Creating Winnie Wurmstein, the Hoarder

Hello and welcome back to my series of creating pregen characters for the Monstrous Mishaps quickstart (soon at an online store near you! Assuming I can get my ass in gear, at least). Last week, we saw the genesis of mild-mannered dork Klaus Kleinmann. This time, we’re on to the Hoarder. Let’s call her Winnie Wurmstein.

Being a Hoarder (which is to say, a Dragon in human form), Winnie has to be obsessed with collecting ever more of something. I’ll say that her fascination is with artifacts related to Hauntings – not necessarily Haunted artifacts, but things that once belonged to someone who later came back as a ghost, or who was involved in mysterious goings-on of some sort. Things like that will be hard to get hold of while also being pretty much entirely useless – perfect for a Hoarder’s obsession!

Since Klaus was such a meek and unadventurous character, I want to make Winnie a lot more active and gung-ho. She’s also going to need to know a lot about ghost stories and urban legends for her hoarding. As such, I’ll start with giving her Basic (4) Asskicking and Basic (4) Weirdness, making her a sort of two-fisted occult investigator. Being cheerfully loud and perfectly able to stand up for herself, I’ll also give her Limited (3) Dramatics and Limited (3) Grit. Finally, she’s pretty active and prone to running around, and also used to doing research and going over records, so she gets Limited (2) Fitness and Limited (2) Paperpushing.

For her lifepath, I decide that Winnie was pretty over-enthusiastic even as a child (Metabolism of a Humming Bird), made a big production of things in school (Drama Club) and now runs a largely unsuccessful business dealing in occult curios (unsuccessful because obviously she can’t bear to part with her better finds…). That raises her Dramatics and Fitness to Basic (4) and her Weirdness to Basic (5). Her Breed Abilities are Keenness and Asskicking, so raise the former to Limited (2) and the latter to Basic (5).

Winnie can use the Basic power for Wyrm’s Discernment (Nose for Gold – it allows you to pinpoint which object in your vicinity is most useful to you) in her “treasure”-hunting, so let’s give her Basic (4) Wyrm’s Discernment. I could give her another point in one of her Secondary Dooms, but that’d tank her Respectability completely (the starting value is calculated from how much of a Monster you start out as – the freakier you are, the less conventionally successful you will be) and she is supposed to run a business, albeit a small business, so let’s leave it there.

Thus, she starts with Limited (3) Maze, Basic (4) Monstrosity, Basic (4) Pretension, Limited (2) Respectability. From that and her other Abilities, we can calculate her Pools as follows: Health Points 9, Grit Points 8, Stamina Points 8, Budget Points 2, Favour Points 4.

Again trying to make her different from Klaus, I’ll give her the Values of Excellence and Individualism. Winnie is competitive and runs her own race.

All in all, Winnie turns out like this:

WINNIE WURMSTEIN

Breed: Hoarder

Childhood: Metabolism of a Hummingbird
Adolescence: Drama Club
Adulthood: Woo-Woo Artist

Values: Excellence, Individualism

Primary Abilities: Basic (5) Asskicking, Minimal (1) Camping, Basic (4) Dramatics, Limited (3) Fitness, Limited (3) Grit, Minimal (1) Hiding, Limited (2) Keenness, Minimal (1) Mindgames, Minimal (1) Nerdery, Limited (2) Paperpushing, Minimal (1) Schmoozing, Basic (5) Weirdness

Derived Abilities: Minimal (1) Bullshitting, Limited (2) E-Skills, Basic (4) Hocuspocus, Minimal (1) Intrusion, Limited (2) Joyriding, Limited (3) Lawyering, Minimal (1) Quackery, Minimal (1) Rumours, Limited (2) Trickery, Minimal (1) Understanding, Limited (3) Volume, Basic (4) X-Tremeness

Special Abilities: Limited (3) Maze, Basic (5) Monstrosity, Basic (4) Pretension, Limited (2) Respectability

