London NW: character generation

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#21

Evelyn Palmer, nee Sobers, born 5th Feb 1913. Married August 1932 to John Palmer, who was killed as a private in the Royal Fusiliers during the retreat to Dunkirk. Daughter Rachel, born 1st June 1933, a miscarriage two years later.

Evelyn works as an assistant in Ethel’s chemist’s shop. She rents a couple of rooms in someone’s house for herself and Rachel. She hasn’t really got over John’s death yet, and clings to the neighbourhood and its people because this is where she lived with John, who was the son of the reclusive WWI veteran, Albert Palmer. She tries to be on good terms with everyone. Her parents are deceased. She has a sister who lives further east in London, with a lot of children.

She didn’t put Rachel in for evacuation, because she wants her close. She makes sure that Rachel gets to school, and generally puts her first. Anxiety about Rachel is her main Issue, with Grief as a better suppressed one. The Impulses these can lead to are being controlling, self-destructive or weak-willed.

#22

Name: Toby Mayflower
Age: 60 ish. So born in 1880 ish and was of an age to have been called up in ww1. Served with the reclusive WW1 veteran? Never married.

Values the neighbourhood because… various siblings, nieces and nephews, and friends live here.
Issue… Suffering from lack of inspiration…
Impulses… ditto

#23

OK, people who’ve had more to do with PTA than I (Mike)? are welcome to chime in here, but roughly:

Issue. This starts as a character flaw, but it’s one that has grown to define the character. It’s the primary reason they make self-destructive or even just sub-optimal decisions.

I’m not sure what TV Dr Bob and I have both watched, and that’s probably the best place to look for examples. The Expanse? (I’ve seen season 1 only.) Holden’s Issue is Doing The Right Thing: he fixes on the idea of telling everybody what he’s learned, and that’s his solution to every problem, even when this is playing into the hands of the people who allowed him to learn those particular things at that time, or when it’s obvious (i.e. his player knows even if he doesn’t) that revealing the information is likely to start a war. Miller, hmm. “Tenacity”, perhaps: he knows that he’s tired and used-up, and he doesn’t believe he can make a difference any more, but he’s going to finish this one last case because dammit that’s what a detective does.

A tool that strikes me as potentially useful for working out Issues: what does the character really, deep down, want out of life? What about the character is getting in the way of their having it?

Impulses are then standard patterns of behaviour: when character X hits an obstacle, what’s their first instinctive attitude?

#24

I’m about to be away on holiday for a couple of weeks and not reading this forum frequently. I welcome discussion of character setup; Mike knows more about this system than I do. I’ll start poking people once I get back.

#25

George Bligh, Born 9 September 1893 in Cornwall. Worked as a tin miner and signed up with the 251st Tunneling company in the Great War. Met and married Nan Chalmers, widow of the local garage mechanic, after returning from service in early 1918. Nan and George ran the garage through to her death from cancer in 1938. Three children raised: late 20’s son from Nan’s first marriage who is in the Royal Navy, early 20’s son who off to work as a mechanic with the RAF and teenage daughter who is trying to choose among national service options before it is chosen for her.

George’s Issue is anxiety about his ability to preserve what he and Nan built before her death and the disruption of the war. It can be expressed as “I am myself because I occupy an identity built with Nan. If the place and function I occupy are sufficiently disrupted who have I become and what remains of Nan?”

George’s Impulse in situations when his anxiety overcomes him is recklessness. Whether that is running off after something he’s focused on, spending profligately, or drinking to excess.

#26

Do George and the older son regard each other as family, or is there an emotional distance? How long dead was Nan’s first husband when she met George?

#27

George and the older son have grown apart but sentiment remains. They were close early but grew apart with each new child and after Nan’s death. They continue birthday and Christmas traditions from the earliest days of the marriage but do not discuss why or how they feel about it.

Nan’s first husband was killed in the Great War so I’d say a widow two years or less.

#28

I think given how much I’m still struggling to think of an Issue or Impulses that I actually want to play, that I’m going to drop out of the game. Sorry folks.

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#29

Too bad, but thanks for saying so.