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In Short

Scion makes use of the Storytelling Adventure system previously encountered in the form of Exalted Second Edition. Middling to large dicepools, rerolls, a “tick” based combat system, and a host of supernatural abilities result in a mechanically involved but interesting game that may not be to everyone’s taste. Despite the complexity, choosing a patron God, customizing abilities, and deciding on what gifts the God gave you as coming of age presents is just a ton of fun. The modern fantasy aspect of the game is also wonderful to behold, with a more mythological approach to modern fantasy not found in other products.

The Good: A game system that has a lot of tactical options, but a more manageable number of supernatural powers than found in some other games. The feel of the product is fantastic, thanks in large part to wonderful art, and it’s really easy to get excited while reading over the descriptions of the Gods and thinking up a character idea. A fun new take on modern fantasy.

The Bad: With dice pools, multiple rerolling of dice pools, different dice adders, and multi-step attack resolution some players might feel the game is too slow to reflect the fast paced action it seems to strive for. No setting is included with the game, which may confuse many readers who wonder how people with crazy powers and trained ninja, who fight Gods and Titans, have changed the world. Occasional editing mistakes are irritating and occasionally result in missing content. Many people may not know what to do with the game after creating characters.

The Physical Thing

The art is wonderful and does a good job of enhancing the modern fantasy feel of the product. The formatting looks wonderful, though sometimes the author will switch back and forth between writing out numbers and using numerals which can make it difficult to scan text for information. Important information is also incorporated into the text in such a way that a reader could easily pass over a vital sentence or paragraph that has been mixed in with everything else.

The Ideas

No prison is perfect, and the Titans have finally broken free. They intend revenge on the Gods and their children. If that’s not enough, the Gods haven’t always been on the best of terms with one another and that rivalry carries over to their children. As a Scion, a child of one of these gods bestowed with power and given great gifts, you will fight against the Titans and dodge the attacks of your rivals while trying to avoid the same strands of Fate that the Gods still fear.

Under the Cover

While White Wolf books are known for their intro fiction, and this piece is surprisingly long at almost 40 pages. It details Eric Donnor, one of the signature characters, as he comes into his power as a Scion of Thor. The story itself is somewhat unfocused, changing scenes and moving along at a fast clip to try and convey to the reader what it’s like to be an emerging Scion. From an uncertain beginning to a tavern brawl and eventually an underground quest in the company of dwarves, the fiction at least gives a sense of out of the way places still full of the myth and legend of long ago. In fact, this fiction along with some of the other ideas later on is the closest the reader gets to an actual setting, as Scion has no discussion of what an Earth is like where Gods walk and magic is real.

On the whole, I believe this would be a better product with a much shorter piece of opening fiction. Scion, however, seems to be taking a much stronger approach towards its signature (pre-generated, included) characters than other RPG products have. They’re surprisingly integrated into this product, appearing both in lengthy introductory fiction and exclusive to the later adventure. If you like the idea of better developed, but still playable, signature characters being included with your game then this is good news.

Chapter One Pantheon 49 pages.

When players create characters in Scion they will often begin by choosing their God parent. To facilitate this, Scion offers six Pantheons with short but fun descriptions of many of the Gods existing in those Pantheons. The Pesedjet (Egyptian Gods), The Dodekatheon (Greek/Roman Gods), The Aesir (Norse Gods), The Atzlanti (Aztec Gods), The Amatsukami (Japanese Gods), and The Loa (Voodoo Gods) are all present here. Many of these Gods will be familiar to any reader, which makes it easy to come up with character ideas.

Each God has a short bio, a description of the roles they’ve taken on while visiting Earth, a list of favored special powers (which are cheaper to buy with experience points), a list of six Favored Abilities (which are also cheaper to raise with experience points) that correspond to the God’s interests, and a list of other rival Gods (usually Gods that share the same general area of influence). The only potential downside here is that every God only gets one paragraph of actual description, which may lead many readers to want to consult outside sources to learn more. On the other hand, the sheer volume of Gods (around 7-12 per Pantheon) is wonderful and provides many interesting options.

