LotFP/the Immergleich system is class-and-level. But the only LotFP classes are oriented towards combat and adventuring. What about the many characters who aren’t about that? Most NPCs are in that category, and we’ve established a somewhat porous boundary between “PC” and “very friendly NPC of modest stature”.

This is salient in Immergleich as we’ve used Mestival Dihafeland as a PC, and she clearly is not of an adventuring class. We ran her as zero-level, which is ok, but doesn’t allow for any progression.

Commoner class

Design goals

I want a class that

• Lets Mestival (and characters like her) retain her established character and traits and abilities
• Can be used for many NPCs and a few occasional-use PCs
• Provides (or at least points at) a baseline model for levelled characters who aren’t a major combatant class
• Is less adventuring-effective than most, but isn’t useless there

Basic features

• Hit die is d4, with min roll of 3 at first level and 2 at later levels. And an +2 hp at first level.
• Flat +1 attack
• Choose two saving throws to be good at

Special abilities

Professional Experience — choose one of:

• Two Backgrounds and claim bonuses for both
• Take one Background twice

Either way, when both their backgrounds apply to a d20 check, they get double skill bonus.

Skilled worker — double the benefit of any downtime activity

Superstitions — 1 in 6 chance (vs normal NPC 1 in 10) of having a useful fortune-telling method they can use once per day. Player picks what stat it uses.

Untapped Potential — can become another class later:

• On any level progression, if they’ve been acting like another class, they can take a level as “Apprentice <classname>”. Their changes for that level are then based on that class’s 1^st level abilities.
• At the next level, they can either swap back to commoner/civilian, or convert completely to the new class
  • Their new level is based on xp, not current level.
  • Recalculate everything that needs recalc
    • For rolled things like hp, they can chose to keep old total

Other special abilities I’m considering

These are lifted from http://dailyosr.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/revised-commoner-class.html:

• Extra “common sense”/”blissful ignorance” bonus on saves vs magical mental effects esp illusions (probably +2)
• Bonus to hide in a crowd or otherwise not be recognised (because they look and act very ordinary), enhanced further if no visible armour or weapons.

(Edit later on 23 April — moved to d4 hit die, added bonus hp at first level, to emphasise their poor combat effectiveness without making them even more vulnerable at first level)

(Edit on 14 June — removed reference to Thief progression as that’s no longer a thing. May upgrade Commoner abilities at some point to compensate for loss of this benefit.)

Interviewer: So, there’s trouble on the hill?

Confused woman: Oh, yeah, there’s definitely trouble.

Interviewer: On the hill?

Confused: Yeah. Over the Verdun estate, morning after Null Day. It was really scary.

Interviewer: What was?

Confused: The thousand foot high metallic-paint dragon. Terrifying.

Interviewer: This metal dragon, what did it do?

Confused: Got ripped up by the watercolour sky hands and the gouache demon-birds.

Interviewer: That was the end of it?

Confused: On no, it got much worse.

 

 

 

Where did you come from? What have you done? Beyond those given by your class, what are your skills? You get to choose a Background for your PC, which can be any single trade or occupation name, which captures this. When you attempt a task that your Background gives you expertise in, you get a bonus (unless you’d get a bonus anyway because of your class).

A mechanically-useful background is one that complements your class, giving you expertise (and thus a bonus on an attribute check) where your class would not.

The game assumes that level 1 characters are net broke, apart from their initial money allocation, and do not have access to significant local resources. So if you define a background that implies such (e.g. “Merchant Adventurer”) then it is implicit that you have fallen on hard times at the point you enter the game.

Examples — scholar, mercenary, blacksmith, prostitute, noble, sculptor, chef, travelling tinker, farmer, galley slave, …

1. Carrying a bow with a draw of [enough to count as a “longbow”]
2. Carrying a crossbow with a drawn tension of [enough to count as a “heavy crossbow”]