Editing Character:Ernie Pitt

[[Category:Character|Ernie Pitt]]

A character for ''Call of Cthulhu'' 6th Edition, created by g026r. <br>

A private investigator for a 1920s CoC game, inspired by a quote from Dashiell Hammett's ''The Maltese Falcon''.  I tend to use Cash on Hand to buy equipment with during character creation, hence why it's less than the Savings value.

== Campaign ==

Ernie can exist in a number of campaigns.  His higher than normal handguns skill would allow him to last at least a short period in a firefight, and his points in Library Use (among others) and high Know roll will make him invaluable in any investigative camapign.

== Character Stats ==

'''Ernie Pitt'''<br>
Occupation: Private Investigator
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=====Characteristics & Rolls=====
STR: 13<br>
CON: 10<br>
SIZ: 13<br>
DEX: 16<br>
APP: 11<br>
POW: 15<br>
INT: 13<br>
EDU: 19<br>
SAN: 75<br>
Idea: 65<br>
Luck: 75<br>
Know: 95<br>
Damage Bonus: +1d4

Hit Points: 12<br>
Magic Points: 15<br>
Sanity Points: 75
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=====Skills=====
Bargain: 50%<br>
Chemistry: 10%<br>
Conceal: 27%<br>
Disguise: 20%<br>
Dodge: 32%<br>
Fast Talk: 53%<br>
Hide: 26%<br>
Law: 65%<br>
Library Use: 65%<br>
Listen: 45%<br>
Locksmith: 54%<br>
Medicine: 10%<br>
Own Language: 95%<br>
Pharmacy: 10%<br>
Photography: 51%<br>
Psychology: 53%<br>
Sneak: 30%<br>
Spot Hidden: 45%<br>
Handgun: 65%
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I enjoyed the cenvorsation with Mike and others on the SMCDSM Ning site that sorta started this cenvorsation and I'm happy to throw down here on the Cathfire blog to continue the theme a bit and go a little deeper.I agree that in an ideal world, a business should have a standalone website/blog to house it's deeper and richer content. I'd like to play devils advocate though and see if I can convince you to broaden your stance a bit.There are many small businesses out there who ride a very thin margin in terms of selling their products and services. I'm thinking about the bakers, bike fixers, mechanics, snow plowers, and coffee shops. These folks are typically not connected to technology in any meaningful way right now. Many are not using email. Fax is still a big channel of communication for them. Most don't have high-speed Internet access. If they own a computer, it's an older model with a slow processor and an AOL email address. Some have never been on a computer in their lives. They still do good, solid business that keeps our economy going. They employee people and buy supplies and try like Hell to stay afloat. Let's call this point  0  on the online scale.  10   being a fully integrated online marketing strategy with multiple touch points and rock solid and responsive analytics providing real time feedback. I like the 10 point as much as you and wish everyone could reach that point. A stand alone static website is 5 on my mythical scale. I see a few points between 0 and 5 that may be a solution for some of these folks. A Facebook Business Page might be a 3 and that might be all that this business can handle as a presence to stay in front of their customers. If they had a website or blog   who is going to maintain it and keep it fresh? They can't afford to pay an agency or a consultant with their thin margins. There is a high likelihood though that one of their staff or family members is an avid Facebook user and, with some good initial guidance, could maintain a Facebook Page. Perfect? No.Doable? Yes.

=====Income &amp; Savings=====
Income: $1500<br>
Cash on Hand: $589.57<br>
Savings: $750<br>
Personal Property: $1000 in nondescript items.<br>
Real Estate: Office, located in building worth $5000
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=====Adventuring Gear &amp; Possessions=====
Fedora, wool overcoat, cashmere suit, wristwatch.<br>
Men's toilet set, typewriter, handcuffs, pocket camera, 24-exposure film, packet of cigarettes.<br>
.38 automatic pistol, box of 100 bullets.

== Character Description ==

''&quot;This isn't where I planned to be at 43, I can tell you that.  For starters, my mother wanted me to be a lawyer; I tried for a few years, but that didn't work out and now look at me.  Sure, I own the business &mdash; &quot;E. Pitt, Private Investigator&quot; on the door and windows.  But up until about a week ago it was &quot;Pitt & Willoughby&quot;. Then <strong>she</strong> came in.''

''&quot;Said her name was Mather, Mary Mather.  Claimed to be from an old New England family &mdash; may have been related to old Cotton himself, for all I knew or cared at the time &mdash; and she certainly had the cash to back it up.  Said she'd been robbed recently of some book.  She knew who'd taken it, and could we get it back.''

''&quot;Archie asked her why she hadn't gone to the police.  She said didn't want to get them involved.  Sometimes money makes people like that, but I don't argue &mdash; as long as they don't ask me to do anything illegal, then I'm more than happy to take the cash.''

''&quot;With the stack of bills she shoved under our nose, something was fishy, and then she wouldn't tell us the name of the book.  Said the man that we were to meet with would know what we were talking about.  Had I been smart, I would have asked more questions but Archie jumped in and said he'd take care of it.''

''&quot;He was supposed to meet the man that night around 9.  Name of Archer, or something.  Around 3 in the morning I got a call from a friend of mine down at the station: could I come 'round and identify someone for them.  Sure enough, it was Archie.  But whatever had killed him hadn't done it normally.  He was covered in bite marks, and it damn near looked like someone or some<strong>thing</strong> had eaten parts of him.''

''&quot;Well, I never saw Ms. Mather after that, but that's not going to stop me.  As someone else said: when a man's partner is killed you're expected to do something about it.  Whoever did that to Archie, ass though he was, better make sure he's caught up on his prayers, because what ever's up, I intend to puzzle it out.&quot;''

== Commentary ==

I used a spreadsheet for doing the skills.  Makes it much much easier, and I don't know why I never thought of it before.

For the curious, the following quote was what gave me the character idea:

<blockquote><i>&quot;When a man's partner is killed he's supposed to do something about it. It doesn't make any difference what you thought of him. He was your partner and you're supposed to do something about it. Then it happens we were in the detective business. Well, when one of your organization gets killed it's bad business to let the killer get away with it. It's bad all around – bad for that one organization, bad for every detective everywhere.&quot;</i> &mdash; Dashiell Hammett, <i>The Maltese Falcon</i></blockquote>