| Bad-Ash | Date: Sunday, 03 Mar 2013, 4:09 PM | Message # 1 |
 Count / Countess
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| What’s it about?
Godlike is one of many superhero role-playing games. What makes it different to all the others is its historical setting and its realistic style. In Godlike, players can take on the roles of 'Talents', ordinary men and women who mysteriously and suddenly gain superpowers, in the midst of World War II. Recruited into the armies of the Allied countries, these Talents are first to lead the fight against the Nazis. Unfortunately, the Nazis have plenty of their own superhuman soldiers.
How does the system work?
D10s and lots of them. Godlike uses what it calls a One-Roll Engine (ORE): players roll a number of d10s equal to their stat, skill or superpower and succeed at a task if they get any matches. For example, if you roll four d10s and get 1, 3, 3, and 8, you succeed with the two threes. The speed of success is measured by the number you roll, while the rate of success is measured by how many of the same number you roll.
For instance, if you were trying to repair a jeep and rolled five dice and got 1, 9, 9, 2, and 3, you’d succeed with those two nines. And you’d fix the jeep very fast if not very well. If, however, you rolled 1, 3, 3, 3, and 3, you’d still succeed but in a different way, with those four threes – this time it would take you a day or two to fix the jeep but you’d have that engine purring like a kitten.
In addition, players may have ‘hard’ dice – which always count as 10s – or ‘wiggle’ dice – which count as any number.
What's good about it?
Godlike is one of those games that has mostly gone under the radar of the gaming community. It's got its devotees for sure, but one of the big things that attracts some players (ORE) is also a bone of contention for others, so in the end Godlike is a game you'll either love or hate.
But regardless of that, most people adore the setting. It's the middle of World War II and every country involved in the war has discovered that
some soldiers are superheroes. But these are not your four-colour, golden-age heroes. They don't wear bright costumes - that's a quick way to get targeted by an enemy sniper. Their powers are limited - it's more a Spider-Man level of power and even that's probably overstating things.
The historical setting is incredibly detailed and very well-researched, moreso in the supplements than in the main rulebook (which is still very well put together). And the game system works incredibly well, although it is not without flaws. But the biggest thing Godlike has going for it is its unique and original idea.
What’s bad about it?
If you don’t like historical games and in particular the World War II setting, this is obviously not the game for you. It also unfortunately requires a delicate hand to both run and take part in, because of the possible offensive nature of the subject matter.
Both the historical setting and the system are very realistic, which although remarkably good can also lead to two big problems. Firstly, the game revolves around an all-male, all-military group in the British or American (or other Allied) armies, so unfortunately due to the time period female characters aren’t encouraged. (Although I’ve always wanted to run a spy game rather than military game, which would overcome that
particular problem, as the British at least used a large amount of female operatives in the occupied countries. Even without that, it’s easy enough to just bring in WACs or WAFs.)
And the realism of the game system is deadly (and I mean, really, really, deadly) to the characters. The game actually advises players to create several characters in one sitting in case the first one, or even two, get killed in the game.
What do I need to play?
Just like Pathfinder, at a minimum, nothing, provided the GM has the core rulebook at least, along with plenty of d10s to lend out. Ideally, however, you should bring lots and lots of d10s, at least six or more, along with pens or pencils and plenty of paper. Players only really need the core rulebook – all the supplements are pretty much for GMs' eyes only.
Where can I learn more?
Not many places, unfortunately, all there is some basic information on the Arc Dream website (http://arcdream.com/home/). And there’s alittle information available on Wikipedia too. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godlike_%28role-playing_game%29).
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| Rob | Date: Wednesday, 12 Jun 2013, 6:17 PM | Message # 2 |
 Baron / Baroness
Group: Past Members
Messages: 76
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| Game Concept: Heroes in Casablanca attempting to preserve it's safety and vague neutrality in the face of competing European influences and their superpowered assets.
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| Bad-Ash | Date: Thursday, 13 Jun 2013, 4:18 PM | Message # 3 |
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Count / Countess
Group: Past Members
Messages: 133
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| It's a good idea, Rob, and certainly a different approach to most Godlike games. If anyone's interested, I could try to come up with something for further down the line.
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