All right! As promised, it's time to release a new purview - or, in today's case, two new purviews! Prophecy is today's exciting release, and since Mystery has barely any changes, we're throwing it in for free.
We are incredibly excited about Prophecy, so let me tell you about it for a minute. The old Prophecy purview was thrown together from the work of some previous players right when we started playing the game; we knew that the original book's version of Prophecy, which was functionally useless and frustrating for players and impossible to managefor Storytellers, needed to be replaced, but we were baby game developers back then and not yet ready for how many unique problems Prophecy, as a game concept, really has. The previous version served us well over the years, but we always knew it was lacking; it had only one level of boons for players to choose from, and while some levels saw a ton of use and were perennial prophet favorites, others were ignored so thoroughly that we had to admit they were probably doing a completely poor job of representing a cosmic purview.
So in the Prophecy rewrite, we spent a good long time just talking about what exactly Prophecy is, in both a mythological context and a Scion context, and how we could make sure that the powers Scions have represent it in a meaningful and useful way. We also looked at trying to make Prophecy more cross-culturally applicable, because while the old purview did a pretty decent job of presenting the kind of prophecies familiar from, say, the Norse Ragnarok stories, it was not nearly as good at trying to model the journey-prophecies of the Orisha or the fortune-prophecies of the Shen.
So the Prophecy purview is now a completely new beast; it has been entirely retooled from the ground up, and contains only one crossover power from the old purview (although there are several boons that use similar ideas from the old purview). There are two boons per level now, and the major theme that runs through the purview is that prophecy is the tool of Fate and the way that it writes a hero's story; so, as a prophet yourself, you can see what the "story" looks like in advance, and eventually help write it in a limited sense. Of all purviews, Prophecy is the one that has to do with the actual story structure of a hero's life and journey, and therefore Scions with prophetic vision are those rare characters who can actually read the saga of their own adventures in advance, and ensure that they come to pass.
Without further ado, here are Mystery and Prophecy - go out and enjoy them, and if you have any questions, drop them in the comments below!
MYSTERY
Mystery still works as normal. However, it now costs points of Legend equal to your dots of Mystery to use, instead of one.
PROPHECY
Fatigue Penalties: The system for assigning fatigue penalties to prophets and oracles has been completely changed. There is now a table detailing how penalties are assigned for various boons and how they affect specific Attributes.
LEVEL ONE:
Hero's Herald: This is a new boon that allows Scions to give their bandmates a one-time bonus to an important roll in a heroic scene later in the story.
Minor Visions: This boon no longer exists.
True Nature: This is a new boon that allows Scions to grant additional dots of Determination to themselves and others.
LEVEL TWO:
Expanded Awareness: This boon can no longer be entirely trumped by the Opening Gambit knack.
Omen: This is a new boon that allows Scions to receive and read one omen per story with a lasting effect on the band.
LEVEL THREE:
Destined Drive: This is a new boon that allows Scions to grant bonuses to specific Virtues that bolster the theme of the story.
Flash of Foresight: This is a new boon that allows Scions to foresee and thus avoid attacks aimed at them.
Search for a Sign: This boon no longer exists.
LEVEL FOUR:
Hero of Fate: This is a new boon that allows Scions to assign heroic archetypes to themselves and their bandmates for various bonuses and penalties.
Lateral Prognostication: This boon no longer exists.
Legendary Vision: This is a new boon that allows Scions to foresee the final climactic moment of the story and regain Legend points when it arrives.
LEVEL FIVE:
Become the Herald: This boon no longer exists.
Fates Foretold: This is a new boon that allows Scions to foresee two important events during the story and grant their band bonus Legendary Deeds when they arrive.
Seer of Signs: This is a new boon that allows Scions to read omens with lasting effects at will.
LEVEL SIX:
Forespeak Destruction: This boon no longer exists.
Shared Burden: This boon allows Scions to grant others Legend points in return for sharing their fatigue penalties.
Tragic Flaw: This boon allows Scions to heighten a target's Virtue for the rest of the story.
LEVEL SEVEN:
Fate Meditation: This boon no longer exists.
Grip of Fate: This boon allows Scions to prevent a target from rerolling or performing Defensive Do-Overs.
Prophesied Greatness: This boon allows Scions to make powers with positive Fatebonds cost less while making powers with negative Fatebonds cost more.
