Griff's Aztec Alley: Huitzilopochtli

Next on our journey, we come to one of the weirdest paradoxes among the Aztec gods: Huitzilopochtli.

Huitzilopochtli, the Hummingbird of the Left (alternately, Hummingbird of the South) is the only god that is truly "Aztec" or "Mexican" by virtue of being the patron deity of the Mexica tribe that emigrated from the north into Central Mexico and tried to make a name for themselves.  At first, he was a very small deity, quite unimportant, but after Tenochtitlan became the seat of power in Mesoamerica, the religion was reformed to give him much greater respect and power.

Big H's role among the gods is a bit skewed.  It's kind of obvious that his worship had taken over the previous cult of Nanahuatzin/Tonatiuh, who remains in the pantheon with a diminished role.  Not to mention that the Spanish interpreters relied largely on the Mexica for unraveling the religion, which means that the Mexica's patron was given a much larger focus than he might have if another tribe was dominant.  Huitzilopochtli was a ginormous deal in Tenochtitlan, with the colossal Templo Mayor in the city square having two temples atop it.  One was for Huitzilopochtli.  The other was for the rain and fertility god Tlaloc.

Huitzilopochtli is also the god who gets a lot of press because of his penchant for human sacrifice.  While the numbers are skewed (Partly because the Spaniards inflated numbers to justify the invasion.  Partly because the AZTECS inflated numbers because they were proud of the care they showed their deities), Huitzilopochtli's feast days were a neverending parade of prisoners of war being dragged up a pyramid, whereupon their hearts were removed, placed in a stone bowl, and burned.  While other gods had odd and creative means of sacrificing their victims, none of them could beat Huitzilopochtli for sheer volume. 

Which, when you factor in that they thought that NOT sacrificing an army's worth of soldiers would bring about the end of the world as we know it, is understandable.

Telling Stories: The Art of War

There have been several very good Storytellers who give advice on how to build antagonists and NPCs that are suited to the power level of your PC's. You don't want to curbstomp your PC's into the dust, but you have to challenge them so they don't just steamroll over every opponent that crosses their paths. This can be a big problem for a lot of ST's. You can't rely on the NPCs printed in the books because all of them are terrible. Hardly any of them have any Epic Dexterity, few of them have useful powers and basically they're just a huge mess.

So what's an ST to do? I can only give the same advice that you'll have heard from other people who pontificate on such problems. You check the capabilities of your PC's and create antagonists based on those. Design the enemy's DV to be just high enough to require above-average effort from your players to hit. Set their soak to shave off damage from when the players do hit. Their damage should be enough to punch through the soak of your players.

I want to be clear about something: Don't try to build your NPC's as if they were PCs. Don't try to give them however much XP and spend it. Don't even bother with full-on character sheets. Not even ones as rough as the examples in the Scion books. All you need to do is rough out their stats. Designate how many dice they roll for attack, how many they roll to activate powers. Give yourself a general idea of what kind of powers they should have access to. Make notes like 'God-level Darkness' or 'minor abilities with Fertility' and stick with that.

Why do I say this? Because otherwise you are wasting your time. A player has one character to deal with. Maybe two or three if they have Followers or Creatures that they control sheets for. As a Storyteller you have dozens of major characters and just buttloads of incidentals. You don't have time to devote as much effort to the sheets of each character as a player does.

Shoptalk: Stairways to Heaven

The Overworlds are the homes of the Gods, where the Pantheons dwell and where the Titans were born. They're the largest, most dangerous battlefield for the Titan War and where the strongest warriors of both sides clash. Ascending to the Overworld marks the transition between mortality and immortality, the rise to Godhood itself.

Well, kinda. In the books, that part is rather fuzzy. It is specifically mentioned that anyone using an Axis Mundi to travel from the World to the Overworld has to be Legend 9 or higher. Can lower-Legend beings survive in Overworlds? Do Sanctums count as part of the Overworld, or can Demigods visit their parents by using Axes Mundi that connect directly to their Sanctums?

There's another issue, which is Underworlds and their connection to Overworlds. In Scion, the Underworlds seem very specifically to be 'hellish' and dark. None of the 'happy' afterlives seem to be present. It's true that some cultures (Sumerians...) didn't have much of a happy ending for the dead, but many did. The Aztecs had multiple afterlives, depending on how you died, and some were pretty nice. The Norse had Valhalla and Folkvangar for their glorious dead. They're listed as part of the Overworld.

The Overworld is where Gods live, no where the dead live. The dead live in the Underworld, no matter if they were the "good" or the "bad" dead. The problem Scion runs into is that the writers were trying to match things up with the modern (primarily Judeo-Christian) idea that the "good" dead get to live "up" in "Heaven" with their deities. Historically, that isn't a popular idea and doesn't apply to any of Scion's existing Pantheons. The only overlap comes from specific God-Realms like Tlalocan and Folkvangar, but in Scion terms those are much more like Underworlds than Overworlds. Those specific Gods (Tlaloc and Freya) just happen to live with the dead.

Now that we've established the weirdness that is RAW Scion's stance on Overworlds and Underworlds, lets get down to resolving it in a fashion that makes a bit more sense given the source material and history. So, lets start at the bottom and work our way up!

Telling Stories: Secrets Don't Keep

A lot of my so-called 'advice' for Storytellers comes down to treating your players like collaborators. You're all working together to write a story and while your job is world-building, supporting cast and antagonists, their job of being the stars of the story is just as important.

