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Godsend Agenda

       I first ran across Godsend agenda in a game shop in Vancouver, their new arrivals shelf had numerous things but the golden scarab on an otherwise featureless cover caught my eye. I picked it up and flipped through it then ran across things like "Angelos" "Elohim" and put the game back down, especially since it seemed to be a superhero game with very specific background. This was true of course and at the time such a thing didn't interest me.

         Now, things change, I heard more on it later via the RPGnet forums, and the fact they were doing a D6 powered second edition. Since I wasn't familiar with the original system, I asked some question here and there and discovered it used its own. Then I asked Jerry D. Grayson about it and asked about reviewing it in comparison to the new edition when it came out. It was then a waiting game for the D6 version, and more so, for the review in trying to get my players together. It seems they're easier to get together for a game they know will be a recurring game, but a bit harder for a one shot, the campaigns they were in continued to take their interest preference and to be fair, its hard to say no to a game thats running successfully and the players are demanding. However, at long last I managed to sit down with players make characters and go forward with playing the game. I only play tested the D6 version, there is really no reason the play test the earlier edition (since its no longer available) for comparison suffice to say eyeballing will have to do.

           One of the first things to point out is METAPLOT METAPLOT METAPLOT, at least as Godsend Agenda uses the term is a future series of events planned out which it has in abundance.. Unlike some games though they blessedly give us a rundown of that in the core rulebook. While these metaplot elements change the setting, they are not for the most part, epic realignments of how things are--just a series of events that will happen, if you use the official timeline. The metaplot of course can be ignored, the game can be run historically (in the past) prior to the metaplot of the game (but you still have to deal with history's native metaplot of course.) or you can use it as a spring board for adventure. I'm not a fan of metaplots, but it is well handled here giving some room for players to interact, and intervene.

      Right now I want to skip to the back of the book--there is a lot of advice in the book by various RPGnet, and RPG world people (Sandy Antunes, Matt Forbeck, among others.) this advice is often conflicting, poorly thought out within the needs of a game.

          For example one advises you trick your players by carrying around another game, telling them you want to use a new rules set but some setting bits from other games and then slowly reveal the back story of Godsend Agenda. Ignore this. Obviously there is no way someone can even touch the character creation part of the game appropriatly if you do this without so many flaming hoops to jump through that it becmes pointless. Bait-and-switches only work rarely, and in some neck of the woods will hurt your trust with your players at the least, and get you punched in the nose at the worst. Player's need to know their choices of species (its on the PC sheet.) and most of the species besides humans have some foreknowledge of things going on around them. Angelos, Elohim, Atlanteans, Chimeran, Human, which your PC will be is important in the choices for making a character. Yes I know there a ways to add those elements later revealing that secretly your PC isn't really a human who gained powers when struck by lightning but is instead a hybrid son or daughter of an alien Elohim and a human and the lightning just awoke their innate ability to tap the fundamental force of superpowers in Godsend Agenda, that is Ka. Yet its better done with players consent, rather than lying to your players. I explained a lot of the background to my players and still ended up with everyone being humans. (Although I have a couple of cool  things I may suggest he players twist around later.)  

      Skip most of the advice in the back. It's not all bad--Sandy Antunes actually had a better way of introducing the setting through otherwise amnesiac superheroes who knew the secrets of the setting. (which is one of my favorite ways to start games other than "You are shipwrecked" is "You wake up in a hospital", though admittedly the most fun was "You wake up in the morgue." )

 The difference between the two books are numerous the Godsend Agenda 2E is a hardbound tome that looks about half again as thick as the original 1E book. Fortunately that while it has some comic book style pages illustrating some of their fiction they are not slick color plates in an otherwise plain paper book--mixed paper types always seem to make the books pages pull out something terrible. The 1E Book is 224 pages long, the 2e book is 281 pages long. The art varies from some very nice peices, to some pretty amateur bits here and there for both games, although 2E seems to have some improved peices for the most part. 

Skipping the Credit Page we get a page 1 right up front that dives into the games story, that is its background, a mocked up government document (transcript) of a conversation. It almost looks like an IRC log but has headers written more like an e-mail, yet  it is neither of these. This bit of text is not, sadly the most wowing introduction to the the whole mad world of the game.

     Godsend Agenda however for a game with a metaplot, that does have a lot of good ideas, is fairly utilitarian in its 2E approach.

