Backgrounds

Pilot

Whether a former commercial or civilian pilot or even part of a navy, you have experience with all manner of aircraft.

Proficiencies

Skills
• Perception
• Vehicles (Aircraft)
Tools
• Engineer's Tools
Languages
• Any one of your choice

Equipment

• A partial map of a distant star system
• A badge or insignia from your flying school
• A pair of Aviator Glasses
• A set of traveler’s clothes
• 15 Credits

Feature: Aircraft Familiarity

Your many hours of flying experience mean that all the standard checks and preparations involved in launching or docking a ship are firmly ingrained into your mind. Any simple maneuvers you undertake while piloting a ship go much quicker and smoother, with no risk of mishap. While you have not flown every ship in the galaxy, your familiary with aircraft extends to new craft you attempt to pilot, and with enough time you can learn to fly anything

Exile

Sometimes seen as a fate worse than death, exile has long been a popular sanction for radicals, dissidents, and troublemakers. For whatever reason, you find yourself exiled from your home.

Proficiencies

Skills
• Deception
• Survival
Languages
• Any two of your choice

Equipment

• A dagger
• A small strongbox
• A memento from your homeland
• A set of common clothes
• 5 Credits

Feature: Radical Sympathizers

As a prominent figurehead for a group of religious, political, or ethnic radicals, you are often able to find people who sympathize with your situation. When you employ hirelings, they may offer you better rates, fanatical loyalty, or enhanced services, and you have an easier time bringing those to your cause.

Low-Worlder

Low-worlders hail from planets that have never discovered the secrets of space travel, planets from which the rest of the universe seems unknown and out of reach. Alternatively you simply lived in a region of low technology that had little influence from the outside world. One day you found yourself exposed to the rest of the galaxy, but have never escaped your rudementary roots.

Proficiencies

Skills
• Persuasion
• Survival
Tools
• One set of artisan's tools
• One type of gaming set

Equipment

• A token of your homeworld
• A set of common clothes
• A container holding currency from your homeworld (worth 0 Credits)

Feature: Low-World Charm

You have a kinship with other low-worlders, especially in the rare cases that you meet someone from your homeworld. Other low-worlders will take a liking to you and will generally honor one reasonable favor you ask, as long as a similar favor is returned later.

Technologist

The galaxy is filled with computers that often break down. Technologists are experts in repairing, tuning, and decommissioning the devices that other people rely on for their employment, comfort, and safety. Therefore, they are in constant demand everywhere, from heavily industrialized worlds to the Frontier worlds on the rim.

Proficiencies

• Computers/Technology
• Investigation
Tools
• Interfacing Kit
• One set of artisan’s tools
Equipment
• A Wristcomp
• A broken piece of a mysterious machine
• A large pipe wrench (counts as a Truncheon)
• A set of common clothes
• 10 Credits

Feature: Duct Tape and Elbow Grease

Invariably, technologists find themselves needing to repair a computer without access to the proper tools, training, or spare parts, having to make do with temporary stop-gap measures and whatever they happen to have on hand. Your experience with this means that you can often cobble something together to keep a damaged system working for a few crucial minutes or hours, as long as you focus all of your attention onto it.

Caravanner

You belong, or used to belong, to a caravan company who either shipped things by way of land vehicles.

Proficiencies

Skills
• Intimidation
• Persuasion
Tools
• One type of gaming set
• Vehicles (Land)

Equipment

• An iron pot
• A lighter
• A set of traveller’s clothes
• A symbol of your affiliation to the caravan company
• A pouch containing 15 currency

Caravanner's Contacts

You can expect to receive room and board at any of your company’s way houses. You also establish relationships in major settlements, allowing you to find a place to stay at a 25% discount in such locations.

Con Artist

You’ve always had the knack for figuring folks out and exploiting that awareness through lies and subterfuge.

Proficiencies

Skills
• Deception
• Sleight of Hand
Tools
• Disguise Kit
• Forgery Kit

Equipment

• A set of Common clothes
• Tools appropriate to your favourite trick (examples include: ten bottles or needles containing colourful liquids that resemble chems, a deck of marked cards, or a set of weighted dice)
• 15 Credits

Charlatan

You’ve created a second identity that includes documentation, established acquaintances, and disguises that allow you to assume that persona. Additionally, you can forge documents including official papers and personal letters, as long as you have seen an example of the kind of document or the handwriting you are trying to copy.