Quite recently, something came up in the Lost City of Atlanta game that gave me quite a fit, and it was all my fault. I learned from it and I wanted to share the experience in case it helps anyone else, player or ST. Let me give some background first, so the situation makes sense for those who are not familiar with my game world and cast.

Johnny is the Drama Mama of Lost Atlanta. Literally true: he's given birth to the most children of anyone in the cast despite being male most of the time. Everything crazy and shitty happens to him and mostly, it's all his fault. He dives in without thinking and gets himself into terrible situations. He always had a rocky relationship with his father, Lugh, and their mutual distaste escalated into dislike and then outright hatred. Johnny eventually was speared through the chest by his father and left for dead, but saved by his pet dog going to fetch a healer. He then embarked on a huge quest to break all his links to Lugh and succeeded. Despite that, his Irishness forms a core of his identity and he sacrificed a great deal of time, effort, comfort and sanity to remain one of the Tuatha de and be accepted among them.

He turned down one offer from Cernunnos to jump ship and become a Nemetondevos and the Horned God's adopted son because he didn't want to give up his heritage and position as a Bard. Various things happened and events transpired. Cernunnos became Johnny's foster father and the only positive paternal influence in Johnny's life. When Cernunnos died, he left behind instructions for two of his biological sons to succeed him, one as the Fist of Cernunnos and another as the Wisdom of Cernunnos. Johnny is closely tied to both those sons: one is his beloved foster-brother and Johnny has been Guiding him for years. The other is actually Johnny's biological son, since Cernunnos is like that.

This is where things get tricky. Cernunnos didn't want either of his sons being the new Chief of the Gaulish Gods. Aside from neither of them being particularly suited for them, he had his own reasons (some of which Johnny's player suspects and others he does not) for wanting an outside party involved. So he appeared to Johnny in a vision and asked him to become the Tongue of Cernunnos, the figurehead of the trio of his sons who could take the place of Chief.

Telling Stories: Xena is my Guide!

AKA: Using Fictional Characters to Address the Historical Gender Gap

One of the great things about Scion is that its based in ancient mythology and history. You can draw from all the stories of the world's hundreds of recorded cultures to give your stories depth and character. Your PC's can tap into this richness with Guides, Followers, Creatures and Relics that are drawn right from the pages of epics. Enkidu can be the Guide of your young Anunna Scion, or  Primarily we're going to focus on Guides in this blog.

So, where's the issue? Well, think about all the heroes of myth and legend and try to come up with the commonalities. Hint: they're almost all dudes. Very, very rarely does mythology have a surplus of strong female figures. This is one area where you may wish to do a bit of padding to the chronicles of history. Envision with me, if you will, a strong-willed daughter of Ares who leads an army across ancient Greece, pillaging and burning. Eventually she retires from her life of war and death, becoming a wandering heroine who defeats monsters.

Sound familiar? Probably. Why couldn't Xena fit into Scion? She easily could have been a Scion of Ares in the distant past whose Legend was distorted and twisted by the male storytellers of the time to re-cast her as a man? Or maybe her Legend simply fell by the wayside as less important because of cultural prejudices?

There are going to be some gnashings of teeth at the idea of introducing fictional characters into Scion when there's a whole world's history (literally) worth of authentic ones to pull from. No denying that, and I'm not saying that you should focus on fiction over history, but I think you can successfully use fiction to augment history when history falls short of delivering the specific thing you need. You might have to work a bit to integrate the fiction into the rest of the material, but by drawing on established characters you can often find that has already been done for you.

I want to be clear about something: I am not suggesting using the character of Xena in Scion. It sounds like it, but I'm not. Xena as a character gets really weird with the pressure points and the throat-stabbing and the made-up Gods and then the later seasons where she becomes an angel or something. All that is just a big mess, and even the early seasons are a lot more concerned with telling a cool story that would succeed on TV in the 90's than in being mythologically accurate. The idea of Xena, though, is a cool one and totally possible to bring into Scion. The idea of an ancient daughter of Ares who was cast by the wayside of popularity for her gender, despite her great deeds. She would make an awesome Guide to a young Greek Scion.

You can apply this idea to other genres, other characters. Fairy tales, urban legends, TV show monsters. You can bring in creatures from X-Files or Are You Afraid of the Dark or the stories of the 18th century American frontier. You can have Hidebehinds, Squonks, Boo Hags and Chupacabras right there next to Black Dogs and Benu Birds. They can be Titanspawn antagonists or servants of the Gods, maybe even creations of older Scions that have been naturalized into the World.

Mythology is an incredibly rich source to draw from, but Scion is at it's core a game of Modern Mythology and Urban Fantasy. You can bring in those elements without feeling bad. Sometimes mythology just doesn't have what you want and if you don't want to make something up whole-cloth, there are a lot of places to look for inspiration. Don't be afraid of them just because they aren't from eons past. They can still become part of a vital and thriving world ecology of awesome.

Shoptalk: Being Social

Social Attributes are a sticky wicket, but because they deal with a very sticky part of role-playing. There are arguments about what Social Attribute you roll under what circumstances, arguments about how Social Attributes affect other NPC's and PC's when used by either or both sides. There are lots of problems.

To some degree, it's understandable that there's confusion about what Social Attribute to roll when. There are many ways to reach the same end through social means. Physical Attributes are much simpler. Strength is raw muscle power, Stamina is bodily endurance and Dexterity is fine motor skills and speed. There is some overlap certainly, because running could also be considered a function of Strength and a function of Stamina, but in game terms it falls under Dexterity. That's an established gaming convention that most players don't have any problems with.

