LibriumArcana.Games

Okay, so Julian's done a few of these for other systems, I'm going to give it a go here. Night's Black Agents is a fairly straightforward game, not a huge number of skills or complicated mechanics, but there's no class system so getting a concept can be difficult sometimes. If you use Burn Notice, Leverage, or White Collar as a baseline, you can get several excellent points of inspiration.

So, first things first, let's talk basic mechanics so you know what all this is about. There are no attributes, just abilities, and there are two kinds, Investigative and General. The points in these abilities can be spent as you see fit through the course of play, and refresh at various rates. Physical Abilities, like Athletics, Driving, Hand to Hand, Piloting, Shooting, and Weapons, refresh every 24 hours. You take a day, you get them back. Health and Stability recover with time and medical or psychological attention. Most other General abilities can refresh by following your character's Drive into danger or story complication, getting captured, or certain abilities or special rules. The exception here is Network and Cover, which are never refreshed. Once you have committed resource to a Cover or Network resource, they are used. If you need more, you can buy more with XP, but it encourages you to not throw away Covers or Assets, because getting them back is a problem.

Aside from the exception of Cover and Network, all other abilities, General and Investigative, refresh at the end of an "Operation", which by the book are on average about 2-3 sessions, depending on pacing. In practice, it could be 1 session, or it could be 6.

You spend points on die rolls you really want to make. Difficulties range between 2-8 and you roll a single D6 for the checks. Average difficulty is 3-4. Shooting at someone, for instance, is a baseline difficulty of 3, modified by cover and a few other things, like having high Athletics. So if there's a guy behind cover and he's been pulling some Parkour stuff during the chase, you can reasonably expect the target number to hit him being around a 5, so if you've got a lot of points in Shooting, you can afford to spend 2-3 points to make the chances you'll hit him even better. Spends happen before the roll, so you have to gauge them carefully, but since Shooting refreshes every 24 hours, you can feel better about spending it right now, especially if you really need that guy dead.

So on to the actual character creation:

Every player starts with a few things right off the bat for free, Health and Stability at 4, Network at 15, Cover at 10, Tradecraft and Streetwise at 1. These are basic things that all operators, regardless of their speciality, get as a baseline. You've been doing covert ops for a while now, so you understand the cores of the trade and how to get around the underside of cities all over the place. You may not be the best at it, but you know the basics. You also have a set of Cover Identities and Contacts you've established over the course of your career. Health and Stability are quite literally your Physical and Mental Hitpoints, and are to be neglected at your peril.

So where do I start with my character? Well, first I start with a concept. Since I recommended Burn Notice and Leverage above as starting points, I'll start with this:

"My name is Daniel Easton, I used to be a spy until..."

Since I'm using the main character from Burn Notice as a baseline, I should focus on what he was really good at, what stuck out in my mind as being essential to his character in the show. Now, I could go and grab some backgrounds that sound about right from the main book and slap them together, in which case I would come up with Asset Handler, Cuckoo, and Investigator, which would give me a good baseline I could manipulate from there, but let's focus on the free form. Three things Michael Weston was best at is a good place to start.

First up is Disguise. Daniel will need a good Disguise skill to go deep cover, act like different people, impersonate notorious criminals, and so on. With a high enough Disguise, he can slip into roles connected to whatever is being investigated, perhaps because he is reviving an old cover, or perhaps because the person he is impersonating is known only through reputation, and has never been met. Either way, I'll earmark this one as very important.

Next up is Surveillance. Shadowing, staking out, and gathering information before infiltrating a group is massively valuable, and without it, you're as good as dead. It also matters once under cover to turn up valuable information by following around important people who would otherwise be hard to spot.

Third, I'll want a combat skill, but one I can rely on under any circumstance. Going into dangerous situations often means going in unarmed, no gun, no knife, no taser. Criminals and black ops specialists are equally paranoid, and pat downs will happen, so Hand to Hand is going to be my top combat skill. I'll probably put points into Shooting because guns are always lethal, and it never hurts to have a backup, but in a bathroom, few things beat breaking a sink with someone's face.

So let's see how my character looks right now. I have 70 points to spend in General Abilities, and 20 points in Investigative. General skills top out at 20, though Health and Stability top out at 12.

