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.