The Black Campbell

JACQUELINE “JACKIE” TAYLOR CABOT

Brave (bordering on reckless,) beautiful, and talented, Jackie Cabot is the daughter of circus performers.  She grew up as a carnie, traveling the country with her family.  She was an acrobat and high-wire performer, but became a wing-walker and aerobat after the addition of Flight Lieutenant Rowland Cabot to the playbill.  She and the older Englishman quickly became close and he taught her to fly.  She gained her license the day after her 18th birthday…and the day of her wedding to Cabot.

She is an original signatory to the Ninety-Nines (International Organization of Woman Flyers), and was a barnstormer and airplane racer throughout the 1930s.

Height: 5’5″   Weight: 130 lbs.   Hair: Blonde   Eyes: Blue   Age: 27

Body: 2   Dexterity: 4   Strength: 2   Charisma: 3   Intelligence: 2   Willpower: 3

Size: 0   Move: 6   Perception: 5   Defense: 6   Initiative: 6   Stun: 2   Health: 6

SKILLS:  Acrobatics 3: 7 (3+) (Balance: 8 [4]), Athletics 3: 5 (2+), Brawl 1: 3 (1+), Con 2: 5 (2+), Craft, Mechanic 2: 4 (2), Craft Carpentry 1: 3 (1+), Diplomacy 3: 6 (3), Drive 3: 7 (3+), Firearms 1: 5 (2+), Gambling 1: 3 (1+), Pilot, Aircraft 4: 8 (4), Ride 2: 6 (3), Streetwise 2: 5 (2+), Survival 2: 4 (2)

RESOURCES & TRAITS:  Agile, Artifact 2: airplane, Contacts 2: aircraft industry & 99s, Fame 2: aviatrix

FLAWS:  Addiction, tobacco; Gloryhound, Overconfident, Thrillseeker

LANGUAGES:  English, Spanish (bad)

ROBERT STANFORD, M.D.

Part of the Stanford family in California, Robert is a child of privilege with an excellent education and a need to prove himself.  He tends to try and think his way out of situations, but is more than talented enough to use his fists.  He studied at Stanford as a legacy baby, and is a certified physician.

He is also an adventurer and member of the Explorer’s Club.  A mountain climber, licensed pilot, and a practitioner of jiujitsu and kendo.  He has traveled around the globe, hunting in Africa, climbing mountains in Europe and Asia, and running free clinics in Central and South America.

Height: 5’10”  Weight: 180 lbs.  Hair: Blond   Eyes: Blue   Age: 30

Body: 2   Dexterity: 2   Strength: 3   Charisma: 2   Intelligence: 4   Willpower: 3

Size: 0   Move: 4   Perception: 7   Initiative: 6   Defense: 4   Stun: 2   Health: 5

SKILLS:  Academics (History) 1: 5 (2+), Athletics 3: 6 (3), Bureaucracy 2: 6 (3), con 1: 3 (1+), Diplomacy 2: 4 (2), Drive 1: 4 (2), Firearms 2: 5 (2+), Investigation 3: 7 (3+), Jiujitsu 2: 5 (2+), Linguistics 3: 7 (3+), Medicine 3: 7 (3+), Melee 2: 5 (2+), Pilot (Aircraft) 2: 4 (2), Pilot (Ships) 2: 4 (2), Ride 2: 4 (2), Science (Chemistry) 3: 7 (3+), Survival 1: 5 (2+)

RESOURCES & TRAITS: Artifact 2: custom katana & wakisashi, Connections 2: Explorer’s club and medical community, Fame 1; Los Angeles, Refure 1: House/lab in Beverly Hills, Status 1: Doctor, Wealth 2:  $650/mo (total)

FLAWS:  Curious, Condescending, Danger Magnet, Something to Prove

LANGUAGES: English (native), French, German, Japanese, Latin, Spanish

DEXTER “DEX” VINCETTI

Dex is a young man, brought up on dreams of success in America (his parents are originally from Italy) and a combination of science fiction and comic books.  These inspired him to begin inventing various things, from improved devices to building a race plane for the Cabot team for the 1934 Bendix Cup.

He is a shy, but good natured man with intense curiosity that gets him into trouble regularly.

