Purviews and your game

So, I am interested, tell me...

1) Do your players almost always take their PSP for their PCs? Almost always take them high? Are certain PSPs less commonly taken at Hero level or Demigod level, or God level?

2) What APPs or SPs are most commonly taken? Mostly at Hero? Not usually till Demigod? Why?  What is Not taken very much?

Mostly, tell me how your players do with the powers in the book. What powers tend to be more popular at what phases of experience, etc. How often do people take their PSP, and how often is it taken to high level?

1. Most of my players all take their psps.   My new loa pc only took the first rank of cheval and hasnt used it yet.   My 4 greeks have all taken a spattering of arete.  The one combat greek always keeps marksmanship arete maxed, but doesnt worry about others.   One egyptian has heku maxed.  Recently picked up a Deva that only took rank one of samsara.   2 tuatha both have maxed enech so far, but they part of a newer game, only at legend 4.    Aztec scion keep itzli up, and uses it constantly.

For the most part my players are very big on their characters emulating their divine parents.  I also am a big pusher of boons, i think they make the game much more interesting then epics(which are generally boring super powers, imo).  Each of my three games has a pretty deverse set of boons across the players. 

Id say the most popular across the boards are War, Sky, and Death.
Across 15 pcs, no one has ever taken, mystery, earth, or chaos. 

The purviews that people keep up with most intently(usually the first thing they buy when they legend up) are usually things that they are the only one in the party with.  
Itzli, Scion of Huitzlipotli
Darkness and psychopomp, scion of hermes
Frost and alternate Jotunblut, Scion of Baldur
Fertlitiy and Enech, Scion of Danu
Health, Scion of Athena
Death, Scion of Shango

As I noted in the other thread that hit this in passing, half the group I ran for took their PSPs.  As far as I can tell, it ran like this:

1. Greek Scion: Arete is one of those things that while not sexy, is useful for petty much anyone who plans to pursue any Ability at all to a moderate to higher level, so it was no surprise she did this.
2. Japanese Scion: Besides the pretty dramatic (at least at Hero and probably Demigod) benefit of the third dot of this when using weapons or vehicles, the information gathering properties of the earlier dots were attractive.
3. Egyptian Scion: The stealthy Scion of Bast found both the second and third dots unattractive (they require him to get attention focused on him) and the first dot unlikely to come up frequently enough to be worth it.
4. Norse Scion: Has no followers, so by-the-book Jotunblut would have been useless; he's got a creature so my variation of it might have been of some use, but not enough to justify the cost.
5. Irish Scion: If I had to guess, has actively avoided getting into geasa, and has too many things to dip into to otherwise make Enech attractive.
6. Chinese Scion: Also had a lot of things to get into, but bought Taiyi 1, but has found it really underwhelming.

Baron Samedi:

1) Do your players almost always take their PSP for their PCs? Almost always take them high? Are certain PSPs less commonly taken at Hero level or Demigod level, or God level?

This isn't really an issue in my game since I give away PSPs. Of course, some people use their PSP more often than others, so I'm sure I can still make a contribution.

Arete is always relevant so long as they chose their free Arete wisely. I learned a lot about checks and balances by letting someone's relic sword enhance his Arete (Melee). FYI, a relic sword that lets you buy an extra dot of Arete is not a 1 dot relic; it is an abomination. The player with Arete (Athletics) had to be more creative to get it to work for her. The dart chucking Scion of Hermes used his Arete (thrown) as often as possible. Ever time he entered a bar, he'd look for the dartboard immediately.

The Scion of Loki loved his Jotunblut. He used his minions well and his eyes got rather large when he realized he could turn a dwarf into a troll. He was rewarded with his own troll after the Scions helped a dwarven colony that had been forced into forging relics for a group of giants. He'd been instrumental in getting some special blut from his half-brother, Fenris, to reverse the trolling process and was given the one who had betrayed the colony in the first place.

The Scion of Lugh never used Enech. I would occasionally remind her that she had access to a number of free powers, but she never really got into them and I regularly had to remind her that she regained legend at twice the rate. I think this was more of a result of the player and not the purview.

