“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown”
― H.P. Lovecraft

Dear Sir or Madam,
my kindest apologies if this letter should be any inconvenience.
At first I will make it clear that you don't know me nor have you ever seen me.
I however have heard of you and your exploits and am willing to pay generous amounts or offer other kinds of rewards for your service.
I want you to meet me at the Gentleman's club. Don't worry, you will be let in.
More I will tell you there.

Greetings, S.

This Rpg is inspired by the Television series Penny Dreadful. A group of Individuals, which can be either based or taken from the gothic literature we all now and love, or be inventions of your own fight against what some would describe as the super natural.

A short list of possible Inspirations:
-Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
-Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
-Bram Stoker's Dracula
-Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray
-The Works of Edgar Allan Poe (Here one would need a little bit of fantasy)
-Perhaps the works of H.P. Lovecraft
-Fitting ancient myths (Mummies for example)

Char sheet

If you have questions, feel free to ask

I'm thinking a character based on the 'human child' who was lured away from humanity by the fairys in W.B. Yeats The Stolen Child, except she's not really a child anymore. Somewhere between 17 and 20, does that sound do-able?

I don't know if it would fit the dark and grim theme I had in mind, but you could certainly do it.

"Putting one's self before all others is the only way to stay alive"

Name: Katerina Pietri
Alias(s): Bella Strega
Age: 22

Physical Appearance: Katerina is an extraordinarily beautiful young woman. She has an oval face with fine bone structure, a wealth of dark curly hair, and almond-shaped, deep brown eyes framed by long wispy lashes. She is often seen wearing elaborate gowns in many different shades but always of exquisite taste and quality. Her figure is slim with a slight hourglass shape. She stands at a modest 5'5".

But Katerina is anything but modest. She is very vain and spends a considerable amount of time on her appearance. She knows how to dress well. Everything she wears is chosen with purpose and care. Where she comes from a woman's value is largely based on what she looks like, so her vanity can be somewhat justified.

Personality: Katerina hasn't had an easy life and it left its mark. She is tough, independent, selfish, smart and has an incredible sense of self-preservation. There is nothing she wouldn't do to ensure her own survival. She has been known to have a knack for creating elaborate plans and deceptions. If a task needs doing, she'll find a way to accomplish it, usually through a combination of uncompromising will and skilled manipulation of people and circumstances. Her eyes always seem to be hiding something Her mannerisms are more deliberate, her true feelings hidden, almost as if she is performing for an audience. She is such a skilled liar and actress that her "friends" are often left wondering. Did she really care about me or did she just use me?

Abilities and skills:
- Gifted fortune teller
- Skilled at reading people, their behavior, body language and facial expressions
- Possesses intimate knowledge of the Italian esoteric traditions
- Speaks and writes fluent Italian

Weapons & Equipment:
- An old and frayed deck of playing cards
- Several "prayer" books written in Italian
- A fine Damascus steel dagger

Brief History: Katerina grew up in a traditional Catholic home. The Pietri family was very poor but happy. Katerina´s father earned an honest wage as a cobbler and her mother stayed at home taking care of the family. The youngest of four children she unlike her three older brothers received a very different upbringing. The men in the family all took up similar trades to their father, but Katerina was groomed for marriage from a very young age.

They had her life all planned out. Her childhood was mainly spent learning how to cook, clean, sew and be a loving and proper wife for her future husband. Being beautiful was more important than being smart and to have an opinion of her own was not encouraged. Katerina learned how to bite her tongue to spare herself from getting lectured by her stern mother and grandmother.

As she got older men started to take notice of her physical appearance finding her to be quite pleasing to the eye. Before long Katerina started to notice them too. She fell in love but it was doomed from the beginning, she was already promised to a another. Some distant future husband. The future was still so far away in her eyes. Katerina was young and stupid. She truly believed she was in love. She had a child out of wedlock putting her entire family to shame. They disowned her after she gave birth in secret. She lost her baby and was forced out onto the streets. Suddenly blood was no longer thicker than water.

At the tail end of a couple of rough years on her own she caught the eye of an English man of considerable wealth. Katerina didn´t waste any time and she knew he was her way out, away from the streets and into the life of luxury she was meant to have. They married just a month after their first acquintance and she moved with him to London. Once in England Katerina quickly became English, taking the name of Katherine Pierce.

The Narrator said
I don't know if it would fit the dark and grim theme I had in mind, but you could certainly do it.

Fairies tend to be half and half in stories. Some times they are good and some times they are bad. Either way, a child who was taken by fairies and then booted/escaped when older is no normal child. I'll work on a character sheet and see what this raggamuffin in my head has to say.

Working on an appropriate version of Faust for this. What year will we be starting in?

Working on an appropriate version of Faust for this. What year will we be starting in?

Oh I like the idea of Faust. I read the book in school.
I don't actually thought about that your guess would be as good as mine.

I've got a question.

Are our characters supposed to be based on a main character or can we pick an off character instead?

