[GODLIKE] - Seven Pre-Generated Talents

Here are seven pre-generated "super-powered" Talents for the game Godlike. They're designed for late-1944 (the Battle of the Bulge), but can be readily changed for alternate campaigns.

All are built on the standard 25 points for super-powers expected of starter characters.

CPL. ERNIE "TRASH-CAN" LAUGHLIN
Nationality: American
DoB: 03-SEP-1920
Rank: Corporal (38th Armored Inf. Batt.)
Dependents: Parents, Older Sister

Body 1+5 (6d)
Brains 2
Coordination 3+2 (5d)
Cool 2
Command 2
Sense 2

Base Will: 7

Starting Will: 7

Skills:
Athletics 1, Brawling 1, Climb 1, Cryptography 1, Dodge 3, Drive (Tank) 2, Endurance 1, Explosives 1, First Aid 2, Grenade 1, Knife-Fighting 1, Language (English) 2, Language (French) 1, Language (German) 1, Machine Gun 1, Map Reading 1, Mechanics 2, Mental Stability 2, Mortar 1, Navigation (Land) 1, Pistol 2, Radio Operation 1, Rifle 3, Stealth 1, Submachine Gun 2, Stealth 1, Sight 2, Survival 1, Tactics 1

Talents:

• Hyperbody - 5d
   
• Block (using Trash-Can lid) - 6d
  Flaw: Must use trash-can lid “shield” strapped to your arm to “deflect” attacks

Equipment:

• Helmet (reduces all Shock damage to the head to a single point, then turns a further 2 Killing damage to shock)
• M1 Garand rifle (Capacity 8, Damage: Width+2 Killing and Shock)
• 50 rounds of M1 rifle ammunition
• (5) M2A1 "pineapple" hand grenades (Penetration 2, Area 3, Damage: Width+1 Killing and Shock)
• Bayonet (Width in Killing; fixed to rifle, Width+1 Killing)
• K-Ration (two day's worth)
• Personal gear (Zippo, toothbrush, safety razor, dog-tags, candy bar etc.)
• Trash-can lid tied around right arm like a medieval shield. Seems impervious to damage, so long as you are alive, but does not block everything fired at it.
  

Background: Born in Manhattan, New York City, to poor Irish immigrants, you went to art school and were working for a comic book company when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Due to your lacklustre physical prowess and 5'1" height, you were unable to enlist. Your anger grew - until one day in 1943, when jumped by muggers, you beat them off with inhuman strength, even deflecting bullets they fired at you using a nearby trash-can lid. Since becoming a Talent you've been attached to the 38th Armored Infantry Battalion, helping protect American tanks against enemy talents. You've learned a little about how to drive and fix them too.

Personality: Your short stature and apparent frailty make people underestimate you until your Talent manifests. Personality-wise you are friendly, honest and decent, always trying to do the right thing. You blush obviously and profusely when forced to lie or cheat, or when the topic of sex is raised.

Talent Power: You are stronger than any normal man (add 1 extra wound to your torso and inflict +2 Damage in hand-to-hand combat), able to lift a 1-ton jeep above your head and toss an average man 10-yards/meters.

Your most obvious power, however, is the trash-can lid you carry around on your arm like a shield. This simple galvanized metal disc can deflect bullets (as long as you know someone is shooting at you) and stop physical attacks - but not the effect of fire or explosions etc.

Roll 6D when you know you're under attack and use matches to "gobble" successes from an opponent's roll. You can only use this on a single target, so choose widely.

You haven't used it block heavier weaponry like artillery, however, and you're not sure it would stand up to a hit from a tank's cannon.

* * * * *

 

SGT. CLIFFORD "WIDOW" HOLMES
Nationality: British
DoB: 10-FEB-1912
Rank: Sergeant (6th Airborne Div., Parachute Reg.)
Dependents: Parents

Body 2
Brains 2
Coordination 2
Cool 2
Command 2
Sense 2

Base Will: 4

Starting Will: 4

Skills:
Anti-tank Rocket 2, Brawling 2, Climb 1, Endurance 2, Explosives 2, Grenade 1, Inspire 1, Language (English) 2, Leadership 2, Knife fighting 2, Machine Gun 2, Map Reading 2, Mental Stability 2, Mortar 1, Navigation (Land) 2, Parachuting 2, Pistol 2, Radio Operation 1, Rifle 2, Running 1, Stealth 2, Submachine Gun 2, Survival 1, Tactics 2

Talents:

