Here's a new knack I've approved for my campaign. This is the revised/edited version. The original was clunkier and wordier than it needed to be, and granted a secondary power that was not needed. Simply getting the speed break is good enough for 5 xp.
Signature Power
Wits Knack
The Scion has mastered one of their powers, such as a Boon or Knack. They know it inside and out, it's completely intuitive to them. This may be the result of constant practice, or just instinctual talent. You choose what pre-existing power becomes your "Signature Power" at the time you purchase this knack. You cannot chose reflexive powers (such as Damage Conversion) or those that already have a speed rating below 4 (such as Animal Aspect or the divine ability to become immaterial). The chosen power has it's activation speed reduced by one. Most commonly, this means it goes from being a Speed:5 miscellaneous action to being a Speed: 4 action.
The decision of which power to augment is permanent. Under normal circumstances, you can never change which power you chose, nor can you take this knack a second time to affect a different power - so choose wisely. However, the GM has the ability to waive this restriction under some circumstances. An example would be if the PC chose Water Control (Water 2) as their signature power, and later purchased Water Mastery (Water 6). The 6-dot boon specifically mentions that it duplicates the powers of the 2-dot boon, so the GM may let you revise which is your Signature Power. Shifting your Signature Power to the upgraded form requires permission from your story-teller, and an expenditure of 3 additional experience points. Once shifted, the lesser form is no longer their signature power, and only the advanced version benefits from this Knack.
Showing posts with label Knack (Scion). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Knack (Scion). Show all posts
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Friday, July 11, 2008
New Knackathon
I just posted a bunch of new Knacks for Scion. Does this mean I spent the day dreaming up new Knacks? NO! It means I came up with these months ago, and shelved them with the intention of waiting till Scion Companion part 2 came out. I didn't want to do a bunch of work designing and developing knacks if that book was just going to render them redundant them a week later. Surprise! It didn't. But hey, once bitten, twice shy.
Charisma Knacks: (Most of today's posted knacks are Charisma knacks, because at the time, that's what it seemed we'd run out of first with my group. All the PCs have at least 3 or 4 dots of Epic Charisma, and about 30% of the published Charisma knacks in the Hero/Demigod/God books are willpower refreshers.)
Band Of Brothers
Standing Invitations - Behind Closed Doors
Nothing But The Truth
Entourage - Worshipful Throng
Strength Knack:
Like A Fish In Water
Stamina Knack:
Aggressive Immune System
While I have a big brainstorm list that may one day become another 20 or 30 finished knacks, it probably won't be for a while. In the wake of Manifestations of Ichor (Scion Companion, part 2) there's a much stronger demand for new Boons than for more Knacks.
- EDIT: It's worth mentioning that since these were written several months ago but have yet to see any use in game or development analysis at the forum, I can't attest to them being perfectly balanced. No big problems with them jump out at me, but I haven't looked that closely at them, at least not lately. Use at your own risk.
Charisma Knacks: (Most of today's posted knacks are Charisma knacks, because at the time, that's what it seemed we'd run out of first with my group. All the PCs have at least 3 or 4 dots of Epic Charisma, and about 30% of the published Charisma knacks in the Hero/Demigod/God books are willpower refreshers.)
Band Of Brothers
Standing Invitations - Behind Closed Doors
Nothing But The Truth
Entourage - Worshipful Throng
Strength Knack:
Like A Fish In Water
Stamina Knack:
Aggressive Immune System
While I have a big brainstorm list that may one day become another 20 or 30 finished knacks, it probably won't be for a while. In the wake of Manifestations of Ichor (Scion Companion, part 2) there's a much stronger demand for new Boons than for more Knacks.
New Knack: Band Of Brothers
Band of Brothers
Charisma Knack
You are not merely a charismatic battlefield commander, you are also a good friend. As such, your followers are exceptionally brave and loyal.
All Followers and Creatures (both those you already have, and those you purchase from here on out) gain the Loyalty virtue at 3 dots, thus making them unlikely to flee or betray you. If they already have the Loyalty virtue at 3 or 4, it increases by one dot instead. If they lack Loyalty but have other virtues, you may instead replace any one of their existing virtues (at it's normal rating) with Loyalty.
In addition, the permanent Willpower Rating of all your Followers and Creatures is raised by one.
Charisma Knack
You are not merely a charismatic battlefield commander, you are also a good friend. As such, your followers are exceptionally brave and loyal.
All Followers and Creatures (both those you already have, and those you purchase from here on out) gain the Loyalty virtue at 3 dots, thus making them unlikely to flee or betray you. If they already have the Loyalty virtue at 3 or 4, it increases by one dot instead. If they lack Loyalty but have other virtues, you may instead replace any one of their existing virtues (at it's normal rating) with Loyalty.
In addition, the permanent Willpower Rating of all your Followers and Creatures is raised by one.
New Knack: Behind Closed Doors
Behind Closed Doors
Charisma Knack
Prerequisite: Standing Invitations
The prerequisite knack will open many doors, and get your name on invitation lists. Some events, however, are more exclusive than that. Judges chambers, Senate investigations, boardroom meetings, palaces of the Gods, and the hidden grottos of secret cabals are typically above that power. Luckily, this Knack prepares you for exactly those situations, by extending the lure of your presence beyond closed doors.
If you are standing at the last public place outside a private meeting, such as the front gates where armed guards or Cerebus himself stands watch, you may spend any number of Legend points. If you spend more points than the Legend Rating of any of the authority figures inside, one of them chooses that moment to step outside for a status check or smoke break. As you can imagine, getting Condi Rice to take a break from the meeting in the Oval Office takes but a point or two, whereas getting a response at the Windowless House of Mictlan will run a good 12 or 13 points.
If you do so, this reveals your presence to those inside. Further, it does so in a way that strikes them as coincidental, polite, and unintrusive. Thus it provides a window for you to attempt to convince them to let you in. In the absence of other factors, the difficulty (of a Charisma + Politics roll) to get them to grant admission is 1 + the combined Legend Rating of everyone attending the secret meeting. Clever roleplaying, situational modifiers, and preexisting relationships (if any) between the PCs and NPCs can all lower that difficulty or add bonus dice to your roll.
Charisma Knack
Prerequisite: Standing Invitations
The prerequisite knack will open many doors, and get your name on invitation lists. Some events, however, are more exclusive than that. Judges chambers, Senate investigations, boardroom meetings, palaces of the Gods, and the hidden grottos of secret cabals are typically above that power. Luckily, this Knack prepares you for exactly those situations, by extending the lure of your presence beyond closed doors.
If you are standing at the last public place outside a private meeting, such as the front gates where armed guards or Cerebus himself stands watch, you may spend any number of Legend points. If you spend more points than the Legend Rating of any of the authority figures inside, one of them chooses that moment to step outside for a status check or smoke break. As you can imagine, getting Condi Rice to take a break from the meeting in the Oval Office takes but a point or two, whereas getting a response at the Windowless House of Mictlan will run a good 12 or 13 points.
If you do so, this reveals your presence to those inside. Further, it does so in a way that strikes them as coincidental, polite, and unintrusive. Thus it provides a window for you to attempt to convince them to let you in. In the absence of other factors, the difficulty (of a Charisma + Politics roll) to get them to grant admission is 1 + the combined Legend Rating of everyone attending the secret meeting. Clever roleplaying, situational modifiers, and preexisting relationships (if any) between the PCs and NPCs can all lower that difficulty or add bonus dice to your roll.
New Knack: Standing Invitations
Standing Invitations
Charisma Knack
You are the social darling and media celebrity, recognized at all the hippest clubs. In addition, you possess honorary memberships to exclusive meetings you aren't 100% qualified to attend.
By spending a single Legend, you may automatically and immediately get past any mortal bouncer. This does NOT automatically extend to armed guards or watchdogs - anyone who is authorized to kill intruders is immune to this power. Those it affects, it also shields. The bouncer will not loose his job nor suffer penalty from any mortal agency for having let you in.
Alternately, for 1 legend you may improvise the "fact" that you no doubt received an invite via email or mail. If, indeed, invites were sent out via mundane mail or email, you'll retroactively have an invitation handy or otherwise be able to prove that your name is on the guest list. You just get so many invitations, this one had failed to draw your attention previously. Any mortal wedding may be crashed or award show attended, and everyone on the planning committee just assumes someone else must have invited you.
Charisma Knack
You are the social darling and media celebrity, recognized at all the hippest clubs. In addition, you possess honorary memberships to exclusive meetings you aren't 100% qualified to attend.
By spending a single Legend, you may automatically and immediately get past any mortal bouncer. This does NOT automatically extend to armed guards or watchdogs - anyone who is authorized to kill intruders is immune to this power. Those it affects, it also shields. The bouncer will not loose his job nor suffer penalty from any mortal agency for having let you in.
Alternately, for 1 legend you may improvise the "fact" that you no doubt received an invite via email or mail. If, indeed, invites were sent out via mundane mail or email, you'll retroactively have an invitation handy or otherwise be able to prove that your name is on the guest list. You just get so many invitations, this one had failed to draw your attention previously. Any mortal wedding may be crashed or award show attended, and everyone on the planning committee just assumes someone else must have invited you.
New Knack: Nothing But The Truth
Nothing But The Truth
Charisma Knack
This knack functions identically to God's Honest (the Manipulation Knack on page 131 of Scion: Hero) with one major difference: It only works if you are telling the truth, or believe you are telling the truth. You cannot use it to make a lie seem real.
