New World Background Generator

Ruins in the Jungle # 002 by Julian Calle

Okay, so I have been working on my own background table for this New World setting. I know I very well could have used any Failed Career, Background or Race table that is out there, especially with Skerple's GROG pretty much accomplishing some of the same things, BUT I felt the extreme need to do this and make it my own. So, what I have done here is combined a Race Table and a Background table for my purposes. You'll note that 5 of the categories are Human, this is because the Old World is primarily human in make up with its more fantastical elements reduced to folkways and the occasional curio. The Other section is for weird creatures that have walked out of the jungles and swamps of the New World. Players might expand some of these as they unlock, discover, and inspire new elements.

This will probably look terrible on mobile, so you can check out the original spreadsheet here.

First, roll to find your Origin. 

1 Old World

2 Colonist

3 Colony-Born

4 Native

5 Pirate

6 Other

Next you roll your individual backgrounds. Old Worlders tend to be various social elites from across the ocean who are now stranded in the New World. Expect them to be stuffy, aristocratic, and completely unfit for life in the Colonies.

	Background	Advantage	Disadvantage	Reroll	Starting Item	Starting Weapon
1	Noxious Noble	Avoid Social Consequences 1/Day "Do you know who I am?"	Severely Inbred, Constant snuffling. -2 to DEX for Stealth	STR	Box of Snuff	Fancy Cane (M)
2	Chastened Chef	2 Bonus to all Cooking Checks	Will only eat cooked foods	DEX	Bag of Salt	Butcher's Knife (L)
3	Lacklustre Lieutenant	Impressive Mustache (or False Mustache ), +2 on all Reaction Rolls	Save vs. Loud Noises	CON	Laudanum	Calvary Sword (M)
4	Sullied Scientist	1-in-6 Chance of knowing applicable detail in any topic	Save vs. Bright Light	INT	Rejected Publication	Human Skull (useless, I)
5	Prying Presbyter	1-in-6 chance to have relevant gossip on a character.	10% of all loot must be paid as tithes	WIS	Vestments	Battered Holy Book (Useless ,I)
6	Fallen Fop	Can shout and sing incredibly well	Always Suprised	CHA	Powdered Wig	Broken Hand Mirror (L,I)

Colonists are first generation folks from the Old World who have come to the New. Some came to make a new life for themselves and some were forced here by Old World authorities.

	Background	Advantage	Disadvantage	Reroll	Starting Item	Starting Weapon
1	Debased Debtor	Cannot be slowed by any effect	-2 Movement and Stealth	STR	Shackles (on ankles)	Mining Pick (H)
2	Squalid Sailor	Can forcast weather within 24 hours with 4-in-6 Accuracy	Terrible Rep. Hirelings cost double	DEX	Fishing Net	Harpoon (M)
3	Foundering Farmer	Consumes Half Rations	Cursed, -2 Saves	CON	3 Rations, wilted vegetables	Hoe (Medium, I)
4	Miserly Merchant	Always knows the approximate value of mundane items	Must Save or pick up shiny objects	INT	Scale	Gaudy Dagger (L)
5	Ecclesiastical Exile	Shielded by Faith, +1 Def	Heretical ideas, -2 on reaction rolls in civilization	WIS	Rosary	Crosier (H, I)
6	Crass Criminal	Happen to have 1 item worth less than 1 sp once per session	Cannot tell the straight truth	CHA	Loaded Dice	Brass Knuckles (L)

Colony-Born folks are second generation and beyond Colonists who have a little touch of the New World in them. They, for the most part, have figured out how to live in this weird new land.

	Background	Advantage	Disadvantage	Reroll	Starting Item	Starting Weapon
1	Contrite Coppicer	Treat Forest as Road, as long as you have a cutting implement	Enmity of forest animals	STR	Bundle of Wood	Billhook (Light)
2	Eccentric Esquire	Starts with a 10 Morale Manservant, can replace for half-cost	Fatigues at Double Rate	DEX	Tricorne Hat	Rapier (M)
3	Braggart Brewer	Cannot be sickened/poisoned/diseased by things drunk	Save vs. Dares	CON	Pewter stein	Mash Paddle (M, I)
4	Appalling Apothecary	Identify poisons and medicines by taste	Pervasive, unique stink	INT	Mortar and pestle	Oversized Pestle (H, I)
5	Churlish Cheval	Speak with Mineral Soul of anything 1/Day	-4 to save vs. possession/disease	WIS	Bottle of Rum	Guitar (Useless, I)
6	Urbane Urchin	Can crawl through narrow spaces	Save vs. Authority	CHA	Oversized coat	Rusty shank (L, I)

Natives are folks for whom the New World has long been their only world. They know that the colonists are soft and too caught up in their urban ideologies and laws to ever really adapt to this ever changing place.

