Homebrew Custom Arcanum Backgrounds

I think my edit changed the time stamp.

Rroyo: if you're using the one I made, let me know. I know it's a small thing, but I may edit the starting gold.

 

Nice try, no dice. The time stamp doesn't change after an edit is made.

 

I figured the amount of backgrounds pretty close - 169 for the final total.

Philes - Yeah, the backgrounds are unbalanced, but still worthy of inclusion due to the "I made this" thought that went into their creation.
Besides - In the real world balanced people seem to be far and few between. (smile)

DarkFool - What do you want the gold to be?

{1156}{The Failed Womanizer

You've been hitting on women since a young age. You use to be concidered cute, but as time has gone by, your looks have changed, and now most women don't find you appealing - at all (Beauty -20). All the time and energy spent trying to woo women has made you good at talking (Charisma +2) and that combinded with the time you spent reading (Intelligence +2) makes you a great leader (+1 follower), but you tend to be bookish (Dexterity -5), with vision troubles (Perception -1), and a sensitivity to light (all attacks during daylight hours -1 damage). You start with 600 gold.}

{1570}{1156}//The Failed Womanizer - DarkFool
{1571}{441}
{1572}{HUM ELM HEM HOM DWM GNM HAM HGM}
{1573}{600}
{1574}{}

Naughty Dog - Your fire-arms instructor background was a headache to translate. I got the distinct impression of a fellow near the end of his career and made a background around that impression.
PLEASE! give me a better backstory.

{1158}{Small Arms Instructor

You were a person of high standing in the Tarantian Firearms Institute for your skills at training cadets in the use and care of various handguns (Firearms +20). With a small gun you still are unequalled (critical hit chance +10, critical hit effect +5), however, due to an incurable disease, you now lack physical strength and stamina to wield the more powerful rifles, shotguns, or even most of the electrically-based weapons (strength -3 constitution -5), in addition to degrading your reflexes (dexterity -6). Although you still bravely continue on as if nothing is wrong, you now accept any training job that comes along (willpower - 4), usually for far less pay than you deserve for the effort needed. With only 400 gold and your trusty revolver in your pocket, you are returning to Tarant to try to train yet another spoiled child.}


{1590}{1158}//Small Arms Instructor - Naughty Dog
{1591}{443}
{1592}{HUM DWM HEM}
{1593}{400}
{1594}{6033 7039}


And my contribution to the list:

{1168}{The Absent-Minded Inventor

You love to tinker. Taking things apart to see how they work and then trying to improve upon them is the very essence of your nature. Your skills range wide in the fields of Electricty and Mechanical as well as basic Repair (+6). All your studying has done much to improve your intellect (IN +6) but you are the type who has many things going at once and becomes easily distracted (WP -3). However, your inventions have a nasty habit of failing in unexpected and dangerous ways which make people nervous to be near you (CH -3 critical failure +10). All the time spent you've spent in your pursuit of knowledge has also taken its toll on you physically. You are a bit weaker than average (ST -4 CN -4) and your vision is no longer as sharp (PE -3). Upon hearing of the maiden flight of the IFS Zephyr, you spent most of your life's savings for passage aboard the vessel, leaving you with 100 gold.}

{1690}{1168}//The Absent-Minded Inventor - rroyo
{1691}{453}
{1692}{HUM HUF HEM HEF HAM GNM HOM HOF DWM}
{1693}{100}
{1694}{8184}

 

I edited the spelling, and made the cash humorous. If it's too much work to force it to add those items, then just edit it and go with 600 gold. My goal was to toss in a couple plausibly pawnable items, with a combined value at or less than 600 gold.

 

This is doable - with a twist. Due to the different sizes of the races I would need to create a couple new entries in the backgrnd.mes for the smoking jackets for the small and large races.

Edit: There seems to be no large Smoking Jacket. I'll substitute a Nice Suit for the Half-Ogre. It's the same price.

