretty solid on Command and Craft where they are, the first in Know-It-All and the second in Jack of All Trades. The important distinction for us is that Know-It-All is only about things you know, while Jack of All Trades is only about things you do. Jack of All Trades involves being so quick on the uptake that you can fake your way through active abilities on the fly without having to know anything about them or have any experience beforehand; in that regard, it's actually the opposite of Know-It-All. Knowing things about what you're doing isn't what Jack of All Trades is for at all - you're doing everything by the seat of your pants, on instinct, rather than having any idea why at the outset. But it is what Know-It-all is for - Know-It-All can't actually do much of anything, but the Scion with it is so intelligent and so well-read that they know a lot of things that they can call up on the spur of the moment. This is why active abilities like Brawl, Craft or Stealth need Jack of All Trades, while passive knowledges like Academics, Occult or Science need Know-It-all.
Craft is almost always a very active ability; it's your skill in actually making or building things, and it's a must for Jack of All Trades (in itself it covers a lot of trades!). Crafting is literally working with your hands to make something.
On the other hand, Craft is not really a knowledge; the knowledge of how to do things with Craft is covered by things like Academics or Science, which Know-It-all excels at. Craft doesn't fit into Know-It-All any more than Brawl does; sure, knowing the principles of motions and human anatomical constraints would help you brawl, but that doesn't mean someone grabbing a dot of Brawl on the fly is learning force physics and anatomy at the same time, because those fall under Academics and Science. It's important to remember that while many crafts in the real world do require knowledge, they are not themselves necessarily knowledges; learning a whole lot about glassblowing technique will certainly help you if you want to be a good glassblower, but it doesn't matter for anything if you don't have a steady enough hand or the artistic talent to do it well. Knowledge is represented in Scion as Academics/Science/Occult and other related fields; it's distinct from the abilities that actually involve doing things.
On the other other hand, Command doesn't really fit into Jack of All Trades because it's not an active ability but more a knowledge of how to get people to respond and obey. Since it's an Attribute (Charisma) that actually puts the punch behind your commands, not an ability like Brawl, it falls more into the knowledge category than the action one.
Those who want to be a brainy crafter archetype are probably better served by picking up actual dots of Craft, and possibly Smith Among Gods, than they would be by fudging Craft into a knack where it doesn't belong. (Or even just getting Jack of All Trades, which only requires a single point of Epic Wits to get access to, after all.)
If we did allow Craft to be on Know-It-All, it would only be to know how to build a table - you still wouldn't actually be able to create the plans for the table or build the table, because Know-It-All is for knowledge, not doing;. You'd still need dots of Craft or Jack of All Trades to actually cause a table to come into being. So it wouldn't be a lot of help for the way you seem to be wanting to use it.
Honestly, I'm surprised that Craft was the focus of this question, considering that the two knacks have other abilities that seem to blur the lines to me more. Craft is definitely not one of the more ambiguous ones.
You raise good points, but no, we're pretty solid on Command and Craft where they are, the first in Know-It-All and the second in Jack of All Trades. The important distinction for us is that Know-It-All is only about things you know, while Jack of All Trades is only about things you do. Jack of All Trades involves being so quick on the uptake that you can fake your way through active abilities on the fly without having to know anything about them or have any experience beforehand; in that regard, it's actually the opposite of Know-It-All. Knowing things about what you're doing isn't what Jack of All Trades is for at all - you're doing everything by the seat of your pants, on instinct, rather than having any idea why at the outset. But it is what Know-It-all is for - Know-It-All can't actually do much of anything, but the Scion with it is so intelligent and so well-read that they know a lot of things that they can call up on the spur of the moment. This is why active abilities like Brawl, Craft or Stealth need Jack of All Trades, while passive knowledges like Academics, Occult or Science need Know-It-all.
Craft is almost always a very active ability; it's your skill in actually making or building things, and it's a must for Jack of All Trades (in itself it covers a lot of trades!). Crafting is literally working with your hands to make something.
On the other hand, Craft is not really a knowledge; the knowledge of how to do things with Craft is covered by things like Academics or Science, which Know-It-all excels at. Craft doesn't fit into Know-It-All any more than Brawl does; sure, knowing the principles of motions and human anatomical constraints would help you brawl, but that doesn't mean someone grabbing a dot of Brawl on the fly is learning force physics and anatomy at the same time, because those fall under Academics and Science. It's important to remember that while many crafts in the real world do require knowledge, they are not themselves necessarily knowledges; learning a whole lot about glassblowing technique will certainly help you if you want to be a good glassblower, but it doesn't matter for anything if you don't have a steady enough hand or the artistic talent to do it well. Knowledge is represented in Scion as Academics/Science/Occult and other related fields; it's distinct from the abilities that actually involve doing things.
On the other other hand, Command doesn't really fit into Jack of All Trades because it's not an active ability but more a knowledge of how to get people to respond and obey. Since it's an Attribute (Charisma) that actually puts the punch behind your commands, not an ability like Brawl, it falls more into the knowledge category than the action one.
Those who want to be a brainy crafter archetype are probably better served by picking up actual dots of Craft, and possibly Smith Among Gods, than they would be by fudging Craft into a knack where it doesn't belong. (Or even just getting Jack of All Trades, which only requires a single point of Epic Wits to get access to, after all.)
If we did allow Craft to be on Know-It-All, it would only be to know how to build a table - you still wouldn't actually be able to create the plans for the table or build the table, because Know-It-All is for knowledge, not doing;. You'd still need dots of Craft or Jack of All Trades to actually cause a table to come into being. So it wouldn't be a lot of help for the way you seem to be wanting to use it.
Honestly, I'm surprised that Craft was the focus of this question, considering that the two knacks have other abilities that seem to blur the lines to me more. Craft is definitely not one of the more ambiguous ones.
Traveling Heroes!
Question: If I'm going to start a Scion campaign, am I allowed/given permission to use material produced by you? AKA: NPC/PCs. And also some of their bio taken from the stories?
Sure. If you're starting a game and want to use some of our characters as NPCs or even PCs, feel free; we love them and we don't see why you shouldn't get to enjoy them, too. We like sharing, and if your game wants to feature Marcus James as an antagonist or Jay Ortiz as a Guide or whatever else you come up with, that's fine by us. They'll probably become basically different characters in your game, of course, as they interact with different people and situations, but that's fine; stealing things and making them your own is a time-honored tradition in mythology the world over.
