[nWoD] NPC character seeds, s'il vous plaît

[SiuiS]

Alright, so here is the deal. I haven't played World of Darkness games long enough to have any idea about what NPCs do and do not work well. I'm not talking mechanics exactly; I can make that up on the fly pretty handily. Which is admittedly odd, but eh. I'm a silly pony.

What I am looking for is a shorthand list of personality bits, which make a functional person. Specifically for Mage: the Awakening, but any splat will do. What I'm looking for is a name with type, a designation, virtue, vice and some personality. Brevity is fine. And heck! I'm an empathetic parasitic shape shifting fashionista, so I'll even add examples of my own. Primarily Mage, of course. Normal people are good too, as I can't seem to ever come up with those.


*****


Guerrera, female Moros, matter focus
Cynical, pragmatic Santera
Faith, Wrath. Works for her achievements, haughty, terse. Ghetto speech patterns.

Agent, male Obrimos, Prime focus
Patriotic man in black
Hope, Envy (self doubt). Guardian field agent who sees it as his personal duty to bring newly awakened up to speed.

Ghost Recon male Mastigos
C3I focused gamer geek
Prudence, Pride. More familiar with with Gears of War than actual military recon, but not a slouch either. Don't mention Tom Clancy in earshot.

Jihad, female Obrimos(?)
Arrow
racist Toureg insurgent drill master
Faith, Wrath. Defined as much by her anger as how she chooses to channel it - guerilla precision.

Hashman, male Apostate
Transient mystic king of the Rails
Temperance, Sloth. Named because his face resembles the railroad map his territory overs, Hashman is both enlightened and loco in the coco. Lives on the tracks, ruling from a pristine laz-e-boy recliner.

Jane Goudhal, female single mother
perpetual victim of circumstance
Prudence, Greed. Jane moves mechanically through her routine, despite her husband leaving, job getting reduced, and her son of seven years vanishing. It's hard to tell if she's resolute or has just given up.

Royal McDougle, male gangbanger
lost dog amongst a pack of wolves
Charity, Wrath. Poor, unemployed, and giving enough to stay that way. Angry at the world, and gonna do something about it.

Solace Stone, female Blood Talon Irakka
laid-back iron-fisted Alpha
Charity, Lust. Relaxed and gregarious, because all threats get put down hard before they grow. Would love to live harmoniously, if her pack mates weren't always undressing where she could watch...

"Stock & Lock" Christopher Wallace, male wizened soldier
traumatized faerie war veteran
Hope, Envy. Subjected not only to countless pointless battles but also catching civilians in the mix, Wallace craves violence yet can't stand it, working through activism instead.





****

So those are what I'm looking for. Do you have anything good for me, O Playground?

[the_druid_droid]

I can roll with this.

Give me time to not be at work and I might even have some ideas for you.

[the_druid_droid]

Ok, finally got time. Have some concepts.

Vinyl, female Thyrsus, Life focus.
Nomadic DJ Priestess
Charity, Wrath. Awakened to the living magic of the crowd at one of her shows. Now she carries the Free Council's message that Humanity is Magic to the people she meets as she tours the party scene.

Mari-chan, female Summer Court Fairest Lightbringer
Broken Mahou Shoujo
Hope, Pride (esp. vanity). As a mortal girl, she never fit in or found her place - not pretty enough, not smart enough - until an Other made her a deal: sign a contract and gain magical powers. Unlike most Changelings, Arcadia wasn't her prison but her training ground, and her Durance starts now that she's left the magic of the Hedge.

Archetype, male Mastigos, Mind focus.
Eccentric head-tripper
An Awakened psychologist with a Jungian bent, he spends the majority of his free time exploring the Temenos and deeper realms, hoping to find the key to the world-soul in fragments of dream.

[SiuiS]

Ah, yes. That intermidiary post to avoid a double never seems to ave manifested. I blame the sleepers and their disbelief! There was a post after your first one >_> <_< >_>

I will say Mari-chan frightens me on a deep level. Congratulations, you've done more with changeling than anyone else yet.


****

Kamau, male storm lord Cahalith
Stoic criminal entrepreneur
Fortitude, Envy. Seeing his mother in dire financial straits as a child, Kamau began working as a tight-lipped enforcer to pay the bills. He's covere his momma's lease, his own apartment and is in good financial standing, but despite pretenses he's not as separate from his vicious criminal persona as he wants to believe; the gap between internal and external shrinks with each passing month.