Name: Daniel Easton
Concept: Burned Spy

General Abilities

Cover: 10
Disguise: +8
Hand to Hand: +8
Health: 4
Network: 15
Stability: 4
Surveillance: +8

Investigative Abilities
Electronic Surveillance: 1
Streetwise: 1
Tradecraft: 1

So far, I've only spent 24 points from General Abilities, leaving me with 46 more to spend. I'll want to spend some in Health and Stability, but you may also note I have a point in Electronic Surveillance. That's from having 8 points in the Surveillance General Ability. Most General Abilities have what's called a "Cherry", a special ability that unlocks once you've invested 8 points in the ability. Hand to Hand lets me size up opponents to see if their Hand to Hand is better or worse than mine, but with Surveillance, I get a free point in an Investigative ability, so let's move on to those.

Electronic Surveillance is the art of tracing calls, GPS signals, planting and finding bugs, making listening devices by cannibalizing cell phones, and so forth. A useful skill for any spy to have, but what about the cornerstones of Mr. Easton's investigation repertoire?

Same as before, I'm going to think of the three cornerstones for Mr. Easton. This won't be the limit of my investigation skills, not by a long shot, but it gives me a good base to work from.

The first thing that comes to my mind is languages. Being a deep cover agent for so long means he's got to have picked up more than a few languages in the course of his career, and he has to be able to speak them well enough to lie in them. Plus, what good is listening in on a Russian conversation if you don't actually speak Russian?

Next up is BS Detector. I need to know when someone is lying to me, but more importantly, what motives they might have for lying to me, so that I can work out some way to get them to spill the beans, which leads to the next skill...

Reassurance. You might think interrogation would be a natural followup to BS Detector, and it is, no question, but with Reassurance I can get people to do things for me through fast talk, a calming presence, and generally being their friend. If I know what's motivating them to lie to me, I can then use the same sorts of motivators to get them to do things for me, and I can use this to make it seem like that's the right thing to do.

Investigation skills are usually rated 1-3, but Languages is a special one with a higher cap, because you can learn a lot of extra languages. Forgery is similar, with both skills generally being rated between 1-6. So with the investigative skills, let's look at the character now.

Name: Daniel Easton
Concept: Burned Spy

General Abilities

Cover: 10
Disguise: +8
Hand to Hand: +8
Health: 4
Network: 15
Stability: 4
Surveillance: +8

Investigative Abilities
Electronic Surveillance: 1
BS Detector: +2
Languages: +2
Reassurance: +2
Streetwise: 1
Tradecraft: 1

This leaves me at 46 General Points and 14 Investigative Points. Still a lot left to spend, but it goes pretty fast because a lot of the skills are useful. As a Spy, I'm going to be spending a lot of Investigative Points on Interpersonal Abilities to grease the wheels, get information, develop assets, and so on. On the General Side of things, I'm going to invest in things that would be useful under cover. Sense Trouble comes to mind, so I know what things are about to go very badly for me, Infiltration may get some points for if I have to sneak out of a place undetected, Filch for stealing useful flash drives or other things I may need, some extra points in Covers to burn through as needed, and of course some additional points in Health and Stability, but I have my starting point now.

And since I have decided I'm going to be relying on disguises fairly regularly, and my life may very well rely on the disguise holding up under scrutiny, I think I'll tag Disguise as my MOS Ability. An MOS (Military Occupational Speciality) is a single General Ability (not Investigative) that you have as your primary specialization. That is your bag. Once per session, you can choose to have the roll automatically succeed. There are limitations, like you can't do something actually impossible with the skill (I couldn't disguise myself as Andre the Giant or sell a disguise of being Don Corleone to Don Corleone, for instance), and Supernatural threats may still trump you, because Supernatural, but it's a once per session automatic win. Whatever your primary skill is, that should be your MOS.

Now I'm going to break away from raw numbers and get into Drives, Sources of Stability, and Trust.

First up, what drives my character to do what he does? Why did he join the spy game in the first place, and why does he keep going now that everything has gone wrong? If we're going by the show, Michael Weston in Burn Notice makes a lot of hay about being in it for patriotism, sometimes he's motivated by wanting to get back in, revenge, or to atone for some prior action he regrets, but at his core, what drives him is Altruism. He wants to protect people in general from the bad guys, that's what he's good at. He might not be innocent himself anymore, but his desire to protect others is strong. This makes actions like burning assets difficult, so if I wanted to be a bit more cold-blooded, I could choose revenge, thrill seeker, or restoration. For now, we'll go with Altruism, as it's interesting, provides conflict for my character with the rest of the group that will create some great drama, and is closest to the original character.

