Random Jobs Generator Table
Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2017 9:05 pm
A short little adventure seeder....
Random Jobs Generator
“....hit an old buried NEMA truckload of live ammo. Surprised you didn’t hear the boom.”
“So how was your week?”
“Half my busload turned into zombies after Dispatch changed my route to go by the old reactor complex. I got docked half my pay.”
Sometimes murder-hobo’ing just doesn’t pay the bills; there’s no easy loot to be had, the locals are powerful enough to put the party in its place, and peace has broken out all around. Sometimes you just have to take a genuine part-time job just to get by, or to avoid getting bored and rusty. Here’s a few everyday jobs that can move the characters along, or get them into unexpected trouble.
01-06%Bus Driver---Yeah, working for mass-transit can be steady, boring work, but you constantly have to be responsible for both the safe operation of your vehicle and the safety of your passengers. Outside; speeders, roadhogs, bandits, large predators, bad weather, questionably safe roads, and changing routes. Onboard; obnoxious passengers, would-be hijackers, shifting cargo, plague-carrying fares, gremlins in the transmission, and AC that doesn’t work.
07-15% Part-Time Mechanic----If you’ve got the skill, fixing stuff can make you some good money. However, getting word out that you can fix stuff is hard, PROVING your skill is harder. Signing up with a local established tech-shop is a good way to find a base and tools, but you’ll be under the thumb of the local greasemonkey, who will choose your jobs and take most of your pay. Hanging out your own shingle means you’ll have to do it all yourself with what you got, and if your other profession lights up an opportunity, you may have to choose between leaving a job undone with an irrate customer, or waiting for parts to come in while the rest of your party goes off without you.
16-22% Part-Time Electrician---Has much the same problems as the part-time mechanic, plus a few new ones, like working on regional power grids. Establishing and maintaining a power grid in the wilderness can mean working on high towers stringing high voltage power lines. And maybe the local antagonists don’t want lightning brought into their neighborhood, or just LOVE tapping the juice. Yeah, being a lineman for the county can suck when Power Leeches move in.
23-28% Lumberjack---Clearing savage new land for timber or real estate sound easy in an age of lasers and vibroblades? Well, maybe the employers don’t want to use any of that high tech stuff because the trees explode too easily, or they aren’t going to pay for maintenance. Exotic vegetation can also pose all sorts of hazards to a clearing team, and the local critters or natives may take exception to their stomping grounds being rip-stripped. They might even hire other out-of-work mercs to take out the mercs with the chainsaws.
29-32% Tow Truck Operator---Has to go out at odd hours to recover disabled or wrecked vehicles, or maybe repossess them. Gets fun if the vehicle is an ongoing hazard(radiation leaks, live ammo, dangling on the edge of an avalanche escarpment, etc), in a danger zone(bandit territory, monster hunting grounds, firestorm, etc.), or is being watched by hostile parties(other salvage teams, repo-resisters, etc.).
33-35% Game Beater---Job for a big hunting party; the character(s) get to advance ahead of the hunting party beating the bushes to flush the game out. Gets real fun in dangerous terrain, with prey that turns to attack, unexpected monsters in the bushes, and trigger-happy hunters at your back.
36-45% Construction Worker/Heavy Manual Laborer---Digging ditches? Always a need. Location of the worksite can be part of the fun of a job swinging a pickax or shovel. Digging a sewer concourse through an old battlefield, or driving a road through an ancient graveyard, riveting girders on a new skyscrapper a flock of perytons are already scouting as a nest site, or placing masonry bridge footings in the middle of a swiftly-moving river, all can make a stint as a construction worker an adventure.
46-50% Private Tutor---Somebody sees in the characters a certain skillset or attitude that they want to have in their kids. High levels of experience(6th or higher) and a high MA are recommended for this job; literacy is also prefered(but not necessary, if the character is teaching ‘non-book larn’in’ skills). Putting up with the kids is part of the effort, keeping them safe another. Dealing with spoiled brats, juvenile delinquents, creepy kids, kidnap-magnets, ceaseless questioners, jailbait crushers, and young kleptomaniacs (especially where firearms and explosives are involved) can try the best of beings.
