Backgrounds

Academy Dropout

Source Secrets of Magic   You were enrolled at a prestigious magical academy, but you've since dropped out. Maybe there was a momentous incident, maybe you had to return to other responsibilities, or perhaps it was just too much for you. Whatever the case, your exit from the academy has shaped your life as much as your entrance and led you to a life of adventure.  

Acolyte

Source Player Core   You spent your early days in a religious monastery or cloister. You may have traveled out into the world to spread the message of your religion or because you cast away the teachings of your faith, but deep down you’ll always carry within you the lessons you learned.  

Acrobat

Source Player Core   You spent your early days in a religious monastery or cloister. You may have traveled out into the world to spread the message of your religion or because you cast away the teachings of your faith, but deep down you’ll always carry within you the lessons you learned.  

Alloysmith

Source Rage of Elements   Blacksmithing might be an ancient profession, but you are its cutting edge. You've studied the properties of different metals, experimented with them by combining them, exposing them to different elements and processes, and have even delved into the metaphysical nature of metal in your quest to master it. You might have taken up adventuring to acquire more funding and materials or to test your designs.  

Animal Whisperer

Source Player Core   You have always felt a connection to animals, and it was only a small leap to learn to train them. As you travel, you continuously encounter different creatures, befriending them along the way.  

Anti-Magical [Rare]

Source Secrets of Magic   Magic has never worked quite right around you. Perhaps you have become a magic-user in spite of that, or perhaps you use your unique ability to fight magic-users.  

Artisan

Source Player Core   As an apprentice, you practiced a particular form of building or crafting, developing specialized skill. You might have been a blacksmith’s apprentice toiling over the forge for countless hours, a young tailor sewing garments of all kinds, or a shipwright shaping the hulls of ships.  

Artist

Source Player Core   Your art is your greatest passion, whatever form it takes. Adventuring might help you find inspiration, or simply be a way to survive until you become a world-famous artist.  

Astrologer

Source Player Core 2   Astrologers look to the stars for signs and portents, using their positions in the heavens to chart courses for those living beneath them. As the celestial spheres move, so does fate itself. You studied the stars and learned to divine your path based on their guidance. Whether the stars directly called you to a life of adventure or you use the stars to guide your wanderlust, you’re living out the stars’ guidance in a life of adventure.  

Back-Alley Doctor

Source Guns & Gears   You're the medic many turn to when a more official clinic or healer might not be available. You may specialize in stitching up bullet wounds or have a standing, confidential deal with a criminal syndicate to provide your services any time of day or night. In either case, you've perhaps turned to the adventuring life because a former client is unhappy with your work or members of the local constabulary have been asking too many questions.  

Bandit

Source Player Core   Your past includes no small amount of rural banditry, robbing travelers on the road and scraping by. Whether your robbery was sanctioned by a local noble or you did so of your own accord, you eventually got caught up in the adventuring life. Now, adventure is your stock and trade, and years of camping and skirmishing have only helped.  

Barber

Source Player Core 2   Haircuts, dentistry, bloodletting, and surgery—if it takes a steady hand and a razor, you can do it. You may have taken to the road to expand your skills or test yourself against a world that leaves your patients so battered and bruised.  

Barkeep

Source Player Core   You have five specialties: hefting barrels, drinking, polishing steins, drinking, and drinking. You worked in a bar, where you learned how to hold your liquor and rowdily socialize.  

Barrister

Source Player Core   Piles of legal manuals, stern teachers, and experience in the courtroom have instructed you in legal matters. You’re capable of mounting a prosecution or defense in court, and you tend to keep abreast of local laws, as you never can tell when you might need to know them on short notice.  

Bookkeeper

Source Player Core 2   You ran the numbers on a large farm, for a merchant’s endeavors,or with a major guild in the city. You kept track of expenses, payroll, profits, and anything else that had to do with money,for better or worse. If better, you might be adventuring to learnhow others ply this trade. If worse, you may be fleeing fromimpending consequences in the hope that no one finds you.  

