[LoO] Percy Jackson?

[RPGPundit]

I never read the Percy Jackson novels nor saw the movie(s?).
However, some of the people who were reading/checking my rules in the development process thought that LoO would be particularly good for running a Percy-Jackson-style game.

What do people who've now looked at the rules think about that?

RPGPundit

[finarvyn]

I've never heard of Percy Jackson. What does he do?

[Skywalker]

I've never heard of Percy Jackson. What does he do?

Percy Jackson is a young adult fiction series by Rick Riordan (and movie) about the adventures of the son of Poseidon in the modern world, effectively a a demi-god. The stories focus on him and his friends (loosely analogous to Harry Potter) though they do interact with mythic creatures and the Gods.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Jackson

[Justin Alexander]

Review of The Lightning Thief:

Reading Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief was a fairly fascinating experience. Taken on its own merits, the novel is a perfectly acceptable piece of light fluffery. On the other hand, the Percy Jackson series is clearly a calculated effort to cash-in on the success of Harry Potter, and reading the novel from that point of view gives a great deal of insight into not only Riordan's creative process, but also the elements that made Rowling's work so successful.

Basically, Riordan seeks to invert the structure of Harry Potter in every part. Thus, Potter's magical school becomes Jackson's magical summer camp. Potter hates his mundane home life, so Jackson loves his. The friendly headmaster Dumbledore becomes the hostile camp master Dionysus. And so forth.

You can also see this inversion being carried out on the larger structural level of the plot: Potter generally stays at his school and adventure must seek him out. Jackson, on the other hand, must venture forth on grand quests.

In general, this model of wholesale inversion is probably more effective at keeping the series fresh than if Riordan had decided to simply ape Rowling. But once you've spotted the trick, it becomes depressingly predictable. It also creates deeper problems for Riordan.

For example, one of the really beautiful things about Hogwarts was the irony of a kid who wanted to go to school. It's an inversion of the natural order, and thus – on subtle yet fundamental level – reinforces the otherworldliness of Rowling's milieu. But a kid who hates school and wants to go to a summer camp? It's bland vanilla even before you get to the random grab-bag of camp activities that make Quidditch look like a reasonable sporting event. (Riordan tends to tell rather than show. He wants the summer camp to be really cool, but he never spends the narrative time there necessary to invest the reader as deeply as Percy himself is apparently vested.)

The Lightning Thief also calls attention to another aspect of Harry Potter that sets it apart from the great bulk of fantasy fiction: Harry Potter is utterly humble in his origins. He is not born with any special powers. The only prophecy which applies to him is essentially exhausted before he hits his first birthday. Everything we see him accomplish, he accomplishes through hard work, determination, study, and the assistance of friends well-earned. (In this he shares much in common with Bilbo and Frodo.)

Percy Jackson, on the other hand, is Born Awesome. He's the son of one of the most powerful gods, and so he's inherently more powerful than everyone else around him. Ta da! And whereas Potter has his one small advantage stripped from him midway through the series, Jackson simply continues to accumulate power through divine fiat. We never see him work for anything. Or earn anything. At most he occasionally digs deep to find his hero genes and then unleashes the raw potential of his authorially-granted I'm So Special status.

Ultimately, the Percy Jackson series is to Harry Potter what The Sword of Shannara is to The Lord of the Rings: Riordan mugged Rowling in a dark alley, rifled her pockets, and shuffled the stuff he found into a slightly different order while scraping off the serial numbers. In the process quite a bit of the original's charm and depth has been lost, which is perhaps only to be expected when you're dealing with a knock-off.

On the other hand, Riordan's writing, despite its shortcomings, is better than early Terry Brooks. And he also finds his own unique sense of grandeur and mystery (whereas Brooks only managed to turn everything he touched to mediocrity in The Sword of Shannara). So while the comparison may be apt, it is not entirely fair.

So while I can't strongly recommend The Lightning Thief, I also wouldn't dissuade you from it. It's a bit of light fun, and the series as a whole tends to improve as it runs its course.

GRADE: C

Rick Riordan
Published: 2005
Publisher: Hyperion
Cover Price: $7.99
ISBN: 1423139494X
Buy Now!