Chapter Two Hero 16 pages.

The character creation chapter kicks off with encouraging the player to come up with a concept. Let’s build a character!

Example: I want to build an obese but jovial young man, named Bill Herman, who is the quintessential geek and computer expert. He also happens to be a Scion of Hera, a strange role for anyone to take on. I imagine his natural abilities often being in conflict with his legacy.

Scion makes use of nine Attributes, which govern all the untrained qualities inherent to all human beings, broken up into three groups: Physical (Strength, Dexterity, Stamina), Mental (Intelligence, Wits, Perception), and Social (Charisma, Manipulation, Appearance). Every Attribute ranges from 1 (human minimum) to 5 (maximum human potential) and all characters have 1 dot in every Attribute before allocating points. Players prioritize these three groups into Primary (8 dots), Secondary (6 dots), and Tertiary (4 dots).

Example: Bill’s real smart, so I decide to make Mental his Primary set of Attributes. I spend 4 points on Intelligence, 2 points on Wits, and 2 points on Perception to give him Intelligence 5, Wits 3, and Perception 3. I want him to be friendly and easy going, if not very attractive, so I make Social my Secondary group and give him a total of Charisma 5, Manipulation 3, and Appearance 1. Finally, I spend points on his Physical qualities. Bill has great manual dexterity thanks to video games and geeky office toys, so I buy Dexterity 3. I spend his last point on Strength for a total rating of 2, leaving his Stamina at 1. Bill tires easily, gets sick often, and generally keeps himself in poor health.

In addition to Attributes Scion uses skills called Abilities that represent specific training in an area. Most actions in the game are performed by rolling a dice pool composed of the Attributes + Abilities dots, so it’s a good idea to pay attention to both groups. Abilities, like Attributes, range from 1 to 5 but begin at a rating of 0 (untrained). Characters receive 30 points to spread among 24 different Abilities (with between 1 and 3 dots allocated to each at this step), though some Abilities require the character to specialize only in a specific area. Thus, a character taking Control (an Ability like pilot and drive wrapped together) has to select a type of vehicle or animal to Control. A character who has Control (Helicopters) can not use that same ability for cars or horses, and would have to buy the Ability again for a different group.

Example: I allocate my 30 points as follows: Academics 3, Awareness 3, Control (Automobiles) 3, Craft (Computers) 3, Empathy 3, Integrity 3, Investigation 3, Occult 1, Politics 1, Presence 2, Science (Computers) 3, Science (Physics) 2.

Next, players buy Birthrights (gifts given to the Scion by their parent God), Epic Attributes, Knacks and Boons (magical gifts). These are the cool powers and things that Scions have, and more information can be found on them further below. Scions get 5 dots of Birthrights and 10 dots of Epic Attributes, Knacks, and Boons.

Example: I decide that Hera took pity on her son, realizing he was too weak to survive a battle with even the lowliest Titanspawn. She called in a few favors, worked some magic, and gifted him with a Hell Hound he named Elonia. I spend 3 points on the Creature Birthright (since the Hell Hound can breathe fire, is extremely strong, etc.) and 2 points on the Guide Birthright (so the Hell Hound is imbued with Hera’s wisdom and can guide Bill through the battles to come. It’s just a single gift, but it’s an incredible one.

I buy Epic Intelligence at 3 dots (each dot costs 1 point, so 3 points). In addition to his already extremely high Intelligence of 5, Bill gets 4 automatic successes to all Intelligence-based rolls now. For every dot of an Epic Attribute purchased the character also gets a Knack related to that Attribute, a special power. Bill takes Teaching Prodigy (if he teaches someone an Ability they can buy it for less XP), Perfect Memory, and Math Genius (character can perform fast calculations). I buy Epic Charisma at 1 dot and take the Blessing of Importance Knack (Bill can spend a point of Willpower to befriend someone instantly by making them feel important).