Bounty Hunter

Source Player Core   Bringing in lawbreakers lined your pockets. Maybe you had an altruistic motive and sought to bring in criminals to make the streets safer, or maybe the coin was motivation enough. Your techniques for hunting down criminals transfer easily to the life of an adventurer.  

Cannoneer [Rare]

Source Guns & Gears You served as a crewmate aboard a military vessel or pirate ship and were responsible for the use and maintenance of the ship's cannons. A strong back and quick reflexes were equally important to you in your duties, and you know your way around explosives and the dangers that lie therein. These skills serve you well in your new life as an adventurer, as compared to the weight of a cannon, a gear load that makes your allies blanche just makes you laugh instead.  

Charlatan

Source Player Core   You traveled from place to place, peddling false fortunes and snake oil in one town, pretending to be royalty in exile to seduce a wealthy heir in the next. Becoming an adventurer might be your next big scam or an attempt to put your talents to use for a greater cause. Perhaps it’s a bit of both, as you realize that after pretending to be a hero, you’ve become the mask.  

Circuit Judge

Source Guns & Gears   You're a circuit judge, a courtroom on horseback who serves a group of communities out in the Mana Wastes or a similar backwoods region. You show up every couple of months, hear the cases that have piled up since your last visit, give verdicts, and then it's on to the next town in your itinerary. It's not the easiest life in the world, but it's an interesting one, and you hear some mighty strange cases. Chances are, it was one of those cases that set you on the road to adventure.  

Clockfighter [Rare]

Source Guns & Gears   While others choose to use their engineering ability to heal the injured or make brilliant innovations, you've used your skill to repair and modify clockwork constructs that battle in gladiatorial combat. You know how to get a crowd electrified for your clockwork gladiator, win or lose, and you know how to repair it when it gets damaged. These skills serve you well as an adventurer.  

Clockwork Researcher [Rare]

Source Guns & Gears   New forms of clockwork technology are incredibly interesting to you, and you've been studying examples of them to see where else they might be best put to use. You might eventually develop a new prototype machine or find a way to make related technologies practical enough for everyone to benefit. Though before you do, you must continue your research!  

Codebreaker

Source Guns & Gears   Whether you're employed by a military organization to decipher coded messages sent by enemy factions or work independently to crack an enigma created by a past civilization, you have a head for patterns and linguistics. You might even use new clockwork devices to aid you in your efforts.  

Crystal Healer

Source Rage of Elements   Mineral formations can be beautiful things, sparkling and arrayed in geometric configurations. To you, they are also potent natural healing aids. You may have taken up adventuring to prove yourself by healing the ailing or to find new crystals with unique properties to add to your growing collection.  

Cook

Source Player Core   You grew up in the kitchens of a tavern or other dining establishment and excelled there, becoming an exceptional cook. Baking, cooking, a little brewing on the side—you’ve spent lots of time out of sight. It’s about time you went out into the world to catch some sights for yourself.  

Courier

Source Player Core 2   In your youth, you earned coin running messages for persons of wealth and influence, darting through crowded city streets. Your dogged commitment to deliver your message was good training for the life of an adventurer.  

Criminal

Source Player Core   As an unscrupulous independent or as a member of an underworld organization, you lived a life of crime. You might have become an adventurer to seek redemption, to escape the law, or simply to get access to bigger and better loot.  

Cultist

Source Player Core   You were (or still are) a member of a cult whose rites may involve sacred dances to ensure a strong harvest or dire rituals that call upon dark powers. You might have taken up adventuring to further your cult’s aims, to initiate yourself into the world’s grander mysteries, or to flee unsavory practices or strictures.  

Deep-Sea Diver

Source Rage of Elements   The sapphire depths of the seas and the mysteries they hold beneath their surface have always piqued your interest. Your obsession with the ocean depths cannot be contained to one world alone, and you've read tomes and journals about the source of all water, everywhere, hoping to one day understand the watery secrets of the great unknown.  

Dendrologist

Source Rage of Elements   Trees grow in every biome, and your awe at their ability to conquer terrain has inspired deeper study into their workings. There are trees everywhere, and your study of them will inevitably take you ever further afield in search of new varieties, perhaps even to the Plane of Wood itself.  

