Character Creation: Godsend Agenda 1st Ed

FOR THE THIRD GAME OF XMAS, TWENTY-TWENTY-THREE,
THREE GODS A-GENDIN',
TWO BOWLS DUSTIN'
AND CHUUBO'S MARVELOUS WISH-GRANTING ENGINE!

I don't know how I managed this, but the first five or six games in my 12 games of Xmas this year are all fairly long books. This may have been unwise. 

The Game: Godsend Agenda 1st Edition
The Publisher: Khepera Publishing
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

I have three different editions of Godsend Agenda, including the new one that was just released. I'm most interested in that one, because I really like Khepera's products but I tend to like their more current games because, well, they tend to be more polished. Godsend Agenda 1st Ed is not terribly polished, as witness:

But what the hey. 

Godsend Agenda is a superhero game. It's kinda like Aberrant in the sense that all superheroes have a defined source for their powers (there's some shenanigans going on with gods, aliens, and "Ka" as the source of all power), but the setting as presented is...I think I'd describe it as high-powered Iron Age rather than straight-up four-color. The game is interspersed with some comic pages, the text generally needs an editor, but it's got some charm. As is often the case with supers games, my hesitation in running it would be whether it does what I want better than, say, Marvel Heroic or Marvel Superheroes or Masks. But I'm getting ahead of myself, let's make a character.

Chargen is done with a point-buy, and the standard is 100 points, and that's nice and even, so cool, let's do that! The picture I put above has the steps of chargen, even if I'll have to hop around in the PDF a bit. So I need a concept first. I don't really have one today, so let's grab a random song out of my music library and build from there.

Always liked that song ("Falling & Flying," Jeff Bridges from the Crazy Heart soundtrack). Not the first things I'd think of for a superhero, but that's fine. The basic idea here is that it's hard to see that you're fucking up if in the midst of the fuck-up, you're having fun or getting praised. I've dabbled with superhero characters who learn this lesson - that being a superhero is less about the super and more about the hero - before, but I'd like to do something a little different. Actually, there's some in-setting lore I can use. Black October is an organization composed of younger heroes with the "Black Gene". It lets them focus Ka and therefore have powers, but it also means that before they're 30 the Ka leaks through their skin and then they fucking explode. I think that's hitting the right notes.

So we'll say my young lad is from Pigeon Forge, TN, born and raised. Parents used to own a winery, and then they kind of mismanaged the funds, lost it, and they both work joe jobs in a tourist town. My character, Dalton Daley (superheroes have alliterative names), discovered his powers when he was 15 and his parents promptly helped him exploit those powers to bring in some money for the family. And Dalt obliged, because a) money is nice and b) flying is awesome. I think in a campaign we'd want to start with him getting recruited (Black October are genetic foot soldiers in the coming Chimeran invasion; this game predates Eternals but that's kind of the vibe I get). 

So that's Dalt's basic backstory, what's next? Archetype! Dalt is obviously the Bravo. Not quite funny enough to be a comedian, but a little more brash and self-interested than the Adventurer or Icon. 

Next, Attributes! There's five of 'em: Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Spirit, and Influence. The scale is 1-5, with 3 being human average, but superhumans can of course go higher. They're 1-for-1 until you crest 5, and then the costs change, but you also get more for your buck.

Well, I see Dalt as being pretty basic as far as superhuman-ness goes. Maybe some super-strength, flight, a modicum of speed, and then maybe I'll find something weird to give him, too. So I think I want some of his Attributes to be super. 

If I want Dalt to be able to lift a car, he needs at least Strength 7. Let's push it to 8. That'll cost 11 points. I want Dexterity to be high, too, but does it need to be super? Nah, I'll just put it to 5. I'll put Intelligence at 3 (average), Spirit at 3, and Influence at 4. That's 26 points spent. On to Skills!

Skills are 1-for-1 to the level of their controlling Attribute, and then 3-for-1 thereafter (that in mind, it is very much economical to set all your Attributes no lower than 5, since it's a lot cheaper to buy up an Attribute to 5 than it is to buy a Skill to 5 if the Attribute in question is 3. MATH). You need at Skill at 4-6 to have it at a professional level, which given than the scale is 1-10 points above your Attribute is a little weird. Let's see what's appropriate for Dalton, who isn't necessarily very well skilled or educated.

