Tailspins & Tiki Gods:Song

Concept: “Communal” Sidekick NPC.

Name: Song

Appearance: A young boy (no older than 10-12.); possibly Thai or Chinese.

Background/Personality:

Background: Song mainly works odd-jobs in the Bas Ville section of Porte Cochere- everything from delivering messages from the fella down at the radio-shack, to helping haul fish, to acting as a guide around town for 25 cents a day.

He has no local family that anyone here knows of- many people look to make sure he has somewhere to stay, but otherwise treat him as independent. (However, there ARE herds of kids around- he’s not the only child in this setting. If he’s an orphan or something, he’s not even the only one of those.)

Not much else is generally known, around town. [There’s some GM-only-for-now stuff- careful about assuming too much when borrowing him.]

Personality: Song is brave (in the way innocents often are), smart, curious, trusting, loyal and optimistic. He also (unlike his more worldly compatriots) gets astonished. If something’s astounding, he’s astounded. If someone’s scary, he gets scared. He has very little cynicism or world-weariness to him. He loves stories- even mundane stories from far-off lands fascinate him endlessly.

He knows what “Treasure Finders” are, and has sometimes helped them out. (It’s fun!) He finds electronics (like the town’s ham radio) utterly fascinating, and gladly helps to deliver messages. He plays dice, sometimes, but isn’t a serious gambler.

If it doesn’t seem dangerous, he sometimes greets strangers by sticking his tongue out at them, then moving behind something solid. (He’s just funnin’.) He’s not a violent kid (beyond basic “Kid-fu”/wrestling and “Way of the Human Backpack”), and shows little to no interest in learning to fight. [This may mean having to rescue him, sometimes, but that’s genre-accurate.]

-He has a knack for languages (besides his home language, he speaks Chinese, Malay, French, English, and a bit of other stuff.) He can’t read so good in any of them, but if it’s spoken, he can try it.

-On the other hand, he’s not very technically-inclined. (Getting him to, say, fix an engine or gunsmith with you might be difficult.)

-He LOVES movies, and has clearly seen a lot of them. This is, basically, how he knows anything about the West, and where he learned most of his English. He sometimes tries to do things he’s seen in movies (like making lassoes out of ropes and ‘throwing’ them.) He has, undoubtedly, seen Lana’s flicks, and might recall her lines from the older ones better than she does, now.

-He does not get altitude sickness. (Big help in a plane-heavy game.)

- Has “kid agility” (that is, a robust 10-year-old’s joints and resilience.) If you need someone to climb something, he can try that for ya.

HOW TO USE SONG:

About 90% of the time, Song is a ‘normal’ NPC- that is, under GM control. However, the other 10% of the time is where you guys come in: In a “Doylist” sense, the “author” of the story your PCs are in uses Song to introduce information to the ‘audience’ about the setting or characters. (This would be once every reel of serial, or every couple of chapters in a story- not constant, but a trusty ‘writer’s tool’.) We can probably work out some sort of game-mechanics thing where the group dragging the kid along on adventures (and not, say, leaving the kid for the sharks) is beneficial. But the main thing would be that this reflects a genre staple (The kid-audience stand-in) while also providing an in-game benefit (This is how you get setting information that you might not otherwise get.)

“Could you tell me about…?”

There are many things your PCs are ‘assumed’ to know, and (in setting) would seem uninformed NOT knowing. Not even skill-roll things, just basic facts about the world.

Since things might bog down if we infodump everything in the Wiki or front-load you with facts, here’s where Song comes in.

Say your characters run into some Germans out near Ile Trouve. This seems weird to you, but you’re not sure how weird, and going looking up random facts isn’t your idea of a good time. Anyway, your character, Professor Quincy, might know, but you sure don’t.

So, you put the question in Song’s mouth, typing: “Song asks 'Gee, Professor- how did Germans get all the way out here?'. "

If the GM feels he’d know, we’d say “the Professor replies: ‘Well, Song- you know, the Germans have been in Samoa for years, now.’ ”

If the answer he gives is more like “I don’t… know.” then you can assume it’s a mystery, there for you to find out about in play. If there’s a roll involved, we’ll do that.

There are, of course, limits (Song is a kid sidekick, not a doctoral student!) and the answers he gets will depend on your PCs’ “common knowledge”, but this way you can prompt for information without really going OOC.

”Did I ever tell you about…?”

You have made a really intricate character, and so has everyone else. A lot of the time, characters are aloof or ‘keeping privacy’. Or maybe you want to establish something, for later.

So, if you want to provide backstory, you can put the question in Song’s mouth, saying: “Wow! You sure can dance good! Where’d you learn to DO that?” and your character (played by you) replies “Well, Song, it started when Flo Zigfeld wanted me to join his Follies, on Broadway...” (or whatever).

Alternately, you can have Song ask another player’s character. Like “Holy smokes, Mr. Mystery- where did you learn to use your dukes like that?” and Mr Mystery (played by another character) will reply as comes naturally.

(There are limits to this, as well- Song wouldn’t ask nonstop question-after-question, and since he’s not malicious, something like “Good god, Col. Rocket, why are you so ugly?” or whatever wouldn’t fly.)

[Aspects & Such TBA]

Stuff: a wooden bowl. Western-style clothes (shirt, shorts, socks, sneakers). A multipurpose “tool” knife. Small lucky charms (and dice) in a pocket.