Does Your Character Leave a Calling Card?

The overseer stood, arms folded as she looked at the destruction. Crates had been smashed open, or in some cases thrown out into the water. Weeks of effort and sweat, ruined. The guards sat on the floor, being tended to by healers. Eyes were swollen shut, lips split, and in several cases teeth had been shattered. Arnulf was still slipping in and out of consciousness, dealing with a severe concussion.

"Was it him?" she asked, without turning to look at Gerand. The small man winced as if she'd struck him.

"It's impossible to say for certain," Gerand said. "But... whoever it was, they left this."

He held out a flower. It was a simple, white rose dotted with scarlet droplets. The corners of the overseer's mouth turned down.

"It was him," she said, her voice flat.

"Should I double the guard?" Gerand said.

"The damage is done," the overseer said, turning on her heel and storming out. "I have a letter to send. We can't stop him with what we have on-hand."

I don't want a bouquet of these when all is said and done.

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Does Your Character Have a Calling Card?

Despite all the shady, illegal, and violent things our characters often do in game, sometimes we want to take credit for those actions. We want people who come across the aftermath, whether it be in the form of a bloody battlefield or a burned down prison, to know who did it.

That is where the calling card comes in.

Some are, admittedly, more horrifying than others.

Taken from a Victorian custom, a calling card was originally a method of announcing one's presence and requesting a visit. The practice has largely fallen out of favor, though modern business cards are one of the last vestiges of it. The phrase, "To leave one's calling card," means to leave some sort of mark behind to let people know you were there. Something associated with your character that declares in no uncertain terms that you are the one responsible for what the onlookers are seeing.

It might be a bloody, four-fingered handprint left behind by the Maneater (one of the gang leaders in 100 Random Bandits to Meet), a banner planted on a field of battle by a victorious order of knights (such as the ones in 100 Knightly Orders), or just a gang tag painted on a wall of a black skull, a green serpent, or a red jester (such as the ones you'll find in 100 Gangs For Your Urban Campaigns). A calling card can be as personal or as unusual as you want, from a playing card left on the body, to a red rose swapped for a stolen item, the nature of the calling card is completely up to you!

Heck it could even be a particular battle cry, letting people know just who they're fighting, and telling onlookers who's responsible for the ensuing carnage. I put together quite a list of those in 100 Fantasy Battle Cries (And Their Histories) for folks looking for inspiration!

Why Leave a Calling Card?

A calling card serves a couple of purposes in a game. First, it's one more personalized detail of your character. The story of what the calling card means, how you chose it, etc. feeds into your Small Legend, and makes the character that much more unique and interesting. However, a calling card can also help in games that are more stealth-focused, or where players are creating personas and identities that are different from themselves so that when they take off their armor, their robes, or other accouterments they can still live a relatively normal life. Like Bruce Wayne, or the members of KISS.

And if you're going all-in on a calling card in that way, you might also want to check out my 5 Tips For Playing Better Vigilantes article.

Heroes and villains alike may benefit from this.

Even if you aren't trying to create the identity of some phantom thief or of a dark avenger, calling cards are useful ways of taking credit for your deeds. When someone comes across the wreckage of a battle, and they find every body has been decapitated, the heads stacked in a pyramid, they know this is the work of the Skulltaker. An arcane mark that's as unique as a fingerprint makes it clear when something was the work of the sorcerer Gildan Fey, and as their deeds grow so does their reputation. And so on, and so forth.

However, there is also a risk that comes with calling cards. If they're easy to duplicate, the narrative can get away from you. If someone mimics your calling card, leaving it at the scene of a crime you didn't commit, that can be a problem. If a rival outfit wants to tarnish your reputation, or a rival gang wants to convince the city watch that their deeds were committed by someone else, they might fake your calling card to throw the scent onto you. On the other hand, if you've established that you always leave your mark, then you might choose not to leave a calling card when doing something you'd rather people not know you were responsible for.

At the end of the day, a calling card can be a fun little addition to a character, whether it's a PC or one of the antagonists they're trying to deal with in the campaign. So if it's not something you've considered, take a moment and ask what your character would leave to let people know they'd been there!

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That's all for this week's Fluff post!

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