Troika! Backgrounds from the Thousand Hidden Kingdoms

Something I really admire about the writing in Troika! is how it manages to imply a world so much larger and more grand than the laconic descriptions in each background. Sometimes it's clever touches in the possessions list, or the implied reason a background has a certain skill, but each background packs much more of a punch than the word count would imply.

It's something I'd love to be able to emulate in my own writing, but it's easier said than done.

With all that in mind, I have a mini setting/sphere for Troika! that's been rumbling around in my brain for a while now that I'm calling the Thousand Hidden Kingdoms. There are a bunch of ideas I'd like to execute, including a Stygian Library style delve through the layers of ancient former cities, but in the spirit of letting backgrounds paint a picture of a setting I won't go into more detail here.

I had originally planned to submit the some of these to the Troika! tarot jam, but it overlapped with my final crunch to finish my writing dissertation and prepare to defend it. Which it turns out is amazingly time consuming!

Cloud Shepherd

 

Although we appreciate your application, we currently have no need for your quaint weather manipulation techniques. While we’re sure your skills are very impressive in whatever small village you hail from, the court requires reliable, modern techniques of weather crafting to keep the Moon’s face unveiled.
We’ll keep your resume on file,
The Royal Bureau of Weather Management

Possessions:
A Tame Tempest*
A Pocket Barometer
1d6 Storm in a Bottles
Teapot
Shepard’s Crook (damage as Staff)

Skills:
3 Cloud Herding**
2 Staff Fighting
2 Awareness
1 Meteorology
1 Mathmology
1 Regular Herding 


*Tame Tempest
A small weather burst trained to follow commands and herd other weather. Acts something like a loyal but easily distracted dog. Treat as a hireling that has difficulty interacting with (or being hurt by) anything physical. Grants a +1 to Cloud Herding while assisting its shepherd.

Mein
1	Stratus
2	Cumulus
3	Nimbostratus
4	Cirrus
5	Cirrocumulus
6	Cumulonimbus

**Cloud Herding - With a successful skill check you can move weather from place to place, calm or intensify storms, trap weather in a vessel, or manipulate it to specific ends. Weather is fickle, and failures will often result in spiteful revenge against the shepherd.
Can also be used to command Tamed Tempests.

The Fool

Through joke and song, you spoke truth to power in the court of the Unsleeping Monarch, until one day you overstepped. Escaping with your neck intact surprised everyone, yourself especially, and was as much due to luck as skill. Having embraced this you rely on the vagaries of life to buffet you from place to place, keeping a scant step ahead of the Court Enforcers.

Possessions:
A Jangly Hat
Roll 3 other character backgrounds, choose one item from each.

Skills:
4 - Roll a random background, take its first skill.
3 - Roll a random background, take its second skill.
2 - Roll a random background, take its third skill.
1 - Roll a random background, take its fourth skill.

Special:
You revel in failure. You put ticks next to skills for advancement when you fail at their use, not when you succeed.

Action Archaeologist

The strata of city palaces of deposed kingdoms beneath the current City Palace of the Empty Moon are full of important historical archaeological artifacts and information. It belongs in a museum and someone has to go retrieve it. That’s you, even if your definition of ‘museum’ includes just about anyone willing to pay in cash.

Possessions:
Bullwhip (Damage as Staff, may deal -2 damage to disarm an opponent)
Sable fedora
Leather jacket (Light Armor)
Pistolet
1 Plasmic Core

Advanced Skills:
3 - Archeology
2 - Run
2 - Whip tricks
1 - Brawling
1 - Trapping

Enforcer of the Empty Moon

Faceless and untiring, Enforcers of the Empty Moon serve the will of the Unsleeping Monarch. Charged by Royal Decree they are exiled from court until their mission has been completed. Does your mask announce a loyal paladin on a divine quest, or does it hide an errant knight long since strayed from the path?

Possessions:
A featureless silver mask through which moon and star light is as bright as day
A silver Crescent Moon Sickle (damage as Mace)
Tarnished -or- Polished Black and Silver Uniform (Light Armor)


Skills:
3 - Sickle Fighting
3 - Callous Strike
2 - Awareness
1 - Tracking
1 - Coal Resolve

A Cat

Eyes gleaming through the darkness, a fine coat of the most exquisite color, claws sharp enough to cut the night. You pad silently through the many secret paths known only to your kind, staking out your claim as the secret ruler of this city. You could talk to others as easily as anyone else in the Hidden Kingdoms, but would you ever deign to do so?

Possessions:
Sharp Claws (Damage as Sword)
Glowing eyes that pierce shadows
Fur of unparalleled softness (+1 luck)

Advanced Skills:
3 - Secret Signs - Cats
3 - Cat-like reflexes
2 - Sneak
1 - Awareness
1 - Claw Fighting
1 - Tracking
1 - Grooming

Special:
Nine Lives - You may always use the optional Luck Versus Death rule. If that rule is already in place, you may test your luck twice.

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I have run several one shots in the Stygian Library using Troika! (always a great time) and wrote up the Mummified Sage as a Troika! background in case of PC death. Sadly haven't gotten a chance to actually use this in play yet, but I hope to do so at some point.

Bonus background: Mummified Sage (Adapted from Emmy Allen’s Stygian Library)

You are a scholar that has spent uncountable time deep within the Stygian Library. Your mortality and life were impediments left behind in the pursuit of knowledge turning you into a dried, barely living husk. You've stumbled into Troika through one of the many doors within the Library and discovered a heretofore untapped source of knowledge ready for your expert touch.

Possessions:
A fine fountain pen (Damage as Knife)
1d6 Ink Wells
A stack of palimpsests, written over dozens of times
A universal library card

Advanced Skills:
3 - Written Language - All
3 - Secret Signs - Librarian Orders
3 - Spell - Special*
1 - Astrology
1 - Mathmology
1 - Etiquette
1 - Awareness

Special:
Existing between life and undeath you are vulnerable to anything that affects the living or the undead, but immune to anything that would influence your soul. You do not need to breathe, eat or sleep and cannot be poisoned or fall sick.

You are wide read and well educated due to your tenure in the Stygian library. Whenever you encounter a mysterious thing (monster, magic item, interesting location, disease, historical figure, artwork etc.) you may test your luck to know its correct name and basic scholarly information. Tell the GM the name of the book in which you read this information, it's still somewhere in the Stygian Library if you need more details.

*After a minute's study of a written spell (in a scroll, spellbook, etc) you may swap it into your Special spell (keep the existing rank).