The 1e Beggar career was not brought forward into 2e. A somewhat similar but also distinctly different character was created: The Vagabond. The tonal difference is quite obvious: I think that the Beggar was envisioned as an urban career that did mainly rely on begging to survive. The Maelstrom RPG, which may have influenced the writers of WFRP 1e, had several sub-classes within its Beggar career, differentiating them by which precise methods of begging they used(!). The Vagabond RPG is more of the "gentleman of the road" stereotype, although resembling, this time more accidentally I think, the Maelstrom RPG's Rogue career. Incidentally, the Liber Fanatica fanzine wrote that the 2e equivalent to the Beggar was contained in the Peasant career. I don't see this at all, although I am always slightly reluctant to disagree since some of its writers had been official playtesters for 2e and may have been in a position to know directly. In any case, the original package for the Beggar was:
Skills: Begging, Concealment Urban, Secret Language (Thieves' Tongue), Secret Signs (Thieves' Signs), Silent Move Urban, 25% chance of Consume Alcohol
If this character were bumped up with some of the skills from the Vagabond character, then we might go to:
Skills: Begging, Concealment Urban, Silent Move Urban, 75% chance of Secret Signs (Thieves' Signs), 50% chance of Haggle, 50% chance of Orientation, 50% chance of Secret Language (Ranger), 50% chance of Secret Language (Thieves' Tongue), 30% chance of Secret signs (Gamekeeper), 25% chance of Consume Alcohol, 25% chance of Fleet Footed, 25% chance of Storytelling, 25% chance of Swim
The above is okay, I think, but the problem here is that 2e Vagabond is quite a generous career, rather overpowered for its concept. I find myself wanting to get rid of the Fleet Footed and Swim options too. For example, an entirely legitimate set of skill and talent choices would be:
Skills: Common Knowledge (Bretonnia), Secret Language (Thieves' Tongue), Haggle, Heal, Navigation, Outdoor Survival, Performer (Singer), Silent Move
Talents: Fleet Footed, Marksman, Seasoned Traveller
That character really does have skills that can pay the bills, so this is very much a professional vagabond. But that really doesn't work if they are always perceived as common criminals - unless there is a very strong Vagabond sub-culture which still makes it a worthwhile life option. So going the other way into 1e, how might this character look?
Skills: Begging, Silent Move (Rural), Silent Move (Urban), 75% chance of Orientation, 50% chance of Concealment (Rural), 50% chance of Concealment (Urban), 50% chance of Haggle, 50% chance of Secret Language (Ranger), 50% chance of Secret Language (Thieves'), 30% chance of Dance, 30% chance of Sing, 30% chance of Storytelling, 25% chance of Marksmanship, 25% chance of Swim, 20% chance of Sixth Sense
I am not entirely sold on this but on the other hand it doesn't seem too bad. I haven't included Heal Wounds, I just think that is wrong for the character concept. One might add a 25% chance of Herb Lore though without being too unreasonable. A chance of Musicianship at the same level as Dance etc. might work too.
Going back to 1e, one of the weakest-designed skills is Secret Signs. The entry states that Signs work at the level of individual careers but doesn't make clear if all careers have them. One assumes not since otherwise every career should have this skill, whereas the Beggar career has the Secret signs - Thieves' signs skill and the Hunter has the Secret Signs - Woodsman's. To make things even more muddy, the skill description states that Gamekeepers have Secret Signs but the actual Gamekeeper only has the skill for the Poacher sub-career! Anyway, all that being so, the following Secret Signs' sub-skills are the ones that actually seem to exist in 1e world:
Dwarven Engineer
Druid
Lawyer
Pedlar
Poacher
Scout
Templar
Thief
Woodsman
It isn't written but I am assuming the logic of the Templar career should imply that this is a separate skill for each Templar Order. I don't think there is anything in the background which would justify the individual orders wanting or needing to communicate with each other through Secret Signs.
There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to these choices. I mean they are mainly individually defensible but why Lawyers have them but Physicians don't, for example, is hard to intuitively understand. There is obviously a lot of design-space in here and something quite useful could be made of it but it seems a little half-baked as it is.
No comments:
Post a Comment