# Character Creation and Roles *Rome DCCIV AUC, The Edge of the Republic, Rome and the provinces in 50 BC. Source: https://exodusnds.com/era-books/rome/character-creation-and-roles* Use Core Rules, Character Creation, to build a human. Choose an **Origin** and a **Role** in place of a Background and Career, and record your Stake in sestertii (HS). A senator, freedman or Gaul has no penalty on the sheet for who he is. Set each audience's reaction in play using the same Attitude rules for every group (Era Rules, Patronage and Rank). ## Creating a Character **Replaces** Backgrounds and Careers with Origins and Roles (Core Rules, Character Creation). **Modifies** Core Rules, Character Creation, Starting Talent, to allow a free Era talent. Use the other Core numbers as printed. 1. **Species.** Human. 2. **Characteristics.** Set each of the six to 2. Raise one by 1 and lower another by 1 for free. At creation, keep all ratings between 1 and 4. 3. **Origin and Role.** Pick one of each. Your Origin sets your Ordo, home tongues and Strength, and gives four profession skills. Your Role gives six profession skills, a place in society, a kit, Standing and favored talents. Count overlaps once, for 8 to 10 profession skills in most builds. Check which Roles your Ordo can take (Ordo and the Roles). 4. **Spend 110 XP** at the costs below. Buy characteristics, skill ranks and talents. Cap skills at rank 2 and buy only Tier 1 or Tier 2 talents. 5. **Free talent.** Choose one Core or Era Tier 1 talent for free, usually from the ones your Role favors. 6. **Kit, Stake and derived values.** Record your Role's kit at no cost to your Stake. Take the Starting Stake for your Standing (Era Rules, Money and Credit). Use the Core Rules for Resistance, Wound Points, Strain Points, Defenses and Initiative. 7. **Name and details.** Choose a name (Names), age, appearance and motive. Write two ties, one to another player character and one to the world. If you are enslaved, name your owner. If you are freed, name your patron.
##### CREATION COSTS (CORE RULES, UNCHANGED) | Item | Cost or limit | |:--|:--| | Starting XP | 110; unspent XP carries forward | | Raising a characteristic | to 2: 20 XP; to 3: 30 XP; to 4: 40 XP; one rating at a time | | Profession skill, rank 1 / rank 2 | 5 XP / 10 XP | | Other skill, rank 1 / rank 2 | 10 XP / 15 XP | | Skill cap at creation | rank 2, with no exception | | Talents | Tier 1: 5 XP; Tier 2: 10 XP; Tier 3 and above: not at creation |
Use **favored talents** to guide your free pick and early purchases. Pay the usual XP when buying one. Growth and Greater Growth are unavailable (Core default). See Skills and Talents for Riding and the Lore fields.
##### EXAMPLE: THE SEVEN STEPS FOR SEPTIMIUS Begin with a human (step 1). Septimius starts at 2 in all six characteristics, then raises Might to 3 and lowers Intellect to 1 for free (step 2). Choose Roman citizen and Centurion (step 3), spend 110 XP (step 4) and take Vine Stick free (step 5). Record the Centurion kit and Professional Stake of 675 HS (step 6). Give him a citizen's three names: Aulus Septimius Crispus (step 7). See Worked Examples for the full build.
### Languages and Literacy Use Skills and Talents, Tongues, to find your working and home tongues, literacy from a lettered Role and the XP cost of further tongues.
##### EXAMPLE: KALLIAS'S FOUR TONGUES Kallias starts play in Rome. Egyptian and Greek come free with his Egyptian Origin, and Latin is the local working tongue. His lettered Role, Envoy and Interpreter, lets him read and write Greek for free. He spends 5 XP on spoken Aramaic and another 5 XP on literacy in Latin. He speaks four tongues and can write two, for 10 XP.
### Ordo, Standing and Dignitas Three measures sit on the sheet, and each comes from one place: - **Ordo** is legal rank. Start with the rank in the Origins table. Take Senatorial for Senator's House, Equestrian for Equestrian House and Publicanus, or the family rank for Officer. See Era Rules, Patronage and Rank, for starting Dignitas and changes to either value. - **Standing** is set by your Role. Use it to find your Starting Stake, credit limit and creation Debt, if any (Era Rules, Money and Credit). - **Dignitas among your own people.** If you are a Peregrine, record a separate Dignitas for dealings with your own people (Era Rules, Patronage and Rank, Dignitas II). Start at 1. Start at 3 if the GM confirms your family is noble or ruling, as for a ranked envoy, an Auxiliary related to a chief or a royal clerk.
##### EXAMPLE: BANONA'S TWO STANDINGS Banona takes Gaul and Envoy and Interpreter. As a Peregrine, she starts at Dignitas 1 among Romans. She uses Dignitas 3 with the Aedui alone, because her family is Aeduan nobility. Her Role gives Professional Standing and a 675 HS Stake.