Height: 5’8″   Weight: 155 lbs.   Hair: Brown   Eyes: Green   Age: 25

Body: 2  Dexterity: 3   Strength: 2   Charisma: 2   Intelligence: 4   Willpower: 3

Size: 0   Move: 5   Perception: 7   Initiative: 7   Defense: 5   Stun: 2    Health: 5

SKILLS:  Athletics 2: 4 (2), Brawl 1: 3 (1+), Bureaucracy 1: 5 (2+), Con 2: 4 (2), Craft, Mechanics 3: 7 (3+), Demolitions 2: 6 (3), Drive 2: 5 (2+), Firearms 1: 5 (2+), Gunnery 1: 5 (2+), Investigation 2: 7 (3+), Linguistics 1: 5 (2+), Pilot, aircraft 2: 5 (2+), Science, Engineering 3: 7 (3+), Science, Physics 3: 7 (3+), Streetwise 1: 3 (1+), Survival 1: 5 (2+)

RESOURCES & TRAITS:  Calculated Attack (Firearms), Intelligent, Jury Rig, Quick Repair, Skilled assistant, Status 1: inventor & mechanic, Weird Science (engineering & physics)

FLAWS:  Curious, Mad Science (gains style point when his inventions cause trouble for him or others), Shy

LANGUAGES:  English (native), Italian, Spanish

The stats aren’t wildly different between this vehicle and the one that would replace it the next year (previously written up.)  Here is the car that was the fastest on the planet as of 1938…

This is the “corto” or short-chasis version of the 8C, with Superleggeria bodywork by Carrozzeria Touring of Milan.  It is one of five made.

The motor is a 2.9 liter inline 8-cylinder engine with twin Roots superchargers and two updraught Weber carburetors.  It generates 180 hp (although two race versions produced 220 and 300hp respectively.)  It has a 4-speed transmission, fully independent suspension, 17″ brakes to stop the 2755 pound vehicle.  The 38 gallon fuel tank gives the car almost 350 miles of range.

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Alfa-Romeo 8C 2900B Mille Mglia Spyder

Size: 2   Def: 6   Struc: 6   Spd: 130mph   Rng: 350 mi   Han: +1   Crew: 1   Pass: 1   Cost: $10,000

As part of the upcoming Serenity campaign that I’m hoping to co-GM, I started working up character ideas.   Here’s mine:

GAVIN “SPENCE” SPENCER

Former colonel in the Alliance military, Spence was a lifer in the military, exploring the moons and worlds of the border and rim, and aiding in the preparation of terraforming operations.  He commanded several small vessels over the course of his career, but looked like he was going to be forever stuck in the company grade ranks, due do his lack of interest at the Ministry of Colonization.  The Unification War saw him given command of vessels, working up from gunboat to cruiser in the five years of conflict.  He was on the cusp of promotion to birgadier when the armistice was signed.  Disgusted by the conduct of the war, he retired quietly, and with friends all over the ‘Verse, and in every walk of life.  Now he does a combination of shipping for MINICOL, collects bounties on felons, and does important people favors.

AGL: d8   STR: d6   VIT: d6   ALE: d10   INT: d8   WIL: d10

Initiative: d8+d10   Life: 16   Endurance: d6+d10   Resistance: 2d6

ASSETS:  A Moment in Time d4 (He is very good at boxing his feelings until they can be addressed later.), Born Behind the Wheel: d4 (Spacecraft), Friends in Low Places: d2, Friends in High Places: d4, Leadership: d4

COMPLICATIONS:  Acrophobia: d4, Amorous: d4, Loyal: d4, Things Don’t Go Smoothly: d4

SKILLS:  Athletics: d4, Covert: d2, Discipline: d6, Guns: d4, Hvy. Weapons: d6, Influence: d6, Knolwedge: d4, Mechanical Engineering: d2, Perception: d6, Pilot: d6 (Gunships: d10), Planetary Vehicles: d4, Scientific Expertise: d4, Survival: d4, Technical Engineering: d6, Unarmed Combat: d4

AINETT MASSEY

Mechanic for the ship, Massey is a former technical specialist in the War on the Alliance side.  She was conscripted from her home on Hera, and was part of the 32nd Repair Battalion.  She was an observer of the Battle of Serenity Valley, but saw little direct action.  She is 26, and has been making a decent living as a mechanic.  Recently, she broke up with her long-term boyfriend, and joined the crew to get offworld and away from her troubles.