Drive: Altruism

Next up, Sources of Stability. It's a rough world, and covert ops can get particularly messy. You have to lie, cheat, bribe men to cover the crimes of other men, be the accessory to murder, and at the end of the day, you need to live with it.

You have three sources of stability, a symbol, a person you can seek solace in, and a place you feel safe.

The symbol can be just about anything. Religious icons, dog tags from a close friend or family member, a picture of happier times, a song or youtube video you just really like. Once per session, you can use your symbol to refresh 1 point of stability. If the object is lost or destroyed, you lose a rating point of stability permanently, though if it's been stolen you can get it back. Ideally, your symbol should be connected to your drive, but it doesn't have to be. If your symbol ever gets proven to be valueless, you lose three points of stability permanently (i.e. Jesus was a Vampire, the US Government is behind the Vampire menace, your dead partner faked their death to become a vampire, etc.). For Daniel, since I went with Altruism as my drive, I'll use a photo from my childhood in one of the few happy moments with my family.

Symbol: Childhood Photo

The person you take solace in can come in any number of forms, but it can't be a fellow player's character. You all go through the same shit, you need someone to talk to who isn't currently mixed up in this mess of conspiracy and vampires. It could be a bartender, a significant other, an old handler or mentor, or a family member. To take again from the character mine is based on, we'll go with his Mother, who helps ground him and help him remember what really matters in the world where people just live their lives. The downside here is that the forces aligned against you may use this as an avenue of attack, meaning that you may have to spend some time and energy protecting them. On the upside, six hours of spending time with your source of solace means you immediately get back 2 stability, and spending a day of uninterrupted companionship with them sets your stability pool back to full.

Solace: Momma Easton.

Finally is the place you feel safe, the person or place that, without thinking, you would run to without question. Examples of this might be Michael's Flat in Burn Notice, or the Bar/Office in Leverage. At the end of any session where your place of safety remains, well, safe, you automatically regain 1 stability. If you make it to the place, it acts as a haven which lets you automatically refresh three ability point pools, and any Preparedness tests carried out there have a difficulty 2 points lower than normal. If you can make to your haven unobserved, you can refresh your entire stability pool. If the place has an owner or caretaker, they can be counted as a free Rating 6 contact. These are all great, but if the place of safety ever turns you out or the owner betrays you, you lose 3 stability. Similarly, if the place of safety or the owner are destroyed by your enemies, you lose 3 stability. Both losses are permanent. For the sake of the character, we'll say his place of stability is a flat above a nightclub somewhere in Berlin, and the owner is the club owner who he gets information from sometimes.

Safety: Berlin Nightclub Flat

All that's left now is trust. Trust is a limited resource, and you have to spread it carefully. This is done once everyone has made characters, but for now I'm going to assume there's a group already, consisting of my character, Moira Brennan, Ron Mace, and Josh Butler, with a recent edition of Barry Dolittle, an old partner I thought was dead who recently joined up with us to deal with the Vampire Menace. Now, I have 5 points to spread, and I have to give 3 to one person, 1 to two different people, and everyone else gets nothing.

Ron Mace is one of my oldest and most reliable friends. He will never let me down, and he's a good person on top of it. I trust him with my life. He'll get the 3 points because I know he'll have my back.

Moira Brennan is an ex-girlfriend who used to make bombs for a radical group. She's difficult to predict, but she'll jump into the fire for me, even if afterwards she'll beat the crap out of me or detonate that distraction just a little TOO soon. She'll get 1 trust.

Josh Butler is a spy I accidentally burned, something I deeply regretted. He wasn't happy with me when I came clean, but once I showed him what was at stake, he came around. He did shoot me once, and it was to save my life, but he enjoy it, though he did say we were even now. He knows the game and will back my plays so he gets 1 trust.

Barry Dolittle was an old partner and he was a bloodthirsty son of a bitch back then. I thought he was dead, but here he is, and he knows about the Vampires. We need every hand on deck for this, but something doesn't feel right. I'm going to keep an eye on him.

