The only real flaw I'd attribute to Saints and Monsters is not truly a flaw at all - it reads like five separate books bundled together into one title. The downside is that we get four separate character creation sections - one for saints, one for prophets, one for sorcerers, and one for titanic scions - the bulk of which are redundant with the character creation section of Scion: Origin. The upside is that it's all completely modular. No one is forcing you to read the whole book at once. . .
Unless, of course, you're driven by your own inner demons to systematically read all your books cover-to-cover, in which case I find that a very understandable and relatable motivation and think we'd probably get along pretty well if we met in real life.
So I'm try to digest this as a whole work. What does it mean that a book like this exists? I could make my life easier and just engage on the level of the trivial - it's a grab-bag of topics that expands the Scion, 2nd Edition setting in a bunch of random ways, its only purpose to satisfy the ever-present rpg-obsessive desire for more.
That's certainly why I bought it. Specifically, I was intrigued most by Sorcerers, because that's an archetype that appeals to my secular, materialist sensibilities in a fantasy setting that is otherwise (at best) ambivalent to those impulses. Seize the power of the gods via knowledge and technique! Create changes in the world (and the World) by identifying the ways in which the rules of reality make changes possible and then choosing to create the conditions that lead to your desired outcome. You don't have to be born special, with a connection to the sublime and unknowable forces that precede creation. It's a path anyone can walk, if they would but dare!
So you know, it's all pretty exciting. I did get the feeling that maybe the authors weren't quite as into it as I was, but the section didn't disappoint. I might be a little worried about the cognitive load of learning a parallel magic system (it's broken down into Workings, Techniques, and Charms instead of Purviews, Marvels, and Boons, and is slightly less freeform, but you definitely get the feeling that you can do effective things with magic), and I'm curious how mixed-parties play out, and it's a little bit of a bummer that scions who do magic are generally more effective than mortals (though it's not that big a deal because scions outshine mortals in every field of endeavor, and it would seem less materialist to me if the people with broad general advantages did not also have an advantage in this). However, I would be happy to use the system as-is. You can play a Taoist immortal at every tier of the game, even God, and while you might not be directly competitive with a similarly experienced scion, the opportunity costs are enough to give you a secure niche.
But that sort of analysis is me nibbling around the edges. "Now do it for Saints," I think, and the spirit quails. I think beyond the obvious question of power scaling (who would win? A saint or a prophet? Presumably, the saint would get prep time, but the prophet wouldn't), the best way to look at this book is as more religious content for the game about religion. Now you can really dig into themes and cultures that the core books can't really handle. It was always just the slightest bit inconceivable to play as a Christian scion (you're, what, like Jesus' half-brother, and assuming you survived to apotheosis, are you adopting one of God's mantles? making the trinity a quaternary?), but a Christian Saint or a Christian prophet are both quite doable. There's room for different human relations to the divine, and that holds across the first three chapters. Sorcerers steal power from the gods, Saints perform miracles by embodying the virtues of their gods, and Prophets are blessed (or cursed) by the gods to know when miraculous things are going to happen (which works out in play a lot like a character power).
It's a shame, then, that all three chapters feel so siloed off. Far be for me to call for yet another of Scion, 2nd Edition's trademark Storyguide chapters (and, indeed, four of the book's five chapters get their own Storyguide sections), but I think the book would have benefited from tying it all together. The core books' pantheon structure is versatile enough to include several living religions, but it doesn't get them all. If you really wanted to hammer home your theme of "all religions are true," you could use these new mechanics to read in Christianity or Islam, but also maybe that's something players could use some expert guidance on. (For example, given my knowledge of Islam, I think an Islamic prophet or saint would likely be problematic, but a sorcerer who drew power from jinn might be . . . okay? I'd actually be very interested to hear a Muslim take on the issue).
Overall, though, Saints and Monsters continues of the Scion 2nd Edition tradition of delivering supplements that make the game more of a game. In addition to four new chapters of character options (including one that really should have been in Titanomachy, and which makes the inexplicable choice of presenting four new sets of knacks that are almost, but not completely different than the ones in the other book), we get a much needed xp sink in the form of Edges, allowing us for the first time to play a scion with some degree of personal wealth and a new lifepath system that I expect will be fun the first two times you use (not a knock, just my estimation that a group of five players is going to use approximately half the life events between them in a single campaign). Even the new rules-lighter game system had potential (though I'd like to see it in practice before I give a definite opinion on the subject). There's not a thing in this book I didn't like.
Ukss Contribution: I really liked the "Transylvanian Scholomance, a school [of sorcery], said to be run by the devil." Each of its classes consists of thirteen students, twelve of whom will matriculate as masters of the dark arts. "The very top of the class is taken by the Headmaster, never to be seen again."
That's a fun dynamic. Nobody gets into Scholomance if they're not ambitious enough to learn absolutely as much as possible, but they all know that learning too much gets them kidnapped by the devil, so they sort of reverse-sabotage each other, hoping to squeeze by as the second-best student. I'd love to base an entire campaign around that.
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