If the low-level PCs don't work, they don't eat. (or they don't eat very well).
That's why when I DM I encourage players to take a skill rank in either craft or profession.
For some reason, this is rarely an issue in the d20 modern game, but for D&D, players have trouble wrapping their arms around this one.
I'm also curious if other people have similar experiences.
Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
|
For some reason, this is rarely an issue in the d20 modern game, but for D&D, players have trouble wrapping their arms around this one.
To be fair, your average player has a lot better idea about what sort of jobs a person holds in a modern game (and even a sci-fi/future game) than in a D&D style game. Not only are the types of jobs completely different, but there is a lack of social mobility in the archtypical midevil setting.
I don't mind adventurers not having jobs, particularly when you consider the average person lives on 1 sp a day. 3 gp isn't just the spare change you find on a goblin - it's a month's wage!
If anything, I prefer PC's to have some family structure built out rather than a job/career. There are a lot of good rp hooks in a character's familial background (aka the Luke,-I-am-your-father plot.)
Sebastian
You're probably right about that, Sebastian.
The point about family connections is a good one. A lot of good plot hooks there.
I also find the apprentice/sponsor approach to be a good one. It's what I'm using in Age of Worms.
I have had characters get jobs sometimes if they have some down time on their hands (maybe the wiz needs a month and a half to craft a new item or something) it's fairly rare in my campaigns but it happens.
The PC's don't use a skill check like craft or proffetion. Even without these they already have very valuable skills. The fighter hires himself out as a bouncer or a boudygaurd. The rouge pickpockets. The bard either sings or signs up for any job he pleases, The mage sells his spellcasting. (Actually in monday's session the wizard joined the mage's guild and did a guild requested job warding a nobles house with arcane locks ect.)
One thing that was particularly effective in one of my games was the aftermath of a cult being destroyed. Said cult members were high-ranking officials in the city who carried out particulars of city government. Because qualified individuals in the position were lacking, and there was substantial property damage, the PC in question had to make reparations to the city by performing the duties of the cult members he had killed.
Mind you, one of the cult members was a geisha, and the PC was a red-haired dwarf. Yep, a dwarf with a bad singing voice in a kimono and geta....
My group still gets giggles over that one.
I wouldn't say its ever happened during the game: roasting dire boars on a spit isn't exactly my idea of adventure.
That said, many of our players have had PCs with prior jobs. This has been the case in the latest AP AoW: two PCs with Profession: Minor, one with Profession: Landscaper, one with Profession: Pimp, and just recently Profession: Waiter.
It seems that heroes rise from every facet of the social ranks.
It seems that heroes rise from every facet of the social ranks.
It has been said that being a hero involves doing the right thing at the right time - no sword, spiff magic, or sneaky skills required.
I like to have a backstory for characters - most (IMO) should have one outside of adventuring. I think it gives the game depth, but I like a lot of detail. It depends on the campaign though if the DM doesn't create opportunities for the players to utilize skills like craft or profession then characters won't take them.
If you want a truly adventure build in a mideaval setting I think their are professions that fit the bill:
Soldier
Sailer
Courtier
Scribe
Caravaner
Merchant - (who goes on caravans or other trading expeditions)
It doesn't need to be cartwright or cooper (though as DM if those fit a character background I would find a way to work with the player to reward the investment of skill points in the characters back story)
Noble backgrounds could lead to a logical build of all skill points going into direct adventure relevant skills - but even then - languages, perform, diplomacy, certain types of knowledge, profession adminstrator, judge, architect, engineer, etc. make sense.
Rogues who began as street urchins might have all of their ranks in pure adventure support type skills but to me that is the sign of a player with a limited imagination playing stts rather than a character.
Actaully in every adventure I have been in all my characters had to get jobs. My Paladin had profession: Lawyer as a skill in 2ED and my monk had to be an assistant to a cleric in a town that the group owed big time, as well they had to try to help out anyway they can. Then the cleric well was just helping a town out anyways, so he did herbalism and worked at the local constabulary as a healer. Typical role for a cleric but what can you do.
