Multiple Professions

[windmark728]

Hello all.

I am new to the RQ rpg and while becoming familiar with the ruleset, a question popped into my head. As much as I love the "classless" system, would it make sense (from a role-playing perspective) for an adventurer to aquire a new profession- in addition to only the ability to learn new individual skills?

For example, I have an ongoing campaign, in which a character with a Civilized background, has Noble as his Profession. Due to a falling out with his father, he was banished from his family, and over time, became a member of a spy organization, which answers to the Imperial throne.

As I interpret the rules, this character would then need to learn each individual skill related to his espionage/spy training. Not a major deal at all, but it seemed logical to allow an additional profession, such as Spy, to be aquired, somehow.

I guess I could just make a GM call and make it so, but I was wondering if anyone has tried this idea before, seen it discussed anywhere else, or just could give me your thoughts?

Thanks

 

[Dan True]

It depends on the flow of play.

Do you play the whole "learning to be a spy period", in that case I would rule that he acquires the Improvement Rolls as normal and can spend them to learn spy skills.

If, however, you say something like "two years has passed since your banishment. You have each taken up a living bla bla bla", then you could simply say that the character picks up the profession on the way, in exchange for a reduced set of improvement rolls.

If the banishment happened in the background of the character, I would say that he should choose "Noble" profession, and then spend the freebie points on the relevant skills. Giving him another profession would be giving him higher starting skills than the rest of the party.

- Dan

 

[sdavies2720]

RQ/Legend has a lot of flexibility: the main issues are balance and direction for the player.

Dan did a good job of laying out the balance issues: Just make sure that this development doesn't suddenly give that character a huge advantage. Skills are usually easy to handle -- just make sure all characters get about the same advancement. If Magic, or some other special ability is involved, I've always handled it 'off-camera', at the end of which the one character gets spell casting ability (or whatever) and the other characters get whatever's appropriate in a similar timeframe.

Sometimes the issue is making sure the player has enough information to know how to develop the character. I've found that some/most of my players have trouble translating a game development (e.g. you're now in the thieve's guild) into specific skill development plans (e.g. so now you should be developing stealth and sleight-of-hand). I've found that stealing the structure from the cult writeups is helpful: They start as a low level (apprentice?) which has a bunch of restrictions (e.g. you can only go on missions assigned by your master), but it's clear what they need to do to get to the next rank (e.g. 75% skill in Sleight, Stealth, One Weapon, or steal one object). That gives the player motivation and clear direction to develop the character.

But you should use whatever parts of this are most fun for you and your players.

Steve

 

[soltakss]

If this is background experience, then I'd split the profession gains into two and allow the PC to buy whichever skills he needs. I can't remember off the top of my head how Legend (MRQII) professions work. I know that they get an increase in the skills for their professions, but is there more than that? If that's all there is, then I'd halve the skill increases for each profession and apply all the skill gains accordingly.

BRP handles this a bit better, as it has a skill pool that can be assigned to skills gained from a profession, so having two professions simply increases the skills that can be assigned to.

If it is ongoing game experience, then it is handled by the normal experience/training rules.

 

[windmark728]

Wow! Thanks very much for the insight and info, guys! I think I have a good idea of how I will handle this in-game now.

 

[Mixster]

If this happens in game with the "2 years later you are a spy approach". You could use teaching to give him the skills. Especially if he also gets improvement rolls.

2 years is 104 weeks, so while expensive, a lot of teaching can be gained from that. If given enough improment rolls, two of his skills could increase by 50.

He'd have to acquire the resources, but if he's a member of a guild, they could probably lend it to him on the assumption he will bring back more money in the future.

 

[ThatGuy]

You could also create a specific custom profession for the player.

Pick out (either with the PC, or by yourself depending on your style) which skills best fit for the character. Essentially making a hybrid profession that is exactly who the character is.

Perhaps his "Noble" background was while he was young, and certain skills simply never developed- or maybe his Father was a certain type of Noble- an up jumped merchant with a head for numbers (Evaluate) and persuasion, but no real Ride or Influence skills.

I guess what I am really saying is, you can kind of tailor the profession to the characters personality. I find PC's really like this tact.

My 2 cents.

 

[windmark728]

You could also create a specific custom profession for the player.

I think that this is a great idea, which really shows the flexibility of this game.

 

[RangerDan]

I think Dan True basically covered all the bases in his post regarding doing it in-background vs. in-play. Freebie points during character creation actually do give quite some flexibility in fleshing out a character.

I do however understand the appeal for the player in being able to say "I have the Noble profession and I have the Spy profession. I am a Noble turned Spy."

So, on this topic:

You could also create a specific custom profession for the player.

If I am not mistaken, all professions actually grant the same number of skill points.
I know it's 50 points in Age of Treason, but I can't recall off-hand if the Core Book points are also 50.

Basically tally up all the points granted (counting Advanced Skills as 10 points) and you should find they match up.

So you could:

A) Create a custom profession as ThatGuy says, by mixing and matching skills. Scrap +10% Sword, but give Advanced Skill Seduction (for example). I personally like Rake as a name for the Noble/Spy profession.

B) Give both professions (Noble, then Spy), but give out 50 (or whatever the value of a profession is) "freebie points" less. Freebie point spend should be capped at 20 (instead of 30) for skills on both profession lists. You could say your Noble turned Spy has been too busy to develop his other interests.

Have fun

 

[PhilHibbs]

Just to keep things quick and simple, I'd say no - and I don't like saying "no", but there are plenty of Free Skill Points to customise a character in this way. That's what they are for.