Deputy

Source Guns & Gears   While your life may have taken some twists and turns in the intervening years, you were once deputized as the lawful protector of a community. While the role was temporary and you've since turned in your badge, that responsibility shaped you. Whenever a community is in trouble, and the sheriff is nowhere to be found, residents call on you to capture a criminal, rescue the mayor's offspring from bandits, or go toe to toe with outlaws.  

Detective

Source Player Core   You solved crimes as a police inspector or took jobs for wealthy clients as a private investigator. You might have become an adventurer as part of your next big mystery, but likely it was due to the consequences or aftermath of a prior case.  

Driver

Source Player Core 2   You practically live behind the controls of a vehicle and can handle just about anything the road, waves, and sky can throw at you. You likely adventure to test your skills in unusual environments and new and interesting vehicles.  

Eidolon Contact [Uncommon]

Source Secrets of Magic   You've come into contact with a disembodied being of magical essence known as an eidolon. You might have forged a powerful conduit with that eidolon, allowing you to manifest it as a summoner, but it's much more likely that you lost contact over time, though not before learning a few half-remembered secrets. If you lost contact, you might have become an adventurer to try to reach the eidolon again, or to be sure that you're rid of it forever.  

Emissary

Source Player Core   As a diplomat or messenger, you traveled to lands far and wide. Communicating with new people and forming alliances were your stock and trade.  

Entertainer

Source Player Core   Through an education in the arts or sheer dogged practice, you learned to entertain crowds. You might have been an actor, a dancer, a musician, a street magician, or any other sort of performer.  

False Medium

Source Secrets of Magic   There are people in this world who possess the ability to pierce the veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead, allowing them to communicate with spirits. You... are not one of them. But you know enough about the occult, as well as cold reading tricks and various practices from local religions, to scam your way into people's coinpurses. Unlike a through-and-through charlatan, there's some real occult methodology behind your flimflam, but that's likely cold comfort to the people you swindle. Whether you decided to take a more righteous path, were caught and pledged to make it right, or still slip in a few “séances” between adventures, you've taken to an adventuring lifestyle as you move from place to place.  

Farmhand

Source Player Core   With a strong back and an understanding of seasonal cycles, you tilled the land and tended crops. Your farm could have been razed by invaders, you could have lost the family tying you to the land, or you might have simply tired of the drudgery, but at some point you became an adventurer.  

Farmsteader

Source Guns & Gears   You built your house using wood from the trees surrounding it. Raised it up from the dirt and called it home. You thought that it would be where you would grow old and die. But despite your best efforts, you were wrong. The land that once gave you food fell fallow, and dust took to the air and choked the livestock. Now you wander the world as an adventurer. Are you in search of a new place to settle down and try again, or have you become disillusioned by your old dreams, leading you to seek out a new purpose?  

Field Medic

Source Player Core   In the chaotic rush of battle, you learned to adapt to rapidly changing conditions as you administered to battle casualties. You patched up soldiers, guards, or other combatants, and learned a fair amount about the logistics of war.  

Fire Warden

Source Rage of Elements   Whether you fought against fires in the wilderness or in crowded city streets, you've had your fair share of dealing with uncontrolled flames. Battling thick smoke and toxic fumes, you've broken down obstacles to save trapped people from a fiery grave, and you've studied the nature and source of fire itself to try and better learn how to fight it.  

Fireworks Performer

Source Guns & Gears   Few celebrations in Tian-Xia are complete without a show of fireworks, and your job is to make sure they go off without a hitch. You load the fireworks, set the fuses, and choreograph the performance, bringing the show together in a finale of lights and explosions. Then it's time to pack up your gear and move on to the next civic holiday or religious festival. Of course, someone who travels the roads with a pack full of high explosives is bound to run into an adventure or two along the way, and so over time, your fireworks have been spent in support of that life.  

Fortune Teller

Source Player Core   The strands of fate are clear to you, as you have learned many traditional forms by which laypeople can divine the future. You might have used these skills to guide your community, or simply to make money. But even the slightest peek into these practices connects you to the occult mysteries of the universe.  

