Storypath - 4chan · 2017-02-27 · Storypath Storypath is a roleplaying system, designed for...

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Storypath Storypath is a roleplaying system, designed for heroic adventures featuring larger-than-life protagonists. It provides a structure for a huge range of challenges and powers in a range of dramatic and intriguing settings, from distant post-human futures to the halls of ancient gods. You are likely already familiar with roleplaying games — if not, they are a set of rules for creating characters and playing out their stories, with challenges and antagonists created by a referee (or Director ) and using dice to inject an element of random chance. Modes Of Play Storypath uses a single core mechanic to resolve events in the game world. Specific changes and extensions allow this one mechanic to model three broad modes of play. Action-Adventure : Physical peril, violence and round-by-round action. This is the realm of punch-ups, car chases and defusing bombs with seconds to spare. These fast-paced scenes usually take place in real-time, with specialist rules covering combat and dramatic movement. Intrigue : Interpersonal ties, relationships and social manipulation. These scenes include interrogations, infiltrating secret social circles, and pursuing romance. They blend real-time conversation with stretches of “skipped” time, and include specialist rules for persuasion and representing different personalities. Procedural : Deductions, careful research and cunning preparation. The focus here is on solving problems through information, by gathering clues or formulating plans. These scenes take place as montages, skipping through long stretches of work, and include specialist rules for investigation and crafting. Your Character In Storypath, you (the player ) control the actions of a hero in the world of the game, guiding them through their adventures. The various talents and advantages of each player’s character are represented in three basic ways: Attributes , Skills , and Edges . Attributes and Skills are numerical values, which represent your character’s raw talent and trained expertise, respectively. They normally range between 0-5, with higher ratings indicating a greater aptitude and making it easier to overcome challenges in the game. Edges represent other special qualities a character might have, such as unique physical characteristics or external resources. The strength of each Edge is also represented by a numerical rating; these are usually referred to as dots. Attributes Attributes are a character’s most basic strengths, represented as nine different values. If you’re particularly intelligent or charming or tough, it’s represented by your Attributes. Physical Attributes These deal with a character’s bodily talents – the work of muscle and sinew.

Transcript of Storypath - 4chan · 2017-02-27 · Storypath Storypath is a roleplaying system, designed for...

Page 1: Storypath - 4chan · 2017-02-27 · Storypath Storypath is a roleplaying system, designed for heroic adventures featuring larger-than-life protagonists. It provides a structure for

Storypath

Storypath is a roleplaying system, designed for heroic adventures featuring larger-than-life protagonists. It provides a structure for a huge range of challenges and powers in a range of dramatic and intriguing settings, from distant post-human futures to the halls of ancient gods.

You are likely already familiar with roleplaying games — if not, they are a set of rules for creating characters and playing out their stories, with challenges and antagonists created by a referee (or Director ) and using dice to inject an element of random chance.

Modes Of Play

Storypath uses a single core mechanic to resolve events in the game world. Specific changes and extensions allow this one mechanic to model three broad modes of play.

Action-Adventure : Physical peril, violence and round-by-round action. This is the realm of punch-ups, car chases and defusing bombs with seconds to spare. These fast-paced scenes usually take place in real-time, with specialist rules covering combat and dramatic movement.

Intrigue : Interpersonal ties, relationships and social manipulation. These scenes include interrogations, infiltrating secret social circles, and pursuing romance. They blend real-time conversation with stretches of “skipped” time, and include specialist rules for persuasion and representing different personalities.

Procedural : Deductions, careful research and cunning preparation. The focus here is on solving problems through information, by gathering clues or formulating plans. These scenes take place as montages, skipping through long stretches of work, and include specialist rules for investigation and crafting.

Your Character

In Storypath, you (the player ) control the actions of a hero in the world of the game, guiding them through their adventures. The various talents and advantages of each player’s character are represented in three basic ways: Attributes , Skills , and Edges .

Attributes and Skills are numerical values, which represent your character’s raw talent and trained expertise, respectively. They normally range between 0-5, with higher ratings indicating a greater aptitude and making it easier to overcome challenges in the game.

Edges represent other special qualities a character might have, such as unique physical characteristics or external resources. The strength of each Edge is also represented by a numerical rating; these are usually referred to as dots.

Attributes

Attributes are a character’s most basic strengths, represented as nine different values. If you’re particularly intelligent or charming or tough, it’s represented by your Attributes.

Physical Attributes

These deal with a character’s bodily talents – the work of muscle and sinew.

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Might : Sheer physical power. Might allows you to lift heavy objects, break through or force past obstacles, attack enemies in a melee, and so on.

Dexterity : Deft physical control. Dexterity allows you to move with grace and balance, make use of fine motor skills, strike distant targets, and so on.

Stamina : Vital physical resistance. Stamina allows you to shrug off illness and poison, endure hardship and deprivation, recover from injury, and so on.

Social Attributes

These deal with a character’s interpersonal flair – natural ease and charm.

Presence : Charismatic social power. Presence allows you to make an immediate impression, persuade or bully other characters into doing what you want, and so on.

Manipulation : Subtle social control. Manipulation allows you to fit in with a crowd, discern the motives of other characters, drop subliminal hints, and so on.

Composure : Poised social resistance. Composure allows you to hide your reactions and motives, exercise self-control, endure social pressure, and so on.

Mental Attributes

These deal with a character’s cognitive ability – the measure of genius.

Reason : Intellectual mental power. Reason allows you to make logical deductions, draw on your memory and research, employ academic disciplines, and so on.

Cunning : Quick-witted mental control. Cunning allows you to react quickly to new situations, notice minor details, make intuitive leaps, and so on.

Resolve : Disciplined mental resistance. Resolve allows you to see through deception, endure pain and torture, ignore distractions, and so on.

