Character Backgrounds
Agitator
You know how to incite the people with fervent speeches. You were partly responsible for the bloody riots of 1461: you swear you did it for your ideals, not money.
Skills: charm, quick draw.
Assets: clothes (working class attire), alchemist’s fire (bulk ½; consumable, d6 damage, range 2, blast, fire damage), scroll (bulk ½; pamphlet denouncing the Emperor, or at least they told you so: you can’t read after all).
Artisan
You know how to keep equipment in good order: nothing is more dangerous than a blunt sword or a cracked shield.
Skills: crafting, piercing strike.
Assets: clothes (thick leather apron), toolbox (bulk 2).
Barber-surgeon
A sharp razor and a steady hand are required for both a clean shave and delicate surgeries.
Skills: healing, lethal attack.
Assets: clothes (bloodstained apron), surgery tools (bulk 2).
Boatman
You have ferried passengers and smuggled goods along the many rivers flowing across the Kingdom.
Skills: boatmanship, swimming.
Assets: clothes (wet and mouldy), fishing tools (bulk 2).
Bone picker
One person’s trash is another person’s treasure: you scour the roads, graves, and gutters looking for something valuable to sell for a few pennies.
Skills: frugality.
Advancements: AGI+1, WIT+1.
Assets: clothes (mismatched clothes scavenged from the road), femur (d4 damage; fragile), bag of dung, crutch.
Coach driver
You worked for a coaching company, driving staging coaches through the dangerous roads of the Kingdom and protecting them with your trusty blunderbuss.
Skills: driving carts, riding.
Assets: clothes (coat and wide brimmed hat, for the rain), blunderbuss (bulk 2; d8 damage, range 8, reload).
Cutpurse
Some are born with too much: those wealthy nobs aren’t going to notice if they are a few shillings short.
Skills: sneaking, stealing.
Assets: clothes (hood covering your face), gold jewel (bulk ½; gold necklace with a noble family emblem, stolen).
Deserter
You have fought for the Kingdom and seen the horrors of war, the nightmares will never stop.
Skills: cleaving strike, skilled strike.
Assets: clothes (uniform from your regiment, has seen better days), halberd (bulk 2; d8 damage).
Duellist
You are a skilled duellist, constantly looking for a worthy opponent to hone your skills.
Skills: ambidexterity, disarming.
Assets: clothes (a few stitched up cuts), parrying dagger (d4 damage), thrusting sword (d6 damage).
Entertainer
You were a performer at a travelling carnival, capable of executing a vast array of exciting tricks.
Skills: contortionism, fire eating.
Assets: clothes (bare chested, lest your shirt catches fire), throwing knives (d4 damage, range 8; you like to juggle with them), alcoholic drink (bulk ½; consumable), torch (consumable).
Footpad
You have spent years mugging unaware victims in shady alleys and dark forest roads, occasionally killing for money.
Skills: sneak attack, strike to stun.
Assets: clothes (scarf to cover your face), cudgel (d4 damage; ideal to knock people out), garrotte (d8 damage, direct damage).
Gambler
Luck come and goes at the gaming table but it has never abandoned you, not with the help of a few clever tricks.
Skills: luck, playing games.
Assets: clothes (large pockets), cards (bulk ½; marked), dice (bulk ½; loaded).
Hunter
When you hunt in the dark forests of the Kingdom, you sometimes wonder if you really are the hunter or rather the prey.
Skills: bushcraft, hunting.
Assets: clothes (decorated with trophies from your preys), crossbow (bulk 2; d6 damage, range 8).
Jester
You have spent your life making a fool of yourself to entertain the nobles, but you will have the last laugh!
Skills: acrobatics, blathering.
Assets: clothes (colourful, with a bell hat), stick with bells (d4 damage; jingles cheerfully when it hits someone), smoke bomb (bulk ½; consumable).
Labourer
Your bones and muscles have been hardened by years of carrying heavy loads and drunkenly taking part to tavern brawls.
Skills: brawling, wrestling.
Assets: clothes (drenched in sweat), shovel (bulk 2; d6 damage), ration (bulk ½; consumable; packed lunch).
Messenger
Time is of the essence when carrying messages across the Kingdom, and you sure are a fast runner.
Skills: languages, running.
Assets: clothes (dusty and sweaty), scroll (bulk ½; sealed letter, no addressee), scroll case.
Peasant
Your life was simple: growing crops and tending to livestock, trying to put enough food on the table to survive another winter.
