Character Creation: Spookshow

OOOOooooOOOO *rattle chains*.

The Game: Spookshow
The Publisher: Clockworks (now defunct)
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

Spookshow is a game that takes the double meaning of the word "spook" (that is, a ghost or an intelligence operative) and combines it, so you're a ghost that works for the CIA. The basic conceit is that some ghosts have "the Touch", which enables them to become solid. While solid, they're effectively alive - they need food and sleep and so on - but if they die, it's not permanent (though it is inconvenient). Governments have been using ghosts as spies for as long as there have been governments.

I don't know if that all holds up to scrutiny, but I've enjoyed RPG settings with far less internal logic. So let's make a dead guy!

The character section starts off by asking us to consider when the character lived. The oldest one can be is from the 18th century, because any older than that and you don't have enough of a connection to the living world to be hanging around. Fair enough. Assuming that this game is set now-ish, I'll say my character died recently, three years ago. He was in his early 20s when he died, so that puts him born, what, early- to mid-90s (fuck me, I'm getting old). Let's say he was born in 1992, and died in 2017.

Next thing I'm asked to consider is my country of origin, kinda. The US isn't on the list because "only Native Americans are originally from North America." Um, OK. So do you want to know my phenotype? My family's ancestry? I don't think so, since "British" and "Russian" are also on the list. Hey, "Australian" is on the list. Does that my an Australian character has to be Aboriginal? Christ in a sidecar. My character is fucking American, with all of the ugly history that implies. He's half Puerto Rican, but it's hard to tell by looking (he's got black hair, but his mother's blue eyes and his skin is fair). He died of the flu - he was working as a coder for a video game company, pushed himself too hard, got malnourished, and caught the flu at a birthday party for a coworker's young daughter. He died in his apartment a week later. His name is (was) Jaylen Reyes.

OK, next up: Occupation, did that. I gotta pick which type of ghost I am. They fall into splats (called Shades), which determine powers and outlook. I think Jaylen is pretty clearly a Poltergeist; he worked himself to death and now he feels like he's on vacation. That makes my Focus Psychokinesis. It looks like I don't get any other Numina (that's what powerz are called here) to start, but since there isn't a fucking example of chargen or a step-by-step (the book does the thing where it includes the full list of Numina with systems after the part that tells you which Shade gets what, so there's not really a coherent "make characters like this" section, blargh) it's hard to know.

Anyway, the next thing I do is my Persona, which is my spook-identity. See, this is why it's useful to have a table or a sidebar with a summary of chargen. Anyway, Jaylen goes by Anders A. Doont (which is an anagram of Todd A. Anderson, because Jaylen thinks he's clever). Everyone gets a Reference number, the higher it is, the most your identity will stand up to scrutiny. Do I just...pick it? Oh, wait, there is a character generation system! And an example! Fucking hell. The "Character" section starts out giving instructions like you're making a character, and never once refers you to this section.

OK, so I've done some of this out of order. Concept stuff I've pretty much done, but now I gotta do Traits. I can roll randomly or allocate points. Let's roll.

So, I wind up with 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6, 6. Well, could be worse. I'll put my 1s into Strength and Cohesion (Jaylen is easily distracted and still thinks of himself as frail). I'll put the 2 into Speed and the 3 into Control. The 4 goes into Semblance (he's personable enough), the 5 into Awareness, and everything else (Association, Aptitude, and Creation) get 6s.

Now some derived traits. Movement is 1 (walking) or 2 (running). Fortitude varies by body part, but it's gonna be pretty low. I need to pick an Occupation off a list, because it gives me a bonus to something. OK, what the hell. All of these Occupations are old-timey. "Healer?" "Academe?" There's literally no mention of computers anywhere. Geez. Well, I figure Craftsman is pretty close, which would give me one more Cohesion. Fine.

I've picked my Shade already. So, Numina. Do I get more? Kinda. They're ranked, and I start with 1 in my Focus (Psychokinesis), and then I get 8 points. Raising my Focus would cost 5, buying a new Numina at 1 would cost all 8. So if I buy Psychokinesis up to 2, what happens to the other three points? Blargh. Well, I want Technopathy...or do I? Nah, I think I want Magnetism. That'd be fun.

And, back over to my Persona. I'm a hacker, obvs. This helps determine Skills and Specialties. I get (Aptitude + Cohesion) in Skill points, so 8. Specialties are basically groups of Skills; if you have a rating in one, you have that rating in all of the associated Skills. I'll blow 6 of my 8 points and take a rating of 2 in Equipment (which gives me Computer and so on). The last two points, I'll put one in Ciphers and one in Handguns.

Next up is Agency Affiliation. I could roll, but I think Jaylen is best off in the FBI. Grade is basically experience level; let's assume I'm at the bottom, so Grade Zed. I have Clearance 1, Tech Rating 2, Weapon Rating 0 (just as well), Contact Rating 1, no Sobriquet (not a badass spy yet), and Reference 1, but I could have spent leftover points on it (booo, not mentioning this sooner). Eh, that's fine.

Otherwise, that's pretty much it! I think Anders/Jaylen kinda hates being a ghost, and really hates working for the FBI (he was raised not to trust the government). So why's he doing it? I think that when first died, he was under the impression he couldn't leave the apartment and haunted the shit out of it for about a year. Finally it got rented out as an FBI stakeout point, and he watched them work to bust some very unsavory characters, and gave them advice about their systems (which they couldn't hear...so he thought). When it was all over, one of the agents finally broke cover and told Jaylen that this was an opportunity for him. Jaylen said he couldn't leave, and the agent said he could fix that. As far as Jaylen knows, he owes his freedom of movement and his "Touch" to the FBI's ghost squad. If he ever finds out they lied and he could have left at any time, well, that's gonna be an interesting day.