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Roanapur Quest

[X] Curiosity. Who had the audacity to carry out such a ruthless and thorough strike? It wasn't the rivals on the island, you're certain. Someone else was involved, and you want to know who and why.
[X] An enforcer, sworn to an oath sealed in blood, privy to the ancient traditions of the family and initiated in the old style, responsible for taking on any and all threats to your liege?
[X] A handsome face, with aquiline nose and square jaw, dark hair kept closely cropped, and eyes of emerald green concealing hidden depths.

I am rather wary of 'hidden depths' as a descriptor, but hey.

[X] Knives. A subtle knife could be worth a dozen enforcers. You're just as deadly throwing them as you are slipping by and slitting throats.
[X] Parkour is a parlor's trick to you. You've always been extraordinarily dexterous, whether it was climbing up trees as a child or slipping unnoticed along the roofs of a hostile dockyard.
[X] You've been steadily building favors from all sorts of people in the Underworld. Not just criminals, though plenty owe you, but also retired (?) spooks, mildly corrupt government bureaucrats, information brokers, and gun runners. How far into Roanapur their influence extends is an open question, though.

Frankly, favors and contacts are probably more useful than just gear. Also more narratively interesting. We're sneaky, well trained, and bizarrely capable of participating in the intelligence arena as well as the physical one. It's a solid build with plenty of plot hooks.
 
I feel like that, if we're going for a knives, or close combat in general, build, the trench coat would be a very good investment. I find myself doubting we'll be seeing that same 'bullets hit everything besides named characters*', so we would stand a better chance if we're forced into an open fight if we had a 'bullshit anime bulletproof trenchcoat'.

*Unless you're being shot at by Hotel Moscow.
 
[X] Curiosity. Who had the audacity to carry out such a ruthless and thorough strike? It wasn't the rivals on the island, you're certain. Someone else was involved, and you want to know who and why.
[X] A handsome face, with aquiline nose and square jaw, dark hair kept closely cropped, and eyes of emerald green concealing hidden depths.
[X] An enforcer, sworn to an oath sealed in blood, privy to the ancient traditions of the family and initiated in the old style, responsible for taking on any and all threats to your liege?
[X] Yourself. You're a world-class Savate prodigy, not that you stopped with formal styles. You can improvise killing weapons from almost anything if your feet aren't enough.
[X] Parkour is a parlor's trick to you. You've always been extraordinarily dexterous, whether it was climbing up trees as a child or slipping unnoticed along the roofs of a hostile dockyard.
[X] Unlike all the psychos in Roanapur, you haven't forgotten that body armor saves lives. Your cutting-edge Kevlar-weave trenchcoat is bulletproof short of heavy machinegun rounds and stylish to boot. Of course it also cost an arm and a leg and is virtually irreplaceable.

A revenge quest is so old. I like the 'Who was good enough to pull this off? I must find out' of curiosity. I like being fighty, and being crazy good at fighting unarmed means we don't rely on weapons all the time. And being crazy agile means we'll be able to close quickly with an enemy and avoid attacks while we do. And anything we don't dodge will be soaked by our kickass coat :cool:
 
TheOtherSandman said:
If we're being shot at by Hotel Moscow, we've fucked up hard somewhere and we can only hope we don't get the Hansel treatment.
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I meant in the context of named characters generally wont be hit unless they're being shot at by Hotel Moscow... or are Lotten.

I'm tentatively going to vote for this:

[x] Out of guilt. You could have stopped the massacre if you'd known it was coming. But you were off in Paris while the family was being gutted. You owe it to the dead to resolve what you couldn't prevent.
[X] An enforcer, sworn to an oath sealed in blood, privy to the ancient traditions of the family and initiated in the old style, responsible for taking on any and all threats to your liege?
[X] A handsome face, with aquiline nose and square jaw, dark hair kept closely cropped, and eyes of emerald green concealing hidden depths.
[X] Knives. A subtle knife could be worth a dozen enforcers. You're just as deadly throwing them as you are slipping by and slitting throats.
[X] Parkour is a parlor's trick to you. You've always been extraordinarily dexterous, whether it was climbing up trees as a child or slipping unnoticed along the roofs of a hostile dockyard.
[x] Unlike all the psychos in Roanapur, you haven't forgotten that body armor saves lives. Your cutting-edge Kevlar-weave trenchcoat is bulletproof short of heavy machinegun rounds and stylish to boot. Of course it also cost an arm and a leg and is virtually irreplaceable.

A stealth build with favor towards combat survivability. I chose the 'guilt' option because that's the one that appeals to me most. I feel like if we take curiosity, we wont really have much reason to participate in the plot after we discover who was behind it all. And while I love a good tale of revenge, the guilt option just seems more appealing.
 
