Second Dawn: Beathag Tinker
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This is a reference document for the LARP The Second Dawn.
Beathag (BEH-ak) Player: Sue B Tinker Elder Age: 62
Additional Information (read first): Tinkers, Black Science, Seerstones
Background: You’ve spent your whole life as a leader of your fellow scientists, a scion among Tinkers. As with every Tinker child, your technical training began early, and you took to it with relish. But as you grew, you showed a rarer but no less important talent: leadership and administration. You loved the scientific Tinker work, and you were good at it, but the elders encouraged you quite strongly to administrate instead. You gave in and followed that path, though it wasn’t your first love, your true dream. Serving the Tinker people has brought you great success, but a bitterness lingers in the back of your mind from spending all these long years excelling at a career you did not love. Over the last decade, as your voice became one of the most well-respected among the Tinker councils across the nation, you’ve found a use for that voice. The current Minister of Sciences is leading your people down the wrong, wrong path. The Ministry is the way in which your people exert their influence over the masses of the Union and its government; your political mouthpiece, your way to exert your leverage. The outsiders need the Tinkers, after all; without your knowledge and expertise, there would be no bridges or trains or power plants to give the Eastern Union its identity and prosperity. Yet the current minister, Artair, refuses to wield this leverage to its full potential. Your people have long been sidelined, discriminated against, misunderstood, by all the ignorant masses beyond; but if the Ministry of Sciences threatened to revoke Tinker help, the entire nation would be under your control. Few Tinkers bother to learn about the Ministry of Sciences; for the most part, it contains those Tinkers who’re better with people than with real work. Generally pitied and disdained sorts, in other words; though you’re wise enough to recognize the value of the job they do. You see the Ministry as becoming the ruling center of the Eastern Union, but it does already hold major power. It’s one of the five Cabinet posts that has the power and influence to control who becomes President, and therefore who rules the nation. You don’t disagree with the specific choices Artair has made; President Truman’s Second Dawn project has provided a lot of good work and opportunities for your people. But with that project now complete, there’s room for a Minister to make his will felt, and Artair just doesn’t have the balls to do it. Unfortunately, there’s a strong tradition in the Ministry of Sciences against unseating the current Minister- but it’s a tradition that you hope to end. As a senior Tinker, you have learned of one secret, one way in which the Tinkers need the outsiders. (Of course, it’s not a question of “who needs who”- you’re not advocating genocide, just a change in rulership!) You know of genetics, and you know that the Tinker gene pool is too small. Not only is the current population fairly low, but the initial population that survived the Cataclysm, were only a few hundred in number. The Tinkers are skirting the edge of serious inbreeding problems. The traditions against intermarriage are strong and perhaps well-founded, but they have become suicidal. Other senior Tinkers agree privately; the taboos must be broken, and more outsider genes must join the Tinker pool. As one of the more senior and well-respected Tinker elders, you do most of your work in New Hudson, the capital city that looks over the bay containing the submerged ruins of Manhattan. You have led and organized the hundreds of Tinkers working on the design of the Second Dawn, leading you here tonight to this party. Surrounded by the powers of the Union and beyond, this event is your best chance to bring the will of the Tinkers to its place at the head of the Eastern Union.
Roleplaying Notes: You come across as cantankerous and bitter; while this has a kernel of truth, you also exaggerate it for effect. That way, it can have a strong effect on people when you take them into your confidence. You have a sense of superiority for your people that comes not from blind prejudice, but from hard experience. You know how to deal with rational people like your fellow Tinkers, but superstitious uneducated outsiders are only barely worthy of concealing your contempt.
Goals: 1) Convince other Tinkers that your people should take a hard line with outsiders. 2) Become the new Minister of Sciences. 3) Act against outsider prejudices, especially regarding Tinkers and Black Science. 4) Help ensure the long-term genetic survival of the Tinker people.
Opinions: Second Dawn: It and its satellite are an example of your people’s skill, and the benefits they bring to the outsiders. You were project manager for the ship design. Black Science: The outsiders are blinded by superstition. All three of these paths can be used for good, if closely watched and properly controlled. You have worked with Ancient electronics yourself, though the other two are harder to come by (and bear real risks). The Watch: The internal security branch of the government, its purview includes ferreting out black science. Nosy pests, but they’ve been kept out of the Dawn project sites. Religion: Like all Tinkers, you ignore religion as the foolish outsider superstition it is. Outsiders: Superstitious savages, though you know better than to tell them so. El Dorado: Who are these mysterious foreigners, with such strange technologies? Perhaps they’re like Tinkers in another land. You must learn whether they’re like your people, or like the Maple Kingdom, are merely foolish outsiders with more toys.
