Note: This article was originally posted on the Calenmir's RPGs blog on February 7, 2025. Rebuilding the links to the rest of the articles in the series, as well as within-article navigation, is a work in progress. Thank you for your patience.

This is the third entry in a seven-part series demonstrating custom character creation in Apocalypse Keys, written by Rae Nedjadi and published by Evil Hat Games. Apocalypse Keys is about ridiculously overpowered Omen-class monsters working to prevent the end of the world without themselves becoming a Harbinger-class monster who brings about the apocalypse. This means Omens must balance the inner darkness that fuels their power against all the things and people connecting them to their humanity.

Because Apocalypse Keys is a game exploring what it means to be a monster capable of reshaping the world—and because there are so many ways to be a monster—the character creation system is flexible, with many options to choose from. Unfortunately, this abundance of options tends to overwhelm new players, who then settle for one of the four premade Omens rather than fleshing out their original ideas.

To help players get familiar with character creation in Apocalypse Keys, this series will demonstrate how to build well-known fictional characters using each of the seven playbooks, as well as how to choose Advances when it’s time to level up.

Previous entries included step-by-step guides for building Batman (The Shade playbook) and Anya Forger of Spy X Family (The Found playbook). In this entry, we’ll illustrate builds based on The Surge playbook using Avatar Aang from the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender.

A Note About Safety

In horror games, safety is paramount, and one common safety issue is child endangerment. In the timeline of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Avatar Aang is, for all intents and purposes, 12 years old. If you want to play as Avatar Aang, double-check that your fellow players and your Keeper are okay with a pre-teen character. If they’re not, consider playing an older version of Aang, or else choose a different character.

Part 1: Batman | Part 2: Anya Forger | Part 4: The Doctor | Part 5: Kirby | Part 6: Optimus Prime | Part 7: All Might

Want to try Apocalypse Keys yourself? My one-shot module “Sweet Dreams” is now available on Itch, DriveThruRPG, and in the site shop!

Table of Contents

• How to Build Avatar Aang in Apocalypse Keys

• Table of Contents

• Why Aang Qualifies As an Omen-Class Monster

• 1) You Can Reflavor Gameplay Elements in Apocalypse Keys

• 2) Avatar Aang Is Monstrously Powerful

• How to Build Avatar Aang

• Playbook: The Surge

• Character Prompts

• Selecting Moves

• Advances

• Ruin Advances

• Playbook Advances

• Congratulations, You’ve Built Avatar Aang!

• Glossary

Why Aang Qualifies As an Omen-Class Monster

If you’re more interested in building Aang than hearing my justifications for why he qualifies as an Omen-class monster, go ahead and skip to How to Build Avatar Aang. For everyone wondering why I’m building a child pacifist in a game about monsters capable of ending the world, there are two critical reaons:

1. You Can Reflavor Gameplay Elements in Apocalypse Keys
2. Avatar Aang Is Monstrously Powerful

1) You Can Reflavor Gameplay Elements in Apocalypse Keys

As long as the mechanics remain the same, Apocalypse Keys both allows and encourages recontextualizing gameplay elements to better fit the specifics of your characters. For example, the section on playbooks states:

Playbooks focus on specific monstrous themes and unique emotional arcs rather than specific archetypes. You are encouraged to interpret your powers and origin, while exploring the themes of the playbook.

Players can also “…tweak the prompts as you like—each prompt is a starting point.” Notably, the prompts section includes powers of darkness, which are effectively superpowers that Omens can always use. This isn’t just me taking advantage of a loophole, either:

How you choose to interpret your supernatural powers, and their possible limitations, is completely up to you. The Shade’s machines powered by soul magic may be automatons or small steampunk devices. The Last’s time distortion may be used in a purely defensive fashion or may be in the form of a mysterious voice from the future.

Most intriguingly, since options for character Advances include taking moves from other playbooks, the rules explicitly state that:

If a move from another playbook sounds like fun but relates to the central themes of that playbook, you may rewrite the premise or reword triggers to better suit your own character. If your character does not communicate telepathically, you may take the Found’s You Are Not Alone and change it to only work if you can speak out loud to the character you are helping. Or you may connect to a power of darkness you have instead of telepathy, such as the dimensional phasing of the Last or the cosmic energy of the Surge.

