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10-30-2015, 12:27 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: On the road again...
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[Fantasy] Any Background Lenses out there I can use?
I'll be starting a short adventure in my TL4^ Ranoc muskets-and-magery setting shortly, and I was looking at the idea of presenting players with a list of background lenses for their characters, something to help define where they came from.
I've come up with two lenses, but I'm open to others: Town Guard (8 points) Advantages: Guard Rank 0 [0]; Legal Enforcement Powers 2 [10]. Disadvantages: Duty to Town Guard (12) [-10]. Skills: Brawling (E) DX+0 [1]; One of Broadsword, Shortsword, Polearm, or Spear, all (A) DX+0 [2]; One of Crossbow or Guns (Longarm), both (E) DX+0 [1]; One of Guns (Pistol) or Shield (E) DX+0 [1]; Knife (E) DX+0 [1]; Savoir-Faire (Police) (E) IQ+0 [1]; Streetwise (A) IQ+0 [2]; Judo (H) DX-1 [2] or Wrestling (A) DX+0 [2]. Farmhand (0 points) Disadvantages: Wealth (Struggling) [-10]. Skills: Animal Handling (Cattle or Equines) (A) IQ+0 [2]; Carpentry (E) IQ+0 [1]; Farming (A) IQ+1 [4]; First Aid (E) IQ+0 [1]; Teamster (Equines or Oxen) (A) IQ-1 [1]; Weather Sense (A) IQ-1 [1]. Comments? Other lenses would be helpful.
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"Life ... is an Oreo cookie." - J'onn J'onzz, 1991 "But mom, I don't wanna go back in the dungeon!" The GURPS Marvel Universe Reboot Project A-G, H-R, and S-Z, and its not-a-wiki-really web adaptation. Ranoc, a Muskets-and-Magery Renaissance Fantasy Setting Last edited by Phantasm; 10-30-2015 at 12:38 AM. |
10-30-2015, 01:06 AM | #2 |
Banned
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Europe
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Re: [Fantasy] Any Background Lenses out there I can use?
Former Job Lenses? Why not Culture Lenses instead?
Remember to include literacy or the absence thereoff (at TL4, literacy should explicitly stated on the character sheet). The norm for a Farmhand would be full (-3 points) Iliteracy. In fact that's the setting norm for all of TL4 and earlier (whereas Broken literacy might be the norm for TL5 for all I know). And I think you're being very optimistic about a Savoir-Faire existing for TL 4 town guards. |
10-30-2015, 01:19 AM | #3 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: On the road again...
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Re: [Fantasy] Any Background Lenses out there I can use?
Quote:
And good point about literacy. I've no doubt the farmhands would be mostly illiterate, and even guardsmen would probably be semi-literate. I'll have to adjust. And spend a few years working as a guard (or as a soldier, or a sailor, or inside any organization for that matter), you learn how to deal with your higher-ups.
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"Life ... is an Oreo cookie." - J'onn J'onzz, 1991 "But mom, I don't wanna go back in the dungeon!" The GURPS Marvel Universe Reboot Project A-G, H-R, and S-Z, and its not-a-wiki-really web adaptation. Ranoc, a Muskets-and-Magery Renaissance Fantasy Setting |
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10-30-2015, 01:31 AM | #4 |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Washington state.
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Re: [Fantasy] Any Background Lenses out there I can use?
You want GURPS Historical Folks, a collection of 116 templates of medieval professions, easily shifted into lenses. It can be downloaded here, along with the 3rd edition eBook it was updated from from: http://www.mygurps.com/ghf.html
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10-30-2015, 07:35 PM | #5 | |
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Heartland, U.S.A.
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Re: [Fantasy] Any Background Lenses out there I can use?
Quote:
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10-31-2015, 04:56 AM | #6 | |
Banned
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Europe
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Re: [Fantasy] Any Background Lenses out there I can use?
