Note: This article was originally posted to the Calenmir's RPGs blog on March 7, 2025. Hyperlinks for in-article navigation and to other articles in the series are under reconstruction; thank you for your patience.

At long last, we have reached the seventh of seventh entries about character creation in Apocalypse Keys. This horror-superhero TTRPG, which was written by Rae Nedjadi and published by Evil Hat Games, is centered on Omen-class monsters: beings with power so vast, they could bring about the end of the world. Instead, they choose to save it, even when this requires standing up against fully realized Harbingers of the Apocalypse—and against the darkness dwelling within their own hearts.

Just as Omens are free to do whatever they want, players have a great deal of flexibility during character creation. Unfortunately, new players often get overwhelmed by the abundance of customizable options, and therefore limit themselves to the premade characters included with the base game. This blog series demonstrates how to build original characters in Apocalypse Keys based on pop culture icons of questionable monstrosity. Though it will be difficult to top the time I featured a four-year-old girl, I’ll do my best today as I argue that All Might of My Hero Academia can be considered a former god.

There will be spoilers. Consider yourself warned.

The series is ending, but the fun will keep going! Come back on March 14th for the release of my original Apocalypse Keys mystery “Sweet Dreams.”

Table of Contents

• How to Build All Might in Apocalypse Keys

• Table of Contents

• Why All Might Qualifies As an Omen-Class Monster

• 1) You Can Reflavor Gameplay Elements in Apocalypse Keys

• 2) The #1 Hero, the Symbol of Peace

• How to Build All Might

• Playbook: The Fallen

• Character Prompts

• Selecting Moves

• Advances

• Ruin Advances

• Playbook Advances

• Congratulations, You’ve Built All Might!

• Glossary

Part 1: Batman | Part 2: Anya Forger | Part 3: Avatar Aang | Part 4: The Doctor | Part 5: Kirby | Part 6: Optimus Prime

Why All Might Qualifies As an Omen-Class Monster

Before I get into How to Build All Might, I’d like to present my case for why All Might counts not just as an Omen-class monster, but as a fallen god. As usual, I will break my rationale into two sections:

1.     You Can Reflavor Gameplay Elements in Apocalypse Keys

2.     The #1 Hero, the Symbol of Peace

1) You Can Reflavor Gameplay Elements in Apocalypse Keys

It’s not uncommon for players to tailor RPG systems to their needs, but in the case of Apocalypse Keys, customization is a feature that’s hardwired in. Take this snippet from the rules governing playbooks:

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

The rules further exhort players to “…tweak the prompts as you like—each prompt is a starting point.” This even extends to powers of darkness, a prompt that determines what superpowers the characters will always have access to:

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.

Finally, the section on Advances, which is the game’s version of leveling up, includes the following guidance on the option to take moves from other playbooks:

…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.

In other words, when it comes to character creation, the rules prioritize character concepts over flavor elements. Therefore, it’s well within the spirit of Apocalypse Keys to reinterpret items from your own playbook as long as you leave the mechanics intact.

2) The #1 Hero, the Symbol of Peace

At the beginning of My Hero Academia, Toshinori Yagi, who took on the hero name of All Might, is the world’s #1 Hero. This is partly due to his Quirk—the My Hero Academia term for superpowers—granting him heightened durability, speed, and strength to the point that he can clap his hands together to change the weather. You read that correctly: even though he doesn’t have weather control powers, he can control the weather anyway, because he’s just that strong.

You might even say his strength is godlike.

The thing is, being strong isn’t enough for All Might. What he really wants is to make a world where everyone can smile, and to that end, he made himself into the Symbol of Peace. One important step toward establishing himself as the Symbol was a 100% success rate once he arrived on the scene. Civilians in danger? He rescues them. Villains on the loose? He takes them down. No matter what obstacles he faces, he overcomes them with a smile. That’s how he built himself into not just a superhero, but the very embodiment of heroism. He is feared by criminals, but more importantly, he’s earned the unwavering respect and love of everyone else, to the point it’s nearly indistinguishable from worship. His very existence stabilizes society, because everyone knows that if things get really bad, All Might will show up to save the day.

