Ah, the Arconia. Architecture of a bygone New York. Home to the famous, the privileged, the odd victim, and many eccentric tenants. One such character is Brazzos himself, Charles-Haden Savage: Actor, podcaster, and murder investigator.
Welcome to Essential Builds, the blog that takes pop culture icons into a whole new Essence20-y direction.
Only Murders In The Building season 5 debuted this week, so what better time to bring the character played by one of my all time favourite actors to Essence20?
Who Is Charles-Haden Savage?
Charles-Haden Savage is one-of-a-kind.
Hulu’s Only Murders In The Building follows Charles-Haden Savage, Oliver Putnam, and Mabel Mora, three residents of the upper class Arconia thrown together by a shared love of true crime podcasts and a drive to solve a murder in their building.
Charles-Haden (just Charles to his friends), starred as Brazzos in Brazzos, a mediocre detective drama in the 80s that ran just long enough to secure him financially for life. But it couldn’t buy him happiness. Before connecting with Mabel and Oliver, he lived alone, making an omelet for two and throwing out half most mornings. He pressed the Close button when someone rushed toward his elevator. His closest friend was a parasocial relationship with his favourite podcaster.
Then Tim Kono entered his life. When the young investment banker died mysteriously in the Arconia, Charles teamed up with Oliver and Mabel, whom he just learned loved the same true crime podcast, to solve the murder, podcasting their investigation. And then again. And again. There are a lot of murders in their building.
Building Essence20 Charles-Haden Savage
The idea for an Only Murders In The Building build came about on the Renegade Game Studios Discord server. After I mentioned in my Mabel (not Mora) build that only a handful of Roles from the first four Essence20 Core Rulebooks haven’t shown up in Essential Builds, TheZMage pointed out that the Welcome to Night Vale channel talked about how the Citizen’s Guide’s Radio Journalist Focus could make a good OMITB build. He suggested pairing it with the Spirit of Generosity, the one unused Role I mentioned might be a challenge.
While I am not going with that Role, I am knocking another one off my list, one that pairs with Radio Journalist surprisingly well. That leaves me with an Origin and Influences to play around with to capture Charles’ acting background, life experience, and sad past.
Role
Scout (Transformers Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook)
Weird choice, I know, but the Scout Role is surprisingly generous is how its abilities can be applied. That flexibility means what should have been a sneaky military Role, in the same vein as G.I. JOE’s Commando, can double as an investigator.
Scout’s few Perks written with the intent to replicate Cybertronian abilities also apply to undercover investigators and, in Charles’ case, actors.
At 1st level, we get a lot of bumps to Alertness. Ally Awareness specifically lets us benefit from our ally’s range-dependent abilities at a much longer ranger and lets us remember our allies’ advice to occasionally Lend Assistance to ourselves. Charles lives in the past, and tends to be the character keeping track of where his friends are during an investigation.
Mark Target at 2nd level, meant to help Scouts get the drop on enemies, totally works for investigating. Every scene, we get to designate a character as the focus of our attention. That can be a character we see but might know nothing about, or an individual we know of even if they aren’t in the scene. We get a bonus to any Skill Test related to that character. That means if Charles needs to tail a suspicious character, bonus to Infiltration. If he’s rifling through a suspect’s apartment while they’re out, bonus to Alertness. If things go south and he has to fight, bonus to Finesse, Might, Targeting. Interviewing a witness or interrogating a suspect? Bonus to Persuasion. It’s a perfect representation of how Charles and company tend to follow a different suspect every episode.
But it doesn’t stop there! Hindsight lets Charles make new Alertness Skill Tests to gain additional information from previous scenes, something we’ve definitely seen Charles do as they review the murder board or in the face of new evidence. Mimicry Vocoder has technological flavour but it basically gives a bonus for acting. Not only is Charles an actor, he puts his acting skills to work during investigations.
Resourceful gives us a choice of a variety of bonuses when rolling Initiative, with the most specific one, “An ally who can hear you gains the benefits of Mark Target for the creature you designated,” capturing the classic tropes of detective stories.
Most of the Role’s later Perks just bump up previous Perks, but I will call one last one out: New Plan. I think that might actually be a Charles line from the show. I can clearly hear Steve Martin delivering that line in my head to great comedic effect.
Setting and Focus
Night Vale, Radio Journalist (Welcome To Night Vale Roleplaying Game Citizens’ Guide)
I have a few avenues to cover Charles’ podcasting, mechanically, but I liked Renegade Discord’s suggestion.
This being a Night Vale Focus, we only get two Perks: Ad Read and A Voice For Radio. Ad Read gives up bonuses to Streetwise. A Voice For Radio gives us bonuses to Culture, Performance, and Persuasion. I planned on investing in the Voice For Radio Skills, but I hadn’t considered putting any points into Streetwise. And yet, it totally works for Charles. Between listening to podcasts and starring in one, and his time as Brazzos, Charles often pulls out unexpected talents. This reflects the Swiss Army Knife of applicability that is the Streetwise Skill.
