Bob Bateman - The Mundane

[SkeleKing]

Basic Information

Name: Bob Bateman

Gender: Male

Age: 18

Nationality: British

Playbook: Mundane

Keywords: Thin, Cowardly

Enrollment Information

Class: First Year

College: University

Degree: Chemistry

Crunch

Charm	Cool	Sharp	Tough	Weird
+2	-1	+1	+1	0

Luck

Mark luck to change a roll to 12 or avoid all harm

Okay [][][][][][][] Doomed

Mundane Special: When you spend a point of luck, you find something weird - maybe even useful!

 

Harm

When you reach 4 or more, mark unstable

Okay [][][] I[][][][] Dying

Unstable []

Unstable injuries will worsen as time passes.

 

Experience

[][][][][]

When you roll a 6 or less, or when a move tells you to, mark an experience box.

 

MOVES

Basic Moves

Act Under Pressure

This covers trying to do something under conditions of particular stress or danger. Examples of acting under pressure are: staying on a task while a banshee screams at you; barricading a door before the giant rats catch up; Resisting the mental domination of a brain-worm; fighting when you're badly injured.

When you act under pressure, roll +Cool.

10+ you do what you set out to.

7-9 the keeper is going to give you a worse out come, hard choice, or price to pay.

On a miss, things go to hell.

Help Out

When you help out another hunter with a move they are making, roll +Cool.

10+ your help grants them a +1 to their roll.

7-9 your help grants them a +1 to their roll, but you also expose yourself to trouble or danger.

On a failure, you expose yourself to trouble or danger without helping.

Investigate a Mystery

Investigating can be done any number of ways: following tracks, interviewing witnesses, forensic analysis, looking up old folklore in a library, typing the monster’s name into Google, capturing the monster and conducting tests on it, and so on. Anything that might give you more information about what’s going on is fair game for an investigate move.

When you investigate a mystery, roll +Sharp. On a 10+ hold 2, and on a 7-9 hold 1. One hold can be spent to ask the Keeper one of the following questions:

• What happened here?
• What sort of creature is it?
• What can it do?
• What can hurt it?
• Where did it go?
• What was it going to do?
• What is being concealed here?

On a miss, you reveal some information to the monster or whoever you are talking to. The Keeper might ask you some questions, which you have to answer.

It’s important that your attempts to investigate (and the results you get from them) are plausible and consistent with what’s happening. For example, if you’re using laboratory equipment to investigate evidence, you probably won’t be able to learn anything about the monster’s magical origins.

Kick Some Ass

When you get into a fight and kick some ass, roll +Tough.

On any success (i.e., total 7 or more) you inflict harm on (and suffer harm from) whatever you’re fighting. The amount of harm is based on the established dangers in the game. That usually means you inflict the harm rating of your weapon and your enemies inflict their attack’s harm rating on you.

If you roll a 10+, choose one extra effect:
• You gain the advantage: take +1 forward, or give +1 forward to another hunter.
• You inflict terrible harm (+1 harm).
• You suffer less harm (-1 harm).
• You force them where you want them.
On a miss, you get your ass kicked instead. You suffer harm or get captured, but don’t inflict any harm back.

Manipulate Someone

This move is used when you want someone to do something for you. You’ll need a good reason for them to do it, and what counts as a good reason depends on what you are asking for and your relationship with them.

For friends and allies, you might just need to ask. For witnesses to a monster attack, you could tell them you are with the police, or just offer them some cash for answering your questions.

Once you have given them a reason, tell them what you want them to do and roll +Charm.

For a normal person:
• If you get 10+, then they’ll do it for the reason you gave them. If you asked too much, they’ll tell you the minimum it would take for them to do it (or if there’s no way they’d do it).
• On a 7-9, they’ll do it, but only if you do something for them right now to show that you mean it. If you asked too much, they’ll tell you what, if anything, it would take for them to do it.
• On a miss, your approach is completely wrong: you offend or anger the target.

For another hunter:
• On a 10+ they mark experience and get +1 forward if they do what you ask.
• On a 7-9, they mark experience if they do what you ask.
• On a miss, it’s up to that hunter to decide how badly you offend or annoy them. They mark experience if they do not do what you asked.

Protect Someone

When you prevent harm to another character, roll +Tough.

On any success (i.e., 7 or more), you protect them okay, but you’ll suffer some or all of the harm they were going to get.

If you got a 10+ choose an extra:

• You suffer little harm (-1 harm).
• All impending danger is now focused on you.
• You inflict harm on the enemy.
• You hold the enemy back. On a miss, then you end up making things worse.

Read a Bad Situation

When you look around and read a bad situation, roll +Sharp.

On a 10+ hold 3, and on a 7-9 hold 1.

