Comedy/Toon Characters

Comedy/Toon Characters

Barnacle Bob

(Submitted by Guy Hoyle ghoyle1@airmail.net)

Clichés

• Singing Pirate (4)

• Wildly Improvisational Taven Brawler (3)

• Ex-Member of Thorny Cove Repertory Theatre (3)

• Impersonator of Long-Lost Royalty (2)

Hook: Occasionally recognized as fraud by family of long-lost aristocrats he impersonated; still has nightmares about his days as a cabin boy.

Tale: Barnacle Bob's early childhood prepared him for two things he would excel in later on in life: pretending to be someone else, and fleeing for his life. He was often mistaken for someone else, particularly various missing members of various ruling families. He was very happy to encourage the mistake, which did not endear him to his newfound "family" when they inevitably realized the mistake. So Bob learned early on that making a hasty retreat was often the better part of valor.

Bob's misadventures soon led him to a life in the theater, where he began to broaden his performing skills. He particularly loved musical theater, and soon found himself a member of the Thorny Cove Repertory Theater, where almost all the plays were about pirates (Thorny Cove being a community founded and populated by ex-pirates). There were pirate musicals, pirate tragedies, pirate comedies, pirate operas, and pirate ballets (co-produced by the Thorny Cove Pegleg Ballet Company).

Bob's past caught up with him again when a patron of the arts recognized him as the pretender to the throne of a Kovali arch-dukedom, which caused Bob to flee for his life in the first available ship. Unfortunately, the ship was a pirate ship, and Bob had two choices: walk the plank, or serve as cabin boy. To this day, Bob has nightmares about his stint as the cabin boy of the "Scuttlefish". However, he soon won the crew over with his wide knowledge of pirate songs, and his one-man version of such Thorny Cove faves as "Seven Whores for Seven Pirates", "Kiss Me, Mate", and "Damn Pirates!". Within a year, Barnacle Bob (as he was christened after an unfortunate keelhauling incident) had won his place in the "Scuttlefish" crew and was accepted as a full-fledged pirate (and leader of their Saturday-night choral ensemble).

Notes: This was the character I played in S. John's Risus game at A-Kon, set in his world of Uresia, using his Risus rules. The only change I've made is adding a D6 because of the hook.

Big Dave, Geologist

(Submitted by Mike Munsil mikemunsil@earthlink.net)

Clichés

• Loud, burly plaid-and-tan wearing Woodsman (3)(never gets lost in the woods, knows bears by name, can light a fire in the rain)

• Droning Geologist (4)(can put people to sleep with the sound of his voice, lethal with a rock pick, digs fast, can climb up sheer cliffs but not down)

• Bubba (3)(has a never-ending supply of beer, belches loudly, chases women but never catches them)

Description: Burly, loud and addicted to plaid shirts and tan pants with built-in beer pockets. Will speak for hours about the contributions rocks make to "Life as We Know It" and beer. Pokes around in the dirt while drinking beer. Did I mention the beer?

Ginsu the Keen

A Dreed gourmand who roams the world in search of the ultimate dining experience, defending himself with a bewildering variety of cutlery.

(Submitted by Guy Hoyle ghoyle1@airmail.net)

Clichés

• Roving Buffet Demon (4)

• Avid but Haunted Conoisseur of the Culinary Arts (4)

• Well-Armed Cutlery-Wielding Blade-Flinging Martial Artist (4)

Hook: Once tasted the best food in the world in a dream, now tormented to roam the world in search of it.

Tale: Ginsu the Keen grew up in the fragrant bread-baking district in Jubilation, one of Dreed's city-states. He was an enthusiastic participant in many of the cooking contests of Dreed, a taste-tester in some of the finest kitchens in the land. Once, however, he succumbed to temptation, and accepted a bribe during a crucial bake-off, and his vote delivered the verdict into the hands of an unworthy chef. Guilt-ridden, the gourmand dreamed one night that he was visited by the Arbiters, who served him up a banquet fit for the gods. In the dream, he tasted the very best food in all of Uresia. He could not eat enough of it. Ginsu woke up with the memory of the food on his tatsebuds, and feathers from his half-devoured pillow in his mouth. Suddenly and permanently ravenous, he knew that he would never be sated by the taste of ordinary food. He must search all of Uresia if need be in search of the elusive dish that he tasted in dreams that night. Ginsu is always armed with cutlery which he pilfers, borrows, or buys from whatever land he is in, and he has learned to use it both defensively and offensively in the mean streets of whatever town he finds himself in.

