Hi all. A 4e character. I'm toying with the idea of a new campaign, set in a Cliffhangers environment but with an eye to an Infinite Worlds development. I'm working on both NPC (on my own) and PCs (in cooperation with the players). We're new to 4e, so not only comments but also corrections are very welcome. Thanks.
PETAR STANKOVIC Sensitive, Observant Bodyguard (c) copyright 2010 Michele Armellini Base Setting: GURPS Cliffhangers Total Points: 150 Age: 35 Height: 5'10" Weight: 160 lbs. Description: A black-haired, average-looking man. ST 11 [10] HP 12 [2] DX 12 [40] Will 12 [0] IQ 12 [40] Per 13 [5] HT 10 [0] FP 10 [0] Basic Speed: 5.5 Move: 5 Basic Damage: Thrust 1d-1, Swing 1d+1 Basic Lift: 24 [Total Attributes: 97] DR: 0 Parry: 8 (Knife) 9 (Boxing) Block: 0 Reaction Modifiers: +3 to -2 (Reputation +2, Workaholic). Fright Check: 13 (Fearlessness +1). ADVANTAGES AND PERKS: Acute Vision +2 [4]; Contact Group (Eastern European émigrés in Paris, category: social skills, effective level: 15, somewhat reliable, on 9 or less) [10]; Contact (Police, skill: Criminology, effective level: 18, somewhat reliable, on 9 or less) [3]; Fearlessness +1 [2]; Reputation +2 (reliable, apolitical bodyguard, Eastern European émigrés in France, on 10 or less) [3]; Sensitive [5]. [Total Advantages: 27] DISADVANTAGES AND QUIRKS: Code of Honor (Stay Bought) [-5]; Enemy (Croatian nationalist organizations in France, Watcher, on 9 or less) [-3]; Insomniac [-10]; Loner (12) [-5] Wealth (Struggling) [-10]; Workaholic [-5]; Careful [-1]; Never drinks alcohol [-1]; Hates politics [-1]. [Total Disadvantages: -41] SKILLS: Acting-11 [1]; Animal Handling (Dogs)-12 [2]; Area Knowledge (Paris)-12 [1]; Body Language-13 [2]; Boxing-12 [2]; Brawling-12 [1]; Carousing-9 [1]; Criminology-11 [1]; Current Affairs/TL6 (Politics)-12 [1]; Detect Lies-13* [2]; Driving/TL6 (Car)-11 [1]; Explosives/TL6 (EOD)-12 [2]; Fast-Draw (Pistol)-12 [1]; First Aid/TL6-12 [1]; Guns/TL6 (Pistol)-14 [4]; Interrogation-11 [1]; Intimidation-13 [4]; Knife-13 [2]; law (French Criminal)-11 [2]; Observation-14** [4]; Research/TL6-12 [2]; Search-14 [2]; Stealth-12 [2]; Streetwise-12 [2]; Tactics-12 [4]; Traps/TL6-11 [1]; Urban Survival-12 [1]; Wrestling-12 [2]. * includes +1 from Sensitive. ** add +2 from Acute Vision when appropriate. TECHNIQUES: Arm Lock-13 [1]; Kicking-11 [2] [Total Skills and Techniques: 55] TL: 6 Cultural Familiarities: Western [0]. LANGUAGES: Serbo-Croatian (native) [0]; French (spoken: native, written: accented) [5]; Russian (spoken: broken, written: none) [1]; German (broken) [2]; Hungarian (broken) [2]; English (broken) [2]. [Total Cultural Familiarities and Languages: 12] EQUIPMENT: Petar lives in a garret in Rue Mouffetard, a central but cheap neighborhood. Nothing among his belongings is of particular interest; whenever the job at hand requires some particular piece of equipment, such as a watchdog or photo camera, he makes sure the employer procures it. The exception is guns. Petar legally owns an old Gabilondo .32 pistol (p. W:RH38), though technically that should be kept at home. When he feels something bigger is needed, as in the Spahiu case (see below), he acquires the gun under the counter, preferably an untraceable weapon that he disposes of as soon as possible. Petar normally acts as his employer's driver, which makes it reasonably plausible that he always finds himself with a big screwdriver in his pocket. Most Parisian lowlifers carry jackknives, so it's usually advisable to have some steel to rely upon; the screwdriver can't cut, but it comes in very handy in a knifefight, without labeling Petar as a thug. BIOGRAPHY: In 1923, Petar Stankovic was a young police officer of the fledgling Kingdom of Yugoslavia. It happened that he prevented the assassination of a government official, attempted by Croatian nationalists in Banja Luka. He told his superiors that he had understood the would-be killer was up to something bad, just by looking at him. Petar had a talent for bodyguard work. He was promoted, received additional training, and was considered a promising officer for a while. But soon he found himself under orders to participate in the "interrogation" of a detainee, a Communist activist. Young Petar believed in the law and refused to obey an illegal order. On the contrary, he filed a report against his sergeant, and made a nuisance of himself even more, when he came to know that the