[HOE] Re: Mundane Background

[Theo McGuckin <tsm@jlab.org>]

Mundane Backgrounds are only available to char. that have Arcane
Backgrounds. Not even greenies or acolytes or squires or whatever can
take it. You can only have one mundane background and they all cost 3pts.

Mundane Background - "The Natural": In a world where purple robed
pyschopaths can hurl nuclear bombs from their fists, bald-headed freaks
can control or detonate your mind, white-robed zealots can kill you or
cure with equal skill and frizzy-haired weirdos can build robots to fight
for them, the average waster is best off staying home, clutching his gun
and hoping the neighbors don't come a callin'. Indeed it takes a trully
exceptional person to go out and actively hunt out the monsters of the
wastes with nothing but a gun, a few bullets and their own skill. This
person invariably has some knack, some edge, some forte, something that
they are a NATURAL at to help them. This edge lets player choose one skill
at creation that the character has a +2 to all rolls for. This bonus only
applies to that skill and if the skill has concentrations then the player
must choose one (you're a natural at shootin:pistols, not shootin).

[From the Waste of Space Website]
Mundand Background - "I'm Normal": You are just a normal person. You are,
in fact, natures way of fighting back against the rising tide of unnatural
traits cropping up in the human race. Buying this edge prevents you from
ever gaining, by gift or buying it, another Arcane Background.
	Being Normal (note the capital N) prevents a character from ever
spending strain, focusing chi, calling on god, receiving blessings from
martyrs, calling on the spirits of any kind (this includes, but is not
limited to, manitous, nature, tech, toxic, loa, and ancestors), and
anything that only someone with an arcane background could do. Characters
who are Normal tend to be looked over by spiritual creatures in favor of
other people. Spiritual creatures could be defined as any creature with
strong ties to the hunting grounds. The character is not invisible to
these creatures just not as interesting. The character also draws one less
card when determining if the character comes back from the dead as a
harrowed. This means that, unless the character has Grit or is in a
special location, the character will draw no cards to determine if he
comes back from the dead. Also, when it comes time to count coup, the
character must subtract 4 from his Spirit roll if the coup is contested.
	In exchange for being Normal you get 15 extra points during char.
creation. These points can only be spent on skills and you cannot have
more than 10 pts. of edges if you are Normal. [It was originally 25, but
seemed kinda high to me]

Mundane Background - "Reluctant Hero": Why you? You ask yourself that
every day. All you want is to go find a nice little farm inside a town
with a really high wall and lots of guns and OTHER people to use them and
live out your life. But that bastard Fate keeps screwing with your life.
You tried to tell the town that a rock just happened to fall on that
Doomies head and kill him, but they all insisted it was you. The fact that
the rock hit you too didn't seem to change their minds.
	The next thing you knew you were on the road with this bunch of
weirdos to hunt down a PACK of doomsayers. You couldn't even escape on
your watch last night. You tried but instead you wound up tripping over a
mutie that was hiding in the bushes and alerting the group to an ambush
that was about to take place. Now they think you're some type of hero too
and have elected you their scout. Why you?
	Your char. doesn't want to adventure, but things just keep
happening that push him along that course. No matter what he does
adventures just seem to hunt him down. If you take this edge then the
marshal gets free reign to throw you into any type of circumstances he
wants. You're basically a tool for Fate to play with. The good news is you
get some help along the way, although probably NOT in the form you'd like.
	In game terms anytime your char. rolls a critical failure then it
counts as both a critical failure for him and his target. If he was trying
to dodge an attack, then he slips on a rock and hits his head in the fall.
But the rock also goes flying and knocks the gun out of the hand of the
person that was shooting him. If he was driving a car then he crashes the
car INTO the other guy's. Destroying both. If he was shooting a gun then
his gun blows apart in his hand, but his target dodged anyway, right off a
cliff. Suffice to say that however bad it is for you, your opponents going
to be just as bad off.
	You are also Yeller and have the Luck of the Irish. You're going
to need it.

Mundane Background: "There is no God!" - Well maybe there is, but he sure
doesn't seem to want to have anything to do with you. You don't know what
it is, but magic and all of its effects just don't seem to work on you.
Good or bad.
	Your char. is TOTALLY unaffected by all magic. Doomsayer miracles,
syker powers, black magic, hexes, miracles, blessings, favors, magical
powers of creatures. None of it works on you. Directly.
	You might walk right out of a Nuke, but if you were on a bridge at
the time you are still going to fall to your death. And while you may be
able to punch right through a syker's Force Field, bullets from your gun
don't (and neither would a sword you were using) and if you were to punch
a Doomsayer his Molecular Cohesion would still work as it is healing him,
not stopping you.
	This MB is a real double-edged sword. It may be nice to ignore all
those wiz-bang powers. But it sucks when you're still nursing wounds from
3 weeks ago while everyone else is walking around perfectly fine because
the Templar healed them.
	As a result of your interaction (or lack there-of with magic) you
are also a Doubting Thomas.

Thoughts?

Theo McGuckin - SysAdmin, JLab


"We waste more electrons by 6am then most labs make all day. Be all you
can be!"