Wherein your humble scribe presents an NPC for use with Basic RolePlaying.
Lieutenant Roger “Lucky Dog” Doggett, the leader of November Company, is the kind of man an ordinary soldier can look up to. He’s a big fella who doesn’t shy away from a fight, but he’s also clever enough to know when and how to avoid trouble. More than anything, though, Lucky Dog is just plain likable. So likable, in fact, that if he makes it out of the war in one piece there’s already some talk of him running for office when he gets back home to Texas. You can bet your spare chocolate and stockings that there’s not a man in November Company who wouldn’t vote for Doggett.
STR 14 CON 16 SIZ 17 INT 13 POW 15 DEX 13 APP 16
Hit Points 17 Major Wound 9 Power Points 15
Damage Bonus: +1d4
Weapons: Rifle 50%, damage 2d6+2
Revolver 65%, 1d8
Fist 50%, 1d3+1d4
Grenade 50%, 4d6
Armor: none
Skills: Appraise 35%, Artillery: Machinegun Turret 15%, Bargain 25%, Brawling 50%, Command 60%, Dodge 61%, Drive: Jeep 55%, Etiquette 35%, Fast Talk 35%, First Aid 55%, Firearm: Revolver 65%, Firearm: Rifle 50%, Grapple 35%, Heavy Machine: Tank 11%, Heavy Weapon: Bazooka 11%, Insight 25%, Perform: Acting 25%, Persuade 35%, Language: German 20%, Language: Italian 10%, Language: English 85%, Listen 50%, Sense 30%, Spot 55%, Status: Army 55%, Throw 50%
The charismatic soldier, eh? Kind of reminds me of Telly Savalas’s character (in some WWII movie I can’t put my finger on–I think Eastwood was in it, too), the guy who was running all these rackets and was going to be a big-shot when he got back to the States.
Speaking of luck–are you going to use the BRP POW/luck point variant rules in the one-shot?
Hmm. This film you speak of, it sounds vaguely familiar. I wanna say John whats-his-name, Cas? Casa? Something like that was in it, too. No, wait, I don’t think that’s the same film. You’re talking about the one with Keifer’s dad, aren’t you? 🙂
Yeah, if this gets run (which is, sadly, starting to look unlikely based on availability of players) I’ll definitely be using at least some of the Fate Points stuff. I also have a variant I came up with (or maybe read somewhere, I don’t recall) wherein a character who is damaged can make a luck roll and, if successful and an interesting explanation is offered, the damage can be applied to Power Points rather than HP. It’s not quite as cinematic as just doubling HP, but it does help with survivability somewhat. It’s basically the old “Ah, my lucky flask stopped the bullet” routine.
Of the “by the book” Fate Points options I favor the “5 points to reroll” option most. I’m not super keen on the “six to shift a result one step” option, but my players have used it on occasion and it hasn’t ruined anything, so if they ask I let it happen. I do like low-end dramatic editing but no one has really opted for that. I aim to encourage them more in that direction in the future, though.
Have you used any of those variants yourself?
Nope, haven’t had a chance to play BRP for awhile, though it’s a favorite.
Swapping POW pt.’s for HP’s on a luck roll is an awesome idea, though. I like it better than the variant suggested in the rules. I used to call BRP “Adventures in Healing” because, as a player, anyway, I seemed to spend a lot of game time trying to recover from Serious Wounds, criticals, and staving off unconsciousness (the ‘sample of play’ given in the new book illustrates this nicely). So any new rule that nerfs the damage a bit without wrecking the system sounds good.
Get thee to a BRP game, G-man! 🙂
The “lucky” spare HP idea definitely works in-game. It provides a good cushion that can help keep players going without making things “too easy.” It also has the advantage of making POW a useful stat in games that don’t use magic or other powers. And in a game with the point-buy stats option on, that’s extra important. Otherwise those min-maxers just gleefully ignore (or buy down) POW otherwise.
“Adventures in Healing” – heh. When the players don’t do their damnedest to avoid combat it can certainly turn out that way. I do prefer to keep things moving as much as possible rather than just stopping for game weeks to heal, so this option helps a lot. I just wish I could remember if I thought of it (yay me if I did) or if I read it somewhere else (yay whoever thought of it if I didn’t). Ah well, it’s out there for use and that’s what matters.
The film was Kelly’s Heroes. Dunno if telly was really the liveable kind. (has he ever been) but the platoon decided that instead of heading to the front they’d go behind enemy lines to rob a bank full of Nazi gold and head into the sunset.
Donald Sutherland was the whacked out Sherman commander
Ah, well, Telly’s always seemed charismatic to me!
Good movie to base an adventure around.
As the man used to say… “Who loves ya, baby?”
And Clint Eastwood was Kelly, a private, formerly a platoon commander busted for a screw up that wasn’t his fault.
He was the mastermind behind the robbery
It’s hard to think of a young Clint Eastwood as a mastermind of anything. Or a leader. Young Clint worked best as a silent loner. But hey, despite years (and much alcohol) since I’ve seen Kelly’s Heroes, I have a fondness for it. So something must have worked 🙂
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