Skills

Skills are the abilities a character acquired through training, experience and education. If you’re an expert in quantum mechanics or a champion kickboxer, it’s represented by your Skills. They vary depending on the setting – a post-apocalyptic future offers different opportunities to a Victorian globe-trotting adventure. General, common Skills include:

Academics : Knowledge of the humanities, politics and law. Useful for deciphering political systems and climates, as well as understanding bureaucracies.

Athletics : Techniques for sport, fitness and physical exertion. Useful for training, throwing objects, running and jumping, climbing, displays of physical stamina, and so on.

Culture : Knowledge of religious and cultural ideas. Useful for recalling relevant historical events, identifying cultural taboos to avoid, and understanding artwork.

Close Combat : Prowess at fighting up-close and personal. Useful for engaging in close range combat, whether bare-handed grappling or deadly knife-fighting.

Empathy : Ability to understand the psychology of other characters. Useful for discerning a character’s motives, emotions, or truthfulness, provoking emotional responses, and so on.

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Firearms : Training in the use of guns and similar projectile weapons. Useful for firing with accuracy, as well as maintaining complex weaponry.

Leadership : Knack for commanding others. Useful for co-ordinating teams, issuing direct orders, bypassing red tape, and so on.

Medicine : Education in medical practice. Useful for treating injuries and illnesses, identifying the cause of various ailments, and making use of drugs.

Occult : Knowledge of deeper mysteries. Useful for identifying or using actual magic, as well as researching secret cults and supernatural beings.

Persuasion : Ability to get others to do what you want. Useful for interrogation, seduction, bribery, honest requests, public debate, and so on.

Pilot : Experience in controlling vehicles. Useful for travelling across land, sea and even air, as well as repairing and maintaining mechanical vehicles.

Science : Knowledge of the natural sciences. Useful for identifying clues and supernatural phenomena, as well as creating useful reactions or compounds.

Subterfuge : Prowess at deception and criminal activity. Useful for lying, applying disguises, picking locks and pockets, and avoiding notice.

Survival : Techniques for surviving without modern amenities. Useful for foraging, navigating, enduring the elements, taming animals, building shelter, and so on.

Technology : Experience with modern technology. Useful for operating modern computers, jury-rigging devices, crafting and repairing tools, and so on.

Edges

Unique quirks that offer a character a constant, passive benefit are called Edges. They often provide an Enhancement to actions, allow a character to bypass specific disadvantages, or represent access to abilities or resources the character would not otherwise have.

Wealth of Croesus •••

Wealth Beyond Avarice: If a character has a Path that means they have a serious amount of cash, this Edge allows them to evoke the Path one extra time per Episode without causing a Path Challenge, only for the purposes of applying a staggering amount of cash to a situation.

Self-Defense Training •

SDT: Enhancement (1) to any Defense Trait in clash range combat.

Striking Looks •-•••

Striking Looks: Enhancement equal to cost for any roll involving physical attractiveness.

Core Mechanic

Storypath uses a single core mechanic to resolve the actions undertaken by characters. It can be used in different ways for specific situations, but always remains basically intact.

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Summary

1) Form a dice pool . This is a number of 10-sided dice equal to the sum of the most relevant Attribute and Skill for the task at hand.

2) Roll these dice. Every die that shows a number which meets or exceeds the target number of 7 provides 1 success . Dice that show a 10 instead provide 2 successes. This rule is called double-10s .

3) If you roll at least one success, you can benefit from Enhancements . These are situations or advantages that provide additional, “free” successes.

4) All tasks face a difficulty . Subtract a number of successes from your total equal to the difficulty rating. If you retain any successes after this, you succeed, and achieve your aim.

5) Any leftover successes past the first are threshold successes . Spend them to apply Stunts that improve your victory further, or to overcome Complications that could trip you up.

5) If you didn’t roll any initial successes, or didn’t have any successes left over after the difficulty, you fail . The Director may offer you a Consolation to keep the story moving.

When Not To Roll

Rolling the dice is a way of deciding what happens in the game, intended to add tension and the possibility of failure. As such, you shouldn’t bother rolling if failure wouldn’t be interesting, or if what you want to do would obviously succeed — like Googling a simple fact, or performing a task well within the bounds of your Skills under ideal circumstances.

The Director ultimately decides when you should and shouldn’t roll.

Dice Pools

To form a dice pool, add the most appropriate Attribute to the most appropriate Skill. Lifting a fallen pillar off a comrade could use (Might + Athletics), while hacking a security system might require (Reason + Technology). Dice pools are almost never modified. Dice are not added or subtracted; when a task is trickier, difficulty and Complications are used, and when the player benefits from certain advantages, Enhancements come into play. This makes it easier to memorize common dice pools.

Target Numbers

The target number is the value each of your rolled dice need to meet or exceed in order to provide you with a success. By default, it is 7. Like dice pools, target numbers are almost never modified.

Regardless of your target number, if you roll a 10 it provides 2 successes. This is called the double-10s rule, and certain powers may offer double-9s, double-8s, and so on.

Tier

In Scion , Origins -level characters roll at target number 8; Heroes roll at 7; Demigods and Gods roll at 6.

Successes & Enhancements

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Successes are the “currency” of the Storypath system, spent to overcome difficulty, pull off cool Stunts and so on. Successes come from a character’s dice pool, but if they roll even one success, they can also gain successes from Enhancements. These are advantages, like having the high ground in a fight, which provide additional successes equal to their rating.

Enhancements are never applied to failed rolls. Enhancements can only add successes to goals that they actually apply to — explosive ammunition can add successes if you’re shooting a police convoy, but it won’t help you vault a barricade, or even aid your accuracy — but all applicable Enhancements add successes.

A common form of Enhancement is Scale , representing effects of overwhelming size, speed, power or scope. Other Enhancements come with drawbacks, such as getting drunk to help yourself hide from a psychic probe.

If a character rolls at least one success with their dice pool and retains at least one success after beating the difficulty, they succeed. Spare successes past the first are threshold successes, which can be spent beating Complications and improving success with Stunts.

