Bashford Dean (b.

1867)
The Museum Curator for the Arms and Armor Department of New York’s Metropolitan
Museum of Art during the 1920s, Dean was tasked with designing prototype helmets
for American soldiers in the Great War. He is also an accomplished zoologist specializing
in ichthyology and fluent in English and Japanese. He has a great eye for detail and is an
accurate appraiser of ancient artifacts, especially martial ones. He is a historian familiar
with the occult and can make detailed scientific drawings. As a curator, he has access to
the Met’s considerable financial resources if the endeavor would benefit the museum.

Dean is ready to be played in a classic-era Call of Cthulhu 7e game or appear as an

NPC benefactor. This digital character sheet has autocalculating fields, plus the text
fields scroll, so write as many notes as you need.

If you enjoy this and are interested in other characters based on real historical
figures, Volume 1 also contains:
• Sonia Greene Lovecraft - shopkeeper & writer, married to H.P. Lovecraft
• Wilfrid Voynich - book dealer & linguist, owns an undeciphered magical (?) tome
• William “Pussyfoot” Johnson - federal agent & prohibitionist with a gun and right hook
• Hiram Bingham III - professor & archeologist who studied Machu Picchu
• Mildred Mathias - a young researcher & botanist who loves outdoor adventures
• Bessie Coleman - thrill-seeker & aviator, the first Black woman pilot (Pulp)
• Richard Halliburton - adventurer & author, daredevil and raconteur (Pulp)
• Ida Tarbell - investigative journalist & activist who took down Standard Oil (Gaslight)
• Granville Woods - engineer & inventor, “The Black Thomas Edison” (Gaslight)
Plus:
• Bonus images for each character
• Blank autocalculating character sheets for your own use
• An essay on the Flu Epidemic of 1918-19 and how it can affect characters’ backstory or tactics

Click here for 20% off the $5 purchase price ($4) of Volume 1!

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© 2021 Spectacular Disaster Factory

 Call of Cthulhu
1920 s Characteristics
In vestigator Strength
30
D exterity
30
I ntelligence idea
40
Name Bashford Dean 60 12 60 12 80 16
Birth Date 10/28/1867
Occupation Museum Curator Constitution A ppearance Power
Sex Male 22 30 37
Race/Ethnicity English, French 45 9 60 12 75 15
Huguenot, and Dutch American
Age 53 in 1920
S ize Educatio n know Move R ate
Residence Wave Hill,
27 48
Riverdale N.Y.
Birthplace New York, N.Y.
55 11 96 19 7 +1
-1

Current Hit Points Current Sanity Current Magic Points Current

Luck
Max Major Max Max
10 10
Wound 75 99
Temp. Insanity
Indef. Insanity
15 15

Skills Electrical Repair 10 52 Locksmith 1 0

0 Spot Hidden 70 35
14
15 5 10
Accounting 30 6 Fast Talk  5 21 Mech. Repair 10 2 Stealth  20 4
0 0 5
Anthropology 1 0 Fighting: BRAWL  25 125 Medicine 1 0 Survival 10 2
27 5 10
Appraise 55 11 Firearms: HANDGUN 20 104 Natural World 10 2 Swim 20 4
22 5 10
Archaeology 45 9 Firearms: RIFLE/SHOTGUN 25 125 Navigate 10 2 Throw 20 4
25 20 5
Art: SCIENTIFIC DRAWING 50 10 First Aid 30 156 Occult 40 8 Track 10 2
15 0
Art/Craft: ARMOURER 30 6 History 80 40
16 Op. Hvy. Machinery 1 0 
7 5
Charm 15 3 Intimidate 15 37 Persuade 10 2 
10 0
Climb 20 4 Jump 20 104 Pilot 1 0 
25 0
Credit Rating 51 10 Language: ENGLISH 96 48
19 Psychoanalysis 1 0 
25 5
Cthulhu Mythos Language: JAPANESE 50 10 Psychology 10 2 
2 2
Disguise 5 1 Law 5 21 Ride 5 1 
15 40
Dodge 30 6 Library Use 40 20
8 Science: ZOOLOGY 81 16 
Drive Auto 20 10
4 Listen 20 104 Sleight of Hand 10 5
2 

