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The Book Itself
Part Time Gods is a 212 paged pdf with the soft cover coming out at GenCon. The cover is a full color wrap around piece that has a very unique style. While it is not my favorite look, it is by far better than a lot of gaming art I have seen, but what really makes it shine is it makes me curious about the game. One look at the cover had me wondering: what was this game all about? What interesting things does this contain? I can’t really put my finger on what it is about the cover that makes me feel this way; perhaps, that is enough of reason by itself. The interior of the book is black and white, and like usual 3EG products has some wonderful works from some really talented artists. I still want more, and feel 3EGs would do good to start having more full page black in white pieces in their products assuming full color interiors are a stretch.
Chapter Breakdown
Chapter One: Brother The Coming Storm (Pages 10-28)
After a small introduction area which includes a quick summary of the game, an example of play, and the usual what is an RPG sections we get to the first chapter. The beginning chapter goes into detail about the setting and its history. Interestingly PTG does not tell us who created humans, but starts with saying we roamed the Earth like just another part of the animal kingdom. Then the Source was discovered by a woman, and it explained itself to be the creator of all things. The woman and the source combined making a sort of human avatar of the Source. This new form caused the divine spark to form in humans making them no longer basic animals, but higher intelligent beings. The Source then made a few of the humans more powerful than the rest, and thus the first gods were created.
Of course over time the gods became jealous they were not in complete control of everything, and under the leadership of Zeus most of the gods banded together to find a way to take out the Source. The gods realized they could not destroy the Source so they instead found a way to imprison it. They created the Gilded Cage from the same material the Source is made of, and under the deception of worship trapped the Source within it.
Now with the Source caged away, the gods turned their jealousy towards each other. The gods siphoned the Source’s power to create more and more gods to fill out the ranks of their pantheons, and after an accident the god Coyote discovered that the gods could now be killed. All of this led the gods to war. Alliances were made and broken, and battles were fought for years. After millennia, the gods started to notice that their power was waning. But the wars didn’t come to an end until one day Zeus was killed by worshippers of an opposing god. The gods now realized their power was low enough that they could be killed by normal humans, and the first was the mighty Zeus. The ability to create new gods had also disappeared. These changes caused many of the gods to hide amongst humanity, or to create other divine dimensions to hide in for fear of being destroyed. It also caused new societies based on certain traditions and schools of thought to take form. These societies are called Theologies. The gods also discovered they could pass a dominion on to a human. So while not creating new gods it did allow already existing Divine Sparks to be passed to others.
Also unforeseen to the gods was that the Source was beginning to leak from its containment. The Source’s energy began to seep out of the Gilded Cage, and began to chaotically and wantonly give the divine spark to not just humans, but now animals and even plants. Gods began to randomly appear, and the animals and plants became Outsiders. Outsiders were all of the mythical creatures from legends and stories. Hydras, satyrs, and minotaurs were now real, and often were trouble for the gods. In the present day this has created a world similar to ours except that gods fight for control of domains, territory, and power. The Source continues to seep out at random amongst the universe unchecked. And most gods agree there is storm coming.
Chapter Two: Theologies (Pages 29-61)
This chapter covers the theologies that a PC may be a part of. Each theology gets a section to describe it, and after each description is an NPC that is a part of that theology. The theologies are:
- Ascendants - Ascendants seek the glory days of the gods. They want to gather as much divine power as they can get so they may take their place above all others.
- Cult of the Saints - The cult believes they are not true gods, but can hear the voice of the Almighty God. They are heavily founded on the Roman Catholic Church; however, all religions have some within the ranks of the cult.
- Drifting Kingdoms - The Drifting Kingdoms believe all things must end, and they follow this idea to the extreme. They will build mighty and powerful territories and power bases only to walk away, and start all over somewhere else.
- Masks of Jana - The Masks believe in hiding amongst society, and are masters of subterfuge and stealth. They master illusions, and can manipulate the memories of the weak.
- Order of Meskhenet - The Order is obsessed with the lineage of their divine sparks. They believe they should be able to trace their Spark back to its original god.
- Phoenix Society - This society believe in co-existing with humanity and leading them to do great things.
- Puck-Eaters - The Puck-Eaters believe they attain more power through cannibalism. They eat human flesh and organs to gain power, and have no problems with eating their own kind as well.
- Warlock’s Fate - The Fate search for more and more knowledge, and are known for carrying magic items that contain some of their Divine Spark.
