Is Scion any good? I kinda want to run a game where the players are children of gods and do epic quests à la Herakles.
>Untouchable Opponent
>epic attribute scaling
>the entire boons system
Into the trash it goes.
>>44918889
>Is Scion any good?
No.
>>44918904
>>44918889
The setting is great!
The system is horrible. Like the worst system I've played. It's just SLIGHTLY above unplayable. And as the group gains experience and meets tougher opponents it goes below unless everyone builds into the exakt same kind of things as their opponents.
I mean, the exalted game with solars and dragonblooded in the same gorup was nowhere near this unbalanced. The dragonblooded could contribute team buffs and using his powers openly.
The level 18 campaign with a monk and a wizard and a druid was basically fair in comparison. A monk could hit opponents and deal damage.
But in scion. None of this would apply. You're the same kind of creature. Just one of you might REAAAALLY suck and be at mortal level when your enemy throws a hangar ship at you. Or be literally unhittable. Because you need about 30 successes on your shitty dicepool of 13. Because you're only as good as the best normal human ever (or even better!). ANd you CAN'T. Ever. Even when he sleeps. He dodges you.
Hell. If he's into that kind of shit, he can become immune to attacks he's not aware of.
>>44918889
As has already been said, the setting and basic idea of the thing is awesome.
The system is completely broken, it just straight up doesn't work.
The problem is that in a game which is built around generalists (As the storyteller system was) it encouraged hyper specialization, and then balanced nothing.
So you'll have guys who roll like a billion fucking dice for one task, and then can't do anything else. In a game where combat may include four or five different kind of rolls, with enemies that assume you've completely maxed out all of those types of roll.
That's not counting when you just straight up can't win because reasons.
So take the fluff of scion, throw out everything, and then port it to fate or some shit.
>>44918976
(cont)
What this means in practice is that a system that looks open and friendly towards new players with it's clear and readable character sheet. Even using a mythology and a setting people know well . Is the most punishing towards not building a character "right" from the start.
If your character concept is NOT someone who has epic dexterity from their godly parent you're in the shitter. If you chose the kind of funny knacks but ultimely useless ones you've put yourself into a position where you're falling bnehind badly.
And this is not just combat. Social wise and intellectually as well. Because you can gain the ability to just "guess" and the ST gives you the answer straight up. Or you could you know, be really good at math. Take your pick.
It's so bad you're better of using freeform or homebrewing some other system into working.
Shit I'd rather use PF than scion to play a scion game.
I'd reccomend a superhero game or maybe exalted and homebrew charms all over the place. It's close enough and you can adapt a lot of things easily.
>>44918976
>>44919037
>Exalted is better balanced than Scion
Scion IS Exalted, with a slight facelift. All the problems with Scion have their root in Exalted.
Honestly, the system is not unplayable-level terrible. It's definitely not greatbut what WW game other than OG Mage isbut if you are just using the first book it works reasonably well. The problem is that the scaling goes entirely out of what due to WW's obsession with exponential scaling instead of linear.
I'm just finishing up a Hero-level campaign right now, and it's been a lot of fun; you get all kinds of weird knacks and boons (too many, IMO, but it does let people shine in strange corner cases) that make you feel unique, and stuff like the Guides and Followers greatly expand your options.
Here's my quick reference guide, which has some slight changes to the rules. IIRC, the big ones are restricting some options for spending Legend and Willpower (but Virtues can be channeled an unlimited number of times), banning Untouchable Opponent, and all exponential scaling due to Epic Attributes etc. is flattened (only the number of Legend points remains exponential, because at Hero level it's not a Legend race), and healing times are way reduced. It makes the game much more flexible/sturdier and you can do all kinds of weird pseudo-mythical stories instead of just combat.
>>44919337
Yeah, the difference with exalted is that your super-charms are only wielded by the vast minority of your opponent and additive scaling. And it's a game about character flaws in godlings rather than Save-the-world.
And the hero level is playable yes. But then you can still meet highly competent humans that can theoretically threaten you. But.. Pretty much any supernatural threat are quickly put into either "no-threat" or "kills our squishy instantly".
>>44919457
>But.. Pretty much any supernatural threat are quickly put into either "no-threat" or "kills our squishy instantly".
Have heard of people having that problem, never seen it at all. My players have fought ghosts, giant snakes, a Loa-centaur football game, and a cult led by a Scion, and despite two of them being talky characters with very little combat ability they have made it through fairly well. The only one who has been seriously injured is the one who keeps leaving the party to try and sort things out himself, which has led to at least one rescue mission.
Here's the reference I used myself, mostly the same as >>44919337
Scion Second Edition is looking great so far. I'm very excited about the upcoming alpha slice.
Anyone got inside info on what they're doing with the system in 2nd Edition? Key points, at least? I adore the setting but it's made it impossible to play.
>>44919020
>So you'll have guys who roll like a billion fucking dice for one task, and then can't do anything else.
