Down and dirty of what this is. Demigods, that is what you are. You are the child of a god (or goddess) and a mortal. For the intents and purposes, even virginal or monogamous gods, can have demigods, if they're adopted and you're treated as if you were theirs for the point of mechanics and Fate and stuff. The setting is... modern. I'd prefer 19th century at the earliest, something distinctly far removed from when the myths were big. Okay with going a bit into the future. Really, would like input on this, work things out with all the players. I'd love involvement. Regardless, you likely don't believe them, and your world is changed, and, et cetera. For some reason the Gods are coming back and the world is changing for a lot of people. Dice will be rolled as appropriate through posts, collabs will be desirable, and I'm thinking of trying something that I can only call... Deputy GMs? Instead of just being a player, you are able to work with me, in private, to design a mission for the group to go through. I'll still be primary, but you can have your major input. Further, players are allowed multiple characters. Characters unused when brought in will get an XP boos to catch up so things stay roughly equal. This will be done by having the story arcs being episodic with a rotating cast. That said, looking for roughly 5 other people at max for players. If people are okay, I'd also like to have a character along with you. so er, yeah EDIT: Also won't be session based, play by post. Pantheons? Thinking of limiting us to [url=http://www.gothambynight.com/scion/netjer.htm]Egyptian[/url], [url=http://www.gothambynight.com/scion/theoibig.htm]Greek[/url], and [url=http://www.gothambynight.com/scion/anunna.htm]Mesopotamian[/url]. [url=https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tvTUdLTS8uWmkXjerYny5flx5SSK0SDueHq0xsJ6Co4/edit?usp=sharing]A WIP Example Character Sheet, Dieselpunk Style Setting in Mind[/url] (Setting won't necessarily be Dieselpunk) [url=http://www.gothambynight.com/scion/index.htm]Most of character creation and other things taken from or played upon the house rules and homebrew of these wonderful people![/url] Scions, the servants of the gods who carry their divine spark within them, are surprising and powerful creatures from the moment that they receive a Visitation and are invested with their divine destiny. As soon as the child of a god becomes a Scion, he gains powers beyond the reach of mere mortal men and must prepare himself to face trials and dangers he has never dreamed of. [center][b]Nature and Calling[/b] A Scion’s Nature is his most basic and personal motivation, describing his style as a character and divine hero. He may choose from any [url=www.gothambynight.com/scion/natures.htm]Nature[/url] available; once chosen, his Nature may not be changed again after the game starts except at Storyteller discretion.[/center][hider=Nature Benefits] Whenever a Scion fulfills his Nature to the utmost in the face of adversity, danger or difficulty (as determined by the Storyteller and based on the table below), he gains one point of Determination. At any time, he may choose to spend as many points of Determination as he wishes to subtract one die (or two dice, if he is Legend 9 or higher) each from a Virtue roll made to see if he enters Extremity, calling on the strength of his true nature to give him the wherewithal to follow its tenets instead of those of his Virtues. If the Scion collects as many points of Determination as he has dots in his highest Virtue, he exchanges them for a Moment of Truth instead and starts over at zero dots of Determination. A Scion can never have more points of Determination stored than he has dots in his highest Virtue. When a Scion rolls against a Virtue and enters Virtue Extremity, he may spend a Moment of Truth in order to completely ignore its effects; instead of mindlessly following the drive of his Virtue, the strength of will and dedication he has shown in being true to himself allows him to shrug it off in order to instead behave according to his own motives. Scions may store a number of unspent Moments of Truth up to their dots in their lowest Virtue. Scions may only spend Determination points and Moments of Truth to manage the effects of normal Virtue rolls and Extremities; they cannot use them to mitigate the effects of knacks or boons that cause Virtue Extremities.[/hider][center]A Scion’s Calling describes what he is most inclined to do and be in his life, and may be any single word or short-phrase description that the player wishes. Callings should help give the Storyteller an idea of who your character is and what they do, and might be as simple as “Fisherman” or as complex as “Heir to the Throne”. Callings do not have any direct mechanical effect on a Scion. [b]Roles[/b] There are several basic mythic roles that Scions and gods embody in their tales. For a Scion band to be most successful, it should contain a mix of the archetypes in the table below. Before character creation, the Storyteller and players should discuss the roles and mutually agree on who will take which role on, making sure that every role is represented; if there are fewer players in the group than there are different roles, they should also agree on which ones they feel are most critical or exciting for the game. Each role has a specific set of requirements and guidelines to ensure that that Scion fulfills it in a heroic and impressive manner.