The next page is simple key terms, then we move on to Character Creation--3 pages into the book (mostly), and this is both a good and bad thing. The key elements are presented Dice Pools, power levels, whats in the chapter, but its not well organized. For example: It gives us a way to make a normal human, then a way to make a superpower person--completely unrelated methods of character generation, untied to one another. Now both could be useful if the game had package powers, or gave us a tally of the points the "normal" baseline human "spent" for  attributes and skills as a default, so we could then just subtract that from the later point system we are provided.  I don't see it, hoever, and I've re-read the page many times both now as I write this and in furthur PC generation. It looks like they took a bit of text from D6 Adventure (which is the "engine" that powers this D6 game) carried it over to be used and it got orphaned in the process. It's useful though for quickly generating NPC's. (with some work could have made pc creation faster as welll.)

     Shortly after that we get the break down of point cost for attributes, skills, specialties then the specific amount of points per power level--this covers a wide range of heroes the default being Power Level 3 (120 points total) but with disadvantages, and specific power limits to keep things a bit more sane than just a pool of points spend as you please.

    The game gives 6 power level options with power level  6 offering 400 points to build a PC. After making characters with my groups and seeing how effectivee power level 3 was, I don't dare go near that end of the spectrum, simply because the  120 points for power level 3 went a LONG way in building some characters. (I get a sense of near Avengers power level if your playing a tightly focused hero here.) 

     From here the next few pages due give a fairly detailed break down of how to make a character, with examples. The only confusion we had came from the fact that there are some options (Body Points, Wounds, or optionally using both) that came up in the character generation process. Since I'd decided to keep it simple we just went with Body Points (hence forth though I'm using wounds, I much prefer a non-HP style system, but for the playtest and the fact that I started with 3 players and ended with 6, I went for the ease of use, especially since all of them were new to the game.) The option is a good thing, but needed a bit more explanation I think before bringing it up in PC creation.

      The game covers a general broad category of attributes and as my players discovered skimping on any of them costs more than you expect. Wealth for example can be impacted by Presence and Knowledge, KA an important pool of points in the game is based on Presence and so on.       

Attributes

• Reflexes
• Coordination
• Physique
• Knowledge
• Perception
• Presence

     I'm not sure why it needs two 'agility' scores, other than some sort of six attribute symmetry, but with Physique and Knowledge being so tightly merged for things like Strength and Endurance, and Intelligence and Wits respectively it seems odd to have two there. The Attributes get 4 faces of 6.

Skills

With standard D6 skills are slotted under attributes and typically a skill is noted as being the focused or honed use of an attribute. In general you can default back to the attribute in many cases meaning attributes are a steal for most players, even though seemingly expensive compared to skills. . Skills listed on the pc sheet (but with room to add your own are)

• Climbing
• Brawling
• Dodge
• Flying
• Jumping
• Melee Combat
• Piloting
• Riding
• Sneak
• Lifting
• running
• Stamina
• Swimming
• Marksmanship
• Lock Picking
• Missile Weapon
• Sleight of Hand
• Throwing
• Business
• Demolition
• Forgery
• Gadgetry
• Languages
• Medicine
• Navigation
• Scholar
• Security
• Tech
• Artist
• Hide
• Gambling
• Know How
• Investigation
• Repair
• Search
• Streetwise
• Survival
• Tracking
• Animal Handling
• Command
• Con Charm
• Disguise
• Intimidation
• Persuasion
• Willpower

     Some of the skills are oddly slotted under attributes--Know How under Perception rather than Knowledge (both are about knowing things, one tends to be a bit about cobbling/tinkering mechanically a bit to: How to do X, but still that's more knowledge to me at least) but the creators didn't seem to agree. The skills aren't anything new or wonderful but they are serviceable and solid, dependable if you will I give them a 4 of 6 faces on the D6.

     After the above things are done (and secondary stats, Body Points, Ka, etc, are determined) heroes also get to choose a heroic archetype--this is important and cool thing, sort of a motivation for your hero as well as a personality hook, it helps give them a skill/attribute or other bonuses as well as helps them earn back KA when they are brought up in play.

Archtypes

• Adventurer
• Bravo
• Comedian
• Icon
• Outsider
• Protector
• Rogue
• Scientist
• Warrior

We also get a list of villainous ones which I guess are useful for GM's or if the game is taking a different bend.

Villain Archetypes

• Megalomaniac
• Nihilist
• Crony
• Anarchist

     These archetypes also receive a bonus to the character design process for the choice specific to the archetype chosen.

