Liveblogging pt3: Antagonists section of Scion God

What the heck? Not like I've got other things I need to do right now. I'll start skimming the antagonists and sharing my insights.

1. The don't stat out all the Gods, just those likely to be in conflict with Scions. Efficient use of space, and it leaves a lot to the GM's imagination. Well done.
   
2. The list of statted Gods includes obvious baddies like Set and Loki, but also "good guys" who may just be at cross-purposes to PCs, such as Hera and Imhotep. This is also smart.
   
3. I find the nature of the boon listings in the NPC stats annoying. It's the same format as the previous two books, but it didn't matter much there since most characters had only a couple Purviews. Here, a God may have 8-11 powers from each of 4 to 8 Purviews. Rather than listing "Sky 1-8, Moon and Sun 1-9, Heku 1-10" they list each Boon by it's individual name, in a big long alphabetical list that doesn't seperate them by Purview. Instead of making a simple summary that would empower the GM's improvisations, they give a dense list that requires memorizing 150+ power names to be even remotely useful. Yuck.
4. It wasn't till reading the Wayland Smith entry here that I finally got the patronymic reference in The Company from Aliens. Thank you! Now I just gotta figure out what "Yutani" means/references.
5. Hernan Cortes Pizarro's backstory is perfect. Dark and Ironic.
   
6. What is the God of Soldiers holding in that picture on pg 282? Is that a shield of a recently disarmed foe, balanced on the blade of a crooked dagger? Or the world's least believable battleaxe?
7. I like the Titan stats. Simple. Elegant. Easy to improvise. Very harrowing, yet weaker than the strongest PCs in a single important way. Well done, White Wolf.
8. I'll say it again: I Love the Titan stats. Point #3 (above) doesn't apply to them.
9. Nu/Nuanet and Tethys perfectly match the groundwork I've been laying. So happy. Lucky little developments like this boost verisimilitude significantly.
10. Forgot to mention these two words that should be point 2.5: "Nemean Peacock". That made me laugh.
11. Sinmore, wife of Surtur, will be making an appearance in my campaign soon. She's a hottie. :)
12. The various titanic templates are fun. They are not of equal power. I think that's a plus.
13. I wish this game had a CR system. People complain about the inaccuracy/fallibility of the CR system in D&D 3.x, but at least it got you somewhere in the ball-park. Legend rating only tells the maximum level of the single best power the creature can have, but it speaks nothing about over-all powerlevel, what danger it presents to PCs, or how fast it will go down. CR at least gives you a rough idea on 2 out of 3 of those qualifiers.
14. Griffins! Creature 4 = Sweet. Amy bought some at the Demigod upgrade, and we've been winging their stats ever since. This at least gives me a good starting point.
15. The general rule of "claws and bite do +2L" is getting old. On the plus side it's easy to remember and apply to anything. On the downside, it's utterly pitiful at high Legend. Better would be "claws and bite do +x to accuracy, +x lethal damage, where x=legend rating." That way monsters wouldn't be better off carrying a katana.
16. The "Hundred-Handed Ones" are not at all what I expected them to be. Not sure if I like them.
17. There are several things in this book that can spend 5 legend to make a single attack do Aggravated damage. If Divine Wrath had that cost, I think it would be balanced.
18. "War Peacock of Shu" it's like a running joke that gets funnier the more you hear it. "Each nemean peacock possesses the aerial template."
19. Clearly, the folks at White Wolf get the joke. I flipped the page to discover that the Nemean Peacock is the last in-character element of the book.
    

It all ends with an Afterword by John Chambers. I'd like to quote it, as it explains the source of various gripes and weaknesses that myself and others have pointed out:

"The whole thing sprung from a pitch I made over five years ago. It was already called Scion, and the general concept of children of both God and man fighting a war against the Titans was there too. Then it was brought forth from and condemned to development hell a number of times, having at one time or another a different developer, a post-apocalyptic flavor, a skew toward a younger demographic, a different game-mechanics system -- all sorts of craziness-- before finally settling back with me, its originator, and becoming the game it did, one surprisingly close to its original pitch from years prior."

Well done, John. The concept of the game is phenomenal, and the flaws in execution no doubt stem from all that revising and editorial meddling. While I bitch and moan the fiddly little inconsistencies of the rules, I must say that the reason it even matters to me is because I love the ideas of this setting so much. Scion: God appears to live up to all my expectations.