Weapons Combat
Name Regular Hard Extreme Damage Range Attacks Ammo Malf. Damage Bonus none
Unarmed 25 12 5 1d3+db - 1 - -
Build 0
15
Dodge 30 6
 Background
Investigative Hooks: A seasoned globetrotter, Dean could be contacted
by someone curious about anything unusual or historical in or from the
ocean, as well as any classic armor or armament that may need investigation
or procurement. The U.S. government may request his services again as a
consultant or specialist.
Personal Description: “Young students were apt at first to be a little in
awe of this short, square-shouldered man with his prominent chin, quick
darting eyes, and unpredictable sallies of wit and irony. But his enthusiasm
was easily communicable to receptive minds. Moreover, he could ‘suffer
fools gladly’ or at least with commendable good grace, and, all things con-
sidered, was surprisingly slow to wrath. The psychologists might class him
as an ‘extravert,’ but his friends would say that the term ‘gentleman’ would
be more descriptive.” –William K Gregory
Significant People: His sister Harriet Martine Dean, his wife Mary Alice
Dean (née Dyckman), and Daniel Tachaux (b. 1857), one of the most famous
French armorers, whom Dean enticed to move to America to restore pieces
he was adding to the museum’s collection. Together they created the helmet
prototypes for the Army.
Meaningful Locations: The Dyckman House, one of the oldest surviving
Dutch-Colonial farmhouses in New York. He helped his wife and sister-
in-law, descendants of the original owners, restore the property and then
transfer ownership to the city, which established it as a museum of Dutch
and colonial life, with many genuine furnishings.
Treasured Possessions: A pair of 16th-century European daggers that he
bought at the auction of Henry Cogniat when he was 10 years old.

Degrees, Awards, Associations: In 1881, he entered the College of the City of Traits: Dean has a “magnetic enthusiasm” and uses it to manage others,
New York at age 14 (aided by a family friend, the president of the college) and delegating parts of complex problems while synthesizing viewpoints and
graduated with high honors in 1886. He taught at the College in the Natural data in the interest of an efficient solution. He has a fondness for minute
History Department while working on his PhD in zoology and paleontology scientific drawing plus a gift for the precise or pithy statement. Dean is left-
at Columbia University, which he earned in 1891 and became a full Professor handed and can draw adroitly with both hands simultaneously. He displays
of Zoology, teaching there from 1904 to 1912. For several years he excelled an eccentric fondness for bygone days.
at multiple occupations simultaneously. He taught Zoology at Columbia and Injuries and Scars:
curated exhibits at the American Museum of Natural History, but ultimately
he focused his efforts on creating, from scratch, one of the world’s best col-
lections of arms and armor at the Metropolitan Museum of New York. He is
a commissioned major in the Ordnance Corps of the U.S. Army.
Phobias and Manias:
Accomplishments: The first curator of fish at the American Museum of Natural
History (specializing in placoderms, or armored fish), writer of more than 175
scientific papers, including the three-volume Biography of Fishes (1916). In
1906, he became the honorary curator of the Metropolitan Museum’s Arms
and Armor department, which he himself initiated. In 1912, he is hired full Arcane Tomes, Spells, Artifacts:
time by the Met. The Army commissioned Dean to create armor and helmets
for the troops in The Great War. Although a few designs are field tested with
promising results, none become standard issue. However, Dean’s book Helmets
and Body Armor in Modern Warfare (1920) is a landmark reference, and his
designs influence other nations’ armorers for decades.
Encounters with Strange Entities:
Ideology/Beliefs: Dean has an “untiring interest in other people, places and
things...joined with remarkable tact and courtesy, with unassumed friend-
liness and with a modest spirit of ‘noblesse oblige.’” —William K Gregory
He approaches every conversation as a teachable moment and enjoys
informing or learning from others, often late into the night. Hugely inter-
ested in evolution and different branches of species, Dean brings the same
diligence to the evolution of armor throughout history.

gear & Notes
Possessions
Cast offs, replicas, and prototype armors and helmets of varying degrees of
weight, visibility, flexibility, and protection are at his disposal. A few complete
suits could be kludged together if the wearer eschews comfort and sartorial
sanity. The historical artifacts are far too precious, and using them in combat
is unconscionable to Dean.

cash & assets

Spending
Level: $50
Cash: $255 * a collection of over 125 historical arms and armor
Assets:* $25,500 Note: Dean is also, if the expense is legitimately related to adding to the
museum’s collection, able to access the Met’s funds (CR: Super Rich).