Archive for July 8th, 2016

John Jackson

As previously implied, I recently acquired Amazing Adventures in PDF from Troll Lord Games, and I really like it. I’ve some experience with the d20 System variant at the heart of Amazing Adventures by way of Simon Washbourne’s nifty Wild West RPG Go Fer Yer Gun!. It’s a simple and flexible system, and Amazing Adventures is my top contender for the next game I’m going to run for my twice-monthly group.

By way of learning the system (any system, for that matter), I spend some time making up characters, monsters, et cetera. No better way for me to see the nuts and bolts of a system that to get under the hood, so to speak. To that end, here’s John Jackson:

Born in Galveston, Texas, in March of 1878, John is the third of child born to Hank and Christina Jackson, former slaves and then domestic servants. By the time he was 10, John divided his waking hours between school and work, helping sweep classrooms after school and helping the local milkman with his deliveries before school.

The Galveston of John’s childhood, although segregated, saw little racial strife, at least in the 12th Ward that was John’s home. Everyone there was poor regardless of color. John ran with a gang of white boys, and he was a welcome guest in their homes, and they in his.

Of poor health as a child, John fell under the protection of his two older sisters, using his wits to avoid confrontation when they weren’t around. This changed when an older boy picked a fight with John, punching him in the jaw. When John reported the incident to his grandmother, she told the boy, “John, if you don’t whip him, I shall whip you.” John confronted the older boy and beat him in a fist fight.

At the age of 16, John quit school and started working the local docks. Later he moved to Dallas and spent some time exercising horses at the race track. During this time, he met Lewis Walters, a carriage painter and boxing enthusiast, who took on John as an apprentice. It was Lewis’s influence that led John into becoming a boxer.

By the time John was 18, he was living in Manhattan, training for the ring and working as a janitor for Bernard Hermann, a German-born heavyweight who owned a gym. After a few penny ante fights, usually on beaches or in warehouses, John got his chance to fight professionally in 1898. Thus began John’s highly successful career as a professional boxer, a career that has permitted John to semi-retire from the ring and live a life of privilege and luxury that his parents could have only dreamed of.

In Paris, France, walking back to his hotel late one night in the company of a chanteuse, John witnessed an elderly man being assaulted in an alley. John rushed to the man’s defense, only to find himself in a life-and-death, bare-knuckle struggle against one of the many ghouls that lurk in the Paris catacombs. Although badly injured, John managed to hold off the undead monster long enough for the ruckus to attract the attention of the locals and the police. The monster fled, and John was taken to the hospital.

Confronted with the existence of a chilling world of monsters, John’s life has since moved in new directions. He hopes to find other intrepid persons with similar experiences. If things that go bump in the night are going to prey on innocent people, John figures he needs to bump right back. It’s what his grandmother would want him to do.

Strength: 18 (+3)
Dexterity: 13 (+1)
Constitution: 14 (+1)
Intelligence: 10 (+0)
Wisdom: 13 (+1)
Charisma: 13 (+1)

Primes: Strength, Constitution, Charisma
Languages: English
Class/Level: Pugilist/1
Hit Points: 13
BtH: +0
Fate Points: 10
Backgrounds: Mechanic, Professional Athlete
Traits: Musclebound (+1 STR-based checks, -2 DEX-based checks).
Abilities: Overwhelming Personality (CHA, +2 to CHA-based saves); Tough as Nails (CON, +1 to CON-based saves); Unarmed Attack (1d4).

July 8th, 2016  in RPG No Comments »