Talk:Backgrounds

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The following backgrounds are taken from the d20 Warhammer 40,000 site. They need to be reworked for consistence and balance. Compare with existing backgrounnds in d20 Modern and Future.

Adeptus Mechanicus / Forge World

Most likely you hail from a Forge World; one of the industrial hives (like Mars) that supply the Imperium with their vast array of gadgets. People with this background range from techpriest, to engineers, to private technicians, to calculus logis and terminal hackers.

Prerequisite: Age 23+.

Skills: Choose three of the following skills as permanent class skills. If a skill the character selects is already a class skill, he or she receives a +1 competence bonus on checks using that skill. Computer Use, Craft (chemical, electronic, mechanical, or structural), Knowledge (trade, earth and life sciences, physical sciences, or technology), Repair, Research.

Change: Add a tech feat such as Cybertaker, or one of the bonus-to-a-few-related-skills ones.

Credit Bonus Increase: +3.

Administratum

You work for the vast bureaucratic engine that is the Imperium’s Administratum: Lawyers, accountants, prefects, functionaries, court adepts, and a variety of mid-level functionaries fall within the scope of this starting background.

Prerequisite: Age 23+.

Skills: Choose two of the following skills as permanent class skills. If a skill the character selects is already a class skill, he or she receives a +1 competence bonus on checks using that skill. Computer Use, Diplomacy, Knowledge (trade, administatum, earth and life sciences, Imperial, physical sciences, any xeno-racial or technology), Research.

Credit Bonus Increase: +3.

Adventurer

Adventurers include professional daredevils, mercenaries, relic hunters, explorers, field scientists, thrill-seekers, bounty-hunters and others called to face danger for a variety of reasons.

Prerequisite: Age 15+.

Skills: Choose two of the following skills as permanent class skills. If a skill the character selects is already a class skill, he or she receives a +1 competence bonus on checks using that skill. Bluff, Climb, Demolitions, Disable Device, Drive, Escape Artist, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (warp, streetwise, tactics, or technology), Move Silently, Pilot, Ride, Spot, Survival, Swim, Treat Injury.

Bonus Feat: Select one of the following: Advanced Melee Weapons Proficiency, Brawl, or Personal Firearms Proficiency.

Credit Bonus Increase: +1.

Archiver

Archivers include librarians, archaeologists, scribes, teachers, and other members of the Imperium whose primary function is recording and transacting with data. These characters typically adorn themselves with long flowing scripts to show their function in the vast machine that is the Imperium.

Prerequisite: Age 23+.

Skills: Choose three of the following skills as permanent class skills. If a skill the character selects is already a class skill, he or she receives a +1 competence bonus on checks using that skill.

Computer Use, Craft (writing), Decipher Script, Gather Information, Knowledge (warp, psychology, trade, administratum, galactic events, earth and life sciences, Imperial, physical sciences, tactics, technology, or religion), Research, or add a new Read/Write Language or a new Speak Language.

Credit Bonus Increase: +3.

Chartered Trader

Chartered Traders are paid to travel the universe and buy and sell goods. For more details on the kinds of trading charters see the section on Merchant Charters under the Imperial Navy and Star Travellers of the Codex Imperium section. The trader gets a charter to trade, but not neccesarily the ship to do so.

Prerequisite: Age 18+.

Skills: Choose two of the following skills as permanent class skills. If a skill the character selects is already a class skill, he or she receives a +1 competence bonus on checks using that skill. Bluff, Diplomacy, Gamble, Knowledge (trade, galactic events, or technology).

Leadership Bonus Increase: +1.

Credit Bonus Increase: +3 & a Typical Charter covering 1 Solar System

OR

Credit Bonus Increase: +1 & a Hereditary Charter covering 1 Segmentum

Colonist

Colonists are wayfaring pioneers who set the foundations of new societies on far-flung continents, planets, or moons. To survive in their new surroundings, they learn to live off the land and defend themselves against indigenous predatory life forms and hostile forces of nature.

Prerequisite: Age 15+.

Skills: Choose two of the following skills as permanent class skills. If a skill you select is already a class skill, you gain a +1 competence bonus on checks using that skill.

Computer Use, Craft (electronic, mechanical, or structural), Knowledge (earth and life sciences or physical sciences), Navigate, Repair, Survival.

Bonus Feat: Select Builder, Guide, or Planetary Adaptation.

Credit Bonus Increase: +1.

Death Worlder

Death worlds are planets which are too dangerous to support wide-spread human settlement but which for reasons of natural resources, tactical reasons or otherwise necessitate the colonization. Humans that live in these harsh conditions develop to be far tougher than your average movie-going gamma-worlder.

Prerequisite: Age 18+.

Skills: Choose two of the following skills as permanent class skills. If a skill the character selects is already a class skill, he or she receives a +1 competence bonus on checks using that skill. Climb, Demolitions, Drive, Hide, Knowledge (tactics), Move Silently, Navigate, Pilot, Survival, Swim.

Bonus Feat: Select one of the following: Brawl, Combat Martial Arts, Armour Proficiency (light), or Personal Firearms Proficiency.

Credit Bonus Increase: +1.

Drifter

Drifters are aimless wanderers and worldwise jacks-of-all-trades who move between cities or star systems, 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: Choose three of the following skills as permanent class skills. If a skill you select is already a class skill, you gain a +1 competence bonus on checks using that skill.

Bluff, Decipher Script, Disable Device, Disguise, Forgery, Gamble, Gather Information, Hide, Knowledge (streetwise), Navigate, Sleight of Hand.

Credit Bonus Increase: +2.

Feral Worlder

A feral world is one that is any in a pre-blackpowder state. Often these worlds are regressed far past pre-black powder state such as stone age or neolithic states. Not surprisingly Feral Worlders find melee weapons easier to use than ranged weapons and are used to close quarter combat.

Prerequisite: Strength 13 or Dexterity 13.

Skills: Choose three of the following skills as permanent class skills. If a skill the character selects is already a class skill, he or she receives a +1 competence bonus on checks using that skill. Balance, Climb, Drive, Jump, Ride, Swim, Tumble.

Bonus Feat: Select either Advanced Melee Weapons Proficiency or Brawl.

Credit Bonus Increase: +1.

Feudal Worlder

Some worlds in the Imperium are so disconnected with the rest of the galaxy that during the Dark Age of the Imperium they regressed to a pre-black powder state – cut off from other worlds by warp storms and other hazards. Some worlds develop from this point entirely on their own. A Feudal World is any post-black powder world that is not sufficiently advanced to be civilized. Perhaps they are still fighting from horseback with musket or perhaps they are treading the line between civilized and feudal. Feudal Worlders live a rough life but quickly adapt to the technology of the Dark Millenium. They tend to be physically stronger than men from gamma class worlds.

Prerequisite: Age 15+.

Skills: Choose two of the following skills as permanent class skills. If a skill the character selects is already a class skill, he or she receives a +1 competence bonus on checks using that skill. Balance, Climb, Drive, Handle Animal, Repair, Ride, Survival, Swim.

Bonus Feat: Select either Brawl or Personal Firearms Proficiency.

Credit Bonus Increase: +1.

Garden Worlder

Planets which are given over mostly to tourism and to the credity are called Garden Worlds. Garden worlds are ripe with philosophers and artists. A number of Ecclesiarchic planets are also garden worlds. People from Garden Worlds tend to be relaxed intellectuals with a capacity for reading people. Most are quite religious.

Prerequisite: Age 15+.

Skills: Choose three of the following skills as permanent class skills. If a skill the character selects is already a class skill, he or she receives a +1 competence bonus on checks using that skill. Bluff, Computer Use, Craft (visual art or writing), Disguise, Forgery, Knowledge (warp, Imperial, religion), Perform, Spot.

Credit Bonus Increase: +2.

Heir

Heirs are the elite sons and daughters of powerful magnates, influential nobles, and imperial commanders. Unlike navy nobility and credity upperhivers, 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. The son of an Imperial Commander for instance will inherit the planet his father rules over after his death; the daughter expected to marry another heir.

Prerequisite: Age 21+.

Skills: Choose two of the following skills as permanent class skills. If a skill you select is already a class skill, you gain a +1 competence bonus on checks using that skill.

Craft (visual art or writing), Knowledge (art, business, civics, current events, or history), Perform, Ride, Sense Motive.

Pre-Selected Feat: An heir must choose the Educated feat as one of her starting feats at 1st level.

Leadership Bonus Increase: +1.

Credit Bonus Increase: +6. An heir may permanently reduce her Leadership bonus by 1 to increase her starting credit bonus by an additional +1d6; this expenditure must be made before the character begins play. As long as her Leadership bonus is +1 or higher, an heir’s credit bonus can never drop below 10.

Imperial Guard

The Imperial Guard makes up the vast bulk of the Imperial military machine; recruited from the planetary defence forces of the Imperium’s millions of worlds, it is a huge military force of Humans and Abhumans.

Prerequisite: Age 20+.

Skills: Choose two of the following skills as permanent class skills. If a skill the character selects is already a class skill, he or she receives a +1 competence bonus on checks using that skill. Diplomacy, Drive, Gather Information, Intimidate, Knowledge (technology, streetwise, or tactics), Listen.

Bonus Feat: Select one of the following: Combat Martial Arts, Armour Proficiency (light), or Personal Firearms Proficiency.

Credit Bonus Increase: +1.

Law Enforcement

Law enforcement personnel include the Adeptus Arbites, underhive Guilders, military police, Planetary Defense Forces, or creditors and tax collectors.

