"Skids" O'Toole, the Ex-Convict is a character conceived by Fantasy Flight Games as part of their Arkham Horror Files range of Cthulhu Mythos-relates games and fiction.
History
Whilst Skids had never really wanted to be a criminal, needs must when the devil calls, and he was in desperate need of cash. Never really seeing himself as a bad person, Skids did what it took to come up with the money; protection rackets and robbery, even bank jobs were not out of the question, but he prided himself on the fact that he’d never actually killed anybody.
When the law finally caught up with Skids and he explained that he needed the dough to finance treatment for his sick mother, the cops simply laughed in his face and booked him anyway. Clearly, that excuse had been used one too many times.
After his Ma died from her illness when Skids was only two years into his time, he didn’t get any other visitors. To keep himself from going stir crazy, he decided to make real friends with his cell mate, a strange fellow named Brad Hollins. Brad constantly muttered and rambled about how the “Old Ones” were coming and told stories of the things he had learned of in his dreams, but Skids stuck with him anyway and the two became real friends.
Then one night Skids woke up to the sound of chanting and the smell of smoke: looking over at Brad, he saw the man burst into flames, screaming in terror. Although the law wanted to pin this on Skids, they really didn’t have anything to hang it on, and so Skids was paroled right on time.
The first thing he did was travel to one of Brad's old haunts in a city called Arkham. There, he thought, he could maybe find out what had really happened to his old friend.
Behind the Mythos
Whilst initially created for their Second Edition release of Arkham Horror, Fantasy Flight have since included him as a playable character in Mansions of Madness, Eldritch Horror and Arkham Horror: The Card Game. In addition, a fully-painted plastic miniature of Skids was released in 2010 as part of their Arkham Horror Premium Figures collection, but this is now discontinued.
Trivia
- Skids' real first name remains unknown, as Fantasy Flight Games have never issued any material containing it.