• Bind (Shoot Cobwebs) – 5d
  Extra: Creates Physical Cobwebs
  Flaw: Short duration (lasts turns in width)
  Flaw: Nervous Habit (need to flick wrists at target)

• Unconventional Move (Swing on Cobwebs) – 5d
  Flaw: Attached to Bind
  Flaw: Straight Line Move
  Flaw: Clear Trail (Spider webs)
  Flaw: Requires Arms to Swing

Equipment:

• Helmet (reduces all Shock damage to the head to a single point, then turns 2 Killing damage to shock)
• British Army binoculars
  
• Sten Mk.V submachine gun (Spray 3, Capacity 32, Damage: Width in Shock, Width+1 Killing)
• Four extra Sten magazines (32 bullets each)
  
• .45 M1911A1 pistol (Capacity 7, Damage: Width in Shock, Width+1 Killing)
• Two extra M1911A1 magazines
  
• (2) Mills hand grenades (Penetration 2, Area 3, Damage: Width+1 Killing and Shock)
• Bayonet (Width in Killing; can fit to Sten, Width+1 Killing)
• Personal gear (Zippo, toothbrush, safety razor, dog-tags, candy bar etc.)

Background: You are Black British, born in Liverpool to a middle-class family. Your mother was one of the first female mayoresses in England, while your father was a vicar who expected you to follow in his (and God's) footsteps. Instead you went into a succession of tough manual labor jobs to prove yourself, very much to your family's chagrin. When war broke out in 1939 you volunteered for the Army; a year later you were transferred to the Parachute Regiment - an elite fighting force known as the "Red Devils." Having fought across Africa, in 1944 you jump into France on D-Day.

 

Personality: You're a professional soldier who leads from the front and expects others to do their job, no matter the situation. Despite coming across as harsh and belligerent to those who don't know you, it's mostly to try and keep people in line and safe. You blame yourself for any casualties suffered and will put yourself in harm's way to help.

 

Talent Powers: You can shoot sticky "spider webs" from your hands that can be used to bind, choke and disarm individuals. While it only injure people for the Width of the roll before loosening, the webs continue to stick around (no pun intended). For instance, any machinery you gummed up with webs would need to be cleaned out before they would work properly. This power can attack and defend - the latter by "catching" attacks in mid-air.

Linked to this power is your ability to "swing" from place to place using these webs. While a highpoint is needed to grip to with the web, you can swing some 30m in a single go. You can also bring a person along with you. You don't normally need to roll for this, so long as you succeed at a Bind roll, but the GM may require one (like if you're under attack).

 * * * * *

CPL. ISAAC JELKER
Nationality: American
DoB: 23-JUL-1917
Rank: Corporal (103rd Medical Batt., 28th Inf Div.)
Dependents: Parents, Three sisters, Girlfriend.

Body 2
Brains 3
Coordination 1
Cool 3
Command 1
Sense 2

Base Will: 9

Starting Will: 9

Skills:
Athletics 2, Brawling 1, Driving 1, Education 2, Endurance 2, First Aid 3, Grenade 1, Health 2, Inspire 2, Language (English) 3, Language (French) 2, Language (German/Yiddish) 2, Machine Gun 1, Medicine 2, Mental Stability 2, Navigation (Land) 1, Perform (Singing) 1, Pistol 2, Riding 1, Rifle 1, Running 1, Sight 2, Stealth 2, Swimming 2

Talents:

• Healing - 5D
  Flaw: Only Humans (No plants or animals)
   
• Universal Linguist - 5D

Equipment:

• Helmet (reduces all Shock damage to the head to a single point, then turns 2 Killing damage to shock)
• .45 M1911A1 pistol (Capacity 7, Damage: Width in Shock, Width+1 Killing)
• Three extra M1911A1 magazines
• (2) Medical Kit, Parachutists (one use each)
• Medic's Pouch (four uses and basic surgery gear)
• K-Ration (one day's worth)
• Personal gear (Zippo, toothbrush, safety razor, dog-tags, candy bar etc.)

Background: You grew up in a Jewish household in Ohio and studied medicine to join your father's practice. Conscripted only a few months ago, you were attached to the 103rd Medical Battalion as a medic. It was here, behind the lines and among unruly patients, malingerers and the dying, you discovered your Talent: the ability to communicate with anyone, in their own language. The field-hospital wanted to keep you but the Army had other plans. Now you're serving on the frontline.

