Allegiances and Starting Occupations in D&D?

[Dr. Confoundo]

I'm trying to put together some stuff for my next campaign after my World War II Superheroes wraps up in the next couple months (using Mutants & Masterminds, naturally). I'm looking at going back to Eberron, because I really dig all of the various factions that are struggling for power in the vacuum created by the end of the war.

Two things that I'd like to utilize are the rules for Starting Occupations and Allegiances from D20 Modern. Allegiances are a natural fit for Eberron, since Alignments are much more free-form there; you can still have people whose first allegiances are to one of the Cardinal Alignments, but you have just as many whose allegiances lie first and formost with a nation, or the allmighty gold piece. I'll also take a look at the old DC Heroes game, and see which of that games' Motivations might be portable.

Starting Occupations might be handy to give my players a little more of a handle on where their characters are coming from. I don't want to have too much in the way of bonuses usable in combat, but if they get a few free points in Craft or Profession, they might actually take those skills.

Has anyone done any work massaging either of these two rules concepts into D&D terms? A pointer to a pre-existing article or downloadable item works just as well for me as comments on this thread.

Thanks!

 

[frankthedm]

Generally, a class is the character's starting occupation. If it wern't, characters would be things like Commoner 1 / Sorcerer 1 and Expert 1 / fighter 1

Fighters have dedicated themselves to arms and armor. They are not just combat trained, they have pledge themselves to the mastery of battle, to the exclusion of most other pursuits [low skill points]. Their working space is the battlefield. If he trained on the side from a real job, he'd be a warrior/expert, not a fighter.

 

[Tonguez]

I use both rules in DnD and they both work fine as is (well adjusting the skills as appropriate) it does give a bonus feat but thats okay by me...

 

[FireLance]

Try this link: Occupations for D&D

 

[irdeggman]

I had done some work on starting occupations (but never implemented them) - see attached.

 

[Dr. Confoundo]

Big thanks to both FireLance and jrdeggman. Those are exactly what I was looking for when it comes to Starting Occupations. I might try and strip a few of the much more combat oriented feats out of there, but it looks like most of the work has already been done.

Anyone done any work on Allegiances? Like, assuming they come in low, medium, and high levels, how would I show on a Detect Evil spell if I have a Low Allegience to Evil? Or at what level do Evil Bane weapons start to work on me?

 

[Rhun]

I've given much thought to using backgrounds/starting occupations in my next campaign as well. It gives a little variety to the PCs.

 

[Pagan priest]

Generally, a class is the character's starting occupation. If it wern't, characters would be things like Commoner 1 / Sorcerer 1 and Expert 1 / fighter 1

Fighters have dedicated themselves to arms and armor. They are not just combat trained, they have pledge themselves to the mastery of battle, to the exclusion of most other pursuits [low skill points]. Their working space is the battlefield. If he trained on the side from a real job, he'd be a warrior/expert, not a fighter.

Umm, no. Class is independant of occupation. That fighter you mentioned could have had any number of occupations that made it possible for him to learn how to effectively wear armor and use his weapons. His dedication to that learning is what made the difference between his being a fighter and his being a warrior. Depending on how the DM chooses to interpret things, that fighter could have spent time as a squire to a knight, actually be a knight, have been a temple guard, or an innkeeper in a rowdy neighborhood.

 

[Dr. Confoundo]

Umm, no. Class is independant of occupation. That fighter you mentioned could have had any number of occupations that made it possible for him to learn how to effectively wear armor and use his weapons. His dedication to that learning is what made the difference between his being a fighter and his being a warrior. Depending on how the DM chooses to interpret things, that fighter could have spent time as a squire to a knight, actually be a knight, have been a temple guard, or an innkeeper in a rowdy neighborhood.

Well, to be fair, using the RAW he is correct. But nobody is ever going to take a level of commoner or expert to model the time his character spent as an innkeeper*; similarly, I've never seen points spent in Craft or Profession skills that couldn't be theoretically usable in combat, like Craft (Armor) or Profession (Blacksmith), or which were required for a PRC*.

By using Starting Occupations, you can give a few little bonuses here and there to imply a background, without having to spend precious skill points or level advancements on things that are used rarely.

*And yes, I'm sure somebody here on these boards has done these very things. Nobody I game with would, which is why I'm looking at using a Houserule or two.

 

[Pagan priest]

IIRC, Thieve's World from Green Ronin has occupations in it. I would swear that i saw them in a Forgotten Realms book as well, but I cannot figure out which one, or if it was just a hallucination caused by gaming withdrawls.