The Sergeant
Attributes:
What does it mean to be a leader? Are they the people in charge? If
that's the case, does that mean that they're only leaders when their
leaders aren't around? Humans are too complex now for the old ways,
when Chiefs, Hauptmen or Kings alone were enough to have dominion
over them, what was needed was more voices, what was needed what was
delegation. The danger when leaders put layers between themselves and
their subject is that there is the possibility of rulers becoming
estranged from the every day triumphs and tragedies of the existence
of their subjects, losing the ability to sympathize with the damage
that their decisions can cause. This Archetype is not that kind of
ruler. The Sergeant lives among their squad, they eat, sleep, bleed,
breathe and die among them; indeed, even their status as an Avatar
is dependent on them. A Sergeant's devotion to their squad should not
be mistaken for dependence or weakness, but rather as a two-way
street, where their leadership is both a thing of devotion, and a
call for obedience. The central concept to the Sergeant (as opposed
to other leadership-based Archetypes such as the True King and The
Captain) is that of The Squad, which can range from 3 (including the
Sarge) to up to 10 members; all of the Sarge's channels involve the
Squad in some way, shape or form.
Taboos: Leave
a soldier behind. This isn't just literal either, if your buddy asks you
to help him move and you're the only one, it's time to rent a U-Haul;
if you come home and your girlfriend is crying, it's time to call in
the next day and make her feel better. You don't have to baby any and
every one in your life, but you must respond to direct requests from
your 'Squad' to the best of your ability. You don't have to like
them, you just have to help them.
Symbols: Non-commissioned rank insignia, Uniforms, Firearms, Reminders of Squaddies, Bellowed
Orders, Profuse Swearing.
Suspected Avatars in History: It's
hard to say how many military service members throughout history have been
Sergeants, but there is always a place for heroic direct leadership
in war, the board room and the work place, specific examples may be
Lt.Col Jack Churchill, Gunnery Sergeant R. Lee Ermey and Alexander's
Generals.
Channels
1-50%: A
good Non-com knows the condition of their troops without even needing
to ask, they can read it on their faces and the things that they carry.
Anytime that a member of their squad takes damage, suffers a stress
check or is otherwise put into serious trouble, the Sergeant gets a
feeling of their condition and a general idea of their location,
distance and direction only, if they roll on their Avatar skill
successfully they can gain a brief flash of their Squaddie's
location.
51-70%:
Drilling, double-checking and double-checking again pays off. When
the Sergeant get their Squad working towards roughly the same goal
together (such as 'Beating up that Jimmy, the guy who felt up
Frankie's Sister.') they gain a +10% shift in pursuit of that goal.
It must be a concrete, achievable end, and they must within sight or
shouting distance of their Sergeant in order to gain the bonus.
71-90%: Fear, distraction, loneliness and despondency are the enemies of good morale, whenever a member of the Sarge's squad has a stress check
within shouting distance of the Sergeant, they may roll their Avatar
skill, if successful the check is simply not made. It is as if the
event has no purchase within the Squaddie's mind, they remember it,
but it is abstracted in such a way that it is simply not terrible to
comprehend.
91+%: The
Sargeant knows their soldiers better than they themselves do, and they can see
greatness in them that they may not even know is there. Upon a
successful Avatar skill, the things that need getting done, get done;
a quick shout and a reassuring pat on the back gives a Squad member
the skill they need to get past one specific obstacle that they
otherwise would have no recourse to. Don't know how to 'hack' a
keypad to get into the Roy Roger's after hours? Bam, Vinnie gives it
a good smack and it flashes green. However, if any one in the squad
has the capability to somehow get past the obstacle at the hands of
skills they actually possess, the channel fails. Regardless, the
Channel can only be attempted once every 24 hours.
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