Therefore, it’s not much of a stretch to rework moves from your starting playbook to better reflect your character concept—for example, to better match the lore of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

2) Avatar Aang Is Monstrously Powerful

Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game forbids playing as the Avatar, partly because the Avatar is too powerful to incorporate into the game balance. It’s not just that the Avatar is capable of bending all four elements when everyone else is lucky if they can control one—Avatars, like Omen-class monsters, are capable of unleashing power to reshape their world. A literal example occurred when Avatar Kyoshi, in response to an invading army, detached a peninsula from the mainland to create Kyoshi Island.

Avatar Aang is no exception. Among other feats, before he even fully mastered the elements, in order to protect a village, he directly intervened against a volcanic eruption. While he did have help, his friends’ reactions make it abundantly clear that the plan wouldn’t have worked without Aang’s immense raw power. And that was without tapping into the Avatar State.

The Avatar State allows the current Avatar to call on the strength and abilities of every prior Avatar. In other words, they become even more powerful than they normally are. In the case of Avatar Aang, who has yet to master the Avatar State, it also means losing control of himself, then lashing out on instinct. Such displays are often accompanied by devastation and collateral damage—much like when Omen-class monsters fail to keep their own powers in check.

Avatar Aang chooses to be kind, patient, and as nonviolent as circumstances allow. At the same time, the power he wields sets him apart from everyone around him, and that power meets and exceeds the threshold needed to be considered an Omen-class monster.

How to Build Avatar Aang

To build a character in Apocalypse Keys, you must complete five steps:

1. Choose a playbook
2. Fill out character prompts
3. Choose additional playbook moves
4. Introduce your character
5. Create starting Bonds

Steps 4 and 5 require cooperating with fellow players, so this guide only covers steps 1 through 3. Advances, which are the equivalent of leveling up in Apocalypse Keys, will be covered in the section after character creation.

Note: for the full text of playbook, Ruin, and DIVISION moves, please refer to the official rules.

Playbook: The Surge

All Omens are powerful, but in terms of raw power, no playbook can outperform The Surge. This power, however, is too much for any one person to control, forcing them to turn to others for support. In the case of Avatar Aang, the devastatingly powerful Avatar State is beyond his conscious control, and often, he only returns to normal through his friends’ intervention.

Part of how playbooks establish such distinctive identities is through is through their starting moves. While most playbooks have a single starting move, The Surge has two: My Hands Around Your Heart and The Heart’s Eclipse.

My Hands Around Your Heart allows The Surge to choose a fellow player at the start of each session to be their “Heart.” This move allows The Surge and The Heart to mark Conditions in order to either deepen their relationship or progress the mystery together. In addition, when The Surge hits their Breaking Point by marking all their Conditions, The Heart may choose to pay a cost to intervene, or to stand aside and clear all their Conditions.

The Heart’s Eclipse allows The Surge to turn a failure into a success by causing massive collateral damage. In addition, they can choose whether to let their emotions overwhelm in the process of securing a disastrous success, or whether to allow an ally to intervene and pay the price to achieve a true success.

In other words, these starting moves emphasize the destructive power of The Surge, as well as its negative impact on the very people they rely on to stay in control of themselves.

Another way playbooks define their identity is by how they get Darkness Tokens. Darkness Tokens represent the characters tapping into their inner darkness to improve their odds of success. Increasing the odds of success, however, also increases the odds of a disastrous success. Getting too many Darkness Tokens is also a bad idea, since this can trigger the emotionally charged and potentially disadvantageous move Torn Between.