Charisma Knack
This knack functions identically to God's Honest (the Manipulation Knack on page 131 of Scion: Hero) with one major difference: It only works if you are telling the truth, or believe you are telling the truth. You cannot use it to make a lie seem real.
New Knack: Worshipful Throng
Worshipful Throng
Charisma Knack
Prerequisite: Entourage
Your friends and supporters don't just dote on you, they positively worship you. Any roll you make gains a dice bonus based on how many of your adoring fans are present. If you are their Hero, they provide one bonus die each, up to a maximum equal to your Legend Rating. At Demigod both those numbers are doubled, and at God they are tripled. These bonus dice function as mortal reverence - replacing dice gained as such, not stacking on top of them. In effect, this knack is quantifying the level of fated connection between you and your Entourage. Under certain circumstances, the GM may award you a greater bonus, this power merely ensures a baseline minimum amount of reverence.
Note however, that in order to grant such dice, the Entourage member must be present and aware of roughly what you are doing. So, to grant you a bonus on a Boon activation, they'd need to be nearby and know that you're doing something magical or godly.
All the members of your Entourage are assumed to have beneficial fated roles relative to you. They do not penalize your action (unless you are leaving them to die or taking other patently unheroic activities) and will almost never be a burden to the player or character.
Charisma Knack
Prerequisite: Entourage
Your friends and supporters don't just dote on you, they positively worship you. Any roll you make gains a dice bonus based on how many of your adoring fans are present. If you are their Hero, they provide one bonus die each, up to a maximum equal to your Legend Rating. At Demigod both those numbers are doubled, and at God they are tripled. These bonus dice function as mortal reverence - replacing dice gained as such, not stacking on top of them. In effect, this knack is quantifying the level of fated connection between you and your Entourage. Under certain circumstances, the GM may award you a greater bonus, this power merely ensures a baseline minimum amount of reverence.
Note however, that in order to grant such dice, the Entourage member must be present and aware of roughly what you are doing. So, to grant you a bonus on a Boon activation, they'd need to be nearby and know that you're doing something magical or godly.
All the members of your Entourage are assumed to have beneficial fated roles relative to you. They do not penalize your action (unless you are leaving them to die or taking other patently unheroic activities) and will almost never be a burden to the player or character.
New Knack: Entourage
Entourage
Charisma Knack
You have a network of friends, supporters, assistants and hangers-on. While any child of the gods could have as much with a little effort, for you it just comes automatically. Mortals just like you. Taking this knack grants you mortal entourage. These are just normal people who want to be involved in your life. They aren't bodyguards, and aren't necessarily worshipers, either. Unlike the Followers birthright, they won't willing follow you into death or even battle, though they will defend themselves and you to the best of their meagre abilities should escape be implausible.
The members of your Entourage come from whatever walks of life seem appropriate to your character's backstory. Rather than building them individually, the GM uses generic mortal stats (per page 280-281 of Scion Hero) to represent them. At any given time, a number of them at least equal to your Legend Rating are free and available, and not more than a couple minutes away unless you have been intentionally avoiding people. Given 12 hours notice, you can draw a crowd of supporters to any social function at least as large as the successes you score on a roll of Charisma+Presence+Legend. Again, they don't do your exact bidding, but will try hard to earn your attention. They are great for populating a party or political rally, making yourself look (or feel) loved, and for getting large teamwork bonuses on relatively mundane non-combat rolls.
Charisma Knack
You have a network of friends, supporters, assistants and hangers-on. While any child of the gods could have as much with a little effort, for you it just comes automatically. Mortals just like you. Taking this knack grants you mortal entourage. These are just normal people who want to be involved in your life. They aren't bodyguards, and aren't necessarily worshipers, either. Unlike the Followers birthright, they won't willing follow you into death or even battle, though they will defend themselves and you to the best of their meagre abilities should escape be implausible.
The members of your Entourage come from whatever walks of life seem appropriate to your character's backstory. Rather than building them individually, the GM uses generic mortal stats (per page 280-281 of Scion Hero) to represent them. At any given time, a number of them at least equal to your Legend Rating are free and available, and not more than a couple minutes away unless you have been intentionally avoiding people. Given 12 hours notice, you can draw a crowd of supporters to any social function at least as large as the successes you score on a roll of Charisma+Presence+Legend. Again, they don't do your exact bidding, but will try hard to earn your attention. They are great for populating a party or political rally, making yourself look (or feel) loved, and for getting large teamwork bonuses on relatively mundane non-combat rolls.
New Knack: Like A Fish IN Water
Like A Fish IN Water
Strength Knack
You are a great swimmer, capable of using your divine strength to forcefully propel yourself at tremendous speeds through the water. As long as you are doing nothing but swim (no multiple actions) you may travel a number of yards per tick equal to 3 + your mundane strength + your epic strength autosuccesses. Doing so is a Speed: 3, DV -2 action, which leaves a very noticable wake as you displace water quickly and efficiently. If combined with Water Control (Water 2) you may travel at twice the above speed.
Strength Knack
You are a great swimmer, capable of using your divine strength to forcefully propel yourself at tremendous speeds through the water. As long as you are doing nothing but swim (no multiple actions) you may travel a number of yards per tick equal to 3 + your mundane strength + your epic strength autosuccesses. Doing so is a Speed: 3, DV -2 action, which leaves a very noticable wake as you displace water quickly and efficiently. If combined with Water Control (Water 2) you may travel at twice the above speed.
New Knack: Aggressive Immune System
Aggressive Immune System
Stamina Knack
Your immune system is so hyperactive, it can invade other's bodies and trigger allergic reactions or even eat them alive from the inside. To trigger this effect, you must expose a person to your bodily fluids, and spend a legend. This can be done covertly or amorously, or even via the blunt and insulting act of spitting on them. (Spitting during combat is a Dexterity roll, generally with all the usual penalties of being unskilled, though a player who wishes to develop this aspect of his character may purchase "Spit" as an Ability not unlike Marksmanship. Range is yards equal to 1+ Legend Rating. Speed for a good mouthful is 6.)
Your immune agents function as a poison. It has no Tolerance value. The damage rating is (Epic Stamina)L/day. Toxicity is (your Legend Rating)L.
Per the poison rules on pages 183-184 of Scion: Hero, this means (per dose) the victim takes one level of unsoakable Lethal damage every day, until they've taken total levels equal to your dots of Epic Stamina. Each time they take damage they can roll Stamina + Fortitude with a difficulty of your Legend Rating - if they succeed, that day's level of unsoakable Lethal is instead taken as a die of unsoakable Lethal. If they score double your Legend, it's a die of unsoakable Bashing. Rolling three times your Legend would prevent all damage that day.
Stamina Knack
Your immune system is so hyperactive, it can invade other's bodies and trigger allergic reactions or even eat them alive from the inside. To trigger this effect, you must expose a person to your bodily fluids, and spend a legend. This can be done covertly or amorously, or even via the blunt and insulting act of spitting on them. (Spitting during combat is a Dexterity roll, generally with all the usual penalties of being unskilled, though a player who wishes to develop this aspect of his character may purchase "Spit" as an Ability not unlike Marksmanship. Range is yards equal to 1+ Legend Rating. Speed for a good mouthful is 6.)
Your immune agents function as a poison. It has no Tolerance value. The damage rating is (Epic Stamina)L/day. Toxicity is (your Legend Rating)L.
Per the poison rules on pages 183-184 of Scion: Hero, this means (per dose) the victim takes one level of unsoakable Lethal damage every day, until they've taken total levels equal to your dots of Epic Stamina. Each time they take damage they can roll Stamina + Fortitude with a difficulty of your Legend Rating - if they succeed, that day's level of unsoakable Lethal is instead taken as a die of unsoakable Lethal. If they score double your Legend, it's a die of unsoakable Bashing. Rolling three times your Legend would prevent all damage that day.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Chunks of Ichor
The new Scion PDF (Scion Companion, Chapter 2: Manifestations of Ichor) is full of new Knacks and Boons. Most are really cool, and a great addition to the game.
Unfortunately, some of them blow chunks. Here's a list of ones I'll be house-ruling or just not using:
One Inch Punch - anything you can do with this Knack you could already do with Making It Look Easy and a decent stunt. This knack just devalues Making It Look Easy, which was already kinda weak as knacks go. What's more, Making It Look Easy doesn't have a prerequisite, and One Inch Punch does.
I won't be using One Inch Punch.
Titanium Tools - I'd expect few or no GMs currently apply real world physics to the majority of weapons, especially not where Epic Strength is involved. This knack is only useful if your GM is the kind of jerk who makes swords shatter when your super-strong hero swings them. While there's some merit to the higher end uses of this knack (using a 2x4 to shatter a concrete bunker), they don't justify the can of worms this knack's existence opens. The game doesn't have simple rules to determine when and what weapons break, so your basically forcing any strength-based weapon user to buy this knack.
I will probably allow Titanium Tools, but I'll make it abundantly clear to my players that anything built to be a weapon by skilled craftsmen already survives without this knack. As a result, the knack is of somewhat lessened value.
