Post your questionnaires from PC's Dread game!

[Morrus]

I'm personally very interested in seeing the takes that other people had on the character I played, and after talking to others it appears that I'm not alone.

So, if you've played in PC's Dread game, please post your questionnaire! Remember to put the character name at the top.

The game takes place in 1921 England.

Some people believe that twenty years ago Sir Oliver Hume killed his blind wife Artemis for her money, pushing her off the roof. Nothing was ever proven, and any scandal was soon buried. Now Sir Oliver himself has passed away, and family and friends descend on the ancestral manor for the funeral and the reading of the will. Sir Oliver's grandchildren have never been particularly close to their uncle or great-aunt.

Here's mine:

Sir Oliver's grandson Daniel Hume, a bit of a dilettante.

[sblock]

1. What's your most vivid memory of your grandfather Oliver?

My grandfather was the person who always led me astray. He was the man who gave me my first drink at the tender age of 10. He was also the man who arranged for my first... errmm... "encounter" with a lady of the night when I was merely 14. His reasoning was that it was better that I get it out of the way early. Certainly the early start meant that I was well ahead of my peers as a grew up!


2. Of the many young women you've dallied with, who was your favorite and why?

Cosmopolita Windsor-Wintergrew. A distant cousin of King George, with all the privileges that entailed! Not one too hung up on royal etiquette, though... she's the girl who would sneak a hip flask full of brandy into a royal function and who would be quietly escorted out before the end. I clearly remember her dancing on tables at various pubs; nobody quite had the courage to tell her that that sort of behaviour wasn't befitting a member of the royal family, however distant.

3. Gerald "Corky" Corkington follows you about constantly, proclaiming himself to be your best friend. How loyal are you to him?

Oh, Corky! A delightful chap. He's covered for me many, many times! He even seconded me in a duel once... the one that I had to back out of due to an unfortunate resurgence of an exotic, foreign illness. He won the duel for me, though, bless his heart! I know he hero-worships me... well.who wouldn't? I am pretty damn dashing, after all!

As for loyalty... of course I'm as loyal as the next man. Of course, the next man, right now, is a drunk asleep in his chair...

4. What did happen to that 4th grader who died when you were at school?

What on earth is a 4th grader? Do you mean Pinky Fortimus-Drew, the unfortunate chap who fell off the roof of the cricket pavilion? I don't know how he got there, or how his school-bag ended up hanging from the flag-pole. Certainly it has nothing to do with me, and my father made sure that it has nothing to do with me.. retrospectively... with a purse full of guineas. Ahem.

5. Does it bother you that you and your sister are the last living blood members of the Hume family line?

Well, it's about bloody time! I've been patiently waiting for my inheritance for years now! Of course, I certainly never wished any other man or woman ill, especially not the dearly departed members of my family, but everyone has their time, right? I'm not a poor man by any means, of course - in fact I sponsor a number of charitable and artistic endeavours, and I greatly appreciate the way in which society deems it important that I gain some small tax benefit from doing so. Where was I? Ah, yes... my sister. Isn't it about time she married some rich old man like any respectable woman should do?

6. Why are you often late to your job?

I always felt it was important to make sure that the morale of those I work with remained high, and to that end I graciously encouraged them to engage in fulfilling social pursuits in the evenings and at weekends. And during the afternoons. The mornings, occasionally.

7. How do you earn your spending money?

I receive a special pension from the Army - I was honourably discharged, y'know, on account of my reccuring exotic illness. In addition, I have a number of investments which pay out reasonably well- certainly well enough to sustain my lavish lifestyle! There's the brothel in the East End, a couple of moneylenders, and, of course, my sponsorship of The Arts tends to bring in certain side-benefits.

8. How important is it to you to inherit your grandfather's fortune?

It is true that my monthly income is sizeable, but I have expenses! The rent on the country house, the butler, the flat in London, and the one in Paris. There may also be the matter of one or two gambling debts...

9. You were of age during the Great War. Why didn't you enlist?

Oh, but I did! Unfortunately my exotic illness meant that I could not particpate in that particular endeavour, and I was forced to leave the Army. I was dreadfully heroic, though - before the War I was on a campaign in India, where my superb riding skills and excellent swordsmanship proved most useful!

10. How did your parents die?

Father was a military man, of course. Travelled the world, and fought in many battles. He was, unfortunately, felled by a Zulu tribesman in darkest Africa. Mother, I'm afraid to say, was something of a lush, and she went to pieces after Father dies. We tell everyone that she died of a broken heart, but the truth is she was a drunkard long before Father's death.

