'Mad' Murdock

[BBK]

 

Name: Warren Murdock

Nicknames/Aliases: Murdock, 'Mad' Murdock

Race: Wrathful Human

Classes (Archetypes): Gunslinger (Pistolero) 3 // Alchemist (Grenadier) 1

Personality: Short-tempered and quick to violence, 'Mad' Murdock is the epitome of the crotchity hermit's 'just leave me the hell alone' system of values. While he's a good man at heart and wants to see you eat, he doesn't want you to be eating at his table. After having been experimented on, he originally turned to alchemy to cure himself but ended up going a little mad. He now reflexively rejects outside help in fear of the possible consequences (Paranoid Drawback). He is generally surly, even when being helpful, and doesn't waste words when a grunt, a bullet, or an alchemical bomb would do instead.

He prefers small arms weaponry as it was his specialty in the military, and it keeps a hand free for his mutagen, extracts, and alchemical bombs.

Condemned Appearance Alteration: A useless, unmoving, vestigial 3rd arm on his left side, usually secured against his body under his shirt to keep from flopping around. Wrapped in bandages (rags, really) as it is, reports of it having scales, and/or glowing veins are currently unconfirmed. His body is covered in scar tissue from a myriad of various wounds long healed as well, but that might be from his time in the army as long as you don't go looking for those unconfirmed glowing veins here and there.

Normal Appearance: A handsome(ish) middle-aged man when wearing his country finest, the scars and nonfunctional vestigial third arm marring his figure underneath such finery tells an entirely different tale. He is obviously quite proud of his impressive mustache but refuses to speak on it. Mostly because he doesn't speak about himself in general, even when he does decide to speak.

Background: Retired early on medical discharge from the military after a military-funded experiment left him scarred both mentally and physically, he used his experience doing his enlisted job of Small Arms & Artillery Repair, Murdock supplemented his income with small arms repair and customization, as well as selling reloaded ammunition while working part-time at a small local gun range. Before the Turning, he had also done a brisk business maintaining the firearm replicas used by civil war reenactors at their events. Enjoying the mustachioed style of the time, he ended up adopting it as it seemed to help bring in such business and it did not hurt that many women reenactors had commented on how dashing his voluminous mustache looked on him.

When the Turning happened, Murdock experienced hellish flashbacks to the failed medical experiment he underwent in the army, and woke to find a nonfunctioning vestigial arm had grown out of his left side, hanging uselessly from his torso. Like many, he had been Corrupted. Not trusting any surviving doctor to help him with his new issue in a world without electricity where most everyone was dead or busy leaving their morals behind to give themselves any advantage over those around them, he simply bound it to his torso with an ace bandage after a long self-examination with his basic training in first aid seemed to indicate it had blood flow and wasn't having a current deleterious effect on his health.

As time went by, and the world grew stranger, his army training in IEDs served as a platform to launch his own foray into chemical bomb-making to help deal with the dangerous world around him, though he switched to alchemical means rather than mechanical on account of the sudden lack of electronics. Flashbacks of the strange experiments fueled his paranoid mind and eventually, he concocted formulae for Mutegens as well as Extracts with various effects. Keeping his research on his person in a small notebook, he developed a good repertoire of ways to deal with trouble and put it down hard.

Using his army survival training and experience living as a modern-day hermit as well as his skills as a marksman with the small arms he'd grown accustomed to, and his newly developed alchemical experiments, he survived the following two years alone for the most part, very distrusting of strangers. However, he eventually felt some sort of calling pulling him into town. Meeting people he'd seen only in his own hallucinations before, Murdock decided that while he hated the idea of trusting strangers in general, he should follow his instincts on this, and see how things play out. They were important...somehow. He needed to find out why.

Edited October 10, 2023 by BBK (see edit history)

[BBK]

I need to redo/recalculate the exact gear expenditure and allocation due to shifting homebrew item costs (semi-automatic pistol), but the core build and mechanics are solid and I don't forsee much if any change.

Edited May 18, 2023 by BBK (see edit history)

[Eborne1]

Ok sounds good.  I'll make an announcement about money and items.  Don't worry too much about it.  The starting team can get that all arranged once we get going.  

