Question: Hey, have you guys ever had a PC serve as a Guide for a NPC Scion?
What a cool idea! We have not, but I'd love to see that someday. It seems like a perfect Birthright for PCs to hand off to their own budding Scions or those of their friends, not to mention being a great source of plot hooks and interjections (serious, deadly or hilarious) into the story proper.
Should it ever come up, I'd suggest sitting down as the Storyteller and coming up with a rough sketch of what this person that the PC is supposed to Guide will be doing and what adventures they'll be going on. That way, you'll have a good idea of what situations might warrant them calling on the Scion and what kinds of stories they might spur in the game, and you can spring those whenever they're most dramatic (or the game just needs a little extra boost).
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Puck Fair
Question: How do you guys handle the Faerie Courts and figures like the Wild Hunt, the Oak and Holly Kings, the Green Man and the Erlking? You've mentioned the Faerie Courts before, but it's an area Scion is very light on.
Scion doesn't touch on fairies much, not even in Companion when they're talking about the Tuatha, which seems like a shame considering how largely the fey folk figure in the myths of Ireland and the other nearby isles. Ragnarok tried to throw out a sort of all-purpose umbrella with the Fairy Troop boon, but it did nothing to add to the general mythic landscape of the game (and was also kind of lame, in our ever-humble opinions).
We've gone with a mix of approaches for our games, usually depending on what we needed most at the time. For one thing, we crib shamelessly from another White Wolf game, the excellent Changeling: the Lost, which is a gorgeous compendium of fairy lore and suggestions for playing with them (and, quite aside from its usefulness for Scion, it's also a great game on its own - it avoids pretty much all the issues that its oWoD counterpart Changeling: the Dreaming was plagued by and is still one of my favorite horror games). Some of it is certainly tweaked for play in White Wolf's World of Darkness, so it's not all straight from the ancient word-of-mouth tales of Europe, but a great deal of it is accurate and what isn't is usually very well-done and eminently usable in a fairy-themed game.
Scion has various other options inherent in its premise; for one thing, you could easily incorporate the vast fairy kingdoms of Ireland and the British Isles into the Tuatha, who in some tales are said to have become the fairies themselves when they departed the world after the coming of Christianity. Running fairies as lesser immortals or even low-rung gods of the Tuatha gives you plenty of room for creativity, not to mention a lot of fun space to play with syncretization (for example, you might decide that since Nuada is king of the Tuatha and Oberon is king of the fairies, the two are actually the same person, that sort of thing). If you don't want the fairies to actually be Tuatha themselves, you still might enjoy the options of exploring how the two races share Tir na Nog or what kind of authority, if any, the fairy courts can exert when dealing with the Irish deities.
Outside of Ireland, most European cultures are kind enough to give us versions of their own fairies to work with (the Greeks are actually pretty well covered, thanks to things like dryads and naiads actually being explored somewhat in the Scion books proper). The Norse are the easiest; we've treated fairies and sprites in the northern lands as subspecies of Alfar in the past, meaning that Alfheim (or Svartalfheim, if you're feeling unseelie) is the place to go to deal with them and that the Vanir may have a closer connection to them than most Aesir. Trying the Alfar/Svartalfar to the fairies of the isles south of them also allows you to experiment with crossovers between the Norse and Irish cultures, which is especially useful if you have Scions of both pantheons in the same game. Germanic lands abound with fairies and fairy-creatures, and if it suits your game's flavor, you might even consider them (at least some of them) subordinate to Odin himself, as many scholars believe that the Wild Hunt is based on the older tales of Odin riding out to battle. I'm personally a big fan of Herne the Hunter as the leader of the Wild Hunt, and he has possible ties to good old Cernunnos, so you could also bring in the Gauls in their most terrifying aspects that way pretty easily.
The Erlking also has Scandinavian roots and can be easily tied to the Svartalfar, but we actually ran him as a very powerful, very specialized kind of troll, mostly to differentiate him from the fairies that we had previously used in other stories. He's most likely a sort of woodland elf, so you could easily fold him into whatever you decide to do to handle those, but he's a very strong figure in his own right and one of the few I'd recommend might actually make it up to the same Legend range as minor gods. Our PCs have not actually encountered him; every time he's been in the vicinity, they've just cut and run since they had infants with them at the time and didn't want to see what his reputation as a baby-stealer was all about.
