Characters in role playing games are often well trained for their roles as adventurers. They might not anticipate a life of high adventure but they are well prepared for one when it turns out that way. However, neither folklore nor fiction always follow that pattern and people who expect to live ordinary lives often find themselves as protagonists in stories that wander far from the mundane path, often stepping onto the glory road itself, perhaps willingly, perhaps not, perhaps even not knowing that it’s happening. Bilbo Baggins is just one example; Oscar Gordon is another. I am sure you can think of more. Several of these occupations involve travel and that is one way a character might find themselves on an unplanned adventure.
In Glory Road, a character class is just a bundle of skills and the game doesn’t emphasize niche protection. We divide classes into professions, which take up most of a person’s time and energy to learn, and occupations, which leave room for more unrelated skills, including even another occupation. There is an underlying flexibility to the way we approach this, which often leads to characters who could fit into a game that doesn’t use classes at all. This work details the skills and other advantages and disadvantages that various non adventuring classes have when they go out their front door and find adventure waiting.
Most of these backgrounds could also have an occupation more directly useful on adventure, and the people with them would still get the advantages listed but this work emphasizes characters plucked unprepared out of their humdrums lives.
No list like this can be truly exhaustive and you, the GM, can undoubtedly think of additional ones that would fit your campaign.
These ideas, of course, can be used for other RPGs. It would take some work.
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