Necessary Evil: Elder Lehman

March 31, 2009 6 comments

Race: Human
Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d10, Spirit d12, Strength d4, Vigor d4
Skills: Fighting d4, Guts d6, Knowledge: History d6+2 , Knowledge: Latin d4+2, Knowledge: Ancient Greek d4+2, Knowledge: Ancient Egyptian d4+2, Notice d8, Persuasion d12, Shooting d4, Taunt d8
Charisma: +2 Pace: 5 Parry: 5 Toughness: 5
Edges: Arcane Background (Super Powers), Power Points, Charismatic, Jack of All Trades
Hindrances: Gloater, Heartless, Elderly, Cautious
Gear: 9mm pistol (Luger), Z-Belt, Yorkie (Mister Tinkles)
Super Powers:
Ageless (2): Very Old
Jinx (12): Area Effect, Selective, Improved
Fearless (2)
Super Attribute (2): Worldy (Smarts)
Super Attribute (2): Old Soul (Spirit)

This ancient and immortal man has known many names over the ages, but currently calls himself Elder Lehman. It’s his private joke, in spite of being a horrid pun. He appears to be a frail, doddering old man and is lacking in combat skills, but is deceptively spry when he needs to be. He is a manipulative mastermind, getting others to do his dirty work for him. He amuses himself by pretending to be helpless, getting women and children and even noble heroes to place themselves in harm’s way to protect and defend the poor old man. The dog is just another prop to that end. Elder Lehman currently resides in a gated retirement community, a cover which thus far has allowed him to elude detection by the V’Sori.

Elder Lehman’s major power isn’t that he’s lucky, but that around him his enemys are unlucky (Jinx). Anyone within a Medium Burst Template making an action against him has a mishap on a 1 or 2, regardless of Wild Die.

Notes: I originally started writing Elder Lehman (“Elderly Man”) as a joke character. My first take was to give him plant manipulation powers (“Get off my lawn”). My second take equipped him with senior citizen-themed gadgets: mele-attack false teeth, a blaster cane, targeting-sight bifocals, a hearing aid with super-hearing, sonar, radio and cell reception, an armor Buick and a secure lair within a gated community. As I started working out his background, I started taking him a little more seriously. I decided that the whole doddering old man schtick was designed to elude capture by the V’Sori. It was his own private joke on the world.

That got me thinking about the father of an old friend of mine, who was sharp as a tack but played senile for his own benefit. One of his tricks was to scam restaurants. At the end of the meal he’s stick the bill in his jacket pocket, plainly visible along with enough cash to pay the tab, and walk out. If he got stopped — and it amazed me how often he didn’t — he’d act confused, say he forgot and pull out the bill and the cash to prove it. What was even more amazing was that about 10% of the time people would feel bad for him and just let him go without making him pay. This became my template for Elder Lehman, who would do similar things but on a larger scale.

My other inspiration for Elder Lehman, once I had the manipulator concept in place, was Benjamin Linus from Lost.

Buy Necessary Evil: Explorer’s Edition (Savage Worlds, S2P10011)