Gothic Horror Adventure! Character Generation

Playing a Gentleman

Player Characters needn't be Gentlemen in the strict sense, that is to say men of breeding who live of the income from their land or their capital. However they need to be gentlemen in the lower case sense of the word. That is to say the sort of people you wouldn't be embarrassed to invite to dinner. That is not to say you need to be a dull, needlessly polite fellow, Dr Challenger, Indiana Jones, and Van Helsing would all count as gentlemen. On the other hand Janosh the dashing gypsy horse thief most certainly wouldn't.

The first reason for this is that in the Gothic setting the insiders are looking at The Other with a sense of horror. Over there are the superstitious masses, the swarthy foreigners, the weird fanatics, and so forth, who are seeking to drag the civilized gentry and middle-class down to their level. Though I will be using mostly fictional ethnicities to avoid offending people, this latent xenophobia (mixed with a weird fascination with these dangerous outsiders) will be part of the setting.

The second reason is that the gentry and the middle-classes utterly dominate the world. Being unable to interact with them is a significant weakness. More than that, being one of them also provides protection and deference from the police, lower civil servants, and so forth.

Being a Team Player

Ask yourself why your character is in the game, or why the other player characters would accept him (or her). The Storyteller is always willing to help you with your backstory, so feel free to ask. Your character doesn't need to chant Friendship Is Magic, but they do need a basic ability to work with others and to get along in the same social circles.

Creating a Character

Take the rules you find in the Adventure – Tales of the Aeon Society and make a normal, pre-Inspiration character.

Backgrounds

You receive an additional two dots of backgrounds for a total of eight. Characters may not start with Gadget or Nemesis. Unless specifically noted no character may start with Influence, Backing or Reputation over 2, nor Wealth over 4.

Natures

(With apologies to MJ12 who I took this section from)

Characters no longer use the singular Nature rules, but rather have a Virtue and a Vice. Characters regain WP when acting in accordance to their virtue or indulging their vice, and must spend WP to act against their vice. Characters may have different Virtues and Vices-James Bond's Virtue might be Bravo but his Vice is almost certainly Hedonist, for example.

A character regains 2 WP when acting in accordance with their Virtue and 1 WP when they indulge their Vice. If a character has an opportunity to indulge their vice yet does not do so, they must spend 1 WP. A character may only regain WP from Virtue or Vice once per scene, and only needs to spend 1 WP to act against their Vice for a scene.

Abilities

All characters start out with free two dots in Etiquette. You still cannot go above three without spending Bonus Points. You also receive three free specialities at game start.

New Abilities

Tactics

Tactics, as opposed to Command, are the techniques for using weapons or military units in combination for engaging and defeating an enemy in battle. Tactics primarily comes under Wits, since it's most often used during the heat of battle. However it can come under Intelligence if you can plan things out at your leisure.

Note that if a character succeeds on a tactics roll the Storyteller will indeed give a dice bonus during the engagement, or give direct hints and tips as to the best way of engaging the enemy.

Altered Abilities

Animal Handling

Not only is this a very useful skill if you're out adventuring, but it's also an important social skill. Being able to ride a horse is absolutely essential for most gentlemen, cars are likely to remain unreliable toys for the foreseeable future, and no real man would spend most of his time in a carriage. Even gentlewomen like to ride out to the hunt, or down elegant streets while wearing the latest fashion.

To ride a horse you will use Dexterity + Animal Handling for simply staying in the saddle and managing the horse during a wild ride; Wits + Animal Handling for quickly noticing and reacting to problems; and Manipulation + Animal Handling for calming the beast if its spooked.

Linguistics

The first dot gives you one language, the second two, the third four, and so on. Artists and cultured people are practically required to know French. Anyone who claims to be educated simply has to know Greek and Latin.

Essential Specialities

Art (Photography)

This speciality covers everything from handling a camera, to managing the lighting, to developing the film. It also lets you handle a regular movie camera and develop its film too.

Drive (Automobile)

Automobiles are still toys for the rich and generally restricted to those few areas where people have proper roads. In many cases people who can afford automobiles also hire a specialist to drive and repair them. Therefore you need a Speciality Automobiles to master this arcane skill. Note that without it you can still drive carriages and buggies.

Pilot (Aeroplane / Airship)

Aeroplanes only exist in the workshops of brilliant scientists (mad or otherwise), and airships are both rare and cumbersome. Operating one requires a speciality in airships or aeroplanes. Since starting characters cannot have gadgets this speciality is fairly useless.

Merits and Flaws

As a rule most of the mundane merits and flaws in oWoD are acceptable, though the Storyteller reserves the right to reject any that would be unworkable in the story. If there are several prices or mechanisms given for a merit or a flaw the Storyteller will go with the ones listed in the Book of Shadows.

