Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946 is an alternate history World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 era Superhero

Superhero

A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...

 role-playing game

Role-playing game

A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...

, created by Dennis Detwiller

Dennis Detwiller

Dennis Detwiller is a computer game designer for Hothead Games as well as a role-playing game developer and artist.-Biography:Detwiller was a founding member of Pagan Publishing with John Tynes as art director where he co-created the Origins Award winning Delta Green in 1997 with Tynes and Adam...

 and Greg Stolze

Greg Stolze

Greg Stolze is an American novelist and writer, whose work has mainly focused on properties derived from role-playing games.Stolze has contributed to numerous role-playing game books for White Wolf Game Studio and Atlas Games, including Demon: the Fallen...

. Godlike was originally produced by Dennis Detwiller and John Tynes

John tynes

John Tynes is a writer best known for his work on role-playing games such as Unknown Armies, Delta Green, Puppetland, and for his company Tynes Cowan Corporation. Under its imprint Pagan Publishing, Tynes Cowan Corp...

 of Pagan Publishing

Pagan Publishing

Pagan Publishing is a role-playing game publishing company founded by John Tynes in 1990. It began by publishing a Call of Cthulhu role-playing game fanzine, The Unspeakable Oath. In 1994, the company moved from Columbia, Missouri to Seattle, Washington where it incorporated. The staff at this time...

 (though it was not actually a Pagan publication), and published by Hawthorn Hobgoblynn Press. It is currently published by Arc Dream Publishing

Arc Dream Publishing

Arc Dream Publishing is a small role-playing game publishing company founded in 2002 by Pagan Publishing veteran Dennis Detwiller and editor Shane Ivey after the release of their first roleplaying game Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946 was published by Hobgoblynn Press.As...

. Godlike is the first game released using the One-Roll Engine

One-Roll Engine

The One-Roll Engine is a generic role-playing game system developed by Greg Stolze for the alternate history superhero roleplaying game Godlike. The system was expanded upon in the modern-day sequel, Wild Talents, as well as the heroic fantasy game Reign and the free horror game Nemesis. A...

 (O.R.E.) gaming system, a dice pool system where matched die results determine success.

Setting

Godlike is set in an alternate history version of World War II where people known as Talents have developed unexplained powers. Godlike is a gritty superhero roleplaying game, where wearing spandex and other flashy outfits is a sure way to draw a sniper's bullet that most Talents would not survive. The Godlike core book contains a detailed section reviewing key events of World War II with special attention paid to events that differed due to the Talents involved in the war.

System

While it was not called the One-Roll Engine at time of print, Godlike introduces the dice pool rolling system where matching results on dice are formed into sets to help determine the outcome of an action in how successfully and swiftly the action is performed. The name One-Roll comes from the nature that one roll of the dice determines the initiative, success, location and damage of an action.

Also included in the core book are rules for playing Godlike with an OGL d20 System

D20 System

The d20 System is a role-playing game system published in 2000 by Wizards of the Coast originally developed for the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons...

.

Supplements

Supplements for the Godlike system include:

• Will To Power
• Intelligence Bulletin No. 2
• Intelligence Bulletin No. 3
• Donar's Hammer
• Saipan
• Black Devils Brigade

See also

• Wild Talents
  Wild Talents (role-playing game)
  Wild Talents is a superhero role-playing game published by Arc Dream Publishing and written by Dennis Detwiller, with Greg Stolze, Kenneth Hite, and Shane Ivey, with illustrations by Christopher Shy, Sam Araya, and Todd Shearer...
  
  
• NEMESIS
  NEMESIS (role-playing game)
  Nemesis is a supernatural horror role-playing game, created by Dennis Detwiller, Greg Stolze and Shane Ivey, with game mechanics by Greg Stolze. The game is available electronically for free. Nemesis uses the One-Roll Engine gaming system, a dice pool system where matched die results determine...