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Scion 2nd Edition Tabletop RPG

Created by Richard Thomas

Contribute to help us create and traditionally print Scion 2nd Edition Tabletop RPG's first two books and get them into stores!

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Scion BackerKit Shut Down Reminder!
about 5 years ago – Wed, Mar 06, 2019 at 11:45:20 PM

Just a reminder that we are going to shut down Add-ons, pledge changes and upgrades, and new purchases on the "pre-order" store tomorrow.

Here's the run-down of how we'll be wrapping up the BackerKit site in preparation for shipping:

1. CONFIRM REWARDS - I'll be locking down all Reward Lists, so if you wanted to add any additional rewards on BackerKit, please do so by Match 6th, 2019.  That's when I will lock down all reward lists and  you won't be able to adjust or add anything after that time.  

2. CONFIRM ALL PAYMENT INFORMATION - For any  additions you made in BackerKit, or any payments that did not process at  the end of the Kickstarter campaign, please ensure your payment  information is up to date, valid, and ready to be processed by MARCH 20th, 2019. That's a bit over two weeks from today when I will instruct BackerKit to lock down and process all outstanding payments.  

3. CONFIRM SHIPPING INFORMATION - Please ensure your  shipping information is up-to-date with your expected address for April  2019. Please ensure that this information is entered and correct by MARCH 27th, 2019.  That's just about three weeks from today when I will take the shipping information  we have for you in BackerKit and provide that to our fulfillment  partners, so they can begin the shipping process.

Thanks!

February Scion Update!
about 5 years ago – Wed, Feb 20, 2019 at 11:07:07 PM

Hello Scion Backers!

RichT here:

We're closing in on the big finale for this campaign - Scion Origin and Scion Hero are at the printer! 

As we ramp up to shipping you your rewards, we've got to take time to review all the information you've submitted and lock down everything to pass on to Onyx Path's fulfillment partner. 


 IT'S TIME TO LOCK DOWN THE SURVEYS AND PREPARE FOR SHIPPING!!
 

Here's the start of my asking that everyone reviews their BackerKit survey to confirm rewards and lock in information. Information below on how to access your Survey again, but key follow-up steps are:

1. CONFIRM REWARDS - I'll be locking down all Reward Lists, so if you wanted to add any additional rewards on BackerKit, please do so by Match 6th, 2019. That's two weeks from today when I will lock down all reward lists and you won't be able to adjust or add anything after that time.  

2. CONFIRM ALL PAYMENT INFORMATION - For any additions you made in BackerKit, or any payments that did not process at the end of the Kickstarter campaign, please ensure your payment information is up to date, valid, and ready to be processed by MARCH 20th, 2019. That's four weeks from today when I will instruct BackerKit to lock down and process all outstanding payments.  

3. CONFIRM SHIPPING INFORMATION - Please ensure your shipping information is up-to-date with your expected address for April 2019. Please ensure that this information is entered and correct by MARCH 27th, 2019. That's five weeks from today when I will take the shipping information we have for you in BackerKit and provide that to our fulfillment partners, so they can begin the shipping process.

ADDRESS CONFIRMATION & DELIVERY OBLIGATIONS.  Consider this the warning to update your information, after which point, you agree that our responsibility to you is to ship your order as entered into our pledge manager system to the address listed in BackerKit, that title and risk passes to you upon delivery to a common carrier for such shipment, and you are responsible for import duties or any other duties that may be payable to the relevant tax authorities, providing correct address information and ensuring this address is deliverable by normal methods. Failure to confirm mailing address prior to March 20th, 2019 will be taken as agreement that all obligations have been met and no further action or effort is required on the part of Onyx Path.  

(Of course, if you're getting digital rewards only, you don't need to worry about your address. This is just for physical rewards we're shipping to you).

SHIPPING UPDATE TO COME  

I will send another update when the games are actually ready to go and will begin shipping, but we need to have this information locked down prior to that stage. If you find yourself in an unusual circumstance or your residence unexpectedly changes between March 27th and the date I send out the shipping update, contact me to see what I can do at that time.

BACKERKIT REVIEW

To review your information or pledge status, you can return to your survey by clicking the link in your survey email or requesting your survey link under "Lost your survey?" on our BackerKit project page at https://scion-2nd-edition-tabletop-rpg.backerkit.com/ If you used your Facebook credentials to log in to your Kickstarter account, the BackerKit survey is sent to the email address you use for your Facebook account. If you have another email address that you prefer to use, please contact BackerKit customer support.