detainee had committed suicide in his cell. Petar was in for a bitter lesson: he was reprimanded and shuttled away to Sisak, a backwater in the Croatian heartland. He discovered how serious the punishment was when he thwarted another assassination attempt - this time, against himself. The nationalists had a score to settle. What was worse, he understood that he could not count on his colleagues' help. Police work held no future for Petar, and getting away from Croatia was a good idea too. He ended up where countless East Europeans fleeing their countries of origin did: in Paris. He was there with a tourist visa and his rapidly shrinking savings, but he also had a list of names of the local expatriate community. They landed him a series of menial jobs. He learned the language, the ways of the poorer Parisians, the life in the back alleys around the sprawling markets of Les Halles; he also grew fond of the immense city. That could have been his dead end, working jobs he disliked as an irregular immigrant and sending money to his mother back in the old country. But another former policeman came looking for him in 1925, having heard about him. Friedrich Kammerer was way older, and had served in the Austro-Hungarian police. But now he served as a bodyguard for a wealthy Galician family. Somebody was trying to kidnap the son of his employer, and he had had his right arm broken just a few days before, in a fight at the front door that barely prevented the kidnapping. So he needed help. Petar succeeded in less than a week. He guessed who was the kidnappers' informer; through this housemaid, he bagged the whole gang of foreign dilettantes, and handed them over on a silver plate to the Sûreté. Thus he came to be known by Commissaire Leblanc, now his Contact in the police. Both the Galicians and Kammerer recommended Petar, and he began working as a bodyguard for those who needed such a service, almost always foreigners, usually from Eastern Europe. Kammerer kept in touch and taught him everything he knew; Petar taught himself the rest. Relatively uneventful jobs came one after another; when not working as a bodyguard, he took care of security for companies, though he refused jobs where he'd be expected to harass the workers and the trade union members. He also refused a couple of offers to work on the other side of the barricade. Leblanc helped him become an authorized foreign resident, and later, in 1932, he became a French citizen. He came to be known as an effective bodyguard and trouble-shooter in the East European circles of Paris. Leblanc unofficially helped him with information now and then, with a mutual understanding that Petar would not, so to speak, initiate hostilities himself, and would defer to the police as much as possible. He felt no longer bound to stick to the letter of the law, but those who hired him knew that he would limit violence to a minimum and, above all, that he would stay bought. His toughest challenge came in 1935, when "René" Spahiu, an up-and-coming Albanian boss based in Billancourt thought he could establish his family as a crime gang not to be trifled with, by extorting protection money from a few Balkan wealthy businessmen. Including Ratko Simovic, Petar's employer. The trouble-shooter could not prevent the initial warnings, minor damages to the shutters of shops owned by Simovic. But he correctly assessed where the Albanians would strike after that, and this ended in a bloody knifefight. Petar suffered only superficial cuts, but the guy who lost his spleen was Spahiu's nephew. The confrontation escalated. Petar managed to disarm a crude booby-trap that would have killed him and his employer in his car. So the Albanians tried to settle the question with an ambush in one of Simovic's dockside warehouses in Clichy, but Petar saw something amiss and, careful as usual, he had prepared for the worst. The three thugs had brought old revolvers and a sawn-off shotgun, but he had procured a broomhandle Mauser capable of full automatic fire and with 20-round magazines. In the aftermath, this would have caused him troubles with the law, were it not for the fact that he claimed he had wrested such a military-grade gun from one of the attackers, and none of them was alive to contradict him. This was not yet the end; old René was alive and kicking, and nobody wants revenge more than an Albanian crime lord. So Petar (with Leblanc's unstated