LEVEL EIGHT:
Avert Disaster: This is a new boon that allows Scions to prevent a foreseen attack from striking a comrade.
Fated Prowess: This is a new boon that allows Scions to choose a single Attribute that is immune to fatige penalties.
Raveled Road: This boon no longer exists.
LEVEL NINE:
Shared Destiny: This is a new boon that allows Scions to return targets to their pantheon's original Virtues, or purge Dark Virtues from them.
Unwanted Auspices: This is a new boon that allows Scions to choose not to be affected by omens when they wish.
Voice of Fate: This boon no longer exists.
LEVEL TEN:
Negative Prophecy: This boon no longer exists.
Prophetic Vision: This is a new boon that allows Scions to dispense prophecies for other people and bands.
Vessel of Fate: This is a new boon that allows Scions to temporarily convert their fatigue penalties into bonuses.
This concludes the first "round" of purview rewrites; the Fate purviews are complete, so now we will be moving on to the elementals. Hooray!
So, this is cheating, but I do occasionally check your character sheets to see how the PCs progress...
ReplyDeleteAnd I see that Eztli's sheet now has two separate Purviews for Sky and Thunder....
So there is some clue as to how the elementals are gonna go down :D
We test-pilot things on our characters sometimes, so they get the changes before they're ready for the site now and then. :)
DeleteOk, so I went and looked at Sangria's sheet...and I am so torn now. I want the Water rewrite so badly, but now I wanna see the new Thunder and Sky Purviews!
DeleteOf course, knowing my luck, you'll just go alphabetically and those will be the three last Purviews in the second round. This whole project is going to be a test of patience in the best way possible! :)
Well, I can tell you it's not alphabetical, but that's all I'm allowed to say about the order!
DeleteWasn't there a schedule on the Magic rewrite?
DeleteIndeed there is, but only of which groups of purviews we're doing, not in what order. Elementals are up next, which includes Earth, Fire, Frost, Sky and water.
Deletei am so hyped on Frost, it has forever been one of my favourite purviews, and i can't wait to see what happens to it.
DeleteRight there with you about Frost! Definitely my favorite Elemental Purview... then again, my all-around-favorite has just been redone fantastically, so I can't complain! <3
DeleteOne of the most interesting things about the Deva for me is how they never, EVER use Prophecy. From the looks of this rewrite, they might reconsider their position. I know I did. Prophecy was never a Purview I cared about too much...but you just made being a Prophet awesome!
ReplyDeleteNow, questions:
1. How does fatigue for the same attribute stack?
2. Hero's Herald: Who decides how many band members are in the vision, player or storyteller?
3. Hero of Fate: Firstly, this is my favourite of the bunch. Now, can two band members have the same archetype? And if they do, do their bonuses cancel each other out? If we ever had 24 Purviews (like, if, just suppose, one particular Purview were to split onto two somehow), would Magicians gain a second favoured Purview? And finally, shouldn't Warrior be Courage and Seeker Duty?
4. How long does Tragic Flaw's fatigue penalty last?
5. Prophesied Greatness: This description talks of Boons from an Attribute. Um, what? Also, the description seems to imply that you get the penalties for all non-positively Fatebound attributes, but only get the bonus for one positively bound one " finds that all boons or knacks from AN Attribute to which they possess a positive Fatebond are lowered in cost by two points". Please tell me I'm reading that wrong.
Overall, I foresee great things for this Purview rewrite project!
1. Fatigue penalties stack directly. If you're suffering from one dose of Bluntness, for example, you have a penalty of Prophecy boons in dice from your Manipulation knack rolls; if you gain another dose of Bluntness, you'll suffer from twice your Prophecy boons in dice, and so on. At early levels, prophets shouldn't have too much overlapping on their fatigue penalties unless they're very unlucky at rolling, and later they should be able to handle a few unless they're already poor at that Attribute.
Delete2. All band members are affected by the boon - so if there are five people in the group all of them (including the prophet herself) get the future bonus. The description of the vision itself is up to the stunting of the Storyteller and prophetic player.
3. Thank you for noticing that - it should say that you can only have one example of a given archetype in the band at a time. If we already have one Destroyer, the story Fate is writing doesn't need another one at the same time. :) Magicians do only get Magic at the moment (explained due to the direct opposition between Magic and Prophecy), but we would consider adding another purview to it if it became appropriate. We thought about that Virtue arrangement, but in terms of heroic archetypes, the Warrior is more often acting on a duty to someone else in the story, whereas the Seeker is more often taking his own risks and chances, so we settled on Duty for the first and Courage for the second.