[/center][hider=Healer][b]The Healer's job is to tend to the wounds, illnesses and even mental problems that inevitably threaten the lives of Scions on the front lines of the war against the Titans.[/b] The Healer must first and foremost begin with Health and Medicine at five dots, and must as a secondary priority make sure he has at least three dots of Stamina, Intelligence and Wits. While not required, Charisma or Moon may also be very helpful to a Healer as he tries to keep his erstwhile band in one piece. Healers at the Hero level have access to few direct healing powers, so Wits (for stabilization of dying comrades) and Medicine (for all their basic medical needs) are their most important starting skills.[/hider][hider=Intelligentsia][b]An Intelligentsia character’s job is to learn any and all important information her band might need and to solve the complex and often dangerous puzzles of the divine.[/b] An Intelligentsia character must first and foremost begin with her Intelligence and at least one of Academics, Occult or Politics at five dots and the other two abilities at at least three, and should as a secondary concern make sure she has a few dots in any Sciences she feels may be relevant. While not required, Mystery or Prophecy can also give an Intelligentsia Scion much-needed tools to stay on top of the secrets and movements of the gods and Titans. Players of Intelligentsia often need to invest more time outside of the game, talking to the Storyteller or researching things that their character should know about.[/hider][hider=Leader][b]The Leader’s job is to keep the band together, make the tough decisions and be on point for social interactions that come their way.[/b] A Leader must first and foremost begin with either Charisma or Manipulation at five dots, and should as a secondary concern make sure he has at least three dots of Command, Empathy, Politics and Presence. The Leader has fewer mechanical constraints because he has far more in-game responsibilities and problems; he has to be ready to be the main point of contact for most NPCs, to keep disputes and problems within the band solved or at least civil, and to make decisions about the band’s missions and actions when everyone is stumped. This role is the one that most often needs to talk to the Storyteller to plan ahead, or finds that he bears the brunt of any misdeeds or enemies that the band may make along the way.[/hider][hider=Pilot][b]The Pilot’s job is to get the band where they’re going as quickly and reliably as possible.[/b] A Pilot must first and foremost begin with her Wits and at least one Control at five dots and have access to transportation in some form and be willing and able to share it with her comrades, whether this is a relic vehicle, the money to hire trains and planes, the ability to carjack at a moment’s notice or anything else that ensures that when they need to go, they can. As a secondary concern, she must also have a few dots in any other Controls she feels may be helpful, and must have at least three dots in whatever Art is required to keep her vehicle operational. A Hero-level Pilot is not required to purchase any boons to do well at her job, but she should be aware that at higher Legend levels she will need to begin investing heavily in Artistry or Psychopomp to ensure that she can continue to provide reliable divine transportation.[/hider][hider=Warrior][b]Scions who are Warriors have a very simple job: they have to be able to go into combat and fight for their bands, consistently doing significant amounts of damage.[/b] A Warrior must first and foremost have a weapon (of any kind, which can include his own body) and begin with the damage Attributes and Abilities for it at five dots. This may range depending on what kind of fighting he plans to do; a brawler would need maximum Strength and Brawl, while a gunslinger would need maximum Perception and Marksmanship. While not required, War is also often helpful to have in a Warrior’s toolbelt. Because there are many, many ways to inflict damage on enemies, a Warrior need not necessarily always keep those particular modes of attack; what’s important is not how he deals damage, but that he is always able to be doing so in some significant way. Starting Hero-level Warriors must focus on their physical ability to harm their foes, but later in the game the Warrior role may also apply to Scions who focus on using Health to smite enemies with disease and injury, using Earth, Fire, Water or Sky to attack with the elements, commanding large numbers of magical troops to fight for them and so on.