Gambler

Source Player Core   The thrill of the win drew you into games of chance. This might have been a lucrative sideline that paled in comparison to the real risks of adventuring, or you might have fallen on hard times due to your gambling and pursued adventuring as a way out of a spiral.  

Gladiator

Source Player Core   The bloody games of the arena taught you the art of combat. Before you attained true fame, you departed—or escaped—the arena to explore the world. Your skill at drawing both blood and a crowd’s attention pay off in a new adventuring life.  

Guard

Source Player Core   You served in the guard, out of either patriotism or the need for coin. Either way, you know how to get a difficult suspect to talk. However you left the guard, you might think of adventuring as a way to use your skills on a wider stage.  

Gunsmith

Source Guns & Gears   From a young age, you apprenticed to an experienced gunsmith and over time your skill and knowledge rose to match that of your master. Today, you can easily repair, modify, or improve nearly any firearm you've seen before, and even if you haven't seen it, you'll break it down to learn about what makes it tick in no time. You've taken those skills on the road, using them to assist yourself and your allies as an adventurer when it comes to maintaining their weapons, shields, armor, and more.  

Herbalist

Source Player Core   You served in the guard, out of either patriotism or the need for coin. Either way, you know how to get a difficult suspect to talk. However you left the guard, you might think of adventuring as a way to use your skills on a wider stage.  

Hermit

Source Player Core   In an isolated place—like a cave, remote oasis, or secluded mansion—you lived a life of solitude. Adventuring might represent your first foray out among other people in some time. This might be a welcome reprieve from solitude or an unwanted change, but in either case, you’re likely still rough around the edges.  

Hired Killer

Source Guns & Gears   Your life truly began after your first kill. Maybe you killed in self-defense, maybe it was a crime of passion, or maybe it was just an accident and you were a kid in the wrong place at the wrong time. In the end, the why doesn't matter. You got away with it. And then you found that maybe it didn't bother you as much as it should have. And maybe, just maybe, you had a talent you could use to forge a life for yourself. A blood-soaked talent and a blood-soaked life, sure. But it's yours.  

Hounded Thief

Source Guns & Gears   Some time ago, you stole a unique item from a strange individual. It might have been a piece of clockwork from a far-off land or some other bit of strange technology. You might still have it or you might have sold it, but either way, you can't shake the feeling that you're being followed and watched, likely by forces who want to retrieve what you took. Luckily, a life of adventure keeps you on the move.  

Hunter

Source Player Core   You stalked and took down animals and other creatures of the wild. Skinning animals, harvesting their flesh, and cooking them were also part of your training, all of which can give you useful resources while you adventure.  

Insurgent

Source Player Core 2   You were more than a rebel; you were a revolutionary, fighting for the promise of a new or better country. You may or may not still believe in the cause, or perhaps victory or exile has led you on this new journey to trumpet your glory... or to escape the consequences of your defeat.  

Junk Collector

Source Guns & Gears   You live by the adage that one person's trash is another's treasure. Whether by sifting through scrap heaps or digging up old battlefields, you remain on the lookout for lost or discarded objects that you might be able to turn into something useful. More often than not, what you find is just junk... but you're convinced that one of these days, you're going to hit the jackpot. You've even taken up adventuring as a means to supercharge your access to all sorts of junk, gear, and loot.  

Junker

Source Guns & Gears   You live on the outskirts of civilization, combing through the detritus left behind for interesting trinkets to sell or use in your own crafting. Though you have a preferred terrain to search, you know that the greatest treasures occur where people make greater use of technology.  

Laborer

Source Player Core   You’ve spent years performing arduous physical labor. It was a difficult life, but you somehow survived. You may have embraced adventuring as an easier method to make your way in the world, or you might adventure under someone else’s command.  

