Eugene Daniel Hansen's page

STR 50/25/10
CON 50/25/10
SIZ 40/20/8
DEX 45/22/9
APP 45/22/9
EDU 80/40/16
INT 80/40/16
POW 70/35/14
Move Rate 9
Hit Points 9
Sanity 70
Magic Points 14
Luck 55

Accounting 05/2/1
Anthropology 01
Appraise 05/2/1
Archaeology 01
Art/Craft 05/2/1
Charm 15/7/3
Climb 20/10/4
Credit Rating 10/5/2
Cthulhu Mythos 00
Disguise 05/2/1
Dodge 22/11/4
Drive Auto 20/10/4
Electrical Repair 10/5/2
Fast Talk0 5/2/1
Fighting (Brawl) 25/12/5
Firearms (Handgun) 20/10/4
Firearms (Rifle/SHotgun) 25/12/5
First Aid 30/15/6
History 05/2/1
Intimidate 15/7/3
Jump 20/10/4
Language English 80/40/16
Language German 40/20/8
Law 05/2/1
* Library Use 70/35/14
Listen 50/25/10
Locksmith 01
Mechanic Repair 10/5/2
Medicine 01
Natural World 30/15/6
Navigate 25/15/5
Occult 40/20/8
Operate Heavy Machine 01
* Persuade 75/37/15
Pilot 01
Psychology 20/10/4
Psychoanalysis 01
Ride 05/2/1
Science Astronomy 35/17/7
Science Mathematics (Game Theory) 75/37/15
Science Physics 30/15/6
Sleight of Hand 10/5/2
Spot Hidden 54/27/5
Stealth 20/10/4
Survival Woods 50/25/10
Swim 20/10/4
Throw 20/10/4
Track 10/5/2

Spending Level: $10
Cash: $20
Assets: $500 after gear and miscellaneous expenses

Poorly furnished Appartment near Miskatonic University
Math and Astronomy Textbooks
2 Books on the Occult (popular fiction)
Toiletries
1 Winter Coat
3 Average Outfits
1 Camping Outfit
Hiking Boots (1 pair)
Backpack
Sleeping Bag
Tinderbox for camping
Pup Tent

Professor Claus Wagner, Mathematics, Miskatonic University
Mary Jane Smith, Filing Clerk, Arkham Police Department

Damage Bonus: None
Build: +0

I am physically slight and look young for my 21 years of age. I am prone to looking up when deep in thought, occasionally prompting others to wonder if I’m seeing something up there, but really I’m just lost in my thoughts. I am clean shaven and try to keep his clothing clean and neat, though I own nothing anyone would call fancy.

I was raised Presbyterian and still attend services on Sundays. My faith in God is ambivalent, but I also believe that there are more things out there in the world science can account for based on what I saw in the Minocqua Fire of 1912 and conversations with Randy Warbington recently.

Aunt Mary Smith, Professor Claus Wagner, fellow graduate student Randy Warbington

Appartment near Miskatonic University; Math Department, Miskatonic University; Family home in Minocqua, Wisconsin; Toad and Whistle pub in Arkham

Photograph of family circa spring 1912 with Father, Mother and older Sister.

Thoughtful and hesitant to speak out unless something is important, I try to analyze a situation before acting where possible. I’m more comfortable working through a thought experiment with friends at the Toad and Whistle than engaging in concrete activities, but I’m also game for trying almost anything once.

Burn scars on my left shoulder from the Minocqua fire of 1912.

I have a mild pyrophobia due to my experiences in the Minocqua Fire of 1912, but nothing debilitating.

Eugene was born in the city of Minocqua, in Wisconsin’s North Woods on a cold February day to Peter Hansen and Carol Hansen. Eugene was a second child, with a protective sister Frances, three years his elder. Eugene’s first four and a half years were nothing remarkable. His father worked as a tailor from his shop below their home and mother cleaned houses as a side job.