I wrap up by buying Magic 3 (each dot is its own power, which must be purchased sequentially, so 1+2+3 = 6 points). Magic isn’t as versatile as one would hope, and costs a bit more than many other choices. Bill gets one spell for every dot in magic. I take The Unlidded Eye (which lets Bill see Fate and magic at the cost of 1 Willpower), Trading Fates (another person gets a boon while Bill gets a bane), and Deus Ex Machina (Fate is provoked into sending in a hero to save the day).

Players then purchase Virtues. Every Pantheon has its own list of four Virtues that represent the beliefs of members of that Pantheon. Virtues are important for two reasons. First, a character can channel a Virtue by spending a point of Willpower. They then get that Virtue’s rating in bonus dice on their next roll. Second, when temporary Willpower gets low the character is forced to act in accordance with his Virtues. All Virtues begin at 1 dot and can be increased to 5.

Example: Hera belongs to the Dodekatheon Pantheon and the four Virtues associated with that Pantheon are Expression, Intellect, Valor, and Vengeance. I have five points to spend and decide to put 3 in Valor and 2 in Intellect. Bill doesn’t have much of an artistic streak (Expression) and tends to forgive people a lot (Vengeance) but he does believe in helping others and using his mind to solve problems. This gives him Expression 1, Intellect 4, Valor 3, and Vengeance 1.

All characters have a specific Nature. This Nature reflects their personality, and when it comes into play they regain Willpower points. Some examples are Bravo (thrillseeker), Cynic, Pacifist, and Survivor.

Example: I give Bill the Gallant Nature. Sure, he’s not the type of guy who normally gets to defend others. He’s fat, balding, and gets winded going up a short flight of stairs. But give him some magic power, a guardian Hell Hound, and enough smarts to make Gods jealous and his true self shines right through. Bill wants to defend the weak and uphold what’s right right, and he finally has the power to do it.

Finally, players calculate derived values and spend Bonus Points. Willpower equals the sum of the two highest Virtues. Characters have a number of temporary Willpower points equal to their Willpower, and these points may be spent to resist mental influence, get automatic successes, and invoke Virtues. Legend begins at 2, and a character begins with a number of Legend Points equal to the square of their Legend (4 for Legend 2, 16 for Legend 4). Players receive 15 Bonus Points to spend to fill in any gaps. Epic Attributes and Boons are limited by a character’s rating in Legend (how connected they are to Fate and how flat out powerful they are) so characters with higher values in these may have to buy up their Legend. Otherwise the points can be used for anything, from increasing Attributes and Abilities to buying more Birthrights and Boons.

Example: Bill’s Magic rating is so high I have to buy his Legend rating up to 4. Legend costs 7 Bonus Points for each additional dot, so that leaves me with 1 Bonus Point left. I spend my final point on an extra dot in Academics, taking it up to 4. Bill has a Willpower of 7, 7 temporary Willpower points, Legend 4, and 16 Legend points.

Chapter Three Traits 21 pages.

This chapter explains all of the non-fantastical values mentioned above. Attributes and Abilities are as you would imagine, but Willpower and Legend are worth saying a little more on. Willpower is a permanent value that has a pool of points attached to it that represent the character’s current mental strength. Players can spend Willpower to let their character overcome mental influence, get automatic successes on rolls, and channel Virtues. As Willpower decreases the character’s mental barriers wear down, until they eventually become a slave to their Virtues.

Legend is like Willpower in that it’s both a permanent stat and a pool of points. As a permanent stat, Legend represents the character’s aura of Fate. Characters in Scion are often controlled by Fate and have all sorts of odd things happen around them. What’s more, some people and objects will get caught up in their personal epic and become parts of their stories. As their legend grows, and they interact with these things even more, they may find themselves repeating the same story and performing the same heroic (or villainous) deeds. Legend is effectively the universe forcing the character to adhere to the legends and beliefs that have grown around them. This is done through a carrot/stick method and players can still choose to have their characters defy Fate – though always at a price.