     I like this aspect as it helps hone and shape some parts of a characters personality in a mechanical way, without being a straitjacket. It is also far more of a carrot than a stick. I give these ideas 5 of 6 faces. I'd have liked motivations been more impactive (but I'm picky that way.)

     Now I am not going to list everything of the game. I'd likely be abusing the review database that way. There are disadvantages and advantages of varying ranks possible from Rank 1 to 4+ determining their degree of severity. You can also create your own using the same logic as went into the basic design process of the pre-made ones, which is always a huge feature. Meaning you are not limited to just what is written.

POWERS!

     Powers are part and parcel of the super-heroic experience, now sure, they are often a trapping to aid create vivid elements of action against dramatic back stories, but let's face it, powers are cool. Godsend Agenda does not shirk its duty, although its not breaking new ground here, in fact its treading mostly the same ground as other supers games. Powers cost a certain amount per level, and certain modifiers can be added to each one (or some modifiers can be added to any power.)  The increase its cost and provide more utility, or decrease it as the case may be. 

Now for all the things it covers it is the glaring omissions that I must note. No web-slinging. No Slinging style power.  Nothing to simulating shooting a line and swinging from building to building as a power, or even something as a close approximation. It might have been missed completely if not for the fact that the very first PC we created was envisioned by the player as having said power. He could turn invisible, was a tough martial artist,  and could swing on a line.

     The Phantom Monk, was of course this heroes name. We managed to cobble together said power using flight (which isn't particularly apt in this case, its speeds a bit excessive and it lacks some advantages of stability/grappling that the swing line may have.) but it worked as a quick and dirty solution  for this situation. 

     The character creation was fairly simple affair of assigning points though it would have been nice to have the old template idea from Star Wars D6 carried on in spirit with classic supers filled out but for names. The point system is nice but created a few odd quirks. Like the fact that our Phantom Monk, and our long lived razor clawed feral private investigator, whose name I forget but suspect it was infringing on some popular IP or another, were SYMBIOTICALLY linked. We never explained this but I thought it it a fun twist to get points and made the Phantom Monk a bit of a sidekick to our feral persona. The other pc's took a bit longer we ended up with beyond the symbiotic ally linked duo, a sonic blaster heroine, a teenage playboy stunt bicyclist with electrical powers, a former criminal who had done his time and was now reformed elastic, multiple limb person who was also chameleon like--our own little Octupoidal friend, and a person capable of transforming to steel (and who was mostly resistant to electricity--note my standard invulnerability rant will follow.)

   If you write a superhero game with a power called "Invulnerability". Make it make sense please. A person should be invulnerable to the named item, element or effect, or some major aspect of it. In this case it was optimal armor that could make one ALMOST completely resistant, unless you didn't spend enough points on it to get it high enough to do so. It won't break a game for a hero to be immune to a limited effect. Electricity, Fire, Bullets (say a vampire.)

Please. Please, remember this game writers. Its ok for heroes to not be vulnerable to all the same human things we are, especially super-heroes. 

   Pardon the digression.

Powers are broken up into categories Physical, Defensive, Mental, and Movement.-

Physical Powers

• Accelerate Healing
• Ambidexterity
• Amphibious
• Chameleon
• combats Sense
• Darkness Projection
• Drain
• Duplication
• Elemental Sheath
• Endurance
• Enhancement
• Entangle
• Extra Limb
• Fast Reactions
• Flash Attack
• Healing
• Immortality
• Infrared Vision
• Intangible
• Invisibility
• Life Support Longevity
• Luck (Good)
• Luck (Great)
• Mimicry Molecular Mimic
• Natural Weaponry
• Omnivorous
• Paralyze Body
• Poison Secretion
• Ranged Power Attack
• Regeneration
• Shapeshift
• Sonar
• Stretching
• Super Attribute
• Super Senses
• Super Tracking
• Sustenance
• Transfer Attribute
• Vampiring
• X-ray Vision

     That is just a basic idea of some of the things you'll find. I'm a bit surprised that while say Ranged Power Attack is your energy blast modified for flavor to do lightning, etc, the same logic isn't used to turn X-ray vision, or Infrared Vision into a modified Super-senses element. Again this is just a minor hiccup really not a flaw, just a perceptual thing to me when examining a game from the outside, their may be sound reasons for the separation. For example Super Attributes provide some specialized benefits OTHER than just having a higher than normal attribute, so its worth taking a note that most attributes don't get short shifted when enhanced like they sometimes do in other supers games (Strength being the one usually most versatile in super-hero games.)