[Eborne1]

Everything looks great except for a few things that I take responsibility for not having mentioned in character creation:

#1. I'm going to ban Age benefits/drawbacks. Your character can be whatever age you want but without the changes to stats.

#2. I'm going to restrict the purchasing of additional alchemist formulae/spells until after the game begins and then only when the appropriate material is found/acquired.

Sorry for not mentioning these earlier. Let me know when you've made those changes and I'll mark your application complete. Character lottery will be held in the next couple days.

(Also: Did you choose a favored class bonus yet?)

 

[BBK]

17 hours ago, Eborne1 said:

Everything looks great except for a few things that I take responsibility for not having mentioned in character creation:

#1. I'm going to ban Age benefits/drawbacks. Your character can be whatever age you want but without the changes to stats.

#2. I'm going to restrict the purchasing of additional alchemist formulae/spells until after the game begins and then only when the appropriate material is found/acquired.

Sorry for not mentioning these earlier. Let me know when you've made those changes and I'll mark your application complete. Character lottery will be held in the next couple days.

(Also: Did you choose a favored class bonus yet?)

 

1. I didn't use age modifiers. 'Middled-aged' was only used in the background because he's in his 30's and the note in the sheet was a holdover from an older version of the build. That was my bad. :)

2. That sucks, but is understandable if you don't want a lot of magical options right off the bat. I've removed the 2 extra formulae.

3. Favored Class Bonus is the Gunslinger +1/4 Grit Points per day, but wasn't listed on the sheet because he is only level 3. It is listed now.

 

I have adjusted the sheet slightly (traits and gear, mostly) in order to shift money around to flesh out his gear. Once my questions are answered in the QA thread, I'll finalize his equipment and traits. Right now he has a second (spare) masterwork semi-automatic pistol listed, but that might change depending on the answer to my clip questions. Basically, he just needs ammo now (but may have to sacrifice other equipment for it).

 

Trait 1: Signature Moves (Social) - Profides a single Masterwork Weapon (Semi-Automatic Pistol) & +1 Bluff/Intimidate while wielding it.

Trait 2: Chosen One (Faith) - Provides a single Masterwork Longsword, & 1/Day Light Spell-Light Ability that doubles brightness if cast on the sword.

Trait 3: Magical Knack (Magic) - +2 CL (up to HD) for a specific class. If Alchemists with their extracts do not qualify, this one will be swapped out.

Edited May 26, 2023 by BBK (see edit history)

[Eborne1]

Everything looks good! If you want to swap out Magical Knack, given the handicap, if you weren't planning to multiclass the Alchemist, go ahead and do that. Just let me know of any other major changes.

Marking your application Complete

[BBK]

12 hours ago, Eborne1 said:

Everything looks good! If you want to swap out Magical Knack, given the handicap, if you weren't planning to multiclass the Alchemist, go ahead and do that. Just let me know of any other major changes.

Marking your application Complete

I swapped out Magical Knack with the Auspicious Tattoo trait, and with your consent, I'll have it be his military unit's group tattoo, and use that platoon as his 'tribe' in question as far as the trait is concerned. His Will Save concerns me, so every little bit counts. lol

I also finished the equipment setup and swapped the spare semi-automatic pistol with bullets. Lots of bullets. :)

8 full 'Clips' in one bandoleer, the Starter Pistol, Semi-Auto Pistol, his 5 daily bomb catalysts, and 1 prepared mutagen (Dex) in the 2nd bandoleer, some spare loose bullets for both guns in his waist pouch, and everything else (from crafting kits to camping supplies to a bomb chucker to some alchemical tricks) in his handy haversack. I shot for a balance of immediate and long-term survivability, so he's as prepared as I can make him.

 

Equipment cost breakdown is in the 'other notes' section for accounting purposes.

Edited May 27, 2023 by BBK (see edit history)

[Eborne1]

[Eborne1]

Just a note: One of the starting players hasn't been online in a week. So just stay tuned as we may have our first death lottery sooner than later.

[Eborne1]

We'll be holding another game lottery in a couple of days. If you'd like your character to be entered, please let me know.