Difficulty

Any action that you actually roll for has a difficulty, even if it’s 0. This is the number of successes that you subtract from your total — including any Enhancements — to see if you succeed. If you don’t have successes left after difficulty, you fail.

Difficulty 0 is sufficient for many tasks — after all, it takes a Mortal about three dice to generate an average of 1 success, and any situation in which you need to make a roll is, by definition, already stressful and action-oriented. In situations where it’s simply impossible to succeed, there’s no reason to set a difficulty — just don’t roll.

Difficulty is normally set by the Director, but in some cases it fluctuates based on the ability of an opposing character. This is called opposed difficulty , and is usually generated by successes on the “defender’s” own roll. When it’s not clear who’s defending, the character with the lower success total has their successes converted into difficulty for the other character.

Complications

Difficulty represents the chance of outright failure, but it’s possible to succeed with drawbacks; a “yes, but”. These situations are represented with Complications, which inflict some kind of hindrance or injury when you succeed. Perhaps you successfully clamber over a wall, but the barbed wire wounds your leg, or tangles a coat that you have to leave behind as evidence.

Complications have ratings, indicating how hard they are to avoid. You can bypass a Complication by spending a number of threshold successes equal to its rating.

A low difficulty with Complications is usually more interesting than a high difficulty, as it forces players to choose where to assign their effort — and to consider whether they want to spend successes to overcome Complications at all, when they could be using them for Stunts.

Stunts

Stunts are a way of rewarding success beyond the basics, allowing characters to spend their threshold successes to produce additional effects, like creating useful Enhancements or Complications. Perhaps

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you successfully clamber over a wall, and even have time to create a handhold for the friend fleeing directly behind you, or confuse pursuit with a false trail.

In cases where this level of mechanical detail isn’t necessary, the number of threshold successes you’ve achieved just indicates a general degree of success, with 0 being barebones, 3 demonstrating remarkable fortune or skill, and 5 being a sublime performance worthy of fame, song, and millions of Youtube views.

Stunts are usually built using a general template, where the strength is based on the threshold successes spent on it. As they are an extension of your character’s actions, Stunts have to make sense, just like actions and dice pools. You can’t assist diplomatic talks with a Stunt for a (Cunning + Pilot) roll, unless China’s MPA representative particularly appreciates stunt driving.

Fields and Challenges

Some combinations of Enhancements, Stunts and Complications are bound up together for players to use. The most obvious example is Fields , which represent different surroundings. A disorganized, dimly-lit warehouse might offer an Enhancement to ambushes, the ability to Stunt grabbing a useful item from a box, or a Complication that makes characters get lost.

By contrast, Challenges are part of the character they’re attached to — a descriptive disadvantage or flaw, temporary or otherwise, that they must endure or overcome. These inflicts their own Complications or increase certain difficulties, but help them generate Momentum.

Injuries are treated much like hybrid Complications and Challenges - once the player’s decided to take an Injury to avoid filling their strain track, an Injury functions like a Complication that cannot be bypassed. However, they generate Momentum the first time they hinder a character to the point of failure in an episode.

Failure & Consolation

If a dice roll scores no successes, or the character cannot muster enough successes to overcome the difficulty even with Enhancements, the action fails. Simply put, you don’t achieve whatever you were hoping to. You swing and miss, your charm falls flat, you draw a blank.

The specific results of failure depend on the context, but it never ends in nothing happening. Instead, the Director moves the story onward by offering a Consolation, a minor benefit that doesn’t exactly give them what they want, by advances the group’s interests somehow.

Consolations can’t substitute for actual success, but might include information leading the character to another avenue of assault or completely different aspect of the story, a minor Enhancement offering a success to a future action, or attracting a potentially-useful NPC.

Momentum

Perhaps the most common kind of Consolation is Momentum . This is a resource that players spend to control the story’s narrative pacing and help out their characters. By default, it is an “out of character” resource, though some settings may claim it’s the very real hand of destiny at work. Each character can

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have up to 12 Momentum at any one time, though their Momentum pool starts out empty, and empties at the end of each story Arc.

Players receive a point of Momentum whenever they suffer a failure or setback as the result of a Challenge, or if they fail and accept Momentum as their Consolation. They also receive a point if they allow a Director-controlled character to manipulate them into doing something with a social roll, or whenever such a character ignores one of their own successful social actions.

Sometimes, a Director may see an opportunity to make failure more awful (and interesting) than usual. For example, rather than just whiffing their attack, a character’s weapon outright slips from their grasp. This is a botch , and if the player accepts the offer, they receive even more Momentum as their Consolation.

Director characters do not generally gather Momentum, though nemesis DPCs might be the exception to the rule. If so, their starting Momentum is noted in their traits, accruing bonuses at different points in the narrative.

Spending Momentum Momentum is generally spent in one of two ways, which may not be combined in a single action:

Once per episode , a character may expend all of the Momentum in their pool to add an equal amount of dice to one action’s roll.

At any time , if a character’s action relates to the description of their Path, a character may expend two Momentum from their pool to add two dice to one action’s roll. For Scions, Legendary Titles also count as a Path.

Scale

Storypath games span back-alley brawls to dragon-riding dogfights, often in the same adventure. Scale exists to handle these extreme circumstances, representing entities or effects on a different level than normal humans. The example given here is Size — a Might 1 weakling can struggle against a Might 5 bodybuilder, but they’re both ants in front of a T-Rex.

However, they are also exciting adventures where heroes overcome impossible odds. Scale is therefore kind to important characters; a raging giant easily crushes buildings and faceless crowds, but our heroes can dart through the chaos and face him on more even ground.

Scale Principles

Different kinds of Scale exist, each with their own unique quirks. However, all of them share three basic principles:

Rank : Scales are measured in ranks, each indicating an order of magnitude — characters with the same Size rank operate on roughly the same playing field, even if their specific heights are different. Scale 1 is always roughly human.