Key Information: •The Tinker gene pool is starting to get seriously inbred. Despite taboos, you must encourage younger Tinkers to produce children who can be brought into the fold of your people. However, you must act tactfully; revealing the direness of the situation would probably dampen romantic sentiments. •If you can convince a majority of the Tinkers here that Artair should be removed from his post, the others will follow. They may be difficult to convince, since no Minister of Sciences has ever been replaced involuntarily before. •Niallghas (see below) is much more than he appears. If you can trust him, he’ll be a powerful ally; he already owes you one for getting him here tonight. • You know there exists an organized group of spelunkers who sneak around and steal valuable artifacts from Ancient ruins for profit, operating openly in the Plains. •Your father was named Feargan [FE-ruh-gun], he passed away some years ago. •Your “Green Seerstone” contains backups for the Second Dawn’s satellite and navigation software. •Your “Blue Seerstone” contains a copy of the extensive Tinker archives.
People (in approximate order of importance): Artair [ARE-ter], Minister of Sciences (Jed S): A Tinker who has taken too soft a line with the outsiders, when his power should be used to bring about an enlightened rule. He’s senior enough to know about the genetic bottleneck, and that’s one issue on which you two probably see eye to eye. Niallghas [NEE-ul-gus] (Aaron B): Supposedly a Tinker from Charleston, but you know he’s much more than he appears. For one thing, he’s from Connecticut County; you and some associates there helped set up his false origins for this event. Despite his relative youth, he seems to know more about your peoples’ skills and secrets than you do. You hypothesize that he belongs to some group with secret purer records of the Ancient ways. Whatever his true story, he’s powerful and useful. Find out what you can about him, but not at the risk of angering him; you definitely want this man as an ally, if you can trust him. Ceallach [KELL-uch] (David B): A young and idealistic Tinker researcher (that is, ruin-diver) from the Boston area, you don’t know him well personally. Unattached, so you should try to encourage him to find an outsider partner. Malamhin [MAL-uh-veen] (Abrihette Y): A rising young Tinker on the ship’s engineering team, you don’t know her well personally. Also unattached. Kara Atkinson (Hillary K), Charles Bazett (Paul E), Luther Gaines (David R), Margaret Eisenhower (Abbie P): The other four Ministers; you’ll need to at least have their respect once you take over from Artair. Mario Patriarca (Paul S): Head of the construction team. You’ve never met this outsider, but you’d actually like to; it seems like his team has done good work implementing your plans. Jonothan Grant, President of the Eastern Union (Ted M): The spaceship was a good idea, but this man’s leadership (or that of any of his outsider opponents) will only continue the status quo of barbarian rule. Franklin Kennedy, Chief of Staff (Matt W): He’s been the President’s hand for years, he and you met a few times at the start of the project to discuss design issues. Surprisingly smart for an outsider. Ivy Pearce (Rachel O): Pilot of the Second Dawn, someone brought her in to meet the design team at one point. Nice to know she exists, but you didn’t spend any time getting to know her. Jackie Drake (Sheyna G): A famous spelunker. Such ruin-delvers have to stay secret in the Union, but out in the Plains she’s famous. Disgusting, the damage these scavengers do. Rutledge the White (Michelle B), Daniel Rutledge (Constantine H), Kelly Clarkson (Lauren A): The travelers from El Dorado, you’ve yet to determine whether they’re worth being treated like peers or outsiders.
Ratings: Pilot: 0 R: 0 D: 2 G: 1 ID: 4362
Nametag Symbols: R*, E, I
Attributes: Physical: Defense 2 Pool Rating 2 [] [] Mental: Defense 4 Pool Rating 5 [] [] [] [] [] Social: Defense 3 Pool Rating 3 [] [] []
Recoveries: -React in a cranky or superior fashion to something (+1 karma, 3/hour) -“Let down your guard” with someone, to win their trust (+1 karma, 1/hour) -Correct someone’s pronunciation of your name (+1 karma, 3/hour, once per person)
Abilities: Penetrating Insight, observation, technical access, technobabble, charm, suspect, convince, hack, hypnotize, black ways, a practiced eye, project oversight
Items: Green seerstone, clear seerstone, blue seerstone, many-keyed babbage, molded plastic piece, gadget, opto-electronic interface (“two-headed cable”)
Black Ways
System: Any item with the “B” quality seems suspicious, potentially using black science. Only an extensive study of its workings or uses could verify this with complete certainty, so you will have to use your personal judgment tonight.
Observation Activation cost: 1 mental Requirement: Leave a seerstone in a location, and have another seersone and a babbage on your person. System: You may use the “not here” hand sign to observe the goings-on in that location for up to 10 minutes. You must stand within 10’ of the seerstone’s location. Limits: You may not use the same Seerstone twice without recovering and resetting it. If someone else moves or takes the Seerstone before you use this ability or while you’re using it, you can no longer use this ability.