If you have a site for your game, though, a link back to us is always nice (if you don't have one, don't sweat it). And while we absolutely don't mind you using our characters and their stories for games you're playing, they're still our intellectual property, so don't go trying to make money off them or selling them to others as your own. As far as the fiction goes, feel free to share and read around and use as much of it for game background as you want, but please don't reprint it on your website without permission (link to it here instead). And, of course, don't go telling anyone else you wrote it - I'll cry.
Other than that, though, have fun. I've already heard one Storyteller this week pitch an awesome game idea involving someone in our inactive PC section (but I can't tell in case his players are around!), and personally I'd love to hear if other people use our characters and how that turns out. John, looming over my shoulder, says he would love to hear about your ideas for using our characters ahead of time and would be happy to offer help with them if you need it.
But of course, don't ever, ever be afraid to just design your own new characters. Feel free to use ours any time, but don't forget that you might come up with something just as awesome on your own!
Sure. If you're starting a game and want to use some of our characters as NPCs or even PCs, feel free; we love them and we don't see why you shouldn't get to enjoy them, too. We like sharing, and if your game wants to feature Marcus James as an antagonist or Jay Ortiz as a Guide or whatever else you come up with, that's fine by us. They'll probably become basically different characters in your game, of course, as they interact with different people and situations, but that's fine; stealing things and making them your own is a time-honored tradition in mythology the world over.
If you have a site for your game, though, a link back to us is always nice (if you don't have one, don't sweat it). And while we absolutely don't mind you using our characters and their stories for games you're playing, they're still our intellectual property, so don't go trying to make money off them or selling them to others as your own. As far as the fiction goes, feel free to share and read around and use as much of it for game background as you want, but please don't reprint it on your website without permission (link to it here instead). And, of course, don't go telling anyone else you wrote it - I'll cry.
Other than that, though, have fun. I've already heard one Storyteller this week pitch an awesome game idea involving someone in our inactive PC section (but I can't tell in case his players are around!), and personally I'd love to hear if other people use our characters and how that turns out. John, looming over my shoulder, says he would love to hear about your ideas for using our characters ahead of time and would be happy to offer help with them if you need it.
But of course, don't ever, ever be afraid to just design your own new characters. Feel free to use ours any time, but don't forget that you might come up with something just as awesome on your own!
Friday, August 24, 2012
Custody Battles of the Divine
Question: When Geoff and Sangria's kids come of age, will they be Scions of Sowiljr, or of Eztli? Or will it simply be a matter of who gets to them first?
Per Scion's rules, they could be either; it only depends on which parent taps them as a Scion. There's a mutual understanding between the players that Sowiljr will probably take the more obviously Norse-flavored children (Aren, Dyre and Gisli) and Eztli will take the ones in which the Aztec blood flows more strongly (Yolotli and Cuahuitl). Chicahua is permanently glued to his mother, since he was parthenogenic and doesn't have any actual blood relation to Sowiljr (but then again the little monster's Titanspawn, so he couldn't have been a Scion anyway).
But that's all planning, and who knows what might happen in the meantime? They're still just kids, so the only one who's actually been tapped as a Scion is Aren, who Sowiljr had to prematurely activate to make sure he escaped some Titanic forces that were trying to corrupt him. Pressure situations, spats or parents dying might very well change those childrens' parentage options overnight - not to mention the fact that either Huitzilopochtli or Baldur, as their grandparents, are both fully capable of coming in and taking one of them as a Scion (which Huitzilopochtli actually already did once by tapping their daughter Ahuiliztli for his own purposes).
There are many dangerous waters to navigate as new young gods, and trying to keep your progeny in one piece and aligned with you is definitely one of the big ones, especially when more than one pantheon is involved.
Per Scion's rules, they could be either; it only depends on which parent taps them as a Scion. There's a mutual understanding between the players that Sowiljr will probably take the more obviously Norse-flavored children (Aren, Dyre and Gisli) and Eztli will take the ones in which the Aztec blood flows more strongly (Yolotli and Cuahuitl). Chicahua is permanently glued to his mother, since he was parthenogenic and doesn't have any actual blood relation to Sowiljr (but then again the little monster's Titanspawn, so he couldn't have been a Scion anyway).
But that's all planning, and who knows what might happen in the meantime? They're still just kids, so the only one who's actually been tapped as a Scion is Aren, who Sowiljr had to prematurely activate to make sure he escaped some Titanic forces that were trying to corrupt him. Pressure situations, spats or parents dying might very well change those childrens' parentage options overnight - not to mention the fact that either Huitzilopochtli or Baldur, as their grandparents, are both fully capable of coming in and taking one of them as a Scion (which Huitzilopochtli actually already did once by tapping their daughter Ahuiliztli for his own purposes).
There are many dangerous waters to navigate as new young gods, and trying to keep your progeny in one piece and aligned with you is definitely one of the big ones, especially when more than one pantheon is involved.
Unsolved Mysteries
Question: Why does Prophecy have a whole Purview while Mystery stays the same?
Oddly enough, because Mystery works perfectly for its intended purpose as it is. But Prophecy didn't, really, so we booted it into the realm of normal purviews with levels.
Prophecy, in the original rules, was a terrible mess. It could only be used once per story and only did one thing, which was to give you a vague premonition of possible ideas or events from the Storyteller. It was almost functionally useless, required a Storyteller to have ironclad knowledge of what was going to happen in the story arc (so also forced Storyteller railroading if PCs started to change it from his original vision), and didn't get any more useful or powerful as you gained in Legend, no matter how many levels of it you purchased. It was perfectly awful as a purview, and one of the things we changed before we even started running the first game because no PC in their right mind would want to waste Birthright and XP points on such a useless mess.
In addition, there are so many different ways in different cultures of interacting with, learning about and influencing the future that we felt a single "here's a flash of insight" boon was very unsatisfying when it came to portraying Prophecy as a power used by very different dieties in very different ways. The Prophecy purview as we currently use it has a lot more flexibility in different future-seeing powers, from knowing when something's about to happen to making prophetic pronouncements to seeing the invisible hand of Fate in the workings of the world around you; it's a much better fit for Scion's landscape as a whole instead of trying to narrow the idea down to a single unchanging dump from the Storyteller.
