u/Cheomesh

My background has mostly been in basic computing environments this far - largely Windows AD based, with tasking ranging from staying on top of patches, performing and reacting to vulnerability scanners, to implementing NIST controls. Fundamental stuff, enhanced with studies towards other points of interest (CISSP especially) and people's experiences here.

After my last contract ended I got picked up by another company that is leveraging that experience to put NIST controls on a physical space, as well as doing vuln scans and suchlike for others. So far I haven't really had to do anything too far outside of my experience base, though the target environment is more physical and less digital (for now).

All of this is basically a prelude for what the company wants to do longer term, and my team lead has been discussing putting together in-house labs and build experience with OT and industrial control systems. Naturally there will be a lean towards our current customer base and we'll probably be reaching out to them for support, but it got me thinking about other people's experiences with working in these environments, or even just setting up labs to try it out. Naturally I have some level of expectations, but don't yet have a whole lot of direct exposure into this realm yet, beyond essentials like physical security.

What kind of cyber stuff goes on out there in the OT / Industrial control world? What's your workflows and deliverables like, and what kind of tools do you interact with? What has lab building been like?

I'm using character writing as a bit of diversion from my ongoing hands-on hobby stuff (mini painting!), and with the last one I did having come out reasonably well I figured I'd continue on with finishing the bunch of basic ideas I sketched out years ago for a basically defunct campaign setting. These were basically profiles to show off different aspects of the setting itself, rather than pure adventurer types. In that vein I bring you Jacopo - some guy who makes charcoal so smiths can forge your swords! This specific one was intended to be used in one of the sample adventures, too, leading the players not only towards their ultimate destination but also cluing them in to there being more dangers than they otherwise should expect.

Feel free to put in feedback for either the story writing or character building - I definitely need to practice both! Only smidge of context that might be useful is that the setting was aimed at being an E6, heavily NPC-class driven setting, so power scaling is on the lower end (I was real into that back in the day for whatever reason).

==

Jacopo Carbone

Jacopo was born in Leze to the free cottagers Pacino and Isotta.  As a member of the so-called "braccianti", he is a free man who owns little to no land and makes a living selling services to the house of a landed gentleman - specifically Signore Abramo Zorzi, a wealthy landholder operating primarily from his manorhouse here in Leze.  Unlike his father, who worked small fields as a laborer in the village, Jacopo was fortune enough to pick up the skilled trade of charcoal making - first tasked as odd help to the old man who worked the clamp to settle a debt, but then took a liking to the old man who was a good teacher and told fanciful stories and taught him to hurl a good sling.  

A lonely profession that kept him beyond the village, he never the less found love young and turned a good living burning wood for a fixed price, with other various tasks on a separate contract for the slower months (plus, always having access to spare wood, liked to whittle little toys and the like for trade about the village).  This was a good turn, which let Jacopo takeover for the former burner after the latter became infirm and passed away with no living heirs, and rase a family of five with his young love, the latter of whom often helped with the burns while their sons were coming up, with a live-in servant girl making ends meet around the cottage when she was away so.

With glassworks expanding in nearby Mezzento, Signore Zorzi has been seeking a way to increase the amount of charcoal he can sell to them - an effort which is clearly going to outstrip the villages relatively modest collection of haggards.  To circumvent this a bit of an off-the-books agreement was concocted by the lord's bailiff on behalf of the household - while the ordinary deliveries of coups from the coppice-woods would continue to be delivered to his man burn, Jacopo and a few extra hands from his house would begin to fell the seemingly un-owned trees in the old woods a few miles outside the village, season them there, and then cart them back to burn in his usual working pit.  In exchange for an above-average cut of the sale, he would also have use of some of the lord's less essential house labor for this task.  Jacopo didn't take to this very easily - those old woods (called variably the summer woods, woods of the old shrine, spookwoods, mistwoods, and others) were well known to be an odd place, apparently part of no one house or town holding, and in spite of the now heavily overgrown (and largely picked-apart) cobblestone road that used to run through it to what is said to be an old shrine and manor house from ages ago, it is avoided by locals and travelers alike.  Mostly because it's not their property and doesn't really go anywhere useful for most people, but also because it was always a little spooky.

This arrangement was just over three years ago - and seemed to go off without a hitch.  Plenty of good wood to be had felled and stool set for later coppice, such that Signore Zorzi  began to get other enterprising ideas for it should suitable contracts be so drafted.  Unfortunately that very spring before the first of this was to be burned, tragedy befell the family as an intense fever burned through the household.  Knowing not its source, they did the best they could to fight it - Jacopo, stalwart as he ever was, recovered quick but the rest of his house - including his now pregnant wife - relapse and began to succumb.  The intervention of the local priest did nothing to quell the fire, and in a panic Jacopo almost risked himself to consult Adria, an isolated wise-woman living further out beyond the village but panicked and could not bring himself to.  He and some of the village buried the lot near his home shortly after, and Jacopo began to blame himself, suspecting some spook from the woods had grown offended and cursed his house for taking what was not theirs.  Paying the name-penny, he had their names added to the roll at the local church for the priest to chant at Remembrance, that they not be forgotten during the Resumption.

