Arkham Horror/Characters

Sister Mary, the Nun

 * Nuns-N-Rosaries

"Ashcan" Pete,the Drifter

 * A Tramp And His Dog: Duke
 * Homeless Hero
 * Luck-Based Mission: The goal of his personal story is to get a Dreamlands trophy, with the fail condition being if the doom track hits 5. The problem is that opening gates typically advance the doom track, which means that absent somebody starting with the Control Gate spell or fortunately-timed monster surges, Pete's only real hope for passing his objective is if (a) the Dreamlands can be reached by one of the first two gates (very low chance), and (b) he can get to that gate quickly. Not easy with his maximum base speed of 3...
 * The Tramp
 * Undying Loyalty: Even if Pete loses all his other allies and companions, ol' Duke'll stick by his side to the end.

Jenny Barnes, the Dilettante

 * Finger in the Mail: How she figures out that she's failed her personal mission...
 * Guns Akimbo (in her character art; made official in Mansions Of Madness.)
 * I Will Find You
 * Socialite
 * Timed Mission: Automatically fails once the terror level reaches at least 3.

Joe Diamond, the Private Eye

 * Private Detective
 * Whole-Plot Reference: The Maltese Falcon

Dexter Drake, the Magician

 * Be Careful What You Wish For: Always longed to discover real magic, until he found a fragment of the Necronomicon.
 * Stage Magician

Carolyn Fern, the Psychologist

 * Glasses Girl
 * The Shrink: Dr. Fern can help restore her own or others' Sanity.

Gloria Goldberg, the Author

 * Rewriting Reality
 * Seer
 * Write What You Know
 * You Can't Fight Fate: Failing her personal mission leads to her developing this mentality, hurting her ability to make Will checks.

Bob Jenkins, the Salesman

 * Gold Fever
 * Greed: His potentially Fatal Flaw. Giving into it will leave him Cursed.
 * Traveling Salesman

Vincent Lee, the Doctor

 * Combat Medic
 * Heroic BSOD: if he kills too many monsters and fails his Personal Story
 * The Medic

Michael McGlen, the Gangster

 * The Irish Mob: the O'Bannion Gang
 * Roaring Rampage of Revenge

Amanda Sharpe, the Student

 * Final Death: What happens if she fails her personal story.
 * Glasses Girl
 * Half-Human Hybrid: The Innsmouth Look, though unlike Silas below it's not immediately apparent.
 * Jill of All Stats: All her stat tracks are the average 1-4 type.
 * Ordinary College Student

Darrell Simmons, the Photographer

 * Camera Fiend
 * Going for the Big Scoop
 * Intrepid Reporter
 * We Need to Get Proof: His personal quest revolves around proving to his superiors that something big and freaky's going down.

Monterey Jack Terwilliger, the Archaelogist

 * Adventurer Archaeologist
 * Ascended Fanon: A PC from one of Sandy Petersen's early Call of Cthulhu campaigns
 * Cloudcuckoolander
 * Expy: Indiana Jones, as an insanely reckless goofball.
 * Leeroy Jenkins
 * What an Idiot!: This was quickly adopted as the explanation for his player's horrific luck with die rolls. As well as one very defining event. As the above thread says, just because you can use a bullwhip to snatch something out of a cultist's hands, doesn't mean you should. The something? Dynamite. Lit dynamite...It also became the reason for a 1st edition Arkham Horror house rule by the campaign master--Jack is always SAN 3 and STA 7 at the beginning. Come 2nd Edition, it became official for him...
 * Whip It Good

Mandy Thompson, the Researcher

 * Hot Librarian
 * Screw Destiny

Harvey Walters, the Professor

 * Badass Bookworm
 * The Professor
 * Squishy Wizard + Took a Level In Badass = Glass Cannon

Kate Winthrop, the Scientist

 * Gadgeteer Genius
 * Hot Scientist

Leo Anderson, the Expedition Leader

 * Final Death: If he fails his personal story.
 * Magnetic Hero
 * My Greatest Failure: Led seven men into the Yucatan. Only two made it back, unless you count the guy who Came Back Wrong.
 * Survivor Guilt: Goes into this if one of the other investigators gets devoured.

