If you want to add something more or something else to your character, you may consider using Careers - in the OSR this is usually intended as what the characters did before they started with their current lives of adventures as fighters, clerics, thieves or magic-users...
These Careers, of course, are also a great source of inspiration for NPC characters as well.
The first article presents a couple of simple lists. In this case, the background professions are also tied to a little mechanical advantage.
Background Professions
by Akrasia
[...] Player characters weren’t always adventurers. Before they decided to head off into dark mysterious dungeons or ogre-infested wild lands, they most likely started down one or more ‘respectable’ career paths. In most ‘old school’ fantasy role-playing games like Swords & Wizardry and Labyrinth Lord, however, this aspect of a character’s early life has no effect on that character’s abilities. This optional rule aims to rectify this situation.In addition, by providing all characters with at least one ‘background profession,’ this optional rule should provide greater depth and personality to the players’ characters. Consider, for instance, the following party. Cormac the fighter was once a hunter who was raised near the Highland Forest, hence his skill in tracking prey and moving stealthily in hill and wood. In contrast, his ally Elowyn, also a fighter, was once a scholar in the city of Bookbridge, hence her wide-ranging knowledge of different esoteric subjects. [...]
It is assumed that characters abandoned their professions in order to become adventurers before progressing beyond the ‘apprentice’ stage (or equivalent). Thus a character who has the background profession of ‘alchemist,’ for example, would not be as skilled at alchemy as most ‘professional’ (non player character) alchemists.
A character’s background profession(s) can enable that character to do or know certain things that other characters cannot do or know. [...]
Background Profession Charts
Players may select (or roll for) either one profession on chart I or two professions on chart II.
Chart I
1 Alchemist [Requires Intelligence of 12+]
2 Aristocrat
3 Doctor [Requires Intelligence and Wisdom of 10+]
[...]
Chart II
1 Blacksmith [Requires Strength of 10+]
2 Farmer
3 Fisher
[...]
List of Background Professions
Alchemist [Requires an Intelligence of 12+]
Alchemists are skilled at identifying elixirs, poisons, potions, and so forth. (Normally there is no bonus to the roll, except for +1 if Intelligence is 13 or greater, but only alchemists can try this. If an alchemy lab is available – typically only found in towns with populations of 2500 or more – the alchemist gains a +4 bonus, but must pay 30 +2d10 gold pieces per day to rent necessary supplies.) Characters with the alchemist background profession start with 1+1d3 potions (to be determined randomly or by the GM).
Aristocrat
Aristocrats have knowledge of court etiquette, heraldry, recent history, and politics. They are skilled at difficult riding manoeuvres (+4 bonus) and mounted combat (+1 bonus to hit when on a trained warhorse). Characters of an aristocratic background start the game with an inherited high-quality weapon, shield, or suit of armour (player’s choice). Because of its superior quality, this item will have a +1 non-magical bonus (i.e., the weapon will have a +1 bonus to hit but not damage, or the shield or armour will grant a +1 bonus to AC). Aristocratic characters also start with a bonus of 2d20 gold pieces.
Blacksmith [Requires a Strength of 10+]
Blacksmiths can repair metal weapons and armour with proper equipment (costs 10% of ‘market’ weapon/armour price for supplies and to rent forge; normally takes one day per item). Blacksmiths can also determine the correct value of non-magical weapons and armour within 10%.
[...]
https://akraticwizardry.blogspot.com/2009/06/background-professions.html
There is also a much simpler system, presented by an anonymous comment on the same post, as follows:
I use a much simpler system (pinched from Barbarians of Lemuria):
Every character has 4 points at chargen to spend on "backgrounds" -- essentially roles he has held in the past (q.v., a Conan-like character might choose Barbarian, Thief, Pirate, Mercenary). You can choose a background more than once (e.g., Barbarian 2, Thief 1, Mercenary 1).
Whenever attempting a non-combat related task that can somehow be tied to the background, you gain a bonus equal to the number of times you chose the background. [...]
We're moving to the next article, from the author of Into the Odd, and we should focus a little on the title: "Failed Careers". This is a common trope in OSR: a career in the past of your character is likely to be something that went wrong, instead of something that simply configures as a set of skills and/or bonuses.
