Day jobs for characters...

[Tetsuyama]

I've been doing some work trying to come up with some sort of list of standard skills for a variety of jobs that characters might have as their day job, or as a background job. Is this the sort of thing that anyone is interested in? Has anyone else come up with a list of jobs that they use?

I was thinking of tackling it as a set of 25 point groups of skills and stats minimums, and then using the package any time the PCs encounter a reasonably competent individual of that profession. Though it seems like a set of 15-20 point bundles might be nice for PCs to pick through and grab ideas from.

[Agent333]

I hate to beat Dave Mattingly to the punch, but he has an excellent article about Skill Packages in his Power Point archive.

http://www.geocities.com/area51/cavern/1905/haym16.html

I still use it to this day, it's one of the best resources I have.

Thanks Dave :)

[death tribble]

I didn't use skill packages as the heroes could come from practically any background

For instance
The Flame was a Sales man.
The Magician was a professional entertainer and vigilante.
The Demoness having spent life on the run from the bad guys became the Magician's protogee. She wanted to learn medicine to heal people.
Arachneida was a librarian
The Angel was an intergalactic policeman
Dr Density was a student
The Unicorn was an Alien scout who quit to join the earthlings and took up Jazz music
Sureshot was an archer and inventor
Thaw was the Iron Man (ie millionaire backer) of the group
Magnetic Mistress was a mutant fugitive.
Wolverine (yes that Wolverine and poorly played at that) was a government employee
As was Mindshock and Weather Wizard.
British Bulldog was a brick layer

So you see the skill sets are vast and different. No two the same, really.

[mattingly]

Thanks, Agent333. Good to know someone's getting some use out of it.

[Tetsuyama]

Wow.. That's a pretty awesome site. That article is a lot like what I was thinking of. Thanks!

[MisterVimes]

Amongst my team:

* Bullet-Proof Mohammed is a homeless bum (because of his distinctive features - Made of Metal)
* Corona is a Doctor
* Ghost Walker is a Diplomat
* Lady Libra is a School Teacher
* Marksman is a Student
* Warrior is an Architect

In my old game
* Deimos (an Alien w/Public ID) was a Construction worker
* Doppler was a Student
* Matrix was a Dance instructor
* Mr. America was a Soap Opera Actor
* Orion was a lazy bum who hung out at the headquarters and mooched.
* Sentinel was a Government Agent
* She Wolf was a TV reporter
* Technomancer was a Private Detective

[Patriot]

Nobody has a newspaper reporter .....

[Michael Hopcroft]

Newspapers are so 20th Century. I bet we won;t even have them in 25 years except as online equivalents.

Now a web designer -- THERE'S an occupation for a superhero. Especially if he's a freelancer -- nobody cares what he does during the day, or at night, as long as he keeps on making his deadlines.

[Supreme]

Personally, I find many of the day jobs of classic super-heroes to be rather hard to swallow. It's one thing to work eight hours in a day and fight crime. Many super-heroes do possess the physical and mental fortitude to do this. However, with most jobs you can't just up and leave on a moments notice when the super-villains attack. Amongst these hard-to-believe day jobs are:

* Doctor
Doctors work a LOT more than 40 hours a week, and are on call to boot.
* Professor/Teacher/Lecturer
Different than research scientists, teachers have strictly defined work schedules - especially those who are still trying to get tenure.
* Police Officer/Law-Enforcement Officer
Not only are your hours strictly defined, but many Law-Enforcement agencies will monitor the off-duty activities of their officers.
* Attorney
Attornies work LONG hours like doctors. As well, they are expected to put in 50-60 hours a week just to impress the partners. This doesn't stop once you make partner or junior partner. You have to keep putting in the hours to make sure that you keep your position.
* Actor
True, most actors are out of work most of the time. But once you get work, you have to do it! Otherwise you need to find another career.

However, there are many classic day jobs that do work:

* Research Scientist/Graduate Student
These people actually have very felxible schedules and can always take a few hours off of their project here and there as long as they make it up. The only hinderance would be when they have to work with others. Of course lots of high-level academics are known for idiosyncracies.
* Private Detective
Unless your a junior member of a firm, you're your own boss. You just have to make sure that you actually put some time in on the cases you do have. You also won't make a lot of money.
* Reporter
Reporter actually works well, because you always have the excuse of "chasing down" a lead. Making up the work later is simply a matter of super-speed.
* Free-Lance Photographer
You just show up when you have pictures. "Best thing for a kid your age."

What I haven't seen yet are software programmers and people making money via the internet (there are still a few out there). These are also people with very flexible hours.

