Character Creation: API SW

Some alphabet soup, there.

The Game: Apocalypse Prevention, Inc (Savage Worlds Edition)
The Publisher: Third Eye Games
Degree of Familiarity: Pretty conversant in Savage Worlds, never played API
Books Required: Savage Worlds Deluxe Edition and the API book

Apocalypse Prevention, Inc is...well, I did a character for the first edition of the game way back in 2013 (a simpler, more pleasant time in so many ways). The game didn't especially grab me and I couldn't tell you much about the system, but it was also quite a while ago and I've never actually played the game, which is about the only way a system sticks with me. Reading over that character now, it looks like the conversion to Savage Worlds will simplify things quite a bit (usually does). 

The premise is the same, though. It's not a million miles from Hellboy, concept-wise. The characters work for the titular organization trying to...prevent apocalypses, I guess. We've got a bunch of playable races, many of which are broadly called "demons," but the game uses that as shorthand for "supernatural beings." One of the choices is Spectrals (ghosts), and I was thinking about that, in light of my theme song.

Oh, right, my gf Jenni gave me a theme song! Happens to be a song I already knew and loved. 

So, at first glance the song would seem to point to making a human character, and maybe it does, but the line "Some people think I can solve them" kinda points to something else, maybe? There's a race called "oracles," which are demons that can see the future, but bring luck. I think that works. Now, they're listed as "illegal playable races," so does that mean API just kills them out of hand? Let's see!

Ugh. Well, no, it doesn't say that. It does say that API might keep them contained with "powerful luck magic" to make use of their ability to see the future. Gotta say, the systems here...aren't great. I mean, I don't know, I haven't done a lot of design with Savage Worlds and I could be totally wrong about this, but penalizing certain skill checks isn't something I see a lot in SW books, but it pops up a lot in these characters. Also, the oracles' propensity for bad luck is mechanic'd by having everyone around them suffer a cumulative -1 penalty per day that caps out at -4. In SW, a -4 penalty is some shit; that's the equivalent of needing a raise on every check just to be successful. Also, when does the reset happen? If the oracle fucks off for a day, does the "clock" reset? I can think of a couple of more elegant ways to represent this idea. 

Well, anyway, since I'm not going to play this game, I'm going to make an oracle character and just not worry about whether it's "illegal." Let's assume my character, Dante Brown (it's not his real name, of course, because he's actually an extradimensional demon), works with API because he stumbles into their missions by "accident" (really, of course, he's following his visions). He's kind of a wandering sage, happy to help API keeping the world from ending or other demons from killing a lot of people, but he doesn't trust the organization at all. He came to Earth because of a dream he had involving a shady (like, literally shady, not sketchy) valley covered in moss, and buried in that valley was an artifact that API is going to need to like, actually prevent an apocalypse. But he doesn't know where the valley is or when he's actually going to see it, so he keeps up with API. Once he finds the valley, though, he's going the hell back to his home dimension. If possible. 

Dante is, like all oracles, pale skinned and has dark hair. Unlike most oracles, though, he's husky. Still has the pointy ears and the weird diamond shaped eyes and the third eye on his forehead, but he's not fine and willowy. Bit of a chonk, is what I'm saying. He favors hand-knitted sweaters. 

Cool, so, as an oracle, I get Future Sight and Path of Fortunes (I have to say, I don't grok the magic system here, gotta dig into it again) as racial Edges, and Blackouts, Fickle Fortune, and Outsider as racial Hindrances. Groovy, on to Attributes. 

Now, Vigor is doubly expensive to raise at chargen, which blows. I'm tempted to leave Agility at a d4. That'll limit my Skills a bit, but oracles also get a +1 to all Fighting and Shooting rolls, so I have a little bit of an edge there. OK, I'll leave Agility at d4, I'll bump Smarts to d8, Spirit to d6, Strength I'll leave at d4, and I'll put Vigor up to d6 (which costs 2 points, so that's all 5). I might bump up Strength later, though.

Skills! They're not on the sheet, argh. No matter. API uses Guts, too. Let's see. Guess I need to figure out how magic works in case I need a Skill for it.

Oh, lord. OK, so it looks like you need a Spellcasting skill (no word on whether you need an Arcane Background Edge, but it looks like not), but then it also looks like every spell counts as its own skill, and you can raise a given spell to add upgrades? Also, it says that you need an Edge to cast spells, but then a bunch of the races say you get access to a given Path - so does that mean I don't need an Edge to cast Path of Fortune spells? Oh, wait, you don't need a Spellcasting skill, just a separate skill for each spell. Blah.

The two 1st Circle Fortune Spells are nicely simple, though - Hex (-2 to an action) or Luck (+2 to an action). I guess I'll sink a d4 into each of those (I don't get upgrades until d8 and it's not worth it). 

In addition to that, I'll put d4s in Fighting, Gambling, Healing, Investigation, Lockpicking, Notice, Persuasion, Stealth, Streetwise, and Tracking. Oh, Knowledge (Occult) sounds good, too. That leaves me one more point; I'll stick that in Knowledge, too.

And now Hindrances. Are any of the ones in API worth taking? Actually, yeah. I like Combat Fear (I discard any initiative card higher than 10) and Shy (-1 to Intimidation and Persuasion rolls). I can take one more Minor. I'll take Quirk - he's always knitting. Yes, that means he could stab a bitch with knitting needles, but he'd rather not. They're expensive. 

That gives me 4 "points" to play with. I'll bump up my Strength to d6 with two of them. Would I like an Edge? Ooh, wait, I forgot a Training Package! Just basically a few Skills for free, nothing fancy. I'll take Good Cop, which gives me Persuasion d6 and Streetwise d4 for free, and frees up 2 skill points for me. Oh, also, I get Illegal as a Minor Hindrance automatically, so I don't need to take Quirk. I like it, though. I'll ditch Shy. I'll put those other two points into Fighting to boost it to d6. 

Anyway, do I want an Edge? Actually, yeah, I think I do. I'll take Rich - Dante won the lottery shortly after arriving on Earth. Not, like, a 10-figure Powerball, but enough that he doesn't need to work and he doesn't worry about driving around and getting in adventures. (And also, it means when he's on mission with API folks, he pays for everything, which goes a long way towards them not killing him.)

OK, then! Charisma 0, Pace 6, Parry 5, Toughness 5, and that's me done! I actually quite like Dante, though I don't necessarily fancy playing this particular game. Although I don't know, I'd probably give it a whirl if someone was running it.