GODSEND Agenda: Mythos

[Jerry D. Grayson]

Hello,

I’ve set this thread up for use for the play testers reviewing the 1st supplement GODSEND Agenda Mythos. Any comments, suggestions, or criticism should be posted here.

[Giddoen]

Well I d/l it and will print it at work and start going over it. What are you mainly looking for? Rules quirks or spelling issues grammer what?

John Polack A.K.A. Giddoen :cool:

[Jerry D. Grayson]

I’m looking for any obvious mistakes you may find as well as suggestions, and personal opinions. If you think something could be done better or something doesn’t jive post it here. At the moment ere are working in a vacuum and everything we put on paper we consider gold. :)

I know this isn’t the case and that’s why I’ve asked for your help. We are trying to create an unorthodox NON four color super hero role-playing game. Something recognizable as a super hero game while trying to put our own spin on it. I’m not interested in regurgitating the same old tropes found in other super hero games. I want something more punk rock.

[Giddoen]

I’m looking for any obvious mistakes you may find as well as suggestions, and personal opinions. If you think something could be done better or something doesn’t jive post it here. At the moment ere are working in a vacuum and everything we put on paper we consider gold. :)

I know this isn’t the case and that’s why I’ve asked for your help. We are trying to create an unorthodox NON four color super hero role-playing game. Something recognizable as a super hero game while trying to put our own spin on it. I’m not interested in regurgitating the same old tropes found in other super hero games. I want something more punk rock.

Ok great that is what I wanted to know.

Thanks

[Silverlion2]

Well, I'm reading through it as time permits. So I'll give you some feedback as time permits

-Tim

[aeforum]

General Note:
I will not comment on formatting, spelling or grammar at this time.

Opinion Quotes:
Maybe call this "Points of View"?
USER doesn't identify who the opposing quotes are from

Random Encounter Generator:
A few contradictions possible. Eg. "Players are mistaken for Chimerans..." But what if they ARE Chimerans? No big deal but some of these assume things about the characters that we can't know.
The first chart is not alphabetical, but the others are, so it's difficult to find a sub-chart after rolling on the first one.

Wondrous Gadgets and Artifacts:
Intro says they're from the ancient world, but there's a guitar.

Organizations:
Retitle this "Organizations and Pantheons"

The Fifth Sun:
No statted NPCs here, but World Serpent has some

The Fi-Hankra:
This should probably be called "The Fi-Hankra Pantheon"

Villains:
Heading is not bolded; I assume this is a new section?

Plot Hooks:
This section is confusing because it leads off with some brief one-sentence ideas broken down by period, then leads right into a full-blown hook without any suggestion of what's coming. It needs to be better structured, I think, with an outline to indicate that this section includes:

Five one-page plot hooks (Black Hole Heart, etc.)
Six two-page three-act plots (Pompeii and Circumstance, etc.)
Three long plots (Mother's Milk 10pp, Doctor Theophiles 20pp, Pandora 27pp)

Also, some of these hooks include directives as to character numbers and level. Either all of them should include this information, or none should.

[Jerry D. Grayson]

is anyone having problems printing the PDF?

[J.T.]

Ok the following comments deal with pages 1 to 43. I have not looked at grammar or spelling as I think that can come later, the contents are important at the moment.


Just a little nit pick to start with. Under the heading “What do I do with this book?” you constantly swap between using “game master” and GM perhaps the first time you could write “game master (GM) then us GM from then on to refer to game master.

Perhaps “Opinion Quotes” could be renamed perhaps “group outlook” “group Relations” etc.

Flexxor Echelon’s speech makes him out to be a naïve surfer dude rather than an experienced Alpha team leader and kind of gives the impression that all of Black October are inexperienced street kids when in fact the description in the rule book portrays then as a very effected terrorist fighting force.

I understand the inclusion of Agendas in the game but some of them seem totally out of reach of the scope of most campaigns.
Perhaps the personal agendas (small to medium) are attainable by individuals (the players) or team while the larger agendas are faction orientated (black October, Angelos etc).
For example it would be attainable in a campaign for an individual or team to clean up a neighbourhood while it would be more realistic for a faction to look at world domination.
The player could then have a choice whether to spend his renown towards his personal goals or donate some to the course. This could mean each player could have two renown scores one reflecting how the general public sees him the other reflecting how his is viewed by his superiors.
His renown with in the faction could then give him benefits i.e. access to equipment, teachers, information etc as a little bonus for backing his faction / group.

