[RPG]: Scion: Hero, reviewed by Maijin Drew (4/3)

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/12/12989.phtml

Andrew Sandlin's Summary:

White Wolf's take on the modern Epic. You have the blood of Divinity coursing through your veins. What will your story be?

Go to the full review for more information.

[WillyPete]

I noticed the blurb for "Scion: Demigod", in the core rules...
Any idea what this is going to be about?
Just the same character types, at higher power levels (such as going from Basic D&D to Companion D&D, or what I heard they did with Aberrant)?

From another review, I noticed that they have no 'Resources' in the game...
Do they at least cover the basic concept of how to handle Material Wealth?
Is the default assumption that "You're all dead broke, no matter how brilliant/ charismatic you might be", or "You're all tremendously wealthy, but it really doesn't mean anything"?

Finally, I've heard that the supposed bad guys are called Titanspawn...
Are the Titans /Giants /Whatever all Pantheon specific, or is this just one of those things where Titanspawn are just things to shoot at?
{Thanks!}

[Tori Bergquist]

I have Scion: Hero and it's made my shortlist of "games I am glad I purchased" this year. To answer a couple of your questions:

1. The titanspawn are derived from each of the features mythologies, and a few more. While the specific titans of Greek myth are prominent, the titanspawn are really just about every old-world mythical being that was shunned in mythic transition. So, for example, the Vanir, the giants, and other deniens of Norse myth fall in to this category, as do the more monstrous beings and elements. The writers do a fairly good job, so far, of digging up stories and beings from the various mythologies to build up the ranks of the titanspawn, and luckily, most mythologies have a batch of god and monsters that were "cast down" at some point, so it meshes well here. I wa surprised at the absense of Mesopotamian mythology in Scion, however, and hope it shows up in one of the next two volumes, as the old Mesopatamian myth tales were rife with titanspawn such as Tiamat and her monstrous brood.

And yeah, the titanspawn are there to be shot at, while trying to eat, convert, or just slap around the poor scions.

2. Oddly, I didn't notice in my reading the absence of a resource stat.....but I'm kind of new to White Wolf's Storyteller system, and so it would not have occurred to me to look for it. In fact, until this point I would have simply run it with the assumption that wealth is acquired and tracked the old fashioned way, but now I'll take a look at that and see what they have in place about such matters and how it works.

[WillyPete]

I thought the Vanir (at least some of them) were represented along with the Aesir?
I know there were at least two!

I would have liked to see them include Amerindian Totems (ala Shadowrun), and the Celtic Deities, myself, but, as you said, they can always do another expansion!

All the WoD games had a 'Resource' stat (kind of weak, but slightly better than nothing), and Adventure had an option called "Wealth Beyond Avarice" for those who wish to portray the Tony Stark or Bruce Wayne of the 1920s... :->

If there is an 'old-fashioned way' of accumulating Wealth in the game, so much the better...

[Tori Bergquist]

Originally Posted by WillyPete

I thought the Vanir (at least some of them) were represented along with the Aesir?
I know there were at least two!

I would have liked to see them include Amerindian Totems (ala Shadowrun), and the Celtic Deities, myself, but, as you said, they can always do another expansion!

All the WoD games had a 'Resource' stat (kind of weak, but slightly better than nothing), and Adventure had an option called "Wealth Beyond Avarice" for those who wish to portray the Tony Stark or Bruce Wayne of the 1920s... :->

If there is an 'old-fashioned way' of accumulating Wealth in the game, so much the better...

There are details on Aesir and Vanir in the Scion book; they look at the old Norse myths of the conflict between these two as part of the schism between new gods (the sires of the scions) and old (the titans and their spawn).

From what I understand, there are three books total in this line, all being released this summer: Hero, Demigod, and God. Each book will expand the power level/campaign are and include the progressing storyline that is featured in the scenarios provided. I've read that the upcoming books, most especially the third one, will include lots of detail on the minor or less frequently seen pantheons, which are all existant in the Scion universe, but not necessarily as prolific in making scions (as Hero explains, some deities are just not all that keen on getting it on with mortals, so the pantheons that do have a love of interacting with their mortal followers are more noticeable in the Scion universe.)

[Maijin Drew]

Wow. Reading this thread has shown me that, I guess, I focused way too much on the physical book, and didn't say much about the game itself. I'll remember that in the future...

There is no system to track wealth. I think it's sort of a "You can be rich or poor, whatever," without it mattering from a system standpoint. There are no Backgrounds or Merits at all, though a few of the old-school Merits (familiar, mentor, artifact, and followers) became Birthrights. It seems that they made the game to where you have more freedom for your character history, without having so say "Crap, to pull this off, I'll have to spend bonus points."

[Wyvern76]

I am happy that they included a sidebar that explains what happens when a Scion uses the "I detect lies" Knack against someone using the "I'm a flawless liar" Knack.

Now you've got me curious... what does happen? Do their heads explode?

Not bad for a first review, btw. Could've used more explanation of what the Tick mechanic is, though.

Wyvern

[Maijin Drew]

Originally Posted by Wyvern76

Now you've got me curious... what does happen? Do their heads explode?

Not bad for a first review, btw. Could've used more explanation of what the Tick mechanic is, though.

Wyvern

The Knacks just cancel each other out, pretty much. It's simple, but I'm glad they outright stated it.

Thanks. I'll do better next time

[Wyvern76]

Originally Posted by Maijin Drew

The Knacks just cancel each other out, pretty much. It's simple, but I'm glad they outright stated it.

Thanks. I'll do better next time

So, um... can you explain what the Tick mechanic is, please?

Wyvern

[Maijin Drew]

Okay. The basics:

*Combat is divided into Ticks, each Tick represents one second.
*When combat starts, each character rolls Wits+Awareness (called a Join Battle action)
*Whoever gets the most successes on Join Battle sets the Reaction Count, and gets to act first, on Tick Zero.
*The first Tick that another character can act on is equal to the RC minus the number of successes they rolled on Join Battle, though the latest a character can act is Tick 6, no matter what the roll. Botching Join Battle causes you to act on Tick 6.
*On the Tick on which you can act, there are a number of actions you can take (attack, guard, dash, and many others). Each action has a Speed. (For example, guarding has a Speed of 3). This Speed stat is the number of ticks you must wait before acting again. (So, if you decide to guard on Tick 1, you act again on Tick 4.) The Speed of an Attack is determined by the Speed of the weapon you are using.
*Combat is continuous. People act, wait, act, wait. There are no Turns, no breaks.

That about sums it up. In the last Exalted game I ran, it took 90 minutes of real time to resolve a 45 second fight. Scion, however, seems to strip out a lot of what makes a fight in Exalted take forever, though, but I have yet to play out a battle in Scion.