LXG: Sergeant Preston's stat sheet
Jul. 28th, 2003 10:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
camwynIt has just occurred to me that those of you who have already seen ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cadhla's stat work-up for Nancy Drew might understand my take on the Sergeant a bit better if I let you have a look at his stat sheet. There were a few incidents during the game where one of the other players questioned my IC choices until I thrust the papers at them and said 'check the Failings section', or what have you, so it's really only fair.
I wrote this before I had listened to any of the actual Challenge of the Yukon radio programmes. Unlike the people who played Dorothy and The Shadow, I felt that I had to write up a fairly large chunk about my character - if only to get a decent handle on him based on what little I could dig up about him from the Web. I have since acquired the full run of the programme and have been listening to it during various errands. I'm really quite pleased to discover that I seem to have gotten him right despite not having the original material at the time.
Frank Preston, Sergeant, RCMP - better known as Sergeant Preston of the Yukon
It's said that Canada is the only free nation whose internationally recognized symbol is a policeman; Sergeant Preston of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is a big part of the reason why. As one of the lawmen who patrolled the western reaches of Canada's frontier, Preston's job was simple but hardly straightforward: bring Crown law - and with it, civilization - into the wilderness. Time and again, where an American cowboy would have turned to the noose, the shoot-out, or the sheriff who was hardly more than an outlaw with a badge, Sergeant Preston was called upon to protect the people of Canada in the name of the Crown. With his loyal dog Yukon King and his trusty black horse Rex, the good Sergeant set himself and the rule of law against the criminals, ne'er-do-wells, and other riff-raff plaguing the honest folk of Dawson, Whitehorse, Yellowknife and the other territories. And he always, always got his man.
The chronicles, of course, only covered part of his career. When the eye of the public turned away, Sergeant Preston carried on. The frontier was a wild and dangerous place yet, and Canada would always need such protectors, be they famous or no. He'd joined the Northwest Mounted at 22 after an outlaw murdered his father, and looked forward to a long career. Thwarting gold robbers, overturning gambling syndicates, wrecking the plans of smugglers, tracking down killers and bringing them to the law - all of this he did. He talked enraged Native chiefs down from the warpath against loggers, helped ex-convicts regain respectable society, and even joined in the fight against frontier epidemics. His dog King was considered as good a guardian of bank safes as any lesser lawman, and as useful as working eyes to the blind. The same went for his son and successor, the half-wolf Yukon Prince.
Years after the chroniclers came and went he found himself a girl in Dawson. Many a woman would've objected to his dangerous career, tried to make him settle down - but not Louise. She understood. He wouldn't have been the man she loved if he weren't that dedicated to the law and the Crown, and she never once tried to talk him out of putting himself in harm's way for the sake of his mission. Despite the dangers, the travels, and the hardships of life as a Mountie's wife she stuck with him through thick and thin. They had twelve happy years together before the avalanche in the Canadian Rockies that claimed her life.
Such an accident would have destroyed a lesser man, but Preston managed to carry on. Louise wouldn't have wanted it any other way. Nevertheless, after his wife's death Preston allowed himself to consider the possibility of eventual retirement - at least, as far as his lifetime dedication to duty would allow him; his idea of retirement was a desk job in RCMP headquarters, not leaving the service entirely. He never mentioned it, of course. That wouldn't do at all. Nevertheless the idea was there- and when one of his superiors suggested, not for the first time, that he might do well if he took a spot of time and went back to more citified locales he found himself accepting the offer. It was in his mind to go to Vancouver, a city more than a few of the people he'd met in his career had spoken of. The train journey south from Dawson put him next to an English gentleman, also in service to the Crown- albeit more directly. By the time he reached Vancouver, Sergeant Preston had heard enough from the royal agent to know where he was needed; he telegrammed Dawson almost as soon as he got off the train, informing them that he would be taking his entire allotment of accumulated leave and heading for Scotland. . .
(Sergeant Preston was introduced to the world in 1938 in the Detroit-area radio serial Challenge of the Yukon. He later featured in a national radio series (1947), a comic book series and a 1950's television series. His adventures took place in the Canadian frontier sometime in the late 1890's or early 1900's. I'm pegging him as mid-to-late 50's, age wise. Both the wife and the second dog are pure conjecture - I can only assume that sooner or later even a Husky gets old, and that a decent lawman is going to get tired of living alone. Can't really see him leaving his wife behind, though, so - avalanche. Sorry, Mythical Louise.)
