Character Creation: Beat the Boss

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night....

The Game: Beat the Boss
The Publisher: Practical Fox
Degree of Familiarity: None, but it's PbtA. Honestly the lack of familiarity isn't the issue here
Books Required: Just the one

This is a bit of a head-scratcher, honestly. The idea is that you're playing organizers setting up a union in the face of anti-worker practices from the Boss, and like, that's cool and all. The game seems to be written explicitly as a way to facilitate conversation between people about union and worker's rights and so on. 

But like...it's a PbtA game. If all you're trying to do is help people have the hard conversations about the work of unionizing (and I know those conversations can be hard, because I'm part of a union and I've seen how tense things get when the word "strike" is mentioned, let alone when a strike is approved), why would you need a game system like PbtA? Or any RPG system? If all you want to do is roleplay hard conversations, surely you take your cues from improvisational theater? Improving situations and dialog is the easy bit, in my (considerable) experience as both a GM, a game designer, and in theater. Learning the rules and, more importantly, the conversational and philosophical and ludographical underpinnings of a roleplaying game can be a big mental hurdle for normal people.

Also...this game would be boring as shit. Very little attention is paid to the real, at-the-table conversation and situations that goes on. I have a vague idea of how to run it after reading it, but like, are we playing Amazon or Starbucks workers trying to get a union off the ground? Because that kind of work is long, boring (except when it's not), grueling, and maddening. Why would I want to roleplay that? 

Now, I can see this whole topic being fertile ground for a PbtA game, but like, gimme some edge. Show me the hard choices that unionizers have to make and how those choices hurt them and their families, and give me fucking examples because I think this game actually does consider the hard choices but it doesn't make it in the least bit evocative. Or, hell, do what every other RPG in existence knows to do and put some genre shit in here so that we're talking about unions through the lens of brain-eating aliens or something. 

Anyway, let's make a character. Should be quick, anyway. 

First thing we do is pick a playbook, which are called "tendencies" here, which is not a great name IMO, but whatever. I think I shall take Direct Action Organizer - I like confrontation, and it bothers me when people lie or flee to avoid having hard conversations. 

My Organizer's name is Alejandro Ortego; he goes by "Al" among the white people so as not to scare them. His family is Mexican, but he was born here (whatever city this hypothetical game is set) and knows the Hispanic and Latinx community. He's also light skinned enough to "pass", and one of his buddies told him when he was young that he could get in white people's faces without getting shot, and he's kind of taken that to heart. 

So, going down the "Look and Background" section: Gender and sexuality. Let's say Al is a cisgender straight man, he/him. Clothes: Business casual. Body: Fit. Eyes: Steely. Who you can relate to outside of the union: There are a couple of examples, here, but I don't love them. Let's say college buddies. Al gets together with three or four of his former classmates to play ball and bitch about work sometimes, and while he probably wouldn't admit it, he appreciates the "devil's advocate" perspective. Vehicle: Used hatchback, that's fine.

Stats! I have to pick my experience level because it changes my stats. Let's say Al is an organizer; I don't see him as being a senior. That means I can add a total of +1 to my stats, which could be 0 in everything and +1 in something, but that's weak. Let's put a -1 in Skill, +1 in Moxie and 0 in Vigor, Empathy, and Smarts. 

I pick a Role, which isn't on the sheet because it'd be on a second page that I didn't feel like printing. Let's make Al a Field Organizer. 

And finally, I pick two moves from the options in my tendency (would it kill you to put "pick two" on them? Or to have an actual chargen section in the book that has all the info you need?). I will take face-to-face confrontation and they of action as Al's moves. 

And that's basically it! I think Al is in his late 20s or early 30s, and I picture him running a little hot - he's fully capable of having a civil conversation but he switches "can we stop fucking around?" mode a little too quickly. I think he'd burn out in play.