Prerequisite: Age 23+.

Skills: Choose two of the following skills as permanent class skills. If a skill the character selects is already a class skill, he or she receives a +1 competence bonus on checks using that skill. Computer Use, Craft (visual art or writing), Decipher Script, Forgery, Gather Information, Investigate, Knowledge (psychology, trade, administratum, or streetwise), Research, Search, Sense Motive.

Bonus Feat: Select either Brawl or Personal Firearms Proficiency.

Credit Bonus Increase: +2.

Magos Biologis / Medic

Most men that have a knowledge of the human body are members of a group called the Magos Biologis: a wing of the Adeptus Mechanicus that deals in medecine, biology, biophysics, psycho-therapy and other studies of the living form. These men typically come from forge-worlds but don’t feel the same call of the machine god that their peers feel. It is their knowledge of genetics that makes such things as servitors and synth-skin a possibility. Other characters that might take this background are combat medics and apothecaries.

Prerequisite: Age 25+.

Skills: Choose two of the following skills as permanent class skills. If a skill the character selects is already a class skill, he or she receives a +1 competence bonus on checks using that skill. Craft (pharmaceutical), Computer Use, Knowledge (psychology, earth and life sciences, or technology), Search, Treat Injury.

Credit Bonus Increase: +4.

Mining World Civillian

Mining worlds produce the highest tithe grades in the Imperium and for this reason they are rarely bothered with by the Ecclesiarchy and the Inquisition. The Administratum knows full well not to meddle with a good thing and as long as the money is flowing the law in these places are in the hands of the Arbiters. Mining Worlds tend to be more violent than other worlds (except for Hive Worlds and Death Worlds) with angry gangs of disfunctional youth, hardened Arbiters and minimum wage disgruntled workers.

Prerequisite: Age 18+.

Skills: Choose two of the following skills as permanent class skills. If a skill the character selects is already a class skill, he or she receives a +1 competence bonus on checks using that skill. Balance, Climb, Computer Use, Drive, Jump, Knowledge (psychology, galactic events, or technology), Search, Treat Injury, Swim.

Credit Bonus Increase: +2.

Navy Deckhand

Not all of the men operating ships for the Navy are the sons of affluent space captains. In fact, very few are, the majority of the sailors, gunners and spaceship operaters are considerably rougher than the Nobility they are born indebted too. The Navy Deckhand is a life of hard work, but can be a rewarding life with fair pay and considerable voyaging.

Prerequisite: Age 21+.

Skills: Choose two of the following skills as permanent class skills. If a skill you select is already a class skill, you gain a +1 competence bonus on checks using that skill.

Computer Use, Craft (electronic, mechanical, or pharmaceutical), Knowledge (earth and life sciences, physical sciences, or technology), Navigate, Pilot, Repair, Survival.

Bonus Feat: Select either Aircraft Operation (spacecraft) or Zero-G Training.

Credit Bonus Increase: +1.

Navy Nobility

The Navy is contains a large quantity of affluent, well-groomed man: the Noble Admirals of the Imperial Navy. If you are born in such a navy outpost and descend from a noble line, be it captain or admiral, then prepare to have your life handed to you on a silver platter. Your parents are undoubtedly among the creditiest men in the galaxy. Some members of the Navy are also Navigators from the Navigator Houses – the Navis Nobile – but not all are.

Prerequisite: Age 15+.

Skills: Choose one of the following skills as permanent class skills. If a skill the character selects is already a class skill, he or she receives a +1 competence bonus on checks using that skill. Bluff, Craft (visual art or writing), Diplomacy, Disguise, Navigate, Perform, Pilot.

Leadership Bonus Increase: +1.

Credit Bonus Increase: +4.

Outcast

Persecuted and exiled for being different, outcasts are lone pariahs or shunned members of a culture whose characteristics the Imperium 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. Most outcasts are mutants or have been accused of heresy or perhaps have been feeling the call of something from beyond the physical world, a cry heard only in the effluvium of the warp…

Prerequisites: Age 15+.

Skills: Choose one of the following skills as a permanent class skill. If a skill you select is already a class skill, you gain a +1 competence bonus on checks using that skill.

Disguise, Hide, Knowledge (streetwise), Search, Survival, Treat Injury.

Bonus Feat: Toughness or Endurance.

Extra: 2 free mutation points

Credit Bonus Increase: +1.

Psyker-Child

The children of Sanctioned Psykers are unsurprisingly strong with the touch of the warp. They almost invariably grow up to be psykers themselves so they are often trained from an early age knowing the talents will develop. As a psyker-child you are posessed of considerable psychic lore and unusual power.

Prerequisite: Intelligence 10.

