Custom back grounds

Yes Donn, you can use it with the UAP. I am currently using the Holy Warrior background created above.

 

Wondering what of A-WIP this conflicts with. I like the dwarven inventor background and would like to be able to use it. I'm still just a bit too green with all this to see the possible headaches.

I wonder if +1 to perception might be added to it to, with another 1/4 to firearms, a better reflection of firearm focus. If you need to balance this could dock constitution by 1 to reflect the less active life style.
It does seem odd you loose two points to dexterity but you're background is a lot of dexterous activities, picking locks, disarming traps, etc. Just putting thought to paper.

 

I think I'll try the Gambling Addict. These backgrounds are amazing BTW.

 

First, I want to say that those are some good backgrounds.
Here's the file with grammar mistakes fixed based on my first run-through.\
A couple comments, because you had requested some input as well:
For Gnome Hermit I'm pretty sure you meant bourgeoisie not bourgandise(maybe you were making up a new term?)
I fixed a lot of you->your, your is possessive.
I added a lot of commas after beginning clauses to sentences(Ex: As you grew up, you became the village hunter)
I changed the wording a few times for readability.
until only has one l.
I dropped it into word to check for spelling errors, and ended up changing from British to American spelling for some words(like demeanour)
gameback.mes

 

Well, I am back from my holiday and happy to see people enjoy my backgrounds.
Though I admire some of theorel's work. I will look through it more thoroughly later in this week. I see no need to change my British spelling into American. The first is right though. Guess, I need to change a few little things.

As to Gato, the explanation of the less Dex is explained by the continued strained labor. Only half of the skills is on Dex. Personally it is a bit of a balance thing for a strong person. As Arcanum also calculates the fact you can increase your skill at the lower Dex level if you already gained a bonus.
Also to Gato it conflicts at to the limit of the amount of effects as explained by rroyo in the beginning

I ain't starting FourHorsemen

Yes, DonThrogg you can. UAP does not add any extra effects as up to this point as far as I know.

 

Updated with new spelling.
Found even a mistake of my own again in Tribal Demi-god 'you mother' -> 'your mother'

I have left the english spelling. I am sorry for those that wish for American spelling, but I am rather partial to Europe

 

I've uploaded a new version to the known link:
http://www.4shared.com/file/58600605/884ba956/Custom_Backgrounds.html.

It includes 10 new custom backgrounds and I managed to create a background that modifies more than five stats.
I hope these new backgrounds will be received with the same enthausiasm as before.
These custom backgrounds should work with Drogg Black Tooth's mods.
They do not work with AWIP at the moment. However, these backgrounds will be included into a future version of AWIP.
Below the are the background stories once again. I am sure I have to update them. I am sure DarkElf will be so kind to update the version here at the House of Lords, but he will have to announce when that will happen.

I will react later to replies, as it is my birthday today and I just got a job yesterday, so I have celebrations to do

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Ancient Blood

You have talked to many wise men and women, but none could give you the answer you seek. You know your blood is mixed with a powerful creature of old, but what kind of creature you do not know. Your blood could be anything; draconic demonic or angelic? You simply do not know. What you do know is that it leaves clear tale signs. Besides of having exotic looks, you are stronger and hardier than most mortals resulting in bonuses to Strength (+2), Constitution (+2) and Beauty (+1). However, you have trouble controlling your strong emotions and you notice your perception of the world is tainted by your blood resulting in a penalty to Charisma (-2) and Perception (-3). Your blood also gives a small rise to your magical apptitude.


Earthborn

You are one of the rare few Dwarves born every generation that is known as an Earthborn. All Dwarves have a connection with the earth, but you are one with the Stone. Your unique connection causes you to have qualities alike an earth elemental. You have the strength and stamina of earth resulting in bonuses to your Constitution (+4) and Strength (+2). You mindset has become more firm, if slow to move. This results in a bonus to Willpower (+2), but a penalty to Charisma (-2). Your rough skin helps deflect blows, but results in a penalty to Beauty (-2). Due to this connection you do not share the natural neck of Dwarves towards technology, as you are more focusses on the earth itself. You loose all bonuses in the tech skills, and you actually gain a small magical apptitude.