I like the write ups for the artefacts and gadgets but a description of each part of the write up could be helpful at the beginning of this section i.e. what is toughness used for etc. Very similar to that found at the beginning of the powers section in the main rules.
It would also help if the artefacts were group differently. Perhaps you could have a section that deals with owner named artefacts i.e. “the eye of Horus” and a section for general gadgets i.e. Adinkra Symbols.
Could there be a rarity value for each item to stop groups from having 4 hammers of Thor for example. As the way it reads if you have the points then you can buy the item. It may even be a case of adding a paragraph at the beginning warning GMs to use common sense when allowing players to have one of the items listed.

Well that’s all I have time for now hopefully I can read a few more pages tonight and post some more comments later. Hope these are of help.

J.T.

[Giddoen]

is anyone having problems printing the PDF?

Sorry man today was the day from H3LL! I will try tommorrow!

[Jerry D. Grayson]

Opinion Quotes:
Maybe call this "Points of View"?
USER doesn't identify who the opposing quotes are from

I’ve fix this. The counter point character is named John Mason



Random Encounter Generator:
A few contradictions possible. Eg. "Players are mistaken for Chimerans..." But what if they ARE Chimerans? No big deal but some of these assume things about the characters that we can't know.
The first chart is not alphabetical, but the others are, so it's difficult to find a sub-chart after rolling on the first one.

Your right, this could be fixed. I’ll have to fix this during the formatting. As for the Chimeran or other faction dilemma, I don’t know how I should fix this. Suggestions?



Wondrous Gadgets and Artifacts:
Intro says they're from the ancient world, but there's a guitar.

Hehe, yeah you’re right. I could either change the intro title or say that the guitar was known as some other instrument in ancient times.



Organizations:
Retitle this "Organizations and Pantheons"

Sounds good



The Fifth Sun:
No statted NPCs here, but World Serpent has some

I know, I haven’t gotten around to stating these characters. I kinda hit a block. I came up with a few write ups but they were real similar. I’d like for each one to be completely unique but being the Fates makes them a lot alike.



The Fi-Hankra:
This should probably be called "The Fi-Hankra Pantheon"

Noted



Villains:
Heading is not bolded; I assume this is a new section?

It will be fixed in formatting



Plot Hooks:
This section is confusing because it leads off with some brief one-sentence ideas broken down by period, then leads right into a full-blown hook without any suggestion of what's coming. It needs to be better structured, I think, with an outline to indicate that this section includes:
Five one-page plot hooks (Black Hole Heart, etc.)
Six two-page three-act plots (Pompeii and Circumstance, etc.)
Three long plots (Mother's Milk 10pp, Doctor Theophiles 20pp, Pandora 27pp)

Noted, Ill come up with a primer for the beginning of the section explaining what’s going on here.



Also, some of these hooks include directives as to character numbers and level. Either all of them should include this information, or none should.
I can go either way on this. What do you guys suggest? Should it stay or should it go?

[Jerry D. Grayson]

Ok the following comments deal with pages 1 to 43. I have not looked at grammar or spelling as I think that can come later, the contents are important at the moment.
Just a little nit pick to start with. Under the heading “What do I do with this book?” you constantly swap between using “game master” and GM perhaps the first time you could write “game master (GM) then us GM from then on to refer to game master.

Good suggestion. Ill fix it.



Perhaps “Opinion Quotes” could be renamed perhaps “group outlook” “group Relations” etc.

I like Group Outlook, group relations sounds too much like they interact in a routine basis.



Flexxor Echelon’s speech makes him out to be a naïve surfer dude rather than an experienced Alpha team leader and kind of gives the impression that all of Black October are inexperienced street kids when in fact the description in the rule book portrays then as a very effected terrorist fighting force.

They are very effective but they are also children. I pictured Flexxor like a rowdy young guy who plays and lives hard. He isn’t very world or knowledgeable about things beyond his limited scope of activity. He’s a fighter, and when he isn’t fighting he’s surfing the net learning about the world. If I spoke Leet speak better you wouldn’t even be able to understand hin:)



I understand the inclusion of Agendas in the game but some of them seem totally out of reach of the scope of most campaigns.
Perhaps the personal agendas (small to medium) are attainable by individuals (the players) or team while the larger agendas are faction orientated (black October, Angelos etc).
For example it would be attainable in a campaign for an individual or team to clean up a neighborhood while it would be more realistic for a faction to look at world domination.
The player could then have a choice whether to spend his renown towards his personal goals or donate some to the course. This could mean each player could have two renown scores one reflecting how the general public sees him the other reflecting how his is viewed by his superiors.
His renown with in the faction could then give him benefits i.e. access to equipment, teachers, information etc as a little bonus for backing his faction / group.

