Non Cliche Supernatural Professions

[Vondy]

I'm looking for some professions that a horror character, specifically a monster protagonist, could have that would allow them to become involved in interesting plots without resorting the the private investigator / cop cliche.

Ideas?

[Derek Hiemforth]

Reporter
Archaeologist
Dealer in Rare Books/Antiques
Undertaker/Coroner
Traveling Salesman

[Captain Obvious]

Hmm...this should turn out to be a fairly interesting thread.

I would think a doctor could get drawn into all sorts of weirdness, after seeing strange symptoms among patients and knowing that the cure is not in any medical books.

Taxi drivers see all kinds of craziness.

Small book stores often cater to very niche markets. New Age and occultism is a natural fit.

All sorts of bohemian type stuff works too...artist, coffee shop worker, underground newspaper reporter...

Interested in seeing what others come up with....

[shadowcat1313]

Vampire Blood bank worker
Truck Driving Vampire... theres actually a filksong on just this subject

Necromancer/Taxidermist
Animal Trainer/Taxidermist.... another song by the same guy who wrote about the truck driving vampire actually.

character from my old Bureau 13 campaign.

Harry Daniels: Austrailian Army Vietnam vet, and retired member of the French Foreign Legion. he worked in Nam as a combat photographer, and later in africa as a safari guide/photographer. his introduction to the supernatural occured when his safari was ambushed by Ivory poachers led by a witch doctor. he led the forces that dealt with the poachers and the witch
doctor. now he works out of Atlanta as a freelance photographer. along with being a very good photographer, hes well versed in fencing and savate, and speaks english, french, vietnamese, and afrikaans. hes also quite proud of having photographed 2 Playboy centerfolds. except on formal occasions he just about always wears a battered ANZAC "Digger" hat. part of his standard
gear is a camera tripod with a silver tipped sword cane in one of the legs.
the digger hat is custom made from a kevlar weave.

Mathias Cross: Private Investigator from New Orleans, best described as Columbo meets Inspector Cleaseu[Pink Panther]. hes also an alcholic... the alcoholism was mostly caused by the fact that hes a wild talent psi... uncontrolled Precog. likes to wear trench coats and smokes really awful smelling cigars. the Bureau has supplied him with psi deadening drugs... but the alcohol has proven a lot more effective. speaks english, french, and creole.

[SSgt Baloo]

Vampire Blood bank worker
Truck Driving Vampire... theres actually a filksong on just this subject

Necromancer/Taxidermist
Animal Trainer/Taxidermist.... another song by the same guy who wrote about the truck driving vampire actually.

Dude, don't leave me hanging. Post some links!

Oh, and how about an archaeological expert on obscure/dead languages?

[shadowcat1313]

both songs are by Michael "Duke Moonwulf" Longcor

Truck Driving Vampire
Bobs Dog Obediance School and Taxidermy Shop
these both can be found at Firebird Arts and Music.
Duke of the SCA, filksinger, folksinger

Michael is just wonderfully warped, what gets scary is when he and Tom Smith perform together.
http://www.firebirdarts.com/music/3music34.shtml

Harry and Mathias got in a brawl with a bunch of bikers in a roadside diner someplace in georgia, and Mathias ended up stabbing one guy with the only weapon he had handy, a dinner fork.

Harry was nicknamed "Headshot Harry" for two reasons, one being his skill with a camera, and for his skill as a sniper. his usual carry weapon was either a Desert Eagle .44 or a Colt 1911A1, the .50 Desert Eagle wasnt available when we ran the campaign. If I run him again or stat him for somebody, he will carry the .50 Desert Eagle. Harry is easily workable at 150 pts, and probably Mathias, since its a wild talent and very unreliable it makes a good plot hook than anything else.

Harry owns a fairly large house in the Atlanta suburbs, which houses an extensive firearms collection, and an extensive magical and tech based security system. Bureau Team Rollerball uses the house as a home base when operating in the area.

[Lord Liaden]

In the big city, garbage collector (all kinds of interesting stuff gets thrown out in the trash, up to and including corpses), or sewer/utility tunnel maintenance worker (that's where all the weird beasties hang out or pass through to their lairs).

[shadowcat1313]

now I must write up the Truck Driving Vampire and Bob the dog training taxidermist for Surbrooks characters from song lyrics page

I could be in big trouble!!!!

there are a lot of mp3 samples on the firebird page, lots of great music on a lot of subjects... granted some probably isnt for the younger folks, but theres nothing really obscene etc. if you want bawdy military etc do a google for Oscar Brand, he did a 4 album series of military songs in the fifties, and they were released to CD a couple of years back as a 2 CD set. I have the 2 CD set here.

[fiducia]

I've always wanted to try a barrista in a coffe shop. I can only imagine what they see coming and going every day and it would be a good cover for a monster/creature in hiding, imho.

[pinecone]

Junk yard owner, Artist is a good one. Anysort of infrastructer maintanance/instalation job is good. Professional clown/Magician is one that people never seem to try as well....

[shadowcat1313]

too many cliches sadly

I like the more off the wall but plausible player character ideas.

