Is there a PbtA hack for Scion, the former White Wolf/now Onyx Path setting? Or something like it? I love the setting, and it’s got so much amazing lore and concepts, but the original was just an absolute mess to play — they’re releasing a 2.0 revamp from OP later this year, but I read the previews and, having played so many PbtA games since the last time I played Scion, I just can’t do it. I can’t go back to having to read a textbook of rules and systems (lore and mythology, sure! But rules… ugh).
Our table plays Urban Shadows which captures many of the things we used to love about Scion, but it’s not quite the same. I just wondered if anybody knows of anything before I go haring off to hack something.
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Probably City of Mist, which is all about weird mythical forces pouring through into the world through people, places, and things. It defaults to noir, and is all about unraveling mysteries and figuring out what exactly your weird otherworldly deal is supposed to be, which may not be perfectly Scion but it’s really close in my experience. Embracing your mythical self pushes you more towards far out impossible magic powers, and neglecting it pushes you towards your prosaic life. You could easily plug the Scion lore into this game.
What doesn’t urban shadows do that you wish it did?
I’m much more familiar with new Scion than old, which has some significant setting differences (even less of a Masquerade, lots of new and altered Pantheons, less clear division between Gods and Titans); but what kind of action and stories were you hoping for? I’m given to understand that Scion could play a lot of different ways, from American Gods on up to something Exalted-ish. Masks and World Wide Wrestling could both probably do it without too many changes.
David Rothfeder Nothing overly specific — it really is great and does so many rad things — but in particular players in our group miss the backdrop of all of us being the children of gods with cool magic. I would actually say that as far as providing urban paranormal (vampires, werewolves, witches, and politics!), Urban Shadows does it best — far, far better than Scion could ever dream to.
But our group all started with Scion, and we were just wondering if there was something out there to tap that very specific aspect. Of course, we can bring as much pantheonic lore into it as we want, and maybe it’s as simple as bolting on a few extra features that presume all the playbooks are also scions, or building, perhaps, a scion playbook itself.
Now that I think of it, are there additional playbooks for Urban Shadows (even fanmade)?
James Mendez Hodes Yeah, Scion for us varied a little depending on exactly who was involved — sometimes it was way more Masquerade, and for those players Urban Shadows pretty much does everything we want — and if we do have a hankering for a little extra magic, well, we can just throw in bountiful artifacts or whatever.
But sometimes it was also pretty over the top, and Urban Shadows doesn’t quite foot the bill. It’s mostly those mechanics I’m interested in seeing in the PbtA frame — especially wondering what demigod and god would even look like.
Maybe it really is as simple as coming up with a scion playbook for Urban Shadows. Or, like, a compendium playbook, that adds purviews and birthrights and stuff (basically just magical artifacts), maybe some rules for leveling up to demigod and god, and perhaps epic stats?
So like, an epic stat would be a regular stat, you roll as usual, whatever the modifier is, just having an epic one changes the scale of what you’re capable of. In the 16HP Dragon, we’re reminded that a fighter can’t just stab the dragon and trigger Hack and Slash (Dungeon World) because there’s no way they could ever hurt the thing.
But an epic stat would say, yes, you can hurt that thing, you’re so strong. It IS possible for you to lift that car, you’re so strong. To dodge that bullet, you’re so fast.
Maybe something there to think on.
Yeah, sounds like you want City of Mist. It has a Masquerade facet, it has shadowy conspiracies, you can have nemeses, it has some moves meant to represent going wild with unbridled mystic might, and so on. It’s a really good fit for Scion-style play. Heck, one of the example characters is the avatar of the ancient Salamander, embodying fire-that-is-water, and another is a Japanese trickster fox deity. That’s half a Scion party basically.
I’d agree with Alfred Rudzki. I ran CoM from the starter set a couple of times. It seems more suited to the feel of Scion, with more emphasis on combat. US deals with that quickly, but CoM has a little more detail to that. It isn’t overwhelming, but it works. I’d also look at MotW and Worlds in Peril to see if there’s anything to steal from those.
But yeah, the structure of the powers, the kinds of moves, and the slightly greater emphasis on combat make CoM a good choice. I was talking with someone the other day about how to hack Mage the Ascension and CoM came up as a robust approach. Its good and I’m looking forward to the final version.