Charisma, Manipulation and Appearance aren't as well defined and there is a strong gaming convention that "Charisma" is your go-to Social Stat. It tends to get rolled an awful lot, leaving the other two Attributes in the dust. What good is Appearance when instead of being hot, you can just be charming and get the same result? And what good is just being hot if you can't talk to people because of your crippling lack of oratory skills? Can't you use Charisma to lie to people just by steamrolling them with your force of personality? Well.. kinda. You can get a lot of flexibility out of the Social Attributes. With them it's less a question of "what can I use Charisma to do that I can't do with Manipulation?" and more a question of "HOW can I use Charisma to do this?"

Instead of breaking down by the ends, Social Attributes break down by the means. If you want to get past a guard by making him think you belong there, you can use any of the Social Attributes. Which one you use will depend on how you go about it, and each method has its own benefits and consequences. Being so sexy that the guard doesn't want to question you because it will make you less likely to sleep with him is one way, but so is lying to him and convincing him that you're there for a surprise inspection.

I'm not going to spend forever breaking down all the problems inherent in trying to define the entire spectrum of social interaction into three categories. What I will do instead is describe how I define the role of each Social Attribute.

Shoptalk: Animal Is Weird

The Animal Purview is one weird mess. It can be taken many different ways without even bothering to apply what could be called 'house rules'. Just different ways of reading the poorly-defined RAW version of Animal can give you radically different variations in how the Purview is handled in a game. It's so messy that I even have to break down the different ways it can be interpreted differently.

Association Interpretations!

1. Super Literal: If your parent is Associated with Hummingbirds, you gain an association only for Hummingbirds. You get no XP discount on any other manifestation of Animal. This method of reading also means that each type of Animal requires its own Relic to channel. You would need one Relic for Hummingbird and another for Eagle. Essentially, each type of Animal is a totally different Purview. The only thing that unites Animal (Hummingbird) and Animal (Eagle) is that they both have The Beast as their Avatar. Note: Protean Understanding causes some issues under this interpretation because it suddenly causes all the different Purviews to unite as one at Legend 11.
2. Semi-Literal: So long as your parent has any form of Animal as an Associated Power, you get an XP discount on any form of Animal. So even if Daddy has Animal (Hummingbird), you can still get a discount for learning Animal (Shrike). Under this interpretation it's a 50/50 call if you would need multiple Relics for Animal, or only one. 

How Divided Is Divided?

1. Really Damn Divided: If there is any reasonable difference between two types of animals, then they are considered two different types of Animal. This interpretation would say that Animal (Butterfly) is different from Animal (Moth) and that Animal (Cat) is different from Animal (Tiger). Obviously this is going to cause some issues when categories like Cat are much broader than others like Lynx, but the people who hold this view are almost always very specific about what types of Animals are allowed. Typically, broad categorizations such as Cat or Bird-of-Prey would not be acceptable. 
2. Divided Indeed: This is a little bit more lax, but still fairly strict. People who fall here tend to say that even if you pick something like Animal (Tiger), you're just doing that for fluffy fun. You actually have Animal (Cat) and can apply your Animal Boons to any creature that falls under a similar taxonomic category as your specific totem beast. 
3. What Divide?: Aten is mostly to thank for this category, since he is listed as having Animal (Flying Creatures). It opens the door for extremely broad categorizations of Animal such as Sea Creatures, Varmints and Bugs.

As I said, all that chaos is without any House Rules at all. That's just different takes on what's actually printed in the books, since the books don't provide clear, well-written guidelines for how to deal with Animal. If we added in all the ways people House Rule the Purview, we'd be here all night just going over the different possible solutions. We won't do that. Instead, I'm going to explain how I handle the Animal Purview and explain why I do it the way I do.

Griff's Aztec Alley: Quetzalcoatl

Once again, we're delving into the Aztec Pantheon and revamping the, to be honest, random and occasionally batshit insane associations given to the gods.  Last time, we looked at the mess that was Texcatlipoca, and now we turn to his twin and rival, Quetzalcoatl.

Just like his brother, Quetzalcoatl is given a metric assload of associated powers.  In the original book, he's given Epic Charisma, Epic Intelligence, Animal (Resplendent Quetzal), Fertility, Guardian, Earth, Health, Itztli, Justice, Psychopomp, Sky, and Water.  12 powers.  A number of which feel entirely random.

Much like Tezcatlipoca, though, I can understand why White Wolf went overboard.  Quetzalcoatl is an important deity, and one that has intrigued Western civilization upon discovering the Aztecs.  Furthermore, he is an old deity, with ties to the Olmec "mother" civilization of Mesoamerica and who seemingly has a hand in every culture in that region.  Feathered serpent motifs are present in most cultures' religious iconography.  Only Tlaloc is more ubiquitous.

Quetzalcoatl is also the only god who completely, unequivocally is also a Mayan deity as well as an Aztec deity.  While Tlaloc, Chac, and Cocijo make sense as one god for the purposes of Scion, if you were to tell most Mesoamerican scholars they were all the same god, they would smack you with the flat of a maquahuitl.  However, most agree that the Quetzalcoatl is Kukulcan is Gukumatz. 