[Trebuchet]

I have a ninja character who works as a translator of books and articles (She speaks 11 languages). She also occasionally works as a translator for important business negotiations. This not only gives her the ability to set her own hours (since most of her work is done on a laptop computer), but keeping current on her language skills is a good excuse to travel overseas often.

[Hermit]

Originally posted by MisterVimes
* Orion was a lazy bum who hung out at the headquarters and mooched.

Orion is clearly a very wise fellow ;)

[Wormhole]

How about a teenage hero who works as an assistant manager at Burger King in civillain ID?

[MisterVimes]

Originally posted by Hermit
Orion is clearly a very wise fellow ;)

He was indeed :D

[Evil Steve]

I've had...

Inventor living on disability pay
Mildly sucessful musician
Bouncer
Security at a University
Grad student
Electronics tech support on 24 hour on-call
Independantly wealthy playboy
Moochers, hangers on and various parasites
One homeless guy.
Professor of obscure topics

[Blue]

Here are the less interesting jobs that still turned out to entertaining in game...
Telemarketer
Door-to-door salesman
Shoe Salesman (Yup. Shoe Salesman. No, his name wasn't Al.)

Any job can be fun if you don't have to do it in real life :-)

Some of the ones that may not seem to useful but turned out to be good were...
DMV employee (Run a check on anyone)
Real Estate Salesman (Lots of property info)
Bank Cashier (Keep tabs on money laundering)

The one that was the most fun: Stuntman. The character had a public ID and was known for his tolerance to injury. So he'd do impossible stunts that otherwise couldn't be done for major motion pictures.

[Hermit]

I want to make a Super Villain who's plans for global domination are masked by his ownership of a RPG company...

I just feel inspired in that direction for some reason lately ;)

[CBikle]

Always thought that being a cab driver was a great complimentary job to being a super-hero.

It's a perfect cover for patrolling in your civilian I.D. and could even be used to get info from the streets or from high society.

Also , you never have to rationalize toanyone why you're in the area.

[Supreme]

Originally posted by CBikle
Always thought that being a cab driver was a great complimentary job to being a super-hero.

It's a perfect cover for patrolling in your civilian I.D. and could even be used to get info from the streets or from high society.

Also , you never have to rationalize toanyone why you're in the area.
Huh. That's actually a good idea. If you own your own cab, as many drivers do, then you can take a break whenever you want. Of course you'd be mighty unpopular with your dispatcher.

[bcholmes]

Originally posted by Supreme
Personally, I find many of the day jobs of classic super-heroes to be rather hard to swallow. It's one thing to work eight hours in a day and fight crime

<snicker>

Phil Foglio had a "What's New (with Phil and Dixie)" cartoon about this in an old, old issue of Dragaon Magazine, commenting about how superheroes need jobs that allow them to be absent for long periods of time without notice. The acccomanying cartoon showed a waiter saying "Sorry I took so long with your order..."

[Tech]

Does 'Super Insurance Salesman' count for a job? My very first hero was a salesman selling insurance to cover damage from a super-person battle, whether hero or villain. The insurance sold quite well.

[MisterVimes]

Does anyone remember Superhero 2044?
You had a calendar where you had to set aside blocks of time for work and sleep and patrol.

creative, but weird.

[Tech]

Originally posted by MisterVimes
Does anyone remember Superhero 2044?
You had a calendar where you had to set aside blocks of time for work and sleep and patrol.

creative, but weird.

Oh, yeah. Forgot about the one. It was humorous but still, c'mon, that's part and parcel of roleplaying.

[Blue]

I may have played champions and villains & vigilantes first as a player, but Superhero 2044 was the first superhero game I ever ran! When my brother gave up roleplaying I inherited his champions book and left my SH2044 book to a friend. It was the only SH game I'd ever seen with what were essentially "random encounters".

For those who never played it, You'd fill out a block of time on a calendar to patrol a certain district, roll off of a chart based on how crime ridden the area was and what time of day, and it would yield a semi-appropriate crime for you to encounter. How a brick who is dumb as a post could discover Embezzling, I don't know.

But you could mark out whole blocks of time for sleep, work, school, etc.

[Klytus]

Originally posted by bcholmes
<snicker>

Phil Foglio had a "What's New (with Phil and Dixie)" cartoon about this in an old, old issue of Dragaon Magazine, commenting about how superheroes need jobs that allow them to be absent for long periods of time without notice. The acccomanying cartoon showed a waiter saying "Sorry I took so long with your order..."

