Ordinary Hero: Backgrounds For A New Way to Play

Ordinary hero is a series, releasing a character backgrounds for TTRPGs, such as D&D, every other week.

These backgrounds represent traditionally non-adventurous career choices. And are based on the Artisan’s Tools found in D&D 5e’s Player’s Handbook.

Backgrounds that strike a balance between mundane and fantastic.

The main goal is to get a character that feels “salt of the earth” but still viable as an adventurer. Therefore, their feats are based in the trained skills and innate know-how of their profession.

Detailed paragraph’s worth of information on the occupation

With most of my info coming from Wiki and YouTube (continued research is encouraged), I try to make a point of being cultural agnostic. Filtering for common practices and techniques that can be found in many different cultures. This helps me better explain the trade as a trade.

What role it plays in a culture; how important it is or how it is viewed, is up to the world builder.

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Skilled VS Unskilled Labor

The way I define “skilled” or “unskilled” depends on the complexity, mental or physical, of the task. An easy way I decide is if the task requires outside knowledge or the transportation of knowledge. That is to say, the ability to read and write.

Trade	Explanation	Labor Type
Alchemist	Make medicine	S
Blacksmith	Create metal objects	U
Brewer	Make beer and yeast	U**
Calligrapher	Write in specific script	S
Carpenter	Construct wooden structures	U
Cartographer	Draw / read maps	S
Cobbler	Make / repair shoes	U
Cook	Make meals	U**
Glassblower	Create glass objects	S*
Healer	Repair humans	S
Herbalist	Supply the Alchemist / Healer / Cook	S
Jeweler	Beautify gemstones	S*
Mason	Construct stone structures / Beautify non-precious stone	U**
Painter	Draw images	S*
Potter	Create ceramic objects	U
Tailor	Make textile clothing	U
Tanner	Create leather objects	U
Tinkerer	Repair mundane objects (Jake of all trades)	U
Woodworker	Create wooden objects	U

Any able-bodied man can move boxes from one room to another, but making a record that can be referenced and trusted, requires someone who can cross-reference previous records (read) and make a new one (write).

Inspiration

D&D Player’s Handbook (5e):

And the general lack of unskilled labor flavored backgrounds that take advantage of artisan tools other than in kits.

Almost no backgrounds tap into the jobs/skills associated with many of the Artisan Tools described in Chapter 5. Page 154.

The Guild Artisan focus on the benefits and social skills of being in a guild, rather than the skills of your specific trade.

The closest thing to an unskilled laborer background is the Urchin, which set you up with skill proficiencies in stealth and slight of hand, and tool proficiencies in the disguise kit and thieves’ tools.

This dose a good job at grounding your character, however, at the end of the day, the background is based in the seedy underbelly of an uncaring urban sprawl. Perfect for a criminal, but not everyone in a city is a criminal.

The next closest is the Guild Artisan.

You choose what artisan tool you have proficiency in and pick an artisan tool as part of your starting equipment.

However, the mechanics of the game dictate the Guild Artisan must be a skilled laborer.

Too explain what I mean, a quick side tangent from my article, How To Justify Adventuring: Money & Quality of Life,

Guilds are typically a collection of skilled laborers, who leverage collective bargaining power to demand better working and market (rights, monopolies, etc.) conditions…

By limiting the number of contracts, or withholding tutelage, keeping their supply (skills) lower than the demand, a guild “keeps the gates” to becoming a skilled laborer in the first place.

This can only be pulled off with skilled labor, when it is done with unskilled labor, that is called a union.

Durable Trades:
by Rory Groves

For trades that stood the test of time. As well as those that do not fall neatly under any of the Artisan Tools.

This includes:
Unskilled work (Coachmen, Gardener, etc.)
Skilled work (Advisor, Lawyer/Proctor, etc.)