TV-DERIVED CHARACTER ADAPTATIONS
DOCTOR GREGORY HOUSE
Val CHA Cost Roll Notes 13 STR 3 12- Lift 151.6 kg; 2 1/2d6 HTH Damage [1] 12 DEX 6 11- OCV: 4/DCV: 4 16 CON 12 12- 10 BODY 0 11- 17 INT 7 12- PER Roll 12- 16 EGO 12 12- ECV: 5 17 PRE 7 12- PRE Attack: 3d6 14 COM 2 12- 4 PD 1 Total: 4 PD (0 rPD) 3 ED 0 Total: 3 ED (0 rED) 2 SPD 0 Phases: 6, 12 6 REC 0 35 END 2 27 STUN 2 Total Characteristic Cost: 54 Movement: Running: 3"/6" Leaping: 2"/4" Swimming: 2"/4" Cost Powers & Skills -6 Lame: Running -3" (total 3") Perks 25 Diagnostics Staff: Followers 5 Fringe Benefit: Diagnosticians Head, License to practice medicine 4 Reputation: One of the Best Doctors (A medium-sized group) 11-, +4/+4d6 3 Well-Connected 14 1) Contact: Dr. James Wilson (Contact has access to major institutions, Contact has significant Contacts of his own, Contact has very useful Skills or resources, Very Good relationship with Contact) 18- 35 2) Contact: Fomer Diagnostics Team (Contact has useful Skills or resources, Very Good relationship with Contact), Organization Contact (x3) 18- 13 3) Contact: Lisa Cuddy (Contact has access to major institutions, Contact has significant Contacts of his own, Contact has very useful Skills or resources, Good relationship with Contact) 18- Skills 9 Acting 15- 13 Bureaucratics 17- 9 Combat Driving 14- 11 Concealment 16- 13 Conversation 17- 5 Cramming 7 Criminology 14- 21 Deduction 21- 9 Forensic Medicine 15- 3 Forgery (Papers) 13- 9 Instructor 15- 3 Lockpicking 11- 1 Mechanics 8- 7 Musical Instrument Familiarity (Chordophones) 16- 9 Oratory 15- 12 PS: Physician 21- 12 PS: Surgeon 21- 21 Paramedics 21- 11 Persuasion 16- 3 Research 12- 11 Sleight Of Hand 15- 7 Stealth 13- 2 TF: Common Motorized Ground Vehicles, Two-Wheeled Motorized Ground Vehicles 3 Linguist 2 1) Language: Arabic (fluent conversation; literate) 2 2) Language: Hindi (fluent conversation; literate) 2 3) Language: Japanese (fluent conversation; literate) 2 4) Language: Mandarin (fluent conversation; literate) 2 5) Language: Portuguese (fluent conversation; literate) 2 6) Language: Spanish (fluent conversation; literate) 3 Scholar 4 1) KS: Current Events 14- 5 2) KS: History 15- 7 3) KS: Human Behavoir 17- 5 4) KS: Literature 15- 9 5) KS: Medical Mysteries 19- 6 6) KS: Music 16- 5 7) KS: Pop Culture 15- 3 Scientist 1 1) SS: Archaeology 11- 9 2) SS: Biochemistry 19- 9 3) SS: Biology 19- 9 4) SS: Chemistry 19- 11 5) SS: Medical Science 21- 9 6) SS: Pathology 19- 9 7) SS: Radiology 19- Total Powers & Skill Cost: 427 Total Cost: 474 100+ Disadvantages 20 Hunted: Lisa Cuddy 14- (As Pow, NCI, PC has a Public ID or is otherwise very easy to find, Watching) 0 Normal Characteristic Maxima 10 Physical Limitation: Addicted to Vicadin (Frequently, Slightly Impairing) 10 Physical Limitation: Infarction (In Constant Pain) (Frequently, Slightly Impairing) 20 Psychological Limitation: "Rubick's Complex", Needs to Solve Everything (Common, Total) 15 Psychological Limitation: Ass (Common, Strong) 10 Reputation: House, 11- 289 Experience Points 474 Total Disadvantage Points
Background/History: Gregory House was born to John and Blythe House on June 11, 1959. His social security number was issued in Ohio. House is a "military brat". His father served as a Marine Corps pilot, and transferred often to other bases during House's childhood. House presumably picked up his affinity for languages during this period, and shows a level of understanding of Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese and Hindi. One place his father was stationed was in Egypt, where House developed a passing fascination with archaeology and treasure-hunting, an interest which led him to keep his treasure-hunting tools well into his adulthood. Another station was Japan, where, at age 14, House discovered his vocation after witnessing a buraku doctor solve a case no other doctor could handle.
