Background
Added 2023-05-20 09:59:01 +0000 UTCRather than having you vote on individual skills, I’ll now ask a simple question: what is Emrys’s backstory? We know he’s an isekai, but he’s subbing into the body of some rando in universe and that may or may not have baggage. At the very least, it determines what skills will be on his character sheet.
Criminal: got by through theft, trickery, and his wits
Performer: a real charmer, some kind of musician or actor. Got by as an entertainer with his pretty face and high charisma.
Respectable Tradesman: he had a whole life ahead of him as someone with a legitimate trade like carpentry, tailoring, or blacksmithing.
Fisherman: lived his whole life on a boat, a ship’s not quite the same but he has a solid foundation on what is needed to be a decent sailor.
Merchant Class: The upper middle class of the Shackles. An excellent education is all but assured.
Pirate Lord’s Brat: bastard child of one pirate lord or another. They may rule the Shackles but this won’t help near as much as you might hope. Emphasis on social skills and baggage is all but assured.
Orphan: Used to surviving on very little and looking after yourself.
Slave: stuck doing the grunt work to pay of some massive debt (which might be fabricated)
Temple Prostitute: the classiest brothels are all run by the church of Callistria, and tend to also be full of spies and informants.
Comments
Ah crap, I forgot multiple choices again. And don’t worry; I am not going to pull a fast one on you and build him in some kind of hilariously suboptimal way because you choose the wrong background. A charismatic thief (with magic) and a charismatic street musician (with magic) will both have some of the same charisma based skills, but their extra skill points will go into fairly different spots. Sleight of hand vs perform (wind instruments), for example. A Single Attribute Dependent character (in this case, someone who chooses everything that scales off of charisma) is VERY good within their areas of expertise (making friends and influencing people) and kinda anemic outside of it. Climbing, sleight of hand, sneaking, assessing the value of loot, and avoiding ambushes are things that a Criminal Emrys could probably manage but Performer Emrys is going to need to outsource…. But Performer Emrys will have a more robust combination of skills to help him fool, charm, and browbeat people into helping him while Criminal Emrys is probably going to just max bluff and lie constantly to get people to help him.
Jerky
2023-05-20 12:51:28 +0000 UTCAgain, I don't know much about TTRPGs.. but if the Characters Stats are important (like a Sorcerer needing Charisma?), then I'd likely pick stuff that aligns with that choice. Otherwise, if unrelated: Criminal and/or Performer.
Cyrus
2023-05-20 10:18:14 +0000 UTC
