ACQUIRING NEW OCCUPATIONS – a suggestion for DCC RPG

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In Dungeon Crawl Classics Role-Playing Game (DCC RPG), when you create a character, you roll one time in a table for defining your occupation (or you can choose, depending on the Judge). Furthermore, this roll also defines the character race.

Because it tries to be as simple as possible as an OSR system, there is no selection of skills as it exists in the modern versions of Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder or in GURPS.

When you’ll do a task that demands a test, the fact of having some knowledge in the area tested defines the dice to be rolled, in addiction to that, there can be a higher bonus for the roll depending on how much the task is related with the character context. According to official rules, characters that have more affinity in the area related to the roll (because of his/her occupation, for example) may use a “trained” skill check rolling 1d20 to see the result (applying the attributes modifiers and other circumstantial bonuses). Example: a weaponsmith that wants to make a sword will roll 1d20 with all pertinent modifiers.

In case the character have an occupation that does not have affinity with the test to be rolled, he/she will make an “untrained” skill check, rolling 1d10 instead of 1d20. If by any reason, there is some indirect relation between the occupation and the required check, he/she will get a +2 circumstantial bonus for that check.

Having an occupation means you’re trained in that area, allowing you to roll related checks with better dice, which increases the rate of success.

In my group, the players hypothesized the idea of paying tutors between adventures to get new occupations, similar to do a training. It would expand their game capabilities.

I thought the idea interesting and created a table of training costs for a character for each type of occupation (after all, the training cost to become a calligrapher is much different of becoming a ranger).

I established the cost of the training as weekly. The complete training demand different time (in weeks) for each occupation, but it can be divided in 1 week intervals (to make it easier to use in the “between adventures” time). I considered the time of 1 week, thinking in at least one period of day spent in training.

I made a research in old D&D products and tried to adapt the costs for DCC RPG as described in the table below. I used only the occupations which would be more interesting for the players (other can be invented by the group).

Occupation	Weekly cost	Number of Weeks	Difficulty of finding a tutor
Butcher	3 gp 5 sp	4	Easy
Alchemist	35 gp	16	Very Hard*
Beekeeper	14 gp	4	Medium
Apothecarist / Pharmaceutist	25 gp	16	Very Hard
Armorer	14 gp	12	Easy
Weaponsmith	14 gp	12	Easy
Artisan	7 gp	4	Easy
Confidence artist	3 gp 5 sp	4	Easy
Astrologer	21 gp	8	Medium
Barber	7 gp	4	Easy
Hunter	14 gp	8	Medium
Wainwright / Wagoner	14 gp	8	Medium
Fortune-teller	14 gp	12	Hard
Counselor / Lawyer / Herald / Barrister	21 gp	8	Medium
Weaver / Tailor	3 gp 5 sp	8	Medium
Leatherworker	14 gp	12	Medium
Grave digger	3 gp 5 sp	4	Easy
Cooker	3 gp 5 sp	8	Easy
Mushroom-farmer	14 gp	12	Hard
Healer	21 gp	16	Medium
Engineer	14 gp	16	Very Hard
Scribe	7 gp	8	Easy
Cartographer / Geographer	14 gp	12	Hard
Bowyer / Fletcher	14 gp	12	Medium
Trapmaker	21 gp	12	Hard*
Rope maker	7 gp	8	Medium
Locksmith	21 gp	16	Very Hard
Watchmaker	21 gp	16	Very Hard
Poison maker	35 gp	16	Very Hard*
Falconer	35 gp	16	Very Hard
Chest-maker	7 gp	4	Easy
Farmer (specific type)	3 gp 5 sp	8	Easy
Blacksmith	7 gp	12	Easy
Herbalist	35 gp	16	Very Hard
Historian	14 gp	16	Very Hard
Gardener	3 gp 5 sp	4	Easy
Jeweler	21 gp	12	Medium
Woodcutter	3 gp 5 sp	4	Easy
Mathematician / Accountant	14 gp	12	Hard
Mariner / Navigator	14 gp	12	Medium
Merchant / Trader	7 gp	8	Easy
Miner	7 gp	8	Easy
Miller / Baker	3 gp 5 sp	8	Easy
Priest / Beadle / Vicar	3 gp 5 sp	12	Medium*
Herder (specific type)	3 gp 5 sp	8	Easy
Stonemason	3 gp 5 sp	8	Easy
Cheesemaker	3 gp 5 sp	8	Easy
Cobbler	7 gp	8	Medium
Cooper	3 gp 5 sp	8	Medium
Weaver	7 gp	8	Easy
Dyer	7 gp	4	Easy
Animal trainer	21 gp	16	Very Hard
Glassblower	21 gp	12	Medium
Shaman	35 gp	16	Very Hard*
*Maybe the tutor will require a special task/item for this kind of training.

Time is important as a limit factor for quantity of occupations. As a general rule, I limit the number of occupations a character may have to his/her level, besides the initial occupation (for example: a level 3 character may have 3 occupations besides his initial career).

It’s good to note that the difficulty on finding a tutor may vary depending on size and population of a determined location. For example: in a dwarven community it is easier to find a weaponsmith, a miner and a blacksmith than in an elven village. The difficulty to find a tutor/master/professor (I suggest a Personality or a Luck check) in a medium size city with a mixed population would be: Easy: DC 5; Medium: DC 10; Hard: DC 15; Very Hard: DC 20. The greater or smaller the city, you could consider a bônus or penalty in the check of +/-2 for each difference on size. In relation to populational type, if an occupation is more rare or more common between a determined race, I suggest giving a bonus or penalty of +/-5 in the search for tutor check.

Furthermore, the Judge may demand an attribute or skill check every week to see the progression of learning that occupation.

Finally, I wrote these house rules to see if I could help the fans of this system.

Feel free to modify or use these rules as you wish.

Thanks again, Sorry for the poor english.

Nuhuine Shadowmage