Let's start with the Backstory questions on your Playbook. I might have some thoughts about your Mentor as we go along, but since their primary identifier is that no one knows about them, it's probably fine to live in the mystery a little.

You're welcome to post your pitch if you like, as well. It's up to you.

Here's my original pitch but it sounds like we're toning Specter down to fall in line more with the setting.

SHARED ABILITY: Weapons and Gadgets/Stealth.

YOUR OWN ABILITY: Hacking.

YOUR MENTOR’S ABILITY: Detective/impossible fighting skills.

Since the protégé is so defined by their mentor I figured I’d pitch the mentor first.

Agent Specter is the world’s greatest spy. No one is sure which intelligence agency they came up through but all the various agencies claim the agent as their own. In reality, for the past couple decades Specter has been playing all sides to keep the warmongers in any government hobbled, ineffective or just plain out of power. They’ve got an extensive network of assets and informants and access to an untold number of untraceable accounts filled with dark money by agencies they’ve passed through. For the last ten years Specter has officially renounced spy craft to go independent and work as a Mask but the upper echelons of the intelligence community are certain that Specter’s presence hasn’t been totally scrubbed from their ranks.

Basically Specter is a nobody that the general population isn’t even sure of their gender so we could build whatever alter ego we want together. Their main piece of tech is carbon fiber armor with an array of holographic projectors that create a localized holographic field. This can be used as active camouflage or to create disguises and these suits are the basis for their shared abilities.

For my Protégé character I like Ghost for his hero name and he caught Specter’s eye at a young age by breaking into an encrypted communications relay of theirs on a whim. Specter, feeling a bit playful, put a series of puzzles in the young boy’s path and he managed to solve them all with flying colors. Having impressed Specter, the Protégé was offered the opportunity to apprentice under Specter and moved away from his parents under the guise of a scholarship to an elite boarding school in Halcyon city. Ghost spent years in training before being allowed out into the field for basic street level work. He’s been active in Halcyon for about a year and feeling more and more comfortable in the life of a Mask but now Ghost is itching for an opportunity to prove to his mentor he’s ready to tackle higher level threats.

- How did you first meet your mentor?

Before he was Ghost, James Baily was the fourth of seven children in the Baily household located in a suburb on the furthest outskirts of Halcyon City. Being smackdab in the middle of his siblings, James was generally thought of as too young to be given much responsibility and old enough to not need supervision. This left James with a lot of free time that he turned to developing several skills. One such skill that James had a particular affinity for was computers, specifically making them do what he wanted even when others tried to stand in his way. It became a pastime of his to poke around the corners of internet that he didn't belong in. At the ripe age of thirteen, James found his way into an encrypted network relay in use by one of Halcyon's foremost Masks. Being better at breaking in than covering his tracks, Specter was instantly aware of the security breach and  mobilized to deal with the perceived threat. What Specter found instead was a home filled with the chaotic energy that only a critical mass of children can bring and a young boy hiding from it upstairs at his computer.

What happened next will be forever burned into James' mind. After hearing a light rapping on his window, James turned his head to see Specter perched on the roof of his porch. A heavily modulated voice told him to "Knock it off." before Spector engaged their active camouflage and disappeared before James' eyes.

- Why did they agree to train you?

About a week later, a mysterious email appeared in James’ inbox. It had encryption that was very similar to the relay he’d broken into previously. A little bit of light decryption revealed a set of gps coordinates located in a nearby park. James wasted little time finding his way to the park and his search reveled a drop box hidden in a trash can that kicked off a week long scavenger hunt. The hunt cumilnated with clues pointing to a judge’s office in the local courthouse and a short message, “Take you time.”

Over the next few days, James channeled the knowledge from every heist movie he’d ever watched as he surveilled and formulated a plan. It wasn’t long before his plan came together and James found his way into the office. Waiting for him was a final encrypted message from Specter and an offer. Specter had used similar challenges in the past to recruit informants and assists to his espionage network and this offer was no different.

On the other end, Specter was shocked at the speed James had worked through their test. They’d recruited grown adults that had taken over a year to work though similar challenges. Impressed with the young boy and intrigued by his potential, Specter decided to make an additional offer, an apprenticeship coupled with a scholarship to the finest boarding school in Halcyon.

- When and why did you choose to train with them?