Lack of trust doesn't necessarily mean suspicion, but it does mean you don't have a degree of working together well and being able to follow up on each other's actions. You can buy more trust as you go by spending XP, or shift it around as needed. Spending Trust lets you give another player a bonus to whatever action they are currently doing, either by providing assistance or just a shared look that says, "You got this, I'm going to do my thing now." The flip side to trust is betrayal, where the betraying character can spend the trust invested in them to screw over the other player. Trust spent like this does not come back, and if the player you are acting against has become mind controlled or a vampire, it doesn't work, because then it's not betraying the character, it is reasonable behavior to turn against them.

So as far as trust goes:

Ron: 3
Moira: 1
Josh: 1
Barry: 0

After this, I'll go back to the mechanical side of things and finish things up.

No gun skill? That's okay, I'll make a call see if we can get us a sniper.

Like I said, I'll probably get some points in shooting, I still have 46 to play with, but this gives me a focus for making the character.

Well.... let's see if I've got a viable character here.

I must be the only one NOT going on a TV character, because I'm basing this on a buddy of mine who was a Marine Combat Engineer, and who has more than one Interesting Story about his life and times during the pre-Desert-Storm era. I've got the face and personality ticking, jut need to talk to Garvin for more recent SandBox insanity.

Benjamin "Benji" Arhains, born 1982 in West-by-God Virginia to two hard-working parents that left him alone with his grandpa a lot. Grandpa was a Korean Vet who taught Benji to hunt, to fish, to safetly play with fireworks, and all the other skills a good ol' boy needed to know growing up, as well as a healthy dose of patriotism. Benji was always entralled those rare times his grandpa would talk about the military (Korea was barely discussed), and it seemed clear he'd be going into the Military. A bit of college with ROTC training was the plan ... until Sept 9th, 2001.

After Ben had completed Combat Engineer training (aka how to safely blow things up), he was sent to the Sandbox to put his skills to use. There, he discovered the truth of war his Grandpa could never tell him: if you weren't sweating in camp, waiting for the next mortar attack, you were in the humvee on patrol praying there wasn't an ambush or an IED set up. It was only a matter of time before something got you, and for Ben it took not quite two years. The IED that hit the humvee sent a shard of glass into his right eye like a dagger. Amazingly, while he lost a third of his iris, he did not lose his sight, and even gained an improved night vision from the increased pupil size. However, Benjamin Arhains was handed a Purple Heart and a Medical Discharge for his wound. He did, however, get to keep the shard of glass.

How he wound up working as a spy is another story.

So, now for the CharSheet:

Name: Benjamin "Benji" Arhains
Concept: Former Marine Combat Engineer - Explosives

ABILITIES:
Cover 10
Network 15
Health 12
Stability 12
Explosive Devices 8
Preparedness 8
Athletics 4
Conceal 4
Shooting 4
Hand-to-hand 4
Weapon 4
Sense Trouble 4
Driving 4
Mechanics 2
Survelliance 2

Academic:
Human Terrain 2
Military Science 2
Languages 1

Interpersonal
Streetwise 3*
Tradescraft 3*
BS Detection 3
Reassurance 2

Technical
Chemistry 2
Notice 3
Outdoor Survival 3
Urban Survival 2

Symbol: Shard of Glass that nearly blinded him
Solace: His grandpa, who ne now understands far better
Safety: (unknown)
Trust: (will wait until Game)

Okay so here's my rough idea.

Backgrounds: Asset Handler, Muscle

Health: 10
Stability: 10

General skills:
Athletics: 6
Cover: 3
Disguise: 2
Driving: 1
Hand to Hand: 4
Infiltration: 3
Network: 20
Preparedness: 8
Sense Trouble: 5
Shooting: 8
Shrink: 4
Surveillance: 6
Weapon: 3

Academic
Human Terrain: 1
Languages: 2
Military Science: 2

Interpersonal
BS Detector: 2
Bureaucracy: 1
Flattery: 1
Interrogation: 1
Intimidation: 2
Negotiation: 1
Reassurance: 1
Streetwise: 2
Tradecraft: 1

Technical
Notice: 2
Outdoor Survival: 2
Urban Survival: 1

Sorry if this is the wrong thread, but is this a Sunday night only affair?

Josh wrote:Sorry if this is the wrong thread, but is this a Sunday night only affair?

yep

Cool. I might can swing a Sunday, Mondays are totally out for me though.

I mean, assuming there's an opening and somebody doesn't mind holding my hand on character creation and stuff.

