ItG Additional Backgrounds

Neosoldat

Remade for war, then cast aside when it was lost.

 

You owe 10,000$ to:

The Lost Legionnaire Self-Help Society

Frequently pestered by out-of-work ex-soldiers looking for a job.

 

You get: A ragged steelsilk uniform (Armor 1), a ray-rifle (d6), and invasive and disfiguring cyber-implants (survive dying with 1 STR and 1 HP, once)

 

What battle scars do you bear?

 

1$: Ghost bullet embedded just beneath the collarbone. Vibrates in the presence of ultras.

2$: Several fingers taken off. Golem replacements frequently seize up in the cold.

3$: Colorblind. Side effect of repeated exposure to massed ray fire.

4$: Wicked scar across the face. Looks pretty badass, honestly.

5$: Magnetic shrapnel buried all across your left side. Sends compasses haywire.

6$: Nightmares and day terrors. You tried, but there's no place left for you back in civilization.

 

What war stories go with them?

 

1 HP: Survived the slaughter at Red River Run: Get to move before the enemy when ambushed.

2 HP: Ate rats at the Siege of Sarsota: Always scrounge just enough food for yourself to avoid starvation.

3 HP: Hid motionless in the Wire Waste for days: Given ten minutes to prepare a spot, hide near-perfectly so long as you do nothing.

4 HP: Shot a general a mile away at Blackbridge: Spend a turn aiming to deal maximum damage next turn.

5 HP: Withstood the onslaught of the Purple Psychics: Easily distinguish illusions and hallucinations from reality.

6 HP: ...You'd rather not speak of it: Mastery of enduring, and inflicting, pain.

 

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Organlegger

Grey market surgeon, trader-procurer of exotic biosystems, mad scientist. Best not to inquire deeply.

 

If you are the youngest player, the whole group owes $10,000 to:

The Saffron Neo-Chirurgical Association

The whole group constantly smells vaguely antiseptic.

 

You get:

Doctor's coat, medical license (revoked), cryo-container (bulky), golem auto-surgical armature (perform surgery on yourself), skill to perform organ transplants and other surgeries. It's mostly* safe**.

 

What novel organs have you stuffed inside yourself?

 

1$: Gutbrain: Raw animal reflexes. Not very good reflexes, mind you. 1/session, reroll a failed DEX save at 4 DEX.

2$: Poly-eyes: Multiple pupils and ragged irises. See infrared, ultraviolet, and the polarization of light.

3$: Double Heart. It takes two hours to die of untreated critical damage instead of one.

4$: Rabbit's Paws. And also calves, thighs, and hips. 20' vertical leap, 60' horizontal.

5$: Prehensile Tail. Very useful, slightly unnerving.

6$: Metallo-organelles. Absorb, store, and discharge electrical energy- up to 4 points of damage worth.

 

What enemies have your experiments made?

 

1 HP: Your old mentor regards you as a shame and a disgrace.

2 HP: The Sargallo Family thinks you let Little Tony die on the table on purpose.

3 HP: You accidentally installed Metabaron Vippe de Valmont's new limbs on backwards. He was not amused.

4 HP: There's a ruinous lawsuit for improper biowaste disposal waiting if you ever go back to the Green Land.

5 HP: The body-purist Way of the True Flesh have it out for you in particular. No idea why.

6 HP: You're pretty sure Subject 303 couldn't have escaped before the self-destruct triggered... but you never did find the body.

 

*Sample Surgical Procedures:

Performing a major surgical procedure (such as an organ transplant) requires three things: a character with medical knowledge, a set of surgical tools, and a DEX check. On a success, the procedure is completed without incident. On a failure, roll on the Surgical Mishap Table. Access to tools beyond the basic requirements (an actual operating theater, trained assistants, healing magic, etc.) grants advantage on the check. Poor conditions (operating in the middle of the wilderness, improvised tools, etc.) imposes disadvantage on the check.

 

**Sample Surgical Mishap Table:

1. Patient dies on the table.

2. Internal necrosis. It only becomes obvious after a week; they will die in two without further surgeries.

3. Medication. The patient will need regular doses of some drug to avoid severe debility or even death. i: daily doses of an ubiquitous drug. ii: weekly doses of an uncommon drug. iii: monthly doses of a rare drug. iv: annual doses of a near-unique drug.

4. Nearly crippled. Patient suffers 1d6 permanent damage to STR, to a minimum of 1.

5. Extended convalescence. Patient is reduced to 1 STR and cannot regain HP until they have recovered to half their maximum.

6. Complications. Permanently lose 1 point of i. STR ii. DEX iii. CHA iv. all.

 

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Catgirl

A sculpture in living flesh, discarded when the fashion changed. Not necessarily a cat or a girl.

 

If you are the youngest player, the group owes $10,000 to:

The League for Prevention of Cruelty to Artizoa

Biomodded animals are instinctively well disposed to you.

 

You get:

Sheer silk 'clothing', baggy poncho, engineered beauty (Starting CHA cannot be lower than 10)

 

What did your creators teach you?

 

1$. Dance. Take a bunch of shiny, jingly arm bangles.

2$. Music. Take an electrocombiphone and a booklet of sheet music.

3$. Art. Take an autobrush and some half-empty paint cartridges.

4$. Etiquette. Take a literal encyclopedia of table settings and noble rankings.

5$. Courtesanship. Take a discreet case of prophylactics and 'marital aids'.

6$. Assassination. Take a hypodermic hairpin filled with lethal poison (one use).

 

What did you learn despite them?

 

1 HP: To endure. Gain 1 Armor when at 0 HP.

2 HP: To conceal. You can hide a small object (small enough to fit in a palm) from any search.

3 HP: To be small. You fade invisibly in any social situation until you call attention to yourself.

4 HP: To run. You can escape from any foe, once. The next time they know your tricks.

5 HP: To lie. It takes at least a minute of thought for you to be called out on any lie.

6 HP: To hate. Always do maximum damage to aristocrats and doctors.

 

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Cold Sleeper

Took a one-way trip into the future. Whatever you expected at the end, it probably wasn't this.

 

If you are the youngest player, the group owes $10,000 to:

The Azure Archeological Association

Everyone gets a trowel, a toothbrush, and a free pass to the Public Display of the Azure Archive of Antiquity.

 

You get:

Silver retrofuture jumpsuit, handy-dandy wristbrain, antifreeze blood (cold damage can only drop you into hibernation, not harm or kill you)

 

What set you on your one-way time travel?

 

1$: Prisoner sentenced to temporal exile. You can crack any lock, given appropriate tools and ten minutes.

2$: Prophet sent to warn the future. Take detailed proofs of the threat, and the knowledge you may already be too late.

3$: Killborg stored for missions which never came. Take a pair of cybernetic hand-guns (d6/d6, concealed).

4$: Scheme to outlast the apocalypse. Take 100 extremely portable rations of meal-pills and dehydrated water.

5$: A non-lethal assassination.