Scion: Hero Book

In short, Scion: Hero is a great idea poorly executed.

In Scion: Hero, you get to play a modern Hercules, wandering the earth, kicking butt and taking names while Zeus (or Ra, or Thor, or Baron Samedi, or Ameterasu, or some freaky Aztec diety, or some god from a pantheon you and your friends ported into the setting) is off fighting a war against the Titans, cthonic elder powers who predate the world and would like to see it destroyed. Your power cap is determined by your fame, but that same power can warp the destinies of the mere mortals around you, forcing them to become your fans, your boon companions... or your deadly enemies. Best of all, the next two books in the series, Scion: Demigod and Scion: God promise to detail rules for advancing characters through the ranks of goodhood until they can rival their parents. Crunch-wise, it is the beautiful bastard love child of Exalted and Abberant. Fluff-wise, it reads like Nobilis crossed with the old World of Darkness and the old Hercules TV show, the one with Kevin Sorbo. What's not to love?

What's not to love is the execution. In the end, the book doesn't actually tell you enough about the setting to run the game. For example, the gods only have brief one-paragraph descriptions each. That wouldn't be a problem if the game only included one pantheon; if I want to know what Thor thinks of Loki and how they have interacted in the past, I can always do a little research. However, in this game I want to know what Athena thinks of Erzulie, and that is excatly what the game fails to provide. The book also tells us nothing about the history of the war with the titans. There is a beastiary full of beasties, but very little in the way of hooks to help us use them. There is a sample adventure, complete with pregens, but, being a sample adventure, it's basically worthless. Besides, who wants to play pregens?

But why, you ask, why did you give it three stars? For two reasons. Firstly, there is something so unbelievably awesome about the concept that it shines through, even in a poorly executed game. Secondly, there are two more books on the way, and I hope against hope that they will answer the unanswered questions.

Or, alternately, as my girlfriend suggests, they'll kill off the gods, and the game will be about your characters replacing them. Which is pretty awesome, too.