Panarii Acolyte

You were orphaned when your reached your early teens. Taking pity on you the local Panarii priest took you in as his own son. Here the foundations of your dream to become a Panarii priest were created. To complete your training you boarded the IFS Zephyr bound for the great city of Tarant and the Panarii temple in that great city. Your training as an acolyte has given you bonuses to your Willpower (+1), Perception (+1), Charisma (+1) and heal skill. However, you have missed out the better part of regular education and you are unfamiliar with the value of gold resulting in a penalty to your Intelligence (-2) and a hefty penalty to your haggle skill.


Cosmopolitian

You were raised in a great city and as such you have been exposed to many cultures. You have learned how to sway each and everyone resulting in bonuses to your haggle and persuasion skill. You have also learned to dodge the muggers, runaway carts and horsemen that crossed your path resulting in a bonus to your dodge skill. In many cities most of its inhabitants tend to live through jobs that require no manual labor and you are no exception. As such your muscles are not well trained resulting in a penalty to your Strength (-2).


Dwarven Activist

Unlike your Dwarven brethern do, you believe the best way to help the Humans understand the responsibility and power of technology you need to teach them. As such you have done the unthinkable and left your clan to go into the wild world to teach the humans. As you travelled you tried to persuade humans to give thought to their actions and created machines that were less damaging to the environment. These actions have resulted in bonuses to your persuasion and repair skill. Your resolve in the matter has given you a bonus to Willpower (+1). However, you did not participate in much physical labor as many Dwarves do, and as such you miss the racial bonus to Strength. Trying to help the world is also costly and you start with half the normal wealth.


Entrepeneur

Your life is about business. You invest money into project in the hopes to reap the benefits. Your latest deal seems to be the best as you board the investment, the IFS Zephyr. Part of this big air ship is build with your money and you are to get a percentage of its profits. Profits of which already a partial payment has reached your pockets. Your experience around the negotiation table gives you a bonus to your haggle skill and a small bonus to your persuasion skill. Your lifestyle has also given you a sharp mind and an aura of presence resulting in bonuses to your Intelligence (+1) and Charisma (+2). However, this also means you had a life in which you never strained a muscle resulting in penalties to Strength (-2) and Dexterity (-2).


Child of Fortune

You can not comprehend why the IFS Zephyr went down with you on board. After all, your vocabulary seems to miss the term bad luck. Everything always goes just the way you want it and your luck just never seems to run out. You are simply the pretty person with the luck of the gods. This is reflected in a bonus to your Beauty (+2) as well as a bonus to your gamble and dodge skill. When you strike a person your luck also comes into play giving you a much higher chance for a critical hit. Seeing you always got what you want without lifting a finger, you could never be bothered to care about your surroundings, your life or what would happen relying solely on your luck. This view on life is reflected by a penalty to your Perception (-2) and Willpower (-3).


Jack of all Trades

You originate from a small town where you did all kinds of jobs like militia, doctor assistant and handyman. This has resulted in a variety of bonuses across a wide spectrum of skills like melee, dodge, heal, repair and firearms, and attributes like Strength (+1), Dexterity (+1) and Intelligence (+1). In a sudden decissive mood you boarded the IFS Zephyr to go to the great city of Tarant in search of a new job. Many people from the village doubted you would succeed though as you simply were given those jobs as you never complained and were quickly pleased which is reflected in a penalty to Willpower (-1) and Charisma (-3).

Lonesome Traveller

Home is an alien concept for you, at best the world is your home. You have travelled far and wide and always seek new places and ways to travel, as you deem the road just as important as the destination. Your experiences have given you a great bonus in Perception (+5) and the sometimes hardy conditions have given you a bonus to Constitution (+2) and Strength (+1). However, you are and remain a lonesome traveller and you rarely enjoy company. Thus, you travel with only one other person at most.