Enhancement : A Scale’s rank adds an automatic Enhancement to certain actions. If their target would also have an Enhancement from the same Scale, the smaller is just subtracted from the larger. If multiple Scales apply to the same action, only the largest is used.

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Overwhelming : Certain characters or objects are considered to be trivial targets, which face more extreme effects when affected by something on a higher Scale, as described below. They may even be overwhelmed without any need for a roll.

[begin tabbed table]

Scale Rank General Description Size Enhancement

1 Standard Human 0

2 Formidable Elephant, Bus +2

3 Impressive Mobile Suit +4

4 Awesome Blue Whale +6

5 Incredible Statue of Liberty +8

6 Astonishing Kaiju-Hunting Mecha +10

[end tabbed table]

Off The Scale It’s rare for a game to situations beyond Scale 6, but if you need to cover such territory, just increase the Enhancement by two each time, making sure that every new rank represents another order of magnitude.

Trivial Targets Scale represents tremendous gulfs in relative power - from massive trucks that can smear humans flat, to giant robots that can pick up such a vehicle in one hand. In Storypath, however, heroes (and villains) can survive onslaughts that should be overwhelming. When faced with an effect on a higher Scale, significant targets simply suffer the described effects. Player characters, most “named” Director characters, and plot-significant items or objects are considered significant.

Trivial targets suffer more. These are nameless mooks, background scenery, and so on. When they face an effect on a Scale one rank higher than their own, the Scale Enhancement becomes a multiplier, doubling the effect’s successes. For a Scale of 2 or greater, assume a successful roll can be resolved via player narration. If the number successes on the roll is relevant, multiply them by the listed Enhancement.

This is basically an extension of the guidelines given for when to roll the dice — only when it’s interesting and the outcome could be in doubt. When the animated Colossus of Rhodes brings his hand down on a group of Greek protesters, there isn’t any doubt.

Shockwave Some kinds of Scale generate a Shockwave, so the effects of their actions spread out across a greater range. Normally, each range increment outside of the original target reduces the effect’s Scale by two, as its force peters out – a Size 5 colossus with a Shockwave punch would hit its intended victim at Scale 5, everyone in the Clash category at Scale 3, and Near targets at Scale 1.

When resolving a Shockwave effect, roll the original action once – then apply your rolled successes and relevant Enhancements separately to each target.

Size

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In days past, giants strode alongside mortals. In times to come, monstrosities of steel and flesh will rampage through cities that bristle with sky-scrapers. This Scale represents differences in Size, from a Size 1 human to a Size 9 mountain. It applies to actions that make use of a larger creature’s weight, height and sheer strength against smaller targets – crushing, squeezing, stomping, shoving, lifting, dragging, intimidation and so on.

Special Size Rules Bigger They Are : Size has its own problems, ranging from appetite to storage space. Creatures of a larger Size suffer increased difficulty matching their usual Scale Enhancement when taking actions impeded by their weight and height — stealth, dodging, delicate manipulation and so on.

Segments : Some creatures are so big that they cannot be fought as a whole – just crippling them is a battle in itself. Creatures of a larger Size may have to be tackled as a group of distinct segments, to represent both their resilience and the impossibility of representing them in combat as a single “character”. Segments are not based strictly on size – each Segment represents a significant part of the giant character or structure’s capabilities, which it is interesting to engage and rewarding to destroy.

Do You Even Lift : The Overwhelming rules apply as normal to attempts to lift and throw trivial targets. However, the successes needed to lift something with Athletics are calibrated to a Scale 1 character — these feats should be scaled up relative to the character’s Size. If it normally takes one success for a human to lift another human, the same applies to a giant lifting another giant.

Shockwave : All violent actions enhanced by Size gain the Shockwave tag.

Action Types

Whenever a character wants to do something, they’re taking an action. Some actions require rolls, relate to particular traits, or have a mechanical effect. Others have no risk of failure, or exist purely for the sake of roleplaying. Whatever the case, these actions are divided into three types: reflexive , simple and complex .

Reflexive actions

Instinctual, instantaneous, or otherwise requiring very little effort, reflexive actions are minor moves that don’t interfere with anything else you want to do. How many you can perform at once (and when you can perform them) is up to the Director’s common sense. Examples include walking, talking or glancing around.

Use reflexive actions when what you’re doing doesn’t matter much on its own. Reflexive actions are there to set up more dramatic and interesting actions – moving into place for a sword-strike, or glancing around for a handhold to leap onto. They don’t occupy your character, your attention, or the group’s excitement, so don’t roll for them.

Simple actions

Significant, straightforward, and self-contained, simple actions occupy a character’s attention and abilities for their duration. In a time-sensitive situation governed by initiative , a character can take only one simple action each turn. Examples include attacking an enemy, hacking a computer, or sweet-talking a CEO.

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A single simple action can encompass multiple distinct movements — an attack might represent a flurry of blows, while hiding from an enemy could involve moving from one bit of cover to another, but they are both dealt with as simple actions.

Simple actions seize the attention of the group, however briefly, and have a dramatic effect on the story. As such, they often require rolls to resolve, just as described earlier.

If a character wants to split their attention between two distinct simple actions at once, it becomes a mixed action . These use the lower of the two relevant dice pools, and the player splits their rolled successes between separate difficulties for each action. If an Enhancement could apply to both actions, it does so.

Complex Actions

Taking place over an extended length of time, and requiring ongoing effort, complex actions are numerous separate actions abstracted into a single set of rolls. Examples include street races, criminal investigations, or forging a fine blade.

Complex actions are scenes in themselves, with tension that’s drawn out rather than immediately resolved as with simple actions. A foot chase could play out with a single roll as a simple action, or it could be a complex action with multiple rolls contributing to the chase’s resolution, each representing an interval of time and activity.

