My PC; Manuel Bardanes
Life Path:
Yeoman > Society of St. Paulus > Detective
Capabilities:
Common Customs:
These are customs among the common folk and those who rub shoulders with them most frequently — guilders (merchants) and yeomen. Besides knowing how not to put on airs around commoners and freemen, this capability includes the unwritten rules for haggling in the agora, as well as knowing the proper price for items. Merchants are mostly raised knowing these customs or learn them quickly when entering a guild. Those who wish to meet or trade with them without knowing this capability risk being taken to the cleaners.
Court Customs:
You know the customs of court life. Vulgar bumpkins are ignorant of these. Failure to act properly at court is a major faux pas. Courtly behavior includes a host of unspoken and subtle expectations. Nobles are raised knowing them, but others had best learn this capability if they are to compete or collude with nobles.
Energy Guns:
You know how to use and care for ranged weapons that project energy: lasers, blasters, flameguns.
Faction Lore: (Decados-Jakovian Agency)
You can demonstrate understanding of the inner workings of different factions.
Home world lore:
You possess knowledge of a specific planet of the Known Worlds and its solar system. This specialization represents more detailed knowledge of the world than the knowledge you would attain through Jumpweb Lore.
Life Science:
You understand the study of living organisms.
Read/Speak Urthish
Streetwise:
You have a prodigious understanding of criminal practices and etiquette. Includes knowledge of
prominent gangs throughout the Known Worlds (and in any area for which you possess a Lore), as well as the customs of people living in crime-ridden areas. Streetwise might be required when attempting influence among criminal and underworld elements, lest you make enemies of the wrong person or inadvertently single yourself out as a mark waiting to be exploited.
Slug Guns:
You know how to use and care for ranged weapons that fire a physical projectile (such as a bullet) from a barrel.
Starship Operations:
You are conversant in the rules and regulations of shipboard life, and you’ve trained in basic spacecraft functions. (See Starships in Chapter 4: Technology for a list of maneuvers that characters might undertake aboard a ship; many require this capability.) This capability includes knowledge and practice for working while wearing a spacesuit. Performing a physical action in space or zero-G while wearing a spacesuit without this capability makes the action unfavorable. (Armored spacesuits also require the War Armor capability.)
Tech Lore:
You know how to use and repair technology of tech level 5
PATRON SAINT
Serendipity’s Agent — A private detective in Tulasca on Tethys at the height of the Second Republic (c.3800), Allan McCall rarely sought trouble but had a history of stumbling into increasingly deeper mysteries. Minor investigations routinely led to weird cases with psychic thieves, killer cyborgs, xeno-conspiracies, and corporate assassins — all somehow in the same case. McCall attributed his survival and his success to flukes and happenstance, although many still suspect he was secretly psychic
Perks:
Ally: (Count Sabastinius Decados)
You have a close relationship with someone in a position of power, and that person will go out of their way to help you.
Benefice: You choose the identity of your NPC Ally and what kind of power they wield, in the form of rank or its equivalent — duke, director, bishop, etc. The higher their position, the more power they wield, but the less time they’ll have to pay attention to your requests (it might take a while to get a message through) and the less likely they’ll intervene in affairs that could harm their strategic interests. Your godfather, Duke Gavin Hawkwood, is not going to start a trade war with the Scravers just to bail you out of jail, but your Aunt Bernice, Canon of Sanctuary
Aeon, might well march into the jailhouse and give the warden a piece of her mind, shaming him into releasing you. The flipside of the advantage of having an Ally is that you occasionally have to do things for them in return.
Deduce:
By focusing on the tiniest details, you perceive subtle connections that others might miss.
Benefice: After taking a primary action to enter a deductive trance, spend 1 VP. For the rest of the scene, your rolls for the Observe-skill detect, search, and spot maneuvers are favorable, so long as they pertain to solving a particular mystery or crime: Who murdered the rector? Who stole the strawberries? Who was that unidentified man down in the kitchens before the dinner party was poisoned? In addition to whatever clues or observations those maneuvers yield, they reveal to you an underlying pattern about how an event unfolded, a perpetrator’s
potential motive, and any possible suspects, helping you to solve the riddle. This can be doled out as a series of clues or facts by the GM, but your gamemaster is not obligated to serve up the complete answer. There is a drawback: Your trance consumes your full attention. Any roll you attempt that is not related to solving the enigma is unfavorable. As a secondary action, you can end the trance at any time.
Independent:
You are free from the constraints imposed on most members of society.
Benefice: Once per scene, you may exert your freedom from control, whether it’s an influence action or an occult power. You spend VP to increase your Mind or Spirit Resistance, but you draw this VP from the well instead of from your own cache, up to a limit of 5 + your level. (Example: At 3rd level, you can draw up to 8 VP from the well.)
Marksmanship:
You know a number of tricks you can use with a gun.
Benefice: You gain special advantages when using a gun in combat. See Combat Specialties later in this chapter for full details. If you don’t have the proper Ranged Weapon capability for your gun, your rolls are unfavorable, but you still gain this perk’s benefits.
This perk can be taken twice: 1st Sharpshooter: You’re well trained with a gun
1st Sharpshooter: Each turn, you can spend 1 VP and choose one of the following benefits:
• +2 goal for a Shoot-skill action,
• +1 damage with a gun attack,
• gain initiative edge,
• ignore up to 2 ranks of a single opponent’s armor-based Body Resistance with a gun attack (if they’re not wearing armor, this has no effect), or
-restrain up to 1 point of damage inflicted by your shot (see Restraint in Chapter 4: Rules)
Professional Reputation:
As a freelancer, your word is your bond, and your work is your worth. A yeoman’s Rep is their rough equivalent of a Noble Title, Church Ordination, or Guild Commission.
Benefice: This perk can be taken multiple times; each new perk raises one’s Rep by one rank. Each rank level provides +2 Mind Resistance. Unlike the other class’s ranks, which represent formal grades awarded by factions, a yeoman’s Rep is informal, based solely on word-of-mouth. It’s possible that a client here or there might lie and try to defame a yeoman’s reputation, but even then, the truth will out eventually. A yeoman who reneges too often on contracts and behaves unprofessionally to their clients might find their Rep drop by a rank or two until they
can make amends.
1st = Rookie
Equipment:
Material award: A physical or data copy of The Society of St. Paulus Expedition Guide. This provides a broad (but relatively shallow) Known Worlds Lore capability.
Telltale eye (TL5 monocle device: the classic sleuth’s magnifying glass, but as a monocle;
it allows its user to view the IR and UV spectrums.Tech Compulsion: Inerrant.)