Mystery, on the other hand, surprisingly didn't need most of this tinkering at all. It certainly needed to be usable more than once per story (most lame thing ever), so we altered it to be usable a number of times per story equal to your dots in Mystery, which has worked very solidly for us so far. The thing is that while prophecies take different forms and have different powers around the world, the idea of Mystery really doesn't; it might be stunted differently, from reading entrails to hearing voices to getting intoxicated to just suffering sudden brief flashes of insight, but in the end it's exactly the same thing, which is drawing mysterious knowledge out of thin air. Mystery's flexibility is in that it can ask about anything that isn't covered by Prophecy, so it already encompasses all the possible powers you could reasonably assign to it. Like Arete, it was something that, while an unorthodox idea, actually worked pretty perfectly to represent the idea it was based on, so other than making sure it wasn't a lame XP sink, we left it mostly as it was.
If you're interested in exploring alternatives, there are a few versions of Mystery out there that use boons instead of the question-system, including this one from the Scion Wiki. But we love Mystery's simplicity and perfect ability to do its job, so we're sticking with it as it is for the time being.
Oddly enough, because Mystery works perfectly for its intended purpose as it is. But Prophecy didn't, really, so we booted it into the realm of normal purviews with levels.
Prophecy, in the original rules, was a terrible mess. It could only be used once per story and only did one thing, which was to give you a vague premonition of possible ideas or events from the Storyteller. It was almost functionally useless, required a Storyteller to have ironclad knowledge of what was going to happen in the story arc (so also forced Storyteller railroading if PCs started to change it from his original vision), and didn't get any more useful or powerful as you gained in Legend, no matter how many levels of it you purchased. It was perfectly awful as a purview, and one of the things we changed before we even started running the first game because no PC in their right mind would want to waste Birthright and XP points on such a useless mess.
In addition, there are so many different ways in different cultures of interacting with, learning about and influencing the future that we felt a single "here's a flash of insight" boon was very unsatisfying when it came to portraying Prophecy as a power used by very different dieties in very different ways. The Prophecy purview as we currently use it has a lot more flexibility in different future-seeing powers, from knowing when something's about to happen to making prophetic pronouncements to seeing the invisible hand of Fate in the workings of the world around you; it's a much better fit for Scion's landscape as a whole instead of trying to narrow the idea down to a single unchanging dump from the Storyteller.
Mystery, on the other hand, surprisingly didn't need most of this tinkering at all. It certainly needed to be usable more than once per story (most lame thing ever), so we altered it to be usable a number of times per story equal to your dots in Mystery, which has worked very solidly for us so far. The thing is that while prophecies take different forms and have different powers around the world, the idea of Mystery really doesn't; it might be stunted differently, from reading entrails to hearing voices to getting intoxicated to just suffering sudden brief flashes of insight, but in the end it's exactly the same thing, which is drawing mysterious knowledge out of thin air. Mystery's flexibility is in that it can ask about anything that isn't covered by Prophecy, so it already encompasses all the possible powers you could reasonably assign to it. Like Arete, it was something that, while an unorthodox idea, actually worked pretty perfectly to represent the idea it was based on, so other than making sure it wasn't a lame XP sink, we left it mostly as it was.
If you're interested in exploring alternatives, there are a few versions of Mystery out there that use boons instead of the question-system, including this one from the Scion Wiki. But we love Mystery's simplicity and perfect ability to do its job, so we're sticking with it as it is for the time being.
Pantheon Power!
Question: When are you going to add the new pantheons you published to the site?
The Anunna are already up. As for everyone else, they'll be added to the site whenever we have the time to work them into play for our games; we have a lot of things to do that are very pressing for our players, and since they aren't in character creation right now, adding new pantheons isn't one of the most critical (though of course they are a thriving part of the world the PCs are doing things in, but they don't need quick access to their specific powers as much as, for example, they need quick access to Titans or an edited Industry purview). John wants to avoid putting extra pantheons up and confusing people when we have a lot of other things to do, so while I hope it happens someday soon, I don't have a firm timeline.
Or, to answer the question more succinctly: whenever John stops being a grouch and lets me do it.
The Anunna are already up. As for everyone else, they'll be added to the site whenever we have the time to work them into play for our games; we have a lot of things to do that are very pressing for our players, and since they aren't in character creation right now, adding new pantheons isn't one of the most critical (though of course they are a thriving part of the world the PCs are doing things in, but they don't need quick access to their specific powers as much as, for example, they need quick access to Titans or an edited Industry purview). John wants to avoid putting extra pantheons up and confusing people when we have a lot of other things to do, so while I hope it happens someday soon, I don't have a firm timeline.
Or, to answer the question more succinctly: whenever John stops being a grouch and lets me do it.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
The Writer's Daughter and the Actor's Son
Question: Why do you create new pantheons when you feel like the current pantheons on the site aren't up to your expectations? (The Amatsukami were mentioned and you were talking about the Loa in the comments.) Wouldn't you rather fix what you already have before starting something new?
Ooh, a very good question and well-timed, too. The answer is a combination of division of labor and the dreaded Real-Life Constraints.
As I've mentioned before elsewhere, I think, John and I are good at different things, which means that we both contribute to our Scion work but in different ways. I'm the right brain, in charge of things like writing, symbolism and language, while John is the left brain, in charge of things like analysis, math and mechanical effects. When John writes something, I read it for content, massage it to make sure it's mythically resonant, and then throw it away and then rewrite it so it makes sense and sounds pretty. When I write something, John takes it out back and shoots it until it works.
So for large projects like purview rewrites, pantheon reorganization and Titan creation, we need both of us in the same place at the same time in order to get anything meaningful done. We can do some things apart, like preliminary research and outlines, but we need some good hours to hash it out between us, compare notes and make decisions.
Which leads to the Real Life Constraints issue; day jobs and performances mean that we don't have most of our day in the same place, and while we do collaborate remotely sometimes, most of the time employers would prefer we are doing the work we're being paid for, not the work we do in our spare time. This means that we have a lot more time, unfortunately, to work on things apart than together - which means we're masters of prep work, but our together-work happens more slowly.
New pantheons usually start with me; while John is invaluable in making sure they don't fail mechanically and in providing much-needed perspective on them, I do the lion's share of the conceptualizing and writing for the additional pantheons. I tend to work on them when John's indisposed, usually because he's at rehearsal or otherwise doing things that don't involve me, just as I also work on fiction when he's not around because all he does is hang over my shoulder and complain that there aren't enough explosions.