[/hider][center]It is possible for a single character to fill two roles; a character with heavy investment in Wits, Control, Medicine and Health might be able to function as either Healer or Pilot for a band, for example. A single character should not be required to fill two roles in order to allow another character to have no role or to duplicate another role already in the band, however, as the XP requirements would be unfair from player to player. Characters who fit none of the roles may have a difficult time pulling their weight in comparison to their bandmates, while characters who try to fit too many of them may feel restricted or become unable to keep up in one or more dimensions. It is also possible for a Scion’s role to change over time if she begins to invest heavily in a different skillset than the one she started with, but doing so will naturally often require the rest of the band to adjust and make sure that all areas are still covered. Finally, it is possible for there to be more than one Scion with the same role in a single band; most often this occurs when there are more than five Scions or several of them have more than one role. If the players want the freedom to play any of the roles in a given story, the Storyteller may have them create multiple different characters with multiple roles. Once they have done so, they may at Storyteller discretion switch between them at the beginning of each new story, allowing different players to explore different roles and character types. If they do so, award the new character that has been switched to an equivalent amount of XP to what the previous character earned, in order to ensure that she can enter the game on an equal playing field with the rest of the band. [b]Attributes[/b] All of a Scion’s Attributes start at two dots, representing that she is at least moderately capable at most basic skills. The Scion then receives nine dots to put into any Attributes she wishes. She may combine them in any way she chooses, but she may only spend a maximum of five dots in any one category (Physical, Social or Mental).[/center][hider=Attributes][b]Strength[/b]: Your raw muscle power, ability to hit hard and lift a lot. [b]Dexterity[/b]: Your muscular quickness, your ability to move fast or change position quickly. [b]Stamina[/b]: Your physical endurance, your ability to remain healthy, and take blows as well. [b]Charisma[/b]: Your personality’s forcefulness, either in making people love and fawn for you, or obedient to your will. [b]Manipulation[/b]: Your wordplay, the scalpel to Charisma’s sledgehammer of social force. [b]Appearance[/b]: Comes in two flavours, Positive (your ability to draw others unto you) and Negative (your ability to push others away from you). Choose which you have! [b]Perception[/b]: Your ability to take in information about what’s going on around you. [b]Intelligence[/b]: Your ability to problem solve, and think things through, coming to the best solution given time. [b]Wits[/b]: Your ability to think quickly on your feet, to be unpredictable, and witty and clever.[/hider] [center][b]Abilities[/b] All Scions begin with 150 points to spend on Abilities. Higher-level Abilities cost more than lower-level ones, according to the following table:[/center][list][*]01, 02, 03, 04, 05[b]Dots[/b][/*][*]01, 03, 06, 10, 15[b]Favored Ability Cost[/b][/*][*]02, 06, 12, 20, 30[b]Unfavored Ability Cost[/b][/*][/list][center]If a Scion purchases a specialized Ability (Art, or Science) at five dots, all other specializations of that Ability cost half the normal price on the table above (rounded up). [/center][hider=Abilities][b]Academics[/b]: Your education, learning of sciences and humanities, and ability to continue learning more and more through research. [b]Animal Ken[/b]: Your ability to handle animals, take care of them, treat their wounds, tame them. and read their actions. [b]Athletics[/b]: Your physical coordination and condition. While Dexterity may make you fast, Athletics makes your quick movements matter, for instance. [b]Awareness[/b]: Your ability to process information that you’ve taken in, to understand what you’re looking at or otherwise sensing. [b]Brawl[/b]: Your hand to hand combat capabilities, from wrestling, to boxing, to other martial arts. [b]Command[/b]: Your leadership skills, both in saying things in a way that gets people to do it, and in organizing them behind the scenes as well. [b]Empathy[/b]: Your skill to read and understand motives and body language, detect lies, and produce some believable ones of your own. [b]Fortitude[/b]: Your trained hardness of your body, tempering the raw force of your stamina so that it doesn’t go to waste. [b]Integrity[/b]: Your faithfulness to your own principles, and how true you can remain to what you believe despite manipulations by word or blade. [b]Investigation[/b]: Your ability to detect or locate a specific thing within an area, a much more pinpoint version of Awareness by this metric. [b]Larceny[/b]: Your deft trickery, but also your ability to detect such unsavoury activities, and understand how they work as well. [b]Marksmanship[/b]: Your skill with using and properly maintaining