"Knights of the Stony Countenance" -- party design and character creation

Summary:

Crakkerjakk, Icelander, Jeff Murrell, and Paully divide out the necessary areas of professional expertise and plan the mutual contrasts that will distinguish their four characters: a team of ICfJ criminal investigators.

page 1 of 212next »

"Knights of the Stony Countenance" -- party design and character creation

Agemegos 09 Jul 2009 06:45

The starting line-up for Knights of the Stony Countenance is Crakkerjakk, Icelander, Jeff Murrell, and Paully. So far as I know there is no understudy haunting the wings and praying for one of the principals to break a leg. The game will be played in a Skype conference call, once per month on the Friday before the second Saturday, starting at 19:00 Texas time and ending at 23:00 California time. (That is to say: the game schedule will shift compared to UTC as Texas switches from and to daylight saving time.)

The campaign concept is that the four player-characters will be a team of deputy Imperial marshals enforcing the Imperial Crimes Act in some populous and comparatively advanced colony. As the colony is populous the ICfJ contingent will be fairly strong, and the PC team will but one brick in the wall: directly responsible for a bailwick with about 100 million people in it besides sometimes backing up their colleagues, but neither alone on the planet nor free from supervision. As is usual in such circumstances, the characters will be treated as outsiders by the society they work amongst.

Formally speaking, the adventures will be a series of high-tech police procedurals. But as honest Imperial servants in a corrupt colonial societies, able to touch major villains only when they are so imprudent as to commit an Imperial crime rather than some gross but legally local villainy, the characters (and corresponding the tone of the adventures) will have more than a little in common Raymond Chandler's quixotic knights-errant of the mean streets.

Player-characters must of course meet Imperial recruiting standards for personal integrity. But since they do not bear the awful responsibilities of naval officers they don't need to be ruthless philanthropists: a heart of gold is not necessarily a disqualification for a job with the Independent Commission for Justice. It will be very helpful if that master among them a range of criminal investigation skills, but in this campaign (by contrast with the defunct Wear a Badge, Carry a Gun) they do not need to be super-elite veteran experts capable of filling in for lacking support staff. Competent generalist detectives will be fine.

One PC will have to be the team leader, with at least a minimum of experience. Otherwise, characters can be from Imperial or Colonial backgrounds, experienced or green, young and fresh or with a slew of prior careers behind them. A character might be 22 years old and fresh out of the four-year course at an ICfJ academy. Or he or she might have worked as a detective in Tau Ceti until compulsory retirement before volunteering for Imperial Service and done the 16-week quickie course. Or transferred from another Imperial law enforcement agency (Home Office CID, Provost-general's Division etc.)

Bear in mind that player characters are best defined by mutual contrasts. Dirty Harry can only be Dirty Harry while there are reasonable rule-abiding detectives around to act as foils to show his idiosyncrasies into sharp relief. And PCs work far better in that part than NPCs. This is not to say that there ought to be conflicts among the party, but there ought to bedifferences: mutual contrasts and reciprocal foiling.

It is not appropriate to start generating characters just yet. And to prevent you from even trying I am not going to announce a points budget or other crucial constraints. However, when we do generate characters I expect that they will be GURPS characters because ForeSight is not available to three of us.

Last edited on 10 Jul 2009 01:14 by Agemegos Show more

Re: "Knights of the Stony Countenance" -- party design and character creation

Jeff Murrell 09 Jul 2009 12:51

Agemegos

It will be very helpful if that master among them a range of criminal investigation skills, but in this campaign (by contrast with the defunct Wear a Badge, Carry a Gun) they do not need to be super-elite veteran experts capable of filling in for lacking support staff. Competent generalist detectives will be fine.

So we should still have individual areas of expertise but we don't need to cover every possible skill set? We can rely on, say, an NPC MD to do autopsies or department staff for legal opinions.

One PC will have to be the team leader, with at least a minimum of experience.

I am interested in trying the leadership role.

It is not appropriate to start generating characters just yet.

Too late!

Well generating concepts anyway, I haven't cut stats yet. I have three ideas roughed out (not counting the brief notion I had of picking up Dr Mendicott). And much as I liked Bear, by this time he's probably teaching at the academy.

Re: "Knights of the Stony Countenance" -- party design and character creation

Icelander 09 Jul 2009 14:31

How do we feel about Jucão as my character? Tactical expert whose internal contradictions come from his combination of hot-blooded emotion, strong personal faith and consequent Catholic guilt.

Arménio César da Silva ("Jucão"): He is a relatively young man of mixed-ancestry (Hispanic, Black, Caucasian, Pueblo and likely much more) and Roman Catholic faith. Jucão comes from a world torn by internal strife where the criminal subcultures all-but rule certain sections of the huge urban sprawls. The police is often corrupt, the politicians self-serving and the poor people get the worst of it.