AGL: d6   STR: d6   VIT: d8   ALE: d10   INT: d10   WIL: d8

Initiative: d6+d10   Life: 16   Endurance: 2d8   Resistance: 2d8

ASSETS:  Allure: d2 (Tall, dark, and leggy), Computech: d4 (Good w/ electronics and hacking), Fast on Your Feet: d2, Mechanical Empathy: d4

COMPLICATIONS:  Allergy (Peanuts): d4, Nosy: d2, Superstitious: d2 (Fatalistic)

SKILLS:  Athletics: d6, Covert: d4, Craft: d6, Discipline: d2, Guns: d4, Hvy. Weapons: d2, Influence: d6, Mechanical Engineering: d6 (Repair: d8), Melee Combat: d2, Perception: d4, Pilot: d4, Planetary Vehicles: d4, Scientific Expertise: d2, Survival: d4, Technical Engineering: d6 (Repair: d8), Unarmed Combat: d2

“BIG JIM” STONE

A mountain of a man, James Stone was working as a mercenary before the war.  He has been a small-town sheriff, Alliance marshal, soldier-of-fortune in various brush wars, and on the payroll for both the Alliance and Independents during the war.  He is currently a bounty hunter — his favored profession.  Man is the most challenging game.

AGL: d6   STR: d12   VIT: d8   ALE: d6   INT: d6   WIL: d10

Initiative: 2d6   Life: 20   Endurance: d8+d10   Resistance: 2d8

ASSETS:  Friends in Low Places: d4, Mean Right Hook: d4 (Does d4B damage in HTH), Nose for Trouble:  d2, Talented Investigator: d2 (Added to Investigate and Search), Tough: d4

COMPLICATIONS:  Chip on your Shoulder: d4, Memorable: d2, Portly d4 (He’s big-boned…no, really),  Ugly: d2

SKILLS:  Athletics: d6, Covert: d6, Discipline: d4, Guns: d6, Hvy Weapons: d4, Influence: d2, Linguist: d2,  Melee Combat: d6, Perception: d6, Planetary Vehicles: d6, Survival: d4, Technical Engineering: d4, Unarmed Combat: d6 (Brawling: d12)

Added to this motley crew is Berin Kinsman’s “Doc” Tucker, doctor and all around smart guy.  The initial description comes over as a sort of Flashman-esque figure…

Back in the late 1980s, like a lot of other geeks, I really got into comics books.  For me, it was Matt Wagner’s Grendel that really pulled me in, and other indie titles like Fusion, Albedo, Airboy were my real delights.  I also was a fan of the big two, depending on the book.  So it was only logical that my roommate and I would begin role playing superheroes.

The big boy on the block was Champions, with a character creation process than made GURPS look quick and easy.  Not have all day to crunch numbers, I looked for a simpler system.  We tried Marvel Superheroes, but the system was too quirky and seemed a bit abstract.  Finally, we settled on DC Heroes, by Mayfair.

Character creation was still very open, allowing the player to customize his character by buying his attributes, powers, and skills.  Attributes were broken into physical, mental, and spiritual aspects, each with a specific attribute to attack/defend, a “strength”, and a rating that was used as damage.  After than powers and their levels were bought, then skills (which were secondary, in many ways, to the powers.)

The best part of the system was the AP idea:  ratings in attributes and powers equated to weight, time, distance measurements, allowing the GM to be able to easily know how far the knockback of a punch might take a character, or how far one could fly in a certain instance of time.  The scale was exponential:  each level was double the amount a person could lift, distance they could run/fly, etc.  It made for a very easy system to run, and allowed for running almost any power level.

The weakest part of DC Heroes was the gadget and gadget construction rules, which were kludged at best.

There is still a decently large following of the game online, and I got my set out of a used bookstore for $6.  If you are looking for asupers game that isn’t d20, and doesn’t require a Cray supercomputer to build a character, DC Heroes might fit the bill.

Back in 1989, Space: 1889 came along — a role playing game set in a hybrid world of Victorian speculative fiction.  It quickly garnered the appellation “steampunk” (which I bloody hate!), and spawned a sub-genre of science fiction that is still quite niche, but with rabid followers.   For me, it woke an old love of history and culminated in my work on a doctorate in history.

I loved the setting of Space: 1889, but to be blunt — the system was a disastrous kludge (something I expected from GDW’s role playing lines.)  Since then, every Victorian-period campaign I’ve run has been in search of a system.  In 1994, R. Talsorian (prior to going belly up, for the most part) released Castle Falkenstein.

