Character Creation: Galaxies in Peril

Galaxy-ers, I guess, assemble!

The Game: Galaxies in Peril
The Publisher: Samjoko Publishing
Degree of Familiarity: Haven't played this, but I've run the heck out of Blades in the Dark
Books Required: Just the one

Where Worlds in Peril is PbtA, this is Forged in the Dark (and I'm aware that some consider Blades to be a PbtA game; I don't necessarily agree but it only matters for purposes of how I arrange my game library). I also think that Galaxies is a lot tighter and better designed, but at the same time, I worry that it would feel a little too much like Blades at the table? Like, Scum and Villainy and Wicked Ones both work on the same mechanical and narrative principles as Blades, but they feel different in play in some important ways. But reading Galaxies, it didn't yell "run me" like the other games did.

Maybe that's because the team types (detectives, explorers, rebels) feel a little thin? I also thought that the example of play, depicted though it is in a really dope comic book, felt like it jumped around a bit. Overall the game felt less like "Forged in the Dark superheroes" and more like "Blades, but with superheroes." I dunno. I'd still be willing to run it and see what it does at the table.

And the first step towards that, of course, is making a character SO LET'S DO THAT!

We begin with a pound of rubber cement by choosing a character type (basically a playbook). Let's see. Last superhero I made was Smash-Cut, who's all teleporty and punchy. Actually, depending how you count it this is my 45th supers character, and I don't think I've ever done a gadgeteer. Mostly that's because when you make such a character in an RPG you usually have to do a lot of extra work making the gadgets and I generally can't be fucked to do it in chargen, but for this game it shouldn't be too hard. Clearly I'm an Inventor, then.

You know, I go back to the "screwing with physics" well a lot, but I like the idea of a character that can whip up devices and gizmos from whatever's nearby, MacGuyver-style. We'll say my guy's name is Randall Rhodes, but as a hero he goes by Knickknack. 

Randall wanted to be an inventor. He wanted to go on Shark Tank with some nifty new gizmo that was going to take the world by storm. Hell, the Squatty Potty people did it, it can't be that hard! But he could never think of anything that was worth mass-producing. Also, let's be honest, Randall has focus problems and he can come up with cool shit but never has the patience to work out all the bugs, so a lot of his devices only work once or twice. 

But then one night, he looked across the street and saw someone breaking into his neighbor's house. He happened to know that his neighbor was a very sweet old man who used a wheelchair and had a bad heart, and he wasn't going to stand by and watch him get hurt. So he grabbed some spare parts and went all Tony Stark in Iron Man 3 on the burglar's ass. His neighbor, who witnessed the confrontation, pointed out that Randall had mechanical aptitude that went far beyond simple tinkering, and that was really when Randall became...Knickknack! 

Cool, moving on to origin. There's not really a "savant-like ability" origin, but Born This Way is the closest, I think.

Profession! Nothing on the list fits, but there's no mechanical impact so I can write in "would-be entrepreneur" and that's fine.

Action dots! I get seven dots to spread around. I can't take more than 2 in any given action. Well, obviously, 2 in Tinker, and then 2 in Study, one in Survey, one in Finesse, and one in Prowl.  

Powers! Here things get tricky. This is a lot like Worlds in Peril but much simplified, which is good. First I write down whatever power set(s) Knickknack has. And look at that, Invention & Gadgets is one of the examples, and that looks perfect.

But then I need to figure out three Learned Abilities. These are power effects that I've already mastered - one simple, one difficult, one borderline.

Well, for simple, I want Knickknack to be able to "turn any two objects into a weapon." Paper clip and a pop can? Brass knuckles. Styrofoam clamshell box and a bottle of white-out? Chemical grenade. Just needs a couple of seconds.

For difficult, I want his Ability to be "immobilize a foe." Give him the material contents of any room and he can whip up a portable prison or set of handcuffs. 

For borderline...hmm. This is a pretty out-there use of one's powers, so how about "create an autonomous servant?" Basically he can make a little mechanical robot. It's not gonna last long, but it can do a lot in the moments it has. 

Choose a special ability! Your basic "pick a move" thing. I'll take...Foresight! Twice per session I can assist someone without paying resilience, I just need to explain it in flashback (which in my case would be how I quickly whipped up a little gizmo). 

Choose a close friend and a rival! There's a list, just like in Blades. I'll say Randall's friend is Thompson, a leading expert. Turns out his neighbor, the one with the heart condition, is a pioneer in the field of polymers and 3D printing! For my rival, I'll choose Victor, a genius billionaire. Victor might be a genius, but his genius is purely financial. He knows who to pay to get people to make him look good, and once he tried to hire Randall, who told him to go kick rocks.

Name, alias, and look. Well, we've got name and alias already. Knickknack wears a brown bodysuit with pouches and bandoliers and wrist compartments with random shit. He's experimenting with different types of masks - he tried a helmet but it messes with his peripheral vision too much, so he's back to a cowl for now.

Write in a downtime clock! Now, this is interesting. Everyone gets a downtime clock (or two). It gets a tick every downtime, and when it fills something happens but you get resilience back. I'll call the first downtime "Thompson loses his house," as the old fella doesn't have much of a savings.

And that's actually it! Still not 100% sold on this, but I might give it a whirl.