Thoughts on Tintin as a HERO
I don't really have the time to write Tintin up as a charcter at the moment, but I'm have a few thoughts, and I'm keen to solicit further suggestions before I have a serious stab at it next week.
First off, Tintin's obviously heroic, rather than superheroic. Usual rules apply.
Characteristics
STR - not particularly good. Tintin's very skinny. However, he packs a mean punch - some kind of pulp martial art, perhaps (fisticuffs?).
DEX - pretty good. He seems to be naturally agile.
CON - average. He usually succumbs to chloroform.
BODY & STUN - high. He's sometimes knocked out if someone really gets the dtrop on him with a cosh to the skull, but in most fights he seems to survive a lot of normal damage and, on the rare occasions he's shot, pulls through that as well.
INT - well above average, with some Characteristic As Power (Lim: Only as Intuition) on top. Tintin's smart, but often gut-smart, rather than brain-smart.
EGO - high. Nothing will stop Tintin once his nose for a story or his sense of justice is aroused.
PRE - above average. He's got some chutzpah.
COM - Average or a little above average.
SPD - maybe spend a couple of extra points to bring it up to 3. Coz he's a hero.
REC - pretty good. He may be laid low, but he's up and about pretty sharpish.
END - definitely some extra points here. He keeps going.
STUN - see BODY above.
Running/Swimming - nothing special. He often loses fleeing crooks, or can't escape pursuers without a trick. His strength is in endurance, not sprinting.
Leaping - definitely some extra. He can make unlikely-looking leaps all the time.
Skills
Tintin displays skill in Disguise, Climbing, Deduction, Slight of Hand, Criminology ("It's a clue, Snowy!"), Contortionist, Conversation and Riding. He has Transport Familiarity with Automobile, Light Trucks, Small Boats and Light Aircraft. He has weapon familiarity with common melee weapons and handguns, but definitely no combat skill levels with them. He probably does have some 5-point CSLs in his proposed martial art (Fisticuffs).
His native language, as a Brussels-born Belgian, is French, but he's certainly fluent in English, and possibly has a few levels in other European languages as well.
Perks
He definitely has reputation, and plenty of it. Even his announced visit to investigate the Chicago mob was front page news in the States (Tintin in America).
He has a Fringe Benefit (reporter for Le Petit Vingtieme), and Money (Limitation -1/4: expense account) - the latter because he always seems to get where he wants to go, and book hotels if necessary, but rarely seems to buy anything for himself.
Talents
Bump of direction, maybe. Just perhaps a little Combat Luck.
Martial Arts
Fisticuffs. Details to be thought out.
Powers
Luck, and plenty of it. Just when it's beginning to look really bleak for our hero, something always turns up.
Disadvantages
A touch of Unluck. He's always in the wrong place at the wrong time. Nothing his wits or his luck can't get him out of, but it definitely hinders him for a few panels of cartoon strip...
Dependent NPC: Snowy (aka Milou). Snow-white fox terrier with insatiable curiosity and an obsession with bones and food.
Distinctive appearance (easily concealable): Strawberry-blond quiff, raincoat and plus-fours. That's distinctive.
PsychLim: Sense of justice - he's much more of a crook-catcher than a reporter.
PyschLim - Curiosity. It killed the cat, but to date it's only nearly killed Tintin.
Youth (0-point disadvantage): Tintin is the Boy Reporter. He writes for Le Petit Vingtieme, the kiddies' page in Le Vingtieme Siecle. He MUST have Youth. But it never seems to adversely affect him, so it's a 0-point disad.
Options
Thomson and Thompson (aka Dupont and Dupond): from Cigars of the Pharoah (1932) onwards, to be precise, the bumbling detectives dog Tintin's footsteps. Sometime they chase him, somtimes they try to help him, but they always hinder him and they're not enemies, so they must be dependent NPCs.
Captain Haddock: GREAT BLISTERING BARNACLES! The Captain was a pathetic drunk when Tintin first met him in The Crab with the Golden Claws (1940), but rapidly becomes an all-the-time follower and useful companion. The Captain's weakness is alcohol, and his Presence Attack is inventive invective: A thousand million thousand billion thousand ports of thunder of Brest, it's water! (Mille millions de mille milliards de mille sabords de tonnerre de Brest, c'est l'eau!)
Professor Cuthbert Calculus (aka Tryphon Tournesol): dependent NPC, follower, patron, all-round wierdo. Calculus is all these and more. Deaf, absent minded, possessed of the highest Inventor skill level yet recorded in HERO and a poet's heart, and owner of a mystic pendulum that invariably leads him to the conclusion of an adventure - just after Tintin's worked it out for himself. Calculus appears in Red Rackham's Treasure (1943), at the end of which he selsl his shaark-proof submarine to the military for a fortune, which he shares with Tintin and Haddock, making them all Wealthy. The ultimate eccentric genius - after all, he got himself, Tintin, Haddock and Snowy to the moon 16 years before the Americans (Destination Moon!, 1952).