 

Personality: You're a healer, not a fighter, and now you have to do bad things to save lives. You've even stopped wearing a red cross on your arm and helmet - it felt hypocritical otherwise. 

 

Most of the time you're nervous; twitchy, even. As a Jew you really do not want to be captured, doubly now you've heard that Germany has been executing any Allied Talents who fall into their hands. It might be propaganda, but it terrifies you nonetheless. All you want to do is survive and get home.

 

Talent Powers: With your Talent you can heal any conscious and willing human being of their injuries (if they are unconscious, asleep or unwilling it doesn't work). On a successful roll, you heal width-1 in killing damage and twice that in shock to a single silhouette location. It does not work on diseases, however, so no fixing syphilis or cancer, nor can it regrow lost limbs - though you can "reattach" severed limbs (minus the head), with horrible scars.

 

Universal Linguist Talent, so long as you have heard someone briefly speak in their native tongue and you roll a match, allows you to communicate with a targeted person fluently in their own tongue. It doesn't matter if it's Swahili or Dutch, you understand them and they understand you. This doesn't extend to anybody nearby, however, so if there are three Japanese soldiers, and you talk to one in Japanese, the other two plainly hear you speaking English.

* * * * *

PVT. JOHN "THE APE" NAPOLITANO
Nationality: American
DoB: 26-JUN-1914
Rank: Private (Talent Operations Group 41)
Dependents: None.

Body 2 (+6 in Ape Form for 8d)
Brains 1
Coordination 3 (+3 in Ape Form for 6d)
Cool 2
Command 2
Sense 2

Base Will: 5

Starting Will: 5

Skills:
Bluff 2, Brawl 2, Climb 2, Cryptography 1, Endurance 2, Dodge 2, Gambling 2, Grenade 2, Knife-fighting 1, Language (English) 1, Language (Italian) 1, Lie 1, Machine Gun 2, Map Reading 1, Mental Stability 2, Mortar 1, Navigation (Land) 1, Parachuting 1, Pistol 2, Radio Operation 1, Rifle 2, Running 2, Stealth 1, Submachine Gun 2, Survival 1, Tactics 1, Throw 1

Talents:

• Alternate Form (Gorilla) - 2HD
  Extra: Endless
  Flaw: Mental Strain (inflicts 1 Shock to your "true" body's head when converting to gorilla form)
  

• Hyperstat: Body - 6D
  Flaw: Attached to Alternate Form
  

• Hyperstat: Coordination - 3D
  Flaw: Attached to Alternate Form 

• Extra Tough - 3 levels
  Flaw: Attached to Alternate Form

Equipment:

• Helmet (reduces all Shock damage to the head to a single point, then turns 2 Killing damage to shock. Does not fit gorilla form)
• German MP40 submachine gun (Spray 2, Capacity 32, Damage: Width in Shock, Width+1 Killing) - trigger-guard removed to allow gorilla form to fire it one-handed
  
• Three extra magazines for MP40
• Backpack containing temperate uniform, personal gear, two K-rations and sleeping bag.
  

Background: Born in a circus caravan in Oklahoma, you were a fixture at Pop Lawson's Circus from the day you could walk. Traveling the country, you served as a circus rouster and barker - bringing in rubes, protecting the workers, keeping ahead of the law. One of your favorite tasks was working with the monkeys. You loved 'em. And then one day you woke up to find you'd turned into one - a huge gorilla. For a while you stayed at the circus, using your Talent to bring in cash, but the military police caught up with you and sent you off to fight. You've kind of enjoyed it so far. Lots of opportunities to loot and make money.

 

Personality: You're a joker, a carouser and a grifter who's always looking for a way to not do too much work, though that doesn't mean you aren't willing to get your hands dirty if it means a reward at the end. A lot of the time you live as your ape form; you're big, intimidating and the ladies love it. That and in combat you can literally rip people in half.

 

Talent Powers: You have an alternate form - a giant gorilla - which you can turn into it at will. It lasts forever (you can even sleep as it!), or at least until you take Killing damage or decide to stop.

Each time you turn into a gorilla you take 1 shock to your human head, but while in gorilla form you can: lift up to 4 tons and fire a machine-gun in each hand, your hand-to-hand damage increases to Width+2 in Shock and Killing, you have Armor Penetration 4, and you can shout loud enough to shatter glass at a meter. You're also as dexterous as a chimpanzee. Add 4 extra hit box to your torso, head and each limb.

If your gorilla form is ever "killed," you instantly revert to your human form (which is naked). It costs 30 Will to resurrect your alternate form if it is "killed."