PROJECT STATUS

Here's where we are with the next wave of projects!

Masks of the Mythos: First Drafts, preliminary title.

Scion Demigod: First Drafts. Writers are getting their assignments and contracts.

Creatures of the World/Bestiary: Redlines (the stage where developers tell the writers what needs to change on the first drafts).

Scion Companion: Second/Final Drafts

Scion Ready-Made Characters: Second/Final Drafts

Scion Jumpstart: Editing


AND NOW OUR LATEST KICKSTARTER!


https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/lunars-fangs-at-the-gate-for-exalted-3rd-ed

First Scion Update of 2019!
about 5 years ago – Sat, Jan 19, 2019 at 11:55:25 PM

Hello Scion Backers!

Welcome to 2019! This promises to be a great year for Scion, and we're glad you're here with us for it!

Our developers are busy with continuing Scion projects, as you can see below in the progress status list, and both Scion Origin and Scion Hero are going to be wrapping up with our professional Indexer at the end of the month. After that, we just need to get the Index incorporated into the layout and we'll create the printer files and get the books to press!

MidWinter Announcements:

Although some people may have already been aware, we still announced that Scion: Demigod  has started being written based on Neall's outline.

Scion: Demigod will provide more Pantheons  and the expected continuing advancement of characters through the  Demigod range of abilities, and it will also provide new rules that  enhance and focus on the changes that are occurring to a character as a  Demigod.

Since Scion: Demigod continues what we could call the core Scion game experience, we also announced two projects that expand on just what Scion can be. (What I’ve been describing as the core Scion game experience are the four core Scion books, Origin through God, and the supplements directly linked to them, like the Stretch Goal projects from this Kickstarter.)

Then, there’s the projects that add and expand the options and the range of what it is to play Scion. These are projects that investigate different ways to engage with the game.

First, there’s what we’re currently calling Scion: Dragon,  which adds another “faction” to the ongoing struggle between the Titans  and the Gods. They represent the seemingly ever-present myths in so  many cultures of serpents and snake people, wyrms and dragons, and the  idea that all of these creatures and possibly even those who are counted  in various Pantheons, have their own secret agendas.

Scion: Dragon is being developed by Danielle Lauzon, a key designer of the Storypath system who has worked on the Trinity, Scion, Dystopia Rising, and They Came From Beneath the Sea gamelines, and she has this to say about the project: 

 "I'm excited to delve into dragon mythology in relation to Scion. It's especially interesting to think about the kinds of abilities and powers dragons would pass along to their children,” said developer Danielle Lauzon-Harper. “I'm also looking forward to stretching the Storypath system once more into a different kind of play style that adapts the Scion play to a more personal and exploratory experience." 

Second, we have what we’re currently calling Scion: Masks of the Mythos, which takes the Eldritch beings of the Cthulhu Mythos and tackles how to deal with them, and the baggage they bring, as a Scion game.

Award-winning Harlem Unbound creator Chris Spivey is our developer for Scion: Masks of the Mythos. Chris' work includes Harlem Unbound, Cthulhu Confidential, and Scion Second Edition. The supplement will outline a Mythos-related Pantheon, the Lovecraft Country setting, new Scions, antagonists, and a short adventure. It will also show how the Mythos fits into the World of Scion while retaining its mythic, heroic feel. Chris says:

"I am incredibly honored and excited that Onyx Path reached out to me about this project. I can’t wait to assemble the team, dive into the modern-day Mythos, and tangle with Great Cthulhu.”

Bear in mind with both of these new Scion books that we have not even started the actual writing of the text for them yet,  so anything I share here is pretty darn general and may be tweaked  completely before that writing is finished. 

We’ll certainly be talking more about all of these projects as things continue to develop with them!

SCION in the media:

On our Onyx Path YouTube channel Matthew Dawkins is recapping his campaign of Scion that he’s named “Tokyo Noir”. It sounds like a lot of grisly fun and  mixes  the children of Bishamon, Kissh?ten,  and Loki in a murder mystery.  https://youtu.be/cKpHy3W4Z-E 

The Twin Cities by Night Crew have a Scion 2nd Edition three part podcast that they tease with this:  

The murder of a Scion of Ra halts the progress of the sun across  the sky.  In response a group of strangers are unknowingly brought  together by their divine heritage to investigate the crime.

https://soundcloud.com/twin-cities-by-night/episode-234-scion-a-light-extinguished-chapter-1

PROJECT STATUS

Here's where we are with the next wave of projects!