Magical Merchant

Source Secrets of Magic   Selling magic items isn't like being an ordinary merchant. The wares you buy and sell are expensive, making each sale rare and lucrative. You've developed knowledge of expert handiwork to ensure you don't fall for a scam, since buying a single counterfeit item can lead to bankruptcy. Whether you went out of business and had to find alternative employment, or took up adventuring to acquire new merchandise, you've taken to adventuring yourself.  

Magical Misfit

Source Secrets of Magic   You don't understand folks who claim that magical talent is some sort of burden or great responsibility; you've always used your magic to cause trouble and to escape the consequences. Whether becoming an adventurer is your attempt to make amends or just a new way to make some mischief, you're excited to see where it takes you, and you still delight in using your skills to get out of trouble.  

Martial Disciple

Source Player Core   You dedicated yourself to intense training and rigorous study to become a great warrior. The school you attended might have been a traditionalist monastery, an elite military academy, or the local branch of a prestigious mercenary organization.  

Mechanic [Uncommon]

Source Guns & Gears   The intricate inner workings of machines are no stranger to you. Whether they are mundane devices or complex clockworks, you know what makes them tick and how to maintain them. An adventuring group might keep you around to repair their equipment, or you might travel around to offer your rare services to those in need—for a price, of course!  

Medicinal Clocksmith [Uncommon]

Source Guns & Gears   While others might have looked to clockwork as a mechanical innovation, you see the potential in the technology to improve the health of patients. You might be an experienced field medic who reached for a scrapped construct to help a wounded soldier, or a vanguard surgeon who's found replacing organs with clockwork more effective than repairing them. Perhaps you've also worked to “optimize” organic bodies with fine machinery, with or without the permission of your patients.  

Merchant

Source Player Core   In a dusty shop, market stall, or merchant caravan, you bartered wares for coin and trade goods. The skills you picked up still apply in the adventuring life, in which a good deal on a suit of armor could prevent your death.  

Miner

Source Player Core   You earned a living wrenching precious minerals from the lightless depths of the earth. Adventuring might have seemed lucrative or glamorous compared to this backbreaking labor— and if you have to head back underground, this time you plan to do so armed with a real weapon instead of a miner’s pick.  

Musical Prodigy

Source Secrets of Magic   Ever since you were young, you've been almost supernaturally skilled in a particular type of music. The people around you were sure you'd grow up to perform at royal courts or to become a world-famous composer, but you've chosen a life of adventure instead. You might have given up on those dreams to find your own meaning, or you might find that adventuring allows you to experience unfiltered emotions and exploits that you can translate into a wondrous symphony some day.  

Noble

Source Player Core   To the common folk, the life of a noble seems one of idyllic luxury, but growing up as a noble or member of the aspiring gentry, you know the reality: a noble’s lot is obligation and intrigue. Whether you seek to escape your duties by adventuring or to better your station, you have traded silks and pageantry for an adventurer’s life.  

Nomad

Source Player Core   Traveling far and wide, you picked up basic tactics for surviving on the road and in unknown lands, getting by with few supplies and even fewer comforts. As an adventurer, you travel still, often into even more dangerous places.  

Occult Librarian

Source Secrets of Magic   Hours spent reading numerous compendiums dedicated to various occult topics honed your knowledge of these more obscure magical arts. You might have taken to adventuring to finance your acquisition of rare tomes, to explore occult mysteries that can't be found in the pages of a book, or perhaps to put your skills to the test.  

Outrider

Source Player Core 2   In your youth, you galloped on horseback over vast prairies, serving as a vanguard for your settlement, an army, or another group. Seeing so many different lands built a thirst in you to adventure and explore the world instead of just racing past it.  

Pilgrim

Source Player Core 2   In your youth, you made several pilgrimages to important shrines and sacred sites. You might have been a mendicant friar, a seller of religious relics (real or fraudulent), or just a simple farmer following the dictates of your faith. Whatever the aims of your wanderings now, your faith still protects you on the road.  

Plant Whisperer

Source Secrets of Magic   You've always had a green thumb, allowing you to care for plants that others found too difficult to grow and tend with a skill that borders on the magical. As you travel, you encounter all sorts of new plants and plant creatures, allowing you to expand your horizons and deepen your understanding of flora.  

