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Godsend Agenda is a game about superpowered humans and aliens locked in a millennia-old conflict that threatens the existence of Earth and the human race. The characters are heroes with ancient legacies that stretch back to the very birth of humanity and before. Of course the heroes may be blissfully unaware of their own part in the secret wars that rage around them, which only adds to the fun as the GM reveals the setting's background to the players over the course of the campaign.
Setting
This game gives you a wonderful background with a fairly strong metaplot. The supplements that exist don't really touch on the metaplot so you can meddle with it any way you like...in my view this removes most of the problems with having a metaplot. The history of the game is pretty rich and encourages/enables you to play in historical ages. Reading the setting I am reminded of the Wildstorm universe with its hidden aliens and government conspiracies. One of the nice things about the setting is that while the average man on the street knows he's living in a world of superheroes he has no idea of the true history behind it all. The history and rationale behind the supers and their conflicts is what really makes the game stand out.
There are a few ideas key to the game:
- There is a universal power called Ka that can be manipulated by certain individuals to create amazing effects. Ka is the source of all superpowers and magic in the setting. Most of the "super gadgets" and "magic items" use Ka energy to power their effects.
- A ship containing three advanced alien races (Chimerans, Elohim, and Angelos), proficient in the use of Ka, crashed on Earth thousands of years ago. The ship had travelled through space and time effectively stranding the aliens on Earth with no idea of when or where they were.
- The three races were at war with each other and continued their conflict on Earth.
- Soon after the aliens arrived they encountered Earth's defenders, the magic-wielding Atlanteans and promptly went to war with them.
- One group of aliens set themselves up as Gods, another as mythic monsters, a third as agents of "the one god".
The game is set by default in the modern era where a great threat is set to wipe out all life on Earth. Vast armies belonging to one of the alien races trapped on Earth (the ravaging Chimerans) have found Earth and their stellar armada will arrive within a few years. The other factions scramble to defend themselves and the humans continue their lives blissfully unaware of the menace that is set to annihilate their way of life. Of course it is possible to ignore the impending Chimeran menace or push it back another fifty years or so to expand the default setting further.
One thing I like about the setting is the idea that you can use it in almost any time period. Suggestions are given for playing in periods like ancient Greece, the age of Atlantis, the Victorian period, and many more. You can play as a group of ancient Viking heroes fighting epic monsters (Chimerans anyone?), a cabal of Magicians hunting vampires (Half-breed aliens?) in the Carpathian mountains, or rocket and ray gun heroes battling demented cyborg apes.
Characters
The players have a pretty wide range of choices when it comes to characters. There are 5 major races on earth: Humans, Chimerans, Atlanteans, Angelos, and Elohim. The heroes could also be hybrid offspring of these races. Other minor races are hinted at and quite easy to integrate into the game. In addition to the races there are various factions such as Black October and USER for the heroes to belong to. A breakdown of the races/factions follows:
- Atlanteans: Magic wielding ancients, human in appearance, and divided into noble houses based on blood, politics, and arcane interests. Atlantean seers foresaw the coming of the Chimeran armada in antiquity and manipulated the human genetic code to produce the Black October super-humans.
- Humans: Some humans have learned to wield Ka energies either as magic or superpowers. The USER organization uses a super-serum to create superhumans while the young adults of Black October have their (inevitably fatal) superpowers foisted upon them by ancient Altantean manipulations of the human genome. And of course there is the irradiated spider option :)
- Chimerans: One of the three alien races that crashed on Earth. The Chimerans waged vicious wars all across the Galaxy working to destroy or subjugate all other races which brought them into conflict with the Elohim emperor El. The Chimerans are semi-hive minded shapeshifters who use their own bodies as technology. The Chimerans have a caste system with the higher caste generally having more free will. The Chimerans on Earth have been separated from their "queen" for a long time and have developed more than a little independence. Most troubling of all is that the Chimerans can breed with anything producing monstrous half breeds that can quickly overrun a region.
- Elohim: The Elohim on Earth were on board a prison ship having displeased their Emperor "El". The ship was attacked by a rogue Chimeran cruiser and boarded. The prison guards, the Angelos, were unable to repel the invaders and instead activated the damaged Jump Drive in the hope that either they would get away or destroy themselves in the process. Instead the prison ship jumped through time and space to crash on Earth leaving the three races stranded. On reaching Earth the Elohim set themselves up as Gods to the humans that existed there using their vast Ka-fueled powers to reinforce this image. The Elohim were a mix of benevolent political activists and criminals resulting in a mix of "good" and "evil" deities. The Elohim exist in the modern day battling the Chimerans and Angelos while involved in their own plots and schemes.
