Mercenaries and Murder Hobos

When people check the info tag on my online game, there is a blurb that cribs from Obi Wan’s description of Mos Eisley.  The Adventurer’s Guild itself was taken in tone from Donald Brown’s Wonderful World of Eamon, a text adventure series after the fashion of Zork! and Adventure! that I spent an awful lot of time on in my teen years.  Aemon McCain, the first person to greet you in the game hops straight out of that one, and was once of the first people I wrote up, 3e style fifteen years ago when I started writing for Northport.

My job as a security guard at the time left me with a lot of hours to fill staring at door that no one entered through, and a near unlimited number of 3″x5″ cards that came in the packs of visitor’s passes to the building. I always had a few in my pocket, and spent the time filling them out with character stats.  A few of them were so successful to me that I later converted them to 4e for use as hirelings in my Dungeon Fantasy game. For this process, Peter V. Dell’Orto‘s  DF15 was invaluable.  Additionally useful, for one of the characters, Molag Anders, a 125pt adventurer, was Collective Restraint’s Adventurer Occupational Template, which is based on the kind of character you would play in Steve Jackson’s Sorcery!  and Ian Livingstone’s Fighting Fantasy books.

Molag’s further origins with me trailed back to a character I had developed when deep in the throes of AD&D 2E . Second edition, and in particular the Dungeoneer’s Survival Guide, which in addition to teaching me how to make isometric dungeon maps, focused on non-weapon proficiencies. These were skills based on attributes, and the paradigm shift for character design away from what was effectively Old School led me directly to GURPS.

There were other things that affected this within late 1e and 2e; Ed Greenwood’s Forgotten Realms lad a lot of notes about dilettante npcs who were effectively multiclass humans, and The special deity specific spells granted to clerics of particular faiths within Greyhawk, such as followers of Dalt, god of Doorways in Mordenkainen’s Fantastic Adventure , led me to desire to build non-classed, or multiclassed characters who could imitate literary characters such as Harold Shea. Moliggi was a cleric of some goddess of travellers I had dreamed up, and had a bunch of practical and diverse skills, including playing the Glockenspiel, and had a cloak of items and a bag of holding and the like. He was the marker of a threshold shift for me that resulted in my being a devotee of GURPS ever since.

So, here is Molag Anders:

Molag Anders
Human Adventurer
ATT:105 ADV:30 D/Q:-45 SK:40 Total 125
ST: 12 [20] DX: 12[40] IQ: 11 [20] HT: 12 [20]

BS: 6 MV 6 HP 11 FP 11 Will 11 Per 12[5]

DR 1 overall, 3 on torso (hard leather over leather jacket)

ADV:
[10] Jack of all trades+1(+1 on default rolls)
[15] luck
[5] fit

[1]member of Adventurer’s  Guild

[ 1] standard operating  procedure: always has rope
DIS:
[-5] sense of duty, adventuring companions
[-5] curious
[-15] greed
[-5] compulsive carousing
[-5 chummy
[-5] Pirates’ code of honor
[-5] overconfident
Quirks:
likes to pack for all manner of contingencies, always needs to have rope,
likes to sleep in, cheap, whistles tunelessly
Skills:
Hiking HT/A [2] 12
Navigation(lands) IQ/A[2] 11
Observation PER/A [2] 12
Search Per/A [2] 12
Survival(woods) Per/A [2] 12
Broadsword DX/A [8] 14
Brawling DX/E[2] 13
Fast-draw/broadsword DX/E [1] 12
Fast-draw/knife DX/E [1] 12
Jumping DX/E [1] 12
Knife DX/E [1] 12
Throw Knife DX/E[1] 12
Sling DX/A [1] 11
Knot-tying DX/E [1] 12
Climbing DX/A[2] 12
Stealth DX/A [2] 12
Traps IQ/A or PER/A [2] 11/12
Swimming HT/E [1] 12
Fast talk IQ/A [2] 12
Carousing HT/E [1] 12
Current Events(Northport) IS/E [1] 11
Area knowledge(greater Northport) IQ/E [1] 11
Forced Entry DX/E [2] 13
Carpenter IQ/E [1] 11
Cartography IQ/A [1] 10
Streetwise IQ/A [1] 10
Scrounging PER/E [1] 12
First Aid IQ/E [1] 11
Gesture IQ/E [1] 11
Armory – weapons IQ/A [1] 10
Riding (Horse) DX/A [1] 11

Equipment:
Leather jacket (quilted doublet) (DR1) $50
Leather corslet DR3 $100
Light leather leggings $60 DR1
leather shoes(DR1) $40
Fancy hat $50
backpack $80
with bedroll $40, 1 man tent $40, basics $5
2 cheap large knives 2x$20 whetstone $5
rope $50
crowbar $80
iron spikes $10
mallet $10
1 lb of salt $2
frying pan $10
ratios 2 weeks $30
large sack $10
cheap broadsword $250
Sling $20
Pouch $10 with stones

add $2556 and 3 CP
plus $235

He did a little troll hunting, resulting in a little bit of unspent cash and the $235 is loot pocketed due to greed.

