Character Creation / Interrogation

So I feel I have completes my Hardholder. Introducing Vega.
For personal gear, I was thinking twin magnums. Vega usually keeps them holstered behind her back, so you know when they are drawn, ya done f#$%ed up. For personal garb she wears attractive, tight clothes, or sometimes exposes a little to much flesh. Her symbol of office is an old military style hat with aviator goggles. She has long red hair and wile her face is considered soft at first glance she commands respect. She has developed an icy glare that freezes all but the most violent of people in their tracks when she levels it at them. Her time on top of the heap that is Advent has softened her once toned body, but despite her new curves she is still tough and hard.

You will find the following information on Vega's sheet, but I figured I'd post it so everyone can get an idea of what Advent is like based on the choices I made for my character.

The Holding of Advent - Surplus: 2-barter, Wants: famine, hunger, idle, reprisal.
Home to between 75-150 souls.
Gigs: Hunting, farming, lucrative raiding, manufactory(I'm thinking auto parts to maintain vehicles), scavenging.
The compound is tall, deep and mighty, of stone and iron. (gang has +2 armor when defending the stronghold)
An armory of scavenged and makeshift weapons.
A garage of a few utility vehicles and 7 battle-ready vehicles.
A gang of 40 violent bastards (2 harm gang, medium, unruly, 1 armor).

On to the questions (all answers subject to approval by GM and adjustable by player input)....

Where do you get food/water?

Advent's water supply comes from two sources. A river that flows down the mountain nearby. An aquifer has been built to divert a portion of the water directly into Advent's water system providing running water to most of the compound. Everyone has access to this water (in theory) as long as the river doesn't freeze.

The second source is an underground lake. It is cold and deep in the mountain, also prone to freezing, but the ice can be harvested with relative ease if that is the case. There is a pump that draws the water to a central reservoir, but that reservoir is not tied into the central pipe system. When Advent is forced to use the lake, rationing is mandatory. Vega has records that indicate the lake is a limited resource, but the general population doesn't know that and she worries about problems that might arise if scarcity rumors take hold.

Food comes from many different sources. Hunting is good around Advent now. In past years that has not always been true. Farming is down further down the slopes. The farmers are citizens of Advent and they and their families are welcome inside the walls of Advent and can find ready shelter in emergencies, such as raids by neighboring holds or extreme weather. (Special Note: This game being set in winter might mean all the farmers and their families have moved up to Advent and the harvest is in for the winter. Thoughts?) Finally, raiding and scavenging are healthy industries in Advent. Vega commissions a few bands a month to go out and try there luck. If they bring back good stuff, they live like kings for a few weeks, if fewer return than what set out, then there are fewer mouths to feed.

Vega herself is fed from the choicest stock most of the time. She is careful though to not overdue it. She will let her raiders or her gang's higher ranked members take the absolute best as rewards for service, but she does not suffer herself. it is one of the perks of being at the top of the power structure in Advent.

What's it like where you live?

Advent rests in the mountains. The air is a little thin, and it never gets too hot in the summer months. The shadow of the mountains keep the compound in shadow for significantly long portions of the day. The sun is seen in the afternoon before it sets in the evening.

The main compound that composes the bulk of Advent is built into the mountain itself. Most people live in man made, finished caves. Usually the back walls are still exposed natural stone, but the rest of the walls are constructed material. The main market is setup in a huge room that may have served as a hanger for flying transport vehicles in the golden age. There is however a structure that extends above ground. The garage extends out of the mountain some, and has a large courtyard surrounded by high walls. The courtyard serves as a play area for the children, or a place to get exercise when not being used as a staging or testing ground for Advent's combat vehicles.

Additionally there are four towers that connect to the underground complex and the courtyard. They are labeled by numbers 1 through 4. Tower 1 is the shortest. It's top barely clears the surrounding walls at 6 stories. Tower 4 is the tallest at 20 stories. The elite citizens of Advent get to live in the towers. The Hardholder claims the top of Tower 4 as their abode by tradition. It consists of three rooms and a private kitchen. Vega has set aside one room as a private chamber. Only her closest confidants see the decadent red velvet, mahogany, and brass finished room. Most of the time this chamber serves as a private office, occasionally as a bedchamber. Another room has been given over to her gang to take their leisure in. In this chamber basically anything goes as long as to much blood doesn't get on the carpet. This is where the private parties and dinners happen. The chamber is filled with cushions and pillows of all sizes to lounge on and several low tables so that meals can be served. The final chamber is used for public audiences. It has a desk and chair for Vega and a random assortment of chairs for visitors and petitioners. Everyone is allowed to enter this room as long as the main double doors are open. A closed door means important government work is being discussed, but Vega does her best to keep it open for appearances sake.

