Horrific occupations
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These horrific occupations are intended to be meaningful for the modern horror genre. Since the skill list has been changed and several things such as Reputation removed or made into skills, all are modified from their original incarnations.
Occupation Descriptions
- Eclipse: How many CP each? Let's go with 15 for now. Enough for two feats and a tiny bit extra.
Prerequisite: This must be true in order to choose this occupation.
Bonus Feat: You gain this as an additional feat at 1st level.
Class Skills: Gain the listed skills as permanent class skills.
Skills: Gain the indicated number of skill points. Level limits apply, so non-specialized skills can only have a single point assigned to them.
Wealth Bonus Increase: Add this to your starting Wealth bonus.
A few very well-paid occupations gain an extra Wealth bonus each level. This will be specifically noted.
Profession Skill: If you continue working in this occupation, add ranks in this skill to any relevant specializations when you make a Profession check. Some occupations (like student) earn no income, and has no profession skill.
Occupations
The standard occupation in d20 Modern is nothing of the kind—it is a background, since it's something that the character used to do before going heroic. Actually calling them backgrounds would, at this stage, be too confusing.
Academic
Academics include librarians, archaeologists, scholars, professors, teachers, and other education professionals.
Contacts: 2 academic, 2 students (current or former), and 2 any.
Class Skills: One of Cultures, Linguistics, Knowledge, or Sciences.
Skills: Cultures (Academic). 1 point in Linguistics, and 4 more points in Cultures, Linguistics, Knowledge, and Sciences.
Wealth Bonus Increase: +3.
Adventurer
Adventurers include professional daredevils, big-game hunters, relic hunters, explorers, extreme sports enthusiasts, field scientists, thrill-seekers, and others called to face danger for a variety of reasons.
Prerequisite: Age 15+.
Contacts: 2 fellow or semi-rival adventurers. 2 groupies or newsmen/journalists.
Class Skill: Guts.
Skills: Cultures (some relevant subculture). 2 points in Acrobatics, Animals, Athletics, Endurance, Guts, Initiative, or Survival.
Bonus Feat: Choose one of Archaic Weapons Proficiency, Brawl, and Personal Firearms Proficiency.
Wealth Bonus Increase: +1.
Profession Skill: Persuasion. The key to making money as an adventurer is to find sponsors with deep pockets.
Animal
You grew up as an animal, roaming free under the moon. This is only appropriate for certain shapeshifters. For those, this occupation is mandatory.
You cannot read or write, and you cannot spend points in Craft, Cultures, Linguistics, or Sciences at start, but you can speak freely to other werewolves and primal beasts.
Prerequisites: Werewolf or other shapeshifter, born as an animal with animal parents.
Class Skills: Perception and two of Endurance, Initiative, Intimidation, Stealth, and Survival.
Skills: Three points in Endurance, Initiative, Intimidation, Perception, Stealth, or Survival.
Bonus Feat: Improved Natural Attack (bite).
Wealth Bonus: +0
Profession Skill: You are kidding, right?
Apothecary
Apothecaries are people who study the science of mixing chemicals, elements, and naturally occurring materials together for predictable results. They often go on to be research scientists, inventors, pharmacists, or alchemists.
Prerequisite: Age 20+.
Contacts: 3 fellow chemists or doctors.
Class Skills: Sciences.
Skills: 3 relevant specializations in Craft, Knowledge and Sciences.
Bonus Feat: Either Authorized Channels or Black Marketer.
Wealth Bonus: +3.
Aristocrat
In these modern times, being an aristocrat is no longer a real occupation, nor a defining feature of one's personality or social standing. It was different in the old days, and some who stalk the night are old indeed.
Athlete
Athletes include amateur athletes of Olympic quality and professional athletes of all types, including gymnasts, weight trainers, wrestlers, boxers, martial artists, swimmers, skaters, and those who engage in any type of competitive sport.
Prerequisite: Strength 13 or Dexterity 13. Strong, Tough, or Fast hero.
Skills: Gain one of Acrobatics, Animals, Athletics, and Reputation (variant skill).
Bonus Feat: Select Archaic Weapons Proficiency or Brawl.
Wealth Bonus Increase: +1.
Profession Skill: One of the skills above, usually Reputation (variant skill). It's useful to manage your sponsor contracts.
Blue Collar
Blue collar occupations include factory work, food service jobs, construction, service industry jobs, taxi drivers, postal workers, and other jobs that are usually not considered to be desk jobs.
Prerequisite: Age 18+.
Skills: Gain Tinker (skill).
Bonus Feat: Gain Brawl and one of Black Marketer, Low Profile, Surface Vehicle Operation, and Toughness (revised).
Wealth Bonus Increase: +2.
Celebrity
A celebrity is anyone who, for whatever reason, has been thrust into the spotlight of the public eye. Actors, entertainers of all types, newscasters, radio and television personalities, and more fall under this starting occupation.
