Vaarna_Aarne
Notorious Internet Vandal
I'm recreating this topic here in case people might actually get interested (so far I've received on character)...
So I was thinking about running a pnp RPG campaign here on the Codex. The game in question would be using Godlike.
Here's the story pitch: The game would run in two timeframes, first taking place in the 60's in what appears to be our history (no parahumans or anything like that) until the pencil-pushing PCs come into possession of a top secret file that places everything they know about history into question. The second one taking place during the closing days of World War 2, following a group of Allied parahumans who stumble on the trail of suspicious events behind the scenes.
Some players would play characters that are only taking part in the 60's portion, while others have the Talents that are active in both, as parahuman soldiers in WW2 and in the 60's as old men without powers or memory of any such thing like Talents ever being real (much less themselves being one, though naturally dreams of flying are accepted) that the 60's PCs then start locating, with the plot then opening the mystery from two timeframes.
Now, to detail the system a bit. Godlike is a WW2 superhero roleplaying game with the tagline "You are larger than life. But the war is larger than you." The game itself takes place in an alternate history much like our own, except in 1938 the Olympic Torch was carried by a flying man, with more parahuman Talents emerging as the war began. The key element is that the chief inspiration behind the game are Alan Moore comics, and as such the key aspect is that in it all superpowers use Miracleman rules: Everything is mind over matter, nobody is actually super-strong or similarl. In fact, no parahuman exhibits any real physical difference from humans, the very first parahuman, Der Flieger, only could fly because he truly believed being a pure Aryan granted him superpowers (meta-game knowledge, ingame the reason is largely unknown). This is used to great effect with the game mechanics, with the key stat behind superpowers being Will, and as your mental focus deteriorates you run the risk of your powers failing. Similarly, it serves as a weakness as by default powers require you to be aware, with one of the sample NPCs (Lawrence Clyde Moreland AKA The Indestructible Man) being completely invulnerable but ONLY when he knew he was about to be hurt. Similarly, the setting is a tights-free zone (aside from the Nazi Überkommando of the Rasse-und Siedlungs Hauptamt Sonderableitung A, or RuSHA SA, Nazis being such Wagnerian melodramatics), and the parahumans do not alter world history.
The game uses a very interesting d10 system, called the One-Roll Engine, which uses two measures for success: "Height" (highest number, or the numerical value of dice set in Width) and "Width" (highest number of matched dice rolls) of the roll. Generally the idea of the system is a dice pool system where EVERYTHING is handled with a single roll, with iniative, hitting and damage all being combined into a single roll when fighting, for example.
I do recommend reading the core book regardless, it's a very good alternate history setting, and a very good superhero setting. There's a lot of thought put into it, and the manipulated (and real) photographs that make up the artwork work wonders to set up the atmosphere. It's also very un-epic (in a way), which I'm sure the Codex likes.
I'm prepared for 4-6 bros to join.
FYI, RPtools and other map programs will NOT be used. It'll be talk things over, dice roll, post in topic; the usual pnp thing except on teh internets. Otherwise just a chat program needs to be figured out, possibly Skype. I'm also letting you guys roll your own dice to make things move faster.
So I was thinking about running a pnp RPG campaign here on the Codex. The game in question would be using Godlike.
Here's the story pitch: The game would run in two timeframes, first taking place in the 60's in what appears to be our history (no parahumans or anything like that) until the pencil-pushing PCs come into possession of a top secret file that places everything they know about history into question. The second one taking place during the closing days of World War 2, following a group of Allied parahumans who stumble on the trail of suspicious events behind the scenes.
Some players would play characters that are only taking part in the 60's portion, while others have the Talents that are active in both, as parahuman soldiers in WW2 and in the 60's as old men without powers or memory of any such thing like Talents ever being real (much less themselves being one, though naturally dreams of flying are accepted) that the 60's PCs then start locating, with the plot then opening the mystery from two timeframes.
Now, to detail the system a bit. Godlike is a WW2 superhero roleplaying game with the tagline "You are larger than life. But the war is larger than you." The game itself takes place in an alternate history much like our own, except in 1938 the Olympic Torch was carried by a flying man, with more parahuman Talents emerging as the war began. The key element is that the chief inspiration behind the game are Alan Moore comics, and as such the key aspect is that in it all superpowers use Miracleman rules: Everything is mind over matter, nobody is actually super-strong or similarl. In fact, no parahuman exhibits any real physical difference from humans, the very first parahuman, Der Flieger, only could fly because he truly believed being a pure Aryan granted him superpowers (meta-game knowledge, ingame the reason is largely unknown). This is used to great effect with the game mechanics, with the key stat behind superpowers being Will, and as your mental focus deteriorates you run the risk of your powers failing. Similarly, it serves as a weakness as by default powers require you to be aware, with one of the sample NPCs (Lawrence Clyde Moreland AKA The Indestructible Man) being completely invulnerable but ONLY when he knew he was about to be hurt. Similarly, the setting is a tights-free zone (aside from the Nazi Überkommando of the Rasse-und Siedlungs Hauptamt Sonderableitung A, or RuSHA SA, Nazis being such Wagnerian melodramatics), and the parahumans do not alter world history.
The game uses a very interesting d10 system, called the One-Roll Engine, which uses two measures for success: "Height" (highest number, or the numerical value of dice set in Width) and "Width" (highest number of matched dice rolls) of the roll. Generally the idea of the system is a dice pool system where EVERYTHING is handled with a single roll, with iniative, hitting and damage all being combined into a single roll when fighting, for example.
I do recommend reading the core book regardless, it's a very good alternate history setting, and a very good superhero setting. There's a lot of thought put into it, and the manipulated (and real) photographs that make up the artwork work wonders to set up the atmosphere. It's also very un-epic (in a way), which I'm sure the Codex likes.
I'm prepared for 4-6 bros to join.
FYI, RPtools and other map programs will NOT be used. It'll be talk things over, dice roll, post in topic; the usual pnp thing except on teh internets. Otherwise just a chat program needs to be figured out, possibly Skype. I'm also letting you guys roll your own dice to make things move faster.
