These are 7 backgrounds I wrote up for using in Troika last autumn. Why 7, you ask? Because I like to produce awkward and odd numbers of things, so they're more difficult to incorporate into a background table.
1 Homesick Deity
You were once lord or lady of all you surveyed: a god embodying one or more of the natural forces of your world and revered by the mortal inhabitants. When your world withered and died on some unfortunate alignment of the spheres, you were fortunate enough to come unstuck and survived. You are certainly a shadow of your former self, but then you were literally a divine incarnation before so perhaps you should be happy with what you’re left with, eh? You are, of course, still a little hung-up about the homeworld. That’s understandable.
Possessions
- A badly damaged but still functionally excellent weapon of your choice, granting +1 to attacks made with it.
- A drinking horn with 4 gulps of Ambroise and Nectar in it (each drink counts as a provision that also restores 1 Luck) OR a rather gaudy set of statuettes depicting you and your other playmates on the pantheon.
Skills
1 Astrology
2 Second Sight
2 Weapon Fighting with the weapon of your choice
2 Spell – Random (Table 5, Troika!)
2 Spell – Animate
Special
Being without your home turf advantage may have severely lessened your divine abilities, but you are still very much above the norm. You aren’t immortal or omniscient anymore, but once per day you can spend a luck point to impose your divinity on your surroundings. This might involve commanding an unusually recalcitrant object nearby to behave (and having it listen), or impressing the mortal proles. Said proles may test their luck against being compelled to worship you for at least 1d6 days. And who knows, perhaps they’ll end up liking your church better than their old one.
2 Caped Crusader
You were chasing your nemesis from Metroville City after what must have been your hundredth high-powered punch up in the downtown area. This time, however, with an evil cackle he opened some sort of aperture in front of you, which you flew straight into like the great big do-gooding doofus that you are. Now you’re adrift on the cosmic currents, and trying to adapt to a life without the precious city you swore to protect. Best not to worry too much about whatever it is your nemesis is doing in your absence.
Possessions
- A very gaudy, skin tight costume complete with cape.
- A communication device for the League of Heroic Chums, which has picked up only static since you passed through the portal.
Skills
4 Fly
4 Strength
3 Fist Fighting
1 Awareness
1 Disguise
Special
You don’t wear armour, but you have a mild invulnerability to harm. You count as Heavily Armoured, without the associated encumbrance. Additionally you must roll 1d6 to determine your secret and mortal weakness: 1 - a kind of shiny space-rock chemically similar to your homeworld; 2 - anything that’s a particular shade of green; 3 - plasmic core fumes; 4 - sour dairy products, including cheese and off-milk; 5 - light produced from a magical source; 6 - nuts. Whenever the subject of your secret and mortal weakness is brought near to you, you lose 2 points of skill until it is removed, and lose a point of stamina every round (or every few seconds) it is near.
3 Broker Envoy
There are a number of powerful forces in the multiverse, and a number of conflicts, checks and balances that exist between them. Your magical powers and abilities were bartered and cajoled from greater beings by acting as a diplomat, negotiator and broker between them. You consider yourself as a specialist agent of the cosmic balance, having survived encounters with strange and mercurial forces of the cosmos. Others more likely consider you a wheedling con-man, try-hard, or brown-noser.
Possessions
- 1d6 sigil-badges, the first your personal crest and each other representative of a patron or specialist subject.
- Diplomats robe and cloak, subtly padded out. Lightly Armoured.
- Impressive-looking staff
- Tea set for impromptu summits
Skills
1 Astrology
1 Second Sight
1 Awareness
1 Evaluate
1 Staff Fighting
2 Etiquette
2 Spell – Random
2 Spell – Random
4 Wizard Tower Thief
You grew up with ambitions for a career in sorcery, but unfortunately you also grew up without demonstrating a single iota of magical talent. Working initially on the premise that if you can’t have it, no one can, you set about pilfering interesting magical lore and spellbooks. You have worked out by now the fundamentals of eking out the residual magic in objects taken from spellcasters, but refinement is a long way off.
Possessions
- Burglars outfit with deceptively deep pockets, giving an additional 2 inventory slots that can be used without incurring weight penalties.
- Climbing gear, for those damnable tall bookshelves.
- 2d6 random magical nicknacks and spell scrolls you have recently liberated from an uncaring home.
Skills
4 Awareness
4 Evaluate
2 Sneak
2 Locks
2 Trapping
2 Activate Magic Spells
Special
You may use your skill Activate Magic Spells to use up a written spell as found in a wizard's spellbook, scroll or magic item. You can still use items with magic abilities as normal, but if for whatever reason it isn’t working, you can jimmy some sort of dramatic reaction out of it with a little fiddling and persistence. Whenever you use an item this way, roll 1d6. On a 1, it explodes and deals you 1d3 damage. On a 2, 3, 4 or 5 it’s magical residue is used up without any fireworks, rendering it inert. On a 6 it still has a little juice left in it, and is usable again.
5 Chapter Knight of the Grand Sanctum
As a child barely old enough to read you were dropped into the greatest library in the million spheres, trained as a powerful protector and charged with guarding and curating one of the many areas that intersect with another world. Of course, these days literacy rates are very low and interest in the public services wanes. You have left your post (or else been laid off amidst huge cuts) and set out to discover if there really is anything more to the world than your dusty tomes.
Possessions
- An enchanted sword, providing +2 damage against those with late fees.
- A quick cheat sheet on the Grand Sanctum’s rather complicated index system.
- A suit of librarian’s Tweed-mail, thickly woven Modest Armour.
Skills
2 Sword Fighting
2 Sneak
1 Astrology
1 Organize
6 Undercity Denizen
You had a life now long forgotten as a mundane mortal in one of the many metropolises on the material plane. But you slipped through the cracks, faded from the street level, and the bleak otherworld of the undercity caught you in its grasp. Now you walk the spaces unseen and deal in circles which only the truly certifiable can deal, like a particularly pungent shaman of the city.
Possessions
- A bag of assorted tribble and rubbish wrapped fast to a stout length of wood
- An unkempt and ragged outfit that manages somehow to express an air of nobility while simultaneously dirtying the actual air with a mysterious but powerful odour.
Skills
2 Fist Fighting
4 Awareness
4 Second Sight
2 Spell - Astral Reach
2 Spell - Illusion
2 Spell - Random
Special
Since to any common passerby you appear to be nothing more than a crazy homeless person you have 4 Sneak when in Urban areas, while all the well to do citizens of the City Above desperately avoid making eye contact with you. Doesn’t apply to others awakened to the Undercity.
7 Feeble-pit Survivor
Maybe because you were too pretty or charming or just plain unfortunate, you were taken by the royal guard one night and for weeks, months or possibly even years you survived the expansive and diabolical dungeon of Feeble Ezra, the Crown Prince of Philomere. It took some skill but you’ll be the first to admit that you only really got by on tightly-wound paranoia and sheer dumb luck. Eventually a newly-placed magical trap misfired and teleported you away, but honestly you aren’t yet wholly sure that this isn’t all some further dastardly trap by the Feeble Prince.
Possessions
- Manacles and a length of chain
- Ragged and soiled prisoners clothes
- An expertly crafted shiv
Skills
4 Trapping
4 Awareness
4 Run
2 Stealth
Special
You are so fuelled by neurotic terror that you’ve become desensitised to the horrors of the world. You don’t spend a luck point when testing against fear related effects. Of course, if you ever manage to chill out again this bonus is lost.
