To celebrate what is possibly the best work of fiction I've ever had the pleasure to read, as well as the majestic Numinous Edition of one of the most original RPGs ever published, here are 6 backgrounds for TROIKA!, inspired by Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun (references of which TROIKA! is already full of!)
1. Exiled Journeyman of the Matachin Tower
Falling in love with a prisoner it’s a grave crime for a Seeker of Truth and Penitence, but even worst is granting said prisoner a quick death. The guild of Torturers does not grant quick deaths. As punishment for your actions you’ve been given the tools of your trade and sent into exile. Your destiny: to forever roam the wide world, earning a living by practicing your trade. Or is it?
Possessions
Executioner Sword (Damage as Greatsword)
Whetstone
Small Brown Book
Fuligin Cloak (of the color that is darker than black)
Advanced Skills
3 Ritual Beheading
2 Inflict Torture
2 Executioner Sword Fighting
2 Intimidation
1 Swim
1 Climb
2. Dubious Sorcerer of the Forest
There’s nothing more difficult than studying the dark arts when surrounded by prying eyes and judgmental minds, so you left the city behind and moved into the forest. The forest never scorns you, never calls you a charlatan. If anything, it encourages you, murmuring your name through the leaves, clapping at your achievements with the shaking of its branches. A shame so many others had the same idea.
Possessions
Metal Claws (Damage like Modest Beast)
Robes made of animal skin (Light Armor)
Totem, wood-carved, supposed to resemble an animal but it’s hard to tell
Advanced Skills
2 Claws Fighting
2 Magic Duel
2 Spell - Call Upon the Wild
2 Spell - Assume Animal Shape
1 Spell - Babble
1 Spell - Read Entrails
New Dubious Spells
Call Upon the Wild (3)
The sorcerer begins to emit loud, distressing sounds with the hands cupped in front of his mouth in order to summon a wild beast. Once present, there is no accounting for its actions (Since making noise does indeed attract dangerous animals, some say this is no magic at all)
Assume Animal Shape (2)
The sorcerer growls painfully and his body contorts until it has transformed into a ravenous, clawed, four-legged beast (Detractors of this practice claim there’s no actual transformation. Instead, the sorcerer simply crouches and lets its furry robes and metal claws play on the imagination)
3. Memory of a Dead One
You lived your life and served your time. By the end, it felt like a relief; a shroud of nothingness slowly embracing you, along with your pain, fears and regrets. But then one of the other party members had to exhume your corpse and feast on it. Now you live inside someone else’s body.
Possessions
None, unless you count those of the body you inhabit, which technically are yours too.
Advanced Skills
3 Take Over
2 Suggest
2 Instill Emotion
2 Assist
1 Skill of your choice
1 Skill of your choice
1 Skill of your choice
1 Skill of your choice
New Skills
Take Over
Allows you to take over the body of your host and act in his stead. It lasts until ended or until your host decides to get back in control by testing his Luck (or a Skill such as Resist Possession). To be rolled only when the host is not willing
Suggest
This skill allows you to discuss ideas, opinions and facts with your host. To be rolled only when the host is not willing.
Instill Emotion
You can force your host to feel a specific emotion towards a certain event, person or object
Assist
Your memory becomes a fully accessible library, allowing you to lend expertise and knowledge to your host. He gets to add +1 to the roll whenever he attempts a task you are skilled at.
4. Duelist of the Sanguinary Field
Many would argue that fighting to the death using a sharp, poisonous plant as a weapon is not the smartest way to earn a living. But that’s because they never experienced the thrill of stripping an optimate of its most treasured possessions, while ecstatic voices call your name. And you get free meals at the Inn of Lost Loves.
Possessions
Avern (Damage as Sword), a plant whose leaves are poisonous, causing drowsiness followed by unconsciousness and death upon contact with the victim’s blood
Padded Clothing (count as Moderate Armor)
A Creepy Mask
A Vial of Antidote
A Letter addressed to a lover, signed “Cadroe of the Seventeen Stones”
Advanced Skills
3 Avern Fighting
2 Dodge
2 Awareness
2 Etiquette
1 Healing
5. Armored Hipparch
We all tend to perceive life as a maze of difficult choices and ambiguous compromise, but that is a lie, for when it came to it, life gave you a simple choice: keep trashing in the mud like the lowborn you are until you die for nothing, or enlist and die for something. At least, that’s what those armored man said when they came through your door and threatened you and your family with a knife at the throat.
Possessions
A Sword
A Shield
A Lance
A Suit of Heavy Armor
A Warhorse
Military Rations (1d6, each count as a provision)
Advanced Skills
2 Mounted Charge
2 Holding the Line
2 Sword Fighting
2 Spear Fighting
2 Riding
1 Resist Extreme Weather
6. Enigmatic Green Man
The green color of your skin is a byproduct of what people refer to as pond scum. Your race engineered it so it could live and die in your bloodstream, becoming food for your body, which now requires no other nourishment. It is unfortunate, then, that after crossing the Mirrors, you ended up on a sphere cursed with a dying sun, whose heat is rather insufficient for your altered biology.
Possessions
Ragged Clothes
Manacles and Rope, with which you were bound so you could be exploited as weird attraction
Half a Whetstone, the one an equally enigmatic young man gave you to free yourself with
Alien Pistol (Damage as Fusil, ignores Armor), emits a ray of purple light capable of melting any metal. It can fire 5 times then needs a full day to recharge
Advanced Skills
5 Blend with the Greenery
2 Pilot Flying Machine
2 Alien Pistol Fighting
2 Repair Alien Technology
1 Wilderness Survival
1 Wilderness Survival