Streetwalker, female sleepwalker
Self effacing triple agent
Justice, Gluttony. Working as an undercover prostitute for the DA, Streetwalker was promoted to both FBI and Callgirl due to her sleepwalker status. Tired of being an abused and unsung hero, she is now on the take, as a double agent between FBI and organized crime syndicate of ST's choice, and between rival Mage factions, and benefits from the protections of both - they would be suspicious if the other side wasn't warding "their" agent.

Flouresce, male Korean Thyrsus (spirit focus)
Invoker of the gods of the concrete jungle
Prudence, Sloth. Flouresce can be found either in the darkest niches of concrete and pipe, or on the dance floor of the seediest, most underground raves. Through dance he wields spirits as others use weapons, and is known to bring armies I bear, backed by a massive lung of neon lights and human sweat, the spirit of shamanic raving brought to life and service.

[the_druid_droid]

Ah, yes. That intermidiary post to avoid a double never seems to ave manifested. I blame the sleepers and their disbelief! There was a post after your first one >_> <_< >_>

I will say Mari-chan frightens me on a deep level. Congratulations, you've done more with changeling than anyone else yet.

Did I mention she has an enchanted beat-stick Mahou-style weapon? Also that she'll be my PC if I ever join another Changeling game?

But I can't take much credit - she's basically what I distilled after watching Puella Magi Madoka Magica (http://www.crunchyroll.com/puella-magi-madoka-magica/episode-1-i-first-met-her-in-a-dream-or-something-591735) and realizing that it was a giant Changeling game. It basically crystallized the system in my head, especially the Fae. It's also fantastic generally (barring a bit of weirdness in some of the eventual baddie rationale, since they aren't actually Fae in-universe).

Anyway, more characters!

Scion, male Moros, Death focus
Half-mad, hubris-bound Acolyte of Death
Prudence, Pride. Publically, he's a somewhat eccentric young Mage. Most people blame his oddities on the fact that he Awkened at only 13 and has been something of a magical prodigy since then, leading to a light hand from his mentor. Privately, he believes himself to be Death's heir and he's cultivating a left-handed Legacy that will comprise his followers once he reaches Archmastery and eventual Ascension.

Cowl, male Apostate Acanthus
Itinerant priest and exorcist
Fortitude, Gluttony. Cowl travels from town to town preaching and exorcising spirits and demons, occasionally via force. He always tries to use his powers to leave the world a better place than he found it. Particularly troublesome dwellers of the distant realms find themselves on the wrong end of his heavily-enchanted Colt .45. His one weakness is that he can't resist a good home-cooked meal.

[SiuiS]

Alright, specific request time now.
Headhunter Wizards. I need at least one Mage of each order who specifically tries to recruit newly awakened, along with ideas for their pitch.


Tré Cormmack Male bank manager
Arrogant misanthropist
Prudence, Pride. Tré spends his time cutting costs, managing the bank's overhead, and studiously denying damn-near every loan that has even a chance of not coming through. He sees it as protecting his branch's reputation, an is no end of cruel about putting down those who come in hoping for a better life. He's sofas avoided a lawsuit, but what the law can't fix, sometimes a knife in the dark can.

Douglas Reece Male city police officer
Cowboy cop with a purpose
Charity, Wrath. Officer Reece used to be the cop loved by everyone twelve and under. He worked charities, made social calls, and did a damn good job. Since the gangs have picked up, though, parts of the city are cordoned off after dark, there's a shooting a week, and two cities over is the meth and biker gang capital of the tricounty area. Now Reece donates his time to stakeouts and a bit of light vigilantism instead of good works, and it's taking it's toll.

Frederico Martinez middle-aged male
bombastic, head-down gardener
Hope, Gluttony. Freddy is a fifty-some year ol man with sparkling eyes, a big red truck kept polished like a ruby, and a mustache you could slap on a train to clear cattle. He's built his business from the ground up, and now works across five cities doing gardening and landscaping. He sees and ears a lot, but he also knows you see something you weren't supposed to you laugh it off with a joke or you shut the hell up and keep your head down.

[Hel65]

Well, I can share one order headhunter I've used in my slowly starting MtAw chronicle. Not very good for established mages, though.