A complex action is resolved like a simple action, except that threshold successes are spent reaching the action’s goal — the number of successes the character must accumulate across multiple rolls in order to succeed. As a result, outright failure only occurs if the character runs out of time, though they can still fail individual rolls.

Each roll takes place over an interval of time — a police chase might use each roll to represent half a frantic minute, while library research might take an hour of reading for every roll. The length of each interval is determined by the scope of the action, while the maximum number of intervals depends on the time pressure the character is under.

Many complex actions have separate stages — each of which use distinct modifiers, goals, and even dice pools. Stages for inventing a new device might be “research and design”, then “gathering materials”, before “construction”, for example.

If a complex action involves multiple opposed participants, it is a competition . The characters each roll to reach their goal, and the one who reaches it first is the “winner”. Competitions take place under initiative rules, though this is mainly for resolving sabotage and preventing “draws”.

In competitions with multiple stages, characters who reach their stage goal must “wait” for their rivals to complete that stage. To represent their head start, they receive a free Enhancement on rolls for the next stage based on how many intervals they waited.

If a complex action involves multiple characters pooling their effort across multiple simultaneous stages, it becomes a team project . Each participant individually rolls to reach their stage goals, allowing them to complete the action far more quickly.

Time

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Storypath uses a number of narrative units to measure time within the story — e.g. scenes rather than hour. The following are shorter units appropriate to this Quickstart; longer ones include Arcs, Seasons, and Series. In some cases it’s desirable to use real time, so we’ve included default durations for each unit.

(Your) Turn : A turn is not itself a length of time. Instead, it is the moment in each round that a character takes their action(s) while acting in initiative order.

Round (Default—4 seconds) : A round is the smallest dramatic increment of time. Scenes governed by initiative are divided into rounds, which are the length of time needed for every participant to take their turn. In “real time” combat, rounds take about four seconds.

Scene (Default—1 hour) : A scene resembles a scene in a show or film, where characters interact in a single location and the focus is on a significant event, whether that’s a three-minute fight or a night-long party. Entering and leaving an action-adventure sequence governed by initiative always starts a new scene. Scenes are considered to take roughly one hour, but it’s up to the Director when the “focus” has changed enough to dictate a new scene.

Episode (Default—1 day - 1 week) : An Episode is a game session from beginning to end, from the moment the dice come out to the moment you head home (or log off). The amount of time an Episode covers can wildly vary, from an intensive and detailed hour to several weeks that the Director fast-forwards through as uninteresting “downtime”. By default, an Episode is considered to last between a day and a week.

Initiative

In action-adventure round-by-round conflicts, everyone takes their turn to act. As such, the question of who goes in what order is important, and solved by initiative.

At the start of the scene, every character rolls a dice pool representing their ability to react to events kicking off. This is usually (Cunning + Athletics, Empathy or Subterfuge). Each roll generates a turn slot for either a player or Director character, with the slots placed in order of which achieved the most successes — traits (and then Director’s preference) break the tie if there’s a draw. This is the initiative order .

The player character who achieved the most successes occupies the first player turn slot, and acts within it. Once the next comes up, the previous player decides which of their group-mates takes their turn, out of those who have yet to act this round. This cycle continues every round until no characters or turns remain, at which point it resets and the player character whose turn was last picks the next player to start the next round.

Director characters follow the same rules. The exception is characters in Focus, whose turn slot is not placed in the initiative order. Instead, they act whenever they please, taking their turn as it suits them — but do not get to choose which player character’s turn follows theirs.

Nobody can take two turns in a single round. Characters can take two simple actions in a single turn, using a mixed action, but they don’t get multiple turns.

Paths

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Paths represent pieces of a chronicle setting which characters can interact with and be a part of. Paths are the organizations characters belong to, the societies they join, the place they came from, or even a concept or setting topic that relates to their character. Each Path is important not only to a single character, but are built to give substance and meaning to the entire chronicle, as well as a holistic sense to the character’s history beyond Edges, Attributes, and Skills. In some cases, these are setting specific groups and organizations a character can be a part of; in others, these are specific to a certain chronicle or group. Characters relate to a Path through a short sentence or descriptive phrase; generally, you can say, “I am a…” before your Path phrase.

Paths can be both setting-agnostic and setting-specific. In Scion, Pantheons are specific Paths. Generic Paths such as growing up poor (Child of Poverty), being a citizen of the city (Born and Raised in Hell’s Kitchen), or even tying them to specific settings (Family of Bronx Cops), are all recommended. Almost all characters have an Origin Path , or a Path that describes a major part of their upbringing, whether it’s recorded or not (after all, everyone has a history). Frequently, player characters will have a Role Path , or a path that reflects their former profession. Supernaturally-powerful characters may have a third Path (or more), reflecting their colorful histories and talents. In Scion, Pantheons are Paths with Virtues , one-word descriptors of principles important to the organization or pantheon.

Paths contain a number of standard elements:

• Common Edges: Most Paths will have Edges associated with them, such as Toughness for an ex-boxer, or Performer for a character more-or-less raised in a conservatory.

• Relationships: Characters on a Path will have other characters who are useful acquaintances, acquired over the course of her life and work. A colleague, a lover, or just someone to trade favors with. Origin Paths are particularly notable for this, though Role Paths often serve the same function.

• Asset Skills/Specialties: When a character takes this Path at character creation, they receive Specialties of the player’s choice in the two listed Asset Skills. More specific Paths (such as Pantheons) grant listed Specialties particularly relevant to their groups .

Paths can grant several things via inference:

• Access to equipment . The character can gain access to any equipment relevant to the Pathway (normally restricted to common items; high-cost items or mean the character has to take a Challenge, as described below).

• Access to locations. Some locations in the game might be restricted for most characters — military bases, exclusive clubs, an underground fighting ring, a corporate boardroom. The character has access to any locations that are relevant to their character’s standing in the Path. A cop would have access to an evidence room, while a general would have free reign over a military base.

