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The Criminal

The Criminal

This is the third of 10 occupations in my system Nothing Ventured.

Ability 1 - Concealed Carry

"Each time you take a level in Criminal, roll the die listed for that level. You gain that many secret inventory slots, which allow you to hide items on your body. If your roll would be lower than your current number of secret inventory slots, you gain 1 additional slot instead. These slots can only hold items of Light size or smaller. No one knows you have these inventory slots, and items in them can only be revealed by strip-searching you. These slots do not count towards your encumbrance."

Level 1 - 1d4
Level 2 - 1d6
Level 3 - 1d8
Level 4 - 1d10
Level 5 - 2d6
Level 6 - 2d8
Level 7 - 2d10

Breakdown

This ability is designed after all those scenes in media where that one guy just pulls an impossible amount of stuff from his person. They have to cough up all their weapons or whatever, and fella just pulls out blade after blade, gun after gun, or whatever after whatever. Now, unlike some media may allow, I won't be having you pulling an item the size of your body out of a pant leg. So there is that limitation, but outside of that, you can stock up on whatever you want. Like knives? Carry a bunch. Like rotten fruit? Carry a bunch. Like rabbits? Carry a bunch. Good criminals can carry more rabbits, just sayin'. Go nuts, outlaw.

Ability 2 - Conniving

"As long as you are not the center of attention, and do not interrupt whatever is the center of attention, you may reposition yourself to any position within one turn's move distance without anyone noticing you. You cannot do this in combat, as all combatants are on high alert. Additionally, when you tell a lie, you can have your audience automatically believe you, as long as the lie is not totally preposterous or someone does not immediately oppose your lie. You may do this [level] times a day."

Breakdown

This ability definitely guides you to what kind of criminal you are. You aren't some strong arming thug; you're sneaky and a liar. In fact, you're pretty good at both of those things, which is probably why you haven't been jailed or executed yet. You can leave the strong arming and racketeering to the fellas you get in the next ability while you weasel your way into or out of trouble. Of course, with the permission of the GM, if you want to be the strong arming type, you could change the lying part to something like intimidating; should be an easy switch.

Ability 3 - Connections

"Every time you enter a new town or city, roll a d4. You have that many contacts in this new city, each specializing in some criminal activity (you and your GM decide what specifically). Each contact can supply you with underlings, which behave as retainers. Additionally, you can barter with these contacts to gain a package. The contents of this package are unknown until you declare it, must be of equal value to what you bartered, and be within the number of inventory slots you have left."

Level 1 - 1d4 Underlings
Level 2 - 1d4 Underlings
Level 3 - 1d4 Underlings
Level 4 - 1d6 Underlings
Level 5 - 1d6 Underlings
Level 6 - 1d6 Underlings
Level 7 - 2d4 Underlings

Breakdown

If you've been around the GLoG for any length of time, you'll notice this ability is a combination of two prominent abilities given to thief-esque classes. This opens up two important avenues - roleplay and utility. You're going to have at least one person you can go to in any given town or city, no matter the situation. At the very least, that's someone you can interact with and get some cursory information from about the town or city; at most, that's someone who can be key to your success. Same goes for the criminal underlings you can get your hands on. As for the utility, being able to declare what you have in your package can be a literal lifesaver for you or a party member.

In Conclusion

As always, that's it. That's the whole class. Three abilities you get upfront, level 1 access to, which scale as you take levels in it. It's a front-loaded, simple format that captures what I want it to capture while setting the occupation apart from other occupations. Crazy it took me like 2 months to settle on this, but hey, "thick skull, no brains". Of course, I'm always up for scathing critiques or lofty praise, O Void, and I hope you won't disappoint.

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