ranged weapons, from bows and arrows to rifles to heavy bored howitzers. [b]Medicine[/b]: Your first aid skills, ability to make the bleeding stop, to set bones in a scrap, and perform life saving surgery, or understand illness. [b]Melee[/b]: Your combat prowess with close quarter weapons, of all sorts. Your understanding of them and how they work, and more as well. [b]Occult[/b]: Your familiarity with the supernatural, your understanding of how divine powers and Fate all work in concert with one another. [b]Politics[/b]: Your understanding of bureaucracy, working within laws, knowing how a city should flow, and how to diplomatically involve yourself. [b]Presence[/b]: Your ability to draw attention to yourself without making yourself look like an idiot (unless that’s your goal). [b]Stealth[/b]: Your ability to act, or move, or otherwise in a way that doesn’t bring attention to you. Opposite number of presence. [b]Survival[/b]: Your rugged survivability, knowledge of what plants in the wild are safe, what animals are dangerous, and how to make simple tools. [b]Thrown[/b]: Your accuracy and skill with using thrown weapons, such as javallines, stones, grenades, or things like cars if you can pick them up. [b]Art[/b]: Your ability to design and create or perform. Comes with subtype for what you create, such as leatherworking, architecture, or dance. [b]Control[/b]: Your ability to make split second decisions while driving a vehicle or animal. Comes with subtypes for things you know how to drive.[/hider] [center][b]Virtues[/b] All Scions begin with a basic set of four Virtues determined by their pantheon. A Scion may choose to swap out any one of his Virtues for any other at character creation, but the XP cost for him to purchase his Pantheon-Specific Purview is permanently increased from four times the boon’s level to five when he does so. Once a Scion has chosen his Virtues at character creation, he may not change them again after the game has begun. Each Virtue begins at one dot; the Scion then receives four more dots to place as he wishes (although he cannot put all four into the same Virtue). A Scion’s starting Willpower pool is equal to the total of his two highest Virtues. If he purchases more Virtues in the future and raises that total, his Willpower will increase as well. [/center][hider=Virtues][u][b]Conviction[/b][/u] Conviction is about standing by your beliefs, no matter how inconvenient or harmful to yourself it would be to do so. When you have conviction, do not make them overly narrow, or have too few of them. They should be broader overarching ideals. [b]Extremity[/b]: Ignore everything that doesn’t spread or fulfill your conviction. Even your own welfare. [u][b]Courage[/b][/u] Courage is about taking the dangerous more epic route in life. It’s about never shying from danger and abhoring cowardice. Not always about battle, but always about doing the dangerous course of action. [b]Extremity[/b]: Recklessly increase the level of danger around yourself to yourself. Make as many enemies as you can. [u][b]Duty[/b][/u] Duty is about fulfilling responsibilities to the whole of reality. One with duty can’t laze about, disobey orders, or try to pass off their job to someone else. [b]Extremity[/b]: Ignore everything that doesn’t directly and most immediately end with your duty being fulfilled. Immolate yourself in the process if necessary. [u][b]Endurance[/b][/u] Endurance is about stoicism; not simply struggling through hardships, but moving through them as if they didn’t matter. It’s about ignoring rest, and pleasures, in favour of work. [b]Extremity[/b]: Choose the most harrowing way to continue working at whatever, and then persist at it to completion or end of the extremity. [u][b]Expression[/b][/u] Expression is about creativity and, well, expressing oneself. It’s about creating works of art, speaking one’s mind, even if what’s spoken isn’t something that they’d enjoy or appreciate hearing. [b]Extremity[/b]: Become the center of all attention possible, express yourself as loudly or shockingly as you can. Force others to do the same. [u][b]Harmony[/b][/u] Harmony is about maintaining the balance of the manmade and the natural, the divine and the mundane. Pushing you to not involve mortals directly in your issues, and to make sure nothing divine with them. To fight pollution, but to also fight the creeping of nature as well. [b]Extremity[/b]: Fanatically devote self to restoring the balance everywhere in the fastest or most blunt way of doing it. Factory making pollution? Blow it up. Wildlife moving in on an urban sprawl? Hunt them all down. [u][b]Intellect[/b][/u] Intellect is about gathering, restoring, preserving, and sharing all knowledge. Lies, book burnings, secrets, and ignorance are all things that one with Intellect cannot abide by. [b]Extremity[/b]: Reveal all secrets, even ones that are best left untold. Make everyone know everything, even if such would cause great trouble or disharmony. [u][b]Loyalty[/b][/u] Loyalty is about staying true to your friends and taking their side over