Scion Demigod: First Drafts. Writers are getting their assignments and contracts.

Creatures of the World/Bestiary: First Drafts.

Scion Companion: Redlines

Scion Ready-Made Characters: Second/Final Drafts

Scion Jumpstart: Manuscript Approvals

AND NOW OUR LATEST KICKSTARTER!

The Kickstarter for They Came From Beneath The Sea! is in its last few days!

They Came From Beneath The Sea! is a new tabletop RPG from Onyx Path that uses the Storypath System,  encompassing the wonder, horror, thrills, and hilarity of 1950s science  fiction. This game evokes all that is great in the B-movies of decades  ago, and provides a dynamic, fun experience at the table.

The players, as humans, live in a world under increasing attack. The attackers? Aliens from beneath the sea, obviously!

Adventures can range from the one-shot defense of small coastal town,  to the lengthier liberation of a cruise ship invested with gill-kin,  all the way to a campaign in which characters seize an alien submarine  and ride it all the way down to the sea bed to take the fight to the  invaders.

Put down your malt shakes, turn on the jukebox, and prepare your  harpoons! You don’t want to be caught unawares when it’s revealed that They Came From Beneath The Sea! 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/they-came-from-beneath-the-sea-a-tabletop-roleplay 

December Scion Update (Early)
over 5 years ago – Tue, Nov 27, 2018 at 11:47:03 PM

Hello Scion Backers!

We're going early for December because we have the PAX Unplugged convention happening right at the beginning of the month when we'd normally get these Updates together and out to you. Remember, you can get weekly updates on our Scion projects every week in the Monday Meeting Notes blog on our Onyx Path website if you need more info. And now a couple of notes from our developers!

Greetings, true believers!

Neall: As we speak the last of the errata is going into Scions Origin and Hero and all of the various Page XX's are getting pushed, pulled, filed, indexed, briefed, debriefed, and numbered. Last push!

I'll be running Scion Second Edition at PAX Unplugged this year! You can find me at the booth or demo tables at these times:

  • Friday, 11/30, 2:30pm-6pm
  • Saturday, 12/1, 4pm-8pm
  • Sunday, 12/2, 12pm-3pm

But I'll be around the show, so if you catch me, say hello! I've got a policy at cons: you can ask me anything and I'll probably tell you. I'll be running the preview text of the Scion Jumpstart! Come play and enjoy or just talk about the past and future of the line!

Meghan: Greetings, true believers! Meghan here, with an excerpted preview from the Scion Companion: Mysteries of the World. This preview is just a snippet of the Atlantean pantheon, and an example of the kind of pantheon design advice this chapter will contain. Please keep in mind that this is a first draft; anything and everything is subject to change. Enjoy!

The Teros of Atlantis

In the World of Scion, Atlantis is fallen, a ruined and lost Terra Incognita. Its Gods, if they ever existed at all, are long dead. The Atlantean pantheon depicted here is optional canon, which Storyguides can choose to integrate into their campaigns if they like.

Atlantis was the first city. The birth of Ytar and Aeva, the Twin Gods of Time and Space, from the Void’s womb also marked the birth of the World, and Atlantis was there at its center. As centuries passed, humanity and its Gods came to Atlantis, refugees from some ancient crisis led through their flight by Badarus of the Oceans and Amnis of the Rivers. Ytar and Aeva, who’d grown lonely watching the World from distant stars, watched the rise of Atlantean civilization and descended to greet its Gods. The twins granted wondrous gifts to both the Gods and mortals of Atlantis — miracle-machines, god-technology, knowledge of transcendent sciences.

Atlantis became a utopia unimaginable to even the most technologically sophisticated modern societies. Towers of crystalline song gleam in the sun, their interiors twisted through hyperspatial architecture to accommodate vast foundry-temples and palatial estates. Gene-forged clone lines and memory transplant gems afford Atlantis’ nobility nigh-immortality. The mighty arsenal of the Gods, from many-minded supersoldiers to word-weapons made of living stories, held at bay the aggression of the Titans, whom Atlantis calls the Deros.