4. Thank you for noting again - the fatigue penalty lasts for the rest of the story (or into the next story if used at the end of one), same as the Virtue bonuses.
5. That's just a grammar quirk, it's saying all boons or knacks from an Attribute as two separate things. Knacks don't get Fatebonds, their Attributes do, so I was trying to be clear. However, I think I'll reword it slightly in hopes of preventing confusion! And yes, you are reading it wrong - all positive FB stats are cheaper, all neutral and negative FB are more expensive.
1. Got it.
Delete2. Got it.
3. Perhaps it should be called Soldier instead? Soldiers are all about Duty.
4. Got it.
5. Well, in my defence, Boons don't individually get bonuses either, Purviews as a whole do...right?
I cannot wait to find out what you guys do with the Elemental Purviews...I always take at least one of them when I design a character. I'm especially looking forward to Water, my favourite element. I basically have a bet going with myself as to whether Changing States stays or goes :)
Already fixed the wording. :)
DeleteHey, if it's a bet with yourself, you win either way!
Also, you totally wanted us to find out about the Sky/Thunder split weren't you? :) (Admittedly, I was hoping it would be called Storm, but hey, I'm not complaining).
ReplyDeleteI'll have you know we waffled over whether to call it Thunder or Storm forever. Eventually, we decided that we slightly preferred Thunder because Storm implies some storms that aren't included in the purview (blizzards, for example, which are in Frost), and because we already have a ton of purviews that start with S anyway.
DeleteGreat work as always!
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to chime in that I noticed a hilarious combo. Omen of Victory + Last Act. Once you know Omen of Victory is in effect, you decide to sacrifice your own life to do the impossible.
You could successfully fight off entire armies (looking at you Cú Chulainn), or successfully convince a pantheon to do something important, before you topple over and die from your own awesome.
I cannot even decide if a storyteller should allow such a thing. On the one hand it is bonkers. On the other hand it has the potential to be incredibly epic, and your character is absolutely doomed.
Ha, interesting. It requires complete unequivocal sacrifice of a character, but it could also be completely madly powerful. good food for thought, I'm not sure how I would handle that!
DeleteBy the way, I really love the new colour schemes you have foing for the Boon names: arcane purple for Magic, grey like the mists of fate for Prophecy!
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear it! Since we're pretty much changing... everything, we decided that we've reached the point where the color-coding from the original books no longer applies anyway, and we wanted to get rid of the pesky problem some of them have right now with not being clear about where the name of one boon ends and another begins.
DeleteIt is indeed amazing colouring!
DeleteDo you activate Flash of Foresight before of after the damage roll?
ReplyDeleteAfter - you can wait and see if it would actually hurt you before needing to decide if you want to FoF.
DeleteI haven't finished reading it, but I'm already printing it and throwing it at my ST's face repeatedly. It's that good so far! I've never been so excited to go back and play my Prophecy character, argh!
ReplyDeleteGlad you like it. :) Go easy on your ST, though - we can get testy when surprised!
DeleteOh, I'm only doing it because I know he'll like it just as much! I'm super excited for it as an ST myself, the storytelling opportunities it brings are just too good!
DeleteWell, i am hereby cancelling my campaign untill one of my players make a Prophecy character....
ReplyDeleteOr well, not really... but i feel like they should just all take prophecy, no matter how it fits their characters... your rewrite is just THAT awesome.
Very glad you like it. :) We do, too!
DeleteDoes the Avert Disaster really take no time to cast?
ReplyDeleteThat's correct - it's reflexive. However, it's pretty darn expensive, so the odds of a Prophecy character being to shut down a whole combat are slim to none.
DeleteMy friend and i were having a little headbutting over the fact that it's a perfect defence (as long as its against physical things). Or rather that both that and Flash of Forsight is so.
DeleteIt seems really strong to have an effect like Skin shedding that can be used multiple times per combat.
Avert disaster can only be used on Allies right?
If thats the case, is the ''avoid allies grim fate'' rule at the end just a fancy way of saying ''here's an alternate cost'' or does it work on even non-physical things if you allow yourself to take that fatigue penalty?