Dave's Player Pavilion: Specialization v. Generalization

The idea of specializing your Character against generalizing is a difficult choice. Being a God means focusing yourself into a few specific areas, making generalization difficult. Although, we can see generalization as possible with Gods such as Lugh (Although it is likely he just has Ultimate Craft and Ultimate Art) and likely some other Gods who do not imminently jump into my mind currently.

The argument for creating a specialized character is obvious; you can be better than most other beings of your Legend or lower at two, or maybe three, specific things. Specializing in an Epic Attribute involves buying many Knacks from it's trees, and taking Relics to enhance the Attribute or augment the Knacks it has. Specializing in a Purview will involve buying as many Boons as you can from it, and, again, taking Relics to augment the Boons, buff rolls for the Purview, or reduce the legend cost of things.

Dave's Player Pavilion: Birthrights

This topic may end up being one of Telgar's Shop Talks one day, but I think looking at Birthrights from the point of view of the Players. In our games, we use some some houserules for dealing with Birthrights. Firstly, we use FrivYeti's Birthright Rules for Creatures and Followers (not Guides or Relics), located here. Relics can go up to 10 Dots. Lastly, both God Birthrights, Avatars, Wards and Sanctums, have their own houserules that Telgar wrote himself. Although we do not have any official rules regarding Wards, I will explain them below.

Dave's Player Pavilion: How to Play with Epic Socials

Again, going back to this post, I am going to go over the different kinds of Epic Socials, and how you should act around them. And furthermore, the different expressions of the three different Epic Attributes.

Now, I am going to reiterate, I understand that being on the receiving end of Epic Socials is not always fun for some people. But, what people have to keep in mind, especially with their other players, that they have made an investment in putting their experience into Manipulation rather than Strength. Someone not acting like the other person has Epic Manipulation 11 is the same as saying, "No. I don't die." when Thor hits you over the head with Mjölnir and uses Ultimate Strength.

Dave's Player Pavilion: Building Good Characters

Referencing back to this, one of the things I did not cover about being a good player was making good characters. I didn't delve into this because I felt like it needed to be a stand alone post.

In the Lost City of Atlanta, we have had a lot of characters come in and out. I have seen amazing characters, such as Griff's Alan and Dom's Amira, and I have seen a lot of rather bad characters. So, I am going to go over what I think makes a good character.

Shoptalk: All That Is Within My Purview

In the RAW (Rules As Written) system for Scion, a peculiar situation arises where Death Gods are required to be Charismatic if they want to be good at their jobs. Health Gods are useless unless they themselves are hardy like an ox. In short, the rolls for Boons are often tied to seemingly random or ill-suited Attributes. This isn't always something that can be fixed by changing the roll. Sometimes there is no Attribute that really fits. Take Rainbow Bridge for example. What's the Attribute most related to teleportation? Does it help to be smart? How? What about flexible or fast-footed? How does that help you warp space and travel without moving?

Originally, I simply tried being flexible with the rolls required by various Boons. If a player could come up with a good argument to use a different Attribute, I'd allow them to change the roll. This worked fine in most cases, but it still raised the issue of the Boons where there is no clear-cut Attribute that lends itself really well. Many Boons, in fact, can be seen as simply raw manifestations of the Purview's power. Why should one Earth God be better at making earthquakes than another, when both of them are equally powerful (Legend) and equally invested in the Earth Purview (number and rank of Boons)? That just didn't sit well with me.

What the Atlanta players are testing out now is a system called Epic Purviews. What happens is that each Purview you know has a Rank which is equal to the number of different ranks you know Boons for. If you know a rank 1, rank 3 and rank 8 Boon in Health, then your Health Rank is 3. You also have a Purview Rating which is equal to the number of Boons you know, regardless of their rank. Your Purview Rating replaces Attributes for Boon Activation rolls and is sometimes used in calculations. Your Purview Rank provides automatic successes as if it were an Epic Attribute, keeping Purviews from falling behind at higher Legend.

Example: Sak Balam has a total of 12 Animal Boons, with at least one in every Rank from 1 to 8. This means that his Animal Rank is 8 and his Animal Rating is 12. When he activates a Boon like Animal Aspect he rolls Rating + Animal Ken, for a total of 22 dice, 10 from his Animal Ken and 12 from his Animal Rating. His Rank of 8 grants him 29 automatic successes on that roll, just as if it was an Epic Attribute.

Dave's Player Pavilion: How to be a good Player

Hey folks, I'm Dave (Watcher on the forums), Johnny/Eoin's player. I've not used the blog a ton, due to not being an amazing ST like Telgar, or ungodly knowledgeable about one of the Pantheons like Griff is. But, I'm bored, so I'm writing this. Maybe I'll do more of these about other player based stuff.

Something that gets a lot of airtime on the net is how to be a good Storyteller, but something that I have seen far more often than I have seen bad Storytellers, Dungeon Masters, and so on, is bad players. So, what I am going to try to do here is explain how to be a good player. Or, at least, not a bad one.

The one thing that a good player does is this: they put in the effort. Put in as much effort to your character as the ST is putting into the game. If you are not doing this, you have to ask yourself why the ST should bother making the game fun for you if you are doing nothing to make it fun for them.

How can you do this? Well, there are many ways.

Telling Stories: Pray The Day Away

My PC's not-too-long-ago reached Legend 9 and underwent Apotheosis, becoming Gods in their own right. Since then, one of the bigger challenges I face as the Storyteller is keeping a balance between appropriately epic challenges that can seem to realistically stress even Gods and allowing the players to really feel like Gods. There should be this huge sense of accomplishment that your character has reached Godhood and is now not just some hero or super-mortal with awesome powers. They're actually a Figure of Legend with an entire religion (or religions) built around them. There are thousands of people who, every day, pray to these characters for guidance, help or pray to avoid their notice and displeasure.