Skills: animal handling.
Advancements: STR+1, AGI+1.
Assets: clothes (stinking of manure), chicken (Bertha, dumb and brave), pig (Hans, picky about food).
Pedlar
You made a small fortune transporting and trading exotic goods, but you lost everything because of a bad business decision.
Skills: bargaining, gossiping.
Assets: clothes (excessive amounts of cheap fake jewellery), clothes (expensive, made of silk), darkroot (bulk ½; consumable), perfume (bulk ½; consumable).
Physician
You are an erudite doctor and a herbalist, knowledgeable about poison, disease, antidotes, and cures.
Skills: apothecary, medicine.
Assets: clothes (spotless black coat), antidote (bulk ½; consumable), cure-all (bulk ½; consumable), dream sand (bulk ½; consumable).
Pit fighter
You have fought for money in illegal arenas and as a judicial champion for hire.
Skills: fast attack, shield mastery.
Assets: clothes (torn, dusty, and covered in old blood), shield (bulk 2; shield, d4 damage).
Priest
Yours is the burden to teach and guide people so that they don’t succumb to the lure of darkness.
Skills: meditating, religion.
Assets: clothes (priestly robes and religious paraphernalia), book (Holy Scriptures), sacred power scroll (bulk ½).
Raconteur
You have travelled far and wide across the kingdom, singing songs and acting out enthralling stories.
Skills: acting, music.
Assets: clothes (flamboyant and fashionable), music instrument (fiddle).
Rat catcher
Rats are everywhere and nobody likes them. You offer your services to get rid of them, but you swear they are getting bigger and nastier by the day…
Skills: disease resistance, poison resistance.
Assets: clothes (partly made of rat fur), trapping tools (bulk 2), small dog (Brutus, trained to hunt rats, small but vicious).
Ruined noble
Your house has fallen and you must now mingle with the lowly scum, but the day will come when you can reclaim what’s yours by birthright!
Skills: leadership.
Advancements: STR+1, WIT+1.
Assets: clothes (ostentatious fripperies, old and full of holes), arming sword (d6 damage; family heirloom), signet ring (bulk ½; proof of your identity).
Scholar
Hunched over dusty ancient tomes, you have accumulated vast amounts of knowledge: time to put it into practice!
Skills: alchemy, erudition.
Assets: clothes (night gown and comfortable shoes), book (blank, you can’t wait to fill it with your learnings), looking glass, quill & ink (bulk ½; consumable).
Sharpshooter
Your skill with a bow or a gun has no equals: you can shoot a moving squirrel from half a mile away.
Skills: steady aim, skilled shot.
Assets: clothes (wide brimmed hat to shade your eyes), arquebus (bulk 2; d8 damage, range 8, reload).
Slayer
There is good pay for slaying giant monsters: it’s a dangerous job, but you are brave and foolish enough to do it.
Skills: fast dodge, monster slaying.
Assets: clothes (thick hardened leather, cut, burnet, scratched, and torn), huge battle axe (bulk 2; d8 damage).
Soothsayer
You are cursed with the ability to see what others can’t, and have witnessed the end of the world.
Skills: augury, divination.
Assets: clothes (hooded robes), divination tools (bulk 2).
Tomb robber
Precious treasures are buried in ancient crypts and old tombs: their previous owners aren’t going to miss them.
Skills: burglary, climbing.
Assets: clothes (capacious knapsack to store the loot), crowbar, rope.
Witch hunter
Warlocks, witches, and sorcerers are a threat to mankind: they are destined to meet their end in the flames of a pyre.
Skills: magic sense, magic shield.
Assets: clothes (wide brimmed hat, pitch black clothes), alchemist’s fire (bulk ½; consumable, d6 damage, range 2, blast, fire damage), 2× blessed water (bulk ½; consumable, d10 damage, range 2, holy damage).
Wizard
You are a secretive scholar of the esoteric arts: many fear you, and with good reason.
Skills: sorcery.
Advancements: mana+1.
Assets: clothes (comfortable robes), scroll of ‘eldritch blast’ (bulk ½), sorcerous power scroll (bulk ½).
Zealot
You have a dark past and many sins to atone for: you are going to save your soul by purging the heretic!
Skills: battle frenzy, fearless.
Assets: clothes (bloodstained monastic habit), book (Holy Scriptures), crimson weed (bulk ½; consumable).