* * * * *

PVT. MAURICE "BAKELITE" GRENIER
Nationality: French
DoB: 11-NOV-1921
Rank: Private (Free French Army)
Dependents: Mother and sister in Algiers.

Body 2
Brains 2
Coordination 2
Cool 3
Command 1
Sense 2

Base Will: 7

Starting Will: 7

Skills:
Bazooka 2, Bluff 3, Brawling 2, Climb 2, Cooking 2, Cryptography 1, Driving 1, Grenade 2, Hearing 1, Knife-fighting 2, Language (English) 2, Language (French) 2, Lie 2, Machine Gun 2, Map Reading 2, Mental Stability 2, Navigation (Land) 1, Pistol 2, Rifle 2, Running 2, Sight 1, Stealth 2, Tactics 1

Talents:

• Transparency - 6D

Equipment: 

• Helmet (reduces all Shock damage to the head to a single point, then turns 2 Killing damage to shock) 
• M1 Garand rifle (Capacity 8, Damage: Width+2 Killing and Shock)
• 50 rounds of M1 rifle ammunition
• (5) M2A1 "pineapple" hand grenades (Penetration 2, Area 3, Damage: Width+1 Killing and Shock)
• Bayonet (Width in Killing; fixed to rifle, Width+1 Killing)
• K-Ration (one day's worth)
• Personal gear (Zippo, toothbrush, safety razor, dog-tags, candy bar etc.) 

Background: You grew up in French Algiers and worked as a baker in your uncle's store. In 1940 the Germans occupied your African home. You assisted the reistance in small ways, sometimes using your power, but it wasn't until 1943 that the Allies liberated North Africa and you signed up for the Free French Army. Nowadays you're helping to roll the Nazis all the way back to their own borders.

 

Personality: You are a staunch Catholic. Having fought your way through France and liberated it, you now help liberate another people's land. You look out for civilians and the helpless, and try to treat even the Nazis fairly. You believe even the worst of them have some goodness in their heart - but if they refuse to surrender you'll send them to Hell. Only God forgives, as they say, and you have no compunctions about doing what is necessary to ensure the greatest good.

 

Talent Powers: You can make solid objects "transparent" - see-through, like glass, as if it isn't even there. You can choose to make all matter invisible within a sphere (Height of roll x10 meters in diameter), or just a certain type of material (e.g. all metal, or all wood, or all stone, or wood and stone but not metal, etc.) within that bubble. 

 

You can’t make living creatures invisible, nor liquids or gases. If you stop concentrating and do something else, the things you've made transparent become visible again. Naturally there are a lot of uses to this power - such as "seeing through" walls, making an enemies' guns invisible to give them a penalty when shooting, etc.

 

If you want to turn grenades invisible and then lob them at any enemy, roll 5D and hope for two matches - one to "transparent" the grenade, the other to actually hit the target.

* * * * *

LCPL. CASPER DE SMET
Nationality: British-naturalized Belgian
DoB: 31-DEC-1925 (sic)
Rank: Lance Corporal (27th Light Anti-Aircraft Reg.)
Dependents: Mother in England

Body 2
Brains 2
Coordination 2
Cool 2
Command 2
Sense 2

Base Will: 5

Starting Will: 5

Skills:
Brawling 2, Bazooka 2, Climb 2, Dodge 2, Drive 1, Education 1, Endurance 2, First Aid 1, Grenade 1, Hearing 2, Intimidation 2, Knife-fighting 2, Language (Belgian) 2, Language (English) 2, Language (German) 1, Lie 2, Machine Gun 2, Mental Stability 1, Mortar 1, Pistol 1, Rifle 1, Sailing 2, Sight 2, Stealth 2, Submachine Gun 1, Tactics 1

Talents:

• Harm: Melter Heat-Vision - 5D
  Extra: Penetrating 3
  Flaw: Cannot Defend
  Flaw: Red Ray-Beams Shoot from Eyes at Target
  Deals Width in Killing and Shock

Equipment: 

• Helmet (reduces all Shock damage to the head to a single point, then turns 2 Killing damage to shock)
• Lee-Enfield Rifle (Slow 1, Capacity 10, Damage: Width in Killing and Shock)
• Fifty rounds of Lee-Enfield ammunition
  
• Sniper Scope (for Lee-Enfield rifle, no penalty for long-range shot)
• (2) Mills hand grenades (Penetration 2, Area 3, Damage: Width+1 Killing and Shock)
• K-Ration (one day's worth) and two big tins of meat stew in bag.
• Personal gear (Zippo, toothbrush, safety razor, dog-tags, candy bar etc.) 