As a pool of points Legend can be used to activate certain special powers, to completely reroll dice rolls, and to add several dice to a die roll. Four to sixteen rerolls per Story is incredibly powerful.

Chapter Four Epic Attributes and Knacks 13 pages.

Fans of the older White Wolf game Aberrant will immediately understand the Epic Attribute and Knack system, but let me explain it for everyone. In order to buy a dot of Epic Attribute the character has to have one more point of Legend than the dot they want to buy (so Legend 2 to buy 1 dot, Legend 3 to buy 2 dots, etc.) and they must have a mundane Attribute at the same level or higher (so gotta have Strength 2 before you can have Epic Strength 2). Otherwise, at character creation a character can buy these for any Attribute at a cost of 1 point. After character creation some are cheaper to increase with XP (experience points) than others based on the character’s parent God.

At the most basic level the first dot of Epic Attribute provides one automatic success on all related die rolls, the second dot provides two automatic successes, and the third provides four. I can’t stress enough how incredibly powerful this is. Even at the first level it means the character will succeed at all mundane and most difficult tasks without the player even needing to roll dice. By the third level it’s difficult to imagine things the person can’t do. In addition, some specific Epic Attributes provide even more bonuses. Epic Strength also gives huge increases in lifting ability while Epic Dexterity and Stamina add a lot more defensive ability.

Every dot of Epic Attribute comes with a free Knack. Knacks are special ways of using that Attribute, such as incredible throwing ability, expert memory, being able to instantly make friends, etc. Some of them are very powerful while others are weak and lack any mechanical support at all. Each Epic Attribute gets about 5 Knack options. This is an unfortunately small number and, given how narrows the Knacks are, it may result in a strange mix of abilities for many characters.

I don’t like Epic Attributes because I think they’re far too powerful. The automatic successes are potent and result in the character succeeding in fantastic ways in a narrow range of ability. This is good for evoking a mythic feeling to the Epic Attributes (just look at Hercules), but it’s not necessarily so great for game balance. In addition to that, the Epic Attributes don’t seem well balanced against one another, with some just offering the automatic successes where others offer the successes and a handful of rerolls or superior combat abilities.

The Knacks are often useless and sometimes have no mechanical support. Being a mathematical genius sounds great, but what does it mean? If the character gets four automatic successes (a whole lot) and then rolls 8 dice, does it matter that they’re also good at math? Many Knacks are like this, a quick blurb that lacks both forethought and mechanical support. It’s all the more frustrating that other Knacks are extremely useful, offering solid mechanical benefits that give the character a clear advantage.

Chapter Five Boons and Birthrights 33 pages.

Boons are the magical powers that characters can purchase. Every God has access to several different Purview, which are areas of supernatural influence. Hera, for instance, has access to the Animal (Peacock), Arete, Health, and Magic Purview. Every Purview has three powers, rated 1, 2, and 3, and the player may buy any of these powers (they don’t have to buy them in order). Health’s one dot power allows the Scion to know how healthy other people are, while the three dot power allows the Scion to heal or harm others. What you really need to know is that any Scion can learn any of these powers (with a few exceptions) but they can’t necessarily use them. A Scion can only use powers from a Purview his God gives him access to or a magical item gives him access to. A Scion of Hera , for example, can learn powers in the Purview of Fire, but can’t use them since that’s not one of Hera’s Purviews. If the Scion had a magical Staff of Flame that granted access to the Fire Purview, however, then he would be able to use those powers. These magical items are bought as Relics and are often very important to a Scion.

Boons come from three broad categories of Purviews. General Purviews encompass most common areas of influence like the elements, Animals, Health, Fertility, etc. Each of these has three powers of varied strength, and the most powerful ones usually require Willpower or Legend points to be spent. On the whole these abilities tend to be weaker than Epic Attributes, but they do a good job of playing up a character’s theme.