Just a few nights later, Jacopo heard some noises outside the now lifeless house he once called home - something scraping, something which spooked his mules to a near frenzy.  Fumbling to strike a light and grab a hatchet, he emerged to see what the commotion was - but at first could not see anything from his doorway.  Working his way towards the muleshed, however, he briefly glimpsed the reflective eyes of some animal - a fox, no, too large...perhaps a wolf?  But it was gone before he could think any further.  He did not see - nor think to look - at the scrapes at the earth above the fresh graves, however.  Two nights since, though, the creature returned as a spell of rain and wind - and this time made off with the bodies of two of his children in the night.  Come morning as he went to offer bread, he found the crudely-sundered earth greeting him, which sparked a panic that sent him running to the local priest for aid...

Character Statistics

Jacopo, Level 3 Human Commoner CR 1.5

Hit Dice 10 3d4 (4+1, 1+1, 2+1)

Initiative +0 (Dex)

Speed 30'

Armor Class 10

Base Attack / Grapple +1/+2

Attack Sling +1 (1d4/x2) OR Handaxe -4 (1d6+1/x3) OR Knife -4 (1d3+1/x2)

Full Attack Sling +1 (1d4/x2) OR Handaxe -4 (1d6+1/x3) OR Knife -4 (1d3+1/x2)

Space/Reach 5'/5'

Special Qualities

• Illiterate (+1 Handle Animal)
• Hardy (+1 Fortitude, -1 Reflex)

Saves

Fortitude +3 Reflex -2 Will +0

Abilities STR 12 (+1) DEX 10 (+0) CON 13 (+1) INT 11 (+0) WIS 8 (-1) CHA 9 (-1)

Skills (12 points (8+2+2) + Illiteracy bonus for Handle Animal)

Class Skills (Max Rank 6 = 3+Lvl)

• Craft (Charcoal making) (Int) 7 = 4(pts) + 0(Int) + 3(Skill Focus feat)
• Craft (Carpentry) (Int) 3 = 3(pts)
• Handle Animal (Cha) 4 = 4(pts) -1 (Cha) +1 (Illiterate)
• Use Rope (Dex) 1 = 1(pts) + 0 (Dex)

Feats

• Skill Focus (Craft (Charcoal Making)) (1st)
• Great Fortitude (1st)
• Endurance (3rd)

Alignment:  Neutral Good

Languages:  Western Clerical Common Tongue

Equipment (2,500 GP 3rd Level NPC Value)

• Backpack - 2gp / 2lb
• Halberd - 10gp / 12lb
• Handaxe - 6gp / 3lb
• Knife - 2gp / 0.5lb
• Mule (2x) - 16gp / -lb
• Saddlebags (2x) - 8gp / 16lb
• Sling - 0gp / 0lb
• Sling Bullets (10) - 1sp / 5lb
• Traveler's Outfit - 1gp / 5lb
• Wagon - 35gp / 400lb

Loose Coinage

• 1GP, 9SP, 8CP

Remaining "Wealth" - 2419GP, 9SP

==

Design Notes

Well, he's a Commoner so not much to mention there, but at least he has a skilled trade he's reasonably decent at!  Stats aren't impressive either - he was not born with exceptional talents, so he got the standard array.  Not everyone is born under an auspicious star.  However, he is a pretty hale man, with above-average Fortitude and a fairly hearty Constitution for what he is - which is how he survived the fever that took his family I suppose.

To jump to the fighting, adventuring bits out the gate I decided to give him slinging skills since that is pretty peasanty even in this setting's era of early firearms and such, plus it's something he and the old man could practice a fair bit when a burn was ongoing.  While something like a woodsman's axe wouldn't be far out of scope (and would be an Improvised weapon), I don't imagine he carries one often since up until recently he wasn't really felling trees as part of his job and the extra hands he works with probably bring those.  He does, however, carry a handaxe for day to day tasking - and I've long presumed "handaxe" is where tool and weapon versions of the blade somewhat part ways.  Finally, he has a knife, which I've simply rendered via "small dagger".  There's also mention of a halberd in there - something he inherited from the hold man since as a cottar he still owes local militia service and the bill (halberd) is just how he is going to turn out in the unlikely event they are called to arms (or the village even bothers to host a muster - he's supposed to have a helmet too but the old man sold that ages ago and has never been fined for it!).  Naturally since he burns wood for a living he has basically no martial skills - no proficiency with these weapons, nor any real skills for campaigning or scrabbling through dungeons (though he does have pretty decent cardio for his type so he probably could keep up a march and handle the wagon train's mules, which is a completely reasonable mode of service for him really).

The rest of his equipment is fairly basic - Traveler's Outfit made plenty of sense for someone who works away from home a lot, and a good backpack can carry just a little bit more wood.  Of course he has his own mules and wagon, plus some bags for when he's having them carry things a full on wagon doesn't call for.  Tool wise, other than the above it's probably minimal - nothing that would call for Artisan's tools, I suspect, since Charcoal making is pretty basic on that front from my experience and when he's called up to work on other tasks around his contract-holder's home he likely draws from his supply I'd imagine.  The rest of the considerable wealth this game seems to afford to NPCs is probably locked up in things like favors, access to credit, his house and the miscellaneous items within - tempting as it may be to detail his dining sets and cooking pots...let's not.

