What's the deal with Promethean: The Created?

[Odhanan]

It was a short lived series about Ghostbusters basically, but serious. Heavy meta plot that arched through the six book series. I always thought of it as a more playiable Wraith. It was done before the nWod stuff, the books are a fun read but I've never had the chance to run it.

I have all the books and will run the whole Orpheus campaign one of these days. I think it's absolutely terrific in its treatment and scope. Not too long to get jaded, with enough changes from episode to episode to keep yourself interested, and yet potential for much more if the players are interested. Good, very good stuff. Will work best with people who already played some RPGs, particularly modern in their subject, but who haven't played too much White Wolf old WoD.

 

[humble minion]

So is this 'Divine Fire stolen from the Gods' something that just happens spontaneously and a Promethean starts walking around, or does a mad scientist need to get involved somewhere?

Both seem problematic. The first sound just like your standard zombie, the second sounds like it'd be a horrendous job trying to find a reason for a group of Promethean PCs to be hanging around together. Sure they'd appreciate the social interaction, but how the hell would they find each other in the first place? Mad scientists are not known for mass production! At least with vampires and werewolves there was a reason a new PC-type would be involved in monster society from day one.

 

[Agent Oracle]

They're Constructs, and if you need a reason for them to be hanging around together, i reccomend "Agatha Heterodyne and the Electric Coffin". A short comic story about four constructs and their common scam, oh, and the mad scientist who respects them

Oh, and i firmly reccomend the Girl Genius comic in general, as it happens to contain a wide, WIDE variety of ideas for constructs (everything from Jagermonsters to Adam and Eve Clay themselves.)

Frankly, if there's any place for Promethians, I can honestly see it as being beside Hunters! Think about it: they're big, they're made up from human bits, but they genuinely want to become what the hunters allready are! Sadly, the hunters are not part of the new world

 

[Nightchilde-2]

So is this 'Divine Fire stolen from the Gods' something that just happens spontaneously and a Promethean starts walking around, or does a mad scientist need to get involved somewhere?

Both seem problematic. The first sound just like your standard zombie, the second sounds like it'd be a horrendous job trying to find a reason for a group of Promethean PCs to be hanging around together. Sure they'd appreciate the social interaction, but how the hell would they find each other in the first place? Mad scientists are not known for mass production! At least with vampires and werewolves there was a reason a new PC-type would be involved in monster society from day one.

Prometheans are created one of two ways....
1. Purposefully by another Promethean, sometimes for companionship, sometimes for other purposes.
2. By what's known as a "demiurge," which is a normal human that accidentally creates a Promethean. Dr. Frankenstein, for instance, is a Demiurge.

As for why Prometheans would hang together; not only for companionship, but also protection and to help each other on their Pilgrimages (i.e. the "road" they travel to become human).

Also, when a Promethean tries to create another Promethean, sometimes things go wrong and they accidentally create what are known as Pandorans. Pandorans want to eat the Divine Fire (called Azoth) within Prometheans, because without it they become inert matter.

There are five Lineages (roughly analagous to Clans in VtR). We know of the Frankensteins, Galateans, Osirians (that's not their real name, but I forget it now) and Tammuz (Golems). The fifth lineage hasn't been shared, but it's rumored to be some kind of shamanistic group.

The Prometheans in the core book are all, in some way, reanimated corpses (it's still not very clear how the Tammuz fit into this "rule"). One of the sourcebooks is supposed to cover Prometheans created from other materials and another is supposed to concentrate on the Pandorans IIRC.

Plus, if you buy the Promethean Pack you get a promotional brain. And how cool is that?

 

[mhacdebhandia]

http://www.white-wolf.com/promethean/index.php?related=790&id=491

That link collects all of White Wolf's previews of Promethean.

If you need more information, there's a looooong thread on RPG.Net:

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=262707

That includes all of the articles above and some interviews from elsewhere on the intarweb.