Officer Karl Richter

Concept: Enthusiastic Hero

AKA: Some of the other officers in the area have taken to calling Karl, A.P.B. which stands for “Aryan Poster Boy”.  Karl is thankfully unaware of this. he wouldn’t take it well.

Desc:  Regulation short blond hair, blue eyes, strong jaw. He does weights every other day, and he does NOT skip “leg day”. He probably could be a professional body builder. He’s on the tall side. He has a nice smile and he’s got a voice that seems to be naturally loud and clear. No ink. One diamond stud earring, given to him by an old girlfriend, that he’s sentimental about.

History: Karl is the sort of guy who was raised on a steady diet of heroism in the books and media he’s consumed all his life. He reads, even if most of what he reads is junk, He loved comic books growing up, and that also lead him to a steady interest in things like spy novels and books on Mythology. His younger brother Mike was plagued by health problems all during his childhood, and so Mike and Karl and their sister Elsa became interested in Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. It was like meat and drink to him.

    There is something about Karl that just flips his on switch when it comes to doing the right thing. It came out in all sorts of ways.  On those occasions when Mike or Elsa got bullied, Karl would wade in and sort those fuckers out. Once, he beat up a couple of kids so badly, that they had to call a cop and the cop gave the young man a stern talking to.  But, that “Stern Talking To” had a subtext of, “Hey kid, don’t tell nobody, but you did right to beat up those shitbirds”.  From middle school onwards, Karl wanted to be a cop

He grew up. Ditched AD&D in favor of football practice and got big and broad. Got out of school and applied directly to the academy. While he struggled occasionally with the actual coursework, no one could touch him physically. He was out on the streets and “protecting and serving” in no time flat.

He loves his work. Truly. He doesn’t WANT to become a dick someday.  He might think seriously about moving up in the line officer ranks and maybe someday he’d consider SWAT. But on a day to day basis, being out on the streets is where he wants to be. And he has the commendations to prove it.

And that would likely have been all I would have to tell you. But something happened a couple of years ago. Karl was answering a call about a missing child. he’d talked to the mother and had taken the information and had this weird sense of déjà vu while it was taking place. As if he’d dreamed about it some night ago. This feeling bothered him as he was sitting in his cruiser.  When he heard...No FELT... a child screaming somewhere in the immediate vicinity. Karl never needs prompting in this regard. He was up and moving in no time flat. 

     He felt the sound coming from a nearby underground parking garage. That sense of deja vu getting stronger as he went. He entered and descended and rounding a corner saw some homeless person dragging a fat kid, an iron grip around his neck. The vagrant turned around, and there was something in his eyes. A horrified recognition. And then his jaw broke open and split and horrific squealing/hissing noise came from him.

     Complete freaked out, Karl drew and fired his weapon, emptying his clip. The thing dropped the fat kid and ran deeper into the bowels of the parking garage. Karl chased him. Running into some area deep below the city as if the vagrant had hewn the place out of the rock himself. Finally cornered, the creature attacked Karl, and Karl, by this point somewhat pissed as well as afraid, emptied another clip into the thing and then when it was down, beat it to death with his snap baton.

    He walked out a changed and somewhat re-energized man. Trying to figure his next move, he realized that the tunnels he had chased the creature had disappeared. There was exactly no evidence that that thing had ever existed. The fat kid had already run home.

    That night, Karl, a lifelong insomniac, slept deeply for the first time in many years. and there were no vivid dreams to trouble him.  The next day, his day off, he went up into the attic and got down all his old AD&D and mythology books.

Attitude:  “Look, brother, All I’m saying is... This world is more complicated than we think it is. There’s so much going on and we almost never have the whole story. So keep your head on a swivel, not just when you’re on the job...Like, all the time dude. All the time.”

Skills: Socially, Karl is a decent guy, and he’s got an average number of friends. He falls down a little on the extrovert side of things.  Mentally, He’s pretty average. He loves to read but as I say, much of what he reads is junk. He’s got at least a dot of Academics with a specialty in mythology. That, he’s garnered over the course of the last couple of years. he’s got a dot or two of Occult now. And of course, he’s got a couple of dots in Investigation and Interrogation. Comes with the territory, ya know?

   Physically, He’s a specimen. He’s quite strong, and he been working his cardio steadily to up his stamina. So far, he’s not so muscle-y that he’s lost flexibility and he’s got really good hand-eye coordination.  He’ll have all the dots of Police tactics Fighting Style, and he’s likely to have good dots of Brawl and weaponry.  He might also have a few dots of some gun-related fighting style and you wouldn’t be out of line to load him up with things like “Brawling dodge” or Disarm.

Sidebar: While you may be perfectly content to use Karl as he is off-the-shelf, you might also add to his sheet the template for a “Hero” from “Beast: the Primordial”  He certainly qualifies. He’s definitely slain at least one Beast and may have taken out more after a couple of years on the hunt.

Gear: Standard issue firearm, Holdout weapon on his ankle with frangible rounds. Taser, snap baton, Spyderco Clip-it. and all the rest of the standard issue cop gear. Karl normally keeps a roll of Sour Apple bubble tape on his person at all times. Ostensibly because he finds it helps with building a rapport with any children he should happen to meet during his work day, but mostly because he loves it himself. 

Home: He’s a got a nice place in burbs in a neighborhood where he actually knows all his neighbors and they know him. He shares his home with his wife Lucy and their four daughters. They have two Siberian Huskies who are rabidly protective of the girls. The entire house is adorned with motion sensor security lights and there is at least one camera dome (fake) above the back door on the patio.

Circle: Lucy’s the outgoing one. Mostly because she’s starved for interaction with adults. She works a job in her home office as an Account-Temp and while everyone in the neighborhood knows Karl, it’s Lucy they adore. Because transporting 4 baby girls back and forth is an enormous logistical undertaking, they aren’t as active in their church as they used to be. Uncle Mike and Aunt Elsa come around periodically and take up some slack so that they can go out to a movie every once in a while. Beyond that, most of the people Karl knows personally either live on the streets or have a badge.

Story Uses:

“The always tell us not to make promises to the victims. But I swear to you if there is a way to get this guy. I will get him.”

Beast hunter or no, It’s always nice to meet the occasional uniformed cop who is absolutely true blue...Unless of course, your own activities are a bit sketchy.

“There’s talk going around that maybe your case is a little on the “Weird” side. I’d like to help if I can.”

While Heroes and Hunter groups have an unusual dynamic, it doesn’t mean they can’t work together on occasion. After his parking garage problem, Karl told one other officer about what happened. Sgt. Parkhurst listened very carefully, and when it was all done, told Karl about The Union. Karl is aware of the members of The Union that also have a badge, or used to have one. When he can, he helps out.

Connections:

* "It's not like me to speak ill of a fellow officer but Officer Honus Brightwater is out of his depth in a parking lot puddle.

* Charlie  "He's ok.  I try to arrest him every time I see him unless he's really agitated about it. 

*" Detective Bela Janofski is definitely one of the good ones. I know most of his family. Dated his sister. Now she outranks me. Ain't that it?"

* Miss Virgie Hawkins " Love that old lady. Every once in a while I see her out with her ghost hunting friends. Man, if they only knew...

*" Officer Wesley Ullman is a good man and a good cop. His wife Nadine and mine are friends and his daughter Carly is practically a member of my family. I do think, though, that maybe he ought to switch to beer more often."