1930's Pulp True20 Game

[Quickleaf]

Ok,
What characters know what characters? And Why?

My thoughts about who Mac knows and how:

Colin Fitzpatrick - Mac helped him get out of trouble once, perhaps fixing a vehicle for him, letting him hide in the workshop, or giving Colin a ride on his bike. It's possible Colin returned the favor, saving Mac's life in the wild...perhaps shooting down a giant snake or jungle cat.

Doc Raven - Mac has heard Doc Raven talk at the University of the Philipines about "the rights of native peoples against commercial exploitation", and he served as the Doc's guide in Manila for a day, taking him to see a local shaman.

Jimmy "Hawkeye" Draper - Mac has a long-standing relationship with Hawkeye who gave Mac his first real work while Mac was still attending commmunity college. Mac often puts Hawkeye on the top of his client list and prefers his business to all others.

Sgt. Amund "Red" Haarland - I'm thinking Mac has never met Sgt. Haarland before.

Why is your character in Shanghai in 1937?

Periodic bombings by the Imperial Japanese Navy disrupt the government's crackdown on Communists. A thriving criminal underworld of opium-dealers hiding behind cabarets and nightclubs. Chinese bourgeouis mingling with European and American "Shanghighlanders" at the race track. Ruthless bankers manging the greatest financial center in East Asia, trying to dodge exorbitant military taxes. Call girls from Russia, China, Korea, and Japan haunt the ghettos while glamour girls model for cigarette ads and a burgeoning Shanghai cinema industry.

Mac could be in Shangahi for any number of reasons:
(a) He's doing a job for Hawkeye and is temporarily re-located to Shanghai.
(b) He's being black-mailed into working for opium smugglers.
(c) His fiance is trying to break into the Shanghai movie business.
(d) He's been falsely accused of spying on the Chinese because of his Japanese ancestry and his ties with various arms dealers...and taken into custody/black-mailed.
(e) He's looking for a specialty component only made in Shanghai for a high-paying client.

 

[Quickleaf]

"Crazy Betty" look good!

Nice. Now you just have to find a nice pinup design for the nose:

Yeehaw! Of course, "Betty Page" would make the perfect nose decal, even though she's more from the 40s/50s. http://www.btinternet.com/~brmerc/betty/bettie4.html

Amund "Red" Haarland (Mercenary?)

Here's another background that might fit him better...

Sarge
This includes Chief Master Sergeants, Gunnery Sergeants ("gunny/gunnies"), senior enlisted man in an artillery batter ("Chief of Smoke"), First Sergeants ("First Shirt/Top"), and Drill Sergeants ("Smokey Bear/Tac").
Ability Adjustments: None
Bonus Feats: Choose two: Exotic Weapons Training (munitions/artillery), Exotic Weapons Training (machineguns), Firearms Training, Weapons Training
Bonus Skills: Intimidate, Knowledge (Tactics)
Favored Feats: Inspire (choose one), Master Plan

 

[jezter6]

Hawkeye and Mac definately know each other. Mac is the only person that is allowed to work on Betty. I would think that Hawkeye either employs Mac, or Mac is a freelancer that Hawkeye calls on to do odd jobs now and then.

Unless they're ferrying supplies to/from Doc, Jimmy probably doesn't know anyone else.

 

[trilobite]

Yeah, I would like to see Hawkeye and Mac as co-owers of the Crazy Betty.

 

[Galethorn]

AMUND “RED” HAARLAND
Type: 6th level Sarge (Warrior 6)

Virtue: Kind
Vice: Stubborn
Size: Medium
Speed: 30 ft
Abilities: Str +2; Dex +1; Con +3; Int +1; Wis +1; Cha -1

Skills: Intimidate +4 (5), Knowledge: Tactics +12 (9), Notice +12 (9), Drive: Car +5 (4), Language: German, Russian, Mandarin Chinese (3), Sense Motive +10 (9), Stealth +4 (3), Survival +9 (8), Swim +5 (4), Profession: Carpentry +4 (3)

Feats: [Free] Weapon Training (role), Firearms Training (background), Exotic Weapon Training: Machinegun (background) [Normal] Seize Initiative, Diehard, Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Improved Precise Shot, Skill Talent: Notice & Knowledge: Tactics, Fearless, Improved Initiative

Core Ability: Determination
Languages: English, German, Russian

Combat:
Heavy Revolver: +4 dmg, +7 to-hit, 40-ft range inc, 20/+3 crit
Unarmed: +2 dmg, +7 to-hit
Dodge/Parry +7/+8
Initiative +5
Saving Throws: Toughness +3; Fortitude +8; Reflex +3; Will +3

WHY HE’S IN SHANGHAI
After crossing the Pacific from Alaska in a Russian tanker, Red spent some time working in Hong Kong, doing construction, like in Alaska. After saving up some money, investing in a few building projects, and saving up more money still, all the while learning a fair bit of Mandarin, he made his way up the coast to Shanghai, where he’s been trying to get a job with the other Americans working as mercenaries for the Chinese; so far, he’s had little luck, and spends most days in a cheap apartment, working on the vestiges of a detective novel and working the docks every so often to make ends meet.