 

I'm curious, is the dialog reaction reversal penalty in the Two-Faced background possible to implement?

 

{442}{pe +4, haggle +2, ch +2, alignment -10, badreactionadj +10, goodreactionadj -10} //Two-Faced - Maloch

(Cautiously) Yep. A simple reversal of the normal reactions should be adaquate.
I haven't had a chance to play-test 99% of these backgrounds; including this one; but I'm pretty sure it'll work.

 

Not sure if I understand the context or not, but here:
{8089}{Large Smoking Jacket}

 

In case Minuos' proposition will not help, here's a, possibly useful, hint: it may not be called "large smoking jacket", but it surely exists - I recall Chukka wearing that item, yet it was called "smoking jacket" despite being obviously a large one, in both graphic and actual size.

 

Indeed, the jacket's description has been fixed in the UAP.

 

I was just wondering, is my background "The Old-School Brawler" doable?

 

That does it! No more A.M. posting for me until I've had at least one pot of coffee. (decisive nod)

Thanks for the listing - got the problem solved. The Half-Ogres can have a Smoking Jacket to start.
BTW: The name change was something I missed on the UAP addition. Now I'm wondering what else I overlooked...

Arthgon: Yep!
Here's what you wrote:

The Old-School Brawler

You have survived the many battles on the streets and in school, through experience, (melee +2) and the fact that you can take a lot of damage (CN +2). On the result of a knife fight, you have a scar on the left side of your face, (BE-1) but you are still charming (CHA +2). In battle, you will never use firearms, because that is for the weak (firearms -2). Using your willpower, you have overcome the addictions of drugs and alcohol (WP+2).
A broken hand, and a troubled eye vision, gives you a penalty of dexterity and perception. (DX -2, PE-2)

And here's my translation - I changed gives to give, redid the wording for the eye trouble on the advice of spell-checker, and wrote out the stats but otherwise it's just about the same:

{1161}{The Old School Brawler

You have survived the many battles on the streets and in school, through experience (Melee +2), and the fact that you can take a lot of damage (Constitution +2). As the result of a knife fight, you have a scar on the left side of your face (Beauty -1) but you are still charming (Charisma +2). In battle, you will never use firearms because that is for the weak (Firearms -2). Using your willpower, you have overcome the addictions of drugs and alcohol (Willpower +2). A broken hand and a troubled eye give you a penalty of Dexterity (-2) and Perception (-2). You start with 600 gold.}

{446}{melee +2, cn +2, be -1, ch +2, firearms -2, wp +2, dx -2, pe -2} //The Old School Brawler - Arthgon

{1620}{1161}//The Old School Brawler - Arthgon
{1621}{446}
{1622}{}
{1623}{600}

 

Actually I'm a little surprised your considering it because of its extremities :/

Well I have to say your 'translation' was actally a rather good take on the idea and I'm sorry to have caused you trouble with it :???:

And I'm sorry to say I'm not really good at the whole literary thing I just enjoy it (I do lots of things that I'm not good at just because it's enjoyable)

Perhaps a warning about points placed on firearms will be wasted could be added on the end and that adding to persception will be what raises your firearms skill. Not sure if it will fit

Perhaps the illness in question could be some form of age related tendinitis or something of like nature

With that in mind here is my bash at rewriting your version (because frankly it sounds a lot better and thought out than mine)



Firearms Instructor
Having worked as leading instructor in the Tarantian Firearms Institute you have a wide and varied experience in the use of firearms (Firearms +20). Very few can equal your prowess (+10 Critical Hit Chance, +5 Critical Hit Effect). However your age has taken a toll on your body (-3 Strength) and reflexes (-6 Dexterity). Your insistence to continue working regardless of your physical condition has taken its toll (-5 constitution) and being assigned to spoilt brats with endless pocket money has made you world weary (-4 Willpower). Regardless you are making yor way to your next would be pupil with your trusty revolver holstered at your side and 400 in gold to cover your travelling expenses.