Unless you focused on Epic Dexterity, in which case you'll dominate basically any physical scene and effortlessly win any combat.
Also the iconic characters are HORRENDOUSLY optimized, to the point that the one of them who's meant to be the party combat god (literally, after a point) is completely useless in combat after a very early stage.
It's a White Wolf product made this millennium, of course it isn't good.
>>44920089
They've posted some teasers up on the mothership.
It looks cute, but I don't think they're going far enough. A lot of it is refinements and tweaks nabbed from other WW games, which makes sense, plus some new ideas (the red & black pools in particular are a good solution to the NPC Willpower problem), but it feels "halfway."
Like one thing that stuck out to me was, they saw how nWoD's 3x3 attributes are good in theory but suck in execution (not the least of which because mental resistance and social resistance are insufficiently separate from one another, and they're used basically interchangeably at random), so they redefined it and REALLY leaned into the fact that it's (say) "Physical Force," not just "Strength," so someone could have high Physique without actually being literally strong, and vice versa you could roll Physique even for something that's more literally a test of speed, because really it's a test of Physical Force.
I like that idea a lot in principle. But in the teasers they posted, the assignment of attribute+skill for certain tasks goes completely hinky pretty much right off the bat. There's like 3 separate "stealth" rolls, and all of them use a different attribute, and two use a different skill.
>>44920250
Got any links so I don't have to go dig through the blog archives?
>>44921051
http://theonyxpath.com/codename-sardonyx-teaser-the-first/
http://theonyxpath.com/codename-sardonyx-teaser-the-second/
http://theonyxpath.com/codename-sardonyx-schemas-and-scales/
They're literally still on the "recent news" section for Scion because shit ain't happening, lel.
>>44918889
My friends and I analyzed it in depth from a mechanical point of view, and in that regard it's complete dogshit. It's not just easy to break if you want to break it - it will break and behave absurdly routinely during regular play as long as people create even remotely varied characters.
The special powers, gifts i believe they were called? (sorry, it's a long time ago) are also extremely limited, to the point where they're rarely useful or interesting, and they're criminally expensive compared to epic attributes, which have an extremely high degree of general usefulness both inside and outside of combat scenarios.
There are many miscellaneous annoyances as well, and ultimately it all adds up to a game that has a potentially promising theme, but execution so bad that it would be indistinguishable from a parody of badly designed games.
>>44920161
>Also the iconic characters are HORRENDOUSLY optimized
That's every example character in every book. I'm thinking it's not an accident or a mistake, but to try and convince people they don't have to minmax to be X archetype.
>>44922588
There's a difference between "not minmaxed" and "the combat character literally cannot beat the antagonists statted in the same book."
>>44922673
Addendum: Or, in some cases, even the NONCOMBAT iconic PCs in the same book.
If an RPG handed me an iconic utility wizard and an iconic fighter, if the former can beat the latter in a fight, something massive has gone wrong.
>>44922673
>>44922691
I mean, yeah, but White Wolf is terrible at most things, I wouldn't expect them to pull of that balancing act well. The only competent character they ever made was the one that had every template stacked on him.
>>44921147
Scion 2e was run at Midwinter Gaming Convention, and apparently things went well. The Alpha Slice should be here "soon".
>>44922753
Is 'Alpha Slice' the worst name ever? You're playtesting a game, not starring in some shit 70's sci fi.
>*is it the Caledfwlch-aka-Excalibur of the Welsh Mabinogi, or the hill-cleaving sword of the Irish Tuatha Dé Danann? At least the other Celtic pantheon can’t lay claim to it. This has been your weekly Scion teaser.
Scion confirmed for having both Mabinogi and Tuatha de Danann core pantheons. What a fucking waste of pagespace. It's like having both the Greek and Roman gods. Yes, I get that the mythology autists on the forums like to have screaming fits about the nuanced differences between Minerva and Hera but fuck you, if you got to give me 10 pantheons to represent the iconic, mythological history of humanity I want them from all over the fucking place, not two from the same fucking island. Keep shit like that for the web-supplements.
A pdf of the JSR houserules. You might find this useful.
>>44924837Wales and Ireland aren't on the same island
I agree 100%. I liked how in the supplements they actually went outside of the obvious nerdbait of Norse, Greeks, Azzies and Japs (with Voodoo and Egypt for flavour). Give me back the Chinese, Babylonian and Hindu pantheons, or crazy Slavs, or some actual African stuff, or even some variety of Native American. Spice it up a bit.
>>44924954
Only if you're asking the Irish, and nobody should ever ask the Irish.
>>44923027
It's not a name, a "slice" is a preview that covers that majority of the main mechanics. Scion 2e is currently in Alpha, so, Alpha Slice.
>>44925159
I get that it's not the name of Scion 2, but it's a dumb name for a playtest of the game. It doesn't even have a mythological or thematic ring to it.
>>44925905
It's not the name of the game, it's probably the title of the document they used to store the rules for it. Pull the stick out your ass.
