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Proposal: Scion: Modern Mythology


Dave ST

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Interest check.

Premise: Scion Hero game.

Style: Vanilla Scion with the exception that the characters will be a bit younger than the norm.

Number of Players: 4-5 (Genders must be equal (2/2, 2/3 or 3/2, if you guys all hand me female PCs, I won't even consider them)

Synopsis: In Salem, Massachusetts all hell is about to break loose. Against their better judgment they agree to grant the visitation to some of their Scions a bit younger than they normally would (they generally wait until 18). The result is a crash course in heroics before the war in the Overworld pulls their attention away and leaves them to deal with how Fate throws calamities at them right and left.

The PCs will start as high school students, all in attendance at the same school. Chances are your PCs will know each other from the hallways; maybe even one or two of you are friends. Perhaps all of you hate each other because you’re all in different cliques (see The Breakfast Club). Whatever, it’s up to you; you’re adults, talk and figure it out.

As Fate would have it you’re all going to be brought together to protect each other and survive those evils that are now hunting you. As the game moves on I’m hoping to time lapse a bit and press them beyond the high school years, we’ll see.

Unless the Gods intervene and make this mythic… I don’t see this game reaching Godhood.

Character Creation: Real simple.

1. Make a Hero. Any of the 6 core Pantheon’s are permitted.

2. You may not have Purviews outside what your parent owns. Access to additional purviews will be granted through relics.

3. I'm picky about relics and I reserve the right to adjust relics as I see fit. This isn't to be a jerk, it's to keep players from running roughshod over a Hero level game with a balls-to-the-wall relic.

4. If you're looking for a challenge you can allow me to make your PC for you. All I will do are the statistics, the characters background, name, gender, will still all be up to. I will select from pregenerated templates I have, which include a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal (no, I'm not joking).

As always I'll answer any questions you have.

Keep in mind, I will be leaving for Basic Training in Sept, so this game has the potential to be put on pause for several months.  I know it might seem silly to start a game when I have to leave in a few months, but as long as there is interest in a game we can always come back to it.  All it takes is a refresher of reading the posts.

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I'm considering reprising Nadya, a daughter of Bastet and Princess of Thieves, one of the original Characters from the Salem game for this. If there ends up being too many females though, I can make someone new and male, though I don't have an idea for what he'd be, yet.

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So far I've had interest for 4 characters.  2 athletes, 1 anime nerd (brain), and 1 hawtie thief (princess).  Also we have 2 males and 2 females.... without e throwing a fit. :) Great work guys.

At the moment I don't see an issue with two athletes.  Which is alright, because we diversify their stats.  One of you can be the agile 'speedster' while the other is the powerhouse that makes the other three feel a bit safer knowing he's around.

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This is Rachel Cooper. Just starting her Junior year at Salem High. She is a Jock Lettering in Field and track but she isn't well liked in her "peer" group. She despises bullies and people who aren't tolerant. which leads to her taking up for the kids those other jocks and the popular kids find easy pickings. She is adopted and has two dads which even in a liberal state like Massachusetts lends itself to a certain degree of prejudice. Oh and her real dad just happens to be the Norse God of Vengeance, Vidar.

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Rachel, we at Vidar's dinner table say 'Justice', not vengeance.

 

Also I'm PMing you character to your Rachel account.  Some thing to note:

1. I liked your sticking up for the smaller people, so I broke my own rules and allowed her to have the Guardian purview.

2. I set Courage and Loyalty as her highest Virtues, with Expression being her lowest.  She seemed more of a doer and less of a teller of tales and writing of songs and poetry.

3. I gave her a shield maiden follower that can be summoned instead of always following her around (awkward).  Don't worry about the stats, I already have them worked up.  If you don't want the shield maiden, that's cool (some don't like followers), we can go with something else.

I designed her as quite literally the party's Paladin.  She is loyal, brave, and stated in a  way where she always tends to pursue the 'right way' of doing things.  Since both her fathers are in Law Enforcement, I made it easy to assume she would have a very strong sense of morality.

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I sent Fisher Capra in.

He's something of an anime/manga nerd, friendly enough, does well in classes. Is fairly capable at drawing. A few years ago, he moved to Salem with his single, divorced dad, whom is a partner at an ad agency in the region. Also Junior Year. Turns out the mom that left is Izanami, the Japanese Queen of the Underworld.

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Alright, Richard is done and PMed to the Richard account.  Notes:

1. He is rather average for an athlete.  This is intentional because we already have an Aesir jock, I fashioned this guy to be a backup melee and brawler with the ability to schmooze on the side.  One of those athletes that everyone like (Poseidon has Epic Cha and Epic Man).

2. You won't find Lightning Swimmer in the Hero book.  It works like Lightning Sprinter, but only in water.

3. One of your relics is rather useless to you.  The Siren's Pearl is not meant for you, it's meant for another player so they can follow you when you go underwater.  You had 1BP left, I improvised.

4. So far you have the highest Legend score.  4 is pretty steep, so Poseidon expects great things from you.  Your character has the potential for amazing power... you just have to earn the right to have it.

 

You know the deal, ask me if you have questions.

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Now that I have every one sucked into this, I'm going to go over a few things.