Microscopic Precision - Since it doesn't give any mechanics for reducing the difficulty of microscopic movements, this knack is of dubious use. A Scion with high Epic Dex (but without this knack) and a scientific microscope (or just the right Perception knack) will feel they should already be able to do this. A Scion with just one dot of Epic Dex and this knack is likely to fail at any Microscopic Precision rolls they make, since the GM will probably assign an arbitrarily high difficulty number. By forgetting to give the knack any tangible mechanical benefits and providing no difficulty guidelines for the GM, the knack fails to be helpful.
I will probably house-rule this to "Microscopic precision reduces the difficulty (or difficulty penalty) of microscopic maneuvers by an amount equal to your dots of Epic." I'd considering switching it to a Perception knack, so that you can have a character who's not a good fighter but can build nanotech by hand, except all the PCs in my campaign already have Epic Dex, so there's no need to do so in my game. Need to think about whether this knack is even needed in my campaign.
Shot To The Heart - Richochet Symphony and a stunt already do this, and more, and do it without the prerequisite. Plus, it's not like there's a lot of creatures with weak spots in the game - as much sense as it would make for leviathan's eyes to have lesser soak, they don't. Unless you radically alter the existing rules for DV, Soak, Disarming, and stunting, this knack is next to useless. It gives you a bonus on a situation that just doesn't happen in the current rules, and it's not enough of a bonus to really justify going to the work to make it useful. In fact, it just eliminates penalties - so why go to all the trouble of adding such penalties to the game if you're just going to make them go away with 5xp?
I'm probably just going to pretend this knack doesn't exist, instead of redoing all those rules or monster stats.
Under Pressure - My initial reaction was "this is so narrow, it's useless." Then I realized it completely eliminates the environmental hazards of The Drowned Road. If you intend to send your PCs there, it's incredible. But since more than a dot or two of Epic Stamina will ensure you make the Trauma rolls anyway, it's still dubious.
Not sure what to do with this Stamina knack.
Blame James - This should be a Manipulation Knack, not Charisma. Of course, that would make the prerequisite tricky, since it's Charisma-based.
House-ruling this to be a Manipulation Knack. The prerequisite is now God's Honest.
Instant Seminar - Doesn't list a duration.
House-ruled to last till the end of the scene.
Paragon of Virtue - Doesn't list a duration.
House-ruled to last till the end of the scene.
Do Not Want - Activator uses Attribute + Epic + Ability + Legend. Resistors use Willpower + Ability + Legend. At low levels that makes this week. But at high Legend, this is huge - especially since you could expend a Deed on the activation. In fact, for high-legend social PCs, this is arguably better than Untouchable Opponent. And UO is widely regarded as the most broken knack in the game, everyone house-rules it. Worse yet, this knack has a lot of rules baggage attached. Worst of all, there's nothing that prevents you from combining this with Epic Dex, UO, Arete: Athletics and Arete: Presence for a DV of 200+. At the legend where that's possible, the activation cost won't deter you from popping it every battle. The game didn't need another big DV booster - what it needs is ways around DV.
Despite the funny name, I won't be using this knack. There's no good way to fix it.
Not The Face - This shouldn't be resisted with Willpower + INTEGRITY + Legend. Command or Larceny would make more sense. Using integrity means that a cruel backstabbing bastard is more likely to grant you mercy than a pious humanitarian is.
House-ruled to be resisted by Willpower + Larceny + Legend.
Return To Sender - Has the wrong prerequisite. Instead of Overt Order (which lasts only a few seconds) it should be either Instant Hypnosis or Kill The Messenger.
House-ruled to have Instant Hypnosis as the prerequisite.
Visage Great And Terrible - Examined against merely the Scion cannon, this knack is fine. However, as discussed below, this knack is inferior to at least two very similar fan-made knacks, neither of which is the least bit broken. (Some bias is possible here, as I made one of those knacks.)
Using Terrible As The Dawn instead.
Axiom - Seems to overlap heavily with Mystery, and will generally out-perform it. Rather unfortunate that single knack is better than an entire Purview.
Luckily, I've house-ruled Prophecy and Mystery, so I'll be able to use Axiom without a problem.
Concept To Execution - Overall, I love this knack (though I wonder why its Intelligence + Craft + LEGEND for the roll). It's the Hitori Hanzo fix we've all been craving. However, I do have one fairly serious problem with it. The entry for the difficulty chart says "Item runs counter to part of the story, theme or plot: +10". Shouldn't that be a bit higher in a game where PCs can have rolls that baseline at 45 before even looking at the dice or power-ups?
House-ruling that one line to be +20 to difficulty. That should keep the story/theme/plot from being wrecked until very late Godhood, at which point PCs should feel entitled to do so.
Adaptive Fighting - I see no point to the increasing cost, but perhaps I'm misunderstanding something since it's all written a little vaguely. Seems like they mean your Epic Wits Dots, not Successes, in which case the increasing cost is unneeded. Unless the "if this fails or you choose not to attack" is meant to be taken literally - as in, if we're supposed to infer the bonus lasts as long as you keep hitting, then that's really good and the extra cost is justified. But it's hard to say for certain what they mean, and if the bonus is dots and lasts for just 1 attack, there's no need for the stepped costs and limitations.
House-ruling this as follows: Works for next attack/action only. Costs just 1 legend. Bonus is equal to dots in Epic Wits.
Don't Read The Manual - This knack steps on the toes of Well-Read Virgin and Jack Of All Trades. Depending on whether or not you interpret it as getting around the "no Epics if you don't have the Ability" clause, it's either strictly better or strictly worse than both those knacks. I'm not sure what the writer's intent was.
Both the knacks it supplants have yet to be taken by anyone in my campaign, so I'll probably just not worry about this, and rule in the way that makes it strictly better than them.
Boons:
Scire - This purview has some neat powers, but unless you've got Atlanteans in your game, there's little chance you'll find it useful. I won't spend much time on it.
I'm not using this Purview, as I have no plans of incorporating the dead Atlantean pantheon into my game.
Faunaphagia - Is a die-adding power, and unfortunately the existing Level 3 of Animal is also a die-adding power. This version is a lot more balanced than the existing power, so that's a nice plus. I'm more comfortable with this as a 3-dot boon, despite it being a lot more limited and taking more work on the GMs part if the PC chooses a non-standard animal. At least it works for the scene, so it's not strictly inferior.
Since I'd house-ruled the existing Animal 3 to reign it's power in, I probably won't be using this boon in my campaign.
Paper Tiger - Is fun, but ultimately it just duplicates the existing Animal boon of the same level.
I'll allow this Boon, but I think it's redundant, and doubt anyone will want both boons of this level.
Unlikely Pattern - Awesome power, but the costs and difficulties are silly. Making a handful of change land heads-up shouldn't cost a Willpower and 10 Legend - at least not for a level 8 power. But you can't lower the level since a mere 50 successes lets you create your own Pocket Universe. Ultimately, it's too costly to use for parlor tricks, so it'll only see use for things that are truly busted. PCs can score 50 successes by low Godhood, and that chart pretty much implies a top-end to difficulty.
I'd probably cut the legend cost to 1/3 the difficulty, rounded down, or just add it as a seperate column to the chart. The coin trick would cost 1 legend, making a cake would cost 6 legend, and making a car would cost 8. I'd then adjust the upper end of the chart. I'd add "rubies, chemistry set, batteries, and aluminum tubes" into "industrial laser" at difficulty: 35 / legend 11. I'd add "shipyard" into "aircraft carrier" at difficulty: 50 / legend: 16. Then I'd push the existing "dark matter becomes pocket universe" entry up to difficulty: 75 / legend: 25. Even then, though, someone will eventually get a helium tank and try to make a portable sun out of it, and the GM had better be prepared for it.
Absorb Light - This 4-dot Darkness boon provides weaker invisibility than the existing 3-dot Darkness boon or the existing 3-dot Moon boon. On the other hand, it renders you immune to lasers and radiation, so it's not entirely useless. You'd still be killed by the concussive force of a nuke, though. And you'll have to house rule whether immunity to infrared energy means protection from fire - I'd think it would, but the text doesn't specify.
I wouldn't criticize any GM who chose to alter it's stats or rule it doesn't stop fire and then downgrade it to a 3-dot boon. I'll probably rule that it boosts all your soaks vs fire, heat, and radiation by your Legend (instead of granting total immunity), and then leave it at 4-dot.
Death of the Soul - Technically not a 1-hit kill, but it feels like it. Everything hinges on a single die-roll, and if you don't resist it, there's nothing you can do to come back. Uncertain what I think of that. Also, it says the victim is now restricted to 5 dots in Abilities. They must have meant Attributes, since abilities are already capped at 5 dots.
I'll be leaving it alone for now, but reserve the right to house-rule later for power concerns later. My existing house-rules allow Abilities to go above 5, and Attributes cost a lot more than Abilities to buy up, so I'll probably not house-rule the likely typo, but just interpret it literally.
Rust/Shine - Is under powered. Hardness is laughable. It doesn't affect Relics, either. 4-dots and 2 legend per activation for a demigod to make a gun have a 50% chance of malfunctioning? Not good enough, especially since rusting out a sword or axe won't stop them from attacking you with it. The only thing that could make it worth it is being able to do so subtly over range - but the vague write-up implies you have to pass your hand over the item.
If any of my PCs pick up Earth, I'll probably downgrade this to a 3-dot Boon. To be safe, I'll house-rule that it can't work on an item in someone else's control, just free-standing items and things you're holding. That seems to be the intent of the original text, but it's nice to make it specific. Or maybe I'll just make a 2-dot version that's just Rust for small objects, and then house-rule the 4-dot version to work more offensively and/or restore items at range.