What sort gigs do you work for cash, and who pays you? (Playbooks should have a list)

Gigs? Work?...Yeah, that used to be something Vega did. Now she is the one handing out the assignments. That is how she earns her keep, by making sure others have the opportunity to earn theirs. Raiding and scavenging provide the biggest payout, but those seeking less life threatening jobs can go to work in the manufactory, or go to work on one of the farms Advent gets it's supplies from. Hunting is always encouraged, but can be dangerous. Hunters are also required to turn over their days catch to the pantry of the Advent so the food can be distributed fairly, but they always receive a choice cut for their work. Finally, there are other holds in the area that treat peacefully with Advent. Traders can risk the open road to exchange goods from the factory for what the other holds have. A tax is assessed on all such trades, for the good of the people.

What are some characteristics of Advent and the surrounding area?

Advent is near the tree line on their mountain, but the forest is thick and abundant. There is a valley that was cleared by the people of the golden era that has good soil for farming. There are roads throughout the valley, but they aren't in great condition so getting to the far end takes a couple hours, which means protecting the farmers is not always easy.

What is something you heard about in the 'Golden Age', the time before the apocalypse?

There were weapons and vehicles that would allow Advent to become the seat of power for an empire. Granted that empire would pale in comparison to any nation state from the golden era, but it if the stories are true, Advent would be a great strategical asset.

How do you stay warm in the cold winter nights?

Vega usually sleeps in the party room with some assortment of her gang members. She does care for them and the other people of Advent and tries hard to maintain her connection. The burden of leadership weighs on her though and she has to fight the compulsion to distance herself and lead with efficiency. Her primary partners at night are her five warleaders; Fauna(female), Prim(male), Dog-head(transgressing), Banter(male) are the four who drive the mechas usually, Wish(female) commands the air units. These six have a close, nearly familial bond that has been complicated by Vega's rise to power. Vega used to fly with Wish and fight in the warband, but doesn't get to the front lines much anymore.

What is the fortress made out of and how is it maintained?

The fortress is made of stone and concrete with steel girder bones. There are many glass windows on the upper levels of the four towers. The exterior needs very little maintenance, but work crews are almost always working on the insides to repair pipes and wiring and keeping the place together.

Is it above ground or underground?

As described before, the above ground area consists of a large walled courtyard surrounding the four towers and the garage. Most of Advent is underground...or just in the mountain.

What happens to those who don't live inside?

Winters can be harsh up in the mountains. Most of the farmers bring their families and workers into Advent to wait out the harsh winter. There is always work in the manufactury plant, hunting or scavenging and raiding to do in the winter, and they usually are put to work doing one of those things.

I have one detail to discuss with the MC regarding the vehicles. I hope it isn't too much to as for.

There are 7 battle-ready vehicles in advent. I would like four of them to be meca tyoe vehicles like this...


And the other three to be flying vessels like this...


Then two types of utility vehicles. One for heavy duty stuff like this...


And some smaller ones for getting around that look like this...

Here's my final draft (unless I made any mistakes) of my character sheet for Eliza Spector, the Savvyhead.

I decided to go with a prosthetic left arm (strengths: comfortable, strong; looks: mechanical, utilitarian; weaknesses: needs constant tinkering, loud), starting gear consisting of a SMG, hunting rifle, and scavenged alloy armour worth 2-armour, and a workspace containing a junkyard of raw materials, weird-ass electronica, and machining tools.


And, for your last character question:

How do you stay warm in the cold winter nights?

A techy-heater-thingy located in the living quarters of my workspace, or, if I can't begin play with a techy-heater-thingy for whatever reason, lots of blankets and firewood until I manage to build one (which I imagine I could do as a workspace project).


Also, I smell a delicious business opportunity in synthetically fossilizing counterfeit fruitcakes.

Makes sense, given that Eliza and Vega are both likely long-time residents of Haven.

---

Now, for my own set of questions that need answering:

Go around again for Hx. On your turn, ask either or both:

• Which of you is the most strange?
For those characters, write Hx+1.
• Which one of you is the biggest potential problem?
For that character, write Hx+2.

