Overview
In this rather personal guide, all my Barotrauma roleplaying personas are reunited in a comprehensible list. You will learn about the characters I impersonate, their origins, traits, tribulations and more. It offers a good example of how you can make your own Baro roleplay world. But for now, here’s my world. It’s a world of cruel billionaires, mad scientists, daddy issues, clones and experimental subjects. Welcome to my world. Welcome to HENK CORP.
INTRODUCTION
Wait! NEW TO ROLEPLAYING? Visit my roleplaying guide and learn from the master!
[link]The existence of this guide might be odd to you. I don’t believe many people will actually refer to it other than for laughters.
The reason why I made this guide is that I came up with the conclusion that it can be a bit confusing for those who play with me to keep up with the multiple roleplay characters I impersonate from one session to the other. I realized this when I joined a Discord Barotrauma RP group called “Pinneapples R Us” and was asked to change my Discord name to my in-game character’s name. Since I roleplay as multiple characters, I was confronted by my own elaborate roleplaying antics. I don’t have “one” character. I have many. The reasonable explanation is that I have gone too far and there’s no way to stop it now. The fire is out of control and can only grow exponentially. You can only watch and be afraid of how far things will go before the authorities catch and arrest me.
Therefore, the only possible manner to make sense out of my madness is to compile all the info my mad brain came up with. This is the place I have chosen.
Of course, I have to claim a symbolic creative ownership of most of the characters you’ll read about right here. I would certainly be flattered if you took inspiration in my works when you would create your own Barotrauma miniverse – and this guide might certainly be very helpful for that purpose -, but I have to ask you to not use those specific characters ( except the bot replicants, you’ll understand why when you get to them ). The characters I have invented are rather dear to me and they’re my babies. Only I possess the right to make their lives miserable. Clearly, I can’t stop you, but I can most certainly haunt you in your dreams. Remember that there are no cops in dreams. It’s only going to be you and I. Alone. You don’t want that to happen.
HENK CORP
HENK CORP is a multi-billion credits management and holding company operating on Europa. Much like a moloch, it’s gigantic and has many tentacles. The difference is that HENK CORP is much more aggressive than a Moloch. HENK CORP is always thriving for one thing: acquire at all cost. It will devour all of its competitors and exterminate those who get in its way. To put it simply, HENK CORP is the most dangerous entity on Europa, way before the fabled Endworm.
It has numerous subsidiaries, including:
THE HENKS
Below you will find the characters I usually choose to roleplay, but also some who only exist to add more depth to the lore. The Henks are core characters of my own little universe and are responsible for the very structure of the whole thing. For what I have done and what I may do in the future, I blame them, not myself.
Henk Henkson Sr. died a few years ago but his legacy resonates even today. Born in an already wealthy family, Henkson’s formidable business skills turned what was already a huge company into a titanic enterprise worth multiple colonies altogether. Some may say that if he would’ve been immortal, he could’ve been worth more than the rest of humanity. There’s a reason why they called him “Business Khan”. Throughout his life, he has strived to make HENK CORP grow. He was like all mortal men, however. As he began to grew older, it was obvious he would not be able to see his dream of “buying humanity” fulfilled. He thus decided to pass the role of HENK CORP chairman to his first born son, Henk Henkson II, and chose to focus solely on his path towards eternal life. He grew more and more interested in life extension technologies which allowed him to not only defy death but also to rejuvenate. Through various cybernetic enhancements, serums and surgeries, he has tried to stretch his existence as much as possible, waiting and hoping for the next great step in medical research which would unlock immortality. It is believed that his second son, Doctor Henk, whom he trusted to perform such surgeries, might’ve simply decided to make the intentional accident of murdering him in order to gain more power within HENK CORP.
Henk Henkson II is a rather elusive character. He has rarely been seen inside a submarine, choosing to rather command things at a distance in an outpost somewhere. Having inherited from most of his father’s fortune and being a very close portrait of his progenitor himself, he is proving to be as skilled as him. He regularly can be seen on TV. Some say he is more interested in the political aspect of power. Posters and even statues of Henk Henkson II can now be seen every now and then. He is relatively close to his younger brother Doctor Henk, but has severed ties with the youngest brother, Mister Henk. Some tabloid reports indicate that he might be simultaneously dating the three idols of the same EU-Pop ( Europan Pop ) group called PINKPINK. Henk Henkson II has strongly denied these rumors, however.
Doctor Henk is the classic mad scientist you will find in horror stories. His fondness of science can only be equaled by his cruelty. He conducts various “experiments” in order to make scientific discoveries no matter what the consequences might be. He is labelled as a kamikaze scientist by most of his peers because he is not afraid of taking part in those experiments and accompanying researchers at the front lines of Europan mysteries. Doctor Henk nevertheless is an extremely capable professional who holds great knowledge on medicine and can truly be a formidable asset when he is on a mission. He simply gets bored from time to time and decides to make things spicier by injecting unsuspecting individuals with certain chemicals. Sometimes it is for science, but sometimes it’s also just for the thrill of seeing a man squirming on the floor with foam coming out of his mouth. He has been described as antisocial and recluse. His voice has once been compared to that of a Skeksis – upon hearing this comparison, he said, and I quote: “thank you very much.”.