We haven't really treated the Green Man as a separate figure in his own right - we usually assume that green men are representations of the local fertility god, from the Dagda all the way on down to wee little continental Celtic gods who are probably only Legend 9 or so. If we were going to claim him as a specific figure, it would probably be Cernunnos, but I'm a fan of the symbol being something applied to a wide spread of fertility gods who might appear in that form, rather than a single being of its own.
I'm afraid we really haven't bothered with the Oak and Holly Kings much; like the Green Man, they're more representations and archetypes than individual figures of their own, and are more likely representations of other dualistic or opposing figures. I'd have them more as aspects that related gods take on sometimes than as figures in their own right, but if you're already playing with the Seelie and Unseelie courts (or with the seasoned courts), they make excellent seasonal kings in that context.
Scion is kind of hit-or-miss when it comes to folklore below the god level; you've got all the Greek monsters you could ever want, but the fairies definitely get short shrift, so Storytellers usually end up needing to do a lot of research and legwork of their own to decide who, what and how to use them.
Scion doesn't touch on fairies much, not even in Companion when they're talking about the Tuatha, which seems like a shame considering how largely the fey folk figure in the myths of Ireland and the other nearby isles. Ragnarok tried to throw out a sort of all-purpose umbrella with the Fairy Troop boon, but it did nothing to add to the general mythic landscape of the game (and was also kind of lame, in our ever-humble opinions).
We've gone with a mix of approaches for our games, usually depending on what we needed most at the time. For one thing, we crib shamelessly from another White Wolf game, the excellent Changeling: the Lost, which is a gorgeous compendium of fairy lore and suggestions for playing with them (and, quite aside from its usefulness for Scion, it's also a great game on its own - it avoids pretty much all the issues that its oWoD counterpart Changeling: the Dreaming was plagued by and is still one of my favorite horror games). Some of it is certainly tweaked for play in White Wolf's World of Darkness, so it's not all straight from the ancient word-of-mouth tales of Europe, but a great deal of it is accurate and what isn't is usually very well-done and eminently usable in a fairy-themed game.
Scion has various other options inherent in its premise; for one thing, you could easily incorporate the vast fairy kingdoms of Ireland and the British Isles into the Tuatha, who in some tales are said to have become the fairies themselves when they departed the world after the coming of Christianity. Running fairies as lesser immortals or even low-rung gods of the Tuatha gives you plenty of room for creativity, not to mention a lot of fun space to play with syncretization (for example, you might decide that since Nuada is king of the Tuatha and Oberon is king of the fairies, the two are actually the same person, that sort of thing). If you don't want the fairies to actually be Tuatha themselves, you still might enjoy the options of exploring how the two races share Tir na Nog or what kind of authority, if any, the fairy courts can exert when dealing with the Irish deities.
Outside of Ireland, most European cultures are kind enough to give us versions of their own fairies to work with (the Greeks are actually pretty well covered, thanks to things like dryads and naiads actually being explored somewhat in the Scion books proper). The Norse are the easiest; we've treated fairies and sprites in the northern lands as subspecies of Alfar in the past, meaning that Alfheim (or Svartalfheim, if you're feeling unseelie) is the place to go to deal with them and that the Vanir may have a closer connection to them than most Aesir. Trying the Alfar/Svartalfar to the fairies of the isles south of them also allows you to experiment with crossovers between the Norse and Irish cultures, which is especially useful if you have Scions of both pantheons in the same game. Germanic lands abound with fairies and fairy-creatures, and if it suits your game's flavor, you might even consider them (at least some of them) subordinate to Odin himself, as many scholars believe that the Wild Hunt is based on the older tales of Odin riding out to battle. I'm personally a big fan of Herne the Hunter as the leader of the Wild Hunt, and he has possible ties to good old Cernunnos, so you could also bring in the Gauls in their most terrifying aspects that way pretty easily.
