The Scions: A Grimdark Paragon Game on a Galactic Scale

The Star-Emperor has fallen. His greatest creations must press on, strive to bring light to a divided universe, prove themselves superior to their peers. and inevitably turn against one another. In the grim future of the Scions, there is only friendly competition between rivals climaxing in not-so-friendly civil war.

In Scions you play hugely ambitious beings who will be trying to prove themselves first citizen of a star-empire, before eventually turning upon one another. No-one will win, lest of all anyone trapped in the galaxy with these highly entertaining bastards.

The direct inspiration for this is clear - the Crusade from Warhammer 40k climaxing in the Horus Hersey. However, no specific knowledge of Warhammer is required, and we’ll grow our universe at the table, with none of the limits of Warhammer. Other influences include Dune, the Metabarons, the angelic civil war of Paradise Lost, Flash Gordon, the rivalry between Pompey, Caesar and Crassus in late republic Rome and occasionally Douglas Adams.

As that implies, tone can vary significantly with three main approaches - horror, imperial and satirical. However, certain core elements are constant - this is a game which features war on a galactic scale with a death count commensurate with that. Safety tools will be used to moderate specific content, but a lot of people will be dying. Equally, it's not just combat - missions often focus on exploration, diplomatic missions and often are complicated by the contrasting demands of the Empire's political factions.

This is a playtest, and a lot of things are still in motion. Thankfully, the Paragon system (Agon/Deathmatch Island) is robust and developed, so the core is solid and everything I’ve added has worked well in previous playtests.

For those who know Paragon system, the big changes are…

• Epic Scale: Challenges cover narrative material that would be an entire scenario in most games. Showdowns can cover entire books’ worth of fiction - whole galactic wars. We do close up character work between missions, but things happen big, and they happen fast.

• Mission Cards: I say “Mission Cards” with a little reluctance, as it’s not just that. Each season, three missions are drawn from the deck and Scions choose which they want to deal with. That’s the basics. They also also act as fronts, treasure, faction-tracking and a bunch more.

• Civil War: Paragon games are mostly about competition. The Scions ends with a schism, and the player with the most glory turns against the Empire and tries to claim it for themselves. At this point, everything the players have built up is torn down, and likely for nothing.

If folks want to know more, hit me up on Discord. I’ll make a thread attached to me posting the game too.

I’d prefer people who can sign up for all four sessions to play, but would try and make it work if that proved impossible. The game will be recorded, but only released if all parties agree and perhaps not even then.