Second character for my solo sandbox Twilight 2000 game, and also another entry for #FebGameWriMo where I create a new piece of content for an old game each day during February.
Vasco Perez is a 24 year old Infantryman, enlisted SPEC 4 in the 3-156 Infantry of the US 256th Brigade. He was born a second generation Mexican emigre and raised in Albequrque, New Mexico. Vasco worked in a factory and ran with a local gang in his youth, before enlisting when war broke out.
I’m going to use a couple of useful resources to help flesh out Vasco’s character and backstory. First up is UNE (Universal NPC Emulator) by Zach Best. Rolling for Vasco we generate the following descriptors: “A generous soldier who deters the poor, discourages patience, and suggests discretion.“
“Generous soldier” is a phrase that I’m still contemplating, it is so rich with possibilities. I’m going to focus on the idea of giving selflessly (generosity) and that Vasco feels amazing camaraderie in the forces and loves putting himself on the line for his compadres. I think he is generous through his actions for his fellows just as much as he is generous with his advice and guidance.
“Deters the poor” I’m going to interpret as Vasco being a bit of a white knight and, combined with his ‘generous’ descriptor, he often tries to stop the poor from doing something (a job, a task, a quest, a mission, a problem) and will try to step in a do it himself if they insist it has to be done. I’m going to explore this further and for now I will link it back to stories from his mother about how in her opinion the poor in Mexico got punished for stepping out of line. Vasco has inherited some of her fears around this.
“Discourages patience” sounds like Vasco might be prone to agitating for immediate action to be taken, and will push back on any suggestions to wait, be cautious, etc.
“Suggests discretion” sounds like Vasco is not a reckless fool despite being a bit impatient. He won’t want to charge in recklessly, and prefers subtlety and disguise and concealment.
So UNE gave me some pretty interesting character hooks for Vasco, such that I’m going to go back to Sonia Esteban from yesterday’s post and add some of these to her too.
Next up I’m going to use SOLO by Paul Elliott to generate some background for Vasco. Firstly I’m going to generate three Life Events for him:
- In the past, Vasco was helped in a time of terrible crisis by a friend. He/she is still a contact. (I’m leaning towards this being something gang-related from his youth.)
- In the past Vasco’s family was ruined by a petty official who is now a high-ranking executive. (I’m thinking that this could be someone back in Mexico, or it could be more recently since Vasco grew up in Albequerqe.)
- A terrible crime was committed against Vasco, and it haunts him still. (I’m leaning towards this being gang-related. I feel that it should be gruesome, to still haunt him. Maybe something like an assailant from a rival gang who tried to carve pieces off of Vasco and he still carries the physical and mental/emotional scars from this. This could also be linked to the first Life Event where a friend helped him, maybe by sheltering him until he recovered from his horrific wounds.)
Stat development:
- Fitness 16
- Agility 7
- Constitution 8
- Stature 9
- Intelligence 8
- Education 12
- TOTAL: 60
- Strength 12
- HITS: Head 8 Chest 29 Others 17
- Weight 76kg (about 168lbs)
- Load 29kg
- Throw Range 24m
- Military Experience 8
- Time In Combat 29 months
- Coolness Under Fire 7
- RADS 30
- Age 24
- Rank SPEC 4 INFANTRY
- Army US ARMY
- Nationality American
- Native Language LNG(English)100
- Native Language LNG(Spanish)100
- Military Skill Points 320
- Education Skill Points 240
- Background Skill Points 300
Skills: