Jake (Here There Be Monsters)

Hack Guidelines>Characters>Iconics>Jake

All Profile Abilities Vocations Milestones Notes

Jake

Distinctions

d4 (+1 PP)

Dogged Monster Hunter

Relentless Investigator

Couldn't Keep It Together

Tier

Competent

Plot Points

Aptitudes

Violence

Finesse

Smarts

Psyche

Awareness

Vocations

Survivor

Occultist

Monster Hunter

Connected

Stress

Body

Ego

Assets

Credentials: d6

FBI Consultant credentials

Revolver: d6

S&W .460 Caliber, Model 460 XVR

Trenchcoat: d6

Sturdy, lots of pockets

Ability Sets

World-weary Detective

Ranged: d6

Unarmed: d4

Sleuthing: d8

SFX: Pistol Master: You may borrow a d6 from the doom pool and add it to your dice pool on action rolls that include Ranged if your current weapon is a Pistol; if you do so you may keep an extra die for your total. Afterwards discard the die borrowed from the doom pool if you succeeded otherwise return it to the doom pool.

Limit: Gear: This Ability Set's Ranged trait is shut down if you are disarmed or do not have an appropriate weapon available to you; gain one (1) Plot Point when this becomes a Complication for you. You may recover Ranged when it is appropriate to the narrative; this may require you to activate an opportunity or take an action against the doom pool at the GM's discretion.

Limit: Dogged: You simply cannot let a case go once you've sunk your teeth into it. At any given time you've got a few open cases and can get distracted from the matter at hand if some new lead opens up on any of them. Gain one (1) Plot Point when this becomes a Complication for you.

Limit: PTSD: At the beginning of each Action Scene, remove a die of your choice from the doom pool and apply it to yourself as Ego Stress.

Vocations

Survivor [ ][ ]

The Survivor Vocation allows the following special Exploits:

Exploit: You may step up and double Awareness when taking an action or reaction related to not being surprised.
Exploit: You may step up and double Finesse on reactions to avoid detection or harm; if you do you may include an additional die in your total.
Exploit: If you are attempting to hide from something potentially harmful and fail a roll to avoid detection, you may reroll.

Occultist [ ]

The Occultist Vocation allows the following special Exploits:

Exploit: Either recall useful information regarding an occult subject you might reasonably have learned a little something about in the past, or gain insight into a line of inquiry that may lead to uncovering heretofore hidden occult knowledge (GM's discretion applies).
Exploit: You may reroll a dice pool that includes your Psyche; the second result must be kept.
Exploit: Put a d8 Asset of esoteric or occult significance into play; you may give this Asset to another.
Signature Exploit: You are an expert on the Cult of the Red Hand; during a Transition Scene you may create a 'Cult of the Red Hand Case Work: d10' Asset if you have time to gather your detailed notes. You may give this Asset to others to aid them in their efforts against the cult.

Monster Hunter [ ]

The Monster Hunter Vocation allows the following special Exploits:

Exploit: With access to materials, during a Transition Scene you may acquire specialized ammunition or weapons useful for harming the kind of monster you are currently going after. You gain a Asset such as 'Special Ammo: d8' or 'Blessed Stakes: d8' or 'BFG: d8' (etc); you can give this Asset to someone else.
Exploit: You may avoid taking Stress from a single supernatural attack.
Exploit: You may step up and double Smarts for a single action when trying to investigate a supernatural crime scene or situation.

Standard Exploits

All Vocations have the following standard exploits available to them.

Exploit: Augment Dice Pool Result: for a dice pool result that inludes your Vocation trait die, you may either keep an extra die for your total or step up the effect die.
Exploit: Create a Asset: a Asset is a temporary d6 trait that represents a professional contact, a piece of equipment, or some kind of useful knowledge related to your Vocation. The Asset lasts until it is removed by someone or because it becomes no longer relevant to the narrative. Write down [Name of the Asset]: d6; you may add it as an additional die whenever the Asset is relevant to an action or reaction. How long it may take to create a particular Asset, and whether it can be done as part of an Action Scene or must be done in a Transition Scene is left to common sense and GM's discretion.
Exploit: Affect Complications: if there is a Complication that your Vocation pertains to, you can step it down or remove it from play by describing how your expertise allows you to overcome the Complication. If the Complication is a d6 eliminate it, if it is d8 or higher step it down. Alternately, if you can justify how your Vocation applies, you may create a d6 Complication and put it into play or step up an existing Complication.

Milestones

Sick Fascination with the Supernatural

You wish you didn't know that the Supernatural exists...but now that you do you want to know everything. Your natural curiosity coupled with a sick fascination for how deep it all goes compels you to learn everything you can about the hidden mysteries of the world.

Goal

Reward

The first time in a session you come into contact with something to do with the supernatural that is new to you.

+1 Plot Point

The first time in a session you find yourself in a conflict against something supernatural.

+1 Plot Point, remove the highest die from the doom pool

When you close a significant case with a supernatural origin.

gain one (1) Advance, gain a d8 Asset, then retire this Milestone Set and choose another one

Disgraced Detective, Ruined Reputation

You were once a very respected and well connected member of law enforcement, but your apparent descent into madness and small time P.I. status have sent all of that directly to the dust bin. Almost none of your old comrades will return your calls, and you can tell that the few who do don't take you seriously anymore. You need to either rehabilitate yourself in the eyes of the mundane world or commit yourself fully to making a new reputation for yourself among those 'in the know'.

Goal

Reward

The first time in a session when your troubled past and former reputation affects the narrative, such as when you run into a former colleague.

gain a Exploit invocation

The first time in a session you make an effort to build a new network of useful contacts among those who are supernaturally aware.

gain a Exploit invocation

When you somehow manage to win back some lost respect with traditional law enforcement, or finally accept that the past is the past and fully commit yourself to your new life.

gain two (2) Advances, then retire this Milestone Set and choose another one

Jake is an 'old' 46. 20 years on the force and a couple years investigating dark doings and hunting monsters has not helped him stay youthful; he visibly carries the weight of his years. Jake isn't entirely sure what his motivation is, but he can't not get to the bottom of mystery once he's caught the scent of it. In particular, Jake has put together enough pieces of the puzzle that is the Cult of the Red Hand to make him suspect that there is far more at play...and at stake...than anyone else seems to think. When he's not working some more immediate case, gathering more clues on the Red Hand and their shadowy master is what occupies Jake's hours and minutes.

Jake Donaldson was one of the best Detectives on the force; sharp, alert, and with great powers of deduction. It was really only a matter of time before he became exposed to the Supernatural.

Jake's great strength and flaw as a cop was that he couldn't let a case go. He had an almost perfect record of closed cases, thanks entirely to his dogged refusal to stop working the clues on even the most apparantly unsolvable of mysteries. Yet when he encountered his first Supernatural case, a curious locked door murder scenario, he was stymied. The facts of the case required the existence of things that clearly could not actually exist...and yet there it was. He didn't solve that one, but a few months later when a similar case occured involving a man killed inside of a secured safe room with no way in or out and surveillance video that strangely "fuzzed out" the critical few minutes in which the deed was done, Jake refused to just let the case file slide onto the "unsolveable" pile.

Turning all his abilities and experience to the task, Jake eventually made his case...but there was no way he could turn it in or move forward with it officially. Now, Jake had heard other older cops talking from time to time about "weird stuff" cases, but he'd always blown it off as nonsense. However he now had evidence of it for himself, for the culprit he had successfully hounded down appeared to be some kind of evil apparition...i.e., a ghost! Furthermore, it seemed to have been 'summoned' and controlled by some kind of weird cult who had what appeared to be genuine supernatural abilities! Jake closed the case, but the entire thing got handwaved away in a storm of jurisdictional bullshit by some odd FBI Agents and a civilian consultant going by the name of Dr. Allosius Jones.

Jake's eyes were now opened...perhaps a little too far. Faced with the new knowledge of the esoteric things he had previously not believed in, Jake started seeing Supernatural doings behind even the most mundane of crimes. His ability to solve crimes was impaired, and eventually he was put on a suspension without leave or pay which he's just never returned from.

Instead Jake opened a private detective agency, got licensed as a Hunter with Section M, and he now specializes in the sorts of "weird cases" other PI's don't want to deal with. They don't all have a supernatural angle, but some do, and those are the ones Jake looks foward to.

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