Folk of the Trails

Vaquero
A vaquero's life is spent on the trails, shepherding others through the trackless wilds. Terrain most people would consider unnavigable. You've never had trouble finding your way and you've always made sure everyone depending on you got where they're going safe and sound.

Possessions:
Lasso
Guitar
Dented coffee pot
Duster (as light Armor)
Twin pearl-handled revolvers (Damage as Pistolets)
Iconic hat

Advanced Skills:
3 Ridin'
3 Ropin'
2 Quickdraw
1 Campfire cookery
-1 Instrumentation

Special:
Horses love you.
Non-euclidean spaces stabilize around you and anyone with you.



Bounty Hunter
It's your job to find people. sometimes they're wanted, sometimes they're missing, and sometimes they haven't done anything at all. You fetch them and get paid. You're not popular, but you're very good at your job.

Possessions:
Binoculars
Dartgun (Damage as Fusil, non-lethal, paralyzes and knocks target unconscious after 5 minutes)
Beat-up laptop
Bag of burner phones
Portable cassette player and headphones

Advanced Skills:
3 Sharpshooting
2 Awareness
2 Investigating
2 Stakeouts
1 Music trivia
1 Wrestling
-2 Philosophy

Special:
You can sense where anyone is in The Trails or on The Road as long as you know their full name and something personal about them.



Wanderer
It's not always a good idea to use the main roads. Not safe to be out under the eyes of other travelers and the CC TVs. Better to stay out of sight and make your own way.

Possessions:
Patch-encrusted jean jacket
Worn boots
Walking stick (Damage as Polearm)
Rainbow-anodized gas station knife
Gym bag (Slots as 2 Backpacks)
Cigarillos

Advanced Skills:
3 OpSec
3 Temerity
2 Making friends
2 Orienteering
2 Scrounging
-1 Relaxing
-1 Trusting

Special:
You can find lost trails and forgotten roads or forge new ones to go wherever you want.

Folk of The Road

Hitchiker

You love the road and The Road loves you. It's your one true and constant companion in a life on the move. People always tell you it's dangerous and that you shouldn't travel alone but they don't know what they're talking about. You're never alone.

Possessions:
Towel
6-Pack
Harmonica
Hatchet
Notebook of viscerally terrible poetry

Advanced Skills:
3 Companionable silence
3 Menacing silence
3 Navigation
2 Spirit communication
2 Trekking

Special:
You can always find someone or something to give you a ride.
You can call on The Road to give you something you need (shelter/defense/resources fallen off a truck) once a day.



Longhauler
Sometimes it gets boring driving the same routes over and over, but at least the places they send you are interesting. You even like some of them. By now you know the way well enough that the distances all meld together into a single fleeting moment of Travel. You always make excellent time.

Possessions:
Sleeper cab
Mesh snapback
Paper maps
Audiobooks on CD
Sack of beef jerky and dubious stimulants
4d6 empty bottles
Cargo*

Advanced Skills:
3 Driving
3 Spatial awareness
2 Logistics
2 Shortwave radio
1 Chain-smoking
-1 Karaoke

Special:
You can move freely along The Road, shortening travel time to destinations you've already visited. Trips that'd normally be longer than 30 minutes take 15 for you and trips that'd be longer than an hour only take 1 hour.
You always have a Cargo. What it is, how much it weighs, and what it's worth changes with each stop you make but it's always at least 600 lbs and 10,000 SP. It takes 1d3 hours to unload and take on new Cargo at a stop.



Tourist
Traveling is wonderful. You get to see new places, try new things, meet new people, and everyone's always so nice. It's a shame you can never stay as long as you'd like, just a few days before you've got to move on again.

Possessions:
Elaborate camera
Flamingo-print bucket hat
2d6 Guidebooks to cities you've visisted
"100 Most Haunted Houses" paperback, heavily annotated
A disorganized wad of visitors' pamphlets for local attractions and restaurants rubber banded together

Advanced Skills:
4 Curiosity
2 Confidence
2 Improvising
2 Making reservations
1 Forensics
-1 Local customs

Special:
You can learn the history of any place within 100' of a road just by focusing on it. The events of the past play back for you as visions. It takes 3 minutes of still, silent mediation to look back over a year and no limit to how far back you can go except for your endurance. After you spend 3 days in one place your visions start randomly appearing to others.

Troika! Background-Writing Tips

A while ago on the MAC discord server I shared a list of the things I try to do when writing backgrounds for Troika!. I'm posting it again here in case it might be useful to someone and so it's not lost in the scroll of channels.

The best advice on writing backgrounds comes from page 2 of the core rules: "Balance the enjoyment rather than the numbers."

The most important thing is to try and make something that's fun to play as. Something that will spark a player's imagination and inspire ideas about who this person they've rolled is.

Keeping that in mind, here are the rules of thumb that I try to follow when writing backgrounds:

1 Focus on a specific flavor and write only as much as it takes to convey that flavor.
2 Don't repeat information, unless you specifically want to make the repetition a joke or an important detail.
3 Imply information more than you actually write details.
4 When you do give details make them interesting and something that readers wouldn't automatically assume. (ex: An immortal hero background would obviously have a legendary weapon, so don't list their sword in their possessions. Instead list a battered photo album of their past companions.)
5 Don't go overboard with possessions and skills, only give the key elements of the flavor.
6 Only give a special ability if it's vital to enhancing the flavor.
7 Keep the background open enough that it can apply to multiple sequential characters. It's a background for a group/profession of people, not an individual.