Scion (role-playing game)
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| Scion: Hero | |
 Scion: Hero cover, featuring Eric Donner as drawn by Michael Komark. |
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| Designer | John Chambers. Authors: Justin Achilli, Alan Alexander, Carl Bowen, Bill Bridges, John Chamers, Duncan Harris, Michael Lee, Peter Shcaefer, James Stewert, and Andrew Watts |
|---|---|
| Publisher | White Wolf Publishing |
| Publication date | April, 2007 |
| Genre(s) | Contemporary fantasy |
| System | Storyteller |
Scion is a series of role-playing games published by White Wolf, Inc. The first core rule book, Scion: Hero. was released on 13 April, 2007. The second volume, Scion: Demigod, was released on 12 September, 2007, and the third, Scion: God, was released on 23 January, 2008. The Scion Companion began release in sections March, 2008, as a PDF direct download. Scion: Ragnarok will be released at some point during Summer 2008.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Setting
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Set in the modern day, Scion: Hero puts players into the role of mortal descendants of gods embroiled in a divine war. Characters can be associated with any of the six pantheons provided in the game:
- Pesedjet - The gods of Ancient Egypt, including Anubis, Atum-Re, Bastet, Geb, Horus, Isis, Kebauet, Osiris, Ptah, Set (or Seth), Sobek, and Thoth.
- Dodekatheon - The gods of Greek mythology, including Aphrodite, Apollo, Ares, Artemis, Athena, Dionysus, Hades, Hephaestus, Hera, Hermes, Persephone, Poseidon, and Zeus.
- Aesir - The gods of Norse mythology, including Baldur, Freya, Freyr, Frigg, Heimdall, Hel, Loki, Odin, Sif, Thor, Tyr, and Vidar.
- Atzlánti - The gods of the Aztec civilization, including Huitzilopochtli, Miclántecuhtli (sic), Quetzalcoátl, Tezcatlipoca, Tlaloc, Tlazoltéotl, and Xipe Totec.
- Amatsukami - The Shinto gods of Japan, including Amaterasu, Hachiman, Izanagi, Izanami, Raiden, Susano-o, and Tsuki-Yomi.
- Loa - The god-spirits of the Vodou religion, including Agwe, Baron Samedi, Damballa, Erzulie, Kalfu, Legba, Ogoun, and Shango.
There are also instructions for creating custom pantheons, and hints at others already extant in the game's universe (there is brief mention of a "Celestial Bureaucracy," referring to the Chinese pantheon; and Scion: God mentions Coyote of the Native American spirits).
The game tells the story of the Titans, who were imprisoned and enslaved, but have broken free and are waging war in the Overworld. The Gods return to fight the war, entrusting the care of Earth in the hands of their mortal children, Scions. Most often, the purpose of a Scion is to hunt down Titanspawn and stop them from resurrecting the Titan they serve, or to stop them from forwarding its agenda. Scions are as complex, moral, and stalwart as any mortal is however, and sometimes they are turned to the service of the Titans themselves.
Each volume expands the scope of the game. Characters go from being enhanced humans in Scion: Hero to full-fledged gods in Scion: God. The scale also grows, from adventures in the physical world in Scion: Hero, to adventures in the Underworld and various Terra Incognitae in Scion: Demigod, to adventures in the Overworld with its Titanrealms and Godrealms in Scion: God.
[edit] System
Scion uses a rules system similar to the Storyteller system made popular by the World of Darkness, but is not part of the World of Darkness. The rules are a new version of the system presented in Exalted: Second Edition but set in a modern world, that also includes elements from the Trinity Universe series of games, most notably Aberrant.
One change to the system that has caused some debate is the lack of Backgrounds in Scion.[citation needed] Characters are allowed to have whatever contacts, history, and wealth that makes sense for the character without the need of any rules to oversee them. The core mechanics of the game will also increase in scale with each additional book in the series, eventually promoting the hero characters to demigod- and god-hood.
The two primary abilities available to hero characters are Epic Attributes and Purviews. Epic Attributes increase the characters nine basic abilities to super-human levels (Hercules' strength or Helen's beauty, for example). Purviews (covering animals, chaos, darkness, death, earth, fertility, fire, guardians, health, justice, the moon, psychopomp--travel, the sky, the sun, war, water, pantheon-specific purviews, magic, mystery and prophecy) are the divine powers granted to the children of the Gods, activated through special relics given to the Scions by their divine parents. Scions also round out their abilities by attracting Followers, being befriended by legendary Creatures, or being aided by often mystical Guides.