Press-Ganged

Source Guns & Gears   Was it five shots or six? It doesn't really matter in the end, because after those nice folks bought all your drinks, you woke up on the lowest rung of the ladder. Whether a crewmate on a ship, a conscript in an army, or something worse, you've nowhere to go but up. This background generally requires buy-in with the entire group to tell a story allowing you to play a character starting their adventuring due to circumstances outside their own control. However, you can also play a character who was once press-ganged and has since escaped that life. If you do, press-ganged doesn't have the uncommon trait, and it has the same mechanical effects either way.  

Printer

Source Guns & Gears   Keeping your finger on the pulse of the city, you write a small news broadsheet to sell on street corners. You rent the use of a printing press to achieve this goal, so you're familiar with such machines. However, people and their stories are your main focus, and you adventure to chase the latest scoop.  

Prisoner

Source Player Core   You might have been imprisoned for crimes (whether you were guilty or not), or enslaved for some part of your upbringing. In your adventuring life, you take full advantage of your newfound freedom.  

Raised by Belief

Source Player Core   Whether in a monastery, a religious household, or just as part of your everyday life, your upbringing was steeped in the traditions of a faith or philosophy. You might remain committed or you may have turned from your childhood creed, but your skills are still founded in your devotion.  

Refugee

Source Player Core 2   You come from a land very distant from the one you now find yourself in, driven by war, plague, or simply in the pursuit of opportunity. Regardless of your origin or the reason you left your home, you find yourself an outsider in this new land. Adventuring is a way to support yourself while offering hope to those who need it most.  

Root Worker

Source Player Core 2   Some ailments can’t be cured by herbs alone. You learned ritual remedies as well, calling on nature spirits to soothe aches and ward off the evil eye. Taking up with adventurers has given you company on the road, as well as protection from those who would brand you a fake—or worse.  

Saboteur

Source Player Core 2   Whether you do it for personal enjoyment or at the behest of a mercenary company or military organization, you have a knack for destroying things. You have a sense for an object or structure’s weak spots and know where to deliver a hammer strike or alchemical bomb. You adventure to hone your skills or complete a particular mission.  

Sailor

Source Player Core   You heard the call of the sea from a young age. Perhaps you signed onto a merchant’s vessel, joined the navy, or even fell in with a crew of pirates and scalawags.  

Saloon Entertainer

Source Guns & Gears   All you want to do is entertain the people, but sure enough, bad news seems to follow you. Gunfights, brawls, robberies, and more befall establishments you play at, and word is quick to spread. Keep one town ahead of the gossip, and you just might be able to play a gig, command a stage, or run a table again.  

Scavenger

Source Player Core 2   You’ve made a living sorting through the things society throws away. You might have scavenged simply to survive, or plied a trade as a ragpicker, dung carter, or the like. While you’ve left that life behind, you still keep one eye on the ground out of habit.  

Scholar

Source Player Core   You have a knack for learning, and sequestered yourself from the outside world to learn all you could. You read about so many wondrous places and things in your books, and always dreamed about one day seeing the real things. Eventually, that curiosity led you to leave your studies and become an adventurer.  

Scout

Source Player Core   You called the wilderness home as you found trails and guided travelers. Your wanderlust could have called you to the adventuring life, or perhaps you served as a scout for soldiers and found you liked battle.  

Servant

Source Player Core 2   You held a role of servitude, waiting on nobles and engendering their trust as one of the confidantes of the household. You might have walked away on good terms, or perhaps you know dangerous secrets about your former employers. Regardless, you’re adventuring for a change and finding that in this new role, the skills you’ve learned now serve you.  

Sheriff [Uncommon]

Source Guns & Gears   You hold an official title of sheriff or deputy in a small community. Those that would do harm to others flee your gaze, for they know it brings the promise of castigation. You protect your town, watch over those who have placed their trust in you, and make sure those that would do others harm are brought to justice.  

