So I finally found a local group to play Call of Cthulhu with and we met last night to roll up characters.
Every thing was going well as I rolled the general stats for the Private Investigator I was planning. Not as strong as I wanted and way more educated than I expected, but it was all fine. I can work with that. After getting my skills mostly situated it came time for everyone to roll for wealth.
I rolled a 10. Max roll. In a modern game that would be $500,000 a year. In the classic 1920s setting my yearly income is $20,000. Not exactly a working man's salary. I'm having a bit of trouble finding a motivation for this guy to be a PI. If anybody can come up with some suggestions I'd sure appreciate it.
I could also drop the PI bit and go with another profession, but I'm not sure if I want to do that.
Director of Narrative
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My friend Brandon was running some CoC in the last few months and I played a scientist type. He was this Russian immigrant, electrical engineer who was infatuated with Tesla’s experiments. He had a cush job at the local university teaching a few high level engineering and physics courses, but otherwise left to his own in his lab. He simulated a number of Tesla’s experiments and during one where he was manipulating strong magnetic fields, he opened up something that freaked him out, thus opening him up to becoming an investigator.
Well, you could always go with a bored son who inherited a ton of money from his now-dead parents and decided to become a private investigator out of a bizarre love of Sherlocke Holmes? Yeah, you'd be a somewhat-crazed rich eccentric, but you're a PI with a college education and a bank account most people dream about. You're going to be slightly odd anyway.
Hey, Alex. Thanks for wasting space. No, really. Max points for absolutely nothing.
I thought about something like Davi's idea. Rich lone survivor guy. Looking for something to do. Or maybe the way his parents died pointed to the occult and his occupation is his way to search for answers.
The Keeper is pretty creative, so I'm sure he'll take whatever ideas I throw at him and come up with some nice hooks.
I'm also considering making him an Explorer. Coming from a rich (and still living) family, so he was able to do the spoiled rich kid thing and go on safari or archeology digs funded by the old man.
Along the same lines as Jeremy's suggestions, the character could be a Nero Wolfe-like investigator - just a lot more active (not having an assistant, but doing the work himself). Or he could be in the permanent and very lucrative employ of the real source of wealth (similar to Wolfe's assistant, Archie Goodwin).
I thought about something like Davi's idea. Rich lone survivor guy. Looking for something to do. Or maybe the way his parents died pointed to the occult and his occupation is his way to search for answers.
This is a very good idea.
It also has the virtue that it allows the character to fit into almost any investigation planned by your Keeper.
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I like Therabyds idea
Mine would be:
He can be a semi-competent guy done good. Doing dirty work for extremely wealthy and politically powerful people, maybe covering up scandals, evidence of high society criminal activity, drug use or other "youthful" indiscretions. He could be paid very handsomely by the ultra-rich for his effective work in the shadows and being able to keep his mouth shut.
Just a different take
While he was away fighting in The War, his family died under strange circumstances. Father, Mother, elder sibling. As well as sibling's spouse and child.
He does still have family alive, a twin (or younger) sister who was... elsewhere at the time. But where would a young lady be during the war? A boarding school somewhere in the States maybe. And other, distant family back in the country of origin which I haven't decided on yet. Probably Great Britain, just to be simple.
Returning home, he began looking into the deaths. Driven by near obsession and fueled by functionally unlimited cash, he was able to quickly obtain an Investigators License and spent months in occult research coming to nothing but dead ends. Several years later he is less obsessed, but still determined to find the truth about the deaths. He spends most of his time working for actual clients.
He generally spends his time away from the house he inherited, sleeping and taking his meals there, but during the day he prefers to avoid the quiet and the memories there.
I think I will also work the Holmes fan bit in as well, it makes sense that a guy of the period going from total non-law guy to a PI would research a bit and be inspired by Doyle's genius.
I did think abut going the mob-ties route, but I'm playing a bootlegger in another GURPS based 1920's horror game, so I didn't want to be overly redundant.
Hiya.
What about having seen his childhood home set ablaze? His mother and father's bodies were never found. The estate fell to him, in trust to an uncle ("Uncle Castillione" maybe?) until he reached adulthood. Uncle Castillione never liked him, but his Aunt Phoebe did, and it always seemed like he was being somehow protected by her. He witnesses various "mob-like" activities, but never anything concrete...Aunt Phoebe dragging him away 'just in time'. At 18 he starts to learn about the strange books and tablets his dad was interested in, and realizes his uncle is a mob boss. A stranger shows up the day after his 18th birthday, spouting off something terribly cryptic. Uncle sees, stranger turns pale and runs. Two days later the body of the stranger shows up in a river. Over next couple of years, he starts to put two and two together and suspects his uncle was to blame for his families death...obviously after the wealth, or was it something else?... ;) Decides to become a PI by 'default', as a means of discovering more about what his father was interested in and the circumstances involving his families death. Having the PI criteria gives him more credibility with the coppers, who liked his father but 'know' his uncle is a wiseguy.
Something like that. :)
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My pleasure. No, really.
And when you are, I want you to think of this post.
Hey, Alex. Thanks for wasting space. No, really. Max points for absolutely nothing.
I thought about something like Davi's idea. Rich lone survivor guy. Looking for something to do. Or maybe the way his parents died pointed to the occult and his occupation is his way to search for answers.
The Keeper is pretty creative, so I'm sure he'll take whatever ideas I throw at him and come up with some nice hooks.
I'm also considering making him an Explorer. Coming from a rich (and still living) family, so he was able to do the spoiled rich kid thing and go on safari or archeology digs funded by the old man.
My pleasure. No, really.
And when you are, I want you to think of this post.
Unlikely, when my character does die or go insane, I'll be too busy rolling up another character and creating a background for him. You know, it's this pesky little thing called role-playing, perhaps you've heard of it?
I doubt I'll slow down long enough to consider useless posts.
Dad was a predatory business magnate who tried to run his son's life, so after college, your character enlisted in the Army instead of taking over as dad's business manager.
After the Great War, you decided to make your own life, free from your old man's dominion. For a few years, none of your family would talk to their black sheep son, but dad's most recent tactic has been to offer you everything you couldn't normally afford. You keep telling him to cut it out, but the money's there if you need it.
All it would cost you is your self-respect.
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Simplest answer: don't be a private investigator. Come up with an alternate background, and discuss with the GM a reason why you might be caught up in the initial encounter. From there simply come up with a reason why the character would continue to investigate further into Mythos related mysteries.
You could just indicate that your character isn't rich. Reroll your wealth or swap rolls with someone who wanted to run a wealthy dilletante.
You could just indicate that your character isn't rich. Reroll your wealth or swap rolls with someone who wanted to run a wealthy dilletante.
I thought about that, but having the option of throwing money at problems is too good to give up.
I talked with the Keeper over the weekend and he likes the background I sent him Friday. Posted above.
I really like some of the other ideas posted and will likely use them later in the campaign. :-D
Have you ever read The Thin Man? Or seen the old movie with William Powel and Myrna Loy?
The detective, Nick Charles, is a retired investigator that lives on his rich wife's fortune. She wants to see him do some detective stuff like in the old days and talks him into taking a case.
Great example of a wealthy detective. Simply make the money someone else's. Inheritance, marriage, found treasure; something like that.