Character Development Game

[Ulysses Reynolds]

Ma feet, they've taken me many miles and they'll take me even more.

Have you ever died, only to be brought back.

[Private Weasel]

No, I’ve not, come to think of it. Actually, considering that my companions often get into death defying scrapes, tomfoolery and shenanigans it is amazing that I maintain a relative aura of good health.  I was eaten by a shark once, but luckily escaped with only mild abrasions, mostly brought on by choking.

What is your most prized possession?

[Evelyn Adler]

That would be my mother's locket, the only family heirloom I still own. It was an engagement present from my father, inside are both their portraits and the outside shows the family crest.

Speaking of family, tell us about yours.

[sir kitto]

You really REALLY don't want to know but alas now I can sum them up in one word now . . .
dead.

[Cpt. Robert Trevelyan]

Since Sir Kitto hasn't posted a question, I'll answer the family one too.

My father, as I'm sure I've mentioned previously, was a moderately successful merchant seaman with his own small business.  Unfortunately he's passed on now, leaving me the family business and thus allowing me to, uh, develop it.  I remember him as a hearty man, stern but fair, but capable of jollity and fun as well, with a solid frame and full beard, normally with a pipe clenched between his teeth.  He came from a long line of fishermen, each generation earning a little more, until his father bought a second boat and expanded the business.  Father took the two boats into the merchant business and built that up.

Mother, too, has unfortunately departed, she followed father to the grave two years after his departure.  Kindly and caring and brilliant with anything involving the family kitchen she was the only daughter of a farmer just outside the village of Megavissey.  When her father died and left her the farm she sold most of it off and put the proceeds into helping father develop his business, but we still had the nice big farmhouse with plenty of land for me to play around as a boy, but close enough to the village that I spent almost as much time around Megavissey harbour as on the farm.

I'm told they met at the quay one day (while my da was still a fisherman's son, not a merchant seaman) when mother was looking to buy some of the day's catch.  Slipping on wet cobbles she fell into the arms of my father, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Do you have a regional accent, or is your speech cultured by high society? (Obviously I'm not aware of it, but I've been told by some of those I deal with from up hundreds that my accent proudly declares me as Cornish...)

[Professor Veritas]

Do you have a regional accent, or is your speech cultured by high society? (Obviously I'm not aware of it, but I've been told by some of those I deal with from up hundreds that my accent proudly declares me as Cornish...)

Oxfordian - tempered by many trips across the continent and entirely too much time spent aboard my airship with a very international crew.

What great technological leap has influenced you the most?

[Ulysses Reynolds]

The airship, for it allows me to stay one step ahead of my enemies.

What have you, be ye an anarchist, socialist, democrat or do ye follow the queen.

[Uncle Arthur]

I follow only my own whims and the flow of cash.

Pets? Animal or otherwise?

[Inflatable Friend]

There are a few crewmen aboard my current posting that could be classified as animals, but definitely not pets. We have a ships cat, Seamus, but he certainly isn't a pet either.

I had a dog as a child, but he passed away shortly before I left home to join the navy. While I don't mind cats I do really miss having a dog.

How about you, cat person or dog person?

[Prof. Michael Masters]

Cat person. That isnt to say dogs dont have there uses or cant be nice (unless they are guard dogs in which case their use is not to be nice) but I definitely like cats better for pet purposes. Then again I am head of a university for Mad Scientists so I suppose that it goes with the territory. MWAhahahahahahaha! *pets cat* Hahaha!

*ahem  where were we? Oh, yes questions...

This ones from the boys in the R&D.
Has anyone ever done work as a "test subject"?  If not How much would one have to be paid to take up such a position?

