Transitioning from origin to hero

[Ravynwinter]

I am running a Scion game from Previsitation through Ragnarök

I ran this scenario in the first edition many years ago and had to move away from my gaming group before the conclusion
Last time we ran for 18months and got up to Demigods

The last time I ran it there was no real previsitation book. But I did a Previsitation by making them play Word of Darkness mortals and not telling them we were really playing Scion until it was revealed that they were in fact Scions.

Character creation was a little bit railroad because I told them they had a common friend and all characters were estranged in some way from at least one parent.

So they all met at the funeral of one of the characters spouses
Halfway through the viewing the corpse sat up a gave a prophesy indicating that the 5 players were fated to either save the world or damn it in Ragnarök.
Then bad guys show up and fleeing and fighting begins. Heroes win only to be confronted by Cronus who then severs the characters from time and space.

What followed was a sliders/Odyssey-style story with characters jumping from reality to reality trying to get back home.

3 sessions in they find a safe haven and ally who say by the way your all Scions And some objects have been waiting here for you.

In the second edition, there is a whole book dedicated to previsitation but I can't find a clear way that characters transition from Origin to Hero.

What I want to do is write the story in 4 arches

1. Previsitation fleeing the agents of Chronus
2. Characters figure out there is a method to get home and search for the keys

1. Each will undergo a herculean trial or labor that provides some tool or weapon for the coming apocalypse
2. Ragnorok.
   
   My questions
   
   How do I transition from origin to hero and when?
   1. do one big visitation nice and neat everyone progresses together but less interesting.
   2. do they quest to find their parents that would be five quests where some characters become heroes before others? Narratively better.
   3. If I do it between arch 1-2 then it might rush arch 1
   4. If I transition between 2-3 then it messes with the progression I have in mind.
      
      Finally is there a point in the new books that speak to transitioning from Origin to Herol

[Hayashi]

Trying to answer in the best of my ability, that is far from being the best available in the Forums, but anyway...

1. Well, to my understanding Visitations are individual things. Except that everyone is Scion of the same "entity" (yes, there are Scions of beings that are not exactly gods in 2nd edition. Also yes, you can have an entire group of players Scions of the same God and all of them being totally different and efficient) or at least same pantheon, it would be really weird everyone being Visited at the same scene. Yes, everyone could be Visited at the same time, just in different scenes. Not necessarily who "Visits" is the God/patron of the character, however. Sometimes the Gods are busy doing Gods' stuff and then they send other beings to tell the character: "Hey, here is the deal. [patron God(ess)] chose/created/conceived you and now you've kickass powers. Here are some shiny Birthrights too! Go do something!"

2. I like this idea. It gives time to people get used to SP system (that is what I honestly think Origin level is about) to then upgrade to some more mechanics when you scale to actual Hero level. They can also have their Birthrights being aquired during this journey.

3. By what we know, more from the fiction of Donnie Rhodes in Origin book than actual mechanical information, Visitation means that you pass to understand yourself and the World in a different way when the truth that you are actually a Scion kicks in. The blood of the character literally changes its composition, the mystical and divine powers are made known to the character that now knows how to use them the same way they know how to breath. That, of course, varies a lot depending of the characther, their god, the story, and their players.

4. Mechanicaly speaking, after being Visited AND accepting the burdens that Fate puts over your shoulders in saying: "Now I'm a Scion of [your God here]!" carries, you get +2 Callings, +4 points on them (and equivalent Knacks), +1 Legend, Purviews (pantheon and the one of your parent) and Birthrighs or additional Callings (that is the character creation for Hero, iirc). That is a quite big power raise, so it may be hard for the players to assimilate all of this at once. That's why I reccomend, as you suggested, to guide their rise to this power level at small steps (at one episode, they got Legend, in the other, one of their Birthrights, and so on...). What I don't like on this approach: it requires the characters already built at Hero level, and then they go step by step aquiring what is their sheets. Maybe people like it. Maybe it frustrates people.

[wyrdhamster]

If you need a bit simpler Visitation - like not needing character to be in body in particular Overworld locations or Terra Incognita - you can easily steal idea of Awakening from ( any version ) of Mage or Matrix franchise - and make Visitation as super dream for character. I made it for my players and they seems cool with that.

Only one nitpick - by Scion Origin and Hero books - remember that after Visitation, new Scions have golden Ichor instead of their previous red blood. Even if Visitation would be a dream, there will be this particular physical reminder of it.