{"id":251,"date":"2011-08-09T11:22:37","date_gmt":"2011-08-09T19:22:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/?page_id=251"},"modified":"2011-08-09T11:22:37","modified_gmt":"2011-08-09T19:22:37","slug":"gao-tso","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/?page_id=251","title":{"rendered":"Gao Tso"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the weirdest backstory I’ve ever written.\u00c2\u00a0 It was a lot of fun to write, but probably not the best example.\u00c2\u00a0 This character was made for a GURPS super heroes game, and I think I tried a little too hard to be over the top.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Gao Tso was born in Shenzhao China in 1978.\u00c2\u00a0 His parents had lived in the small fishing village all their lives, as had their parents before them.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Once Gao learned that there was a world beyond the nets and sampans, he knew he could never stay in the small village and set off for Tokyo at the age of 14.<\/p>\n

At that point, Gao knew only one trade – fishmongering.\u00c2\u00a0 The Yakuza-controlled docks and harbors had no place for a small chinese boy.\u00c2\u00a0 When it became clear that Gao’s racial handicap prevented him from being allowed to sell fish, he left and followed one of the only customers who had paid him notice.\u00c2\u00a0 The man led him to an american owned restaurant near the middle of the city.\u00c2\u00a0 Gao slipped in the back and began performing menial tasks as though he worked there.\u00c2\u00a0 Since Big Jim, the owner, thought all asians looked alike, he never noticed Gao’s unconventional and abrupt employment.\u00c2\u00a0 Within months Gao began helping with the actual preparation of food and was getting noticed for his talent.\u00c2\u00a0 He even began studying the deadly art of fugu preparation.<\/p>\n

Although he had a steady income in a major city, Gao Tso still was not happy.\u00c2\u00a0 He loved his work, but wanted more recognition and glamor.\u00c2\u00a0 One afternoon in late April, Big Jim invited Gao to his office to offer a promotion to the restaurant’s head chef.\u00c2\u00a0 The previous chef, Shinzaki Teriyaki, had taken a sabbatical to compete on a new reality based TV show.\u00c2\u00a0 Gao had never heard of Iron Chef before, but he was intrigued.\u00c2\u00a0 Jim told him it turned cooking into a spectator sport, wherein chefs are given a set of foods and challenged to improvise a meal on live TV, with fabulous cash prizes.\u00c2\u00a0 Intrigued, Gao did not accept the promotion and Big Jim lost his two best chefs in one afternoon.\u00c2\u00a0 The restaurant went under and Big Jim hanged himself after spending what little money remained on a taiwanese ‘ladyboy’ prostitute binge.<\/p>\n

What Gao Tso had not realized when he left was that the show he was banking everything on was very Japan-centric.\u00c2\u00a0 Several gaijin, often Americans, gain popularity on the show but only for their freakish appeal.\u00c2\u00a0 Gao Tso was not japanese and could not appeal with the freak show that was your average american chef, so he did not go far in the world of competitive cooking.\u00c2\u00a0 Having tasted Iron Chef, Gao Tso knew he could no longer palate an ordinary kitchen.\u00c2\u00a0 With Iron Chef Japan all but closed to non japanese participants, Gau went with his next best option, Iron Chef America.<\/p>\n

Tragically, in spite of his work for Americans, Gau Tso had failed to pick up enough English to successfully book a flight over the phone.\u00c2\u00a0 His demand for “Iron-u Che-fu!” was misheard as “Chichen Itza, por favor” and he was promptly sent to Mexico.\u00c2\u00a0 He has since corrected the error and now speaks fluent English, as well as passable Spanish, but for the time being Gau Tso was stuck in Mexico.\u00c2\u00a0 Due to China’s strict passport regulations, Gau could not just get on another plane to America.\u00c2\u00a0 He had to either stay in Mexico or return home.\u00c2\u00a0 He chose the former, but conceded that he would have to put his dreams on the back burner and go back to ordinary kitchen work.<\/p>\n

Less than a year later Gao found himself working as a chef at a resort for fat, rich, white folks, and their greasy and whiny fat white kids, when he met the fattest, richest, whitest man who was also a little bit greasy.\u00c2\u00a0 The man introduced himself as Barry and was absolutely delighted with the authenticate flavor of that afternoon’s spicy flavor pork.\u00c2\u00a0 Barry was a publicist\/agent from Hollywood and Gau told Barry his story.\u00c2\u00a0 Barry was fascinated.\u00c2\u00a0 Now, Barry couldn’t circumvent chinese travel restrictions to get Gau Tso onto Iron Chef America, but he did have connections with the TV and Movie industry, and put Gau in contact with the producer of Mexico’s next big television hit, Cocinero Hierro: Sabado Grande Fantastico, or Iron Chef Mexico as it was known to its American viewers.<\/p>\n

Gao Tso’s dreams were coming true at last.\u00c2\u00a0 CH: SGF was just like Iron Chef, well, mostly.\u00c2\u00a0 None of the chefs had assistants.\u00c2\u00a0 They had to gather ingredients and do the basic cooking themselves.\u00c2\u00a0 And it was full contact.\u00c2\u00a0 And all chefs wore Lucha masks.\u00c2\u00a0 Stabbings were infrequent, but they did boost ratings.\u00c2\u00a0 Gau avoided fights most of the time, preferring to sneak off with key ingredients while other chefs engaged in melee.\u00c2\u00a0 Gao was successful on the show due to his exemplary cooking.\u00c2\u00a0 He was nicknamed “El Gato,” as a play on his own name and due to his fondness for fish, which was discovered during episode 319, when Gao Tso both invented and consumed the world’s first fish taco.<\/p>\n