The enhancement system is pretty basic its simple +/-X per rank where X is a number cost based on how valuable the advantage is or how limiting the disadvantage is to that power.

• Area Effect
• Armor Piercing
• Double Range
• Extra Knock back
• Misc. Enhancement (Do it yourself YAY!)
• Multiple Targets
• Persistent Effect
• Range
• Selective Area
• Transferable to Others

     These are general non-power specific ones, and most powers have a few of their own, Flight for example having Glide as an option for a limitation.

     Powers when needed are controlled by an attribute/managing skill combination in many cases, where you roll that basic ability to perform some action with the power. This makes the whole skill costs being so cheap thing pretty attractive if you want a character good with their powers and not just powerful.

     Powers section as a whole get a 4 of 6 faces. Nothing wrong that makes them nightmarishly difficult, but nothing too brilliant. Yet at the same time, the game does what it does in an earnest well set forward and crisp manner.

      The basic system is always with D6 games of this sort: Attribute (or power)+Skill dice, as a pool rolled and added together to beat target number, there is always a wild die--a die of a different color but still part of the basic pool. It is used in a couple of ways. If a 6 is rolled on the wild die, it is rolled again, added back into the pool, each time it rolls a six it again is rerolled so it can explode to quite significant numbers. If a 1 is rolled however, bad things can happen, the nice thing is this is a wild die that works. Not a broken fumbly mess, in this case if a 1 is rolled the GM can choose to do one of two things: have the 1 cancel out the highest other d6 roll in the pool, and add all other dice to see if they succeed or fail. Or have them add the dice as normal including the wild die but have a complication occur. This to me is much cleaner and smoother way of handling it especially for superheroes, complications are fun, but not always needed, and a 1 in six chance of "succeeded but with complication" is much preferable to "1 in six chance of being completely critically failure hosed" to me.

     One thing that strikes me is D6 is a relatively simple at its heart game, yet they took time and effort with Godsend Agenda making sure every T was crossed and every I was dotted showing modifiers for this, that, and the other thing. This is a bit bothersome to me because it encourages more by the book play and rules lawyering rather than the more relaxed handling of Classic D6 in Star Wars (1E at least). On the other hand it gives guidelines and structure to those who really might not have a clue where to go and what to do and when to modify rolls. So I'm giving the general aspect of its completeness as rules a bit of a neutral 3 of 6 dice here.

Skipping ahead through modifiers, encumbrance and other things we get to!

Gadgets

     Now many superhero games have overlooked gadgets, making them powers is an easy way to do it, and logically works for some systems. Others have had their own gadget based subsystems. Godsend Agenda has a few subsystems tied back into the same framework as powers but with a bit of its own basic concepts (ammo as a limitation for example). The chapter is not exactly balanced, and seems a bit hurried, unlike powers where a bit more care seems to have been taken. I like what it does but for a game that is aiming at points and balances (like so many do.) its easy to abuse the gadget system. So use it carefully and with GM input.

Gadgets process works like so

1) Buy it any Attributes it needs

2) Buy it any Skills, Powers, Advantages etc.

Then we get to specifics for Vehicles (if a Vehicle) deciding on its movement rate, crew total, passengers carried.

Or if a weapon we get d6's of damage, area of effect, ammunition, burst modifiers, and so on.

      In general its a quick process to stat up any mechanical whatsits you may want. None of the heroes I ran built a gadget but I did in set up building a high tech bow as a weapon for a Seraphim, it shot flaming explosive arrows. It was very deadly and cheap.

    The heroes once created by assigning points to attributes, powers, then derived figures for ka, luck (character points) and calculating body points among the give and take of advantages and disadvantages and deciding to get or not get gadgets, went off on their first adventure. In order to get into the die-rolling monster bashing goodness, I just arbitrarily used the good old giant monster they team up to fight, utilizing a giant eel like kaiju creature in the bay. The battle resulted in us testing quite a few rules bits, combat primarily but we also had to deal with swimming, thrown cars (and lifting weights--seams our feral guy could manage to launch a compact car as a missile weapon, quite handily, not as good as claws but it was out in the bay, and he wasn't willing to swim out after it.)