Pantheon-specific Purviews are only available to Scions of the specific Pantheon and have abilities unique to that Pantheon. Greeks get Arete, excellence in all things, and it lets them buy super Abilities they can reroll. Aztec Gods let their followers sacrifice themselves and others for power. The Japanese Gods allow their children to commune with kami. Each power has three levels, just like the General Pureviews.

Special Purviews include Magic, Mystery, and Prophecy. Magic allows the character to learn and cast a limited number of spells that tend to be more powerful than other Boons. Mystery allows the character to make a roll and then ask the Storyteller (GM) questions about current events in the game. It’s sort of like a mystical investigation ability. Finally, Prophecy works like Mystery but applies to the future. The character sees portents and visions, giving them important information about things to come.

Boons are a mixed bag. Some of them are very useful, but many have very limited application. Being able to make crops grow sounds great, but how does that help the character in the game? Add to that the fact that if characters want to buy Boons outside their God’s Purview they have to buy a specific Relic which, if lost, is gone for good. No buying a new one with XP, those powers the player bought simply can not be accessed any more. This is a harsh penalty to tack on to abilities that often aren’t that powerful to begin with.

Magic is extremely limited, with only seven total spells. The book suggests players and Storytellers build their own, but offers no guidelines for this. While the spells that are included are neat, they’re far from comprehensive. At every step Scion seems to give options, but in execution gives very few. It might be difficult to play characters with similar abilities (such as using magic) and not have many of the same powers.

Birthrights are gifts given to a Scion by his parent God, and they come in four forms. Creatures are mythical animals, generally devoted to your character, that range from a raven (1 dot) to a Pegasus (3 dots) to a basilisk (5 dots). Followers are devoted allies and attendants, and they range from five jaguar warriors (1 dot) to five samurai (3 dots) to five shinobi (5 dots). A Guide is a mentor who at the low end is a particularly wise and helpful mortal and at the high end is a God who occasionally gives advice.

Finally, Relics are magical weapons and artifacts that allow a character to access new Purviews or generally provide useful abilities. They can resurrect the dead, cut extremely well, or summon valkyries. Building new relics is easy so long as the player sticks to Purviews, but for individual powers it’s a lot trickier. The book offers some general guidelines and a few example Relics for each Pantheon, but otherwise players are on their own.

One objection I have to Birthrights is how fragile they are. A character who needs access to the Fire Purview for their powers to work is out of luck the moment their Staff of Flame is stolen away – possibly never to return. There are strong disincentives to take Relics in many cases. Another problem I have is how powerful the Creatures are. For such a small cost they seem extremely powerful compared to other Birthrights. Finally, the Guide Birthright is poorly constructed. Higher levels result in more powerful Guides who are busier and less able to offer advice. In fact, at level 5 the entry states that the God confuses as often as it helps! This results in a mechanic where many players will feel an incentive to buy 1-3 levels but go no higher in order to gain a greater benefit. A mechanic where the player can invest less to get more isn’t working right.

Note that if you’re looking for anything like a wealth mechanic, mortal followers, influence, friends, or anything like that you won’t find it here. How do you represent a rich character and a poor character? You don’t, mechanically. Scion is a very narrowly built game that has tossed most things unrelated to mythological butt kicking to the side.

Chapter Six Rules 17 pages.

The core rules here are easy to grasp. The Storyteller sets a Difficulty, typically from 1 to 5, with 1 being the most common difficulty for tasks that would be tough or uncertain for a normally skilled person to perform. Difficulty is usually shared with the players whenever their characters could reasonably guess how hard a task is. The player then rolls a relevant die pool, typically composed of Attribute + Ability + any bonuses, of d10 dice and counts 7s, 8s, and 9s as successes. 10s are counted as 2 successes.

