Sue Junkskunk [300 points]
Attributes [140]: ST 11 [10], DX 12 [40], IQ 14 [80], HT 11 [10]
Advantages [149]: Appearance (Attractive) [4], Artificer (4) [40], Business Acumen (1) [10], Charisma (4) [20], Common Sense [10], Single-Minded [5], Smooth Operator (1) [15], Social Regard (Respected) (1) [5], Social Regard (Venerated) (1) [5], Status (+1) [0], Versatile [5], Visualization [10], Wealth (Wealthy) [20]
Perks [1]: Honest Face [1]
Disadvantages [-50]: Bad Sight (Nearsighted) (Glasses) [-10], Code of Honor (Professional) [-5], Curious (12 or less) [-5], Honesty (12 or less) [-10], Obsession ("Fix all of this.") (Long-Term Goal) (12 or less) [-10], Sense of Duty (Settlement) (Large Group) [-10]
Quirks [-5]: Careful [-1], Distinctive Feature (White streak in hair) [-1], Habit (Always fiddling with broken but repairable gear) [-1], Imaginative [-1], Likes a particular brand of Old World soda [-1]
Skills [65]: Accounting IQ/H - IQ-1 13 [1]*, Acting IQ/A - IQ+0 14 [1]**, Administration IQ/A - IQ+1 15 [2]*, Architecture/TL8 IQ/A - IQ-1 13 [1], Area Knowledge (Local) IQ/E - IQ+0 14 [1], Armoury/TL8 (Body Armor) IQ/A - IQ+3 17 [1]***, Armoury/TL8 (Melee Weapons) IQ/A - IQ+3 17 [1]***, Armoury/TL8 (Small Arms) IQ/A - IQ+5 19 [4]***, Brawling DX/E - DX+0 12 [1], Carousing HT/E - HT+1 12 [1]**, Carpentry IQ/E - IQ+4 18 [1]***, Chemistry/TL8 IQ/H - IQ-2 12 [1], Climbing DX/A - DX-1 11 [1], Cooking IQ/A - IQ-1 13 [1], Current Affairs/TL8 (local region) IQ/E - IQ+0 14 [1], Detect Lies Per/H - Per-1 13 [1]**, Diplomacy IQ/H - IQ-1 13 [1]**, Driving/TL8 (Automobile) DX/A - DX-1 11 [1], Electrician/TL8 IQ/A - IQ+3 17 [1]***, Electronics Repair/TL8 (Communications) IQ/A - IQ+3 17 [1]***, Electronics Repair/TL8 (Security) IQ/A - IQ+3 17 [1]***, Engineer/TL8 (Civil) IQ/H - IQ+2 16 [1]***, Engineer/TL8 (Electrical) IQ/H - IQ+2 16 [1]***, Fast-Talk IQ/A - IQ+0 14 [1]**, Gambling IQ/A - IQ+0 14 [1]*, Guns/TL8 (Pistol) DX/E - DX+1 13 [2], Leadership IQ/A - IQ+4 18 [1]**/****, Machinist/TL8 IQ/A - IQ+3 17 [1]***, Masonry IQ/E - IQ+4 18 [1]***, Mathematics/TL8 (Applied) IQ/H - IQ-2 12 [1], Mechanic/TL8 (Automobile) IQ/A - IQ+3 17 [1]***, Mechanic/TL8 (Gasoline Engine) IQ/A - IQ+4 18 [2]***, Merchant IQ/A - IQ+0 14 [1]*, Observation Per/A - Per-1 13 [1], Politics IQ/A - IQ+0 14 [1]**, Propaganda/TL8 IQ/A - IQ+0 14 [1]*, Public Speaking IQ/A - IQ+4 18 [1]**/****, Savoir-Faire (Post-Apoc) IQ/E - IQ+1 15 [1]**, Scrounging Per/E - Per+3 17 [8], Search Per/A - Per-1 13 [1], Sex Appeal (Human) HT/A - HT+1 12 [1]**/*****, Shortsword DX/A - DX+0 12 [2], Smith/TL8 (Iron) IQ/A - IQ+3 17 [1]***, Stealth DX/A - DX+0 12 [2], Streetwise IQ/A - IQ+0 14 [1]**, Tactics IQ/H - IQ+0 14 [4], Urban Survival Per/A - Per-1 13 [1]
*Includes: +1 from 'Business Acumen.'