To reflect the nature of their unsurpassed power, The Surge gets Darkness Tokens when they:

• Feel overwhelmed or numb
• Give into [their] power and let it erase [their] will
• Ask someone to use [their] power as they see fit
• Ask someone to punish [them] for [their] power
• Embody a Condition that affects them

Side note: Conditions are the closest equivalent Apocalypse Keys has to a hit point system, and represent the emotions and stress Omens accumulate in the course of their missions. Therefore, if an Omen has a Condition marked, they can gain Darkness Tokens from roleplaying that condition. The options for The Surge include:

• Reactive
• Vicious
• Obsessed
• Despairing

When an Omen has marked all their conditions, they hit their Breaking Point. Each Breaking Point is unique, but generally involves negative consequences to the Omen and to anyone around them as they can no longer bear the strain they’re under. In the case of the Surge, the Omen loses control of their power, causing immense collateral damage.

Character Prompts

Prompts are used to flesh out a character, and for The Surge, this includes their appearance, the origin of their powers, and the kind of collateral damage they leave in their wake. Avatar Aang already has established answers to these questions, so there’s no need to cover them in depth. As for his powers of darkness, Elemental Control is an obvious first choice. It is also the only choice, since unlike the other playbooks, The Surge begins with only one power of darkness.

 In Apocalypse Keys, “What Does the Darkness Demand of You?” is used to establish Omens’ more self-destructive impulses. For Avatar Aang, we’ll take the premade choices “to destroy everything around me for the slightest trespass” and “to never fall in love.”

Selecting Moves

During character creation, all Omens choose one playbook move. They also get either one of the Ruin moves from their playbook, or one of the DIVISION moves that are available to all Omens—DIVISION, by the way, is the shadowy organization to which Omens belong.

I recommend choosing the playbook move My Darkness Is Never Leashed and the DIVISION move The Peacemaker.

Playbook Move: My Darkness Is Never Leashed

In Apocalypse Keys, the basic move Unleash the Dark is activated whenever Omens attempt to enforce their will on others, such as through violence. The Surge’s move My Darkness Is Never Leashed allows Aang to choose an additional benefit even on a failure, reflecting the gulf of power between the Avatar and everyone around him.

DIVISION Move: Ghostly Agent

The move Ghostly Agent normally represents the Omen forming a relationship with the ghost of a former agent of DIVISION. In this case, we’ll be using it to represent Aang’s ability to commune with his past lives. In addition to changing instances of “ghostly agent” to “past Avatars,” allusions to “the veil” should be changed to “The Spirit World” as needed.

Advances

At this point, you have everything you need to start playing as Avatar Aang. But as you play the game, you’ll gain Ruin and XP, both of which allow you to choose additional traits and abilities called Advances. This section includes information on the two types of Advances, plus which ones are the best fit for Avatar Aang.

Ruin Advances

All Omens have the potential to become Harbingers of the Apocalypse, and Ruin Advances bring that potential closer to fruition. Once you accrue 5 Ruin, unlocking a Ruin Advance, you narrate a cutscene of your Omen as a future Harbinger. Then you choose from the following list:

• Take a new Ruin move (2X): Choose one of the Ruin moves of your playbook, gaining additional abilities that cost Ruin to use
• Take a Ruin move from another playbook (2X): Take a Ruin move from a different playbook
• Permanently mark a Condition (2X): Commit to a permanent emotional vulnerability, making it easier to gain Darkness Tokens and to hit your Breaking Point
• Gain a new Ruin Condition (2X): Get an extra Condition that is permanently marked, giving you another way to gain Darkness Tokens
• Retire Your Character and Become a Harbinger of the Apocalypse: Your Omen becomes a Harbinger, and you lose control of them

In other words, each Ruin Advance represents a step down the path of Aang being corrupted into a Dark Avatar. The following are my recommendations for which moves best fit that arc.

Take a New Ruin Move

You can take this option twice. Though they will require a bit of reflavoring, there are two Ruin moves for The Surge that involve forming potentially unhealthy relationships to share the burdens of power and fate with: Alpha and Omega and This Is the Blood of My Covenant.

Ruin Move 1: Alpha and Omega

When you take this move, you choose a character—either an NPC or a fellow Omen—who is bound to you by fate. The move states that “[t]he two of you are connected always, sharing emotions, thoughts, and unable to stay away from each other for very long,” which we will be interpreting metaphorically rather than literally. Furthermore, by marking Ruin, you can have this character appear next to you even if it would create a plot hole, or you can gain Bonds—a resource that represents emotional connection—in exchange for describing how your shared fate is brought closer to Ruin.

