Maxwell 'Max' Black (Reaver)

[atpollard]

I just needed a place to post a character for SpaceBadgers upcoming PbP Game set in Reavers Deep during the Long Night.
So starting with the basics:

Maxwell 'Max' Black
UPP 7A5C(5)(3)* at age 26
Black hair (very short); Pale skin; Blue/Green eyes**

SKILLS:
Administration-1, Artistic-0, Electronics -0, Engineering-3, Gravitics-0, Liaison-1, Mechanical-1, Ship's Tactics-0, Shotgun-0, Steward-2, Streetwise-0, Vacc Suit-1

EQUIMENT:
85,000 credits
a shotgun
(more TBD as I spend some money)

DESCRIPTION AND PERSONALITY:
Max wears common grey coveralls, black boots and black tactical webbing with pockets and loops sporting various small common tools always in reach. The only thing unusual about his outfit is the overwhelming ‘military’ character of it … very short cropped hair, clean shave, perfectly straight sharp creases, the polished boots with pants legs tucked neatly inside. He always seems dressed for inspection by some hard ass drill instructor.

He is polite and somewhat withdrawn around strangers, but friendly and outgoing with anyone who takes the time to get to know him. While generally optimistic and always ready for a laugh, he takes his engineering section seriously … the engine room is always as ready for inspection as the Chief Engineer. He is patient when instructing others, but quick to anger at deliberately sloppy work. Somewhat sensitive about his past, he will generally not initiate any conversations about it, but will freely discuss it if asked.

Those familiar with combat who see him fight, will immediately recognize his lack of combat training … even by Merchant standards.

When in his work uniform, the only unusual feature is the faintest hint of a tattoo at his left wrist and near his collar. When he removes his shirt/coveralls, a continuous tattoo is visible from his left wrist across his upper left chest and back. If asked, he will explain that from his left wrist to elbow represents the achievements of his first term, from elbow to shoulder represents his second term, and his upper left chest and back represent his third term. It is a trait from his clan of Reavers.

As a Steward, Max likes to bake.

HISTORY (Common Knowledge Version):
Max was born on Tyrrhenum (Daibei 1615), but remembers nothing of it.
He was raised in the Drexiltharan Empire as a ‘Reaver’ and served on a warship.
He was convicted of Piracy on Shiishiga (Daibei 1218) and released after some local media stir.
He has been an Engineer and Steward aboard Free Traders for three years and served on this ship for the last two years.

Beyond these basics, Max is friendly once he gets to know you and will have discussed anything of his past from this topic with anyone who has served on this ship more than two weeks … if you asked about his past.



* NOTE: When interacting with 'Reavers' (members of the Reevers Deep Piracy/Raiding sub-culture), Max has an Edu of 7 and a Soc of 8.
However, most honest people do not share these values and tend to view 'Pirate/Reavers' with fear and suspicion,
so most people, including local police, will view Max as Edu 5 and Soc 3.

** NOTE: His eye color appears to be either Blue or Green depending in the spectrum of light in the room. It is a pigmentation quirk resulting from trace amounts of rare earth elements absorbed on his birthworld.

 

[atpollard]

Max's History Term by Term

Zero Term (Boarding School):
UPP 463744 at age 10

Max has no memories of his early childhood. His oldest memories are of being a cadet at the "Sword of Justice Youth Academy" (a Reaver Para-military boarding school), where he spent 4 years (age 10-13) struggling to succeed, but ultimately graduating with honors.

The Nuts and Bolts:
Naval Academy:
Admission (yes)
Success (just barely)
Education (5-3=+2)
Honors (yes)
Skills: none

Design Commentary:
I wanted to give Max an unusual background better tied to the setting - Reaver's Deep during the Long Night. So I decided that Max was a former Reaver (a Space Viking).

I used the Naval Accademy from High Guard (LBB 5) to create some additional depth of background by representing a typical Military Accademy type of boarding school. No skills were rolled for since he the character is less than 14 years old. This was just for Chrome … no real skills or benefits.