One hold can be spent to ask the Keeper one of the following questions:
• What’s my best way in?
• What’s my best way out?
• Are there any dangers we haven’t noticed? • What’s the biggest threat?
• What’s most vulnerable to me?
• What’s the best way to protect the victims?

If you act on the answers, you get +1 ongoing while the information is relevant. For example, if you ask for the best way in to the monster’s lair then you’ll get +1 while you are infiltrating it. But once you’re in, the information doesn’t help you any more.

On a miss, you might mis-read the situation (e.g. “Everything is fine here! It will be totally safe to go investigate alone!”), or you might reveal tactical details to your enemies (which means the Keeper can ask the questions above of you)

Use Magic

When you use magic, say what you’re trying to achieve and how you do the spell, then roll +Weird.
• If you get a 10+, the magic works without issues: choose your effect.
• On a 7-9, it works imperfectly: choose your effect and a glitch. The Keeper will decide what effect the glitch has.
• On a miss, you lose control of the magic. This never ends well.

By default the magic has one of the effects listed below, lasts for around thirty minutes, and does not expose you to danger, unwanted attention, or side-effects. If there’s a glitch this might change.

Effects:
• Inflict harm (1-harm ignore-armour magic obvious).
• Enchant a weapon. It gets +1 harm and +magic.
• Do one thing that is beyond human limitations.
• Bar a place or portal to a specific person or a type of creature.
• Trap a specific person, minion, or monster.
• Banish a spirit or curse from the person, object, or place it inhabits.
• Summon a monster into the world.
• Communicate with something that you do not share a language with.
• Observe another place or time.
• Heal 1-harm from an injury, or cure a disease, or neutralize a poison.

Glitches:
• The effect is weakened.
• The effect is of short duration.
• You take 1-harm ignore-armour magic.
• The magic draws immediate, unwelcome attention.
• It has a problematic side effect. The Keeper may require one or more of the following:
• The spell requires weird materials.
• The spell will take 10 seconds, 30 seconds, or 1 minute to cast.
• The spell requires ritual chanting and gestures.
• The spell requires you to draw arcane symbols.
• You need one or two people to help cast the spell.
• You need to refer to a tome of magic for the details.

 

Mundane Moves

Always The Victim

Whenever another hunter uses Protect Someone to protect you, they mark experience. Whenever a monster captures you, you mark experience.

The Power of Heart

When fighting a monster, if you help someone, don't roll +Cool. You automatically help as if you rolled a 10.

Panic Button

When you need to escape, name the route you'll try and roll +Sharp. On a 10+ you're out of danger, no problem. On a 7-9 you can go or stay, but if you go it's going to cost you (you leave something behind or something comes with you). On a miss, you are caught halfway out.

 

GEAR

Baseball bat (2 harm, hand, innocuous, messy), Multi-tool (1 harm, hand, useful, small)

Transport TBD (Classic car in terrible condition, or van if there is no team vehicle)

History

Bob Bateman lived an unexciting life, devoid of danger or mysterious events. He did well in school, got along with his peers, and avoided conflict. Just an everyday average guy living an uninteresting life. That all changed the year he started higher education, as he drunkenly stumbled back to his dorm after a college frat party. He didn't remember much, but he did recall having an encounter with a creature. Something big, with claws, teeth, and fur, and lots and lots of blood. But when he woke up the next morning he was unharmed and safe in his room. He dismissed it all as a dream brought on by a bad bender and continued on with his college life.

But things continued to escalate from there, as he kept encountering strange and supernatural things. Some of which he was sober for. There were rodents of unusual sizes, a very persuasive fly that claimed it could grant him any one wish, a cat that tried to suck out his soul with its eyes, and he couldn't shake the feeling that he became a zombie at some point. His unusual encounters eventually attracted the attention of the OUMHS, as it was statistically unlikely that any one person would be involved in so many incidents. After detaining and investigating him, they determined that Bob wasn't the cause of the recent spike of incidents. Monsters just really seemed to like him for some reason. Taking this into account, the society insisted that he join them for his own safety. Bob feels like the real reason they invited him was to use him as bait, but what else could he do? He'd already sunk too much money into Oxford to back out now.

Introduction

Bob is a bloody coward, inspired by the likes of Shaggy Rogers and Courage the Cowardly Dog. He's there to react like any reasonable person can be expected to act to facing monsters on a weekly basis: with screaming, crying, and maybe some vomiting depending on how graphic the scene is. He'd much rather live an average life than having to deal with any of this mess, trying to graduate college and being concerned with getting high and getting laid. He'll still go along with the other hunters, but it will be as a quivering, sobbing mess. Perhaps he'll undergo character development to eventually become a fierce monster hunter in his own right, but as of now this is his starting point.

I'm still considering whether I should take Panic Button or Let's Get Out Of Here.

 

[Knave]

Thanks for the application. I do love the Mundane class, if I was playing it would be my choice too.