Ruin Move 2: This Is the Blood of My Covenant

This move lets you select a willing Omen as your “Chosen,” representing your mutual devotion and determination to prevent each other from falling to Ruin. Unlike most Ruin moves, it has one option that does not require you to gain Ruin: you may tell your Chosen how they matter more to you than anyone else, then destroy Bonds to clear your Chosen’s Conditions. The second option allows you to transfer Ruin from your Chosen to yourself. The third option—which involves permanently giving them a new power of darkness—does require Ruin, and also some mild reflavoring. In this case, it represents Aang teaching them a rare and dangerous bending technique, or using spiritbending to grant them the ability to control an element.

Ruin Moves from Other Playbooks

Given Aang’s status as the last of the Air Nomads, it was tempting to look exclusively to the Last for Ruin moves. While Tragedy Will Not Claim Another is an incredibly fitting Ruin move for Aang, the rest don’t fit quite as well. Of the other playbooks, the two most relevant moves are None Stand Before Me from The Summoned and Death Always Leads to Life from The Shade. While the latter offers intriguing narrative possibilities, it would require considerably more reflavoring than the former, so my second recommendation is None Stand Before Me.

Ruin Move from The Last: Tragedy Will Not Claim Another

As mentioned in the article on Batman, if you gain Ruin, this move allows you to defy the laws of nature and plausibility to come to your allies’ aid, as well as to gain a Bond with them. Spending additional Ruin improves your ability to provide assistance.

Ruin Move from The Summoned: None Stand Before Me

After you take this move, you can always spend Ruin to kill a vulnerable NPC. Yes, really. The amount of Ruin you spend determines whether this will come back to haunt you, or whether they are destroyed beyond the possibility of resurrection. This option is a good fit not because Aang has a particular tendency to kill people, but because he invariably could if he wanted to.

Mark Permanent Conditions

Apocalypse Keys, like most Powered by the Apocalypse systems, eschews hit points in favor of Conditions that represent the emotional toll of adversity and crisis. When there are no Conditions left to mark, Omens hit their Breaking Point, which generally has dramatic, negative consequences for themselves and for anyone else in the vicinity. The Surge’s predictably involves an “obscene amount of collateral damage.”

Marking a permanent Condition lets you designate a Condition that is always marked and can no longer be cleared. Aside from making it easier to hit your Breaking Point, it also increases your ability to generate Darkness Tokens, for good and for ill.

This Ruin Advance can be taken twice, and the available Conditions for Aang to permanently mark are Reactive, Vicious, Obsessed, and Despairing. Of these four, the most fitting are Despairing and Obsessed, as demonstrated by his behavior when he was separated from his animal companion Appa.

Gain Ruin Conditions

This is another Ruin Advance that can be taken twice. Ruin Conditions don’t count toward hitting your Breaking Point, but otherwise function the same as permanent Conditions. The Ruin Conditions Omens have access to are:

• Cruel
• Fragile
• Guilty
• Haunted
• Paranoid
• Possessive
• Ruthless
• Reckless

Haunted is a good choice for Aang, as are Fragile, Guilty, and Reckless, while Paranoid and Possessive could be good choices depending on the situation. I personally would choose Haunted and Guilty, as Aang expresses those emotions more consistently than the rest of the ones on the list.

Becoming a Harbinger

This Ruin Advance is always the last, assuming you don’t retire your character before taking it. Once you become a Harbinger, you must retire Aang, who is now a Dark Avatar fully devoted to bringing about an apocalypse.