Spotter

Source Guns & Gears   An eye for detail, a sense for the wind, and a strong trust in your gut feelings. These qualities have set you apart from others when it comes to assisting a sharpshooter with setting up the perfect shot against their target. Elevation, velocity, and concealment—these are all vital factors that need to be considered to pull off a feat of true marksmanship, and no sniper would be able to function without an experienced spotter. Since your younger days, you've put your skills as a spotter to work as an adventurer. Whether you're taking your own shots now or spotting for others, your talents grant you an edge in an adventuring career.  

Street Preacher

Source Secrets of Magic   Forget the church orthodoxy and the stuffy cloisters— spreading the word of your god to the people is your calling. You've preached on the street corners and in public houses, to wanderers on the road and to captives in the stocks. Adventuring can take you across the world. What vocation could better serve to take your holy words to fresh ears?  

Street Urchin

Source Player Core   You eked out a living by picking pockets on the streets of a major city, never knowing where you’d find your next meal. While some folk adventure for the glory, you do so to survive.  

Student of Magic

Source Secrets of Magic   You are currently enrolled at a school of magic, where you're learning the fundamentals of your magical tradition. Whether your adventuring occurs during breaks between semesters, as part of a work study program, or even within the halls of the academy itself, you'll have to learn to juggle your dual life.  

Squire

Source Player Core 2   You trained at the feet of a knight, maintaining their gear and supporting them at tourneys and in battle. Now you search for a challenge that will prove you worthy of full knighthood, or you’ve spurned pomp and ceremony to test yourself in honest, albeit less formal, combat.  

Tax Collector

Source Player Core 2   Reviled but required, you were sent when taxes were due. Performing your job might have required travel and persuasion, or perhaps you were responsible for collecting taxes on trade. Either way, it sometimes meant dirty hands, and adventuring seemed the next logical step to you.  

Teacher

Source Player Core   You are incredibly knowledgeable, skilled, and perhaps even trained to teach children and adults about the world and its wonders. From books to classes, you’re committed to imparting knowledge to all. Not everything can be taught or learned from a book, though, so you’ve become an adventurer to learn subjects more directly and bring that wisdom back to your students.  

Toymaker

Source Guns & Gears   You delight in making little trinkets for children of all ages, and seeing their faces light up thanks to one of your creations brings joy to your heart. Perhaps you sell your wares from a particular shop or from the back of a wagon as you travel from town to town.  

Tinker

Source Player Core   Creating all sorts of minor inventions scratches your itch for problem-solving. Your engineering skills take a particularly creative bent, and no one know what you’ll come up with next. It might be a genius device with tremendous potential... or it might explode.  

Undertaker

Source Guns & Gears   People die. This is the unfortunate fact of life on which you've founded your business, because wherever people die, there is a demand for mortuary services. You might be a Pharasmin priest or a secular professional, but your job is seeing to the body, comforting the bereaved, and making sure that the deceased goes to their ultimate reward with all due dignity. Of course, someone in your position sees a lot of strange deaths, and chances are one of them set you on the road to adventure.  

Wandering Preacher

Source Guns & Gears   While you once spoke to a small congregation in a ramshackle church, those days are behind you now. Your church was destroyed, your congregants scattered, and now you meander the lands holding a worn copy of your religious text in one hand, and a fiery conviction in the other.  

Ward

Source Player Core 2   When you were young, you became the ward of another house— boarded, fed, and educated, but never quite a part of the family. Perhaps you had to tend to their needs in return for feeding and raising you, or perhaps you were provided for but disregarded. Now, adventuring is your chance to grow and roam free.  

Warrior

Source Player Core   In your younger days, you waded into battle as a mercenary, a warrior defending a nomadic people, or a member of a militia or army. You might have wanted to break out from the regimented structure of these forces, or you could have always been as independent a warrior as you are now.  

Waster Walker

Source Guns & Gears   Whether you grew up in the Mana Wastes or another similarly desolate place, you quickly learned that only the strong survive. You and your family were forced to evade monsters, mutants, wild magic, and worse, as each new day heralded the possibility of a danger or threat you'd never seen before. You learned to adapt to the worst possible conditions and how to forage and survive in a place few others would dare to live.