Harold Harlington, a sleazy pawnbroker/fence for your street-level campaigns

[Marcus Impudite]

Harold Harlington (owner/operator of Harlington's Gold & Pawn)
STR 8
DEX 8
CON 8
BODY 8
INT 9
EGO 9
PRE 9
COM 8
PD 2    
ED 2    
SPD 2    
REC 4
END 16
STUN 16
Run 5"
Swim 1"
Leap 1"

Perks/Skills: 10-points worth of Contacts & Favors in the Criminal Underworld (GM's choice); Money: Well Off; CK: Campaign City 11-; KS: The Criminal Underworld 11-; KS: High-End Electronics, Jewelry, And Other Valuable Goods 14-; PS: Appraise 14-; PS: Fence 11-; PS: Pawnbroker 11-; Streetwise 11-; Trading 14- ; WF: Small Arms

Disadvantages: Psychological Limitation: Greedy And Amoral; Social Limitation: Harmful Secret (running a fence operation out of his shop)

Background: The Harlington family has been running a pawn shop as far back the Great Depression of the 1930s. Harold's father "sold" him the shop in the early 1990s (mostly to get around inheritance taxes) and he's been running it ever since.

Personality/Motivation: Harold is not a very pleasant person to interact with; he values little in life besides money and material goods, and he does little to hide what an asshole he is. He thinks nothing of buying and selling stolen goods as long as he turns a profit and his illegal side business doesn't draw unwanted attention from the authorities.

Quote: "I'll give you two hundred for it."

Powers/Tactics: Harold couldn't possibly stand up to heroes or villains in a straight fight; at most, he might be able to defend his shop from common lowlifes but that's about it (the last meth-addled punk that tried to rob him got a face full of buckshot and a trip to the morgue). If seriously threatened, he'll more likely call upon his "friends" in the criminal underworld to deal with it.

Campiagn Use: Depending on which side of the law the PCs are on, Harold is either someone to shakedown for information or someone to fence ill-gotten goods to.

Appearance: Harold Harington is a pudgy, middle-aged man who typically wears a black polo shirt embroidered with his shop's logo in gold and a pair of dark blue trousers. He frequently smokes cigars.

[Mr. Gray]

I like this as a character concept maybe he has a specialty section in a secret room in the back where he sells a few illegal items under the counter. A lost Tommie gun dropped in a gang fight a box of cop killer bullets some old war surpluses grenades.

[Marcus Impudite]

If he can make money off it, he might.

[Marcus Impudite]

Hermit's The People Of Campaign City thread (Click Here to check it out) brought this back to mind as I was reading it.

 

If Harold existed in your game world, how would your characters most likely interact with him?

[sinanju]

Hermit's The People Of Campaign City thread (Click Here to check it out) brought this back to mind as I was reading it.

 

If Harold existed in your game world, how would your characters most likely interact with him?

 

Iron Maiden probably knows him well (in her civilian identity), as a family friend. She grew up amongst criminals. But she probably hasn't seen him in years, since she cut herself off from most of her toxic birth family years ago. If she thought he had information she needed, she might try to coerce him into telling, but otherwise she has no use for him.

[Lucius]

As the more Human members of the team try to pump the pawnbroker for information, Can Opener (think something that looks a little like an R2D2 style robot)  quietly humming to himself, trundles around, eventually wandering behind the counter, finding the safe, and of course opening it(having a compulsion to open things, and an ability to open ANYTHING.)

 

"Hey neat can! What's this you keep inside it? What? No, no take contents, no damage can, see, it's made to open and close!" (Closes the safe again.) "If your can, why you not know it resealable? This can can re-can!"

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary notes that to Can Opener anything that can be opened is a can, and sometimes it's a can of worms.

[JmOz]

I have a very similar character in my games that my players love to abuse called Cousin Leroy.  The players have interrupted him on a "date" with a working girl.. Stole his dog (That he bought to protect him from them), Beat him up a few times, etc...always to get information.  It was so bad that he moved across the country to get away from group A, when I started the next campaign...guess where the heroes were...BWAH HA HA