Background: You were a Belgian schoolboy until 1940 when the Germans occupied your home. You and your mother fled to England as refugees, and for the last 4 years you've been going to an English school. Eight months ago you got naturalized as British and joined the Army. You lied on your forms, saying you were 19 but you are actually only 16. 

 

You were originally attached to an anti-aircraft unit in France, which is where you manifested your Talent - bringing down a plane using your heat-vision. Since then you've been moved around to different battlefields, never staying anywhere too long, never making friends. It's a lonely existence and you feel utterly out of place.

 

Personality: You are young and lonely, hoping to make friends, trying to pretend you are older than you are. Your power is terrible - causing horrific damage to people. You've only used it three times and each time made you sick and terrified. Despite that, you will do anything to protect the people around you, even if it means taking insane risks.

 

Talent Powers: Your Talent power fires bright red beams from your eyes that melt the target. People liquify. Your beam can also be used to burn through armor on walls, tanks, etc. Each successful roll burns Width+3 through armor. If the armor's reduced to 0, it's gone. With successful rolls, you could burn a new door through a wall or ignite a Tiger tank's engine. Just remember that the slag from whatever you're melting will be white-hot for few minutes after.

* * * * *

SGT. FELIX "SLAMMER" ROSS
Nationality: Canadian
DoB: 04-OCT-1909
Rank: Sergeant (Talent Operations Group 291)
Dependents: Wife, two sons.

Body 2
Brains 2
Coordination 2
Cool 2
Command 1
Sense 3

Base Will: 10

Starting Will: 10

Skills:
Bazooka 2, Bluff 1, Brawl 2, Carousing 2, Climb 1, Endurance 1, Explosives 1, Grenade 1, Hearing 3, Intimidation 1, Knife-fighting 2, Language (English) 2, Language (French) 1, Machine Gun 1, Mechanics 1, Mental Stability 2, Map Reading 1, Mortar 1, Navigate (Land) 2, Parachute 1, Pistol 1, Radio Operation 1, Rifle 1, Seduction 1, Sight 3, Skiing 1, Stealth 1, Submachine Gun 2, Survival 1, Tactics 1

Talents:

• Control: Gravity - 6D
  Flaw: Does not affect liquids or gases 
  

 Equipment:

• Helmet (reduces all Shock damage to the head to a single point, then turns 2 Killing damage to shock)
• StGw 44 assault rifle (Spray 0/2, Capacity 30, Damage: Width in Shock and Killing)
• Three magazines for StGw 44
• (5) M2A1 "pineapple" hand grenades (Penetration 2, Area 3, Damage: Width+1 Killing and Shock)
• M1918 Trench Knife (Width+1 in Killing)
• Personal gear (Zippo, toothbrush, safety razor, dog-tags, candy bar etc.)

Background: You worked the forests of Canada. Married. Had kids. In 1942 you got your papers and were sent to some sneaky joint Canadian-American hush-hush detachment called the First Special Service Force. An elite Commando unit, you took part in some of the hardest operations in southern Europe. Since gaining your power, you've been moved around to assist with a variety of campaigns. This annoys you, as it does your colleagues; you want to fight with the FSSF, not people you don't know.

 

Personality: You're the father of the group, offering sage advice and complaining about whippersnappers. You don't feel much good toward the enemy, and you honestly don't feel much for the people you're fighting with, either. You don't know them and you don't really want to know them. They die too quickly. Kids, on the other hand, you care about deeply. They remind you of your own children. If you had to choose between your life and a child's, the child wins every time.

 

Talent Powers: You can create bubbles of gravity within a localized area (a sphere two or three feet in diameter). 

 

Defending using this power is pretty simple - you can make bullets bend away in flight, or make a gun twice as heavy, or have an attacker start floating. Attacking is also self-explanatory - if people are indoors, you can reverse gravity above them, slamming them into the ceiling - outside you might pull them toward the ground or drop a tree on them. 

 

These effects are short-lived, however, as regular gravity quickly returns when you're not paying attention. Outside of combat your power works for Width in minutes and might be used for such varied tactics as helping to drag a truck out of a ditch, assisting a soldier by "floating" them up to a building's roof or to see over a wall, or even collecting loose items (by creating a gravity well and letting small objects get "sucked" toward it).