Since the announcement of the WFRP Career Compendium , I've had a lot of interesting discussions with some of the writers and playtesters the Careers system of WFRP , how it differs from class-based systems, and exactly what a character's Career represents.

I've thought a lot about this recently, and think it would make a great topic for an upcoming Designer Diary. But I'd like to go a step further and let each of you provide some insights, as well. As folks who know the rules well and are involved in playtesting, your thoughts on this could prove insightful and interesting to readers.

This Dilettante, one of the new careers found
in the Career Compendium, ponders her
next career move.

The Careers System
The Careers system is one of the more innovative elements found in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay , and seems inseparable from the rest of the game. The Careers system was one of the things that really grabbed my attention about WFRP .

The Old World really came to life for me as a player and a GM through the descriptions and statistics of the careers. There's a sense of realism the Careers system generates for the setting, filling the Old World with people from all walks of life, from the lowly Rat Catchers and Bone Pickers to Noble Lords and Warrior Priests.

It also provides a great tool to GMs to help create non-player characters for their campaign. You don't have to decide how to shoehorn the mayor of a village into a broad class like "Fighter" or "Cleric." Instead, you can find relevant careers that help create a fully-fleshed out character concept, and populate your world with people that make sense.

I also like how careers transition into and out of each other. The path your character takes is a brief biography of your character's life. Two players in a campaign may both have characters currently in the Scout career, but the ex-Bounty Hunter, ex-Pit Fighter makes for a very different Scout than the ex-Messenger, ex-Servant character – both characters career paths tell a different story as to how they arrived at their current position.

Forward-Facing/Backward-Facing Careers
One of the more interesting conversations that has come up has been the concept of Forward-Facing Careers and Backward-Facing Careers. I thought it would be fun to share some of the insights and feedback generated by this conversation.

Some of the careers in WFRP seem to be better-suited to a "forward-facing" interpretation than "backward-facing" interpretation.

Backward-facing careers are those that reflect what my character had been doing before whatever plot I find myself currently involved with. If my character is an Innkeeper, Servant or Burgher, I likely have responsibilities that prohibit me from going out and "adventuring" in a more traditional sense. I can't well travel to Gersdorf to investigate rumors of a mutant when I've got work to do!

In this case, the GM and players either suspend their disbelief and just let it occur, or need to provide narrative reasons and justify my character's involvement in virtually every game session. This can easily become problematic and cumbersome. Am I really a Foreman or a Steward if I'm away from my post 75% of the time? How do I possibly stay employed in that manner?

On the other hand, other careers seem to have more narrative flexibility and are what I would term Forward-facing. These are careers such as Troll Slayer, Thief, Scout -- careers that are internally driven and not predicated on complex business or interpersonal relationships or responsibilities. Have axe, will travel, so to speak. There's no need to justify why such a person is involved in virtually any adventure or plot, they don't necessarily need to obtain permission, excuse themselves from their duties or force the suspension of disbelief to be involved in a scenario. These sorts of careers seem to have an inherent amount of freedom from responsibility from careers that are more traditional occupations.

What do you think?
I would love to hear what the fan community has to say about careers. Go over to the forums and discuss this aspect of the WFRP system.

To foster discussion, I'll end by posing these questions:

Question 1: Do you think there's any validity to the Forward-facing versus Backward-facing discussion?
Question 2: Do the careers represent what your character is currently doing, or what he had been doing?
Question 3: What do you think of the argument that a character's current career is simply "Adventurer" (be that adventure political, military or espionage related)? In this case, the other careers are simply background on how he pursues the career of adventurer?