Assorted Scion Questions

[CrackedMan]

I have a few oddball things that I couldn’t find a satisfactory answer anywhere else.

1) Defense: The book says you can “reflexively” roll a Resistance attribute in response to an attack, but is it a “reflexive action” and count in mixed actions? Does the defense roll add to the base 1, or is it a “successes rolled, minimum 1” situation?

2) Mixed Actions: You take the lower die pool and split successes, but if the reflexive action doesn’t require a roll, do you just roll the dice for the action that does? Like if you wanted to draw a gun and fire it, the drawing from a holster wouldn’t need a roll, but do you have to assign it one for a mixed action?

3) Surprise Attacks & Defense: I’d assume on a successful surprise attack, the surprised people don’t get to roll defense? How would this change Antagonists that just have a higher flat score? Treat it as 1, like the PCs do?

4) Antagonists & Defensive Stunts: Can an antagonist use it’s defense score to buy stunts, like Dive to Cover?

5) Bashing vs Lethal Damage: Other than describing different kinds of conditions, is there any mechanical differences in these two types of damage? I know aggravated can only be healed by magic, but is there something like bashing will go away on its own in the 2 days/weeks, but lethal needs care?
6) Deeds: Pg 94 says 3 Deeds and there is 1 slot for each kind of Deed on the sheet. Pg 99 says you can have a max of 5 Deeds. There does not state a way to gain more, unless the Tweak allows additional ones instead of replacement ones.

That’s all I have for now, but I may come back after reading more.

[Kyman201]

1. No, reflexive defense rolls are rolled to set your defense. They're not part of a Mixed Action. Treat Defenses as "Base 1, add additional successes to improve your defense"

2. Honestly I usually don't count Reflexive Actions towards Mixed Actions if they're trivial to do. TBH I think that drawing a gun as a reflexive action and penalizing to draw and fire it is overly complicated. I save Mixed Actions for significant things such as "You're shooting at someone while riding on a motorcycle". In this case I would remember the rule of "Only roll if success is in doubt and if failure is interesting".

3. I would set an Antagonist's defense to 1 in the event of a successful surprise attack, yes.

4. No. Antagonists do not roll for defense. They would likely have Qualities or Flairs for defensive measures.

5. Bashing vs Lethal is entirely cosmetic. There's some differences in healing rates for different injuries, but IIRC those are mostly concerned with the SEVERITY of the injuries, not the damage type. I think that keeping Bashing and Lethal as damage types is a bit of an artifact from 1e, and the game would be just fine if only Aggravated damage were treated as a type of damage.

6. I believe the Tweaks section allows you to acquire additional Short Term Deeds, not replace them, for a max of 3 Short Deeds at once.

[CrackedMan]

Ok new questions! (Keeping numbering from before)

7) The book says defense stunts last until the end of the round, so does that mean once you make a defense roll, it just applies to anyone who attacks you or would you roll against a new attacker? So maybe the book means the stunts last until the end of the turn, not round?

8) Is there a limit to how much Momentum can be spent on a single roll besides how much is available?

9) I understand how the access or contact works for your Connections, but how does using the “group” version work? It’s the only one that doesn’t seem to be explicitly detailed.

[Florin]

7. Yes, the Dodge stunt sets your defense for the round.

8. As much as the group agrees to let you spend. My groups usually went for at least half to get that XP.

[Mateus Luz]

7) You roll Defense once between you act and act again, basically that's the idea. All the attacks use the same defense.

8) Not as far as I know. As you have a limit of 3 momentum per character, smaller groups means less momentum avalible.

9) I have no idea... must read this again...

[CrackedMan]

Got a couple more.

10) The sidebar on page 116 about Antagonists says that they don’t take Injury Conditions, but should have Complication penalties applied as necessary. Can anyone explain what this means or give an example?

11) The section about Tension on page 153 mentions suffering a Failure Deed, but I can’t find an explanation of it anywhere. Is that just a Deed goal that has failed?

[Mateus Luz]

10) It means the Antagonists don´t necessarily are human, and so they dont necessarily need to follow the same rules for injuries. Also, the injuries may mean different things to them, for example, you may have a character that give up the fight after loosing their health, instead of dyeing or get unconscious.
If you think the injury suffered by the antagonist is causing any form of condition, feel free to play it in your game, but it may cause complications to the GM if there are enough antagonists injured.

11) Its a Deed you are suposed to do and didnt. it may seam a bit silly, but Heroes are all about what they should do and how they should behave, thats part of their Fates. Imagine Heracles failing one of their 10 Deeds, well, he did, and the 10 become 12... good job! The rules for what is a failed deed can be as tricky as you wisha as GM, because thats how myths work...

[Florin]

11) Hero, pg. 191 explains what a Failure Deed is. It's a Deed you perform the shed a Calling, which is usually followed by an Adoption Deed to pick up a replacement Calling. It then goes on to give examples of Failure and Adoption Deeds for each Calling.

[CrackedMan]

10) It means the Antagonists don´t necessarily are human, and so they dont necessarily need to follow the same rules for injuries. Also, the injuries may mean different things to them, for example, you may have a character that give up the fight after loosing their health, instead of dyeing or get unconscious.
If you think the injury suffered by the antagonist is causing any form of condition, feel free to play it in your game, but it may cause complications to the GM if there are enough antagonists injured.

Not using Injury Conditions wasn’t my issue, it’s saying that you Complications (the rule mechanic). It’s unclear how this would be applied.

Complications are things that happen even if you succeed at a roll, unless you spend threshold successes on them. I don’t understand how this meshes with wounds the antagonists take.

[Florin]

Early Storypath games sometimes confuse Complications with increases in Difficulty. I'd say for wounds, I'd use Difficulty increases rather than Complications, unless something about the wound lends itself to a Complication. Then I'd choose that over a difficulty increase.

[CrackedMan]

Two more as I work my way through Hero now.

12) When the SG rolls (Strength + Legend) for the player Invoking a Fatebound, what is the difficulty?

13) The skills listed under Callings are just additional suggestions for Knack skills, but like your Path skills are just suggestions, you aren’t officially limited to them.

Btw, I really appreciate all the help y’all have been giving me. I recently ordered Titanomachy and Mysteries of the World, so I’ve been spurred to get these rules all in my head before I try to run a game.

[Florin]

12) With Storypath, if a Difficulty is not listed, it is 1.