Character Creation: Passing (Ashcan)

Completely forgot I had this until I rearranged my bookshelves and found the ashcans for this, Epyllion, The Ward, and others hiding at the end of my PbtA shelf.

The Game: Passing (Ashcan Edition)
The Publisher: Magpie Games
Degree of Familiarity: None, other than with the system
Books Required: Just the one

Some of the Magpie ashcans got turned into real games (Epyllion, Cartel, Pasión de las Pasiones) and some just kinda flopped over and died (The Ward, Crossroads Carnival, Velvet Glove). It happens. Passing is apparently in the latter category; it's in the Clearance section on the Magpie site with all their other misfit toys. No idea if it'll ever be finished, but since Magpie just canceled a Kickstarter that had fully funded because it didn't fund HARD ENOUGH, I kiiiiiinda doubt it.

Anyway, Passing is about aliens who, as the name implies, can pass as human, and how they either assimilate or don't. It's a metaphor for the queer experience, but it's meant to play like spy fiction. I was actually pretty excited when I found it because I always thought the premise was cool, though I'm finding the experience of reading it surprisingly dry. Some of that - most of that, I'm sure - is that the game isn't finished. It's enough to run it, I guess, but there would be a lot of work on the group.

Well, that's all fine, let's make an alien. I have five playbooks to choose from. They're arranged by how they fit in to both alien and human society; the Halfling is a human/alien hybrid so the themes there are whether you're alien enough to be alien (which, if we're metaphorically portraying the queer experience, is something that my fellow bi folks can probably relate to). I like the Hidden, though, someone who stowed away on the first ship to make it to Earth and is an outsider to both alien and human life. 

With that in mind, I get to choose some stuff:

Alien Name: Alien names are sensations or descriptions translated into humanslanguage (we just rewatched Home the other day). There are a bunch of options, but I like "the rivers that dry up when two suns occupy the same place in the planet's sky (River-Dry)."

Look: So if River-Dry drops the human face, what does he look like? There are a bunch of options and I can choose as many as I want. If I were an alien, I'd have all the cool animal options and accessories.  

KTHTHTHTHSP

Ahem. That's probably a bit much (but hey, new sbemail just dropped the other day, that's pretty cool. About robots, though, not aliens). So I'll say River-Dry has golden skin, spines, whiskers, paws, and red eyes. Kind of a cat-porcupine sort of situation. 

And then over on the human side, I'll say my name is Bob Crosby (River-Dry wound up hiding out in a movie theater after he escaped the Ocean-Seeker and they played Road to Rio for a while, so he took his name from the two leads, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope). "Bob" is white, simple clothes, strong jaw, closed stance. The cool thing about the Hidden is that I have multiple human identities, and I can create the others during play as need be. For now I'll leave it at Bob.

Stats aren't something I need to worry about; I start with Human -1 and Alien +1. Those would change in play as I mark one track or the other. 

Backstory gives me some questions to answer:

What issues with Sun-Lost caused you to leave everything behind? Sun-Lost is our home planet. I think River-Dry was a political and philosophical dissident. The beliefs to which he subscribed were radical by Sun-Lost standard, but so mired in the local environment and culture that they're utterly irrelevant on Earth. That's made him something of a nihilist here, because he used to believe so hard and still does, he guesses, but what he believes would be impossible to explain to a human and would get him shunned, at best, by other Sun-Lost natives (second and third-wave Sun-Lost, not as much).

What human has become your source of solace? Bob Hope. River-Dry hasn't missed one of his movies since Road to Rio. (Yes, this is probably meant to be a human that actually is part of the character's life, but who cares, it's not like I'll ever play him. And I think this would work in play anyway, though I'd have to watch some old movies to prep. Aw, shucks.)

What human has divulged a secret to you that might be useful to other sun-searchers? Ooh, let's say that River-Dry does have an established second human identity. He calls himself Lamar (yes, after Hedy; River-Dry went and saw My Favorite Spy, I guess). Lamar is Black; River-Dry made him up because he found himself being pursued by Erads and needed to duck into a building. The building he chose was Nob Hill, one of the oldest gay bars in the country, catering to queer Black men. River-Dry would up spending the night with a man named Corbin. Corbin travels for work and told River-Dry about similar clubs in other cities. 

What do you do to satisfy your alien nature? I don't want to tie everything into movies, so we'll say that River-Dry swims in the Potomac River. River water replenishes him (pool water feels awful to him; it's the equivalent of drinking diet pop. Ew). 

What important space does each identity grant you access to? Well, obviously Lamar grants me access to queer culture and Black culture. Bob, I think, lets me pass unnoticed on the street - he's a nondescript white dude. 

Driving Desire: Something that keeps me motivated and working with the Cell. I think "destruction of Erads" is a good one. I can see River-Dry being capable of aggression (hence the spines).

Moves: I get touch me automatically, which lets me secrete poison. I get one more. I'll take you're being watched, which lets me reveal I was watching another alien all along and roll to see how much of what they were doing I caught.

And that's pretty much it!