Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 8679059" data-attributes="member: 4937">So, the first thing to ask is whether the things you are interested in actually exist in the campaign world.  The jobs you list are anachronistic to most D&D worlds (except possibly Eberron)."news reporter": The job you are looking for here is Herald, which is a person paid by a wealthy benefactor to announce to the public things they believe the public needs to know - like how great the person is, what new laws they've passed, how their daughter is getting married soon to the Prince of Overhill, and how the people of Farland are terrible people.  It's not a particularly great starting point for an adventurer because you don't have a lot of freedom or past experience that makes you qualified for most things an adventurer typically does.  But it's a decent background for a Bard.  "travel agent": Tourism is almost unknown in its current form, although ironically when used properly in historical settings the word "adventurer" translates most closely to "tourist".   The closest to this is a professional Guide or professional Host, typically in medieval times escorting Pilgrims (religious tourism if you will) to destinations.  That's actually an exceptionally good PC background to start with because it has lots of hooks, lots of chances for you to have met NPCs that the DM can introduce, and lots of meaty background as to why you have your skills and knowledge."story writer": So novelists as it were weren't really a job that existed until the 19th century.  Typically writing stories when it occurred was sort of like being a Herald in that someone commissioned you to either inform someone else about events or else give you a summary of events.  Writing fiction except as like national epics for political purposes was usually confined to the very upper class and meant to entertain themselves and their small audience of peers.  The very first true novel, 'The Tale of Genji' is very much this sort of thing.  You could be a Scribe.  Many people weren't literate and so they'd commision someone in a marketplace to write on their behalf letters, contracts, and so forth, suggesting improvements to their language to make them seem more educated and so forth.  Alternately, the job was a record keeper taking dictation or recording events on behalf of some large organization.   It's not a great background for an adventurer because it doesn't at all suggest how you acquired skills to face challenges.Now for my part, the backgrounds that I've always wanted to see players took up in my games are things like:Rat Catcher: This is actually an exceptionally good background for a low level fighter.  It has a lot of flavor and it's pretty obvious how in a D&D world a Rat Catcher gets to be pretty tough, and how one is useful in low level adventures.Lumberjack: Anyone who goes around in D&D forests is likely pretty tough.Sailor/Fisherman: Ditto for anyone going around on rivers or oceans.Undertaker: An immensely cool background in my opinion, which in D&D has obvious tie in to someone who knows about and how to fight undead.  There is also great opportunity to be a low level cleric with this job.City Watchman: Great starting point for a low level fighter or even ranger or rogue. Night Watchman: Variant of the above but you work for a private individual like a silversmith guarding their property.  Lots of reason to own basic adventuring gear, to be tough, but to be looking to improve your station.Bouncer: Sort of obvious, but great hook for why the game might start in a tavern and you be there.</blockquote>

Verification