Prerequisite: Age 15+.
Skills: Gain Persuasion and Reputation (variant skill), and one of Crafts, Deception, Perform, or Reputation (variant skill).
Bonus Feat: Gain Windfall or an additional skill point in one of the skills above.
Wealth Bonus Increase: +4.
Creative
The creative starting occupation covers artists of all types who fan their creative spark into a career. Illustrators, copywriters, cartoonists, graphic artists, novelists, magazine columnists, actors, sculptors, game designers, musicians, screenwriters, photographers, and web designers all fall under this occupation.
Prerequisite: Age 15+.
Skills: Gain two of Crafts, Deception, or Perform.
Bonus Feat: Either Natural Talent (one of the skills above) or Windfall.
Wealth Bonus Increase: +2.
Criminal
This illicit starting occupation reveals a background from the wrong side of the law. This occupation includes con artists, burglars, thieves, crime family soldiers, gang members, bank robbers, and other types of career criminals.
Prerequisite: Age 15+.
Skills: Gain one of Deception, Tinker (skill), Gamble, Guts, Intimidation, or Stealth.
Bonus Feat: Gain Brawl and either Black Marketer, Holdout, Low Profile, Personal Firearms Proficiency, or Windfall.
Wealth Bonus Increase: +1.
Dilettante
Dilettantes usually get their wealth from family holdings and trust funds. The typical dilettante has no job, few responsibilities, and at least one driving passion that occupies his or her day. That passion might be a charity or philanthropic foundation, an ideal or cause worth fighting for, or a lust for living a fun and carefree existence.
Prerequisite: Age 18+. Trained in Liberal Arts
Skills: Gain one of Animals, Cultures (skill), Gamble, Linguistics (skill), or Persuasion.
Bonus Feat: Gain one of Archaic Weapons Proficiency or Windfall.
Wealth Bonus Increase: +6.
Profession Skill: None. A dilettante gets an automatic +2 to Wealth each level, if her current Wealth is lower than her starting Wealth.
Doctor
A doctor can be a physician (general practitioner or specialist), a surgeon, or a psychiatrist.
Prerequisite: Age 25+.
Skills: Gain three of Knowledge (variant skill), Perception, Sciences (skill), and Treat Injury.
Wealth Bonus Increase: +4.
Drifter
Drifters are aimless wanderers and worldwise jacks-of-all-trades who move between cities, working odd jobs until boredom or fate leads them elsewhere. Along the way, they learn strange customs and pick up interesting and diverse skills.
Prerequisite: Age 15+.
Skills: Gain two of Deception, Gamble, or Stealth.
Bonus Feat: Gain Brawl and Low Profile.
Wealth Bonus Increase: +2.
Emergency Services
Rescue workers, firefighters, paramedics, hazardous material handlers, and emergency medical technicians fall under this category.
Prerequisite: Age 18+.
Skills: Gain two of Acrobatics, Athletics, Guts, Perception, Sciences (skill), Treat Injury, and Vehicles.
Bonus Feat: Gain one of Archaic Weapons Proficiency (for fire axes), Great Fortitude, Surface Vehicle Operation, or Toughness (revised).
Wealth Bonus Increase: +2.
Entrepreneur
Entrepreneurs have an obsession about being their own boss. They believe in themselves, have an abundance of confidence, and the ability to acquire the funds necessary to bankroll their newest moneymaking venture. These small to large business owners have a knack for putting together business plans, gathering resources, and getting a new venture off the ground. They rarely want to stick around after the launch, however, as they prefer to put their energies into the next big thing.
Prerequisite: Age 18+.
Skills: Gain Cultures (skill) and one of Deception, Knowledge (variant skill), Persuasion.
Bonus Feat: Gain one of Deep Pockets, Financial Wizard, or Windfall.
Wealth Bonus Increase: +4.
Heir
Heirs are the elite sons and daughters of powerful magnates, influential nobles, and imperial monarchs. Unlike dilettantes, however, they are bound by their lineage to certain responsibilities, with the assumption that they might someday rise to lead their families into the future… assuming the stars are properly aligned and they do nothing to jeopardize their birthright.
Prerequisite: Age 21+.
Skills: Gain Cultures (skill), and one of Animals, Crafts, Linguistics (skill), Perform, or Reputation (variant skill).
Wealth Bonus Increase: +1d6+6.
Profession Skill: Persuasion. An heir gets her money by staying on good terms with daddykins.
Investigative
There are a number of jobs that fit within this occupation, including investigative reporters, photojournalists, private investigators, police detectives, criminologists, criminal profilers, espionage agents, and others who use their skills to gather evidence and analyze clues.
Prerequisite: Age 23+.
Skills: Gain either Deception or Persuasion, and one of Deception, Guts, Persuasion, Sciences (skill), or Stealth.
Bonus Feat: Select Brawl or Personal Firearms Proficiency.
Wealth Bonus Increase: +2.