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I maintain, though, that what is in GURPS Historical Folks is Templates whereas the OP asked for Lenses, and even for Background Lenses. |
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10-30-2015, 01:42 AM | #7 | |
Banned
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Europe
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Re: [Fantasy] Any Background Lenses out there I can use?
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As for Previous Job Lenses, I don't know of any for GURPS (GURPs Historical Folks contains Templates, not Lenses), but if you can find a Warhammer Fantasy RP core book, I think you'd fine huge selections of medieval professions (well, more like TL4'ish than genuinely medieval) that you can use for inspiration, although you'll have to convert the skills to GURPS (and probably very loosely). If I were to make a set of "previous job" Lenses for an action-adventuring TL3 or TL4 GURPs campaign, I think I'd go about it in a very systematic and rigid way, by assuming that it's always a "previous job" with the character no longer on active duty (thus Rank and so forth isn't needed), and always the exact same point and skill/trait structure, for instance something like this: 2 points in one Primary Skill 1 point in one Secondary Skill 1 Dabbler Perk split 2 ways between two Tertiary Skills 1 Perk representing a lasting benefit of the job, e.g. Courtesy Rank or a Perk-grade Contact Thus all Previous Job Lenses would be exactly five points and would have the exact same structure, and I, wearing my worldbuilder hat, would be forced to work within the structure and make hard choices about which one (always one) skill to assign as Primary, and so forth (including only those four skills that are most likely to be retained after the character no longer holds the job that the Lens is based on). As a method to kickstart the creative process. It also wouldn't be able to include disadvantages (such as lack of Literacy) or even most advantages, although if you define iliteracy as being the setting norm (that is, if you define everybody as defaulting to -3 Iliterate) then you could spend the "Perk" point on upgrading Iliterate to Broken (e.g. for a town guard officer). You could also make the rigid structure slightly more flexibly by deciding to have both Minor Previous Job Lenses and Major Previous Job Lenses. Minor ones are structured as above and are 5 points, while Major ones could have a different structure and be 10 or even 12 or 15 points. That way, a Minor Lens could be really mostly just flavour, while a Major Lens would be more expensive but also more likely to contain adventuring-useful stuff that is attractive to player (e.g. former Town Guard vs former Farm Hand). |
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10-30-2015, 02:06 PM | #8 |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: [Fantasy] Any Background Lenses out there I can use?
Adaptations of the historical worldbooks will suffice.
Another thought: Border-scout: Ambassador and/or Intelligence Officer of The Empire to wilderness area(analogous to Czarist Interpreter or Victorian Indian Political Officer). Advantages: Area Knowledge, Patron(Emperor, or local noble/governor), contacts(local Imperial officials, native leaders, etc). Disadvan:Hazardous Duty(Emperor's Service), CoH(officers, gentlemans, whatever), SoD(whoever), Social Stigma(gone native, or half-breed if the character has ancestors from the area) Skills: Diplomacy, Cultural Familiarity, Survival(whatever type of terrain is in the area), Whatever fighting skills are appropriate,
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"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison Last edited by jason taylor; 10-31-2015 at 09:41 AM. |
11-03-2015, 02:34 AM | #9 | |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Washington state.
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Re: [Fantasy] Any Background Lenses out there I can use?
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There. Five minutes and your Lens is as follows: Former Vermin Catcher Poisons (H) IQ-1 [2] Urban Survival (A) IQ-1 [1] Animal Handling (Vermin) (H) IQ-2 [1] Resistant +3 to Rat Poison (Rare category, specific poison) [1] |
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11-03-2015, 05:51 AM | #10 |
Banned
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Europe
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Re: [Fantasy] Any Background Lenses out there I can use?
Thanks. I like the Dabbler Perk, though, to squeeze in a couple of Tertiary Skills (always two, for the sake of simplicity). And to conform to GURPS' pentophilic norm.
Your Warhammer-inspired writeup is good. I like it. |
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