Technically, my concept is for a Were-form now though I did initially mention Lycanthrope. I bring it up only because they're different in Dresden.
I've spent the past day refining my ideas a bit, and I've settled on a pure mortal: Dante Bruso, a small time crook originally out of New York.
Backstory’s still a work in progress, but this is what I have so far:
Not long later (and after cleaning up – drugs are expensive if you’re the one paying), Dante figured out that there were a lot of holes in security systems – ones he could take advantage of. It didn’t take long for Dante to become part of a crew, people that could be trusted to cover your back.
The crew was hired to knock off Dragon Treasure Antiques, rumored to have a particular jade statue the client was in the market for. The job went off without a hitch, netting the crew a hefty sum from the client in addition to other pawned knickknacks, which presented themselves as crimes of opportunity.
It wasn't long after that members of the crew started dying; first Leon fell through a manhole after the cover shattered. Next was Sawyer was hit in the head by a nail-gun at a construction site half a block away. After a near miss with a falling car door while under an overpass, Dante and the remaining members of the gang tried to figure out what was going on - how and why the crew was being murdered (and attempted murdered) off in completely improbable manners. After scouring the internet and the few books remaining to be pawned Dante came across something called an entropy curse. While it seemed a bit far-fetched hiring someone to remove it didn’t seem like such a bad idea considering what had happened so far. After paying an indecent sum of money to have the “curse” removed (and feeling like a literal weight was lifted from his shoulders), Dante tried to convince the remaining two members of the gang to do the same. Sam and Johnny were (somewhat ironically) crushed to death by a falling piano while walking away from Dante.
As there was nothing left in the City for him (other than a couple unsolved cases), a change of scenery was in order. After talking with some contacts, Dante settled on Vancouver – home of one of the highest property crime rates, a good number of contacts of Dante’s, and a supernatural underground. After all, a job’s a job and not knowing enough about the supernatural almost got him killed.
Aspects:
High –
Trouble – Small Time Crook, Big Time Mouth
To give a bit more definition to my shapeshifter, I see him with the potential to gone one of two different ways: both start out as a disturbed kid. He can do things he doesn't understand, and people don't believe are possible, and finds that he can't relate to anyone. He has a background full of questions and no one who can answer them, and has only the care of well meaning, but inadequate grandparents to aid him. He grows up fast, running away as often as not, and getting into trouble throughout his teens.
In the first path he follows this course, his abilities making him good at a very wide range of tasks, be it breaking and entering, making deliveries, or finding things out getting into places unseen. His talents start to make him a name and he starts getting sent on other jobs, like sending messages. The violent kind. He proves so good at this too that he starts getting sent after people that no one else seems to be able to handle; people who do things and survive things a human being shouldn't be able to. The whole world begins to open up to him and he starts to understand a bit of what he may be. A few arrogant mistakes land him in jail, and only his abilities allow him to escape. Now, in hiding, he needs to use his abilities full time to avoid detection, but still needs to drop his real name from time to time to find out any more clues about his true beginnings.
In the second, he finds someone who is able to set him straight, and give him a reason to start respecting right and wrong, and a desire to find out the truth about his origins. He becomes disciplined, and puts his skills to use as a cop. His strong desire to understand himself leads him into the Special Investigations unit, a group tasked with dealing with unusual and unexplained cases.
In many ways the first option seems more natural to the character as he's unfolded, though the second one could easily work. I see the criminal version somewhere between Richard Riddick in Pitch Black and 47 of the Hitman games, with a bit of Marv in Sin City thrown in: he's intelligent, ruthless, terrifying, but generally a decent guy, as far as criminals go - just don't give him a reason to dislike you. The cop version is more disciplined, professional, but still very goal oriented.
So to add a little more...
I see the major thing I'm going to have to be careful of is making sure that the character doesn't become Dexter or Batman.
I was going to call my guy Jack (a subtle reference to Jack of the Lantern), but given we have a Jack am still looking for a good name. Modern horror names like Jason and Freddie seem a bit cliched (though Detective Jason Fredrikson does have an appeal). Given some serious googling, I'm thinking Feathertop is appropriate (fictional scarecrow bought to life who sees what he is in a mirror and kills himself) but the name sounds a little silly. So for now I might use a variant of Jack (Jake) and go with that.
Some of the things I'd like to include (but can drop if they don't match up with city creation). Potentially these could become aspects.
* Fetches use mirrors a LOT for trips through the never never. I'd like Jake to not see the reflection in mirrors, but instead see that part of the nevernever that fetches live in. Basically anytime he looks in a mirror he sees a black space with a monster looking back at him. As a fetch-changeling he has the ability to open gateways through mirrors, but regards the idea as absolutely crazy ("You want to go to monster-land?")
* Fetches tend towards the supernatural recovery, with a cold iron catch. I'd like Jake to have been a cop for a long time - twenty years for example - and get complimented on what good shape he's in for an older man. "Just had his 40th birthday party and he looks like its his 21st!". Has actually started using some cosmetics to try to look a little older. He doesn't know why he seems to have stopped aging, but it scares him.
