In a modern setting with high magic, I'm making a private detective to join the existing party. What kind of tropes and such do you need as a PI besides a love for fedoras, trench coats, and flowery metaphors?
>>45861957
Cigarettes or cigars.
A preference for pistols and submachine guns, as well as possibly shotguns.
A desire see justice done, even if it means you gotta break the rules a little bit to do it.
Love of strong coffee and stronger liquor.
Fatal attraction to a dame that is nothing but bad news...yet he somehow wins her over. Survival of said dame is optional.
Owns a baseball bat, and uses it to rough a guy up for information.
Enjoys jazz and swing, but isn't really into the whole "jive and wail," scene.
Frequents a whole-in-the-wall bar, and he is intimately familiar with the bartender, who often gives him the shake of the area.
Relationships and duty conflict, and the PI is often forced to choose work over personal life. Will most likely lose The One in the process, and he'll throw himself into his work to try and pay for his mistake.
>>45861957
I did this in an exalted campagin, and I won't lie, you can literally just listen to a single Johnny Dollar raido play to get the right idea.
>>45862080 Has it pretty much on the money, though you could still use a lovable yet strict friend who works on "The Force"
>>45861957
How high magic are we talking?
>>45861957
is said pi also a wizard?
>>45862350
He could be if I want.
>>45862315
Floating castles, ancient prophecies, magic airships, etc.
>>45861957
Fallen knight
Highly idealist and moral, but unable to maintain own high standards and constantly compromising self with work taken and emotional investment against better knowledge. A champion of light born into a world of darkness, never even grasping what they are.
It is a self destructive path. Easily exploited by anyone who can convincingly pretend. Where a straight man doesn't understand comedic tension, a noir detective doesn't understand evil. They understand its effects though, and are savvy on a street level without emotional investment.
It's the caring that gets them in the end. The trust or the hope.
Everything everyone has said so far has been dead on. I might add the idea that your PI might work toward having an encyclopedic knowledge of magical creatures and the arcane arts, even if he isn't a practicing wizard himself. He could have no magical abilities or be immune to magic himself, but his knowledge and detective skills make him extremely proficient at identifying and undoing illicit acts of spellcraft when he finds them. You could even take a few pages from Dick Tracy or Bruce Wayne's spellbooks and give him some magical gadgetry to help him out on cases.
>>45862392
If wizard, magic is a means to an end. He'd sooner shoot someone than throw a fireball because "there's less stick twirling involved"
Can PIs be girls?
>>45867982
Yes.
>>45861957
I'd suggest watching Cast A Deadly Spell for inspiration.
Rainy day in the seedy underbelly of the city -bump
>>45861957
Just play Eddie Valiant in 'Who framed Roger Rabbit' and replace 'Toons' with 'Elves'
Murder everyone and frame the real killer for it.
>>45873639
So... myself?
Damn! That's meta.