11. Why do you think you will never marry?

What's the point? Thee are dozens - nay, hundreds, thousands - of delightful women out there! I'd be doing myself a disservice if I were not to sample them all! Besides, who wants to be nagged at home, bring up children or be otherwise prevented from enjoying life the way it was supposed to be lived?

12. Would you give your own life for your sister's?

What a queston! Everybody who knows me knows that I am brave and selfless to a fault. All right, I admit it, I'm a craven coward, but nobody needs to kow that, right?

13. What hobby are you proudest of?

I am a remarkably good marksman! I can shoot a penny on a line of string from horseback, and that's no lie! Of course, I have trouble when someone's shooting back... have you seen my pistols, by the way? Fine works of art, don't you think? I acquired them in Burma, after their previous owner died.[/sblock]

 

[orchid blossom]

As soon as we get the desktop pc up and running I can get mine out and post it... although it might be on my flash drive.

It'll be great to read about the other characters!

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Frances Hume, flapper. Daniel's brother, granddaughter of Oliver and Artemis Hume. This is from the evening game.

[sblock]
1. What’s your most vivid memory of your grandfather Oliver?

The day after grandmother died, he sent the maid to summon me to his study. As I approached I could hear laughing, but the room went silent when I knocked.

When I entered, I could see my grandfather and several of his associates. They were so splifficated they'd probably miss the floor when they passed out. Cigar smoke hung heavy in the air, and despite the fact that it was an unusally warm autumn day, a fire blazed in the hearth.

Oliver called me over to his desk. There were papers strewn about haphazardly, which was unusual. The few times I'd been permitted in his study, it had been immaculate.

He said he'd permitted my mother and I to stay in his home for the sake of my grandmother, but that now we'd have to find a new place to live. He told me to go pack my clothes. Mother had gone down to London to find us a new house.

I started to cry, sobbing that I didn't want to leave grammy's house. He slapped me and told me to stop embarrassing him in front of his friends. He spun me by my shoulders and hustled me out the door.

Except for the party on my 16th birthday, I've not returned to the estate.

Until now.

2. Who was your first kiss?

The sniveling boot-lick Corky surprised me behind the gazebo on my 16th birthday. He grabbed me around the waist, and when I opened my mouth to screan, he covered it with his. I bit him as hard as I could. He never tried anything again, and I never told anyone about it, though I think mother knew somehow.


3. When did you realize it all meant nothing?

When I woke up and the doctor told me what had happened, and what they'd had to do during the surgery.

4. Where did you get those shoes?

I pinched them from Harrod's on a lark. I could have easily afforded them, or batted my eyes and gotten some sucker to buy them for me, but where's the fun in that?


5. Do you black out every time?
No.


6. When she died, did your mother know you weren’t a virgin?

Yes. I was eighteen, and we had a terrific row. Every few weeks, the son of one of Oliver's cronies would come sniffing around. When she caught me flirting with one of them she tossed him out. She told me she didn't want me making the same mistakes she did. I told her I wouldn't, that I had no intention of ending up poor and alone because I didn't know how to keep a man.


7. What’s in your handbag?

Assorted cosmetics. A handkerchief. A pack of Red Apple cigarettes. A metal flask of gin, half empty. My passport. A .442 British Bulldog revolver, loaded.


8. Why are you afraid of the dark?

Because in the dark, you're all alone.

9. How do you earn your spending money?

A girl hears things, you know? A guy gets stuck on you, gets goofy, he likes to talk, try and impress you. Sometimes you hear things other folks will pay good money to know.

10. What would you do without your brother?

Daniel's the Darb, but he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Sooner or later he'll give in and let some dame slap a handcuff on him, and it'll be all over. Imagine her surprise. I'll get by just fine. It's Daniel that couldn't do without his big sister to look after him.


11. Which of the nightmares is the worst?

The one where I'm falling. It's night and the wind is howling, and for some reason I'm having a tea party up on the roof. But instead of my dollies, I'm serving pretend tea to Daniel and Corky and my grandmother. We're having a nice time, but then Oliver appears, and he sweeps the tea set from the roof. I scramble to catch the fragile china, but I lose my balance and tumble past the eaves. Everything is moving so slowly, and I can see each piece of the tea set hit the cobblestones in the driveway and shatter into a million twirling pieces.