Sequence of Ruin Advances

For Avatar Aang, the following sequence makes sense for a Dark Avatar arc:

1. Ruin Move from The Last: Tragedy Will Not Claim Another
2. Ruin Condition: Haunted
3. Ruin Condition: Guilty
4. Ruin Move: Alpha and Omega
5. Ruin Move: This Is the Blood of My Covenant
6. Permanent Condition: Obsessed
7. Permanent Condition: Despairing
8. Ruin Move from The Summoned: None Stand Before Me
9. Retire Your Character and Become a Harbinger of the Apocalypse*

Tragedy Will Not Claim Another is a high priority, since it allows Aang to come to his friends’ aid no matter the odds, just like in the show. Next, the Ruin Conditions Haunted and Guilty represent the emotional weight of having run away from his destiny, of surviving a genocide, and of trying to fulfill his role as the Avatar. As a result, he grows increasingly dependent on his friends, expressed through the moves Alpha and Omega and This Is the Blood of My Covenant.

When not even their support is enough, Aang becomes increasingly obsessed with his duties and his heritage, even as he despairs of ever being enough. Meanwhile, his pacifism is increasingly put to the test. The ease with which he could break his tenets is represented by the Ruin move None Stand Before Me. When he can no longer bear the combined burden of his power and his destiny, he breaks, becoming both a Dark Avatar and a Harbinger of the Apocalypse.*

*Alternately, you can retire your character before you take the final Advance. Work with your Keeper to ensure this doesn’t happen in the heat of the moment if you’d rather not have Aang become a Harbinger.

Playbook Advances

In Apocalypse Keys, there are end-of-session recap questions that can grant experience points (XP). XP can also be gained through certain in-game moves. When an Omen accumulates 8 XP, they unlock one of the following Advances:

• Take a new move from your playbook (2X): choose one of the other available moves in your playbook.
• Take a new DIVISION move (2X): choose one of the DIVISION moves.
• Take a move from another playbook (2X): choose a move from another playbook.
• Describe a new way to gain Darkness Tokens: define a new way to gain Darkness Tokens via roleplaying.
• Take a new power of darkness from your playbook: Gain another one of your playbook’s powers of darkness.

Change your playbook: Stop using your current playbook and start using a different one, changing out previous moves, powers of darkness, and abilities as needed.

In other words, the playbook Advances reflect Aang’s personal growth on his journey to become a full-fledged Avatar. The next section includes my recommendations for which Advances best mirror the character development he underwent in Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Take a New Move from Your Playbook

Moves for the Surge tend to explore themes of barely restrained power and of seeking solace through personal relationships. Two such moves that fit Avatar Aang are I Am Your Destruction and Like a Moth to the Flame.

Playbook move 1: I Am Your Destruction

This move allows the player to let their power run wild, causing widespread collateral damage. In exchange, they obtain additional power, information, the safety of someone important, or a tactical advantage.

Playbook move 2: Like a Moth to the Flame

The basic move Reveal Your Heart serves as a way for Omens to forge or deepen emotional connections. With Like a Moth to the Flame, Avatar Aang may also express how much of a danger he poses to the other person, and depending on the direction the conversation takes, he or the other person may gain an additional Bond—or Aang may gain a Bond with What the Darkness Demands of You, representing his relationship with his own inner darkness.

Take a new DIVISION move

DIVISION is the shadowy organization that employs the Omens, so DIVISION moves normally reflect how players fit into the bigger picture. We, however, will be reflavoring two such moves to reflect the abilities and duties of the Avatar: Fae Liaison and The Peacemaker.

DIVISION move 1: Fae Liaison

For most Omens, this move would indicate a connection to a Fae Court. Avatar Aang, however, is connected to the Spirit World, so we’ll be renaming it to Seek Out the Spirits. Any allusions to fae magic, fae courts, or being chosen by fae magic or courts should be changed to reflect the Avatar’s status as the bridge between the physical world and the Spirit World. The actual mechanics of the move remain unchanged: Aang may offer the spirit a favor before rolling to determine the outcome, with bigger favors improving the odds of successfully securing the spirit’s intervention.

DIVISION move 2: The Peacemaker

As readers of the blog about Anya Forger may remember, The Peacemaker is a move that ordinarily makes the Omen a mediator between DIVISION and some other faction. As the Avatar, however, Aang has a general duty of seeking peace and resolving conflicts. Therefore, Avatar Aang may use this move on behalf of factions other than DIVISION, or even use this move on DIVISION at the behest of another faction. When Aang uses this move on behalf of a faction other than DIVISION, that faction is the one compromised in the event of a disastrous success.