What was the reasoning behind having perfect defences in the game in the first place? I mean, the scaling legend cost and 3 ticks distraction seems a reasonable offset, but mabye it needs a little more... like always applying a penalty too? (also, me and my friend have been discussing the ''discraction'' 3-tick thing on a more flavourful plane. Do you guys think the 3 ticks represents you dodging because you know how to dodge because you saw it comming, or did it just not hit you because you mentally knew it would hit if you stood in a certain spot? The distraction part leads me to think mental, while he finds ultimate sence in it being physical)
Sorry for the long list of question-shinannigans... new purview, new things to get used to and all that :P
No worries, we are here to provide answers!
DeleteFirst of all, it's not a "perfect defense". It only works against physical attacks against you, meaning it doesn't do a single thing if someone decides to blast you with Infect or Starfire or Afraid of the Dark or any other magical effect, so you're hardly safe from all harm. It also has no effect on "attacks" like Overt Order or Cycle of Madness that target and affect you but are purely magical effects with no damage component. And while it does prevent you from taking any damage from a physical strike, you can't do it for long; its escalatingly expensive for the prophet to do it for herself, and dangerously expensive for her to do it for anyone else.
For example, if you buy this when it's first available to you at Legend 4, you can use it to avoid an attack for 3 Legend (triple the cost of Skin-Shedding). If you want to use it for a second attack, it costs 6 Legend (so you've now spent 9 Legend total on avoiding damage). If you want to use it for a third attack, you can't; it now costs 9 Legend, for a total of 18 Legend spent on avoiding damage, and at Legend 4 you only had 16 to begin with even if you came in completely full and spent no Legend on anything else. At the highest level, when you're a Legend 12 god and have 144 Legend points at your disposal, you could theoretically pop this power in a single day is about 48 times - but only if you had all your Legend at the beginning of that day and if you spent it on absolutely nothing else and if you somehow had no other cheaper defenses whatsoever.
It's really not an overwhelmingly awesome combat power; it's too expensive to keep using more than a few times, and the Legend you're using on it would be better spent on things that allow you to kill your foe faster or more cheaply save you from damage (Skin-Shedding, Damage Conversion, DDOs, etc). It's nice to be able to say that you can avoid a strike aimed at your face when you really need to, but do you really want to do it more than a few times, burning double digits of Legend? Rather, it's more useful as a panic button for prophets who aren't primarily combatters, and who may need an out for situations they couldn't otherwise handle once in a while. Characters of either type can use it and use it well, but it's intentionally designed to cost too much to be your frontline defense power.
Avert Disaster can only be used on people in your own band, yes. And again, it's expensive as shit - 10L is a ninth of your Legend pool when you first get it and will be a 14th of it even at your highest possible Legend, and fatigue penalties are dangerous things to take even though they make it technically "free". It's great for saving someone that you're afraid is about to die, but how often do you want to blow 10L an attack on doing nothing but preventing your friend from taking damage? How many times do you want to do that per day - 30, 40, 50 Legend worth? Or would you rather take cripplingly low penalties to your stats instead? (I'll grant you could get awesomely lucky and roll a lot of 10s on your fatigue penalties, but you can never count on it.) And no, that's just flavor text - just like FoF, Avert can only prevent physical damage, not provide a defense against any magical powers.
The 3-tick penalty is basically a "stun" mechanic - while you didn't need a whole action, removing yourself from danger prevents you from doing anything else for those three seconds, which you needed to succeed. We would allow players to stunt that however they like - maybe they needed the 3 seconds to get out of the way, maybe they needed them to concentrate and see into the future, whatever works for you. The point is that you can't avoid damage and punch the guy in the face the next tick. :)
I think a Legend 4 would be more like... 3 Legend - 2 stunt reward = 1 total. 6 Legend - 2 stunt reward = 5 total. 9 Legend - 2 stunt reward = 12 total. 12 Legend - 2 stunt reward = 15 total.
DeleteSo one more than advertised, but still severely limited!
Nevermind. I fail at math. Even taking stunting int account it is still only 3 uses without taking a break for more stunts at Legend 4.
DeleteIf your ST is giving away 2-legend rewards for stunting the same thing over and over... he's kinda doing it wrong?
DeleteAlso, I can visualize how a prophet could use Flash of Foresight to step out of the way at the last second, but how does it work for bandmates? How is the attack resolved? Is the friend granted a sudden flash of insight as well or is it more like a reroll in that it never really happened that way in the first place?
