Okay, an update!

I've made some changes to the starting skills due to some of you making good points on what seemed more suited to a prole. Also I've made a first draft on the costs for characteristics advances and the first rank. So here it is:

Prole

- "My life was simple. Every day I woke up, went to work, went home, ate and went to bed. 'til I stumbled across those mutants trying to blow up the ore grinder that is..."
- Brock Tilleas, Serf of Fathomsound mine

Proles are the members of the lower and middle classes of the Imperium. The most numerous of all mankind, these men and women's lives usually consists of life-long toil, whether they be miners extracting ore from a mining world or assembling simple parts in hive manufactoria. Some choose instead to earn their daily bread through entertaining others for coin and some ply their trade as merchants, buying goods as cheap as possible and later selling them as expensive as possible. Proles are seldom well educated or knowledgable about the galaxy and its horrors. Their strength lie in specialization in their chosen or given trade, and being perfectly capable at dealing with other low born folk like themselves. Proles makes for perfect agents of the Inquisition when it comes to rooting out heresy and crime in the faceless working masses, simply because the Proles have an understanding of the worker life and society that people from other classes usually have difficulties to comperhend.

Starting Skills:

Speak Language (Low Gothic) (Int), Awareness (Per), Common Lore (Imperium), Blather (Fel) or Concealment (Ag), Barter (Fel) or Acrobatics (Ag) or Trade (Valet) (Int), Trade (any one) or Performer (any one).

Starting Talents:

Unremarkable or Peer (Workers), Light Sleeper or Resistance (Cold), Melee Weapon Training (Primitive), Pistol Training (SP), Thrown Weapon Training (Primitive) or Basic Weapon Training (Primitive).

Starting Gear:

Stub revolver and six bullets, crossbow and 10 bolts or drive nailer* and 15 nails or 5 fire bombs, axe-rake**, Grox Hides or Heavy Leathers, rags or dirty coveralls (Poor Quality Clothing).

Starting Wealth:

30+1d10 Throne Gelt

Starting Rank: Serf

* see Inquisitors Handbook pg. 113
** see Inquisitors Handbook pg. 126

Prole Characteristic Advances

Characteristic Simple Intermediate Trained Expert

Weapon Skill 250 500 750 1000

Ballistic Skill 250 500 750 1000

Strength 250 500 750 1000

Toughness 100 250 500 750

Agility 250 500 750 1000

Intelligence 500 750 1000 2500

Perception 100 250 500 750

Willpower 500 750 1000 2500

Fellowship 100 250 500 750

Serf Advances

Advance Cost Type Prerequisites

Acrobatics S
Awareness S
Blather S
Barter S
Carouse S
Common Lore (Imperium) S
Common Lore (Underworld) S
Concealment S
Drive (Ground Vehicle) S
Performer (any one) S
Speak Language (Low Gothic) S
Swim S
Tracking S
Trade (Valet) S
Trade (any one) S
Wrangling S
Light Sleeper T Perception 30
Peer (Workers) T Fellowship 30
Resistance (Cold) T
Sound Constitution* T
Unremarkable T
Basic Weapon Training (Primitive) T
Basic Weapon Training (SP) T
Melee Weapon Training (Primitive) T
Pistol Training (SP) T
Thrown Weapon Training (Primitive) T

*you may take this talent up to two times at this rank

So for starters I switched some of the starting skills. I exchanged Charm for Blather, and Dodge for Concealment because it seemed more appropriate. I also Included Trade (Valet) as the only "fixed" Trade skill, symbolizing that Proles most often start out as an apprentice and should be able to cater to their masters needs first, before they themselves become profficient enough at theior chosen trade.

It also occured to me that I could let the player choose any Trade skill or Performer skill from the beginning. All I have to do on later levels is to include several Trade (***) +10 or Performer (***) +10 choices to choose from that suits the relevant career branch, which should railroad the skill choices in an equally relevant manner.