### Any Role, Any Origin, Within the Law Choose an Origin and Role allowed by Ordo and the Roles and the Role's **Open to** line. Every character is male or female. The legions, fleet, arena, courts and magistracies are open to men. Vestals and midwives are women, and other Roles admit either sex. Women do not vote, hold office or serve in the Senate or army. ## Origins **Replaces** the Background (Core Rules, Character Creation, Backgrounds and Careers). Choose your character's people or status. The Origin grants four profession skills, home tongues, a **Strength** and an **Ordo**. To use a **Strength**, add 1 Boon Die to one check with either listed skill in the named setting. Use this once per session for any Origin. | Origin | Profession skills | Home tongues | Strength: once per session | Ordo | |:--|:--|:--|:--|:--| | **Roman citizen** (of the city or Latium) | Lore, Negotiation, Streetwise, Readiness | Latin | With magistrates' staffs, the tribes at the vote and the people of your own quarter: Negotiation or Streetwise | Citizen | | **Italian ally** (Samnite, Etruscan, Umbrian, Campanian) | Fortitude, Craft, Survival, Melee | Latin, and Oscan, Etruscan or Umbrian | In an Italian town, with its council, its farmers and its levy: Fortitude or Survival | Citizen south of the Po (since 89 BC); north of the Po, Latin rights from 89 BC (Peregrine in these rules) until citizenship in 49 BC | | **Greek** (of a Greek city in Italy, Greece or the East) | Lore, Charm, Science, Medicine | Greek, Latin | With Greek cities, their scholars, physicians and merchants: Lore or Charm | Peregrine; Citizen if the home city holds the grant | | **Gaul** (Aeduan or another people) | Riding, Melee, Survival, Leadership | Gaulish, Latin | Among your own people, their allies and the Gallic horse: Riding or Leadership | Peregrine | | **Egyptian** (Alexandrian or of the countryside) | Craft, Lore, Negotiation, Operate | Egyptian, Greek | In Egypt, on the Nile, among its temples and its clerks: Craft or Negotiation | Peregrine | | **Syrian** (Antioch, the coast or the desert edge) | Negotiation, Streetwise, Perception, Charm | Aramaic, Greek | With caravans, the eastern markets and the spice and slave trades: Negotiation or Streetwise | Peregrine | | **Judean** | Lore, Fortitude, Negotiation, Craft | Aramaic, Greek; Hebrew for the lettered | Among Judeans, in the communities of Jerusalem and Alexandria and at their assemblies: Lore or Negotiation | Peregrine | | **African** (Numidian or of the African coast) | Riding, Ranged, Survival, Perception | Numidian, Punic; Latin or Greek | With Numidian riders, the kings' courts and the African grain ports: Riding or Survival | Peregrine | | **Spanish** (Iberian or Celtiberian) | Melee, Craft, Fortitude, Stealth | Iberian or Celtiberian, Latin | With Spanish levies, smiths and the mining towns: Craft or Fortitude | Peregrine | | **Thracian** | Melee, Athletics, Fortitude, Riding | Thracian, Greek | Among Thracians, the arena's Thracian-armed fighters and the Greek cities of the coast: Melee or Athletics | Peregrine | | **German** | Fortitude, Melee, Riding, Survival | Germanic, Gaulish | Among the German peoples and the hired German horse and foot: Melee or Survival | Peregrine | | **Parthian** | Riding, Ranged, Lore, Negotiation | Parthian, Greek, Aramaic | At the Parthian court, on the caravan roads and among the horse archers: Riding or Ranged | Peregrine | | **Anatolian** (Galatian, Cappadocian or Pontic) | Craft, Survival, Negotiation, Lore | Greek, and Galatian or Cappadocian | In Asia Minor's cities, temples and hill country: Negotiation or Survival | Peregrine | | **Freed person** (libertus, liberta) | Negotiation, Craft, Streetwise, Lore | Latin, and one home tongue of your birthplace | With other freed people, the trade colleges and your patron's house: Negotiation or Streetwise | Freedman | | **Enslaved person** | Perception, Craft, Streetwise, Fortitude | The house's tongue (Latin or Greek), and one home tongue of your birthplace | Among the enslaved of any house, estate, school or ship, and in the kitchens and back stairs of the free: Perception or Streetwise | Enslaved | ### Status Origins Choose one of thirteen birthplace Origins or a status Origin, Freed person or Enslaved person. With a status Origin, pick a birthplace as well and speak one home tongue from it free. Take skills, Strength and Ordo from the status Origin alone. ### The Enslaved Person - **The owner.** At creation, name the household, school, estate, ship or temple that owns you and the person who represents it. That NPC has his own aims and counts as your patron for Favors (Era Rules, Patronage and Rank, The Enslaved, the Freed and the Peregrine). If another player's household owns you, agree on the terms together and record them as a tie. - **The law.** Record Enslaved as your Ordo. Use Era Rules, Slavery, for the owner's legal powers, peculium, freedom and punishment for flight. Apply these limits to what can happen in the story, without changing the dice on your sheet. - **Money.** Take Peculium Standing with any Role. Record your peculium as your Stake (Era Rules, Money and Credit). - **Roles.** Play in the arena, sickroom, counting room, household, school, workshop, estate, theater, shop or street. Check Ordo and the Roles for the occupations open to you. - **The Strength.** Enslaved people in town overhear things and notice movements that the free miss. Use the full Strength. The GM decides how each owner treats the people he owns. - **On manumission.** Switch to the Freed person Origin immediately. Keep all ranks and talents, but use the new Origin and your Role to determine your profession skills. For your new name and patron, see Era Rules, Slavery, The Freed. ### The Freed Person - **The patron.** Name the former owner as patron, whether an NPC or another player character. You owe *obsequium* (respect) and *operae* (agreed days of work). Keep at least 1 Favor on the ledger with that patron (Era Rules, Patronage and Rank). - **The law.** Formal manumission by a citizen makes you a citizen of Ordo Freedman in one of the four urban tribes. You cannot enter the Senate or hold a magistracy. Children born after you gain freedom may do either. - **Money.** Keep the property you bought with your peculium and the income from your trade. Take Standing from your Role. - **Roles.** See Ordo and the Roles for exclusions. Serve as a Legionary only if the GM calls a crisis levy. ### Names - **A citizen man** uses a praenomen, nomen and cognomen, as in Aulus Septimius Crispus. About a dozen praenomina are in use. Use Gaius, Lucius and Marcus at most once each among your table's characters. - **A citizen woman** uses her father's nomen in the feminine, as in Fabia Tertulla. Distinguish women with Maior, Minor, a number or a cognomen. Leave the forename unset. - **An enslaved person** uses a single name such as Bithys or Chryseis, often Greek or drawn from a trait. On manumission, a freedman takes the patron's praenomen and nomen and puts his old name last as his cognomen (Lucius Cornelius Eros). A freedwoman takes the patron's nomen in feminine form (Era Rules, Slavery, The Freed). - **A Gaul** uses one name, often a compound, as in Banona. On receiving citizenship, take the name of the Roman who secured it. - **An Egyptian** has a Greek name, an Egyptian name or both (Kallias). - Keep each named character's nomen and cognomen distinct, except where a freed person shares a name with the patron.
