Scions of Filthington

You wish, above all else, to escape your terrible lives in Filthington and go out into the wide world to become adventurers. What’s an adventurer? Nobody seems to know, since it doesn’t seem to be a real job. That’s okay, though; it’s probably just because you have lived their whole lives in Filthington, where adventurers would never go. They’re probably in the bigger towns, or surely in the great cities, where master warriors and dread magi walk the streets. In fact, that’s where they must be, since nobody has ever seen a master warrior or a dread mage in the hamlet. Come to think of it, nobody you know has ever seen a warrior or mage of any kind. Some hear tell that a second cousin twice removed heard about them far, far away, doing battle with the mighty monsters that threaten the land. The land, that is, except for around the hamlet. Nobody has ever seen a monster either. Those warriors and magi must do some very good work to keep the villages safe.

Someday, you will meet them, learn from them, become them. Someday.

All player characters at the start of the campaign are peasant kids close to the age of majority (around 14-17). Consumed by the boredom and drudgery of their awful lives in the miserable hamlet of Filthington, they have found common ground in playing a primitive role-playing game, “Swordmasters and Spellcasters.” This is a pretty bad game with nebulous rules, mostly because nobody has bothered to write them down, and because the players would probably be unable to read them.

The campaign world is TL 3, although variance might exist far away. All player characters are built on 100 points, with a maximum of 50 points in disadvantages with some restrictions.

WEALTH/OCCUPATION/PROFESSIONAL SKILLS/STATUS: Characters are all Poor (-15 points), starting with $200. Since the characters are not yet of the age of majority where they must assume responsibility for digging a miserable life out of the dirt, but because they live in a little hamlet, it is assumed that they all hold some sort of job along the lines of, “apprentice sharecropper.” Characters are required to buy appropriate job skills at a minimum of one point each.

There is no keeping track of monthly income or upkeep, because that sort of minutiae is irrelevant to the important business of becoming a famous adventurer. Wealth and materiel acquired or lost during the campaign will not immediately have an effect on the disadvantage, but the GM may mandate some points put into buying it off if the party somehow finds a suitcase full of money.

Because the characters are all filthy peasants, they all start at Status -1 (-5 points). This may be bought off during play.

All characters have at least 1 point in Games (Swordmasters and Spellcasters).

EQUIPMENT: Equipment is limited to what the characters could reasonably come across living in a hamlet. No martial weapons or armors are available. Simple weapons or converted farming tools are available, as well as short bows and slings.

All character start with paraphenalia to play “Swordmasters and Spellcasters” for free. This includes play armor and fake wooden weapons that are mostly useless in actual combat, as well as badly-handcrafted magic wands and maybe a pointy hat.

OTHER SKILLS: Combat skills are limited due to lack of formal training or opportunity to practice.

• Characters may buy Brawling, Bow, or Sling at a maximum level of (DEX).
• Characters may buy combat sport skills that would be used in village games at a maximum level of (DEX + 2), for example Quarterstaff Sport or Wrestling Sport. Note that Sport skills and actual combat skills default to each other at -3.
• Character may also put one point into any combat skill they may have pretended to use while playing Swordmasters and Spellcasters, to reflect time wasted shoving sticks at each other instead of doing good honest farm labor.

Generic skills like Area Knowledge (Filthington Area), Survival (Woodlands or Plains), etc. can be taken as they actually fit into various professions.

Characters may buy most other skills, although the GM has discretion over allowed skills and levels. For example, a midwife’s or herbalist’s apprentice may take First Aid/TL 3 without restriction, but a character who has only bound up self-inflicted injuries from over-enthusiastic LARPing may be limited to 1 point, or just simple bandaging.