You can't just let new Gods steamroller over everything, they've still got Legend 10, 11 and 12 to advance to, after all. They're not at the top of the foodchain by a long shot, and even Legend 12 Gods still have to face other Legend 12 Gods, Titan Avatars and Greater Titans. So, you do have to keep challenging your new Gods with ever-increasing levels of world-smashing calamity, Machiavellian scheming and politics, etc. There just needs to be times when they can say to themselves "Holy crap, I'm a God now! People are totally praying to me and expecting things! And I can do them!"

My solution to this was something called Prayer Sheets. They're open documents (we use GoogleDocs for just about everything) where anyone can post prayers to the God in question. The player sets up a brief list of 'typical' prayers that they expect to receive based on their God-role and various Fate Expectations, which serve as a guideline. I might add some extra prayer categories based on what I think, as the ST, they might have forgotten or not even considered.

Then, prayers! Generally, prayers are short little snippets and tagged with very basic information about who and where they're coming from. Here are some examples of prayers that our characters have received so far:

Telling Stories: I Don't Wanna Grow Up!

It's been two hundred years since your Scion was Visited. They've battled Titanspawn, weathered the challenges of Heroism and Demigodhood, and finally climbed to the Heavens and earned their place among the Gods. Whew! Not only that, but they've established themselves among their Pantheon and become a true God, a divine being venerated and worshipped by thousands on Earth. They've worked their way into History and become a true Legend.

They can't possibly be the same person they were all those years ago, can they? You'd be surprised.

Gods don't grow up. Not ever, really. They stay basically the same, their personality and little personal twitches remaining static through their entire existence, for the most part. Their personality tends to be pretty fixed because it's part of who they are, which is what their worshippers venerate them for. When changes do occur it will probably be small ones, or only in specific stories, or they might develop new divine aspects as new cults form and merge. We'll talk more about that later, but it's important.

Ares is never going to mature out of being a rash, violent, chaotic dick. Zeus will never see the error of his ways and stop sleeping around on Hera. Nergal won't ever decide to settle down and stop blowing shit up when he gets bored. Thor isn't going to decide that book learning is awesome and study up on his philosophy. Thoth won't ever get tired of learning and decide to start kicking asses and taking names. That would break their Legend and totally shatter their entire identity.

The Past is a Wonderful Thing

I enjoy learning about ancient history and culture. The people of the past have many things to show us, many stories to share and have inspired the countless generations that came since, shaping the future in ways we may never fully understand.

I mention this, because today I learned that the Ancient Mesopotamians had among their pantheon of Gods and Demons a creature known as the Urmahlullu, a hybrid that had the torso of a strong, well-built man and the lower body of one of the fiercest creatures imaginable: a lion. Surely he was vitally important. Nope. Actually, he was the guardian of bathrooms.

Meet Urmahlullu. He watches you pee.

Griff's Aztec Alley: Tezcatlipoca

Ah, Tezcatlipoca.  The god we love to hate.  Or hate to love.  Tezcatlipoca, in the raw, is kind of a mess of associated powers, possessing Epic Appearance, Epic Charisma, Epic Dexterity, Epic Manipulation, Epic Wits, Animal (Jaguar), Darkness, Itztli, Magic, Moon, Mystery, Prophecy, Sun, War, and Kitchen Sink.  

While ridiculous, the vast amount of powers granted to Tezcatlipoca is not entirely inaccurate.  More so than any other Aztec deity, Tezcatlipoca was seen as omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.  He was considered one of the Four Tezcatlipocas, the black one in particular, associated with the northern cardinal direction, alongside Quetzalcoatl (the White Tezcatlipoca, associated with the east), Xipe Totec (the Red Tezcatlipoca, associated with the west), and Huitzilopochtli (the Blue Tezcatlipoca, associated with the south).  

In Scion terms, the best explanation for this is that “Tezcatlipoca” is just a title and the Black Tezcatlipoca’s real name is a secret.  However, in historical terms, this was probably the Nahua way of saying that all those other awesome gods are also Tezcatlipoca, that’s how awesome he is.  

So, rather than try and pare down the powers from what we have given, I’m going to look at Tezcatlipoca from the myths associated with him and work from there...

Telling Stories 1: Plans and Players

It's often said that no plan survives contact with the enemy. In Storytelling, your players aren't your enemies, but they are equally destructive to your plans. It's generally not worth trying to set up elaborate schemes that arc across months. Sometimes, it'd not even wise to plan out a session too closely. Your players will do something. They'll kill a key player in your conspiracy, or expose a plot too early, or solve a problem in a way you didn't expect. Something will always happen.

Quite recently, the Atlanta Band entered the Mayan Underworld to locate their hearts. The only reason their hearts were missing is because one of the Band members, Johnny, used Out of the Frying Pan to escape another bad situation. He dropped the entire Band (except Boris) into the Lair of Camazotz, the Avatar of Ritual Sacrifice. In the few seconds the Band was in his Lair, Camazotz stole their hearts and replaced them with obsidian.