The Erlking also has Scandinavian roots and can be easily tied to the Svartalfar, but we actually ran him as a very powerful, very specialized kind of troll, mostly to differentiate him from the fairies that we had previously used in other stories. He's most likely a sort of woodland elf, so you could easily fold him into whatever you decide to do to handle those, but he's a very strong figure in his own right and one of the few I'd recommend might actually make it up to the same Legend range as minor gods. Our PCs have not actually encountered him; every time he's been in the vicinity, they've just cut and run since they had infants with them at the time and didn't want to see what his reputation as a baby-stealer was all about.
We haven't really treated the Green Man as a separate figure in his own right - we usually assume that green men are representations of the local fertility god, from the Dagda all the way on down to wee little continental Celtic gods who are probably only Legend 9 or so. If we were going to claim him as a specific figure, it would probably be Cernunnos, but I'm a fan of the symbol being something applied to a wide spread of fertility gods who might appear in that form, rather than a single being of its own.
I'm afraid we really haven't bothered with the Oak and Holly Kings much; like the Green Man, they're more representations and archetypes than individual figures of their own, and are more likely representations of other dualistic or opposing figures. I'd have them more as aspects that related gods take on sometimes than as figures in their own right, but if you're already playing with the Seelie and Unseelie courts (or with the seasoned courts), they make excellent seasonal kings in that context.
Scion is kind of hit-or-miss when it comes to folklore below the god level; you've got all the Greek monsters you could ever want, but the fairies definitely get short shrift, so Storytellers usually end up needing to do a lot of research and legwork of their own to decide who, what and how to use them.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
The Long Arm of the Law
Question: When Kettila was still mortal, was she ever hunted by authorities as a serial killer?
Oh, heavens, yes - she is a serial killer. While her murders in Sweden were believed to have been perpetrated by other criminals, her large-scale massacre of an entire Girl Scout camp in the States was inescapable. She went missing immediately after the incident, so authorities weren't sure if she was another victim whose body they hadn't found or the murderer herself, but as soon as there had been sightings of her in the country, she pretty much became suspect number one. She was never caught or tried because of the convenient onset of Fimbulwinter and the subsequent breakdown of a lot of national authority, but she was definitely wanted and narrowly escaped being discovered a few times before then.
Alas, now that the World is in terrible shape and it's hard to keep a centralized authority going, her later murders (gas station attendants, hapless hotel travelers, whatever) have gone pretty unnoticed in the general sea of horribleness (though Vivian, Aurora and Woody generally tried to keep a restraining hand on her). Now that she's a goddess in her own right, it's doubtful that anyone's ever going to take her to task for them, especially not her Aztlanti fellows, though a god with Justice could bust her if they were aware of the situation and so chose (that's happened to Sangria, actually).
Luckily for Kettila, there are bigger things afoot than a few murdered mortals. Poor mortals.
Oh, heavens, yes - she is a serial killer. While her murders in Sweden were believed to have been perpetrated by other criminals, her large-scale massacre of an entire Girl Scout camp in the States was inescapable. She went missing immediately after the incident, so authorities weren't sure if she was another victim whose body they hadn't found or the murderer herself, but as soon as there had been sightings of her in the country, she pretty much became suspect number one. She was never caught or tried because of the convenient onset of Fimbulwinter and the subsequent breakdown of a lot of national authority, but she was definitely wanted and narrowly escaped being discovered a few times before then.
Alas, now that the World is in terrible shape and it's hard to keep a centralized authority going, her later murders (gas station attendants, hapless hotel travelers, whatever) have gone pretty unnoticed in the general sea of horribleness (though Vivian, Aurora and Woody generally tried to keep a restraining hand on her). Now that she's a goddess in her own right, it's doubtful that anyone's ever going to take her to task for them, especially not her Aztlanti fellows, though a god with Justice could bust her if they were aware of the situation and so chose (that's happened to Sangria, actually).
Luckily for Kettila, there are bigger things afoot than a few murdered mortals. Poor mortals.