I keep threatening to write a couple of friends up as characters, changing names etc.

how about these two: there both real people, and somebody might even recognize the bios, but I wont give real names etc, there both gamers, but mostly historical minatures and boardgames.

Ex Marine, astronomer and physicist, folksinger, historical re-enactor[medieval and roman], worked his way through college as a car and truck mechanic, served as a tracked vehicle mechanic in the marines. granted this description doesnt do him justice, but its in his public bio, and I figure its safe to use.

Ex Navy radio operator and diver, demo trained, diesel submarine qualifed, blacksmith for swords and armor, live steel re-enactor, plays the bagpipes
computer networking specialist, restores british cars for a hobby.

sometimes real people make more interesting characters than what we can come up with on our own. of course than the debate comes on accurate stats etc. I figure on both these folks just using the veteran character templates, and adding skills as needed.

[Spence]

An agent of the OSS (Office of Special Services).

[SSgt Baloo]

An agent of the IRS! :eek:

Quite appropriate if the character is a vampire (or is that typecasting?)

[The Monster]

Exterminator (as in rats & bugs) - gets to go into all sorts of icky places and deal with all kinds of messy things.

Delivery driver (already mentioned, I know, but could cover everything from pizza to medical supplies to FedEx).

Setting support staff, i.e., people who operate at low levels or 'offstage' in the campaign setting: orderly at the nursing home; home-care provider; janitor...

Telephone lineman - works in both urban settings (manholes, highrise-building cabinets) and rural (remote pole lines) A vaguely coplike variant would be utility inspector, who checks things out to make sure they're working & up to code. (By extension, repair techs of all kinds.)

Professional photographer, who could turn up anywhere from weddings to funerals to scenic locations (and making records of all sorts of unusual events). Very similar to 'freelance reporter,' though.

Field biologist - with environmental laws as they are, this could be anywhere from a rural/wild place to a city park to an industrial site. Again, somewhat PI-like, but with a rather different bent.

Social/political activist. Dealing with all levels and branches of society, in order to motivate involvement, squeeze out cash for The Cause, or making sure those in need get what The Cause has to offer. An advocate for the homeless could be an interesting lead-in for a horror adventure.

(/edit) oh, and before Cancer beats me to it, if you want a remote setting for the game, an astronomer often spends time in *very* remote and isolated places - observatories. Things get really bad when the horror follows them into the university office!

[Comic]

Molly Maid - "The temp agency say come, clean apartment Tuesday, two o'clock. It Tuesday. It two o'clock. I come to apartment. Oy."

Courier - "Package for Smith. Mr. Smith, I need you to sign for this parcel. Uh.. Is there a Mr. Smith here?"

Call Girl - always has an excuse for being somewhere. "I'm supposed to meet a client."

Realtor - "So.. you'll need a listing agent, then?"

Professional Psychic Dilettante - "Look, I'm not psychic, but the trust fund specifies that I have to be employed, and the trustee got all snotty and makes me go out and do the whole talk to the dead, pick up vibes thing or I'm cut off. It's a scam, deal with it."

[Basil]

I'm looking for some professions that a horror character, specifically a monster protagonist, could have that would allow them to become involved in interesting plots without resorting the the private investigator / cop cliche.

Ideas?

This isn't all that clear. Do you mean you want to have/will have/might have a "monster" as a protagonist (PC or "good guy" NPC)? Or do you mean you want to have/will have/might have a PC/"good guy" NPC that fights monsters?

Because the choice of professions is very different beween those two situations.

[shadowcat1313]

Pizza Delivery Driver, for some reason the Tom Smith filksong "Domino Death" keeps coming to mind... but it was a car wars filk

"Domino Death... Domino Death... Delivering you to hell in 30 minutes or less"

http://www.tomsmithonline.com/lyrics/domino_death.htm

[Shadowsoul]

Hunter. (I shot this stag once, but it didn't seem to care, then it looked straight at me and opened its third eye, after that it got weird). Alternatively. (I liked to go out into the woods and lose myself in nature and the joy of the hunt. Too bad I never figured out that humans who stumble around in the wilds can become prey themselves).

Bouncer/bodyguard turned self-defence teacher. (This throw works fine for humans but if you want to stop a werewolf you have to catch the paws like this).

Reformed gangster/hitman. (You know my conscience was troubling me even before the boss started eating people).

Priest/Nun/Vicar. (Just doing the lord's work). If you ever get hold of a copy of Night of the Demon 2 then check out the rosary wielding Action-Nun, she's hilarious. There's a Dracula movie as well which features a priest/vampire-hunter who is slowly turning into the thing he despises. This one probably is a cliche, although the Nun might be a relatively fresh idea.

[Spence]

Thinking about it. What time frame will it be in? Modern, 30's, 40's, 70's, etc. This can make a big difference on the jobs out there.

[Shigeru]

Freelance Helicopter Pilot.

Lots of travel, lots of different people. Nobody really knows you if you don;'t want them to. You just need a relationship with some airstrips.

[Nolgroth]

Farmboy. Tires of farming life and "escapes" to the city to find out it ain't all that grand after all. Has to do odd jobs just to survive.

