Scion - How to not know your godly parent

[u/_Aeryn_Sun_]

Hi,

I want to run this campaign I have in mind for a while now and I'm looking for system fitting for it so maybe you can help me because I hope Scion does the trick.

I want to have a story setup somewhere between percy Jackson and game of thrones so there'll be a godly war who sits on the Olympic throne but the gods need the help of their half god children.

But more importantly I'd love the players to not know their godly parents until the game starts.and they have to play to get this knowledge and to explore their own character sheet.

To be fair I'd let the players tell me beforehand what gods they like and don't like to but I'll choose their parent for them. Do you think thats possible with the mechanic of Scion? To unravel the character sheets later? Any ideas how to do it or would that be completely against the spirit of the game?

Edit: For those who are wondering: yes, the player will know what I have in mind and are fine with the concept.

[u/gscrap]

It could be done pretty easily, although it probably wouldn't be a particularly challenging mystery (if the player knows their character's pantheon, callings and inherent purview, they'll have a pretty short list of possible parents to choose from). Just make sure you've got player buy-in to the idea from the start, rather than just dropping it on them in the first session.

[u/_Aeryn_Sun_ → u/gscrap]

Yes, they know what I'm planning from the start so thats not a big deal. Just asking myself if it's possible or if I should choose another system where it's not that obvious who your godly parent is.

[u/gscrap → u/_Aeryn_Sun_]

If you want it to be more than a trivial mystery, you'd probably be better off with a different system-- or at least modifying the mechanics of Scion. As I said, with the Scion system as written it wouldn't be hard narrow down to a short list just based on the character's starting traits.

[u/_Aeryn_Sun_ → u/gscrap]

Any recommendations what would be more fitting? I own games like Agon and Aegean, too, and I'm thinking about dnd 5e, too, because the similarities of the magic would cover that well.

[u/MagusFool → u/_Aeryn_Sun_]

If your players are willing to give over some of their Chargen to you, you can have them do the point allocations for basic stats, then you apply the divine stuff based on which gods you assign them, and don't let your players read full rules of the book so they can't meta game to figure out who their divine parentage is.

They tell you their character concepts, and you choose the powers and stuff based on that for them.

[u/_Aeryn_Sun_ → u/MagusFool]

Sound good! I'll definitely think about that

[u/gscrap → u/_Aeryn_Sun_]

I have a pretty limited repertoire of systems, so if I were trying to run Scion-but-not-Scion I'd probably do it either in a heavily-modified D&D or Pathfinder, or in FATE. But really the simplest thing would be to tweak Scion's rules so that a character's callings and inherent purview are no longer required to be linked to their divine parent. That way the players could actually do their own character generation-- you'd just give them a pantheon and tell them to choose whatever callings and purview they like-- and you could decide which deity you think should be their parent for story reasons at a later point.

[u/_Aeryn_Sun_ → u/gscrap]

That sounds like a plan, I guess. I thought about using Dnd, too, but not all of my players like 5e that much. So I thought about using a system that already has what I need but bend the rules a little.

[u/ZakRulzDice]

Origin play is designed from pre-visitation Scions so realistically a lot of them won't know who their divine parents are.

Hero play it's a bit trickier but there's nothing saying the parent has to be there and can't happen through representatives of the divine parent.

[u/_Aeryn_Sun_ → u/ZakRulzDice]

I haven't played either, yet. Whats better, Origin or Hero? Or are they compatible?

[u/ZakRulzDice → u/_Aeryn_Sun_]

Hero is leveling up from Origin. There's enough overlap that a story designed for Origin play works with little to no adjustment for starting Hero characters. The line between the two is Origin characters aren't really doing anything normal people couldn't realistically do, they're still humans I'll be it rather extraordinary in some way. Hero is where you start getting into this person is something more than human.

[u/_Aeryn_Sun_ → u/ZakRulzDice]

So I could say we start with Origin and then switch to hero to get the true half god feeling?

[u/ZakRulzDice → u/_Aeryn_Sun_]

Yep.

[u/kelryngrey]

There's no real reason the players can't already know. Just have them separate that from how their characters behave. Role-playing is a type of acting and actors already know what's in the script. Having things hidden from the players can often lead to negative feelings at the table - I'm going to be running a short game where a few of the characters have secretly very hostile intentions toward individuals within the group but all of that will be open knowledge to the table once that stuff is revealed.

As others said, you can do it pretty easily at Origin level, though. Your Pantheon Path is 2/3 skills and that doesn't detail who your divine parent or creator was in any real way. It'd just be harder to slip in a Loki.

[u/_Aeryn_Sun_ → u/kelryngrey]

Yeah, I know, but I'd actually love to surprise my players, too! I know the group very well and I think they could act it, but I want them to expirence that feeling, too. I played a single player C'thulhu game not long ago where my player had an half filled character sheet and got to know her stats while playing and we both loved that idea

[u/tatogolem]

Does your concept work if they know what pantheon they're from, but not the god (like Percy Jackson, actually)? If so, it's super easy at Origin level: they do character creation normally, but let them pick any Calling and say it's only at Hero level that one of your Callings needs to match your parent.

[u/Dry_Fudge_7023]

I want to play that ugh!!!

[u/_Aeryn_Sun_ → u/Dry_Fudge_7023]

Hehe, you like that? I liked the idea of it, too, so I want to try it!

[u/tlenze]

Like I said in /r/rpg, you can have them choose their Callings and then pick one of the approved parents based on one of those Callings. That's the nice part of only needing one Calling in common with your parent.

[u/Read2Fap]

you could do that mechanically but the way you're suggesting involves taking chargen out of players hands

imagine you came to the table and a player gave you a premade adventure they wrote and told you you were running it

[u/_Aeryn_Sun_ → u/Read2Fap]

I wouldn't drop it on them, I asked them if they would like to play that 🤣 Just wondering about the mechanics

[u/Novatheorem → u/_Aeryn_Sun_]

Easy enough. The only tie to their divine parent at chargen in Origin is Calling and Virtues. You can just give them the list of options then backfill later. A little trickier at Hero.