Character Creation: Spirit of '77

We just watched The Black Phone the other night, which, while not at all a tonal or genre fit for this game, is set around the right year. 

The Game: Spirit of '77
The Publisher: Monkeyfun Games
Degree of Familiarity: Haven't played it, but it's PbtA so I get the gist
Books Required: Just the one

Spirit of '77 bills itself as "the best of a bad decade," and I think it does what it wants pretty well. It brings across the style of movie and media it wants, but doesn't shy away from the shit that was going down in the mid/late 70s, and I think that with the right group it'd be a real blast. I'm a little concerned that it's got a few too many subsystems for a PbtA game, but that's the kind of thing that would really only become obvious at the table.

So let's make a character. Character progresses like so:

So, first off, I need a role. I actually have a character concept going in; I want to play a kickass priest. It didn't occur to me until now, but the priest in Braindead is kind of a vague inspiration (right up until he becomes a zombie; again, not really in genre). So what role am I looking at, here? 

Well, not Bopper (which is about being a gang leader) or Good Ol' Boy (which is about driving). Certainly not Vigilante (shootin'), which leaves us Tough Guy, Sleuth, and Honeypot. I could go for any of them. Honeypot is generally a little more geared towards seduction and social manipulation than I'd like, but I could make it work. I think I want to go with Sleuth, though. 

As a Sleuth, I get a +1 to Brains and the crime scene investigation move, and then I get to pick one move from the list. Hmm. I think I'll take wouldja look at that?, which gives me a bonus when I create a distraction and sock somebody. 

Attributes! There are a few different arrays, and I don't want my priest to be deficient in any of the stats, so I'm gonna take 2, 1, 1, 0, 0 as my array. I'll put the 2 in Hustle, 1 in Brains and Might, and that leaves 0 in Smooth and Soul. I get $100 in cash and a few items of gear, one of which is a revolver, but I'm gonna turn that one down. 

Story! Role is what you are, Story is where you came from. I'm gonna take Kung Fu. I get way of the fist (I can attack with Hustle instead of Might), and then I get one more move. I want thousand points of silence, which lets me do a nerve attack and paralyze someone; nicely non-lethal. 

Buzz! This is what the character seeks. "In a world gone mad, Father Jack is looking for..." hmm. Redemption is so damn on the nose. Let's say "escape." The life of a priest is new to him, or maybe it's the life of a mystery solving, ass kicking priest of the people that's new. 

Hooks! These are connections to other PCs, and um, it's just me, so skip this bit. 

Stuff! I did gear already, and I get a Thang, which is something special - animal companion, cool ride, or the thing I want, Credentials. I'm a real-ass priest. Got a collar and everything. 

That's everything but the details, so here are the details!

Father John Carmody had some martial arts training in his youth, and when he became a priest he got swooped away to the Vatican for a "special training program." He didn't get far enough in the program to know exactly what the endgame was - probably something espionage-related, but he could see that he was getting further and further away from God's real calling for him. He quit the program and went back to the US. He doesn't have a parish, but he feels like being an itinerant priest is a better fit for him anyway. 

Father Jack (as he prefers to be known) doesn't want to fight, but he knows how, he's good at it, and he's not about to let bad people hurt good people. Turn the other cheek, sure, but that should be a choice you make, not something you're forced to do because some asshole has a chain. Father Jack is lean and quick, blue eyes, brown hair, and maybe not quite as articulate as he'd like to be - it's not like his training at the Vatican emphasized public speaking. 

That'll do it!