	Background	Advantage	Disadvantage	Reroll	Starting Item	Starting Weapon
1	Brooding Brave	Fearless	Save to Back Down (combat, puzzles, arguements)	STR	Warpaint, 1 use	Handaxe (M)
2	Grimy Gatherer	Half time taken to forage	Eternally dirty, leaves an obvious trail of dirty	DEX	3 Ration, Assorted bush tucker	Crude Knife (L)
3	Boorish Boatmaker	Extremely buyoant	Vulnerable to fire	CON	50' Hemp Rope	Adze (M)
4	Intrepid Interpreter	50% of speaking any encountered language	25% of Grossly Misinterpreting new languages	INT	2d6 Copper Pieces	Club (L)
5	Boisterous Bokor	4 bonus to save vs. possession/disease	Enmity of Spirits	WIS	3' rope of Tobacco	Ceremonial Rattle/Asson (Light, I)
6	Haughty Hunter	Always receives an Omen for Mundane Wandering Monsters	Never receives an Omen for Supernatural Wandering Monsters	CHA	Field Dressing Knife	Bow w/ 10 Arrows

Pirates are a motley bunch of Old World and New World individuals who have decided to make the most of their situation by living through the Three P's: pillaging, plundering, and pirating.

	Background	Advantage	Disadvantage	Reroll	Starting Item	Starting Weapon
1	Buffoonish Buccaneer	Cannot be Surprised	When afraid, Save or attack enemy	STR	3 Coconuts	Linstock (H)-
2	Coarse Corsair	Vicious Taunting skills, Enemies have -2 on Morale Checks	Save Vs. Fear at Half HP	DEX	White Flag	Cutlass (M)
3	Mutant Mutineer	Roll 4 Times on Biological Mutant Table, Choose 2	-4 to resist being mutated or transformed	CON	Small barrel of black powder	Boarding Axe (M)
4	Prim Privateer	When Dueling, +1 Damage	Cannot turn down a duel	INT	Letter of marque (expired)	Smallsword (L)
5	Pitiless Pirate	Knows the location of a Significant Treasure	Has only 1 hand, 1 eye, 1 leg	WIS	Spyglass, Eye patch, Wooden Leg	Hook hand (L)
6	Reprehensible Rapscallion	Uncanny Luck, +2 to all Saves	Permanently Drunk, -2 Initiative	CHA	Broken Compass	Broken Rum Bottle (L, I)

Other covers....weirder things. People who walked out into the New World and came back changed. Things that stepped out of the jungle one day to barter for sea shells. Beings that are almost human, but not quite close enough.

	Background	Advantage	Disadvantage	Reroll	Starting Item	Starting Weapon
1	Long Folk	Can Wield Heavy Weapons one handed	Can only speak in their own tongue	STR	Tinderbox	Longaxe (H)
2	Masked One	Can change your face once per day	Can only express one emotion a day	DEX	Flute	Chisel (L,I)
3	Demi-Troll	Can regrow a body part once	Consume twice as many rations	CON	Necklace of ears	Claw Hammer (L)
4	Loa-touched	Roll 4 Times on Supernatural Mutant Table, Choose 2	Haunted, No Fast Inventory	INT	Black Rooster	Machete (M)
5	Blemmyes	Bite (as dagger)	Can't wear armor on chest	WIS	Loincloth	Spear (M)
6	Therianthrope	Roll on Skerples Race table			Hideous Brand	Sharp Bloody Rock (L)

The Shore by Sebastian Leon-Silva

Finally you would choose from the available classes. Again, as Michael Bacon has inspired me to do, I believe there will be a few base classes then anything else will be unlocked. Fighter, Thief, and Garden Wizard are the current contenders for the base 3 and maybe Royal Aspirant or Root Doctor for the 1 additional more flavorful class.

Edit: After some discussions, I am thinking that there will be a few base classes and 1 flavorful class available per background grouping starting off with more made available through unlocks.