Monday, May 14, 2012
This Have I Sworn
Question: Do you ever plan to revamp Enech? It's such a neat purview as it is written, but after reading your Heku and Jotunblut revamps, I'm wondering what you might be thinking for Enech.
We've done a few passes at Enech (mostly trying to tighten up the most obvious spots for abuse and adding a few new types of geasa), but you're right, John's been just itching to do a thorough deep-dive on it for a while now. It's not a priority at the moment (argh, I feel like I say that so often! Scion, why you no make it easy to do everything at once?) because we don't have any active Irish PCs, but it's definitely on the short list of things we'd love to work on a little bit.
Personally, I love geasa but find several of Enech's boons oddly off-kilter, especially ones that don't seem to have a mythical precedent (like Twist Geas, which actually runs pretty counter to the whole geasa-as-sacred-oaths idea). I'd love to work on it being more cohesive and having more to do with those sacred covenants and forbiddances, rather than having a few weird powers sticking out at odd angles.
When I poked John about his ideas for a revamp on the purview, he mumbled something about kingship, geasa and dominion over certain spheres of influence, but then he passed out again because he's preparing for a marathon immersion in the new release of Diablo III tonight, so that may be all we'll get out of him for a while.
We've done a few passes at Enech (mostly trying to tighten up the most obvious spots for abuse and adding a few new types of geasa), but you're right, John's been just itching to do a thorough deep-dive on it for a while now. It's not a priority at the moment (argh, I feel like I say that so often! Scion, why you no make it easy to do everything at once?) because we don't have any active Irish PCs, but it's definitely on the short list of things we'd love to work on a little bit.
Personally, I love geasa but find several of Enech's boons oddly off-kilter, especially ones that don't seem to have a mythical precedent (like Twist Geas, which actually runs pretty counter to the whole geasa-as-sacred-oaths idea). I'd love to work on it being more cohesive and having more to do with those sacred covenants and forbiddances, rather than having a few weird powers sticking out at odd angles.
When I poked John about his ideas for a revamp on the purview, he mumbled something about kingship, geasa and dominion over certain spheres of influence, but then he passed out again because he's preparing for a marathon immersion in the new release of Diablo III tonight, so that may be all we'll get out of him for a while.
The VIP Club
Question: My players, after reaching Legend 12, are setting out to make a completely brand-new pantheon for themselves, Hopefully complete with their own PSP and uniqe overworld realm. While I marvel at the audacity and magnitude of that idea, I'm having a hard time conceiving an epic way to achieve that. Any thoughts?
We have not yet had any PCs try to set up their own pantheons in-game, so we don't have a firm set of rules for it. But we have had several inquire as to what they'd have to do, so we have some suggestions and guidelines already percolating. And believe me, epic is the name of the game.
1) Real Estate. The new pantheon's going to need an Overworld and Underworld of its own, as well as an Axis Mundi to connect the two, and getting them will require quite the heroic undertaking. Overworlds could be bargained for, borrowed or granted by other pantheons who have some extra space they don't mind losing; PCs might have to negotiate, make deals and do some smooth talking to convince them to cooperate. If that doesn't work, they might have to actually go take back some territory from one of the Titanrealms, carving out their domain the way the ancient gods did; what exactly that will entail is sure to be daunting and difficult, but it'll probably vary depending on which Titan they decide to take on. Then there's the Underworld; the new pantheon'll definitely need one of those, too, but (as the Tuatha can tell you), it's not as easy as walking right down there and planting a flag somewhere. I'd suggest having them repurpose part of broken Tartarus, or else try to covertly (or overtly!) take over some of another pantheon's death-territory for their own use, possibly making new enemies in the process. They'll also probably need a death-god to bust out The Reaper to set up the new Underworld as unique to them and to stick around and run it thereafter; if one of the PCs can do this, great, but if not they may need to go recruiting. As for the Axis Mundi, I'd imagine that you would need someone with The Way to create a permanent link like that; have them search out an appropriate symbol they want to use, and then find a psychopomp god and convince them to help (if one of them doesn't have The Way on their own, that is).