In one game I ran, one of my players, in a flaming piece of social commentary, had his civilian ID job listed as PennDOT (Pennsylvania Dept. of Transportation) worker. His rationale?

"These are the guys you see at road construction sites, only they're not doing any work other than having lunch. Plus its a union job. If you take off for a few hours in the middle of the day, nobody can do anything about it and you can't get fired."

In short, it was the perfect job for a superhero in Pennsylvania, and I couldn't argue with him.

[Vondy]

Vanguard (power armor) is a pizza delivery guy with an MS in Physics. He doesn't have time for the PHd program because he's out heroing at all hours of the day.

[Karma]

Originally posted by Morningstar70
I always liked Librarian and bartender/bar owner for superhero jobs.

Librarian - access to massive gobs of information, some of which hasn't even been saved in electronic format. Also, a good excuse to put those ancient books from the "private collection" as a plot device.

Trust me as a Librarian. We have about as much 'free time' as a teacher, perhaps less. If I had Superspeed and 'Does not sleep' maybe I'd get ahead enough to think about 'saving the world'. Either that or library users who actually know where to put the books when they've finished with them and how to not damage the books (sorry, ranting). Sure I've got gobs of information at my fingertips but, trust me Librarian as Follower is a much better idea (and less stressful for everyone concerned).

Then again I wouldn't mind playing 'The Librarian' who has "Enraged: when books are damaged" as a Disadvantage.

[Mutant for Hire]

Originally posted by Karma
Then again I wouldn't mind playing 'The Librarian' who has "Enraged: when books are damaged" as a Disadvantage.

"Ook"

*hands Karma a banana*

[Hermit]

Originally posted by Karma


Then again I wouldn't mind playing 'The Librarian' who has "Enraged: when books are damaged" as a Disadvantage.
Conan the Librarian ala UHF :)

"This book is two weeks over due..." *HACK*

[Deejmeister]

I know it sounds kina juvenile, but (for high COM female characters) PS: Stripper is a really great job. Flexible hours, great money, and no real qualifications other than being able to dance. Plus you can troll for weirdos to thug and make the world just a little bit safer (and less sticky...) :D

[Black Rose]

Originally posted by Deejmeister
I know it sounds kina juvenile, but (for high COM female characters) PS: Stripper is a really great job. Flexible hours,

Well, flexible scheduling anyhow - I used to work in a related field, so I know a bit about the "other side" of the job. Provided you can call in, your time is your own, though.


great money,

Only if you're really hot, or fairly hot and come across to the marks. OTOH, it's a great way to justify any strange money levels - all the dancers I knew spent money like water.


and no real qualifications other than being able to dance. Plus you can troll for weirdos to thug and make the world just a little bit safer (and less sticky...) :D

You're right about the "no real qualifications" part - heck, you don't even need to be a great dancer. It's a good way to meet your contacts, too.

[Mayday]

I have a college student, a federal Super Agent, an inventor who owns the company, a baseball player and several freelance types. The only one that has a problem is the student but she compensates by studying constantly and has a semi-public ID. Was too much work to maintain it Secret.

[Mayday]

....Vegeance (not mine). Her day job (night job) was as a coroner in a Dark Champions campaign but something happened where her civilian self was believed to be and so she is now believed dead and exists only as her hero ID.

Was for the best, she's got enough to do.

[Hermit]

Hmmm.. out of my current characters that ARE PCs...

Lone Star- Is a substitute History teacher... in the PBEM he's in, he's about to encounter a problem in scheduling it looks like. *Gulp*

Slammer- My force field repulsing brick has a 'public ID', and merchandises himself quite well. Ironically enough, when he first got his powers and his physique was altered so his own parents didn't recognize him, he was homeless for a bit. He got a job at a junk yard acting as a living compacter :) If you're a brick and down on your luck, get a job demolishing legally.

Surge- While he has a true gift for science (His father's influence and his own interest), Peter Stone works as a Comic Book artist...drawing, you guessed it, the Surge comic book for an independent comic book company.

Wildcard- Escape artist and stage magician. Not only a fun job, but a good way to rationalize a LOT of useful skills :)

[mangahunterd]

In the group we are in now there is a Rock Musician, kind of small scale but there are times he has problems getting out but he has a Pub ID so it helps..
A University professor... Until his building went boom..
A CEO... I know they have tons of time right!
A Govt. Sponsored hero so he don't really work...
Others I have seen or thought of though would be

Morgue Assistant-Get the lowdown on some crimes plus you work weird hours anyway.

Grad Student... those guys never go to class anyway.

Construction Worker... You don't feel like working??

Mortician... I like dead things....