 

Your background appealed to me somehow. I'm not sure why but it seem like it would make a challenging one to role-play - provided you stayed in character.

Glad to hear my idea of the character wasn't too bad, and once I finally settled on the aging fellow concept, the story almost wrote itself.
Your rewrite not bad though - not bad at all.

There is one problem about an aging character background - The appearent age of the PC sprites. They all look to be young - 20s to 30s. So - How about a disease combination that's not uncommon among people who do a lot of heavy lifting and heavy vibration work - arthritis and tendonitis? Seems to me that the shock of a gun's recoil several times a week spread over several years could induce the same problems.
Just a thought.

The warnings: I'm inclined to let the player learn those lessons for himself rather than lead them step-by-step. After all, experience is the best teacher.

Anyway - I took both our ideas, merged them into one, and came up with this:

{1158}{Firearms Instructor

Having worked as leading instructor in the Tarantian Firearms Institute you have a wide and varied experience in the use of firearms (Firearms +20). Very few can equal your prowess (+10 Critical Hit Chance, +5 Critical Hit Effect). However, a dual assault of arthritis and tendonitis has taken a toll on your body (-3 Strength, -5 Constitution) and reflexes (-6 Dexterity). Wielding the more powerful rifles, shotguns, or even most of the electrically-based weapons has become rather difficult for you. Your insistence to continue working regardless of your physical condition and being assigned to spoiled brats with endless pocket money has made you world-weary (-4 Willpower). Regardless, you are making your way to your next would-be pupil with your trusty revolver holstered at your side and 400 in gold to cover your travelling expenses.}

This gives us three versions of the same story. At this point I can easily change the listing for the version you choose (this is your baby after all) or we could fine-tuning this for a fourth.

 

I take it my Cute Scholar background won't hurt you too much?

 

Not a problem. It settled right in - and I even remembered to include the glasses.
(I hope I understood your question correctly.)

{1155}{The Cute Scholar

You've always loved books, and you've dedicated a large amount of your life to them (Intelligence +4), at the cost of your eyesight (Perception -2). Your bookish ways and glasses are found to make you attractive to no small number of men, especially protective ones (Beauty +2). However you are clumsy (Dexterity -2) and your health has never been all that good (Constitution -4). You start with 600 gold and a pair of eyeglasses.}

{1560}{1155}//The Cute Scholar - Xiao_Caity
{1561}{440}
{1562}{HUF ELF HEF}
{1563}{600}
{1564}{8184}

{440}{in +4, pe -2, be +2, dx -2, cn -4/} //The Cute Scholar - Xiao_Caity

 

Yay! *squeal* I'm looking forward to playing with that background. Okay, I'll need a few billion fatigue potions, but it will be worth it.

 

In order to roleplay the Cute Scholar properly, you must not wear any helmets, for they would blind you.

 

Xiao - You're not going to have to look too hard.
I decided to make the new backgrounds usable with the 6.0 release.

http://www.terra-arcanum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=210456&highlight=homebrew#210456

 

Because I boldly walk without fear in the face of internet threats:

Sparkly Vampire

Race: Human, Half-Elf, Elf males

You are one of the last of a rare breed of vampires. You can tolerate the sun's light, unlike most such undead, but it causes you to sparkle like a lantern when it touches your skin. You are superhumanly strong and agile (ST +3, DX +3) and beautiful beyond compare, lusted after by any and all women who lay eyes on you (BE+8), but trust us, it really really sucks to be you, and even if you never drink human blood, you can't bear the thought that you might take a sip from some delicious teenager's neck at some point (especially because she wants it). Your angst makes you into a miserable self-hating wreck (WP -4) who nobody can stand to listen to for more than a few minutes before shoving you in the nearest fireplace (CH -6, Reaction -40). Except for that one cute girl who's out there somewhere, who you will probably never meet and you don't want to because you might bite her. She's nowhere in Arcanum, that's for sure.