A quick note on the UPP values: I actually generated his UPP at age 18, and then multiplied the values by 10/18 to calculate his UPP at age 10. The +2 Edu awarded by the Education roll above was used to tweak the calculated age 10 and age 14 UPP but not the generated age 18 UPP.


What Max does not know:

Spoiler:

Max was kidnapped from his birth world in a raid and sent to a Reaver re-education center where his memories were chemically wiped and he was retrained to be a productive soldier.

His birthdate is unknown and, because of his height as a child, he was assumed to be older than he actually was ... Max is actually one year younger than his records indicate.

 

[atpollard]

Max's History Term by Term

First Term (Academy & Navy):
UPP 584966 at age 14

As an Honors graduate of the Sword of Justice Youth Academy, Max is recruited into a Junior Naval Officer Training Corps (JNOTC) program overseen by the Junior Militia for World Security (a government sponsored youth group), and selected as a Naval Cadet assigned to the Engineering Branch based on the results of aptitude testing. He completes Basic and Advanced training with an MOS skill of Engineering-1.

As a Second Year Cadet, Max attends Engineering classes where he is exposed to new skills and hands-on experience (add Mechanical-0, Electronics-0, Gravitics-0, Engineering+1)

The ongoing war effort creates a shortage of enlisted men with technical skills. The Navy responds by opening its regular 'Training Duty' to some Cadets in preparation for a possible call to active duty. Third Year Cadet Max Black is given a Training Assignment with the Navy Engineering Branch, where he learns to use a Vacc Suit. (add Vacc Suit-0)

Max is called to active duty before he can complete his studies at the Naval Academy. Since he did not graduate, he is both ineligible for a commission and concidered too inexperienced to work as an Engineer. He is assigned to the Crew Branch of the warship 'Ragnarok' with the rank of Spacehand Recruit (E1). He starts out doing the normal unglamorous tasks typical of a Spacehand Recruit, until a Master Chief Petty Officer discovers his engineering training and begins re-tasking him to all of the minor repairs that the ship’s Engineering Department never has time to get around to. From that point on, Max spends his time as a courier and repairman. Running from department to department interacting with the different NCOs and Junior Officers gives him a chance to improve his ‘people’ skills (add Liaison-0). One noteworthy incident makes it to his permanent record: while serving on a Strike assignment, the ship sustains heavy damage and Max joins an emergency repair party. His actions in rescuing crewmen and performing dangerous repairs earn him a medal for Meritorious Conduct Under Fire (MCUF).


The Nuts and Bolts:
Term 1, Year 1
Basic Training: MOS skill = Engineering-1
Advanced Training: MOS skill = Engineering-1

Term 1, Year 2
Special-Engineering School
Mechanical-0 (fail roll)
Electronics -0(fail roll)
Gravitics-0(fail roll)
Engineering-1 (made roll)

Term 1, Year 3
Training
Survival (auto)
Decoration (none)
Promotion (failed)
Skill (yes) - Shore Duty Life = Vacc Suit-1

Term 1, Year 4
Strike:
Survival (yes)
Decoration (MCUF)
Promotion (failed)
Skill (yes) - Navy Life = Liaison-1**


Design Commentary:
I generated his UPP at age 18, and then multiplied the values by 14/18 to calculate his UPP at age 14.

The character was started out at age 14 rather than age 18 (with referee permission) to reflect the militant nature of Reaver society and more closely reflect the real Viking society ... a boy still at home at age 14 rather than off adventuring was a 'coal-chewer' (a "momma's boy" in modern slang).

I generated 8 years of assignments in High Guard (LBB 5) and re-ordered them to lump all of the ‘training’ at the beginning and all of the ‘combat’ at the end. This was done to simulate an interrupted Military Accademy start to a career and involvement in a war that was getting progressively worse.