12. Your brother’s friend Corky follows him about constantly. Does that strike you as odd?

Corky's been an odd bird since we were kids. I know his parents don't come from money, so it never struck me as strange the way he followed Daniel around, just pathetic. Until I got older, anyway.

13. How important is it to inherit your grandfather’s fortune?

It was never rightly Oliver's to begin with. I could move mother out of that asylum and into some nicer place, with real doctors and nurses and not those gorillas in white coats.

Besides, if Daniel inherits it, it will just end up in the hands of some gold-digging harlot. He's such a pushover.[/sblock]

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

For me, the key questions were 2 and 3. Francis 'died' (actually, was possessed by the spirit of Oliver) when Corky tried to force a kiss on her. I'd probably not have drawn a block for that -- I'd have slapped him afterwards, or tried to provoke him into making another draw. But given the character history, there's no way she was going to let that happen again.

And question 3 is how she got her revenge from beyond. It's sort of vague, but between the lines, her hard-partying life caught up with her, she went for the procedure to some quack, and ended up being unable to bear children. Take that, Oliver!

 

[Crothian]

You might want to place in spoilers in the title if PC is planning on using this scenario again.

This is from the afternoon game.



Mr. Bertram Finchley
British nephew of the late Sir Oliver Hume
The year is 1921.

[sblock]
1. You are over 40. Why do you still live with your mother?

She needs me. Mother cannot do anything for herself and I make sure
that she is comfortable and warm. I know how she likes her tea and
what her favorite biscuits are.


2. What first triggered your interest in photography?

My father. It was the only thing that we had in common besides mother.


3. Have you ever experienced true love?

After the war with the great toll on the population of the men of
England I found it was easier to meet women. I once able to take
pictures and use it as a way into people's lives. But while there
have been many women there has been none I fell in love with. In the
end I was never able to find anyone that was as good as mother.

4. Why didn't you enlist during the Great War?

Mother needed me more. I could not abandon her the way father did
with his dying.


5. What's your worst habit?

I don't have any bad habits. I am always polite and a gentleman. I
always treat the many lesser people with the respect they deserve and
afford them a bit of kindness. But not too much I don't want them to
become soft and lazy as they tend to do.


6. Why do THOSE people hate you?

Become I am better then them. I have had a good life and enjoy many
comforts. I remind them of what they can never have. No matter how
hard they work and fight their own nature they can never actually
achieve what I have.


7. Do you like your relatives?

I of course love Mother. But the others always seem to want to get in
the way of Mothers and my life. They try to interfere with the way we
have always done things. I am of course completely polite to them
all. Unlike many of them I was raised with manners.


8. How do you spend your days?

Every morning I wake before Mother and get her her morning coffee and
paper. I make sure her seat in the sitting room has a comfortable
pillow and that she doing well. Then I go out after lunch and take
pictures in the parks. It is a great way to meet people and and I am
still searching for a woman that is as good as Mother.

9. Have you considered hospitalizing your mother?

Never. My love and devotion to her make me the best caretaker she
could ever have.

10. Do you believe in spirits?

I did not use to. But lately I have taken some pictures of bombed out
residences and have gotten some odd shadows and shapes once the film
has been developed.

11. What scares you the most?

Losing Mother.


12. Is it worth having a go at Camille, your mother's French maid?

Of course it is, that is really the reason Mother hired her.

13. What are you looking forward to?

Once Mother and I get the fortune we so richly deserve we can finally
start to live the life God intended us to live.[/sblock]

 

[Piratecat]

No spoilers necessary; I've retired the game.

You know, it might be fun to post multiple copies of the same character's sheet from different games. I'll see if I can do that once I'm at work.

EDIT: I've gone through and sblocked the character sheets, just to make the thread easier to read.

 

[shilsen]

You know, it might be fun to post multiple copies of the same character's sheet from different games. I'll see if I can do that once I'm at work.

That would be great. The above make very interesting reading and show some very nice work by the players fleshing out the PCs with a few answers.

 

[barsoomcore]

I decided that Corky was basically a character from a P.G. Wodehouse story. It's most amusing to compare my description of what happened between Corky and Frances and Rodrigo's (we were in the same game).

Gerald “Corky” Corkington, British dilettante (and the companion of Daniel Hume.)
The year is 1921.
[sblock]
1. You were of age during the Great War. Why didn't you enlist?