approval) switched to the offensive. He did not use violence; he just collected intelligence, then pointed the police in the right direction. René died in prison eight months later. The victory in this crime war settled Petar's reputation for good. The only people in the expatriate communities who resent his effectiveness at his job are those who'd oppose him, and, unavoidably, the Croatian nationalists in France. They have not forgotten what he did back in Banja Luka, and they have taken note that he avoids supporting their politics; to them, he's a traitor. Additionally, Simovic refused to contribute to their cause, and by then they knew better than to overtly fight Petar. They are a small group and have to tread lightly in France, so they decided they had better fights to pick; but they keep tabs on Petar and wouldn't pass up an opportunity to harm him indirectly. Petar remained Simovic's trusted bodyguard until he was killed by a stroke in 1937. His heirs, unfortunately, decided they did not need Petar's services. Simovic had often mentioned taking care of him, but he died too suddenly. So Petar is currently unemployed, and has been for a few months. He might stoop down to working as a nightclub bouncer or something like that, but he trusts somebody in more serious trouble will come to hire him sooner or later. DESCRIPTION: Petar isn't exceptional as to Attributes, but he has one outstanding gift: he's Sensitive. 90% of the problems he usually tackles include some insider, and by talking with, or interrogating, his current employer's family and workforce, he can usually find some useful clue to undermine the opposition's plans. His second line of defense is being informed. Threats seldom come out of the blue. His network of Contacts and his personal knowledge often provide some indication of where the danger comes from. He's Careful, relentless (Workaholic!) and thorough, so he works on this, and he's seldom unprepared. He found that homemade booby trap because he knew Spahiu had already used such a trick once. All of this comes in handy when he decides he has to counterattack, of course. His skill in Body Language also helps him. When escorting his employer, he methodically scans the crowds. True professional killers are a rarity, and everybody else does show some sign of stress before making his attempt. When everything else fails, Petar relies on his Perception and Acute Vision; then it's down to his Tactics and Guns. The rest of his Skills and Traits complete his role as a dedicated, effective bodyguard or security agent. His background provides him with a wealth of languages. His preference for working alone (Loner) represents a liability, but Petar is aware of this and might, grudgingly, acknowledge that sometimes teamwork is unavoidable. ENCOUNTERED: Petar's preferred hangout is Karpoff's, a quiet, run-down and struggling White Russian bistrot in Rue Mouffetard; sometimes he can be met at gatherings of the Croatian expatriate community, provided they are not political in nature, but he dislikes crowds too much to be reliably found on those occasions. This is when he's not working on a serious case; once he has a job, he seldom grants himself any off-duty time, so he can only be encountered wherever his employer goes, or on the premises he's tasked to protect. CANONICALITY: Petar makes no use of house rules. If his Sensitive Advantage is a Psi ability, its value should be adjusted for that. Petar's Contact Group is not one of those proposed as examples in the rules. Its members should limit the application of their social skills to the relevant social niche only: Eastern European émigrés in France. The GM is advised to penalize Petar if he makes use of his Carousing skill, and/or to require a roll against Acting too. Petar can go through the motions, but it's difficult to actually engage in carousing without drinking alcohol. He might very well receive a negative reaction if people he's carousing with understand he's not drinking. ADVENTURE SEEDS: Business as Usual (GURPS Cliffhangers): Stankovic the bodyguard can be used as he is, doing his standard job, in a straight adventure. The Spahiu case, above, is an example. The PCs can be one of the parties: either they are interested in the survival of the person Petar has to protect, or... Supernatural Foe (GURPS Horror): mundane killers may be everyday work for Petar, but this time his Hungarian employer