We're pretty awesome as players and earn plenty of 2 die stunts. Also the RAW specifically tells you what you need to include to get a 2 die stunt :P
DeleteIm certain that you guys are awesome players. But he book also says for 3 dice stunts you get xp....I suggest not following the RAW. As mario says, doing the same stunt(or very similar one) over and over should net zero dice soon.
DeleteMario: A suggested stunt for avert would be: right before the attack hit, I threw a rock at my friends head so that he turned to look at me and avoided the attack. Or, I saw the attack coming, so right before I closed the door of the door way he was standing in front of and the attack hit the door instead. Something like that.
Great stuff!
ReplyDeleteI'm especially fond of Prophesied Greatness.
Are there any changes to how Prophecy might interact with Ori?
What happens with Shared Destiny if, say, a Dodekatheon god had Expression 2, Intellect 5, Valor 1, Vengeance 5, and Malice 3?
What happens when someone uses Shared Destiny on a Bogovi? Or, for that matter, uses Shared Destiny on a Bogovi's band? They might end up with 5s in all native virtues very quickly... what happens after that, if it's used again on them, but their native virtues can't go any higher?
We're going to do a full check over Ori later to make sure that it doesn't have any particular problems with the new Prophecy. Let us know if you run into one!
DeleteIf you have someone with four Virtues plus a Dark Virtue, you could used Shared Destiny to either remove the Dark Virtue, or reset the other four to their pantheon defaults. If you wanted to do both, you'd have to use the boon twice.
The Bogovi actually are mostly immune to Shared Destiny unless they've had crazy stuff happen to them - they can't switch out their normal Bogovi virtues at character creation, so they're less likely to have different ones to begin with. Since the extra Virtue is a result of Dvoeverie and not a change to their basic Virtue set, Prophesied Greatness wouldn't mess with it.
Mostly I was wondering how it might interact with bandmates subject to Dva Dukhom. Would it remove the phantom Slavic Virtues?
DeleteAlso, less of a mechanics question and more of a question for John as an ST. How much do you tend to keep track of Fatebonds for NPCs like Jay Ortiz or the Jade Emperor or Ishtar? The thought came up as a result of Prophesied Greatness.
No, it wouldn't. Dva Dukhom is a PSP boon that specifically adds extra Virtues. Prophesied Greatness can change the four the PC came in with, but it won't get to trump the entire Slavic PSP.
DeleteWe might want to talk about what to do in the rare case that a Scion has more than four Virtues, though - that has happened occasionally in our games.
I actually noticed that on your sheets, but dismissed it for the time being, but here's a great opportunity to ask!
DeleteHow does that work? how does it happen?
Usually because someone high-level with Magic is meddling with a Scion's stats, or because of exposure to Titans. :)
DeleteWhile we're asking about Virtues, Tragic Flaw states it can only grant two dots of a Virtue to a target, but it also says a target's Virtue maximum is raised to 9... I've always run with a maximum of 5, is there a maximum of 7 house ruled somewhere I haven't seen?
DeleteAlso, assuming the enemy gets a 9-dot Virtue... do they get 37 dice/successes when channeling it at Demigod/God? If that's the case... yikes, it seems like an incredibly sharp double-edged sword!
Belltrap: Generally no. I certainly dont make them specific fatebonds. But I kind of keep an idea going of what they might have. And I do give them their dice/lose them their dice when they do rolls.
DeleteAlso occasionally. the fatebond on an npc is an important part of a story, and then I'll keep track of it.
Mario: The "normal cap" is 5, but the houserule is that they can go to 7 if a power would raise them for a bit(like blessing of bravery or the like. Yes, 9 dot virtues would give you awesome power....but good lord you could never roll against them.
Anne: So, when gaining a Dark Virtue it comes in excess to the ones you already have? I always thought it just replaced the one you're most disconnected from.
DeleteJohn: So, if a player had Sedna's nail, would their maximum then be 10? or can people with the nail only raise their 6 dot vengeance to 7 with blessing of bravery?
It depends on what happened. In some cases it replaces, in others adds - different things have happened to different PCs. :)
DeleteOk, I'll bite - the Prophecy overhaul is awesome and I've completely stolen it! Could you elaborate on why Prophecy got an overhaul, but Mystery did not?
ReplyDeleteSpecifically - I think that you did an excellent job of modeling the cross-cultural aspects of Prophecy (the Norse doom-prophecies, Orisha journey-prophecies, and Shen fortune-prophecies).