As a young mathematics student at Cambridge in 1914 I was greatly influenced by Bertrand Russell's activism and followed his footsteps to avoid conscription. Of course I now deeply regret my misguided idealism.

2. What is your most impressive accomplishment?

I could hardly say. Not Cambridge, certainly.

One doesn't like to boast about one's accomplishments, but I did shoot a tremendous round at Coxley Greens not long ago. Both Fink-Nottle and Humie said they'd never seen the course handled so well. Fifteen under, if you must know.

3. Why do old people make you uncomfortable?

It's not old people themselves; it's that terrible sense of tragedy about them. Wasted potential, I suppose. Also they talk so slowly.

4. You often end up paying. How can you afford to spend your days drinking and carousing?

To tell the truth, my family once had quite a fortune; an estate in Cornwall, in fact. Long gone now, of course, but those old connections always seem to come through for me. Though nowadays it's more collection notices on debts. Still, you can always find someone willing to pitch in for an old boy.

5. You try to spend time near Daniel Hume, and always tell people that you’re both best friends. Is this hero worship, or something different?

Humie's brilliant. I've never met a chap so completely ripping. It does you good just to be around him, with his hearty good cheer and his clever tongue. I don't know if that's hero worship. Just straightforward affection from one lad to another. Nothing strange about that, is there?

6. How does Daniel feel about you?

Well, I don't know if it's my place to say. We've been through some tight times, I can tell you that. I suppose he relies on me to some degree; I'm the sort who can always smooth over a scrap, you know. Feels about me? Sort of a strange question, what?

7. Does anybody owe you money, and for what?

Not as such. I mean, there's plenty of times I've picked up a tab here or there, I suppose, for Humie or other lads round the club and whatnot. But gentlemen don't keep track of such things.

I'm a generous man when I can be. It's my nature.

8. What do you currently have in your pockets?

Let's see... A golf ball I pocketed while winning a half-crown from old Gussie Fink-Nottle up at Twing Hall, a folding pocketknife Frankie gave me a few year's back, some change (always keep a little change on hand for cabs and whatnot), and a chequebook. Never know who's going to put their hand out, or show up asking rudely for their stake back.

9. Daniel’s sister Frances sometimes looks at you oddly. Why do you suppose she does that?

Dear old Frankie. We've been chums forever. Not everyone knows, but we were engaged once, for a brief spell. I don't think even Humie knows that. Sweet child, of course, though wild like all the girls are these days. Honestly, she's lovely but it just would never have worked. Can't imagine what I was thinking, but you know how it is. Spend a few days in the country with a gal and before you know it, you're engaged. Dashed difficult breaking if off but a chap's got to get out of such things if his heart isn't in it.

She was a good egg about it, but every now and then I see that spark in her eye and I think to myself, "Corky old thing, time to make yourself scarce now."

10. Are you currently in love?

Good heavens, what a question! Am I in love? Of course not? Spend all my time with Humie, don't I? Who should I be falling in love with then, him?

11. What do your parents think of you?

Well I suppose the old fellow would be rather disappointed, if he hadn't choked to death on a pomegranate during the War. Mother's never been the same since. To be honest, she hasn't spoken a word since. Not that she ever said much beforehand. The nurses tell me she's doing fine, however. Strong lady, she is. Good family.

12. Do you have any addictions?

Ha ha! Only to adventure, what? Isn't that what the chaps in the stories say? I like a drink as much as the next fellow of course, but that's hardly anything to go on about. I will confess to a terrible fondness for sunflower seeds.

13. What are you scared of?

Same things as anyone, I suppose. Drowning. Getting old seems frightfully nasty. I should hate for Humie to find out that old story about Frankie and I. Just seems so silly and foolish, you know. Not the sort of thing a fellow's proud of. And well, of course no one wants, you know, money trouble to get about. Not that the situation is so terribly dire, but some of these banker chaps are awfully insistent, you know. Quite difficult to reason with.[/sblock]

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

No spoilers necessary; I've retired the game.

You know, it might be fun to post multiple copies of the same character's sheet from different games. I'll see if I can do that once I'm at work.

That would be cool - I don't have my character sheet on my work PC so I won't be able to post it until very late tonight.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

I don't know who Corky got engaged to, but it certainly wasn't Frances, not after what he pulled behind the gazebo.

That sap drinks too much. He probably got engaged to one of the hunting hounds. And the hound probably dumped him.