Scion Companion

[Crothian]

The latest and perhaps last book for White Wolf's Scion game has come out. Scion is a game of mixed baggage. The concept of playing children of gods in a modern world that is quickly coming to an apocalypse is pretty cool. The rules and melding of ancient gods into the modern worlds though has been rather hit and miss.

Scion Companion does a great job of introducing new pantheons into the mix. In this book we get the Celts, Chinese, and Hindu gods. This is all done will the same detail as the other pantheons from the Hero book. Other highlights are additional knacks and abilities for players as we all know that's fun stuff. The guidelines for creating new pantheons and new relics are okay but really needed more to them.

Then we get to the WWII setting. The idea is neat but when I got to the new "gods" I was wondering what the hell was Whitewolf thinking. First off they are not gods for the most part but folk lore. They appear to be a little more comical in nature though that might be my perception. Certainly Be'er Rabbit is a comical figure especially with the ties they have with Bugs Bunny. John Henry, Pecos Bill and the rest are just being out of Folk Lore. I was surprised to see Betsy Rose. The section is a little over patriot and just fails on the realism. And for a game about gods and modern fantasy aspects failing on the realism is saying something.

Over all though it is a good book. Five of the six sections are very usable for our game and there are bits from the WWII section that can be pillaged.

 

[Crothian]

No one into Scion?

 

[Ruined]

That's too bad that the WWII section doesn't seem as good of a mesh. I have fond memories of Wraith: the Great War, so I would hope that WW's luck with that setting continued.

I have Scion: Hero and Demigod, but like most games I've picked up over the last few years, they're occasional reading material that I'll likely never get to run or play.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey Crothian!

I own all the Scion books (though not yet the Companion). Fantastically evocative, very interesting and wonderfully illustrated. However, the bottom line is the mechanics totally suck.

My suggestion would be to convert the whole lot over to 4E.

Still, a lot of good reading for anyone interested in such source material. I will probably pick up the Companion sometime over the next few months. I like the sound of the WW2 backdrop.

 

[Crothian]

I think 4e would not work that well for Scion. It would mess with the game a little too much, plus while there are issues with the Scion rules we have somehow not run into any of them yet. So, like most games I think with the right mindset and not having players abusing the game it works well enough.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I picked up the first 3 Scion books, but haven't seen the Companion book yet.

I bought them because it was, in a way, a new take on WotC's old and long OoP The Primal Order books, and I had had so much fun reading Neil Gaiman's (Neverwhere, American Gods) and Charles De Lindt's (Forests of the Heart) modern fantasies lately.

From your description, I'm glad they included some "demigods" from folklore, even though some may be a bit...bleh.

I never planned on running them in WW's system though- I'd probably just use it as a setting and run it it HERO, M&M, or D20 Modern.

 

[coyote6]

Yeah, I've thought about running a Scion-esque game, but I would use M&M for the rules.

 

[Crothian]

It would be very interesting to see someone write up some ways to use another system for Scion.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Well, in HERO, you'd start by running a low(ish) point level campaign with high base points and few disadvantages.

Where a typical starting HERO campaign might be 250pt heroes with a 150pt base +100pts of disads, you could run a Scion campaign with a 200pt base +50pts of disads. The result would be characters with the same level of advantages but with fewer weaknesses- thus making them that much more powerful.

If you wanted to start them just above the heroic level, you might make them a 100 pt base with 25 pts of disads.

For M&M its a touch more difficult- that system doesn't quite distinguish between points the way HERO does...

 

[Khairn]

It would be very interesting to see someone write up some ways to use another system for Scion.

The challenge is finding a unified system that mirrors the truly epic vision of the game. From your humble beginning that start with your Visitation, through the journeys that shape your Legend, and finally to taking your place at the side of the gods themselves as they battle the primordial Titans on the plains of Otherworld with nothing but the fate of creation hanging in the balance... this is a setting that requires something very unique from its mechanics.

Almost any high fantasy system could handle the Hero stage. While Exalted could probably cover up through most of Demi-God stage. There are a couple of systems that might work for the God stage, although I think Primal Order would be the best. But as for a single system that can handle it all? I don't know of any that I would strongly recommend.

But even with its quirks and "WTF?" elements, I think the Scion system does an admirable job of pulling it off. And with a little work from the ST, the games warts could be cleared up without too much trouble.

And I agree with Crothian regarding the WW2 pantheons in the Companion. It felt less like Scion and more like a "Silver Age Super Hero" game. But aside from that section, I really liked the rest of the book. And I absolutely love Scion: Ragnarok!