Example: Bill is trying to solve an ancient riddle. The Storyteller tells his player to make an Academics + Intelligence roll, but tells him it’s a really tough riddle. Bill’s player rolls 4 Academics + 5 Intelligence, or 9 dice, and gets the following: 1, 3, 4, 5, 5, 7, 8, 9, 0. This is a total of 5 successes. Bill adds on his 4 automatic successes from Epic Intelligence 3 for a total of 9 successes! This is far off the scale of difficulty. Bill not only solves the riddle almost instantly, he does it with a snappy comment and thinks up an even more challenging riddle in the process!

Sometimes players can choose to accept automatic success without rolling. This occurs if they have certain Epic Attributes or very high dice pools.

Another type of die roll is the Opposed roll, which usually occurs when two characters are opposing one another. An arm wrestling match, a foot race, or an archery competition might involve opposed rolls. Some rolls are also Extended, which means the Storyteller asks for a roll for every time interval until the task is complete. This means that an average researcher will spend more time digging through books than an experienced researcher will, just as a novice mechanic will take longer to fix a car than an experienced mechanic will. Some rolls, such as the foot race above, are both Opposed and Extended and involve two or more characters making several rolls until they get enough successes to win.

Example: Bill is trying to reach an endangered child before a horrible Titanspawn does, so it’s a race! Bill has no Athletics, but he does have Dexterity 3. The Titanspawn has Dexterity 4 and Athletics 4, for a total pool of 8 dice. The Storyteller says that each roll represents 10 seconds of time, and the first person to score 8 successes reaches the child. Normally movement is a set value in combat situations, but the Storyteller is doing something more dramatic this time. To help make up the difference, Bill channels his Valor 3 (by spending 1 Willpower) on his first roll, taking his pool up to 6 dice. Bill rolls a 2, 2, 4, 6, 7, and 8 for two successes – not bad, but probably not good enough. Bill spends a point of Legend to reroll (and the child will probably be bound up in his Legend now), and rolls 2, 3, 7, 8, 0, and 0 for 6 successes. Much better! Bill is quickly outpacing the Titanspawn, pushed onward by his desire to save the child, but it’s not over yet!

One important source of extra dice is Stunts. Stunts are excellent and entertaining player descriptions of their characters action, so good that they result in a number of bonuses. For a good description characters regularly get a 1 die bonus AND a point of Legend. For good descriptions that also involve the scenery (leaping up alley walls, cleaving through a statue) the player gets two extra dice for the action AND 2 points of Legend AND a point of Willpower. Three die stunts give 3 dice, 3 Legend, and a point of Willpower – they are meant to be very rare, the result of a description so cool everyone at the table goes “Woah!”

Rules for movement, resisting toxins, working a crowd, tracking, and many other tasks are also provided. While intuitive, many of these rules are circumstance specific and may require the Storyteller to reference them in play.

My only objection to this chapter is that there is very little guidance in what constitutes different difficulties of action. While the book suggests there is no limit, one imagines there must be a practical limit on how high difficulty goes. A chart with example tasks would have been a wonderful thing to include, but Storytellers are unfortunately left to puzzle it all out for themselves.

Chapter Seven Combat 19 pages.

Scion makes use of Tick-based combat. Basically, characters start out combat on different ticks. Every action has a tick cost that determines when the character acts next. Thus, if a character casts a magic spell which takes 5 ticks then their next action occurs 5 ticks later. This means that some characters could go two times before someone performing a slower action, that fast weapons strike more often than slow weapons, and that going first in combat is an even bigger deal than normal. In order to facilitate this the game recommends using a battlewheel (numbered 0 to 7, with tokens being moved around the wheel to indicate when each character goes next) dice (with the current tick number on them) or even paper (though it can get messy).

In addition to the tick or “Speed” cost of an action all actions carry a penalty to a characters defense as well. Thus, fighting in combat doesn’t make a character as vulnerable as running or casting a magical spell.