##### EXAMPLE: NAMING EROS As a slave, Eros had one name. When Lucius Cornelius freed him, he became Lucius Cornelius Eros. He and his patron share Cornelius under the freed-person exception. Keep that nomen off every other character at the table.
## Ordo and the Roles **Adds.** Use this table to see which Roles the law allows for your Ordo. Senatorial and Equestrian come from the Role and are omitted here (Ordo, Standing and Dignitas). See each **Open to** line for sex restrictions. | Ordo | Open Roles | Closed Roles | |:--|:--|:--| | **Citizen** (free-born) | Every Role except Auxiliary, by the sex rules. Senator's House needs a senatorial family, Officer a senatorial or equestrian family, and Equestrian House and Publicanus the equestrian rating; taking the Role gives the family | Auxiliary, which is for Peregrines and freedmen | | **Freedman** | Auxiliary (as a hired man), Gladiator and Charioteer, Merchant and Moneylender, Farmer and Bailiff, Physician and Midwife, Priest and Diviner (a foreign cult or a crossroads college only), Scribe and Accountant, Household Steward, Tutor and Philosopher, Artisan and Builder, Innkeeper and Shopkeeper, Thief and Informer, Scout and Huntsman, Envoy and Interpreter (as a patron's agent), Sailor and Marine, Entertainer and Courtesan; Legionary only in a crisis levy at the GM's call | Centurion, Officer, Advocate, Senator's House, Equestrian House and Publicanus, Vestal Virgin | | **Peregrine** (free, not a citizen) | Auxiliary, Gladiator and Charioteer (as a volunteer), Merchant and Moneylender, Farmer and Bailiff, Physician and Midwife, Priest and Diviner (your people's own cults), Scribe and Accountant, Household Steward (as a free hired steward), Tutor and Philosopher, Artisan and Builder, Innkeeper and Shopkeeper, Thief and Informer, Scout and Huntsman, Envoy and Interpreter, Sailor and Marine, Entertainer and Courtesan | Legionary, Centurion, Officer, Advocate, Senator's House, Equestrian House and Publicanus, Vestal Virgin | | **Enslaved** | Gladiator and Charioteer, Merchant and Moneylender (as the owner's agent, an *institor*), Farmer and Bailiff (as *vilicus* or *vilica*), Physician and Midwife, Scribe and Accountant, Household Steward, Tutor and Philosopher, Artisan and Builder, Innkeeper and Shopkeeper (as *institor*), Thief and Informer, Scout and Huntsman (as *venator*), Sailor and Marine (as a ship's hand, not a marine), Entertainer and Courtesan | Every other Role; Standing is always Peculium | A Peregrine can be enslaved for debt and a citizen cannot (Era Rules, Money and Credit).
##### EXAMPLE: BITHYS'S ORIGIN AND ROLE Born in Thrace, Bithys takes Enslaved person as his Origin. He speaks Thracian free and Latin with the household. Use Enslaved person for his skills and Strength. The lanista who owns him hires him out from Capua. Gladiator and Charioteer admits enslaved characters and gives him Peculium Standing and a 25 HS Stake. He buys Melee 2, the most allowed at creation.
## Roles **Replaces** the Career (Core Rules, Character Creation, Backgrounds and Careers). Use these entries for twenty-three occupations of 50 BC: - **Answers to / Owns / Welcome:** find the Role's superiors, possessions and places where it is received. Use these details for a cover identity too. - **Open to:** the Ordines and the sex the law allows. - **Profession skills:** six. - **Kit:** take it free at creation. Use the owning sourcebook for each stat line and Gear and Prices for Roman names, prices and items without sourcebook entries. - **Standing:** take the listed Starting Stake (Era Rules, Money and Credit). **Pay:** earn as described, using figures from Gear and Prices. Apply pay to untracked living costs and keep it out of the Stake. - **Favored:** Core and Era talents the Role favors (Skills and Talents), including at least one Tier 1 Era talent. ##### Legionary - **Answers to:** through the optio, answer to your centurion, legate and proconsul. **Owns:** issued kit, a share of the tent party's mule, back pay and the hope of a gift and land. **Welcome:** camp, veterans' colonies and taverns at the gate. An armed soldier alarms the Senate house. - **Open to:** citizens; men. Landless men have enlisted since 107 BC. - **Profession skills:** Melee, Ranged, Athletics, Fortitude, Readiness, Craft. - **Kit:** gladius Hispaniensis (Shortsword), two pila (Javelin; Legion Battles, The Pilum), pugio (Dagger), scutum (Kite Shield) and a palisade stake (sudis; Sharpened Stake) (*The Fantasy Armory*); lorica hamata (Mail Shirt), issued on the quaestor's account, and a Montefortino or Coolus helmet (Open Helm) (*The Armourer*); caligae, a military belt, a pack on a forked pole, a dolabra and rations (Gear and Prices). - **Standing:** Wage, 75 HS. **Pay:** a stipend at Caesar's doubled rate (Suetonius gives no year for the doubling; this book applies it in 50 BC), less corn, clothing and replacement arms; a soldier's gift is the prize. - **Favored:** Shield Wall, Marcher, Front Rank, Hardy, Conditioned. - **Note:** An optio, the second in the century, is a Legionary who takes Front Rank. ##### Centurion - **Answers to:** take orders from the cohort's senior centurion, the primus pilus, the legate and the general. **Owns:** the century's roll and pay, a vine stick, a share of booty and a seat when the general calls the senior ranks. **Welcome:** command the camp, hold rank in a veterans' colony and enter the general's tent. - **Open to:** citizens; men. A centurion is promoted from the ranks or appointed by the general. - **Profession skills:** Melee, Leadership, Readiness, Fortitude, Intimidation, Athletics. - **Kit:** the Legionary's kit, with