So new pantheons tend to get written in addition to whatever else we're doing; they're being worked on in the time we can't work on things like shoring up Tsukumo-gami or making sure that none of the Shen have ridiculously inappropriate associated powers. (This is also the reason they tend to take months to happen, because I'm not working on them exclusively.) It's time that, unfortunately, we can't use for working on things together, so we're proactive and work on things separately instead. John, similarly, spends the hours I'm at work hashing out systems and plot diagrams for running games, or statting up antagonists and artifacts that will make appearances at some point, things that he can do without really needing my input.
In that bright and beautiful future when we don't have to spend eight hours a day not doing things together, we would probably spend a lot more time getting our house in order before adding a new deck and maybe a playroom around the side. But, sadly, for the moment we are carpenters passing in the night, and we only manage to repair the stairs in the basement when we're not stuck on opposite sides of the building adding trellises.
(Ended with a twenty-point metaphor. This is why John needs input when I write things.)
Ooh, a very good question and well-timed, too. The answer is a combination of division of labor and the dreaded Real-Life Constraints.
As I've mentioned before elsewhere, I think, John and I are good at different things, which means that we both contribute to our Scion work but in different ways. I'm the right brain, in charge of things like writing, symbolism and language, while John is the left brain, in charge of things like analysis, math and mechanical effects. When John writes something, I read it for content, massage it to make sure it's mythically resonant, and then throw it away and then rewrite it so it makes sense and sounds pretty. When I write something, John takes it out back and shoots it until it works.
So for large projects like purview rewrites, pantheon reorganization and Titan creation, we need both of us in the same place at the same time in order to get anything meaningful done. We can do some things apart, like preliminary research and outlines, but we need some good hours to hash it out between us, compare notes and make decisions.
Which leads to the Real Life Constraints issue; day jobs and performances mean that we don't have most of our day in the same place, and while we do collaborate remotely sometimes, most of the time employers would prefer we are doing the work we're being paid for, not the work we do in our spare time. This means that we have a lot more time, unfortunately, to work on things apart than together - which means we're masters of prep work, but our together-work happens more slowly.
New pantheons usually start with me; while John is invaluable in making sure they don't fail mechanically and in providing much-needed perspective on them, I do the lion's share of the conceptualizing and writing for the additional pantheons. I tend to work on them when John's indisposed, usually because he's at rehearsal or otherwise doing things that don't involve me, just as I also work on fiction when he's not around because all he does is hang over my shoulder and complain that there aren't enough explosions.
So new pantheons tend to get written in addition to whatever else we're doing; they're being worked on in the time we can't work on things like shoring up Tsukumo-gami or making sure that none of the Shen have ridiculously inappropriate associated powers. (This is also the reason they tend to take months to happen, because I'm not working on them exclusively.) It's time that, unfortunately, we can't use for working on things together, so we're proactive and work on things separately instead. John, similarly, spends the hours I'm at work hashing out systems and plot diagrams for running games, or statting up antagonists and artifacts that will make appearances at some point, things that he can do without really needing my input.
In that bright and beautiful future when we don't have to spend eight hours a day not doing things together, we would probably spend a lot more time getting our house in order before adding a new deck and maybe a playroom around the side. But, sadly, for the moment we are carpenters passing in the night, and we only manage to repair the stairs in the basement when we're not stuck on opposite sides of the building adding trellises.
(Ended with a twenty-point metaphor. This is why John needs input when I write things.)
Calling the Bureaucracy!
Question: Do you plan on ever getting around to fixing up the Celestial Bureaucracy? There's so much JSR could do with them, both in terms of playable Gods and their PSP!
Yes! Yes, we do!
I seriously want to have a moment soon to get into the far East and fix its pantheons' problems, because the more we tinker and make the other pantheons awesome, the more it burns a hole in the back of my brain that we haven't gotten to do a lot of good, solid work on the Shen and the Amatsukami. We discussed in a recent post a lot of awesome PSP ideas we're toying with, and as the only pantheon who hasn't had at least a little bit of a quick and dirty associated tinkering, the Shen are woefully underrepresented and underresearched in our games at the moment.
I think we may have to skip over a few other things in our queue to give Asia a good, hard look sometime soon; it sorely needs it, and it's driving me crazy that they're not as fleshed out as the rest of the world. Don't worry, Shen. I'm coming for you!
Yes! Yes, we do!
I seriously want to have a moment soon to get into the far East and fix its pantheons' problems, because the more we tinker and make the other pantheons awesome, the more it burns a hole in the back of my brain that we haven't gotten to do a lot of good, solid work on the Shen and the Amatsukami. We discussed in a recent post a lot of awesome PSP ideas we're toying with, and as the only pantheon who hasn't had at least a little bit of a quick and dirty associated tinkering, the Shen are woefully underrepresented and underresearched in our games at the moment.
I think we may have to skip over a few other things in our queue to give Asia a good, hard look sometime soon; it sorely needs it, and it's driving me crazy that they're not as fleshed out as the rest of the world. Don't worry, Shen. I'm coming for you!
The Ageless Flame
Question: So, other than the fact that the God writeup makes us Mesoamerican focused people froth in rage, what to do about Huehueteotl-Xiuhtecuhtli? He seems cthonic and distant enough to count as a Titan, but too benevolent for the role as far as his worship is concerned. Not to mention he's an important figure in their religion, ala Xipe Totec. How do we deal with him?
Hisssss, God writeup. It burns us.
In the first round, I'd probably un-concatenate the two figures; while they definitely have links and there is legit scholarship about them, Scion's probably better served if Huehueteotl and Xiuhtecuhtli are different people (though you could always write a cool plot involving his occasional transformation back and forth, the better to keep the world in order). They probably were originally two anyway and became conflated later, much like other odd pairings in the pantheon (Tezcatlipoca and Mixcoatl, for example, or Itzpapalotl and Cihuacoatl). If I'm going to consider Xochiquetzal and Xochipilli separate people - and I want to, because they're way more fun that way - then I'm probably going to keep the god of benevolent age and the god of fire as different dudes, too.
Actually, I have been on an off-again on-again campaign to get Xiuhtecuhtli onto the playable roster for the Aztlanti for ages. John keeps shooting me down, mostly with reasonable reminders like "he has no associateds other than Fire" and "there are no stories about him" and "none of our players have ever heard of him", but he's such a big deal that I'm still trying to figure out if he could possibly be a legitimate figure for divine parentage. I think I've got him on the ropes after the recent new finds under Mexico City included bazillions of little Xiuhtecuhtli statues - look! He's an important dude! Seriously!
