Career Plans, a Smallish Rant

Forging a path

Planning ahead for your character can be very complicated. I have only really played Warhammer Fantasy as a role playing system. Chances are great if you are reading this, you have played with the Warhammer Fantasy system as well. Within those mechanics, you can switch careers multiple times through the life of your character. In our group, we have the house rule that your character transition must make sense. After all, someone who has gone from thief to assassin to master thief may convert to become an initate of Sigmar if they have a religious conversion, but unless a noble loses their lands and money, they probably won’t become a ratcatcher. In Warhammer Fantasy as of this moment, there are 103 careers, total.

All the career transitions become a lot more complex in our Dark Sun game, where we use Warhammer Fantasy rules. Jason has made his own career compendium, and while I do not have a final career count, I know there are more than 300, closer to 500. With that many careers, you have a lot of choices. How do you navigate through them all? What mechanics do you use?

For me, and my character, I started off as a melee character for the most part, with a slant toward leadership. However, within the first six months, I knew I wanted to transition to something more with my character. I wanted to move into something with different abilities and story plots. However, sometimes even when the player and DM have a great idea where a character is going, those plans can change. After all, you are not writing a novel. You are creating a story in an interactive group with other people. So those plans changed, and when they did, I had to make new plans.

Its months later, and I now just sat down and make a path forward with my character. I feel terrible it took me this long to do. After all, I am sure that it has caused unnecessary strain on Jason (our DM and my very attractive, wonderful husband) because how do you help a character move forward if they don’t know where they are going? Yes, there is the ‘boot in the butt’ method, which he did try with me once or twice, and the second time it took. (Thanks, Honey!)

But when you have a plan, you also have to be flexible. Remember what I just wrote about it being an interactive story with a group of people? It’s great to know that you think you want your character to do in this direction, or take this next career, or these are your goals for the next five games. It can be harder if you have your next ten careers planed. My dearest friend did this, but his map of plans has changed more than once.

Still, having an idea of where you are doing is like having a very rough map of an exciting new territory. There will be wonders and snags that you never imagined, so don’t forget to look around, enjoy and adjust as you travel through it. Don’t be in such a predetermined rush you forget the pure joy of exploration.