Scion

Scion
RPG published by White Wolf
Rule System	Modified Storyteller System
First Publication	2007

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Scion is a role-playing game by White Wolf, Inc. known for being a modern version of Exalted but having much more broken powers with an emphasis on defense. Players take the roles of children of the gods of certain pantheons, with the option of becoming gods themselves, if they survive long enough. The format of splitting up the books into three different power levels works great for games at the lowest, Hero tier, but get into Demigod and God and soon the cross-referencing of rules between three different books gets tiresome (less so if they're in a digital format).

Important Elements

Pantheons

Pesedjet

The Egyptian pantheon who believes in the maintenance of the status quo. Their gods include:

Anubis, Atum-Re, Bastet, Geb, Horus, Isis, Osiris, Ptah, Set, Sobek, Thoth

Dodekatheon

The Greek pantheon known for being complete dicks towards other pantheons by waving around their huge egos. During World War II, they participated on behalf of Italy after Caligula poisoned and impersonated Zeus Their gods include:

Aphrodite, Apollo, Ares, Artemis, Athena, Dionysus, Hades, Hephaestus, Hera, Hermes, Poseidon, Zeus

During World War II, Caligula and Quirinus joined the Dodekatheon.

Aesir

The Norse pantheon who's fated to have a Bad End after Ragnarok and famous for drinking and beating the crap out of others. During World War II, they participated on behalf of the Germans after a plan crafted by Loki. Their gods include:

Baldur, Freya, Freyr, Frigg, Heimdall, Hel, Loki, Odin, Sif, Thor, Tyr, Vidar

Atzlánti

The Aztec pantheon is commonly known for their love of blood and ridiculously long and complicated names. Their gods include:

Huitzilopotchli, Miclantecuhtli, Quetzalcoatl, Tezcatlipoca, Tlaloc, Tlazolteotl, Xipe Totec

Amatsukami

The Japanese pantheon has a preference for solving problems without forsaking nature leading to them taking forever to implement a solution. They participated in World War II to give their gifts of prosperity to all subjugated nations of East Asia. Their gods include:

Amaterasu, Hachiman, Izanagi, Izanami, Raiden, Susano-o, Tsuki-yomi

During World War II, Marishiten joined the Amatsukami.

Loa

The Carribean pantheon were created by taking the gods of West Africa and mixing them together for a relatively new pantheon. Their gods include:

Baron Samedi, Damballa, Erzulie, Kalfu, Legba, Ogoun, Shango,

Tuatha Dé Danann

The Celtic pantheon, similar to the Aesir, are more focused on expression than battle. Their gods include:

Aengus, Brigid, the Dagda, Danu, Dian Cecht, Lugh, Mannanan Mac Lir, the Morrigan, Nuada, Ogma

Celestial Bureaucracy

The Chinese pantheon, similar to the Amatsukami in their speed in which they act due to their bureaucracy, is compensated by their numbers in terms of Scions. Their gods include:

Chang'e, Fuxi, Guan Yu, Guanyin, Houyi, Huang Di, Nezha, Nuwa, Shennong, Sun Wukong, Xiwangmu, Yanluo,

Devas

The Hindu pantheon is arguably the oldest pantheon in existence and has the widest following. Their gods are:

Agni, Brahma, Ganesha, Indra, Kali, Lakshmi, Parvati, Sarasvati, Shiva, Surya, Vishnu, Yama

Yankee Pantheon

The American pantheon is composed of various folk figures in American lore. Their gods include:

Betsy Ross, Br'er Rabbit, Columbia, John Henry, Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, Rosie the Riveter, Uncle Sam

Allied Pantheon

The combined pantheons of Britain, France and the Soviet Union are similar to the Yankee pantheon in that they are folk figures for each of those nations. Their gods include:

For Britain: Britannia, John Bull, Robin Hood

For France: d'Artagnan, Madame Guillotine, Marianne

For the Soviet Union: Baba Yaga, The Citizen, Rodina Yat

Atlantean Pantheon

For Atlantis: no one. The entirety of the pantheon is now long since dead, as are all of its known Scions. As well as Atlantis itself, obviously. They might be able to come back to life with enough belief, but now nobody even knows that they existed at all.

That said, for completion, they are given details in the Scion: Demigod and Scion: Companion books, which respectively detail the pantheon's members and Pantheon Purview of Scire respectively.

The deities who made up the Atlantean pantheon once, and who could maybe be brought back if their ruined culture was discovered in Antarctica, consist of the following:

• Amnis: Goddess of fresh water, rivers, cleaning, medicinal herbs and magical healing.
• Badarus: God of the sea and exploration.
• Demosia: Goddess of the moon, the night, rumors, secrets, clandestine meetings and private thoughts.
• Heshon: Godess of nature, bounty, luck, plenty, ill-fortune and loss.
• Kuros: God of intelligence, investigation and the wind.
• Skaft: God of invention, technology, building, art and creation.
• Versak: God of truth, law and justice.

Other

Missing is an Abrahamic pantheon, which is odd as White Wolf wasn't one to shy away from commentary on Christianity or Judaism; as evidenced by Demon: The Fallen, VtM's biblical Cain fanfic, and WtA's holocaust splatbook. This hasn't stopped fans from making versions of it.

Purviews and Knacks

To reflect what makes a Scion super-human, they have inherent access to a number of a "Purviews", which are basically what Dungeons & Dragons calls Divine Portfolios. You get an easier buy-in for Purviews determined by your parent deity - it's only logical that the Goddess of Beauty would have a super-beautiful kid, or that a Storm God's brat could throw lightning bolts, after all - but it's possible to branch out into other purviews.

There's a large cluster of Purviews that can be taken by any Scion, and a small number of Pantheon-specific Purviews, which are bound up in a Pantheon's specific way of viewing the world.

Also, there are Knacks, which are specific ways of utilising your superhuman abilities (that is, Epic Abilities) - things like being able to make mortals not see your supernatural appearance, change gender, deliver a superstrong punch with a touch of the finger, etc.

Universal Purviews

Epic Abilities: Divided up into one class for each of your ability scores, these basically make you superhumanly strong, tough, smart, fast, whatever. Epic Appearance is unique because you have to choose whether you are supernaturally beautiful... or supernaturally fugly. There's a Knack that lets you shapeshift between beautiful and ugly forms, and generally the divide affects what kinds of Knack you can take; super-freaks are good at scaring the piss out of mortals, but not so good at chatting them up, for example. As you might figure, these Purviews rely on Knacks for the really cool stunts.

Animal: Assorted powers allowing for control over a totemic animal. You can build up control over multiple kinds of animal, but that requires seperate slots of Purview points.

Chaos:

Darkness:

Earth:

Fertility:

Fire:

Guardian:

Health:

Justice:

Moon:

Psychopomp:

Sky:

Sun:

War:

Water:

Magic:

Mystery

Prophecy:

Pantheon Purviews

Arete: Associated with the Dodekatheon (Greek Pantheon).

Cheval: Associated with the Loa (Voodoo Pantheon).

Heku: Associated with the Pesedjet (Egyptian Pantheon).

Itzli: Associated with the Atzlanti (Aztec Pantheon).

Jotunblut: Associated with the Aesir (Norse Pantheon).

Tsukumo-gami: Associated with the Amatsukami (Japanese Pantheon).

System

Scion uses the same system Exalted does, where pools of d10s are rolled and 7-10 are successes with 10 being counted twice.