NAME: Sergeant Frank Preston, RCMP ERA: 1930s
CONCEPT: The epitome of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Physical: Strength 3, Dexterity 3, Stamina 4
Mental: Intelligence 3, Perception 3, Wits 2
Social: Charisma 3, Manipulation 2, Appearance 2
Best: Innate. Worst: Scientific.
Scientific: Medicine 1.
Physical: Hand-to-hand 3, Firearms 2
Innate: Animal Handling 2, Survival 2, Investigation 4
Educational: Law 1, Police Procedure 2
Backgrounds: Resources 3, Allies 1, Contacts 1, Social Standing 3, Gadgets 2
Willpower: 7 Legend: 5 (well known in the British Empire)
Failings:
Sergeant Preston has a great big fat streak of Honorable running across his personality. He won't undertake dirty tricks if he can avoid them, although he's come up with a number of schemes for other people to use to get back things they've been swindled out of. He won't fight dirty hand-to-hand even if the opportunity presents itself and if he were a sword fighter he'd be the kind who'd give a fallen opponent time to pick up his weapon. He can just about deal with traps and schemes in order to trick cowardly knaves into giving themselves away, but that's only after he's well aware of how wretched they are. Three points.
Sergeant Preston also has problems with female villains and criminals. He's got Chivalrous coming out his ears. He won't hit a woman unless she's in hysterics, and even then it'd only be a slap to bring her out of it - and he'd apologise profusely afterwards. He will go to potentially extreme lengths to protect women and children in a mixed-gender situation. He is more likely to assume the worst of men and the best of women, although intellectually he knows that this is not necessarily true. He absolutely will not shoot a woman unless it is a matter of life or death - Yukon Prince is more likely to leap at a receding female adversary and try to pin her down than Sergeant Preston is to raise his gun against her. He can accept a certain measure of female authority thanks to the existence of Queens of England, but feels in his heart and bones that it is a man's duty to protect women from things they shouldn't have to do or see, and running into genuinely bad women is likely to give him problems. Two points.
Feats:
Yukon Prince. Prince is the son of Sergeant Preston's original and legendary dog Yukon King. Prince's intelligence is up there with that of such well-known wonder dogs as Lassie, Rin Tin Tin, and the dog in The Littlest Hobo (name eludes me for now, sorry). Prince came about when a trapper in Sergeant Preston's community-of-assignment decided to take in a permanently injured she-wolf as security. As such, Prince is significantly larger (120-140 lbs.) and more dangerous than other dogs, even Huskies like his father. (The truly legendary White Fang would almost certainly beat him in combat; White Fang was ¾ wolf and lived several years of his life as a fighting dog. Not sure how Prince would stack up compared to the Hound of the Baskervilles, though.) Prince is insanely loyal to his master and has a decent comprehension of English. He's been lead dog in more than a few vital sled runs and (like his father) he's served as a bank guard all by himself at least once. 4 Feat points.
Sergeant Preston does not have Insanely Lucky. Sergeant Preston has Trustworthy. People who are innocent of wrongdoing instinctively turn to him for protection; people who have done wrong and feel guilty about it turn to him in the hopes of getting fair treatment rather than raw punishment. Even people who are not aware of his identity talk to Sergeant Preston about all kinds of things that they wouldn't ordinarily share with a stranger, because they know in their guts that he will not betray them. Six points.
NB: I wrote this up before I fully realized the implications of Trustworthy, which is why the justification scene from a few days back exists. I had to explain it in more detail, since I really do feel that the Trustworthy feat is the only reason the Sergeant qualifies for the League. Not like they'd hire Timmy, you know?