House loves his mother but hates his father, who he claims has an "insane moral compass." House avoids both parents and spends an entire episode dodging a night out with them. At one point, House tells a story of his parents leaving him with his grandmother whose punishments constituted abuse. He later confesses that it was his father who abused him.
After receiving his undergraduate degree at Johns Hopkins University, House studied at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine until classmate Phillip Weber reported House for copying exam answers from him. Following his expulsion from Johns Hopkins, he applied and was accepted to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor where he received his M.D. and met Lisa Cuddy, his future boss. There is a degree of sexual tension between the two characters due to a one-night stand in the past.
About ten years before the series began, House entered into a relationship with Stacy, a constitutional lawyer. They met at a "Doctors versus Lawyers" paint ball event where she shot him. Five years later, he suffered an infarction in his right leg, which went undiagnosed for three days due to doctors' concerns that he was exhibiting drug seeking behavior (House was also unable to diagnose his own infarction). An aneurysm in his thigh had clotted, leading to an infarction and causing his quadriceps muscles to become necrotic. House had the dead muscle bypassed in order to restore circulation to the remainder of his leg, risking organ failure and cardiac arrest. He was willing to endure excruciating post operative pain to retain the use of his leg. After, House was put into a chemically-induced coma to sleep through the worst of the pain. Stacy decided to choose a safer surgical middle-ground procedure between amputation and a bypass by removing just the dead muscle. This resulted in the partial loss of use in his leg, and left House with a lesser, but still serious, level of pain for the rest of his life. House could not forgive Stacy for making the decision, so she left him.
When Stacy makes her first appearance in the series, she is married to a high school guidance counselor named Mark Warner. Although House and Stacy grow closer together and reunite briefly during the second season, House tells Stacy to go back to her husband, which devastates her. Her character has not returned to the show since.
Personality/Motivation: House's character frequently shows his cunning and biting wit, enjoys picking people apart, and mocking their weaknesses. House accurately deciphers people's motives and histories from aspects of their personality and appearance. Dr. James Wilson once states in the episode DNR that while "some doctors have the messiah complex; they need to save the world", House has "a Rubik's complex"; he needs "to solve the puzzle." House typically waits as long as possible before meeting his patients. When he encounters his patients, House shows an unorthodox bedside manner and uses unconventional treatments. However, he impresses them with rapid and accurate diagnoses after seemingly not paying attention. This skill was demonstrated in an episode where House diagnoses an entire waiting room full of patients in under a minute on his way out of the hospital clinic.
His crankiness is commonly attributed to the chronic pain in his leg (as a result of the infarction) for which he requires the aid of a cane. According to Stacy Warner, his former girlfriend, he was "pretty much the same" before the infarction, and his boss Lisa Cuddy claimed that after the surgery he was "an egomaniacal, narcissistic pain in the ass—same as before." For his chronic leg pain, House takes Vicodin (hydrocodone and paracetamol (acetaminophen)) on a daily basis, and as a result has developed an addiction to the drug. He concedes that he has an addiction, but says that the addiction is not a problem because it does not interfere with his work.
House openly talks about and makes references to pornography. In one episode, he returns the flirtations of a female under age patient (Lines in the Sand), and is seen on at least two occasions engaging the services of a prostitute (Distractions). He is a staunch atheist and openly mocks any colleagues or patients who express any level of belief in any aspect of religion. House frequently says "Everybody lies," but jokingly remarked that he was lying when he said that in the first season finale. House criticizes social etiquette for lack of rational purpose and usefulness. In one episode, he explains how he envies an autistic patient because society allows the patient to forgo the niceties that he must suffer through.
House is a strong non-conformist and gives little regard to how others perceive him. Throughout the series, he displays sardonic contempt for authority figures. House shows an almost constant disregard for his own appearance, possessing a permanent stubble and dressing informally in jeans and t-shirt. He avoids wearing the standard white lab coat to avoid patients recognizing him to be a doctor.
House has a small social life and his only friend is Dr. James Wilson. Wilson knew House before the infarction, and looked after him when House's relationship with Stacy ended. Although they frequently analyze and criticize each other's motives, Wilson has risked his career to protect House. Dr. Wilson takes emotional refuge in his friend after suffering from a failed relationship in Sex Kills. House has quietly admitted, at several instances, that he is grateful for Wilson's presence, including referring to Wilson as his best friend. Dr. Wilson is one of the few who voluntarily maintains a relationship with House, and one of the few individuals who can make House laugh.
Quote:
Dr. Wilson: “Ah yes, if it isn’t Dr. Ironside.”
Dr. House: “Ah, if it isn’t Dr. ‘I had no friends when I was growing up, so all I did was watch TV by myself which is why I can now make pop cultural references which no one understands but me.’”
Dr. Wilson: “That’s my name, don’t wear it out.”
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