Linguistically, he would speak Parlare (in his regional dialect), but RAW the class/race is limited to just Common so that is what I've used here.

All in all I think this represents a moderately representative common working class freeman in the setting, though one which has experienced substantial loss and is by profession on the margin of society (though not unwelcome in it).

I'm on a quest for modern JSDF infantry - I have found modern Japanese army vehicles and aircraft, but I haven't dredged up any infantry (or something others seem to have deemed suitable). Does anyone have a lead on something this specific?

It's a ways off, but Japan is 90% likely to be my next army. It'll be the first time I've painted a whole army of non-caucasians, and frankly I didn't even do a great job at those.

What's your methodology for a good looking, distinctive, eastern Asian skin tone?

On a quest to give my Bretonnians a particular look, but am shorter on quiver (among other things) than I would like and haven't had luck dredging up spares online. I know Empire has archers that use them, so I figured I'd ask here in case someone has unused ones laying about. I am US based but can buy international.

Be it your local meta making the Hatchetman HCT-6S a particularly prime choice, your groups combinations of special rules making things with "Fine Manipulators" crucial for pulling off wins, unusual campaign setups where taking a cluster of Silverfin a good idea, or just an undying love of "Bug Mechs" in all their forms, what profiles have you found yourself fielding more often than others and what do you think drives that choice?

Working on my Brets again, this time gussying them all up with extra bits of kit. I've the notion to give my archers mostly axes and hammers (stakes don't sharpen and drive themselves) but also figured the little knives you see on the command sprue would be a nice addition as well. Unfortunately these don't seem to be up on any of the usual bit sources I have (ebay, etsy).

Same with quivers - weirdly few of them on the archer sprues, and I'd like more.

Anyone happen to have these laying about unused, preferably US based?

Working on my Brets again, this time gussying them all up with extra bits of kit. I've the notion to give my archers mostly axes and hammers (stakes don't sharpen and drive themselves) but also figured the little knives you see on the command sprue would be a nice addition as well. Unfortunately these don't seem to be up on any of the usual bit sources I have (ebay, etsy).

Same with quivers - weirdly few of them on the archer sprues, and I'd like more.

Anyone happen to have these laying about unused, preferably US based?

What's on the sprues not withstanding, are there any lore-written limits on what weapons a peasant can have? Given how rigid their society is, I'd imagine they probably don't allow the whole rank and file to have swords if they can get them, for example. Plus I'd imagine knightly styled swords would be out completely!

Of course we can do what we want (and I'm going to use swords as one of the ways to mark "Unit Leader") but it did get me thinking. Alas bit of a bummer we don't get spears even though our polearms can still fill that function at least.

Shields to - the big pavis style shield is cool, but I'm wondering if bucklers, knightly heaters, or even enemy shields captured during campaign (Empire, orc, even elven) would be derided or accepted.

Been painting again, and looking at my Battletech backlog (to which I just added yet more things to today). I've got my mech scheme worked out, but I'm thinking about my tanks and choppers, and how my pattern might translate to them or not.

Part of me is thinking just simplify it because they're lesser folk, the other part says maybe go full conventional (and pattern it after military vehicles from Neon Genesis like the mechs), but I'm not decided.

When you did your tanks, planes, even infantry, how did you work it into the scheme you had for your mechs? Or if you didn't, what made you go that route instead?

So I bought the starter box almost a year ago but I'm just starting to see an opening in my queue for it. It has got me thinking though, what comes next? I don't really play so I don't know anything about local meta, and would be collecting in a vacuum.

From what I can tell a Damsel and more Pegasus Knights are probably the best bet. However, I remember that the game now has an allied army mechanic which has me thinking about picking up the other army I'm nostalgic for - Empire.

So if one were going pure Bretonnians, what's the good first step out now? Pegasus and maybe some Men At Arms?

If I wanted to splash Empire (even if I still don't like those 7th edition sculpts much), what's plausible? I thought about knights just for a laugh, but more realistically we'd pretty much have to start with state troops right?

Some are Allied Universal, some don't seem to have any corporate logos, but they're definitely not the cops (though I have seen those). There's usually one or two in Cross Street itself so I assume they've got contracts with Atlas, but on Friday/Saturday nights I see several more sort of spread around Charles St. in the vicinity where everyone's out and about.

Are they also still working at the Market, does the city hire them on to keep the peace in the general, or who is behind these guys?

I got some guidance on how to write this up on this sub a while ago, and I finally got around to finishing it. An astonishingly large amount of digital ink wasted on a piddly NPC-grade character from a campaign world that'll never see the table BUT I had fun writing it.

Feel free to hack at it - judge the story, the mechanics, point out errors. Maybe praise something you like about it! If it's worth a fig maybe I'll finish some more, or share stuff about my setting (not that there's any shortage of those online these days).