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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 2130019" data-attributes="member: 7006">And now... Tonguez!Marcus I think is actually in pretty good focus... and the reason I say that is because the character (in this one specific instance) is NOT focused.  With the decision to use the Indecisive hubris... there's a bit of a haphazardness to Marcus's career that works for him.  First wanting to be a pilot, then working in surveillance, then in search and rescue leading to his stealth activities.  I like how he just fell into this pathway because he wasn't the sort of person to say up front "I like this!" but instead just did things as they came along and people would only then realize... "hey, he's good at 'X'!".  The only place where I would wonder if a better selection of skill and career path might be is when you had him get trained as a helicopter PILOT, rather than perhaps parachuting.  My thinking is that once the SAS realized his natural apptitude in the wilderness, that they'd train him on all facets of that, including getting dropped INTO the areas for rescue... as opposed to flying the helicopter that got OTHER people into position for rescue.  It seems like they'd want you in the field at all times... and training you to be a pilot (which takes you out of the field) seems to run counter to what you were best at.  Thus if you went with the paratrooper concept... a possible speciality might be "Breakfall"... where you've learned how to drop (with a parachute or otherwise) from certain heights and avoid injury.  It's not as specific as "parachuting", and thus can be more applicable in many different situations.Thus taking a look at your specialties... we get this:Looks like a local.  This is an fine specialty that is passive in nature, rather than active.  At first glance, you look the part wherever you might be.  You don't have the skills to actively PRETEND to be from other countries... (ie you don't have the Disguise ability like Carl does to fool people into thinking you're not who you are), but it's a good speciality that will come in handy for when you need to be unobtrusive... walking down hallways... "hiding in plain sight" as it were.Camoflauge / Survival.  I was almost tempted to say to put these two together into one specialty... basically having the Rambo skill of being able to hide and survive in the wilderness... but I'm wondering if you were looking for more areas in which your camo ability would work?  If you wanted to keep it just in the wilderness, then I'd say go ahead and combine the two into a single speciality... but if you wanted Camo to also include areas like cities, or dealing with other people... then you'd need them seperate and I'd need a little more history worked in explaining how you were trained to hide and sneak in urban areas as opposed to just rural ones.Surveillance.  This is cool.  It's a natural extension of your survival search and rescue work.  I get a very clear picture of the character training on all the equipment and electronics... and being the "tech guy" when going out with the group on their search and rescue missions.  And it's only out there in the field that the powers-that-be also realized you had apptitude in hiding out too.  So I could see you spending time getting dropped into areas where you have to sneak in and set up communication or relay stations... and then get out again.  It's a nice flow and juxtoposition of specialties.This then just leaves the last one... which I'd recommend probably NOT being pilot... because (unless I totally misread the character), I definitely see Marcus as the guy with the glasses in the movie Predator.  The ranger with tech skills.  And he's more of a guy in the field, rather than the pilot.  So Breakfall is one possible option (which makes sense from a parachuting point of view but also will be applicable in situations where you need to drop from heights even outside the perview of the wilderness (leaping from roofs and whatnot).  There are probably other specialities that can come out of this as well (ones that you might have learned within your time in the military, but also apply to situations outside of it as well).  You could also select perhaps some knowledge skills as possible ones... things that weren't directly learned while in the NZ military, but instead acquired just from interest in the subject over Marcus' lifetime.  So think about that.The only last thing I'd consider doing is fleshing out the time spent after he retire from service.  You summed up his time as a salesman, then a merc, then getting work with an espionage agency in a single paragraph.  You probably have some other interesting things that occurred in there, plus a reason why Marcus decided to become an employee for Espion... let's see some of that.  Thanx!  It looks good!</blockquote>

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