Once upon a time, you were someone important…and dangerous. People knew you and gave you a wide berth. You were a force to be reckoned with in this city. And then you got old, broken, or both.
Looking at playbooks for an upcoming game and I’m attracted to The Veteran. Problem is, I’m not sure what The Veteran is. The intro suggests a badass, maybe an ex Aware or Hunter? But being bad-ass doesn’t seem to be the focus of the playbook. They don’t have an arsenal of old weapons, instead they have a workshop. They make stuff. They are artists.
What stuff do they make? Magical stuff? Weapons? High Tech gear? All of the above? Is this what they did when they were important and dangerous?
I think a lot depends on your vision. You can make a Veteran out of practically every faction. It gives you the whole lot of possibilities. I once played a Fae (well, half-Fae actually;) who sacrified her magical powers for protecting friends and loved ones. After that happened , guess who I became? Yep, that’s right-a Veteran. 🙂
Watch Blade. Whistler is the textbook Veteran. (One of the moves is named for a quote of his.)
Giles from Buffy (his “workshop” is the library) and Bobby from Supernatural are also good inspirations.
Marta Struś So what did you make in your workshop?
In the one shot Toronto game I’m working slowly towards publishing, the Vet is the former Arch Mage who gave up his avatar (and magic) to save his daughters life.
And now she’s become a hunter to defend her helpless old dad.
His workshop is his jewelry crafting store. Slow crafting enchantment is the one kind of magic he can still do.
Thanks for the help Jeff Johnston.
Whistler does seem the very model of a modern major general…I mean, veteran. And the workshop would be used for his weapons crafting.
As one of the only humans alive not to have watched Supernatural or Buffy, I am currently looking them up on the internet.
Brand Robins That’s an interesting twist. before your post and Marta Struś ‘s I wouldn’t have thought of literally having been supernatural and having that taken away somehow. Really opens up the possibilities.
Uncle Iroh and Master Splinter are also Veterans, I’d say. My read on the Veteran is that their schtick is “I’m too old for this shit, but I’m gonna keep doing it anyway.” The question to ask is why?
Note that they still have a couple of moves about being a badass, they’re just badass in a more cool-blooded way than, say, The Hunter. Gun to a Knife Fight is there when you play dirty like any wily old fogey should. Old Friends, Old Favors is there to show that everyone knows your name and reputation. The Best Laid Plans shows that you’ve been through all this crap before, and you’ve got a way better handle on it than these young jackasses who go off half-cocked. Lucky for them they’ve got you around to keep them alive long enough to be as old as you are some day. People come to you for advice because you know exactly what the hell you’re talking about.
What they make, I think, depends on who and what they used to be–and I wouldn’t assume that they’ve always made things either. They probably used to use this stuff professionally. Kept all their gear well-maintained (if they didn’t, they would’ve died years ago, yeah?) until over the years the “maintenance” part took over the “actually use this crap” part.
Think the wizard who retires and opens a library or magic shop. Or the retired street racer who’s the best damned mechanic on the west coast. The werewolf whose blood got too thin, so now they work as a back-alley doctor; a wolf knows more about pain and blood and how a body can change than anyone.
These responses are all SO GOOOOOD! I want to +1 them all a hundred times. 🙂
Yeah – the Veteran in my group was a somewhat powerful wizard who gave up his power to stop a ritual & expose a cult that had grown inside The Circle (basically the council of Wizards). They all still have some thoughts that he might have been part of the cult, but since he stopped it, and is in theory no longer a threat without his magic they’ve let him live without giving him too much grief.
My turn in the Veteran seat was set in a Wild West US one-shot game. I played an old retired and famed gunfighter who ran a smithy and had come to know all kinds of things about the occult in his years. He mentored The Hunter chatacter and supplied him with weapons and ammo. During the session I used my Workspace to create a “Devil’s Clock”: a device that used a pocket watch to locate nearby demoniacally possessed humans. It ended up being very useful indeed.
The Sean Connery in Untouchables is the best comparison IMO. The Veteran is the guy who has been around, seen it all, maybe he doesn’t get involved until he absolutely has to, but when he does he knows the right people to go to make things happen and he knows how to put pressure on them.