a crested helmet (Open Helm, *The Armourer*), greaves, phalerae if decorated (Gear and Prices), and the vine stick (vitis; Cudgel, *The Fantasy Armory*). The vine stick is firmly attested only under the Empire (Pliny; Tacitus, Annals 1.23); this book gives it to the centurions of 50 BC. - **Standing:** Professional, 675 HS. **Pay:** twice a legionary's stipend. - **Favored:** Vine Stick, Front Rank, Marcher, Shield Wall, Rallying Words (Core Tier 3; earned in play). ##### Auxiliary - **Answers to:** serve your chief, who answers to the Roman general, and take orders from a Roman prefect of horse. **Owns:** your own arms, horse or bow, and your people's standing with Rome. **Welcome:** your people's camp and the general's as a hired ally. Keep clear of the legion's tent lines. - **Open to:** Peregrines and freedmen; men. There are no standing auxiliary regiments: in 58 BC Caesar's 4,000 horse were raised from the Province, the Aedui and their allies, and he hires German horse, Numidian and Cretan archers and Balearic slingers. - **Profession skills:** Riding, Ranged, Melee, Survival, Athletics, Perception. - **Kit:** by people. *Gallic horseman:* Gallic long sword (Arming Sword), lancea (Winged Spear) and an oval shield (Kite Shield) (*The Fantasy Armory*); Riding Horse with War saddle (the horned saddle; its date is uncertain, Gear and Prices, Terms II) and Bridle and bit (*The Stable*); a noble adds a Mail Shirt (*The Armourer*). *Numidian rider:* javelins (Javelin) and parma (Buckler) (*The Fantasy Armory*); a Numidian horse (Courser, *The Stable*), ridden without a saddle. *Cretan archer:* Composite Bow (*The Ranged Armory*), Knife (*The Fantasy Armory*). *Balearic slinger:* Shepherd's Sling with lead glandes (*The Ranged Armory*), Knife. *German horseman:* hasta (Short Spear) and Round Shield (*The Fantasy Armory*); Riding Horse ridden bareback, without even a saddle cloth, which Caesar says the Germans scorn (*The Stable*). - **Standing:** Wage, 75 HS. **Pay:** a horseman's daily rate, and booty. - **Favored:** Horseman's Seat, Horse Archer, Field Craft, Wayfarer, Keen Eye. ##### Officer - **Answers to:** serve the legate and proconsul, and at home answer to your family and its patron. **Owns:** a campaign commission, a horse, a tent with a slave or two and the family name. **Welcome:** the council of war, senatorial dinners and camp as a young noble. The ranks remember the tribunes' panic at Vesontio in 58 BC. - **Open to:** citizens of senatorial or equestrian family; men. This Role covers a military tribune (six to a legion, most of them young nobles starting a career), a prefect and a member of a legate's staff. - **Profession skills:** Leadership, Melee, Riding, Lore, Negotiation, Readiness. - **Kit:** gladius (Shortsword) and pugio (Dagger) (*The Fantasy Armory*); a bronze muscle cuirass, which uses the Mail Shirt stat line, and a crested helmet (Open Helm) (*The Armourer*); a scarlet or white cloak (paludamentum) and writing tablets (Gear and Prices); Light Warhorse with Riding saddle and Bridle and bit (*The Stable*). - **Standing:** Equestrian, 4,000 HS, or Senatorial, 12,000 HS, by family, with that Standing's creation Debt; your Ordo is your family's. **Pay:** no fixed pay; the general's gifts. - **Favored:** Tribune's Commission, Horseman's Seat, Marcher, Cool Head, Convincing. ##### Gladiator and Charioteer - **Answers to:** a gladiator serves the lanista who owns or hires him and the editor who pays for the show. A driver serves his faction's master, red or white. **Owns:** a fighting name, a bout record, peculium purses and the hope of a wooden sword (*rudis*). **Welcome:** the ludus, the stands after a win and a sponsor's dinner as a curiosity. The law treats gladiators as *infames* (Era Rules, Patronage and Rank, Dignitas II). - **Open to:** the enslaved, the condemned, prisoners of war and free volunteers (*auctorati*) who sign a contract; men. - **Profession skills:** Melee, Athletics, Reflexes, Fortitude, Readiness, Charm. - **Kit:** the ludus's kit for your type: thraex, murmillo or Gaul, or Samnite (The Arena and the Games, Gladiators and Their Kit). A charioteer drives a biga or quadriga (Chariot, light, *The Stable*) with the faction's horses and carries a Knife (*The Fantasy Armory*) to cut the reins. - **Standing:** Peculium, 25 HS; the ludus lodges, feeds and trains you. **Pay:** purses for a win (The Arena and the Games, The Ludus and the Lanista). - **Favored:** Shield Wall, Crowd's Favor, Appeal to the Editor, Reins and Team (a charioteer), Hardy. - **Note:** A trainer (*doctor*) takes this Role with Leadership in place of Charm and adds Vine Stick to the favored list, at Trade Standing, 225 HS. A lanista is a Merchant and Moneylender who owns a school. ##### Advocate - **Answers to:** your client, your patron, the praetor and the jury. **Owns:** a voice, legal knowledge, a house in town and clients in your debt. **Welcome:** Forum, courts and the morning greeting wherever a case is brewing. Pass by the house of the man you prosecuted last year. - **Open to:** citizens; men. - **Profession skills:** Lore, Charm, Negotiation, Deception, Perception, Leadership. - **Kit:** a toga, wax tablets and a stylus, a case of law rolls (Gear and Prices), a Knife (*The Fantasy Armory*) carried in the city; a secretary of the household, an NPC. - **Standing:** Professional, 675 HS. **Pay:** none by law: the lex Cincia of 204 BC forbids an advocate's fee (Era Rules, Law and Courts). Gifts, loans and legacies change hands instead. - **Favored:** Forum Voice, Patron's Seal, Client's Due, Convincing, Skeptic (Core Tier 3; earned in play). ##### Senator's