In other words, the level of faith everyone puts in him is one normally reserved for gods.

But there’s a lot people don’t know about All Might, most notably that he was severely injured while fighting a villain, which limits the amount of time he can use his powers. He kept this secret because he believes that if his—er, the people lose faith in their Symbol of Peace, the world will fall into chaos. Nor is he incorrect. When the world eventually learns they can no longer rely on the #1 Hero, villains seize the opening to sow chaos. But before it comes to that, All Might relies on lies and deception to keep up pretenses despite barely clinging to a fraction of his power.

Exactly the sort of tactics a fallen god would use.

Then All Might goes and bequeaths his power to a worthy mortal, bestowing on him the destiny of saving the world, which is a classic god move.

Oh, and one last thing. The bit where he changed the weather? That was after he got injured. Even with his strength slipping through his fingers, All Might wields sufficient power to be considered an Omen-class monster.

How to Build All Might

To get a character ready for your first session of Apocalypse Keys, you must:

1. Choose a playbook for your character
2. Fill out the associated prompts
3. Pick one playbook move and one Ruin or DIVISION move

Once you complete these steps, you’ll also need to introduce your character to the other players and establish shared backstories, but that’s beyond the scope of this article. We’ll delve into the three steps outlined above, with character Advancement as a postscript section.

For the full text of playbook, Ruin, and DIVISION moves, please refer to the official Apocalypse Keys rulebook.

Playbook: The Fallen

The Fallen is a playbook designed for former gods who crave the power and worship they’d grown accustomed to. Unfortunately, for some Satan-shaped reason, the majority of former gods in pop culture are full-fledged Harbingers. Of the remaining few, the fraction who matched the themes and abilities of the playbook had baggage I was unequipped to handle. Therefore, I went with a character who fits the spirit, if not the letter, of the playbook.

Right, back to building All Might. The starting move of The Fallen is Call Me Master, which normally represents converting non-player characters (NPCs) into worshipers. We’ll be renaming this move to Symbol of Peace. Instead of being worshipped in a religious sense, you earn the hero-worship of those who witness your displays of power. For example, the option “They will create a place of worship and power in your name” could be reworked to spreading footage of your deeds on social media, or other setting-appropriate actions. Finally, while there are multiple allusions to the “call” or “song” of The Fallen’s “dark heart,” this doesn’t make much sense for All Might. The easiest substitution for these instances is “your heroic display.”

Despite these changes, the mechanics of the moves remains unchanged: when you trigger this move, you roll to determine success or failure. On a success you can choose from a list of benefits, while on a disastrous success the benefits are alloyed by a complication of your choosing. In the event of failure, a terrible villain arrives on the scene, intent on crushing the hope All Might has inspired.

Another aspect of Apocalypse Keys playbooks is the circumstances under which you can gain Darkness Tokens, a resource for probability manipulation that represents drawing power from your inner darkness. The triggers for The Fallen to get Darkness Tokens are to:

• Feel others are beneath me

• React with spite or arrogance

• Ask someone to worship me

• Ask someone to betray another

• Embody a Condition that affects me

Remember that we’re not interpreting worship literally, so All Might could, for example, get Darkness Tokens by asking people to place their trust in the Symbol of Peace. As for that last line, Conditions are emotional reactions to stress and crisis that Apocalypse Keys uses in place of a hit point system. The Conditions available to The Summoned are:

• Lustful

• Raging

• Forlorn

• Obsessed

Some of these are more likely for All Might than others, and it’s always up to you to decide whether you roleplay the Conditions affecting your Omen. In any case, it’s important to note that when all four Conditions are marked, you hit your Breaking Point. This is, effectively, a dramatic and narratively significant breakdown. Though the text for The Fallen will require some adjustments, the main themes of self-loathing, and of painfully pushing past the limits of your powers, are quite fitting for All Might.

Character Prompts

Supply the canon answers for the prompts “Your Name,” “Your Look,” and “Your Origin.” Change the prompt “Who are the gods who taunt you?” to “Who are the villains who taunt you?” to make it apply to All Might’s mortal enemy All For One. Skipping ahead slightly, “What Does the Darkness Demand of You?” reflects the dark fate Omens are drawn to fulfill. Of the available options, we’ll change “to kill all the gods” into “to destroy all villains,” along with “to make my fellow monsters my worshipers” into “to make my fellow heroes dependent on me.”