The same happened with the Scion of Baron Samedi, except that she just never had the urge to posses anyone.

The Scion of Horus loved Ren Harvest and Heart Scarab, but never used Heku otherwise.

Baron Samedi:

So, I am interested, tell me...

1) Do your players almost always take their PSP for their PCs? Almost always take them high? Are certain PSPs less commonly taken at Hero level or Demigod level, or God level?

Well, my group is Dodekatheon heavy and I use my own house rules for Aréte. My Aesir really loves his Jotunblut that is from the White Wolf wiki.

That only leaves my ex-player of the Tsukinami (SP?) who was starting to figure out that taking (and bribing) the spirits in things was pretty cool and my Itzil player who loves it for the flavor (especially when I came up with an on the spot ruling that sacrificing someone... then using Death to Ghost Touch and sacrifice their soul was way, way too cool.)

My newbie player of the Pesedjet doesn't really seem to use the flavor much yet, but she's kinda having a hard time with the rules, IMO.

Baron Samedi:

2) What APPs or SPs are most commonly taken? Mostly at Hero? Not usually till Demigod? Why?  What is Not taken very much?

I have to say that the as written in the book Prophecy and Mystery really turned off people (even when I tried to use net-books.)

My players have always used and gotten most of their associated All Purpose Purviews and are liking how it defines their character (our Norse son of Hel is now the God of the Death-Cold Forge). Caveat: I do use a very rule-change, that puts most purviews at equal cost epics.

Baron Samedi:

Mostly, tell me how your players do with the powers in the book. What powers tend to be more popular at what phases of experience, etc. How often do people take their PSP, and how often is it taken to high level?

All in all, with those changes, they seem to like taking them all (at God they are now trying to fill in their holes in their Purviews so they can get Avatar.)

Baron Samedi:

2) What APPs or SPs are most commonly taken? Mostly at Hero? Not usually till Demigod? Why?  What is Not taken very much?

Just realized I skipped the second part of this.

On the whole, a lot of people took Sun for Penetrating Glare, and both the archer and the thief type have Moon so they can get around to Phase Cloak.  There's a mix of others, primarily other powers that have somewhat useful static 1 dot boons (Frost, Fire,
Water all are present).

On the whole people just weren't really excited by Boons at all, with a few exceptions.

Answering my own questions...

Baron Samedi:

1) Do your players almost always take their PSP for their PCs? Almost always take them high? Are certain PSPs less commonly taken at Hero level or Demigod level, or God level?

We run about 50/50. The Pesedjet seem to invest heavily in Heku about 50% of the time. I have not seen a single Dodekatheon character without at least two if not more Aretes, but I have never seen it above 5 either. Still across the board, the Dodekatheon has more investment in their PSP on average then any other Pantheon.  Norse are low; they either max it or don't raise it above 1, with the latter more common then the former. Atzlanti seem to never take a single boon of Itzli until Demigod, at which point so far they always keep it maxed. All Amatsukami have taken Tsukumo-Gami, but I have never seen it raised above 3.  Only 1/3 of Loa have invested heavily in Cheval. 50% (1 of 2) Tuatha have invested heavily in Enech, and for the CB, Tiayi seems to be similar to Itzli...rarely taken at Hero, 100% of the time at Demigod. Samsara, well...really not seen it past 1 with any of 3 characters, but I have not seen a Demigod Deva yet.

So heaviest investment seems to be in Arete, Itzli and Tiayi, but the latter two only at Demigod with it being virtually unknown at Hero. Lightest investment is Jotenblut, Samsara and Tsukumo-Gami, with the latter being common only for lower levels, Samsara and Jotenblut virtually ignored (though a couple have chosen to stress Jotenblut, both are still Heroes and neither is being actively played atm.) comparativly.

Baron Samedi:

2) What APPs or SPs are most commonly taken? Mostly at Hero? Not usually till Demigod? Why?  What is Not taken very much?