Toxic Thorn - I know this isn't meant to be a huge combat power, but to make a poison that would reliably kill an average mortal extra in 10 minutes after getting a single dose you'd have a difficulty of around 26. If the mortal's not an extra, the difficulty is around 35. That indicates to me that the author might not be using the poison rules as written in his home campaign.
I'll be leaving this one as-is, but I have no illusions that it's potent, at least not until you get to Godhood.
Flamin' Bullets - Has been criticized in a previous post. It's way underpowered, being weaker than the existing Fire 4, and Sun 4, and the Frost 2 boon in the upcoming Ragnarok.
I'll be house-ruling this to be Fire 3, and I wouldn't argue with any GMs who wanted to knock it down to Fire 2.
Hotter Than Hot - Sounds great until you get to the part about the die roll. So, someone who's Stamina+Fortitude+Legend trumps your Wits+Control is still immune, even though it was written that it "suffers no such limitation". It's like the author (or editor) wussed out at the last minute. Since all this power does is override resistance against your other fire powers, this is sad.
I'll probably strike that last paragraph.
Bolster - Doesn't state whether the bonus health levels are damaged first or last. This makes a huge impact on the power of the boon. If they fill last, it saves lives but doesn't prevent injuries from occurring in the first place. If they fill first, then this power (especially with high Epic Stamina) is bustedly good, since you could effectively cancel the first 50 levels of damage to get past someone's soak - and that's too good for level 2.
I'm house-ruling that the bonus health levels are the last to fill, and that they have whatever penalty the characters normal last pre-incapacitated health level has.
Antidote - Overcoming Jormungandr's venom is just difficulty 5. But if that same venom were made via Toxic Thorn, the difficulty to Antidote it would be 60. Seems like Toxicity might not be the right thing to base the difficulty on for Titanspawn.
I'll houserule it to be double the higher of (Toxicity or Damage). Instead of supernatural venoms running difficulty 3 to 5, they'd have difficulty 12 to 20. Mundane poisons would remain an automatic cure.
Drown - This is a little nitpicky, but here goes. When the existing level 5 is an attack power, why make the new attack also be level 5? Also, when the game has rules for drowning, and other rules for environmental effects, why not use one of those two systems for a power that makes people drown? Instead, this power uses a totally new system, that doesn't even match the games general rule of making things harm you on your tick, but instead requires keeping track of a separate 3-tick cycle on the battle wheel.
I may eventually work up my own drowning power, based on the games drowning or environmental rules.
And that's all the Knacks and Boons. Most are really good, but the ones mentioned above need house-ruling. I suppose that's not surprising, since so many boons in the original books needed fixing, too.
I've skipped Magic. It's a tiny bit complicated, and none of the PCs in my game have it, so I'm not really up to speed on it.
I can comment that the new 2-dot Spell "Legendary Surge" is really close in effect to the 9th Dot of the Aztec-specific purview. That's pretty awful. Mind you, Itzli 9 isn't that impressive, but to see that somewhat at White Wolf thinks it's balanced to put the same effect as a 2nd level power says something. Either one is grossly over- or under-powered for it's level, or their both off by a few dots from where they should be, but I couldn't say for certain which.
In general, the new powers that are just plain inferior to an existing Boon of the same or lesser rating in the same Purview (or an existing knack for the same Epic) really piss me off - that seems like a fairly amateurish mistake. I'd think it would be something you actively try not to do when designing powers for an RPG. That's one of the standards I've used when making things for my own campaigns, and I've observed a similar rule in published games like D&D. So why'd this happen?
Maybe the campaign Jesse (the author of most or all of that chapter of the Scion Companion) is running is operating at a subdued power level compared to the original rules? I don't know.
What I do know is, I'll be filling in additional Boons and Knacks for my own game.
Unfortunately, some of them blow chunks. Here's a list of ones I'll be house-ruling or just not using:
One Inch Punch - anything you can do with this Knack you could already do with Making It Look Easy and a decent stunt. This knack just devalues Making It Look Easy, which was already kinda weak as knacks go. What's more, Making It Look Easy doesn't have a prerequisite, and One Inch Punch does.
I won't be using One Inch Punch.
Titanium Tools - I'd expect few or no GMs currently apply real world physics to the majority of weapons, especially not where Epic Strength is involved. This knack is only useful if your GM is the kind of jerk who makes swords shatter when your super-strong hero swings them. While there's some merit to the higher end uses of this knack (using a 2x4 to shatter a concrete bunker), they don't justify the can of worms this knack's existence opens. The game doesn't have simple rules to determine when and what weapons break, so your basically forcing any strength-based weapon user to buy this knack.
I will probably allow Titanium Tools, but I'll make it abundantly clear to my players that anything built to be a weapon by skilled craftsmen already survives without this knack. As a result, the knack is of somewhat lessened value.
Microscopic Precision - Since it doesn't give any mechanics for reducing the difficulty of microscopic movements, this knack is of dubious use. A Scion with high Epic Dex (but without this knack) and a scientific microscope (or just the right Perception knack) will feel they should already be able to do this. A Scion with just one dot of Epic Dex and this knack is likely to fail at any Microscopic Precision rolls they make, since the GM will probably assign an arbitrarily high difficulty number. By forgetting to give the knack any tangible mechanical benefits and providing no difficulty guidelines for the GM, the knack fails to be helpful.
I will probably house-rule this to "Microscopic precision reduces the difficulty (or difficulty penalty) of microscopic maneuvers by an amount equal to your dots of Epic." I'd considering switching it to a Perception knack, so that you can have a character who's not a good fighter but can build nanotech by hand, except all the PCs in my campaign already have Epic Dex, so there's no need to do so in my game. Need to think about whether this knack is even needed in my campaign.
Shot To The Heart - Richochet Symphony and a stunt already do this, and more, and do it without the prerequisite. Plus, it's not like there's a lot of creatures with weak spots in the game - as much sense as it would make for leviathan's eyes to have lesser soak, they don't. Unless you radically alter the existing rules for DV, Soak, Disarming, and stunting, this knack is next to useless. It gives you a bonus on a situation that just doesn't happen in the current rules, and it's not enough of a bonus to really justify going to the work to make it useful. In fact, it just eliminates penalties - so why go to all the trouble of adding such penalties to the game if you're just going to make them go away with 5xp?
I'm probably just going to pretend this knack doesn't exist, instead of redoing all those rules or monster stats.
Under Pressure - My initial reaction was "this is so narrow, it's useless." Then I realized it completely eliminates the environmental hazards of The Drowned Road. If you intend to send your PCs there, it's incredible. But since more than a dot or two of Epic Stamina will ensure you make the Trauma rolls anyway, it's still dubious.
Not sure what to do with this Stamina knack.
Blame James - This should be a Manipulation Knack, not Charisma. Of course, that would make the prerequisite tricky, since it's Charisma-based.
House-ruling this to be a Manipulation Knack. The prerequisite is now God's Honest.
Instant Seminar - Doesn't list a duration.
House-ruled to last till the end of the scene.
Paragon of Virtue - Doesn't list a duration.
House-ruled to last till the end of the scene.
Do Not Want - Activator uses Attribute + Epic + Ability + Legend. Resistors use Willpower + Ability + Legend. At low levels that makes this week. But at high Legend, this is huge - especially since you could expend a Deed on the activation. In fact, for high-legend social PCs, this is arguably better than Untouchable Opponent. And UO is widely regarded as the most broken knack in the game, everyone house-rules it. Worse yet, this knack has a lot of rules baggage attached. Worst of all, there's nothing that prevents you from combining this with Epic Dex, UO, Arete: Athletics and Arete: Presence for a DV of 200+. At the legend where that's possible, the activation cost won't deter you from popping it every battle. The game didn't need another big DV booster - what it needs is ways around DV.
Despite the funny name, I won't be using this knack. There's no good way to fix it.
Not The Face - This shouldn't be resisted with Willpower + INTEGRITY + Legend. Command or Larceny would make more sense. Using integrity means that a cruel backstabbing bastard is more likely to grant you mercy than a pious humanitarian is.
House-ruled to be resisted by Willpower + Larceny + Legend.
Return To Sender - Has the wrong prerequisite. Instead of Overt Order (which lasts only a few seconds) it should be either Instant Hypnosis or Kill The Messenger.
House-ruled to have Instant Hypnosis as the prerequisite.
Visage Great And Terrible - Examined against merely the Scion cannon, this knack is fine. However, as discussed below, this knack is inferior to at least two very similar fan-made knacks, neither of which is the least bit broken. (Some bias is possible here, as I made one of those knacks.)
Using Terrible As The Dawn instead.
Axiom - Seems to overlap heavily with Mystery, and will generally out-perform it. Rather unfortunate that single knack is better than an entire Purview.
Luckily, I've house-ruled Prophecy and Mystery, so I'll be able to use Axiom without a problem.
Concept To Execution - Overall, I love this knack (though I wonder why its Intelligence + Craft + LEGEND for the roll). It's the Hitori Hanzo fix we've all been craving. However, I do have one fairly serious problem with it. The entry for the difficulty chart says "Item runs counter to part of the story, theme or plot: +10". Shouldn't that be a bit higher in a game where PCs can have rolls that baseline at 45 before even looking at the dice or power-ups?
House-ruling that one line to be +20 to difficulty. That should keep the story/theme/plot from being wrecked until very late Godhood, at which point PCs should feel entitled to do so.
