Chapter III: Careers
C areers
C hapTer III
“Once you’ve spent a few years wadin’ through rivers o’ human filth, fightin’ Goblins under the mountains starts to sound pretty attractive.” — Heinrich, Altdorf Rat Catcher
A s a Player Character you are a cut above the common folk of the Empire. Most Imperial citizens are constrained by birth and social norms, but not you. You have left your previous life behind to seek out fame and fortune as an adventurer. While many people never travel further than five miles from where they were born, you have struck out on your own, travelling the roads and rivers of the Empire seeking adventure. However, you weren’t born an adventurer. You led a normal life until Fate marked you out for special treatment. Your race provides some details of your background and your Starting Career details the rest. Your Starting Career represents the life you had before you decided to become an adventurer. It is the foundation upon which you build your character. As you continue on your adventures, you’ll eventually outgrow this profession and start exploring new ways of improving yourself. Your choice of career governs what abilities you can increase, how you’re viewed in the world, and what sorts of things you’ll be getting up to. Each career also opens doors to new professions and new opportunities. Part of the fun of WFRP comes from planning what you’d like to do with your character—deciding how you can get from where you are to where you’d like to be. b asIC and a dVanCed C areers There are two types of careers in WFRP —Basic and Advanced. Basic Careers represent the most common professions of the Empire, while Advanced Careers represent positions only available to those of proven experience. They are generally more powerful and prestigious than Basic Careers. Squire is a Basic Career, for instance, but Knight is an Advanced Career. All Starting Careers are Basic Careers. No one gets to start the game as a Sea Captain or Witch Hunter. Those are positions you have to earn through play.
y our f IrsT C areer As you will have already noted during character creation, once you’ve picked your Starting Career, you copy its skills and talents onto your character sheet. Sometimes your career will offer skill and talent choices. If that’s the case, pick the ones you prefer. You’ll have a chance to gain the others later on (see Skill and Talent Options to find out how to do this). As well as noting down your abilities, you also need to write down the Advance Scheme for your career. Your Advance Scheme represents all the Characteristics you can improve in this career. A Soldier, for example, can improve his Weapon Skill, whereas a Scribe can increase his Intelligence. All this doesn’t happen automatically, however! You must work hard to advance your abilities. As you adventure your GM will give you Experience Points (xp). These are a reward for clever ideas, good roleplaying and the successful completion of encounters. To improve your character, you must spend the xp you’ve earned on “advances” to your Characteristics. You will have already picked a “free” advance as part of character creation. From now on you’ll have to pay for each and every one. You must spend 100 xp for each advance, which is either: • A 5% increase to a Characteristic on your Main Profile. • An increase of 1 to a Characteristic on your Secondary Profile. As you buy advances you should make a tick on your Advance Scheme to remind you how you’ve been spending your xp. If your career had a Weapon Skill increase of +5%, for example, you’d put a tick mark next to that after buying your advance. If it were a +10% increase, you would need two tick marks to fully complete the advance (since you buy advances in 5% increments). Note that you never take advances for your Strength Bonus and Toughness Bonus. Those are always derived from your current Strength and Toughness. Eventually you will have bought every advance available within your first career. When this happens, it is time to change careers.
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