​Birthright Questions

[Snakesandsuns]

Hey all,

So I think birthrights are cool but I got some questions.

1. If you earn a relic in play for example crafting a relic or convincing a magic creature to be your pet – do you have to pay experience for it? I assume from reading yes but I want to be sure.
2. What happens if the birthright you bought with exp or starter dots gets destroyed or killed? Do you get your dots back or are you just out of luck.
3. How do knacks from relics interact with the number of knacks you can have active. They are not tied to callings so how does that work out? If you can have all the relic knacks you want active doesn't that get around the purpose of calling dots?
4. Can you have multiple different groups of followers?

On another note it might be helpful to have a sticky topic on rules clarifications and questions?

[Samudra]

For 3: No, they are not Calling Knacks, so they're not bound be Calling Dots. Calling Knacks are limited by Calling Dots, so having Relics around doesn't circumvent that... they just give you their own Knacks. Relic Knacks are essentially slotted into the Relic itself... and you can indeed have as many Knacks active from them as you spend XP and that your SG let's you get away with. This also applies to Knacks gained from Guides. Also, just to clarify, a Guide can give you Calling Access, but in this case they're just giving you access to an additional Calling and you A. Need to buy the Knacks yourself and B. Need to slot those Knacks into your total number of Calling Knacks active.

For 4. Absolutely. You can have multiples of any Birthright if you can afford it.

[Kyman201]

For 2. There's no official rule in the book about losing a Birthright, but I'll say that 'Don't destroy a Player's Birthrights without refunding them' falls under a general 'Don't Be A Jackass' rule, and I'll even go so far as to say that a GM who just goes 'Yeah sorry your magic gun is destroyed sucks to be you' without making like, a quest to rebuild it, or giving you those dots back, shouldn't be GMing.

[Snakesandsuns]

Thank you both!

I have a additional 5th question as well which is inspired by the relic Designated Constellation. Almost all the relics are items from weapons to magic seals, however the Constellation opens the field up. So what is the limit on what a relic could be? Could a character have relic tattoos made of sacred inks and spells? A hour of the day (for example the darkness purview from midnight to 1am)? Also what happens when a Shen and a Theoi claim the same group of stars?

[Kyman201]

I think a Relic can be basically any sacred object.

Relic Tattoos, prosthetics, maybe magic ink with an ink brush that can bring anything it draws to life, that's great.

I hadn't thought of tying it to a particular hour or time, but i wouldn't reject the concept out of hand. It's an interesting idea.

And if the Theoi and Shen claim the same constellation... Well I wager both would use it and both passive agressively argue about who actually owns it

[Maitrecorbo]

Keep in mind if the use of your relic is limited to a particular time of the day (i love that idea btw) it would allow you a certain amount of dots as a flaw.
If its just one hour everyday like your Darkness example, I'd have it be a 4 dot flaw maybe even 5.

[Thrythlind]

My scion of Sif has one relic she can’t really use yet. Golden hair. I spent one dot to make it part of her and two for the prosperity purview.

[Nyrufa]

For 2. There's no official rule in the book about losing a Birthright, but I'll say that 'Don't destroy a Player's Birthrights without refunding them' falls under a general 'Don't Be A Jackass' rule, and I'll even go so far as to say that a GM who just goes 'Yeah sorry your magic gun is destroyed sucks to be you' without making like, a quest to rebuild it, or giving you those dots back, shouldn't be GMing.

At least in 1st edition, it was implied that Relics are practically indestructible by mortal means. So the chances of you permanently losing it in your early stories would be quite low. And by the time you run across anything that actually could destroy it, you're probably powerful enough to take care of yourself, or at least find a replacement for it.

I think a Relic can be basically any sacred object.

Relic Tattoos, prosthetics,

Probably doesn't even have to be a prosthetic. I'm pretty sure there are various cults and religions who treat the body parts of holy figures like sacred relics, too.

What a lovely birthday gift from your divine patron, the mummified hand of a warrior who died fighting giants 2,150 years ago!

[Maitrecorbo]

I think it is mentionned somewhere that you cannot use the sunder stunt to destroy a relic.
If you really need to i'd use the crafting rules. Where you need to achieve milestone in order to get closer to the goal of destroying the relic.
Even tho this is pretty much the opposite of crafting XD

[Kyman201]

I think it is mentionned somewhere that you cannot use the sunder stunt to destroy a relic.
If you really need to i'd use the crafting rules. Where you need to achieve milestone in order to get closer to the goal of destroying the relic.
Even tho this is pretty much the opposite of crafting XD

That which is made can be unmade

[Nyrufa]

That which is made can be unmade

Not when you're talking about mythological artifacts created by entities from beyond our comprehension.

[Watcher]

Not when you're talking about mythological artifacts created by entities from beyond our comprehension.

That sort of goes both ways though. Just as much as the act of creation is done by beings of unfathomable power, there are also beings of equal destructive power. Shiva should be able to destroy Relics absolutely, he is The Destroyer. He can and does destroy all of creation multiple times, which includes Relics in it.

[MorsRattus]

Generally speaking I would say gods are rarely beyond comprehension anyway. Kind if goes against the point, as typically their existence and myths are there to render the world comprehensible. They’re weird, sure, and powerful, but polytheistic gods are almost always essentially understandable.

[Nyrufa]

Generally speaking I would say gods are rarely beyond comprehension anyway. Kind if goes against the point, as typically their existence and myths are there to render the world comprehensible. They’re weird, sure, and powerful, but polytheistic gods are almost always essentially understandable.

And if it were one pantheon existing at a time, I might be inclined to agree. But the cosmology of Scion and its stance on all mythologies being simultaneously canon is hard to wrap one's head around, to say the least.

But as I said, you're probably not going to run into anything powerful enough to destroy a Relic during the early portions of your adventures, when the threats you face are still relatively mortal level.

By the time you run into something that packs that kind of firepower, you probably have access to some form of repair service, or you might even have a few back up Relics for exactly that kind of scenario.

[Kyman201]

Not when you're talking about mythological artifacts created by entities from beyond our comprehension.

Did anything I say imply it would be easy? Heck no. It's not gonna be something that can be done easily. But it CAN be done. Every Ring has its Mount Doom.

Granted, this thing mostly would serve at my tables for when my players want to destroy Relics or other objects, as again I'm not the kind of person to destroy a player's Relic.

Have them get STOLEN is an option, because then the story becomes "Get it back", which may involve rampages of revenge, bartered favors, and someone in the Band playing the distraction with some REALLY obvious lies before going "Screw it, PLAN B!" and punching a guard.

But if my players have a Magic Ritual Dagger and they find a way to get a favor from a Dragon to blast it with magical Dragonfire, then heck yeah I'm gonna count that as a Milestone to destroying the thing.

That which is made can be unmade