Central Casting (a.k.a NPC ideas)

[Wolf sword]

The Old Skill School
This is something that you can use as a seed to build a community around.
The Old Folk School is an artist school and trade school. they teach things like timber framing, gardening, boat building, cooking, gun-smithing (blackpowder era weapons)
here is a link to one such place here in Minnesota:
http://www.northhouse.org/
take a look at what they classes that they have to offer.

[Wolf sword]

The Dog-man of Downtown.

The dog man of downtown travels with a pack of wild dogs, say 8 to 18 of various breads. They all follow him as his is the alpha in is this pack, the pack hunts for him and he also scrounges up caned dog food for them (and him) from time to time. And keeps them healthy he was a vet tech before the war.

[rcaf_777]

Packs of Dogs

[Rainbow Six]

A couple I had on my PC...they're both intended for UK based campaigns, but might be of use for other areas with a bit of adaption. Note they were written to tie in with my Alternative Survivor's Guide to the UK, so whilst it doesn't really affect the Mercenary, the MI5 Officer does have are a few references to that work.

[.45cultist]

I'll bite, what's with the yoga pic amongst the dog ones?

[rcaf_777]

Pack of Downward Dogs

[.45cultist]

My laptop almost got some coffee on that one!

[Rainbow Six]

The Downed Aviator

Who He Claims To Be

The party encounter a solitary man. He is wearing an olive drab flight suit with rank and name badges that identify him as Flight Lieutenant (NATO Grade OF2) Mark Hastings of the British Royal Air Force. The Squadron badge on his right shoulder is that of 617 (Dambusters) Squadron. Flight Lieutenant Hastings appears to be around five feet eleven inches tall and in his early thirties, with short dark hair. Besides his flying gear – flight suit, survival vest, Mk4A flying helmet, etc, his only equipment is a 9mm automatic pistol carried in a holster that is part of his survival vest and a survival kit consistent with that carried by NATO aircrew, which all give the impression that he has recently bailed out of a stricken aircraft. He appears frightened. If questioned, He will say that he was a Tornado GR4 navigator who ejected when his aircraft was shot down several days ago whilst carrying out a photo reconnaissance mission. The party will know that such missions are extremely rare, but do still take place. Hastings will tell them that he has spent the period since he was shot down trying to survive off the land and evade capture and will seek to join the party and travel with them. He will say that he has no idea what happened to his pilot (the GR4 has a crew of two); he saw him eject but was unable to locate him after he landed. What he will not reveal, initially at least, is that as part of his survival kit he wears a money belt under his flight suit that contains twenty gold sovereign coins, each of which is worth approximately USD100 (Gold coins have traditionally been carried by British aircrew as part of their survival kit as a means of encouraging locals to offer assistance should they have to bail out).

Flight Lieutenant Mark Hastings is an experienced NPC
Weapon: L9A1 9mm pistol (Browning Hi Power)
Motivation: Heart Five (Moderately Sociable); Spade Six (Moderately Ambitious)
Key Skills: Navigation

Who He Might Be

Ivan Komarov was born in Moscow in 1970. Born to a Russian father who was a senior officer in the KGB and an East German mother who was the daughter of an East German Politburo member, the young Ivan was raised to be utterly loyal to the Communist Party and the Motherland. When he was twenty he was accepted into the KGB himself, and following his training he was assigned to the First Chief Directorate, the department of the KGB that specialised in foreign intelligence. Fluent in English and German, before the war he spent several years based at the Soviet Embassy in London, where he worked under diplomatic cover, and since early 1998 has been part of the KGB operation in Poland.

In early 2000 he was promoted to Major. Soon afterwards a senior officer of the KGB in Poland told him that the KGB needed to infiltrate a trained officer into NATO controlled territory to carry out a secret mission that was of critical importance to the Motherland. Komarov volunteered to take part in the operation. Shortly afterwards, Mark Hastings, an RAF Flight Lieutenant who had been captured by loyal Soviet troops after his Tornado jet was shot down in September 1999, was brought to the KGB’s Polish headquarters in Lublin. Hastings was questioned relentlessly for three months, during which he was exposed to arduous mental and physical abuses, much of which Komarov eagerly participated in. At the end of those three months, the KGB knew everything there was to know about the Englishman, from details of his family, friends, his military career, even the name of his first pet, and he was consigned to one of the cells deep underground KGB HQ, where he languished for several months until, his usefulness at an end, he was executed.

Shortly afterwards, Komarov, wearing Mark Hastings’s flight suit and carrying his personal effects (minus the gold coins, which were stolen by the unit that first captured Hastings after he bailed out), struck out on his own close to where the 5th Division was overrun. His orders are to try and link up with a group of 5th Division stragglers, convince them that he is Mark Hastings, and travel with them as they try to get back to the allied lines. He is carrying absolutely nothing that would mark him as a KGB officer but he has memorised a brief list of names of Soviet agents operating in NATO controlled territory and code phrases that will identify him to those agents. He also knows the location of several hidden KGB supply caches.

Major Komarov is utterly loyal, utterly ruthless, and utterly dedicated to the Rodina. He speaks flawless English with a Home Counties accent, and will have no absolutely no qualms about taking whatever steps are necessary to protect his mission and maintain his cover. Whilst he has memorised many details of Hastings' life, he bears little resemblance to the man he is impersonating (his ID card has been altered by KGB forgers) and would certainly not fool anyone who knew the real Flight Lieutenant Hastings, however he has gambled that the chances of meeting such a person are negligible.

The nature of Komarov's mission has been kept intentionally vague. Suggestions include:

• Locating a KGB supply cache somewhere in eastern Germany that contains a "suitcase" nuclear weapon, which he then has orders to detonate somewhere of strategic importance
• Making contact with a spy working at the top levels of US European command

Alternatively, a GM can of course incorporate something of their own choosing

Major Ivan Komarov is an Elite NPC
Weapon: L9A1 9mm pistol (Browning Hi Power)
Motivation: Spade Queen (Ruthless); Club King (Brutal)
Key Skills: Disguise; Language (English); Language (German); Small Arms (Pistol)

[Wolf sword]

Dave's Used car lot and repair center.

The PC find Dave and his crew fixing cars, trucks to sell or trade.
This includes up-armoring and turning trucks into guntrucks.
Dave will ofter to buy any and all vehicles from the PC's and any extra machine-guns or other weapons. If the PC's have an AFV or tank Dave and his crew might be up to try to steal it from the PC's if they look like they are not careful.