• Access to networking/relationships. Pathways infer connections to an entire ecosystem of individuals, including relevant allies or contacts.

• Momentum Expenditure: As stated above, if an action the character is taking relates to a Path, so long as the character has at least two Momentum in her pool she may expend that Momentum to add two dice to that action’s roll.

Evoking the Path

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If a character’s Path would allow them to access something reasonable, they get it, simple as that. An American police officer, for example, would have access to the police station and restricted evidence files; weapon ammunition and additional training, whatever. Once per Episode, they may evoke their Path without penalty - push the limits in one of these areas and narratively redefine the situation for the player’s benefit. Need some tear gas? The police station’s got it. Break your buddies into the evidence room? You got it. Sheriff’s deputy giving you jurisdictional guff? Evoke the Path and it’s because he’s yanking your chain - you both went to the academy together, only you ended up a beat cop and he decided to join the Sheriff’s department. Evocation might require a roll at the Director’s discretion, but the player can always spend Momentum on that roll.

Path Challenges Paths grant you access to anything that makes sense for the character, but if the character tries to evoke their Path more than once an Episode, or if the player fails their access roll, a Path Challenge comes into play. This works like any other Challenge (including generating Momentum), but locks down access to the rest of the Path’s features. “Turn in your badge and gun,” da chief says to the maverick cop who’s pushed the line too far, too hard, too fast.

You can also deliberately call down a Path Challenge when you evoke a Path, generally to earn more Momentum when your life is made harder because of it.

Path Examples

Privileged Upbringing “Hang on, let me call my friend. She knows a guy on the consulate staff.”

You have never gone hungry. You have never been cold. If you wanted something, it was yours. You probably thought that this was how the world just worked until it became impossible to ignore—how you coped with being treated fundamentally differently from the vast majority of the human race is your own business. There are certain doors open to you that aren’t open to others, places you can go and things you can get away with thanks to your wealth, your networking, and whatever else sets you apart. But being set apart means you’re different, and while that has been good to you, it also means you are completely disconnected from the vast majority of people. They’ve never tasted caviar, never flown in a private jet, never gone on a safari—their experience is completely outside your context, and there are a lot more of them than there are of people like you.

Relationships: The Media, CEOs, Glitterati, Your Bodyguard

Asset Skills: Academics, Persuasion

Incarnate

“I’d almost forgotten what it felt like.”

All your life, you’ve had a strange sense that you aren’t really you, that you’re someone else looking out through your eyes. Turns out, your gut instinct was right, and sooner or later, you realized the truth in a flash of insight, an epiphany to end all epiphanies—you are a deity reborn in human flesh, a single facet of some infinitely bright jewel now shattered. The memories of the life you once lived come only as flashes here and there, glimpses of nigh-incomprehensible glory that only hammers home the fact that you, the you that exists in this time and place, is at best the larval stage of something cosmic. Will there

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be anything left of the you-that-is when you do seize that celestial mantle, or will this singular viewpoint be engulfed by the greater self? Can you hope to change who you once were into who you now are? To be one of the Corporeal is to ever be at the center of a game of tug-of-war, and there can only be one winner.

Relationships: Family and Friends (Who Don’t Understand), Ancient Allies or Servants, Old Enemies

Asset Skills: Culture, Leadership

Fire Purview The Purview of Fire is held by gods who wield mastery over flame, magma, or forge, from Hephaestus to

Agni to Pele. It holds sway both over literal flames, which hold power to destroy and create and the

metaphorical flames that may burn in the mortal heart, from the fires of sultry passion to the illumination of

enlightenment.

Marvels: Marvels of Fire often cause fortuitous events to happen as a result of a chance fire or a false

fire alarm, or through the coincidental action of mortals who are strongly associated with fire, such as

smokers, firefighters, or arsonists. Destinies woven from flame may alternatively manifest because of a

sudden outburst of inspiration from a mortal.

Heaven’s Fire

The Scion calls divine fire up from the depths of her soul, her ichor running hot with the fury of her Purview.

Cost: Imbue 1 Legend Action: Simple

The Scion sends a blast of flame into the World, whether it emanates from her eyes or simply blazes a fiery path through whatever she snaps her fingers at. Dexterity + Athletics as an attack. Her fireblasts have Enhancement 3, clash/near/far range, and the Autofire, Deadly, Piercing, and Ranged tags.

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The Teōtl of Mexico “I bet a hundred sacrificial captives on Club América to score twice in the second half.”

In the morning of the world, the seven Nahua clans emerged from seven caves and moved to the state of

Aztlān. But Huītzilōpōchtli, god of war, the sun, and human sacrifice, had bigger plans for one of these

clans, the Mēxihcah. He urged them out of Aztlān, forbidding them the demonym which would identify

them as denizens of that place, bidding them wander until they saw an eagle perching on a prickly pear

cactus and eating a snake. This they found on an island in the middle of Lake Texcoco; and on this site, on

1325- 06 -20, they founded México -Tenōchtitlan. Over the next hundred years, the Mēxihcan city state rose

to prominence over its eventual partners in the Triple Alliance, Texcoco and Tlacopan; and

Huītzilōpōchtli’s influence grew in tandem with the empire of the Mēxihcah, which would last one hundred

years.

But tragedy struck in the year 1519 CE, when Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro and his army of

invaders from the faraway land of Spain joined forces with the states of Tlaxcala and Cempoala to shatter

the Mēxihcah’s dominance over the region. Some attribute the fall of Tenōchtitlan to the power of

Quetzalcohuātl, Huītzilōpōchtli’s brother and rival and the patron god of Tlaxcala. Was the conquistador

Cortés really a Scion of the Feathered Serpent? Would the god of wisdom, light, justice, and mercy really

urge violence against his warlike brother god? The Teōtl aren’t telling; and in this age, Quetzalcohuātl and

Huītzilōpōchtli stand together against greater threats from without. Supposedly.