51-55% Slaughterhouse Employee--Not for vegetarians. Besides dealing with blood and offal, slaughterhouse workers also have to contend with vermin and predators drawn by the smell of fresh kills.
56-60% Food Processing Worker--Whether it’s a grain miller or a pod husker, once plants come in off the fields, somebody has to finish processing them. Boring monotonous work, but sometimes the more exotic plant species require special handling, due to toxic skins, poison spines or spores, and tough shells. And sometimes the pod people come calling to liberate their own.
61-63% Armored Courier---The character(s) are hired to escort money and other valuables from place to place. Sound easy? Well, first they’ll have to pass background checks, and they’ll have to show they’re absolutely trustworthy, and they’ll have to turn in their heavier armaments, oh, and maybe wear some ‘safeguards’(like locator beacons, or ‘obediance vests’). And they’ll need to wear uniforms, so any crooks will know the armored car just arrived to pick up payroll and who to target.
64-66% Pet Walker---Caretaker to a domestic critter(or several)
01-20%Regular Dog(s) or Cat(s)---Just ordinary cats and dogs. Problem is, this is Rifts Earth, ‘ordinary’ translates into ‘snack food’, and the animals in question know it. The doggies or kitties will disappear at every opportunity, requiring the caretaker to go after them. And Fluffy knows all the good and hard-to-reach hidding places.
21-25% Normal, but Dumb---Perfectly normal critter, except for a tendency to get into trouble, like pee’ing on the boot of a Coalition Death-Knight, and pull you along with it.
26-40% Exotic Cutie--Critter looks harmless enough, but it’s a d-bee critter with unexpected abilities, like the ability to spit poison or ‘morph into a shadowbeast. Oh, the owners didn’t tell you about that?
41-60% Adorable Monster---Big fearsome-looking d-bee critter on the outside, affectionate slob on the inside. Gets into trouble on a constant basis, like digging up yards and eating smaller pets.
61-80% Multiple Pets---They outnumber you, they outweigh you, most of them want to kill each other, and you don’t dare let any of them out of your sight.
81-00% Disturbingly Human---Something about the animal is off-putting. Maybe it looks like a sentient being, but has the mind of an animal, or maybe it behaves in ways that seem to be attempts at communication. Is the pet really a slave, a transformed person, a wrongfully taken captive or what? And how much do the owners know?
67-70% Model---Local organization wants the character to model for them. High MA and PB prefered, but not always necessary. Fair to good money for posing and showing off, but it may mean publicity and exposure you don’t want, and maybe some sexual harassment.
01-20% Equipment Model---The character gets to pose with some piece of equipment (guns, armor, tractors, washing machines) being hawked by a local concern. Scanty dress may be involved.
21-40% Fashion Model---The character gets to sport the latest creation of some fashionista, whose aesthetic ideas may severely clash with your own.
41-60% Anatomical Art---The character gets to pose au natural for art students.
61-80% Propoganda Art---The character is being used to showcase an example of a ‘typical’ speciman of their class or species(the latter typically requiring nudity).
81-00% Body-Double---You get to dress up and go around on a specific schedule doing certain things. It’s all supposed to be play-acting, but you’re really a decoy for somebody else.
71-80% Farmer/Rancher---Yeah, you get to assist in regularly tending the fields, punching cattle, and doing an honest day’s backbreaking work, ideally for a season until the crops come in. Pay tends to be marginal to low, and accommodations spartan, but at least you’re eating. On the other hand, you’re just a few yards removed from the wilderness and all the dangers that represents.
81-82% Librarian---Organizing and managing somebody’s private collection or handling public loan-out items requires an organized mind and skills. It can be quiet work and gain the character(s) access to lots of interesting information, but also requires dealing with the public and patrons whose definition of ‘quiet’ clashes with your own. Sushing a group of noisey visitors who outnumber and outgun you, collecting late fees, repossessing overdue items, resisting the temptation of the advanced infonet to go cruising for classified data or porn, trying to handle budget issues, and avoiding getting Harding’ed by the disguntled ex-employee who you replaced in the position are all possible dangers in even a part-time position on Rifts Earth.
83-87% Garbageman---SOMEBODY’s got to do clean-up...and on Rifts Earth that means dealing with all sorts of exotic wastes and the scavengers that feed on them....and possibly you if you’re not careful.