But while Xiuhtecuhtli has some fun festivals and appears to have had a pretty close relationship with his people, Huehueteotl is a lot more of a distantly cosmic figure, you're right. If you aren't combining him with Xiuhtecuhtli, he doesn't really have much going on by himself other than being old and sort of grandfatherly, so he's not doing very much. I agree with you that he probably needs to be a Titan - but I'm not too worried about his benevolent aspects, since he doesn't have to be evil, just inhuman (that's a fun distinction!). I'd probably select him as a good candidate for a Titan of Death if you have one - he'd represent old age and death of natural causes, rather than the more violent and scary Avatars the place probably has.
He could also just be an old, crochety god who doesn't do anything but sit around in Acopa all day letting the young bucks take charge of things. He'd actually probably be a pretty hilarious NPC; I envision him totally taking advantage of the fact that the Aztec prohibition on alcohol doesn't apply to geriatrics, and possibly haranguing the other gods as they go about their business.
He/Both of him are a fun figure. I want to do more with him/them in Scion.
Hisssss, God writeup. It burns us.
In the first round, I'd probably un-concatenate the two figures; while they definitely have links and there is legit scholarship about them, Scion's probably better served if Huehueteotl and Xiuhtecuhtli are different people (though you could always write a cool plot involving his occasional transformation back and forth, the better to keep the world in order). They probably were originally two anyway and became conflated later, much like other odd pairings in the pantheon (Tezcatlipoca and Mixcoatl, for example, or Itzpapalotl and Cihuacoatl). If I'm going to consider Xochiquetzal and Xochipilli separate people - and I want to, because they're way more fun that way - then I'm probably going to keep the god of benevolent age and the god of fire as different dudes, too.
Actually, I have been on an off-again on-again campaign to get Xiuhtecuhtli onto the playable roster for the Aztlanti for ages. John keeps shooting me down, mostly with reasonable reminders like "he has no associateds other than Fire" and "there are no stories about him" and "none of our players have ever heard of him", but he's such a big deal that I'm still trying to figure out if he could possibly be a legitimate figure for divine parentage. I think I've got him on the ropes after the recent new finds under Mexico City included bazillions of little Xiuhtecuhtli statues - look! He's an important dude! Seriously!
But while Xiuhtecuhtli has some fun festivals and appears to have had a pretty close relationship with his people, Huehueteotl is a lot more of a distantly cosmic figure, you're right. If you aren't combining him with Xiuhtecuhtli, he doesn't really have much going on by himself other than being old and sort of grandfatherly, so he's not doing very much. I agree with you that he probably needs to be a Titan - but I'm not too worried about his benevolent aspects, since he doesn't have to be evil, just inhuman (that's a fun distinction!). I'd probably select him as a good candidate for a Titan of Death if you have one - he'd represent old age and death of natural causes, rather than the more violent and scary Avatars the place probably has.
He could also just be an old, crochety god who doesn't do anything but sit around in Acopa all day letting the young bucks take charge of things. He'd actually probably be a pretty hilarious NPC; I envision him totally taking advantage of the fact that the Aztec prohibition on alcohol doesn't apply to geriatrics, and possibly haranguing the other gods as they go about their business.
He/Both of him are a fun figure. I want to do more with him/them in Scion.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Founded on the Rock
Question: All of your balance changes are based around the playstyle of your storyteller, right? Which of your rules do you think are universally balanced for all storytellers?
A better way to phrase it would be that a lot of our changes to the game in general are based on the playstyle of our group. Balance changes - as in, directly making sure the mechanics of the game work - are usually pretty universal (though of course not always).
For example, the practice of using the total number of boons in a purview instead of a Scion's Legend rating for effects is better all around; it makes the system more cohesive and rewards players for investing, no matter how you play. It's an excellent mechanical change and one of those I can unreservedly say I think everyone should use. Similarly, basic changes like allowing Mystery and Prophecy to be used more than once per story is a very important change for making sure that anyone anywhere ever wants those purviews, which in the original rules not only can only be used once but also always do exactly the same thing even though you keep spending more and more XP on them to get higher levels.
Then there are the basic system changes that everyone can love. Don't use Hardness; it's a ridiculous relic of other older systems, and the game is much better served by just giving items soak as normal. Give people more dying boxes; why make it so easy for them to die when it's so easy to make it more balanced and give them a fighting chance? And for god's sake, don't let people buy Legend with XP, unless you like having a tragically unbalanced game.
Nerf Untouchable Opponent so it's not the instant-win button it was in the original rules. Make Virtue Channels scale when your Scions go up in Legend so they don't become useless. Let Dodekatheon Scions have discounted Arete for their favored abilities. Give gun-users something to do other than throw their weapons away at Legend 4. Make Followers and Creatures scale up with a Scion so they don't become useless at higher Legend as well, and increase Birthright dot caps as a whole to allow for more flexibility while you're at it. Make all purviews balanced and have a variety of powers, instead of leaving some vastly overpowered and others unfairly overlooked.
Honestly, we do a lot that is universally useful and that are very good ideas for Scion no matter who you are or how you play. A lot of the questions we answer on the blog here have to do with fiddly little details and matters of flavor, so it may often seem like we operate in a nebulous jelly-like world where we make decisions based only on our feelings at the moment, but in truth there's a lot of very solid, very necessary system-revamping going on in the JSR world.
We're a division-of-labor team. You hear more from me because I'm the writing/flavor/research side, but you don't hear as much from John on the mechanics/math/system side - and that's good, because it generally means the system is working and we can all be free to argue about things like how many Morrigans there are instead.
A better way to phrase it would be that a lot of our changes to the game in general are based on the playstyle of our group. Balance changes - as in, directly making sure the mechanics of the game work - are usually pretty universal (though of course not always).
For example, the practice of using the total number of boons in a purview instead of a Scion's Legend rating for effects is better all around; it makes the system more cohesive and rewards players for investing, no matter how you play. It's an excellent mechanical change and one of those I can unreservedly say I think everyone should use. Similarly, basic changes like allowing Mystery and Prophecy to be used more than once per story is a very important change for making sure that anyone anywhere ever wants those purviews, which in the original rules not only can only be used once but also always do exactly the same thing even though you keep spending more and more XP on them to get higher levels.