     The Eel didn't take long to deter and provide the first clue (fizzing out into static), though the players were determined to split back up to do their own investigating. One expected his advantages to do it for him. Needless to say all of them drew up quick blank one of the disadvantages of not actually trying to do real legwork. Being it a one-shot none of them (except the PI) focused much on any long term investigative skills, or useful contacts (which is ok, its not a games job to "define" the specifics of a pc more finely than the campaign and since this was a one shot well we didn't think over hard on the idiosyncrasies of it.)

     The rest of the adventure went smoothly with them fighting a giant moth (unrelated, a different plot if I wanted to run this as a campaign), and then finally getting together to try and track down both the power blackouts and other "minor" clues to lead them to an abandoned oil refinery and secret lair of Dr. August, Elohim Mad Scientist, who I decided was our villain, and his son who he'd taught to use ka (channeled through a funky weird science device) to magnify his power to allow him to unleash his imagination as reality. In the form of giant kaiju inspired monsters. Dr. August actually hadn't intended to actually utilize the device yet, he'd gotten caught on shore when the first one attacked and simply didn't connect its appearance to his son and his son's power (he didn't realize the giant monsters were created by his son, nor that he'd left the device on, he is a mad and a bit erratic scientist leaving his child home alone with powerful dangerous devices but he did leave the high tech assassin bots as nannies.)

    The heroes infiltrated the oil-platform and found it booby trapped and nearly lost a party member when he met monomolecular net at flying blithely down a corridor. Caution was thrown to the wind of course but they finally realized their mistake as the Nanny-Assassins began trying to take them down with a railgun. Eventually they made short work of the defenses, cut through the main door, and made it to the young boy--who had no idea he'd done anything at all wrong as he was sitting there readingcomics. Whereupon they Dr August showed up and started questioning them about their breaking and entering into his home.

Onwards to the World.

     After the rules which take up about 100 pages (stats, skills, power descriptions remember take some space!) we get a nice timeline that goes from AE-5 (whatever year that is.) to 4000BC (I note with fun that its not BCE, the more modern and lame time usage.) then onward to June, 19th 2011. The timeline gives historic events notable to the aliens which make up the Godsend Agenda universe, as well as a few human noteworthy human ones as well. The later eras begin filling in the metaplot elements. Now I'm not fond of metaplots, but here they at least give us an idea of what's happening, and why, in the core book.

     We then get about 20 pages expanding this timeline and getting into the history and backstory of the game, leading right into the first (alphabetically) alien species the Angelos.

Angelos

     Cloned Supersoldier Aliens who can't manipulate Ka, instead bleeding it off in fiery wings and halos, who serve El-the Emperor God of the Angelos and Elohim (aliens). They use technology. Now this is where I most wanted to point out that the first edition had a slight bit of superiority. We get basic stats for Angelos, templates for using them and a mention of playing the human-Angelos hybrid Nephiliam, but no template or even disadvantage representing their Ka problems (the first edition did have this disadvantage) apparently Nephiliam are not required to take it to a severe degree but it is mentioned but not provided as a disadvantage. That is the only point really in the first editions favor one, tiny disadvantage. Other than introducing us for the first time to this weird wonderful world. The Angelos entries also discusses real world religious elements and figures, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammed, none of it is really blasphemous that I can tell to those involved in such beliefs. Jesus is the real guy, as is Muhammed, and Moses. They get historical mentions. The closest to blasphemy is that the Angelos commandments are the same as Moses commandments given to him on the mount modified apparently to humans--suggesting that the Emperor Alien inspired Moses through the Angelos, but its a subtle nudge and not a huge slam. (and we don't know where El got the rules to begin with either.)

     Angelos don't get superpowers without a good backstory and GM involvement, instead they get technology, alien tech, up to including a brick sized nuke used to take out Sodom and Gomorrah.

Beyond their history, religious impact, and tech we get a look into the life of these near identical clone people, and somewhat a concept of why they stray into human arms occasionally and have children perhaps.

Atlanteans

For some reason Atlanteans were smarter, better, ka-using, humans who ruled an enlightened golden land at the pre-dawn of human consciousness. Atlanteans in short were what they are made out to be in a lot of fictions, better still when the Elohim and Angelos arrived, the Atlanteans had seers who knew bad things would come (the Chimerans/Angelos/Elohim) and so they started working to protect humanity and thwart such things--beginning back then to engineer humans into potential superhumans. The fallout of this isn't seen until present day of course. What I like is that Atlanteans for once are in many ways the good guys, destroyed eventually like all civilizations, due to internal strife, and excessive success. Yet the Atlaneans aren't perfect, one of the main villains of the setting is a Atlantean, and he's ruthless, smart, immortal, and both technically and psychically/magically (it's all ka baby!) proficient. Plus the Atlaneans had mecha. "Colossi" what's cooler than that?

