Upbringing:
Everyone comes from somewhere and how they were raised tends to impact their future life choices. While there is a dizzy array of means for a person to grow up in reality, for the intents of the war, the following are considered the most common and appropriate choices for the rebel war against the Reich. Each upbringing choice provides several starter skills, a memento which is largely for roleplaying and several starting Perk choices that should help give your rebel the edge in a fight or other situation.
Rural/Wilderness:
The farmlands and the wild open spaces of the world remain among the few places where a person can live free and without molestation from the Reich, whether genetic purity inspections, the casual racial discrimination openly encouraged by the authorities or the institutionalized paranoia that has families on edge around each other in case someone is ratted out to the Gestapo. Communities of survivalists living at the very fringes of society, farming villages that supply the workforce and supervisors to the heavily-mechanised and in some cases automated farming complexes, or native populations left alone to their own devices all fall under this category
Starting Skills:
Athletics 1, Melee 1, Awareness 1, Animal Handling 1 OR Pilot 1
Memento Examples:
Home-made doll from childhood, tribal protection charm, photographs from home.
Perk Choices:
-Animal Companion: You start with a lifelong and unique animal companion, which could be anything from a small pack of Dingos kept in line through a mixture of affection and violence, a strangely-intelligent crow, or an alligator of rather disturbing size. This animal must be declared upon choosing this perk so that it can receive stats.
-Green Thumb: One of the main problems for a resistance cell is the food supply, but this character can reliably maintain a small farm that provides a selection of fruits and vegetables, ensuring a steady supply of Food. The Resistance Base gains a Farm that supplies 2 Food a day that requires no upkeep, it is entirely maintained by the character.
-Rough Rider: Whether on a motorcycle or a horse, the character ignores Rough and Difficult Terrain, and treats Impassable Terrain as Difficult Terrain.
Urban:
This person grew up in the neat and orderly suburbia or in the loud and bustling inner-city streets, and grew up navigating a jungle of Uber-Concrete, glass and grandiose statuary, navigating a minefield of intrigue to prevent themselves from being handed over to the Gestapo, and hopefully turn the tables on their rivals and enemies as well. Whether a small town in Virginia or the heart of Berlin itself, any place with significant development is considered Urban.
Starting Skills:
Athletics 1, Interaction 1, Awareness 1, Electronics 1
Memento Examples:
-Your collection of Elite Hans action figures, including the new Kreisau Circle collection featuring Terror-Billy.
-Personal collection of vinyl music records.
-A portable radio.
Perk Choices:
-Circuit Breaker: The character has learned a few tricks in reprogramming robots without complicated tools and minimal materials, allowing them to attempt Reprogramming without an Electronics Toolkit.
-Alley Cat: You have an unerring sixth sense for directions even in the most twisty-turny of streets and backroads. You automatically pass Navigation tests when using alleyways and backstreets.
-Light Fingers: Whether chocolate from your bully, a wad of Reichsmarks from that suck-up at work, or maybe a spare pistol magazine from a passing Polizei officer, your fingers let you use Athletics to pick-pocket people, either to remove...or place something in their pockets.
Academic:
You grew up in a dedicated 'Education City' where services and employment revolved around the massive academy complexes that supplied education for all age levels from early-learning all the way to college educations, all with a healthy does of indoctrination. You likely were educated in the very same academy you then found employment in, or perhaps moved to another Education City for the purposes of expanding your horizons. Well, now you wish those horizons could contract just a little.
Starting Skills:
Three Knowledge Skills at 1, Inventor 1
Memento Examples:
A library of various texts, your diplomas and certificates, a fancy Loewe-brand scientific calculator with heavy-duty case.
Perk Choices:
-Brainstormer: You earn double Gizmo Points per day, allow you to create more advanced and complex Blueprints in less time.
-Open Minded: You've encountered or found evidence of truly supernatural artifacts or technology beyond the ken of conventional science, and accept it. You suffer no penalties when using an alien or supernatural device or artifact for your blueprints, but you still draw the line at mysticism and magic spells.
-Portable Lab: You start with a unique 'Portable Lab' equipment item, allowing you to perform research in the field instead of having to transport it back to headquarters.
Warzone:
The war has touched you in a personal way, with your life being in the center of major battles between the Reich and Free Allies, scrabbling to survive in places where snipers shoot at any movement and artillery rains down like clockwork. You've fought Nazis, Allies and your own people, because when civilians are caught on the frontlines, it will usually mean every man for themselves.
Starting Skills:
Athletics 1, Melee 1, Awareness 1, Survival 1 OR Stealth 1
Memento Examples:
A lucky bullet casing, a beat-up flashlight, a dirty and torn uniform.
Perk Choices:
-Light Step: Landmines have killed and maimed hundreds of thousands, and the number only grows. There are minefields kilometers deep that intersect routes of travel, hunting and gathering for civilians, planted by both sides that must be dodged. You can use Awareness to detect mines and Athletics to avoid them.
-Rat Fighter: Guns run out of ammo, knives and axes break, explosives are finite, but with your fists there is an entire world that can become a weapon. You can use Survival to fashion a melee weapon out of anything in the environment.