Then there are the basic system changes that everyone can love. Don't use Hardness; it's a ridiculous relic of other older systems, and the game is much better served by just giving items soak as normal. Give people more dying boxes; why make it so easy for them to die when it's so easy to make it more balanced and give them a fighting chance? And for god's sake, don't let people buy Legend with XP, unless you like having a tragically unbalanced game.
Nerf Untouchable Opponent so it's not the instant-win button it was in the original rules. Make Virtue Channels scale when your Scions go up in Legend so they don't become useless. Let Dodekatheon Scions have discounted Arete for their favored abilities. Give gun-users something to do other than throw their weapons away at Legend 4. Make Followers and Creatures scale up with a Scion so they don't become useless at higher Legend as well, and increase Birthright dot caps as a whole to allow for more flexibility while you're at it. Make all purviews balanced and have a variety of powers, instead of leaving some vastly overpowered and others unfairly overlooked.
Honestly, we do a lot that is universally useful and that are very good ideas for Scion no matter who you are or how you play. A lot of the questions we answer on the blog here have to do with fiddly little details and matters of flavor, so it may often seem like we operate in a nebulous jelly-like world where we make decisions based only on our feelings at the moment, but in truth there's a lot of very solid, very necessary system-revamping going on in the JSR world.
We're a division-of-labor team. You hear more from me because I'm the writing/flavor/research side, but you don't hear as much from John on the mechanics/math/system side - and that's good, because it generally means the system is working and we can all be free to argue about things like how many Morrigans there are instead.
Noisemakers
Question: Would things that are not music be appropriate for Theme Music? Sounds like the pounding of rain, or ominous silence, or the Jason Voorhees "Chu Chu Chu Ah Ah Ah"?
Generally, I would say no. Theme Music has a very specific purpose, and it's playing music that's appropriate to your character. Sounds like your suggestions are ones that it's very easy to just duplicate yourself (with Sky boons, Illusion, Shroud of Silence, or even just by mundane means), and they don't have the same sort of impact actual music would have. They have a different impact, certainly, depending on how they're used, but they're not really within Theme Music's purview.
However, I'd also note that music is, however, extremely wide-ranging in what it includes, and that the internet will probably find you an instrumental song that's heavy on rain noises or a percussion piece featuring long stretches of silence just as it could find you more common Theme Music choices like AC/DC. Film scores are a great place to look for music that's evocative without being intrusive (and if you want creepiness and long stretches of silence, horror films are particularly great for this), and ethnic music from different parts of the world can not only give you a sound closer to what you're looking for but also tie into your Scion's culture. For example, we've been talking about Eztli getting this insane-sounding indigenous Aztec music for her Theme Music, much of which sounds to a modern American ear like random ominous noise; you can be as creative about the music you choose as you want (though it would be nice for whatever you choose to be something you can play for everyone to hear, rather than existing only in your own head).
I'd actually be quite surprised if someone out there hasn't sampled the Jason Vorhees sound effects into a piece of music.
Generally, I would say no. Theme Music has a very specific purpose, and it's playing music that's appropriate to your character. Sounds like your suggestions are ones that it's very easy to just duplicate yourself (with Sky boons, Illusion, Shroud of Silence, or even just by mundane means), and they don't have the same sort of impact actual music would have. They have a different impact, certainly, depending on how they're used, but they're not really within Theme Music's purview.
However, I'd also note that music is, however, extremely wide-ranging in what it includes, and that the internet will probably find you an instrumental song that's heavy on rain noises or a percussion piece featuring long stretches of silence just as it could find you more common Theme Music choices like AC/DC. Film scores are a great place to look for music that's evocative without being intrusive (and if you want creepiness and long stretches of silence, horror films are particularly great for this), and ethnic music from different parts of the world can not only give you a sound closer to what you're looking for but also tie into your Scion's culture. For example, we've been talking about Eztli getting this insane-sounding indigenous Aztec music for her Theme Music, much of which sounds to a modern American ear like random ominous noise; you can be as creative about the music you choose as you want (though it would be nice for whatever you choose to be something you can play for everyone to hear, rather than existing only in your own head).
I'd actually be quite surprised if someone out there hasn't sampled the Jason Vorhees sound effects into a piece of music.
Corn and Charisma
Question: What is your characterization of Xipe Totec?
Xipe Totec is one of the more mysterious Aztec gods to our PCs; they've only hung out with him a few times, and someone usually leaves without skin, so they're not super keen on it in the future. Not that he's a bad guy or anything; he just has very specific sacrificial tastes.
The Flayed One is one of the Four Tezcatlipocas and thus one of the powers of the Aztec pantheon, though so far he's been less in the spotlight than his compatriots Huitzilopochtli, Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca. Xipe Totec is awesome to be around, because as one of the most magnetic and incredible-looking among the Aztlanti, you can't help but love him; he's a guy who used to have more orgiastically excited ritual gatherings than anyone else, after all, and who generally wears someone else's skin over his because he's just too goddamn amazing to look at in the flesh. (The PCs have never seen him without skin, but they're a bit worried about what might happen if they did, considering that they thought he was the bee's knees even while wearing someone else's smushy face over his.) He fulfills the important roles of guardian of fertility and feeder of the people for the struggling Aztec tribes left in the World, and while he is entitled to have his opinion lent weight as one of the Tezcatlipocas, he tends not to get involved in too many political disputes (or hasn't to date, but who knows, now?).
We tend to view him as pretty great to be around until all your nerve endings are screaming at you after you leave skinless; he's just a party in someone else's clothes, really, and he does his job of keeping his part of the World turning admirably. He's not one of the most confrontational or violent of the Aztlanti, but he's still got a mean left hook if there happen to be bad guys storming Acopa, and while the other Tezcatlipocas may view him as slightly a lame duck, they only do so when he's not around.
He's sort of like Responsible Dionysus for the Aztecs.
Xipe Totec is one of the more mysterious Aztec gods to our PCs; they've only hung out with him a few times, and someone usually leaves without skin, so they're not super keen on it in the future. Not that he's a bad guy or anything; he just has very specific sacrificial tastes.
