d20 Adamant Entertainment Fantasy Occupations.pdf

Fantasy

Occupations

By Walt Ciechanowski

Introduction

Fantasy Occupations is a d20 resource

designed to help players and Dungeon

Masters ﬂesh out the backgrounds of

1 st level fantasy characters, providing

them with a skill set that will follow them

throughout their entire adventuring

career.

Most adventurers typically start their

careers in their late teens or early

twenties. While that sounds about

right in the modern world, a medieval

character could conceivably be married,

have children, own property, and work

in a profession by the time he was 16.

Thus, a 1 st level ﬁghter could be leaving

a family behind in order to enter his ﬁrst

dungeon. He might have to worry about

who’s minding his blacksmith shop

while he’s off slaughtering kobolds.

While it can be argued that player characters

are anomalies and haven’t planted roots by the

time they’ve started their adventuring careers,

it cannot be argued that these same player

characters haven’t been doing something

during adolescence. In fantasy d20 games,

this assumption is built into beginning skills. A

1 st level ﬁghter that comes from a blacksmith

background would put points into the Craft skill.

Unfortunately, this has a tendency to limit a player

character’s history to reﬂect his class skills. A

blacksmith can easily enter any profession, but

a good sailor (an agile swimmer) probably won’t

be a cleric, paladin, sorcerer, or wizard (never

mind that sailors are probably the most dedicated

worshippers of sea gods and offer prayers for aid

on a daily basis).

“stacking” (e.g. coupling soldier with ﬁghter will

not increase the ﬁghter’s combat prowess).

What Occupations Are…& What They’re Not

As in d20 Modern, an occupation reﬂects the

player character’s prior life, which normally

occurs during adolescence. As such, the

fantasy occupations below were constructed as

adolescent occupations. A 1 st level ﬁghter might

have been a squire, but he probably would not

have been a knight. A 1 st level cleric might have

spent time in temple learning the basics and

performing duties, but was probably not ordained

as a priest until he gained 1 st level.

Once a player character attains 1 st level, he may

or may not continue in his previous occupation.

The permanent class skills reﬂect his continuing

proﬁciency in what he learned, regardless of

whether he still follows his old calling. Should

the character choose a new occupation, he will

be limited to skills and feats that he acquires

normally as he progresses in levels.

In addition, studies show that children and

adolescents are better learners than adults.

Teach a child a skill and it will be with him for life.

While arguments can be made that switching

classes means that one doesn’t have as much

time to devote to a former class skill, it also

makes sense that skills learned in youth will

always come easier to one later in life.

Although occupations are learned prior to 1 st

level, a player character can take any bonus feats

that have 1 st level as a requirement.

Fantasy Occupations takes a page from d20

Modern and uses occupations to reﬂect a player

character’s former livelihood, taking “occupation”

in its loosest sense: how did a player character

occupy his time prior to adventuring? Each

occupation offers permanent class skills (they

never become cross-class skills, no matter how

many classes a player character takes) and

starting money. Some occupations offer bonus

feats as well. Each player character may have

only one occupation, and this occupation is

chosen at character creation.

Occupational Scope

Some occupations are more broadly deﬁned

than others, due to the same skill set being

more broadly applicable. A player character that

takes the ﬁsherman occupation was probably

a ﬁsherman, getting into a boat and casting

nets on a daily basis. A player character with

the apprentice occupation, by contrast, could

be a butcher or a blacksmith. As a result,

player characters that choose a broadly deﬁned

occupation should keep their narrow focus in

mind when selecting class skills.

A quick perusal through the occupations list will

note that typical occupations for a particular

character class don’t offer much beneﬁt (e.g. the

soldier occupation offers the same class skills

and feats already available to a ﬁghter). This

was done on purpose, as it both reﬂects reality

(the ﬁghter class presumes combat experience)

and encourages players to create more colorful

backgrounds for their characters. A side beneﬁt

is game balance, as this system discourages

Starting Money

Using this system, Player Characters start with a

number of gold pieces (or an equivalent standard

coin) generated according to their occupation,

with a bonus based on their character class, as

indicated on the following table.

Monks are a special case. As ascetics, monks

generally give their worldly goods away as they

dedicate themselves to their discipline. As a

result, a monk gains all of the beneﬁts of his

prior occupation except for starting money, and

a monk is limited to the normal starting funds

available to monks.

Class

Bonus Money

Barbarian, Bard

1d4x10

Cleric, Rogue

2d4x10

Druid

1d4x10

Fighter, Paladin, Ranger

3d4x10

Sorceror, Wizard

None

Monk

See Text.

Fantasy Occupation Charts

This section includes a number of sample

occupation charts for various areas of a

campaign world. While it is literally impossible

to generate generic charts for every conceivable

background, a few broadly generic backgrounds

are listed.

For players or DMs that like complete

randomization, a background chart is provided

ﬁrst. The player or DM should roll on this chart

ﬁrst and then go to the directed background chart

to make a ﬁnal selection.

The charts may be used in two ways. First, each

background provides a list of possible fantasy

occupations, as deﬁned in the next section.

Player Characters and Non-Player Characters

from a particular background now have a list

of appropriate occupations to choose from.

Second, each background includes a random

generation method. This enables players to “roll

their history” if they can’t decide or rather let fate

make the decision for them. The random method

is also useful for Dungeon Masters that wish to

quickly and randomly generate occupations for

Non-Player Characters.

BACKGROUNDS

Background

Tribal

Marine

Wandering

Rural

Village

Urban

Castle

Outlaw

Dungeon Masters are encouraged to customize

charts for their campaign, especially in light

of exotic cultures. The following charts, for

example, are modeled on fantasy human realms.

The miner occupation, which is considered rural,

might be an urban occupation in a dwarven

mountain city.

Wandering Background

Tribal Background

Some occupations require a lot of movement.

Entertainers may have to go from castle to castle

or village to village, while nomads are constantly

moving from place to place. This background is

also appropriate for unsavory occupations like

bandits or thieves.

“Tribal” is a bit of a misnomer; characters from

this background belong to uncivilized hunter-

gatherer societies. They need not be aggressive,

although all 1 st level barbarians hail from this

background.

Tribal Occupation

d20

Wandering Occupation

Apprentice

Acolyte

Arcane Student

Arcane Merchant

Bandit

Guide

Con Artist

Healer

Courier

Hermit

Diplomat

Nomad

Entertainer

Primitive

Gladiator

Guide

Healer

Hermit

Marine Background

Hunter

Investigator

A character with a marine background has spent

most of his time in the water, usually in the open

sea.

Merchant

Noble Warrior

Nomad

Soldier

Marine Occupation

Squire

Apprentice

Thief

Arcane Merchant

Woodsman

Diplomat

Fisherman

Guide

Merchant

Pirate

Seaman

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