[X] For revenge. They killed your liege, they killed his wife, and they killed his little children. You will avenge them, once you finally figure out who is responsible.
[X] A handsome face, with aquiline nose and square jaw, dark hair kept closely cropped, and eyes of emerald green concealing hidden depths.
[X] An enforcer, sworn to an oath sealed in blood, privy to the ancient traditions of the family and initiated in the old style, responsible for taking on any and all threats to your liege?
[X] Yourself. You're a world-class Savate prodigy, not that you stopped with formal styles. You can improvise killing weapons from almost anything if your feet aren't enough.
[X] Parkour is a parlor's trick to you. You've always been extraordinarily dexterous, whether it was climbing up trees as a child or slipping unnoticed along the roofs of a hostile dockyard.
[X] Unlike all the psychos in Roanapur, you haven't forgotten that body armor saves lives. Your cutting-edge Kevlar-weave trenchcoat is bulletproof short of heavy machinegun rounds and stylish to boot. Of course it also cost an arm and a leg and is virtually irreplaceable.
 
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[X] Curiosity. Who had the audacity to carry out such a ruthless and thorough strike? It wasn't the rivals on the island, you're certain. Someone else was involved, and you want to know who and why.

[X] A handsome face, with aquiline nose and square jaw, dark hair kept closely cropped, and eyes of emerald green concealing hidden depths.

[X] The consiglieri, the boss's confident and advisor, a negotiator and a compromiser and sometimes even a lawyer, forever distanced from the initiated blood-brothers of the family?

[X] Guns. Pistols, shotguns, long rifles, assault rifles, submachine guns, it doesn't matter. You're a crack shot and quick on the draw.

[X] Call it luck, intuition, or Fortuna's favor. You've always been able to rely on your gut feelings, and that's helped you dodge both proverbial and real bullets.

[X] You've been steadily building favors from all sorts of people in the Underworld. Not just criminals, though plenty owe you, but also retired (?) spooks, mildly corrupt government bureaucrats, information brokers, and gun runners. How far into Roanapur their influence extends is an open question, though.
 
[X] Out of guilt. You could have stopped the massacre if you'd known it was coming. But you were off in Paris while the family was being gutted. You owe it to the dead to resolve what you couldn't prevent.
[X] A handsome face, with aquiline nose and square jaw, dark hair kept closely cropped, and eyes of emerald green concealing hidden depths.
[X] An enforcer, sworn to an oath sealed in blood, privy to the ancient traditions of the family and initiated in the old style, responsible for taking on any and all threats to your liege?
[X] Yourself. You're a world-class Savate prodigy, not that you stopped with formal styles. You can improvise killing weapons from almost anything if your feet aren't enough.
[X] Parkour is a parlor's trick to you. You've always been extraordinarily dexterous, whether it was climbing up trees as a child or slipping unnoticed along the roofs of a hostile dockyard.
[X] Unlike all the psychos in Roanapur, you haven't forgotten that body armor saves lives. Your cutting-edge Kevlar-weave trenchcoat is bulletproof short of heavy machinegun rounds and stylish to boot. Of course it also cost an arm and a leg and is virtually irreplaceable.
 
I will clarify what's going on with these choices behind the scenes a bit. If anyone wants to change their vote afterward, or if someone convinces them otherwise, please edit your original vote since that will be easier to take track of.

Your Motivation establishes a lot about the character's outlook. By which I mean, in addition to deciding whether two bonus dots of Attributes go to Mental (Curiosity) , Physical (Revenge), or Social (Guilt) attributes, it also establishes the character's Virtue and Vice. Virtue provides +1 temporary WP (Willpower) to a scene where the character acts on it, while Vice requires spending WP to not act on while providing +1 temporary WP when acting on it is not a great idea. Each choice also provides a singular Merit weighted thematically toward the choice of being the Avenger, the Atoner, or the Searcher.

Your Role establishes which Attributes were primary, gives that set an extra dot, and establishes something about the skill set of the character. They are also plot-relevant as it decides how they were perceived within the family and the sort of relationships and information they had access to. The Enforcer obviously prioritizes Physical attributes, the consiglieri Social attributes, and the fixer Mental attributes. While Physical attributes are pretty important in Roanapur, Rock of the Black Lagoon Company is a sterling example of what a Social build can accomplish in the city, while Mental attributes will make it easier to figure out what is going on inside the city as well as unraveling what happened in Corsica and dealing with any other puzzles that come your way.

Gender... has no influence mechanically. It may make some difference with the character's personality and interaction with other characters.

