Two of the full player character write-ups for my Dresden Files RPG adventure, The Mark of Madness. I ran this adventure at GenCon 2014. In this post, Antonio “Tony” Tuzzolino (Male, Psychic Investigator) and Yolanda “Hexbait” Nieves (Female, Sorcerer).
Antonio “Tony” Tuzzolino
Tony (image sourced from Listal, photo of Ken Marino)
Age: 41
Template: Focused Practitioner
High Concept: Psychic Private Investigator
Trouble: Anything for a Buck
Background
Tony was always good at noticing things and picking up on clues. Combine that with a love of film noir and it’s pretty obvious why he decided to become a Private Investigator. It’s not quite as glamorous as it is in media, but it keeps a roof over his head. And things can get pretty interesting sometimes.
Aspect: Perceptive
Example Invoke: Avert mistakes by realizing that the right thing to do is wrong (for example, gain a bonus to first aid when you point out, “yes, common wisdom does state that removing a barbed arrow could cause fatal bleeding, but look at the pressure on his lungs – it has to come out now!”)
Example Consequence: Appear to know too much or actually know too much (making yourself a target)
Rising Conflict
There’s a reason Tony went into business for himself, rather than joining the police force or a larger investigation firm. When you get clues from your psychic abilities, everyone else wants the physical evidence to back it up. Tony tried to pull a Shawn Spencer/Patrick Jane and get the cops to put a psychic on retainer, but no calls ever arrived from that avenue.
Aspect: Psychic
Example Invoke: Know things you shouldn’t know (through Psychometry), and be generally perceptive
Example Consequence: The power can show you unwanted or uncomfortable truths
First Story: It Was a Sturm und Drangy Night
Sometimes the psychic flashes Tony saw didn’t quite make sense with the world his eyes saw. So, when he was on a case and his client–a beautiful and wealthy woman named Letty Skavis-Reid–turned out to be a vampire he was surprised, but not that surprised. Not only did the vampire not try to kill him once the job was done, she paid well, too. It might have helped that the info was good news and her butler was not selling their secrets.
Aspect: Greedy
Example Invoke: Succeed in any goal, by fair means or foul, where there is some material benefit at stake
Example Consequence: Provide an “opportunity” for questionable or immoral actions in the pursuit of greed
Initial Team-Up: Meme Streets
Guest Star: Taylor Warner
OK, so Tony’s collected his share of ex-wives and ex-girlfriends over the course of his life. Some people collect stamps–at least his hobby starts out fun, and sometimes you can call on a friendly ex for a favor. Sometimes they can call on you, too. Tony’s latest ex, Vikki, called him in a panic. Her old boyfriend from Ohio was in town, and the biker was bad news. Tony tracked down Taylor Warner and was going to use the biker’s rap sheet against him when Taylor presented him with two facts: One, Vikki was overreacting and if she didn’t want anything to do with him, that was fine. Two, he was really, really good with a shotgun. Tony took the first fact back to Vikki and kept the second to himself. Not the best of terms for the P.I. and biker to leave things on, but at least Tony got to keep both his kneecaps where he liked them.
Aspect: All My Exes
Example Invoke: Call an ex-wife or ex-girlfriend who has knowledge in a needed area
Example Consequence: Have an ex call you with their needs
Secondary Team-Up: Hardboiled Legs
Guest Star: Bijou Cowles
Sometimes a psychic private eye relies on his abilities or investigation skills to track down a bail jumper. Sometimes, he relies on an assortment of surveillance gadgets. When the gadgets keep going on the fritz, then they fall back on the next best thing: word on the street. Tony was hiring street rats to help locate his quarry when he was offered help by a leather-decked alt-girl named Bijou. A flash of insight revealed that she was a wererat (he didn’t let her know that he knew, though). Bijou used her unique talents to assist in the location of the jumper. That kind of talent could be handy in the future, so Tony gave her 10% of the reward and got her number should he be able to use the rat-girl’s talents again.
Aspect: Tools of the Investigation Trade
Example Invoke: Have the gadgets to bug a phone, place a tracker, remotely spy, etc.
Example Consequence: Have a gadget fail/break when needed, be placed under suspicion due to ownership of “spy-craft” devices.
Tony’s Detroit
Tony’s lived in Michigan all his life, mostly in Ann Arbor and Detroit. He makes a living as a Private Investigator, specializing in finding lost items–the ability to read the history of a room or item makes it easier. Even with his psychic power, it was only five years ago were his eyes opened to the fact that the truly supernatural existed. It’s true what they say, people see what they need to see.
