Well, the hiatus still isn’t over, but if it makes anyone feel better – I’ll still be working on the pre-made characters for Outmatched. On the topic, this is only part 1 out of 3. There are still plenty more characters waiting.
Character Profile Template:
[Name]
“[Quote]”
Profile: [Basic personality overview.]
Quirk: [Description.]
Stealth: [Stealth value.] ([Prowl/Pick/Purloin.])
Skill: [Skill value.] ([Fight/Flee/Fire.])
Smarts: [Smarts value.] ([Detect/Decipher/Design.])
Socialization: [Socialization value.] ([Mimic/Mislead/Manipulate.])
[Specialty 1]: [Value] [Description.]
[Specialty 2]: [Value] [Description.]
Pro Tip: [Helpful-ish advice.]
Characters:
Jake/Jill the Scoundrel
“Okay, I know this looks bad… but I can explain. It was gophers, hundreds and hundreds of gophers! Man, you should’ve seen ’em.”
Profile: The Scoundrel has never been good at staying out of trouble. It didn’t matter how hard they tried to stay out of dangerous situations, so they stopped trying. Instead, they jumped headfirst into the chaos that seemed to follow them around, pursuing a career as a tomb robber. Years later, magic has returned, and their job hasn’t changed… much. The mummies are significantly more mobile than they used to be.
Quirk: A compulsive liar, and really bad at it.
Stealth: 6 (4/2/3)
Skill: 1 (0/5/0)
Smarts: 6 (4/4/0)
Socialization: -1 (0/2/0)
Panicked Plans: 5. Thanks to the Scoundrel’s habit of getting into trouble, they’ve developed a knack for worming their way out of situations that really should have been their end. Their methods might not be elegant or dignified, but no one can deny their effectiveness.
Ancient Civilizations: 3. Though you couldn’t tell from looking at them, the Scoundrel is actually pretty good at what they do. If you’ve got a question about hieroglyphs, Greek pottery, or traditional Mayan dinnerware – the Scoundrel can answer it. They aren’t bad at weaving their way through traps either.
Pro Tip: The Scoundrel’s “panicked plans” specialty may be great for surviving, but it isn’t much good for succeeding. Sure, you’ll get away from the angry curator without any injuries (save for your pride), but you’re liable to use the very arcana you broke into the museum to steal as an improvised weapon in the process – shattering it into pieces. (Bonus tip for GMs: Don’t let the Scoundrel use their “panicked plans” specialty unless their character is actually behaving in a panicked and irrational manner. They shouldn’t get their bonus unless they screw something up in the process of escaping.)
Jade/Jerry the Gambler
“How about we settle this like civilized folk? You know, with a good old fashioned game of cards?”
Profile: The Gambler never liked the idea of playing things safe. They always thought that living off of a steady income was the worst way to live, and would much rather risk it all – in the hopes of winning it all. Paradoxically, the Gambler hates leaving things up to chance – leading them to cheat at most games they play. The way they figure it, they lose if they get caught, and win if they don’t. It isn’t theft, just a different game. A game of skill. Besides, they only took what had been bet – otherwise it really would be theft. The Gambler decided to become an arcanist because they thought it would be the “ultimate all-or-nothing bet.”
Quirk: Sings Kenny Rogers’s “The Gambler” to help themselves get in the zone, or to cheer themselves up when they’re down.
Stealth: 5. (0/2/5)
Skill: -2. (0/4/0)
Smarts: 2. (2/2/0)
Socialization: 7. (0/5/4)
Games: 5. If it’s played with dice, cards, or pieces on a board, the Gambler has played it, won it, and gotten thrown out of casinos for cheating at it.
Pacification: 3. The gambler’s cheating ways have a tendency to upset people, so they’ve seen their fair share of flipped tables and pissed off card sharks. If it weren’t for their uncanny ability to calm people down, the Gambler would have a lot less teeth in that charming smile of theirs.
Pro Tip: Don’t wait for a chance to use the Gambler’s “games” specialty, make your own opportunities. Try things like using your “pacification” specialty to calm down an enemy, then use a mixture of manipulate and mislead to persuade them that the best way to settle your disagreement is with a friendly game of cards.