Next up: Haskell the Crafty, built as a Veteran Guard + a few points of IQ and signature gear
Haskell the Crafty

Att: 170 ADV: 43 Gear:40 DIS: -52 SK: 43 Total: 250

ST 13 [30] DX 13 [60] IQ 13 [60] HT 12 [20]
HP 13 Will 13 PER 14 [5] FP 12
BS: 6.0 [-5] MV: 6 Dodge 10 block 11 s.parry 12
T/S 1d/2d-1 punch 1d-1/kick 1d+1
shorsword 1d+1 imp/ 2d cut
bl 34 DR:2 overall, Head 4, neck 2, Torso 8 Feet 2 hands 1
Arms, legs 4; DB 1 (arms, legs, torso) 3 with shield

ADV: 15 combat reflexes
10 common sense
5 rapid healing
5 Per+1
1 AdvG membership
5 Adventurer’s Guild rank 1
2 less sleep 1
Signature Gear: 40
12 enchanted rags: +2 DR, +1 DB (Deflect+1/Fortify+2)
20 Rusty Shortsword (R-1, Pussiance+1)
6 Hideaway pouch: weighs 3 lbs, holds 9lbs
2 Cuirass (steel wrapped in leather)
DIS/Q
-15 greedy
-5 b/s-0.25
-10 miserly
-5 callous
-5 selfish
-5 stubborn
-5 pirate’s code of honor
-1 early riser
-1 raggedy appearance
SKILLS
Tactics IQ/H [1] 12
Holdout IQ/A [2] 14
Survival:Hills PER [2] 14
Land Navigation IQ/H [1] 12
Streetwise IQ/A [2] 13
Scrounging IQ/E [1] 13
Stealth DX/A [2] 13
Carousing HT/E [2] 13 (-2)
Tracking IQ/A [1] 12
Body Language IQ/H [2] 12
Observation PER/A [2] 14
Search PER/A [2] 14
Short sword DX/A [12] 16
Knife DX/E [2] 14
Shield DX/E [2] 14
Throw Knife DX/E [1] 13
Jump DX/E [1] 13
Climbing DX/A [1] 12
Brawling DX/E [4] 15
Equipment:
Pot helm with leather coif $120
boots $80
cloth gloves $40
medium shield $80
small pack $80
large cheap knife $20
Heavy leather sleeves
Leather leggings

Leg crippled for 6 points, healed completely.

$2937 and 3 cp

His magical rags along with his rusty pussiant sword give him a reaction of -2. He has made use of his Adventurer’s Guild rank to “cut the line” when a party is
being hired for a quest. He is a straight up Murder Hobo.

Last of the three is Szuzana, who is defined by having had her left arm bitten off by (originally a sewer gator) a Slorn. I had built her with a delusion (phantom limb) and under 3e, a knack for ghost touch. in 4e, her arm is similar to but less than the Necromancer Power up of Foul Arm. It was instrumental in the group’s takedown of a troll, as she was draining severed limbs of their fatigue so that they couldn’t regroup.

Szuzana
Att:160 Adv:52 Dis:-55 Skills:30 total: 187

ST 13 DX 13 IQ 12 HT 13
HP13 (10) W12 P 12 FP 13
B/S 7.5 M 7 D 11 BL 39 parry 11
T/S1d/2d-1

Adv:
[1] adventurer’s guild membership
[15] Combat reflexes
[4]attractive
[4] hard to kill 2
[15] ghost touch (affects insubstantial with phantom limb only)
(Affliction attack, cosmic, melee attack only, causes 1d fatigue damage)
[15] detect living sentient/detect spirit, touch only)
[1] signature gear
[1] weapon bond, broadsword

Dis:
[-15] one arm
[-10] Phobia:reptiles
[-5] code of honor
[-5] sense of duty, companions
[-5] delusion: phantom limb
[-5] strapped (almost struggling)
[-5] chummy
Quirks:
Swears “by my petals!”
Skills:
Broadsword DX/A [12] 16
Brawling DX/E [4] 15
Ak: Northport IQ/E [1] 12
Occultism IQ/A [1] 11
Hidden lore: spirits IQ/A [2] 12
Current Events (Northport) IQ/E [1] 12
Stealth DX/A [1] 12
Seamanship IQ/E [1] 12
Survival Hills IQ/A [1] 11
Cartography IQ/A [1] 11
Tactics IQ/H [1] 10
connoisseur: edged weapons IQ/A [1] 11

Equipment:
Broadsword, edge $750
Leather corselet $100 DR 2
Cloak $40
Ordinary clothes 0
Boots $80
Leather sleeves $40 DR2
Leather leggings $60 DR2
+3 points,
$2256 in cash, upgrading her to chainmail at least

Use them as you see fit. For now, they wait in the guild for groups of adventurer’s who could use a hand or two.