On a general note Code of Honour, Overconfidence, and Common Sense are all eminently suitable for the game. You can indeed have both Overconfidence and Common Sense, which means you will realise it's a terrible idea but be tempted to do it anyway. At least you won't accidentally insult the Arch-Duke.

Altered & New Merits

Code of Honour (Gentleman) ●

Never cause an unintentional offence; be courteous to your equals and superiors; chivalrous to ladies; kind but firm to your inferiors; never tolerate an insult to yourself, a lady under your protection, or your country.

Medium ●●

This skill not only lets you sense the spirit world, but also makes you unusually sensitive to the stirrings of the Fogs. It is often referred to as the Second Sight. This merit generally requires a character with strong artistic, occult, or religious leanings.

Altered & New Flaws

Dark Secret ●

You could be a woman in disguise, secretly a Jew, cheat at backgammon, or be guilty of some other grievous offence that would certainly mean social ruin if discovered.

Duty ● or ●●

Although you have a considerable freedom of action you are obliged to follow the orders of some group or individual. This is suitable for an officer who is still a reservist, a bureaucrat, or a clergyman. The one dot version simply means that you have superiors you cannot openly defy. The two dot version means that you act out of a genuine sense of duty, to your department, country, or church, if not towards your direct superiors.

Disciplines of Faith ● or ●●

For one dot you are obliged to show up in church on every single mandatory feast, including the 5AM mass; you genuflect before altars and shrines; you regularly pray the rosary; you avoid any books and publications the Church has prohibited.

For two dots you also engage in mortification of the body and maintain an ascetic lifestyle, doing your utmost to avoid even a hint of scandal.

Character Templates

Any of these templates will make for a playable character with a role to play in the adventures to come. If you have any questions or suggestions for new templates feel free to ask the Storyteller.

If a Background is listed as say Wealth 1-3 it denotes the normal range a character in that area may have.

Artist

An artist is one of those few individuals who try to transcend the realm of ordinary experience and create something truly transcendent and lasting. Alternatively they are a pack of lazy, good for nothing layabouts who prance around in silly clothes and make women swoon. Proper artists are generally considered acceptable dinner guests. Musicians, actors and other entertainers are of course the sort of riff-raff you hire as entertainment for dinner rather than invite as guests.

Artists have always sought out new and strange things to experience. Some claim that their artistic temperament makes them unusually sensitive to the Fogs, for better or for worse.

Abilities: Art; Academics (Art); Linguistics.

Merits & Flaws:

Suggestions: Medium; Addiction; Compulsion; Obsession.

Backgrounds: Reputation 1-2; Wealth 1-3.

Suggestions: Mentor 1-3; Influence 1-2.

Bureaucrat

Civilization is a fragile and finicky machine, and often the Civil Service is the only thing that keeps it going. Some people may say that they strange progress with red tape, but an good bureaucrat knows that novelty needs to be kept in due bounds.

If there are strange stirrings in the fog or influential groups of adventurers start to travel around the land it makes sense for the government to keep an eye on them. The bureaucrat also knows when it is best to keep things out of the public eye, for the greater good of course.

Abilities: Investigation; Bureaucracy; Subterfuge.

Suggestions: Intimidation; Interrogation.

Merits & Flaws: Duty 1-2.
Backgrounds: Wealth 2; Influence 1-2; Backing 1-2; Reputation 0.

Suggestions: Mentor 1-3.

Clergyman

The Clergyman is there to aid the devout and work to drive back the Fogs. Some may argue that he is an instrument of an outdated and increasingly irrelevant organisation, but looking upon the packed pews in his Church the clergyman knows better. Often the Church is where third sons of the gentry are sent, with a parish provided thanks to family connections. So clergymen often come from good families.

The Church has for centuries been a bulwark against the satanic Fogs, and it remains one today even in the modern world. It is certainly interested in anyone who is working for the same cause. More to the point a clergyman is respected wherever he goes, at least to his face.

Abilities: Academics; Linguistics; Perform; Rapport.

Suggestions: Savvy.

Merits & Flaws: Duty 1-2.

Suggestions: Code of Honour; Medium; Higher Purpose; Disciplines of Faith.

Backgrounds: Influence 1-2; Backing 1-2; Wealth 2-3

Suggestions: Mentor 1-3.

Gentleman

Tradesmen and merchants are hardly dignified! A gentleman does not work, he lets others work his lands or tend to his capital. Thus he has the time to leisurely study politics and philosophy, free of the need to tend to his finances. Some may say that he is a parasite who contributes nothing to society, but he knows better, for he is the only one who can truly live as a free man ought to.

A gentleman feels a certain sense of responsibility for his social inferiors, not to mention a duty to his country. It therefore makes perfect sense that he would pull a few strings to join any venture to investigate the latest outrage. Abilities: Style; Academics; Linguistics; Animal Handling; Etiquette.