It seems to me that Mystery is used to represent a variety of different concepts as well. Odin, Ogma, and Thoth would have it associated because they are keepers of esoterica, arcane secrets, and/or forbidden knowledge, Dionysus would have it because of his strong association with mystery cults, Orunmila would have it because of his ability to interpret Fate and destiny to know the unknowable, and Vishnu and Atar would have it as purveyors of enlightenment and spiritual understanding.
(I'm not sure about Olokun? Chang'e, Guanyin, and Huang Di are also listed as having it, but I know you guys aren't messing with East Asia right now).
So, I guess my questions is: is solitary ability to pull the answers to questions out of thin air sufficient to represent these different cultural interpretations of Mystery?
(And is this question complicated enough to merit its own post?)
I'll pitch in with an opinion: Prophecy is a power with many uses across cultures; the Aesir like to know the final fate of things, the Orisha use it to know what kinds of awesome stuff they can do, the Greeks use it to make their will known to humanity etc. Which is why Prophecy needs must have a variety of Boons.
DeleteMystery, on the other hand, is used in many different ways...Vishnu contemplating his own awesomeness, Odin hanging himself as a sacrifice of himself to himself, Dionysus getting hammered, Thoth speaking secret spells of knowledge...but they all DO the same thing: find out stuff they otherwise couldn't know. I DO think that Mystery needs some system to represent Gods granting their wisdom to mortals, but it doesn't really need individual Boons.
My two cents.
But wouldn't a god granting their wisdom to mortals just as easily be done through a prophecy? Or less expensive, a messenger?
DeleteI'm not talking about a God walking up to a mortal and giving him the weather report...I'm talking about modelling things like the insight granted to Dionysus' followers when they are in the depths of intoxication...I'm talking about the glossolalia in the more esoteric denominations of Christianity...I'm talking about devotees of Vishnu and Shiva entering trance states and receiving divine knowledge from the Gods...I'm talking about the Dreamtime shamans of the Australian outback...yes, all of this could be easily done with a messenger, but that's not how it happens in mythology, and therefore that is not how it should happen in Scion.
DeleteBesides, using a messenger isn't less expensive, it's just someone else paying the cost to go between Worlds.
Not necessarily, what about fateful connection tied with telepathy? Presumably when you set up your cult, you tell them how to worship you. That act of worship is a prayer that you would hear. You then use telepathy to zap info directly into their brain. It accomplishes the effect and doesn't necessarily get fate involved more than it has to when it comes to the mortals. It's essentially a giant stunt, and depending on your relics, that stunt can gain you legend or bonuses every time they perform the ritual and you respond. Sacred image also accomplishes the effect though not nearly as I expensively as telepathy
DeleteI agree that there are many ways of accomplishing this effect. I just feel that Prophet and Mystic Gods should have such a power as part of their repertoire without having to resort to other Purviews and Attributes. It feels a bit like telling a Frost user that he can't shape existing ice and snow unless he also buys Water (which, incidentally, is exactly the case at the moment. Frost has nothing short of Blizzard Call that shapes existing ice, while Water can do it with Changing States. I really hope this gets fixed in the rewrite).
DeleteFrozen Panoply?
DeleteLet's you create items made of ice...it doesn't actually let you control already existing ice. I know, I got confused when I first realized that too. I discussed it with Anne earlier here: http://johnsscionresources.blogspot.in/2013/05/big-ol-boon-post.html#comment-form
Deletewhere she agrees with me that this needs looking into.
I guess I just don't see the In-game mechanics that would matter for the boon to work that way. Then again I'm pretty far from a mechanics wizard. I look forward to seeing what happens.
DeleteProphetic Vision was our new version of allowing Prophecy gods to grant visions of the future to other people or groups; depending on what power they use on someone else, that person may be directly experiencing a prophetic vision all their own, or they may be providing a prophecy about another group of people, oracle-style, who are not related to them. It's a little less direct than the old Voice of Fate, but we still like it (and are hoping it'll be something that prophets are more motivated to use now).