I'd note that I'd probably allow a PC could also use an appropriate Sanctum for an Overworld or Underworld, assuming they were willing to open it up to all members of the pantheon and lose the ultimate sovereign control they have over it. But keep in mind that not all PCs will want to give up their private heavens, and that some may not be large enough for a full Overworld anyway, so they may need to go about it the hard way after all.
2) PSP. A PSP is a tricky thing to write and work on, so you'll want to be involved with your players pretty much every step of the way to make sure it's something you're comfortable using in game and that it makes sense all the way through. I'd suggest that it needs to be based on something the gods of this new pantheon have in common; it shouldn't be a random grab-bag of new powers they think is cool, but rather a synthesis of the most important concepts and ideas behind them and their new pantheon. Have them brainstorm what they think are the major themes of their pantheon, and work on building a purview from there. I'd also encourage them trying to combine aspects of their home pantheons into something new and unique that still retains a flavor of where they came from, if they're so inclined. They'll also need a god with the Wyrd, I'd suggest, to actually help them create it as a true magical power, and I'd go nuts building the coolest ritual you can think of to bind them all together as part of that new power.
3) Virtues. Pantheons share Virtues; it's one of the most important things that bind them together and solidify their common goals and values. Your new pantheon is going to be made up of gods who were once Scions of different cultures, so you're likely to have some variety; again, I'd suggest talking to the players to determine what they think the new pantheon's core values should be, and then choosing a Virtue setup that fits those the best. I'd say that every member of the new pantheon needs to have at least two of those Virtues; if they don't, they may need to go on epic quests to align themselves with the new ideals they intend to represent. One cool way of doing that is by having them go to other pantheons who do have those Virtues and performing badass, epic quests, tasks or rituals for them to learn and embody those new Virtues. You might again want to have a god with the Wyrd formally make the change for whatever gods need it, as well.
4) Roster. While your band of PCs is a great core kernel of a pantheon, odds are they don't have everything they need to get things up and running. In no particular order, I'd recommend that a fledgling pantheon needs at least the following:
A leader or king god (or some type of ruling council - your PCs might very well want the first democratic pantheon ever, but make sure they have a plan for its politics going in)
A Death god
A Psychopomp
A Thunder god
A Fertility god
A Sun god
A Health god
And at least one or two gods with Magic, Mystery or Prophecy
Obviously, a god might fulfill more than one of these roles - Apollo's both a Health and a Sun god, Hermes is both a Magic and a Psychopomp god, etc. - but they form the core representations that every pantheon has (and if your players have other bonus Avatars besides those, so much the better!). It's likely that your PCs will need to recruit to get a full, healthy roster; they might ask other up-and-coming Scions to join them, try to convert minions of the Titans to godhood, encourage their own children to join or even try to poach members of their own pantheons away to join the new guard. I'd keep in mind that not every god on that list has to be Legend 12; a Legend 10 psychopomp is perfectly capable of fulfilling his function, for example, so as long as you have the gods, it doesn't matter if they've all attained ultimate power yet.
5) Diplomacy. Declaring themselves a new political power is a tricky thing; your PCs will have to deal with the other pantheons' reactions and it's inevitable that somebody's going to get upset or try to use them for their own ends. Their divine parents or native pantheons may be upset or insulted that they want to secede; other pantheons may view them as foolish upstarts or even as a threat, trying to declare themselves equal to the established gods. Diplomatic visits (complete with promising gifts or making treaties) to the other pantheons are probably going to be a necessity, and will really give the more socially-oriented PCs a time to shine in the pantheon-building process.
6) The Big Day. Finally, you'll need them to do something as a team that actually creates them as a new pantheon; I would suggest a magic ritual with no fewer than three gods ready to pop the Wyrd (and possibly a Justice god ready to bring out the Arbiter to officially invest them with their own authority). The ritual should include anyone they want in the pantheon proper, anything that's very important to its themes or values, and as much coolness as you can design in a single scene. Difficult tasks or things that must be done with perfect precision as part of the ritual will give them something to do and help allow them to contribute to whether or not their dream comes true. This is a big deal and has required a lot of work to get to - reward the shit out of these characters. (The scene itself should be the major reward, but I'd probably also give them back all their Legend/Willpower/channels/deeds if the ritual is completed, to illustrate that they've almost become new beings.)