 

Storytelling vs. Game playing

I don't play games, I tell stories. Sure we have dice to help us dictate how that story may flow in stressful situations, but at the very heart of things I'm telling a story, with all of you as the cast. I tell my gaming group at the house this: try and separate yourself from the gaming mentality and try to place yourself in a television show or in the pages of a book.  It's not me against you and you can't win the game.  This is us working together to move on to the next chapter.

The characters are the cast and they will face all manor of trials, but they're still people. I try to draw on that concept when I plan my adventures for them. At a gaming table we could all show up go through some super-dungeon and move from one battle to the next collecting loot, but that wouldn't tell a great story. We're going tell a story filled with drama, horror, adventure, comedy and of course, tragedy. Probably roll some dice too.

The game will be Episodic and Seasonal.  So our first post will be Season 1, Episode 1.  A season is roughly 13+ episodes and not all of those episodes will be very long or have combat.  Every episode will centered on the role play of the PCs.  Since we have an unlimited budget and all the special effects we need for free, we can run a season for as long as we need to.  Assume that 13 is the average.  Every season will have a big bad.  The Big Bad is the Boss, problem, or event that the PCs will ultimately need to overcome to 'win'.  It will also be the central mystery surrounding the season, until the PCs can expose it and challenge it.

 

How Far is Too Far

Fun is the goal, but in order to tell a story we need subject matter. I don't know any of you personally and I understand that we all come from various walks of life. I'm a simple guy. As far as I know, I'm playing with a group of adults. That said, my games run on a very hazy 'R' rating. I don't run slasher style games, but sometimes to convey proper pathos for the scene I have to get descriptive. You'll be dealing with zombies, monsters and evil people, so know that it might not be pretty.

I have to play the villains. Please understand that some villains need to be hated and I'll deliberately push your PCs buttons. Regardless of how much of an ass I am or how twisted my STing might get, I do not condone the actions of the bad guys. It's just a story. If I offend, or you're uncomfortable, than I expect you to be an adult and talk with me about it.  Disclaimer: If you're not okay with something, and you don't come to me with it, then that's on you, not me.

 

Don't Sweat The Deets

The Devil's in the details, as they say. I understand that people need to know certain things about their character and think that I need to know them too. I don't. We won't be sweating the details of a lot of things.

-The game is set in 20XX. We don't need much more than that. The reader should know they're in High School and that's really as vague as we need to be. Like a comic book, the world will seem to move on, but the PCs are always the same age until it's time to move them forward. If it takes us three years of real life to get through one year of their adventures, so be it.

-You'll notice that no one really cares that your PC keeps slipping out from his/her after school job to save the world. It always seemed to be waiting for him when he gets back, despite some really lame excuses.

-Your parents will technically be the worst in history. Unless actually needed for plot purposes, they generally think you're staying at a friends house or hanging out somewhere. Chaining you to authority would hamper the storytelling.

-You can't die.  That's right, your PCs will not be killed in this game, unless you want them to die in a blaze of glory.  There is a price, and that's called injuries.  When you're dropped your PC is injured and suffers penalties to everything until I say otherwise (usually one story).  Injuries work like dice penalties for low health (-1, -2, -4).  They also stack with your low health if things go south again.  Don't worry, they heal.  If the injury was the result of aggravated damage you skip right to -4 penalties to everything until it's healed.

 

Don't Get Attached

Everything I do is for a reason. I punish the PCs because they're the Heroes and their lives are supposed to be difficult and rough. It's for that reason that you will come to find that sometimes the enemies will go after the things your character holds dear. Mostly this is for the sake of a good plot, and you'll get to play the hero. Sometimes you don't get a choice, and other time you do but they're both bad. For everything I take from your PC, I try to replace it with some sort of reward for being a good sport.

 

Love Notes

I pass a lot of notes under the table. Same with PMs.

 

I Take Action

I learned a long time ago that asking PCs to make a roll completely spoils the surprise. I tend to make reflexive rolls for your PCs. This saves time and energy. The format is relatively simple to read: [Event/Skill/Result/Those Effected]. Example:

-[Surprise/Awareness/Succ/Rachel/Fisher/Grace] – This states that the PCs were ambushed/They rolled their Awareness skill/They SUCCeeded and that Rachel, Fisher, and Grace were involved. Now in the case of surprise, if the entire party was present, then it would be implied that Nadya and Richard were surprised, because their names are not listed as having succeeded in the roll.

-[Logic/Academics/Succ/Fisher] – Reflexively Fisher just solved an issue academically.

It's pretty self explanatory. I generally don't post failed reflexive rolls, because if I did that, it gives away the secret! Now also consider that this roll is for all of you but it only belongs to the persons whose name is in the field. No meta-gaming. In the example above, only Fisher would know what follows that roll, and it's no one's place but Fisher's to bring that information to light.

 

No Ticks or Can I, Can I's!

Scion combat runs more smoothly with a simple Wits + Awareness roll. While we're on the topic of combat please don't plague me with “Can I...”. Look, it should be simple and straight forward. If you want to disarm he guy, there's a rule for that. If you wanna fight defensively, there's a rule for that. Think before you ask me if it's possible. Scion had a very high cheese factor, chances are it's possible you can pull it off. With the stunt system, I will award dice based on how detailed your post is. If you're not good at descriptions, that's okay. We're a community of writers, ask one of us to give you a hand.

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