* His birth mother was found hiding in a dumpster (ie surrounded by cold iron), nursing him, bleeding out and insane. Refused to give him up until the cop who found her promised to look after him. Cop didn't intend anything by it at the time, and didn't realise how bad the mother was injured. But you don't promise anything about a Fae... Cop felt compelled to adopt him, and became his adopted mother.
* Had the urge to hang around scared kids when he was a kid. Started down the road to being a bully and was hauled back by tragedy and his mum, who told him he should protect those who were scared, not bully them. And he always knew who was scared. Became a friend to those kids who were bullied all the time.
* Has had some clues that there was something strange about his birth-father (the name Nightmare King keeps occuring to me) but not exactly what it is.
*Ability to sense fear (and what the fear is) is incredibly useful to a detective. Anyone with a fear of cops, for example, is probably worth looking twice at.
* Given what he is and grew up with, has an incredible control of his emotions. A reputation for fearlessness, a tendency to "get the job done" and a certain something about him ended up with him in whatever part of the two police forces deals with "the weird stuff".
* Got a bit cocky about how well he heals at one point, and got clipped by a steel jacketed bullet. Five months recovering in a (fear-free) home environment left him stir crazy and unsure why he sometimes heals.
* Depending on city creation he could *possibly* be white court skavis. I'd prefer changeling though.
I noticed that, by a strict rules interpretation, that Were-Forms can't take any physical attribute past the 'Inhuman' level. It lets you take items from the Creatures list and whatnot but many of those abilities are beyond what any "normal" animal would possess.
So I was wondering, is it permissible to make a Were-form as a supernatural creature as long as the abilities come from the lists mentioned under Were-form?
That's very decent of you LL, given 70% of us aren't going to make the cut.
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So, taking Arknight's list, the following people are in for City Creation with these approximate character ideas!
Warsor - Interested
DundjinnMasta - Knight
John Frink - Interested
LastNameOnEarth - Shapeshifter
Omega9 - Magic Eater
Hawx74 - Pure Mortal
Fredrick - Seelie Magician
Tilnar - Dark Pact Metalhead or Immortal Dick or Galvanomancer Acquisitions Expert
Arknight - Wizard Gambler with a Destiny
James Martin - Emissary of Luck / Restaraunt owner
Sir Jolt - Were-Form Anthropologist
Jack Barb - Undead Merc
Jacinta T - Changling (Ogre-blooded)
Harakani - Changling (Fetch) Cop
Now, time for some City Creation in Vancouver, BC.
I'll get a new thread up for that to help keep things neat ASAP
Depending on city creation he could *possibly* be white court skavis. I'd prefer changeling though.
I meant Malvora! Malvora!
Well I've been interested in running another for awhile but while I lurk on here I haven't seen another Dresden game and kind of assumed there wasn't much interest. Seeing interest well... suppose I'll help out.
There's been 4 games on these boards:
Withdrawing.
Had an...odd conversation today that gave me a character idea.
Jack works as a crime scene cleaner for Aftermath Inc. He does this job, for the mula, the opportunity to find disgruntled spirits before they find him (surprise dead people visits can be obnoxious), and the disgusting yet necessary opportunity to snag...replacement parts. Its a part time gig, he doesn't take it seriously most of the time, and his boss hates him (has no qualms about the whole undead thing, needs employees) , but he is damn good at it, since he has no problems with corpses and such.
Haha, a 1 in 4 survival rate... bummer. Well you'll have two more now, which hopefully won't die.Well I've been interested in running another for awhile but while I lurk on here I haven't seen another Dresden game and kind of assumed there wasn't much interest. Seeing interest well... suppose I'll help out.There's been 4 games on these boards:
1 in Canada (dead)
Ryuko's NY game (dead)
Ryuko's Detroit game (dead)
My York game (active)
Actually that's not too bad a success/survival rate. I would throw my hat in the ring (to play) but am not sure that I have quite enough free time. Anyway, if you want any advise please ask. Looks like you'll have a great game.
(Or if you want to link the cities - which could be interesting)
Now that sounds like fun
The link to the discussion page doesn't seem to be working anymore (I had no trouble yesterday but today the page just comes up blank). Is this just me or have others been having problems as well?
no thats me as well
herm so i can find this page easily enough, had to back track through the recruitment section of online campaigns, but i cant find the city building section, anybody else having this problem? AlanMs above link sends me to a blank page like everything else.
I found a link to the discussion thread in the discussion section but it still doesn't link to anything. I suppose, when I get time, I can search through my own posts and see if the ones from that thread still show up. If they do I might be able to get to the thread that way but I won't be able to test that until later this evening.
That update on Tuesay has really borked up the messageboards on many levels.
The posts for City Creation show up under my profile but when I try to go to the thread it still comes up as a blank page.
found it, and it opened normally for me. Had to go back through the online campaigns then discussions, profile stuff still no work.