Was that planned? No. I had no way of knowing that Johnny would dump the Band into Camazotz' lap. I didn't plan for the Band to encounter Camazotz until they had already achieved Godhood. But when they ran into his lair, I either had to kill them instantly (lame) or do something fun with it. And since he's an Aztec figure all about death and sacrifice, I went straight for hearts. The exact plan that Camazotz has for the hearts isn't relevant here, but suffice to say that the Band is not in favor of Camazotz having their hearts.

Shoptalk: The Virtues of Virtues

Scion comes pre-set with twelve Virtues and four Dark Virtues. The Gods and their allies follow the twelve Virtues, while the Titans and their minions are all aligned with the Dark Virtues. There's a bit of a problem here. That pretty much ignores all the cultural background of the Titans and their minions, replacing it with a generic set of 'evil' traits that in many cases do not fit with the nature of the Titans and Titanspawn.

What, for example, is Prometheus doing with Malice instead of Intellect? It flies directly in the face of his entire story for him to be all about random acts of cruelty instead of having a focus on bringing Fire to mankind. There are lots of Titan-style figures who have nothing to do with the Dark Virtues at all, but for some reason they're all shoehorned as having 100% evilness all the time. That's patently ridiculous!

Then on the other side of the issue, we have Gods who almost certainly do have Dark Virtues. Nergal hasn't got even a little Malice? Odin hasn't got Ambition? Pan with his insatiable sex drive hasn't got even a bit of Rapacity?

Shoptalk: Avatar and Appearance

Another post about Godhood. Man, does it ever end? Yes, it does. But not for a while, because my players are on the threshold of Godhood and it's got me super-excited.

To the main topic! One of my players asked me if a Relic he owns, a cloak made of pure darkness, could actually become his character's shadow that billows around behind him on its own and conceals his face in darkness. Sure, I said, why not?! Because that's awesome and it works perfectly for the dark, brooding God that he's working on. This got me thinking about two things. Well, one thing, and the other came from the note about how I work Avatars included in the last post.

Shoptalk: Apotheosis II

In my last post about Apotheosis, I covered what happens to a new-born God's Favored Abilities and Associated Powers. That's all well and good, but other things happen when you achieve Godhood. Awesome, inspiring things that broaden the scope of your powers and bootstrap you up to divinity.

Well, at least that's what should happen. So, we'll first cover what the RAW has happen, then cover what I think should be the real deal. Sound good? Great! Let's go.

Actually, you know what? I changed my mind. We're not going to cover what the RAW has happen, you can do that yourself. Reference p.36 of Scion: God, if you wish. The Apotheosis process as outlined there is complex and, frankly, shitty. So I'm not gunna waste time copying it and distilling it down to its lame essence.

Vile Villains Volume 3: Garreth

His unorthodox views on the nature of the universe, life and everything have done Garreth no favors when it comes to how Gods view him. In addition, his willingness to believe the best of Titanspawn and Titan cultists has earned him a poor reputation among the supernatural community. So who, exactly, has Garreth on their shit-list? Let's find out.

Vile Villains Volume 2: Johnny

Johnny has more personal villains than any other player character. He scorned his violent, disagreeable father, Lugh, and was punished with a bounty on his head that has an entire Band after him. Further, he's reckless, thoughtless and easily tricked into doing the bidding of others. None of these traits make it hard for him to amass a long list of offended parties. Well, let's get started!

Vile Villains Volume 1: Introduction!

Like any good story, Lost Atlanta has its share of villains. In addition to the overarching Bad Guy of the plot (Mortis), each character has their own, more personal villains. I thought it'd be nice to explore some of those guys a little more in-depth. Maybe more in-depth than the players ever knew!

This is actually an introduction blog, because each PC is going to get their own Villains blog. Some, like Johnny, just have SO MANY villains that trying to squeeze them all together won't do anyone justice at all. Others, like Garreth, have rather complex villains that need some research.

As previously mentioned, the Cast of Lost Atlanta changes more than some games. We've lost Randall/Izzy's player as he grew burnt out on gaming in general. But, we added three new characters: Malic, Amira and Alan. Alan's come prepared with his own boatloads of baddies, but Malic and Amira are still weaving themselves into the story of Lost Atlanta.

From the Other Side

In the First Titan War, the Gods triumphed and imprisoned the Titans by locking their Avatars into Tartarus. Some Titans remained free by various means; declaring their neutrality in the War, siding with the Gods or by simply being impossible to bind. The Titan of Death, Mortis, required special handling. It could not be allowed to remain unfettered, but it was within the Realm of Mortis that the other Titans were bound. Even the Gods could not bind the Avatars of Mortis in a prison forged from their own Realm. A different solution was required.

Each of the Avatars save one, Thanatos, was imprisoned deep in the substance of the World itself. In exchange for his freedom, Thanatos taught the Gods how to bind his fellow Avatars. The most powerful Avatar of Death, Kur, was bound the deepest, locked inside a tomb hidden within a prison built under a great mountain.

The escape of the other Titans sent shockwaves of power rippling through the very fabric of all three Worlds, cracked the seals binding the Avatars of Death. Reaching out, one of them contacted Coatlicue. The Avatar promised Coatlicue that in exchange for her help freeing Kur, she would be given the forces necessary to tip the balance and take the place of Iapetus as the ruler of Terra. Only Kur, among all the Avatars of Mortis, was so powerful that it would be able to free the Greater Titan itself from bondage and restore all the Avatars to their full strength.

As the Cast Changes

Character rotation is something that the Lost City of Atlanta is no stranger to. Recently, two new Scions have joined the Band: Malic and Aster. Randall left the Band to be with his new husband in Africa, and Kainalu (who never really joined in the first place) left after an intense argument with Johnny.