Adaptive Fighting - I see no point to the increasing cost, but perhaps I'm misunderstanding something since it's all written a little vaguely. Seems like they mean your Epic Wits Dots, not Successes, in which case the increasing cost is unneeded. Unless the "if this fails or you choose not to attack" is meant to be taken literally - as in, if we're supposed to infer the bonus lasts as long as you keep hitting, then that's really good and the extra cost is justified. But it's hard to say for certain what they mean, and if the bonus is dots and lasts for just 1 attack, there's no need for the stepped costs and limitations.
House-ruling this as follows: Works for next attack/action only. Costs just 1 legend. Bonus is equal to dots in Epic Wits.
Don't Read The Manual - This knack steps on the toes of Well-Read Virgin and Jack Of All Trades. Depending on whether or not you interpret it as getting around the "no Epics if you don't have the Ability" clause, it's either strictly better or strictly worse than both those knacks. I'm not sure what the writer's intent was.
Both the knacks it supplants have yet to be taken by anyone in my campaign, so I'll probably just not worry about this, and rule in the way that makes it strictly better than them.
Boons:
Scire - This purview has some neat powers, but unless you've got Atlanteans in your game, there's little chance you'll find it useful. I won't spend much time on it.
I'm not using this Purview, as I have no plans of incorporating the dead Atlantean pantheon into my game.
Faunaphagia - Is a die-adding power, and unfortunately the existing Level 3 of Animal is also a die-adding power. This version is a lot more balanced than the existing power, so that's a nice plus. I'm more comfortable with this as a 3-dot boon, despite it being a lot more limited and taking more work on the GMs part if the PC chooses a non-standard animal. At least it works for the scene, so it's not strictly inferior.
Since I'd house-ruled the existing Animal 3 to reign it's power in, I probably won't be using this boon in my campaign.
Paper Tiger - Is fun, but ultimately it just duplicates the existing Animal boon of the same level.
I'll allow this Boon, but I think it's redundant, and doubt anyone will want both boons of this level.
Unlikely Pattern - Awesome power, but the costs and difficulties are silly. Making a handful of change land heads-up shouldn't cost a Willpower and 10 Legend - at least not for a level 8 power. But you can't lower the level since a mere 50 successes lets you create your own Pocket Universe. Ultimately, it's too costly to use for parlor tricks, so it'll only see use for things that are truly busted. PCs can score 50 successes by low Godhood, and that chart pretty much implies a top-end to difficulty.
I'd probably cut the legend cost to 1/3 the difficulty, rounded down, or just add it as a seperate column to the chart. The coin trick would cost 1 legend, making a cake would cost 6 legend, and making a car would cost 8. I'd then adjust the upper end of the chart. I'd add "rubies, chemistry set, batteries, and aluminum tubes" into "industrial laser" at difficulty: 35 / legend 11. I'd add "shipyard" into "aircraft carrier" at difficulty: 50 / legend: 16. Then I'd push the existing "dark matter becomes pocket universe" entry up to difficulty: 75 / legend: 25. Even then, though, someone will eventually get a helium tank and try to make a portable sun out of it, and the GM had better be prepared for it.
Absorb Light - This 4-dot Darkness boon provides weaker invisibility than the existing 3-dot Darkness boon or the existing 3-dot Moon boon. On the other hand, it renders you immune to lasers and radiation, so it's not entirely useless. You'd still be killed by the concussive force of a nuke, though. And you'll have to house rule whether immunity to infrared energy means protection from fire - I'd think it would, but the text doesn't specify.
I wouldn't criticize any GM who chose to alter it's stats or rule it doesn't stop fire and then downgrade it to a 3-dot boon. I'll probably rule that it boosts all your soaks vs fire, heat, and radiation by your Legend (instead of granting total immunity), and then leave it at 4-dot.
Death of the Soul - Technically not a 1-hit kill, but it feels like it. Everything hinges on a single die-roll, and if you don't resist it, there's nothing you can do to come back. Uncertain what I think of that. Also, it says the victim is now restricted to 5 dots in Abilities. They must have meant Attributes, since abilities are already capped at 5 dots.
I'll be leaving it alone for now, but reserve the right to house-rule later for power concerns later. My existing house-rules allow Abilities to go above 5, and Attributes cost a lot more than Abilities to buy up, so I'll probably not house-rule the likely typo, but just interpret it literally.
Rust/Shine - Is under powered. Hardness is laughable. It doesn't affect Relics, either. 4-dots and 2 legend per activation for a demigod to make a gun have a 50% chance of malfunctioning? Not good enough, especially since rusting out a sword or axe won't stop them from attacking you with it. The only thing that could make it worth it is being able to do so subtly over range - but the vague write-up implies you have to pass your hand over the item.
If any of my PCs pick up Earth, I'll probably downgrade this to a 3-dot Boon. To be safe, I'll house-rule that it can't work on an item in someone else's control, just free-standing items and things you're holding. That seems to be the intent of the original text, but it's nice to make it specific. Or maybe I'll just make a 2-dot version that's just Rust for small objects, and then house-rule the 4-dot version to work more offensively and/or restore items at range.
Toxic Thorn - I know this isn't meant to be a huge combat power, but to make a poison that would reliably kill an average mortal extra in 10 minutes after getting a single dose you'd have a difficulty of around 26. If the mortal's not an extra, the difficulty is around 35. That indicates to me that the author might not be using the poison rules as written in his home campaign.
I'll be leaving this one as-is, but I have no illusions that it's potent, at least not until you get to Godhood.
Flamin' Bullets - Has been criticized in a previous post. It's way underpowered, being weaker than the existing Fire 4, and Sun 4, and the Frost 2 boon in the upcoming Ragnarok.
I'll be house-ruling this to be Fire 3, and I wouldn't argue with any GMs who wanted to knock it down to Fire 2.
Hotter Than Hot - Sounds great until you get to the part about the die roll. So, someone who's Stamina+Fortitude+Legend trumps your Wits+Control is still immune, even though it was written that it "suffers no such limitation". It's like the author (or editor) wussed out at the last minute. Since all this power does is override resistance against your other fire powers, this is sad.
I'll probably strike that last paragraph.
Bolster - Doesn't state whether the bonus health levels are damaged first or last. This makes a huge impact on the power of the boon. If they fill last, it saves lives but doesn't prevent injuries from occurring in the first place. If they fill first, then this power (especially with high Epic Stamina) is bustedly good, since you could effectively cancel the first 50 levels of damage to get past someone's soak - and that's too good for level 2.
I'm house-ruling that the bonus health levels are the last to fill, and that they have whatever penalty the characters normal last pre-incapacitated health level has.
Antidote - Overcoming Jormungandr's venom is just difficulty 5. But if that same venom were made via Toxic Thorn, the difficulty to Antidote it would be 60. Seems like Toxicity might not be the right thing to base the difficulty on for Titanspawn.
I'll houserule it to be double the higher of (Toxicity or Damage). Instead of supernatural venoms running difficulty 3 to 5, they'd have difficulty 12 to 20. Mundane poisons would remain an automatic cure.
Drown - This is a little nitpicky, but here goes. When the existing level 5 is an attack power, why make the new attack also be level 5? Also, when the game has rules for drowning, and other rules for environmental effects, why not use one of those two systems for a power that makes people drown? Instead, this power uses a totally new system, that doesn't even match the games general rule of making things harm you on your tick, but instead requires keeping track of a separate 3-tick cycle on the battle wheel.
I may eventually work up my own drowning power, based on the games drowning or environmental rules.
And that's all the Knacks and Boons. Most are really good, but the ones mentioned above need house-ruling. I suppose that's not surprising, since so many boons in the original books needed fixing, too.
I've skipped Magic. It's a tiny bit complicated, and none of the PCs in my game have it, so I'm not really up to speed on it.
I can comment that the new 2-dot Spell "Legendary Surge" is really close in effect to the 9th Dot of the Aztec-specific purview. That's pretty awful. Mind you, Itzli 9 isn't that impressive, but to see that somewhat at White Wolf thinks it's balanced to put the same effect as a 2nd level power says something. Either one is grossly over- or under-powered for it's level, or their both off by a few dots from where they should be, but I couldn't say for certain which.
In general, the new powers that are just plain inferior to an existing Boon of the same or lesser rating in the same Purview (or an existing knack for the same Epic) really piss me off - that seems like a fairly amateurish mistake. I'd think it would be something you actively try not to do when designing powers for an RPG. That's one of the standards I've used when making things for my own campaigns, and I've observed a similar rule in published games like D&D. So why'd this happen?
Maybe the campaign Jesse (the author of most or all of that chapter of the Scion Companion) is running is operating at a subdued power level compared to the original rules? I don't know.
What I do know is, I'll be filling in additional Boons and Knacks for my own game.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
a Knack that is Great And Terrible
Some time back in April, I posted that I had a story to tell, but it would have to wait until early June. June came and went, and I was still sworn to secrecy because a product kept falling back. But today I can tell the story...
That product in question is the Scion Companion, chapter 2: Manifestations of Ichor. It was originally supposed to release in May, but y'know, this is White Wolf we're talkin' about. This new chapter, available as a PDF (and eventually as part of a hardcover book) if packed full of knacks, boons, and the like for Scion. I've been waiting impatiently for it, and my wait was all the more painful because of the story below. Part of my growing dissatisfaction with Scion, and my related tendency to post here less often, has had to do with this.