88-90% Paperhanger/Newpaper Seller---Low-paying job posting banners and handing out fliers. Can get REAL dicey if you’re passing out literature in an area where literacy is illegal, or the materials are for something that’s controversial, like an invitation to a CS anti-d-bee rally or a Black Mass.
91-94% Secretary---Having skills in literacy and computer operation can net you work in an illiterate society as a paper manager, secretary, letter-writer/reader, record keeper, or other paperpusher. The pluses to this are the relatively low-risk flow of work and generally peaceful setting of the job. There’s also potential access to higher-end businesses and record-keeping systems. The danger is, part-time secretary work may imply that an employer goes through secretaries fairly fast. Also, reading other people’s correspondance can get risky if the people decide the best way to cover up any information you might see is to kill you.
95-97% Surrogate/Sperm-Donor---Some communities really want new DNA in their towns, and will pay in credits or services, provided the PCs meet their standards of health and other favorable physical attributes. And lab/clinic facilities may not be available to carry out the task. Being a surrogate mother is hard, as it is labor-intensive and requires dedication of a certain amount of time and aggravation to carry to term, plus the problems of giving up the child upon completion of the pregnancy. Males may seem to have the easier time of it, but other complications may arise. Depending on the situation, the PCs may become attached to their mothered/fathered offspring(especially if the locals find the children lacking), the parties for who they are working may become attached/attracted to the surrogate/donor. Also, the locals may decide to kill the surrogate/donor in the process, or afterwards to cover up their need for new blood in the community.
98-00% Referee/Moderator---(low)Paid job for a referee; for sports, divorce mediation, land or property dispute, role-playing game session. Character is expected to be impartial and honest, no matter how biased they really are, how blatantly lopsided the judgement is going to be, or how intimidating the other parties in the mediated dispute are going to be. One bad judgement call and some players WILL try to kill the GM.
In the alternative, this can be a jury-dragooning, in which the character(s) will be forced to sit as jurists to some insipid dispute or major spinechilling criminal case, and will recieve some small compensation(or just food and lodging for the duration of the trial) for their time.
Random Jobs Generator
“....hit an old buried NEMA truckload of live ammo. Surprised you didn’t hear the boom.”
“So how was your week?”
“Half my busload turned into zombies after Dispatch changed my route to go by the old reactor complex. I got docked half my pay.”
Sometimes murder-hobo’ing just doesn’t pay the bills; there’s no easy loot to be had, the locals are powerful enough to put the party in its place, and peace has broken out all around. Sometimes you just have to take a genuine part-time job just to get by, or to avoid getting bored and rusty. Here’s a few everyday jobs that can move the characters along, or get them into unexpected trouble.
01-06%Bus Driver---Yeah, working for mass-transit can be steady, boring work, but you constantly have to be responsible for both the safe operation of your vehicle and the safety of your passengers. Outside; speeders, roadhogs, bandits, large predators, bad weather, questionably safe roads, and changing routes. Onboard; obnoxious passengers, would-be hijackers, shifting cargo, plague-carrying fares, gremlins in the transmission, and AC that doesn’t work.
07-15% Part-Time Mechanic----If you’ve got the skill, fixing stuff can make you some good money. However, getting word out that you can fix stuff is hard, PROVING your skill is harder. Signing up with a local established tech-shop is a good way to find a base and tools, but you’ll be under the thumb of the local greasemonkey, who will choose your jobs and take most of your pay. Hanging out your own shingle means you’ll have to do it all yourself with what you got, and if your other profession lights up an opportunity, you may have to choose between leaving a job undone with an irrate customer, or waiting for parts to come in while the rest of your party goes off without you.
16-22% Part-Time Electrician---Has much the same problems as the part-time mechanic, plus a few new ones, like working on regional power grids. Establishing and maintaining a power grid in the wilderness can mean working on high towers stringing high voltage power lines. And maybe the local antagonists don’t want lightning brought into their neighborhood, or just LOVE tapping the juice. Yeah, being a lineman for the county can suck when Power Leeches move in.