My group loves the setting for Scion and we set up house rules to balance it more. ATM our changes are: Epics are 1 for 1 no 36 auto successes. You can only use dodge against ranged attacks unless your unarmed. Distances and weights are left the same as well as Health boxes and players can not purchase Legend, all players upgrade from Hero>Demi>God all at once so theres no arms race caused by a combat character dropping their XP into Legend so they can get a big boost in power. Were all waiting for Scion 2nd Edition though, really hoping the purviews work like Arcana/Spheres.
Question: How many of your quests have directly involved Titans, or even their directly empowered agents?
I just realised that my campaign is going to wrap up on Saturday and the party has never actually faced a champion of the Titans. The BBEG is a rebellious Scion, but not one gifted by the Titans; I honestly don't even know, as the GM, whether he's doing it because the Titans have chosen him or whether it's just because he wants to be king of New Orleans. Did I shortchange the party?
Bump for a game that never gets play here.
I've had this idea for a while now: Use Legends of The Wulin as a system. Create a bunch of internal styles based off of the purviews. Create 9 "epic archetype/attribute" aspects as external styles. Maybe replace the e-element wheel with a wheel based on specific parts of the heroic journey. Have the use of "elemental" Ki/legend cause fatebinding, and write up a loresheet for each pantheon.
I think that might be able to handle the essence of Scion without having to resort to the system of Scion.
I hear there's an active Legends of The Wulin modding community on IRC, but I'm not very tech savvy when it comes to finding things like that.
>>44918976
>The setting is great!
>>44925132
Wales and Ireland are physically not on the same island.
>>44924954
>or even some variety of Native American
My concept for a Native American pantheon has their gods and spirits being almost totally destroyed by the return of the Titans. They were already weakened by the systematic destruction of their people, and couldn't survive. This would allow one to create a pantheon cherrypicking the best concepts from tribes across the nation.
But, of course, what I REALLY want is a Polynesian/Hawaiian pantheon.
>>44924896
God his website with the gods was awesome
>>44918889
The only thing I really love about Scion was that dude on the cover who had a sliver of Mjolnir for the hammer of his gun
I stole that for a Mutants&Masterminds game
>>44932151
You read that post, and that's what you chose to complain about?
My group had a love hate relationship with this game. We loved the lore, the story, the mythology, but dear god when our lore monkey could "fail" a roll and still succeed due to epic attributes we knew we had some problems.
Our last game included the following;
-Scion of Nuada
-Scion of Ares
-Scion of Papa Legba
-Scion of Tyr
-Scion of Apollo
-Scion of Sun Wukong
Im really hoping this 2nd edition does well.
I did a scion game once.
The system seemed super fun but the game died on the first session because the GM and half the players were super uncommitted.
You are tasked with creating a Band of iconics for an imaginary "revision" of the game.
1. It needs to include six characters, one from each Pantheon.
2. Each character needs to be mechanically viable and useful, and they must all work well together.
3. They must show off the versatility of the system and the breadth of the setting as much as possible, meaning each idea should be as unique as it can be made using the Rules As Written.
4. Ideally, they should have built in potential for interesting roleplaying opportunities, including between the characters.
How do you do it?It's a fun experiment I did with my friends back when just got the book. We ended up with some interesting ideas for a Band which was very variable, though it wasn't mechanically sound. It was more like a team of Marvel superheroes than anything.
>>44927878
Did they have fun?
>>44934998
>Im really hoping this 2nd edition does well.
I'm really hoping 2nd edition comes out at some point ever.
>>44935316
Not while there are condition cards for cofd to be released
>>44925159
Yeah yeah, Sporty Slice, Scary Slice, Baby Slice, Alpha Slice, got it.
>>44935110
Yeah, but I don't know if that's just because they got to run around a city being cool demigods doing stuff. I'm worried that by not including Titans I'm shortchanging them of something from the setting, like if I did an L5R campaign that was all combat- sure, it'll work and they'll have fun, but it's also missing a huge part of what makes the game unique.
>>44933384
>My concept for a Native American pantheon has their gods and spirits being almost totally destroyed by the return of the Titans. They were already weakened by the systematic destruction of their people, and couldn't survive. This would allow one to create a pantheon cherrypicking the best concepts from tribes across the nation.
Perfect! I've no doubt it would get some people up in arms about how you're white people eroding Native culture and stereotyping them, but fuck it.
>>44935072
The Iconics in the book were done pretty well concept-wise, IMO;>>44934573 points out the sweet Mjolnir gun thing, and between them all they did pretty well covering the spectrum. I actually used the adventure the game provided, or at least the bits where it was the individual character missions, because they were nicely varied and fun.I even liked the shit jokes like the Horace/Horus play on words
>>44937161
Why do the iconic heroes and villains have matching ethnicities for their godly parents, except for the Egyptian heroes and villains, who are definitely NOT Egyptian themselves?