Weapon is straightforward. The character has to be able to kick a lot of ass for this Quest to be even remotely viable. That said, some of those choices are better depending on what attributes have been prioritized. Guns for example don't require much besides Dexterity to wield efficiently. Having good Physical attributes is an excellent backup for Martial Arts and improvised weapons, whereas the knives approach can be enhanced by retaining the good Social focus of an assassin. But all of them are viable with any other build, they just have those synergies.

The Edges are balanced as well as I can make them. The Intuition Merit will provide access to some options or information that might otherwise not be available as well as earning you a "do you really want to do that" warning from the GM from time to time, as well as a Dodge specialty. The Willpower merit gives you a full 10 permanent Willpower dots, doubles WP gains, and gives you the 10-again bonus (10s count as double successes) on all rolls. Legendary Dexterity gives you Dexterity 6, an auto-success on all Dexterity rolls, use of Super-Parkour for stunting and access, and maybe something else if I decide it isn't balanced enough against the other two options.

The Advantages have already been explained. The kevlar-weave trenchcoat is going to be Unique and highly powerful, balanced by not being able to replace it. It's vulnerable to Called Shots directly to the face or .50 BMG rounds and not much firearms in-between. Contacts and Resources, though, can't be lost that way but rely on the player base to use them effectively to get what they want out of them. And there are limits to what they can do, since neither has thus far led you to the truth behind that night in Corsica.
 
Given that we're not even close to Terminator-Maid level, taking on people who have killed an entire mob family is going to require more than just being fighty. Not only is being the Advisor to the Don awesome as hell, but it would also make our dealings with people, the Triad, and Hotel Moscow a Hell of a lot easier. I really don't wanna piss the Powers That Be of Roanpur off just because we wanted to be the muscle with legs and can't social -fu well.. Not to mention that it synchros well with knives and hiding in a crowd usually depends on social stats.
Social is great for keeping people from shooting us in the first place.
 
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Huh. Guns and Parkour is extremely formidable then. With an autosuccess we're a fantastic shot.

I don't think the autosuccess can be emphasized enough actually. It means we can't botch a Dex roll and we have a minimum level of success. That's pretty handy. But all of them are pretty handy.

I do think if we take parkour we oughta take guns. Just because we oughta milk the Dex bonus for all it's worth. We're going to need to prove why people shouldn't fuck with us at some point. Guns a pretty universally respected and everyone understands, "Or I'll put a bullet between your eyes."
 
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How does the whole "Get Dexterity 6" thing work? Does it set Dexterity to 6 before we start spending points?

Because if that's the case, if we chose Revenge (2 dots) and Enforcer (1 dot) we'd start with 8 points to split between Strength and Stamina, getting them both to 5.

That would give us peak human (in the Black Lagoon universe) Strength and Stamina, plus superhuman Dexterity.
 
[X] Curiosity. Who had the audacity to carry out such a ruthless and thorough strike? It wasn't the rivals on the island, you're certain. Someone else was involved, and you want to know who and why.
[X] A pretty face, with noble cheekbones and a brilliant smile, straw-colored hair running over your shoulders, and sky blue eyes capable of piercing steel.
[X] The consiglieri, the boss's confident and advisor, a negotiator and a compromiser and sometimes even a lawyer, forever distanced from the initiated blood-brothers of the family?
[X] Guns. Pistols, shotguns, long rifles, assault rifles, submachine guns, it doesn't matter. You're a crack shot and quick on the draw.
[X] Parkour is a parlor's trick to you. You've always been extraordinarily dexterous, whether it was climbing up trees as a child or slipping unnoticed along the roofs of a hostile dockyard.
[X] Unlike all the psychos in Roanapur, you haven't forgotten that body armor saves lives. Your cutting-edge Kevlar-weave trenchcoat is bulletproof short of heavy machinegun rounds and stylish to boot. Of course it also cost an arm and a leg and is virtually irreplaceable.

Because Curiosity is a cool thing to base a character around. We also don't play enough Mental type characters. Also Legendary Dex is OP, especially with guns.
 
[X] Curiosity. Who had the audacity to carry out such a ruthless and thorough strike? It wasn't the rivals on the island, you're certain. Someone else was involved, and you want to know who and why.
[X] A handsome face, with aquiline nose and square jaw, dark hair kept closely cropped, and eyes of emerald green concealing hidden depths.
[X] A fixer, one responsible for organizing the activities of the family and overseeing critical logistics of the smuggling operations, sworn in blood but never with the time to go through the old traditions?
[X] Guns. Pistols, shotguns, long rifles, assault rifles, submachine guns, it doesn't matter. You're a crack shot and quick on the draw.
[X] Call it luck, intuition, or Fortuna's favor. You've always been able to rely on your gut feelings, and that's helped you dodge both proverbial and real bullets.
[X] You've been saving up for quite some time. The end result is a pretty impressive Swiss bank account. You're not filthy rich, but you don't have to worry too much about trivial costs like first class plane tickets or large bribes. And yet, it still hasn't let you find those responsible for the massacre.
 
