GH - Pauper (Vagabond)

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.

Those paupers who choose to leave their past behind and take to the open road are known as vagabonds. Some do so in an attempt to flee whatever painful memories caused their descent into poverty, while others hold out hope of starting a new life in another city. Most don’t survive outside the protective walls of a guarded settlement, but those that do often find little welcome in the cities they visit. Vagabonds must therefore work hard to gain trust and forge what connections they may have in each place they visit, and invariably they must move on before they wear out their welcome.

 

Rank 1 – Outcast

For whatever reason, you can’t go home again. Bereft of family, property, and support, you are now cut loose to wander and survive as best you can. You stand out more as a stranger in smaller settlements, where people shun you as if you have the plague, but even in larger cities you are viewed with suspicion by the local authorities.

Holdings

• A tarnished compass.
• A posting from a town seeking able-bodied workers to deal with a recent disaster.

Progression

Survive a major storm on the road or participate meaningfully in a town’s internal disputes.

 

Rank 2 – Drifter

You have gotten used to life on the road and now travel aimlessly from town to town. At each stop you take on odd jobs, greet familiar faces, and then move on. Outside your small group of friends spread across Etharis, others are beginning to recognize you as a frequent visitor.

Holdings

• News from far parts of your current region that are not public knowledge.
• A letter or package that one of your contacts asked you to deliver to another town.

Progression

Save the life of one of your contacts.

 

Rank 3 – Seeker

Your aimless wanderings have taken on a new purpose. Competent in the rigors of the road and dealing with suspicious villagers, you travel from place to place in search of a new life or new direction. For good or ill, you are recognized as you travel, much as a caravan leader or traveling merchant

Holdings

• A lightweight tent and bedroll.
• The ability to send messages across long distances through your network of contacts.

Progression

Play a major role in the downfall of a prominent member of society.

 

Rank 4 – Wanderer

You now travel the world not out of necessity, but choice. Your deeds have garnered you an almost mythical reputation, and whispers follow you whenever you enter a new city or settlement. As a champion of righteousness or a walking plague, everyone knows that even the best laid plans are uncertain when you arrive.

Holdings

• A respected or feared reputation in any settlement you visit.
• Information about major events across Etharis that has not yet made its way to your current location.

Skill Proficiencies: Insight, Choose one from Deception, Perception, Persuasion, 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 walking stick, an old wool cloak, and an iron pot.

Suggested Characteristics

None.