Truck Dirver... Mobile base on wheels.

Freelance Designer/Artist/Writer/Photographer... Gives you a reason why you aren;t a 9 to 5 er and allows you mobility...

Farmer... uhhhh... yeah!:confused:

Beer Delivery Guy... Just think of the plot hooks with that one!:rolleyes:

Model... You have some strange hours but there is a lot of demand on your time...

Radio DJ... hey you work 4 hours a day...

Who knows there are tons of possibilities. Our group has a tendency to follow the same tendencies.... I finally kind of switche d this time and played a Brick that looks like a heroine addict 5ft 10 in weighs 130Lb.. Very deceptive.....
:eek:

[Hermit]

Of course, with enough of the right Life Supports, you might not need a job. :)

"I don't eat, I don't sleep, and temperature extremes don't bug me... so what's the point of this again?"
"So you don't get arrested for Loitering."
"Oh."

[Mutant for Hire]

Originally posted by Hermit
Of course, with enough of the right Life Supports, you might not need a job. :)

"I don't eat, I don't sleep, and temperature extremes don't bug me... so what's the point of this again?"
"So you don't get arrested for Loitering."
"Oh."

It also helps to shower now and then. :)

[Marchwarden]

Originally posted by Tetsuyama
I've been doing some work trying to come up with some sort of list of standard skills for a variety of jobs that characters might have as their day job, or as a background job. Is this the sort of thing that anyone is interested in? Has anyone else come up with a list of jobs that they use?


My very first champs character was a shoeshine boy.

On the current "Champions 2018":

Defender - Inventor with several patents. His predecessor sometimes feeds him consulting contracts from Harmon Industries.

Eternia - As a former test subject, she has considerable scientific acumen but no formal education or socioeconomic skills. The team is helping her adjust to the world outside Teleios' lab; she's gotten modelling offers.

Marchwarden - Well, back home he's a Marchwarden, a noble calling in his own culture. Still doesn't get capitalist society, but as a sort of diplomatic envoy, he's entitled to some hospitality. They put him up at the base.

Radar Rider - with his radiowave control powers, he's very handy as a DJ or performer. Doesn't need much equipment.

Heartseeker - Conservation activist. Also sometimes appears on her parents' show, or at their zoo.

You know, I never really noticed what a bunck of slackers we are. Thankfully, we have Defender I as a benefactor.

[Terrapin]

Of the Wild Rovers (the team I'm GMing)...

Sun Walker (mutant energy projector) is in show business (actor/singer/dancer). Like Solitaire, he has a Public ID, so mixing his careers, while difficult, at least doesn't require much secrecy.

Orca, the half-Atlantean, does odd jobs for the Atlantean royal family and human oceanological concerns (provided their intentions are benign).

Witch Hazel began as a high school student; she has just graduated, and now studies via correspondence with the Trismegistus Council.

Shasta is a sentient plant-girl and so, as Hermit pointed out, doesn't really need a job - she can just stand in the sun on public land and photosynthesize. However, she does some consulting work for environmental groups.

Renegade can't get legitimate work on account of his secret backstory, but hais few material needs. Sun Walker, who is sympathic to the plight of the undocumented, basically covers for him.

[Blue]

Wow. That's some serious thread necromancy.

[Zeropoint]

My quasi-current character, Lindsay "Gojira-chan" Connor, doesn't have a secret ID, but she divides her time between college and working for research department of an aquarium, where her knowledge of the field and her amphibious nature make her a valuable if somewhat generalized asset.

Also, it's handy to have someone who can carry the submersible around.

[Rage]

Always thought that being a cab driver was a great complimentary job to being a super-hero.

It's a perfect cover for patrolling in your civilian I.D. and could even be used to get info from the streets or from high society.

Also , you never have to rationalize toanyone why you're in the area.
Thats why Moon Knight has that as one of his secret identities

[moquif]

I have a character who is one of the few experts into the origin and nature of superpowers and does a lot of freelance work for the government and universities. That way any super-battle is explained away as doing research. Another character got rich off his inventions before becoming a superhero. A third is a college student and has to work his tail off to catch up with his studies. But that's OK since he hasn't picked a major yet. He'd be a full time student for life if he had his way. (He doesn't think that far ahead. Everyone is pushing him to take control over his life so he's rebelling by doing nothing.)

[moquif]

Here are the less interesting jobs that still turned out to entertaining in game...
Telemarketer
Door-to-door salesman
Shoe Salesman (Yup. Shoe Salesman. No, his name wasn't Al.)


Wouldn't these be an occupation for a superVILLAIN? (especially a telemarketer)