Unglamorous medieval professions (and a free playtest)

[Brennin Magalus]

Poopsmith

 

[philreed]

Actually, tanner's even worse than that, Turanil. They used urine to remove the hairs from the hide, then they buried it in feces for a certain amount of time to soften it up.

Makes you wonder about the guy the created the process.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Pissboy still has my vote.

 

[Quickleaf]

Great ideas! Thanks for the Tony Robinson link demiurge!

Here's an example of the kind of backgrounds I'm creating. FYI, we're using the True20 system, and everyone starts without a Role, but has a background instead.

Honey Pot Polisher
"Oh pissboy!" "Don't worry sir, you'll find it."
After a chamber-pot has been emptied of its nightsoil, someone has to clean it. Lucky you! You can polish a “honey-pot” faster than anyone in the village. Sometimes your job can become very stressful, especially when destitute purefinders try to steal from your master’s chamber pots, or when a large group of travelers visits the village. You do a brisk business with highly advanced barber-surgeons who will examine your findings in the “honey-pot” to ascertain the cause of disease. Sometimes you regret your job when diarrhea strikes.
Bonus Skill: --
Bonus Feat: Plausible Deniability, Royal Pisser

Plausible Deniability
No one ever suspects you due to your low status in the community.
Benefit: Whenever the authorities or elders look for a culprit or question people involved in a situation, you will always be the last person they think of. Should an authority figure ask you to tell them all you know, you may claim “I’m but a simple peasant.” This is always good enough for them unless they have testimony or evidence (true or not) of your wrong-doing.

Royal Pisser
Nobles and royalty tend to assume you are one of their servants.
Benefit: Spend a point of Conviction in order to have a noble confuse you for one of their own servants, ordering you about, and allowing you to infiltrate their court. Servants will either remain quiet out of fear or spite of the noble, or they may assume you are a replacement.

 

[Warehouse23]

In a medieval fantasy world, you couldn't go wrong with the job: Magical Test Subject. I mean, wizards don't invent Magic Missile or Evard's Black Tentacles overnight. They've got to try out the spell and they need.....subjects.

"Sit here and hold still. I'm not going to waste this spell slot by not hitting you with this new ray...."

 

[eris404]

Shoemaker / Tanner

From what I once heard in a movie, in the medieval times shoemaker would use cow urine for some leatherworking process. In any case, tanners would smell bad as tanning processes would create noxious stinking odors that eventually permeate the character.

I say: go for a stinking odor due to his trade, that the character cannot get rid of and badly affects his relationships...

I second this. In Chicago (where I live) there is a tannery on the Chicago River. You would not believe the smell, especially in the summer. The neighborhood near it (which strangely enough is rather expensive and posh) smells like a cross between raw sewage and rotten eggs.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Poopsmith

Check the first response, slow-poke!

 

[rbingham2000]

Shoemaker / Tanner

From what I once heard in a movie, in the medieval times shoemaker would use cow urine for some leatherworking process. In any case, tanners would smell bad as tanning processes would create noxious stinking odors that eventually permeate the character.

I say: go for a stinking odor due to his trade, that the character cannot get rid of and badly affects his relationships...

Actually, tanner's even worse than that, Turanil. They used urine to remove the hairs from the hide, then they buried it in feces for a certain amount of time to soften it up. No washing machines, so it obviously had to be washed by hand.

Tony Robinson said it was hands-down the worst job of the lot.
-blarg

And it gets even worse: in Feudal Japan, tanners were known as eta. Among the caste system of the time, they were considered the lowest of the low of the hinin (non-person) caste -- in fact, they weren't even considered part of the caste system at all due to the sheer nastiness of what they had to do for a living.

In modern Japan, calling someone an eta is considered a very serious slur -- in fact, according to the main rulebook for the Sengoku game, it's many times worse than calling a black person the "n-word" in America, so you might want to watch yourself.

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

The guy who milks the pigs or mucks out the leper hovels.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

That's such a fun show. Good old S. Baldrick

Tony Robinson presents The Worst Jobs in History

http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/W/worstjobs/

That should do the trick.
Demiurge out.