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This is a guy I came up with who I think could work in the Floating City campaign. The concept was a grizzled mercenary and killing machine trying desperately to leave his past behind him (but we all know how well that always works out). Provide your thoughts on him and places I can improve his backstory if you so desire.

Giorgio D’agnolo

A: Attributes
B: Proficiencies
C: Skills
D: Social Class
E: Edges and Flaws

Attributes:

St: **** o
Ag: ***
Sm: *****
Sp: **
Ac: ****
Cu: ***
Wp: ***
Sc: ***

Skills:

Athletics: ***
Language, German: ***
Manipulation, Intimidation: ***
Steel, Battle: ***
Mercenary: ***
Tailor: **
Streetwise: **
Warfare, Block Formation: **
Command, Military: **

Proficiencies:
Brawling (Striking): ***** ***
Longsword: oooo***
Spears: oooo**
Messer: oooo*

Edges:
Hardened (Minor)

Flaws:
Temper (Major)
Bloodthirsty (Minor)
Coveted (Eleanora) (Minor)


SAs:
My beloved wife Eleanora is everything to me.
Keep my past a secret.
Stick up for the little guy.

Description:
A hulking slab of a man, with a thick black moustache and a perpetually troubled expression

Backstory:
Giorgi D’agnolo was a nobody born in Toppo, Friuli. He would have spent his entire life as a farmer, and his death in a grave less than a mile from his home. His life changed when a company of Landsknecht marched through his little village, looking for recruits. Giorgio, still a young man, saw an opportunity to make his name in the world, and escape the monotony of the plough. He signed on immediately.

He served in the company for ten years, and found that he had a gift for murder. His first battle, he went berserk. His regiment found him afterward, covered in blood and surrounded by corpses, his hands wrapped around a dead man’s neck.

Throughout his career, he earned a reputation among his men as a brutal hand-to-hand combatant, and his battle rage turned him into an object of terror for the men on the other side of the pike wall. Despite his valour and natural intelligence, he never seemed to desire a position of command, content to sit and eat with his men as an NCO.

Blood and battle take their toll on a man, and every time he succumbed to his battle-rage, he lost a little bit more of himself. He feared that he would disappear entirely, but murder was his profession. What’s a murderer to do.

Then he met Eleanora, the daughter of a Milanese wine merchant, and fell in love. For the first time in a decade, he felt like a human being. Her very presence soothed the rage within him, and her sharp tongue and passionate wit made him laugh. Not the half-hearted chuckle of gallows humour, but a real belly laugh. And for whatever reason, she loved him back. He left the company immediately, and he and Eleanora eloped to venice together. He began working in a tailor’s shop, and quickly found that he had a passion and talent for needlework.

Giorgio has found peace, but how long can peace last in these tumultuous times?

I'm afraid that Coveted is not the best idea. It governs possesions. And you do already have a SA that directly involves Eleanora - I think it's enough.
Maybe a Major Enemy would be a better idea for a Flaw? You can introduce a powerful NPC, who is jealous and felt insulted, when you married her - and now wants your ruin. There are many possibilities here and this could be easily tied with the rest of the story.
These are only my suggestions.

First of all, great job tying the character in with the setting.

I don't care whether you use Coveted or Enemy as your major it's going to amount to the same thing either way. There is someone who wants to steal your wife from you. The thing I want to know is whether they want her because they are in love or because it is politically advantageous for them.

Are you aware of how difficult it is going to be to pass an Ob5 Frenzy test (to not kill your teammates any time you are wounded) with only 6 Wp/Cu? It's about 11%. If you were willing to give up the combat bonuses Blood Thirsty or Temper would still fit with the concept.

Did Giorgio take up arms against his own countrymen? He is born Italian but worked for the Landsknecht, who were predominantly German. He even learnt the German language and their fighting style of the Messer. During the time of the Italian Wars the Landsknecht were loyal to Charles V who was trying to conquer Venice and Milan. Giorgio could reasonably have taken jobs away from Italy, but anyone who hears of Giorgios past might well think of him as a traitor.

Thanks for the feedback guys. The idea behind using coveted was it was her father attempting to bring her back so she could marry someone worthwhile. And now that you you mention it thirtythr33, a major Bloodlust flaw would work better.

As far as for why he fought with Landsknechts, the region of Italy where he's from was actually part of the Holy Roman Empire during the time period I'm assuming this is all set.

Fun fact, my family is originally from Friuli, and Toppo is totally a real place (My Nonna was boern there).

So after considering the feedback I've received, I've instituted a few changes to Giorgio's profile, specifically regarding his flaws and few details of his backstory. I've decided that Eleanora's father, while still a wine merchant, was extremely down on his luck and hoped to marry her off to a much wealthier family. As she is his only child, Giorgio swooping in and spiriting her away has left the family on the brink of ruin, and her father with limited resources. As a result, Coveted is going to be a minor flaw from here on out.