This seems like a good time to review our former PC's and what's happened to them. For the most part, these PC's became former PC's as the result of their players either having schedule changes that prevented them from playing, or simply disappearing.

Shoptalk: Apotheosis

As far as RAW Scion is concerned, when a Demigod reaches Godhood... a whole lot of nothing changes. They don't reach independence. They don't leave behind their status as the child of another God and step into their own shoes. They keep whatever Associated Powers and Favored Abilities they had as a Hero and a Demigod.

Well, nuts to that. When a Scion reaches Godhood, they are no longer a child. They are a God and they need to stand on their own two feet. The solution? Upon reaching Godhood, a Scion is instantly and forever stripped of all their Favored Abilities and Associated Powers. Only their Pantheon-Specific Purview remains.

Character Spotlight: Andrei

Who Is Andrei?

One of the Grey Wolf's offspring. Andrei looks like a particularly huge Caucasian Shepherd, standing nearly five feet tall at the shoulder and weighing over three hundred pounds. He lived at Abnormal Investigations and spent most of his time sleeping under Emma's desk. Now that Igor is dead and Emma has left the city, he has dropped off the map. He can still be found, but whatever location he calls home is as yet unknown.

Character Spotlight: Artan

Who Is Artan?

Johnny's faithful canine companion! Artan is the grandson of the Grey Wolf. His father, Andrei, was the companion of Igor Ivanov, one of the Bogovi. After Johnny traded his left arm to Andrei in exchange for one of Andrei's magical fangs, the Wolf-Hound decided that it would be funny to see what Johnny would do with one of his pups. Since at that point in the story, Johnny was terrified of anything dog-shaped, it seemed like a good way to get a few laughs. Andrei's gift nearly sent Johnny into fits.

The Misadventures of Johnny Easter

Someone on the Forums was asking about Johnny and how his relationship with Lugh went. Anyone that wants the whole story can read Johnny's journal, but it's long as all hell.

So, I am going to outline what's happened between Johnny and Lugh here. It all started out as a classic case of Jock Dad vs Artistic Son. Johnny wanted to be a musician and Lugh wanted him to be a warrior. Their arguments progressed from disagreement, to yelling, to threats and finally to full-on impalement. Johnny broke his ties with Lugh and opened himself up for a world of hurt in return.

Character Spotlight: Randall Days

Who Is He?

Randall Days is the Scion of Kebauet, one of the youngest Pesedjet around. He's a prophet, a craftsman and he's in a little bit of a sticky situation, socially. 

How Did He Join?

Randall joined the Band just prior to Garreth's trial for Titan Conspiracy. Previously, he was working as a weapon-smith and prophet in Dublin; that's where he ran into (and slept with) Johnny Easter. Johnny urged Randall to join the Band and relocate to Atlanta.

Lemurians Never Use Simple Names

The Lost Continent of Lemuria is returning to the World and bringing with it storms and tidal waves that threaten to destroy or devastate thousands of miles of Pacific coastline in Asia, Oceania and the Americas. What might be even worse for the world is the Mad Empress who wants to use her army of undead Muons to regain the Lemurian Throne. What horrors could she unleash from the ancient cities of Lemuria? What unknown marvels do the ruins of that empire hold?

Our Heroes are going to find out as they race towards the Palace of Ninety Trillion Pearls to stop the Mad Empress, who has possessed the body of their friend Izzy, before she can bring her plans to fruition. In their way stand the Cake of Lies, the Flowers of Discontentment and the Birds That Sing Songs of Doom. Along with an army of death and metal, the ancient Muons who serve the Mad Empress.

The Band has already defeated the Deadly Butterflies of Agony, but more challenges await!

How Time Flies

The very first session of Lost Atlanta was one June 1st, 2011. In about a month, we'll be bitting the one-year anniversary of the chronicle. That's a fairly impressive benchmark as far as my games go. The player roster changes from time to time, and the character roster changes faster than that. The story, though, marches on.

What has the Band done in a year? They've defeated a corrupted Scion who helped the Titans kidnap the Goddess Nemesis. They accidentally unleashed an Avatar of Death, resulting in the transformation of Roanoke Island into a wasteland populated only by the undead. They saved Mexico City from a similar fate by foiling a Camazotz ritual that would have unleashed a second Avatar. They travelled to the Slavic Underworld to return a friend to life, only to find Buyan under attack by armies of specters. While there, they defeated Koschei the Deathless forever, saving the ghosts of the Underworld from his malice. They've faced down the Dodekatheon to win freedom for one of their Bandmates when he was found collaborating with a Titan (he had good intentions).

What are they doing now? Now they've travelled to the Lost Continent of Lemuria to prevent it from destroying most of the coast and islands near the Pacific Ocean when it re-appears in the World and save their former ally Itzel from the grips of an evil Empress bent on regaining control of the Lemurian Empire.

Results of the Trial

Well, things were close there for a while. Marti bribed Ares into swapping his vote and Athena came up with a compromise that got Apollo and Artemis to agree. Finally the Dodekatheon decided not to throw Garreth into Tartarus, just to arrange things so that if he works with the Titans again, he'll instantly die.

More problems resulted from the bribery than the trial itself. Marti's bribe to Ares was starting a civil war in North Korea, dedicated to the War God. The rest of the Band, including Garreth, took exception to the callous decision and a big fight broke out.