Gao was happy on Cocinero Hierro: Sabado Grande Fantastico.\u00c2\u00a0 He was settling in to his niche and was perfectly content to stay there and give up on Iron Chef America forever despite Barry’s urging.\u00c2\u00a0 His decision to stay was reinforced when, on season 6’s live first episode it was announced that the key ingredient would be fugu.\u00c2\u00a0 The other 5 chefs balked, including current Iron Chef, Paco “The Taco” Hernandez.\u00c2\u00a0 None of them had been trained in cutting the poison-soaked liver from the deadly fish.\u00c2\u00a0 This was Gau Tso’s speciality.\u00c2\u00a0 He prepared a delicious meal and was sure of victory.\u00c2\u00a0 When it came time for judging, Gau Tso was the only chef to have prepared a full meal – without fugu the other chefs had to settle for appetizers.\u00c2\u00a0 Paco glared at Tso and the other chefs stood slumped and defeated.\u00c2\u00a0 Gao’s fugu was served last.\u00c2\u00a0 Everyone watching on wondered if they’d actually get to see a person die on live TV, but the thought that the fugu was botched never crossed Gao’s mind.\u00c2\u00a0 The judges bit simultaneously, chewed cautiously, and then dropped dead.\u00c2\u00a0 All eyes shifted from the dead judges to a very confused Gao Tso.\u00c2\u00a0 Hernandez cried out, “!Veneno!\u00c2\u00a0 !Asesino! (poison, assassin),” and he drew a long fish knife.<\/p>\n

It was not clear how Gao Tso escaped the wrath of five vengeful chefs and a large studio audience.\u00c2\u00a0 He found himself miles away, covered in sweat and totally winded.\u00c2\u00a0 His cell phone rang.\u00c2\u00a0 It was Barry, “So how do you feel about coming to America now?”<\/p>\n

Gao Tso fled across the border.\u00c2\u00a0 Barry had somehow finagled a chinese passport allowing Gao into the country.\u00c2\u00a0 What actually happened was that one of the other chefs (likely Paco) poisoned his own dish, knowing the fugu would take several minutes to take effect.\u00c2\u00a0 Whether that investigation is in progress or it has resolved itself by game start is left up to the GM.\u00c2\u00a0 All the controversy caused the Food Channel to drop Iron Chef, but it (and Gao Tso) were soon picked up by Fox, who thrives on controversy.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe they’ll have Gao prepare fugu on Fear Factor or some such.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Gao “El Gato” Tso is flamboyant and over the top, especially when recognized as a celebrity.\u00c2\u00a0 In spite of this, he is actually quite humble inside.\u00c2\u00a0 He isn’t actually someone living the high life, just someone who desperately wants to.\u00c2\u00a0 It doesn’t help that Barry encourages him to ham it up on TV, going so far as to insist that Gao does not know English but should instead shriek and grunt as he prepares his food.<\/p>\n

As a competitive chef, Gao is rather nimble.\u00c2\u00a0 He’ll likely have as high a dex stat as I can afford.<\/p>\n

Gao speaks fluent chinese, japanese, and english, along with passing spanish.\u00c2\u00a0 Not sure if this will come up.<\/p>\n

Gao learned to knife fight during his time on Mexican tv.<\/p>\n

Gao absolutely must have skill in the correct preparation of fugu.\u00c2\u00a0 I plan on feeding fugu to the PCs, and possibly to NPCs as well.\u00c2\u00a0 Would fugu cooking be a separate skill or could I somehow specialize cooking to include it?\u00c2\u00a0 Or would it default to cooking and then I add more points?\u00c2\u00a0 Because the pufferfish served in America is often cage bred, it isn’t actually poisonous.\u00c2\u00a0 The poison comes from tetradoxin eaten by the fish and collected by the fish’s liver.\u00c2\u00a0 Gau only serves authentic fugu and has to buy his fish from street alley vendors (who have rows and rows of pufferfish on the inside of their trenchcoats).\u00c2\u00a0 As such, Gau should probably have some street savvy skill.<\/p>\n

I see Gau fitting into the party in a similar role to the rogue.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s quick but not especially strong, and he definitely knows where to cut you, ese.\u00c2\u00a0 His people skills are limited, and his demi-celebrity status will likely both hinder and help him.<\/p>\n

In terms of super powers, there are a couple directions you could go.\u00c2\u00a0 Uber knife fighter stuff could be fun.\u00c2\u00a0 You could take “El Gato” and give him cat themed powers.\u00c2\u00a0 I wouldn’t even be surprised if he’s some sort of were-fugu and has a puffy spike ability.\u00c2\u00a0 Alternatively you could complete his roguish side with invisibility, shapechanging, or other stealth abilities.\u00c2\u00a0 That last idea would probably blend with El Gato well enough and it would explain how he escaped the wrath of 5 vengeful chefs and one large studio audience.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh yeah, I think Gao still carries his lucha mask with him.\u00c2\u00a0 He might have to wear that when his powers are active.<\/p>\n

I know you prefer writing a story that’s all your own to building something out of PC’s plot hooks, but if you do go the plot hook route I wouldn’t mind seeing other Iron Chefs come seeking revenge for something or other.\u00c2\u00a0 Possibly with Yakuza involvement or Paco “The Taco” Hernandez.\u00c2\u00a0 I was thinking of writing the character off of Iron Chef (and giving him a reason to roll with the PCs instead of being on TV) by killing off Barry and severing his connection to TV, but I’ll leave it to you to decide if that plot should be part of the game.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the weirdest backstory I’ve ever written.\u00c2\u00a0 It was a lot of fun to write, but probably not the best example.\u00c2\u00a0 This character was made for a GURPS super heroes game, and I think I tried a little too hard to be over the top.   Gao Tso was born in Shenzhao China in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":22,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-251","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=251"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":252,"href":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/251\/revisions\/252"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}