The chapter includes one knack in particular called "Visage Great And Terrible". It's an Appearance Knack that lets a character flip-flop between having Epic Beauty and being Epically Ugly. You may recall that I made something similar way back in January - a knack called "Terrible As The Dawn". The name of both knacks refer to Galadriel's transformation in the Fellowship of the Ring. I quoted her lines in the name, the White Wolf staff just referenced it, but it's clear where they were coming from.
I'm by no means the first person to come up with such an idea. My wife actually thought of it first. She's playing a daughter of Hel, and wanted to be alternately alluring and horrifying. She'd asked me to make a knack to let her do so, and I gladly did so. One of the forum posters replied to my initial post of the knack by saying that one of his players had made up a similar knack called "Scary Hot" so the concepts not terribly unique.
We briefly debated the merits of the various versions at the time. Scary Hot's main benefit was that it's elegant. It was like a two-sentence knack, super rules light. Something to the effect of "You can be frightening or sexy as you see fit. You can buy and use any Epic Appearance knack, regardless of whether it's normally restricted by whether your Epic Appearance represent beauty or ugliness ." Scary Hot didn't indicate whether it was a reflexive action, or a diceless 5-tick action, which could matter in some situations. It also didn't give any clues as to how the transformation took effect, which is both a strength and weakness, as it leaves it to the player or GM. And of course, Scary Hot didn't take a stance on whether or not your various versions still looked clearly human, and whether or not observers could tell you apart. There's games where such a vague power is perfect - I've played, GM'd, and enjoyed many of them. But, for a game with rules as fiddly as Scions, I think that stuff needs to be addressed, so I'm happier with "Terrible As The Dawn" than I would be with "Scary Hot". It's worked well for our campaign, and is useful without being overpowered. But I digress...
The real point is that in April, one of the staff at White Wolf took a peak on the Scion Wiki. There they saw my knack Terrible As The Dawn, and saw it's credit as being created by r_b_bergstrom. And one of the staff at White Wolf thought that meant Rebecca Borgstrom had made it. Friends and long-time readers will know, I am not Rebecca. I've had to post explanations of that here, on the Scion Forums, and on my user page on the Scion Wiki. I'm Rolfe Bergstrom.
So, since Rebecca Borgstrom sometimes works for White Wolf, but didn't work on the Scion Companion, the WW staffer sent me an email:
But now, I'm afraid the next thing I'm going to say will sound a little snarky. I'm sorry, but my critique of Visage Great and Terrible is that it's more the latter than the former. Lets compare it to the knacks mentioned above (and for disclosure's sake, I'll remind you that I wrote Terrible As The Dawn).
Like Scary Hot, Visage doesn't mention if the knack is reflexive or diceless ("at will" has no rules meaning in Scion), so there's still a ruling to be made by the GM and different campaigns will handle it differently. Unlike Scary Hot, it doesn't have the elegance of being two sentences, Visage is 3 paragraphs yet has no added functionality within them.
Like Scary Hot, (and unlike Terrible As The Dawn) visage does nothing to disguise you. In fact, Visage states quite explicitly that it doesn't change your appearance at all. You still look the same unless you also have the Detail Variation knack from Scion: God. Somehow, you're just ugly, but you "can change from an elegant, refined woman to a vengeful, nerve-wracking hag in the blink of an eye." Honestly, good roleplaying can do that without a Knack. But as long as it's free to activate, it's no big deal, and would be nice as a cheap tool to make up for lackluster acting.
However, Visage isn't free - has an activation cost - you must pay 3 Legend Points per transformation. What are you paying for with Visage? The ability to use the 2 or 3 knacks that require you to be ugly/beautiful? I'd have thought that the 5 xp you spent on Visage was payment enough - but 5xp and +3 legend per activation seems overkill. Terrible As The Dawn also has an activation cost, but it's 1 willpower (roughly = 2 legend), and you get +1 auto success on disguise rolls and get to specify what physical change makes your alternate version look so horrific. So Visage does rather less than Dawn, and yet costs more to activate.
Since over 5 months of play with Dawn in the mix has shown it to NOT be broken in any way, I can only conclude that Visage is just over-costed. I'll definitely be sticking with Terrible As The Dawn.
That product in question is the Scion Companion, chapter 2: Manifestations of Ichor. It was originally supposed to release in May, but y'know, this is White Wolf we're talkin' about. This new chapter, available as a PDF (and eventually as part of a hardcover book) if packed full of knacks, boons, and the like for Scion. I've been waiting impatiently for it, and my wait was all the more painful because of the story below. Part of my growing dissatisfaction with Scion, and my related tendency to post here less often, has had to do with this.
The chapter includes one knack in particular called "Visage Great And Terrible". It's an Appearance Knack that lets a character flip-flop between having Epic Beauty and being Epically Ugly. You may recall that I made something similar way back in January - a knack called "Terrible As The Dawn". The name of both knacks refer to Galadriel's transformation in the Fellowship of the Ring. I quoted her lines in the name, the White Wolf staff just referenced it, but it's clear where they were coming from.
I'm by no means the first person to come up with such an idea. My wife actually thought of it first. She's playing a daughter of Hel, and wanted to be alternately alluring and horrifying. She'd asked me to make a knack to let her do so, and I gladly did so. One of the forum posters replied to my initial post of the knack by saying that one of his players had made up a similar knack called "Scary Hot" so the concepts not terribly unique.
We briefly debated the merits of the various versions at the time. Scary Hot's main benefit was that it's elegant. It was like a two-sentence knack, super rules light. Something to the effect of "You can be frightening or sexy as you see fit. You can buy and use any Epic Appearance knack, regardless of whether it's normally restricted by whether your Epic Appearance represent beauty or ugliness ." Scary Hot didn't indicate whether it was a reflexive action, or a diceless 5-tick action, which could matter in some situations. It also didn't give any clues as to how the transformation took effect, which is both a strength and weakness, as it leaves it to the player or GM. And of course, Scary Hot didn't take a stance on whether or not your various versions still looked clearly human, and whether or not observers could tell you apart. There's games where such a vague power is perfect - I've played, GM'd, and enjoyed many of them. But, for a game with rules as fiddly as Scions, I think that stuff needs to be addressed, so I'm happier with "Terrible As The Dawn" than I would be with "Scary Hot". It's worked well for our campaign, and is useful without being overpowered. But I digress...
The real point is that in April, one of the staff at White Wolf took a peak on the Scion Wiki. There they saw my knack Terrible As The Dawn, and saw it's credit as being created by r_b_bergstrom. And one of the staff at White Wolf thought that meant Rebecca Borgstrom had made it. Friends and long-time readers will know, I am not Rebecca. I've had to post explanations of that here, on the Scion Forums, and on my user page on the Scion Wiki. I'm Rolfe Bergstrom.
So, since Rebecca Borgstrom sometimes works for White Wolf, but didn't work on the Scion Companion, the WW staffer sent me an email:
Hey Rebecca,Though tempted to pull some shenanigans, I behaved myself. I replied, indicated that I'm not Rebecca, and that I've never signed an NDA for White Wolf, but that I'd be happy to keep a secret for them till the book released. To which they replied:
...wrote an Epic Appearance Knack that works very similarly to one that you wrote, in that it allows the user to switch back and forth between hideous and awesome appearance. Thought I would drop you a line and let you know so that you didn't wind up cracking the Companion and thinking "Hey . . . that was totally ripped off from my material!"
(Incidentally, I even had one of the same inspirations as you, namely Galadhriel, which led to the name I ultimately used for the Knack.)
...since Rebecca Borgstrom is an NDA'd writer, she'd generally have the ability to access and discuss material in process. Sorry to be such a downer, but it was simply an error.I can't begin to tell you how hard it has been to keep that one under wraps. I'm playing the game week after week, my wife (whom I never keep anything from) gave me the inspiration for the knack in the first place, and the product was two months late. Man, I nearly burst on so many issues. Every time my wife's character would use the power, I wanted to comment, but couldn't. Every time some random Scion forumite would assume I was Rebecca, I wanted to say "don't worry about it, even the White Wolf staff has gotten confused!" but I was afraid that would cause trouble for the person who emailed me. I figure said staffer is safe now that the book has come out and I was able to keep my vow of silence. (You're welcome, by the way.)
At least now you know - when you grab the next installment of the Companion in May, you'll see it there.
But now, I'm afraid the next thing I'm going to say will sound a little snarky. I'm sorry, but my critique of Visage Great and Terrible is that it's more the latter than the former. Lets compare it to the knacks mentioned above (and for disclosure's sake, I'll remind you that I wrote Terrible As The Dawn).
| Knack | Elegant | Cost Effective | Disguises |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scary Hot | yes | yes | no |
| Visage Great And Terrible | no | no | yes |
| Terrible As The Dawn | no | yes | yes |
Like Scary Hot, Visage doesn't mention if the knack is reflexive or diceless ("at will" has no rules meaning in Scion), so there's still a ruling to be made by the GM and different campaigns will handle it differently. Unlike Scary Hot, it doesn't have the elegance of being two sentences, Visage is 3 paragraphs yet has no added functionality within them.