The Teōtl have survived the death of their empire, the marginalization of their culture, and the extirpation

of their religion and even their historical records. They know intimately what it is to live on the edge of

extinction. Each Scion they invest, therefore, can expect to be the subject of close scrutiny and fervent

hope. Right now, Scions are all they’ve got.

Principal Members

Chicomecōātl: agriculture

Cōātlīcue: motherhood

Huītzilōpōchtli: war, sun, sacrifice, the city of Tenōchtitlan

Ītzpāpālōtl: infant mortality, death in childbirth, butterflies

Michlantecuhtli: spiders, owls, bats, death

Quetzalcohuātl: wisdom, light, justice, mercy, wind, dangerous white people

Tecciztecatl: the moon

Black Tezcatlipōca: war, night

Tlāloc: rain, fertility, water

Xīpe Totēc: agriculture, vegetation, the east, disease, spring, goldsmiths, silversmiths, liberation

and the seasons

Xiuhtecuhtli: volcanoes, life after death, warmth in cold, light in darkness, food in famine.

Xōchiquetzal: fertility, beauty, female sexual power, young mothers, pregnancy, childbirth, crafts practised

by women such as weaving and embroidery

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Xiuhtecuhtli, Turquoise Lord of Fire and Time, Day and Heat

Other fire gods burn wild and bright, their flames wide -ranging and all- consuming; but Xiuhtecuhtli is

different. Xiuhtecuhtli is the god of the positive sparking to life amidst the negative, a single brilliant point in

a black ocean: a torch lit in a cave, a full meal in the midst of a famine, a tight embrace on a frozen

morning, a life that lives after death. As the mother and father of the Teōtl, their beginning, he’s the spirit

of the first fire lit by the first humans to fight the killing cold, smoky and small and sputtering and yet

warmer than anything else in all the world.

Xiuhtecuhtli is the patron of merchants, volcanoes, and the Mēxihcan emperors. He appears as a young

man, sitting with his arms crossed over his knees, with a turquoise mask, a turquoise crown, and a

turquoise butterfly pectoral. Attending him are the lovely cotinga and the flame serpent. His symbols are

the flint and the rubbing -sticks, the first humans’ tools for making fire. He is married to Chalchiuhtlicue

(but who isn’t, really).

Callings: Creator, Guardian, Healer

Cosmography

Cipactli was a giant sea monster with innumerable mouths, part fish, part crocodile, and part frog.

Tezcatlipōca tempted Cipactli to its death by cutting off his own foot and using it as bait. Then he and

Quetzalcohuātl transformed Cipactli’s head into the thirteen heavens, its body into the World, and its tail

into the nine underworlds. Dying humans pass into different afterworlds and join different teōtl according

to the manner of their death: casualties in ritual warfare arrive to Huītzilōpōchtli’s heaven, for instance,

whereas women and children who die in childbirth go to Ītzpāpālōtl’s side.

The first Mēxihcah emerged from the womb- world of the Seven Caves and settled in Aztlān, legendary

original home of the Nahuatl -speaking peoples. Historians suppose that if Aztlān were a real physical

place, it would lie somewhere in northwestern Mexico or the southwestern United States; but in the World,

it is a terra incognita. Huītzilōpōchtli hates everything that reminds him of Aztlān, the land he left behind so

he could rule something real, especially that one name—you know the one—by which modern folk call the

empire of the Triple Alliance. But the Mexico he loved best is lost; and it may be time for the Teōtl to find

ancestral Aztlān once again, before the Titans get there first.

Birthrights

CreatureMagical serpents pervade Mesoamerican mythology. Feathered serpents come in all sizes, and represent

the duality of existence in their ability to fly to the heavens or slither on the ground, with Quetzalcohuātl as

their chief. Xiuhtecuhtli commands flame serpents, and Mixcoatl is a cloud serpent. There’s also the

āhuizotl, a dog like river creature with a hand at the end of its tail, which loves the taste of human eyes,

teeth, and nails; it lures victims to its watery grotto by crying like a lost baby. If you’re friends with Tlaloc,

to whose realm the āhuizotl’s victims go, you might get to sic one on your enemies.

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FollowersThe Triple Alliance’s orders of knighthood included the eagle knights, who called upon the power of

Huītzilōpōchtli and the sun, and jaguar knights, who called upon the power of Tezcatlipōca and the moon.

These elite warriors wielded magically empowered arms and armor (see Relic) and specialized in

capturing enemies alive for later sacrifice to the Teōtl.

GuideOutside the formal priesthood, various witches, healers, hermits, and other arcanists existed on the

periphery of Mēxihcah society. These hedge magicians were feared and hated for their mysterious

abilities and desperately invoked by those who could find no help among the ordained clergy of the Teōtl.

RelicYou can get pulque, a thick white alcoholic beverage made from fermented agave sap, most places in

Mexico these days. But it’s derived from iztāc octli, a magical drink invented by the goddess Mayahuel.

Iztāc octli was given to priests and sacrificial victims to improve their mood or ease their pain, and its

magical benefits usually outweigh the alcohol’s depressive effects (or don’t, sometimes, if that’s what

you’re going for). The battle dress of the aforementioned eagle and jaguar knights was magically

empowered as well (see the Nagualism Purview); the round feathered shields they carried were often

enchanted.

SanctumCentral America is famous for its stepped pyramids. Unlike the Egyptian pyramids, which are tombs, these

pyramids are beautifully decorated structures which often boast temples and sacrificial altars on their

peaks.

