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Physically, Will to Power is of excellent quality, hardbound with high-quality paper. The only problem with this is that it raises the price to $20.95, which might not seem like much until you see that the book is less than 120 pages- making this the worst price-to-pages ratio since Mutants & Masterminds. The book's quality still justifies a purchase, but people on a budget may need to think it over. The cover itself features an unrealistic but still gorgeous Christopher Shy painting of Der Flieger flying through battle wreckage, as Luftwaffe planes fly in the background. While Der Flieger is wearing full SS regalia (including a red cape, for some reason), the big symbol on his chest isn't a swastika, but a triskelion (three-pointed cross). The publishers probably decided against the swastika in order to avoid glorifying it, but for one thing, the triskelion isn't a Germanic design, but a Celtic one. (As an Irish-American, I'm wondering if I should feel insulted...). If nothing else, they could have used the Udal rune on the costume, which is detailed on page 27, and has some historical basis.
Part One: Overview begins appropriately enough with a quote from Friedrich Nietzsche: "All signs of super-human nature appear in man as either illness or insanity." In some respect, that's the theme of the book. This chapter states the general focus on a division of the SS called RuSHA-SA, which was responsible for dealing with superpowered individuals ('parahumans' or 'Talents' in GODLIKE). Historically, RuSHA was a real Nazi bureaucracy in charge of "resettling" conquered territories, "SA" (Special Department A) being the subdivision in charge of dealing with parahumans. This is just one example of how the game blends historical fact with fiction "(which) we like to call *faction*." This chapter reviews RuSHA-SA as an example of how the entire Nazi movement was twisted and ultimately undermined by Adolf Hitler's obsession with race and eugenics, which in turn leads to a brief, mostly factual, summary of how Hitler managed to become dictator of Germany against not only his enemies, but other factions within the Nazi Party. He did it largely through the efforts of his personal bodyguard, the SS, which took control of the police and used their organizational advantage to crush all dissent.
It is in this chapter that the main author, Dennis Detweiler, emphasizes that WtP is NOT a sourcebook for Nazi player characters: "This book is simply a look at what the SS might be like in the world of GODLIKE. The characters, organizations, and facilities presented within are targets for the players' characters to kill, disrupt, and destroy. If you somehow still find that you are attracted to the SS, knowing that they were responsible for some of the most reprehensible actions of recorded history, get some help. Seriously." One might argue (as with the no-swastika cover) that Detweiler needs to disavow hints of Nazi sympathy in making this book, and oversells the point. After all, not all SS combat units were ordered to commit atrocities. Nevertheless, the nature of the SS should be understood. Whereas stormtroopers took their oath to the Nazi Party, and the regular military took its oath to the German nation, the SS, as Hitler's guard, took their oath of allegiance to Adolf Hitler himself. In practical terms, the difference between a regular Wehrmacht soldier and an SS soldier is that if the regular Army soldier were ordered to commit an atrocity, he *might* be able to get his superiors to cover for him, using the articles of war. The SS, however, were the ideological guardians of Nazism (much like the Soviet NKVD or KGB) and defying their orders out of conscience could lead to execution.
Later in the book, they hint that anti-Nazi Ubermenschen (German Talents) could be the focus of a cloak-and-dagger campaign in which the PCs have to be as afraid of their own government as the 'enemy.' But for the most part, Will to Power discourages German PCs. Which is understandable, given the kind of culture they would be living in. Gamers should also read Gene Seabolt's GURPS WW2:Iron Cross for an even more grim portrait of Nazi Germany. It was NOT fun, even if you were the 'Master Race.' [Having dealt with the subject of Nazi PCs, let's move on.]
Part Two: Man, then Superman focuses on Konrad Rahn, aka "Der Flieger." The book offers a little more biographical detail than the GODLIKE core book, stating that Konrad was raised in a Catholic orphanage after his Nazi dad died saving Hermann Goering in the Beer Hall Putsch (making Konrad something of a Nazi victim himself, ironically). The biography still doesn't explain "the secrets" behind his manifestation of powers, other than his own firm sense of belief in himself as a savior of the "Aryan" race- which Nazi theorists then interpreted as evidence for racial superiority, even as their British counterparts concluded that Der Flieger's powers were the result of sheer will, not "blood" or physical mutations. The book implies that this German emphasis on race is what caused them to fall backward in researching parahuman abilities.
