Character and World Creation

Queen Mary College and in University it’s called a TA (Teacher’s Assistant) she’s working on her Master’s in History so she grades papers and teaches some classes in Irish History.

OK, so like half an hour away from the others in good traffic?

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Piccadilly+Circus/Queen+Mary+University+of+London/@51.5169933,-0.1252831,13z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x487604d3ff201fc1:0xf08adf0cfb3eb2fe!2m2!1d-0.1342809!2d51.5098597!1m5!1m1!1s0x48761d2f4ebb40dd:0xc0cca7de33120519!2m2!1d-0.0403745!2d51.5240671?entry=ttu

But everywhere in London is 'far away' and traffic is seldom good. :(

It’s 4.5 miles so I expect that Rhiannon either runs (still about 30 minutes) or rides a bike (10-15 minutes) on the sidewalk (yes that’s illegal she doesn’t care)

Sounds good. We can work that into the events.

As I see it, money is probably the only thing Jacob doesn't need. Not that he's rich, of course, but he has a decent middle-class level of life. I thought the other way round: probably is not so easy for Benji to get cash, so Jacob would have hired him to get other kind of stuff: rumours, information, clues about where to find certain object, ...perhaps even helping with some muscle when needed.

Maybe Jacob hired Benji during the difficult lockdown (did anyone even consider how hard that would be on the poor vampires!) and your relationship (and blood supplying) persisted after that?

We know that Jacob has supplied blood to Benji at least twice with 'no payment', hence Benji owes Jacob two Debts. The next time Benji needs blood we will see how that deal plays out. There may be a trade of some sorts, but Debts are the only real currency.

Maybe Benji still keeps an eye or ear out for rumours, information, clues, that might help Jacob. And that act might, sometimes, pay for the blood?

Works for me!

Yeah, that makes sense! I didn’t get the impression Jacob ‘needed’ the extra money or anything - I just thought Benji needed to be offering something in return for the blood
Sure! That works for me as well!

That's what the Debts are for.

We could also have said that those are left over from lockdown, and that Benji now has other ways of getting blood, the Starting Debts text does imply it is ongoing, but doesn't dictate that this is your only source anymore, there are people in the underground again, lots of them. But remember your Corruption Trigger, your supplier is a way around that.

Excellent.

I will incorporate this ongoing relationship into the starting scenario in a few hours.

Any character creation stuff that is still unfinished can be filled in after we start, but obviously won't be factored into the scenario, so we may have to adjust if there are conflicts, but I will try keep it open-ended.

Yeah, that makes sense now! Thanks for the clarification!

Sure thing. That's my job. :)

Where is your house in relation to your bookshop?

Many of these quaint English buildings have businesses downstairs, on the street-level, and the proprietors live upstairs.
Just an option. It would still leave your house empty.

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Are you going out to have the surprise party for them before they get to you, or are you waiting for them to come to you? They did not seem well acquainted with the map/route, so Benji (and anyone else) can easily make it 'there' first.

That seems like a lovely cozy British thing, and I love it. :)

Answering the rest in the other thread!

Here goes ;)

Intro Questions

♦ How did you discover the supernatural?
She investigated rumors about ‘Blood Dolls’; humans who freely let Vampires drink from them. Was contacted by an actual Vampire who offered her an exclusive interview, after she posted an online ad volunteering to ‘donate her blood’.

♦ How long have you been in the city?
Emma is originally from Bellingham, a small town in the north of England. She moved to London when she was 18, shortly after graduation from high school, to pursue her ex-boyfriend, and her dreams of becoming a writer. That was six years ago.

♦ What mortal commitment keeps you from leaving your old life behind?
Her marriage to David Harper

♦ What mortal aspiration have you given up?
Starting a family doesn't look like the most important thing right now. She has become less and less interested in a stable and secure lifestyle in general, instead favoring the risk and thrill associated with the supernatural. She’s also been involved in dubious, sometimes illegal, activities during her investigations.

♦ What powerful faction or person are you currently investigating?
The Vampiric Court of London. It could probably take decades to get to know every power player on an intimate level, but for now, it occupies most of her interest.

Relationships:

David Harper (A loyal significant other who expects you home by midnight)
David's calm and introspective personality is the perfect counterbalance to Emma’s exuberance. His position at the environmental Health Department in London’s City Hall pays the newlyweds bills – if barely so, but he is fine shouldering the burden while Emma focuses on her aspiration of becoming a published author. His patience and genteel manner are being tested to their limits these days, with his wife’s ‘research’ having her away from the house at very odd hours.

Henry Godfrey (An overbearing ex-partner who constantly worries about you)
Emma emotionally abusive ex-boyfriend from high school is a wealthy financier in London. He broke up with her when he moved to the city to ‘make something of himself’, while Emma stayed behind in their hometown of Bellingham until she graduated. He ignored Emma’s desperate attempts to reach out to him when she too moved to London a couple of years later, but has recently taken a renewed interest in her. He remains the same domineering and haughty self - more so, if anything, and his persistent advances and refusal to accept rejection cast a troubling shadow over Emma’s life.