Roberto Rastapopoulos: after dealing pretty sharply with Joe Stalin (Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, 1929) and Al Capone (Tintin in America, 1931), Tintin meats a real enemy in Cigars of the Pharoah (1932). Billionaire movie director, drug-smuggler and uber-meister of Ultimate Evil, Rastapopoulos is an urbane high-society mobster of the highest order, crass cigar-smoking mobster and master of the occult all rolled into one - but always flamboyant. And even after his final defeat in The Blue Lotus (1934), he er-emerges as an older, sadder, wiser uber-villain in The Red Sea Sharks (1958).
Re: Thoughts on Tintin as a HERO
Don't forget that Prf. Calculus does claim to be knowledgeable in Savate, but that might only be verse random statuary :D
Re: Thoughts on Tintin as a HERO
Haddock: The translation (of the oath he swore) I read was "Blistering Barnacles!" or "Billions of blue blistering barnacles!" I think it counts as a Distinctive Feature in any case. He was, ironically, President of the Society of Sober Sailors.
Snowy: He also liked to drink whiskey, much to Tintin's disapproval.
Calculus: He was hard of hearing and needed a hearing aid in order to clearly understand exactly what he was saying. He was especially offended when Haddock called him a goat.
I don't remember the butler's name, but he was amusing in his own way.
Other NPCs: Gen. Alvarez and Gen. Tapioca: These two soldiers are always fighting for supremacy in their country.
Have you seen the Tintin animated series? It's an old series, but if you can find any copies, they're worth buying.
Re: Thoughts on Tintin as a HERO
The sigth of Thomson and Thompson hoppign on the Moon arm in arm is one I will never forget.
One interesting note about Herge is that he did not flee Belgium when the Nazis came. This led to a rather dark period of his career, wher he was compelled to draw anti-Semetic Tintin stories for the occupiers. While these strips durvive, they ahve fortunatrely never been translated into English, and IIRC HErge later renounced them once Belgium was liberated. At least he never got the reputation of being a willing collaborator and his career continued to flourish after the war.
Re: Thoughts on Tintin as a HERO
Darn you all,
Because of this thread I just had to go out and purchas all 24 Tintin graphic novels from Amazon. I'm just going to have to read them now, there goes next weekend:D
Well, I need to add something continental to my book collections anyways ;)
TB
Re: Thoughts on Tintin as a HERO
Quote:
Originally Posted by Teflon Billy
Darn you all,
Because of this thread I just had to go out and purchas all 24 Tintin graphic novels from Amazon. I'm just going to have to read them now, there goes next weekend:D
Well, I need to add something continental to my book collections anyways ;)
TB
Funny, I got the same response when I pposted a thread about Goscinny & Urdezo's Asterix the Gaul over in the Fantasy HERO section.
Lots of books people have suddenly decided they want to read....
Re: Thoughts on Tintin as a HERO
I wish I had the cash to buy the Tintin series or the Aserix series. :( The fun I had reading those stories are great childhood memories.
Re: Thoughts on Tintin as a HERO
Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Hopcroft
Funny, I got the same response when I pposted a thread about Goscinny & Urdezo's Asterix the Gaul over in the Fantasy HERO section.
Lots of books people have suddenly decided they want to read....
I almost got the Asterix as well, but I couldn't justify dropping $300+ dollars on a series that I've only been exposed to through the movies that I saw when I was too young to be able to make any sense of them.
Tintin, on the other hand, I've read about 8-10 of the books, just not all of them. And I can't remember which ones I read, so I figured I'd go all out.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tkdguy
I wish I had the cash to buy the Tintin series or the Aserix series. :( The fun I had reading those stories are great childhood memories.
Enlistment bonuses come in handy for spur of the moment purchasing decisions. Unfortunatly they don't last forever;)
TB
Re: Thoughts on Tintin as a HERO
Quote:
Originally Posted by Teflon Billy
Enlistment bonuses come in handy for spur of the moment purchasing decisions. Unfortunatly they don't last forever;)
Unfortunately, 41-year-old men with bad feet and bad brains can;t enlist in the armed forces. So no enlistment bonuses for me. Then again, i don't have to go into combat unless they invade Portland.
In fact, I;'m so broke right now that I really need some money to buy decent meals, not just online services and the HERO books I crave. At least my rent gets paid every month....
