Character tropes for Pretending to Be People
Pretending to be People is an ongoing podcast with a complicated plot. The potential for Late Arrival Spoilers is high, and spoilers for the first season of the show are left unmarked. Read ahead at your own risk.
Contention Police Department
The police department for the small town of Contention, Missouri. The entirety of the town's department appears to consist of 4 officers, one chief, and a secretary. Its members are largely well-meaning people, though their levels of competence and morality vary wildly from member to member.
Player Characters
Three of the four main cops in Contention, and decidedly the least competent three.
- Fire-Forged Friends: They start the game as loosely-knit colleagues. By the end of Season 1 will still step up to the plate for each other and come together for the greater good.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: They may dislike each other. They may threaten to kill each other. They may actually attack each other. They're still friends. Maybe.
Clark Bishop
A middle-aged man with a nondescript home life, a largely-upright moral backbone, and a fondness for Wheel of Fortune, Clark Bishop has spent most of his adult life working for a promotion that he knows will never come.
- The Chosen One: As the Overseer, he serves as this to the Circle of Knowledge.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: After being sufficiently traumatized, failing Sanity rolls over a certain threshold forces Clark to hurt a person in his immediate vicinity.
- Lightning Bruiser: Has a high Strength score, and eventually takes a perk that allows him to move first in all combat scenarios.
- Ridiculously Average Guy: At the start of the series, the only thing that prevents Clark from being more average is the fact that he's fastidious and dull to the point of parody. Also the fact that his parents were killed by an amoral agent, and that he's the messiah for an ancient conspiracy, but other than that he's pretty normal.
John Lee Pettimore IV
A hard-drinking daredevil from a largely-criminal backwoods family, John was once a racecar driver before a sudden crash put an end to his career.
- Ancestral Name: The name John Lee Pettimore, passed down from his father, grandfather and great-grandfather. It is also taken from the perspective character of Steve Earle's song "Copperhead Road.", who is also similarly named after his father and grandfather.
- Good Ol' Boy: The entire Pettimore clan is like this, and John shares his family's love of bottom-shelf whiskey, cheap beer, and firing guns into the air.
- Junkie Prophet: Played With. While he likely isn't addicted to anything, John is a heavy drinker, evidently smokes quite a bit of weed, and has done cocaine. He also eventually gets the ability to see the future, although that is unrelated to his drug use.
- Manly Facial Hair: Is described as having a "fucking killer cop 'stache."
- Mobile-Suit Human: It turns out that John Lee Pettimore IV's consciousness resides in a small silver ball in his body. It later kills and inhabits his father, John Lee Pettimore III.
- Seers: Eventually takes a perk that gives him limited precognition.
- Soul Jar: He is piloted by a silver ball in his head that eventually takes over the body of his father, John Lee Pettimore III.
Keith Vigna
A former cop from The City, Keith Vigna (originally named Keith Beans) is prone to bumbling and sudden lapses of morality. At the beginning of the series, he's not a bad cop, he's just bad at being a cop.
- Abusive Parents: Keith's childhood was filled with emotional and verbal abuse from his family, who favored his brother Ferguson over him. It is decidedly not Played for Laughs
- Anti-Hero: The least competent and most amoral member of the Contention PD.
- Butt-Monkey: Frequently winds up in bad situations. Also frequently deserves it.
- Cyborg: Gets some upgrades after his corpse is taken in by Marvin Glass.
- Lack of Empathy: Keith starts the series as a socially-awkward man with little regard for others. Then he commits cold-blooded murder. Eventually gets a character boon that makes him immune to Sanity loss from witnessing violence.
- The Un-Favorite: Was this to his brother
Other members of the CPD
Maggie Cook
The chief of the Contention Police Department, Maggie helps coordinate the efforts of the player character's in their ongoing quests.
- Ambiguously Evil: Appears to be this as the head of the Circle of Knowledge.
- Da Chief
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Failing her Sanity checks results in her becoming aggressive and borderline-violent
Drew Andrews
The administrative assistant for the Contention Police Department, Drew aids the player characters however he can.
- Gonk: Little is described about Drew's appearance, but he apparently has gums that protrude so far they actively impair his speech.
- Nice Guy: Is unfailingly helpful and polite to the player characters. See O.O.C. Is Serious Business below
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Drew stops being perfectly helpful to the Contention PD, the players know something is dreadfully wring.
The Glass Crime Syndicate
A powerful organized crime outfit in The City. Under the rule of Marvin Glass, it controls the City's politicians and police alike with its vast sums of money and its ritual sporting events, which serve both as entertainment for the City's upper classes and a stark warning to those who would defy them.