Also, A Voice For Radio gives us a Recording Microphone! But it’s a Night Vale recording microphone, which is technically a melee weapon without any rules for recording audio that I could find. Nothing a Story Point and a generous GM can’t fix that!
On the topic of the Night Vale setting, it’s not ideal for this build. Only Murders In The Building may be wacky, but it’s not capital W Weird. That said, the option to play the setting straight exists, and that makes it the best Essence20 setting for an Only Murders campaign kind of by default. After all, in Night Vale, adventures are called investigations.
Origin
Hobbyist (Welcome To Night Vale Roleplaying Game Citizens’ Guide)
The Citizens’ Guide’s getting a workout lately.
Charles would take offense to his acting career being called a hobby (and, as a working writer, I agree with him), but this Night Vale Origin covers hobbies and more. Charles and I can’t object to its opening words, “You’re inspired to create”.
Furthermore, the Origin Skills fit our build, and the Origin Perk, Everything is Inspiration, gives us a lot of options at the table. It offers multiple ways to gain additional Story Points. Acting is storytelling, so this fits thematically. Moreover, Story Points are shared, and Charles is always there for his partners.
Influences
1st Broadcaster (G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Quartermaster’s Guide To Gear)
2nd Artisan (My Little Pony Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook)
3rd Quiet with the Jittery Hang-Up (Welcome To Night Vale Roleplaying Game Citizens’ Guide)
I love when a build’s Influences click. A good sign that I’ve made the right choices: I want all three Hang-Ups.
Broadcaster overlaps with our Radio Journalist Focus thematically, but it gives us a nice new mechanical angle. We gain a benefit on Social Skill Tests involving people we’re communicating with using technological devices. Technically it’s present tense, but as a GM I’d allow it to represent fans who know Charles for Brazzos or his podcast. We see Charles immediately connect with people who recognize him for his work, including in the first scene of the show.
Another thematically overlapping option, this time with Hobbyist, Artisan gives us a bonus when acting, something Hobbyist does not do directly. It also gives us a penalty to other Skill Tests not related to acting while we are acting. I’ve worked with actors, this is relatable.
Finally, I wanted an option to represent Charles as we first see him, during his shut-in phase. Although we know he can turn on the charm even then, his natural state even in later seasons is reserved. Quiet, you could say.
There’s actually two Quiet Influences, both of which give a bonus to Infiltration. While the Quiet in Hawk’s Personnel Files might have a stronger primary ability, Citizens’ Guide’s Quiet has a secondary effect I rather like. It gives us a situational automatic success at Deception, a Skill I can’t afford to invest in despite Charles often lying.
Funny enough, using Night Vale’s mix-and-match style of Influence and Hang-Ups landed me a very similar Hang-Up as the HPF Quiet’s default. Jittery gives us a penalty to Intimidation. If there’s a less intimidating character on the show than Charles, you’ll have to point them out.
Essence Scores and Skills
Social 7: Performance (Acting) +d6, Persuasion +d4, Streetwise +d2
Smarts 5: Alertness +d6, Culture +d2
Speed 3: Finesse +d2, Infiltration +d4
Strength 1: Athletics +d2
At a glance, I worried that Charles’ Essence Scores might be too similar to Mabel (again, Pines, not Mora). Ends up, other than having a lot of Social and only 1 Strength, they’re pretty different.
I commit 7 Skill Points to Social Skills. And yet, Charles’ Skill Dice feel low. Then I remembered that we get a lot of bumps to these Skills from our Focus and Influences, as well as a broadly applicable bonus from our Role. This is a build that rises to the occasion and benefits from staying in our lane.
Other than the numbers seeming low, I think this is a logical selection of Skills. Only Finesse and Athletics stand out, and they’re honestly for game reasons more than source material accuracy.
Conclusion
Welcome to the Only Murders In The Building/Night Vale crossover you didn’t know you wanted! Or maybe you did know.
Charles-Haden Savage is my favourite type of character to build: He has enough going on to guide my hand, but not so much that certain elements get glossed over. So even though we don’t have many options specific to playing an actor (and Performance has a lot of untapped potential when it comes to support material), there’s enough that applies. Furthermore, we know how Charles fits into an RPG adventure. He’s from a show with life-or-death stakes, mysteries, puzzles, and combat. If Renegade got the Only Murders In The Building license tomorrow, I’d know exactly how to adapt it into an RPG.
Resources
Field Guide to Action & Adventure
G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook
G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Hawk’s Personnel Files
My Little Pony Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook
Power Rangers Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook
Transformers Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook
Welcome To Night Vale Citizen’s Guide
The Only Murders In The Building Wiki
Ryan Costello is one of the designers of the Essence20 system and an author on the G.I. JOE, Transformers, and My Little Pony Roleplaying Game Core Rulebooks. As of this writing, he’s written over 300 000 words for Essence20, contributing to over a dozen products and counting.