It does a lot also to help figure out why the character is now out on adventures and risking their life, instead of sitting safe by the fire at night, and having a "regular" job just like everyone else.
Failed Careers
In Electric Bastionland everybody starts with:
A failed career.
A shared debt.
Here are the one-hundred possible options for the former, all determined by the roll of your Abilities.
1: Gutter Wretch
The bottom of the barrel.
Bastion’s crust.
2: Curiocentric Collector
An entire life spent looking at dusty things and squinting at books.
It’s time to get out there for yourself.
3: Trench Survivor
You survived a Trench Battle with little to write home about.
Except for that one thing you found in a strange tunnel.
4: Debt Collector
Someone paid you a pittance to look intimidating in dark alleyways.
If need be you shed some blood, but there’s no extra pay.
5: Dead-Shoresman
You died, but found a way back from where you went.
Nobody believes you, and everyone you once knew is long gone. [...]
If you want a much longer list, the 200 below should suffice. They come with a starting weapon and something extra, some useful, others just plainly odd... But figuring out what to do with odd pieces of equipment or with something peculiar of your character is part of the fun in the OSR.
200 Failed Medieval Careers
by James Young
I like the idea that new characters start with a profession they failed at/got bored with/were fired from before they started out on the road to fortune and doom.
I made the jobs pretty standard because I am boring and so try to keep things fairly normal until the Weird Shit starts happening, so there are no leech-fuckers or tree-gobblers or anything like that.
But you can rename them if you want I don't mind! [...]
http://tenfootpolemic.blogspot.com/2014/01/200-failed-medieval-careers.html
Now, this next one is a very long list; you may use it to inspire you in building your own table(s), but it has no numbers and therefore is not of immediate use.
What did people do in a Medieval City?
What did people do in the Middle Ages? If you meet a random person on the street, what is his likely occupation? Or did people work at all? Were the Middle Ages some Communist utopia, where everybody laid around all day and things were magically produced by fairies?
Of course not. They didn't have electronics engineers and computer programmers, but they did have coopers, bakers, blacksmiths, and many other jobs that made their society go around. If you do a little research, there were tons of medieval occupations. Luckily, I've done it for you, so you don't have to!
In the following list, I have made a link to the online version of Webster's Dictionary, so you can find out what things are. In some cases, the definition is also included locally. I am slowly making local definitions for all these occupations, for your convenience. [...]
http://www.svincent.com/MagicJar/Economics/MedievalOccupations.html
If you need something just very weird or baroque, you have the next two lists. The first is 100 careers for DCC assuming you're playing in a peculiar setting, a little bit over the edge... while the second I find more useful. The second list is still presenting peculiar entries like "Carnivorous-plant gardener" or "Raised by apes", but it could fit in an almost "regular" setting if these would be used only occasionally.
DCC: d100 Weird Urban Occupations
by Jez Gordon
100 slightly more colorful Occupations for your 0-level funnel runners, written up for use over at Purple Sorcerer's character generator. [...]
01 Sweat-milker, Wooden pail (as club), Apron
02 Muck-racker, Crusty rake (as polearm), Soiled smock
03 Slurry-runner, Staff, Thigh-high boots and sweaty rags
04 Limb-strainer, Large bloody sieve (as club), Spare hand
05 Filth-cutter, Scissors (as dagger), Leather smock [...]
52 Baroque Character Backgrounds
by ROGER G-S
This time, the random finger of fate has decreed that the Character Background and Languages page get the Baroque treatment. I suppose if you play that "Dungeon Crawl Classics" game, these might also be useful as backgrounds for your little pit-fodder avatars. As always roll d100, in half, rounded up, and use 51 or 52 to replace a dull or inappropriate outcome. [...]
Design notes:
- Careers as "skills" or as something the character is good at (with a mechanical advantage or some implied skills)
- Careers as "failed careers"; somehow more of a background than a set of skills
- Possibly add a starting weapon to a career
- Perhaps add a starting piece of equipment or something peculiar
- Use weird or baroque careers with care; spice things up but only every now and then
Hi, thanks for mentioning the article on the podcast!
ReplyDelete