Like Scary Hot, (and unlike Terrible As The Dawn) visage does nothing to disguise you. In fact, Visage states quite explicitly that it doesn't change your appearance at all. You still look the same unless you also have the Detail Variation knack from Scion: God. Somehow, you're just ugly, but you "can change from an elegant, refined woman to a vengeful, nerve-wracking hag in the blink of an eye." Honestly, good roleplaying can do that without a Knack. But as long as it's free to activate, it's no big deal, and would be nice as a cheap tool to make up for lackluster acting.
However, Visage isn't free - has an activation cost - you must pay 3 Legend Points per transformation. What are you paying for with Visage? The ability to use the 2 or 3 knacks that require you to be ugly/beautiful? I'd have thought that the 5 xp you spent on Visage was payment enough - but 5xp and +3 legend per activation seems overkill. Terrible As The Dawn also has an activation cost, but it's 1 willpower (roughly = 2 legend), and you get +1 auto success on disguise rolls and get to specify what physical change makes your alternate version look so horrific. So Visage does rather less than Dawn, and yet costs more to activate.
Since over 5 months of play with Dawn in the mix has shown it to NOT be broken in any way, I can only conclude that Visage is just over-costed. I'll definitely be sticking with Terrible As The Dawn.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Revised Knack (Edited)
I reworked See The Inner Self, a knack I'd made two and a half months ago.
The mechanical changes are very minimal. Basically, I changed it to Manipulation (from Wits) as it's not about thinking fast, it's about understanding human nature. It's a tough knack to use in-game, requiring either quick thinking or lots of prep work from the GM, so I gave it a prerequisite (that being the knack Stench of Guilt, which is also about understanding people's secret selves).
EDIT/ADDENDUM: I was compiling (and summarizing) all the knacks I'd consider allowing in my campaign into one big list for my players (Aside: it was a bit of a chore, since it meant scouring 3 books and 3 websites). That's what lead to my reconsidering that knack and posting changes. And about 2 hours later, on the last page of scouring, I (re)discovered that Scion: God has a knack called Psychic Profiler that does nearly the exact same thing. Psychic Profiler is a Wits Knack, with no PreRequisite. It also requires a few sentences interaction, not ten minutes, and doesn't take a die roll to activate.
So the question is twofold:
The mechanical changes are very minimal. Basically, I changed it to Manipulation (from Wits) as it's not about thinking fast, it's about understanding human nature. It's a tough knack to use in-game, requiring either quick thinking or lots of prep work from the GM, so I gave it a prerequisite (that being the knack Stench of Guilt, which is also about understanding people's secret selves).
EDIT/ADDENDUM: I was compiling (and summarizing) all the knacks I'd consider allowing in my campaign into one big list for my players (Aside: it was a bit of a chore, since it meant scouring 3 books and 3 websites). That's what lead to my reconsidering that knack and posting changes. And about 2 hours later, on the last page of scouring, I (re)discovered that Scion: God has a knack called Psychic Profiler that does nearly the exact same thing. Psychic Profiler is a Wits Knack, with no PreRequisite. It also requires a few sentences interaction, not ten minutes, and doesn't take a die roll to activate.
So the question is twofold:
- Does the concept belong in Manipulation (cause it's about social interaction and understanding human nature) or Wits (because it's about analyzing so quickly you accomplish in seconds what could take a mortal hours or months)?
- Am I grossly overestimating the power of the knack, or is white-wolf completely missing how potent (and potentially annoying to the "by the seat of my pants" GM) the Psychic Profiler and Instant Assessment knacks are?
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Brains Over Brawn - Wits Knack
This has been back-burnered for a long time. It's a knack idea aimed at boosting Mental-focused Scion PCs more helpful in combat. The idea has been that I wanted some way for lots of Perception, Intelligence or Wits to be as useful as lots of Strength or Dex. The problem has been that doing so always undermined the importance of those physical stats. However, I figured out a way finally for cleverness to be devastating about once per fight scene without it outperforming Physicals on every attack.
Brains Over Brawn - Wits Knack - No Prerequisites
Your quick thinking and clever stratagems make you a deadly force in battle. You find clever ways to use scenery and situation against your enemies, or to exploit their weaknesses.
When stunting on an attack or damage roll, you may spend a Willpower to use any Mental Attribute (and the corresponding Epic Attribute) in place of Dexterity or Strength. Which Mental Attribute to use is your choice, though it should make at least some sense to the situation. For two-die and three-die stunts, if you spend a Legend as well, you can use a different Mental Attribute (and corresponding Epic) in place of the other Physical Attribute.
Brains Over Brawn - Wits Knack - No Prerequisites
Your quick thinking and clever stratagems make you a deadly force in battle. You find clever ways to use scenery and situation against your enemies, or to exploit their weaknesses.
When stunting on an attack or damage roll, you may spend a Willpower to use any Mental Attribute (and the corresponding Epic Attribute) in place of Dexterity or Strength. Which Mental Attribute to use is your choice, though it should make at least some sense to the situation. For two-die and three-die stunts, if you spend a Legend as well, you can use a different Mental Attribute (and corresponding Epic) in place of the other Physical Attribute.
Example: Fred, Scion of Thoth, is facing a vampire. His stunt involves impaling the villain on a wooden fence. For a willpower, he could use Intelligence (instead of Dex) on the attack roll to lure it into position. Alternately, he could justify using Perception (instead of Strength) on the damage roll because he lined up the shot with the vampire's heart. If he spent both a Willpower and a Legend, he could do both.In most circumstances, you may only do this once per scene. Having fallen victim to your clever traps (or having watched their comrades or henchmen fall victim to it), they become more cautious and are unlikely to leave you an opening a second time. However, if a foe is in the throes of a Virtue Extremity (or has 0 dots in one or more Mental Attributes) they may leave themselves open repeatedly, at the GMs discretion.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Knackathon retouched
While I often complain about the folks at the Scion Forum, several of them have pretty sharp minds. Grumpert, Sidhe16, James McMurray, and (even) Zeev (whom I've fought with many a time) all contributed lots of useful feedback so I now have updated and better-balanced versions of my recent knacks. Scion GMs will find it worth taking a second look...
Strength - Steel Drivin' Man
Dexterity - Australian Horizon
Stamina - Hands of the Vise (Thickheaded was deleted for irreconcilable balance issues)
Charisma - Friends Everywhere - Icebreaker
Manipulation - Divine Wardrobe - Memetic Torture - See The Inner Self
Appearance - Terrible As The Dawn - Proactive Wake - Star Power
Perception - Subvocalization
Wits - Paranoiac's Positioning - UPDATE 3/27/08: added Brains Over Brawn and moved See The Inner Self to Manipulation (from Wits).
Strength - Steel Drivin' Man
Dexterity - Australian Horizon
Stamina - Hands of the Vise (Thickheaded was deleted for irreconcilable balance issues)
Charisma - Friends Everywhere - IcebreakerManipulation - Divine Wardrobe - Memetic Torture - See The Inner Self
Appearance - Terrible As The Dawn - Proactive Wake - Star Power
Perception - Subvocalization
Wits - Paranoiac's Positioning - UPDATE 3/27/08: added Brains Over Brawn and moved See The Inner Self to Manipulation (from Wits).
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Memetic Torture - Manipulation knack
Memetic Torture - Manipulation knack - No Prerequisite
You are terribly good at creating catchy jingles or clever slang that stick in peoples minds. With the expenditure of a Legend point and a roll of your Manipulation + Art vs their Willpower + Integrity + Legend, you can stick a melody or catch-phrase in a person's subconscious. Over the next two weeks, they will hum that tune or use that catchphrase no fewer than (your Epic Manipulation Successes) times. To reduce the frequency, they must spend Willpower - each point removes a single instance from their required destiny.
What's more, if you use this power in a public forum (such as at a big party, in a post on a popular website, or on a call-in radio show) you may be able to make it stick in the local or national consciousness at the cost of a Legend and a Willpower.
It takes 10-30 successes to attach your meme to a specific group or subculture. 10 for all the neighborhood kids, 20 for a segment of alt culture, and 30 to affect everyone of a certain generation or political party within your city.
40 successes will make it a nation-wide manic flash-in-the-pan that eventually dies, like "Where's the Beef?" or dancing the Macarena.
50 successes will make it an accepted long-term part of an entire culture's lexicon. Famous examples of that last category include such notables as "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," made-up words such as "hello" and "blog", and the opening chord which starts A Hard Day's Night. (Admit it - you heard that chord the moment you read that.)
80 successes generates a memorable concept that will survive the death of the culture it is embedded in, such as the many conflicting and erroneous tales of the Trojan War.
Note that sticking a jingle or catchphrase in someone's head does not automatically make them understand it, believe it, or agree with it. It's just catchy, not illuminating.
You are terribly good at creating catchy jingles or clever slang that stick in peoples minds. With the expenditure of a Legend point and a roll of your Manipulation + Art vs their Willpower + Integrity + Legend, you can stick a melody or catch-phrase in a person's subconscious. Over the next two weeks, they will hum that tune or use that catchphrase no fewer than (your Epic Manipulation Successes) times. To reduce the frequency, they must spend Willpower - each point removes a single instance from their required destiny.
What's more, if you use this power in a public forum (such as at a big party, in a post on a popular website, or on a call-in radio show) you may be able to make it stick in the local or national consciousness at the cost of a Legend and a Willpower.
It takes 10-30 successes to attach your meme to a specific group or subculture. 10 for all the neighborhood kids, 20 for a segment of alt culture, and 30 to affect everyone of a certain generation or political party within your city.