Further, thanks to thirtythr33 pointing out that Frenzy would turn him into a spastic rage machine every time he pricked his finger at work (a common occurrence as he is working as a tailor), I've opted for a minor Bloodthirsty and major Temper.

Also, I love the idea that he has fought and killed his countrymen and the can of worms that would be opened if anyone finds out. I wholeheartedly embrace whatever ill fortune this brings upon me during play.

Giorgio D’agnolo

A: Attributes
B: Proficiencies
C: Skills
D: Social Class
E: Edges and Flaws

Attributes:

St: **** o
Ag: ***
Sm: *****
Sp: **
Ac: ****
Cu: ***
Wp: ***
Sc: ***

Skills:

Athletics: ***
Language, German: ***
Manipulation, Intimidation: ***
Steel, Battle: ***
Mercenary: ***
Tailor: **
Streetwise: **
Warfare, Block Formation: **
Command, Military: **

Proficiencies:
Brawling (Striking): ***** ***
Longsword: oooo***
Spears: oooo**
Messer: oooo*

Edges:
Hardened (Minor)

Flaws:
Temper (Major)
Bloodthirsty (Minor)
Coveted (Eleanora) (Minor)


SAs:
My beloved wife Eleanora is everything to me.

Description:
A hulking slab of a man, with a thick black moustache and a perpetually troubled expression

DannyBoy wrote:I've decided that Eleanora's father, while still a wine merchant, was extremely down on his luck and hoped to marry her off to a much wealthier family. As she is his only child, Giorgio swooping in and spiriting her away has left the family on the brink of ruin, and her father with limited resources.

This doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Why would someone be willing to pay so much to marry a broke merchant's daughter? Is it because a nobleman is smitten with her and is willing to pay her father?

Another idea is that her father is very rich and wants to marry her to a poor nobleman who wants the large dowry. That way he gets noble grandchildren and the nobleman gets to keep up his high standard of living.

thirtythr33 wrote:

DannyBoy wrote:I've decided that Eleanora's father, while still a wine merchant, was extremely down on his luck and hoped to marry her off to a much wealthier family. As she is his only child, Giorgio swooping in and spiriting her away has left the family on the brink of ruin, and her father with limited resources.

This doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Why would someone be willing to pay so much to marry a broke merchant's daughter? Is it because a nobleman is smitten with her and is willing to pay her father?

The idea is that her father only appears to be wealthy, when he is in fact up to his eyeballs in debt to multiple creditors. He even took out a massive loan to make her dowry that much more appealing. He did a spectacular job at hiding his financial situation from everyone, Eleanora included. By swooping in and stealing her away, Giorgio essentially insured that his house would fall into ruins.

This sounds great to me!

Since BoB combat assumes you break into 3 1v1 combats (until someone is victorious and join another for a 2v1), I think it will be best if we do your 1v1 here to keep things from getting confused in a single thread.

Continue posting your In Character stuff as normal but do the OOC stuff like dice rolling and maneuver selections etc here.

Sounds good.

Giorgio's going into this with his bare hands, so I'm going to use Brawling. My total pool for this, since I'm pretty sure we're attacking from ambush, is gonna be as follows:
Brawling: 14 + 2 for reach = 16

Giorgio is going to try and use Grab Weapon on the nearest thug for 10 dice, paying the 3 die activation cost, leaving me with 3 dice left in my pool.

Here we go...
[dice seed=1223 secure=b3d2dff2_0]10d10[/dice]

He attempts to dodge for 4 dice.

[dice seed=46528 secure=65d9ecfd_0]4d10[/dice]

potential exploding:
[dice seed=20134 secure=11842253_1]4d10[/dice]

You are now in a grapple. MoS2 disarms the opponent, knocking the baton out of his hand. You keep initiative for tempo 2.

Giorgio is gonna follow it up with a left hook to the dome with three dice.

Three die swing to the head using brawling:

[dice seed=43259 secure=b20b0e75_0]3d10[/dice]

Quick sidenote: the activation cost of Grab Weapon is two dice and not three.
"Many augmentations will have an Activation Cost listed in parentheses after the name. This replaces the base AC listed for the parent maneuver."

Does not make a big difference as you are keeping the initiative for next phrase. Just pointing it out because we are playtesting the rules...

The thug uses Break (AC1) for 1 dice.

[dice seed=29926 secure=6d307625_0]1d10[/dice]

So you keep initiative for Phrase 2. Dice pool refresh, you no longer get the reach bonus since your in a grapple and the thug gets his full combat pool now that the ambush is over.

Ok, Giorgio is going to try and throw him to the ground with 8 dice:

[dice seed=7024 secure=248adcb4_0]8d10[/dice]

4 dice remaining.