23-28% Lumberjack---Clearing savage new land for timber or real estate sound easy in an age of lasers and vibroblades? Well, maybe the employers don’t want to use any of that high tech stuff because the trees explode too easily, or they aren’t going to pay for maintenance. Exotic vegetation can also pose all sorts of hazards to a clearing team, and the local critters or natives may take exception to their stomping grounds being rip-stripped. They might even hire other out-of-work mercs to take out the mercs with the chainsaws.
29-32% Tow Truck Operator---Has to go out at odd hours to recover disabled or wrecked vehicles, or maybe repossess them. Gets fun if the vehicle is an ongoing hazard(radiation leaks, live ammo, dangling on the edge of an avalanche escarpment, etc), in a danger zone(bandit territory, monster hunting grounds, firestorm, etc.), or is being watched by hostile parties(other salvage teams, repo-resisters, etc.).
33-35% Game Beater---Job for a big hunting party; the character(s) get to advance ahead of the hunting party beating the bushes to flush the game out. Gets real fun in dangerous terrain, with prey that turns to attack, unexpected monsters in the bushes, and trigger-happy hunters at your back.
36-45% Construction Worker/Heavy Manual Laborer---Digging ditches? Always a need. Location of the worksite can be part of the fun of a job swinging a pickax or shovel. Digging a sewer concourse through an old battlefield, or driving a road through an ancient graveyard, riveting girders on a new skyscrapper a flock of perytons are already scouting as a nest site, or placing masonry bridge footings in the middle of a swiftly-moving river, all can make a stint as a construction worker an adventure.
46-50% Private Tutor---Somebody sees in the characters a certain skillset or attitude that they want to have in their kids. High levels of experience(6th or higher) and a high MA are recommended for this job; literacy is also prefered(but not necessary, if the character is teaching ‘non-book larn’in’ skills). Putting up with the kids is part of the effort, keeping them safe another. Dealing with spoiled brats, juvenile delinquents, creepy kids, kidnap-magnets, ceaseless questioners, jailbait crushers, and young kleptomaniacs (especially where firearms and explosives are involved) can try the best of beings.
51-55% Slaughterhouse Employee--Not for vegetarians. Besides dealing with blood and offal, slaughterhouse workers also have to contend with vermin and predators drawn by the smell of fresh kills.
56-60% Food Processing Worker--Whether it’s a grain miller or a pod husker, once plants come in off the fields, somebody has to finish processing them. Boring monotonous work, but sometimes the more exotic plant species require special handling, due to toxic skins, poison spines or spores, and tough shells. And sometimes the pod people come calling to liberate their own.
61-63% Armored Courier---The character(s) are hired to escort money and other valuables from place to place. Sound easy? Well, first they’ll have to pass background checks, and they’ll have to show they’re absolutely trustworthy, and they’ll have to turn in their heavier armaments, oh, and maybe wear some ‘safeguards’(like locator beacons, or ‘obediance vests’). And they’ll need to wear uniforms, so any crooks will know the armored car just arrived to pick up payroll and who to target.
64-66% Pet Walker---Caretaker to a domestic critter(or several)
01-20%Regular Dog(s) or Cat(s)---Just ordinary cats and dogs. Problem is, this is Rifts Earth, ‘ordinary’ translates into ‘snack food’, and the animals in question know it. The doggies or kitties will disappear at every opportunity, requiring the caretaker to go after them. And Fluffy knows all the good and hard-to-reach hidding places.
21-25% Normal, but Dumb---Perfectly normal critter, except for a tendency to get into trouble, like pee’ing on the boot of a Coalition Death-Knight, and pull you along with it.
26-40% Exotic Cutie--Critter looks harmless enough, but it’s a d-bee critter with unexpected abilities, like the ability to spit poison or ‘morph into a shadowbeast. Oh, the owners didn’t tell you about that?
41-60% Adorable Monster---Big fearsome-looking d-bee critter on the outside, affectionate slob on the inside. Gets into trouble on a constant basis, like digging up yards and eating smaller pets.
61-80% Multiple Pets---They outnumber you, they outweigh you, most of them want to kill each other, and you don’t dare let any of them out of your sight.
81-00% Disturbingly Human---Something about the animal is off-putting. Maybe it looks like a sentient being, but has the mind of an animal, or maybe it behaves in ways that seem to be attempts at communication. Is the pet really a slave, a transformed person, a wrongfully taken captive or what? And how much do the owners know?