As a result of that and the on-going tension between Boris, Johnny and Marti, Marti will be leaving the Band. His replacement (since his player isn't going anywhere, we like him) is going to be a Polynesian Surfer God. We'll see how he works out, but he seems like far less of an abrasive dick than Marti. Should be fun!

Randall is still settling in and getting used to everyone, as well as letting people (Boris) get used to him. It's an on-going process.

This could go so wrong in so many ways.

Like, this could go wrong is so many ways.

First off, Ares is going to try to embarrass Johnny into oblivion by flaunting what he did to him in front of the big twelve. Because of this, Marti may just try to force Johnny to step down, and stay home. Something that I am not super excited about, but if Marti can convince Johnny of it, I am ok with it. Although if Marti decides to use powers against Johnny to force him to stay home, someone will end up dead.

Second, I am guessing we, right off the bat, have three votes against us. Although A thinks I am wrong with these, so take it all with a grain of salt. I believe there is no way in hell we are getting Ares to vote for us, no way in hell we are getting Artemis to vote for us, and either Zeus or Hera will vote against us because they can never take the same side on jack shit.

The Trial of the Century

Everyone is getting ready for Garreth's trial. I don't know that it's really going to be so much of a "trial" as just trying to convince enough Gods not to kill him. There aren't laws or anything and there's no objecting when people get out of line.

This is really gunna test the social characters to see what they can do. Oh, and Garreth of course, to see if he can bend far enough to make his Pantheon think he's more than just a crazy, dangerous lunatic.

Now, some of you may be asking: Did I push Garreth into this situation to punish him? No. Not really. I did push him into this situation to force some growth, though. He's set himself up in an incredibly vulnerable position. He doesn't have any allies among his Pantheon. None of the Dodekatheon have any reason to like him that much, since he thinks very lowly of them and makes no secret of it.

What's it with people stabbing kings in the back?

Hey folks, I'm Johnny's player.

So, after that session, having his his third most trusted friend turn out to be trying to keep a Titan Avatar as a house pet, and having his second most trusted friend just up and leave, Johnny is a walking combination of conflicting virtues.

He wants to just summon Strife and sic him on Garreth and the rest of his organisation for being so damn stupid, but he also would hate to see the Greek brutally murdered.

So, he is just storming off to Ireland to take the middle road. He is still telling on Garreth, but he is going to a Deity who won't just up and murder Garreth without thinking. He's off to Tara to try to speak with Danu. And to check that he can be Ard Ri.

In a nutshell, he is blindingly pissed at Garreth, but his loyalty prevents him from just having his head taken off. Added to the fact that the last two-ish weeks have been really difficult, he is just storming off to Ireland to make himself king in a attempt to cheer himself up.

I'd say it won't work. And things are just getting worse for him over there. Artan is attacking him because he broke a Geas, he is expressing feelings for someone (although I don't know if that will last) for the first time in what is close to ever, and he has to speak with a family member. Even though it's Danu, talking with the Tuatha never seems to end all that well. Hell, speaking to any God/dess never ends well for him.

Should be cool to see where this goes.

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

Hey everybody!

Izzy's player here.

So, the question is, why did Izzy flat out leave?

It's a rather complicated affair.

First of all, the obvious answer is that Garreth betrayed her, and therefore she couldn't stand being around him. This is true, but it doesn't explain everything. To add to this, Izzy entered a Virtue Extremity. Her Duty to protecting the world countered her loyalty to the Band exponentially. Therefore, thanks to both the stress of the situation, and the utter zealous belief that she had taken over her mind, she became very, very irrational. This in turn lead to a psychotic break thanks to the stress and the conflicting Virtues at play.

In the end of her farewell scene, I tried to write it as if her mental block was breaking, but by that point she'd made up her mind. There was no turning back by that point.

From a story perspective, her leaving did make sense. From a gameplay one it was... an odd experience.

Lost Atlanta Session 36: Fed Up

Whelp. Things did not go as planned. 

Last time in Lost Atlanta, the Band went to Boston when Garreth's father reported that ORPTA Headquarters was being quarantined by some Men in Black. The MIB's apparently take exception to people showing up on giant three-headed, fire-breathing dragons. Some lasers were fired, there may have been a helicopter-vs-Zmey battle and the Band took cover inside the Headquarters building via a roof entrance.

Everything was going fine until certain events came to pass, revealing that Garreth and ORPTA had formed an alliance with Mr. Bright, who just happens to be a Titanspawn. Izzy stormed off, leaving not only Boston but the Band itself in an outrage at the betrayal. 

Boris and Johnny had some words for Garreth as well, and the God Strife was very nearly summoned into the situation. That would have been really bad. 

Rhyan missed all this, having run off on her own to disable the Portable Energy Shield Generator what was keeping the Band from reaching the basement of the HQ building, where Garreth's father and Mr. Bright were holed up. She managed to break it a bit, but for her troubles she got an Implosion Grenade in the face. She fled, joining the rest of the Band (minus Garreth of course) in the park across the street.

So, now Izzy is gone and Garreth might be left all alone to face off against a full team of Men in Black armed with lasers, futuristic helicopters, energy shields and imploding grenades. And, worse (possibly), Mr. Bright has threatened to engage "countermeasures" that will "deal with" the situation if things get any worse. 

Oh, and of course the MIB's are preparing to activate a Singularity Generator that will generate a Singularity all up in the HQ building's face. That probably won't end well.

Next week is going to be interesting!