Professions

New Homebrew Cards for Professions, created using the Daggerheart Homebrew Kit and following the DPCGL license.

In addition to their adventuring abilities, each character may possess a Profession, representing the trade, training, or occupation they practiced before or during their life as an adventurer.

Professions are intended to work alongside Daggerheart's philosophy of collaborative storytelling and worldbuilding with the GM, encouraging players to actively contribute to the setting through their characters' expertise and experiences.

Each Profession grants the character:

• Two unique Abilities, determined by the chosen profession.
• Professional Narrative Authority, a special rule that allows the character to temporarily take over the narration of certain scenes.
  
  

  Alchemist	Blacksmith
  Cook	Criminal
  Jack-of-All-Trades	Merchant
  Sailor	Scribe
  Soldier	Vigilante

Learning a New Profession

The first profession you choose for your character at the start of the campaign is called their Background Profession. It represents the trade or occupation they practiced before becoming an adventurer.

As your adventures unfold, your character may develop an interest in a different line of work. When this happens, they can begin a Long-Term Project to learn that new profession.

The GM determines the project's difficulty and the amount of progress required to complete it, taking into account the profession's complexity and the circumstances of the campaign.

Upon completing the project, your character gains the new profession without losing their Background Profession. This new category is called a Learned Profession, representing the knowledge and expertise they have acquired throughout their journey.

Professional Narrative Authority

Whenever a scene directly involves knowledge, activities, or situations related to a character's Profession, that player may spend 3 Hope, once per session, to temporarily take over the narration of the scene.

By doing so, the character may significantly alter the course of the scene, introducing elements, opportunities, contacts, resources, or expertise related to their Profession that can change the fate of events in the party's favor or create new developments in the narrative.

While the scene lasts, the player may describe details of the environment, introduce minor NPCs, establish common knowledge related to their trade, and narrate the outcomes of actions connected to their area of expertise.

The GM remains responsible for:

• Portraying important NPCs;
• Determining mechanical consequences;
• Calling for rolls when necessary;
• Vetoing elements that conflict with the established fiction or disrupt the adventure.

Control of the scene returns to the GM as normal once the focus is no longer related to the Profession or when the scene ends.

Limitations

Professional Narrative Authority exists to enrich the story and collaboratively expand the setting. It cannot be used to:

• Create rare, magical, or legendary items without the GM's approval;
• Gain mechanical advantages not granted by the Profession's rules;
• Introduce NPCs important to the main storyline;
• Alter facts already established in the narrative;
• Avoid significant consequences, challenges, or conflicts in the adventure;
• Automatically determine the success of actions or negotiations.

Whenever there is uncertainty regarding the limits of Professional Narrative Authority, the GM has the final say.

Examples

Blacksmith

GM: "You arrive at a small mountain village and discover an old abandoned forge."

Player (Blacksmith): "I'd like to use my Professional Narrative Authority. I recognize the forge as dwarven craftsmanship and find the mark of the Red Hammer Clan. I know this clan used to hide secret passages in their forges, so I reveal a hidden passage behind the furnace."

Cook

GM: "The queen demands a banquet before granting the party an audience."

Player (Cook): "I'd like to use my Professional Narrative Authority. I know the local customs, and while preparing the meal, I realize that one of the dishes has been poisoned, preventing an assassination attempt against the queen."

Merchant

GM: "You arrive at a vast marketplace in the desert."

Player (Merchant): "I'd like to use my Professional Narrative Authority. I recognize an old business associate among the merchants, who provides valuable information about the caravan we are searching for."

Alchemist

GM: "The group discovers an abandoned laboratory."

Player (Alchemist): "I'd like to use my Professional Narrative Authority. I identify the experiments conducted here and discover an unfinished antidote that can be completed using reagents found in the laboratory."