7) Profit. If any of you fine folks have further suggestions for the questioner above, toss them out in the comments - it's not an area with set rules, so creativity and epic scale are the watchwords!
We have not yet had any PCs try to set up their own pantheons in-game, so we don't have a firm set of rules for it. But we have had several inquire as to what they'd have to do, so we have some suggestions and guidelines already percolating. And believe me, epic is the name of the game.
1) Real Estate. The new pantheon's going to need an Overworld and Underworld of its own, as well as an Axis Mundi to connect the two, and getting them will require quite the heroic undertaking. Overworlds could be bargained for, borrowed or granted by other pantheons who have some extra space they don't mind losing; PCs might have to negotiate, make deals and do some smooth talking to convince them to cooperate. If that doesn't work, they might have to actually go take back some territory from one of the Titanrealms, carving out their domain the way the ancient gods did; what exactly that will entail is sure to be daunting and difficult, but it'll probably vary depending on which Titan they decide to take on. Then there's the Underworld; the new pantheon'll definitely need one of those, too, but (as the Tuatha can tell you), it's not as easy as walking right down there and planting a flag somewhere. I'd suggest having them repurpose part of broken Tartarus, or else try to covertly (or overtly!) take over some of another pantheon's death-territory for their own use, possibly making new enemies in the process. They'll also probably need a death-god to bust out The Reaper to set up the new Underworld as unique to them and to stick around and run it thereafter; if one of the PCs can do this, great, but if not they may need to go recruiting. As for the Axis Mundi, I'd imagine that you would need someone with The Way to create a permanent link like that; have them search out an appropriate symbol they want to use, and then find a psychopomp god and convince them to help (if one of them doesn't have The Way on their own, that is).
I'd note that I'd probably allow a PC could also use an appropriate Sanctum for an Overworld or Underworld, assuming they were willing to open it up to all members of the pantheon and lose the ultimate sovereign control they have over it. But keep in mind that not all PCs will want to give up their private heavens, and that some may not be large enough for a full Overworld anyway, so they may need to go about it the hard way after all.
2) PSP. A PSP is a tricky thing to write and work on, so you'll want to be involved with your players pretty much every step of the way to make sure it's something you're comfortable using in game and that it makes sense all the way through. I'd suggest that it needs to be based on something the gods of this new pantheon have in common; it shouldn't be a random grab-bag of new powers they think is cool, but rather a synthesis of the most important concepts and ideas behind them and their new pantheon. Have them brainstorm what they think are the major themes of their pantheon, and work on building a purview from there. I'd also encourage them trying to combine aspects of their home pantheons into something new and unique that still retains a flavor of where they came from, if they're so inclined. They'll also need a god with the Wyrd, I'd suggest, to actually help them create it as a true magical power, and I'd go nuts building the coolest ritual you can think of to bind them all together as part of that new power.
3) Virtues. Pantheons share Virtues; it's one of the most important things that bind them together and solidify their common goals and values. Your new pantheon is going to be made up of gods who were once Scions of different cultures, so you're likely to have some variety; again, I'd suggest talking to the players to determine what they think the new pantheon's core values should be, and then choosing a Virtue setup that fits those the best. I'd say that every member of the new pantheon needs to have at least two of those Virtues; if they don't, they may need to go on epic quests to align themselves with the new ideals they intend to represent. One cool way of doing that is by having them go to other pantheons who do have those Virtues and performing badass, epic quests, tasks or rituals for them to learn and embody those new Virtues. You might again want to have a god with the Wyrd formally make the change for whatever gods need it, as well.