Oh- and yes, his first name is Frank. This is not conjecture. The actor who played him on TV, Dick Simmons, revealed this after the series ended; the radio people had never used the name aloud, nor had it been used on the TV series, but the Sergeant's name had always been Frank. It just never got used. I'm kind of proud of the fact that it didn't get used during our game session, either. Nobody even thought to ask; they just accepted 'Sergeant Preston' and left it at that. Trustworthy r0x0r. Who needs a first name?
cadhla's stat work-up for Nancy Drew might understand my take on the Sergeant a bit better if I let you have a look at his stat sheet. There were a few incidents during the game where one of the other players questioned my IC choices until I thrust the papers at them and said 'check the Failings section', or what have you, so it's really only fair.I wrote this before I had listened to any of the actual Challenge of the Yukon radio programmes. Unlike the people who played Dorothy and The Shadow, I felt that I had to write up a fairly large chunk about my character - if only to get a decent handle on him based on what little I could dig up about him from the Web. I have since acquired the full run of the programme and have been listening to it during various errands. I'm really quite pleased to discover that I seem to have gotten him right despite not having the original material at the time.
Frank Preston, Sergeant, RCMP - better known as Sergeant Preston of the Yukon
It's said that Canada is the only free nation whose internationally recognized symbol is a policeman; Sergeant Preston of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is a big part of the reason why. As one of the lawmen who patrolled the western reaches of Canada's frontier, Preston's job was simple but hardly straightforward: bring Crown law - and with it, civilization - into the wilderness. Time and again, where an American cowboy would have turned to the noose, the shoot-out, or the sheriff who was hardly more than an outlaw with a badge, Sergeant Preston was called upon to protect the people of Canada in the name of the Crown. With his loyal dog Yukon King and his trusty black horse Rex, the good Sergeant set himself and the rule of law against the criminals, ne'er-do-wells, and other riff-raff plaguing the honest folk of Dawson, Whitehorse, Yellowknife and the other territories. And he always, always got his man.
The chronicles, of course, only covered part of his career. When the eye of the public turned away, Sergeant Preston carried on. The frontier was a wild and dangerous place yet, and Canada would always need such protectors, be they famous or no. He'd joined the Northwest Mounted at 22 after an outlaw murdered his father, and looked forward to a long career. Thwarting gold robbers, overturning gambling syndicates, wrecking the plans of smugglers, tracking down killers and bringing them to the law - all of this he did. He talked enraged Native chiefs down from the warpath against loggers, helped ex-convicts regain respectable society, and even joined in the fight against frontier epidemics. His dog King was considered as good a guardian of bank safes as any lesser lawman, and as useful as working eyes to the blind. The same went for his son and successor, the half-wolf Yukon Prince.
Years after the chroniclers came and went he found himself a girl in Dawson. Many a woman would've objected to his dangerous career, tried to make him settle down - but not Louise. She understood. He wouldn't have been the man she loved if he weren't that dedicated to the law and the Crown, and she never once tried to talk him out of putting himself in harm's way for the sake of his mission. Despite the dangers, the travels, and the hardships of life as a Mountie's wife she stuck with him through thick and thin. They had twelve happy years together before the avalanche in the Canadian Rockies that claimed her life.
Such an accident would have destroyed a lesser man, but Preston managed to carry on. Louise wouldn't have wanted it any other way. Nevertheless, after his wife's death Preston allowed himself to consider the possibility of eventual retirement - at least, as far as his lifetime dedication to duty would allow him; his idea of retirement was a desk job in RCMP headquarters, not leaving the service entirely. He never mentioned it, of course. That wouldn't do at all. Nevertheless the idea was there- and when one of his superiors suggested, not for the first time, that he might do well if he took a spot of time and went back to more citified locales he found himself accepting the offer. It was in his mind to go to Vancouver, a city more than a few of the people he'd met in his career had spoken of. The train journey south from Dawson put him next to an English gentleman, also in service to the Crown- albeit more directly. By the time he reached Vancouver, Sergeant Preston had heard enough from the royal agent to know where he was needed; he telegrammed Dawson almost as soon as he got off the train, informing them that he would be taking his entire allotment of accumulated leave and heading for Scotland. . .
(Sergeant Preston was introduced to the world in 1938 in the Detroit-area radio serial Challenge of the Yukon. He later featured in a national radio series (1947), a comic book series and a 1950's television series. His adventures took place in the Canadian frontier sometime in the late 1890's or early 1900's. I'm pegging him as mid-to-late 50's, age wise. Both the wife and the second dog are pure conjecture - I can only assume that sooner or later even a Husky gets old, and that a decent lawman is going to get tired of living alone. Can't really see him leaving his wife behind, though, so - avalanche. Sorry, Mythical Louise.)
