In a market that is fast becoming flooded with superhero roleplaying games - Godlike, Wild Talents, Silver Age Sentinels, Mutants and Masterminds, Vigilance, HERO system's Champions and even Eden Studios planned Beyond Human - there is some tough competition for the discerning superhero roleplayer's dollar. Which is why I have a bit of trouble with Godsend Agenda.
It's not that GA is a bad game, or even a bad setting. It's just that in a market that is over flowing with good systems, there is a real threat of Godsend Agenda just vanishing under most people's radar.
The Gods wear Tights
The basic setting of Godsend Agenda is fairly Marvel-esque in design. Aliens known as the Elohim flee from a galaxy spanning empire and come to Earth, set themselves up as Gods using their superpowers and eventually lead to superheroes in the modern age. There are many other conspiracies and plots in the background, but these all lead back to the same core of aliens and humans crossbreeding to create superhumans.
While this setting is good, and has some interesting twists, there are a couple of faults. Firstly, GA has a clear metaplot. The problem here is that any decent group of PCs is going to quickly make said metaplot redundant as they move around removing or disrupting hidden conspiracies. This is a common problem with metaplotting a game that has powerful PCs. Note how Exalted keeps it's metaplot details to mainly suggestions and tips... I felt that Godsend would have benefitted more from such an approach.
Another problem with Godsend's setting is one that continues to arise throughout the book - that of a missed opportunity. Godsend Agenda was released before the real glut of superhero RPGs came out, there was the opportunity to really grab the interest of consumers. For example, the initial advertising gave me the impression that the heroes were going to be reincarnated gods - that all superheroes were actually the new manifestations of forgotten deities. (By the way, if anyone wants to pick up that idea and run with it - I'd love to see what you produce. Just mention me in your credits. ;) ) Instead, what Godsend Agenda does about superheroes is give a very stereotypical supers setting. Also, as I read about the conspiracies I couldn't help but think that Mr Grayson could have chosen to make a kind of "Over the Edge meets Image Comics" setting. But again, this opportunity was overlooked.
Layout and Graphics
Godsend Agenda comes as a standard softcover RPG book - with a black cover - a pixelated image of a gold scarab on the cover and some standard superhero pictures on the back cover.
The presentation within the book is quite professional for what is clearly a small business publication. Barring a slightly over-extended contents table that runs over six pages long and is a veritable index in and of itself, the book's layout and fonts are all of a good standard. The book is usually easy to read and has a great consistency to its appearance.
On the otherhand I didn't particularly like the artwork in the book. The book is illustrated by both the author and Matt Drake. It is fairly standard superhero comic art - but definitely of the fan art quality. Many pictures have skewed perspectives, and a lot of the character art has misplaced eyes and noses that often give the faces odd dimensions. Still, most of it is better than I could do, so I wont dwell on it too long. The art is sufficient, but I do feel that maybe Khepera should have looked for someone with a little more experience. There are some great fan artists on the net who are willing to illustrate for reasonable prices... and it would have benefitted the project greatly. (Particularly because they would not have had such a nipple fixation... apparently female superheroes in the Godsend universe have never heard of bras or band-aids and are always cold...)
System
Putting aside the visual aspects of the game, here is the most important element. How does it play? After all, even the worst setting can be saved by a decent game system - look at Greyhawk or
7th Sea.
Godsend Agenda's game system is fairly straight forward - roll 2d6 and add your trait and skill to beat a given difficulty. This is consistent with all the elements of the system. Combat is slightly complicated by an action point system - this is basically where the player has a number of points that can be spent on actions within a round. Much like Mechanical Dream's Combat Pool or Feng Shui's Shot costs. However this system seems to have been arbitrarily placed into combat when it wasn't particularly required, and even risks slowing the pace of the game down.
Powers Limited
Unfortunately this is where I once again felt that an opportunity had been missed. Rather than provide a system to allow players and GMs to create their own superpowers - such as
Godlike, HERO and
Mutants and Masterminds have provided -
Godsend Agenda opts to simply used a fixed list of powers. Admittedly there are a great deal of powers listed, and should cover most players' desires. But I personally feel that providing a system of power creation not only gives more freedom, it shows that all the powers in the game are balanced.
As it is, Godsend's powers list falls into the same problem as Aberrant - it limits the game to the setting provided. While a creative GM can work on altering the systems to allow for another setting, it takes a fair amount of work.
Conclusion
A standard supers game with a standard system, a standard powers list and a standard storyline. It’s okay, but didn’t get me eager to play. Possibly after games such as
Aberrant and
Godlike, the standard supers setting just doesn’t catch me. I just didn’t get excited by anything in this game. A good, solid product with a couple of flaws, but is overshadowed by the more flexible, general superhero toolkits of S.A.S. and M&M – and the upcoming Wild Talents.
Should I buy this Game? If you are a die hard supers gamer then this will most likely appeal to you. There is much here that can be plundered for use in other campaigns - such as taking the Elohim aliens and placing them into Over The Edge.