In that five years, Tony’s pieced together a lot of the supernatural factions and their overall power in Detroit. The White Court vampires that own most of the city, feeding on despair; the recently-vanished Red Court vampires that, until recently, owned a large number of bars and brothels; the Black Court vampires that feed on blood; the three fairy factions (summer, winter, wild); the wererats; the clown-based Dark Carnival gang, which also has a few sorcerers; and the newcomers–the ones that employ Taylor Warner–they live in the river and lakes. When anything supernatural is involved in a mortal’s case, it can complicate things. That’s when Tony smiles and raises his rates.
There was hubub and rumors regarding people losing their grip on reality. Just small pockets of people, maybe one every few days, nothing obvious enough to be newsworthy, but it seemed it was affecting more than the mortal population. Tony was going to check it out, anyway, but when Sarissa, the Summer Lady hired him to join a joint venture investigation, that just sweetened the pot. After all, now Tony was definitely going to get paid for any work he might do. Did it seem odd that Summer was hiring someone who wasn’t fairykin to represent them? Not really. Summer didn’t have much to do with Detroit, and with October being as cold as it was, it just made sense to send someone who could get the job done.
Base Refresh: 8
Total Refresh: 3
Skills
Superb:
Great: Alertness, Empathy, Investigation
Good: Contacts, Discipline, Stealth
Fair: Driving, Guns, Lore
Average: Burglary, Presence, Resources
Powers & Stunts [-5]
-1 Stunt: Corner of my Eye
+2 Passive Alertness
-1 Stunt: Rumormonger
+2 Contacts when spreading rumors/getting the word out on the street
-1 Stunt: Pin the Tail
+2 Investigation to keep track of a target during Surveillance
May use Investigation to complement your Stealth when Shadowing
-1 Stunt: Quick Eye
Your first Investigation roll to determine details about a scene is two time increments faster than usual
-1 Psychometry
You can perform an assessment action on the history of a given object that you are able to touch and contemplate. (Investigation roll, requires good or higher to assess)
Stress Tracks
Physical 00
Mental 000
Social 000
Yolanda “Hexbait” Nieves
Hexbait (image found on Pintrest, source unknown)
Age: 25
Template: Sorcerer
High Concept: Sorceress of the Dark Carnival
Trouble: Always Something to Prove
Background
Yolanda Nieves was born under a dark star and the omens say that tragedy and supernatural threats will shadow her to death. Being touched by the Other Side has left its mark; even from an early age, Yolanda could feel the presence of supernatural forces, but this could also attract their attention. The curse left its mark early; Yolanda’s mother died during childbirth and she and her older brother were raised by her grandparents.
Aspect: The Sight And The Curse
Example Invoke: Know things you shouldn’t know, and be generally perceptive; resist or overcome supernatural forces
Example Consequence: Draw the attention of spirits or demons; be influenced, or maybe even briefly possessed, by demons or spirits
Rising Conflict
Throughout her childhood and teens, books were always an escape. Even as she lost family members (her brother was hit by a car, her grandfather lost the battle with liver cancer) books were there for her. When she found books that actually contained magic, the escape of knowledge was doubly-rewarded.
Aspect: Voracious Reader
Example Invoke: Know obscure and random facts
Example Consequence: Become distracted or sidetracked with the lure of books; make you open a strange book and start reading it
First Story: Hokus Pokus
Yolanda was already a juggalette (a fan of Insane Clown Posse) and had the nickname of Hexbait (affectionately named for both the way electronics didn’t last long around her and her tragic history) when she was inducted into a gang called the Dark Carnival. The gang became her second family and a way to help the community of Detroit, especially her neighborhood of Core City.
Aspect: Down With The Clown
Example Invoke: Call upon your network of Insane Clown Posse fans and members of the Dark Carnival gang
Example Consequence: Have your opinion marginalized, because of your makeup or knowledge that you’re a juggalette
Initial Team-Up: Piggy Pie
Guest Star: Bijou Cowles
When corrupt cops start cracking down on the neighborhood and “arresting” youth (who never returned) Hexbait and some Dark Carnival members ran into a group of wererats. The two factions and found themselves in the like-minded positions of defending the kids of Detroit. A wererat by the name of Bijou used her stealth to pull a strange scrap of parchment from the boot of one of the officers, but it was the Hexbait who was able to translate the writings. It turned out that a Rakshasa (a Indian monster with the visage of an anthropomorphic tiger) had the cops under its thumb (paw?) and was collecting the youths for its meals. Together, the two women (with some help from the other Dark Carnival members and a additional wererats) defeated the Rakshasa; and a strange alliance between the two factions and small friendship between the two women was born.
