Social stats for heiress and her Pinkerton/bodyguard

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by acrosome

What religion should she be, as a member of a prominent New England/Mid-Atlantic family?

.

Protestant leads over Catholic. Joseph P. Kennedy (father of JFK, RFK, etc) made a lot of money in the period but sufferred prejudice as an Iriah Catholic. Of the Protestant denominations Episcopalian probably leads for highest status worshippers.

[Inky]

Even if Second-Class Citizen amounted to no more than "Penalty to attempts to convince male NPCs that you know what you're talking about", that would still be a significant disadvantage in a Cthulhu game where you're frequently going to want people to believe that you've seen a horrible monster from another dimension! :-D

Not sure about the Heir stuff. "Half of what she stands to inherit" looks as if it's really only meant as a very rough rule of thumb. If a very rough rule of thumb is all you need for the purposes of this campaign, then you're finished (as far as that part goes). If not, you'll need to work out what Independent Income, Wealth, Status, etc. you do want her to have until she inherits the money.

[Polydamas]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I would also note that beyond purely legal rules, Second-Class Citizen includes lack of privileges and negative reactions (a -1 modifier). Women in this era did face a good deal of that. Yes, women did have social privileges, and in a certain type of campaign it might make sense to give them Social Regard 1 (Respected); but in an adventure campaign those privileges are going to be less relevant.

Very much to the point for someone independently wealthy, women had limited rights to bank in many jurisdictions before the late 20th century. Many people are going to wonder where her father or guardian are, be suspicious about offering credit to a "sweet young thing" on the terms they would offer a gentleman of leisure, etc. If she wants to buy some of the things any adventurous H.P. Lovecraft character buys, like some machine guns, a flamethrower, or an elephant gun, she will need to work through male cutouts and find an especially creative excuse. A man in her position could just mutter something about mine guards or safaris and get all the smallarms a small team wants without much trouble beyond crossing a state border.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Polydamas

Very much to the point for someone independently wealthy, women had limited rights to bank in many jurisdictions before the late 20th century. Many people are going to wonder where her father or guardian are, be suspicious about offering credit to a "sweet young thing" on the terms they would offer a gentleman of leisure, etc. If she wants to buy some of the things any adventurous H.P. Lovecraft character buys, like some machine guns, a flamethrower, or an elephant gun, she will need to work through male cutouts and find an especially creative excuse. A man in her position could just mutter something about mine guards or safaris and get all the smallarms a small team wants without much trouble beyond crossing a state border.

Isn't a Lovecraft setting one that includes cosmic monsters?

Be that as it may real life contained Gertrude Bell. It is not unbelievable to have a 1930s Action Girl.

[ravenfish]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

Be that as it may real life contained Gertrude Bell. It is not unbelievable to have a 1930s Action Girl.

It's certainly not unbelievable or even unrealistic, but (unless the group decides to gloss over period sexism- a perfectly valid option, of course) she will face difficulties that a 1930s Action Guy wouldn't, and hence should get disadvantage points.

[Polydamas]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

Isn't a Lovecraft setting one that includes cosmic monsters?

Lovecraft was a gun collector as a teen (until he changed hobbies and became short on money) and ?the shunned house? has the characters use a flamethrower, a powerful radio, and carboys of acid to kill the thing buried in the basement of the eponymous house. The story where the horror is that someone's ancestor was half BLACK ("Medusa's Coil"?) involves a traveler with a high-capacity handgun. The story about brains in jars involves a pack of guard dogs and an assortment of high-powered rifles. Adventurous H.P. Lovecraft characters pack heat (the passive kind of character, as "Dream of the Witch-House," does not always).

In Lovecraft's America, unionized miners and the bosses' enforcers had battles with aircraft and machine guns. It was a rough place.

[acrosome]

Next question-

Is there any sort of fighting style that might be appropriate for a young woman of means in this setting? (The player will insist upon it.)

I was thinking of some sort of sport fencing, probably Foil. It seems unlikely that I could I justify French Smallsword.

Or, since the the family has French roots- Savate? Were women taught that? Or La Canne de Combat? "Umbrella as a weapon"?

Archery was a popular women's past-time in the 19th century, but I don't think it was in the 1920s. Likewise Sport Quarterstaff.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by acrosome

But no they aren't Old Money, or at least not in the manner of some old Dutch family from New York. They're like the Vanderbilts- they got rich during the golden age of railroads.

To my mind, "Old Money" means the products of intergenerational wealth - inherited money, status, etc.

