'Godlike' using GURPS?

[mearrin69]

Hi all,
I've been wanting to run a WWII game along the lines of "Combat" or "The Rat Patrol" (two shows I loved as a kid) for some time now. My co-DM loves supers and wants to play; I know next to nothing about comics so she always has to run any supers stuff and never gets to play.

She recently introduced me to Godlike (gritty WWII with superpowers) and I like the concept so have been considering trying to run something for her. The system looks workable but I've been wondering about running it in GURPS using the Godlike setting and the basic GURPS rules, High Tech, Powers, and an old hardcover of GURPS WWII I recently picked up (for $10!)

Anyone who's familiar with Godlike have any thoughts on how that'd work out? Would it feel the same? Any advice on constructing a Talent's powers using GURPS rules: source and accessibility limitations, etc.?

For those who don't know Godlike:
The story is essentially that normal people began to spontaneously develop superpowers in the mid-30s. The first was a flying German, which Hitler unveiled at the 1936 Olympics and held up as an example of Aryan genetic superiority. History proceeded along its normal course from there; while the Talents did affect things on a local scale, they didn't result in any major changes to the timeline.

Talents generally have a single power (flight, invisibility, invunerability to attacks they know are coming, limited prescience, etc.) that initially manifests in a crisis situation. Other than that they're normal people. Talents can detect others when they use their powers and those powers are less effective (or not effective at all) when used against other Talents. A Talent's powers can go away or become unreliable if they become depressed, disheartened, etc.; they are very linked to the Talent's psychological state.

I'm sure I've missed something but those are the basics. Any advice will be appreciated!
M

Edit: I'm thinking she will want to play an American and I'd like to set it in Europe/Africa, at least initially. I'm thinking her character (or maybe more than one) would be among the first Americans to join the Allied forces in North Africa (my Rat Patrol fetish). After some introductory adventures we'd probably move to the invasion of Sicily and then later (if it goes that far) D-Day and onward. I'm still brushing up on history, on which I've become somewhat rusty.

America didn't start manifesting Talents until late 1941 and early 1942. It'd be perfectly reasonable, actually, to have her character be a normal person deployed to Africa and the power maybe manifests in the defeat at Kasserine Pass (again, still brushing up on history). Since this will be a one-player sort of thing I'll probably have her take on multiple Talent characters later on, but I might start with just a single character at the beginning.

[David Johnston2]

Treat "Talent" as a power source with the weakness that your power can be interfered with by a failed resistance check against interaction skills (which counts as "Mundane Countermeasures"). Give each Talent an exotic advantage, and you're good to go.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Treat "Talent" as a power source with the weakness that your power can be interfered with by a failed resistance check against interaction skills (which counts as "Mundane Countermeasures"). Give each Talent an exotic advantage, and you're good to go.

That looks pretty good to me, Powers will help a lot but you probably dont need Supers for this. Not saying it wont be useful but its more for a full fledged Supers game so of less use in your case.

[vitruvian]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Treat "Talent" as a power source with the weakness that your power can be interfered with by a failed resistance check against interaction skills (which counts as "Mundane Countermeasures"). Give each Talent an exotic advantage, and you're good to go.

Since only other Talents can interfere/resist, I'm not sure that counts as mundane; in a sense, it might be more like every Talent having the anti-power to every other Talent.

And of course, it only works on direct uses of their powers. A talent can resist the effect of another's superstrong punch, but if the same superstrong dude threw a jeep at you instead, well, sorry, that sucker's already in flight.

I'd make the Talent power modifier -10%; -5% for anti-powers and -5% for the Nuisance effect - talent use is perfectly obvious to other Talents within line of sight, even if there would normally be no noticeable effect (e.g., if you use Telekinesis or Mind Control in sight of another Talent, you stand out like a spotlight to them and they know it's you doing it; same for even passive things like having lots of DR or Regeneration or enhanced senses up and ready to use). For the resistance part, any Talent targeted directly by your powers can engage you in a Quick Contest of Will to prevent your power from taking effect on them. Ability uses will often also have associated FP costs, and you can apply the additional costs and penalties for repeated attempts from Psionics, I would think.