Psycho
“I like you. You give me candy. I’m going to ask the voices if we can kill you last.”
Profile: Psycho is exactly what their name would imply, totally psycho. They hear voices, love killing anything that moves, and are disturbingly chipper. When all is said and done though, the most terrifying trait about Psycho – is that they don’t even seem to realize what they’re doing. They’ll try to make pleasant conversation with their victims, while actively attacking them. Aside from their murderous tendencies, nobody really knows much about Psycho. Everything from their real name to why they became an arcanist is a total mystery.
Quirk: Psycho has a collection of kitchen knives that they keep with them at all times. Each knife has its own name, and Psycho gets genuinely upset when any of them are damaged or lost.
Stealth: 7 (5/3/0)
Skill: 6 (5/3/1)
Smarts: 0 (4/0/0)
Socialization: -1 (3/0/0)
Murder: 5. Psycho spends about as much time trying to kill people as your average pro football player spends practicing football. As a result, Psycho is quite skilled in murder. Everything from breaking into houses, to where all the good vital organs are, is a part of their expertise.
Madness: 3. The voices in Psycho’s head are very smart, or at least, smarter than Psycho. Sometimes they’ll help the poor lunatic out by giving solid advice, or a guiding hand. Still, it would be best not to trust the voices. There’s no guarantee that they have the players’ best interests in mind.
Pro Tip: Psycho is a pretty chaotic character. Make sure that the other players have a reason to tolerate you if you play them, or you’ll have a very disgruntled party. It also helps if you make sure your insanity never causes problems for the other players. Just make sure you don’t forget to talk to yourself every now and again, Psycho can get pretty boring when they’re stable.
Mark/Mary the Scholar
“Fascinating, fascinating! I simply must get a closer look at this device after it stops shooting at us.”
Profile: The Scholar is a noble and a proper gentleman/lady, but they are also a scientist at heart. Their intellectual curiosity is second to nothing, frequently overriding their sense of self preservation. The mystical and mysterious is of particular interest to the Scholar. Their scientific instincts drive them toward the unknown, seeking to weave it back into the tapestry of the universe laid out by the laws of nature. Some would call the Scholar’s research “pseudoscience,” but only because they never gave the work a fair chance. The Scholar may research things such as cryptids and ESP, but they approach the topics meticulously – and are just as willing to disprove the supernatural as they are to support it. Furthermore, they would never make the mistake of confusing evidence and proof. Just because traces of DNA from an unknown species of primate were found, does not mean they’re going to suddenly claim Sasquatch is real. No matter how cool they think it would be.
Quirk: the Scholar is easily distracted, and once they start talking about something that interests them they tend to forget entirely about whatever they were doing before.
Stealth: 1 (1/0/0)
Skill: -2 (0/3/0)
Smarts: 7 (3/5/4)
Socialization: 6 (1/2/5)
Magic: 4. The Scholar has been studying the strange and the supernatural since they were in grade school. No one knows more than them about folklore and superstition.
Manners: 4. Having been raised in high society, the Scholar is well versed in proper etiquette.
Pro Tip: With low stealth and skill values, the Scholar cannot run, hide, or fight well. When faced with a situation that cannot be talked out of or engineered away, they’ll need a friend to back them up.
Officer Roxie/Reggie
“You have the right to remain silent, I’d suggest you use it.”
Profile: The Officer, as you might suspect, was a police officer. Was a police officer. They were fired after several cases of “excessive force against criminals.” Nothing illegal, and they never shot first, but after the body count breached fifty it started to draw unwanted attention to the Officer’s department. It got political, there were protests, and rotten vegetables were thrown. The Officer’s department really had no choice but to fire them. However, the Officer was as stubborn as they were principled, and even without a badge they continued to fight crime where they could. After all, they had a right to bear arms, and as long as the other person shot before they drew their gun, it was still self defense. Now that magic has returned, greater threats than mere criminals roam the country the Officer calls home, and they aren’t about to sit still and let people get hurt by these arcana.