[Private Weasel]

I was asked by my good friend Professor Postlethwait (Pipe-smoker of the Year this year previous) to act as a test subject for the Postlethwait Superior Automatic Hat-Canon, last year.  This piece of millinery engineering looked to all intents and purposes to the casual observer as a common Top-hat. However, hidden within was a small calibre automatic gun, akin to the guns made by Sir Hiram Maxim. The gun was fired by a raising of the brow as one would do when caught by surprise, meaning that I was an excellent test subject as I refuse to be caught by surprise unless it is planned in advance.

Sadly the experiment never went past the testing stage as the Professor then went on to try the hat himself and was surprised by the result and even more surprised when his reaction blew a sizable hole in his favourite laboratory assistant.

The assistant survived the experiment, it is worth noting, and is reported fine: To a given quantity of fine.

My question:  I am assuming you are an adventuring type.  What is your adventuring weapon of choice?

[Professor Veritas]

My self.  Mind like a steel trap, razor sharp wit, iron determination and a steely-eyed stare.

As a gentleman of the Empire, a scientist, and an educated man of letters, I feel that I can use any item at hand as a weapon.

Regards,

Prof. Veritas

If I could offer you berth aboard my airship - where would you have me take you?  And what would you be about when we arrive?

[Evelyn Adler]

My, your description sounds like it's a bad idea to stand next to you in a thunderstorm!
But now you mention it, I need someone to take me to Venice. A client has asked me to retrieve an item of value from a old acquaintance. Unfortunately that's all I can tell you. But Venice is lovely this time of year.

Could I interest you in joining me for a ball or the opera - or are you more at home in the great outdoors?

[Rebecca_Lansport]

Rowan seems to smile softly to the question, her perfect porcelain face tilted ever so slightly, and you can hear the faintest ticking from deep inside her. "I would adore to attend a ball - or an opera. But while I love gardens, the wider outdoors is not such a friendly place for me..."

She pauses, then asks, "Do you prefer the upper class life, or are you more comfortable with your freedom?"

[Professor Veritas]

The upper class life is an ever-loving nuisance...but it does have it's privileged.

If not for my station (humble as it is), I would never have met those nobles who sponsored my initial inventions.
If not for those lavish doors that are open only for those of us in the "upper crust", I would never have met my lovely wife, herself a Russian noble.

Besides - as one of the lucky few - position and resources has granted me greater freedom that I would otherwise have known.

So tell me, how do you make your living?  Above or below board?

[Sgt.Whatshisname]

In the mud, or the sand or the dirt or jungles, mountains, deserts.
I found out as  a young man, during the altercation between those in power in Washington and those in Richmond, that I was very good at the soldiering life.
  I was born in Massachusetts but educated at a Military Academy in Georgia. When the war broke up, as a young 15 year old cadet, I followed my classmates into the gray uniform and found I had a knack for soldiering. Since then, I've been traveling the world and making a decent living as what I like to refer to as, A military technichal specialist.

  If you come at the proposition of war for the "Glory and Honor" you'll be fitted for a box as quick as you can think. SOldiering is a trade, a vocation. It's dirtier and harder than most but it's a profession like any other.

What is your favorite city.

[Rebecca_Lansport]

She considers a moment, then nods softly as she answers. "I would have to say somewhere just outside Seattle. Pretty, and close to the water, with a lot of trees. I'm not found of travelling, but it sure is nice to sit on your porch and look!" With a slight pause, she considers the next person carefully. "Are you a cogs-and-gears type, or do you think there is more out there than science can explain?"

[Sgt.Whatshisname]

I've seen a LOT of things that currently cannot be explained by science. That just means the gentlemen in frock coats  and lab coats haven't gotten around to explaining it yet.

[Cpt. Robert Trevelyan]

I'm a man of the sea, with all the superstitions that brings, of course there's more that science can explain.  However, I'm most comfortable in the advanced but easily understandable cog and gear technology that powers my beloved vessel.

Can't think of a question, so I'll leave the table open, or return and post a question if one occurs to me before someone else does...

[sir kitto]

Cogs and gears all the way especially those I make myself I might add hahaha.
My question for you is if you could change jobs would you? And what to?

