The Bazso I created in my campaign was a bit different than the one I think John had in mind, but I can easily say he is the most entertaining and fun to play NPC iv’e made. To give a sense of his personality the players met him in the first session of the campaign, they made the Lampblacks their allies and so I figured their first score would be securing and transporting some drugs for Bazso (they are a crew of smugglers). But the way that they actually meet him was such a fun scene. They arrived at Bazso’s lair (a coal warehouse). From the outside they can hear this monotonous thudding sound coming from within the warehouse. They enter through the front door and they are greeted by the typical lampblack members who all give a quick wave in-between stacking various crates of drugs and other illicit goods. They climb the metal stairs up to Bazso’s office, all the while this thudding sound persists, and as a matter of fact gets louder as they near Bazso’s office. Once they get to the top they upon the metal door to his office and we are presented with a gruesome scene. We see a man tied to a chair. Standing in front of the man we see an average sized gentleman wearing nice dress pants, a black vest with golden buttons, curled up white sleeves, slicked back black hair and most notably we see the mans wicked smile as he makes eye contact with our crew. He apologizes profusely as the crew walks in “I am so sorry to greet you like this please give me a moment to clean up” After each sentence Bazso always flashes his toothy grin. Bazso unwraps the chains wrapped around his knuckles and they drop to the floor in the pool of blood and flesh at the base of the man tied to the chair. “Please, come take a seat. I just need to say that I am so HAPPY to see you all. I am looking SO forward to what comes of our future business deals and I am just SO happy to be friends with you all”. Again Bazso flashes his toothy grin and he takes a seat in the chair behind his desk. “Would you all care for a cup of tea?” Anyways I think this should give a decent idea of what kind of man Bazso is. He is a high functioning sociopath. I love him as a character so much and my day was made when one of my players sent me a picture of some fan art she made of Bazso when he is taking a break from work. As a GM, to have one of my players make fan/concept art of one my NPC’s is one of the most satisfying things I have experienced in my couple years of GM’ing. I just had to share it because it made my day!
Completely different take on Baszo than what I did with my crew.
And the director said, “Let’s make him eat an apple so he looks even more like an asshole!”
That scene’s perfect for the kind of Baszo I want to run down the line as well. Thanks for the scene seed. It’s a nice visual to the players for what happens when I fill up the “Baszo is tired of your shit” clock.
Phil Corpuz Haha thanks man! Yeah it’s such a blast whenever Bazso comes up and I get to play him. Having such an emotionally unstable NPC is fun right now, and I can’t wait to see how it comes to fruition in the future!
Toby Sennett Exactly
Ben Morgan Yeah I took a pretty different approach to him than i’m sure others did. Out of curiosity what did you do with your version?
With the Porcelain Dolls, the conflict between the Lampblacks and the Red Sashes was entirely a personal grudge between Baszo and Mylera. Baszo blamed Mylera for the death of his wife Celia (who was Mylera’s sister). For her part, Mylera blamed Baszo for the Red Sashes being exiled from Iruvia. It was very much a case of no one was right, but no one was entirely wrong, and it was sheer bloodymindedness that kept everyone from sitting down and discussing things like civilized adults, and the gangs got caught in the middle. In the end, the Dolls whittled down the Lampblacks to a few die-hards, and their confidence in Baszo had eroded to the point that when the leader of the Dolls assassinated Baszo herself, the remainder threw in with the Dolls and became a cohort of thugs. Coincidentally, a long term clock completed about the same time, and the exile order on the Red Sashes was lifted. Mylera packed up everything she could and got the hell out of dodge. She came back for a guest appearance and to retrieve Baszo’s young daughter (her niece), who was the only family she had left.
Ben Morgan That’s such a cool idea having them related with family like that! Iv’e found in many fantasy setting Table top RPG’s having a family is really a not something that comes up with characters. I definitely want to see how I can tie family relations into my game, it adds a lot of personality to characters and relationships!
Family connections have always been a surefire hook for me as a player, and it tends to crop up in every game I run as well.
I re-watched the Niska scenes from Firefly for my Baszo insipiration.
My Baz is a very well-intentioned criminal leader with a soft-spot for the downtrodden of the city, especially the kids. One of my players just revealed it to him that a mutual acquaintance of theirs – a little girl named Alley that works for the Cyphers – had been grabbed by the Hive, and he’s begun making preparations to go to war against them because of it.