ReligionThe temples of the Nahua were once vibrant and proud. There was a meticulously kept calendar, the pride

of Xiuhtecuhtli, replete with festivals. As the Triple Alliance dominated culture after culture, foreign gods

such as Xīpe Totēc of the Tlapanec were invited into the company of the big four (Tlaloc, Huītzilōpōchtli,

Quetzalcohuātl, and Tezcatlipōca). In addition to military religious orders, wandering occultists, and the

holy emperor of Tenōchtitlan, an elaborate hierarchy of exhaustively educated priests and priestesses

enjoyed great prestige and extensive duties. There were songs, dances, lavish decorations, and delicious

food.

Also there were human sacrifices. Lots of them. Slaves, prisoners of war, and sometimes even the upper

classes were sacrificed to every Teōtl; and worshippers from all classes ritually bled themselves to feed

their gods. It’s this last issue that’s given the Teōtl trouble in the twenty- first century. They’ve got that

taste for human blood, now. Animal sacrifice is nice, it just ... isn’t the same. As Mesoamerican religion

dwindles to near extinction, some hardliners argue that the time has come to resurrect the old ways—that

the choice is between human sacrifice and religious extinction.

Asset Skills and Specialties

Skills: Culture, Technology

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Specialties: Agriculture, Astronomy

Virtue:HungerandSacri�iceThe Teōtl hunger. During the two hundred years when the Mēxihcah ruled Tenochtitlan, they consumed

massive quantities of flesh, blood, and fire, their empire’s warfare practices based around capturing

sacrificial captives to kill and offer to the ravenous teōtl. But for one to eat, another must be eaten; for one

to have, another must give something up. To create the earth, Tezcatlipōca had to cut off his own foot and

use it as bait for Cipactli, who in turn had to die so the world could be made. When Tēucciztēcatl

chickened out of leaping into the sacrificial fire that was necessary for the creation of this age’s sun,

Nanāhuātzin selflessly dove in ahead of him, shaming Tēucciztēcatl into leaping after him. As an affiliate

of the Teōtl, this dichotomy is yours to grapple with; you can’t just dress someone up as a Teōtl and

sacrifice them instead, which is what the Mēxihcah used to do. To consume sacrifice, to demand the

obedience and resources of others, is to become more powerful; but your godlike hunger risks devastating

the World around you. To sacrifice to others is necessary, but can the ultimate hunger make the ultimate

sacrifice?

Pantheon-Specific Purview: Nagualism

The exalted Teōtl have an interesting relationship with animals. The teōtl and their religionists often

transform themselves into animals, or call upon the power of animals to increase their own. This isn’t the

polymorphic shapeshifting of the Greeks or the direct command of so many Beast Purview gods; no, this is

a focus on and devotion to a single animal spirit or a small number of animal spirits. Students of nagual can

transform themselves into animals, call upon an animal form to increase their strength, or even empower

others through their own animal form.

Emanuel Montero Background: Emanuel’s childhood was a labyrinth, a palatial home connected to his father’s palatial office atop a skyscraper by a black-windowed armored limousine. He knew his servants better than his parents, who called him their “little prince” but appeared only for birthdays and special occasions, and with them always came the cameras. He learned to handle the paparazzi before he learned what love was, learned how to track his father’s telecom business on the financial news channels before he learned the name of another child his age. He had everything he could possibly desire except an end to his isolation.

The first revelation came when he was still a child, abducted in a terrifying firefight that young Emanuel was not equipped to understand. His captors were very nice to him, fed him food he’d never had before, but he did not know them, nor did he know the other children he could see from the tiny window of the room. He did not quite understand until his father paid an unholy sum of money for his return that other children do not live this way. Upon Emanuel’s return, his father was convinced he’d been brainwashed, but in truth he’d simply seen for the first time that his world was not the light, but the shadow that light cast upon the wall. Emanuel would never be the same, would always carry with him

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what his father called an “unhealthy fixation” on the needs of others, which would lead him to advocacy and charity work the moment he was old enough to be taken seriously. His father was not pleased.

The second revelation came years later, while mountain-climbing with friends from the expensive American school his father sent him to after paying for an ambassadorial appointment to the US. As Emanuel sat atop an outcropping of rock, arms crossed, the wind whipped at him, and he had a sudden realization: I have done this before. In his mind he saw vast crowds prostrated before him stretching out as far as he could see, a throne beneath him, the skies opening wide as the sun shone down upon him. Something vast filled him, and though it left again but a heartbeat later, it did not leave Emanuel unchanged. He knows that for all that he is barely college-aged, he is incomparably old, that great power awaits him, and all he must do is grasp it. The only one question remains—will he be seize that power for himself, as seems only right, or for others, as his heart all but demands?

Description: Though barely 20, Emanuel has managed to cultivate a thin mustache, and he takes great pride in it. His father would skin him alive if he caught him in anything but tailored suits, which is precisely why he maintains a secret wardrobe that lets him fit in outside the rarified atmosphere of the halls of power and privilege. Here, he musses his hair ever so slightly, smokes off-brand cigarettes, and generally tries to be a part of the world outside his father’s bubble—but he hasn’t quite got the trick of authenticity down just yet.

Name: Emanuel Montero

Divine Parent: Xiutechutli Paths: Privileged Upbringing (Ambassador’s Son); Incarnate of Xiutechutli, the Turquoise Lord; Scion of the Teōtl of Mexico Virtues : Hunger and Sacrifice

Might 1, Finesse 2, Vitality 3; Presence 4, Grace 3, Poise 2; Reason: 2, Cunning: 3, Discipline: 2

Callings: Leader ••, Creator ••, Guardian •

Knacks: --

Boons: Fire: Heaven’s Fire

Skills: Academics 2 (Aztec History), Athletics 1, Close Combat 2, Culture 3 (Aztec Culture), Empathy 4, Leadership 5 (Public Speaking), Persuasion 3 (Building Trust), Science 2, Subterfuge 1, Technology 2

Edges: Striking Looks ••, Wealth of Croesus ••, Self-Defense Training •

Legend: 3 (Xiuhtechutli Reborn, Whose Gaze Conquers Mountains With the Future in His Wake)