Courier

You’ve worked as a courier, one of the brave few who make their living ensuring that the disparate communities of the wasteland remain in touch. The role of courier is a job that attracts the brave and the reckless, and in which only skilled survivors thrive.

Proficiencies

Skills
• Perception
• Survival
Tools
• Two proficiencies chosen from the following: any gaming set, any handheld musical instrument, and Vehicles (Land)

Equipment

• An iron pot
• A lighter
• A set of traveller’s clothes
• A package (worth 30 currency upon delivery in the next settlement you visit, either to the local delivery company or addressee)

Courier's Cachet

All civilised folk respect a courier and their key role in wasteland communications. You can generally find a place to stay at a 25% discount in any settlement, except among raiders or tribefolk

Criminal

Settlements in the system are often plagued with gangs or even run by large and powerful criminal families. You belonged to one of these organisations.

Proficiencies

Skills
• Deception
• Stealth
Tools
• One type of gaming set
• Thieves’ tools OR Interface Kit

Equipment

• A crowbar
• A set of clothes
• A pouch containing 15 credits

Family Connections

Your position and influence within your crime family is recognised by other members, as well as among the family’s rivals. Members of the organisation defer to you if they are of a lower position and you are able to requisition simple equipment for temporary use. You can also get messages to and from other criminals you know, even over great distances, by exploiting vast networks of contacts including sympathetic or blackmailed couriers and caravan masters.

Doctor

Pragmatic out of necessity, but always seeking to provide the best possible care for their patients, doctors are in high need in the perilous corners of the galaxy.

Proficiencies

Skills
• Investigation
• Medicine
Tools
• Doctor's Bag

Equipment

• A Doctor’s Bag
• A set of traveller's clothes

Healer's Esteem

You’re widely respected by the civilised folk. You can generally find a place to stay at a 25% discount in any settlement. Your profession can even keep you safe among raiders.

Follower

You are, or were, an acolyte belonging to a religion or cult.

Proficiencies

Skills
• Insight
• Persuasion
Tools
• Calligrapher’s Supplies
• One type of gaming set or musical instrument

Equipment

• An icon of your faith
• A book of doctrine
• A set of wastelander’s clothes

Feature: Faith's Bond

You know the lore and practices of your faith or cult, and can perform any related ceremonies. Other followers accept you as a true believer, and willingly provide hospitality and succour to you and your companions within their means. If your faith is lapsed, you can still pass as faithful among followers who don’t know you’ve abandoned your faith. You may have ties to a specific church or mission and be considered a resident there. While near this place you can call upon other local followers for assistance, provided you remain in good standing and the work isn’t costly to them in resources or personal safety.

Performer

You feel alive while entertaining an audience, and turned that passion into a career.

Proficiencies

Skills
• Performance
• Your choice of either Acrobatics or Sleight of Hand
Tools
• Two proficiencies chosen from the following: any musical instrument, Disguise Kit

Equipment

• A set of clothes
• Your choice of either (a) an old world costume or (b) a sexy costume or (c) an mascot costume or (d) a set of formal clothes, or (e) a musical instrument of your choice
• A pouch containing 5 currency

The World is a Stage

You can always find a place to perform. You receive free lodging and food of a standard suitable for the venue, as long as you perform each night. In addition, your performance makes you something of a local figure. When strangers recognise you in a town where you’ve performed, they typically take a liking to you.

Raider

You are, or were, affiliated with one of the many raider gangs.

Proficiencies

Skills
• Intimidation
• Survival
Tools
• Two proficiencies chosen from the following: any gaming set, any handheld musical instrument, and Vehicles (Land)

Equipment

• A visible gang tattoo (typically on your face, neck, or wrist)
• A set of traveller’s clothes
• A trophy taken from a past victim
• A pouch containing 15 currency

Part of the Gang

You know how to behave among raiders to ensure they treat you with respect, or at least caution. You’re usually able to gain access to camps belonging to your gang (or former gang), as long as you remain on friendly terms with them. Additionally, you can generally negotiate access to other raider camps for your comrades and yourself, provided the gang in question can be reasoned with. You can’t use this feature to negotiate with members of a rival gang if they’re aware of your own affiliation.