Law Enforcement
Law enforcement personnel include uniformed police, state troopers, federal police, federal agents, SWAT team members, and military police.
Prerequisite: Age 20+.
Skills: Gain one of Bureaucracy, Guts, Initiative, Intimidation, Life Sciences, Perception, Persuasion, Tactics, or Vehicles.
Bonus Feat: Select two of Authorized Channels, Combat Martial Arts, Defensive Martial Arts, Armor Proficiency (Light), and Personal Firearms Proficiency.
Wealth Bonus Increase: +1.
Military
Military covers any of the branches of the armed forces, including army, navy, air force, and marines, as well as the various elite training units such as Seals, Rangers, and Special Forces.
Prerequisite: Age 18+.
Skills: Gain one of Athletics, Engineering, Stealth, Survival, Tactics, or Vehicles.
Bonus Feat: Gain Personal Firearms Proficiency and one of Advanced Firearms Proficiency, Armor Proficiency (Light), Authorized Channels, Brawl, Combat Martial Arts, or Surface Vehicle Operation.
Wealth Bonus Increase: +1.
Outcast
“Outcast” is not so much an occupation as a forced way of life. Persecuted and exiled for being different, outcasts are lone pariahs or shunned members of a culture whose customs or characteristics society finds deviant or abhorrent. Outcasts lurk on the fringes of civilization. Some strive for acceptance, while others are trapped by their own feelings of resentment, self-loathing, or hopelessness.
Prerequisites: Age 15+.
Skills: Gain one of Deception, Perception, Stealth, Survival, or Treat Injury.
Bonus Feat: Gain Toughness (revised) and one of Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Low Profile, or Run.
Wealth Bonus Increase: +1.
Profession Skill: None. There is no hope, no future. You are doomed.
Religious
Ordained clergy of all persuasions, as well as theological scholars and experts on religious studies fall within the scope of this starting occupation.
Prerequisite: Age 23+.
Skills: Gain two of Metaphysics, Persuasion, Reputation (variant skill), and Social Sciences.
Bonus Feat: Gain one of Faith, Minions, Unshakable, or Windfall.
Note that, even though you can choose Minions before it would normally be available, you are unlikely to have a leadership score high enough to actually get any minions. All things come to those who wait.
Wealth Bonus Increase: +2.
Profession Skill: Persuasion or Social Sciences.
Rural
Farm workers, hunters, and others who make a living in rural communities fall under this category.
Prerequisite: Age 15+.
Skills: Gain one of Animals, Athletics, Engineering, Survival, and Vehicles.
Bonus Feat: Gain Brawl and one of Personal Firearms Proficiency and Surface Vehicle Operation.
Wealth Bonus Increase: +1.
Scavenger
Scavengers turn society’s wreckage and discarded trash into useful tools or items for trade, and if they’re lucky, their endeavors might even yield one or two objects of special value. They effortlessly navigate and strip clean the most treacherous places, and their playgrounds are abandoned space stations, gutted buildings, and smoking battlefields.
Prerequisites: Age 15+.
Skills: Gain one of Engineering, Guts, Perception, Stealth, Survival, or Technology.
Bonus Feat: Gain Salvage and either Black Marketer, Toughness (revised), or Windfall.
Wealth Bonus Increase: +2.
Student
A student can be in high school, college, or graduate school. He or she could be in a seminary, a military school, or a private institution. A college-age student should also pick a major field of study.
Prerequisite: Age 15+.
Skills: Gain two of Bureaucracy, Computers, Engineering, Language, Liberal Arts, Life Sciences, Perform, Physical Sciences, Social Sciences, and Technology.
Bonus Feat: Gain one of Action Boost, Second Chance, and Sensitive.
Wealth Bonus Increase: +0.
Profession Skill: None.
Technician
Scientists and engineers of all types fit within the scope of this starting occupation.
Prerequisite: Age 23+.
Skills: Gain two of Computers, Engineering, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, or Technology.
Bonus Feat: ?
Wealth Bonus Increase: +3.
Profession Skill: One of the skills above.
Transporter
Skilled drivers and pilots, transporters move people, information, and precious cargo safely from one destination to another.
Prerequisite: Age 18+.
Skills: Gain one of Engineering and Vehicles.
Bonus Feat: Gain two of Aircraft Operation, Brawl, Force Stop, Surface Vehicle Operation, and Vehicle Specialization.
Wealth Bonus Increase: +1.
Profession Skill: Vehicles.
White Collar
Office workers and desk jockeys, lawyers, accountants, insurance agents, bank personnel, financial advisors, tax preparers, clerks, sales personnel, real estate agents, and a variety of mid-level managers fall within the scope of this starting occupation.
Prerequisite: Age 23+.
Skills: Gain Bureaucracy and two of Computers, Life Sciences, Persuasion, Physical Sciences, or Technology.
Wealth Bonus Increase: +3.
Profession Skill: Bureaucracy.
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