Resolving an individual attack isn’t hard, but it does require several steps. First, the dice pool for the attack is determined. This typically involves Dexterity + a weapon Ability + any accuracy bonus the weapon gives. Stunt dice bonuses are also factored in, as are circumstantial modifiers for poor visibility or ideal conditions (such as having higher ground). This total, which probably ranges from 5 to 15 dice (and Epic Dexterity provides automatic successes), is then rolled against the opponents Defense Value (DV), which represents dodging, parrying, and otherwise trying to avoid damage. If the attacker scores more successes than the Defense Value then the attack hit and damage may be dealt.

Damage is determined by weapon, with Strength adding to the damage dealt by melee weapons. Extra successes over the Defense Value also become damage dice. This means that very accurate attacks and inaccurate but powerful attacks can both deal about the same damage. The Strength bonus gives a general advantage to melee weapons in terms of damage dealing, which makes sense given the modern mythological aspects of the setting. Add all this together and give those dice a roll! Count up successes. Now check the other character’s Soak value – this is resistance to damage that comes from armor and general toughness. Subtract the Soak value from the total number of successes on the damage roll. Whatever is left is the number of Health Levels of damage dealt to the opponent.

Characters are surprisingly fragile in Scion, despite all their power. They normally have seven health levels, with harsh wound penalties as they get more injured, and healing times are lengthy – though still much faster than mortal hearing. Combat can be very deadly for Scions, especially for those not wearing armor or otherwise built for combat. The few example Titanspawn deal significant damage, so clever Scions will probably want to enter combat on their own terms and with a plan. To facilitate that, the game offers a variety of special maneuvers including the option for the Scions to coordinate all their attacks (thanks to a social character using a special maneuver) against a single foe. This is a neat idea, and I love teamwork maneuvers. Unfortunately, there’s just the one maneuver.

Combat is a little more complex than it sounds above, as it also incorporates a wide variety of special attacks, defenses, unique weapon abilities, and other factors on top of the tick system, combat movement, and multi-step attack resolution. Experienced players may be able to have fast combats, but beginners should expect a lot of book referencing and simple math.

The chapter wraps up with stats for a variety of weapons, armors, and vehicles. Unfortunately, this part of the product feels incomplete. No stats for chain or platemail armor, and the weapons and armor tend to be very generalized. The melee weapons have ancient and specific names attached to them, so someone wanting a two handed sword will need to figure out if the stats for the katana or Labrys (double headed axe) is most appropriate. More weapon options and more recognizable names (perhaps with the old name included in the description) would have been a better way to do it.

Chapter Eight Advancement 2 pages.

This is a large XP chart with a very brief discussion of how many experience points different tasks deserve. The only downside here is how different the XP system is from the Bonus Point awards at character creation. A savvy player may realize they can get a lot more mileage out of certain purchases at character creation than making similar purchases later on with experience points. This is an unfortunate result of the system that gives a distinct advantage to anyone who crunches the numbers and makes a few different character creation decisions – decisions that can later result in a significant XP difference.

Chapter Nine Epic Storytelling 9 pages.

This is the first chapter of the Storytelling portion of the book, and it focuses on how to bring epic stories into the modern day. Unfortunately, a lot of this is actually just general GM advice combined with the suggestion that Storytellers read epic stories. The best advice here is the suggestion that many mythological creatures and ideas can be translated into modern versions, such as a yokai whose third eye is actually her camera.

If the vague advice isn’t enough, many readers will be disappointed when they discover that there is no discussion of the setting here. What is this version of Earth like? Have the Gods and Scions created any special places in the world? Scion leaves all setting concerns in your hands. This is further complicated by the lack of any sort of general goals for the Scions – why does a Scion do what they do? While all characters have individual motivation, it’s particularly difficult to unite a group of Scions unless they belong to a related Pantheon or are taking on the classic role of “monster hunters.”

Chapter Ten Fate 9 pages.

Fate is, without a doubt, the neatest concept presented in Scion. The idea is that Scions and Gods all have stories around them, stories created by normal people out and about in the world, and that those stories constitute part of Fate. Scions and Gods are strongly influenced by Fate, and while Fate can’t force them to do something it can fight them every step of the way when they try to act outside of its plans. Fate can change their powers, their visage, and even their very nature as new stories are told and deeds performed.

