Background
Background is an optional trait suitable for some games and allowing you to further differentiate heroes from each other. It provides extra detail as well as a fewt capabilities to give your hero an edge.
Background Features
Backgrounds have a number of features that influence and modify a character’s traits. The features a background may have include:
Ability Adjustments: The background adjusts some of the hero’s starting abilities from the normal baseline score of +0. Generally speaking, a background should only increase or decrease abilities by +/–1 and should decrease an ability for every increase in equal measure.
Note that these ability adjustments are to the baseline or starting ability scores. The player can spend the hero’s ability points normally to raise the scores. However, the adjustment also affects the maximum score the hero can have, since players cannot put more than 5 of the hero’s starting ability points into any one ability score.
Bonus Feat: A background either grants a bonus feat of the player’s choice or two bonus feats that are part of the background and cannot be changed. The Gamemaster chooses the bonus feats in the latter case when creating a background for the setting. These bonus feats must be general feats or favored feats for the background (see the following).
Bonus Skill: A background either grants a bonus starting skill of the player’s choice, two bonus starting skills that are part of the background, or one bonus feat that is part of the background. The latter two options are set by the Gamemaster and cannot be changed. The bonus skill(s) can be any available in Take2o and the hero’s starting rank in the skill(s) is 4 (level +3), as usual.
Favored Feats: A background grants access to two favored feats. These are feats the hero can acquire regardless of role, even if they are not normally available to that role. Since general feats are available to any hero, they are never favored; favored feats are chosen from the expert, warrior, and supernatural feat lists. Optionally, a supernatural power can replace two feats for this purpose, using up both of the background’s favored feats. The character does not have to acquire the background’s favored feats; they’re just strongly associated with the background and common to it, therefore always available as an option.
Sample Backgrounds
The following are some sample backgrounds for a classic fantasy setting that you can use as examples for creating your own backgrounds.
