Below is a list of occupation lists I might use in my own DCC games.
I like occupation lists, both for the way they paint an immediate picture of the game world, and also for the way they provide an instant prompt for playing the role of a new character.
The Medievalists:
from Coins & Scrolls:
Actual medieval occupations
from Ten Foot Polemic:
Failed Medieval occupations
from Zenopus Archives:
OD&D NPC occupations
from Into the Dark:
Old School occupations
The Dickensians:
from Into the Odd:
Failed occupations (for the Bastionland city setting)
from Zero Level Blog:
Our World occupations (for the Our World / Lost World setting)
Lost World occupations (for the Our World / Lost World setting)
from Roles, Rules, and Rolls:
Baroque occupations
from Iron & Ink:
Yellow City races, castes, and backgrounds (for the Yoon-Suin setting)
from Pride & Parchment
Scythian / Slavic occupations, goals, and traits
from Tales of the Grotesque & Dungeonesque:
Dark Secrets (and a pdf of the same)
The Weirdos:
from What Would Conan Do?:
Planar backgrounds (for the Troika! setting)
Bonus planar backgrounds (for the Troika! setting)
from Living 4 Crits:
Mouse Guard occupations and character creation
Disney occupations (and a pdf of the same)
Revolutionary War occupations (and a pdf of the same)
Numenera occupations
JRPG occupations
Star Wars occupations
from Giblet Blizzard:
Weird Urban occupations
from Rogues' Repast:
Carcosan occupations (for the Carcosa setting)
This is a neat tidy collection! I can always use background tables! Not to push my own work too much, but I did do some background tables myself that you might like based off of your criteria: For weird post cyberpunk gonzo nonsense: https://sheepandsorcery.blogspot.com/2019/05/inhuman-backgrounds-and-scenario.html
ReplyDeleteFor weird meatlandia world: (These ones were made specifically with DCC in mind)
https://sheepandsorcery.blogspot.com/search?q=That+which+Hungers
Oh awesome! Thanks for sharing these!
DeleteI'm going to try reposting them as links below to make it even easier for people to see them:
Inhuman Mothership Backgrounds
Meatland Occupations
Brilliant list, thank you! I need to add this to my next blog digest so I don't lose it as I'm currently thinking sci-fi.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this big list! I really love backgrounds too. I'm just prepping a new short campaign today for a space opera setting, and I'm leaning heavily on backgrounds instead of a skill system. I recently published a guide for Bronze Age character backgrounds suitable for ancient or sword-and-sorcery settings; I'm not sure whether you want us clogging up your comments with self-promotion ;-), but I'd happily post a link.
ReplyDeleteI chose to only include free lists instead of ones that show up in zines or supplements, but I don't mind you promoting something super on-topic you wrote!
DeleteThanks! My background/occupation guide is "BRAZEN BACKGROUNDS: Character Backgrounds for Bronze Age Settings." It combines my geeky gamer heart with my nerdy ancient-history-professor brain. Should work well for many sword-and-sorcery or low fantasy settings, too. It's at DriveThru:
Deletehttps://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/278030/Brazen-Backgrounds-Character-Backgrounds-for-Bronze-Age-Settings
Are you familiar with the game Barbarians of Lemuria (actually a whole family of rulesets now)? That game makes background careers/occupations foundational for defining character abilities in a really interesting way that evokes the diverse past experiences of footloose adventurers. There's a sword-and-sorcery game (BoL), a swashbuckling game (Honour & Intrigue), a post-apoc game (Barbarians of the Wasteland), etc. which all use that approach.
Great post! Linking folks here again this week.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jeremy! I'm glad you enjoyed.
DeleteAnother fabulous synthetic post. Really great work here!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Juniper!
DeleteAnother Fool for your Adventures is a collection of character backgrounds and occupations for Into the Odd.
ReplyDeletehttps://drive.google.com/open?id=1484jnYc4LB8YyhyQPCyqidUJnTC7zbtS