Everyone remembers how pretty much every minute of Men In Black was engagingly awesome. And then everyone remembers that one minute from Men In Black II that was… um… awesome… right? You know… the one with Lara Flynn Boyle practically naked… that’s pretty much it; that movie was rough. However, one of the most entrancing elements of the MIB series was the concept that aliens and other extra-terrestrial beings lived among us, and we just didn’t know it. There are people who handled that. And if you, as an everyday citizen, stumbled upon these visiting secrets, you were just “flashy-thinged,” and all the fear would drip away. Now, have you ever wanted to be one of those men and/or women in black, taking care of foreign threats? Well, it seems like the indie table-top world is starting to sound a lot like Apple. ‘Cause, well, there’s a game for that. And it’s called “Apocalypse Prevention, Inc.” Check out the info after the break to get the run-down. UNLESS, you’re four of my gaming friends named Rett, Justin, Mark, or Aslan. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE. This information is not for you… yet.
The gang over at Third Eye Games and Studio 2 Publishing have made an exciting table-top RPG with API. Essentially, the GM chooses some kind of end-world scenario that requires the immediate attention of operatives working for Apocalypse Prevention, Inc., a “company” spread throughout the world that saves the world without ever “existing.” The players are all members of the underground company and, whether they always know it or not, serve to rid the world of nasty other-worldly inhabitants or prevent otherwise doomsday-scenario events. As a side note (and the primary reason why I instructed four gentlemen above NOT to read further), I currently am writing a 12-hour one-shot campaign with API that will mimic a week-long LARP that we all play called Humans vs. Zombies. Essentially, these four guys will play themselves, in our fair city of Greensboro, NC and help to clean the undead stain that has infested our world and threatens our existence. I am using API as the central RPG system and have already fallen in love with the game’s creative transformation of something like the Zombocalypse into hours of pizza-consuming, Mountain Dew-swilling, table-top fun. Essentially, it’s the game you’ve always wanted to exist, but, like the titular company, you just didn’t know existed.
The gameplay within API is fairly accessible and seems easy enough to understand pretty quickly. There’s no Rolemaster here: just a pure and simple d20 system with story scenes and scenarios akin to White Wolf’s line of epic RPG’s. The game’s editors — namely the chief editor, Eloy Lasanta — obviously hold character conceptualization and construction as paramount to the game’s functionality. In other words, what you put into your character is what you get out of the GM’s story. I had the pleasure and good fortune of meeting Lasanta at DragonCon back in September, and he echoed this sentiment, which is evident when reading the sourcebook (specifically, as the first chapter immediately discusses character creation). One element the game holds integral is the development of your character’s “Pasison,” or that abstract concept that drives your character’s actions. You pick one (e.g., Approval, Honor Code, Love, Perfection, etc.), and this becomes the core of your PC’s disposition and intent throughout the game. I find it similar to the Hero’s Gaes in White Wolf’s Scion: some central part of your character’s being, a breaking or dismissal of which belies who you are.
We are not alone in API. Like in Men In Black, the API-verse presumes and proves there are those other-wordly types that walk among us. Some of them are our friends; most of them are here to cause trouble. The player races are: Humans, of course; Burners, or half-demons; Changelings, a shifter race of beings placed in “human” situations by their powerful parents; Lochs, an ichthyological (just look it up) race of beings from an entirely water dimension; Spectrals, ghostly or ethereal beings; Taylari, or living vampires; and the self-explanatory Wolf People. You can play any of these races, although I like the idea of starting a campaign as just Humans and encountering these beings not unlike Will Smith did. I imagine just as much sassiness and hilarity to spew forth from the PC’s in my one-shot. So, if you four defied my orders and are reading this, you had better be damn sassy come May. I’m especially looking at you, Lucas. The races provide a nice rounded feel to our world of visitors; they seem to draw from multiple mythologies and other universes, a kind of legitimizing all that which we read and fantasize.
I highly recommend this RPG for any of you out there wanting to traipse away from the major table-top companies for a while. Magic and other table-top frequents exist in the game, but they are definitely — and somewhat refreshingly — overshadowed by an intense focus on character and everyday world creation. Don’t get me wrong: Wizards of the Coast and White Wolf do me proud, but it is comforting to jump into a parallel universe every once in a while, especially if its our very own neighborhoods and cities. So, lock and load, gentlemen. By the way, you’re all playing yourselves and, no Justin, you can’t be a Loch. I already called dibs on that for all the NPC’s.