BtS-II: Which occupations (NOT OCC/PCCs) are missing?

[Hendrik]

Hi there,

I am thinking about drafting various occupations. I do not want to invent the wheel a 2nd time or draft stuff that is not beyond the supernatural but beyond interest. So, which occupations would you like to see?

Cheers
Hendrik

[Lord Z]

This is an excellent question, H.

I thought that the three most needed occupations for my games were Business Person, Business Owner, and Vagrant. Together, these three spread through the economic spectrum. Business People are rich and in high finance professions, Business Owners are the shopkeeps, and Vagrants are the beggers. I wrote these up for Boxed Nightmares 2, but the rough draft versions are still floating around this forum somewhere, I think.

Although it's not needed, an Actor Occupation might be a lot of fun.

[Hendrik]

Hi there,

in order to get an idea what we actually have, I have just compared the two occupation listings of Dead Reign (pages 86-87) and BtS-II (page 175) and here is what BtS gained by DR, and vice versa:

Dead Reign has the following occupations that BtS-II does not have:

- Criminal: Thug
- Engineer: Electrical or Mechanical
- Farmer
- Housekeeper
- Professional Driver: Big Rigs
- Professional Driver: Specialized
- Store: Clerk
- Store: Owner/Retailer
- Student: College
- Wait Staff or Cook

BtS-II has the following occupations that DR does not have:

- Antiquities Consultant
- Antiquities Dealer
- Antiquities Rare Book Dealer
- Bounty Hunter
- Espionage Agent
- Psychic Investigator
- Psychic Professional
- Security Specialist
- Skeptic / Debunker
- Stage Magician
- Writer: Freelance

Obviously, the BtS-II full occupation list has been made to offer several standard professions as well as geared to provide some occupations that were seen as being most likely to harbour PCC characters, while the Dead Reign listing has been made to show as many "normal people" as possible - it is for the Survivor OCC after all.

It is really absolutely flabberghasting that neither has a soldier occupation. Well, for Dead Reign that does not really matter because there is a full Soldier OCC (which as discussed in another thread is extremely easy to convert to BtS-II).

Many of the Dead Reign occupations listed above are less than primarily heroic (farmer, housekeeper), but I think that does not matter because those can make for very nice background stories in BtS-II as well. Personally, I always found mentioning "Writer: Freelance" as an occupation nothing short of superfluous, but again that does not matter, even that occupation (of lighthearted mention, I muse) can be put to nice use.

Conversely, I think but for the Psychic Investigator (unless you want to play a cross over) all of the BtS-II occupations can be used in Dead Reign just as well. The system (for occupations) is clearly the same, or at least similar enough.

Porting from DR: I really like the engineer, the thug (!) has really been missing on the BtS list, the student is plain awesome and the store owner - I just LOVE that one! ...

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Cheers,
Hendrik

[mrloucifer]

I agree, all DR occupations missing from BTS are worthy add-in's. I wouldn't be surprised if they were added into a future BTS book one day.

[Tearstone]

Although it's not needed, an Actor Occupation might be a lot of fun.

This is what the Entertainer occupation is.

It covers everything to dancers, actors, comedians, musicians, porn stars and so on.

[Lord Z]

Thanks Tearstone, I have forgotten that.

A lot of these occupations, as I see them, are matters of specialization that adhere to the genre conceits of the game. That is why BtS-2 had an Antiquities Rare Book Dealer rather than the generic Store: Owner/Retailer, although both occupations could be used to build the same character concept. Lots of professions from Farmer to Lawncare Worker could be rolled into a Laborer occupation or laborers could be divided into thousands of specific occupations. H, are you wanting a high degree of specialization or a shorter list of more adaptable concepts?

If we want highly specialized for genre, then I suggest adding a babysitter occupation. Erick started the work for us with his Babysitter Class in BtS-1. If we don't want such a degree of specialization, then I suggest changing the College Student into a more generic Student.

[tmikesecrist3]

sounds like I may want to add dead reign, to my list to flush out the occupations. I was a little upset about no rules to do a solder or ex solder. that kind of dis-pointed me. because rember that most people join the armed forces when there 18 and surve for just one or 2 enlistments. that means they could be out by the in there early to late 20s

[mrloucifer]

My suspicions on the lack of military notes is due to Kevin wanting to flesh out more behind the scene military activities as there would no doubt be black ops or specialized teams created by various governments to deal with supernatural threats.

[mrloucifer]

I create a librarian once using the "Scholar/university professor/Engineer/Scientist" profession. That' a great catch all for highly educated professions, and would probably work for an Architect.

[mrloucifer]

Perhaps an actual "Architecture" skill would be in order, allowing the knowledge of various substances and building construction.

And for what its worth, as a researcher/fan/former general manager of a ghost hunting group, building knowledge and construction is an indispensable skill. I read once how a group discovered a fraudulent haunting by figuring out that the sounds were coming from a similar area, a place in which would reverberate the sound throughout most of the house. They hunted, isolated the area, and found PC speakers which were actually placed into the wall, and the cords of the speakers ran inside the walls to an old pantry in the basement, to where they attached to a PC.

The lengths some people will go to forge a haunting.

[Hibik]

Any press is good press, as they say. Or, as Andy Warhol might put, in the future everyone will have their 15 minutes of fame - he just didn't say you had to be around for it.

Or that it may involve a not-haunted house.

[Lord Z]

Excellent stuff, everyone! As for the Babysitter Class reference, it did come from Erick's Victim Campaign section of the first edition. Although the term 'Babysitter O.C.C.' probably never specifically appeared, Erick did outline how the characters had a specific collection of Babysitter Skills which were there to be used at specific points in their adventure. Thus, I call it the Babysitter O.C.C. because that is the term which describes the template best to me.

[tmikesecrist3]

So how would you hand the Ex Solder angle. given that we have been fighting a 2 front war for the past few years we have a quit a few of them out and about

[glitterboy2098]

So how would you hand the Ex Solder angle. given that we have been fighting a 2 front war for the past few years we have a quit a few of them out and about

the used to be even more common. after all our modern wars are fairly tiny in terms of manpower used compared to conflicts like WW1, WW2, Korea, and Vietnam. and until fairly recently you had the military buildup of the cold war, which generated a number of ex-military people without actual wars occuring.

[tmikesecrist3]

in bts 2 you do not get your skills form an ooc. in the game you get your powers and starting gear form your pcc, and then you choose an occupation for your skills. Oh I found some of the Occupations have some military skills like the factory worker for ex military types