Steve "Blackboard" Belkin, Skateboarding Pizza Deliveryman and Crimefighter

(Submitted by JRice)

Clichés

• Extreme Pizza Delivery (4)

• Skateboarding Anti-commercialist (4)

• Shoegazer (2)*

Steve is serious about Pizza delivery. During the day, he prides himself on the fact that he has only ever been late for a delivery ONCE (and memory of that once will flare his temper). By night, Steve becomes "Blackboard", a chain-swining, ramp-riding dark-do-gooder with a sworn oath to fight white-collar crime! Steve writes decent (in his mind) music which he'd love to do full-time, but will never sign with those self-interested back-stabbing big-label scum that serve only to repress TRUE artists!

Adventure Ideas:

• Blackboard delivers Pizza to an executive meeting, where he overhears a plot by corporate execs to tear down the local skate-park and put up a strip-mall.

• A gang that Blackboard is familiar with signs with a small label to write indie rock. Blackboard refuses to listen to it. ...And, good thing... the corporate execs put subliminal messages into the recordings; Blackboard’s friends all start shopping at the local mall, and Blackboard smells trouble!

• Blackboard happens to deliver pizza to a birthday party where Boozy is performing. And--what a coincidence--just then, the party is crashed by a gang that steals the birthday girl. She turns out to be the daughter of a big publishing conglomerate executive... Moral quandary!

* Notes: Shoegazer is a style of slow indie rock music, heavy on guitar and super-heavy on reverb. Imagine a long-haired punk singing about being depressed while staring at his shoes.

UNCLE BOOZY, The Clown That Stalks The Night

(Submitted by Guy Hoyle ghoyle1@airmail.net)

Clichés

• Circus Clown (4)

• Two-Fisted Crimebuster (4)

• Struggling Writer of Clown Mysteries (3)

Description: Uncle Boozy is a grinning, staggering circus clown. Crime makes Uncle Boozy sad. When Uncle Boozy's friends have crime happen to them, Uncle Boozy takes to the night, a grinning, staggering clown of vengeance. Uncle Boozy would like to be a writer, but he can't seem to make a living at it. When Uncle Boozy's mystery-clown novels get rejected, Uncle Boozy gets drunk and takes to the night, a grinning, staggering clown who vandalizes the publisher's office.

Hook: Drinks because he can't sell any clown-mystery books to publishers.

Nicholas Weatherby

(Submitted by Jens Reineking j_reineking@gmx.de)

Clichés

• Genius Inventor [4]

• Stuntman (2)

• Eco Activist (2)

Hook: Overconfident. And then has to struggle to stretch himself to reach the set goal - or at least to iron his misjudgment out.

Tale: Heir of the family fortune, Nicholas never had to work for or worry about money. Instead he dived into study and research of all things strange and out-of-mainstream. After several forced rebuilds of his study, he took some training as a stuntman to avoid further breaking of bones, but some scars remain.

From his early teens on, he appeased his conscience by giving money to some obscure charities, finally landing in the Eco movement where he finally began to do something himself.

Sometimes he has flights of brilliance (double pumps), thus being able to turn nothing into something (like MacGyver).

He's a Brit.

Adventure Ideas: An obvious starter for a story would be some tour with his fellow eco activists or some grand invention that gets him into trouble.

Notes: Can be played serious or silly. In serious mode, his inventions are in the lines of Tony Stark or Reed Richards. In silly mode, he's more like Gyro Gearless or Uncle Wisebottom and his nephew Nick (from www.gpf-comics.com). Nick for example once turned a remote control accidentally into a laser while trying to fix it.

Rosemarie Keith, 12 die character.

(Submitted by SenaCat)

Clichés

• Strange Girl Kitsune of Mistaken Nationality (4)

  • Strange Girl meets trickster fox lady. Not actually from Japan, but from Smalltown, USA. Or so she says this week. (Change location names to taste.)

• Improbable Weapons User (3)

  • "This is my very favoritest apple. I call it Smith."

• Knight in Shining Armor (3)

  • “I shall slay the dragon and rescue the maiden in distress! ...Oh, wait. What's a male maiden called? And I guess it's not really a dragon either. And... I don't think he's really in distress. Anyway, charge!”

• Nurse with Good Intentions (1)

  • “Oh. I thought it was supposed to be that color.”

Lucky Shots: [_] [_] [_]

Tale: Rose is... rather interesting. She's something of a True Neutral sort of wanderer, and will stick with a person or group of people as long as they hold her interest. Which generally means they are someone or doing something as odd as she is. Her only constant is change, which means she changes wardrobe, hairstyle, interests, mood and backstory the same way people change their underwear. If she likes you, she'll play benign tricks. If she dislikes you...

Hook: "Mmmm, tricksy. I like it." If Rose sees an impressive bit of trickery being pulled on someone, she can't help but stop to admire it. Even if that means not helping the party out of it.

Notes: The results of a tryst between myself and TV Trope's random button. I have no regrets. In a serious game she'd lose some of her ability, but at home in a silly game she's a force to be reckoned with.