Jucão grew up in a middle-class family kept that way by hard work and solid discipline on behalf of his mother. He was smart, but not bookish, but he managed to get enough education to be able to join the gendarmerie as an officer. He was a good cop in a corrupt force, but he found like-minded men in the special reaction units that went into the dangerous parts of the cities.

When Jucão met Seren Meredith, a sophisticated and intelligent woman from the Social Engineering Advisory Service, he infuriated her with his outmoded views, stubborn faith and unpolished manners. Somehow, however, they were married (at his stubborn insistence). His wife proving to own a will fully equal to his own, however, Jucão was forced to resign his Captain's commission after serving 12 years in the paramilitary police forces to follow his wife to her next assignment.

Jucão fell in love with the Empire's efficiency, order and most of all, with its impartial application of laws. In his thirties, he started studying again and this time, his restless temperament didn't keep him from doing well. After taking a degree in Criminology from a respected college, Jucão applied to the DoJ and the day he was confirmed as a new detective was the proudest moment in his life.

The greatest weakness in Jucão's temperament is that he sees the war against crime as a religious crusade. He's hot-tempered and can be rash, but he is governed by a sense of honour that is as strong as his faith. Jucão hates criminals, drug dealers and those who prey on the weak, but he is also ashamed for this hate as he knows it conflicts with his beliefs. In the field, he takes a savage pleasure in punishing the wicked and acting as God's own avenging sword, but when the passion fades, he feels desperate regret and guilt, even if his actions have been in accordance with the rules of engagment.

Re: "Knights of the Stony Countenance" -- party design and character creation

Agemegos 09 Jul 2009 23:11

Jeff Murrell:

Too late!
Well generating concepts anyway, I haven't cut stats yet

It is cutting stats at this point that I forbid with hat-like growls. I want concepts discussed and contrasts agreed before points are set in stone. (Or whatever it is that players' fixed ideas get set in. Stone seems likely.)

To that end I will not announce character generation standards (point budgets, expected skill levels) until I am happy that it is done.

Last edited on 09 Jul 2009 23:18 by Agemegos Show more

Re: "Knights of the Stony Countenance" -- party design and character creation

Agemegos 09 Jul 2009 23:25

Icelander:

How do we feel about Jucão as my character?

He sounds like fun, provided of course that other players are keen to play foils to his various salient characteristics: patient to his impetuous, prudent to his rash, stolid to his hot-tempered, calculating to his passionate, clinical to his crusading, rehabilitiative to his punitive, detached to his guilt-ridden.

I'll post later about Catholicism, religious separatist and religious utopist colonies, and religion in Flat Black. Right now I have to go and buy a jar of cherries.

Re: "Knights of the Stony Countenance" -- party design and character creation

Icelander 10 Jul 2009 00:51

He sounds like fun, provided of course that other players are keen to play foils to his various salient characteristics: patient to his impetuous, prudent to his rash, stolid to his hot-tempered, calculating to his passionate, clinical to his crusading, rehabilitiative to his punitive, detached to his guilt-ridden.

Provided that they are, of course. If not, I'm sure I can adapt.

Jeff, how are you going concept-wise? What are your salient characteristics? What do we need to provide contrast to, how do we complement you and what role will you fill in our merry band of Quixotic-crusaders of the mean streets?

You're going for a leader role, but what kind of leader? With what skill set? How is his/her motivation? What's s/he like?

I'll post later about Catholicism, religious separatist and religious utopist colonies, and religion in Flat Black. Right now I have to go and buy a jar of cherries.

His religion is a very large part of his identity, but that could be a personal/family thing. I mean, there are probably still practising Catholics on many colonies, even ones not explicitly established as religious utopias.

The important parts is the urban sprawl, favelas and a near-fatal breakdown of civil order. Not a civil war, but a city where criminals rule some neighbourhoods unchecked and the police will not enter them except in force and carrying heavy weaponry.

Re: "Knights of the Stony Countenance" -- party design and character creation

Agemegos 10 Jul 2009 01:38

Jeff Murrell:

So we should still have individual areas of expertise but we don't need to cover every possible skill set? We can rely on, say, an NPC MD to do autopsies or department staff for legal opinions.

That's right. The characters are detectives, and it is both plausible and dramatically desirable that they should have complementary approaches to busting crime. But in this campaign (unlike Wear a Badge, Carry a Gun) it is both unnecessary and not particularly plausible that they be first-rate experts at specialist support professions. On the other hand the ICfJ will have a considerable presence on planet: perhaps over a thousand detectives plus support staff (if I go ahead with the idea of setting the campaign on New Earth or Tau Ceti). The PCs' bailiwick is likely to be 0.5% of a planet, less than a thousand kilometres in radius, so it will be feasible to plunk a district office in the middle and base a few ancillary specialists within an hour's leisurely flight time.

Re: "Knights of the Stony Countenance" -- party design and character creation

Agemegos 10 Jul 2009 02:21

Icelander:

His religion is a very large part of his identity, but that could be a personal/family thing. I mean, there are probably still practising Catholics on many colonies, even ones not explicitly established as religious utopias.