Suggestions: Perform.

Merits & Flaws:

Suggestions: Overconfident; Code of Honour (Gentleman).

Backgrounds: Influence 1-2; Reputation 1-2; Wealth 3-4.

Officer

If a gentleman can't inherit the family estate then at least the family connections can send him to officer school. There he learns the vital disciplines of staying on a horse, drinking, hunting, fencing, and wenching. In among all of this there is occasionally time to teach him how to lead men into battle without getting them all killed.

Whether he is retired or a reservist the officer still maintains connections in the military. Certainly both the government and the military are quite interested in the Fogs, and who better to help investigate than an honourably discharged officer?
¨
Abilities: Style; Firearms; Melee; Animal handling; Tactics; Command. Merits & Flaws:

Suggestions: Duty 1-2 (for a reservist); Addiction; Dark Secret.

Backgrounds: Influence 1-2; Wealth 2-3.

Suggestions: Contacts 1-3; Backing 1-2.

Reporter

The reporter is a daring agent for the truth, who shines a spotlight into the dark corners of the world. Government corruption, the oppression of your favourite ethnic group, crime, the advance of the Fogs, the people would be ignorant of all these things if not for the Reporter. Some might say that he is a muck-racking scoundrel who only cares to make good copy, but a reputable Reporter knows that these are only the complaints of those who just got their Holy Cow skewered.

The Fogs are doing something and someone is out there to investigate it. Fantastic adventures are being had. Why haven't his editor sent him out to investigate yet?

Abilities: Investigation; Disguise; Interrogation; Art (writing); Subterfuge; Rapport.
Merits & Flaws:

Suggestions: Code of Honour; Obsession; Addiction.

Backgrounds: Backing 1-2; Wealth: 1-2; Reputation 1-2.

Suggestions: Influence 1-2; Contacts 1-3.

Scholar

The scholar is the heir to the great philosophers of the past. Indeed he may actually be a philosopher himself. He is eagerly studying the mysteries of the natural world, trying to read the mind of God. Some may say that he is a fool living in an ivory tower, or that he is delving into things man was not meant to know. The scholar knows however that people have always resisted new truths. Beside, he's not setting out to overthrow the world, he just wants to discover if say the tellurian or caelumian theory of the Fogs is right.

What? Someone is investigating the fogs? Think of the science to be done! Where is my hat and umbrella?

Abilities: Academics; Linguistics; Science.

Suggestions: Medicine.

Merits & Flaws:

Suggestions: Higher Purpose; Curious; Obsession(area of study); Concentration; Absent-Mindedness.

Backgrounds: Reputation 1-2; Wealth 1-3.

Suggestions: Backing 1-2; Mentor 1-3; Contacts 1-3; Allies 1-3.

Female Characters

Female characters are doable, but right off the bat I will say that they will run into prejudices due to their gender. Certainly she will not be held in Purdah or arrested; legally an unmarried woman is free to travel and to have her own money. On the other hand if she travels alone with a group of men there will be gossip. Further many chivalrous and proper men will very firmly try to stop her if she's doing something they see as inappropriate.

A female character must be insulated due to her high social position (the eccentric noblewoman); her reputation for personal piety (Jeanne d'Arc, or a religious mystic who fights evil with her piety); disguised as a man (common theme); or else have gained such a reputation that she becomes an exception to the general rules that regulate women (Madam Curie, or Le Mauphin). Such benefits are simulated by dots in Reputation, Influence, or Wealth.

On the other hand there are certain benefits to being a woman, at least a woman of standing. Chivalry also means that men will protect her from danger, or go out of their way to offer her help. Women can be invited into certain social circles that are inaccessible to men, a great aid in the World of Fog. Further the very disdain most men view women with will make them underestimate female characters, or think them incapable of being involved with political work.

Female Merits

● Lady

Simply put the character is a Lady. Perhaps she is a Lady behaving highly inappropriately, but nevertheless a Lady. A Gentleman is outright required to be polite to her, to help her if possible, and to protect her against ruffians. The same go for civil servants and the police, who must treat her with kid gloves even if they are obliged to stop her.

●● Holy Woman

The character has a reputation for being one of those holy people who seek out and struggle against the forces of evil. In general this does not involve waving a sword around, but using prayer and personal will to drive the evil off. This advantage has the benefit of gentle men allowing the character to approach danger, such as the Fogs, though they are still obliged to try to protect her.

A character with the Holy Woman merit must also take either Disciplines of Faith, or Dark Secret (Fraud). The Higher Purpose merit is eminently suitable.

Female Flaws

● Minority (Woman)

The character is a woman, and therefore subject to the various restrictions that women must endure. Although certain backgrounds (Reputation, Influence, Wealth, etc) alleviate these problems they never quite go away. Furthermore there are occasions (such as dealing with lowlifes) where many social advantages don't matter.