Over the course of a campaign I believe that most of these agendas are attainable. Look at the way handing out renown is handled. I do believe that some agendas would be hard to tackle and having a group effort may be an option that I should put in. team play was an option I didn’t consider originally.
Agendas are supposed to be lofty goals that can be attained only with hard work and gameplay.



I like the write ups for the artefacts and gadgets but a description of each part of the write up could be helpful at the beginning of this section i.e. what is toughness used for etc. Very similar to that found at the beginning of the powers section in the main rules.

All the rules for gadgets are in the main rule book. I don’t think the rules should be reprinted.



It would also help if the artefacts were group differently. Perhaps you could have a section that deals with owner named artefacts i.e. “the eye of Horus” and a section for general gadgets i.e. Adinkra Symbols.
Hmmm…that’s an idea. I just figured I’d list them in alphabetical order. What does everyone else think?



Could there be a rarity value for each item to stop groups from having 4 hammers of Thor for example. As the way it reads if you have the points then you can buy the item. It may even be a case of adding a paragraph at the beginning warning GMs to use common sense when allowing players to have one of the items listed.
I don’t think it would be a problem to add a paragraph at the top to state that these are in most cases one of kind artifacts. I just kind of assumed that it was implied and that the GM would regulate the gadgets. In the notes sections of the gadgets I cold state whether or not a particular gadget was a one of a kind artifact.

[Snakefeather]

I can go either way on this. What do you guys suggest? Should it stay or should it go?
I disagree. The ones that have suggested power levels also have stats for NPCs, and are really fully-fledged adventures. They need suggested power levels because they have fixed degrees of conflict such as villains and monsters. The hooks that don't have suggested power levels are just supposed to be inspiration for the GM; the power level is whatever he wants it to be when he fleshes it out.

[prophet118]

mental blast on the ark of the covenant... i suppose that one way...

strictly biblical, its usually incineration or light bolts, and it does that to whoever touches it.

just a slight note, thats all

also, hercules nemean lion skin... i guess it depends on which version you read, in the version i read (and i think it was commonly accepted) Hercules broke his spear on its hide (tried to peirce it), he then used the broken shaft and stabbed it in the eye

although as it says on pantheon.org they jive with the choking..lol, although they dont jive with the cave bit though.

he robert johnsons guitar... i guess the selling your soul at the crossroads for the TALENT didnt come into play huh?


getting on to the pantheons, are these all elohim?!... i thought there was only a small amount of them that crashed on earth

[prophet118]

hmmm... eras of play... you have age of heroes from 4,000 bc to 100AD, then the next age picks up at 450... all of the other eras butt up against each other... are you planning on doing a future supplement for the missing 350 years?

[Giddoen]

Quote:
Originally Posted by aeforum
Also, some of these hooks include directives as to character numbers and level. Either all of them should include this information, or none should.

I can go either way on this. What do you guys suggest? Should it stay or should it go?

I would like to see levels so GM's can gauge best what to use. just my 0.02 cents!

[Jerry D. Grayson]

I like the levels too. I'll have to go back in and put power levels at the beginning of each adventure. It’s no big deal and very little effort to correct

[Jerry D. Grayson]

Do you guys think there are enough NPC villains in the book or should I add more? I was just looking over my old Villains and Vigilantes books and loved their books of opponents.

Would more NPC villains make the book more of a value?

[prophet118]

ok.. this might sound cheesy, but how about a quick roll villian list?

i know, straight out of HU, but it works, especially if you dont want to sit down and think out every single nuance.. or at least an NPC quick roll..lol

[Sketchpad]

Hiya Gang ... sorry I'm coming in late ... been reading the document and playing around with it :)
I love the inclusion of the Norse gods, but was kinda "eh" on the whole Thor/Magni thing ... I think I'd rather see both characters stand on their own. As for suggestions ... I think the amount of villains works ... though having more never hurts. I'd love to see a villain book come out for GSA, as well as a book devoted to just gadgets. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind the format of either GSA or Mythos, I just wouldn't mind seeing books devoted to single ideas as well :D
I was also thinking about the alternative aspect to GSA and had a couple of crazy ideas ... how about a book working something akin to Fables? Perhaps some Chimerans that were the original fairy tale creatures? How would they be now? Or what about a book on the lands of Imagination, a land inhabited by former imaginary friends and creatures like "The Monster Under the Bed"?