[Evelyn Adler]

I am from one of those backgrounds where your path is already decided for you the moment you come into the world. It took me some effort, to get away from that. So, no intention to change anything. I do exactly what I want to do. Although it comes at a price...

What sacrifices did you have to make and for what reason?

[sir kitto]

Oh boy what did I give up oh let me me think . . . my family, my friends, my homeland, my past all my posesions and why? So that I wasn't killed when my traction castle was ripped apart that's why!
Yours sincerely Sir Kitto.

Now my question huh oh well here it is for the adventurous even dangerous types out their when to travel across this vast earth what do you take with you and have you ever traveled by traction castle, land barge or even a movement traction city like the one I myself reside upon. 

[JohnOdin]

When I travel I take a traveling case which contains the following:
Spare socks and underclothes,
Gentlamans shaving kit, my trusty cut throat razor, strap, brushes, soaps, hairbrush, mirror, moustache wax, nail clippers, colonge etc.
A good stout pair of boots,
A comforotable pair of sheepskin slippers,
Silk PJ's
A spare pipe, tobbacco, pipe cleaning kit.
A small quantity of gold in a secret compartment, and a quantity of money again in a compartment, for expenses.
My "tools of the trade" a gladstone bag contaning; Holy Water, Salt, Silver and Gold talismans, Bones, graveyard dirt, candles, some 'herbs' iron nails, Small vials of Blood, A revolver with custom made ammunition, Athame and a couple of books.
A quantity of Coffee and my own perculator,
Small flask of single malt & small flask of rum,
And changes of clothes-eveningwear and daywear.
Its a squeeze but it all fits, and any porter that carries it, certanly earns his shilling.

About my person, I carry a derringer or something larger if society allows (as I served as a Officer in His Majesties Army I am legally allowed to carry my revolver within the Empire) , A stilletto blade, a pocketknife and carry a walking stick which is a swordstick. My Trenchcoat shows my Millitary Background, but I have had a tailor modify it with 'poachers pockets'  
I carry a leather 'officers sachel' once used for carrying maps and paperwork, now makes a rather handy all purpouse bag. With papers, money, pipe, tobacco, journals, pens, ink, all easily accessable.

I have heard of "Land Barges" as you call them, in the Army we had something similar, But they were built for a purpouse not for comfort, I would travel in one if the situation demanded it but not through choice.

Q. What is your worlds "superpower" and who are they at loggerheads with ? Has the Russian Tzar got too big for his boots? Does the Empire crumble from within? Have the colonials become upstarts? Or is it something more exotic? Have Air Craken been sighted over the white cliffs of Dover? Oh has some meglomaiac scientist like that Nemo chap develope a superweapon?

[Private Weasel]

Well, obviously the sun will never set on the British Empire and thanks to Pneumatic Mail; the Empire is better connected than it ever has been.  I’m less enthused about the Dover Messaging Canon, but if we really have to send messages to Europe they best be sent in a timely and direct fashion.

The colonials as you put them are doing well, has been a recent but minor uprising in East Bengal, which is being dealt with by the East India Tea Company with the viciousness that I have come to expect from their and frankly unchecked private army (I am to understand that the London periodicals call their treatment in East Bengal as admirable, which just goes to show how terrible it must be).

The America is in turmoil.  What with the Death of Emperor the California Emperor, Norton the First, I would suspect a bloody unification on the cards in the next few years between the United States of North America and the Californian Empire. To the victor goes the spoils, am I right?

Do you have a special somebody in your life?  Personally, I am revel in the life of the confirmed bachelor, but freedom and enjoyment might not be for everyone.

[Evelyn Adler]

To be completely frank, I can do without a man trying to tie me down.
I do enjoy the attention of several suitors, but I am glad, their competition against each other makes sure, none of them ever comes too close. It also saves me the inconvenience of having to disappoint one of them.

I rather like the question, so I pass it along to the next one!