[Adventure!] Interresting Historical Figures

[wyrdhamster]

competence tends to be realistic (the most notable exception being his wide-ranging proficiency in languages).

I was thinking from the Young Indy TV series he literally has Polyglot Edge ( see Adventure, Aether or TC Player's Guide for it ) and high dots of Humanties and Culture, simple as that. There is nothing supernatural about character on that - maybe a bit more Talent-like 'extraordinary'. ( For more Language takes discussion in Trinity mechanics, we have this topic. )

[Dataweaver]

Yeah; Indy is a good example of a Daredevil who features Luck Gifts: he's quite competent; but his competence tends to be realistic (the most notable exception being his wide-ranging proficiency in languages). Instead, he's always catching lucky breaks. One could argue that he's an example of using the Talent rules to create extraordinary baseline humans (“Distinction between Talent and Skilled Human”, Trinity Continuum p.156; I also seem to recall a list somewhere of Gifts that you should either avoid or limit yourself to when creating a Talent of this sort, but I'm not finding it).

[wyrdhamster]

Watching now Adventures of Young Indiana Jones ( later remix of original 1992 TV series ) and in it are shown very interesting figures from 1910s till 1920 in it as each episode main support cast.



Beside, as fictional character, I suspect Indiana Jones is archetypical... Daredevil in Adventure? 🤔



There are also Documentaries related to those episode in that era - all 97!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58QAN9oBynY&list=PLKmYrMfQbaIVzRv_5JnGyYIoY1b7RS8JW

[Astromancer]

La Brigade Chimerique is the title. I found that on TV Tropes.

It's described as a French equivalent to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

[Astromancer]

I'd look through the works of Colin Wilson, he wrote works like The Outsider and The Occult. He was interested in the quirkier people of the early 20th century.

There is also a French comic book inspired by the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen that sweeps up fictional and real people in great numbers into its narrative. I'll post the name when I find it again. Marie Curie is leading a League of French superheroes. Doctor Macuse is her archenemy and Nyctalope betrays her.

[No One of Consequence]

Gareth Jones

A Welsh journalist born in 1905. A gifted linguist (especially in French, German, and Russian), he taught briefly at Cambridge before becoming the Foreign Affairs Advisor to David Lloyd George in 1930. He reported on the Soviet government's crimes against the people of the Ukraine, including the deliberately engineered famine. (His reports were denounced by a number of pro-Soviet journalists, including corrupt stooge Walter Duranty of the New York Times, who won a Pulitzer for his parroting of Soviet propaganda.) In 1935, he went to Manchuria to investigate the Japanese invasion. Seized by Chinese bandits and held for ransom, he was found murdered. It is very likely that he was murdered by the Soviet NKVD secret police in retaliation for his reporting about the Ukrainian famine.

The 2019 film Mr. Jones focuses on his time in the Ukraine and Soviet Union.

Jones can make a useful contact or ally to PCs, or just someone interesting for them to meet during one of his fact-finding tours.

[Mateus Luz]

It is amazing (to not say a bad word) how people act for human destruction actively. The guy believes he is bringing death to the world and still is going to be in the good guys army? Or is he actively working for the bad guys?

I mean, I don’t love humans any more than the next guy, I actually prefer to deal with “crazy” people in a oil rig than “regular” people in the street, but destroying humans is a bit off… Not even Thanks was that bad in MCU…

Anyway, I love some of the 20s and 30s Hollywood stories, with all the bizarre people around, and the absurdity they were doing just for the fun, while making some money (not much, it was a different time). Add to it guys like Rasputin, and you get fictional characters like Zorbo, Mr Saturday and The Kingpin are really just a step away from reality.

[Firanai]

Alexander Scriabin, seriously, check the life of this guy. A Russian mystic and composer that wanted to create a song to bring the apocalypse. Even thought he died in 1915, in the world of adventure he could have survived and gone underground, composing the concert that will end all concerts.

[Astromancer]

Richard Haliburton should be interesting. He wrote essays about his travels which were focused on the exotic and the marvelous. He tried to live his life like an adventure story.

He was a fairly typical Southerner of his time, so his racial views are problematic to say the least. On the other hand he seems to have been friendly and kind to most people regardless of race so he'd be approachable.

He was a gay man, so he would be maintaining secrets in self-defense.

He built a very large circle of friends and allies though his travels and writings. So if anyone in period would have an ally or a contact literally everywhere the PCs want to go, it would be Haliburton.

Note: He died in 1939, trying to cross the Pacific Ocean in a Chinese Junk.

[No One of Consequence]

Billy Mitchell

Sometimes called the father of the United States Air Force, Mitchell was an Army Air Corp officer who served in WW1, and by the end of the war was in command of all US air combat units in France. Throughout the 20s and 30s he continued to advocate for increased investment in air power, including the development of aircraft carriers. He was demoted from Brigadier General to Colonel for insubordination after openly criticizing the military for building more battleships instead of new aircraft carriers. He resigned from the military in 1926, but continued to write and speak on his passion. When FDR became President, he lobbied him to increase the US military's air power. Mitchell died in 1936 from coronary blockage.

Any aviator or aviation oriented character may draw Mitchell's attention, and perhaps end up as part of his passion project.

An interesting "What If?" is having Mitchell live longer, at least until WW2. There's a short story, "Billy Mitchell's Overt Act", written by William Saunders for the anthology Alternate Generals, in which Mitchell is alive and present at Pearl Harbor, with results that end up being somewhat disastrous for the war in the long run.

[No One of Consequence]

Hans von Kaltenborn

Originally from Wisconsin, one of the pioneers of radio journalism, who reported from Europe on the Spanish Civil War, the German take over of Czechoslovakia, and other events. He was famous and well respected for his vast knowledge about international politics, as well as his wise range of contacts developed during his travels. He was also the "Voice of Tomorrow" at the 1939 World's Fair in New York, and appeared as himself in both Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and The Day the Earth Stood Still.

From a game perspective, he'd make a really interesting (and useful) Contact for a PC to have.

[Dataweaver]

There's an implication that Talents have always been around; they just become more prevalent in the wake of a telluric Event. I'm pretty sure that when they give us Æther, it will feature Talents, in much the same way that Anima does. Not necessarily because of a temporal backwash from the Hammersmith Event, either; rather, the Talents were already there, and the “Martian” invasion served as a “mini-event” that made Æther-tech possible. (And if they ever do Ægis, that will likely be the same: some localized and temporary mini-Event takes place in ancient Greece; and for a brief time, gods, magicians, and heroes walk the Earth.)

But we're starting to drift.

[Mateus Luz]

Also, if I remember correctly, the Hammersmith incident explosion also sent telluric energy forward and backwards in time. It's very likely that this resulted in some people becoming inspired before the incident even happened, which is quite the paradox.

That was a 1e thing that not necessarily is true in TC. Aether existance basically goes against this idea.

[Firanai]

Also, if I remember correctly, the Hammersmith incident explosion also sent telluric energy forward and backwards in time. It's very likely that this resulted in some people becoming inspired before the incident even happened, which is quite the paradox.

[Mateus Luz]

It is implied in TC: Adventure that there were lots of things inspired before Hammersmith, and the incident just made it less rare.

I think it is implied Safari was inspired much before Hammersmith and what is special about him is that this inspiration never faded.