The summer of 1912 a great fire burned much of the business district of Minocqua, including the Hansen family shop. Eugene’s mother was out of the house, cleaning at the time, but his father and Frances were both home along with Eugene. Eugene and Carol were playing in the small family room at the time, and it was Carol who called Eugene over to the window to see the strange giants she saw dancing in the streets, their arms in the air like the smoke that was just starting to whirl. Eugene rushed to the window to watch them captivated. When their father burst in from downstairs the flames had already started to overtake the building, but he was able to grab Eugene and carry him downstairs before dashing back up to try to rescue Frances. He never came back, and Eugene still has a burn on his shoulder from where he threw his four year old body against the front door repeatedly until being dragged off by firefighters.

Life after the fire was harder for a while, but Carol was resourceful and their family was well liked in the community and they had help from many neighbors and friends. The insurance money that came helped as well and they were able to settle in a small apartment on the other side of Minocqua. Though Eugene eventually recovered from the trauma of losing Peter or Frances he never forgot his last minutes with them, or the dancing giants. Whenever he mentioned them people would look at him in a funny way and pat his head, so eventually he stopped bringing them up at all.

Eugene was a good student as a child, though often distracted. He finished his work adequately in most subjects, and had a talent for patterns and the abstract that most children around him did not. When he graduated high school he was lucky enough to earn a scholarship to study down at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. It was too far away for Carol’s preference, but she knew that her soon needed to grow. He had soaked up all he could in Minocqua and a bigger place, one with those who could teach him of things other than the world immediately around him was needed.

In Madison Eugene began to excel at his studies. He took math every term and by the time his senior year came around he had the foundations, the skill and the recommendations from well known instructors to go just about anywhere for graduate school. He also had a smattering of the sciences and a strong familiarity with the classics, especially those that dealt with things not of this earth. Whether it was looing up to the stars or back to history and legends Eugene seemed to long to know what was happening somewhere other than here.

When Eugene chose Miskatonic University to for graduate school it almost broke his mother’s heart. Madison was already far away, but at least Eugene had been able to make it home frequently. Way back on the coast she’d see him at most once a year. She didn’t fully understand his need to know the things he needed to know, but in the end she kept these feelings mostly to herself and offered the most sincere congratulations she was capable of.

In Arkham, Eugene settled into a small, but comfortable enough apparment near the University and began attending lectures. It was early in his second year, when Eugene was studying for his qualifying exams that he attended Professor Claus Wagner’s presentation on the ideas in Game Theory that von Neumann had recently published when he found himself hooked. He didn’t know why, but this was the field for him, especially with the topics that Professor Wagner was proposing using it to explore. The decision making possibilities when combined with abstract geometry in ways that Eugene’s mind nearly ached trying to chase down were too haunting not to be the subject of his dissertation. Professor Wagner, after talking with Eugene for an afternoon following the lecture agreed to take on the responsibilities of advising him, and Eugene has been at it ever since.

Outside of Miskatonic Univeristy, Eugene makes sure to have some sort of social life. His father’s sister happens to live in town as well, which he only discovered after his mother’s first letter to him once he’d moved. Mary Jane Smith works for the Arkham police department, filing their records and doing general administrative work as needed. She lost her husband Charles Smith two years ago to a boating accident, and has lost touch with most of her friends. Charles had always been the one to arrange their social calendar, and now that he’s gone she mostly stays at home, alone, so Eugene makes sure to stop in for dinner at least once a week. It’s a good chance for both to feel like they are part of a family. Doing so occasionally makes Eugene feel a bit guilty about his own mother back in Minocqua, but he can’t imagine not working with Professor Wagner right now, so he pushes those back.

Eugene also has a friend from the department in Randolph Trevor Warbington. They both joined the Miskatonic Mathematics department in 1927, but Randy doesn’t seem to have settled on any one topic. Although he’s quite brilliant and Eugene often feels left behind when they explore their thought experiments together, Eugene can’t think of a time when he’s seen Randy actually crack a book to study even once. They spend many of their evenings together Toad and Whistle Public House which officially serves your choice of tea or coffee with dinner (but Randy has shown Eugene that there are many other options for those who know the right things to say.) Randy seems to know a bit about almost everything, and outside of Mathematics he has opened Eugene’s eyes to many things occult. Eugene isn’t sure what he believes about what Randy has to say, and hasn’t yet shared his story from his childhood, but thinking about their conversations consumes more of Eugene’s time than anything outside of his work with Professor Wagner.