Would You Mix Scion and the Mythos?

[omenseer]

I read through Masks of the Mythos. I waited for their arguments to swing me to say, "Yes, sure mix in the Cthulhu Mythos in some games. That's cool," but never got there. None of what was presented really made me think it was a good idea.

Does anyone else here like the idea? If so, what pushed you towards that?

What about scion, but with just the mythos stuff? I could get behind that.

[Baroness Nerak]

Maybe just as a one shot. That said, I might run a Mythos game without Default Scion pantheons.

[No One of Consequence]

With the caveat that I am still waiting for my copy to arrive in the mail, I look at it as akin to classic Lovecraft stories and Call of Cthulhu RPG games, save that the investigating PCs are powerful enough to fight the Mythos directly toe to toe, be it as Heroes fighting Cults and monsters or Thor and Kali literally punching Cthulhu in the face until he goes to sleep for another eon. At least that is how I plan to use it. (Also, probably as a standalone with the PCs aspiring to effectively be the Titans of the Mythos and tear down and destroy the Great Old Ones.)

[Florin]

I've been eyeing it as a way to run The Magnus Archives in Scion.

[omenseer]

These comments are reassuring. Glad it's not just me.

The Magnus Archives?

[literatzi]

Feel about the same as others. No desire to use Mythos (or Dragon) in any Scion game I run or play in, but as standalone settings I think they'd be cool.

[Florin]

These comments are reassuring. Glad it's not just me.

The Magnus Archives?

Horror anthology podcast which has an overarching plot which is very Lovecraftian in nature. https://rustyquill.com/show/the-magnus-archives/

[demonchilde]

Personally I like the idea of working the Mythos into the Scion setting. I used them as the ultimate antagonist behind a Halloween-themed adventure for my Scion group a few weeks back and the group is talking about possibly investigating more into that at some point after they finish the Deeds they're primarily focused on so it may turn into something more. So we'll see where that goes, but I have no problem incorporating them into the setting.

I am a little more leery about mixing Mythos Scion player characters with standard Scion player characters. Because the way the Awareness vs. Legend works can cause a disparity in Legend between the player characters. While not a huge deal at the Hero stage, it does throw off the timing when the rest of the party is ready to go on to Demigod and the one Mythos player is lagging behind at Legend 3 because they wanted to increase their Awareness. And I feel progressing through Apotheosis would exacerbate that since every time the Mythos Demigod stopped to raise Awareness instead of Legend, is another Divine Deed that gets put off while the rest of the party advances.

The optional ability to increase Awareness through the acquisition of Mythos relics is a good alternative that could work in that situation. But I wish there were more support for how exactly that would work in the book. What does a relic like that look like mechancis wise, etc. So I think if one of my players approached me and said they wanted to play a Mythos Scion in our currently-standard Scion game, I'd be a little hesitant and would need to work out some mechanics and expectations with the player. But I'm willing to entertain the idea.

All in all, I think they can mix well enough if the group is into it the Storyguide is willing to work with any Mythos players to keep it from bogging down the overall story flow.

[No One of Consequence]

I'm pondering the idea of a bunch of Titanic Scions gathered from various Pantheons selected as a sort of anti-Mythos suicide squad to go up against these gods/cults that even most of the Titans don't like for various reasons.

[omenseer]

I'm pondering the idea of a bunch of Titanic Scions gathered from various Pantheons selected as a sort of anti-Mythos suicide squad to go up against these gods/cults that even most of the Titans don't like for various reasons.

An interesting idea. One shot or short chronicle?

[Archasimos]

The first story of my current Scion Chronicle was a Mythos story and it worked out rather well.

[omenseer]

The first story of my current Scion Chronicle was a Mythos story and it worked out rather well.

Cool. How did the meshing work?

[Astromancer]

If you ever read Dreamquest for Unknown Kadath, you'd see that Lovecraft blended the Gods and the Mythos. Remember Lovecraft was an atheist who dearly loved mythology. His take on the "Gods" is that they are creatures born of human dreams. Powerful compared to humans, powerless compared to the Mythos beings.

That said, I like No One of Consequence's notion of Kali curbstomping Cthulhu. I could see Athena, Hermes, and Loki, cornering Nylarathotep, and catching him in a contract he'd truly hate. Dark Goat of the Woods meet the Irish War Goddesses, enjoy your beat down.

[TheWanderingJewels]

I've quietly worked it in at the edges of my Scion Campaign as the players are moving on to Legend 3. It's been mostly things they cannot identify or have to do deeper research on and go to special places to find things. I saw a few of them pale when I mentioned they could find information on this one weird fertility idol at Miskatonic University.

But I did not have them run into the Mythos directly, but they did notice a weird magical miasma in the area that set them on edge. Something had laid claim to the area, but they had no idea what it was (in keeping with Lovecraftian horror tropes). When trying to contact their divine parents on the subject, the Gods were mostly noncommittal or replying back 'need more information' or 'this is a learning experience.' So...the players have kept the Mythos on the backburner while dealing with the shenanigans of the main opposition (Aesir Titan Cult).

The best way to handle Mythos encounters is keep it rare, relatively undefined, and disturbing. While the Titans do have relatively understandable ,if oppositional goals, the Mythos should be disturbing at the very least, high octane Nightmare Fuel as a middle group, and sometime just utterly incomprehensible on the far end.

I have run my campaign as leaning a bit on the action movie tropes x Mythic Cycle. To quietly integrate the Mythos into the game, I have used the Delta Green line of Cthulhu products to help. The Conspiracy PDF released recently has been of immense help, if you want to work it in subtly.

[omenseer]

I've quietly worked it in at the edges of my Scion Campaign as the players are moving on to Legend 3. It's been mostly things they cannot identify or have to do deeper research on and go to special places to find things. I saw a few of them pale when I mentioned they could find information on this one weird fertility idol at Miskatonic University.

But I did not have them run into the Mythos directly, but they did notice a weird magical miasma in the area that set them on edge. Something had laid claim to the area, but they had no idea what it was (in keeping with Lovecraftian horror tropes). When trying to contact their divine parents on the subject, the Gods were mostly noncommittal or replying back 'need more information' or 'this is a learning experience.' So...the players have kept the Mythos on the backburner while dealing with the shenanigans of the main opposition (Aesir Titan Cult).

The best way to handle Mythos encounters is keep it rare, relatively undefined, and disturbing. While the Titans do have relatively understandable ,if oppositional goals, the Mythos should be disturbing at the very least, high octane Nightmare Fuel as a middle group, and sometime just utterly incomprehensible on the far end.

I have run my campaign as leaning a bit on the action movie tropes x Mythic Cycle. To quietly integrate the Mythos into the game, I have used the Delta Green line of Cthulhu products to help. The Conspiracy PDF released recently has been of immense help, if you want to work it in subtly.

A good way to handle it.