>>44937606
I think because they wanted to pull the whole 'Little Egypt, Illinois' thing. I always imagined that they were from an Egyptian-descended family that had settled in the area. The art doesn't look really Arab, but neither does the actual pictures of the Egyptian gods, so maybe WW has just never seen brown people.
>>44934678
The last time any of my family lived in Ireland was 5 generations ago, I don't care what he says about the Micks.
>>44937606
>>44937639
Modern day Egypt would've been politically tricky to bring up. You may notice there are no iconic North Korean, Ukrainian, Somalian or Palestinian characters, either.
>>44937825
How so? If you're talking about the Muslim thing, than it's no more tricky than the general conceit that all the old gods are real and that capital G-God is either nonexistent, dead, or some Titan masquerading as Him.
Also, the book was written in 2007, well before any of the current stuff, and even then there's nothing politically tricky about saying, "Horace grew up in Cairo, but left when the area was plunged into civil war." I really don't understand how it would relate to any of the other nations you listed.
>>44919337
>>44919549
So you're both saying its good if you homebrew?
>>44937998
That's both me, posting two different rules references; one for the players, one for the Storyteller (incidentally, the worst name for a GM other than 'GOD' from Haven: City of Violence).
And yeah, a bit of homebrew and it works. The biggest problem is the Exalted system with it's exponential auto-successes; it is OK in that game because you always face magic opponents and you're supposed to just obliterate mortals without trying, but in Scion (which is mostly more grounded and has interactions with regular people) it's just bad, going from 'cakewalk' to 'TPK' with no in between. Flatten out that exponential system into linear and you solve 90% of the problems in the game.
>>44938056
Cool, thanks.
>>44937639
>so maybe WW has just never seen brown people.
AD&D 2e's artists for Egyptians never saw brown people either.
>>44938063
No problem. It's actually a really fun system if you have a group who is willing to share the spotlight; each Scion is capable of a lot, but allowing people to cycle through and take the lead at different times gives it a much more satisfying story feeling (it also prevents That Guy from dominating everything).
>>44938084
What book is that from? One of the HR series?
>>44938123
Legends and Lore.
Playing a scion game with a some people who've never RPed before, and someone else who is just out of practice. It's fun but one player's insistence on combat and combat preparedness has gone from comical to distracting.
>>44938123
Deities and Demigods wasn't a bad book to take ideas for Scion from.
>>44938979
Is their character tooled for combat? If not, I can see wanting to get prepared for combat to ensure they aren't left behind/turned into giblets, but if they are it's not a good thing.
>>44942593
He's the second most powerful fighter in the group. I think he tried to build a rogue. He's probably gotten himself on a few terrorist lists in game for highly visible grand theft of government property.
>ofw he runs off and we can't stop him
So what do you guys want to see out of Scion 2e, in terms of fluff and mechanics?
I'd like to see the pantheon special purviews given a workover; some of them, like the Norse and the Celtic one, are just garbage, while the Greek one is super boring.
In terms of fluff, I'd like it if they didn't say that every female goddess spent time as a sex worker. Even freaking Artemis, famous virgin goddess, was apparently a dominatrix. The male gods all got interesting backstories, but the ladies were all, "whore, whore, hooker, matron (with some prostituting on the side), whore."
>>44945314
While we're on the subject of controversial SJW-esque claims, I would like to mention that the depiction of the Loa pantheon in Scion 1e often feels heavy with positive discrimination (or at least like the writers are mortally afraid of saying anything bad about them). While literally every other pantheon is sometimes (and in most cases, often) mocked or criticized for their habits/beliefs (the Pesedjet are stuck ups, the Dodekatheon are hedonistic assholes, the Amatsukami are snobs, the Aesir are warmongers and the Aztlanti are always bloodthirsty all the time), the Loa are ONLY EVER compassionate, wise, right, moral and generally superior. In every historical incident, they are at best shown to be the Overworld's ideological saviors and at worst depicted as mournfully shaking their heads at the foolishness of other, less enlightened pantheons. They're the oldest pantheon! But also the newest! And the most progressive! But with the best traditions! And the funnest! But also the most honorable! PLEASE, PLEASE LOVE THE LOA FOR THE LOVE OF OGUN LOVE THE LOA
Now, I get that unlike most of the other pantheons in the book (neopaganism notwithstanding) the Loa stand behind a sizable real-life religion. However, if that is really such an issue that the setting must be bent over to make them look good than maybe you shouldn't use them as a core pantheon. I mean, let's be honest here for a moment, when the average Joe thinks "ancient gods", they don't think about the Loa.
Also, the Companion invalidates that argument entirely because you added the HINDU GODS and they get the same critical treatment nobody but the black people gods does.
>>44945679
I would like to see better descriptions for making your own pantheon and flat out more Pantheons to begin with. I can understand if they want to keep it to the original six in the book, but give us a book with at least six more, huh?