Long has Atlantis sequestered itself from the World, enjoying a splendid isolation from the tumult of what it sees as its primitive neighbors. While the myth of Atlantis is well-known throughout the World, and many seek it out, the island’s space-folding engines and singularity cloaking keeps it concealed from even the most intrepid explorers. Ruled by an immortal aristocracy and cut off from the rest of humanity, Atlantean culture has grown stagnant over the millennia. Now, some Atlantean Scions advocate for ending its isolation, for reaching out and taking a place on the World stage. They upload extensive primers on Atlantis’ history and culture to the mortal internet, and establish secret lines of communications with government leaders. Atlantis can no longer remain hidden away, but what will happen when it returns?

Principal Members

Aeva, God of Time and Death

Aeva is one of the genderless Gods of Reality, alongside their twin Ytar. When Aeva was born from the Void, their first act was to sing. Their music was the first thing in the World that had an order and a pattern to it, and the first thing that changed, marking the beginning of linear time. Though this was necessary for the World to begin, it also gives Aeva an ominous reputation, for the beginning of time was also the beginning of entropy, which guarantees death and destruction must come to all things. Aeva takes on a three-faced form, gazing into past, present, and future simultaneously.

As God of Time, Aeva is worshipped by those who seek to forestall its ravages and postpone death, illness, or decrepitude for one day more. When the end comes, Aeva solemnly oversees the dissolution of the soul into the Void. Not all of Aeva’s roles must be so grim; they’re also the protector of procrastinators, musicians, horologists, and broken-hearted lovers. Aeva’s favorite Incarnations are singers and musicians, though they sometimes take on more somber roles as hospice nurses, gravediggers, crisis hotline volunteers, and executioners. Most of Aeva’s Incarnations travel outside Atlantis, where they can escape the baleful reputation associated with them.

Aeva’s Scions are almost all Chosen; the guilt they feel over the suffering linear time causes humanity makes them reticent to create new life of any kind. They expect these Scions to do what is necessary, even if it is not pleasant, whether leading bloody revolutions to overthrow oppressive governments, providing counseling and therapy in the aftermath of tragedies and disaster, amputating a limb to save a patient, or investigating a criminal conspiracy at great danger to themselves.

Callings: Creator, Guardian, Liminal
Purviews: Artistry (Music), Death, Fertility, Forge, Health, Order, Passion (Dread), Stars

Ytar, God of Space and Void

A carefree fool and merrymaking trickster, Ytar is the other twin God of Reality. When Ytar was born from the Void, they stretched out their limbs wide, unfolding all of space so the World could take form. Their most common manifestation is a human-shaped silhouette cut out from a great darkness, filled with spinning galaxies and gleaming stars. Ytar holds no formal position among the Teros, abhorring responsibilities, but is venerated by God and mortal alike for sharing the wondrous technology of Atlantis.

As the God of Space, Ytar answers the prayers of cartographers, navigators, architects, physicists, and those seeking lost things. Much of their time is spent devising sophisticated tricks to play on both their fellow Teros and Atlantis’ mortal rulers, teaching them the lessons Ytar believes they’d benefit from learning. They can take this jovial, lackadaisical manner to excess, shunning Godly duties even in times of crisis, but their twin Aeva forces them to live up to their obligations. Ytar takes on Incarnations as a way to enjoy the variety of mortal life, often taking roles that leave him well-placed to work mischief on the powerful and haughty: a multibillionaire C.E.O.’s secretary, a president’s chief of staff, a news anchor’s makeup artist, and so on. Ytar doesn’t limit their Incarnations to staying in Atlantis, enjoying the World’s diversity, though they’re careful to keep their true identity secret.

Ytar’s Scions are usually Chosen from mortals whose mischief impresses the God of Space, or Created in their divine workshop from dark matter, crystalline nanomachines, or even stranger substances. They have some Scions through liaisons with mortals (almost always Atlanteans). Regardless of a Scion’s Genesis, Ytar’s expectations for them are the same: enjoy yourself, don’t take things too seriously, and make the World a better place. As carefree a parent as they are a God, they make no effort to control or direct their Scions, leaving some wishing they had more parental guidance.

Callings: Creator, Trickster, Sage
Purviews: Chaos, Darkness, Deception, Epic Strength, Forge, Journeys, Passion (Joy), Stars

Designing Aeva and Ytar

Aeva and Ytar fill two archetypal roles: they’re the Atlantean mythologies’ creator gods, and also divine twins. Their different roles in creating the World contrast the differences in their nature by associating them with different kinds of creation myths: Aeva’s role follows the model of the God who brings order out of the Void’s formless chaos; Ytar belongs to the ranks of the trickster Gods that play a role in creating the World.