For everyone else, write Hx-1. You’ve got other stuff to do and other stuff to learn.

I feel like Vega is not the strangest. Potentially she is the biggest problem though, as she is constantly sending stuff tot he shop to be fixed, perhaps she is asking too uch and taxing your resources?

Yeah, Vega seems pretty normal (as far as any AW PC is normal, anyway) to me. Biggest potential problem is a definite possibility, 'cause any problems Vega has are going to affect the whole city. And, if I recall correctly, Haven has "lucrative raiding" as a gig, which could easily lead to full-blown open warfare if it goes wrong. Which would be a pretty big problem.

Where do you get food/water?

Ghost gets by on Advent, literally. The manufactory penetrates deeper into the mountain than most know. Defunct steam pipes go everywhere, small things that a child or dog could scuttle through, but not much else. In some of these hidden bowels, there is a fungus that grows on corrosion and mountain stone. It doesn't taste good, and it gives her a stomach ache, but Ghost can eat it when there's nothing else.

Similarly, when it's just too cold or dangerous to cut ice and there's no one to trade with, there is condensation that forms on some old, forgotten machine in one of the abandoned rooms. It is heavy with mountain minerals and washes old lubricants from the machinery when it drips. It's been there long enough to create a mesmerizing, multi-hued deposit rock that seems to flow across the floor like lava. Ghost has put down a bucket to collect the drippings. If she skims off the oil, she can drink the water underneath, blissfully unaware that it would kill other people and ignorant of why it doesn't kill her. The machine's wirework connecting it with parts of the manufactory still used acts as a conductor of sorts, the liquid a "sweat" of all the people that work there, laden with the dreams and worries that fill their minds while their bodies are toiling - as per the Child-Thing special move, drinking from this fountain has given her a connection with the workers; neither she nor they really understand or register that some effect of the Maelstrom pulls them to see her as a child of the community....

What's it like where you live?

The playbook's "Den: secret(ish), secure(ish) place to live and hide, with:
--crooked, labyrinthine, interconnected tunnels and boltways;
--ways into basically everyone's spaces, even if they've taken pains to close them off
---a radio that speaks only to you"

She likes haunting the bowels of the manufactory. Via the purple circuit steam pipes, she has access to catwalks and rooms and subbasements across Advent. She has no love for the work shop cum brothel that was her old enslavement, but the familiarity of machines and the scent of solvents and rust put her at ease. There is one room in particular where she nests, an old subpanel room for servicing Advent's long forgotten geothermal heat exchangers, plodding along with their service like reliable mules who don't know there masters neglect them. It's almost uncomfortably warm there, but she likes it, sleeps in a little hammock above a valve she calls, "The Big Wheel." A control panel has little dials and lights that seem to tell her stories with their wobbling needles and flashing coruscation. While the readouts for the PA mic have long since died, she sometimes sings into it, dancing with the cord and sending haunting tuneless sing-song echoes into address system of the manufactory. Sometimes the speaker, hooked up to Maelstrom knows what receiver, squawks just for her, when there are no other playmates to be had.

What sort gigs do you work for cash, and who pays you? (Playbooks should have a list)

--scavenge and sneak-rob from a wealthy population
--serve a wealthy NPC as a messenger
--serve a wealthy NPC as a lookout, spy, and peeper
--others, as you negotiate them

She's probably done little messenger jobs for Vega, and spied on new comers or traders for her as well; given the depths of the manufactory, she's probably scavenged parts that she traded to Eliza a time or five as well. They know her as a grubby but eager kid. They've never seen her seduce and then kill and eat a pedophile - the one or two times it has happened, people have always been glad the skeevy bastard decided to move on in the night without bothering anyone. She particularly careful about trading away those scavenged goods.

What are some characteristics of Advent and the surrounding area?

See the Den.

Beyond that, there is the glade. A culvert sluice gate for manufactory runoff is home to various forest creatures at different times of the year, but she has a key to open the grill. The pond there is perpetually frozen, even in the spring, and the pines, fir, and spruce around the clearing wall it off like a hedge row from prying eyes. She used to go there because she could watch the front gate, see the traders coming in, see if her old life might be stealing up on her. She liked the creatures of the glade, even the ferocious ones. But once, she heard Wolves, saw their button eyes gleaming, the plastic on metal squeak of their limbs, their howling outside the trees. She locked the gate, and hasn't been back. But she misses it.