Josh wrote:Cool. I might can swing a Sunday, Mondays are totally out for me though.

I mean, assuming there's an opening and somebody doesn't mind holding my hand on character creation and stuff.

Awesome. This is a new system to me as well at least, and I also need to get my ass in gear and make my proper sniper/h4x0r character.

Okay, my apologies for the delay, but here's some more notes on my character, rounding out his skills and finishing touches here and there.

Name: Daniel Easton
Concept: Burned Spy
MOS: Disguise

General Abilities

Athletics: 2
Conceal: 2
Disguise: 8
Filch: 2
Gambling: 2
Hand to Hand: 8
Infiltration: 3
Mechanics: 8
Preparedness: 2
Sense Trouble: 8
Shooting: 2
Shrink: 2
Surveillance: 8
Weapons: 1

Health: 8
Stability: 8

Cover: 14
Network: 15

Investigative Abilities

Human Terrain: 1
Languages: 2 (English, German, 3 unclaimed)
BS Detector: 2
Bureaucracy: 1
Cop Talk: 1
Flattery: 2
High Society: 1
Interrogation: 1
Intimidation: 1
Negotiation: 1
Reassurance: 3
Streetwise: 1
Tradecraft: 2
Electronic Surveillance: 1
Notice: 2
Urban Survival: 1

Drive: Altruism
Symbol: Picture of happier times
Solace: Mamma Easton
Safety: Flat above a nightclub in Berlin

I might still juggle things around, but so far I'm reasonably happy.

Josh wrote:Cool. I might can swing a Sunday, Mondays are totally out for me though.

I mean, assuming there's an opening and somebody doesn't mind holding my hand on character creation and stuff.

There's room, but you need to be around for the hand holding and cuddling character creation stuff.

On Sundays or at some other time?

Sunday nights I can make. Five pm PST, correct?

Josh wrote:On Sundays or at some other time?

Sunday nights I can make. Five pm PST, correct?

Yeah. You'll want to talk ahead of time for the hand holding through character creation thing. We're doing standard character creation for Night's Black Agents which is a fairly simple game to create characters in. See what Hotfoot posted above.

Okay, I'm going to post this up for people to poke holes in. Mechanically I'm pretty satisfied, though I'm open to shuffling skill points around.

Let me know what makes sense and what doesn't background-wise, this is not really my most well-known genre.

Freddy Manus (of Norwegian descent) has never had a "real" job for more than a month. The first job he got in high school, he figured he could make more by stealing the cash box than working there for a decade... so he did. Thus began a fruitful career. Freddy fell in with a crew of bank robbers where honed his skills at getting into places he wasn't wanted. One job went spectacularly bad and Freddy only got away thanks to expert driving on the part of Oren.

It was about that time that when Ron Mace helped set Freddy up with a job at Blackwater Xe Academi Totally-On-The-Level-PMC, offering a "legit", no-questions-asked way to put Freddy's skills. It's been a hard life of taking things that don't belong to him and Freddy was already becoming a bitter, disillusioned cynic when he found out who he was really working for.

Freddy is a firm believer that a solid plan is all well and good but sometimes the swift and overwhelming application of superior firepower is the best solution.

symbol: Valuable coin from first successful heist
solace: waitress in a quiet berlin dive for washed up old guys that he practically collapsed in one night; she could see he was in pain that first night and was kind, he's come back ever since (Name TBD, studies social work at uni, considers him kind of a pet project)
safety: fence for artifacts, artwork, and particularly fancy valuables. Rich guy, fairly old (60s-70s), owns manse outside berlin. Years of working together taught agent to actually appreciate art/ancient artifacts rather than just steal them. Also how to tell fakes.

Drive: No Where Else to Go - They know I know? Then they're coming. I might be fucked but my only hope is to see this through. Killing 'em all is the only way. That literally everyone else is better off if I succeed is just gravy.