-No Surrender: You go down fighting, and then get back up to keep fighting. If you beat a Constitution roll, you heal in all areas of your Health Track by (Constitution+Grit). Being decapitated or blown into tiny pieces still kills you though.
Mystic:
You lived a life steeped in traditions of ritual and esoteric lore, whether your life was in service to mysterious gods or was spent plumbing the depths of legends to find and understand ancient artifacts, or to combine with science and create incredible technologies. The Nazis have built their empire on a foundation of occultism and mysticism locked behind the trappings of high technology, and you will see it used in service of far nobler goals.
Starting Skills:
Knowledge (Magic) 1, Awareness 1, Casting 1, Artificer 1
Memento Choices:
A non-functional artifact, a talisman from some supernatural creature, a favorite ritual dagger.
Perk Choices:
-Third Eye Open: You gain double Artifice points per day due to being more easily able to draw upon the fabric of the universe.
-Familiar: You start the game with an intelligent, talking magical animal who can cast any spells that the character knows with a skill of 5. Typically it is a small animal that can easily get into tight spaces.
-Initiate's Record: You start with a unique 'Initiate Grimoire' that provides a +5 bonus to Casting tests and +2 to Knowledge (Magic) and Artificer tests.
Backgrounds:
After a person's upbringing, their background before joining the resistance will often have an important impact. Some of these backgrounds come with the possibility of having a civilian identity, allowing the character to operate in public without fear as long as precautions are taken, though the responsibilities of a possible job may conflict with the needs of the resistance on occasion.
Each background choice comes with additional skills, some basic equipment and weapons, or may allow you to be something more than human. If a Background's skills are the same as any provided in an upbringing, those skills stack.
Adventurer:
The war may have been won and a good chunk of the world is ruled by the Reich, but there's still plenty of it that's free and contested between the Reich and the Free Allies. You live on the fringe, exploring mysterious temples and vaults, working for middlemen in steamy dives in South-East and Central Asia. Turkey, Shanghai and Hong Kong are where you haunt bars and brothels, keeping an ear out for someone who represents either side and is willing to pay in the only truly neutral currency there is, gold.
Background Skills:
Athletics 1, Awareness 1, Interaction 1, Survival 1, Medic 1
Starting Equipment:
Adventuring Clothes, Colt .45 or Luger P-60 pistol, Field Kit, Knife, Forged Documents
Special: Forged Documents can be used in place of Travel Passes, Identification Papers or Security IDs.
Ex-Nazi:
You were once loyal, perhaps a soldier in the Heer or even a ranking officer in the SS, and had a bright future in the Reich. Until you fell afoul of the police stat; whether it was the revelation of a Jewish heritage, a child born with a deformity or mental defect, perhaps you saw the wrong papers or were in the wrong place at exactly the wrong time, or perhaps a jealous rival destroyed your bright future. Now, you sit in a resistance base as the closest link your new, suspicious comrades have to the Nazi military-industrial complex.
Background Skills:
Firearms 1, Melee 1, Heavy Weapons 1, Athletics 1, Repair 1
Starting Equipment:
Modified Uniform, Combat Armor, StG-61, Knife, Panzerfaust OR 2x Hand grenades
Special: Starts with access to a local garrison base to siphon supplies from or access the Nazi intelligence network.
Rebel:
When the call went out from the American Territories for people to rise up, wild childs and old souls alike began finding and joining local resistance cells, eager to help bring down the Nazis. Rebels are the foot soldiers of the global resistance effort, willing engage in whatever acts are necessary to force the collapse of the Nazi regime.
Background Skills:
Firearms 1, Survival 1, Melee 1, Thrown 1, Stealth 1
Starting Equipment:
Liberator SMG OR Double-barrel Shotgun, Flak Jacket, Knife, 2x Molotov Cocktails, Lighter, Lockpicks
Scientist:
You are an expert in your field or fields, someone who has published papers and has defended or disproved one theory or another. In the resistance, you bring information on the newest scientific developments, design and build custom weapons and equipment for you and your comrades, and use your scientific credentials to sneak in personnel or smuggle out technology.
Background Skills:
Awareness 1, Interaction 1, Inventor 1, Lore (Specify Subject) 1, Science 1
Starting Equipment:
Luger P-60, Knife, Lab Coat, Identification Papers, Travel Pass Grade 3
Special: Can start the game with access to a private laboratory, allowing for research and a paycheck from the Reich. Care must be taken with what is researched, due to recording devices in the lab.
Celebrity:
You are a media darling, perhaps a voice actor in the popular Elite Hans and Blitzmensch cartoons, the star of a successful series of major films, a famous singer, whoever you are you dazzle the world in public, and use your fame and wiles to milk secrets from the Reich at night, your travels allowing you an excuse to bring along an entourage of strange specialists and bodyguards.
Background Skills:
Athletics 1, Melee 1, Interaction 1, Stealth 1, Disguise 1
Starting Equipment:
Autograph book, Little Black Book, high-class wardrobe, make-up kit
Special: Has access to all the necessary equipment to shoot a film which also comes in handy for gathering intelligence.