What is something you heard about in the 'Golden Age', the time before the apocalypse?

Kids used to be shipped away from their families to a place where they were fed, and told stories. They were made to do work, but it was mostly play work, and they were sent back to their families each evening, happy and fed and complaining of the play work they would have to do before the next day. Kids might fight with each other, but no adult could harm them while they were there. But, as a herald of the end times, lone Wolves began to creep into these places, bringing death and fear and bullets.

How do you stay warm in the cold winter nights?

See description of the Den.

Okay, cool. Um, hmm. How about this. Your little six pack, you and your lieutenants, used to be a septet. Aldus was like a father to you all. Each of you has a story where you owe him your life, and one where he earned your love. He was observant, and one of the first who noticed Ghost when she moved into Advent. He may have even mentioned her to you as he went about trying to figure out who this new child was.

Ghost was still scared, had no friends, still suffered from nightmares and ptsd from her previous life. She had no capacity to understand that the man who approached her was concerned for her well being, as well as determining if she posed some sort of threat to the community. Not knowing that side of human interaction, she fell back on what she knew. She seduced him. And as he slept afterward, she killed him. And she ate his fingers.

That was her turning point, his genuine heart suddenly laid bare in her consumption. Though Ghost did not know Vega, she knew how Aldus felt about her. She fled, horrified. And then, later, terrified, because she saw him the next day, up and about and plastic limbs creaking against a metal body, buttons sewed over his eye holes and howling for her blood.

Vega never understood the change that came over her friend and mentor. But people do go crazy. For his own good, after he attacked someone, he had been restrained. He somehow got free, and in the end, despite best efforts, the group had to kill him to stop him. Few things bring bile to your throat like that memory, like wondering what calamity had happened to his mind.

But shortly thereafter, the newcomer child came to you, seeking to do you all manner of favors, presumably not wanting to be thrown out of the community, this Ghost who seems to disappear and reappear. You assume she has no family any more. It's a little hard to break through her defenses, but you give her work, and slowly try to unravel her puzzle. HX+3

Is that too gruesome or too intrusive on your backstory? I don't really know or understand what the Wolves of the Maelstrom are... does this fit?
I think Ghost could be the strangest. She just doesn't behave like a normal little kid. Instead, she swings, from toddler like joy and silliness to teenage angst and insight to full adult suspicion and anger. She is good at coming up with the part you need when no one else has one, though. Which is itself weird, as she has no real technical aptitude....

And finally her HX...
Go around again for Hx. On your turn, ask
each other character in turn:
• Are you a wolf of the maelstrom?
If they say yes, tell them what they look
like under their disguise, and write Hx-2.
If they say no, write Hx-1.
If they say anything else—that they don’t
know, that they’d rather not say, anything
—write Hx+1 and keep your eye on them.

I feel like I shouldn't write the results part because your response shouldn't be swayed by the desired outcome, but then again, I feel like PbtA games do a lot of separation of player knowledge and PC knowledge....

Do I look like a wolf to you, you punk kid? Now get out of my workshop, and stop stealing my damn radio batteries.

Where do you get food/water?
From the various lovers I spend my time with, if they are nice enough to share, otherwise I relieve them of some and peel out.

What's it like where you live?
A piss-poor apartment in a piss-poor building in the shitty side of town. Luckily for me, I enjoy the company of women and they are sometimes nice enough to let me stay.

What sort gigs do you work for cash, and who pays you? (Playbooks should have a list)
Extortion, murder, and stealing; if it's dirty, Vito's done it.
I could've body guarded for Vega or executed someone on her behalf.

What are some characteristics of Advent and the surrounding area?
Advent: Projects on the outskirts of the major city.
Kolif: City about 13 miles out from Advent, that has life that ranges from shitbrick poor to caviar appetizer rich (Think a smaller Vegas).

What is something you heard about in the 'Golden Age', the time before the apocalypse?
The only thing my father ever taught me, was of people called 'Wise guys', they took what they wanted and nobody would say shit about it and if they did, they'd go missing with no further questions.

How do you stay warm in the cold winter nights?
I rely on who ever I sleep with at night for some extra body heat, if you get my drift, if I can't find anyone willing I'm on my own.

How did you become so merciless?
Getting dealt a shit hand and growing up in Kolif, you either erase your emotions or get eaten alive.