Chapter Three: Building Blocks (Pages 62-106)
This chapter covers the rules for creating and playing a character. As stated before PTG’s uses a new lite version of the DGS system that was in Apocalypse Prevention, Inc. and Wu Xing The Ninja Crusade. Though the system is about 95% the same most of the modifications are in combat which comes up in a later chapter. For those who are not already familiar with other Third Eye games, the system uses 1d20 for all rolls. The base mechanic is 1d20 plus stat+skill versus a target number. In PTG the player starts by coming up with a human concept and picking an occupation for the character. The occupation gives the character certain bonuses to skills and provides a starting wealth score. The players must also pick Bonds for the character. The bonds are the ties and foci that make the character human. These bonds are what keep a god’s humanity from disappearing, and drive their very existence to accomplish their goals instead of falling into pure hatred or fear. Bonds make a good mechanic for storytelling. Not only can they be boons for a god’s existence, but they can also be used against a god by an adversary.
Next, a player gets to spend 25 points on the attributes of Power, Agility, Vigor, Intellect, Insight, and Charm. These are the base stats that the player will derive secondary stats from and add to rolls alongside a skill. The player then gets 25 skill points plus bonus points from their IQ to spend on skills. After skills, the player receives a certain amount of points from their occupation to buy Gifts, and may get seven more points from Drawbacks. Gifts and Drawbacks are your basic advantage and disadvantage system. The character then needs to figure his health, movement, stamina, and spark. Health work like basic hit points, movement is the amount a character can move in one round, stamina is a sort of hero point mechanic that can be used to buy bonuses, and spark is used to fuel powers.
Chapter Four: Divine Powers (Pages 107-138)
This chapter covers the powers that a god may have. First are several abilities that all gods share. These are things like sensing the Divine Spark, Immortality, and bonuses and penalties from prayers and territory control. There are also powers known as entitlements. These are powers that are not necessarily linked to the dominions of the god, but were still attached to the divine spark within them. These Entitlements can range from size changing to enhanced attributes. They are sort of the basic super powers a god might have outside their domains.
Next, the section covers Relics. Relics are the magic items of the gods like Thor’s Hammer or Artemis’ Bow. God’s must attune themselves with relics when they are found, and the more powerful the relic the more likely it is to defy the attempt. Relics are categorized in 5 levels with level one being the weakest and covering items like skeleton keys. At level five you start to see truly powerful items like eternal coffins that stop aging for anything within.
Finally, we get to Dominions and their Manifestations. Characters start with one free Dominion. Dominions can be pretty much anything the player can come up with, and make a reasonable god of. Manifestations are how these Dominions can be used and include:
- Aegis
- Beckon
- Journey
- Minion
- Oracle
- Puppetry
- Ruin
- Shaping
Chapter Five: Gear & Combat (Pages 139-161)
This chapter starts with the gear section. This lists the rules for using the wealth stat, and also includes write-ups for equipment and weapons. Next are the rules for combat and are is the area where most of the changes to the DGS system are that make it the new DGS Lite. Combat sticks to the base 1d20 mechanic with defense being active. The combat tick tracker from original DGS has been ditched, and in its place is a basic initiative roll with highest going first, and players getting one action and reaction per turn without negatives. Fighting styles have also been ditched which lessens the amount of time it takes to figure up combat bonuses for a character. I really like the original DGS, but I love having this new DGS-Lite as an option now. I have several different players and groups, and some like more tactical combat and others want more storytelling and less combat focus. The different options now allow me to cater more to the style of group I am running for.
Chapter Six: Antagonists (Pages 162-183)
This chapter gives write-ups for the Outsiders and NPCs the PCs could encounter. The section begins with basic animals and then goes into mortal npcs. After that are the more supernatural adversaries. Dwarves, Djinn, and the particularly nasty Hydra are just a few of the creatures listed. There is also advice for creating mooks.
Chapter Seven: Storytelling (Pages 184-201)
This chapter is all about GM’s advice and how to run the game. It gives some excellent thoughts on how to run gods against gods, how to set the mood and theme of the story, and how to make sure the players have lots of fun and enjoyment. I find the advice to be very well written, and valuable for any GM new or veteran. The section finishes with several NPCs that were written for high-tier backers on kickstarter, and I find them to be very well thought characters that could play into anyone’s campaign. The book finishes with an index and sheets for the game.
Overall
With each new release Third Eye Games gets better and better. Mr. Lasanta has a knack for creating games that cover areas needed in the hobby at the time of their release. Part Time Gods covers its genre very well. The new DGS-Lite is excellent for a quick and easy game with lots of storytelling play and GM fiat decisions. The free-form Domain system is a remarkable way to handle the powers in the game, and I feel it could easily be used for a supers game with very little modification.
Ratings
Style is getting a 4. I feel that 3EGs is coming really close to breaking into a 5 on style. The artists are remarkable and the books layout is superb. The cover art on this is an excellent piece that really draws you into the game. If the books start to have full page pieces I believe it would be enough to garner a 5.
Substance is getting a 5. Like all 3EG products, PTG is loaded with everything one could want to run the game and its genre. The DGS-Lite system is a wonderful new version of the rules and allows for quick narrative play than classic DGS. That being said it’s still 95% the same as the classic, and all the games are compatible with little modification.
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