Problems with Deeds

[MegaBob]

I’m currently running a Scion (2^nd edition) game, and I’ve had the following issues with players and Deeds:

1. Players who don’t offer up any Deeds;
2. Players who produce unclear, poorly worded Deeds for which a specific goal is not defined; and
3. Players who have to be prodded into pursuing the Deeds they’ve put forth.

For issue (1), I’ll put forth Deeds for the player(s), and the player(s) seems to be happy with what I come up with.
For issue (2), I try to get the player(s) to re-state their Deed(s) in a clearer fashion or at least try to nail down a specific goal. This sometimes works, but not always.
These issues are sometimes connected, e.g. sometimes a player offers up a vaguely worded Deed, and has no ideas for how to go about pursuing it.

The rules concerning Deeds seem to assume an ideal level of player enthusiasm and involvement that doesn’t always occur with everyone in a real-world group of players. The issues vary from player to player, which adds to the difficulty because Deeds are the mechanism for advancement in Scion 2e, and advancement of all the characters (particularly with respect to Legend) has to occur in a synchronous fashion. I’m considering using the advancement system from Scion 1^stedition, in which players can just spend XP to buy levels in Legend and advancement need not be synchronous among the PCs.

Are any other Scion GMs experiencing a similar problem?

[Maitrecorbo]

What i did for the game i ran was that the deeds were selected after the fact.
What i mean is that at the end of every sessions we talked about what cool or memorable things each scion did. Either their own character or another players character.
Similarly, at the end of an arc we discussed on what major development each scion had during the arc.
The Band Deeds were mostly set up by me as the game was fairly directed (First time running it i was more confortable with a more rigid story).
It worked fairly well for us.

[notMidas]

I agree, it's tricky - both for the players to think of new deeds all the time and for the GM to cajole them into meeting them!

In our game, we have a short-term deed chat before the session, where we each state our intended deed, and anyone who can't think of one gets suggestions from the rest of the group. Generally it's: complete an activity began in the previous session, have a chat with another character, use a skill, act/ refrain from acting a certain way, prevent/cause something, acquire something.

The GM keeps track of the players' long term deeds so they can provide opportunities for them to be fulfilled.

We have a lot of trouble with band deeds, because we are playing a fairly sandbox open world game.

We're advancing in legend at the end of narratively appropriate arcs, rather than using the deed system as is.

[wyrdhamster]

Side question - Is it okay to change Deed in the time of perusing it? Like let's say Band has a Band Deed 'Destroy all Dragons in Scandinavia'. Would it be appropriate to change it to 'Unite Aesir gods against Dragons' as the same Deed? Or even marking 'Destroy all Dragons in Scandinavia' Deed progress BY doing actions for 'Unite Aesir', as united Aesir will lead to destruction of Dragons?

Notice: We play with houserule where you get extra Experience after each session where you tackle Band Deed main plot.