Backgrounds: Black Bagger, Wet Worker, Wire Rat
MOS: Infiltration

Stability: 8
Health: 8

General Abilities:
Athletics 8
Conceal 5
Cover 10
Digital Intrusion 4
Filch 8
Hand-to-Hand 4
Infiltration 10
Mechanics 6
Network 15
Preparedness 5
Shooting 8
Surveillance 4

Investigation Abilities:
Archaeology 1
Architecture 2
Art History 1
Criminology 1
Languages 1 (English, German, 1 unclaimed)

Intimidation 2
Streetwise 2
Tradecraft 1

Chemistry 1
Data Recovery 1
Electronic Surveillance 2
Notice 1
Photography 2
Urban Survival 2

Trust:
Oren Donovan 3 (we ran banks together)
Ron Mace 1 (recruited me into Stillwater)
Victor Cadrion (ran top cover for me once or twice, didn't shoot me)

The burning will happen at the start of the first session. You'll all know each other. Also you'll need something more than a criminal background otherwise you won't get hired.

Name: Ron Mace
Drive: Comradeship
MOS: Shooting

Backgrounds: Asset Handler, Muscle

Health: 10
Stability: 10

General skills:
Athletics: 8
Cover: 13
Disguise: 2
Hand to Hand: 4
Infiltration: 3
Network: 17
Preparedness: 8
Sense Trouble: 5
Shooting: 8
Shrink: 4
Surveillance: 6
Weapon: 2

Academic
Human Terrain: 1
Languages: 2 (German, Russian, Turkish, Spanish, Arabic)
Military Science: 2

Interpersonal
BS Detector: 2
Bureaucracy: 1
Flattery: 1
Interrogation: 1
Intimidation: 2
Negotiation: 1
Reassurance: 1
Streetwise: 2
Tradecraft: 1

Technical
Notice: 2
Outdoor Survival: 2
Urban Survival: 1

*Changes, gave up drive and dropped weapons to 2 to get Athletics up to 8.

Symbol: Grandfather's Bible
Solace: Jenny McClain Mace's trainer and ex-partner who retired after a job went bad in Libya and she lost an eye. She and her wife bought a bar in Berlin, it's the only place you get a decent Mojito in this city.
Safety: Union Gym, a small out of the way gym with a backroom that has a big sink and a large strong table.

Trust: Easton 3, Victor 1, Quentin 1

Name: Victor Cadrion
Concept: Infiltrator/Digital Intrusion Specialist
MOS: Digital Intrusion
Drive: Make sure the public knows the secrets of the world (the Wikileaks principle)
Stability Symbol: knowing that there are places for the people to find information (wikileaks)
Stability Solace: hacker ex-girlfriend Mindy
Stability Safety: ex-girlfriend Mindy's place

Trusted Character: Daniel Easton (3)
Trusted Character: Oren Donovan (1)
Trusted Character: Quentin Bardasano (1)

Background: At the age of 16, Victor had begun hacking into various agencies and businesses for fun and profit. However, he soon began to find dirty secrets that he sometimes copied and left for the wrong people to find, a habit that earned him attention from the agency. He was made a proper job offer that was more restrictive than he liked, so he made a counteroffer than included at knowing certain uncomfortable things about certain uncomfortable people, and making contingency plans for that information to be released if his wishes were not properly considered.

Long story short, Victor managed to negotiate a better set of job options for himself, something he took full advantage of to expand his skillset over the years. This led to contract work with the CIA among other places, something that honed his additional skills well.

General Abilities:
Health: 8
Stability: 8
Network: 15
Cover: 10
Hand-to-Hand: 4
Surveillance: 8 (1 free point of electronic surveillance)
Shooting: 8 (can use Extra Attacks, Sniping, Special Weapons Training, Suppressive Fire, and Technothriller Monologue)
Preparedness: 8 (can retroactively pull bullshit)
Digital Intrusion: 8 (1 free point in Cryptography)
Infiltration: 8 (can automatically bypass any normal commercial lock)
Conceal: 4
Sense Trouble: 8 (can use Sense Trouble rating instead of pool to determine action order)
Mechanics: 8 (can use Mechanics instead of Preparedness, as long as I can bullshit the explanation)

Investigative Abilities:
Tradecraft: 1
Streetwise: 1
Electronic Surveillance: 3
Languages: 2
BS Detector: 2
Cryptography: 3
Accounting: 2
Bureaucracy: 2
Urban Survival: 1

xp expendatures:

Oren Dean Donovan
Concept: Wheel Artist/Watcher

Oren was a young race car driver who ended up riding in the European circuit races. Some misadventures with gambling and race-fixing ended with him homeless and down on his luck in Toulon. From there, he got into the street racing circuit, leading to further misadventure which ultimately led to his being the wheelman in a crew of bank robbers. Life went along swimmingly until a badly botched job sent Oren and (Steve's character) on the dodge, at which point they were recruited by Ron Mace.