Aspect: Comprehend The Incomprehensible
Example Invoke: Decipher codes, ciphers and riddles; understand foreign languages; make sense of confusion
Example Consequence: Give a false understanding; confuse you with too much information
Secondary Team-Up: The Bone
Guest Star: Donny Brooks
Elmwood Cemetery. Hexbait was gathering ingredients for a spell and spotted someone else (skinny guy, probably late teens) adding a body to a grave. When corpses started clawing the way from their plots and going after her and the other guy, the two living people formed a quick alliance. The guy (who turned out to be a vampire named Donny), led the escape route while Hexbait cast spells to stop the shambling undead. Corpses running around attacking the living was no way to keep the neighborhood safe so she and Donny teamed up to find the sorcerer responsible–who was raising the dead from a nearby mausoleum. Hexbait pulled her best crazyface, distracting the sorcerer so that the vampire could dispatch him. To Donny’s credit, he did not feed on the sorcerer. Together they put the dead back in their place–or near enough. Hexbait hadn’t exactly made an ally for beyond that night, but she didn’t make an enemy, either.
Aspect: Who You Tryin’ To Get Crazy With, Esse?
Example Invoke: Intimidate someone by making them believe you’ll do anything
Example Consequence: Go overboard in your actions; lose a potential ally due to your reputation
Hexbait’s Detroit
Yolanda “Hexbait” Nieves lives with her grandmother in Core City, a sizeable neighborhood in northwest Detroit. She was born under a sign and has had power in her veins since birth. If the city hadn’t such a strong deterrent against the White Council and its Wardens, Hexbait might have been trained as a wizard and her life may have gone a different way. Instead, she found the writings of a sorcerer and discovered magic through dedicated research and practice. From the sorcerer’s tale, wizards are dangerous and unfeeling, willing to execute any practitioner who might break one of their “Laws of Magic.” Hexbait won’t hide who or what she is, but she knows she has a long way to go in her self-taught studies. So, while she has no problem breaking most of the city’s laws, she’ll keep the wizards’–not that she’s had a need to break them, anyway.
The Dark Carnival is a gang that began with like-minded fans of Insane Clown Posse trafficking drugs. Over the years, they’ve also added identity theft and mortgage fraud to their standard criminal activities. At the same time, members have been attempting to enrich the Detroit’s community and help keep the streets safe for kids. The Dark Carnival plans outdoor gatherings and neighborhood parties, organizes awareness marches, and those in the know fight against the darker supernatural elements in the city. Most members do not see the dichotomies between their criminal and civic activities. Hexbait does, and though she’s probably the most powerful practitioner of the few in the gang, she is not one of the leaders. So, she focuses her attentions on the good the gang does and does her best to ignore the bad.
When rumors that people–both mortal and supernatural–were being afflicted with some sort of mental curse, some of the city’s stronger supernatural powers became suspicious of the Dark Carnival. Hexbait volunteered to represent her gang and assist in the investigation as the initial proof the ICP-loving crew was not to blame.
Base Refresh: 8
Total Refresh: 1
Skills
Superb:
Great: Conviction, Discipline, Scholarship
Good: Empathy, Lore, Intimidation
Fair: Craftsmanship, Investigation, Presence
Average: Alertness, Contacts, Performance
Powers & Stunts [-7]
-1 The Sight
-3 Evocation
-3 Thaumaturgy
Focus Items
Rebar Wand (+1 Earth Offensive Control, linked to Ossification Spell)
Diamond Earrings (+2 Spirit Defensive Control)
Powers & Stunts [-7]
Ossification
Type: Earth Offensive (Mineral)
Power: 7
Target: Enemy
Opposed by: Target’s endurance
Effect: This spell slowly turns a targets flesh to calcite 4 Duration, 3 Grapple, 1 Stress each turn (Orbis YS294)
Blinding Light
Type: Spirit Maneuver (Light)
Power: N/A
Duration: Varies (see text)
Opposed by: Opponent’s magical defense and alertness
Effect: For a number of exchanges equal to the number of shifts of success (minimum 1 exchange), the target’s nose (or other suitable portion of anatomy close to the eyes or similar light-sensing organs) becomes as bright as a piece of burning magnesium, placing the “Blinded By The Light” aspect on them. No heat or other effects happen.
Zone of Truth
Type: Spirit Evocation, Block
Power: 5 shifts – 3 for block, 2 to effect the entire zone
Duration: 1 exchange
Area: One zone
Effect: spell creates a block against Deceit that encompasses the entire zone.
Enchanted Items
Potion of Invisibility
Duration: 1 Scene
Effect: Veil of Invisibility at strength of 4
1 Slot open for potions, etc.
Stress Tracks
Physical 00
Mental 0000
Social 000
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