31 Days Character Creation Challenge Day 13: The Secret Glory


Day thirteen, and you get six characters! They're made with The Secret Glory, which is sort of a head-on collision between Mörk Borg and genteel Anglo/American horror. 

Here's an 'adventuring party' of pompous twonks from Foxgourd University. They may owe more to Edward Gorey and Roald Dahl than M.R. James or H.P.L. 

A note on the stats:
Geography refers to the local environment: e.g. spotting hidden things. Communication covers deception, reassurance, persuasion, et al. Academia regards recall of facts and theory, use of libraries, and so on. Technical means mechanical expertise, scientific specificity, &c. 



Rochester Quaile, College Groundskeeper
Geography -2 Communication 2
Academia  0 Technical 3
Health: 4

Rochester is a friendly man, provided you don't ask him to do anything. He sees himself like a local god, fixing things in his own time. He will tell even professors off for their shoddy grammar and poor enunciation. 

Gear
Polished pistol (d6) 
Loyal but vicious terrier (Falstaff)




Biran Danderlund, Registrar’s Clerk
Geography 1 Communication 4
Academia -3 Technical 0
Health: 2

Spend more than a couple of minutes in Biran's company, an you'll be offered a cigarette, and regaled with the shortcomings of his breakfast. Eggs having too much yolk, porridge having the wrong consistency, or subpar beans. Maybe he does it to drown out the baleful drone of demoniac insects which always seems to follow him.

Gear
sharp-filed nails (d4),
constant hum of insects


Enwira DeLunaa, Librarian (audiological department) 
Geography 1 Communication -2
Academia 5 Technical -2
Health: 1

Enwira is one of six librarians in charge of the Quinsy & Grippe Library's collection of phonographic records and wax cylinders. She keeps a meticulous record of the visitors' bad habits, and is not above outing and shaming a nose-picker or pig-squinter in painstakingly hand-written flyers distributed in he dead of night all over the university. 

Gear
gramophone needle (d4),
lacquer box
felt runner


Fyodor Svine, Proctor Brutalis
Geography -3 Communication 1
Academia 0 Technical 3
Health: 4

A Proctor Brutalis is an officer of the peace, with license to carry the most modern of firearms. Fyodor handles his Thompson gun with almost insulting carelessness. He spends most of his time honing his wit by telling practice jokes to anyone who will listen. He will then dissect the joke, assessing its strong and weak points. All out loud.

Gear
tommy-gun (d8), 
phony gems, 
hip flask

Philandra Wattel, Cold Water Assessor
Geography 3 Communication -2
Academia 1 Technical -1
Health: 4

Philandra's job is to assess the student body's health, primarily by ordering cold baths for random students to test "resiliency, blood flow and proper bearing in the face of discomfort". 
It is axiomatic to Philandra that she has no enemies, and consequently treats everybody like they're an old chum.  The rage lurks just underneath every jovial gesture. 

Gear
letter opener (d6),
Sotheby’s brochure, 
rage


Screaton Phipps-Loudoun, Acting Vice-Head of Abaddon College
Geography -1 Communication -4
Academia 3 Technical 3
Health: 2

Screaton has just been appointed acting vice-head of the college, and he's letting everybody feel it. He particularly likes to hear about people's dreams, and then criticize their implausibility, frivolity and lack of imagination. It doesn't matter if it's life ambitions or the kind you have when you sleep.

If only the position could be made permanent... 
 
Gear
confiscated rifle (d8),
legal pad, 
hip flask





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Last Days of Kranium Kastle

Image
This is a hack of TROIKA! (and Fighting Fantasy in general). You play the part of a creature serving an evil overlord. The war against the Forces of good isn’t going as planned, and it may be time for some hard decisions. Do you stay and fight or desert? Do you try to switch sides (as if the Forces of Good would ever trust or shelter you)? Or do you maybe have some crazy scheme which might turn the tide in your favor, and visit doom upon the armies of elves, dwarves, humans and warrior angels. This hack is inspired by Fighting Fantasy books (particularly The Warlock of Firetop Mountain , Citadel of Chaos , Phantoms of Fear and Creature of Havoc ). Thanks to Eric Nieudan for letting me borrow his crowblins! It's all literal with these guys CREATING A CHARACTER Roll for SKILL, STAMINA and LUCK as described in TROIKA! Roll d3+3 to determine Skill Roll 2d6+12 to determine Stamina Roll d6+6 to determine Luck Roll d66 on the Background Table and record th
Read more

Oh B.R.O.T.H.E.R.

Image
  The Agents from B.R.O.T.H.E.R.  B.R.O.T.H.E.R. (Bureau for Research on Occult Threats Harming or Endangering Reality) is a secret international institution with offices all over the world. Their purview is to investigate and understand all that is unearthly, esoteric and dismissed by the mainstream of science. Should a phenomenon prove dangerous, it is to be neutralized. Even its agents are unclear on who exactly it is they work for. Three main theories exist B.R.O.T.H.E.R. is an agency under the aegis of the United Nations. Due to the extremely sensitive nature of its purview, it is kept secret even from the member nations.  B.R.O.T.H.E.R. is the modern incarnation of the Brotherhood of Thoth-Hermes, a Hermetic society dedicated to breaking down any opposition between science and esoteric philosophy. According to this narrative, everybody and their mother was secretly an initiate (Benjamin Franklin, Sir Isaac Newton, Hildegard of Bingen, Abramelin the Mage etc. etc.) B.R.O.T.H.E.R.
Read more

Teen Cthulhu

Image
I have tried to make a hack of Call of Cthulhu which lets you play teenagers in the 1990s, heavily inspired by Things From the Flood. It owes a good deal to Pulp Cthulhu as well, and uses some of the Pulp Talents and Luck rules. How to roll up a teen. STRength 1D6+8 x 5 CONstitution 1D6+8 x 5 SIZe 1D6+8 x 5 INTelligence 1D6+8 x 5 APPearance 1D6+8 x 5 POWer 1D6+8 x 5 EDUcation 1D6+8 x 5 Choose one of these as your Prime Attribute and that one is rolled 1D6+12. LUCK 2D6+6 x 5 Luck works the same way as it does in Pulp Cthulhu. The same goes for derived characteristics. Then choose a role. The role determines your ‘occupational’ skills as well as the Pulp Talents available to you. Note that none of them are combat talents. While kids can and do fight, they’re not generally all that good at it. (New Pulp Talents are marked with an asterisk). C redit Rating isn’t a suggestion here, it’s what your teen gets. You don’t have t
Read more