Mechanic:
Without you, stolen vehicles would have to be abandoned after one hard chase too many, weapons and equipment would eventually become useless, and there'd be no access to water and power in the base. It's not a lie to say that you keep the team going in more ways than one.
Background Skills:
Repair 3, Electronics 1, Computers 1, Pilot 1
Starting Equipment:
Luger P-60, Toolkit, Flashlight
Medic:
Sooner or later someone is going to get a bullet in the chest and there needs to be someone nearby who can get that bullet out and keep the victim alive long enough to get the job done. That someone is you.
Background Skills:
Athletics 1, Awareness 1, Medic 2, Survival 1
Starting Equipment:
Medical Bag, Flashlight
Special: Can make a number of Patch Kits equal to IQ once per day.
Pilot:
If it swims, walks, rolls or crawls, you can pilot it. The wheelman for the resistance cell, your skills allow you to operate just about anything available out there. And if you've never encountered it before, you're just the right daredevil to try it out.
Background Skills:
Pilot 2, Weapon Systems 1, Radio 1, Repair 1
Starting Equipment:
A free vehicle.
Radioman:
The Radioman is a vital lifeline to the other resistance cells in the world, and a vital set of ears listening for Nazi transmissions, translating and decoding where possible in order to find out last-minute changes or find new targets and weaknesses. In the field, they keep the team in communication and prevent the Nazis from communicating until it's too late, or spot targets for stolen or redirected artillery.
Background Skills:
Radio 2, Repair 1, Electronics 1, Language (German) 2, Firearms 1, Spotting 1
Starting Equipment:
Luger P-60, Long-Range Radio, Codebook, Repair Kit, Maps, Binoculars
Saboteur:
You cut wires, plant bombs, rig traps and in general make life much more miserable for the enemy. The Nazis usage of drones and Kampfhunds is all because of people like you placing special surprises in out of the way places, ready to turn a fuel dump into an inferno, or turn an officer's car into a funeral pyre.
Background Skills:
Demolitions 3, Melee 1, Firearms 1, Electronics 1, Survival 1, Stealth 1
Starting Equipment:
Plastic Explosives, Detonators, DP-56 Shotgun
Marksman:
You're the best shot in the group, and you have the kill count to prove it. Armed with either a rifle made by the Free Allies, built in the cell's own workshops, or stolen from the Nazis, you never waste a bullet to take down your targets where possible.
Background Skills:
Firearms 3, Stealth 2, Survival 1
Starting Equipment:
M2 Sniper Rifle OR G-56 Sniper Rifle, Survival Kit, Camouflage Blanket, Binoculars
Mage:
You are a student of various mystical and magical arts, and with the war's mass sacrifice of blood and the efforts of SS occultists, the power of magic once again flows through the world, revealing ancient secrets and unlocking incredible power to those who have the will to claim it. The cell once scoffed at magic, but after a few demonstrations and a summoning or two, you are now a valuable source of esoteric insight able to open new avenues and options.
Background Skills:
Knowledge (Magic) 2, Casting 3, Artificer 2
Starting Equipment:
Ritual equipment, Luger P-60, Robes, Strange Artifact.
Supersoldier:
The Nazis have been perfecting their Supersoldiers for decades, but before you could be indoctrinated you were stolen by the resistance cell, your basic programming making you utterly loyal to the cause of bringing down your former creators. In recent times, the Nazis have even created female supersoldier templates, though apart from a slimmer figure, there is little to no difference in performance beyond the aesthetic appeal to some commanders.
Background Skills:
Heavy Weapons 3, Melee 2, Awareness 1, Repair 1, Athletics 3
Starting Equipment:
Choose 2 from the following:
-Lasergewehr
-Dieselgewehr
-Hammergewehr
-Particle Cannon
-Ubergewehr
-Rocket Pod
-Venom Zwei
-Solothurn 30mm
-PanzerSoldat Armor
Special: Starts the game with the following two Perks and one Flaw
-Living Mountain: The Character is massive, towering over normal humans and possessing potentially-inhuman strength and physical resilience. Boost Strength, Constitution and Grit by 8, and the results are allowed to exceed the human max of 10 but cannot go over the superhuman max of 20. This character can also wear the same PanzerSoldat armor worn by Supersoldiers. Can only be taken at char creation.
-Supersoldier: Boost all parts of the Health Track by 100. The character now has natural armor of Threshold 4 and Absorption 15 that cannot be degraded by damage. The character also regenerates (Grit+Constitution) every turn and can never go Berserk or become Cowardly in normal circumstances. Can only be taken by Supersoldiers.
-Flawed Programming: The character MUST provide a Control Code and MUST designate another player as their Handler, whose protection and orders they will prioritise above all others unless assigned to defend a location or person on their orders. If the Handler or the target of their protection is killed/destroyed, the character immediately goes Berserk and starts attacking all hostiles and potentially any allies who get in their way until another player speaks the Control Code and brings them under control.
