Silent Green
Legendary Pubber
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2020
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Day #10
Pandemonium! Adventures in Tabloid World
You asked for this, you've only got yourself to blame.
Amazing Engine: TABLOID!
TSR, 1994
TSR, 1994
Character Name: Bronco Flack (his immigrant parents names him Branko and pronounced their surname Flatsk, but they're the only ones and they suffer for it every time they meet a sales person or civil servant or whatever)
Body: 5
Stamina: 29
Physique | Intellect | Spirit | Influence |
Rank: 3 | Rank: 4 (worst) | Rank: 1 (best) | Rank: 2 |
Dice: 5 | Dice: 5 | Dice: 6 | Dice: 6 |
Fitness: 50 | Learning: 40 | Psyche: 50 | Charm: 67 |
Reflexes: 57 | Intuition: 44 | Willpower: 61 | Position: 45 |
Skills:
- Poker Face (Cha) 67
- Voodoo (Psy) 50
- Fast Talk (Cha) 67
- Army Mind Control (Wil) 61
- Look Good (Cha) 67
- Driving (Ref) 57
- Hunch (Psy) 50
Academic Quirks and Fallout: Record
Savings Account: 0, means no monthly pocket money
Resource Rating: 2 (Fleabag Hotel and handouts)
Lifepath:
1. Youth: Bronco graduates from Swamphole High at age 18 and gets a grade 2 Savings Account from his parents, who dutifully put in $5 each month since his birth. During his school years, he gained a skill from the School of Hard Knocks: Poker Face, due to his frequent visit to the principal's office. Bronco wants to become a Journalist, so he goes to
2. College: Unfortunately, he totally flunks the entrance exam for the Columbia School of Journalism. Undaunted, he tries his luck at the Academy of Data Entry Specialists but fails again. Now it's too late to apply elsewhere, so he keeps his SA2 and looks for a job.
3. Work: He lands a job as an Organizer for Conventions that bring together grinning East Asian factory managers with gullible mystics of every stripe who sell their cheap injection moulded plastic True Cross pieces and knockoff grails and protective charms and philtre filters to even more gullible marks. He picks up Voodoo lore from the Kult College, but that doesn't change the fact the margins on mystic sh*t are so low that he never makes a decent buck and consumes all his savings in a year. Bronco sees the doctor for some prozac, but four frantic weeks of diagnostics later it becomes clear that his 19 year old ass is going to walk out on him permanently within the next six months. He decides that he can live in his parent's basement when he becomes too weak to party and goes to the
4. Beach: Broke, he gets by scrounging and turning his predicament into morbid entertainment in exchange for drinks, snacks, crashing on people's couches and occasional pity sex. Fast Talk comes easy, another skill from the School of Hard Knocks. Bronco falls in with a gang of hardcase stoner surfers. They are what's left of the First Earth Battalion, and they teach him Army Mind Control from the CIA University of the Air. He doesn't care about his Record, because his doctor actually visits him at the police station to tell him that there has been a mixup and Bronco's not dying and all he needs is a bottle of laxatives, sign here.
5. Beach: Milking his fictitious predicament, Bronco passes another year at the beach, but he takes better care of himself and works out, gaining +5 Fitness and a great tan and the Look Good skill from the School of Hard Knocks. He's 21 years old now, still broke, and remains at the
6. Beach: This year, he's into Driving (School of Hard Knocks). When his First Earth buddies move into a drug den-slash-retirement home, he inherits a 1966 Volkswagen Westy camping van with 220000 miles on the clock. They persuade him to go on a kind of pilgrimage to some off-brand Woodstock in a small midwestern town whose horrified citizens will see 5000 neo-hippies descend on their land for the ultimate Deadhead experience. He learns to trust his Hunch (Sister Sara's 24-Hour Psychic Hotline and Mind Home Study Institute). Finally deciding that he has seen enough beaches, Bronce tries to sell a book about his pilgrimage, which would enable him to go to Journalism School. But (his skill slots are filled, so end of lifepath a few weeks of internship at a Florida tabloid newspaper turn into months, and he chooses to stay.
Description: At 22, Bronco maintains his physique and a great tan. He is tall and good looking, with an easy smile and friends everywhere. Despite the fact that he rarely really understands what he's talking about, he is nevertheless able to run conversational rings around people and could probably talk Einstein into admitting that E equals MC Hammer. He isn't really a journalist, either. The tabloid's editor just issued Bronco a Press Pass so that he can follow the rest of his team into areas denied to the common populace. He is part gofer, writes a little copy, dabbles in photography and is more of a facilitator in the editorial office. He's also dead broke, lives in one of these crappy hotels because he can't afford the deposit to rent a flat. Food just seems to disappear around him, and he is in a constant panic that his trunk full of liberated toilet paper rolls may some day be empty. He desperately needs to turn a few stories into desposits on his Savings Account.
That wasn't unpleasant, but not too much fun, either. Three rounds of Beach, and just when it looks like a shot at an Academic Quirk, Bronco's skill list gives out. #sad
BTW: That Pandemonium character above is a wee bit darker than I imagined possible.