Since we are now getting into skill acquisition, a brief comment on skills is needed. SpaceBadger set out a point buy system for character creation in his PbP game that is used to check characters generated by any method the player chooses and tone down LBB 4-7 skill levels to a desired strength. The characters already generated were running from about 2 to 4 skills per term, so I set 3 skills per term (9 skill levels) as the target for this character to keep him on par with the rest of the group. The rolled skills have been trimmed back with the narrative reflecting the revised skill levels. In general, this was achieved by making the first time a skill is gained skill-0. There was minimal fudging of the skill rolls – mostly just rolling the die first and picking that number from the allowable LBB 5 table that most closely matched the concept for the character.

**Note: Carousing was rolled in year 4, but changed to Liaison for better continuity with the character's intended background.

What Max does not know:

Spoiler:

The Reaver world where Max was raised educates its citizens with a highly propagandized version of the facts. In spite of the media claims, they never suffered an unprovoked attack by a ruthless and dishonorable enemy. The Reavers have been conducting pirate raids on shipping and worlds. Then they woke a sleeping giant, who only then attacked after all diplomatic solutions had been refused.

 

[atpollard]

Max's History Term by Term

Second Term (Navy):
UPP 7A5C78 at age 18

Max remains aboard the warship 'Ragnarok' and is transferred to the Engineering Department. The ship continues to perform Strike missions, hitting enemy convoys, bases and planets in an attempt to drive back the merciless invaders. Max spends a lot of time in his Vacc Suit, often repairing damage outside the hull (add Vacc Suit-1). His ability to remain calm and get the job done earns him a second MCUF and promotion to Spacehand Apprentice (E2).

The ship spends a second year engaging in Strike missions ever deeper into enemy territory, but the enemy never seems to run out of ships. The battles take a toll on both men and ships. Damage forces acts born more of desperation than courage and earns Max a third MCUF even as casualties force him into the duties of Able Spacehand (E3). The one bright point in this cruise is that as a Spacehand Apprentice, Max is required to work under the close supervision of a Chief Petty Officer (CPO), who teaches Max how to actually think like a Ship's Engineer and not just a skilled repairman. To relieve tension and boredom, the CPO encourages Max to take up a hobby, so he starts carving intricate clockworks out of small blocks of brass – an interest that he will continue throughout his life (add Mechanical-1).

Years of heavy damage land the warship 'Ragnarok' in drydock for major repairs and refitting. While the ship is down, Max is ordered to report to Officer's Candidate School (OCS). He spends the third year of his send term being trained in the Administrative duties of a Staff Officer, the Ship's Tactics essential to a Command Officer and advanced Engineering classes for his MOS. Max emerges as a newly minted Ensign (O1) in the Navy Engineering department (add Administration-0, Ship's Tactics-0, Engineering+1).

The government will not admit it, but the war is not going well. Enemy ships attack ever closer to the homeworld and the strike fleets are being recalled to defensive positions. When Ensign Black returns to the refitted warship 'Ragnarok' to serve as a Staff Officer in the Engineering department, he is not completely surprised that the ship is ordered to a series of defensive Patrol missions. The tour is quiet for a change, with no opportunities for heroics and plenty of time for Max to sharpen his Administrative skills (add Administration-1). Wartime attrition continues to bring rapid promotion, and Ensign Black becomes Sublieutenant (O2) Black by the end of his second term.


The Nuts and Bolts:
Term 2, Year 1
Strike:
Survival (yes)
Decoration (MCUF)
Promotion (yes-E2)
Skill (yes) - Ship Life = Vacc Suit-1

Term 2, Year 2
Strike:
Survival (yes)
Decoration (MCUF)
Promotion (yes-E3)
Skill (yes) = Mechanical-1

Term 2, Year 3
OCS
(Staff Officer) Administration-1
(Command Officer) Ship's Tactics-1
(MOS) Engineering-1

Term 2, Year 4
Patrol:
Survival (yes)
Decoration (none)
Promotion (yes-O2)
Skill (yes) = Administration-1


Design Commentary:
This is the UPP that was rolled for this character. Several of the optional methods of generating a UPP posted by SpaceBadger for his campaign involved making them average out to 7 (or add to 6x7=42). I liked that and wanted to use it, so starting with the third term (when Max leaves his Reaver clan) his UPP adds up to 42.