The Glass family
Marvin Glass
The ambiguously-human head of the City's mafia, Marvin Glass serves as a contact and antagonistic figure for several characters throughout the campaign, the PCs included.
- Ambiguously Human: At the very least, he has two human sons. As for the "ambiguous" part, well...
- Arbitrarily Large Bank Account: His organization has enough money to fund complete control over The City, supernatural research and cyborg goons. He appears to get his funds through a combination of underground sporting events and drug trafficking.
- Blood Sport: Is extremely fond of these, and appears to prefer using them as a form of execution. Also as a form of job interview.
- Humanoid Abomination: He's unusually tall, freakishly thin, and has translucent skin. On top of that, his eyes are pinholes, his "mouth" is a lipless orifice with lips drawn on in lipstick, and he possesses immense psionic ability. Word of God says that his Power stat is 100.
- Suddenly Shouting: Tends to respond to respond to surprises or frustration by unleashing a distorted, blood-curdling scream.
- Super Mob Boss: Head of a crime outfit and has psychic powers.
- The Men in Black: Was evidently a member of Myriad in the past.
- Tranquil Fury: The instant that he finishes his scream, he resumes speaking in a strange warbling croak.
Glass family employees
Rosemary
A cybernetically-enhanced hit woman who dresses like The Fonz.
- The Brute: An unrepentant murderer with extreme physical prowess.
- Cyborg: Possesses multiple upgrades courtesy of Marvin.
- Greaser Delinquents: Bases herself off of The Fonz.
- Hell-Bent for Leather: Wears a leather jacket.
- Made of Iron: Resistant to gunfire, and believes it laughable that John could kill her.
- Muscles Are Meaningless: Rosemary isn't a physically imposing woman, but nonetheless poses a threat.
- Stalker with a Crush: Is obsessed with Marvin's son, Germaine Glass.
Francis Beans
Keith Vigna's niece. Ferguson Beans' daughter. A scientist-in-training in Marvin's organization. Not a particularly nice person.
- Antagonistic Offspring: Despises her dad. See Patricide below.
- Evil Niece: To Keith, which, given who Keith is, is saying something.
- Jerkass: Is abrasive to basically anyone she doesn't work for.
- Mad Scientist: Well, is training to be one anyway.
- Patricide: Hires Keith to kill her dad.
- Rich Bitch: Heiress to the fabulously wealthy Beans family.
- Self-Made Orphan: See Patricide above.
- Torture Technician: Treats torture like a fun hobby.
Kevin
Marvin Glass' chief of security. Like Rosemary, is cybernetically enhanced.
- Cyborg: Like Rosemary.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Is heavily scarred. Works for a decidedly evil man.
- Madness Mantra: Has scratched the words "NOT KEVIN" repeatedly under his desk.
- More than Mind Control: Marvin all-but-states that psychological torture was what brought Kevin into his employ.
- The Stoic: Essentially emotionless.
Other Characters
Wolf the Dog
The disc jockey for local radio station 694.2 PTBP, Wolf largely serves as a Horror Host for the listeners, giving podcast-related announcements, episode recaps, and commentary on various topics, several of them garbage-related.
- Ambiguously Human. Has a human voice, a human job, and a pet dog. Also howls like a wolf, rummages through trash like a stray dog, appears to have immense cosmic power, and may have taken over the radio station by devouring its prior employees.
- Catchphrase: Has several, as befitting a radio host.
- "What is up, my [X term of endearment]s, it's your [related term] Wolf the Dog"
- "Fuck Mark Zuckerberg"
- "It's Kudzu, with No Backbone!"
- Extreme Omnivore: Will eat most of anything
- Horror Host
- I Am a Humanitarian: killed and devoured the previous staff at 420.69PTBP and also, apparently, fries and consumes penises removed for medical reasons.
- Interactive Narrator: Has delivered on-air warnings to the citizens of Contention on behalf of the player characters.
- Large Ham Radio: As befitting a small town DJ
-
Nausea Fuel: describes eating waffles dipped in the syrup at the bottom of an industrial trash compactor. - Rhymes on a Dime: One of his verbal tics
- Running Gag: Always introduces the theme-song as if it was the first time it was being played.
- Take That!: Will never fail to throw a potshot at Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg when discussing the podcast's Facebook page. Wolf has thrown similar insults towards billionaires as a whole, though his wrath mostly focuses on tech CEOs
- The Pig-Pen: Loves to eat trash.