OTHER PCs THAT HE KNOWS
It’s possible that he met Colin Fitzpatrick around the docks; perhaps he even unloaded Colin’s luggage.

 

[trilobite]

Galethorn,

Would Amund take a job as a bodyguard to a Chinese businessman/gangster?

 

[Galethorn]

Quite likely, though definately favoring the more 'legal' of two hypothetical buisinessmen.

 

[iwatt]

Colin Fitzpatrick - Mac helped him get out of trouble once, perhaps fixing a vehicle for him, letting him hide in the workshop, or giving Colin a ride on his bike.

Hey I'm cool with Mac saving Colin's bacon.
If Trilobite is cool with this, feel free to finish up the following scene.
__________________________________________


"Fitzpatrick, you didn't really believe I'd forget about you."

The tall and athletic man stopped in his tracks. He'd just gotten of the Red Dawn, a tramp freighter on the Calcutta-Shangai run. Ah, the wages of sin. Turning around, the goodlooking man answers in the accents of the english upper-class. "Dear me! Coronel Mcpherson, you scared me half to death. Imagine running into you here in Shangai."

"Cut the small-talk Fitzpatrick, you know why I'm here". A man steps into the lights provided by one of the nearby docking cranes. Middle-aged, he's wearing the uniform of one of the indian cavalry regiments. He's accompanied by four rather large individuals. "You men, do what I hired you to do! I want that smile smashed off his face."

Looking around, Colin realizes he's in for a beating. The four men quickly surround him, the prospect of delivering pain bringing smiles to their faces.

"I dare say Mcpherson, this isn't the polite way to go about this." At this point, the largest of the four dockworkers rushes in with a haymaker. With a quick sidestep, Colin avoids the lumbering giant and swiftly deals a lightning punch of his own, stunning his assailant. "Did I forget to mention I was the welter-weight title holder for the lower Traansval boxing Association. Eighteen and under of course."

The other three ruffians all charge the young englishman together. What follows is a rough and tumble scuffle in which the quick jabs and feints allow Colin to hold his own. After dropping a second attacker, Coronel Mcpherson shouts in anger. "Enough! I want this miserable bastard to pay. Fifty pounds to whoever takes him down."

Upon hearing this, both dockworkers pull out nasty looking knives. The nastier of the two adds, "Sorry mister. For fifty quid I'll carve up me own father."

______________________________________________________________________________

 

[Quickleaf]

__________________________________________________
They called it "ironwood". It came from the Mabolo fruit tree in the Philippines. Illegal over there, and hard to find anywhere else. Except for Shanghai. They say that the dock markets you find more than fish, and what was stolen from you yesterday you can buy back tomorrow. The lights were dim, casting the fake displays of fish in a grey light. Mac chatted with cigarette-smoking Malays, his eyes flitting about the warehouse for signs of smugglers he recognized. Tentatively, Mac came to an agreement. It was more than he was willing to pay, but his escrima sticks had been broken protecting his fiance from thugs, and now that he was in the most dangerous city in Asia, he decided it was time to find a new pair. They're just not the same. Not like my old girls.

A shout, and the window behind Mac shatters as a man is propelled through. Tumbling to his feet, the handsome Englishman adjusts his cuff links, untangling a pair of nunchakus from his neck. "I believe these nunchakus belong to you, my good fellow," he says neatly handing them back to the stunned dealer, whose face rapidly turns an impossible shade of red after having his stall smashed.

The man smiles at Mac just as a thug wielding a knife dives through the window. Reflexively, Mac hits the thug in the gut with his escrima stick, flipping him onto the cement floor. "That's the way to do it! Nice batting arm, chap! The name's Colin." The Englishman offers his hand.

"Call me Mac. You're in big trouble, huh fella?" Mac is impressed at Colin's coherence despite obviously having just been beaten up.

"Oh, nothing t'all. An old friend decided to pay me a visit." Shouts are heard outside. "All, the same, what's the fastest way out of this dive?"

McPherson storms into the warehouse from the back door, with a thug at either side. He shouts in clear Mandarin, "50 pounds to whoever catches the Englishman!" The thug on the floor gaspingly points at Mac. McPherson adds "...and his Filipino associate."

There are Triad arms smugglers, fixers dealing in hot engines, crooked Shanghai cops, diverse murderers and thieves. Mac whispers to Colin, "I'm parked around back, but we've got to make it to the back door."

Colin's eyes sparkle. "Why, I was the head of my college's track and field..."
__________________________________________________

 

[iwatt]

Colin's eyes sparkle. "Why, I was the head of my college's track and field..."