Jim Culver, the Musician

 * Jazz Musician
 * Magic Music
 * Music Soothes the Undead Beast

Jacqueline Fine, the Psychic

 * Dreaming of Things to Come
 * Psychic Powers
 * Recurring Dreams
 * Screw Destiny

Mark Harrigan, the Soldier

 * Determinator
 * Roaring Rampage of Revenge
 * Shell-Shocked Veteran

Marie Lambeau, the Entertainer

 * The Chanteuse
 * I Just Want to Be Normal: Declares this when failing her quest.
 * Third Eye (purely spiritual)
 * Witch Species

Wilson Richards, the Handyman

 * Renaissance Man
 * The Tramp

Diana Stanley, the Redeemed Cultist

 * The Atoner
 * Defector From Decadence
 * The Mole

Rita Young, the Athlete

 * Action Girl
 * The Hunter Becomes the Hunted
 * Police Are Useless: She starts at the Police Station, having just discovered they weren't going to help her out.
 * You Go, Girl!

Wendy Adams, the Urchin

 * Disappeared Dad: Lost at sea...
 * Kid Appeal Character
 * Parental Abandonment ...and Mom's in the asylum.
 * Orphan's Plot Trinket: an Elder Sign.
 * Street Urchin

Lily Chen, the Martial Artist

 * Action Girl
 * The Chosen One
 * Enlightenment Superpowers
 * Training From Hell
 * Warrior Monk

Lola Hayes, the Actress

 * Luck-Based Mission: She has kind of the same problem that Pete has (although even less time--her fail condition is the doom track reaching four). In her case, she needs to get an Ally to pass her personal story. The problem is that short of getting a nice amount of monster/gate trophies (not likely to happen in the short span of time she has to pass), she needs to get lucky with whichever location encounters can elicit the current game's Allies. Oh--whereas Pete's fail penalty is pretty minor (he can't get any more Allies, besides Duke), Lola's fail penalty is losing a point of maximum Sanity. Suffice to say she never wants the Herald to be Ghroth.
 * The Power of Acting

Charlie Kane, the Politician

 * Landslide Election: Depending on whether he passes or fails his personal quest, Kane can end up on either side of one.
 * Ultimate Authority Mayor: ...not quite, but he tries.

Tony Morgan, the Bounty Hunter

 * Bounty Hunter
 * Unwitting Pawn: In his personal story, getting enough clue tokens makes him realize this, "failing" it. However, both outcomes for his story involve losing all his current monster trophies in exchange for a boon, so whether this is really a failure depends on whether you want money right away ("pass") or more clue tokens in the future (the alleged "fail").

Rex Murphy, the Reporter

 * Born Unlucky
 * Intrepid Reporter
 * We Need to Get Proof: Has never been able to hold onto proof long enough before...

Luke Robinson, the Dreamer

 * Dream Land
 * Wistful Amnesia: Is searching for an old friend he vaguely remembers from before he entered The Dreamlands.

Daisy Walker, the Librarian

 * Bookworm
 * Magic Librarian

Agnes Baker, the Waitress

 * Cast From Hit Points
 * Easy Amnesia: Inverted; falling and hitting her head jogged memories of her past life.
 * History Repeats: In her past life, she fought against 'the creature' and lost. Getting knocked out or driven insane fails her personal quest.
 * Magical Girl Warrior
 * Reincarnation (of a Hyperborean witch)
 * Visions of Another Self

Roland Banks, the Fed

 * By The Book Federal Agent, but becomes...
 * Cowboy Federal Agent, if his Personal Story is completed.
 * FBI Agent (Well, BI Agent, they weren't the Federal Bureau until 9 years after Arkham Horror's timeframe.)
 * Lampshade Hanging: From his personal story: "This case has weird cults, magic spells, and the apparent end of the world. All it needs is some demented fish-men or something and I'll have all the makings for a best-selling novel."

