Quote from: SosthenesWe're still talking about White Wolf here, right?

Does it particularly matter? I mean, I can look outside right now and get a feel for what a modern setting is like. I don't need a primer on automobiles, convenience stores or firearms. Maybe once I get further in the book I'll have a better idea for waht's lacking or not - but I already expect very little to be there.

Quote from: WilIf it's set in the modern world, what kind of setting material do you expect? I'm not a huge fan of the game or anything (I just started reading it), I'm just wondering.

Other than games that are exclusively about playing people in the normal world I can't think of a modern game that doesn't have a setting.  Whether it's Con X, World of Darkness, Dark Matter, Spycraft or any other there's something special going on in those games that makes discussion of how the special thing manifests in the world important.  Bad guy organizations, strange locations, how people with special powers influence government and the world about us, and other topics are natural and helpful to include.

Where people are running around flying around on pegasai plugging giants with their trusty revolver Mjolinar it seems like some amount of discussion of what this world is like would be presented.  Does the media hound such events?  Do the events tend to take place outside the sight of mortals (perhaps for fear that more strands of Fate will attach to the participants)?  Are there any interesting organizations related to Scions?  If the return of the Gods and Titans is very public, what's the reaction like in the Judeo-Christian community?

All that said, the lack of Wealth and Influence and other sorts of backgrounds/values like those and a heavy focus on combat and 'bringing the awesome' lead me to believe that the goal of the game is to ignore all that crap and kick Titan butt.  If the world changes around you, neat, but the point of the game isn't how major religions react to you killing a 5 story tall wolf.  It's about killing a 5 story tall wolf in as awesome a manner as possible.  It's not about how well you can convince a corporation to work with you, it's about using your Epic Charisma to convince Hephaestus to build you machine gun that fires Essence of Basilisk bullets.

Quote from: SosthenesWe're still talking about White Wolf here, right?

A few years back, that rhetorical question would have been quite to the point, but White Wolf isn't the same beast it used to be. The new WoD has also been criticized for its lack of setting material by people who miss the overwrought, metaplot-heavy old days. Can't say I understand that mentality myself, but it's there. Personally, I dig the hell out of the new modular, toolbox approach found in everything WW puts out these days. I haven't really paid attention to Scion (WW gets enough of my money), but an educated guess says it's no different in that respect.

Okay, I didn't realize that they didn't address it at all. Of course, I'm having a hard time recalling...did American Gods spend any amount of time dwelling on those sorts of issues?

I'm going to get it. Ever since WW released nWoD I've only been getting their "mortals" stuff. I bought Promeathean -which I really dig - and I think I can do a lot of damage (in a good way) with Scion. I got a lot of mileage by stripping down Hunter and I think I could do the same with this game. As for setting, I hear 1920's Shanghai is a good place to visit . There's an old Harlan Ellison story (can't remember the title) which sounds perfect for a game like this.

Regards,
David R

Quote from: SosthenesWe're still talking about White Wolf here, right?

The game's not supposed to be set in the World of Darkness but rather in the modern world exactly as we know it. But the two expansion volumes will apparently describe the mythic "terrae incognitae" and the Underworld in the second book, and the Overworld of the gods in the third and last one.

Quote from: WilDoes it particularly matter? I mean, I can look outside right now and get a feel for what a modern setting is like. I don't need a primer on automobiles, convenience stores or firearms. Maybe once I get further in the book I'll have a better idea for waht's lacking or not - but I already expect very little to be there.

There are lots of games set in the modern world, but most of them have considerable amounts of setting detail. So there's a war going on between the Titans and the Gods (or something like that). It would be quite interesting to know what parties are fighting this war, since when and in what way this parallel modern existence differs from our.

Is this the World of Darkness, or a variant thereof? So there's lots of pantheons included, how do these interact with each other, i.e. is there some all-encompassing religious truths (or at least some hints about that).

This is stuff I'd be expecting. Maybe some of that is in there, alreadly, but just saying that a game is set in the modern world doesn't fill all the gaps.

I really assume there's a metric buttload of stuff coming from WW, probably including "Ancestorbook: Hö?r", so it would be good to have some perspective on things to come. I could start gaming right now, but what if the next books are really good and kinda contradict my own meta-mythology?

Quote from: SosthenesIs this the World of Darkness, or a variant thereof?

Nope.

QuoteSo there's lots of pantheons included, how do these interact with each other, i.e. is there some all-encompassing religious truths (or at least some hints about that).

Some Gods have rivalries with other Gods that share similar domains of influence.  That's all we know.  The closest the game gets to religious truths is that the Gods are shaped and changed by the stories and legends that are created around them, a process called Fateweaving in the game.  It's why the Gods have had little contact with humanity for so long.

QuoteI really assume there's a metric buttload of stuff coming from WW, probably including "Ancestorbook: Hö?r", so it would be good to have some perspective on things to come. I could start gaming right now, but what if the next books are really good and kinda contradict my own meta-mythology?

Just three books, and the whole line will be out and done with before Gen Con.  Demigod comes out at the end of May.

No metagame, no multiple shelf feet of support books? Sounds rather odd from an economic perspective. Wonder whether we'll see more of that stuff from WW. Wonder whether this wasn't intended as something bigger but got cut short after the acquisition...

Quote from: SosthenesNo metagame, no multiple shelf feet of support books? Sounds rather odd from an economic perspective. Wonder whether we'll see more of that stuff from WW. Wonder whether this wasn't intended as something bigger but got cut short after the acquisition...

Nah, their current model involves maintaining their big IPs while releasing more short run games.  Promethean, for example, was just a 5 book run.

Quote from: WilIf it's set in the modern world, what kind of setting material do you expect? I'm not a huge fan of the game or anything (I just started reading it), I'm just wondering.

How the gods and monsters are active in the modern world.  How the setting is unlike the real world we live in as a consequence of the existence of scions and titanspawn.

Quote from: SosthenesNo metagame, no multiple shelf feet of support books? Sounds rather odd from an economic perspective. Wonder whether we'll see more of that stuff from WW. Wonder whether this wasn't intended as something bigger but got cut short after the acquisition...

Just to make sure it's known, I am not a huge White Wolf fan. But yours is a specious statement because there have been White Wolf game lines that are only a limited number of books. Adventure! comes to mind. Even Exalted 2e, to my knowledge, is not going to have any thin splats. We get a fat splat, a Compass of Celestial directions book for each fat splat, and maybe a couple of others and that's about it. The odd thing from an economic perspective is the expectation that more books = more sales. I didn't make sense to me when it appeared to be working for companies like White Wolf, and I think that the sales strategy for any particular game line or game company is probably much more complicated than "keep producing books to make money" vs. "make as much money as you can from a limited production run and then stop."

Quote from: C.W.RichesonPromethean, for example, was just a 5 book run.

And Changeling: The Lost will be another... Personally, I'm far more interested in that one than in Scion, since I already have a god game that I'm happy with.

Quote from: hgjsHow the gods and monsters are active in the modern world.  How the setting is unlike the real world we live in as a consequence of the existence of scions and titanspawn.

See, I can pretty much tell you what the consequences are but I ain't tellin' I don't need the books to lay that out for me.

Quote from: WilAdventure! comes to mind.

And so does Orpheus, especially as a single campaign will run through all the books in a similar fashion.