The book itself was gorgeous.  Rarely, in that time, did you get such high art values in an RPG book.  Most of it was full color (not unusual now), with a story-like narrative that explained the world setting and the rules at the same time.   It laid out the alternate Victorian world that was both Vernian science fiction and fantasy combined.  There were chapters on society’s rules of the time — for courtship, precedence of nobility, dueling…all very well done.

The last hundred pages dialed down on the mechanics of the game, which were designed to facilitate LARPing of CF.  Character creation was swift and somewhat free-form, involving picking skills in which you were “poor”, “good”, “great”, “exceptional”, or “extraordinary.”  All others were considered “average.”   The player was encouraged to keep a diary, like a character from a Victorian novel outlining their past and recording their activities in the game.

The mechanics of play were relatively simple:  your skill ratings gave you a numeric value which was modified by a novel randomizer:  playing cards.  (Because gentlemen do not play at dice in the Victorian period.)  The suits had different aspects:  clubs were physical, hearts emotional, spades social, diamonds intellect/ knowledge based.  Players drew a four card “fortune hand” and play the cards so the characters could have to beat a certain difficulty, modified by a card or cards from the gamemaster’s fortune hand.  Simple, fun, and it allowed players to strategize their actions in play.  Can’t beat the villain, can you try to talk him down and play for time?

The only place that Castle Falkenstein fell down was combat, which was overly complex with series of holds and actions that were an attempt to capture the flow of fencing.  I feel it failed miserably.  So much so that a friend of mine and I banged out house rules, in a night, that have served us well for a decade.  (They were cobbled together from a combination of Lace and Steel and Castle Falkenstein.)

The game would generate six books, including a fantastic guide to Victorian ethics and “rules of society” Comme il Faut, which I recommend for any Victorian period game (along with my guide to London for Victoriana, The Smoke.  End shameless plug!)  There was a seventh book on the Ottoman Empire put out by Steve Jackson Games.  There’s plenty of material to play this universe and all of the books have high production values and crunch.

Style: 5 out of 5, Substance: 5 out of 5.

Now, an aside!

While I highly recommend the game, one of the first things I did was ditch the magic and monsters and port the setting of Space: 1889 over.  The system has performed well for me for 13 years, even without the fantasy elements.

The upcoming James Bond: 007 campaign is coming together.  Berin Kinsman posted his character, Carlos Milian, on his blog a few days ago, and I did a revamp of my wife’s character for the campaign:

Danielle Marie Vega

Father, Tomas Vega, was a Cuban-American State Dept. diplomat, now a functionary at Foggy Bottom.  Her mother is a French equestrienne.  She was born in Marseilles, France, and was raised with money, with the family traveling frequently to different postings.  Was a competitive equestrienne until age 13 (she got too big), and is an avid mountain climber, skydiver, and SCUBA diver.

Attended Princeton and was on the track team from 1998-2000.  Was on US Olympic team as a triathlete for the summer games in 2000.  Graduated in 2001 with a business degree and a minor in romance languages, and joined the FBI.

Was put on the Joint Counterterrorism Task Force in 2002 as an financial analyst (forensic accounting), but went into the field in 2003 when connections between Latino gangs and Al-Qaida operatives surfaced.  Several high-profile arrests in 2005 and her cover was considered “irretrievable.”  Moved to RICO in 2006, based in New York, but quickly became bored.  Left FBI in 2009 to join Veritas International.

Age: 30   Ht: 6’3″   Wt: 156 lbs.   Appearance: Good-Looking   Fame: 80  Rank: 175 (built with 6000 pts.)

STR: 9   DEX: 10   WIL: 15   PER: 10   INT: 10

HTHD: B   Carry: 101-150   Speed: 2   Stam: 36 hr   Run/Swim: 55 min

Fields of Experience:  Business, Forensics, Law, International Law, Skiing/Snowboarding, Skydiving

Weaknesses: Adrenaline Junkie, Close Personal Ties

Skills: Boating 5 (15), Charisma 3 (18), Driving 8 (18), Evasion 12 (22), Fire Combat 6 (16), Hand-to-Hand Combat (Savate) 8 (17), Interrogation 8 (18), Languages: English (native), French 10 (20), Spanish 12 (22), Lockpicking 5 (15), Mountaineering 8 (20), Riding 9 (21), Seduction 6 (15), Stealth 3 (15)

Preferred Weapon:  SIG-Sauer P229 .40S&W

Vehicles:  BMW 650i convertible (blue), BMW R1200GS Adventure (orange and black) motorcycle