House - **Answers to:** the head of the family holds power at home. Outside it, mind the Senate, patron, allies and tribal voters. **Owns:** the house's wealth lies in land. In the atrium are ancestor masks and a network of clients, letters and debts. **Welcome:** the Senate if you sit in it, dinners of your order and the morning greeting of houses in your debt. Visit the Subura as a patron by daylight. - **Open to:** citizens of a senatorial family; men and women: a senator, a senator's son, a senator's daughter or widow who keeps the house's letters, as Fabia does. Only the men hold office and sit in the Senate. - **Profession skills:** Lore, Negotiation, Charm, Leadership, Deception, Perception. - **Kit:** a toga (with the purple border for a magistrate), a signet ring, a stock of letters, wax tablets (Gear and Prices), a litter with six bearers of the household; a pugio (Dagger, *The Fantasy Armory*) for a man; Riding Horse with Riding saddle and Bridle and bit (*The Stable*). - **Standing:** Senatorial, 12,000 HS, with a creation Debt of 6,000 HS. **Pay:** the rents of the house's land and tenements; debt is the normal state of the order. - **Favored:** Dinner Couch, Patron's Seal, Client's Due, Forum Voice, Convincing. - **Note:** An augur of the house adds Temple Rite; the state priesthoods (pontifices, augurs, flamines) are held by men of this Role. ##### Equestrian House and Publicanus - **Answers to:** censors award contracts, company partners expect a return, and Senate committees and your patron expect answers. **Owns:** a gold ring, a narrow stripe, tax company shares (*societas publicanorum*), ships, warehouses, a strongbox and freed and enslaved staff. **Welcome:** Forum counting houses, the theater's fourteen reserved rows and a governor's table where you farm the taxes. Towns you've squeezed remember. - **Open to:** citizens of free birth with the equestrian rating. The head of the house is a man; the house's manager may be a man or a woman, as Terentia managed Cicero's money. - **Profession skills:** Negotiation, Lore, Leadership, Perception, Deception, Streetwise. - **Kit:** a gold ring, a toga and a tunic with the narrow stripe, account rolls, an abacus, a strongbox (Gear and Prices), a pugio (Dagger, *The Fantasy Armory*), Riding Horse with Riding saddle and Bridle and bit (*The Stable*). - **Standing:** Equestrian, 4,000 HS, with a creation Debt of 2,000 HS. **Pay:** the company's return and the house's rents. - **Favored:** Abacus Hand, Patron's Seal, Debt Ledger, Client's Due, Convincing. - **Note:** A military prefect from this house takes the Officer Role instead. ##### Merchant and Moneylender - **Answers to:** cargo partners, the creditor holding your paper, the patron named at your door and the market aediles. **Owns:** a shop or warehouse, a ship share, a strongbox and a ledger of debts. **Welcome:** the Emporium beneath the Aventine, Puteoli and households in your debt. A senator you've pressed for payment may close his door. - **Open to:** every Ordo; an enslaved merchant runs the business as the owner's agent (*institor*). Men or women; women traded and owned property in their own names under a guardian. - **Profession skills:** Negotiation, Lore, Streetwise, Perception, Deception, Operate. - **Kit:** an abacus, account rolls, a strongbox, scales and weights (Gear and Prices), a Mule with Pack saddle (*The Stable*), a Knife (*The Fantasy Armory*). A shipmaster holds a share in a merchant ship (Cog or carrack, printed as navis oneraria, *The Heavy Armory*) as a creation Debt to a named partner. - **Standing:** Trade, 225 HS; Professional, 675 HS, for a shipmaster or a moneylender with paper out, with a creation Debt for the asset; Peculium, 25 HS, for an enslaved agent, whose stock is the owner's. **Pay:** profit and interest (Era Rules, Money and Credit, Credit and Debt). - **Favored:** Market Eye, Abacus Hand, Debt Ledger, Oarsman (a shipmaster), Convincing. - **Note:** A lanista is this Role owning a gladiator school, and is *infamis*. ##### Farmer and Bailiff - **Answers to:** a *vilicus* answers to the estate owner, a tenant to the landlord and a smallholder to his tribe at the levy. All depend on weather and market. **Owns:** a plot or villa keys, oxen, cart, tools, seed and charge of the gang and its rations. **Welcome:** market every eighth day, the owner's dinner once a year and the Compitalia shrine. Muddy shoes win little regard in the Forum. - **Open to:** every Ordo; the bailiff (*vilicus*) of a villa is commonly enslaved. Men or women; the *vilica* keeps the house and its hearth. - **Profession skills:** Craft, Survival, Fortitude, Athletics, Negotiation, Leadership. - **Kit:** an Ox and a Cart (*The Stable*), iron tools (Gear and Prices), a venabulum (Boar Spear) or a securis (Hatchet) and a Knife (*The Fantasy Armory*), a Shepherd's Sling (*The Ranged Armory*). - **Standing:** Trade, 225 HS, for a smallholder or a free bailiff; Peculium, 25 HS, for an enslaved bailiff. **Pay:** the crop and the stock when they sell; a bailiff draws a ration of wheat. - **Favored:** Workshop Hand, Reins and Team, Market Eye, Wayfarer, Conditioned. ##### Physician and Midwife - **Answers to:** the household that owns or hires you and the patient's family. There is no license. **Owns:** drugs and instruments, Greek training and the household's secrets. **Welcome:** sickrooms, Aesculapius's island temple and a commander's camp, where hired Greeks and freedmen serve as surgeons. A Roman of Cato's mind keeps his distance. - **Open to:** every Ordo; the physician is often Greek, enslaved or freed. Men or women as physician; the midwife (*obstetrix*) is a woman. - **Profession skills:** Medicine, Science, Lore, Craft, Charm, Readiness. - **Kit:** a surgeon's kit of scalpel, forceps, probe, bone lever and cupping vessel (Gear and Prices); emplastrum (Healing Salve), a poppy draught (Poppy Tincture), Emetic, and wine and vinegar for wounds (Antiseptic) (*The Apothecary*); a Knife (*The Fantasy Armory*). - **Standing:** Professional, 675 HS, for a free physician; Peculium, 25 HS, for an enslaved one. **Pay:** fees by the visit. Care of the sick is in Era Rules, Medicine and Illness. - **Favored:** Hippocratic Training, Household Keys, Boon Reader, Quick Recovery, Expert Care (Core Tier 3; earned in play). ##### Priest and Diviner - **Answers to:** the college or temple magistrate. A haruspex reports to the Senate in writing. Foreign cult priests answer to their cult and the magistrates, who pulled down the altars of Isis on Senate orders in the 50s BC. **Owns:** knowledge of rites, a knife, the victim's hide, a share of the meat and worshippers' confidence. **Welcome:** the temple, beside a magistrate at sacrifice and the general's tent before battle. Speak on the Senate floor by invitation. - **Open to:** this Role is the sacrificing priest (*sacerdos*) of a temple, a priestess of Ceres, a matron of the Bona Dea's rites, a haruspex (an Etruscan, and so a citizen), a temple attendant, and the priests of the peoples' own gods and of the cults that reached Rome, such as Isis and Cybele. Men or women; a Roman citizen may not be a Gallus of Cybele. The state priesthoods belong to Senator's House. - **Profession skills:** Lore, Charm, Perception, Leadership, Medicine, Negotiation. - **Kit:** a sacrificial knife (Knife) and a baculum (Quarterstaff) (*The Fantasy Armory*); the ritual kit of the cult, a model liver for a haruspex, a toga with the purple border for a Roman priest (Gear and Prices). - **Standing:** Trade, 225 HS, for a temple priest or a haruspex; Professional, 675 HS, for the priest of a great temple. **Pay:** the hide and a share of the victim, and consultation fees. - **Favored:** Temple Rite, Forum Voice, Dinner Couch, Unshaken, Boon Reader. ##### Vestal Virgin - **Answers to:** the chief Vestal (*Virgo Maxima*) and the Pontifex Maximus, Caesar in 50 BC. **Owns:** the right to make a will, freedom from paternal power, a reserved seat at the games and custody of Vesta's wills and treaties. **Welcome:** throughout Rome. A foreign court receives you as a curiosity. - **Open to:** citizens; women only, chosen as girls between 6 and 10 years old, free-born, with both parents living, for thirty years' service. There are six Vestals, so a table has at most one. - **Profession skills:** Lore, Readiness, Perception, Charm, Negotiation, Medicine. - **Kit:** the white stola and woollen fillets, the six braids, keys to the temple store, a silver vessel for the sacred water (Gear and Prices). No weapon. - **Standing:** Professional, 675 HS. **Pay:** none; the house of Vesta keeps you. - **Favored:** Hearth's Custody, Temple Rite, Dinner Couch, Unshaken, Cool Head. ##### Scribe and Accountant - **Answers to:** a public *scriba* works for the magistrate, a secretary or *dispensator* for the master and a copyist for a copying house. **Owns:** your stylus, shorthand and the household books and their secrets. **Welcome:** treasury, record office, studies and counting houses. At dinner you are there to read aloud. - **Open to:** every Ordo; Tiro was Cicero's enslaved secretary until his freedom in 53 BC. Men or women. - **Profession skills:** Lore, Craft, Perception, Negotiation, Readiness, Streetwise. - **Kit:** wax tablets and an iron stylus (the stylus stabs as the Shiv, *The Fantasy Armory*), papyrus, ink and a reed pen, an abacus, a seal (Gear and Prices). - **Standing:** Trade, 225 HS, for a free scribe; Professional, 675 HS, for a public scriba; Peculium, 25 HS, for an enslaved secretary. **Pay:** a salary or fees. - **Favored:** Abacus Hand, Household Keys, Interpreter, Keen Eye, Boon Reader. ##### Household Steward - **Answers to:** the master and mistress. The *atriensis* at the door takes your orders. **Owns:** keys, accounts, stores and the roll of enslaved people, whose sleeping places you know. **Welcome:** all rooms of the house, market as its buyer and the back doors of other houses. The dinner couch is closed. - **Open to:** the enslaved, which is the usual case, the freed, or a free hired steward. Men or women; the housekeeper is a woman's post. - **Profession skills:** Perception, Negotiation, Streetwise, Craft, Leadership, Lore. - **Kit:** the keys and the house's account tablets (Gear and Prices), a fustis for the door (Cudgel) and a Knife (*The Fantasy Armory*). - **Standing:** Peculium, 25 HS, for the enslaved; Trade, 225 HS, for the freed or hired. **Pay:** rations, lodging and what the peculium gathers. - **Favored:** Household Keys, Abacus Hand, Market Eye, Low Profile, Helpful. ##### Tutor and Philosopher - **Answers to:** as *grammaticus* or *paedagogus*, serve the household that hires or owns you, the pupils' fathers and your school of thought. **Owns:** rolls, a reputation in Greek and former pupils. **Welcome:** classrooms, Lucullus's open library, a dinner where the host wants Greek, a senator's summer villa or the camp as the general's companion. - **Open to:** every Ordo; teachers are often Greek, enslaved or freed. Men or women. Caesar grants citizenship to teachers of the liberal arts at Rome in 46 BC. - **Profession skills:** Lore, Charm, Science, Negotiation, Perception, Medicine. - **Kit:** rolls of Homer, the orators or the philosophers, wax tablets, a cloak (Gear and Prices), a