The Flayed One is one of the Four Tezcatlipocas and thus one of the powers of the Aztec pantheon, though so far he's been less in the spotlight than his compatriots Huitzilopochtli, Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca. Xipe Totec is awesome to be around, because as one of the most magnetic and incredible-looking among the Aztlanti, you can't help but love him; he's a guy who used to have more orgiastically excited ritual gatherings than anyone else, after all, and who generally wears someone else's skin over his because he's just too goddamn amazing to look at in the flesh. (The PCs have never seen him without skin, but they're a bit worried about what might happen if they did, considering that they thought he was the bee's knees even while wearing someone else's smushy face over his.) He fulfills the important roles of guardian of fertility and feeder of the people for the struggling Aztec tribes left in the World, and while he is entitled to have his opinion lent weight as one of the Tezcatlipocas, he tends not to get involved in too many political disputes (or hasn't to date, but who knows, now?).
We tend to view him as pretty great to be around until all your nerve endings are screaming at you after you leave skinless; he's just a party in someone else's clothes, really, and he does his job of keeping his part of the World turning admirably. He's not one of the most confrontational or violent of the Aztlanti, but he's still got a mean left hook if there happen to be bad guys storming Acopa, and while the other Tezcatlipocas may view him as slightly a lame duck, they only do so when he's not around.
He's sort of like Responsible Dionysus for the Aztecs.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Defining the Ultimate
Question: I know y'all here on JSR are only up to Legend 9 or 10, but have you given any thought to Ultimate Attributes? Are y'all just going to stick with how they are in "God" or do you have a homebrew planned?
Oh, question-asker, you silly goose. When do we ever stick with how something appears in Scion: God?
We're already treating Ultimate Attributes a bit differently in that gods need to have them in order to have Epic Attributes associated; just as a god needs a purview Avatar to be associated with that purview, he needs the Ultimate to be associated with that Attribute. The old system of associating Epic Attributes at level 8 was more than a bit silly - why make it so incredibly much easier than purviews, especially since gods much more frequently have purviews associated in myth than Attributes? - and seemed to us to primarily exist in order to let PCs grant things to Scions, but since we're already doing that with our PC god-promotion system, it's an idiosyncracy that doesn't need to exist anymore. All of the game's ultimate powers are on an equal playing field for us.
Past that, we will indeed be tinkering with what they do; some of them are perfectly fine (Ultimate Stamina: doing what Ultimate Stamina should!), others are great but kind of nonsensical (Ultimate Wits, what are you doing being Prophecy?) and still others are desperately unexciting compared to their fellows (Ultimate Appearance... what). It's not one of our first priorities at the moment because, as you noted, our PCs are far away from getting these powers, but they definitely need an overhaul and we're pretty excited about giving them one.
In a similar vein, we'll also be tinkering with purview Avatars at the same time; they're more story guideline powers at that point (what the old World of Darkness called Plot Device Powers) than things that need very strong rules attached, but we still want to make sure they're ship-shape before people start buying them. In particular, we want to differentiate the Wyrd; while the idea that Magic, Mystery and Prophecy all come from the same source (Fate) is totally legitimate in Scion, we're pretty sure that a prophet's expression of divine power is not going to look the same as a mage's, so we'll be exploring how to make them different without losing their unique Fate flavor.
We're thinking we may include Ultimates and Avatars in the next round of new knacks and boons we get to fiddle with.
Oh, question-asker, you silly goose. When do we ever stick with how something appears in Scion: God?
We're already treating Ultimate Attributes a bit differently in that gods need to have them in order to have Epic Attributes associated; just as a god needs a purview Avatar to be associated with that purview, he needs the Ultimate to be associated with that Attribute. The old system of associating Epic Attributes at level 8 was more than a bit silly - why make it so incredibly much easier than purviews, especially since gods much more frequently have purviews associated in myth than Attributes? - and seemed to us to primarily exist in order to let PCs grant things to Scions, but since we're already doing that with our PC god-promotion system, it's an idiosyncracy that doesn't need to exist anymore. All of the game's ultimate powers are on an equal playing field for us.
Past that, we will indeed be tinkering with what they do; some of them are perfectly fine (Ultimate Stamina: doing what Ultimate Stamina should!), others are great but kind of nonsensical (Ultimate Wits, what are you doing being Prophecy?) and still others are desperately unexciting compared to their fellows (Ultimate Appearance... what). It's not one of our first priorities at the moment because, as you noted, our PCs are far away from getting these powers, but they definitely need an overhaul and we're pretty excited about giving them one.
In a similar vein, we'll also be tinkering with purview Avatars at the same time; they're more story guideline powers at that point (what the old World of Darkness called Plot Device Powers) than things that need very strong rules attached, but we still want to make sure they're ship-shape before people start buying them. In particular, we want to differentiate the Wyrd; while the idea that Magic, Mystery and Prophecy all come from the same source (Fate) is totally legitimate in Scion, we're pretty sure that a prophet's expression of divine power is not going to look the same as a mage's, so we'll be exploring how to make them different without losing their unique Fate flavor.
We're thinking we may include Ultimates and Avatars in the next round of new knacks and boons we get to fiddle with.
Theming...nothing more then...themings
I ....am not good at titles.
Today I wanna take a break from questions to talk about theme. As I get back to work on both games, I find myself stuck in a bit of a theme rut. Theme was always BY FAR the hardest thing for me to grasp in school. As a kid I was a BIG math and science guy, and theme seemed to elude me. The theme was always elusive, enigmatic, never definite. As a storyteller its INCREDIBLY easy to completely ignore it. Sometimes it'll pop up without you even noticing, but often it wont. And a story without a theme is a very 1 dimensional story indeed. As I've grown as an ST over these years Ive found more and more how important theme is. Rarely will it be something players even consciously notice(much like me in english class), but it'll work on a deeper level for them, and it will make the whole experience more enriching. Onward!
Eastern promises has been quasi without theme so far. Its been more of a setting piece. We explore the world, the time period, the "flavor" of it all, but dont "necessarily have overlying themes. That can only last so long though, and as they approach demigod its definitely time to make the story deeper and more engaging.
Also with Ragnarok story coming to a close, its time to think about where to go with that story. What themes apply to those characters and how we can tie those all together to give the new group some coherent themes for the next giant arch.
In eastern promises we have a young group of scions who are mostly lost. Their parents are distant and secretive and the world is not appreciative of them. They feel the oppressiveness of their pantheons virtues starting to take whole in their minds without explanation. They also suffer from constant societal oppression. They are the wrong color, they are the wrong gender, they are the wrong religion. They are not white, land owning men.
