| Background Packages These background packages are meant to represent the upbringing of the characters, and show that they are indeed part of a greater society and not just gods who dropped out of the sky. (Unless of course they ARE Gods who dropped out of the sky....) They cover the character's background for the first 10-12 years of their life, or their childhood, and show what they may have learned during that time. Those years are actually very crucial for most human beings, and a lot of what we carry with us through life comes from that time. These are meant to function as a foundation for players to use to build their characters on, and help them to understand where the character came from. But, these are not necessarily the role the ADULT character plays in society. For example, a General grew up on a farm, so he has the farmboy background, but all of his adult skills will be those of a solider and warrior. A monk rarely started life as a monk, he was usually something else beforehand, and a gambler was a village kid who drifted into the city because he got bored with the small town life. There are several ways for a HERO GM to use these packages: 1) Have the Players pick one of the packages to use as a "guideline" when they first begin building their character, and then let them just incorporate that package as they wish. 2) Give these packages to the characters on top of their normal points, and let them use or replace the disadvantages as they see fit. 3) Ignore the disadvantages altogether and and just use them as everyman skills packages for the characters to flesh them out. If the characters paid points for the skills already, then the points they paid cancel out the everyman skills and don't add. However a GM does it, it's recommended they don't let the players "sell off" the background skills and traits for more points because these packages represent the things the character had no choice in learning in life. The disadvantages are of course, always optional, but recommended. |
| Animal Handler Artisan Boatman Craftsman Domestic Farmer Fisherman Healer Martial Adept Merchant Noble Scholar Streetkid Villager Weaponsmaster |
| The Backgrounds: |