Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="muggie2" data-source="post: 5729126" data-attributes="member: 6681636">Well, my thinking, based upon the background and the story as I've seen it through the development, is that the scum-type character is a thief or rogue.I was thinking more of the rogue-type than the thief-type, originally from the primitive sections of the planet, but has migrated to where the money is, and has been relatively successful.People often confuse education with intelligence (while education requires *some* intelligence, lack of education does not mean lack of intelligence). People also assume that big people can't be fast, even while watching sportsmen who are both.Rogues *love* false assumptions, and I am, if I must say so myself, an exceptionally talented rogue!Therefore, my background assumption was typical tribesman brat from one of the tribes close to where the iron men start their once-a-generation raids. Drifted into the cities, grew up as a typical street-rat. Being of tribesman background, grew up a bit bigger than an average street rat, and since I got into regular fights tended to be a bit tougher too. Worked out that talking to people, watching people, and thinking about things tended to be more successful as a strategy than relying on size and toughness - in fights it's a zero-sum game and there's always someone stronger, tougher, or faster eventually; whereas in thinking and talking it's not a zero-sum game.Now, picking pockets is a good way to make fast cash, picking locks can get you into places where there's even more cash, but picking easy marks who can be convinced they need personal services can get you into circles where cash can be acquired much more easily. What are trifles to nobles are small fortunes on the street, and knowing how to bargain and haggle, while everyday life on the street, is totally alien to most nobles, at least in what they consider to be minor commercial transactions. So when your boss sends you out to get something, you can pocket at least 10 - 20% of it every time. And, unlike a picked pocket or a rifled room, the suckers keep coming back!So, that's where I come from and what I do. I talk, bargain, scrounge (or outright steal, though not often) on behalf of people who pay me even as I skim 10 - 20% off the top. All I need to do is find nobles or other people from sheltered backgrounds (and here I mean sheltered from street life, not from the world itself), and help them to make their way through the world while making money from them in ways they probably wouldn't deign to care about even if they did notice. Which hopefully they won't. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":-)" title="Smile    :-)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":-)" /></blockquote>

Verification