NAME: Sergeant Frank Preston, RCMP ERA: 1930s
CONCEPT: The epitome of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Physical: Strength 3, Dexterity 3, Stamina 4
Mental: Intelligence 3, Perception 3, Wits 2
Social: Charisma 3, Manipulation 2, Appearance 2
Best: Innate. Worst: Scientific.
Scientific: Medicine 1.
Physical: Hand-to-hand 3, Firearms 2
Innate: Animal Handling 2, Survival 2, Investigation 4
Educational: Law 1, Police Procedure 2
Backgrounds: Resources 3, Allies 1, Contacts 1, Social Standing 3, Gadgets 2
Willpower: 7 Legend: 5 (well known in the British Empire)
Failings:
Sergeant Preston has a great big fat streak of Honorable running across his personality. He won't undertake dirty tricks if he can avoid them, although he's come up with a number of schemes for other people to use to get back things they've been swindled out of. He won't fight dirty hand-to-hand even if the opportunity presents itself and if he were a sword fighter he'd be the kind who'd give a fallen opponent time to pick up his weapon. He can just about deal with traps and schemes in order to trick cowardly knaves into giving themselves away, but that's only after he's well aware of how wretched they are. Three points.
Sergeant Preston also has problems with female villains and criminals. He's got Chivalrous coming out his ears. He won't hit a woman unless she's in hysterics, and even then it'd only be a slap to bring her out of it - and he'd apologise profusely afterwards. He will go to potentially extreme lengths to protect women and children in a mixed-gender situation. He is more likely to assume the worst of men and the best of women, although intellectually he knows that this is not necessarily true. He absolutely will not shoot a woman unless it is a matter of life or death - Yukon Prince is more likely to leap at a receding female adversary and try to pin her down than Sergeant Preston is to raise his gun against her. He can accept a certain measure of female authority thanks to the existence of Queens of England, but feels in his heart and bones that it is a man's duty to protect women from things they shouldn't have to do or see, and running into genuinely bad women is likely to give him problems. Two points.
Feats:
Yukon Prince. Prince is the son of Sergeant Preston's original and legendary dog Yukon King. Prince's intelligence is up there with that of such well-known wonder dogs as Lassie, Rin Tin Tin, and the dog in The Littlest Hobo (name eludes me for now, sorry). Prince came about when a trapper in Sergeant Preston's community-of-assignment decided to take in a permanently injured she-wolf as security. As such, Prince is significantly larger (120-140 lbs.) and more dangerous than other dogs, even Huskies like his father. (The truly legendary White Fang would almost certainly beat him in combat; White Fang was ¾ wolf and lived several years of his life as a fighting dog. Not sure how Prince would stack up compared to the Hound of the Baskervilles, though.) Prince is insanely loyal to his master and has a decent comprehension of English. He's been lead dog in more than a few vital sled runs and (like his father) he's served as a bank guard all by himself at least once. 4 Feat points.
Sergeant Preston does not have Insanely Lucky. Sergeant Preston has Trustworthy. People who are innocent of wrongdoing instinctively turn to him for protection; people who have done wrong and feel guilty about it turn to him in the hopes of getting fair treatment rather than raw punishment. Even people who are not aware of his identity talk to Sergeant Preston about all kinds of things that they wouldn't ordinarily share with a stranger, because they know in their guts that he will not betray them. Six points.
NB: I wrote this up before I fully realized the implications of Trustworthy, which is why the justification scene from a few days back exists. I had to explain it in more detail, since I really do feel that the Trustworthy feat is the only reason the Sergeant qualifies for the League. Not like they'd hire Timmy, you know?
Oh- and yes, his first name is Frank. This is not conjecture. The actor who played him on TV, Dick Simmons, revealed this after the series ended; the radio people had never used the name aloud, nor had it been used on the TV series, but the Sergeant's name had always been Frank. It just never got used. I'm kind of proud of the fact that it didn't get used during our game session, either. Nobody even thought to ask; they just accepted 'Sergeant Preston' and left it at that. Trustworthy r0x0r. Who needs a first name?
no subject
Date: 2003-07-28 08:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-28 08:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-28 08:57 am (UTC)Lone Ranger's real name - John Reid
Green Hornet's real name - Dan Reid
Oh, the things you learn as a comic book trivia nut.