Shrink male Mastigos Guardian of the Veil
psychiatrist watchkeeper of the community
Prudence, Pride. The man known to the Awakened community as Shrink is a Master of Mind. In the Sleeper world, he owns and runs an asylum and a private practice as a therapeutist, maintaining a good network of contacts among the mental health professionals of the city, believing it to be a great net to catch supernatural anomalies with - especially Awakenings. Once he finds new Mages, he usually convinces them (with magic, if need be) that they need help and they become patients in a special ward of his asylum, staffed by his cabal. During their stay, Shrink tests them to see if they would make a good Guardian, while teaching them about the world of the Awakened. If they pass the tests, he convinces them to join. Finding the right arguments is rather trivial for a Master of Mind. Those that do not live up to his high standards are released to find their place in the local Consilium or retained indefinitely, if Shrink judges them a threat to the local community.

EDIT: Well, that came out a bit long and I'm not sure if all that appropriate for your needs.

[SiuiS]

No, that helps actually. It lends perspective and I wouldn't have come up with that personality myself. Thanks :smallsmile:

[the_druid_droid]

Creep Male Free Council Thyrsus
Unsettling hobo knight
Charity, Envy. It's not actually clear if Creep has a home or not. Almost everyone who meets him does so on the street, and he doesn't exactly act like the sort who has a place to lay his head, or even a shower for that matter. If you can get past appearances though (and the unnerving skittering that's always nearby when he's around) he's surprisingly thoughtful and compassionate. He has a knack for talking people who are initially hostile over to his way of seeing things, and the Council owes more than a few of its most recent recruits to his intervention in a newly-minted Mage's life.

There are nasty whispers that he's secretly Left-Handed, but most people who know something say that's just spite talking.

[the_druid_droid]

Lexicon Male Mysterium Obrimos
Idealistic Researcher
Hope, Envy. Lexicon is passionate about occult knowledge, and in many ways behaves like the ur-Mystagogue. He's also got a flair for speeches, and people listening to him wind up seeing just how right his stance is, at least while he's up on the soapbox. The talent makes him a natural recruiter, but he prefers to address groups of potential initiates, rather than working on an individual basis, so he's most active at the Mysterium's meet-and-greet sessions for unaligned willworkers.

[SiuiS]

Meet and greet for unaligned will workers? Tell me more!

[the_druid_droid]

Well, my thought there is that if there are a few unaligned mages (probably still new to Awakening) I could imagine a scenario where various orders have recruiting events, almost like organizations at college. Of course, this would require a certain tone - I don't know it would work in a place where the Pentacle was barely hanging on vs. the Seers or the Scelesti, but if things are stable enough it might happen.

I think I am stealing some of the idea from Dave B's stuff over on rpg.net. He's very good at painting the organizational picture of a Consilium and driving plots based on that. Which sounds really boring, the way I've said it, but is actually full of intrigue and magical no-goodery.

[the_druid_droid]

Have even more junk! Not sure if this works for the headhunter thing, but consider them for what they're worth. I may actually use Mint myself one day, if I ever have time for another game.

Mint Female Silver Ladder Moros
Innocent who plays the songs of Creation
Charity, Pride. Sometimes, even a degree from the best schools can't help you find a job. Not so long ago, that was Mint's story - she had graduated from one of the top music academies in the nation, but still found herself playing violin on a street corner to survive. Then on one unlucky day, some gangbangers came along and she got caught up in a war that wasn't hers. She should have died that day, but instead, she Awoke - to Stygia, where the world can be shaped by a thought, and Supernal threnodies pierce the air.

When she came back, she had scars, but she also had the drive to gather the fragments of the Supernal world she could remember and build them into something more; to play the notes of creations and of endings. For now, Mint has a purity of spirit and purpose that shines bright in a dark world, an innocence that is strong enough to be wielded as a weapon against the horrors of the World of Darkness. But how long can that innocence last?

Mechanically, all of Mint's rotes have been re-imagined as music, and she literally plays her spells, weaving them into the pattern of the fallen world.

Zero Male Scelestus Obrimos
The Abyss stares back
Temperance, Wrath. Zero has seen a lot: dead friends, broken alliances, and forgotten causes killed by hubris and the ebb and flow of time. He even lost himself for a while in the cycle of violence, pulled back and forth by the tides of life and death. Finally, he found peace in the abnegation that is the Abyss. Most mages think it's a swirling void of chaos, but nothing could be farther from the truth. The Abyss is the reconciliation of all opposites, the calm in the center of the storm of reality - the hate mages possess for it is fear born of ignorance and mindless habit, and Zero will do his best to bring the light of his newfound understanding of the world to those who still labor under their Pentacle or Throne masters in ignorance.