4) Roster. While your band of PCs is a great core kernel of a pantheon, odds are they don't have everything they need to get things up and running. In no particular order, I'd recommend that a fledgling pantheon needs at least the following:
A leader or king god (or some type of ruling council - your PCs might very well want the first democratic pantheon ever, but make sure they have a plan for its politics going in)
A Death god
A Psychopomp
A Thunder god
A Fertility god
A Sun god
A Health god
And at least one or two gods with Magic, Mystery or Prophecy
Obviously, a god might fulfill more than one of these roles - Apollo's both a Health and a Sun god, Hermes is both a Magic and a Psychopomp god, etc. - but they form the core representations that every pantheon has (and if your players have other bonus Avatars besides those, so much the better!). It's likely that your PCs will need to recruit to get a full, healthy roster; they might ask other up-and-coming Scions to join them, try to convert minions of the Titans to godhood, encourage their own children to join or even try to poach members of their own pantheons away to join the new guard. I'd keep in mind that not every god on that list has to be Legend 12; a Legend 10 psychopomp is perfectly capable of fulfilling his function, for example, so as long as you have the gods, it doesn't matter if they've all attained ultimate power yet.
5) Diplomacy. Declaring themselves a new political power is a tricky thing; your PCs will have to deal with the other pantheons' reactions and it's inevitable that somebody's going to get upset or try to use them for their own ends. Their divine parents or native pantheons may be upset or insulted that they want to secede; other pantheons may view them as foolish upstarts or even as a threat, trying to declare themselves equal to the established gods. Diplomatic visits (complete with promising gifts or making treaties) to the other pantheons are probably going to be a necessity, and will really give the more socially-oriented PCs a time to shine in the pantheon-building process.
6) The Big Day. Finally, you'll need them to do something as a team that actually creates them as a new pantheon; I would suggest a magic ritual with no fewer than three gods ready to pop the Wyrd (and possibly a Justice god ready to bring out the Arbiter to officially invest them with their own authority). The ritual should include anyone they want in the pantheon proper, anything that's very important to its themes or values, and as much coolness as you can design in a single scene. Difficult tasks or things that must be done with perfect precision as part of the ritual will give them something to do and help allow them to contribute to whether or not their dream comes true. This is a big deal and has required a lot of work to get to - reward the shit out of these characters. (The scene itself should be the major reward, but I'd probably also give them back all their Legend/Willpower/channels/deeds if the ritual is completed, to illustrate that they've almost become new beings.)
7) Profit. If any of you fine folks have further suggestions for the questioner above, toss them out in the comments - it's not an area with set rules, so creativity and epic scale are the watchwords!
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Tales from North Carolinian Myth
Question: This has probably been asked before, but will you be putting the Elohim and Bogovi pantheons up on your pantheon page with the others since you have already done it with the Anunna? If so, then when?
Once upon a time, there was a little scholar named Anne. Anne loved stories and spent many hours reading them, learning about faraway lands and long-ago people, and soon one day she began to write stories herself. There was not much food in her little cell, nor water, but she loved the stories and she wrote more and more of them, hoping that one day someone else could read them and love them as much as she.
But Anne's cell was in the depths of a deep, dark, dank cave, and in the cave lived a dragon named John, a foul-tempered and greedy creature that hoarded stories beneath its scaly belly, keeping them all for itself. Though Anne pleaded with the dragon to release some of the stories so that they could be shared by the nearby townsfolk, he refused.
"Why should I go to all the trouble of making some kind of special story- and word-sharing for the townsfolk?" he asked, smoke curling from his toothy muzzle. "I already let you put them in PDF anyway. They can just use that."
"Oh, but if we made it easy to see them, then they could use them easily, just like all the other ones!" Anne said pleadingly, cajoling the dragon from the safety of her little cell. "They love the ones you have already let them read, you know. They tell me how wonderful you are all the time!" She showed him the well-loved letters, dogeared on her computer screen from being read many times, but he was unimpressed.
The dragon snorted in disgust. "Of course they think they're wonderful. They are," he said, preening his steely scales. "But I don't like it when things look cluttered. Besides, I'm not using those pantheons right now, and I don't want all my little dragonets to get confused about what is and is not allowed. Besides, who's the chief ST dragon here, you or me?"
And Anne tried to argue further, but the dragon blew a great gout of flame and she retreated into her cell to look sadly at the stories of the Canaanite and Slavic gods. "It's okay," she told them when they turned sad eyes on her, and hugged them to her chest. "Someday you'll get fancy graphics, too. We'll just all have to be patient."