This directly segues to Part Three: Rationalizations, presenting the structure and procedures of RuSHA-SA in detail. Like the rest of the book, it does a great job of presenting real Nazi ideology (which comes across as science fiction) in the game's science fiction context. For one thing, it details how the SS, as in the real world, had to conceal certain harsh realities from Hitler, and thus the public- such as the fact that parahumans existed outside Germany. Not only that, but by the middle of World War II, Nazi scientists had finally wised up to the fact that the mind was key in all Talent manifestations, and some of them had even figured out that just as German Talents often manifested in moments of stress or combat, enemy Talents (including Jews) were doing the same thing, due to the "stress" Germany was putting on them. The doctors in charge of the "Yellow House" project followed up these observations by taking existing Ubermenschen and subjecting them to torture in hopes of creating a super-Talent like the Russian Baba Yaga. The only likely results, of course, were A) the death of the subjects, or B) the creation of a "mad" Talent who was too hostile to obey and too powerful to be controlled (which is how Baba Yaga was created in the first place).
Part Four details the SS-Uberkommandogruppen, specifically formed to consolidate all parahumans within Germany under direct control of the SS. This includes a brief description of their organizational level, as well as their emphasis on using powers over convetional equipment (which eventually led to their defeat against Allied Talents who were trained to fall back on their military gear).
Part Five: Before Consolidation points out the political struggle between the regular military (including the intelligence forces, who were often anti-Nazi) and the SS. This struggle is what led to the consolidation of Ubermenschen into the SS ranks (and again, makes playing a German PC problematic, as the Nazis become suspicious of parahumans who refuse to transfer from the Wehrmacht to the SS). It is also noted that the Abwehr (military intelligence) was disbanded in February 1944, in the wake of the bomb plot against Hitler- on the same page where they also say the plot occured in July 1944. Eh-oh...
Part Six: Battles briefly details the Germans' use of parahumans in battle. In the book, General Rommel says that Talents were strategically "useless" while tactically, "they are useful in an extremely narrow capacity, under ideal conditions- which rarely exist in warfare, of course." This fits the overall attitude of GODLIKE: Superpowers had great effect on an individual level, but not enough to change the overall course of the historical war.
Part Seven: Allied Intelligence is a brief (3-page) chapter on Allied efforts to gain intelligence on the Ubermensch programs. To me, it's worth noting only for a teensy bit of data at the end: At the end of the war, British agents got access to the "Yellow House" research, which the book says "gave the British the ability and knowledge to create artificial parahumans after the war, a secret kept from the American government for almost thirty years." Huh? How was it possible to create parahumans deliberately, when scientists on both sides had determined it was impossible? Does this secret procedure have anything to do with the difference in Powers between GODLIKE and WILD TALENTS (a book that really shoulda been out by now...)?
Part Eight: Targets of Opportunity finally gets to some brass-tack game mechanics, as the histories and game stats for 18 Ubermenschen (including Der Flieger) are presented. These characters offer great examples of the imagination of the game designers. My favorites are Herkules, who has invulnerability and steel-crushing fists- both of which only apply against tanks- and Der Tragheit ('The Inertia') whose only power is the ability to touch something or someone and remove all inertia from the target. However, this has the practical effect that the target no longer rotates in sync with the Earth, and immediately flies off into the upper atmosphere and disintegrates.
Part Nine: Equipment, Weapons and Tactics should be self-explanatory. The chapter opens with a brief discussion of the Waffen-SS (SS combat unit) training philosophy, and a chart of insignia below a table of military rank in comparison with other German services and the US Army. There is also a 'package deal' of skills given to Waffen-SS men (subtly noted as 'all NPCs who train in the Waffen-SS'). The rest of the chapter is game stats for real military equipment used by the SS, plus the truly nasty Sonnenblume ('sunflower') magnesium flash grenade developed to permanently blind enemy Talents so that they couldn't activate their powers.