As for powers of darkness, we’ll be doing some creative interpretations of the available options. Fae Glamour can be renamed “Transform!” to represent All Might’s inexplicable ability to switch between his gaunt post-injury appearance and his muscled heroic persona. Meanwhile, Weapons of Light and Sound will be renamed One for All, representing the various powers granted by All Might’s Quirk.

Selecting Moves

When you first make your character, you get to choose two moves, the first of which must come from your playbook. The second can either be one of your playbook’s Ruin moves—which hasten your corruption—or one of the DIVISION moves available to all Omens. The latter normally represent the resources of DIVISION, the shadowy organization backing your team, but can be reflavored to reflect All Might’s own capabilities.

For this build, the most appropriate playbook move is Fleeting Divinity. For your second move, go with the DIVISION move Monster Celebrity.

Playbook Move: Fleeting Divinity

This move as written involves sacrificing sacred artifacts imbued with your power. We, however, will be renaming this move Reduced Time Limit. This reflects that when All Might deals with a challenge by overexerting himself, he permanently reduces the amount of time he can use his powers in his hero form.

DIVISION Move: Monster Celebrity

This move reflects the immense pressure placed on famous Omens by their adoring public, which makes it a good representation of All Might’s status as the Symbol of Peace. As with Batman and Optimus Prime, change allusions to items such as “honorary human status” to better fit All Might’s situation. Nevertheless, All Might benefits from this move whenever he hides who he is to meet the public’s expectations of him.

Advances

Creating your character is only the beginning in Apocalypse Keys. Through your moves, actions, roleplaying, and end-of-session introspection, you can unlock additional traits called Advances. Broadly speaking, there are two types of Advances: Ruin Advances and neutral Advances. Ruin Advances mark your progression toward becoming a Harbinger, while Advances earned via experience points (XP) represent character growth. I’ll cover the options for both Advancement tracks, including the order to take each Advance in.

Ruin Advances

Omens gain Ruin when they take actions that draw them toward becoming a Harbinger, and when they get 5 Ruin, they unlock an irrevocable Ruin Advance. Narrate a scene of your Omen as a future Harbinger and choose from one of the following:

• Take a new Ruin move (2X): Select one of The Fallen’s Ruin moves
• Take a Ruin move from another playbook (2X): Choose a Ruin move from a playbook other than The Fallen
• Permanently mark a Condition (2X): Mark one of your Conditions permanently, removing the option to clear it
• Gain a new Ruin Condition (2X): Gain an extra permanently marked Condition
• Retire Your Character and Become a Harbinger of the Apocalypse: Transform into a Harbinger and lose control of All Might.

My picks for All Might are below, but before we proceed, remember that you do have the option of retiring a character before transforming into a Harbinger.

Take a New Ruin Move

Given All Might’s heroic nature, picking Ruin moves is tricky. That said, Tremble Before Me is a good fit for the weight of his words, and I Will Rise Again can be made to work with some reflavoring.

Ruin Move 1: Tremble Before Me

This move, which I also recommended for The Doctor, provides mechanical benefits when you enforce your will through your words. The flavor references The Fallen speaking in their “true and ancient voice,” but for All Might it represents speaking in his heroic form.

Ruin Move 2: I Will Rise Again

Setting aside flavor for the moment, this move represents carrying out a step-by-step plan to establish yourself in a position of unassailable power. Though the order of operations can vary, it generally involves concealing yourself, establishing a stronghold, building up a loyal circle, growing and empowering an army, destroying anything or anyone who could stand in your way, and preparing a new vessel to inhabit. Fans of My Hero Academia probably find these steps remarkably familiar, considering it’s almost identical to All For One’s plan to become a self-styled Demon Lord. This opens up three possibilities for applying this move to All Might:

• All Might is emulating his nemesis out of desperation

• All Might has been possessed, mind-controlled, or otherwise influenced by All For One

• This move is applied in reverse, with the as-written benefits applying to All For One and the as-written consequences empowering All Might and his allies

Work with your Keeper to choose which scenario to pursue, then revise the flavor of the move accordingly. Once all possible steps of the plan have been taken, either All Might or All For One secures their place as a Harbinger of the Apocalypse. Note that if your Omen is the one who becomes a Harbinger, you must retire your character. They become an antagonistic NPC.