So she stayed in her little cell, and the dragon stayed curled around it napping, and if they have not died, they live there still.
Once upon a time, there was a little scholar named Anne. Anne loved stories and spent many hours reading them, learning about faraway lands and long-ago people, and soon one day she began to write stories herself. There was not much food in her little cell, nor water, but she loved the stories and she wrote more and more of them, hoping that one day someone else could read them and love them as much as she.
But Anne's cell was in the depths of a deep, dark, dank cave, and in the cave lived a dragon named John, a foul-tempered and greedy creature that hoarded stories beneath its scaly belly, keeping them all for itself. Though Anne pleaded with the dragon to release some of the stories so that they could be shared by the nearby townsfolk, he refused.
"Why should I go to all the trouble of making some kind of special story- and word-sharing for the townsfolk?" he asked, smoke curling from his toothy muzzle. "I already let you put them in PDF anyway. They can just use that."
"Oh, but if we made it easy to see them, then they could use them easily, just like all the other ones!" Anne said pleadingly, cajoling the dragon from the safety of her little cell. "They love the ones you have already let them read, you know. They tell me how wonderful you are all the time!" She showed him the well-loved letters, dogeared on her computer screen from being read many times, but he was unimpressed.
The dragon snorted in disgust. "Of course they think they're wonderful. They are," he said, preening his steely scales. "But I don't like it when things look cluttered. Besides, I'm not using those pantheons right now, and I don't want all my little dragonets to get confused about what is and is not allowed. Besides, who's the chief ST dragon here, you or me?"
And Anne tried to argue further, but the dragon blew a great gout of flame and she retreated into her cell to look sadly at the stories of the Canaanite and Slavic gods. "It's okay," she told them when they turned sad eyes on her, and hugged them to her chest. "Someday you'll get fancy graphics, too. We'll just all have to be patient."
So she stayed in her little cell, and the dragon stayed curled around it napping, and if they have not died, they live there still.
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Miksikä sitä sanotaan suomenkielellä?
Question: Will you ever do a writeup of the Finnish pantheon and gods? As far as I'm aware they had a separate set of deities, different from the rest of Scandinavia.
I'd love to get to do something with the Finnish gods someday! You're right; it is indeed a totally separate pantheon from the more well-known Norse deities. It's full of gods with cool names, like Ilmarinen or Louhi or Tuoni; say them out loud, they're fun!
I think they definitely deserve a place in Scion; they've got a cool, unique cosmology, an epic of their own (the Kalevala, the nineteenth century version of which you can read online over here) and a bunch of really cool gods and stories that provide great fodder for Scions and their legends. They're one of the distinct pantheons that I think really merits an inclusion in Scion, both because they're unique to their area and because they have a wealth of stories and poets to plumb for material.
As for how soon I'll get to play with Finland, though, I couldn't say. They're not one of the more widely-known pantheons, so they haven't gotten too much press and are currently losing by a landslide to other popular front-runner pantheons the Arabs, Maya and Welsh also waiting for writeups. But they're definitely on my list, and definitely won't be too far from my mind any time I'm setting up for the next project!
I'd love to get to do something with the Finnish gods someday! You're right; it is indeed a totally separate pantheon from the more well-known Norse deities. It's full of gods with cool names, like Ilmarinen or Louhi or Tuoni; say them out loud, they're fun!
I think they definitely deserve a place in Scion; they've got a cool, unique cosmology, an epic of their own (the Kalevala, the nineteenth century version of which you can read online over here) and a bunch of really cool gods and stories that provide great fodder for Scions and their legends. They're one of the distinct pantheons that I think really merits an inclusion in Scion, both because they're unique to their area and because they have a wealth of stories and poets to plumb for material.
As for how soon I'll get to play with Finland, though, I couldn't say. They're not one of the more widely-known pantheons, so they haven't gotten too much press and are currently losing by a landslide to other popular front-runner pantheons the Arabs, Maya and Welsh also waiting for writeups. But they're definitely on my list, and definitely won't be too far from my mind any time I'm setting up for the next project!
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