GH - Pauper (Beggar)

This is an advanced background. These advanced backgrounds are a tool for giving some added flavor, flexibility, and power to a normal background. These are meant to provide deeper immersion into the setting as well. Unlike regular backgrounds, advanced backgrounds allow characters to advance in their chosen background as they also advance in their class. It’s suggested that if one character uses advanced backgrounds, all should. This helps maintain both a roleplaying and a power balance between all the characters in the party.

Any structured society has those who fall through the cracks. Misfortune is no stranger to Etharis, and those who suffer under its hand have to make do any way they can. Some attempt to survive by begging or turning their hands to whatever jobs they can find, while others are cast out to wander from place to place through the unforgiving wilds. This background is a good fit for characters who want to use adventuring as a way to escape their unfortunate circumstances or for those who possess character flaws relating to debt or misfortune. Their views on wealth and material goods are undoubtedly a primary feature of their adventuring career.

Many who fall on hard times have no other option than begging for coppers. Considered the lowest rung of society, beggars are looked down upon in either pity or contempt by other members of society, when they deign to notice them at all. For their part, beggars see people at their best and at their worst, a more honest representation than they show their peers or superiors.

 

Rank 1 – Street Beggar

Driven by desperation, you are forced to the streets to earn what you need to survive. Poor decisions or bad luck drained away whatever funds you managed to scrape together, and you have no real home to return to. As an adventurer you have certain alternatives not available to most, but between forays into the wilds the fact remains that you have no steady occupation and no place to call home.

Holdings

• A spot in an alley that you have managed to stake out and must defend against newcomers.
• The name of a sympathetic merchant with space in a high-traffic area of the city.

Progression

Gain the friendship of a local business owner by performing odd jobs or doing some other service.

 

Rank 2 – Mendicant

A common sight to locals, you have moved up to a better location in a busy street or plaza. You no longer have to fight for your place and have gained the tolerance of the guards and the friendship of other local beggars. By this time you have established a begging “pitch” designed to attract attention without inconveniencing those passing by. This could be a persona or some sort of script that you devise in order to amuse or elicit sympathy from the general populace.

Holdings

• A safe place to sleep near a merchant stall or building.
• Friendship with local beggars and a few local traders, who may offer you some spare coin, food, or odd jobs from time to time.

Progression

Split a significant windfall with other beggars, earning their loyalty.

 

Rank 3 – Gutter Baron

You have risen to a position of prominence, such as it is, among the beggars in your city. You are able to direct the actions of a number of other paupers and split the rewards in a far more efficient manner than they could do alone, and they respect and defer to you in important decisions.

Holdings

• Squatter’s rights in an abandoned building.
• A handful of other beggars who defer to your authority and aid you in gathering money and information.
• Knowledge of an illicit deal that took place in an alley in the dead of night, which implicates a minor noble.

Progression

Perform a great service for the poor of the city either by thwarting the plans of a ranking noble or leveraging your influence to gain a powerful aristocrat patron.

 

Rank 4 – Beggar King

You have become the undisputed master of the city’s destitute population, and none of them act without your knowledge. Having control of such a wide-ranging network of informants and agents puts you at the center of the city’s political power struggles. Even leaders of criminal organizations know that you are not someone to be trifled with.

Holdings

• A comfortable hideout hidden in the slums or sewers.
• A network of beggars, informants, and criminals that keep you informed of all illicit activity within the city.
• Influence with at least one major player in local crime or politics.

Skill Proficiencies: Persuasion, Choose one from Deception, Insight, Perception, Stealth, or Survival.

Tool Proficiencies: Choose one gaming set.

Languages: Choose one standard language.

Equipment: A worn blanket, a set of ragged clothing, a sack, 10 copper pieces, a begging bowl or tin cup for collecting coins, a crutch, spare scraps of cloth, and a small stick of grease paint.

Suggested Characteristics

None.