Rob and Paul and I were having a dinner conversation tonight about character niches and which of the characters get play/story hooks, and why.
I was musing on my frustrations with trying to do anything at all with Andras, and deciding that it basically summed up to two reasons: his lack of knowledge of any language that anyone else knows (the only other person who speaks Provencal is Cain, and Cain probably only talks to Andras when he has to), and my failure to mentally frame a coherent background or personality for the guy.
Rob pointed out that since I had done practically nothing with the character, I could fairly easily rewrite him, without contradicting previous play. Wandering back from dinner, I pulled out the character sheet to look at again, and tried to think of a workable background.
Your original statement, upon looking at the character sheet was, "This is no ordinary clockmaker", given the insanely high levels of various thiefly skills that he has. I said, at the time, that he'd been on the run from the Church, and thus had to acquire that sort of skill; at the time, though, it didn't occur to me what a 4 or 5 in a skill meant.
I decided that it'd be easier to go from background to character sheet than to try to design a background to fit the existing (incoherent) sheet. I wanted a thief-skill sort of character, still, but I didn't want him to be the same sort of climb-the-walls-and-steal-the-treasure sort of thief that Amanda is; his primary defining characteristic is the fact he's a somewhat geeky little craftsman. Thus, I ended up with the concept of having him coerced into working for the underworld, and I also created a reason for him to have spent some time in Italy (thus enabling him to know the language). I redid some Virtues and Flaws to fit the new background, and chopped down the skills to more reasonable levels.
Let me know what you think? I'd like to do something more with Andras than just have him be the fellow who sits around studying the Deadfire weapon.
Background follows below. A copy of my proposed new character sheet is at http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~lwl/deadfire/andras_st.txt, and there are detailed notes on what got revised, and the reasons for the revisions, at http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~lwl/deadfire/andras_revision.txt
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Born in 1295, in Geneva, Switzerland, Andras was the son of a fairly typical guildsman, a locksmith of some skill. He had a relatively unremarkable childhood, apprenticed at an early age to a clockmaker. He proved extraordinarily gifted, his touch light, his eye for detail keen, and he soon became adept at the skills of a craftsman, able to work in metal, glass, and, to some extent, gemstones. He is meticulous and logical, almost overly so. His masterwork was a magnificent, tiny clock, inlaid with precious gemstones, which he keeps on his person at all times. After spending long hours in his workshop, crafting it, and later, polishing it and making sure it ran with absolute precision, he became convinced that the clock had taken on a life of its own, and could speak to him.
Such was his talent that the other men of his profession began to eye him in a less than friendly fashion. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valor, he decided to try to ply his trade in a city where there would be less competition. He settled on the bustling trade city of Venice, starting a small shop, and living quite happily for an all too brief period of time.
He wasn't in the city for very long before he was approached by one of the Venetian protection rackets. They were originally simply going to demand their traditional payment... but then they noticed his skill with all things mechanical, including locks. Thus, they decided to simply coerce him into performing small "favors" for them. Over time, these favors grew more and more frequent and more and more complicated, and before he knew what he was doing, he was in the business of regularly crafting locks and devices for the Venetian underworld, in addition to disarming mechanical traps and even occasionally participating directly in their shady activities; he had an unfortunate knack for quickly being able to learn anything that was demonstrated to him. He became good at forging documents and signatures, adept at playing the front for confidence games and schemes, and competent at pretending to be simply an ordinary guildsman; since his activities for the underworld were performed under, "do this or we kill you" circumstances, his business was barely prosperous, thus attracting little attention.
There's always a breaking point for every man, and for Andras, it was the time when one of the thugs attempted to steal his prized clock. Andras snapped, determining to flee as far from the city as he could, as fast as he could, deciding that if they would threaten his clock, they would stop at nothing. Eventually, he ended up in Ragusa, and hearing of the strange band of misfits at the Rock, he decided that it might be as safe a place as any. Explaining that he was fleeing the wrath of the church, and that he had been excommunicated, he managed to get himself accepted into the Concilium, where he settled down, crafting laboratory equipment for the magi.
Since then, he's kept mostly to himself, hoping that his old "compatriots" in Venice won't come after him (he definitely knows too much about their operations). He is a rather unassuming, balding, middle-aged man, timid in demeanor, who seems to have an exceptional talent for groveling. He dresses in a non-descript manner, usually earth tones; his once-brown hair is fading to silver, and his eyes are a watery blue.
He is quietly fascinated by the Deadfire weapon, both for its craftmanship, and for its evident power. As a man who has been intimidated by someone or something all his life, the weapon represents the ultimate protection to him, and he realizes that, if only he could replicate it, he could win great fame and fortune...