Part Ten: New Rules for Godlike is easily the most important part of the book for those who aren't interested in the SS, mainly because it contains rules for using warplanes in combat. As with the Resonance rules for MAGE Revised (buried somewhere in The Fallen Tower citybook) this falls into the category of 'Supplemental' Material That Really Should've Been in the Core Book. (Especially given that Der Flieger made his wartime reputation as an air combatant.) Basically, planes have a Speed Rating in dice equal to the Talent power Super Speed. They have a Difficulty Rating which subtracts from the Coordination+Pilot roll needed to maneuver ('This reflects the fact that even if you're an amazing pilot, you can't make a B-17 do a snap roll'). Most planes also have a Heavy Armor rating of 1 to 3, and a certain amount of structural points. Taking damage corresponds to the rules for hitting characters: 'Superficial' damage is equivalent to Shock, 'Structural' damage is equivalent to Killing. If a location takes Superficial damage twice, those boxes convert to Structural damage. A location that has taken all of its boxes in Structural damage is shot up, usually leading to a plane crash.
There are, of course, rules for air combat/dogfights. Most of these involve contested rolls of Coordination+Piloting. Breaking off pursuit involves Flight Speed+Piloting. And since flying Talents aren't subject to most of the restrictions on aircraft (like turn mode) they gain huge advantages on them. The chapter gives an extensive list of Allied, Soviet, German, Japanese, and even Italian aircraft, including late-war jets used by both sides.
Then they give a short list of new Powers for GODLIKE (which the book says will be re-listed in the second edition of the core book). Two of them, Size Change and Unconventional Move (webslinging, icesliding, etc.) are sufficiently unique and necessary, but the 'Plasticine Touch' seems to be an attack power that can be adequately created with existing rules. New Extras and Flaws for Powers are listed.
After this, they devote a fairly large section to optional rules, which should probably stay optional. For instance, there's the 'Killing Disposition' stat, which is based on studies confirming the surprising (and somewhat heartening) conclusion that humans, even soldiers, are inherently opposed to killing each other. The problem is that this can lead to combat paralysis and quick death in game situations, and the last thing you want to do in GODLIKE is make death any easier. Likewise, there are extensive descriptions of battle fatigue (the psychological trauma of war) and hit locations (the medical trauma of war). For instance, a Head shot uses a special table with the highest unused die in the pool. If the die is 1 or 2, that's 'Chin and Neck' area: "Damage to the chin and mouth area can break teeth and dislocate the jaw. Blows to the neck can paralyze and crush the esophagus, suffocating the victim. Lacerations and punctures to the neck can destroy the carotid artery and the jugular vein, quickly killing the victim from rapid blood loss..."
This can all be filed under the category of "Too Much Info." The rules for battle damage and loss of Will in the core rules make the game quite bloody already- moreover, figuring out these extra layers of detail undermines the strength of the game, a dice pool system which was designed to resolve a turn's combat action with a single die roll. If there's any aspect of the sourcebook I couldn't recommend, this section is it.
SUMMARY: Will to Power may be the definitive sourcebook for using Nazis in a superhero universe. The GODLIKE designers aren't the first people who've thought of doing so, of course, but the book packaging, like that of the GODLIKE corebook, uses photo illustrations and historical research in such a way as to really convince the reader that if superhumans existed in the 1930s, THIS is what they'd look like. This is especially true with regard to the Nazi philosophy, as the same delusions that brought Hitler's government low in the real world also destroyed his parahuman program.
Even if one isn't a "fan" of Nazis, the book is still necessary to GODLIKE players because of its extra German/SS equipment lists, not to mention the extra Powers and the air combat rules. For all these reasons, I highly recommend it to anyone else interested in World War II gaming. Again, the high price (for the size) and the needlessly graphic and limiting optional rules are negative points, but the buyer should take those factors into account for what is, overall, a very high-quality sourcebook.