Something else to think about, our role in the Family also tells just how damn important and good we were. There are lots of enforcers, but there is only one Consiglieri. We were at the very top and the only person who could actually argue with the Boss. That gives weight to talks, and people are less likely to just write us off.
 
[X] Curiosity. Who had the audacity to carry out such a ruthless and thorough strike? It wasn't the rivals on the island, you're certain. Someone else was involved, and you want to know who and why.
[X] A handsome face, with aquiline nose and square jaw, dark hair kept closely cropped, and eyes of emerald green concealing hidden depths.
[X] A fixer, one responsible for organizing the activities of the family and overseeing critical logistics of the smuggling operations, sworn in blood but never with the time to go through the old traditions?
[X] Guns. Pistols, shotguns, long rifles, assault rifles, submachine guns, it doesn't matter. You're a crack shot and quick on the draw.
[X] Call it luck, intuition, or Fortuna's favor. You've always been able to rely on your gut feelings, and that's helped you dodge both proverbial and real bullets.
[X] You've been saving up for quite some time. The end result is a pretty impressive Swiss bank account. You're not filthy rich, but you don't have to worry too much about trivial costs like first class plane tickets or large bribes. And yet, it still hasn't let you find those responsible for the massacre.


Everyone need to realize one thing.One faction that even Balalaika don't want to fight,One faction that open to bribe and eat form every faction in Ronapur.

Thailand Ronapur police,If we can bribe him with money then we can survive for sometime until we can figure out mystery.

Ronapur police maybe not good in straight fight but they are very good at connection and man power.

The downside is we need money to bribe them to do our biding.
 
[X] For revenge. They killed your liege, they killed his wife, and they killed his little children. You will avenge them, once you finally figure out who is responsible.

[X] A handsome face, with aquiline nose and square jaw, dark hair kept closely cropped, and eyes of emerald green concealing hidden depths.

[X] The consiglieri, the boss's confident and advisor, a negotiator and a compromiser and sometimes even a lawyer, forever distanced from the initiated blood-brothers of the family?

[X] Yourself. You're a world-class Savate prodigy, not that you stopped with formal styles. You can improvise killing weapons from almost anything if your feet aren't enough.

[X] Parkour is a parlor's trick to you. You've always been extraordinarily dexterous, whether it was climbing up trees as a child or slipping unnoticed along the roofs of a hostile dockyard.

[X] Unlike all the psychos in Roanapur, you haven't forgotten that body armor saves lives. Your cutting-edge Kevlar-weave trenchcoat is bulletproof short of heavy machinegun rounds and stylish to boot. Of course it also cost an arm and a leg and is virtually irreplaceable.

In order: The revenge bit seems like the most dramatically fitting. Just feels right. The consiglieri also seems like it'd be the position a person inclined to actually Do something, Effectual, about things. Male because A: it's far more likely and B: the setting needs more compitent male protagonists (hotel moscow's troops only count collectively.) Savate's pretty much the top of the list when it comes to urban combat. Failing at explaining it well, but there's very few martial arts that can do as much damage in as small an area. (Designed to let you fight, among other things, on narrow fire escapes.) Parkour? Nothing better for getting places fast, avoiding people you don't want to deal with, and making sure you have a terrain advantage. Well, except perhaps a train, large numbers of well trained and armed underlings, and a fortified defensive emplacement at a well chosen location. But that's on a less personal scale. Bullet proofing? Well, not getting shot to death is awesome. It's just smart.

Stats factors asside, 'curiosity' reads as either suicidally stupid/arrogant or the sort of antagonist who gets killed off because he'd rather dick around to see what happens than put an enemy down properly. (Which... overlap a lot, actually)
 
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TheOtherSandman said:
Something else to think about, our role in the Family also tells just how damn important and good we were. There are lots of enforcers, but there is only one Consiglieri. We were at the very top and the only person who could actually argue with the Boss. That gives weight to talks, and people are less likely to just write us off.
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You're not wrong with this and it is a very prominent position, but the Consiglieri is also not "officially" part of the family. You're a relative outsider not having been initiated or taken the blood-oath of loyalty. That bears a bit on what you know and on how other survivors see you, too. In general the Enforcer knows the most (whether or not they know what they know, though...), the Consiglieri has the most contacts outside the familiy, and the Fixer has the most resources while knowing more than the Consiglieri but less than the Enforcer.