Dooms: Basic (4) Wyrm’s Discernment

Pools: HP 9, GP 8, SP 8, BP 2, FP 4

That just leaves us Winnie’s Relationships. First, to offset her love of the strange, let’s give her a Friend with the Stereotype of Bookworm and the Discord of Skeptic – he doesn’t believe in any of this supernatural nonsense, and never mind that Winnie lives in a fiery cave with a bunch of other freaks, those are clearly just special effects and frankly he’s hurt that she’d insult his intelligence with such clear fraud! But just to shake things up, we’ll give him the Problem of Occult Lightning Rod. He might not believe in magic, but magic is very attached to him and he keeps being under curses and influences that he refuses to acknowledge.

WINNIE’S FRIEND #1: JOE GRIBBELS

Winnie and Joe met when his more open-minded wife dragged him to Winnie’s store to cure a curse that gave him his own trailing rain cloud (“such a lot of fuss! It’s like she never saw a perfectly natural localised metrological phenomenon before!”). Oddly enough, he and Winnie actually hit it off, especially since he provides a steady supply of arcane mysteries for her to acquire relics of.

Stereotype: Bookworm
Problem: Occult Lightning Rod
Discord: Sceptic

Values: Excellence, Tradition

Primary Abilities: Minimal (1) Asskicking, Minimal (1) Camping, Minimal (1) Dramatics, Minimal (1) Fitness, Limited (3) Grit, Minimal (1) Hiding, Basic (5) Keenness, Minimal (1) Mindgames, Basic (5) Nerdery, Limited (2) Paperpushing, Minimal (1) Schmoozing, Basic (5) Weirdness

Derived Abilities: Minimal (1) Bullshitting, Basic (4) E-Skills, Limited (3) Hocuspocus, Limited (3) Intrusion, Limited (3) Joyriding, Minimal (1) Lawyering, Limited (3) Quackery, Minimal (1) Rumours, Minimal (1) Trickery, Limited (3) Understanding, Minimal (1) Volume, Minimal (1) X-Tremeness

Special Abilities: Basic (4) Respectability

Pools: HP 6, GP 2, SP 2, BP 4

For Winnie’s second Friend, let’s create her a partner for her occult curios store. We give her the Stereotype of Party Animal, the Problem of Not Right in the Head, and the Discord of Flake, to make her as unreliable for poor Winnie as possible – but she still has to somehow coax her back to work, since the business is shaky enough as it is.

WINNIE’S FRIEND #2: LISA LUDLOCK

Lisa is Winnie’s business partner, and together they run the Awesome Artifacts & Righteous Relics store. Lisa has the eccentricity of considering herself to be in contact with her grandmother, Greta Ludlock, who dispenses sage advice. Usually the advice is that Lisa is working too hard and should go do something fun for a change, which tends to leave the already-struggling store unmanned at inconvenient hours.

Stereotype: Party Animal
Problem: Not Right in The Head
Discord: Flake

Values: Community, Individualism

Primary Abilities: Minimal (1) Asskicking, Minimal (1) Camping, Basic (5) Dramatics, Limited (2) Fitness, Limited (3) Grit, Limited (3) Hiding, Minimal (1) Keenness, Limited (2) Mindgames, Minimal (1) Nerdery, Minimal (1) Paperpushing, Limited (3) Schmoozing, Basic (4) Weirdness

Derived Abilities: Limited (2) Bullshitting, Limited (2) E-Skills, Basic (4) Hocuspocus, Limited (2) Intrusion, Minimal (1) Joyriding, Limited (3) Lawyering, Minimal (1) Quackery, Minimal (1) Rumours, Basic (4) Trickery, Minimal (1) Understanding, Limited (3) Volume, Minimal (1) X-Tremeness

Special Abilities: Basic (4) Respectability

Pools: HP 6, GP 2, SP 3, BP 4

For Winnie’s Rival, let’s give her a boring stick in the mud to contrast her own blithe spirit. We’ll give him the approach of Spoilsport and the Feud of Professional, and say that he’s an anal-retentive inspector who keeps trying to shut down her store for its various regulatory breaches. His Redemption can be Independence, further emphasising that he prefers things as simple and drab as possible. We’ll make him a Monster, specifically an Outcast, to give him some more (anti-) personality.