Setting Stream of Consciousness

All images from "Fantastical Worlds Floating in Space" by Nicole Gustafsson

So something that I feel has been stifling some of my creative flow and function has been the fact that I have not really been working off of any sort of established world or setting. Skerples has Elderstone, Arnold has Centerra, Dan has Mother Stole Fire, Martin has Wizard City, Chris has Bastionland, FurtiveGoblin has The Ivory Tower etc. etc. They have a grounding world to be able to reference and work within. Currently, I kinda have my Lowcountry stuff and I have the Royalverse, but neither are anything one could really call a setting. One is just my home turned into a point crawl map and the other is a cosmology that is half joke. So, I've been thinking to myself, how do I take these random bits and make it into something that I can use, something that can provide some kind of ground so I'm just not being spastic all over the place.

Here are just some of my current random thoughts.

The Old World lays across a vast ocean. The Old World was a place of establishment, of modern sensibilities, of normality. The Old World was a place tamed by mankind, molded by mankind, and existed with the interests of mankind in place. Dragons were myth, fairies did housework for a saucer of milk, Knights were (mostly) chivalrous, and Kings actually possessed a divine mandate to rule. For, you see, the Old World long ago tamed their Gods, Spirits, and Nightmares, they hammered a world of chaos into a world of codified Law. The Kings, Princes, and Courtiers are akin to Kami or Loa or Fey, but with all of the capriciousness and most of the personality plucked away from them. They are anchors that bind the laws of reality into something that makes sense to Mankind, their existence and their duty is bound to making the world work with humanity in mind. There are, of course, the Fools, made up of what little there is left of chaos and raw reality, but their influence is limited and often stamped out by the Kings. The Old World is a place of stagnation, of restriction, of tedium.

The New World was discovered across a vast ocean. The New World is a place of opportunity, of changing ideals, of exotic dreams. The New World is an untamed place with but the barest passing thought of humanity. Creatures from dream and nightmare and from beyond our wildest imaginings inhabit the New World. Not only are our mores and norms from the Old World not applicable to the New World, but even the laws of science that we hold as concrete are tenuous. In the presence of raw creation, unbound by the human noosphere, things like physics and biology are just another type of vague magic. The Gods and Spirits here do not hold to humanity's ideals nor to their sensibilities. In the Old World, there was a King for every aspect of life, but in the New World, the spirits have no such restrictions. They define and redefine themselves as they see fit, just as they change and mold the world around them to fit their alien desires. The wilderness of the Old World were akin to hunting preserves and tended pastures, the wilderness of the New World is truly Wild.

The Colonies lay upon the shores of the New World. They are primarily inhabited by Old World peoples. In their minds, they brought with them their Kings and their Princes, they hacked back the wilderness and created a stable home. The Colonists are a varied bunch. Adventurers come to seek excitement. Seekers craving religious or social freedoms. Criminals and debtors banished from their Old World homes. Businessmen looking for a profit. Mostly it was people who wanted a few acres of land that they could call their own.

Fantastical resources and wealth flows from the New World to the Old while a steady stream of colonists, supplies, and military power came from the Old to the New. However something occurred. Exactly what is up to speculation by the Colonies, but one day the ships left the harbor and never returned. Any attempts to cross the ocean either vanished or returned with stories of vicious, impossible seas beyond the horizon. Without the constant influx of Old World support, the boundaries between the Colonies and the New World constricted. There came a need to adapt or to fight back, else the Colonies' tenuous grip would soon be lost.

Out there in the wild are native peoples. Some are human, or at least mostly human. They've learned to survive and adapt to their weird and changing world. The Gods do not work for them, so they negotiate, they bribe, they trap, they do what they can to make a little sphere of their world work for them. But they know well enough to keep moving, to not over stay their welcome. Out there in the depths of the New World there are places from other times, places where reality was anchored in place by Others. Though these places are stable, they are not always made with humanity in mind.

The role of the player in such a setting can, of course, be variable. But I feel this encourages the sort of exploration focused Man versus The Unknown type of play that seems prominent in the OSR. There is wealth and wonder and weirdness to find out in the New World. There are hirelings and buyers and carousing in the Colonies. There are Islands to explore and Pirates to avoid (or become.) I feel like this is something I could perhaps work with and better focus my efforts.

I am considering using Michael Bacon's method of unlocking classes. Players will start with limited options, things that might be found in the Colonies or imported from the Old World. Fighters, Thieves, Garden or Orthodox Wizards, bread and butter types. But as they experience this weird new world, they encounter and unlock weird new classes. They speak with natives and learn Hoodoo, they can become Root Doctors. They encounter an old Knight from the Old World are ordained into their order, unlocking Knights. They face a mutated mystic that defies nature, unlocking the Biomancer. And so on and so forth.

Let's see where this takes us, let's see if I can get play testers to explore this world with me. And let's hope the New World doesn't swallow us whole.