Both Aeva and Ytar have the Creator Calling for that reason, along with their invention of Atlantis’ miracle-technology. Aeva’s role in staving off death and misfortune gives them the Guardian Calling, while their status as the God who oversees the progression of the dead into the Void gives them the Liminal Calling. Ytar’s fondness for making mischief and playing tricks that impart some vital wisdom to their recipients qualifies them for the Trickster and Sage Callings.

Aeva and Ytar share the Forge Purview to reflect their joint invention of Atlantis’ god-technology, and the Stars Purview, which encompasses both time and space. They also share the Passion Purview, but with opposite emotions. Aeva’s Artistry and Order Purviews reflect the way they created time; their Death, Fertility, and Health Purviews reflect their role as both the cause of death and a guardian against it. Ytar has Darkness and Journeys as the God of Space, Epic Strength to reflect their part in creating the World, and Chaos and Deception because of their trickster god status.

PROJECT STATUS

Here's a high-level view of the next wave of products!

Creatures of the World/Bestiary: Outline (we're refocusing it a bit after some internal discussion)

Scion Jumpstart: First Drafts

Scion Ready-Made Characters: Redlines

Scion Companion: Redlines


AND NOW OUR LATEST KICKSTARTER!

 FINAL DAYS!

Chicago By Night, an updated edition of White Wolf’s classic city book, will be Onyx Path Publishing’s first supplement for Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition.

Right now, backers have been provided with most of the approved text of the book, and we're getting some amazing and positive feedback on the writing!

We're down to the last 48 hours, so please join us and over 1600 other backers as we smash through the final Stretch Goals! Here's the link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/chicago-by-night-for-vampire-the-masquerade-5th-ed

Later in December, we'll start the They Came From Beneath the Sea! Kickstarter. Come and check out a very new and different way to play the Storypath System!

November Scion Update!
over 5 years ago – Thu, Nov 01, 2018 at 05:41:39 PM

Hello Scion Backers!

Greetings, true believers!

This is not Neall, who has ascended to demigod status and has lost his connection with The World. (Plus, he's feeling under the weather, and can't write our Update this month.)

I'm Eddy Webb, the in-house developer for Onyx Path Publishing, and the guy that has been trying to help Neall over the past several months get Scion out the door and help the next set of Scion projects move forward!

HERO ERRATA

It's been a long road, but Origin and Hero are proofed and Hero is up for errata! We're going to be closing that up soon, so if you see any typos, layout glitches, misplaced elements, or similar errors, please drop them into our handy forum thread! http://forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/main-category/main-forum/scion/1261334-errata-scion-hero

PROJECT STATUS

Here's a high-level view of the next wave of products!

Creatures of the World/Bestiary: Outline (we're refocusing it a bit after some internal discussion)

Ready-Made Characters: First Drafts

Jumpstart: First Drafts

Companion: Redlines

WHAT'S NEXT FOR SCION?

Rich, Neall, and I had an in-depth talk last week about what we're doing next with Scion. Obviously Scion Demigod was front-and-center in that discussion, but we have a few more surprises coming. It's still very early days yet -- we're at the point of kicking around book ideas and seeing if we can make them work -- but just know that The World is a massive place, so there's a lot more Scion to come!

AND NOW OUR LATEST KICKSTARTER!

Chicago lies at the center of the web that is the American heartland. Tendrils of power, wealth, and reward stretch outward, ensnaring the selfish, greedy, and unwary.

Yet, Chicago attracts its predators, too.

There are creatures that would have the city for their own, spinning their own webs of malice and intrigue. But among the city’s towering skyscrapers and wind-swept streets, who is the spider and who is the fly?

Chicago By Night, an updated edition of White Wolf’s bestselling city book, will be Onyx Path Publishing’s first supplement for Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition.

In this hardcover supplement, you will find descriptions of most of the Kindred inhabitants of Chicago, complete with 5th Edition write ups; the secret history of Chicago with detailed maps and geographical details; relationship details and factions; and dozens of encounters organized by theme, which provide Storytellers a means to make the setting come alive for the players.

If you're interested in checking out the shadowy streets of Chicago, head on over and join us: Here's the link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/chicago-by-night-for-vampire-the-masquerade-5th-ed