Skills: Choose three of the following skills as permanent class skills. If a skill you select is already a class skill, you receive a +1 competence bonus on checks using that skill. Concentration, Craft (chemical or writing), Decipher Script, Gather Information, Knowledge (warp, earth and life sciences, Imperial, or physical sciences), Psychic Sense (Int), Research.

Bonus Feat: Select either: Arcane Heritage or Psychic Affinity.

Credit Bonus: +2.

Religious

Ordained clergy of the Imperial Cult, as well as theological scholars and experts on religious studies fall within the scope of this starting background.

Prerequisite: Age 23+.

Skills: Choose three of the following skills as permanent class skills. If a skill the character selects is already a class skill, he or she receives a +1 competence bonus on checks using that skill. Decipher Script, Knowledge (warp, psychology, Imperial, streetwise, or religion), Listen, Sense Motive.

Credit Bonus Increase: +2.

Rogue Psyker =

Some people are born hearing voices and uncovering hidden powers. They have neither faith nor training to guide them but learn to manifest their powerful psychic energy through personal experience and innate understanding. These dangerous men are hunted by the Ordo Xenos of the Inquisition.

Prerequisite: Charisma 10.

Skills: Choose two of the following skills as permanent class skills. If a skill you select is already a class skill, you receive a +1 competence bonus on checks using that skill. Bluff, Concentration, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Intimidate, Knowledge (psychology, tactics, or streetwise), Psychic Sense (Cha), Sense Motive.

Bonus Feat: Select either Innate Gift or Iron Will.

Credit Bonus: +2.

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: Choose three of the following skills as permanent class skills. If a skill you select is already a class skill, you gain a +1 competence bonus on checks using that skill.

Decipher Script, Disable Device, Knowledge (technology), Move Silently, Repair, Search, Spot, Survival.

Credit Bonus Increase: +2.

Seer

Seers draw quiet strength from their faith. They tend to become Mystic psykers capable of incredible acts of healing, spirit-seeing, and fortune-telling. Some Seers are able to use such items as the Emperor’s Tarot deck and even more powerful seers can even understand eldar runestones. Seers are essentially psykers but whose power stems from faith rather than training.

Prerequisite: Wisdom 10.

Skills: Choose three of the following skills as permanent class skills. If a skill you select is already a class skill, you receive a +1 competence bonus on checks using that skill. Concentration, Craft (writing), Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Knowledge (warp, psychology, Imperial, or religion), Psychic Sense (Wis), Sense Motive.

Bonus Feat: Select either: Mystical Heritage or Psychic Affinity.

Credit Bonus: +2.

Unchartered Trader

Skilled drivers and pilots, uncharted traders have to be particular adept as to avoid prosecution at the hands of the navy. Also called smugglers and rogue captains, these men fly home made, stolen or otherwise illegal nonstandard ships to move people, information, and precious cargo safely from one destination to another. They treat their vehicles as extensions of their bodies and are most comfortable behind the thruster controls of cargo shuttles.

Prerequisite: Age 18+.

Skills: Choose two of the following skills as permanent class skills. If a skill you select is already a class skill, you gain a +1 competence bonus on checks using that skill.

Craft (mechanical) (Int), Drive (Dex), Knowledge (current events, popular culture, or streetwise) (Int), Navigate (Int), Pilot (Dex), Repair (Int).

Bonus Feat: Select either Spacer or Vehicle Expert.

Credit Bonus Increase: +1.

I don't like the name. Do we need two trader backgrounds? --Urban 10:51, 18 January 2006 (CET)

Underhiver (Gang Member)

The underhive is a wretched Urban sprawl built deep into the recesses of the mighty protective pyramids that dot so-called Hive Worlds. The constructions are so tall that few Underhivers have ever seen the sun and live their whole lives in the eerie half-light of electric lamps.

Prerequisite: Age 15+.

Skills: Choose two of the following skills as permanent class skills. If a skill the character selects is already a class skill, he or she receives a +1 competence bonus on checks using that skill. Disable Device, Disguise, Forgery, Gamble, Hide, Knowledge (streetwise), Move Silent­ly, Sleight of Hand.

Bonus Feat: Select either Brawl or Personal Firearms Proficiency.

Credit Bonus Increase: +1.

This backgriound certainly works for other gang members than those from a Hive World. Change name => Gang Member

Upperhiver (Dilettante)

If you live in the upper hive its because you are a credity pig (or your parents were) and you are able to lead this perfect life because you’ve been exploiting the underhivers living hundreds of miles below your feet, fighting and clawing for survival, for generations.

Prerequisite: Age 18+.

Skills: Choose one of the following skills as permanent class skills. If a skill the character selects is already a class skill, he or she receives a +1 competence bonus on checks using that skill. Gamble, Intimidate, Knowledge (galactic events or Imperial), Ride, or add a new Speak Language.

Leadership Bonus Increase: +1.

Credit Bonus Increase: +6.