baculum (Quarterstaff, *The Fantasy Armory*). - **Standing:** Trade, 225 HS, for a hired teacher; Professional, 675 HS, for a rhetor with a school; Peculium, 25 HS, for an enslaved tutor. **Pay:** fees by the pupil. - **Favored:** Forum Voice, Interpreter, Dinner Couch, Helpful, Skilled. ##### Artisan and Builder - **Answers to:** your workshop master, contractor, college and aediles. Plutarch puts Crassus's enslaved architects and builders at more than five hundred. **Owns:** tools, a bench, a trade name and a seat in a *collegium*. **Welcome:** workshop, building site, college feast, crossroads shrine and dinner with a client who owes you for the job. - **Open to:** every Ordo; workshops run on enslaved artisans. Men or women; wool-working, sewing and market trading are women's trades. - **Profession skills:** Craft, Athletics, Fortitude, Negotiation, Perception, Science. - **Kit:** the tools of the trade (Gear and Prices), a malleus (Maul) or a securis (Hatchet) (*The Fantasy Armory*), a Donkey and a Cart (*The Stable*). - **Standing:** Trade, 225 HS; Peculium, 25 HS, for the enslaved. **Pay:** by the piece and the day. - **Favored:** Workshop Hand, Market Eye, Practical Expertise (Craft), Strong Arm, Skilled. ##### Innkeeper and Shopkeeper - **Answers to:** the insula's landlord, the aediles, the crossroads college and the gang on your street. **Owns:** a counter, wine and oil, a credit tally, beds in the loft and the quarter's rumors. **Welcome:** your street, the Forum as a trader and the patrons of your regulars when they need a witness. - **Open to:** every Ordo; an enslaved shopkeeper runs the shop for the owner as *institor*. Men or women; tavern work and trading are women's work in the record. - **Profession skills:** Negotiation, Streetwise, Charm, Perception, Deception, Craft. - **Kit:** a fustis behind the counter (Cudgel) and a Knife (*The Fantasy Armory*), a stock of wine and oil, a tally board, a lease (Gear and Prices). - **Standing:** Trade, 225 HS, with a creation Debt for the lease if you want the shop owned (Era Rules, Money and Credit, Stakes); Peculium, 25 HS, for an institor. **Pay:** the house's takings. - **Favored:** Market Eye, Crossroads Hand, Household Keys, Low Profile, Convincing. ##### Thief and Informer - **Answers to:** your boss, fence, the street patron who pays and the tribune or senator who hires the gang. An informer serves the buyer. **Owns:** a concealed knife, a share of the take, a Subura name and what you overheard. **Welcome:** Subura back rooms, taverns and shrine, and a patron's atrium when there's a riot. You reach the praetor's court in chains. - **Open to:** every Ordo; men or women. Rome has no police, and in the 50s BC the bands of Clodius and Milo fought for its streets. - **Profession skills:** Streetwise, Stealth, Subterfuge, Deception, Melee, Perception. - **Kit:** a pugio (Dagger), a fustis (Cudgel) and a laqueus (Garrote) (*The Fantasy Armory*), a dark cloak, a set of hooks and picks (Gear and Prices). - **Standing:** Wage, 75 HS. **Pay:** the take, and the boss's coin on the day of a vote. - **Favored:** Crossroads Hand, Client's Due, Low Profile, Fast Hands, Danger Sense. ##### Scout and Huntsman - **Answers to:** scouts serve the general through the prefect of *exploratores* or *speculatores*. Huntsmen work for an aedile or a shipper. Caelius wanted Cilician panthers in 50 BC. **Owns:** a horse, nets, javelins and knowledge of the ground. **Welcome:** the general's tent when you have news, the hunting lodge and the beast yard at Puteoli. You're a stranger in the camp lines. - **Open to:** every Ordo; a huntsman (*venator*) is often enslaved. Army scouts are men; a huntsman may be a man or a woman. - **Profession skills:** Survival, Perception, Stealth, Ranged, Riding, Athletics. - **Kit:** javelins (Javelin), a venabulum (Boar Spear), a rete (Net) and a securis (Hatchet) (*The Fantasy Armory*); a Short Bow (*The Ranged Armory*); Riding Horse with Riding saddle and Bridle and bit (*The Stable*). - **Standing:** Wage, 75 HS. **Pay:** a soldier's stipend for a scout; a huntsman is paid by the beast delivered. - **Favored:** Field Craft, Horseman's Seat, Marcher, Wayfarer, Keen Eye. ##### Envoy and Interpreter - **Answers to:** your sender and the Roman patron who gets you before the Senate. An interpreter serves a governor or merchant. **Owns:** sealed letters, plate to thank useful men, knowledge of two courts and charge of hostages' fate. **Welcome:** the embassy hearing, patron's atrium, governor's headquarters and your council at home. Keep clear of the Forum when it turns on foreigners. - **Open to:** citizens, Peregrines and freedmen; men or women. A freedman serves as his patron's agent. - **Profession skills:** Negotiation, Charm, Lore, Perception, Deception, Riding. - **Kit:** letters under seal, a writing set, a gift of silver plate that is the sender's and not part of your Stake (Gear and Prices), a pugio or a long knife (Dagger, *The Fantasy Armory*), Riding Horse with Riding saddle and Bridle and bit (*The Stable*) or a litter. - **Standing:** Professional, 675 HS, on the sender's purse. **Pay:** the sender's; the Senate gives an envoy lodging and a gift. - **Favored:** Interpreter, Dinner Couch, Herald's Staff, Patron's Seal, Convincing. ##### Sailor and Marine - **Answers to:** the shipmaster or fleet prefect. Marines take orders from the centurion aboard. **Owns:** a sea chest, a knife and a share of voyage pay. **Welcome:** on deck, at the shipyard or in harbor taverns at Puteoli, Ostia and Brundisium. Keep off open water in the closed season (Era Rules, Travel). - **Open to:** every Ordo; an