07-22-2019, 11:50 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Tokyo, Japan
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[Madness Dossier] What kind of PCs would the SANDMAN recruit?
I am slowly preparing a game of Madness Dossier. Its premise is that some of the PCs would be agents of SANDMAN, but others not. The non-SANDMAN PCs will meet the horrors of the Anunnakku, and defeat them together with the SANDMAN agent PCs who arrive at the scene. My plan is that this would lead them into being recruited into (or at least affiliated with) SANDMAN.
The agents should be easy to prepare. I can hand out the templates to the players "as is" and make them choose. I am having problems in coming up with types of PCs the SANDMAN would recruit. I would like to give the players multiple ideas so they don't feel too restricted in preparing their characters. So, I will be happy if people could suggest professions and character types that SANDMAN would be interested in recruiting. Additional Notes:
My ideas so far are:
Any other ideas, including character types that do not necessarily match the existing templates, would be highly appreciated. Last edited by finn; 07-22-2019 at 11:55 AM. |
07-23-2019, 05:12 AM | #2 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: U.K.
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Re: [Madness Dossier]What kind of PCs would the SANDMAN recruit?
Your ideas so far are basically "people who can be converted into standard Sandman types [neurolinguist, commando, reality archaeologist] with a bit of training and indoctrination". Which is fine, but leaves you with the problem that any Sandman PCs already in those slots should logically be just plain better. Which may annoy the players of the non-Sandmen. And what's the point, really? They're just going to turn into regular Sandmen with a bit of training and experience.
Indeed, if you're giving everyone the same start points, you're going to have interesting problems explaining how the non-Sandman PCs got to be that good. Sandman templates are 350 points, because the organization selects very good people, trains them very well indeed, and gives them cool powers. Unaffiliated 350-point characters (billionaires aside) are quite rare in the modern world. My own instinct would be to make the non-Sandmen weirdly capable -- the sort of people who make Project analysts mutter about the human collective unconscious throwing up antibodies to Anunnaki infection, worth recruiting rather than brain-wiping because they might just accomplish things that Project training can't. Off the top of my head:
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07-23-2019, 05:17 AM | #3 |
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: L.I., NY
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Re: [Madness Dossier]What kind of PCs would the SANDMAN recruit?
The best kind, of course.
(Sorry, wasn't that question for me?) |
07-23-2019, 06:21 AM | #4 |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
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Re: [Madness Dossier]What kind of PCs would the SANDMAN recruit?
I'd read as much Manga as I could and look at the more striking characters from those stories. If you don't have time for that, find the best critical text about Manga and or Japanese fiction you can get, and look up the standard character tropes and how they function in Japanese storytelling. Pick the tropes that fit your game.
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07-23-2019, 09:34 AM | #5 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Tokyo, Japan
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Re: [Madness Dossier]What kind of PCs would the SANDMAN recruit?
Quote:
I do plan to weaken the SANDMAN organization somewhat, so they will not always be able to get the best talent, and they will have a weak presence in Japan (with little or no reality subduction zones found so far) so they will have reason to hire local talent. This should make the recruiting more plausible, but not particularly more "fun". Your suggestions are helpful, but one thing I have to add it that the players will all be either Japanese or lived in Japan for a long time, so extreme ethnic stereotyping may break the suspension of disbelief. But, I think there is room to explore in the areas you have suggested. I can also tweak the SANDMAN organization to make the PCs unique. If I introduce a "Natural Cheval" for a non-SANDMAN PC, then the SANDMAN could lack Cheval all together. |
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07-23-2019, 09:37 AM | #6 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Tokyo, Japan
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Re: [Madness Dossier]What kind of PCs would the SANDMAN recruit?
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07-23-2019, 09:55 AM | #7 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Tokyo, Japan
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Re: [Madness Dossier]What kind of PCs would the SANDMAN recruit?
Quote:
Maybe I should let my players build non-SANDMAN PCs on the power level of mundane but powerful protagonists without magic/superpowers/etc. that you would read in manga. With a budget of maybe 200-250 points. (software) hacker, charismatic and talented actor, competent doctor, billionaire, mathematics genius, whatever. They will feel that the world is for their taking, until they face the Anunnakku. Or, if the player so chooses, they could play a high school student with no apparent powers, but with a large point pool of "not yet manifested abilities" that they can use for their advancement. Both would need SANDMAN training to survive, and I can make sure that the SANDMAN will have use for them. |
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07-23-2019, 11:29 AM | #8 | |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
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Re: [Madness Dossier]What kind of PCs would the SANDMAN recruit?
Quote:
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07-23-2019, 02:52 PM | #9 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: [Madness Dossier]What kind of PCs would the SANDMAN recruit?
It's important to remember that standard 350 point Sandmen are paying 99 of those points for required languages and Patron. If the Project is less powerful in your campaign, the Patron presumably costs less?
It would make sense to have the non-Sandmen PCs built on less points so that when they add the required advantages, and the required [-20] disadvantage, they're on about the same totals as template characters.
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07-27-2019, 10:37 PM | #10 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Tokyo, Japan
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Re: [Madness Dossier]What kind of PCs would the SANDMAN recruit?
Quote:
I don't know how powerful the SANDMAN would be as an organization in my game, or how I will handle their Duty. I've thought over it, and decided to handout 230 points with a disadvantage limit of -20 points plus quirks to non-SANDMAN PCs. If the game continues over some sessions, they will be given option the join the SANDMAN and receive the template, or discover latent abilities, etc., to close the point gap with the SANDMAN PCs. Last edited by finn; 07-27-2019 at 10:40 PM. |
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