Black October

     After Atlanteans we finally get to humans, human, mutants, doomed to die before they turn thirty because of the mutation taking a dark turn. They've got powers that will burn through them and kill them dead. Inspired by Strikeforce Morituri but with less urgency (and really its not much a disadvantage since comic book superheroes don't tend to age once introduced.) The ideas are sound for playing tragic, heroic, finally gasp heroes who are also struggling to live as young men and women with strange powers they didn't ask for. A rather unique twist on an old cliche. I like Black October, I don't think I'd ever use them. Not when there is so much more to explore, if the entire setting were just Black October then I think it be much more interesting an option. I am fond of the idea, but in a traditional supers world it stands out as really needing to be its own thing.

Chimerans

     Alien genetically unstable protoplasmic mate with anything critters. These are the end all be all of uber hive minded lifeforms, the fact that they in the setting are responsible for many of our classic monsters (from Dragons, to Manticores, to whatever.) as well as members being able to be human looking makes for an interesting concept. Cut off from the greater hive mind they tend more towards individualness on Earth, and are supposedly the threat that Atlanteans are afraid of, but they seem for all their dangers less scary than the threat El and his armadas would be. Chimerans have some weird things too, for example they can mate with anything, but they impregnate their partner, never the other way around no matter their apparent parts or gender, the Chimeran DNA is rather, aggressive that way. This can produce Empusa, hybrid Chimera-Humans that are always female without genetic manipulation (another fun character option). Sometimes I wonder of the writer was aiming for a high super squick factor with some of this--religion issues, alien impregnation, etc.

Elohim

     Finally we get to the biggest movers and shakers the Elohim, mostly rebels and criminals transported aboard a prison ship that crashed to earth, and their descendants the Elohim took up the roles of ancient gods and goddesses, Egyptian, Greek, Babylonian, Sumerian, Greek (contrarily I think Zeus was Chimeran, he impregnated someone with a touch!). These are powerful ka-wielding beings who are near immortal too (like Atlanteans). We get their history the birth if El (and its a strange origin story that interestingly enough may tie into the metaplot if I read the clues right.) Very well presented and thought out aliens again duly impressed. Though less impressed with the research for example under the Elohim we get the magical artifacts list--in them the Spear of Destiny/Longinus, its said the "Spear that Killed Christ" sorry BUZZ! Wrong. In the actual story, whether you believe in Christianity or not, the spear was used to puncture his side--which caused him to bleed water, showing indeed he was already dead on the cross. It takes very little research to turn this up. It makes me suspect the other weapons as well. (I can't remember Excaliber/Caliburn bursting into flames but admittedly with the numerous Arthurian variations I'll admit its possible I missed some.)

U.S.E.R

United States Eugenics Research

     Basically the MIB/CIA of science and superpowers in the game they create, vanish, and otherwise cause dangerous things to happen in and around supers, as well as clean up after them, ostensibly to to protect people from the danger of super-powered beings. I like them in that they are like most organizations of that type completely clueless on one hand to being responsible for a large part of the danger they fear, but many members earnestly trying not to cause harm.

The score for the major players in Godsend Agenda is 4 face of 6 faces on the old D6.

The last section is basically pages 261-275 is the GM section. It includes the variable quality advice by other (and notable RPGnet denizens and writers), that I again honestly suggest you ignore most of it and do your own thing with the great background and wonderful rules you've been given.

We get a villainous organization (an evil band oh no!) set up to be used as an opponents, as well as some independent heroes and other sorts and finally we get some basic ways to simplify large dice pools, handle toughness and weight of object, and a one page list of generic people and animals.

It's a large book with a lot packed into it. If your looking for a "D6 Supers" game you might want to look into this one. Though a lot of the book is setting the rule-set is decent and solid, and handles supers reasonably well for a classic points and balances system, and its fairly flexible and fast using the D6 system. The setting is also worth reading if not stealing from, and defiantly usable as is for those who want something other than "stereotypical" super-hero gaming.

In general I give it a 4 of 6 faces, above average in most ways, not stellar, but damn fine D6 supers game.