7.5 KiB
7.5 KiB
Quick ID
- Name: Joe Football
- Vibe: King of the Hill / wholesome suburban jock energy; simple, earnest, good-hearted; occasionally terrifying when a “war voice” leaks through.
- Class/Level (current): PC, Level 6 Rogue.
- Core Theme: Inheritance vs identity — Joe thinks he’s “just Joe,” but he’s carrying something older and more dangerous.
Baseline Backstory (Player-established)
- Reason for joining AAA: originally “football only.” He wanted football tryouts; the academy doesn’t have football, only Mageball (initially a comedic conflict… but Joe didn’t mind as much as expected).
- Home life: stable, loving, middle-class suburb.
- “Perfectly average in every way imaginable” (played as a joke, but it’s his grounding contrast).
- Parents:
- Dad: Fork Football
- Mom: Maum Football
- Family is comically football-obsessed (changed last name to Football as a bit).
- Siblings: twin younger sisters
- Kevlar and Devlin
- Night before school: shadowboxing, Madden, dinner. “Yeah.”
- Rumor about Joe: “killed someone in middle school (friend went missing).” (Unconfirmed; a rumor hook you can cash later.)
The Big Supernatural Hook: “Pappy”
Core concept
- Joe has a magical action figure of his grandfather from the war.
- Sometimes Pappy (grandfather) speaks through Joe or “inherits his body.”
- When Pappy speaks through him, Joe gets a nasty cough afterward (established at the cookout gag).
- You and the table later aligned on a key lore twist:
- Joe thinks Pappy’s soul is in the toy
- But the truth is Pappy is in Joe (toy is a tuning fork / trigger, not the container).
What Pappy represents
- A Root-imprinted war veteran connected to:
- Korrin
- The Leyline War / Leyline Crisis
- The Convergence Engine
- D’Serris / Oversight-era secrecy
- Pappy is your best “organic exposition device” for the leyline without it feeling like DM lecture.
Personality / Playstyle Notes
- Joe presents as:
- earnest, goofy, easy to roleplay with,
- often content to support other PCs’ schemes.
- Under the hood:
- Joe’s player is stupid smart and will meta-deduce systems if you leave breadcrumbs (you noted this explicitly).
- Joe can flip from “simple jock” to “tactician/engineer” in a heartbeat, especially when danger is clear.
Major Ongoing Hooks
1) Pappy / War Flashbacks (Leyline Arc Tie-In)
- Joe is the ideal bridge character for introducing:
- what the leyline is,
- what Korrin was,
- why D’Serris is obsessed.
- Planned/used beats:
- “Safety briefing” / leyline fluctuation transports them to a war moment.
- Pappy appears in a frozen war snapshot (face-melt / leyline tearing horror).
- You’ve written/used the idea that the field has a heartbeat rhythm; Joe recognizes it.
2) Mageball Identity (Unresolved Personal Arc)
- Initial conflict: “no football team.”
- In practice: Joe didn’t care much, so the arc needs a better emotional hook.
- Potential: Joe becomes a Mageball cornerstone (or becomes the face of “traditionalists vs sorcery” tension).
- Strong lever: tie Mageball to legacy and identity:
- Dad wants “football,” school forces “mageball,” Pappy has “war.” Joe gets squeezed.
3) Moral Line / Escalation Capability
- Joe has proven he will do extreme things if he believes it’s strategically correct (and if a failed save gives him “this is genius” energy).
- This creates a consistent character tension:
- he feels like a good kid,
- but he’s willing to cause catastrophic harm if framed as “protecting friends” or “pre-empting a threat.”
Key Relationships
Party
- Ben Mulkerberg: chaotic partnership. Joe backed Ben at The Circle and escalated violently. Joe is now entangled in Ben’s gang conflict.
- Soren: ally; volatile. Joe can be used as a stabilizer or an enabler depending on mood.
Family
- Fork & Maum: anchors of warmth and normalcy. Their presence is your “home scene” palette cleanser.
- Kevlar & Devlin: comedic beats, but also stakes (they’re innocents, a lever for tension later).
School NPC Orbit
- Joe plays well in group RP; he can be used to bounce off:
- teachers (especially Defazio-type “radical history” teacher, if you use him),
- Estrada (whom the party bullies constantly),
- D’Serris (projection/appearance; Joe is the character who “feels” the leyline changes).
Major Events Joe Was Involved In (Chronological, high-signal)
The Football Cookout Intro (tone establishment)
- Scene concept: football family cookout; Dad gives an inspiring football speech.
- Punchline:
- “Honey, didn’t they switch to mageball?”
- Pappy hijacks Joe’s body with a MAGA-ish rant (“sorcerers are ruining this country!”)
- Dad: “Pappy, give the boy his body back—he gets a nasty cough!”
The Circle Explosion (campaign pivot)
- Joe went with Ben to The Circle.
- Joe spotted danger (Insight success) and chose not to engage directly.
- Joe set up a trap by the passenger door and a puddle of oil/accelerant beneath/near the car.
- DM asked intentions; Joe clarified: “I’m cooking these fuckers out.”
- Joe failed an Int/Wis-style check (rolled a 5) and decided this was “one of the better ideas he’s ever had.”
- Joe interpreted Ben’s moment as the signal to ignite → gas station explosion:
- 1 teen trapped and burned
- 2 unrelated adults inside the store killed (“liquified”)
- Joe and Ben escaped (given 2 turns to dash 120 ft).
- Aftermath:
- Pip survives (injured) and retaliates.
- Joe becomes a co-owner of the consequences even if no one saw him do it.
Post-Explosion Direction
- Joe is now in the “gang arc” whether he wants it or not.
- Joe’s actions set a precedent: if threatened, he may choose extreme solutions.
Items / Props
- Magical Action Figure of Pappy (critical)
- Joe believes it contains Pappy.
- DM truth: Pappy is in Joe; toy is a trigger/tuning fork.
- Madden/Shadowboxing (tone props)
- Potential “perimeter trap” competence (Joe has demonstrated tactical prep skill).
DM Levers (what reliably moves Joe)
- Protecting friends (especially when Ben is threatened)
- Legacy / masculinity / “what kind of man am I?” (Dad + Pappy + war)
- Clear tactical problems (Joe shines when there’s a system to solve)
- Authority telling him he’s powerless (he reacts by proving he has agency)
- Pappy surfacing (raises stakes, shifts tone, gives you horror/exposition)
Tone Calibration Notes
- Joe is your “normal” lens character — which makes Pappy/war horror hit harder.
- Keep Joe’s humor, but let Pappy moments feel cold and real.
- Joe’s violent escalation (Circle) was fun at the table; the world can react without “punishing the player” by focusing consequences on:
- pressure,
- paranoia,
- moral weight,
- and “you can’t put that toothpaste back in the tube.”
Current Status (start-of-next-session snapshot)
- Joe is physically at Ben’s house (now a staging ground).
- Joe is implicated in the Circle explosion (unknown to authorities, but known to Pip).
- Joe still carries the toy (tuning fork) and is increasingly positioned to be the party’s hook into:
- the Korrin Crisis history,
- D’Serris’ agenda,
- and the Coherence/Instrumentality ideology.