>>44946284
Scion 1e ultimately referred to 12 large Pantheons (this does not include Pantheons which were specifically stated to have been destroyed by the Titans, such as the Welsh and Incan ones, nor the modern day and Atlantean Pantheons whom nobody should ever mention): Dodekatheon, Pesedjet, Aesir, Aztlanti, Amatsukami, Loa, Tuatha de Dannan, Celestial Bureaucracy, Devas, Annuna (Mesopotamian), Rus (Slavic) and Manitou (North American Native).
We've been told that the core of the 2nd edition would include 10 Pantheons total, including the 6 original ones. That leaves 4 extra Pantheons to go. One of the teasers has revealed with almost complete certainty that two of those are the Irish and Welsh ones (because having two Celtic pantheons when all you can afford is 10 is certainly not a waste of creative potential).
>>44946458
So are the Welsh back to life? Or have they been hiding out in a bunker?
Actually, are they rebooting the whole setting with 2e, or are they going to try and continue some of the metaplot of the first edition? I guess the former would make sense, as it's really the rules more than anything that need changing, but I dunno.
>>44945679I like the modern pantheons, fite me. The Axis ones were a little lazy, though Caligula Jupiter forever, but the Allies ones were pretty good. I particularly liked the Soviet blend of old folklore and modern mythology.
This might be a silly request, to ask for a french exclusive supplement on an english speaking image board, but for the love of Dagda if someone had the Gauls pantheon supplement, that would be damn awesome.
>>44945679
Baron Samedi is an ass, though. Other than that I can only agree with you.
>>44946699
>Actually, are they rebooting the whole setting with 2e
Almost certainly. The entire game's "concept" takes a major shaking, its focus moved "lower" by the addition of a completely new tier of gameplay to the existing three (Hero, Demigod, God). The core book, titled Scion: Origins, would actually deal with the adventures of pre-Visitation Scions, who would journey alongside mortal sorcerers, minor spirits and various supernatural creatures such as satyrs and kitsune. From the little we've been told, it seems like the world would have, at least at this level, a far more "urban fantasy" feel, inspired by books like The Dresden Files or the Mercy Thompson series. While this shouldn't, necessarily, affect the feeling or direction of gameplay at the later tiers the fact that the game's core book (undoubtedly the one bought by most people and which would shape the game's "image" in the eyes of any new player) would be this different does not bode well.
>>44946834
>Baron Samedi is an ass, though. Other than that I can only agree with you.
But compared to gods like Tezcatlipoca, Loki or Aphrodite, this is rarely if ever brought up and instead there is an overwhelming focus on how AWESOME and COOL and FUNNY Baron Samedi is. LIKE, A SKELETON WITH A TOPHAT AND A CIGAR, RIGHT? LOLSORANDUM AMIRITE? FUCKING AWESOME HUH? MIND=BLOWN, ROTFLMAO
>>44918976
>The setting is great!
>The system is horrible
That sounds familiar.
>>44946978
Actually, both systems share some very similar problems, such as the issue with Disquiet/Fatebinding - an effect so prevalent within the setting that, going by the book, it should be rolled for so frequently that in practice it is discarded by most groups as a tedium or simply forgotten, leading to a defining aspect of the mechanics (or the characters' role in the setting) being quietly erased from the table.
>>44935072
I've actually considered this, going through the Pantheons and trying to make a Band that doesn't use either the patron Gods for the Iconics or the antagonists.
The only thing I was really satisfied with was a Scion of Sobek (in crocodile skin boots) who was a gun-runner and a fixer, trying to get weapons into the hands of the right people for the right causes. But he kept finding that today's freedom fighters are tomorrow's dictators. Like the Nile, it's a cycle you can count on, and he eventually grows into the God of Feast and Famine.
But then I also liked the idea of a slightly dour, serious Scion of Anubis, a man concerned with the way things are supposed to be, the proper paths, being set up against a curious Scion of Bast who is always questioning why things are supposed to be that way.
Cats and dogs, man.
>>44946834
I wish the gaul stuff had a release outside of france.
>>44947014
Which is a damn shame, IMO. Fatebinding is one of the better mechanics I've seen for that kind of narrative causality and guiding players to play in a certain way.
>>44947048
I like that Scion of Sobek.
>>44947048
We had a few good ideas, at least conceptually. There was a Scion of Huitzilopochtli who used to be an elite cartel trooper in the Mexican drug wars, whose personal storyline was about trying to rise above his origins into a noble warrior and leader (his followers consisted of his old gang/soldiers, whom he's transformed into a cult of sorts by mixing Aztec blood-drinking rituals with lots and lots of cocaine), a Scion of Bast cat burgler (it was too good of a pun to pass on), a Scion of Apollo who was a blind prophetess/healer (she had a ton of Epic Perception and a cane made of laurel wood she would use as a weapon, Zatoichi style), a stick-up-the-ass JSDF ace pilot turned mercenary Scion of Raiden, and a film-noir inspired deadbeat private investigator Scion of Hel (who'd solve cases by talking to the spirits of the dead, but all too often find himself having to compromise between the legal definition of justice and ensuring that justice is done by the Old Norse definition).