Well, yes. Paraíso entre les Estrellas do Sur (Paradise I) was founded from South America early in the 22nd century, and probably picked up a lot of people who were at least culturally folk-Catholic. But bear in mind the pope and the college of cardinals being blown up in 2385. Catholicism will certainly change, even on such colonies as do have a bishop or apostolic delegate with appropriate special faculties: and of those, I have established only San Pietro (definitely unsuitable) and New Rome.

The important parts is the urban sprawl, favelas and a near-fatal breakdown of civil order. Not a civil war, but a city where criminals rule some neighbourhoods unchecked and the police will not enter them except in force and carrying heavy weaponry.

Yeah. That sort of thing is perfectly appropriate for a colony in Flat Black, and New Rome (salubrity 39%, population 1.25 billion, GURPS TL7) is a plausible place enough for it.

However, in linking such features to endemic Catholicism there is some danger that you end up not with a plausible future society but an obvious allegory for Brazil. I prefer that colonies in Flat Black show conspicuous cultural change. There are situations in Flat Black the have parallels to modern Brazil because human nature is still the same, but when cultures have Portuguese naming conventions, Catholic religion, and Brazilian favelas I wonder whether and why I ever left Earth.

Under social conditions similar to what makes Braxzil and Mexico what they are, might Lutherans or Tibetan Buddhists find themslves in favelas? Is Jucão possible as a Vaishnavite or Seligmanite?

Re: "Knights of the Stony Countenance" -- party design and character creation

Icelander 10 Jul 2009 02:41

However, in linking such features to endemic Catholicism there is some danger that you end up not with a plausible future society but an obvious allegory for Brazil. I prefer that colonies in Flat Black show conspicuous cultural change. There are situations in Flat Black the have parallels to modern Brazil because human nature is still the same, but when cultures have Portuguese naming conventions, Catholic religion, and Brazilian favelas I wonder whether and why I ever left Earth.

Very true and definitely a concern. OTOH, the culture of the colony doesn't need to be as Brazilian as Jucão. He's descended from a Catholic family from Brazil, yes, but the rest of the colony might well have all sorts of other influences.

If necessary, I can change the name and linguistic pecularities to something else, though. The Catholic religion and the background of very violent crime and corrupt police (except for his special reaction force, which is brutally in opposition instead of complicitly corrupt) are what is important for the concept. The Brazilian name is just because I wanted to portray someone from a different culture than vaguely Anglo-Saxon, which describes pretty much all sci-fi and fantasy characters I've played.

Under social conditions similar to what makes Braxzil and Mexico what they are, might Lutherans or Tibetan Buddhists find themslves in favelas? Is Jucão possible as a Vaishnavite or Seligmanite?

Eh, I really think that the Catholic religion in particular fits the character. As a nominal Lutheran, I don't find the faith nearly passionate or ritualistic enough for interesting pathos. I know what Vaishhnavites are, but I'm coming up blank on Seligmanites. Unless they're connected to Adam B. Seligman, an author on religion and a professor at, I think, Boston U.

In any event, I'd rather scrap the ethnicity than the Catholicism if we're concerned about avoiding a direct pastiche of Brazil.

Last edited on 10 Jul 2009 02:54 by Icelander Show more

Re: "Knights of the Stony Countenance" -- party design and character creation

Jeff Murrell 10 Jul 2009 04:00

Icelander

Jeff, how are you going concept-wise? What are your salient characteristics? What do we need to provide contrast to, how do we complement you and what role will you fill in our merry band of Quixotic-crusaders of the mean streets?

You're going for a leader role, but what kind of leader? With what skill set? How is his/her motivation? What's s/he like?

Since you are going with Jucão, I can rule out Rabbi Moshe ben-Levi, two adherents of archaic faiths on the same team snaps my disbelief suspenders. And if we are on New Earth or Tau Ceti, Absalom Caine, rugged frontiersman and hunter of men doesn't fit, and besides he's too much a rural reflection of Jucão.

Which leaves Csilla Erdélyi. She is farmed fur and possesses a glorious mink coat that is only seen on the yearly occasion when she is ordered to take a vacation. She graduated from the Academy at 22 (maybe in the first four year class) full of zeal and determined to bring truth and justice to the colonies. Shocked that colonial governments were more corrupt and oppressive than she had heard, that youthful zeal is now hidden by a thick crust of cynicism.

She is probably the crime scene/forensics specialist. She brings a scientific, intellectual, 'solve-the-puzzle' approach, to her the Truth is real and concrete and it is her duty and her drive to find it. She lacks any killer instinct and tactical ops are her weak point.

As a leader she is direct but hands-off. "Here is your job, now go do it. I have your back, but I am not going to hold your hand."

There's a start anyway, talk to everyone later.

Jeff

page 1 of 212next »