Grandfather might have been a hard-driven upstart like Cornelius Vanderbuilt; but if daddy started near the top of the social pyramid and his daughter was raised among the wealthy East Coast elites (e.g., boarding schools, summers on Nantucket/the Hamptons/ Provincetown, yachts, European travel, servants) then she's definitely "Old Money."

She'll have "people" to cook and clean for her and she'll speak like Katherine Hepburn, Margaret Dumont, or Eleanor Roosevelt (due to the "boarding school accent" taught to upper crust Americans in the early 20th century).

Depending on her ethics and intended role in the campaign, she might be prejudiced towards Catholics, Jews, people of color, recent immigrants, anyone associated with the far political left, and anyone who is obviously poor.

If she's been a good girl and internalized social roles expected for women of her class and era, she will be at college to find a suitable husband and will have no greater professional ambitions than becoming a good wife and mother. Her professors will generally assume that he's hoping to get an "MRS degree."

Being a good wife means supporting her husband's professional and social ambitions, supervising her children's upbringing (i.e., choosing their nannies and their boarding schools), and being active in the sort of upper tier women's organizations I mentioned in my previous post.

A rebel might learn to drive (or even fly!), cut her hair in a bob and wear dresses which show her knees, smoke cigarettes, listen to jazz music, go to speakeasies, and discretely engage in "fast" sexual behavior stopping short of actual sex. "Great Gatsby" type debauchery would be utterly scandalous and would get her a bad Reputation fast.

Originally Posted by acrosome

What religion should she be, as a member of a prominent New England/Mid-Atlantic family?

It depends on her family origins. In any case it will be an ancestral sect of mainstream Christianity, and she will attend a well-endowed church where the local great and good go to be seen worshiping.

New England Puritan/Pilgrim stock = Congregational or Unitarian.
Scottish/Scots Irish stock = Presbyterian.
Welsh/Working-Class UK or generic Midwestern "WASP" stock = Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian.
German/Scandinavian Protestant = Lutheran.
Seriously Old New York Dutch = Dutch Reform, Episcopalian.
Middle- or Upper-class English or Irish Protestant stock, generalized Northeast or Great Lakes Region Elites = Episcopalian.
Eastern Pennsylvania stock = Methodist, maybe Quaker or Baptist.

If you want a stereotypical "rich white people" church, Episcopalian is it. It's also good for a character who knows their medieval religious iconography but isn't Catholic.

Catholicism is for eccentrics, old Maryland families, middle-class descendants of 19th c. German or Irish immigrants, and grubby, low-class recent immigrants from places like Poland, Hungary, and Southern Italy. In New England, it's strongly associated with the Irish, who basically took over the big cities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, to the abhorrence of the WASP elites.

The bodyguard should have enough social skills that he can navigate exclusively male social domains like men's clubs and police departments. Even certain speakeasies were men-only, a holdover from the exclusively male pre-WW1 saloon culture.

Working class, often Catholic and/or ethnic, cops will ignore a young upper class co-ed unless she's got serious political or social power to back her, although they'll be more-or-less polite about it. By contrast, a middle-aged man-of-action with a Reputation for heroism and the skills to prove it will command their attention and respect.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Polydamas

Adventurous H.P. Lovecraft characters pack heat (the passive kind of character, as "Dream of the Witch-House," does not always).

The 1920s is a sort of "golden age" for modern RPGs. It was the decade when high explosives, automatic weapons, and similar military small arms were available to those who wanted them, but not commonly used for hostile purposes (Blair Mountain and similar incidents aside).

Any farmer could get dynamite and blasting caps to blast stumps, dangerous chemicals were available by mail order, and sound suppressors were regularly used to make indoor sport shooting less damaging to the ears.

It was only after the rise of organized crime gangs and violence associated with Prohibition (and to a far lesser extent, far left political movements) that state and federal firearms laws were enacted.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by acrosome

Next question-

Is there any sort of fighting style that might be appropriate for a young woman of means in this setting? .

Bartitsu. Or even the (no doubt more practical) "Baritsu" that Watson attributes to Holmes.

Optionally _anything_ that an adventurous family member could bring back from an odd corner of the world or that an immigrant could bring with them. You're mostly constrained by time. You can't use any of the modern forms of Karate but ould the kindly old gardner from Okinawa secretly be a Te master?

Alternatively if she's an absolute tomboy she can learn Boxing and Wrestling like her brothers and/or cousins.

Any Style you choose is going to be some kind of anomaly.