I mostly have the problem with portrating an existing character to get the personality right.
So in short, I would do better writing an off character who's personality has been explained to a lesser extent by the original author.

I was thinking of making a character based on, yes, the raven from The Raven. If the year of the setting allows, I was planning on making him a plague doctor (because, y'know, the beak and all) often followed by a flock of ominous birds. If not, just someone else fairly shady with occasional references to the story/character in question.

Also, how human should our characters be, and are they allowed any sort of supernatural powers? If so, to what extent?

Minor characters should be no problem.
And to the raven, I don´t know. Clearly a plague doctor would be a little out of time, I however love the poem so it would be awesome to see the raven.
They are allowed to have some supernatural abilities or attributes. Just don't make it op.

If the time's too modern for a plague doctor, I can come up with something else, sure. And yeah, the supernatural abilities I was thinking about were along the lines of being able to communicate with birds (not so that they'd talk back in actual words, though) or making people feel a bit uneasy in their presence (as a nod back to the poem), nothing bigger than that.

I'll mull over ideas.

"In the shadows the haunting lie, and that is the place I shall die."

Name: Alexander 'Ace' Vulpes
Alias(s): The spook
Age: 16

Physical Appearance: Ace has gray bearing on white hair and sky blue eyes. His skin is extremely pale and he has the look about him of having not slept in a long time. He always wears a long black cloak, good leather boots, and just the minimal of other necessitys in his work.

Personality: Ace is grim most of the time. He knows whats out their, and its his job as a Spook to save the world from malisios ghosts and evil witches and the like.

Abilities and skills: He has all the skills necessary for a spook, he knows alot about old magic and ghostly lore. Unlike spooks that come later, he has learned a bit of magic and alchemy latter to be forbidden. He is the first of the spooks, so he doesnt have quite the knolege and forsight that later ones do.

Weapons & Equipment:
-Iron fileings and salt.
-His journal of lore and magic.
-He has a demon familiar, a Cù Sìth, who he fights along side.
-A sword that some claim is that of death, it never dulls and is encredably sharp. It has runic engravings in it, which are filled with silver.

Brief History: Ace was born the seventh son of a seventh son, and that can only work for one line of work. The spooks are one of the people who protect the world from ghosts, demons, and evil witches. Ace was dropped off at a ministry where he was beaten for his left-handedness and eventualy taught about the job of an exrosist. He later ascaped the church and ran away, but not without keeping a journal of exrosist lore. When he broke from the church he went full on and surched out hedge witches and local people, where he learned a but of magic and alchamy as well as more about how to protect oneself. Now it is his mission to keep the world safe and to, eventually, find an aprintice and start his line of work with more people. His main house, a large manner home that was once haunted which he took care of, is located in londen. It is something that he would never be able to aford, except it was haunted.

I based my charicter on the spook from the spook's apprentice, but I added a bit of other stuff in thair as well. :3

I am sorry but I don't think that character fits. Firstly he just belongs into the wrong time, the middle ages not Victorian England and the book is not really Gothic nor a Classic (Even if that is the smaller problem). Also a costume like that would not really blend well in a crowd and just does not fit into the theme of the Rpg.

For the timeline I was thinking halfway the 19th century?
That would be around the victorian time.

My character isn't based on anyone from literature because I'm not familiar enough with many of them. To use what little I know would be an offense to the real thing.
I based her on multiple characters from other television series, books and some of my own additions, changes. I think she'll fit into this setting.
Anyone else have any thoughts about her you'd like to share?

Jester I was thinking, you could still go for a doctor, maybe a Zoologist specialized in birds?

Your character is perfectly fine dreamingflowers.
I can see her read Tarot cards and have smirking flirts with the male characters.

And yes he could go with a doctor, he could make Victor van Frankenstein or Abraham van Hellsing if he wanted to. However I would also like to see the raven.

The Narrator said
I am sorry but I don't think that character fits. Firstly he just belongs into the wrong time, the middle ages not Victorian England and the book is not really Gothic nor a Classic (Even if that is the smaller problem). Also a costume like that would not really blend well in a crowd and just does not fit into the theme of the Rpg.

The costume is realy just a long black cloak, I just couldn't get a good picture with it in. Also, I'm pretty sure the Spooks apprentice takes place in mid 1800's america, at least that's what I got... If that's the case then think of this as the orgonal guy, he starts the line in Victorian England... But ok, let me just right up another...

Edit: NM, I understand. Gimmie a sec and I'll write up another.

Hopefully there will be another lady joining our company, I don't want to be the only woman in this merry bunch ;)
I'm glad my character is approved ^.^

Sorry for the double post ;)

Narrator are you going to be playing a character yourself?
I was just thinking are there any roles you need/want to see filled?
In a similar vain to the awesome show you based this on. You have the characters with combat skill, the scholar type characters etc.
Like I believe Katerina is in some ways the Vanessa type character so she might have a similar role.