Ruin Moves from Other Playbooks

There are plenty of good options for All Might, but the ones with the least overlap with previous entries are Death Broke Me First from The Shade and I Carry the Hope of My People from The Last.

Ruin Move from The Shade: Death Broke Me First

This move, which I also recommended for Batman, lets you prevent an ally from hitting their Breaking Point. Since this move is written for The Shade, the flavor refers to Death as a character, so to adapt it to All Might, make it reflect how his persona inspires his allies to endure beyond their usual limits. All Might, meanwhile, gains less Ruin if he takes responsibility for whatever situation his allies ended up in, and more Ruin if the incident convinces him that the only way to protect his allies is to push himself even harder than before.

Ruin Move from The Last: I Carry the Hope of My People

This move was written for The Last, which is why it also worked well for The Doctor. Therefore, allusions to “your people” and “ancestral memory” in the flavor text should be revised to better reflect All Might’s status as the Symbol of Peace. With that in mind, All Might may choose to change his form either temporarily or permanently to gain a power of darkness from another playbook, albeit at the cost of Ruin. To keep things closer to the lore of My Hero Academia, this could represent him drawing on the power of a previous wielder of One for All.

Mark Permanent Conditions

When you permanently mark a Condition, you:

• Become more prone to hitting your Breaking Point

• Get Darkness Tokens more easily, which increases the odds of disastrous successes and of triggering the suboptimal move Torn Between

• Establish a permanent emotional vulnerability for your Omen

In the case of All Might, the two Conditions that make the most sense are Raging and Obsessed. The former represents his anger, and the latter represents his preoccupation with All For One’s machinations.

Gain Ruin Conditions

The following is the list of permanently marked Ruin Conditions you can add to your playbook:

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

Though this doesn’t affect how liable your character is to hit their Breaking Point, it does increase the flow of Darkness Tokens. While Darkness Tokens can be used to increase the odds of rolling a success, they also increase the odds of disastrous success, and having too many Darkness Tokens can trigger the mechanically punishing move Torn Between.

When it comes to All Might, some good options are Reckless, Paranoid, Haunted, Guilty, and Fragile. Of those, I would pick Fragile to represent his insecurities about his reduced power, plus Reckless to go with his tendency to rush into danger regardless.

Becoming a Harbinger

If All Might transforms into a Harbinger of the Apocalypse, you can’t keep playing him. He becomes an NPC under your Keeper’s control, and will likely be an enemy your team must face. It is possible to retire All Might before taking this final Ruin Advance, but not after it has already been unlocked.

Sequence of Ruin Advances

Taking all nine Ruin Advances will necessarily involve significant deviations from My Hero Academia canon. With that in mind, the following order presents a relatively logical progression for All Might’s transformation into a Harbinger:

1. Ruin Move: Tremble Before Me
2. Ruin Move from The Shade: Death Broke Me First
3. Ruin Condition: Fragile
4. Ruin Condition: Reckless
5. Permanent Condition: Raging
6. Permanent Condition: Obsessed
7. Ruin Move from The Last: I Carry the Hope of My People
8. Ruin Move: I Will Rise Again
9. Retire Your Character and Become a Harbinger of the Apocalypse*

Throughout his career, All Might built up a fearsome reputation, and Tremble Before Me reflects the weight of his words. His influence holds true even as his power becomes increasingly illusory. However, because Death Broke Me First via his traumatic injury, All Might becomes more able to support teammates at their limit. Meanwhile, he grapples with both his reduced ability to help people and the increasing difficulty of living a lie, so even as he feels increasingly Fragile, he nevertheless pursues heroism to an often Reckless degree.