Hobo. Wanders the railways and stops from time to time to take in the sights of a new city.

[Southern Cross]

After watching the first 8 episodes of The Invaders I have to ask-
How about having an architect as a profession?

[Shadowsoul]

What about an insurance inspector?

Someone who comes over to check out big insurance claims might well end up looking into strange disasters and events.

[Vondy]

Good ideas so far.

For those who asked.

It would be a PC/Protagonist profession. And its a modern setting.

[Shadowsoul]

Are you intending to have any beings that can affect technology? The internet might be a good place for spirits and demons to lurk in.

If so then a hacker or computer programmer might have stumbled across something and such people are nearly always useful in a modern setting.

[DusterBoy]

I really like the Dealer in Rare Books/Antiquities idea. However, it needn't be occult/new age/mind-body-spirit books. How about rare first editions or other books that are incredibly hard to find. How he finds this stuff should be worth a few plot hooks, eh?

[Spence]

An RPG game designer for an occult based game like CoC that discovers it isn't really fiction.

[Karmakaze]

How about a temp? Temps get sent lots of places, and if they're working the shorter contracts, they can have a fair amount of schedule freedom (turn down enough jobs and the agency will stop calling you, but the bar is set pretty low). And temps are often considered to be expendable...

Back when I was temping, I noted a few categories of jobs. (I'll leave temp-to-perm and the amazing extending contract out since they're not as relevant here). Fill In - someone's out on sick/bereavement/maternity leave and there's a fairly fixed timeframe. (The reason why the someone is out and/or missing can provide a hook); Special Project - the employer has some sort of crunch project (usually filing, running reports, moving, a big presentation, etc.) and the contract ends when the project is done. (the special project could easily be nefarious, and who'll miss a temp anyway? They just tell the agency he never showed up.) Get Me Out Of Here - (also known as This Job Was Open For A Reason)The internal candidate in this job quit. Nobody else internal will take the transfer. A couple of temps before you have been fired or quit in the course of mere weeks. (Extra credit if one of them quit by not showing up after the first day). Everyone seems pathetically grateful to see you and anxiously asks "You're not going to leave, are you?" These are all danger signs that there is Something Wrong With This Job. (It's usually a bad manager, but it could be anything the plot hook requires.)

[Gawain]

An RPG game designer for an occult based game like CoC that discovers it isn't really fiction.

In the same vein, a novelist who discovers that what he writes is more real than is healthy. (I've always thought that a character based on Stephen King would be interesting to play.):thumbup:

[FenrisUlf]

In the big city, garbage collector (all kinds of interesting stuff gets thrown out in the trash, up to and including corpses), or sewer/utility tunnel maintenance worker (that's where all the weird beasties hang out or pass through to their lairs).

Heh -- in an old Vampire:the Masquerade game, I remember how the city's sanitation and sewer departments were being run by the local Nosferatu (insanely ugly vampires). What better way to (a) get power in the local community* and (b) make sure you've got all the primo sewer real esate locked up?

* -- When the hoity-toity Ventrue and Toreador didn't treat the Nos with enough respect, they just started dumping all the city's garbage in front of their nice big homes. Negotiations went very smoothly indeed after that...

[Shigeru]

Heh -- in an old Vampire:the Masquerade game, I remember how the city's sanitation and sewer departments were being run by the local Nosferatu (insanely ugly vampires). What better way to (a) get power in the local community* and (b) make sure you've got all the primo sewer real esate locked up?

* -- When the hoity-toity Ventrue and Toreador didn't treat the Nos with enough respect, they just started dumping all the city's garbage in front of their nice big homes. Negotiations went very smoothly indeed after that...


That sounds like it could spawn a funny Sopranos spoof.

[Curufea]

In the same vein, a novelist who discovers that what he writes is more real than is healthy. (I've always thought that a character based on Stephen King would be interesting to play.):thumbup:

Similar to that - see the movie "In the Mouth of Madness" which is about an insurance investigator looking into the disappearance of the above mentioned author.

[Susano]

Not sure if this is what you want, but allow me to present Sora-Hime the miko (Shino priestess): http://surbrook.devermore.net/original/pulp/sorahime.html

[Short Shot]

Someone who restores old places.

1) tracking down the "original" to put it back in place
2) Looking for original designs and finding hidden passages
3) researching legends associated with places.
4) Excuse for being hired to go to remote locations
5) restoring something have it result in freeing a demon/trap spirit, or even just opening a hidden passage
6) gaining contacts who deal in antiquities and rarities who then get him involved in something else.

[Egyptoid]

arcane computer sleuth.

he finds out if text files are really magical formulae.
determines if building the server over an indian burial ground will be a bad thing.
watch dogs novices looking for "real magic" via the internet.
has a web site site advertising his rescue services:

In over your head? Call 1-900-INT-SLEUTH

[Alric]

Reality TV Paranormal Investigators (think Sci-Fi's "Ghost Hunters")

What would happen if one of their investigations turned up a real supernatural threat? And how accurate and effective are their tools really?

Good way to get a team together.