[The Butcher]

Ultimately, the Percy Jackson series is to Harry Potter what The Sword of Shannara is to The Lord of the Rings: Riordan mugged Rowling in a dark alley, rifled her pockets, and shuffled the stuff he found into a slightly different order while scraping off the serial numbers. In the process quite a bit of the original's charm and depth has been lost, which is perhaps only to be expected when you're dealing with a knock-off.

Ha! Good review.

Some kids are really into Percy Jackson stuff, though, and it's got them reading up on Greek myth. I think Riordan's working on a series based on Egyptian myth now, which should be similar.

White Wolf released Scion some time ago, I think, already eyeing the Percy Jackson crowd. I don't think it sold as well as they expected, for some reason I can't discern (I mean, the system's kind of crap, but that never stopped a game from selling). Maybe this is a market LoO can tap, if the diceless rules aren't deemed too arcane for newbies (I'm not really familiar with Amber Diceless, so I can't tell how noob-friendly it is).

[The Yann Waters]

I think Riordan's working on a series based on Egyptian myth now, which should be similar.

The Kane Chronicles, yes, which may take place in the same setting. Instead of demigods, though, it deals with an ancient order of sorcerers dedicated to preventing the Egyptian gods from tampering with the world.

(Also, after the actual Percy Jackson novels there's been a second Olympian series in which he's only part of a larger ensemble cast, and doesn't even appear in the first book.)

[flyingmice]

I seem to remember your original idea of LoO way back was to enable a Percy Jackson-like game, Pundit! I had never heard of Percy Jackson before that, as my son is too old for that, so I looked it up. Of course that doesn't mean you read it, just that you had it in mind when you were writing LoO.

BTW, I really like LoO - it's very much like a clearer, better organized Amber, which is a good thing! Of course it means my group will never play it, just like they won't play Amber, as they despise diceless games.

-clash

[finarvyn]

Ah. Lighting Thief I've heard of, but the author's name didn't ring any bells.

[Justin Alexander]

Some kids are really into Percy Jackson stuff, though, and it's got them reading up on Greek myth. I think Riordan's working on a series based on Egyptian myth now, which should be similar.

It's a fun little book and I ended up reading the whole series. (I might not have bothered if I had to pay for all of them, but a friend of mine loaned me the first four and I went ahead and bought the last one to finish it off.)

[RPGPundit]

White Wolf released Scion some time ago, I think, already eyeing the Percy Jackson crowd. I don't think it sold as well as they expected, for some reason I can't discern (I mean, the system's kind of crap, but that never stopped a game from selling). Maybe this is a market LoO can tap, if the diceless rules aren't deemed too arcane for newbies (I'm not really familiar with Amber Diceless, so I can't tell how noob-friendly it is).

I was pretty sure Scion was released before Percy Jackson ever became a thing. I think Scion was meant to be a ripoff of the much-more-pretentious American Gods, the Gaiman novel; following the noble WW tradition of shamelessly ripping off Gaiman, who himself made a career off of ripping-off Zelazny.

RPGPundit

[Skywalker]

American Gods and Mage (the comic not the RPG - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mage_(comics)) were definitely big inspirations for Scion. Percy Jackson was hitting bestseller lists at least a year before Scion was released, so it may have been an inspiration.

Of those three, Scion does Mage best, then Pecy Jackson, then American Gods. That's if Scion can be said to anything "best"

[The Butcher]

I was pretty sure Scion was released before Percy Jackson ever became a thing.

Scion was released in 2007, between the second and third Percy Jackson books.

Design-wise, I concur that American Gods was a bigger influence than Percy Jackson, but I don't think they'd be marketing it as a "starter" RPG if it wasn't for the latter.

I think Scion was meant to be a ripoff of the much-more-pretentious American Gods, the Gaiman novel; following the noble WW tradition of shamelessly ripping off Gaiman,

I thought they were ripping off Anne Rice. Get these accusations straight, man.

who himself made a career off of ripping-off Zelazny.

One man's influence is another man's plagiarism. I don't see you accusing Ed Greenwood of "ripping off" Fritz Leiber even though Waterdeep is pretty much Canadian Lankhmar.

[RPGPundit]

My mistake about the release dates, then.

RPGPundit