- Angelos: The Angelos are genetically engineered super-soldiers created by the Elohim emperor El to enforce his will throughout the Galaxy. The Angelos stranded on Earth have continued to enforce their absent master's will trying to recapture the Elohim prisoners and destroy the monstrous Chimerans. Thousands of years without word from El hasn't weakened the Angelos' genetically imprinted loyalty and they patiently await for El to find them while they execute his "Godsend Agenda" by propagating monotheism throughout the globe. With burning wings and halos of Ka energy these armored warriors closely resemble the traditional image of an angel.
- Half breeds: With so many aliens scattered throughout the globe it is little wonder that large numbers of half-breeds exist. The Chimerans in particular breed rapidly and leave behind any number of mutated half-breed offspring. Many of these half breeds are unaware of their heritage and act as superheroes and villains.
- Black October: Atlantean meddling with the human genetic code resulted in the propagation of the "black gene", a mutation in humans that grants superpowers but curses the user to an early death as these powers eat them up from the inside. Those with the Black Gene were intended to protect humanity from the impending Chimeran armada when it arrives. The early death was an "unexpected side effect" which the Atlanteans generally feel rather bad about. Black October is a secret organization which gathers together those with the black gene to work against the Chimerans. The organizations resource-gathering activities have caused governments to brand them as terrorists.
- USER: A secret government organization that catalogs superhumans and works to develop defenses to protect humanity against the alien races that beset it on all sides. Cybernetics, advanced technology, and lots of resources make USER a force to be reckoned with. USER has also developed a "super serum" that enables them to create minor superhumans with only a few glitches.
Rules
I like light to medium crunch in my systems and Godsend Agenda provides just that. Godsend Agenda uses the D6 System from WEG (Based on the old Star Wars ruleset) which is good but requires a tweak if you want to build "high-skills" heroes (EG Batman) which don't cost the Earth. The points-buy system is simple enough and a rather nice "Archtype" sub-system grants benefits to those who act in character similar to White Wolf's Nature/Demeanor idea.
Special mention goes to the rules handling gadget-building which allow you to construct any type of device or magic item. They are also pretty straightforward and can handle "universal gadgets" like Batman's utility belt and Green Lantern's ring with ease.
There are no rules for building new powers but a large chunk of the book is devoted to presenting a wide range of pre-built powers. I like this kind of approach since it allows players to dive in and pick out the powers they want without having to spend time building them from scratch.
Artwork and Presentation
The book itself is a nice quality hardback that has stood up very well to the rigors of my gaming table for over three years. The book has a really solid feel to it which impressed me. The interior is black and white and the artwork is pretty average for a company of this size, neither brilliant nor terrible.
There are a few strange layout issues which are thankfully contained to a page or two. There is also some text at the start of the character building chapter that looks like it might have been orphaned when it was moved from whatever D6 book it was taken from. Otherwise the layout is good and the text clearly presented.
Strengths and Weaknesses
The strength of this game comes from its marvelous setting; the history is pretty amazing and the players can easily plug themselves right into that to make very cool and interesting characters. A group of players are likely to be very diverse and unless your players lack any spark of imagination you will never have the blandness that sometimes comes with "template" supers like bricks and blasters.
This game will likely appeal to those who like reading mythology as entire campaigns can be created just by reading about the mythology of a single region. (So these guys worshipped a "living mountain"? What if the mountain is an inactive Atlantean war-golem? What if someone finds a way to recharge it?) Real world mysteries like the Stone Balls of Costa Rica, the Crystal Skulls, and Peru’s Nazca lines can turn into cool campaign elements.
A slight weakness would be the small errors that creep into the text here and there. In addition I can't help but feel that the game would benefit from reorganization of the character and background information so that the game stats for the races is taken from the races chapter and brought into the character creation chapter.
So is it any good?
In a word, yes. This game has more great and original ideas before breakfast than most superhero games come up with in 20 supplements. One caveat, if you really don't like metaplots step away from the bookshelf. Otherwise, this game comes highly recommended.
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