everything, even if they are obviously in the wrong. It’s about never abandoning them, or even taking their place or just joining them in their punishments for misdeeds. [b]Extremity[/b]: Become incapable of refusing a favour for a friend, even if such would result in your own death. Do whatever you can to make them safe and happy as soon as possible. [u][b]Order[/b][/u] Order is about the truth and justice of law. Not just specific laws, but the very notion of law behind a structured society, even if the laws are unpleasant. Someone with Order will argue that all laws, even those they dislike, are ultimately for the best, and should all be followed, small or large. [b]Extremity[/b]: Fulfill the letter of the law, not the spirit, at all costs, towards all people. Fulfill the dictates of authority in the area, mortal or divine, to the bitter end. [u][b]Piety[/b][/u] Piety is about acknowledging that a specific pantheon is above all others, usually your own but not always. If you gain Piety but don’t start with it, the source of your Piety is the recipient of it. It’s about doing all in their name, and all that they ask. [b]Extremity[/b]: Become radically devoted to only the needs of the pantheon. If they did not tell you to help others, then you simply won’t, they are not worthy of your aid. Only your pantheon matters. [u][b]Valor[/b][/u] Valor is about leveling the playing field, defending the weak, and making sure to never act in a cruel manner. They cannot refuse a fair fight, nor fight when they have the advantage, nor let an innocent come to harm. This does not only apply to the one with Valor, they will try to force these beliefs on others as well. [b]Extremity[/b]: Overcome by guilt, a truly redeeming act must be done, of great penance. Giving away all that you have to help those that may have been harmed, or by challenging the true wrongdoer, or the strongest among their ranks to single combat… or worse for you, you against all of your foes at once. [u][b]Vengeance[/b][/u] Vengeance is about holding grudges and never forgiving nor forgetting. When one wrongs someone with Vengeance, they commit that to memory, and are compelled to act against them, not just to get even, but to do worse to them than they had done to themselves as well. [b]Extremity[/b]: Mindless destruction, dedicated entirely to ruining not just one person, but all of those that have ever harmed you. Give up all that you are to make sure they all suffer horribly, or worse.[/hider] [center][b]Epic Attributes[/b] The Scion gains five dots of Epic Attributes, which she may spend however she wishes. For a starting Legend 2 Scion, no Epic Attribute may go above one dot; if she wishes, the Scion may exchange a dot of Epic Attributes to gain 15 more points toward buying Abilities instead. For each dot of an Epic Attribute the Scion gains, she may choose two first-level [url=http://www.gothambynight.com/scion/knacks.htm]Knacks[/url] in that Attribute (this applies only at character creation; Epic Attributes purchased with XP after the game begins grant only one knack). [b]Boons[/b] The Scion gains five dots of level-one [url=http://www.gothambynight.com/scion/boons.htm]Boons[/url], which he may choose from any in the game. If he chooses, he may exchange one Boon to gain 10 more points toward buying Abilities instead. Since Hero-level Scions cannot channel purviews without Relics, note that he will need to spend one Relic dot for each different purview he chooses to buy Boons from. [b]Birthrights[/b] The Scion gains five dots worth of Birthrights, magical tools, allies or features that are permanently tied to his Legend. The Scion may put no more than three dots into a single relic at character creation, but may use them for whatever custom powers, purview accesses or types of Followers the Storyteller deems appropriate for the cost. [b]Points and Stuff[/b] At character creation, the Scion starts at Legend 2. Legend Points are at max, the maximum Legend Points of a Scion is equal to their Legend squared. As such the Scions starts with 4 out of 4 Legend Points. As noted, the Scion’s Willpower pool is equal to the sum of the values of their two highest virtues, unless otherwise noted. Legend and Willpower Points are useful for staying in control, and for using all sorts of powers. From Nature, the Scion may gain Points of Determination (useful for fighting Virtue Extremities) or Moments of Truth (useful for ignoring Virtue Extremities). [b]This looks hard...[/b] If you wish, you may opt out of Abilities and Birthrights, in that if you do the rest of your mechanics and give me a basic outline of your character, and what you want them to do and an explanation of why they can do certain things, I’ll fill in the gaps as well as possible for you with regards to those two categories.[/center] [url=https://docs.google.com/document/d/1M7E9iFy_Lf0JclbblHWEo6YgVtgpLLL_hwOZdtGZOWY/edit?usp=sharing]More information on rules and shit[/url] But yes, this is just to check interest. No promises on anything from it, unless, you know, things go in their ideal manner.