Take a Move from Another Playbook

When it comes to choosing moves from other playbooks, it can be difficult to narrow down the possibilities, and this is very true of Avatar Aang: there are two Summoned moves, one Shade move, and three Last moves that would fit him well with minimal reflavoring. Ruling out moves previously featured in this series leaves four moves: Everything for You, My Love from The Summoned, I’m the Expert Here! from The Shade, A Flickering Hope from The Last, and You Are All I Have Left from The Last. Of these, the two that are the most thematically appropriate, least in need of reflavoring, and most distinct from Aang’s other moves and Advances are I’m the Expert Here! and A Flickering Hope.

From The Shade: I’m the Expert Here!

To better reflect Aang’s personality, we’ll rename this one The Avatar’s Wisdom. When someone spends a Bond with Aang, they can ask him for advice, gaining one of three mechanical benefits if they follow it.

From The Last: A Flickering Hope

As the last living Air Nomad, Aang frequently reflects on what he lost, and also shares what he can of his culture with the people around him. This move provides an opportunity for Aang to reminisce at the start of each session, with mechanical benefits on a success and complications or dark omens on a disastrous success. The move as written indicates that on a failure the memory is threatened by the Harbinger, but this could be interpreted as a metaphorical threat, such as the Fire Nation converting a sacred Air Temple into a weapons workshop.

Describe a New Way to Get Darkness Tokens

Darkness Tokens are a resource for dice manipulation that are tied to Omens’ inner darkness. In other words, Omens get Darkness Tokens when they indulge their worst impulses or act out in unhealthy ways. Therefore, when this Advance is taken, Aang will get Darkness Tokens when he pushes his friends away, refusing to accept their support.

Take a New Power of Darkness

Since Aang already has Elemental Control, the next best option is to take Cosmic Energies as a representation of his spiritual abilities.

Change Your Playbook

Changing your playbook means losing access to your starting move, as well as any playbook moves, powers, or Advances that no longer make sense for your character. The exception is Ruin Advances, which are instead switched out for more appropriate options. That said, there is a very obvious playbook for Aang to switch to: The Last. As he masters the elements, including the Avatar State, Aang no longer struggles with power beyond his control. Instead, it is the fate of the Air Nomads that weighs heaviest on him, forcing him to balance the world he lost against the world that still needs him.

Sequence of Playbook Advances

Avatar Aang’s journey of mastering the elements can be represented by taking Advances in the following order:

1. Playbook Move: I Am Your Destruction
2. Move from The Last: A Flickering Hope
3. Playbook move: Like a Moth to the Flame
4. DIVISION Move: Peacemaker
5. New Power of Darkness: Cosmic Energies
6. DIVISION Move: Fae Liaison
7. Move from the Shade: I’m the Expert Here!
8. New Way to Get Darkness Tokens: Push friends away
9. Change Your Playbook: The Last

In Avatar: The Last Airbender, Aang is introduced after having run away from his duties as the Avatar, and has minimal control over anything other than airbending. The move I Am Your Destruction represents the devastation resulting from this lack of control, particularly when it comes to the Avatar State. Soon after, he learns about the genocide of the Air Nomads. This event has a profound effect on him, represented by the move A Flickering Hope. He reluctantly embraces his role as the Avatar, with the moves Like a Moth to the Flame and Peacemaker representing his reservations and his best efforts to fulfill his duties, respectively.

As Aang grows as an Avatar, he learns about his connection to the Spirit World and its residents. Therefore, he gains a relevant power of darkness—Cosmic Energies—and the move Fae Liaison, which we reflavored to Seek Out the Spirits.

Due to his growth and his exploits, others begin to recognize Aang as the Avatar and seek his advice accordingly. I’m the Expert Here!—which we renamed The Avatar’s Wisdom—represents how Avatar Aang guides his friends and allies with understanding and compassion beyond his years. Even so, his insecurities persist, and often manifest in pushing his friends away since the Avatar “should” be able to accomplish certain things unaided. This corresponds to gaining a new method for gaining Darkness Tokens.