40 successes will make it a nation-wide manic flash-in-the-pan that eventually dies, like "Where's the Beef?" or dancing the Macarena.
50 successes will make it an accepted long-term part of an entire culture's lexicon. Famous examples of that last category include such notables as "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," made-up words such as "hello" and "blog", and the opening chord which starts A Hard Day's Night. (Admit it - you heard that chord the moment you read that.)
80 successes generates a memorable concept that will survive the death of the culture it is embedded in, such as the many conflicting and erroneous tales of the Trojan War.
Note that sticking a jingle or catchphrase in someone's head does not automatically make them understand it, believe it, or agree with it. It's just catchy, not illuminating.
Paranoiac's Positioning - Wits Knack
The following Scion Knack was, of course, inspired by the description of first rank in Warfare in the Amber Diceless RPG.
Paranoiac's Positioning - Wits Knack - Prerequisite: Opening Gambit
To say you're just a touch paranoid would be an understatement - though you like to think of yourself as merely prudent. You expect ambush at all times, and constantly reposition yourself to prepare for it. You never sit with your back to a window or door, and constantly occupy the most readily-defensible part of the room unless forced to abandon it.
At the start of every battle (even before you act) you are assumed to be in the highest degree of cover logically possible, on the highest ground that wouldn't create social distress, with your back to a wall, if at all possible. As such, you typically get +2 to your DV, and are immune to higher ground penalties from non-flying foes. The number of people who can attack you at once in close combat is reduced by one. Effectively, treat this knack as if the player were constantly saying "I use my Epic Wits to find the most defensive location in the room. Then I stand over there." If the locale involves some feature that could give better defensive benefits, the GM should point them out and offer them to the PC.
These conditions last until someone forcibly repositions you, or you clearly and intentionally move to a lesser position. Actions taken that might possibly result in the preservation of these bonuses are assumed to automatically do so. The GM is required to explicitly notify you before you commit any action that would reduce or negate these bonuses. Should he or she forget to mention such, they must either let you retract the action, or claim the bonuses (at least until your next action) anyway. The ST cannot remove your Cover bonus unless you are standing on a featureless empty lot - if there's any terrain around at all, you'll keep it between you and the enemy.
This knack assumes you have full access to your senses and locomotive powers. Should you be blinded, restrained, or Inactive, you are at the mercy of the GM's common sense.
Paranoiac's Positioning - Wits Knack - Prerequisite: Opening Gambit
To say you're just a touch paranoid would be an understatement - though you like to think of yourself as merely prudent. You expect ambush at all times, and constantly reposition yourself to prepare for it. You never sit with your back to a window or door, and constantly occupy the most readily-defensible part of the room unless forced to abandon it.
At the start of every battle (even before you act) you are assumed to be in the highest degree of cover logically possible, on the highest ground that wouldn't create social distress, with your back to a wall, if at all possible. As such, you typically get +2 to your DV, and are immune to higher ground penalties from non-flying foes. The number of people who can attack you at once in close combat is reduced by one. Effectively, treat this knack as if the player were constantly saying "I use my Epic Wits to find the most defensive location in the room. Then I stand over there." If the locale involves some feature that could give better defensive benefits, the GM should point them out and offer them to the PC.
These conditions last until someone forcibly repositions you, or you clearly and intentionally move to a lesser position. Actions taken that might possibly result in the preservation of these bonuses are assumed to automatically do so. The GM is required to explicitly notify you before you commit any action that would reduce or negate these bonuses. Should he or she forget to mention such, they must either let you retract the action, or claim the bonuses (at least until your next action) anyway. The ST cannot remove your Cover bonus unless you are standing on a featureless empty lot - if there's any terrain around at all, you'll keep it between you and the enemy.
This knack assumes you have full access to your senses and locomotive powers. Should you be blinded, restrained, or Inactive, you are at the mercy of the GM's common sense.
Icebreaker - Charisma Knack
Icebreaker - Charisma Knack - No Prerequisites
You tell the darnedest jokes. By sharing a brief witticism, strange or flirtatious comment, or a funny face, you can make any character smile, laugh, giggle, or blush in spite of themselves. Doing so costs you nothing, and is a reflexive action that affects equally anyone who sees or hears it. The content of the joke is irrelevant, all that matters is the moxie and chutzpah with which you deliver it. The effect lasts only a few seconds per use, and does not inflict mechanical penalties of any sort. For one willpower, you can make an individual "not get it" - in that case they alone react as they see fit, not necessarily as you directed.
The most potent use of this knack is thus to create complicated situations by making someone react inappropriately in public, or make people feel self-conscious. Characters with Legend zero have no defense against this. Those with a Legend of 1 or higher may guard themselves against it after your first use. One willpower renders them immune for all future attempts for the rest of the scene. If they encounter you again in a later scene, they may spend a willpower as soon as they see or hear you.
This knack has other, more benign, uses as well. It can help to break the tension or establish yourself as a friendly fellow. If you use this in a way that leaves no one feeling left out, miffed or embarrassed (GM's call if that's debatable), it gives +1 die on all the social rolls you make for the remainder of this scene. This is not cumulative with itself - telling lots of jokes doesn't result in an ever-increasing bonus.
You tell the darnedest jokes. By sharing a brief witticism, strange or flirtatious comment, or a funny face, you can make any character smile, laugh, giggle, or blush in spite of themselves. Doing so costs you nothing, and is a reflexive action that affects equally anyone who sees or hears it. The content of the joke is irrelevant, all that matters is the moxie and chutzpah with which you deliver it. The effect lasts only a few seconds per use, and does not inflict mechanical penalties of any sort. For one willpower, you can make an individual "not get it" - in that case they alone react as they see fit, not necessarily as you directed.
The most potent use of this knack is thus to create complicated situations by making someone react inappropriately in public, or make people feel self-conscious. Characters with Legend zero have no defense against this. Those with a Legend of 1 or higher may guard themselves against it after your first use. One willpower renders them immune for all future attempts for the rest of the scene. If they encounter you again in a later scene, they may spend a willpower as soon as they see or hear you.
This knack has other, more benign, uses as well. It can help to break the tension or establish yourself as a friendly fellow. If you use this in a way that leaves no one feeling left out, miffed or embarrassed (GM's call if that's debatable), it gives +1 die on all the social rolls you make for the remainder of this scene. This is not cumulative with itself - telling lots of jokes doesn't result in an ever-increasing bonus.
Hands of the Vise - Stamina Knack
Hands of the Vise - Stamina Knack - No Prerequisites
Your grip is steely, and it is nearly impossible to disarm you. This is not due to strength, per se, but rather because you're just determined and have very sturdy hands. The difficulty to disarm you or twist an inanimate object from your grasp, is raised by an amount equal to your successes from Epic Stamina. In addition, the "immovable objects" that are your limbs add +1 die per dot of Epic Stamina in contested grapple rolls.
You may choose to release your grip at any time, but the default assumption is you retain your hold even when incapacitated or inactive. You could safely hang off a bridge or girder and take a nap.
Your grip is steely, and it is nearly impossible to disarm you. This is not due to strength, per se, but rather because you're just determined and have very sturdy hands. The difficulty to disarm you or twist an inanimate object from your grasp, is raised by an amount equal to your successes from Epic Stamina. In addition, the "immovable objects" that are your limbs add +1 die per dot of Epic Stamina in contested grapple rolls.
You may choose to release your grip at any time, but the default assumption is you retain your hold even when incapacitated or inactive. You could safely hang off a bridge or girder and take a nap.
Star Power - Appearance Knack
Star Power - Appearance Knack - No Prerequisites, but available only to characters whose appearance represents beauty.
Less than a minute after you get out of the water, your hair and clothes are dry. Bloodstains fade from your Italian suit in moments. You could crawl out of the crater at ground zero, and be ready for a debutante ball minutes later. Bullet-holes and rapier-pricks in your waitress uniform look as fashionable as this season's plunging neckline from a name designer. Your perm is as permanent as you'd like, and your 'do won't do anything you'd rather it didn't.
In short, nothing can stop you from looking hot for more than a scene. As soon as you're alone, or the camera cuts, your body and fashion returns to its beautiful apex. Mechanically, you are able to eliminate one dot of penalties to any social roll for each dot of Legend Rating you have, provided such penalties are caused by stains, holes, wrinkles, or general disheveledness. This affect is free if you're alone and off-camera, but may be invoked on cue via a Speed:3 (DV-1, Diceless) action (representing straightening your collar, running a comb through your hair, or similar preening) and a point of Legend.
Less than a minute after you get out of the water, your hair and clothes are dry. Bloodstains fade from your Italian suit in moments. You could crawl out of the crater at ground zero, and be ready for a debutante ball minutes later. Bullet-holes and rapier-pricks in your waitress uniform look as fashionable as this season's plunging neckline from a name designer. Your perm is as permanent as you'd like, and your 'do won't do anything you'd rather it didn't.
In short, nothing can stop you from looking hot for more than a scene. As soon as you're alone, or the camera cuts, your body and fashion returns to its beautiful apex. Mechanically, you are able to eliminate one dot of penalties to any social roll for each dot of Legend Rating you have, provided such penalties are caused by stains, holes, wrinkles, or general disheveledness. This affect is free if you're alone and off-camera, but may be invoked on cue via a Speed:3 (DV-1, Diceless) action (representing straightening your collar, running a comb through your hair, or similar preening) and a point of Legend.
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