Cursed Adventurer

You love danger and can not live without it. As such you easily took to the life of an adventurer and trained to become the best of the best. This training has resulted in a bonus to Dexterity (+5), Strength (+3) and Constitution (+2). Your hazardous experiences in the dungeons battling monsters and avoiding traps, though it has left you scarred reflected in a penalty to Beauty (-3), trained your skills of melee, dodge, bow and spot traps. This, however, is nothing compared to the curse you incured on your last trip. It caused your mind to become that of a beast resulting in a tremendous penalty to Intelligence (-6) and Charisma (-4). You were put on the IFS Zephyr by your friends with a letter on your person for a priest to undo the curse.

 

Thank you! Once again you've done some great work.
I've been really enjoying the Dwarven Handyman background and now there's more.

Congratulations and Happy Birthday! You’re a day off from me.
My birthday was yesterday (18th). Now I’m one year older (45) and closer official being a dirty old man. :mean:

 

Congrats, congrats, and thank you.

Edit: Congrats to papa_dog too!

*Looks around for anyone else*

Edit: Did a little proof-reading. Here's what I did:

http://rapidshare.com/files/155497718/Custom_Backgrounds_Edit1.zip.html

 

Hm, true. I can delete the opportunity for Half Ogres to use them. They don't tend to fit the description in that most people see them as wild ones or bodyguards.

I am glad you are enjoying my work.

Thank you in return

I will upload soon a new version with the corrections as suggested by Dark Elf and most of rroyo (if not all).
Yeah, my parents are gone at the moments and friends are for another date. So, let me do this quick. I just couldn't keep myself away.


Edit: Updated, with a fix to Halfling Hunter whom only got a +1 bonus to Dexterity, where it needed to be +2.

 

Hey, happy birthday!

Also great work, I really like these backgrounds. The Dwarven Activist... :lol:

 

I've reset the effects limits to 500 and added the remaining 16 backgrounds.

You did good, The_Deathsangel. Thanks again. :thumbup:

 

Hehe, I am not the one using the dog avatar

Still, thanks to add them all. I hope people will enjoy them.

 

Hello all,

I am breaking my lurking to give an update on my custom backgrounds.
I have added 5 new ones in my spare time away from the board, and revised 7 old ones as I found them overshadowing the vanilla backgrounds.

The new ones are:

{1103}{Athlete

You were one of the greatest athletes of Arcanum. You participated in many events like the 100 meter sprint and spear throwing. This has resulted in a bonus to your speed and throwing skill, as well as a bonus to your Strength (+1), Dexterity (+1) and Constitution (+1). However, you may have been good, but you never one a medal. This has slowly started to nag on you and you have entered something resembling a mid-life crisis. This leads to penalty in Charisma (-1) and Willpower (-2). As you seem to be without goal it is also harder to persuade others of your opinion, hence you have a penalty to persuasion. In a last effort to give a boost to your career you have hired a famous coach in Tarant. You have send payment in advance and are now boarding the I.F.S. Zephyr to go and train with him.}

{1104}{Gnomish Blood

Half-Ogres may be rare indeed, but you are rarer still. You are the fruit of a marriage between a rich gnome and a human female. Though such marriages are not to uncommon in Tarant, the fact that a child is born of this marriage is. Your father has taught you well and you receive a bonus to your haggle skill and Willpower (+1). People also react less severe if you do something wrong, however, unlike with gnomes this is not because of sympathy, but more because you just look like a clown doing something stupid. It seems that Gnome blood and Human blood does not make for a pretty child, but rather a pot-bellied human child with a rather large nose. Hence you suffer a penalty to Beauty (-2). You also have a bit of frail built of gnomes which is reflected in a penalty to your Constitution (-1). You were just on your way home on board of the I.F.S. Zephyr after a succesful bussiness trip for your father's company.}