Researcher

Fascinated by the secrets of the old world, you made it your mission to uncover and reclaim lost knowledge from the ruins in which it it sealed.

Proficiencies

Skills
• Choose two of Computers/Technology, History, Investigation, Nature
Languages
• One additional language
Tools
• Thieves’ tools OR Interface Kit Tools

Equipment

• A case for charts and maps
• A set of traveller's clothes
• A pouch containing 25 Credits

Well Researched

When you attempt to learn or recall a piece of lore, if you don’t know that information, you often know where and from whom you are most likely to obtain it. You know the areas of expertise of all serious researchers in your region of the wasteland, and where they can usually be found. If the lore you seek is from the old world and not yet discovered, it’s most often hidden in a computer system or written records in the ruins of an old world government building, library, military facility, corporation, or similar.

Scholar

You’ve always seen value in preserving, restoring, and ultimately surpassing the advances of prewar knowledge.

Proficiencies

Skills
• Choose two of Engineering, Computers/Technology, History, Medicine, Nature Tools
• Choose one of Calligrapher’s Supplies, Cartographer’s Supplies, Chem Cook’s Tools, Engineer's Tools, or Mechanic’s Tools.

Equipment

• A case for charts and maps
• A set of traveller's clothes
• One set of tools for which this background grants you proficiency

Scientific Enquiry

You intuitively grasp the purpose of most technologies and scientific experiments you encounter. Understanding doesn’t equal proficiency: you must still have any appropriate skills to make use of the things you identify. You’re afforded respect and goodwill from the scientific community, provided you remain in good standing. Scientists you know generally agree to assist you with tasks that won’t be costly to them in resources, time, or personal safety.

Hermit

You lived in seclusion—either in a sheltered community, or entirely alone—for a formative part of your life. In your time apart from the clamor of society, you found quiet, solitude, and perhaps some of the answers you were looking for.

Proficiencies

Skills
• Medicine
• Survival
Tools
• Herbalism kit
Languages
• One of your choice

Equipment

• A scroll case stuffed full of notes from your studies or prayers
• A winter blanket
• A set of common clothes
• A herbalism kit
• 5 Credits

Feature: Discovery

The quiet seclusion of your extended hermitage gave you access to a unique and powerful discovery. The exact nature of this revelation depends on the nature of your seclusion. It might be a great truth about the cosmos or the forces of nature. It could be a site that no one else has ever seen. You might have uncovered a fact that has long been forgotten, or unearthed some relic of the past that could rewrite history. It might be information that would be damaging to the people who or consigned you to exile, and hence the reason for your return to society.

Crewmate

You crewed on a spacefaring vessel for years. In that time, you faced down pirates, monsters of the stars, and the many perils on the systems savage worlds. Your first love is the stars, but the time has come to try your hand at something new.

Proficiencies

Skills
• Athletics
• Perception
Tools
• Navigator’s tools
• Vehicles (Space)

Equipment

• A Truncheon
• 50 feet of paracord
• A lucky charm such as a Ralanskiars foot or a small stone with a hole in the center
• A set of common clothes
• 10 Credits

Feature: Ship's Passage

When you need to, you can secure free passage on a space ship for yourself and your adventuring companions. You might find on the ship you served on, or another ship you have good relations with (perhaps one captained by a former crewmate). Because you're calling in a favor, you can't be certain of a schedule or route that will meet your every need. Your DM will determine how long it takes to get where you need to go. In return for your free passage, you and your companions are expected to assist the crew during the voyage.

Bunker-Born

You emerged into the world from a place of safety before a cataclysm happened.

Proficiencies

Skills
• History
• Choose one of: Engineering, Medicine, Nature, or Computers/Technology
Tools
• WristComp

Equipment

• A bunker suit
• A WristComp

Secrets of the Bunker

You intuitively grasp the purpose of most pre-apocalyptic technologies and scientific experiments you encounter. You still need any appropriate proficiencies to make use of the things you identify.