All that said, this should actually work quite well.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by vitruvian

Since only other Talents can interfere/resist, I'm not sure that counts as mundane; in a sense, it might be more like every Talent having the anti-power to every other Talent.

And of course, it only works on direct uses of their powers. A talent can resist the effect of another's superstrong punch, but if the same superstrong dude threw a jeep at you instead, well, sorry, that sucker's already in flight.

Well if psych warfare can mess with your talents that can be pretty mundane.

[vitruvian]

Originally Posted by Refplace

Well if psych warfare can mess with your talents that can be pretty mundane.

Except that's not the case. It was specifically other Talents, not anybody mundane no matter their skill in psych warfare, who could spend Will to prevent you using your powers on them. For GURPS and general purposes of play, though, I think a Quick Contest works better.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by mearrin69

A Talent's powers can go away or become unreliable if they become depressed, disheartened, etc.; they are very linked to the Talent's psychological state.

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Treat "Talent" as a power source with the weakness that your power can be interfered with by a failed resistance check against interaction skills (which counts as "Mundane Countermeasures"). Give each Talent an exotic advantage, and you're good to go.

Originally Posted by vitruvian

Except that's not the case. It was specifically other Talents, not anybody mundane no matter their skill in psych warfare, who could spend Will to prevent you using your powers on them. For GURPS and general purposes of play, though, I think a Quick Contest works better.

The quoted material above is I think why that suggestion came up.
I am not familiar with the source material but if you can break a person confidence or depress them enough there powers get weakened or wont work at all I agree with David Johnston2s idea as to mundane countermeasures.
Mundane countermeasures are not always easy to implement but are based on almost anyone can possibly put up a counter with preparation.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by vitruvian

Except that's not the case. It was specifically other Talents, not anybody mundane no matter their skill in psych warfare, who could spend Will to prevent you using your powers on them. For GURPS and general purposes of play, though, I think a Quick Contest works better.

The real question is whether or not this is an important or even possibly a _defining_ characteristic of how Godlike Talents work in the original setting and not just the original game mechanics.

When adapting to Gurps don't just translate game mechanics because they're _there_. Make sure it's a defining characteristic of things in the setting and not just the rules system.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by vitruvian

Since only other Talents can interfere/resist, I'm not sure that counts as mundane; .

It doesn't. My suggestion was based on what the OP described. I consider the ability of the Talented to interfere with each other to be just a feature of the power since the downside and upside precisely balance.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by mearrin69

She recently introduced me to Godlike (gritty WWII with superpowers) and I like the concept so have been considering trying to run something for her. The system looks workable but I've been wondering about running it in GURPS using the Godlike setting and the basic GURPS rules, High Tech, Powers, and an old hardcover of GURPS WWII I recently picked up (for $10!)

I actually think that might work better. I ran a campaign using the Godlike rules (set not during WWII but during the First Crusade, with the PCs being some of the Hundred Righteous Ghazi who gained their powers from the hundred names of God); I had some problems with the system.

* The dice rolling mechanic has a very sharp peak: if you have two or three dice in something you're pretty well hopeless, if you have four you succeed half the time, if you have five or more you succeed nearly all the time with only minimal improvements. This was particularly a problem in my campaign in that the adversaries, the metal-clad Europeans, were normal human beings who typically had four or fewer dice in all but a handful of top skills; if you're running supers versus supers it may be less acute. But I prefer the odds in GURPS, where between 8 and 13 your chances of success go up in more modest increments.

* If you had 10 dice in Command, you could pretty well convert any foe to your side by getting them to hold still while you talked with them. That's a version of the classic problem with mentalists in all campaigns, but it was particularly acute in mine.

* The theory is that superpowers are exemptions from the laws of nature and pay no attention to physics. Except that if you're invisible, you can't see, and if you're dematerialized and inside a stone wall, you can't breathe. Those are odd places to impose the laws of physics, contrary to the stated agenda of the game, and not places where normal supers comics impose them either.

I thought the concept was kind of cool, but I think it could have used better mechanics. GURPS might be workable; I haven't really thought about using the GURPS Powers/Supers rules for that specific flavor of campaign.

Bill Stoddard