Quirk: Quit smoking a few months ago. Used nicotine gum to kick the habit. Now they have a habit of chewing (normal) gum to help themselves relax or focus, and always have a pack or two of chewing gum in the pocket where they used to keep their smokes. They’ll often offer a piece to others, partly as a joke, partly to be friendly, and partly as another remnant of their smoking habits. (They used to love hanging out in the smoking area and chatting with the other smokers. They’d always start the conversations with offering a smoke.)
Stealth: 1 (2/0/0)
Skill: 7 (3/5/5)
Smarts: 5 (5/4/0)
Socialization: -1 (0/0/0)
Law Enforcement: 4. Save for their severe a few attitude problems, the Officer is a model cop. They know the law from front to back, and they can recite every protocol in their sleep.
Loose Cannon: 4. The Officer is truly reckless, speaking before they think, charging into battle, and acting on unfounded hunches. That being said, things have a tendency to work out for them. Maybe it’s the power of adrenaline, maybe it’s instinct, or maybe it’s magic. Whatever others call it, the Officer thinks it’s a wealth of past experiences rabidly and subconsciously processed to create a rational and logical decisions that only looks like a random guess or an untamed impulse.
Pro Tip: Since the Officer gets bonuses for behaving recklessly (thanks to “loose cannon,”) it’s a good idea to have one of the more level headed characters keep them in check. If one of the more cunning characters makes a plan B for the Officer to fall back on when their impulsive actions backfire, then the party can still get the bonus of the “loose cannon” specialty without sacrificing the benefits of careful planning.
Maurice/Marilyn the Gangster
“What the hell is ‘gangsta’ supposed to mean? Are you makin’ fun of my accent, or did ya just forget a letter?”
Profile: With a pinstripe suit, a fedora, and the speaking habits of a prohibition era bootlegger, the Gangster walks, talks, and acts like they stepped right out of a crime drama set in the 1920s. Which, in a way, they did. You see, the Gangster was once a member of a good ol’ fashioned booze smuggling mafia. They were walking down the streets of 1932 America, until, suddenly, they weren’t. Now the Gangster is roaming about in 2023 with the rest of the characters, and they still have no idea how it happened. They would have joined up with some of the modern smuggling operations (they do know a lot about selling illicit substances,) but the days of speakeasies was long gone. The once gentlemanly patrons were replaced with psychotic knife wielding addicts, and nobody cared about selling a quality product anymore – settling for poison and medicine mixed together with whatever they hoped wouldn’t kill their customers too fast. As the Gangster put it, organized crime “got no class anymore.” So, they had to find another career where they could apply their more… violent talents. Thankfully, arcanists know how to appreciate someone that’s handy with a gun.
Quirk: Likes to sing “I’m a Member of the Midnight Crew” while fighting or getting rid of bodies.
Stealth: 1 (2/1/1)
Skill: 7 (2/3/5)
Smarts: -1 (0/0/0)
Socialization: 5 (3/3/4)
Intimidation: 5. You wanna really scare someone? Don’t threaten them, warn them. Talk big and they’ll call your bluff, so don’t bluff. Doesn’t hurt to be nice and friendly about it, no need to act like a brute. Just look them in the eyes, and politely request that they don’t make you dispose of another body. You’re wearing your good suit today, and blood stains can be very stubborn. The cops are getting suspicious about all the time you spend by the pier at night, and… Oh, look at that. They had your money after all.
Good ol’ Tommy: 3. Thompson, good ol’ Thompson. Your best and most loyal friend, Thompson. Thompson has never steered you wrong. He’s helped you talk your way out of many a scrape, and never ran when things got ugly. He’s a mean one too, can take down ten men in seconds. Good ol’ Thompson. …So, no. No you will not trade your gun in for an AK-whatever, if they want your Tommy gun they can pry it from your cold, dead hands.
Pro Tip: Intimidation may sound like it’s only good for manipulate checks, but it’s actually quite versatile. For example, use it with a fire check to scare someone into cover, or a mimic check if you’re disguised as someone particularly dangerous.