James jumped on Specter’s offer immediately and his reasons were twofold. First, he’d always dreamed of becoming a Mask. A life of adventure, excitement and exploring the unexpected had always intrigued him and was a large portion of what had propelled him though Specter’s challenges so quickly.

Secondly, money was tight at the Bailey household. While they weren’t in poverty, seven children meant his parents needed to be actively thrifty and pinch pennies to make ends meet. The scholarship left one less mouth for them to feed and if James was being totally honest with himself, gave him space to get out of the cycle of hand-me-downs he’d grown up in.

So mostly for the wrong reasons now that I’m thinking about it.

- Who else, outside of the team, knows about your training?

A mask named Phantom, she’s Specter’s first protégé and a talented hero in her own right. Ghost’s best guess is that she’s about 4 years older than him. She’s had a heavy hand In Ghost’s training over the last three years at Specter’s request. Initially she was cold and distant to Ghost due to his flippant approach to his training but over time she’s helped mold him into a more respectful and serious Mask. Now she treats him more like a troublesome little brother. Phantom was the one who convinced Specter that Ghost would benefit from practical application of his training and was ready to start going out on patrols a year ago. Even after three years, Ghost has never bested Phantom in hand to hand combat.

- Why do you care about the team?

Ghost cares about the team because he feels like it grounds him. He's spent so much time training and striving to be a part of Specter's world that he'd almost forgotten how to have a normal unguarded conversation. It's a path to becoming a fuller, more well rounded hero and Ghost honestly believes they can do more good together than they ever could individually.

Alright! Excellent. Let's dig into it.

Standard workshop disclaimer: I like to pick at things and dig into them, looking for places to add conflict or seed narrative or draw out themes and motifs. But it's your character, not mine. Nothing I say or suggest in this process is binding. I'm just throwing mud at the wall and you can decide what sticks and what doesn't. Similarly, you're not obligated to answer any questions I ask or follow me down any given rabbit hole. I'm just  pointing out things I find interesting. If you don't think it's interesting too, fair beans, we'll drop it.

1. What does Spectre stand for? A government agent generally stands for that government's ascendancy and/or safety, generally at any cost. A free agent is either out for money, or has some other agenda (but usually money). You mentioned that he managed to hobble the entire world's war efforts. That might be a little broad (both in scope and in specificity) for our purposes. Is it possible that, as a free agent, running around the world messing with things and screwing with people, that he had a very specific goal? Or plan? Or some particular thing he was firmly against and did what he could to stop it? Like, maybe keeping children out of war zones, or drugs, or, one specific evil company, or the like?

2. If we can think of that specific something, then that could lead directly into his semi-retirement from international espionage and taking up shop in Halcyon City. If he's set himself against one evil company, maybe their head office is here. If he's against drugs, maybe a drug lord lives here. But I do think a good, strong reason for him to spend enough time in Halcyon City to train James.

3. OR, another way to go is for James to be the reason he's here. It's possible James represents something important enough that it was worth Spectre taking time out from his global one-man war against [thing] to train James.

4. Or, maybe both?

5. James' initial obsession with computers might work better if it either 1. was an escape from something, or 2. part of pursuing a goal. I often find it useful to think of emotional beats in a character's story as either running away from something or running toward something. Was James on the computer to run away? Or run toward? I also think it might be good if whatever that was, it was something very strong (at least for James). You mentioned the chaos of his household. That's one option. Maybe his family is just one of those whirwind families where everything is a crisis all the time. Too many kids, too many commitments, never quite enough money (but never a firm budget) so you never knew what the heck was going on any given day. So maybe James was running away from the chaos and/or running toward agency, control, order. (that's just one thought, it could be any number of other things).

6. Whatever Spectre's deal is (whatever he stands for, whatever his goals are, whoever he is, at this point), how does that trickle down to James? What does Spectre want to turn James into? Who does Spectre want Ghost to be? To join his personal vendetta? To take over something he doesn't have time for so he can run off to do something else? To get done something he can't do (or won't do)?

7. Given all this, what does all this means to James? What kind of hero does he want to be? Does he want to do what Spectre wants him to do? What does he think of whatever Spectre's deal is?

8. If this game was a Ghost solo game, how would Ghost be a different kind of Mask than he'll be as part of the group?

9. The Private Line in your prior response, I'm totally okay with that, if that's how you want to go. If that's how you want to go, I think you (the player) should make it public. The characters don't have to know, but I think the drama will be juicier if the players know.