>>44947270
Thanks. Maybe I'll get to play him when Scion 2e comes out.
>>44947134
It's on DriveThru, but I really don't want to spend money on something I'll have to run through Google Translate, then work through by hand to make semi-coherent.
>>44948499
>It's on DriveThru
Nice, thanks!
>13€
So uh, anyone have the PDF?
I'm not ready to pay 13€ for something I will not really own. More, the description talks about a 32 page book blahblah, but the preview only shows the DM screen.
I don't want to pay 13€ for an unusable DM screen.
But I'll keep this in mind.
Okay how about this
The children of the gods
In high school
>>44948754
I vaguely remember a cartoon like that, except it was reincarnations of Greek heroes.
I'd play it, though. Maybe switch out the Fatebinding for Monsterheart's strings.
Why do people shit on World at War? WWII secret agents + Nazi occultism + Allied occultism + the opportunity to fight battles with tommy guns, tanks, and pegasi, what's not to love?
>>44949627
Because they do not love this Scion of Aphrodite.
>>44918889
My friend has a pretty cool scion game, we're picking it back up after a break starting this weekend. we don't use the system though. the whitewolf system is fucking garbage.
>>44918889
OP wants Part Time Gods if they want an actual good game.
or just Nobilis.
>>44952924
No one plays Nobilis.
>>44954240
I know a few people.
>>44955209
No, no. That's just a memetic implant that the book places in your mind. Once you're done reading it (well, it's actually reading you), a memory is formed in your brain of other people playing and enjoying it, and thus the book can propagate itself through recommendations.
>>44955967
I wonder who's behind this post...
>>44946978
Your first thought wasn't Continuum? Do you even ask people the time?
...
I wish I could convince people to ask the time...
>>44937998
If you homebrew to the extent that you're not really playing Scion any more, then it could potentially be good.
>>44932035
You've got a bunch of major religions mashed together in a way that more or less makes sense. What's not great about that?
>>44956062
Trinity was okay, Adventure was good. The only one mechanically broken was Aberrant because lol Novas. Same issue as Scion, except with less automatic successes (at least at first) from Mega-Attributes, but theoretically at the higher levels you are fucking insane. Dr. Manhattan insane. "Create Universe" is a power listed in the book insane.
SardOnyx (the new system from Onyx Path that's supposed to power both Scion and Trinity) has a single list of "scales" to compare the power of various types of characters across both settings.
Novas are more powerful than GODS. (the only thing on a higher scale than them are Titans).
>>44956879
>Novas are more powerful than GODS. (the only thing on a higher scale than them are Titans).
Why?
>>44956879
The only thing I've heard about Adventure was that its initiative system was complete shit.
>>44956920
I don't know, I don't write the books. The chart is in one of the teasers. The last few stages go Demigods>Gods>Novas>Titans.
>>44956920
Novas are the most powerful entities in the Trinity universe. They can alter reality almost at will.
Gods still have that pesky Fate to worry about.
Titans are reality though and simply thinking it can alter reality.
>>44957050
Note that this power level refers (according to the chart) only to the Trinity era Novas, who have already left Earth and went on to become gods in other regions of space. The Aberrant era Novas are somewhere between Demigods and Gods.
I hope they're not seriously expecting me to use differently colored dice for the black and red pools that seem so integral to the new system. Fuck games that require you to use different colored dice.
>>44958317
So long as you have some way to separate them, it's not a big deal. You can roll in a dice tower and outside, or divide them based on metallic/non, or even split it based on ROYGBIV.
>>44958351
Still bullshit. I went to the trouble of buying 10-sided dice for a game, I'm not supposed to need anything more than that. Having to buy more books is more tolerable than this kind of shittery. Those I can download for free if I think the company's being unreasonable. Where am I supposed to get specific kinds of dice on demand? I'm not made of money and gameshops aren't everywhere.
>>44958378
All of my methods work based on the dice you already have, unless you have bought ones of all the same colour, in which case only the dice tower/outside the tower works.
Also,
>2016
>not having a diceroller app
>>44958403
>diceroller app
>not writing number on piece of paper and drawing them
Kids this day with their Ifone
>>44958447
>paper
>not throwing numbers with your hands
>>44945679
Didn't they say that Baron Samedi goes around randomly giving people AIDS?
>>44958731
>He strolls between nightclubs everywhere, putting AIDS on the tip of every seventh needle.
> His entourage, the ghede—the dead, who are ghosts and zombies and revered ancestors—trail along in his wake like the groupies of a rock star or the entourage of a Hollywood celebrity. This is, of course, what the Baron is, the notorious star of the most dangerous and psychotic boy-band that ever prowled the concert hall that is the World.
