Wow, I took a look at the Pdf and I'm even more excited. You know why? I looked right on the front, and it said Kevin Wilson was a writer of this. Guess what else he worked on? 7th Sea. The minions/henchmen/masterminds, and the action dice are direct adaptations from 7th sea. Plus I'm fairly familiar with the basic structure from CoC. I'm going to pick this up easier than I thought.
(Edited by Threadbare at 4:40 pm on Mar. 29, 2002)
Looking at the other members of the team, it looks like the social engineer is already taken. I think I'll take a Power Brokerage-Snoop. The nationality I'm not sure of, but he's got style in hats. Let's make him American, with a smile on his face and a fedora on his head. Harry "the Hat" O'Reilly. I'm confused about the feats. What do we get from class? Do we have to decide on a class? Is it that we get the class feats, the department feat, and one general?
I'd also have a couple gadget ideas I'm not sure of. For instance, a hat I can use as a weapon, or to hold or integrate nifty functions. How about a gun-concealing rig you use with your crotch, that also holds your junk in place during more athletic manuvers, and probably allows a bit of protection from low blows? Also, what's the concealability of some of these weapons? I'm looking at a .40 S&W, and a 9mm, particularly.
/me is of the opinion that the fedora is the uber-1337-pimpest hat ever.
I used to have a damn nice one from the Indiana Jones merchandising place at Disneyland, but I left it at the opera. *sigh* Serves me right for being eccentric enough to go to the opera.
I'm thinking of getting the weapon finesse for the switchblade (shisssk!) and I'm confused about this attack bonus thing. Does that use Finesse or Strength, in what ways? Cause, if it's finesse, I'm good. If not, can we claim GM ignorance. I'm trying to have at least one skill useful in a close-in fight.
Right now I'm wearing a well-made straw/wick (whatever, it's white and light) fedora. It's nice that even when it's hot, I can look good.
Special Abilities:
Astute: Whenever the snoop spends an action die to add to an Intelligence-based skill check, two dice are added instead of one (i.e. 1d4 becomes 2d4).
Flawless Search: When rolling a Search or Spot check to find clues or other important information, the snoop may never completely fail unless he rolls an error. Even when an error is rolled, the GC must spend 2 action dice to activate a critical failure (see page 20). The snoop normally finds at least one clue, or a vague piece of information — if either exists to be found.
Budget:
Weapons: .40 S&W
Armor: none. Harry firmly believes that if people are shooting at you, you've already screwed up. He does, however, have an Armored briefcase as part of his Gadgets, I'm fairly sure.
Other Gear:Binoculars, Cell Phone, Micro Tape Recorder, Laptop w/ 2 upgrade (+3 power), Stimulant Shot, Audio Bug, Headset radio, Silencer, Professional camera, chemical analyzer
Harry "The Hat" O'Reilly didn't come from a backround of super-rich tycoons, nor did he spring from a cutthroat ghetto. He was just a smart guy from middle-class Philadelphia. He didn't even attract the slightest bit of attention in the intelligence community until the summer before began his Senior Year at Temple. Having served a political internship the year before and some travel before that, he now took an internship at the CIA. He found himself remarkably talented with spook work, mostly foisted on him by lazy professionals claiming it was "on the job training". After he finished, he was flagged as a "possible recruit" and shelved for later.
Coming out of college with a degree in Political Science and a lot of Student Loans, Harry managed to use his connections from internships and got himself a job in the office of Representative (later Senator, thanks in no small part to Harry's efforts) Patrick Finnigan(D-Pennsylvania). He became the Representative's in-house information processor, finding all the undergoing machinations on the Hill, and the weaknesses of potential enemies (not hard, since as Harry says "Everyone has a weakness.").
You've probably seen the "leaked" photos of Finnigan's opponents in the Senate race a few years ago either en flagrante delictico (sic) or meeting with shady members of certain lobbies, official or no. Most of that was Harry. Soon enough, the kid in the fedora found his way, somewhat circuitously, to the recruiting office of The Agency. His political backround made him perfect for the Power Brokerage, snoop though he may be.
With a sharp mind and classic style, Harry is well aware of the human side to obtaining information. He's a big fan of Frank Sinatra, and the 30s-60s style he lived in. He can passibly sing, most of the time. Harry is familiar with jazz and boogie-woogie piano, and can tool around with it well enough to be entertaining. He can also be found tinkering on his laptop, just messing with sound files; he's become more interested in techno recently, and has a suite of music-editing software (like Cakewalk or something more advanced). It sort of forms a modern counterpoint to his normal diet of Martini-music.
A guy who takes his work seriously but not himself, Harry can usually be found with a smile on his face and a stylish hat(usually at a rakish angle) on his head. He has glasses (black steel rims) but prefers to wear contacts.
Stepping out of dossier-styling, Harry's a smart guy, but his unique style, while likely to gain him action dice, makes him a little more memorable than you want. The good news is, without a hat, you barely recognize him. He's probably going to be sent in to deal with anything blinking and metal, which is why I put points into demolitions. Someone's gotta be able to cut the red wire. I think he's going to tactically find cover when bullets start flying, as he can't really shrug a hit off.
(Edited by Threadbare at 9:17 pm on April 24, 2002)
You don't shrug off hits with this system of wounds/vitality. I've GMed the Star Wars d20 system, which is where the wounds/VP concept was started, and combat can be nasty, especially so if you get a critical, because it'll go right to your wound points. The good news is, most of the time the goons don't even have vitality points (SW d20 treats stormtroopers like the fodder they are), so it's one-two hits maybe and they're down. The way I figure, any of us can maybe take one shot before we're in serious trouble. Add in the capability of so many weapons to fire multiple shots a round and combat (at least firefights) should be the last thing on our guys' minds. Except for maybe Gavin. :biggrin:
About Weapon Finesse: Dave has ruled for now that the confusion about the "starting feat" everyone gets for 1st level and the "bonus Department feat" are NOT one and the same, so you should be fine with Finesse. I had the same question.
hmm. That means I could get a shoe blade, too. I intend to fight tactically, finding cover, lots of cover, trying to set up fields of fire, that sort of thing.
The thing I was worried about was that a requirement was an attack bonus of +1. I have it when dexterity is in the equation, but not when it's strength.
Quote: from Threadbare on 3:04 pm on April 1, 2002
I'm cool with just playing the guy I put up there. You guys do need someone whose VCR isn't blinking 12:00.
So, are we waiting for benn's answer before we introduce Gavin and The Hat?
(Edited by Threadbare at 8:12 am on April 1, 2002)
Sorry to burst your bubble, but Gavin's nickname isn't holding true with everyone else. You need to think of a bird-related nick. If you can't come up with anything, here's a list that I've been going off.
Gatac's character should have been Parus major then. Well, we need bird codenames, then? How about the Common Nighthawk (Chordeiles minor)? O'Reilly probably enjoys the painting Nighthawks by Edward Hopper, it'll fit.
threadbare
I've GMed the Star Wars d20 system, which is where the wounds/VP concept was started, and combat can be nasty, especially so if you get a critical, because it'll go right to your wound points. The good news is, most of the time the goons don't even have vitality points (SW d20 treats stormtroopers like the fodder they are), so it's one-two hits maybe and they're down. The way I figure, any of us can maybe take one shot before we're in serious trouble. Add in the capability of so many weapons to fire multiple shots a round and combat (at least firefights) should be the last thing on our guys' minds. Except for maybe Gavin. :biggrin:
Dieter
Gatac