Mister Henk is the youngest son of Henk Henkson Sr. and is the black sheep of the family. After being horrified by how her two first sons turned out to be, Mister Henk’s mother decided to take him under her wing. He became a more caring, more human individual in the process. Mister Henk is the most active Henk in terms of submarine missions and definitely the most helpful of all. He values the life of a crewman more than his own and will do everything to ensure cohesion within a group should things heat up. Mister Henk however can be quick to anger. He answers any form of challenge readily. This includes when rivals threaten him somehow. He trusted people a little too much during his younger years – probably his mother’s fault – which led him to experience a series of deceptions which in turn made him a bit cynical over time.
THE “EXPERIMENTS”
Clones are seemingly infinite numbers of copies of Henk family members. No one exactly knows what they are for. It appears they all believe they are original versions. Now, I know what you’re thinking – that picture doesn’t look anything like a Henk clone. That’s just a picture of a clone after it has met its expiration date. Yes indeed, clones have a very limited lifespan and usually die after a couple of years. It is not clear how the clones are made, but one thing’s for sure: Doctor Henk is behind their fabrication, and they all have chips inserted in their brain which allows him and his team of scientists to keep track of them. They usually carry the genetics of either Mister Henk or Doctor Henk, but clones of other family members have been spotted in the past as well. There’s very little ways of figuring out who is a clone and who isn’t. Usually, the identity of a clone is uncovered when they freak out after realizing they are clones, which leads them to go insane. This can result in extreme situations such as murder, suicide, and murder-suicides. One time, someone said a clone was suicided by someone else, however impossible that might seem.
Experiment C32 is Doctor Henk’s latest “creation.” This chimpanzee/human hybrid prototype cannot speak but it can type in terminals and logbooks, just like the smarter monkeys used to do back on Earth. C32, in order to communicate, instead screams and mumbles like an ape. He has a repertoire of sounds at his disposal to express his feelings if need be. All the crew needs to do is to pay attention to C32’s behavior to see if something is up. If he screams like a mad monkey, chances are something’s wrong. Over the course of a series of particularly traumatizing missions, C32 has developed psionic, psychic, paranormal abilities. It is not known if that was planned by Doctor Henk or not. The problem is that he does not yet control his powers, which can cause things to go south rather quickly. His mind apparently has access to other dimensions. There is also a theory that claims C32’s mind can travel through time while his body remains in place. There have been reports of C32 speaking multiple languages including english, french, italian, spanish, chinese, japanese, german and even more. He was heard speaking unknown languages as well and has done seemingly indicepherable calculus while under the influence of his psionic powers. During one of his most recent “outbursts”, he was transformed into a murderous clown who really likes hanging out in dark ballasts. When he’s calm and stimulated by others, however, C32 can be a loyal crewmember. If you befriend him enough, he will follow you around like a pet and make sure you are alright at all times. He is both a blessing and a curse on a ship. C32’s warranty expires in approximately ten years.
THE ADVANCED BOT REPLICANTS
Most recently, there have been rumors of ancient celebrities coming back to life and taking part in submarine missions. The fact and the matter is that they are bots. But not your regular bots. You already know these stupid bots who run like headless chickens whenever you need them to work properly. Those are so last gen. No. These particular bots I’m talking about were designed in union by Henk Industries and HenkSoft in order to test a potential market of highly advanced bots who do more than asking themselves “what the hell is a starboard?”. They are still rather dumb and will repeat themselves every now and then, but the difference is that they can actually speak and you can hear them and they also behave much more reasonably than your ordinary bot. It was believed that the best idea to sell these bots to the wider audience was to implement the personality and voices of people who are well known in 20th and 21st century pop culture.
CONCLUSION
Have you enjoyed this guide and deemed it worthy of something, anything? Please consider giving it a thumbs up, making it one of your favorites, sharing it with others or granting it an award depending on how good you think it is. It would definitely give me a nice little pat on the head and I would definitely make more in the future should I feel like there’s enough appreciation for my works. If you are interested in staying up to date with my latest Barotrauma creations, I recommend subscribing to my workshop! Hoping to meet you in Europan waters soon! Until then… Praise the HENKmother!
FURTHER READINGS
You made it to the end of this guide. Surprising. Maybe you are interested in reading more. Or maybe you are being forced to by someone holding you at gun point. In any case, here’s:
“Doctor Henk’s Diary“, a Barotrauma fanfic mainly featuring Doctor Henk
[link]
Synopsis: Doctor Henk is a cruel mad scientist from “Henk Corp”, my roleplaying world. You may have encountered him during online sessions. In this dark yet humorous diary, we explore his mind and get to know more about him, including his daddy issues and his love for cookies.