[prophet118]

the fairy tale things are sort of mentioned in the main book

godzilla for instance (not fairy tale, true)

fomorians, trolls, ettins, sidhe... and probably alot of other things couold have been any member of them (chimereans to elohim)

its mentioned in each of their chapters

but only breifly

[Jerry D. Grayson]

Hiya Gang ... sorry I'm coming in late ... been reading the document and playing around with it :)
I love the inclusion of the Norse gods, but was kinda "eh" on the whole Thor/Magni thing ... I think I'd rather see both characters stand on their own. As for suggestions ... I think the amount of villains works ... though having more never hurts. I'd love to see a villain book come out for GSA, as well as a book devoted to just gadgets. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind the format of either GSA or Mythos, I just wouldn't mind seeing books devoted to single ideas as well :D
I was also thinking about the alternative aspect to GSA and had a couple of crazy ideas ... how about a book working something akin to Fables? Perhaps some Chimerans that were the original fairy tale creatures? How would they be now? Or what about a book on the lands of Imagination, a land inhabited by former imaginary friends and creatures like "The Monster Under the Bed"?
Some of the gadgets in the Mythos book are related to fairytales. The Firebird Cloak, Djinn bottles, Qamatha skin, and the Boots of Seven League Stride are all from fairytales, maybe not Western European fairytales but fairytales nonetheless.

What kind of gadgets would you like to see? Gadgets books are tricky to do because either they have a ton of cool gadgets or are completely useless. And both depend of the disposition and needs of the person buying the book. A book showcasing variants on power armor and laser guns would be a waste in my opinion. Now a supplement on building gadgets could be combined with an expanded powers book (in the works...Kinda)

The intention of GSA is to do superhero stories that aren’t necessarily 4 color. Mutants and Masterminds and Champions do a great job at depicting 4 color heroes and their exploits. I enjoy reading 4 color comic books but in 20+ years of super hero roleplaying I’ve run or played through almost every iteration of the standard 4 color plots and I wanted to do something different.

If M&M and Champions are mainstream pop music I want GODSEND Agenda to be Tom Waits or Fishbone, quirky and not for the casual listener:)

[prophet118]

i tought Attis said that there'd be more ka stuff in the mythos book... i read all 112 pages (ok... i skimmed the boring stuff, dont hurt me!)

but i couldnt find any mention of new powers or advantages or whatever...

are they not done yet...

[Jerry D. Grayson]

i tought Attis said that there'd be more ka stuff in the mythos book... i read all 112 pages (ok... i skimmed the boring stuff, dont hurt me!)

but i couldnt find any mention of new powers or advantages or whatever...

are they not done yet...
Under Renown there is a perk that gives more Ka the more famous a character becomes.

[prophet118]

well, since the renown/agenda thing was an option (one that in its current form is a bit clunky), im not sure that was the best place to stick the ka stuff..

plus, how does being more popular make you more "magically" oriented?


i do agree that it does keep with the base idea behind godsend agenda... followers giving their ka... (thats how im having to interpret it)

course, this is for characters who set themselves up as the big cheeses...lol, a bit harder for a group of people ala X-men

[Temprus]

plus, how does being more popular make you more "magically" oriented?

i do agree that it does keep with the base idea behind godsend agenda... followers giving their ka... (thats how im having to interpret it)


Worship leads to more Ka to access. It is one of the main reasons the Godsend Agenda was created by El. Read the sidebar on page 134 for more insight into Ka boosting worship.

Good examples in Comics used to be Superman and Captain America, who both proclaimed a "boy scouts" like system of Honor and Goodness that lead to "fanboy" worship of epic scale. Look how Supes kept gaining more and more powers over the years. I would say he has a few levels of Ka Manipulation to cover his more extreme powers like Heat Vision, X-Ray Vision, Cold Breath, etc. Thanks to all his hero worship, he has Ka to blow on such toy powers as needed. Cap just seems to use his worship boosted Ka for CP or Fate Points. This explains why he can do the impossible with his Shield, how he can fight on the scale of Thanos while supposedly be only a "perfect/superfit but otherwise normal human", or why all the Marvel heroes bother to listen to him (Cap's player likes to boost his presense or maybe Cap has a low level mind control power he boosts with Ka :p ).

Sadly for them, our world has strayed far from this path and so poor Supes & Cap keep having their worshippers remold them into their image, which explains Supes gimmick of the year storylines (Doomsday or the Red/Blue events for example ;) ) If recreated for GA, I bet both Supes & Cap would be Elohim lost in Lethe. :)

[prophet118]

lol

well supes has powers based oin the need...lol

does he need to fly this week? yes

ok