SCION: Great ideas but the execution...
HI all,
Recently broke a long-standing promise to myself and looked at a RPG by White Wolf, SCION. It's bascially one where you play the child of a pagan deity and have some wild adventures while trying to find out what happened to dear old Dad (or Mom), fight monsters (everything from giant wolves called Fenrir to Hogzilla), explore the mythic worlds, etc.
First of all, what I like:
* - The setting avoids the Wangst Overload that was SO COMMON in Old Testament WoD. This game is done for fun, though it does have some serious issues.
* - Cool supernatural critters. What can I say, I love monsters. The Fenrir were mentioned. They have shapeshifters (werewolves, selkies, and were-hyenas are mentioned). They have the Hungry Dead, basically Dawn of the Dead zombies with superhuman strength, and best of all Not-Anne-Rice vampires. Nosferatu, vrykolakas, and camazotz are what we see here, and they're all delightfully evil. Heck, they even have dragons and giants existing in the real world, with the giants toting riot guns made from sawed-off Holland & Holland Elephant Guns ("Welcome to the 20th Century, Thunder God!" BLAM!). They even have a modern-day Wild Hunt that is basically a biker gang with superpowers. And they have kitsune, with the example character being very charming - a Ms. Kumiko Rothstein, who is quite rich now that she's killed her fourth husband.
Oh yes, they also include Pan and his satyrs (who are depraved socipathic sex fiend rapists -- they've turned dark since Greece ane Rome turned away from the gods) a,d minotaurs, who like raping and devouring women, typically doing both at once. Vore fans, take note! :P
* - Good work on the six pantheons in the book. They use the Egyptian, Greek, Norse, Japanese (Shinto), Voudoun, and Aztec pantheons. The gods themselves are physically incarnate and wander the Earth, mostly because creatures called the Titans drove them from the Heavens. The Titans seem to be a cross between Lovecraftian Old Ones and the Djinn from Tim Powers' novel Declare: "Vast and terrible and beyond good and evil... Their power is their morality." The main battle in-game is between the Scions and the Titanspawn, who are as powerful and amoral as their sires.
However, just because the gods are opposed to the Titans and want humanity to survive, that doesn't mean that they like individual humans. These are not bright, happy, shiny New Age Pagan gods from a Disney film. The gods can often be dark, savage, and utterly selfish. Especially the Aztec gods -- one note about Tlaloc says that "He likes to get work as a childrens' swim instructor", which should make anyone who knows how the Lord of Rains was honored break out in a cold sweat.
* - Locations. They use Atlantis. That alone officially means that This Game is Cool.
They also use other mythic settings, some of which have a real streak of nastiness in them. For instance: in Hel's Hall in Nifelheim (the Norse Underworld), her table is surrounded by a river of reeking blood. A herd of goats walks atop the table, and while everyone among the dead has a drinking horn at the table, the only thing it ever gets filled with is goat urine. As the author tells us, this is where Norse pagans go when they die unless they died as warriors. (Some reward.) The valkyries are mostly in the Middle East, recruiting soldiers who die fighting in Iraq. Some of them will even take slain Muslim jihadis, which must make for interesting scenes in Valhalla: "Pig's flesh to eat? Beer to drink? Half-naked women everywhere? AHHH! I'M IN HELL!"
* - Character Power: This sounds shallow, but I like that SCION PCs are not automatically the puniest creatures in existence. This was a very common failing in the old WoD, where not only were you weaker than all the NPCs, you could never, ever, become strong enough to openly face them, or even alter their plans in any meaningful way. The Metaplot was more important than the player characters, or even the players. Thankfully, this game seems 100% free of that.
* - There will be three books in the SCION series, HERO, DEMIGOD, and GOD, and that's it. The plotine ends with the third book. You can keep playing and using the material, but you'll do so on your own. I usually like getting new gaming material for a setting, but sometimes it's good to see a closed story too.
I've gone on waaaay too long. Tomorrow I'll list some complaints with the setting and game, like the one 'Buffalo Bill' transsexual who wears a flayed woman's skin. Oh, they're a sympathetic character.