Also you've might have noticed that I havent listed any costs for the Serf rank yet, and thats because I need your judgement on that subject. Most of them should cost 100 xp (like other Career paths do). Are there ANY skills or talents that anyone feels should cost 200 xp instead of the regular 100?

Also if you feel that something should be added or removed to the advances list or if you have any constructive comments on the characteristics advance list then do tell me. Keep in mind though that this is only supposed to be the very first rank, so there will be ample opportunity to add skills and talents on later ranks. Right now I need to concentrate on the few skills and talents that any Prole no matter what line of work he or she will focus on should have access to from the beginning.

Looking forward to your comments! So far they have been providing great help.

Bumping has worked before so im trying again...

I think it looks good so far.

LuciusT said:

Really?

No issue or need for improvment what so ever? I mean, sure it's nice to hear that someone think that i've done it right, but it can't be THAT perfect... Or can it?

Oh well, if no one feels that anything should be changed then I guess I should get to working on the other ranks. Await further updates folks!

Varnias Tybalt said:

I think there is a limit to what I can nitpick about one rank.

I'm very interested in seeing the others. Once we have those, I'm sure I'll have lots of new suggestions to make.

Watch about having Trade (any one) in the first rank if you just are putting it in there so that you can buy the starting advances as that would allow you to take 2 trades which I thought you were trying to avoid. Maybe just have a note about how much it would cost if a GM wanted to change it. Everything else looks appropriate but im still not sure what you are going to fill it out with.

Kaihlik

Kaihlik said:

Yeah well I put it in the list because of what the latest Errata lists. Before in the rulebook the starting skills and talents were listed separate from those that you could buy at the first rank, but when the errata came out it says that all starting skills and talents are supposed to be listed on the first rank. But since you start out with it you can't buy it "again". So as per the rules according to the errata, the Trade (any one) is listed on the first rank as well as among the starting skills, but because it is included in the starting skills a player can't pay buy it "again".

So the only way to get two trade skills would be if the player takes Trade (Valet) in addition to Trade (any one), which shouldn't prove much of a trouble anyway.

In any case, I'll get to work with the three different second ranks asap.

I've designed a couple of basic careers (Imperial Noble, on Dark Reign, and Astropath, er....still unfinished) and it's immensly time consuming. Here's a few general tips:

1. Keep the skill lists short in early ranks. DH has about 10-15 skills at each level, I find this hard to keep track of the upgrades for each one. It's easier to have about 8 skills at early levels, because then you can just +10 and +20 them as you go along.

2. Design the whole career in one go, ie work out the name of each rank and put them straight into a big chart with about 8 skills to each rank. This sounds complicated, but in fact it isn't, as it's easier to keep track of skills advances.

3. Decide what you want the character to be able to do at each rank. For example, 15,000XP characters should be genuine badasses, with top level skills, and even perhaps unnatural advances, like the Adept's unnatural intelligence. I tried to reflect this with unnatural willpower for top level nobles, who would tend to be planetary governors or even Marius Hax-like sector lords. Mid level characters would have a few +10 skills and a couple of +20 skills, so set the charts accordingly.

4. Have a strong key archetype. My worry about this "serf" concept is that it doesn't seem THAT strong an archetype to me.

5. Inject humour. Basic careers are actually pretty boring, they're just lists of skills. Have an evocative or amusing explanation of each rank to keep people's interest.

6. Give players plenty of options. The scum career is brilliant at this: you can be a charmer or a cutthroat, a gunslinger or race driver. A wide skillbase at higher ranks is the way to acheive this. Go from a small number of core skills at lower ranks to a wider range of (arguably peripheral) ones at higher ranks.

7. Learn to order skills and talents into power brackets. This is built into the system already, with many higher levels skills requiring you to have lower level ones. Distribute these accordingly across the career.

I'm probably teaching you to suck eggs here, but anyway, hope that helps!