DeleteI agree, Mystery doesn't have an equivalent boon. We didn't rewrite it just because we really like it in its current, no-boons form and always have; that's also why we never rewrote it back in the day when we set in place the old set of Prophecy boons. Discovering or being connected to hidden knowledge is represented pretty ably by the ability to suddenly receive information from Fate no matter how an individual culture approaches that idea or stunts rituals for it, so we weren't feeling any sting suggesting that some cultures weren't being represented. Dionysus discovering things in the depths of intoxication or Thoth dismantling the secrets of the universe both model perfectly well on the same base system there.
But, I will agree that it's a lot harder to be a Mystery oracle than a Prophecy one, at the moment, and that Mystery oracles were definitely things that existed in some religions. We'll think about it - as Tom says, there are ways to do that already, but it bears thinking about whether or not they're the best representation of receiving Mystery knowledge.
It's just that Prophetic Vision always specifies that you can only use the power on another Band...in other words, only another Scion. What about Apollo granting visions to the Oracle of Delphi, who is, presumably, a mortal?
DeleteAlso, just so were clear, I love Mystery in the simplicity that it is now, and I don't really think it needs to be a Boon style Purview...I just think that the whole Mystery Oracle thing should be a part of the Mystery Purview as currently written.
DeleteWe assume that the oracular seat at Delphi is a relic belonging to Apollo, so it would ignore normal prophetic rules. :) Also, it's been a bit of a conceit in our games that most oracles of Delphi were probably Apollo's children, although that doesn't need to be something every game does.
DeleteBasically, having a boon that grants prophecies the way old Voice of Fate does was just super underwhelming - we chewed on it for a while, but cuoldn't find a way that it was going to be something Scions were going to be excited to have and use, especially since it needed to be god-level. So, instead we went with the idea that most people who receive prophecies are heroes of legend or Scions anyway, so they're the ones that the new boon targets.
Mystery is definitely an issue, though, I agree.
Hmm...could Prophetic Vision be stunted to work via mortals for purely cosmetic purposes? Say, instead of directly making a Prophecy about another Scion, or giving him a vision, I have an Omen delivered to him via some random person who's in his immediate vicinity? All fatigue of course affecting the proper individual, not said mouthpiece.
DeleteYes, I think thats fine. Any little magical spirit, or my own telepathy could do it. Or you could use grant visions on them to give them the entire prophecy?
DeleteSo, I just looked this bad boy over, and I must say I'm impressed! I liked your original Prophecy re-write just fine, but this is even better.
ReplyDeleteI was on the phone with one of my players last night and I read off a few of the Boon write-ups to him, and he was most intrigued. He said he may just start thinking up a good character to play as a Prophet guy.
Excellent work, you two! Can't wait to see what you've got planned for the elemental Purviews next!
Awesome! We're so glad you guys like it. I'm excited to want to play a new prophet myself.
DeleteHi gang, great rewrite.
ReplyDeleteI'm already having nightmares of Omen stories yet to come - and have a question about "Omen of Victory" in the Level 2 Omen Boon.
In this Omen, if you fail a roll, you spend Legend until you succeed, and then take lethal thereafter. Three questions come from this :
1) Does the Omen force spending health levels only until incapacitated, or do these wrap over naturally? In other words, if you wander into the presence of a boss-level social power, hostile or not, way out of your league, do you fall into incap lethal or wrap around to aggro until you're dead?
2) Whenever a member of a band uses Charmer, everyone needs to roll resist, including his band. In cases like this, where band-mates roll off against one another, especially in reflexive rolls, would they both keep spending legend and then health levels until one of them is dead?
3) In Mystery, particularly fateful questions can be very "expensive" in mystery question-points, but are not always know. When someone asks a Mystery questions that unexpectedly "costs" 30 points, and they only have 8 questions, do they spend 22 legend/take 22 lethal, or does the Mystery simply "fizzle" as normal?
Thanks for answering the late question!
Really excellent questions. Thank you.
Delete1) .....
damn I was gonna answer these and then these are really good damn questions. Lemme get back to you on 1 and 2
3) Since you ask questions after you roll this one works out ok. Your asking questions as normal. You get to a big question, if you dont have enough questions left, you are not forced to roll mystery again to succeed, you merely dont have enough questions left. Although if you wanted to roll mystery after to specfically ask that question, you would lose legend/health to get the number of questons needed.
Also, just double check. Fizzle might be the wrong word there. If you have eight questions left, but the question costs 30, you still get to keep your 8 questions(maybe lose one). You dont lose all 8. you might have known that, just wanna make sure.
Other ones...I'll get back to. that might require a boon edit.