WINNIE’S RIVAL: COLIN FRUMP

Colin works as a health and safety inspector for City Hall, and has made it his life’s mission to shut down Awesome Artifacts & Righteous Relics for its owners’ blatant disregard for all that is good and bureaucratic. While not the most fearsome of adversaries, his sheer plodding persistence can be disturbingly effective.

Approach: Spoilsport
Feud: Professional
Redemption: Independence

Breed: Outsider

Values: Stoicism, Excellence

Primary Abilities: Minimal (1) Asskicking, Basic (5) Camping, Minimal (1) Dramatics, Minimal (1) Fitness, Basic (4) Grit, Minimal (1) Hiding, Basic (6) Keenness, Minimal (1) Mindgames, Limited (3) Nerdery, Basic (4) Paperpushing, Minimal (1) Schmoozing, Minimal (1) Weirdness

Derived Abilities: Minimal (1) Bullshitting, Limited (3) E-Skills, Minimal (1) Hocuspocus, Limited (2) Intrusion, Limited (2) Joyriding, Limited (2) Lawyering, Basic (4) Quackery, Limited (2) Rumours, Minimal (1) Trickery, Limited (3) Understanding, Minimal (1) Volume, Minimal (1) X-Tremeness

Dooms: Minimal (1) Fae’s Trickery, Minimal (1) Pariah’s Desolation, Minimal (1) Varg’s Ferocity

Special Abilities: Limited (3) Maze, Limited (3) Monstrosity, Limited (3) Pretension, Limited (3) Respectability

Pools: HP 6, GP 2, SP 2, BP 3, FP 3

Finally, Winnie needs an Enemy, and being a Dragon, what better Enemy than a Damsel? Damsels, for those who are curious, are a special type of Monster-Slayer who don’t do much actual slaying but just sort of exist to tempt Monsters into victimising them, thereby providing justification for more go-getting Slayers. Think Bella Swan, only with Edward as the target for her endless whining rather than the one thing in the world she actually likes.

Turning Winnie’s stats inside-out in the same way we did with Klaus last week, we get:

WINNIE’S ENEMY: HOLGER MINX

Holger and Winnie dated for a couple of years when they were younger, but eventually broke up due to a multitude of incompatabilities. Holger took the breakup so badly that he was Called as a Slayer on the spot, and ever since then he’s taken to hanging around and moaning eloquently about how horribly Winnie treated him, turning any soft-hearted people within hearing range against her in response.

Legend: Complainer

Values: Egalitarianism, Community

Primary Abilities: Minimal (1) Asskicking, Limited (2) Camping, Minimal (1) Dramatics, Minimal (1) Fitness, Minimal (1) Grit, Basic (4) Hiding, Limited (3) Keenness, Limited (3) Mindgames, Basic (5) Nerdery, Minimal (1) Paperpushing, Minimal (1) Schmoozing, Minimal (1) Weirdness

Derived Abilities: Limited (2) Bullshitting, Limited (3) E-Skills, Minimal (1) Hocuspocus, Basic (4) Intrusion, Limited (3) Joyriding, Minimal (1) Lawyering, Limited (3) Quackery, Limited (2) Rumours, Limited (2) Trickery, Limited (3) Understanding, Minimal (1) Volume, Minimal (1) X-Tremeness

Special Abilities: Limited (3) Calling, Basic (7) Respectability

Pools: HP 6, GP 1 (+3 from Calling), SP 2, BP 7

And that’s it! That’s the second of our six pregens finished. Join me next week, as we descend into the flaming nether regions of Hell, and stat up a Demon.