Reginald Blackburn

Reginald is a young man, approaching the age of 18. He is fairly small and skinny, with dark brown eyes that peek out behind a thick head of messy brown hair. Reginald usually comes across as cold, uncaring, and aloof. He doesn't try to hide his interest in the opposite sex, usually staring without consideration at whatever lady might have caught his eye. He tends to ignore most conversation, only gives the most abrupt answers possible, and doesn't respond to insults or friendly verbal jabs (or unfriendly verbal jabs, usually from Sylvie).

Reginald is a math prodigy, and currently is enamored with the math surrounding circles. He is capable of doing advanced math mentally, and is usually drawing mental diagrams with his fingers on flat surfaces when not admiring any attractive ladies he sees. Otherwise, Reginald has a fair grasp of most subjects, and is a superb student, except in anything requiring physical activity, which he tends to shun.

Although the heir to throne and usually quite aloof, Reginald shows an unusual amount of respect and care towards those less affluent than himself, treating everyone with a measure of respect, however cold he might seem. Reginald is third in line to the throne, and has a frosty relationship with the royal court, having been the last son, and the least impressive to the crown. Reginald doesn't care much for the idea of being King, and would prefer that the honor fall to one of his brothers.

The Real Reginald Blackburn

In truth, Reginald is an Heir Pretender. The son of a baron, disgraced because the Baron valued knightly virtue over mathematical reasoning, Reginald was approached by Morano the Historian with an important request.

Morano would declare Reginald to be the third disgraced son of the King, parade him as the third in line, so that the real heir, the illegitimate daughter of the King, Sylvie, could have a better chance of surviving the assassinations Morano feared were coming. Morano paid Reginald's father a great sum of money to buy his cooperation, and spirited the boy away a few days before the news of the King's death became public.

Reginald's entire relationship to the crown is an elaborate scheme that Morano with his considerable understanding of politics and intrigue pieced together to give possible legitimacy to the lie. Morano's goal is to protect Sylvie.

Entirely aware that he is risking his life for the survival of someone else, Reginald takes great pains to hide the fact from everyone. He is truly not as aloof or cold as he seems, and has to try hard to hide his compassionate nature. He is getting fairly comfortable acting like a jerk to give the impression of being a royal prat, although in whispered conversations to Morano he has lamented how rude he has had to be.

Potentially worst of all, Reginald can't let on how much he might enjoy the company of the men and women Morano has gathered to protect the real heir, Sylvie.

Originally intended to be a flat character that I could martyr off conveniently, my brain came up with a better idea. Reginald (who I called dickwad until I came up with Reginald) was supposed to cover one of my own goofs- I let slip during conversation that one of the PCs was the heir (Sylvie). Since this was supposed to be a plot twist, I obviously had to come up with a contingency plan, something to throw anybody who had been paying attention off the trail.

Obviously, I much prefer my more recent decisions to make Reginald a more sympathetic and fully realized character instead of a characterization or cardboard cutout.

In-game Notes and Mechanics

• Reginald has a strength of 8 to reflect his lack of physical capability.
• Exceptional IQ (13) and Perception (14).
  
• Reginald gets sick often, but is healthy otherwise (susceptible)
• Enhanced Time Sense, Eidetic Memory and Lightning Calculator make Reginald an extremely quick thinker and mathematician- he is never mentally rushed.
• Reginald is a bit of a klutz.
• Reginald is extremely poor in combat, having only extremely brief training with shortsword and shield.
• In a modern game, Reginald would probably be highly interested in computers. Since that isn't open to him, I decided he has probably played around with picking locks.
• Reginald has only a bare understanding of most of the other knowledge skills (first aid, naturalist, alchemy) possessed by PCs.
  
• Callous gives Reginald a -5 to teach others while he keeps his secret hidden. Otherwise, Reginald is actually a very proficient teacher.