Noah Thompson (A demanding boss who calls you into work at inconvenient times)
Emma is writing for the Independent’s lifestyle section to make ends meet. Strict deadlines, and little choice about which topics she covers, makes for a very stressful work environment, but as Mr. Thompson puts it, ‘there are plenty of hungry English Literature undergrads ready to take her place’.

Starting Debts
Throwing some ideas here, but I'm not sure if it mashes with your character concepts or not. Let me know ;)

♦ Someone befriended you long before you discovered the supernatural...and purposefully hid its existence from you when it mattered. They owe you a Debt.
Suggesting Benji, because she IS writing a series of books about Vampires, and him withholding information from her seems cruel! How/Why he befriended her I leave to you.

♦ Someone puts up with your questions about the supernatural. You owe them a Debt.
Mark looks like the best candidate for this. He is supposed to be knowledgeable, and she would have little reason to question his motives.

♦ You’re leveraging dirt you have on someone to get their help dismantling a supernatural scheme that targets innocent mortals. You owe them a Debt.
What kind of dirt could she possibly have on Jacob? She's not adverse to applying a little bit of leverage to get him to help her.

Welcome, Delirium! Excited to play with you :D
Sure, that could work! Benji busks at Piccadilly Circus station so, if Emma commutes by train, they might have met there and become friends? Or maybe they live in the same apartment building?

Alternatively, ‘Someone puts up with your questions about the supernatural. You owe them a Debt.’ might work better for Benji since Emma is particularly interested in vampires? If Emma is asking Mark about how vampires work in this world, then I might end up answering the questions anyway OOC and Mark would just be passing the info along. It might be more efficient to give Benji this debt and Mark the other

Good stuff, Delirium.

Do you want your home to be an hours travel away from everyone else? This can make your relationship complications more complicated, especially since you have a husband who wants you back before midnight, and that means you need to leave any nighttime engagements around 11.

For the record, the others are clustered around the small area where the story is focused (the City Hub, as the book puts it). Benji's Haven is in Piccadilly Circus tube station [map], Jacob lives and works in Cecil Court [map] (a quaint alley filled with book shops and such), and Mark is a short distance from there in Goodwin's Court [map] (a hidden alley). All are withing 10 minutes walk of each other [map directions].

It is not necessary, but living close to each other allows events directed at one of us to affect the others, even at odd hours. If you are an hour away then you will not be called to help when things go wrong at 5 in the morning, for instance [e.g.], this is fine, but does change how deliberate we need to be with events so you don't get excluded.

We are not making strong use the new City Hub rules from the book, and even they do not expect everyone to live in the few blocks defined by that area, but it is where most of the activity is centered. Placing your residence outside the main area of activity is a choice, it adds extra separation between your mortal life and the supernatural events, and will make any supernatural events that happen near your home more significant.

How does David feel about this? Does he want kids? Does her want them now or is he willing to wait for you to get over your time-consuming passion?
So naive. More like lifetimes, but you really think you are digging deep into the century-old secrets. :)
Around the time of your marriage? Just wondering.

Does David know about this?

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While it is, maybe, preferred, you don't have to put all your Starting Debts on PCs.

My first thought about your 'befriended and purposefully hid its existence' option is Benji's 'boss', Elliot Parry [ref]. He seems like the type to take an interest in someone writing a book about his kind, and would try to steer you to write what he thinks would be flattering and helpful to his cause. Pity the Debt goes the direction it does, it may have been much more interesting if you owed Elliot than the other way round, could have added some tension with Benji who does not much like his overlord.

Elliot also seems like the sort to learn about and take you up on your offer to 'donate blood'. Did you follow through or was it a ruse to get the interview?

From there you could easily have been fobbed off on Benji once Elliot lost interest.

Benji also has a few willing 'donors', though I don't think he would like the name 'Blood Dolls'. It is, of course, completely up to you guys how you want to put this relationship together.
'Dirt' is a loaded term. We have run into this problem before with the book assuming (or implying) a more antagonistic view than we want. It can be any sort of 'leverage', you can think of it as anything that could trigger the Persuade Move.

@gnomius, @Stalker05, @oopsylon:

Maybe we want to redirect some of the Starting Debts we put on Rhiannon to Emma? Or we can shift around some of those early ones that we have not seen in play to adjust for the lost character. [Debt Ledger].

Well, it's easy to find a lot of shades of grey in Jacob's schemes, so I'm open to anything here, actually. Of course, the most sensitive stuff for Jacob is anything that has to do with his liberty, so Emma could have found out about about the magical raven he's holding prisoner, and leverage that knowledge to blackmail him (althouh I'm not sure if you want that level of confrontation, as vagueGM points out).

Other possibilities include that she knows some dirty trick that Jacob used in one of his schemes, and she used that leverage. But wait, now I think about it, do we really need to define it? The Debt is the other way: Emma owes one to Jacob because he helps/helped her dismantling a supernatural scheme. Does it matter why Jacob got involded in the first place?

@Delirium, any thoughts about which supernatural schem is that, and whether it's still active and we are still fighting agains it?