General Information
Full Name: Emerick Kline
Birthday: December 11th
Sign: Sagittarius ♐
Age: 28
Appearance
Height: 5’7”
Eyes: Green
Hair Color: Dark blue, shifts to dark purple
Hair Style: Messy man bun
Skin Color: White, freckles everywhere (literally everywhere)
Build: Very slender for his height - clearly doesn’t eat enough
His ears are pierced, and he has freckles on his face and all over his body. His fingernails are also painted more often than not, any color that strikes his fancy that week or that someone requests. He is typically unkempt, but not dirty. It is clear that if he were to take care of his appearance he would be handsome, but he throws himself too much into his work to really bother with cleaning himself up.
Art by Amelia!
Class Information
Media (5) - Credibility
The media role ability is credibility. The media not only can convince an audience of what they publish, but also has a larger audience the more credible they are. They also have greater levels of access to sources and information. Medias are also in the know and pick up on rumors passively.
Rumors
Medias are deeply plugged into information networks. Assuming you aren’t entirely off-grid, at least twice per week the GM will secretly roll your Credibility Rank + 1d10. If the roll beats any of the DVs on the rumor table’s passive column, the GM will clue the media in on the highest DV rumor which their check beats. There are some rumors that a media might find by hitting the street during gameplay using their relevant information gathering skills like library search, conversation, or interrogation. An active roll is appropriate STAT + skill + 1d10 against the DV on the active column.
| Rumor | Description | Passive DV | Active DV |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vague | The rumor is hazy. It contains the bare minimum of information required to start hunting down the supposed truth at the core of it. | 7 | 13 |
| Typical | The rumor is enough to know where to go next in an investigation. It contains enough information to get a passing glimpse at the supposed truth at the core of it. | 9 | 15 |
| Substantial | As typical rumor, but the rumor additionally contains concrete information that is beneficial to a potential investigation, like names, places, and times. | 11 | 17 |
| Detailed | As substantial rumor, but the rumor additionally contains information that, if verified, could become a piece of evidence the media can use in a story they might publish about the supposed truth at the core of the rumor. | 13 | 21 |
Rumors, by nature, are often untrue, and are never the full story. Finding the truth is the media’s job. Additionally: some threads are dangerous to pull.
Publishing Stories
Access/Sources represent those you can reasonably get in touch with/interview or otherwise gain information from.
Audience is how many people your stores or exposés can reach.
Believability is how well your story or exposé goes over with your audience. The higher your credibility, the more likely people will believe what you have written. You roll 1d10 based on your believability when you publish a story and any time you want to find out whether an individual or group believe your story. Evidence also effects this:
- One piece of verifiable evidence that is easily understood equals +1 to believability.
- Four pieces equals +2 to believability. These bonuses stack with each other. LUCK can never be spent on a believability score.
Impact is how much change any individual story or revelation published has on your audience. For example: a story about an unfair economic practice at the incremental level might just get a few local businesses to change their practices, but at higher levels of credibility, an exposé may cause entire Megacorporations to fall. Once you publish a story you cannot publish another story on the exact same topic unless you have new information to add to the conversation.
Rank 3 and 4
Access/Sources: City gang honcho, minor politician, Corp Exec, well known person in the neighborhood
Audience: You’re well known as a contributor on the local screamsheet or Data Pool.
Believability: 3 out of 10 chance the audience buys it.
Impact: Change created by a story has a direct effect: local small-time bad guys get arrested or thrown out of power, justice gets served.
Personality
On the surface, he’s a very attentive, thoughtful, and kind. He pays attention to details about people and likes to do whatever he can to make them happy and make people like him. This causes him to keep track of things like when peoples’ birthdays are, what they like and dislike, and cater to them.
Ultimately, he is a people-pleaser and a coward. He generally cannot say no to someone and is prone to freezing in stressful situations, especially if he is caught between doing what is told vs. what he knows is right or what he really wants to do. He is very conflict avoidant and will do anything at all to try to make everyone in the room happy.
Relationships
Family
- Heather Kline (mother)
- Emotionally abusive, similar to mother Gothel from Tangled
- While most of her abuse tactics were emotional and mental (gaslighting, guilt tripping, etc), she was not above slapping Emerick if he displeased her
- Had to quit her job after having Emerick because they couldn’t afford childcare, and never went back to work
- Was relatively nice to Emily and took all of her frustration and anger out on Emerick
- Alexander Kline (father)
- Heavily physically abusive - nearly killed Emerick on numerous occasions
- Extreme alcoholic, and an incredibly mean drunk
- Worked a low level corporate job that barely paid the bills
- Would often get so drunk that he couldn’t tell the kids apart, he just wanted to hit something — Emerick would shield Emily from it and that was just fine by Alexander
- Emily Kline AKA Twintails (sister)
- About five years younger than Emerick
- Calls Emerick Emmy
- Became a fashion designer
- EMM — high end men’s line, very sharp and very practical, dedicated to Emerick
- Misc Notes
Other Acquaintances
- Callum “Midas” Hayes (childhood friend)
- The two went to school together and became very good friends as children
- Callum gave Emerick a book that helped Emerick escape from his shitty home life, and helped to inspire Emerick’s lifelong love of reading and writing
- Emerick still has this book — it’s nearly in tatters, it’s clear that he’s read it a TON
- Callum would often “kidnap” Emerick as teenagers - they would spend time outside of the home just to get away and have some fun
- They haven’t spoken in some ten years (since graduating high school)
- Not a negative split, Callum just went to college and Em couldn’t afford it
- Now an exec at Biotechnica
- Exec in marketing
- Was a new hire in sales, made a big sale that increased profits 15% and was promoted to a high position in the marketing department
- Mr. Anderson (government contact)
- Works for the Night City equivalent of the FBI
- Emerick will do research for him should he be unable to get past the red tape of his job, and in return he will assist Emerick with his research, if possible
- Mr. Anderson had found Emerick’s stories when Emerick started writing, but the two didn’t establish contact until a couple of years ago