67-70% Model---Local organization wants the character to model for them. High MA and PB prefered, but not always necessary. Fair to good money for posing and showing off, but it may mean publicity and exposure you don’t want, and maybe some sexual harassment.
01-20% Equipment Model---The character gets to pose with some piece of equipment (guns, armor, tractors, washing machines) being hawked by a local concern. Scanty dress may be involved.
21-40% Fashion Model---The character gets to sport the latest creation of some fashionista, whose aesthetic ideas may severely clash with your own.
41-60% Anatomical Art---The character gets to pose au natural for art students.
61-80% Propoganda Art---The character is being used to showcase an example of a ‘typical’ speciman of their class or species(the latter typically requiring nudity).
81-00% Body-Double---You get to dress up and go around on a specific schedule doing certain things. It’s all supposed to be play-acting, but you’re really a decoy for somebody else.
71-80% Farmer/Rancher---Yeah, you get to assist in regularly tending the fields, punching cattle, and doing an honest day’s backbreaking work, ideally for a season until the crops come in. Pay tends to be marginal to low, and accommodations spartan, but at least you’re eating. On the other hand, you’re just a few yards removed from the wilderness and all the dangers that represents.
81-82% Librarian---Organizing and managing somebody’s private collection or handling public loan-out items requires an organized mind and skills. It can be quiet work and gain the character(s) access to lots of interesting information, but also requires dealing with the public and patrons whose definition of ‘quiet’ clashes with your own. Sushing a group of noisey visitors who outnumber and outgun you, collecting late fees, repossessing overdue items, resisting the temptation of the advanced infonet to go cruising for classified data or porn, trying to handle budget issues, and avoiding getting Harding’ed by the disguntled ex-employee who you replaced in the position are all possible dangers in even a part-time position on Rifts Earth.
83-87% Garbageman---SOMEBODY’s got to do clean-up...and on Rifts Earth that means dealing with all sorts of exotic wastes and the scavengers that feed on them....and possibly you if you’re not careful.
88-90% Paperhanger/Newpaper Seller---Low-paying job posting banners and handing out fliers. Can get REAL dicey if you’re passing out literature in an area where literacy is illegal, or the materials are for something that’s controversial, like an invitation to a CS anti-d-bee rally or a Black Mass.
91-94% Secretary---Having skills in literacy and computer operation can net you work in an illiterate society as a paper manager, secretary, letter-writer/reader, record keeper, or other paperpusher. The pluses to this are the relatively low-risk flow of work and generally peaceful setting of the job. There’s also potential access to higher-end businesses and record-keeping systems. The danger is, part-time secretary work may imply that an employer goes through secretaries fairly fast. Also, reading other people’s correspondance can get risky if the people decide the best way to cover up any information you might see is to kill you.
95-97% Surrogate/Sperm-Donor---Some communities really want new DNA in their towns, and will pay in credits or services, provided the PCs meet their standards of health and other favorable physical attributes. And lab/clinic facilities may not be available to carry out the task. Being a surrogate mother is hard, as it is labor-intensive and requires dedication of a certain amount of time and aggravation to carry to term, plus the problems of giving up the child upon completion of the pregnancy. Males may seem to have the easier time of it, but other complications may arise. Depending on the situation, the PCs may become attached to their mothered/fathered offspring(especially if the locals find the children lacking), the parties for who they are working may become attached/attracted to the surrogate/donor. Also, the locals may decide to kill the surrogate/donor in the process, or afterwards to cover up their need for new blood in the community.
98-00% Referee/Moderator---(low)Paid job for a referee; for sports, divorce mediation, land or property dispute, role-playing game session. Character is expected to be impartial and honest, no matter how biased they really are, how blatantly lopsided the judgement is going to be, or how intimidating the other parties in the mediated dispute are going to be. One bad judgement call and some players WILL try to kill the GM.
In the alternative, this can be a jury-dragooning, in which the character(s) will be forced to sit as jurists to some insipid dispute or major spinechilling criminal case, and will recieve some small compensation(or just food and lodging for the duration of the trial) for their time.