Scion

Setting

Scion is a role-playing game wherein players take on the roles of mortal descendants of gods tasked with working as the hands of their parents in the mortal world; while the first edition focused on a singular antagonist in the form of the recently escaped Titans (powerful, primordial embodiments of concepts such as water, chaos or light), the second edition does not automatically place this at the forefront.

The pantheons presented draw from mythology across the world, giving players the ability to associate their characters with any of the pantheons presented in the game. Portrayals of the gods differ between editions, ranging from a minor renaming (e.g. the Greek Gods were renamed from the "Dodekatheoi" to simply the "Theoi") to major changes (e.g. the first edition treats the African diaspora's Loa as a single pantheon, whereas second edition makes a distinction between the Yoruban Orisha and the African diaspora religions' Lwa).

Differences between editions

Scion changed drastically between its first and second editions. While the first edition presented an Earth effectively identical to the real one, the second presented instead a setting literally referred to as "The World," wherein Abrahamic faiths did not so completely overtake Europe, let alone the rest of the world. As such, while The World is much like the real world on a surface level, other pantheons are still widely recognized and worshiped throughout. Further, the existence of gods and other supernatural entities is presented as generally acknowledged as fact rather than faith, although rarely present in anyone's day-to-day life.

With the updated Storypath system, the mechanism of advancement has changed; Scion players accumulate Experience and grow in power though Deeds, goals for their characters to experience or accomplish. While Legend continues to be the most significant measure of a Scion's growing power, and still measures the thresholds past which a Hero becomes a Demigod, and then a full-fledged deity, it is no longer increased by the expenditure of experience points but directly by the accomplishment of deeds.

The nature of demigod-hood has significantly altered: while previously it was a relatively natural progression of power that had few survivors merely owing to increasing scope of danger in a growing war against the Titans, the second edition plays up the liminal state of Demigods by making it explicitly temporary: A scion who has moved beyond being a "mere" Hero finds herself on the road to apotheosis, passing through a series of trials and constructing a larger-than-life mythic identity called a Mantle in the process. While Heroes can theoretically return from death, a Demigod who passes a certain point of advancement can no longer do so; should they die, it becomes the natural terminus of their story. As such, some mortal cultural heroes are demigods in-setting, whose deaths and failures marked where their own pursuit of godhood failed. They have left behind their incomplete Mantles, however; a hero who wishes to do so may take one up and try to complete it, succeeding where their predecessor failed, overwriting their death with the new hero's own triumph and becoming the deity that the initial hero wanted to be. A scion may also, at the point of apotheosis, try to take the identity of an existing god, either by wresting it from them, accepting a lesser mantle from that god, or by surrendering their identity, effectively declaring that they were always an incarnation of that deity.

System

Scion uses a rules system similar to the Storyteller system made popular by the World of Darkness, but is not part of that setting. While the first edition of Scion modified the core system of Exalted: Second Edition, the new edition has a new core system related to it, but with an explicit design goal of being able to handle the entire range of the game (from mundane mortal humans all the way to full-fledged divinity) without breaking down. For more information, refer to the Storypath System section of the Storyteller system page.

Books

[WW75000] Scion: Hero (2007)

[WW75001] Scion: Demigod (2007)

[WW75002] Scion: God (2007)

[WW75008] Scion: Ragnarök (2009)

[WW75012] Scion Companion (2009)

[WW75013] Scion: Seeds of Tomorrow (2009) (PDF only)

[WW75014] Scion: Yazata: The Persian Gods (2010)

[WW76002] Scion: Wolfsheim (2009) (PDF only)

Scion: Liberty Road (2009) (PDF only)

Scion: Écran du Conteur (France only)

Scion: Extras: Supplemental (Yet Can Be Somewhat Useful On Occasion) Scions (2013)

Frost Giant Butt Warriors (2019)

[SCI001] Scion: Book One - Origin (2019)

[SCI002] Scion: Book Two - Hero (2nd Edition) (2019)

A Light Extinguished (A Jumpstart for Scion Second Edition) (2019)

Heroes for the World: (Ready-Made Characters for Scion Second Edition) (2019)

Mythical Denizens (2020)

Mysteries of the World: The Scion 2nd edition Companion (2020)

[SCI003] Scion Companion: Mysteries of the World (2020)

Reception

Reviews

Rebel Times #4 and #37

Scion expasions Demigod, God, Ragnarök and Companion discussed in Rebel Times issues #38-41