Character Creation: Once More Into the Void

WELL HECK let's jump. 

I've been replaying Subnautica and there is indeed a void, but going into it is unwise.

The Game: Once More Into the Void
The Publisher: Genesis of Legend Publishing
Degree of Familiarity: None, though I've played lots of dirty hippie GMless games
Books Required: Just the one

As mentioned, it's GMless, though that's never stated explicitly, which is a misstep, in my humble opinion. Most RPGs have GMs, and while a goodly number of them do not, it's still such a common expectation that it's worth it to say that. Not that anyone asked me.

Anyway, this game is by the same author as Our Haunt, and it pretty much immediately went on my "run me" list, as did Our Haunt, so that speaks well of this creator. Once More Into the Void is a game in which you play a crew of ex-heroes who have fragmented, but now the Captain is bringing them back together to best the enemy. The game itself is a series of "mini-games", really just structured conversations, between the crew, and then at the end you might or might not beat the enemy depending on what cards you've accumulated during the mini-games. Shades of Fiasco, actually.

A lot of one's character would be determined during the mini-games, but there's enough actual chargen (for purposes of this project) to do it, so um, let's do it! First thing we do is pick an archetype. Hrm. You know, I think I'll lean into tragedy today and make the Broken.

So, at the guts of it, the Broken is the character the Captain's betrayal hurt the most. Before we go any further, I should figure out a little about the enemy since it might color how I interpret Qualities. There are some sample lists - Who is the enemy, what do they want, what's at stake. Annoyingly, the first and last lists have seven entries and the middle one has six. What, you couldn't think of one more thing the enemy wants? Feh. Well, I'll roll a d6 for each table and just disregard one entry from the first and last lists that doesn't interest me, and see what I come up with. I get:

Who is the enemy? The remnants of a people ravaged by time and cruelty.
What does that enemy want? To reset a broken timeline. Ooh, that's cool.
What's at stake if we fail? Our bodies and minds will be bound in servitude. 

OK, sweet. So our enemy is what's left of a civilization that turned on itself first, and then everyone else. They wound up using time technology to do all the bad shit they did before, but got too big for their britches (and perhaps our crew exploited that), and wound up destroying themselves...or so we thought. Now they're looking to "fix" their timeline, which means making sure that everyone not-them is bound into servitude. 

My character was from Axt, one of the world that this enemy destroyed first. They didn't blow it up, they just sucked out every possible resource, decimating the population and leaving Axt a blasted, near-lifeless mess. My character wanted to use the enemy's time tech to go back and fix Axt, but the Captain wouldn't let me because, well, time travel is a good way to fuck everything up. I've never forgiven them for that.

So now I choose two Qualities, and normally the player to my left would choose a third, but it's just me so I'll determine that randomly. I'll say that my Broken character is harrowed and brooding. There are 16 choices total, so I'll roll a d14 (I actually do have one, but I'm just going to use an online die roller so I don't have to get up)...12. Counting that out, alluring. I can dig it.

I'm meant to give myself a name that suggests DARKNESS and PAIN (capitalization copied from the character sheet). My character's name is Emmit Dorne (I dunno, sounds dark to me). Pronouns are he/him.

Next we pick two Aspects of our look, and then again, the person on my right would pick a third. I'll say Emmit wears tattered clothing and has a weapon always at the ready. And hey, there are 10 left! 

You know, there's no reason why all these lists need to have the same number of entries, but when I was writing games it always bugged me if they didn't. I suspect that is, as they say, my problem.

Anyway, rolling a d10 gets me...intricate tattoos that cover almost every inch of skin. I mean, I'm never gonna complain about that. Let's say that on Axt, it's customary to get a tattoo of the name of a person in your life who died, or a symbol representing them. Almost everyone Emmit ever knew from his home planet is dead, and Emmit is running out of space. (But since time travel is a thing here, I think it'd be really cool in play to have moments where tattoos change themselves or disappear as we affect the past.)

When the Broken gets recruited, it's at the shattered remains of the character's home, so obviously Emmit has gone back to Axt and is trying to make it into a workable homestead. He's wearing his old uniform, but tattered and patched beyond recognition. He has a shotgun (or something like it - maybe one of those weird-ass blunderbuss things like in Looper) always on his hip, and he defends his home, even from other Axtans. But if he has to kill you in self-defense, you get a tattoo, too. It's not your fault you had to do this to survive. It's the Captain's fault. 

Emmit is tall, solid, keeps his head shaved (more space for tats). He has blue eyes and a husky voice; he's always dusty, but never dirty. 

That'll do it!