Prelude: Player Character Vignettes

Character Vignettes

The campaign formally begins in Kingsport on October 27, 1844. However, before the Keeper assembles the entire cast on stage, she may wish to introduce each player character with a “Character Vignette,” a brief roleplaying scenario that illuminates a defining moment from that character’s past. While these vignettes may be dramatic, mysterious, or provocative, they shouldn’t reveal important secrets. A few examples are offered below, but the Keeper is free to invent her own. These vignettes may also be roleplayed later in the campaign as flashbacks.

Tobias Beckett
Any number of scenes from Tophet Blaine’s career as a journalist may be used to frame Beckett’s character: discovering the “blackbird” operation enslaving Pacific Islanders on Australian plantations, surviving an attempted assassination after exposing the Providence crime ring, or interviewing Millerites in the Burned-Over District. The Keeper may also explore his mental collapse and “neurasthenia.” However, graphic depictions of the Arkham Horror should be delayed until later in the game.

Mr. Joseph Coffin
The most powerful vignette for Coffin is roleplaying his mother’s death scene. This also sets the stage for his encounter with Rebecca Carter Elton at the North Point Lighthouse. Other vignettes include Coffin harpooning his first whale, encountering Rachel Ward’s crazed mother in New Guinea, or falling asleep while reading Coleridge and dreaming of Xanadu.

Ulysses Dixon
The Keeper may begin with a flashback to the Battle of the Black Island or its aftermath, with Dixon waking up to find himself discharged from the Navy. However, it’s important not to reveal Dixon’s moment of failure in battle. The first time he harpoons a whale is another good introduction to Dixon—pulling the harpoon from the fear-locked hands of Hipolito Doyle and plunging it into the Leviathan. Dixon’s vignette may also be used to introduce the Quiddity. The Cape Horn Tempest presents a powerful opening to the game: the sudden appearance of Captain Joab saving the ship from the madness of Elijah Watts!

Montgomery St. John Lowell
Lowell’s vignette must studiously avoid anything covered by the Lacuna. The actual shipwreck of the Atlantis is fine, or the moment Lowell wakes in Salinas to find that nine months of his life have been purged from his memory. Alternatively, the Keeper may roleplay one of Lowell’s controversial lectures, or the moment he “intuits” some scientific truth like evolution, plate tectonics, or the existence of the electron.

Leland Morgan
Morgan’s vignette must avoid any allusions to Deep Ones! Intimations of his degenerate clan are fine; perhaps he’s being taken to worship at some weird altar in the bayou, or being shunned by other Creole children. Scenes from Missouri are also effective; maybe the time Mina took him to see “angel bones” in Kimmswick. As with Dixon, the Cape Horn Tempest may be used, with Morgan assigned a suitably dramatic role.

Quakaloo
Any number of scenes from Quakaloo’s life serve as intriguing vignettes: lessons with the Wandering Shaman, his friendship with Robert Thompson, the attack of the Nukavokoans, his first exposure to New Bedford, his vision of Kingsport in the rain, and so forth.

Milton Redburn
If the Keeper has read any of Herman Melville’s novels, she may adapt scenes from Typee, Omoo, or Redburn. Perhaps Milton lounging with the natives on Nuka Hiva, or first climbing the rigging and standing watch on his luckless Australian whaler. Redburn may also be seen as a boy in the Hudson Valley, listening spellbound to Oliver Moneypenny telling stories of Mocha Dick or the Flying Dutchman.

Rachel Ward
Numerous scenes from Rachel’s life make excellent vignettes: playing “Nantucket Sleighride” with her father, watching her mother take laudanum, the fight with her aunt, her life in the Cauldron with Jack, or her first night at the Starry Busk. More “witchy” vignettes include Rachel’s mother presenting her with the family lorebook, Rachel creating her black-handled knife, or Rachel preparing her Mandragora: using a rooster to pull the mandrake at the Old Gibbet, drowning three bats in milk, etc.

Sources and Notes

The image in the header is William Blake’s Job Rebuked by His Friends, from 1805-1806.

White Leviathan > Chapter 1—Kingsport 1844
[Back to Managing the Campaign  | White Leviathan TOC | Forward to Kingsport 1844: Background]

Author: A. Buell Ruch
Last Modified: 19 October 2021
Email: quail (at) shipwrecklibrary (dot) com
White Leviathan PDF: [TBD]