[Spycraft]Help me characterize thse NPCs

[Psion]

I'm prepping a Spycraft campaign (w00t!) and was toying around with the PCs chain of command. They work for a private institute that is controlled by a secret government agency whose charge is to perform jobs that have been or might be compromised by internal corruption in agencies that might normally be assigned to them.

Note that I'm more looking for characterization ideas than stats (Spycraft makes stats easy.)

I'm picturing the PC's chain of command like this:

Director: A former military intelligence hard-ass based on Colonel Nathan R. Jessup of A Few Good Men

Deputy Director: No particular actor or character that I am basing him on (possibly Bill Buchanan of "24"), but he's a straight shooter and moral compass who has variously been praised or panned through his career for putting ethics before politics.

Handler/Division Director: A lucious young woman with a tragic past that has embittered her and made her a bit heartless. Conceptually, I got the idea from the titular victim in "The General's Daughter", but I am a bit more open to other ideas here as that's lacking something.


Now, the main character I need ideas for here is the director. Nathan Jessup is the archtype for the sort of "do anything for my country, right or wrong" type of character I want in the director. But I don't want to borrow too strongly on the mannerisms and vernacular of the Nicholson character too obviously. Any ideas for mixing it up here but still come across as a hard-ass without making the homage to obvious.

Any ideas for the other two also appreciated, but the director is the tricky one.

 

[Roger]

Hmmm. Reminds me a bit of Skinner -- the old director for Mulder and Scully in the X-Files. That might give you a nudge in a certain direction.

Additionally or alternatively, maybe Judi Dench as James Bond's "M" character.



Cheers,
Roger

 

[Coyraven]

Salutations,

In the rpg.net creepy gamer thread there was the following post (#301):

When I was over in Saudi Arabia getting ready for the first Gulf war I was briefly assigned to the tank battalion's headquarters section. There was a warrant officer who I spoke with a few times who always struck me as - well, odd. He was always fastidiously neat, but not in an "inspection" way, more of a fussy way. He was friendly enough, but distant and strangely - well, this is a strange word to use about a Marine, prissy. Imagine Felix Unger from The Odd Couple, but even more, well, prissy. He'd sit outside the HQ perimeter and brew his specially mailed-in tea and do Tai Chi exercises. All in all, a very odd individual, very out of place in the hyper-macho USMC. But NO ONE said a word about it.

During the war he got in a bit of trouble for taking an unauthorized, unreported side trip - and capturing an entire Iraqi artillery battery without orders. He did it single-handedly, on foot, armed with just a pistol. When confronted about it by the colonel, he said, "Well, sir, I figured you'd want those artillery pieces taken care of, and I didn't want to make a fuss, so..." This was only one of his accomplishments.

He was an absolute badass, a stone-cold killer, and as eccentric as they come. I've always wanted to fit him into a game, but no no one would believe him.

(Edit - all these years later, I just realized something. I had never made this connection before, but he reminded me a bit of that Garrick character from Deep Space 9. Not exactly, but a bit similar...)

I have always wanted to use that posting for an npc. It may work for you.

Good Luck
CR