Curiosity seems to be winning at this point. Again, it is an interesting choice, but I'd think hard about how you see it impacting the character. If you're choosing it because it looks different, you're probably not going to get what you want. Revenge and Guilt are a lot more straightforward as far as motivations go and lend themselves to a more direct play style (hint hint) while Curiosity is perhaps likely to favor less direct approaches and rely more on finding the right clues and making the right connections to unravel the mystery.
 
Ah. I was misunderstanding the various positions. Not that it makes the others seem Better to me, mind.
 
Dark Lord Bob said:
How does the whole "Get Dexterity 6" thing work? Does it set Dexterity to 6 before we start spending points?

Because if that's the case, if we chose Revenge (2 dots) and Enforcer (1 dot) we'd start with 8 points to split between Strength and Stamina, getting them both to 5.

That would give us peak human (in the Black Lagoon universe) Strength and Stamina, plus superhuman Dexterity.
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It's going to depend a bit on what I see of the final product, since I'll be running chargen as a more coherent whole based on what choices you guys make. But I'll say if you guys prioritizing making a straight-up badass, the stats will reflect that.
 
Alright, it's been seven, almost eight hours since anyone posted a vote. Tallying things up...

Well, a male character won overwhelmingly. Pity because Saber in her black suit would have been a pretty decent character illustration. I don't have any suitable images for yon male character, but if someone finds something cool they might get a bonus if it is sufficiently cool.

Legendary Dexterity also won overwhelmingly for the Edge. No one voted for Willpower. I think you might be underestimating the usefulness of having a lot of extra WP around and being able to burn and regain it a lot more easily, and 10-again is always nice. Luck come next, but not by much. That would have given you some extra options and breaks and a bit of a cushion from me asking if you really wanted to do something. But Legendary Dexterity will be very worthwhile, especially if you Stunt via write-ins. It inherently allows for all kinds of cool action, after all.

The Bulletproof Coat also won overwhelmingly. Well as I said it is a powerful and unique bit of Equipment balanced by well, being irreplaceable. It'll serve you well. Just keep a very close eye on it.

These are called.

Motivation, Role, and Weapon can be called right now but I'm not going to do it. As it stands now, you've elected to prioritize Mental and Social Attributes with Physical Attributes as Tertiary. You've also elected to choose Martial Arts as your main combat form, which is the combat form that most relies on Physical Attributes. You are still heads and shoulders above the average mook, especially with that Dexterity autosuccess. It's just ah, yeah, this is very much not a direct combat build, and being in the upper tier is very dependent on consistently getting good stunt bonuses from write-ins. So I'm going to keep voting open until tomorrow morning for these. Call it another twelve hours or so, though mostly because I'll be asleep for most of them.

If anyone wants to change their votes for Motivation, Role, or Weapon, do so by posting below, indicating what you had posted for and what you want it changed to. This will actually be the easiest way to keep track now that I've tallied things up. If things don't change drastically I will anticipate having your character sheet up tomorrow and maybe the first post tomorrow night, or by Sunday afternoon.

Present Tally
Motivation
Revenge: 13 (Physical)
Guilt: 7 (Social)
Curiosity: 12 (Mental)

Role
Consiglieri: 13 (Social)
Enforcer: 16 (Physical)
Fixer: 3 (Mental)

Weapons
Guns: 12 (Pretty much dependent on Dexterity)
Knives: 6 (Dexterity but facilitates Stealth and Surprise Attacks, can also be thrown)
Yourself: 15 (aka Strength and Stamina also really useful here)
 
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Cav's said that knives sync well with Social, and stupid high Dex has got to be great for them as well.
Combine Legendary Dex with our Badass Coat of Fuck You, and we ecan definitely get in close with gunfighters.
Guaranteed to be an utter nightmare at close range or for stealth.

Not to mention that there's just something so fascinating about being the subtle knife, whose skill with blades matches their tongue, and both are razor sharp. A man who's calm, composed, and utterly civil up to and including the point at which he slits your throat for insulting the family or trying to cheat him.

Motivation is something I could see changing. Guilt or Resolve could definitely be done.
 
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[] Out of guilt. You could have stopped the massacre if you'd known it was coming. But you were off in Paris while the family was being gutted. You owe it to the dead to resolve what you couldn't prevent.
[] Knives. A subtle knife could be worth a dozen enforcers. You're just as deadly throwing them as you are slipping by and slitting throats.
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[X] Guilt
[X] Enforcer
[X] Knives
 
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