See Term 1 for commentary on generating assignments and allocating skills.

 

[atpollard]

Max's History Term by Term

Third Term (POW & Free Trader):
UPP 7A5C53* at age 22

Relentless enemy attacks bring strikes into the home system and staggering crew losses. Within weeks of his last promotion, Sublieutenant Black finds himself with a battlefield commission to acting Lieutenant (O3) Black and heading on a mission to strike the enemy homeworld, bringing them to their knees and his homeworld to victory. The warship 'Ragnarok' is destroyed within minutes of exiting jump, suffering a near total loss of the crew. Max is found floating in his Engineer's Vacc Suit and taken aboard an enemy warship.

Held and questioned for a week by Close Orbit and Airspace Control Command (COACC), the civilian court takes less than a day to hold a trial, convict Maxwell Black of Piracy and Murder, and sentence him to 19 years in prison.

A routine medical exam turns up a harmless but unusual concentration of rare earth isotopes in Max’s bones - a fact which ends up buried in a footnote in his medical records. This footnote is noticed by a human rights organization conducting an audit looking for evidence of possible abuse of prisoners. An independent medical investigation to determine whether prisoners are being used for military experimentation uncovers the truth … the concentrations indicated prolonged exposure to the atmosphere of a specific world. However, that planet was not a Reaver controlled world. The only plausible explanation for the concentrations found were that Maxwell had either spent the last 10 years living on a Non-Reaver controlled world (making the piracy charges impossible) or he had been born on that world. The Justice Department and human rights organization were satisfied that there was no evidence of abuse of prisoners.

Fate had other plans. The information partially leaked to the press and started a media frenzy about children captured by Reavers and led to the identification of the raid that Max was taken on. A high profile law firm seeking to ride the headlines to media exposure, files an appeal of Max's case on behalf of the government of his birthworld (where the media story resonates with every family that has lost someone to a Reaver raid). The second trial, at which Max is not even present, is something of a local media event but the original verdict and sentence are upheld – Max’s guilt is beyond legal question. The publicity and media hype portraying Max as a victim of Reaver atrocities, prompts a government commutation of his sentence to time served (about a year). Max gains about 15 minutes of fame and an offer to rehabilitate him with a job on a Free Trader … thus ends his career in the Navy and begins a new career as a Free Trader.

A year in prison has given Max yet another chance to improve his ‘people’ skills (add Liaison-1).

While many Free Traders will have some reservations about hiring an ex-Reaver convicted of piracy as a ship's engineer, there are a few captains who consider those qualifications to be an asset. It was Max's bad luck to start his three-year short term on the Free Trader ‘Wild Thing’ which specializes in the 'small package' trade (smuggling). Following a year of assignments that grow ever more distasteful, Max resigns at the end of his 1 year employment contract, having learned two important facts: First, a Free Trader is nothing like a Navy warship … everyone is required to help with any and every task. Second, Max actually likes to bake – which works out well since passengers sure like to eat (add Steward-1, Shotgun-0).

At age 24, Max signs aboard the Free Trader ‘Close Call’ as Second Engineer and Junior Steward (a position that he suspects the Captain made up just to get more work out of him). The captain seems to just scrape by, but Max can live with that. While the transactions are often eventful, they are seldom as outright illegal as the human trafficking and extortion practiced by his last ship. Max’s biggest complaint is that the Captain’s ‘just enough to get by’ attitude extends to the Chief Engineer who regularly demonstrates a limitless ability to cut corners and avoid work. If not for the First Officer constantly riding the Chief Engineer to fix something – which usually means that Max will be doing the fixing – the ship would probably fall from the sky.