Due to All For One becoming increasingly active, All Might becomes more prone to Rage and Obsession. Pushing past his limits, he finally discovers he can tap into the Quirks of previous wielders of One for All. Unfortunately, this only leads to All Might further sacrificing his own wellbeing, and perhaps even his morals, in the quest to protect the peace from the resurgence of the villain All For One. Both All Might and All For One work to build their power, their clandestine plots leading the world closer and closer to chaos via I Will Rise Again. Then, either due to his preparations or because he has been crushed beneath the weight of his own ideals, All Might gives up on being a hero. He decides to bring order to the world by force, coming into his own as a Harbinger of the Apocalypse*.

*You can retire All Might at any time prior to hitting this Ruin Advance, whether to avoid significant departures from canon or to prevent him from becoming a Harbinger.

Playbook Advances

Ruin isn’t the only thing you accrue while playing Apocalypse Keys: you can also earn experience points (XP). Once you get 8 XP, you unlock a new ability called an Advance. Here are the nine options:

• Take a new move from your playbook (2X): choose an additional move from The Fallen.
• Take a new DIVISION move (2X): gain another move from the DIVISION list.
• Take a move from another playbook (2X): select a move from a playbook other than The Fallen.
• Describe a new way to gain Darkness Tokens: set another roleplaying trigger for getting Darkness Tokens.
• Take a new power of darkness from your playbook: access another power of darkness available to The Fallen.
• Change your playbook: Switch out The Fallen’s moves and abilities for that of another playbook.

To best reflect All Might’s abilities and growth in My Hero Academia, here are the Advances I recommend.

Take a New Move from Your Playbook

All Might depends on deception to maintain his façade, which makes The Lies That Serve Me a useful option. That reputation also earned him both followers and enemies, which can be represented by You Loved Me Once.

Playbook move 1: The Lies That Serve Me

This move ordinarily represents reshaping reality via lies, but in the case of All Might, he instead relies on people’s reluctance to doubt the #1 Hero. When he wants to cover up a secret, All Might may declare how he redirects people’s attention away from it, then roll to determine success or failure. Success lets him determine how effective the lie is, as does disastrous success—though the latter also introduces complications. On a failure, his ruse spirals out of control.

Playbook move 2: You Loved Me Once

Keeping in mind that “worship” must be interpreted metaphorically with regards to All Might, this move lets All Might declare that an NPC or faction that has just been introduced were once his allies, supporters, or fans. He then rolls, and if he succeeds, he may choose appropriate mechanical benefits—even if the success is of the disastrous variety. On a failure, the NPC or faction now works for All For One, who uses the meeting to his advantage.

Take a new DIVISION move

While these moves ordinarily represent the vast resources available to the shadowy organization, some DIVISION moves are good matches for resources and allies All Might can call upon. Two such moves are The Hero’s Weapon and Psychic Invokers.

DIVISION move 1: The Hero’s Weapon

This move, which I also recommended for Kirby and Optimus Prime, deals heavily with themes of legacy. To make it work for All Might, we’ll rename it The Seventh Wielder after Nana Shimura, the hero from whom All Might inherited his Quirk. Therefore, whenever All Might uses his Quirk to protect someone, he can choose to describe a flashback with his mentor, to explain how he embodies or contradicts her legacy, or to declare how his intentions have been corrupted by What the Darkness Demands of Him. He receives mechanical benefits according to his choice.

DIVISION move 2: Psychic Invokers

Much like with the build for Anya Forger, this move represents the capabilities of an ally: in All Might’s case, Sir Nighteye. However, Nighteye isn’t a telepath, so instead of All Might choosing his level of psychic vulnerability, he chooses how difficult it will be to alter Nighteye’s prediction on a scale from 1 to 3. With a bit of reflavoring, success represents a favorable vision, disastrous success represents difficult and dangerous truths, and failure represents a portent of doom.

Take a Move from Another Playbook

As a being of immense power who is grounded by his relationships with his pupil, All Might can benefit from The Surge’s move My Little Monster. As for what happens when All Might’s true form is revealed, a good option is Reshaped by Despair from The Last.