>A similar infamy attaches itself to Baron Samedi’s Scions. Ghosts approach them with messages for the living; goth teenagers drink in their every word before they hang themselves; photographers snap their portraits for inclusion in books of freaks.
Yeah, that anon didn't read closely. The Loa are fine; they're myopic, focused on doing what seems right (and often what is 'right' to them is just what's fun) in the immediate without seeing what's going on in the big picture. Samedi parties hard enough to kill everyone around, Kalfu is malicious and troublemaking, and Shango regularly breaks the rules about getting involved in the mortal world. They're no better than any other pantheon.
>>44948661
Here you go
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B6iQI-rFBQF9bG0xS0diTi1FUFE&usp=sharing
>>44958447
>Drawing pieces of paper from a hat
>Not picking sheets of papyrus from a tomb
>>44958378
>not having many different colours of dice
CURRENT YEAR
>>44958845
Nice.Now all I need to do is learn French
>>44948661
>>44958845
>>44958886
Here's an English translation of the gods, though not the pantheon purview
http://modern-legends.wikidot.com/nemetondevos-translated
>>44952924
>OP wants Part Time Gods if they want an actual good game.
Never heard of this one. Got a pdf handy?
>>44952924
Did that ever come out?
>>44960462
I see it for $15 (on sale for $15, normally $25, apparently) on drivethrurpg, but I'm not willing to shell out money for a game I know nothing about.
>>44959781
>>44960462
>>44960882
http://www.mediafire.com/download/w6o7kow4dybvj48/Part-TimeGods-PDF.pdf
I GOTCHU, SENPAI.
>>44960991
Thanks, friend. If I like what I see, Third Eye Games might have some money coming their way.
>>44961107
Mind giving us a short review of what the game is and how it works? From anon to anon, not biased RPGnet schlock.
>>44961144
I haven't read it yet, anon.
>>44948828
Class of the Titans. It was decent.
>>44958822
Alternately, he really does consider them to be good and those little details to be irrelevant or non-evil. Which means he'd play a good Loa himself.
>>44960991
This is really quite cool. Thanks for posting it. At a glance it looks less broken than Scion if nothing else, but I really like the paradigm for what new gods are, even if the historical backstory bit is kinda droll.
>>44958845
>>44958886
Original requester here, I had lost all hope. Thank you man, may you feast with the gods and heroes once you're done in this world.
>>44932035
(you)
Will this ever come out?
>>44960991
>bonds
Of all the fucking things to rip off from Magical Burst...
>>44961144
I read Part Time Gods this last summer while I was having a major sad, so my memory isn't the best. But it's got some cool ideas.
The idea is that some magical Source spread sparks of divinity into the world, leading to the old gods. The old gods, thinking to protect their power, tried to contain the Source, but their power wanes anyways.
In the modern era, sparks of divinity are re-emerging, and implanting in individuals. But the sparks are thin and watered down, but can be very divergent. You can be a "god" of anything, noun or verb, but as I said, not terribly powerful. Being a God doesn't pay the bills! (unless you're a god of wealth or something)
The powers are pretty abstract, where you can summon your purview, or manifest it, or control it's manifestation or something. The ease of which you do so is based on how "closely" what you're trying to do matches your purview. So a god of Music would have more broad power than a god of Rock and Roll, but the Rock and Roll god would have stronger control.
>>44966122
(cont)
One of the things I really liked it was that the presence of your divinity warps the world around you, making your territory start to reflect your purview more. God of music will find more street musicians, music stores, and the like around town, as well as people more likely to hum to themselves. It's flavorful and fun.
The biggest downside are the "Politics" of the game. It's got, I think, five different groups that your PC can join with, each espousing various philosophies of divinity. But they're pretty uninspiring, if not straight up "I really don't want to play this". For example, one group is all about trying to leave humanity behind and embrace divinity, and another are cannibals!
That's basically all I remember. I listened to a lets play that was pretty fun, though, which is how I discovered it.
>>44966122
>>44966183
Oh, one last note. The scale is pretty low power. You won't be striding about countrysides throwing your divinity around. It's more low-key than that. More like you go to work as an elementary school teacher who moonlights as a God of... I dunno, Cell Phones, and then have to go and get rid of a minotaur who's opened a bar too close to the school and his drunken friends are a nuisance and/or dangerous to the children.
>>44960991
>d20
Uh
>six attributes, blatantly copied from D&D, two dozen skills, and eight "manifestations"
I mean, this game isn't terrible, but I think it could be done better with a lightly modded version of FATE, which is sort of the practical death knell of a game.
>>44966900
There's a Fate version, according to the company's website. There are even Fate versions of some of the supplements.
>>44966183
>For example, one group is all about trying to leave humanity behind and embrace divinity, and another are cannibals!
I like those though. I don't like that the cannibals have to do a pointlessly chaotic thing every day, but otherwise those are my favorite factions. The other ones are kind of bland and feel more like NPC organizations than PC organizations to me.