At least Max is able to finally get his paperwork completed to get his certification as a Free Trader Fourth Officer (O1) and discovers a learning tape on Art History that inspires him to produce significantly more elegant brass clockworks (add Artistic/Sculptor-0).

Max continues to serve on the ‘Close Call’ and is starting to become comfortable with some of the crew. Unfortunately, the Chief Engineer is not one of them – the man is sloppy, reckless and lazy. The Captain likes him, so Max has little choice but to endure the man and try to keep him from destroying the ship.

All of that changed when a critical system on the Maneuver Drive failed. A failure in the primary grav plate should not have been a serious matter, that’s why they have secondary plates, but in this case both the primary and secondary plates failed on the port side and the pilot landed the ship fast, hard and listing to one side. When Max tore down the forward third of the maneuver drive he discovered that the Chief Engineer had ‘repaired’ the primary grav plate by simply moving the secondary plate into the primary position and using the damaged plate as a secondary. Furious that the idiot had nearly gotten everyone killed, Max retrieved the shotgun from his room and attempted to shoot the Chief Engineer. The speed with which ship’s security disarmed and immobilized Max was embarrassing, but the point had been made and even the Captain had to agree to let the Chief Engineer go.

Max closes out his third term by breezing through the exam to be certified as a Free Trader Third Officer (O2), which allows him to officially serve as the new Chief Engineer. The Captain constantly complains about the cost of repairs, but at least now everything on the ship actually works. For some strange reason, the promotion to Chief Engineer comes with a parallel promotion to full Steward, but the crew says that’s normal for a Free Trader (add Steward+1).


The Nuts and Bolts:
Term 3, Year 1
Navy Strike and Other:
Survival (no)
Decoration (none)
Promotion (no)
Skill (yes) = Liaison-1

Term 3, Year 2
Smuggling:
Survival (yes)
Skill (roll 9=two skills) = Steward-1, Shotgun-1
Bonus (Cr20,000)

Term 3, Year 3
Route**:
Survival (yes)
Skill (yes) = Artistic-1
Bonus (no)
Promotion (O1-Fourth Officer)

Term 3, Year 4
Route**:
Survival (yes)
Skill (yes) = Steward-1
Bonus (Cr5,000)
Promotion (O2-Third Officer)


Design Commentary:
This UPP has been adjusted to add up to 42. See UPP comentary for term two.

The first year of the third term needs a bit of commentary. First, a heavy thumb was placed on the scale for this term because other metagame conciderations required that Max gain Steward-2 and spend the last two years as a Free Trader. I had decided prior to chargen to use a year in prison as the transition from Reaver Navy/Pirate to Free Trader. When the Navy roll for the first year of term three came up a failed survival, I saw that as a perfect opportinity to make the trasition. So survival, decoration and promotion were rolled on the LBB5 Strike mission tables just to inspire a tone for the transition details. Then the skill was rolled on the LBB 1 Other class to reflect a year in 'prison life'.

The remaining years were created using Merchant Prince to fill in the year by year details and skills were adjusted as described in the first term commentary. The actual assignment for the last two years was selected rather than rolled, again for meta-game reasons. The backstory for the group involves starting out on this particular ship and it was agreed that the (First Officer at this point) would have a 'connection' (like in MgT) with Max and that Max served the last two years as part of the crew on this ship. Since the actual assignments that I rolled might disagree with the last term of the First Officer (now captain), I simply selected the most neutral assignment to roll on.

 

[atpollard]

Max's Current Term

Fourth Term (Free Trader):
[UPP 7A5C53* at age 26]

The captain starts the year with a string of small mishaps just before things really take a turn for the worse. When the Captain gets arrested for cutting one too many corners, Max has flashbacks to his year in prison and does not want to go back!