From The Surge: My Little Monster

This move usually represents someone being twisted by The Surge’s uncontrollable power, but remaining a steadfast ally nonetheless. We’ll be renaming it to My Heroic Successor to represent how All Might passed his Quirk onto Izuku Midoriya, better known as the hero Deku. When All Might takes this Quirk, he chooses three basic moves and gets a +1 bonus whenever Deku can help him with them. Considering their relationship, I recommend:

• Unleash the Dark: Deku will readily provide backup to All Might in any conflict, whether it’s a physical clash or a battle of wills.

• Grasp Keys: Whether he’s supposed to or not, Deku enthusiastically investigates the schemes of villains such as All For One.

• Unlock Doom’s Door: Once the clues have been gathered, Deku uses his analytical thinking to help All Might connect the dots.

However, this move is not without downsides. All Might marks Ruin whenever he hurts or betrays Deku. Furthermore, this move includes the option to destroy Deku, which we will interpret as All Might crushing Deku’s ability to be a hero.

From The Last: Reshaped by Despair

This move is written with the intention of The Last revealing an inhuman form that is equal parts devastating and beautiful. To better fit All Might, this move triggers when he chooses to Unleash the Dark despite showing clear evidence of his injuries. The weakness on display means onlookers are moved not to hope, but to despair. Nevertheless, All Might chooses an additional mechanical benefit even in the event of a failure.

Describe a New Way to Get Darkness Tokens

Because Darkness Tokens are connected to What the Darkness Demands of You, they are typically gained through expressing your inner darkness. Therefore, a good trigger for All Might to gain Darkness Tokens is to “rely only on my own strength, even if it means sacrificing my wellbeing.”

Take a New Power of Darkness

Of the remaining powers of darkness available to The Fallen, the best fit for All Might is Fear Manipulation, in the form of the ease with which he intimidates criminals and villains—along with how he dispels the fears of those he helps.

Change Your Playbook

There are actually two possible playbooks that would fit All Might. Before he lost his powers, The Summoned would have been the best fit, particularly given a certain prophecy of All Might’s gruesome death. Afterward, The Shade becomes a better fit given how narrowly he escaped death, and also reflects how All Might shifts from the front lines to the side lines. Therefore, it makes more sense to switch from The Fallen to The Shade.

Sequence of Playbook Advances

To best reflect the character arc of All Might in My Hero Academia, the following is the best order to take the recommended Advances:

1. DIVISION move: The Hero’s Weapon
2. New Power of Darkness: Fear Manipulation
3. DIVISION Move: Psychic Invokers
4. New Way to Get Darkness Tokens: Rely Only on My Own Strength, Sacrificing My Wellbeing
5. Playbook Move: The Lies That Serve Me
6. Playbook Move: You Loved Me Once
7. Move from The Surge: My Little Monster
8. Move from The Last: Reshaped by Despair
9. Change Your Playbook: The Shade

All Might’s journey to become the #1 Hero and the Symbol of Peace began when his mentor decided to bestow One for All on a Quirkless idealist. In the wake of her tragic death, his memories of her continue to shape his pursuit of those ideals via The Hero’s Weapon. As he built his reputation, All Might earned both the hope of civilians and the fear and respect of the criminal underworld, unlocking Fear Manipulation as a power of darkness.

Yet even in his prime, there were signs of what was to come. Though he benefited from Sir Nighteye’s visions—represented by Psychic Invokers—one such vision involved All Might’s gruesome death. Instead of heeding the warning, All Might persisted, determined to sacrifice even his life if he could protect the world with his own strength. This tendency toward self-sacrifice represents a new way to get Darkness Tokens, which is perhaps what gave him the power to survive such terrible injuries. Either way, he increasingly relied on deception to maintain the illusion of the Symbol of Peace, via the moves The Lies That Serve Me. Similarly, he often invoked his reputation to avert costly conflicts, letting him benefit from You Loved Me Once.

Then, just as All Might was scouting potential successors, a twist of fate led him to Izuku Midoriya. Just as his mentor before him did, All Might chose a Quirkless idealist to inherit his power in the form of My Little Monster. This choice, however, only accelerated the decline of All Might’s strength. He became unable to hide his injury from the world, but continued fighting anyway using the move Reshaped by Despair. In the end, however, his power left him. Combined with his near-death experience and the prophesied doom hanging over his head, All Might switches playbooks to The Shade, becoming more of an investigator than a fighter.