Fatebinding, bringing a person or object into the Scion’s story, occurs regularly in the game and is both a boon and a bane for the Scion. When a Scion spends Legend points things in the same scene tend to get bound to the character. The more points spent, the more likely the things are to be bound very strongly to the character. A Scion fighting a powerful Titanspawn might end up making that creature into his arch rival, and in his travels from then on he keeps running into this same Titanspawn behind everything. If the Titanspawn becomes central to the Scion’s story it’s not unreasonable to believe the Titanspawn will often elude death in the most improbable ways, aided by Fate as it seeks to continue to reinforce the Scion’s story.

Things that are Fatebound, the Fated, can take on a number of different roles and this chapter does a good job of discussing each of these. Many of them are positive, resulting in lovers and allies, but some lead to rivalries and villains that will plague the Scion for… well, potentially forever.

In addition to receiving bonuses and penalties for acting in accordance with legends and stories told of the Scion, and Fatebinding other things, a Scion has a Fateful Aura that tends to get him into trouble. Essentially, if something interesting or momentous is going to happen then it’s extremely likely to happen around the Scion. An inactive volcano suddenly starts rumbling when the Scion comes to town, releasing an ancient evil. A couple of criminals decide that now is the best time to rob the local Check Into Cash. You get the idea, just by living in the world the Scion spurs events forward.

I like everything about Fate here and can’t complain. The mechanics provided are simple but effective. The ideas are cool, provide a great excuse for adventure of all types, and are a great way to encourage players to think about how their actions will be seen by the greater world.

Chapter Eleven The Heroic Saga 52 pages.

This adventure assumes players are using the signature characters, and the encounters are all balanced accordingly. A group using different characters might have trouble with some of the encounters, so be aware that the adventure may not work well for everyone. That said, this is a wonderful adventure (in the sense that it’s well put together, not that the plot is great). While the “why” of everything is a little nebulous (the characters are trying to recover a powerful relic called the Black Feather Shround) the presentation of the adventure is great.

Every Scene has its own rating for Mental, Physical, and Social challenges to instantly inform the Storyteller of what sorts of capabilities are needed and what is generally going on in the Scene. Full stated NPCs and monsters appear regularly, along with adventure specific artwork and scenes, all of which results in a substantial boon to the Storyteller. While most of the Scenes occur sequentially and don’t offer as many options as some players might like, some are written to be integrated at different, appropriate moments in the story and the designers did a good job of trying to make the adventure feel more natural.

Chapter Twelve Antagonists 52 pages.

Mortals, Scions, Titanspawn, Undead, Mythical Animals – the Antagonists setting provides a lot of options for Storytellers who need a quick opponent. While there are no tools for building your own adversaries here, many of the classics are covered – from medusa to pegasi to stranger things still.

While this section is adequate for many games, I find it to be generally lacking. The ready built Scion adversaries can be useful, but additional pages of things from mythology would have been a welcome replacement. Some of the modernized versions of classical ideas, such as centaur that are actually human torsos on motorcycles, are very weak (or in that specific case, awful). Little to no discussion on where these creatures fit into the world is provided, and many entries are just short summaries of the creature’s role in classic mythology followed by stats. With no tools and few interesting ideas, this chapter only manages to be adequate where it could have been fantastic.

My Take

Nevertheless, this is a cool game. Come on, playing the child of a God who wants to kick butt and create their own legend? Epic Attributes, mystical powers, gifts from the Gods at your beck and call – what’s not to love? The concepts are cool, the artwork is wonderful, and many readers will be hooked upon reading through the Pantheons. Fans of tactical, or just mechanically complex, combat will likely have a good time with the tick system. Fans of the Exalted Second Edition and Aberrant game systems will likely enjoy Scion a great deal, though the very limited mythology and world development might turn off some Exalted fans.

If you want a mechanically complex, setting light game of kicking butt and building your own legend then give Scion a try!

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