So when the First Officer suggests taking the ship and making a run for it, Max is all for the plan. Goodbye ‘Close Call’ and hello ‘Fortunate Son’. When the new Captain announces that the ship is going to Reevers’ Deep for a new start, Max chuckles at the irony: after three years of running from the Deep, Max Black is heading home. No, that’s not quite true; this ship is more of a home than anywhere he has ever lived.

Max is home.

Design Commentary:
There are no nuts and bolts. This is all just color text for the current term and is based upon background data on how the group got to the start of the SpaceBadger Reavers Deep PbP game.

 

[rancke]

A quick note on Max's UPP: When interacting with Reavers, Max has an Edu of 7 and a Soc of 8. However, most worlds do not share Reaver values and tend to view Reavers with fear and suspicion, so most people, including local police, will view Max as Edu 5 and Soc 3.

There is no such thing as a single Reaver culture. Reavers come from a score of different pocket empires. Later 'reaver' becomes a convenient label to pin on any adversary, justifying any treatment of them.


Hans

 

[atpollard]

In the Golden Age of Piracy, there were pirates from many different national origins. Some sported letters of mark and some did not. They all had personal reasons for turning to piracy - greed, government betrayal, victim of circumstances.

Yet (at least from a literary "let's play a game" perspective), a pirate knew how to talk to another pirate and they shared a comon experiental frame of reference ... one probably not well understood or shared by soldiers fighting on the fields of Europe at the time, or Paris High Society enjoying a night at the Ballet.

It is from that perspective that Max is percieved one way by 'Reavers' and another by 'Civilized Folk'. I thought this appropriate to the setting since Max is in Reavers Deep during the Long Night - the Reaver 'Golden Age'. What the term 'Reaver' eventually comes to mean is only important as a dim reflection of this Traveller 'Dark Ages'.

PS:
I liked your writeup on Reavers in the wikipedia.
Thank you for taking the time to comment.
Do you have any other insight on Reavers that could help fill in missing details for role-playing one?

 

[SpaceBadger]

In the Golden Age of Piracy, there were pirates from many different national origins. Some sported letters of mark and some did not. They all had personal reasons for turning to piracy - greed, government betrayal, victim of circumstances.

Yet (at least from a literary "let's play a game" perspective), a pirate knew how to talk to another pirate and they shared a comon experiental frame of reference ... one probably not well understood or shared by soldiers fighting on the fields of Europe at the time, or Paris High Society enjoying a night at the Ballet.

It is from that perspective that Max is percieved one way by 'Reavers' and another by 'Civilized Folk'. I thought this appropriate to the setting since Max is in Reavers Deep during the Long Night - the Reaver 'Golden Age'. What the term 'Reaver' eventually comes to mean is only important as a dim reflection of this Traveller 'Dark Ages'.

PS:
I liked your writeup on Reavers in the wikipedia.
Thank you for taking the time to comment.
Do you have any other insight on Reavers that could help fill in missing details for role-playing one?

Good explanation. As Hans noted, there is no single "Reaver" culture, but your explanation works for me. (The tattoos also tag Max as "different".)

I sent you a PM about the one bit that doesn't work: the genetic marker thing. I thought of making it something to do with an atmospheric taint on the world that was home to the particular Reaver gang/government that kidnapped Max, but then he would also show it himself, bc he lived there from the time he was kidnapped. So how about flip it the other way: Max's birth world has an atmo taint that still shows in his blood all these years later, suggesting that he was kidnapped from there by these Reavers as a child. That still doesn't make him "not guilty" of participating in pirate raids, but it could get him that public sympathy that you wrote about.

 

[rancke]

In the Golden Age of Piracy, there were pirates from many different national origins. Some sported letters of mark and some did not. They all had personal reasons for turning to piracy - greed, government betrayal, victim of circumstances.