seems exceedingly frightened, and the enemy seems to be playing a cat-and-mouse game, easily bypassing Petar's precautions. Besides, the rumor mill goes wild about this old family feud, going back to Transylvania! The PCs probably are hunters of the hunter, thus they have a common interest with Petar and his employer. Normally Petar works alone, but in this case he might make an exception. Fair Philip's Fable (GURPS Cabal): strangely, the man needing protection is a harmless old professor. He's just an archaeologist with an eccentric fixation for the underground of Medieval Paris. So who are these hooded guys hunting him? Why all these wide-eyed rumors about King Philippe and what he might have really been after when he brought the Templars down? The PCs might be in the same boat with the professor, or a competing party, or... the hooded guys. The Spanish Gun Runners (GURPS Espionage, GURPS WWII): it's 1937, the Spanish Civil War is going on, and Paris is teeming with Spaniards after guns. Some are official envoys from Madrid and are trying to convince the reluctant French government to sell wholesale and over the counter to the Republic. Others are from the myriad party militias and would buy even a crate of old pistols. Others yet were sent by the rebels and are there not just to procure weapons, but also to hinder the opposition. Throw in French political supporters of both sides, the secret services (possibly of several countries), the PCs, and Petar, who will only be trying to protect his employer. OTHER TIMES, OTHER PLACES: 1815: Dalmatia has been part of the French Empire, and Petar had to leave this region because he sided with the French and against the Austrians. It all seemed to have ended, but now Napoleon is back and Paris is a welter of plots, revenge against the monarchists, and good old-fashioned greed. Petar will need Riding in place of Driving and some skill with longer blades, at the expense of Guns and Explosives. 1898: A former policeman of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Petar fled to the empire's capital, Vienna. Technically, all of those people, Croatians, Slovakians, Poles, Romanians, are not foreigners. They still form close-knit ethnic communities in Vienna's neighborhoods, and the rich among them need their interests to be looked after. The points in Driving and Explosives should be spent in Riding and a Melee Weapon skill. 1942: Petar has to lie low in occupied Paris. Croatia is a German ally, governed by the kind of people who disliked him, and should he make himself conspicuous, somebody at the Croatian embassy might remember the grudge. Nevertheless, his capabilities would be priceless for the Resistance. 1955: Petar's early mishaps' polarity is inverted. He's run afoul of the Communists, now ruling Yugoslavia, and he's left the country for Germany. He lives in West Berlin, the city of spies and covert operations, including very aggressive ones. Plenty of work opportunities for a bodyguard. Some capability with electronics (surveillance devices, alarms) should be added. Petar the Security Businessman: this is Petar in the 1960s. He's now in his fifties, so probably he's not as fit as in the description above; but he is as keen as ever. He is now Wealthy, having started a private investigation office in the late 40s and then a security firm in the 50s; he will have rounded up his Skills with business-like capabilities, such as Merchant and Administration. He'll have more Contacts and probably at least another Enemy. This man is a strict employer but he can be a useful acquaintance to have in Paris. Fantasy: the character can work pretty well in any large, cosmopolitan city where the Thieves' Guild is active and there's wealth to defend. For GURPS Banestorm, Tredroy comes to mind. Just change the combat skills and replace the high-TL skills. SF: Private security is the name of the game, and with an update of his skills Petar will be able to work finely. RECRUITMENT BY OUT-TIMERS: Petar can be a valuable local agent for out-time operatives, thanks to his knowledge and his capabilities. It is also possible that his being Sensitive is an indication of Psi potential, and that out-timers might be able to boost it to full Empathy and beyond. This would make the man even more of a candidate for recruitment. - written by Michele Armellini ([email protected]) _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