Congratulations, You've Built All Might!

Thanks for reading my thoughts on how someone as unambiguously heroic as All Might still qualifies as an Omen-class monster. As always, please reach out if you try this build in your own games, or if you have opinions about better ways to build All Might in this system. And if you’d like to learn more about the other Apocalypse Keys playbooks, check out the entries for The Shade, The Found, The Surge, The Last, The Hungry, and The Summoned.

The Doomsday Clock has counted down to zero. Next Friday, tune in for the March 14th release of my horror comedy Apocalypse Keys mystery “Sweet Dreams”!

Update: “Sweet Dreams” is now available on Itch, DriveThruRPG, and in the site shop! Check it out, and remember to rate and review.

Return to the beginning of the article

Glossary

Advance: traits and abilities that are unlocked by accumulating Ruin or experience points (XP). Both are typically gained through roleplaying, via select moves, and through answering end-of-session questions. Ruin unlocks Ruin Advances which brings characters closer to becoming Harbingers, while XP unlocks neutral Advances.

 

Bonds: An in-game resource representing emotional connections that is most often used to modify the result of a roll after rolling.

 

Breaking Point: A dramatic, thematically appropriate, and consequential breakdown that Omens have once they mark all available Conditions.

 

Condition: An emotional state resulting from high pressure situations that serves as a narrative alternative to tracking damage, health, or hit points.

 

Darkness Tokens: A currency for dice manipulation that players typically get by roleplaying emotions and actions that reveal their inner darkness. Though they increase the odds of success, they also make disastrous success more likely, and having too many triggers the emotionally charged move Torn Between.

 

Disastrous Success: Rolling above a certain threshold introduces complications and consequences for victory, and often represents Omens letting their inner darkness have too much sway over them. This is called a disastrous success.

 

DIVISION: An organization with ancient roots that uses its connections and vast resources to provide Omens with the best possible chances of preventing the apocalypse.

 

Experience Points (XP): A game currency gained through select moves, introspection, and roleplaying which unlocks new abilities. It takes 8 XP to earn an Advance.

 

Harbinger of the Apocalypse: Someone who has the goal of ending or reshaping the world, the power to follow through, and a plan to achieve it.

 

Keeper: The person who runs sessions of Apocalypse Keys.

 

Key: The term for clues in Apocalypse Keys, which range from tangible to esoteric. Players need a minimum number of Keys to solve each mystery, and form hypotheses based on what Keys they’ve uncovered.

Move: Sets of abilities with clearly defined applications and results. Basic moves are available to all Omens, starting moves are specific to each playbook, playbook moves are most easily accessed by someone using that playbook, Ruin moves bring Omens closer to becoming Harbingers, and DIVISION moves are tied to the organization’s capabilities.

 

Mystery: A single story arc in Apocalypse Keys, which typically revolves around uncovering and foiling a Harbinger’s schemes.

Non-Player Character (NPC): A character controlled by the Keeper as opposed to one of the players. Harbingers are one type of NPC, but so are allies, contacts, suspects, and anyone else the players encounter in the course of a mystery.

 

Omen-Class Monster: All player characters are Omen-class monsters, or Omens for short. Omens are entities with the power to destroy the world, but who have chosen to work towards saving the world instead.

 

Playbook: A thematically unified set of prompts, traits, and moves used to build Omens in Apocalypse Keys. There are seven different playbooks in the base game.

 

Power of Darkness: An ability Omens always have access to, which they may use for trivial purposes or in conjunction with a move.

 

Ruin: The currency of becoming a Harbinger of the Apocalypse. Gaining 5 Ruin unlocks a Ruin Advance.

 

Ruin Advance: Upon gaining 5 Ruin on their Ruin track, Omens unlock new traits, powers, or abilities that bring them closer to becoming Harbingers. Each Ruin Advance is accompanied by a cutscene of the Omen as a future Harbinger, and the ninth Ruin Advance transforms them into a Harbinger.

What the Darkness Demands of You?: A prompt all Omens have that indicates what their inner darkness pushes them toward, hinting at the Harbinger they could someday become.