General Abilities

Health: 10
Stability: 8

Cover: 10
Disguise: 2
Driving: 14
Infiltration: 2
Mechanics: 10
Network: 15
Preparedness: 8
Sense Trouble: 4
Shooting: 8
Surveillance: 12

Investigative Abilities:
Human Terrain: 2
Languages: 2
BS Decector: 2
Cop Talk: 2
Negotiation: 1
Streetwise: 3
Tradecraft: 2
Electronic Surveillance: 2
Notice: 1
Outdoor Survival: 1
Photography: 2
Urban Survival: 3

Drive: Comradeship
Symbol: His old toolbox, complete with lucky wrench set.
Solace: Rodolf Bary, retired race fixer in Toulon
Safety: The old corner shop in Toulon

Trust:
Freddy 3
Mace 2

Oren in pictorial form











With bonus soundtrack

[youtube][/youtube]

Quentin Bardasano

Former freelance photojournalist who drifted into a long-time espionage career after being caught up in an operation by taking the wrong picture at the wrong time. Over time, Quentin has drifted from his initial specialty of photographic surveillance into a more broad operational-support role, covering acquisition, destruction, and outright fabrication of evidence.

MOS: Conceal
Drive: Transparency
Symbol: Lens pendant with a silver chain
Solace: College photography instructor
Safety: Concealed darkroom beneath a shed outside Boston

Health: 9
Stability: 10

General Skills:
Athletics: 5
Conceal: 8
Cover: 16
Digital Intrusion: 2
Disguise: 4
Driving: 4
Hand-to-Hand: 8
Infiltration: 8
Mechanics: 4
Network: 15
Shooting: 2
Surveillance: 6
Weapons: 2

Investigative Skills:

-Academic
Criminology: 2
Languages: 2

-Interpersonal
BS Detector: 1
Bureaucracy: 2
Cop Talk: 1
Streetwise: 1
Tradecraft: 1

-Technical
Astronomy: 1
Chemistry: 2
Forgery: 4
Photography: 3
Urban Survival: 2

Trust:
Ron Mace: 3
Daniel Easton: 1
Victor Cadrion: 1

Dr. Jürgen Wexler
Professional Role: Forensic Pathologist/Psychological Profiler
MOS: Medic
Backgrounds: Medic

Drive: Altruism
Symbol: Auferstanden Aus Ruinen (east german anthem)
Solace: Heinkel, proprietor of a tavern conveniently located outside the medical school at Leipzig university
Safety: University of Leipzig library stacks

Dr. Wexler was born in Dresden, 1972, and was raised as a committed communist. He had just started medical school (which in Germany is combined with undergraduate programs, rather than having discrete programs for pre-med, and then medicine) in 1989 at the University of Leipzig just prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall and subsequent free election and reunification of Germany. There he specialized in Trauma Surgery, and went into hospital practice, spending his holidays with Medicines Sans Frontiers. Several accumulated years providing basic medical services in the Bad Parts of Africa and helping with a few Ebola outbreaks later and his areas of medical expertise were somewhat more extensive than stitching people back together, over and above medical school.

During America's wars with Afghanistan and Iraq, Stillwater approached him about coming to work for them, helping them help the US. The Cold War was over, everything was OK then, he didn't know what the CIA had planned. He wanted to help the people of those regions--even if they would have to thank him later--so he took the job.

Health:12
Stability:12

General Abilities
Athletics: 8
Conceal 2
Cover:10
Driving: 2
Medic: 10 (2)
Network: 15 [Hans the shady Medical Supply Broker (3)]
Preparedness:8
Sense Trouble:8
Shooting: 4
Shrink:8
Surveillance: 4

Academic Abilities
Criminology 1
Diagnosis: 3
Languages 3
Occult Studies: 1
Research: 2

Interpersonal Abilities
BS Detector: 2
Interrogation: 1
Streetwise: 1
Tradecraft: 2

Technical Abilities
Astronomy 1
Chemistry 2
Forensic Pathology: 3
Pharmacy 2

Trust
3: Ron Mace
1: Quentin Bardasano
1: Victor Cadrion

Saving this here for time immemorial.

So the Sauroids were helping the Confederacy, is what you're saying Oren?