Upon mastering the elements and accepting the Avatar State as part of himself, Avatar Aang is no longer an example of The Surge, so he switches playbooks to The Last—an event that roughly corresponds with the finale of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Congratulations, You've Built Avatar Aang!

Thank you for reading. Please reach out if you try this build, have alternate ideas for which moves and Advances are best for Aang, or think I really should have written this post about Shigeo "Mob" Kageyama of Mob Psycho 100 fame.

The next blog in the series comes out next Friday. In the meantime, check out how to build Batman as The Shade, or how to build Anya Forger of Spy X Family as The Found.

Return to the beginning of the article

Glossary

Advance: additional abilities that can be gained by accruing XP or Ruin. XP can be acquired through moves or by answering end-of-session questions about your Omen’s recent activities, and it takes 8 XP to unlock an Advance. Ruin, which can be gained in several ways, instead unlocks Ruin Advances, which only cost 5 Ruin.

 

Bonds: This resource typically represents emotional connections between characters, though Bonds can also represent more esoteric relationships, including the one between an Omen and What the Darkness Demands of Them. Bonds can be spent to modify rolls or to activate certain moves.

 

Breaking Point: A character who has marked all possible Conditions hits their limit, which is called their Breaking Point. Each playbook has a unique Breaking Point that ties back to their themes, but typically have negative consequences for the Omen and their allies.

 

Condition: an emotional state resulting from stress, trauma, or crisis. This is the game’s closest equivalent to hit points, and marking all conditions results in characters hitting their Breaking Point. Omens may gain Darkness Tokens by roleplaying marked Conditions.

 

Darkness Tokens: a resource players gain from roleplaying thematic triggers defined in their playbook. They can be used for dice manipulation, but having too many can also trigger the move Torn Between, an emotionally charged move with mechanically suboptimal choices.

 

Disastrous Success: Some moves require players to roll the dice to determine success or failure. If they roll too high, they fail to restrain their darker nature, resulting in negative consequences alongside whatever they wanted to achieve. This is called a disastrous success.

 

DIVISION: the shadowy organization that Omens work for.

 

Experience Points (XP): a resource representing Omens’ character growth. XP can be gained through certain moves or by answering end-of-session questions about the Omen’s recent activities, and accruing 8 XP unlocks one of nine Advances.

 

Harbinger of the Apocalypse: a powerful monster whose goal is to reshape, shatter, or end the world, either deliberately or as a means to an end.

 

Keeper: the gamemaster of Apocalypse Keys is referred to as the Keeper of the Doors, or Keeper for short.

 

Move: preset abilities with specific triggers and outcomes. Players may choose to activate them, or they may be activated by the Omens’ choices. Starting moves are unique to each playbook, playbook moves reinforce the themes of that playbook, Ruin moves accelerate Omens’ transformation into Harbingers, and DIVISION moves represent the resources and scope of the organization the Omens work for.

 

Mystery: a story arc in Apocalypse Keys, which is centered around an investigation into a Harbinger’s apocalyptic plot. It may span one or more sessions.

 

Omen-Class Monster: any monster powerful enough to evolve into a Harbinger. Player characters are always Omen-class monsters—Omens for short.

 

Playbook: the basis of character creation in Apocalypse Keys. Each one has a set of prompts, powers, and moves with a unifying theme, including a unique starting move that other Omens can’t gain access to.

 

Power of Darkness: superpowers Omens can always use, whether for trivial purposes or in conjunction with a move.

 

Ruin: a resource representing an Omen’s progress toward becoming a Harbinger. Gaining 5 Ruin unlocks an irreversible Ruin Advance.

 

Ruin Advance: when an Omen accrues 5 Ruin, they gain one of nine non-repeatable Ruin Advances. These Ruin Advances may grant new powers, moves, or benefits, but also represent progress toward becoming a Harbinger of the Apocalypse. Ruin Advances are always accompanied by a cutscene of the Omen as a future Harbinger.