Oh, also you can totally make use of the corrupted Equestrian Chantry idea if you like. Assuming you want to deal with that level of creepiness.

[the_druid_droid]

Wolfe Male Seer Mastigos
Broken demagogue
Charity, Sloth. "Heretics will tell you that people want Truth. Maybe they're right, but only because people always want what they haven't got. Thing is, even if you give it to them, most will just get bored and walk away."

"Ever seen a kid on Christmas morning? Yeah, sure, they're all excited at first and you might even get 'em to say 'Thanks' if they really like a present, but wait a day, maybe two at most, and they're back to playing with their old bike or Nintendo, or doodling **** with last year's crayons. Most of those kids never grow up."

"I'm not a bad guy - I want people to have the things they want. I want to make their dreams come true. But the fact is that I know what they really want, and it isn't Truth. Really, they don't want anything at all - they want to not be wanting. So do it; make the world a place where you keep your head down, buy your ticket, and get what you paid for. Nice house, two-point-five kids, a little saved up in the bank, and no questions asked. No worries."

"The Pentacle will tell you they want what's best, but who's the guy asking you to put yourself in the line of fire? It's not us."

[SiuiS]

Thanks, mate. The holiday hit me like Bigger Fish, and I'm still reeling. I'll get back to ya soon though!

[SiuiS]

Having trouble with normal people who aren't a pastiche of folks I know. So more mages!

Shepard Male Free Council Acanthud
Finder of the wayward flock

Charity, Pride. Pride could be replaced with 'easily butthurt' however.
Shepard is a man with a laid-back mission, keeping his eyes and his mind on the strings of Fate and Time, Life and Prime and Space. He works for the Berkeley Consillium directly, predicting and sheltering new awakenings. He's been at the job for about thirty years, and since he stepped up the entire Bay Area has seen a huge increase in the quality and quantity of its fledgeling sorcerers; they receive better training before they get killed (or the seers get them) and fewer feel the need to set out into the world to make their fortune once they see awakened society is right here, waiting for them.

The surest way to get on Shepard's bad side is to mistake his shadow name. He's kind of a hippy lookin' feller who runs a comic and card shop, and gave many the stink eye for confusing him with Christ. Now, it's mass effect, and he's even thrown someone into the street during a convention for being dressed like Urdnot Wrex. He's got a fully functional omnitool – an imbued gift from a thankful ally – carelessly on display at the front counter, just a short sprint from the door...

Shepard has tried changing his shadow name, once even using death to cut his connections to the last one. The Consillium keeps calling him Shepard, and it's the surest way to piss him off.

Bramble Former Adamantine Arrow Thyrsus
Dedicated and dour sentinel
Hope, Sloth. Bramble (named for the iconic and confusing tattoos of thorned vines which entirely encase each limb) is a Guardian of the Veil in training. He's recently shifted focus, finding the Arrow to be a decent training ground, but too mercenary. He's spent a goodly amount of time as an enforcer of sorts for his Consillium, with loyalty unwavering. It's allowed some mages to become hierarch despite being unable to hold off any challengers, though only notable for the number of times he's deemed a challenger unworthy (in his defense, he was right in every such case so far). The Consillium trusts him based on the notion that he would be just as eager to throw out a bad hierarch as he is to prevent a bad one from arising, which keeps those in that station on the straight and narrow.

Flash & Substance male twin ????? Apostates
dynamic duo of mystic mercenaries
Faith, Gluttony. Flash and Substance are possibly the rarest of the rare – identical twins who have both awakened. Or perhaps not, as only one ever uses magic at a time, and the two are literally inseparable, the last Mastigos to try being consumed by some form of backlash.

it's possible one is a sleepwalker and the other awakened, but it's impossible to tell which; through some form of obfuscation, they are identical to even the most devoted working, down to the pattern, the ressonance, and any attempts to search them mentally. There are even whispers that perhaps neither is awakened, and they somehow stole a mage's soul or are Proximi who made a deal with a particularly potent manifestation they chances to meet. Neither one helps clear the rumors, and in fact exacerbate them, weaving subtle clues into Time, Space and Fate, and removing others. The closest anyone has come to piecing them together, a Silver Ladder named Sherlock, threw up his hands and left the state when he found his clues spelled out "RED HERRING" in acrostic.

They travel and perform a two-man circus act, horning in on Amy local territory by dint of their power and transient nature.