{1105}{Vigilante

You stalk the streets at night dispensing your justice as you see fit. You do not care for the means for the goal justifies those means. You have learned how to strike where it hurts reflexted in a small bonus to backstab. Your nightly crusade has strengthened your resolve and trained your body resulting in a bonus to Strength (+2), Dexterity (+1) and Willpower (+1). However, your solemn crusade has also left you scarred and bitter resulting in a penalty to Charisma (-2) and Beauty (-2). You still have your armor of your crusaded, but such a thing also costs money. As such you start with one fourth the normal starting wealth. Seeing you kill to aid innocents and do good deeds for the pleasure of the hunt, your alignment can never be considered trully virtuos or criminal. Therefore, the extremes of your alignment are only one fourth away of a neutral view as compared to normal people.}

{1106}{Cosmetic Surgery

Most people think you are a Half-Elf and you are glad to let them believe that. However, you are actually a human who underwent plastic surgery as to look like a Half-Elf and a beautifull one at that. The operation was very succesful and has resulted in a bonus to your Beauty (+1). This on top of the natural beauty of Half-Elves of course. As such all people react to as if you were a half-elf including their altered attitudes. However, you logically do not suffer the Half-Elves penalties to tech skills, but neither are you magically adept or do you have their natural grace or frailness. As you fear that someone will scare your beautifull face you disdain combat resulting in a penalty to melee. The operation itself has set you quiet a bit of gold back and you only have 100 gold on you.}

{1107}{Firechild

No one knows how or why, but you have clearly a touch of the essence of fire in you. No matter where you go the flames seem reluctant to hurt you which results in a bonus to fire resistance (+20%). You also possess the agility of fire resulting in a bonus to Dexterity (+2) and your exotic red, almost fire-like hair gives you a bonus to your Beauty (+1). For all this however, you are as fickle as fire itself and have a hard time concentration on matter, which gives you a penalty to Willpower (-3).}

The revised ones are mentioned in the read-me. Here is the take out:

Gambling Addict : Revised - Willpower decreased by 1
Apprentice to Inventor : Revised - Con penalty replaced with maxhp penalty, lower repair bonus, added tech discipline bonuses
Panarii Acolyte : Revised - 1/2 starting amount
Cosmopolitian : Revised - Skills down to +1, added +1 Cha
Jack of all Trades : Revised - Willpower decreased by 1
Lonesome Traveller : Revised - Per decreased by 2, Con decreased by 1, 100 gold
Cursed adventurer : Revised - More widespread penalties, and towing down of bonuses; Half-Ogres can now pick this background

The backgrounds can still be downloaded from the link in the first post, which links to my 4shared account.
I ask anyone who wishes to use them in their own mod, to ask me for this kindly as rroyo had done in the past. I will most likely say yes under the condition I will be credited for my work. Still, it is nice to know on forehand. After all, it means I have to tell of my own updates to those people as well, less they miss it.

I hope Arcanum fans around will enjoy the new version.

See ya,
The Deathsangel

 

Looks really good. I'm especially happy that you also took the time to make some edits to some of the older backgrounds, as I felt a number of them were a bit out of balance.

 

I only just noticed this morning some grammar mistakes...

{1103}{Athlete

... However, you may have been good, but you never won any medal. }

{1105}{Vigilante

.... You still have your trusted armor...}

{1106}{Cosmetic Surgery

..... The operation itself has set you quiet a bit back in gold and you only have 100 gold on you.}

{1107}{Firechild

....For all this, however, you are as fickle as fire itself and have a hard time concentrating on any matter for any long period of time, which gives you a penalty to Willpower (-3)...}

I hope all people, like Robert, agree to the revisions.

 

Got your latest release plus a print-out of the corrections listed above and they're lookin' good!
Glad to see the changes to the Lonesome Traveller - especially the gold. 600 was a bit much for such a character.
I will be making the corrections to the original backgrounds and, with your permission, I would like to add the new ones.

Edit: I just found this in the 6.0 thread.

I sure do! And thanks again.

 

i may be necroing, but i really want to know if the 'lonesome traveler' background prevents you from geting the four 'free' (worthless mutt, dante,...and the other two)