See you later!
Recently broke a long-standing promise to myself and looked at a RPG by White Wolf, SCION. It's bascially one where you play the child of a pagan deity and have some wild adventures while trying to find out what happened to dear old Dad (or Mom), fight monsters (everything from giant wolves called Fenrir to Hogzilla), explore the mythic worlds, etc.
First of all, what I like:
* - The setting avoids the Wangst Overload that was SO COMMON in Old Testament WoD. This game is done for fun, though it does have some serious issues.
* - Cool supernatural critters. What can I say, I love monsters. The Fenrir were mentioned. They have shapeshifters (werewolves, selkies, and were-hyenas are mentioned). They have the Hungry Dead, basically Dawn of the Dead zombies with superhuman strength, and best of all Not-Anne-Rice vampires. Nosferatu, vrykolakas, and camazotz are what we see here, and they're all delightfully evil. Heck, they even have dragons and giants existing in the real world, with the giants toting riot guns made from sawed-off Holland & Holland Elephant Guns ("Welcome to the 20th Century, Thunder God!" BLAM!). They even have a modern-day Wild Hunt that is basically a biker gang with superpowers. And they have kitsune, with the example character being very charming - a Ms. Kumiko Rothstein, who is quite rich now that she's killed her fourth husband.
Oh yes, they also include Pan and his satyrs (who are depraved socipathic sex fiend rapists -- they've turned dark since Greece ane Rome turned away from the gods) a,d minotaurs, who like raping and devouring women, typically doing both at once. Vore fans, take note! :P
* - Good work on the six pantheons in the book. They use the Egyptian, Greek, Norse, Japanese (Shinto), Voudoun, and Aztec pantheons. The gods themselves are physically incarnate and wander the Earth, mostly because creatures called the Titans drove them from the Heavens. The Titans seem to be a cross between Lovecraftian Old Ones and the Djinn from Tim Powers' novel Declare: "Vast and terrible and beyond good and evil... Their power is their morality." The main battle in-game is between the Scions and the Titanspawn, who are as powerful and amoral as their sires.
However, just because the gods are opposed to the Titans and want humanity to survive, that doesn't mean that they like individual humans. These are not bright, happy, shiny New Age Pagan gods from a Disney film. The gods can often be dark, savage, and utterly selfish. Especially the Aztec gods -- one note about Tlaloc says that "He likes to get work as a childrens' swim instructor", which should make anyone who knows how the Lord of Rains was honored break out in a cold sweat.
* - Locations. They use Atlantis. That alone officially means that This Game is Cool.
They also use other mythic settings, some of which have a real streak of nastiness in them. For instance: in Hel's Hall in Nifelheim (the Norse Underworld), her table is surrounded by a river of reeking blood. A herd of goats walks atop the table, and while everyone among the dead has a drinking horn at the table, the only thing it ever gets filled with is goat urine. As the author tells us, this is where Norse pagans go when they die unless they died as warriors. (Some reward.) The valkyries are mostly in the Middle East, recruiting soldiers who die fighting in Iraq. Some of them will even take slain Muslim jihadis, which must make for interesting scenes in Valhalla: "Pig's flesh to eat? Beer to drink? Half-naked women everywhere? AHHH! I'M IN HELL!"
* - Character Power: This sounds shallow, but I like that SCION PCs are not automatically the puniest creatures in existence. This was a very common failing in the old WoD, where not only were you weaker than all the NPCs, you could never, ever, become strong enough to openly face them, or even alter their plans in any meaningful way. The Metaplot was more important than the player characters, or even the players. Thankfully, this game seems 100% free of that.
* - There will be three books in the SCION series, HERO, DEMIGOD, and GOD, and that's it. The plotine ends with the third book. You can keep playing and using the material, but you'll do so on your own. I usually like getting new gaming material for a setting, but sometimes it's good to see a closed story too.
I've gone on waaaay too long. Tomorrow I'll list some complaints with the setting and game, like the one 'Buffalo Bill' transsexual who wears a flayed woman's skin. Oh, they're a sympathetic character.
See you later!