chardismastic | a p p s : current games;

a p p s : current games;

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PLAYER INFO

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Current Characters:

CHARACTER INFO

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chardismastic

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Questionnaire:

1. What do they care deeply about? What kind of loyalties, commitments, moral codes, life philosophies, passions, callings or spirituality and faith do they have? How do these tend to be expressed?

Rafe’s primary goal is to be seen for himself and his own abilities/discoveries rather than just a rich asshole spending daddy’s money. This is the basis for all he does and after 15 years, he’s willing to do whatever it takes to make that happen. Every insult drives him harder to find Avery and prove everybody wrong. That search is also based in a real passion/love for history and all its artifacts, shown by the fact that he’s been on other excavations other than Scotland/Avery.

In spite of this, he does show some moral code though it’s a little stunted. Rafe isn’t about lying– He’ll keep cards close to his chest but he doesn’t bluff unless he’s going to follow through and doesn’t threaten when he can just pull the trigger. To make a deal he puts forward the facts and the benefits and wants them to stand for themselves, just like he wants to stand for himself. He also is (shocker, for a thief and criminal) a man of his word: if he makes a deal, he may not trust who he’s dealing with but Rafe will do his best to deliver his side as a matter of pride. When he’s on a job (which is always), the job is what matters and if it gets done at the end of the day, that’s what matters.

This dovetails with Rafe’s very transactional philosophy: two wrongs may not make a right but it does make you even. Take Nadine, his partner through most of the game: she eventually scorns Rafe’s efforts on the search and tells him that he hasn’t earned it, he slaps her, she punches him, and then he reveals he’s bought out her soldiers’ loyalty having expected her to pull something like this. But after this he continues acting as if they’re equal partners, as if a minor spat occurred and was resolved, that they’re still on the job that they’ve started. He’s legitimately shocked and angry when she turns on him a half hour later and leaves him to die (or not, she’s very clear that she doesn’t care which happens). Anyone else would’ve probably seen it coming, but Rafe…nope.

2. What kind of person could they become in the future? What are some developmental paths that they could take: best, worst, most likely?

Best case: Rafe receives some actual validation from sources he can trust/accept and realizes that the majority opinion of him doesn’t matter if he can be satisfied and fulfilled with his own work and achievements because…he’s done a lot already! And some people are just never going to change their mind! Because that’s life! This is less about becoming a better version of himself so much as accepting and recognizing himself as “enough” already.

Worst case: after being screwed over one too many times and pushed too far to the brink? Psychotic raging breakdown in an on-fire pirate ship trying to stab people. …Yeah.

The likelihood of which path he ends up on is highly dependent on the people he ends up surrounded by, and the world he lives in. Staying in his own world, under the weight of expectation and judgment, the latter is more likely. But removed from that preexisting reputation and assumption that comes from being rich and famous, with a clean slate where people can see him on his own merit? He’s got a better chance but it’s still a long shot because… Rafe has put himself in this crucible for so long at such high stakes that he probably wouldn’t know what to do with a genuine accolade if he got it.

3. How do they behave within a group? What role(s) do they take? Does this differ if they know and trust the group, versus finding themselves in a group of strangers? Why?

His behavior would be to leave the group regardless of familiarity with the other members. (Honestly, he’d probably be even faster to bounce if he was with people he already has a history with.) Rafe is incredibly hung up on proving himself on his own merits/talents and after having gone through multiple past partnerships with the other party demeaning/insulting his capability and most of those partnerships ending…badly (to say the least) he’s learned that trusting anyone past a specific contracted assignment is just asking to be screwed over. If he’s forced to work with others, he has also learned to have safeguards/backup plans in place in case of that potential screw-job happening.

4. What do they need and want out of relationships, and how do they go about getting it?

If asked, Rafe would say that he wants whatever physical, tangible benefit is to be gotten from the interaction, whether it’s the other party’s knowledge, talent, resources, or body. Reason for this is because Rafe doesn’t really entertain “relationships”– everything is a transaction, everyone is a contractor. It’s all business and he never forgets that fact no matter how casual he may act about it.

But under this, what Rafe wants is respect– not out the gate, not automatically, but after others see what he can do and that he backs up his words with actions. He craves acknowledgment and validation, it’s why he’s still after Avery 15 years later. Sam sold him on the glory of the greatest pirate treasure of all time, the biggest heist in recorded history, an unsolved mystery that’s stumped the world for centuries, and since obviously none of his other finds have done this for him, Avery and the Gunsway have just become a bigger and more tantalizing white-whale goalpost. He’s hinging everything on it and there’s zero contingency in place for if he fails or if it doesn’t get him that validation he’s been chasing.

5. How do they understand the world–what kind of worldview and thought processes do they have? Why?

It keeps coming back to that transactional philosophy. Rafe assumes that everyone is out to benefit themselves, and anyone who believes otherwise is naïve at best or lying (to themselves or him) at worst. He assumes that most people who interact with him do so to either get at some of his money or to rub off on his celebrity. As such Rafe lives his life as if at a poker table– keeping his cards close to his chest, assessing likely outcomes/motives behind every interaction, calculating risk/reward accordingly.

The reason for this is because canon forces us to assume that (from how Rafe interacts with other characters) he’s…never had a lasting genuine connection with a person outside of business, never had a sincere enough interaction that Rafe could believe it wasn’t an angle to get something out of him. When he’s won the last boss fight, he stops in almost relief at having finally “proven” that he’s “earned this” and when Nate agrees with him he seems so stunned that he doesn’t even try to dodge from the metric ton of treasure that gets dropped on his head. He stays rooted in place having heard someone agree with him rather than brush him off.

6. How much do they rely on their minds and intellect, versus other approaches like relying on instinct, intuition, faith and spirituality, or emotions?

Rafe is 100% a left-brain guy. He focuses on logic and methodology and research and investigation based on facts. He’s dismissive of any faith-based approach as superstition or waiting to be disappointed, and likewise views emotions as childish/irrational and a sign of poor control/willpower. (Yes, this is hypocritical considering the irrational lengths he’s gone to for a 15-year-old treasure hunt and the people involved in it whose name starts with N; no, he does not recognize it.) This is why he keeps a chokehold on his own emotions, believing sentiment a weakness and refusing to let anyone try and use it their own advantage. …Ignore how the tighter he tries to lock things up, the more likely it is for everything to explode out at the worst possible moment. It’s fine.

7. What is something others might find intolerable about them?

Lucky there’s a character limit or we’d be here a while– Hair-trigger temper, obsessive nature, pathological need for control, he’s a workaholic, he stalked a guy for fifteen years, lack of empathy/emotional intelligence, he’s smug and cutting and terminally blunt, his face is a problem… You just want to punch it.

Samples:

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three

Why are you interested in this game?

I've always appreciated games as a way to explore alternatives to canon development and get into the nuances/what-ifs that there wasn't a chance to see in the source material. So I'm really excited to see this one where that's the exact premise to start with and a dedicated focus on.

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