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