Character Creation: Apparition

WooooOOOOooooo! Rattle, rattle. Haunt, haunt.

The Game: Apparition
The Publisher: Ex Stasis Games
Degree of Familiarity: None, but it's not exactly complex
Books Required: Just the one

Apparition is a little 20-page story-game in which the players take the roles of spiritualists investigating a haunting. The specifics can vary - you could be ghost hunters, you could be on a ghost tour, whatever, but throughout the game you investigate the haunting and then it manifests from your own belief and tries to kill you! 

Game-play wise, most of the narrative load is on the players; it's not a million miles from my own game Jack's Trick, actually (there's another game it reminds me of, but I can't think of it; maybe it'll come to me). Anyway, I picked it today because I needed something super-duper quick, because as I mentioned in my Knight character, this month has sucked and finding the motivation to do anything remotely creative has been hard. 

But enough of that! We're not dead yet, because if we were, we'd be the Haunting. Maybe the Haunting was inside us all along. Makes you think.

Ahem. Character creation here is pretty darned quick (and would require nothing more than an index card). 

I need at least a little setting, here, so let's assume we're on a ghost tour, because I've done a couple of those and they're pretty fun if you're not a believer. I'm going to take inspiration from a weird place - there's a natural horror movie called Rogue (directed by Greg McLean of Wolf Creek fame) about a killer crocodile in Australia that attacks a group of people on a boat tour. No ghosts are involved (I'm actually not aware of any natural horror movies that mix in ghosts, but there must be some), but there's a moment in that movie that I've always really loved.

On the boat tour, there's one dude who looks really out of place - a middle aged man, by himself, obviously not real excited about the trip. During the tour, he very quietly tips a container of ashes into the water, and there's a shot of him with tears in his eyes. That's it. It's never explained, but it's a lovely little humanizing moment in this movie where a giant croc eats people.

So anyway, my character's name is Viliam Adrian (his family was Romanian and his grandfather Anglicized their name from Adrianescu when they immigrated; he's second generation American). Viliam grew up in the States (where doesn't much matter, though he strikes me as northeastern), got married, had kids, they grew up and went to college, and he retired, and while he and his wife Jenny were waiting for her to retire, she died suddenly of a stroke. 

Since then, Viliam has spiraled a little. He's got support from his family, of course, but he's always been agnostic at best, and he would really like to know if Jenny is...anywhere. Like, if this is it, fine. If there's a Heaven, he's sure she's there. But it's the uncertainty he can't stand. So he's been reading about life after death and suchlike a lot, and going on ghost tours.

OK, plenty of backstory there! I need three or four Descriptors. Let's say Viliam is middle-aged (probably late 50s), somber, polite, and steady. I think he had a job that required some precision (but that allowed him to retire). Maybe he started as a factory worker and eventually became a machinist and then a foreman. Oh, that would answer the next question: Occupation. He's a retired plant foreman. 

The last thing is Motive, and there are six of these, but they have an attached Advantage. I think the one that makes the most sense is make contact with a deceased loved one, which would allow Jenny to shield Viliam from Harm once (a little like Embeth Davidtz in Thir13en Ghosts). That's a little more decisive than I see Viliam, but that's OK, I think that's probably a cool way for it to play out at the table. Plus, you don't have to fulfill your Motive (a little like the Fatal Flaw from A Tragedy in Five Acts, actually). 

And that's it, kids!

Name: Viliam Adrian
Descriptors: Middle-aged, somber, polite, steady
Occupation: Retired plant foreman
Motive: Make contact with a deceased loved one