I welcome thoughts!

1&2) Since I said he's spent a lot of time stopping wars, I like the idea of Spectre's ultimate goal to be stopping a network of defense contractors that've been double dipping and dealing to both sides in any conflict they can get their arms to. After navigating a maze of shell corporations and subsidiaries, Spectre ultimately traced the illicit arms trade back to Kartech, a megacorporation based out of Halcyon City. Spectre tried to go after the corp and their illusive CEO, Gideon Karr, but at every turn he was hit by red tape, fall guys and dead ends due to the sheer amount of politicians and bureaucrats in Kartech's pocket. Eventually it became clear that Spectre could dissuade and delay Kartech's efforts from inside the system but they'd never be able to fully stop them. With this realization, Spectre began planning they're exit from the espionage community and subsequent move to Halcyon City.



I'm thinking I work backwards on through these three.

James' father was a travel journalist, he visited many different countries and published well regarded travel guides that balanced seeing incredible touristy points of interest and more humble off the beaten path authentic experiences. On one such trip, James' father was killed when a civil war broke out unexpectedly due to an unexpectedly and uncharacteristically well armed extremist group's surprise attack. Aid flowed in from around the world and with a complete modernization of the country in question's military thanks to Kartech but the damage was already done to James' family.

Some of James' siblings sunk into depression, some tried to live in denial but James' got stuck on anger. He wanted answers and the only way he could think to find them was to start looking online. James dug into every lead and conspiracy theory he could find where he was allowed and when he ran out of those he started learning to look where he wasn't.

This way Spectre would've recruited James based on the content of his digging as much as the ability required to do it. And with the Bailys dropping down to a single income family it made it easier for James' to jump on any scholarship opportunity to take what he could off his mother's plate.



I think any good spy has a backup plan and for Spectre, Ghost is a potential candidate to take up the mantle if the worst were to happen. Ghost has the drive and the potential to pick up where Spectre leaves off if need be.




I think Spectre would have slid into James'life at same time he lost a father figure so it was a fairly natural andaybe even unnoticed transition for James between the two. I think he would have a vendetta again Kartech as well and the additional motivation of trying to live up to the expectations of this person who took him under their wing.



I've been thinking and a lot of what  I've defined James with are external factors. His tragedy, his training and now maybe the team. I think in a solo game it would be harder for James' to see this pattern as he'd be more focused and caught up in his own world. Being present to help his teammate with their own issues would likely help him stop, take stoke and gain some perspective on his own goal. Alone he's likely to dig his myself further and further down the rabbit hole.



My pitch was that, Specter was having Ghost stick with the team to covertly keep an eye on them. I feel like all of you are villain adjacent or just plain wildcards at best so Ghost has been assigned with keeping tabs on everyone under the table. If you love it or hate it let me know in the OOC thread.

This is great. Maybe the civil war wouldn't even have been possible without [theoretical MacGuffin].

 Aid flowed in from around the world and with a complete modernization of the country in question's military thanks to Kartech but the damage was already done to James' family.


What scholarship? Did I miss that bit somewhere?


I think this works very well if we really lean into the idea that his quest against Kartech is very, very personal.


Ask about in the team building thread. See what everyone thinks.

Other than the few points above, I think this is a Go.

I would enjoy Ghost not knowing everything to start out, I don't mind turning you loose on anything you'd like to twist or subvert.



I really like the idea of Spectre benefiting from it and that's what I'm stuck on because I can't pin down something I really like right now. I'm thinking some sort of smuggling or highly smuggle-able tech that Spectre themselves developed.



It was a one off line in my initial pitch that Spectre created a scholarship, either real or fake, as a guise to get Ghost into Halcyon proper so he'd have more time and availability for training.

If you like the base idea [which is that Kartech makes THING, and THING is serious enough business that Spectre paused his global crusade against war to stop it (even though he himself benefits from it), and traced it to Kartech in Halcyon City, and part of his plan for Ghost is for him to keep stopping THING should Spectre fail or fall]...

...then we don't even have to decide what it is now. We can both make decisions about it as we go long.


Right! I do remember that. If you like, this could be linked to the CLAP program that we've been kicking back and forth. Or you could stick with the elite boarding school. All good either way.

I'm good developing it more as we play.

I think I prefer the Boarding School angle as I see James being a bit preppy in his civilian clothes. No problem.with him being his school's rep to CLAP.