Brawl
Climbing
Combat Flying
Dodge (dammit)
Fast Talk
First Aid
Intimidation
Jumping (why is this a skill)
Ranged Weapon/Power (I don't know if I actually need this, but if I take laser eyes or something I will)
Running (WHY IS THIS A SKILLLLL)

Those are really the only ones I want. Let's see here. Brawl is based on Strength, so I can jack that up pretty high. Let's put it at 7. Climbing is based on Dexterity, so fine, let's put it at 3. Combat Flying can go to 5 (I want him to be pretty good at this). Dodge 4, Fast Talk 2, First Aid 1, Intimidation 3, Jumping 6, Ranged Weapons 4, Running 5. That's all one-for-one, so that totals up to 40, meaning I've spent 66 so far. 

Advantages! I feel like Dalton's family and the following they've helped him build in Pigeon Forge might count as allies, so I'll dump 10 points here (jeez) - small group of people with no significant power. Likewise, I'll spend 2 on one level of Celebrity. 

An aside: Advantages are badly designed here. They mix in staff, contacts, allies with shit like "heightened senses" that should be a power. Also, wtf is this?

Anyway. There's a bunch I could take, but the ones I want are all the ones that should be powers and it's making me grump. UGH FINE. I'll dump 10 points into Extra Action Points, 6 points into Heightened Reflexes, and 4 points for two levels of Quick Healing. I've spent 32 here, for a total of 98. Obviously, I must take some Flaws.

Flaws! I can take up to 50. I get a few automatically, but they don't count towards my 50 points. I guess I still do get the points for them, though: Short Lifespan 4, Wanted 5, Obsessive Compulsive (must follow the commands of Atlantean elders) 4, The Shine. "Wanted" assumes I'm a member of Black October, so I'm going to exercise my fiat as "the guy making this character and also the hypothetical GM" and remove that one. So that means I have 8 points back, meaning I'm at 90 spent. Let's take some more Flaws. 

I'll take Ball & Chain, though I hate the name. This is really just "people important to you", so this represents Dalton's family. I'll put it at 10 not because his love for them is that deep, but because there's a bunch of them. 

I'll take two levels of Ka Bleeder; I have to spend 2 extra Ka any time I use it (you use Ka to boost rolls). That's another 10 points. Known Publicly, yes please, that's another 10. 

Ooh, Overconfident actually has a game effect here. I like it, I'll take 4 levels. I get 12 points back and I get a +4 when things are going my way but a -4 when they aren't. I can take 8 more points if I want, but that gets me 42 points back and takes my total spent down to 48, meaning I can spend 52 more. That's probably enough for powers, right? Let's see!

Powers! These work a lot like they do in games like Silver Age Sentinels; powers have a cost per level, but there are tweaks you can take that might raise or lower that cost. Let's start with Flight, since I know I want that. That's two points per level, and I want this to be his thing, so I'll blow 20 points and take Flight 10. 

Body Armor, sure, we'll be super-tough. I'll take 3 levels, which costs me 12. 20 points left. I don't know why, but Air Control is speaking to me - maybe that's how Dalt flies, too, messing with wind. Air Control is 8 points per level, so if I can get that down to 5 I can take four levels. Can I do that? Let's see! Oh, sure I can. There's "Misc Power Flaw", so I'll say that he can't use Air Control to fly (yes, he has another power for that, but I'll say this just lowers the cost per level by 1), and then I'll take Physical Gestures (he has to wave his hands around to direct the winds), which lowers the cost by another 2 per level, which makes it 5/level, so Air Control 4 baby!

And that's my 100 points...oh, wait a sec, I have to take Detect Chimeran. It says 12, but level 12 would cost 24 points, that can't be right. 

Well, actually, there's supposedly a Flaw called "wanted" that's required for Black October characters and is featured in a bunch of the statted NPCs but it's not in the damn book arrgh JERRY. Well, if we say it's 4 points per level then the math works out for the Black October example character, so fine, it's that. And I'm even. 

Not gonna mess with gadgets. Derived traits, all set. All I need now is a name and a description and stuff.

So Dalton is pretty basic - white, brown hair, blue eyes, even teeth. He's grown into his face over the past couple of years and filled out, and he plays football or lacrosse or something (rather, he did; he developed his powers his sophomore year and couldn't keep playing). He's kind of become Pigeon Forge's own pet superhero/mascot, and he's happy to do appearances at malls and commercials and whatnot (but you'll notice I didn't take the Rich Advantage so it's not like he's making bank). 

Dalton's tried out a couple of aliases. He's partial to "Cyclone", but it hasn't really stuck yet - his manager thinks it's a little basic. In the media mostly folks refer to him by his given name. He used to wear a mostly white outfit, but it's just impossible to keep clean so he's switched to one that's mostly dark blue with some white accents. 

I suspect that in a real campaign, Dalton learning about what Black October is and getting recruited "or else" would be a tough scene, but it might be kind of cool. 

Can't wait to see what 2nd Ed of this game looks like. Probably sometime in spring.