Let's see. Fertility and Frost are the two least taken APPs by a long shot. There have been 2 of 39 who made a small investment in Fertility, but even that was just a boon here and there. 2 in 39 have invested in Frost, though in one case it was one boon, in another they keep it maxed. Certain purviews (Guardian, Death, Psychopomp) seem obligatory for a member of the group to have. Though there is sometimes crossover (three characters in Rada invested in Guardian, three in Petro Death) there seems to be "something missing" if at least one person does not have them. Finally...Prophecy and Mystery never seem to be taken above 2, even with my houserule. They are far from uncommon though. Also, there is a...stunning...number of characters with Magic 1 and thats it..I can think of four off the top of my head, and they don't all necessarily have the same spell. Thats not counting those who have taken magic to a higher level (usually, one per group, but it does not seem to be missed per se without it) and even more then those with only one level of powers like Fire or Water or Earth.

The PSP levels in my current group are as follow: Samsara 5, Enech 4, Arete (several) 3 and Enech 2.

Popular Purviews include Animal, Fire, Sky, War, Magic, Prophecy (although these last two are at low level). We also have a smattering of Darkness, Guardian, Death, Chaos, Illusion, Moon and Psychopomp. The rest is currently up for the grabs.

Baron Samedi:

So, I am interested, tell me...

1) Do your players almost always take their PSP for their PCs? Almost always take them high? Are certain PSPs less commonly taken at Hero level or Demigod level, or God level?

2) What APPs or SPs are most commonly taken? Mostly at Hero? Not usually till Demigod? Why?  What is Not taken very much?

Mostly, tell me how your players do with the powers in the book. What powers tend to be more popular at what phases of experience, etc. How often do people take their PSP, and how often is it taken to high level?

1) My players like using the Greek and Norse Gods so far. Yes the always take the PSP. Arete is a favorite for good reason. I cannot get any players to use the Aztec, Egyptian, Voodoo, or Japanes PSPs even if the play one of them. They all dislike them.

2) Sky, and Sun are favorites. Specially Sky.

My players look at the purviews and see which ones fit their concept best if any. Most players rather focus on Epic Attributes and Epic Knacks however.

Baron Samedi:

So, I am interested, tell me...

1) Do your players almost always take their PSP for their PCs? Almost always take them high? Are certain PSPs less commonly taken at Hero level or Demigod level, or God level?

2) What APPs or SPs are most commonly taken? Mostly at Hero? Not usually till Demigod? Why?  What is Not taken very much?

Mostly, tell me how your players do with the powers in the book. What powers tend to be more popular at what phases of experience, etc. How often do people take their PSP, and how often is it taken to high level?

arthurh3535:

my ex-player of the Tsukinami (SP?)

I'm guessing you mean the Amatsukami?

kurasu:

I'm not sure why Justice seems to be so disliked, I personally like it ( I am one of the 2 people to take it).

Justice can be devestating for fighting people who rely on willpower. One normally gets it back easily in Scion from Charisma powers, if drained of it and unable to restore it for a matter of days, well that puts the fear of gods in people. Still, its inobvious.

Baron Samedi:

kurasu:

I'm not sure why Justice seems to be so disliked, I personally like it ( I am one of the 2 people to take it).

Justice can be devestating for fighting people who rely on willpower. One normally gets it back easily in Scion from Charisma powers, if drained of it and unable to restore it for a matter of days, well that puts the fear of gods in people. Still, its inobvious.

That may be true, I'll have to pose the question to them and find out.

Justice is cool to me. My players dont get the concept of Justice. They think of Vengence as Justice. Good thing they are not part of the legal system.

kurasu:

Baron Samedi:

kurasu:

I'm not sure why Justice seems to be so disliked, I personally like it ( I am one of the 2 people to take it).

Justice can be devestating for fighting people who rely on willpower. One normally gets it back easily in Scion from Charisma powers, if drained of it and unable to restore it for a matter of days, well that puts the fear of gods in people. Still, its inobvious.

That may be true, I'll have to pose the question to them and find out.

From what I could tell, Justice should have been Justice/Vengeance. Some of those powers aren't really "just."