**Includes: +1 from 'Smooth Operator.'
***Includes: +4 from 'Artificer.'
****Includes: +4 from 'Charisma.'
*****Includes: +1 from 'Appearance.'
Stats [140] Ads [149] Disads [-50] Quirks [-5] Skills [65] = Total [300]
The first thing people notice when they’re in Junkskunker turf is, well, OK, the first thing people notice are the walls. They’re very, very good walls, made out of actual concrete. The second thing? Well, the gibbets on top of those walls, complete with asphalt-smeared corpses. Each corpse has a stainless steel sign on it with the word “RAIDER” neatly etched into the metal, except when the signs say “VANDAL.” Clearly the Junkskunkers have Views.
But the third thing that people notice -- once they get past the walls and the gibbets -- is that the streets are clean. Or at least free of garbage and debris. Buildings are either occupied, vacant but being kept up, or in the process of being disassembled. The trash is being collected, the grass and weeds are being clipped, and while people are often wearing patched clothes nobody’s wearing rags. Folks look a bit more alert and healthy, too. And there is absolutely wrong with their weapons and armor.
This would be because of Sue Junkskunk, who is called ‘ma’am’ to her face and ‘Mayor’ behind her back (with the exception of those who call her ‘Queen’). If the Old World had not fallen, she would have probably still been a celebrity; in this one, she’s perilously close to being worshipped as a demigod. Sue avoids it mostly by pretending that she doesn’t even realize that it’s an option.
It’s the combination of attributes, you see. Charismatic individuals can go far in the post-apoc world. So can canny traders and merchants. And, needless to say, a skilled mechanic can write her own ticket. Have all three in one person, and things just sort of coalesce around her. As they did with Sue: she’s been running various things since she was fourteen, and those things get bigger and more complex every year.
This is by Sue’s own preference, by the way. She wants to be in charge of things. Sue, in fact, wants to be in charge of as much as she can legitimately grab and keep, and she wants to pass that along to her successor, and to have that successor keep at the job until everything’s fixed. Maybe not exactly the same as it was in the Old World, because obviously they screwed that up, but there’s no reason why there can’t be functioning sewers and electrical power grids and people not having to strap on weapons and armor whenever they want to go for a walk.
Unfortunately, to make that happen the Junkskunkers need to expand their territory, which sometimes means war. It’s much easier when it doesn’t, and more than one neighborhood tribe has cheerfully ‘surrendered’ to the Junkskunkers when the border got close enough. And, given a preference, Sue would rather go conquer somebody horrible than a group that merely preferred their independence. But if the Junkskunkers have to take a strategic city block, then that’s what’s happening. At least her forces will fight clean. Friend or foe, committing atrocities gets rewarded with the gibbet.
Sue will typically not be encountered on the front lines of her expanding empire; her subjects have gotten extremely unreasonable about the idea of her being allowed to be in actual battle. Sue only somewhat minds that, because she recognizes that her skill set can be used for more complicated things than leading Junkskunker infantry against bandit gangs. She has people who can do that sort of thing perfectly well. But it’s always interesting to see what’s going on outside the walls. She misses it, sometimes. Not enough to evade her subjects and have adventures, but enough to not really object if an adventure happens anyway and it’s not her fault.
Oh, and for the curious: before Sue, the term was for a scrounger and fixer was ‘Junkrat.’ Sue is not a rat. Rats symbolize decay. A skunk, on the other hand, is an amiable and even friendly creature who will ruin your entire week if you mess with it. Thus, ‘Junkskunk.’ Besides, she’s got that white lock in her hair. It just all sort of comes together, hey?
300 points is about as high as this character conception can get before the question becomes “Why is this person not running the East Coast?” If that is the goal: put more points into higher Status or Wealth; or add either an Ally Group, or top Administrative Rank in the nation that is conquering the East Coast. For lower-point versions: a just-getting-established 250 point Sue Junkrat will have ST and HT 10, no extra Wealth, and no Social Regards. Below that, further reduce cost to 150 points by adding Dead Broke (-25), full Nearsighted (an additional -15), Social Stigma (Minor) (-5), and Workaholic (-5). This represents Suzie the Junk-rat at the absolute beginning of her career.
Full PDF here:
http://moelane.com/2019/08/11/sue-ju...ints-gurps-4e/