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Backgrounds

In the Perilous Adventures Warbands Guide (PAWG), your background is the tale of your past—the life you led before joining your warband. It’s not just a former job or rank; it’s the crucible that forged your skills, shaped your spirit, and left you with a story to tell. Whether you’re new to tabletop roleplaying or a seasoned adventurer, choosing a background adds depth to your character, a small mechanical boost, and a personal touch to carry into the fray. We’ll use Sara’s character, Kael, to show how it works—dive into your history and uncover what made you!

How Backgrounds Work

  • Skill Bonus: Gain a +10 bonus to one skill reflecting your past experience. This adds to your starting skill value (after spending your 90 points) but caps at 100 during creation.
  • Personal Item: Choose a small, non-magical object tied to your background—a keepsake, tool, or token. It has no fixed mechanical effect, but it’s yours to weave into your tale, and the GM might give it a moment to shine (e.g., a merchant’s coin swaying a trader).
  • Flexibility: The bonuses and ideas listed are starting points—adjust them with your GM to match your vision.

Newbie Tip: Your background is an easy way to hint at who you were—pick one that feels right and roll with it!

Background Options

Below are backgrounds to spark your story, from battle-hardened soldiers to humble farmers. Each offers a skill bonus, a glimpse of your past, and personal item ideas—tweak them to fit your warband’s world.

Soldier

  • Skill Bonus: +10 to a combat skill (e.g., Melee Weapons, Ranged Weapons)
  • Description: You fought under a banner—perhaps for a lord, a mercenary crew, or a ragged militia. Blood and drills taught you to handle steel and hold your ground. Were you a steadfast trooper, a deserter fleeing chaos, or the last of a fallen company?
  • Personal Item Ideas: A notched dog tag, a frayed banner scrap, a bent sword hilt

Street Urchin

  • Skill Bonus: +10 to Stealth or Sleight of Hand
  • Description: The alleys were your cradle—snatching scraps, evading fists, and bedding down in filth. You learned to slip through cracks and take what’s needed. Did you claw your way out, or do the streets still whisper your name?
  • Personal Item Ideas: A chipped coin, a stolen trinket, a ragged scarf

Sage’s Apprentice

  • Skill Bonus: +10 to a Knowledge skill (e.g., Arcana, History)
  • Description: You toiled under a scholar—dusting tomes for crumbs of wisdom. Scrolls and relics were your teachers. Were you a eager student, a runaway fleeing dusty halls, or left alone when your mentor met a grim fate?
  • Personal Item Ideas: A cracked quill, a faded page, a small rune stone

Outcast

  • Skill Bonus: +10 to Survival
  • Description: Cast out by kin, village, or fate, you faced the wilds alone—learning to endure where others faltered. Was your exile unjust, or did you bolt from a shadowed past? Sara chose this for Kael, his years of solitude sharpening his edge.
  • Personal Item Ideas: A worn map fragment, a carved bone whistle, a patched cloak
  • Example: Kael’s +10 Survival lifts his skill from 80 to 90—mastering the wilds—his worn map fragment a clue to a lost home he seeks.

Noble

  • Skill Bonus: +10 to Persuasion
  • Description: Born to wealth and power, you walked gilded halls—until fortune turned. Charm was your key, but did privilege soften you, or did ruin toughen your spine?
  • Personal Item Ideas: A tarnished signet ring, a silk handkerchief, a gilded locket

Herbalist

  • Skill Bonus: +10 to Medicine or Survival
  • Description: You roamed fields and thickets, harvesting roots and leaves to heal or sustain. Village healer or lone wanderer, nature’s gifts bend to your touch. Did you mend lives or merely cling to your own?
  • Personal Item Ideas: A stained mortar, a dried flower, a leather herb pouch

Tinker

  • Skill Bonus: +10 to Craft
  • Description: You mended what broke—pots, tools, wagons—with nimble hands and a sharp mind. Roadside fixer or guild apprentice, you turned trash to treasure. Did you roam for trade or root in one forge?
  • Personal Item Ideas: A bent screwdriver, a tiny gear, a patched apron

Farmer

  • Skill Bonus: +10 to Athletics or Endurance
  • Description: You tamed the land—plowing, planting, reaping—through sun and storm. Muscle or stamina saw you through. Did you abandon the fields by choice, or did blight or bandits drive you off?
  • Personal Item Ideas: A rusted hoe tip, a wheat-stalk braid, a weathered seed pouch

Merchant

  • Skill Bonus: +10 to Persuasion or Investigation
  • Description: You traded low for high—haggling in bustling markets or chasing rare finds. Profit was your aim, but did greed undo you, or did a bad deal break your stride?
  • Personal Item Ideas: A scratched abacus, a faded ledger page, a lucky coin

Performer

  • Skill Bonus: +10 to Performance or Deception
  • Description: You thrived on captivating crowds—singing, juggling, or weaving tales. Streets or stages were your domain. Were you a celebrated star, a cunning trickster, or both?
  • Personal Item Ideas: A cracked lute string, a painted mask, a bright ribbon

Putting It Together: Sara’s Example

Sara’s character, Kael, takes the Outcast background:

  • Skill Bonus: +10 to Survival, raising it from 80 (WIS) to 90 after his 90 skill points—capped at 100 at creation. He’s a wilderness survivor.
  • Personal Item: A worn map fragment—creased and faded, it’s his only link to a home he can’t remember, maybe a key to his next step.
  • Story Tie: Kael’s lone years sharpened his instincts, and that map fuels his restless search.

Newbie Note: Your background adds a skill boost and a piece of your past—choose one that fits, and make it your own!

For Experienced Players

  • Customization: Shift the +10 to a fitting skill with GM approval—e.g., a Farmer tending livestock might take +10 Medicine instead of Athletics.
  • Depth: Tie your personal item to the plot—Kael’s map could spark a quest. Pair with distinctions—Outcast + Hardy Traveler gives +30 Survival in brutal terrain.
  • Roleplay: Lean into your roots—Merchants barter, Farmers endure, Soldiers stand firm—it’s your warband’s strength.

That’s your background in PAWG! It’s your foothold in a harsh world, offering a skill edge and a story to tell. Work with your GM to shape it, then march into the fight with pride!