Yet (at least from a literary "let's play a game" perspective), a pirate knew how to talk to another pirate and they shared a comon experiental frame of reference ... one probably not well understood or shared by soldiers fighting on the fields of Europe at the time, or Paris High Society enjoying a night at the Ballet.

The stomping ground of the pirates of the Golden Age of Piracy was a good deal smaller than the three or four sectors the Reavers haunted. I doubt a Chinese pirate, a Barbary State pirate and a Brother of the Coast had much to say to each other.

It is from that perspective that Max is percieved one way by 'Reavers' and another by 'Civilized Folk'. I thought this appropriate to the setting since Max is in Reavers Deep during the Long Night - the Reaver 'Golden Age'. What the term 'Reaver' eventually comes to mean is only important as a dim reflection of this Traveller 'Dark Ages'.

If your game is set towards the end of the Long Night, then I don't think these are the Reavers you're thinking about. There are three different kinds of Reavers:

There are the ones that were sent out by pocket empires during Twilight to plunder neighboring worlds and return with the loot. They may well have had a shared culture.

Then there are the Big Names of around -1000 like Blackjack Duquesne and Grand Admiral Izanak, who run away from lost wars with a handful of ships and find some place in the Great Beyond that they can take over. No doubt they all speak of returning home and take over, but somehow they never do. Few of them ever try (Grand Admiral Izanak seems to have been an exception; at least he left Drexilthar again).

And then there are the Reavers of the late Long Night. Some of them are the same kind as in #2, losers of petty wars that escape and take over some place. The rest are anyone your government, whoever your government may be, labels reavers. No doubt this includes any and all pirates, but if you really want reaving, look to the Drexiltharan Empire, even though they call it exacting tribute.

I liked your writeup on Reavers in the wikipedia.

Thank you.


Hans

 

[atpollard]

I updated the character ...

1. changed the prison year to reflect the Max's birthworld story
2. clarified and corrected Prison release. Max IS guilty - sentence commuted but not pardoned - Max has a conviction for Piracy.
3. updated some fluff in the first post.

 

[SpaceBadger]

Looks fine, with the revisions regarding the rare elements in his body and subsequent lawsuit, public outcry, and commutation of sentence. Good work!

Could you please do a more abbreviated form w just what you want your fellow PCs to know about him, and post that in the Character thread?

 

[atpollard]

The stomping ground of the pirates of the Golden Age of Piracy was a good deal smaller than the three or four sectors the Reavers haunted.

There are three different kinds of Reavers

To the first point, I was more concerned with just focusing on Reavers' Deep Sector and perhaps just the subsector where the character is from.

To the second point, I don't really know when this is ... just the generic 'during the Long Night'. it is one of the details that i may learn as the game actually begins.

To cover the ambiguity, I have edited the first post to note the looser use of the term 'Reaver'.

The intent for this character is that most of the time when the ship's crew goes to a local bar, the character is viewed with something closer to a "We don't serve your kind" type of attitude (unless Max can keep a low profile) ... similar to the treatment of an Indian entering a town in an old Cowboy movie.

I just wanted to maintain the possibility that our ship could dock in the Reavers Deep equivalent of 'Tortuga' and Max could be treated like one of the guys. I viewed it as a fairly trivial piece of color text ... which might never actually be used or needed.

 

[sabredog]

Damn, I love this character! I loved the bit about how becoming Chief Engineer automatically includes "promotion" to Head Steward.

I'm going to go see if I can flesh Hampton out a little more. It'll be a good exercise and with this batch of players the effort will be worth it.

 

[rancke]

I just wanted to maintain the possibility that our ship could dock in the Reavers Deep equivalent of 'Tortuga' and Max could be treated like one of the guys. I viewed it as a fairly trivial piece of color text ... which might never actually be used or needed.

You're right, of course. Fun trumps canon any day, especially such scanty and vague canon as we have on the Reavers. If you want the various Reaver kingdoms to have some sort of collective Brethern of the Stars vibe going, you go for it.


Hans