George Barnaby, the Lawyer

 * Retirony: Planned to stop practicing law, buy a boat, and sail around the world with his beloved Maria. Plans changed.
 * Roaring Rampage of Revenge

Ursula Downs, the Explorer

 * Action Girl
 * Adventurer Archaeologist
 * Spirited Young Lady: It's not certain whether she's in the usual age range now (she looks like she could easily be in her late 20s), but she was definitely this during that age range (and before), and she hasn't lost her passion for adventure.

Finn Edwards, the Bootlegger

 * Damn, It Feels Good to Be a Gangster!

Patrice Hathaway, the Violinest

 * Game Breaker: All those clue tokens she accrues as the game goes on, along with her ability to share them with anyone, regardless of where either one is, makes it ridiculously easy to get a seal victory. Unless Yibb-Tstll is the Ancient One, that is (caps everyone's clue token limit at 5).
 * Music for Courage
 * Support Party Member

Silas Marsh, the Sailor

 * Father Neptune
 * Half-Human Hybrid: the Innsmouth Look, as if his name wasn't a big honking clue.
 * Heroic Sacrifice
 * Seadog Beard
 * Tomato in the Mirror

Tommy Muldoon, the Rookie Cop

 * Heroic Sacrifice
 * I Call Her Becky: His rifle.
 * Officer O'Hara: He's portrayed like this in his brief appearance in Ghouls of the Miskatonic. Not surprising, given his overtly Irish name.
 * Weirdness Magnet

Akachi Onyele, the Shaman

 * Determinator: Nothing can stop Akachi from sealing Gates.
 * Ethnic Magician
 * Magical Negro
 * Religion Is Magic

"Skids" O'Toole, the Ex-Convict

 * An Axe to Grind: He starts out with one.
 * The Corpse Stops Here: When his cellmate burst into flames one night, the cops accused him of causing it, but couldn't get the charge to stick.
 * Good Scars, Evil Scars: One under his eye.
 * Reformed Criminal: He really was only robbing banks to try to save his mother from her illness.

Minh Thi Phan, the Secretary

 * Sexual Extortion: At first, she's worried her boss might try to pull this sort of thing on her. He's actually a harbinger of a different kind of problem.
 * Support Party Member

Zoey Samaras, the Chef

 * Chef of Iron: Type 1
 * Mission From God
 * Weak but Skilled: Not the strongest fighter in the cast, but she ignores all resistances and bumps immunity down to resistance.

Hank Samson, the Farmhand

 * Disappeared Dad
 * Dumb Muscle: Well, more foolhardy than downright stupid.
 * Farm Boy: No heritage, though, he really is just a boy from a farm...
 * Fearless Fool: Makes horror checks after fights -- and then only if he loses or runs -- because he's too thick to realize something is an Eldritch Abomination until he's had time to mull it over.

Trish Scarborough, the Spy

 * Deadly Upgrade: One of her special abilities allows her to raise her stats by one point at the cost of one point of stamina and one point of sanity.
 * Rogue Agent: From an agency that led her to believe was part of the U.S. government, but appears to be nothing of the kind.

Norman Withers, the Astronomer

 * Fantastic Science

William Yorick, the Gravedigger

 * Deader Than Dead: Monsters Yorick kills and spends as trophies don't have to be recycled back into play. Mind you, if the game runs out of monsters, the Ancient One awakens on the spot...Although if you have enough critters (i.e. from every single expansion that contained monsters), that's not likely to happen.
 * Meaningful Name: He's a grave digger...

Jonathan "Gabe" Gabriel

 * Bare-Fisted Monk: The highest Fight score in the game, but he can't equip Weapons (see below).
 * Noodle Incident: He fought the Devil. And Tycho no longer allows him to use weapons.

Tycho Erasmus Brahe

 * Fantastic Science: Scholar of Apocalyptic Studies.