Character Creation: Home by Dark

Stranger things have happened.

The Game: Home by Dark
The Publisher: Protagonist Industries
Degree of Familiarity: None with this game, pretty familiar with the genre
Books Required: Just the one

Home by Dark is a game in the so-called "kids on bikes" genre, that also includes RPGs like Tales from the Loop and, um, Kids on Bikes. It's a genre pretty firmly rooted in the films of the 80s and properties inspired by such (like Stranger Things), and so it hits a pretty nostalgic spot for me, as I'm sure is the case for a lot of Gen-Xers. 

Home by Dark is interesting in that it takes its setup pretty much directly from a seminal movie in the genre, in which a small band of kids have to care for an ugly alien with weird powers. I speak, of course, of Mac and Me. Wait, no. Meatballs II. No, hang on. That one episode of Futurama.

Eh, close enough.

Reading the game, the Fiasco influences are pretty obvious. In fact, as I was reading, I debated whether the game belongs on this list at all, since I typically exclude games that require a group to make characters. But I think I can make it work, and besides, I'm bored and I don't want to play Control all afternoon again. 

No character sheet for this game, either. Index cards only (again, Fiasco influence). I'll make a character as though I'm a fifth player in the example of game setup (so glad there is one, because reading the setup descriptions I really wasn't clear on it). 

So, everyone has two dice, either Hope or Responsibility. If you have two Hope, you're a younger kid. One of each, you're an older kid or a teen. Two Responsibility, you're an adult. The way this would work is that the group would put X of each die type in a pot (where X is the number of players) and then go round robin picking one die until they're all gone. As such, adding an extra player to the mix would add one of each die type. Assuming that the dice progression works like it does in the example, that would leave me with one of each, and that's fine. That makes me an older kid or teen. 

The overarching story here is that these folks discover a ghost in a building that's about to be demolished (I assume this is riffing on Capser, but I don't know). The ghost is our E.T., there's a ghostbuster type chasing it, sounds good. The other older kids are classmates. One is the babysitter of a younger kid. I think I want my character to be a latchkey kid, but one that doesn't have a great home to go to. Like, it's not terrible, he's not abused, there's always food for dinner, but snacks are scarce and their TV reception is for shit, so he usually wanders around the neighborhood and gets kicked out of stores until his parents get home from work. I'll say his name is Mason, he's 13, skinny, brown hair, but he buzzes it during the summer and just keeps a rat tail. 

OK, what next. I determine relationships. This involves futzing with seat order, but I'm sure I can figure it out. If I were sitting between the players of Diego (the older boy) and Denise (the teacher) I think I'd put my Responsibility die up against Diego's Hope die and my Hope die to Denise's Responsibility. As far as our actual relationships, we'll take the easy way out and say that Denise is Mason's teacher. For Diego, I'll say that he looks up Mason and kinda views him as a cooler older brother (Mason isn't actually that much older than Diego, but he's taller and knows the city better). 

Now I'd do character cards. I do one Hope and one Responsibility, and I've gotta pick characters for each of those. For Hope, I'll pick Angie (she's a kid, but she's older and so has a Responsibility die). I Mason might need to show her some of the cool things in the city that she misses by being, like, a responsible person. For my Responsibility card, I'll pick Diego. Dude is cool and all but he needs to slow down and think sometimes. 

A Fear and Insecurity, sure. The Insecurity is something that is embarrassing, but the person on my left (Denise) knows. I'll say that it's Mason's family is poor. For the Fear, which Diego gets to know, I'll say that Mason is afraid of dogs (he had a bad experience). 

Finally, I do an Asset and a Location. For the Asset, I'll say Camera. For the Location, I'll say Bridge (which would allow us to have a scene on or under it). 

And I think that's it, actually. May have to give this game a whirl at some point.