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This is a playtest review of Godsend Agenda, Published by Khepera Publishing. This is the 2nd edition of the game, but I am not familiar with the first edition, so I will not be contrasting the two editions.
Godsend Agenda is a Super-hero RPG set in the new future. To tell you much more than that would give away too much, but suffice it to say that the background for the game is complex, diverse and pretty cool. There are many different factions and power levels, and nearly any type of super-hero could find a place in this world.
Disclaimer I was given 2 copies of this book by the publisher/ main author in exchange for doing this playtest review, and I am a know raving fan boy of the D6 System in all incarnations. This review is going to be relatively short compared to some of the other reviews I have done, because a large portion of the book is the setting of the game, and I really don’t want to put many spoilers in the review in case players want to read the review.
Physical Description Godsend Agenda is a Hardcover book, with full color cover and black and white interior. IT tops the scales at 281 pages, with a decent table of contents and index. Also helpful is a summary of the most commonly used tables in the last few pages of the book, where they are easier to photocopy.
The layout is clean but attractive, with 2 column text and narrow margins. Pop out boxes are black with white text, which really helps call your attention to them. Art is frequent throughout the book, and it varies in quality from quite good to mediocre. Some folks may like the art better than I did, and I am no art critic, so YMMV.
Part 2: Contents
The Rules The fist 100 pages of the book are the rules, and the remaining 180 detail the setting. The majority of the rules are identical to the D6 Adventure rules released by West End Games last year, which makes sense because the game is a licensed version of those rules.
For those unfamiliar with the D6 rules, they use a dice pool system, with only 6 sided dice. Each character is defined by 6 attributes, Reflexes, Coordination, Physique, Knowledge, Perception, and Presence. The attributes are rated from 1 to 5 dice on the human scale, with super-heroes able to go much higher. There are approximately 50 skills, which are based directly off the attributes, and seem to cover all the necessary bases for this type of game. Character can also have advantages and disadvantages, which further define the hero and allow for greater customization.
When ever a character wants to do something, he rolls the number of dice in the attribute or skill he is using, and tries to score higher than a target number set by the GM. It is a very straightforward rules-medium system, and can be picked up very quickly. There are several levels of customization available for the rules as well, to allow for more detailed combat, wounds with death spiral penalties instead of hit points, and optional rules for boosting damage based on how successful your roll was. The section is well presented and fairly clear.
Super Powers The last part of the rules section is the most important, and unfortunately the part I had the most problems with. The section on Powers is about 30 pages, and does a good job of covering most of the types of powers that common supers have.
The overall tone of the game is set by the power level, chosen by the GM. This power level set the maximum number of points the Player can spend to build his PC, and also sets the ceiling for any one super power. Power level 3, for example, gives the player 120 points, with a maximum of 15 levels in super powers. You can easily build a hero similar in power to the live action movie versions of the X-men with this power level, for example. At the highest level, Power Level 6, you could do a campaign like the Justice League Unlimited cartoons on Cartoon network, with globetrotting, space flying, city wrecking heroes and villains.
Unfortunately the power section seems like it could have used a few more passes through the editing and play testing phases. Many of the power seem to be incorrectly priced in relation to their value, like flight being the same price as infravision. Many of the powers Are incomplete or poorly described, and often use imperial measurements, (feet, yards), where the rest of the rules use metric. None of these problems were complete deal breakers, and I was able to make 5 Supers for the playtest game I ran without a great deal of trouble. The GM will need to be careful about certain power combinations, as the game can be quickly and easily munchkinized mercilessly with a few easy disadvantages.
Background As I said at the top of the review, I am not going to go into a great deal of detail here, to avoid spoiling the game for potential players. The background is detailed, well thought out, and provides a ton of good setting hooks and information for any type of super hero game.
Part 3: Summary Godsend Agenda was a game I really wanted to like. I love D6, and love super-heroes. The game is not unplayable, but the GM will need to use a lot of judgment calls for the many lapse in the rules and super powers questions that will arise. I ran 2 playtest sessions of the game, and with my group, the games ran well, and a lot of fun was had, but both my players and I are not prone to stop and look up rules in the middle of the game, so what we played was as much make-believe with a rules framework as Godsend Agenda. Hopefully, Jerry Grayson and his crew will go through and revise the Super Powers section, and perhaps make a available an updated version of the powers with more clarifications and examples. That would raise the substance score for the product from a 2 to at a 3 or 4.