I want to gravitate towards themes we havnt used for a game before(or maybe used, but not focused on), and I want to weave these into the heroes' stories through at least the first arch.
Gender
We've already dealt with this as an obstacle throughout the game so far, but I'd like to change it from an obstacle into a theme. Instead of just effecting the women, how does it effect everyone. We have at least one character that straddles gender. Might there be more? When the PCs find out about people who dont fit gender molds how do they react? How does their harmony and order react? Will they be surprisingly 21st century for 19th century people or will they embrace their ancient heritage and be pretty much horrible to everyone?
Sexuality and Sexual Identity
This ties in with gender almost mandatorily. I think because gender is taking a front seat role sexuality will have to follow suit. We've definitely had a lot of sex in games before, but sexuality hasnt taken a front seat before. Mythology lets you run even more wild with this concept then humanity does. And I think this crop of PCs spans the options nicely, and it will be interesting to see how they grow. Some are already married. Others are happily bachelored or celibate. Also at this time sexual identity of any kind is being crushed by Victorian era ideas of sexuality. Its an interesting time period to be a scion.
The Distinction between Public and Private Faces
There seems to be a lot going on in the world of the gods that the PCs are not party to. They are forced to keep their parentage at least mildly secret. They are aware that certain gods are not supposed to be having children, but they seem to keep popping up. They are allies with enemies and enemies with allies. I wont give away anything here for my PCs sake, but there is obviously a lot happening. They will see more and more from their parents the importance, nay necessity of a public and private face. What does that mean when you arent a manipulative person? What does it mean when you're part of a pantheon of brutally honest gods. Most of the pcs have avoided or been sheltered from this necessary evil, but as stress compounds and more and more important things hang in the balance, how easy will it be to keep the two seperate.
Im also excited to see, as the pcs mature as a group, which is their public face and which is their private face. Are they public with the other pcs? Or are the other pcs the only ones who get their private face?
Thanks for going through that exercise with me. You didnt get to see the part where I weighed and considered about 20 themes that *might* work before deciding on those, but forcing myself to write the choices out helped me plow through it. Im pretty excited about setting the seeds for these and letting them bloom and grow over the next few months.
As players or STs are there any themes you found especially fun to explore in scion? Have you ever tried some that you found didnt work out, or didnt play out how you thought they would?
To be honest, the gender and sexuality I've set up as a real challenge for myself. I think there is a high chance it will fall on its face if not done in just the right way. And if its too obvious it'll definitely seem route and boring to PCs. But I enjoy challenges, so this should be a lot of fun.
Today I wanna take a break from questions to talk about theme. As I get back to work on both games, I find myself stuck in a bit of a theme rut. Theme was always BY FAR the hardest thing for me to grasp in school. As a kid I was a BIG math and science guy, and theme seemed to elude me. The theme was always elusive, enigmatic, never definite. As a storyteller its INCREDIBLY easy to completely ignore it. Sometimes it'll pop up without you even noticing, but often it wont. And a story without a theme is a very 1 dimensional story indeed. As I've grown as an ST over these years Ive found more and more how important theme is. Rarely will it be something players even consciously notice(much like me in english class), but it'll work on a deeper level for them, and it will make the whole experience more enriching. Onward!
Eastern promises has been quasi without theme so far. Its been more of a setting piece. We explore the world, the time period, the "flavor" of it all, but dont "necessarily have overlying themes. That can only last so long though, and as they approach demigod its definitely time to make the story deeper and more engaging.
Also with Ragnarok story coming to a close, its time to think about where to go with that story. What themes apply to those characters and how we can tie those all together to give the new group some coherent themes for the next giant arch.
In eastern promises we have a young group of scions who are mostly lost. Their parents are distant and secretive and the world is not appreciative of them. They feel the oppressiveness of their pantheons virtues starting to take whole in their minds without explanation. They also suffer from constant societal oppression. They are the wrong color, they are the wrong gender, they are the wrong religion. They are not white, land owning men.
I want to gravitate towards themes we havnt used for a game before(or maybe used, but not focused on), and I want to weave these into the heroes' stories through at least the first arch.
Gender
We've already dealt with this as an obstacle throughout the game so far, but I'd like to change it from an obstacle into a theme. Instead of just effecting the women, how does it effect everyone. We have at least one character that straddles gender. Might there be more? When the PCs find out about people who dont fit gender molds how do they react? How does their harmony and order react? Will they be surprisingly 21st century for 19th century people or will they embrace their ancient heritage and be pretty much horrible to everyone?
Sexuality and Sexual Identity
This ties in with gender almost mandatorily. I think because gender is taking a front seat role sexuality will have to follow suit. We've definitely had a lot of sex in games before, but sexuality hasnt taken a front seat before. Mythology lets you run even more wild with this concept then humanity does. And I think this crop of PCs spans the options nicely, and it will be interesting to see how they grow. Some are already married. Others are happily bachelored or celibate. Also at this time sexual identity of any kind is being crushed by Victorian era ideas of sexuality. Its an interesting time period to be a scion.
The Distinction between Public and Private Faces
There seems to be a lot going on in the world of the gods that the PCs are not party to. They are forced to keep their parentage at least mildly secret. They are aware that certain gods are not supposed to be having children, but they seem to keep popping up. They are allies with enemies and enemies with allies. I wont give away anything here for my PCs sake, but there is obviously a lot happening. They will see more and more from their parents the importance, nay necessity of a public and private face. What does that mean when you arent a manipulative person? What does it mean when you're part of a pantheon of brutally honest gods. Most of the pcs have avoided or been sheltered from this necessary evil, but as stress compounds and more and more important things hang in the balance, how easy will it be to keep the two seperate.
Im also excited to see, as the pcs mature as a group, which is their public face and which is their private face. Are they public with the other pcs? Or are the other pcs the only ones who get their private face?
Thanks for going through that exercise with me. You didnt get to see the part where I weighed and considered about 20 themes that *might* work before deciding on those, but forcing myself to write the choices out helped me plow through it. Im pretty excited about setting the seeds for these and letting them bloom and grow over the next few months.
As players or STs are there any themes you found especially fun to explore in scion? Have you ever tried some that you found didnt work out, or didnt play out how you thought they would?
To be honest, the gender and sexuality I've set up as a real challenge for myself. I think there is a high chance it will fall on its face if not done in just the right way. And if its too obvious it'll definitely seem route and boring to PCs. But I enjoy challenges, so this should be a lot of fun.
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