I think PC jobs are great at least for some part of a campaign, gives you a bit of a different experience for sure.
In almost all my campaigns over the years, the first game we play involves the transition between the PCs' old jobs and becoming adventurers.
Ex.: The fighter starts out as a village guard, the ranger works for small a fur shop in the same village, the cleric is still anadept at the local chapel and the wizard is still an apprentice for the town mage.
In the first game, I assume that all of these characters are already linked somehow (all friends, two could be cousins) and have them do one or two small "job" related adventures, like retrieving some spell component from the nearby gravesite for the apprentice's master... Or investigating some wierd footprints someone found in the woods.
After a couple of those, something happens that catapults the ordinary PCs into becoming adventurers. A humanoid invasion (kobolds or bandits), or someone gets killed (the town Mage), or a natural disaster (a simple flood)... Anything that gets the players personnally involved.
This method seems to be working really good for me, as the players often remember the times they were 'just guards' or fishermen, or apprentices. It's also a great way to introduce new players to the game and also to go through that tough first level.
Ultradan
How much effort to you (referencing Ultradan), and the rest of the group (meaning anyone else who reads this), handle introduction of a new character/player?
It strikes me that while Ultradan's technique makes sense - it would be stretching to add folks when the characters are well away from town.
Clearly you can just add them (what most DMs whose game I have joined do) in a bar, a hotel, etc. But do folks come up and enforce integration of backstories?
How much effort to you (referencing Ultradan), and the rest of the group (meaning anyone else who reads this), handle introduction of a new character/player?
It strikes me that while Ultradan's technique makes sense - it would be stretching to add folks when the characters are well away from town.
Clearly you can just add them (what most DMs whose game I have joined do) in a bar, a hotel, etc. But do folks come up and enforce integration of backstories?
With the method described above, it usually is no effort required for players and very little effort on the part of the DM.
As the players decide what class and skills they have, the DM just has to adapt what the players have done into the first scenario. And since the DM has to prepare an adventure anyways then the effort is minimal.
This way works well with new players and characters (since the characters have no real interesting histories up to that point). Of course, if a new character is generated later on in the campaign, then I ask the player for a BRIEF background. I find that overzealous players with a ten page long background story might be in for a dissapointment, as a DM can't possibly intergate every little aspect of everybodies back story. The adventure lies ahead gentlemen!
Ultradan
In almost all my campaigns over the years, the first game we play involves the transition between the PCs' old jobs and becoming adventurers.
Ultradan
Actually, in one of the campaigns I DM'd, the PC's were all told that they could start out from anywhere they wanted (to introduce regional feats and development of regional/city of birth attitudes in the FR) with any background info they wished so long as they had living parents that were monied enough to send them away to a new collegium. That way they could all go to roughly the same classes, all 'shared' the experience of being far from home with little in the way of starting cash, all had diverse backgrounds and national identifiers.
I started them out with: One day you are all drinking (like kids in college do) and one of you says "Hey! We could become adventurers! I mean, look! You're a mage, he's a cleric of Tymora - Goddess of stinkin' adventurer's, already! I can fight better than everyone in my class and you're a bard - you're supposed to be travling out on the road anyways, right? We could totally do this..."
Yes, it was a bit corney, but also something that we could ALL relate to! :)
Actually, in one of the campaigns I DM'd, the PC's were all told that they could start out from anywhere they wanted (to introduce regional feats and development of regional/city of birth attitudes in the FR) with any background info they wished so long as they had living parents that were monied enough to send them away to a new collegium. That way they could all go to roughly the same classes, all 'shared' the experience of being far from home with little in the way of starting cash, all had diverse backgrounds and national identifiers.
Of course, they totally didn't appreciate my efforts. It's not like they said anything outright, but the name of their adventuring "Company" became KTATS - Killing Things and Taking their Stuff.
Sigh.