>>44966990
I like the ones that are leaving humanity behind too, as well as the guys seeking knowledge. But you're right that a lot of them feel very bland and NPC-ish.
But they feel odd and tacked-on to me, as opposed to the rest of the game's focus on balancing being a god with getting on with your life.
>>44967089
Most of the game, at least mechanically, seems less about balance to me and more about maintaining a mortal life, but with some side stuff. Hell, the name of the game is part time gods. The god aspect is clearly on the losing end of the balance. But even on the mechanical aspect of what the characters are, there's all the skills and attributes, which are fundamentally mortal, to a smaller array of manifestations and divine powers, and the divinity doesn't really build on the mortality like it might in, say, Exalted.
>>44967237
I'd be down to play it, either way. Got myself in a Scion game, but only played one session so far. I'm playing a Scion of Nuada, which is cool.
For PTG I've got an idea of a lawyer or a judge as a god of Law. Might be cool to play.
A note on Scion, character design always feels weird to me in that game. My character has the Sword of Light, and it always feels like "too much", almost mary sue. Then I remember, that yeah, you're supposed to be getting shit like that right off the bat in Scion. Very weird.
>>44967447
Yeah, reading it I can't help but scoff at the game design but I still have an idea for a homeless ascendant God of Dogs that I'm somewhat enamored with.
>>44967447
How is the Sword of Light too much? I've got a player in my group with a Scion of Nuada with the Sword and the only thing it's really been useful for (aside from general sword things) has been letting him see everything perfectly well all the time as long as he's wielding it. Then again we're only a few sessions in, ourselves.
>>44968174
Mechanically, it's fine. Actually it might be a little underwhelming mechanically. But the idea of a starting character who wields an artifact of mythological might and legend always my "C'mon, really?" buttons. Like if I rolled a Tzimisce who was BFFs with Vykos.
>>44968546
Ah, yeah, didn't really think too much on that. I would imagine that it would hang heavily over his head, though-- having this family heirloom weapon in his hands. If he fucks up, he'll have brought shame to his father and to the name of the sword.
At least there's no one in the party with the Book of Going Forth by Day, right? That'd be real bullshit.
>>44969286
No, no one has the book. Although there is a Scion of Sobek who I'm keeping a close eye on. Going for a god of Justice and rolled a cop. Dude seems to be the kind of guy to talk to if you need "problems solved".
>>44945314
I just want to see 2e because it looks like it's never going to be released
Fucking Onyx Path
>>44969494
.......... we have a scion of Sobek in our group too. They're one of the least shady people in the group, aside from the Scion of Nuada detective.
>>44969629
ARE YOU MIKE!?
>>44969655
hahaha no. that's probably the most generic name possible to call out in this situation. If you've got a scion of Izanami in your group, then you've caught me.
>>44969922
Well, then we're not in the same group. No one from the east in our group.
>>44956203
None of it makes even a pretense of sensibility
>>44964420
Take one on the house champ, I'll box it up for you! [>]
>>44970463
I mean, it's not like the Dominions lore.
Which would be an awesome game, but it doesn't exist.
>>44970229
That's a relief. I had assumed Sobek wasn't a popular choice for a parent, but we've got at least 3 mentions of it so far in this thread.
It's hard to talk about the game while being vague due to the sheer number of possibilities for player characters. My fellow players would likely instantly know if they were in my group just based on listed god-parents. Not sure if the same could be said for D&D race/class combos.
>>44970996
D&D has a lot more players, you know.
>>44971237
That would be the point he was making.
>>44970996
I just like the Tuatha. Not sure what pantheon I'd go with if I wasn't taking them. Enech is such a fun purview, I love the Geasa, and cannot wait to lay one on someone and inform them that it's a heavy bird to bear.
>>44971373
>That would be the point he was making.
It's not the point he said.
>>44971373
Tuatha was my second choice.
I too can't wait to see our Irish guy lay the smack down on someone with a ban. One of our players has a fighter character (kitchen sink god, heavily focused on epics at start) and keeps trying to get more absurd weaponry... and playing as if there's no consequences. A perfectly deserving target. Especially since the book suggests NOT telling the afflicted person about their new ban for maximum effect.
>>44971237
yes yes, there's tons of D&D players. That's part of why it's so easy to freely talk about your D&D party semi-anonymously.
>>44967447
>a lawyer or a judge as a god of Law
>someone who can use god powers to get the PCs off scot-free
Sounds like an incredibly useful character to have in your pantheon.
>>44972579
Really does. Also, I don't know why, but over the last year I've just wanted to play lawyer characters a lot.
>>44967447
>For PTG I've got an idea of a lawyer or a judge as a god of Law. Might be cool to play.
That kinda seems to be overplaying it. PTG seems to have it just be random people with random powers; imagine a God of Law who worked as a shift manager a Home Hardware, where everything's not together on a silver platter.
>>44974277
Either way, I don't have a group together to play it. And the group I do have is doing Scion at the moment. So it's something of a moot point.