enslaved man serves as a ship's hand, not as a marine. Men. A marine is a soldier who boards. - **Profession skills:** Operate, Athletics, Melee, Fortitude, Survival, Perception. - **Kit:** a Knife (*The Fantasy Armory*). A marine adds gladius (Shortsword), Javelin and Round Shield (*The Fantasy Armory*) and a Montefortino helmet (Open Helm, *The Armourer*). The ship's grapnels (the iron hand, Harpax) and its bronze ram (Galley Ram) are the ship's (*The Heavy Armory*). - **Standing:** Wage, 75 HS. **Pay:** a hand's daily wage; a marine draws a legionary's stipend. - **Favored:** Oarsman, Shield Wall, Hardy, Conditioned, Wayfarer. ##### Entertainer and Courtesan - **Answers to:** the troupe's *dominus gregis*, the aedile who hires you or your dinner host. A courtesan answers only to the man who keeps her house, if there is one. **Owns:** masks and costume or a lyre, a repertoire, letters, a house and the names of guests who drank too much. **Welcome:** the stage at the games, dinner couches and circles such as Clodia's. The law counts an actor as *infamis*. - **Open to:** every Ordo. The actor's parts are men's; the mime admits women; the courtesan is a woman. - **Profession skills:** Charm, Deception, Perception, Negotiation, Streetwise, Reflexes. - **Kit:** masks and a costume, or a lyre and a pipe (*tibia*) (Gear and Prices), a Knife (*The Fantasy Armory*); a courtesan adds a house lease, a litter and a stock of letters. - **Standing:** Trade, 225 HS, for a player in a troupe; Professional, 675 HS, for a courtesan who keeps a house, with a creation Debt for the lease. **Pay:** by the show and the gift. In these rules a courtesan's trade is access and influence at the dinner table. - **Favored:** Dinner Couch, Crowd's Favor, Crossroads Hand, Convincing, Low Profile. ## A Role That Is Not Listed **Adds.** Agree on an occupation with the GM. Pick six skills from the Core list and Riding, a lawful Ordo, a Standing (Era Rules, Money and Credit), a kit from cited books of the closest Role's value, and five favored talents including one Tier 1 Era talent. Build a baker or fuller from Artisan and Builder, a litter-bearer from Household Steward with Athletics, a treasury slave or grain clerk from Scribe and Accountant, or a temple beast-keeper from Scout and Huntsman. For a pirate, use Sailor and Marine and swap Survival for Streetwise. For a tribune of the plebs, use Senator's House with Forum Voice (Era Rules, Patronage and Rank, owns the office).
##### EXAMPLE: A LICTOR FOR THE TABLE To build a citizen who walks before Rome's praetor, the GM starts with Scribe and Accountant, a public servant's Role. Give the lictor Melee, Athletics, Intimidation, Perception, Readiness and Streetwise. Set Ordo Citizen and Trade Standing (225 HS). Equip him with a fustis (Cudgel, *The Fantasy Armory*) and his *fasces*, which have no stat line. Favor Household Keys, Abacus Hand, Marcher, Keen Eye and Cool Head.
## Concept-to-Role Coverage Every occupation of 50 BC a player is likely to ask for lands on a Role and at least one Era talent. | Concept | Role | Era talent | |:--|:--|:--| | Legionary; signifer, tesserarius, trumpeter | Legionary | Shield Wall, Marcher | | Optio | Legionary | Front Rank | | Centurion, primus pilus | Centurion | Vine Stick, Front Rank | | Allied horseman, archer or slinger | Auxiliary | Horseman's Seat, Horse Archer | | Military tribune, prefect, legate's staff | Officer | Tribune's Commission | | Quaestor on campaign | Senator's House or Officer | Abacus Hand, Tribune's Commission | | Pirate hunter of the fleets | Sailor and Marine or Officer | Oarsman, Tribune's Commission | | Gladiator (Samnite, Gaul or murmillo, thraex) | Gladiator and Charioteer | Crowd's Favor, Appeal to the Editor | | Gladiator trainer (doctor) | Gladiator and Charioteer (trainer) | Vine Stick, Crowd's Favor | | Charioteer | Gladiator and Charioteer | Reins and Team, Crowd's Favor | | Lanista; a faction's master | Merchant and Moneylender | Debt Ledger, Market Eye, Reins and Team | | Advocate, orator | Advocate | Forum Voice, Patron's Seal | | Senator, magistrate, candidate | Senator's House | Patron's Seal, Client's Due | | Senator's daughter or widow, the house's manager | Senator's House | Dinner Couch, Patron's Seal | | Tribune of the plebs | Senator's House | Forum Voice, Client's Due | | Augur, pontifex, flamen | Senator's House | Temple Rite | | Publicanus, tax farmer | Equestrian House and Publicanus | Debt Ledger, Abacus Hand | | Banker, moneylender | Merchant and Moneylender | Debt Ledger, Abacus Hand | | Merchant, shipmaster | Merchant and Moneylender | Market Eye, Oarsman | | Slave dealer | Merchant and Moneylender | Market Eye | | Farmer, smallholder, veteran settler | Farmer and Bailiff | Workshop Hand, Reins and Team, Shield Wall | | Bailiff, housekeeper of an estate | Farmer and Bailiff | Workshop Hand, Abacus Hand | | Shepherd, herdsman | Farmer and Bailiff | Field Craft | | Physician, army surgeon | Physician and Midwife | Hippocratic Training, Marcher | | Midwife | Physician and Midwife | Hippocratic Training | | Temple priest or priestess, haruspex | Priest and Diviner | Temple Rite | | Priest of Isis, of Cybele, of a people's own gods | Priest and Diviner | Temple Rite | | Vestal Virgin | Vestal Virgin | Hearth's Custody | | Scribe, secretary, copyist, accountant | Scribe and Accountant | Abacus Hand, Interpreter | | Public scribe, lictor, grain-dole clerk | Scribe and Accountant | Abacus Hand, Household Keys | | Steward, doorkeeper, pedagogue, litter-bearer | Household Steward | Household Keys | | Tutor, grammaticus, rhetor, philosopher | Tutor and Philosopher | Forum Voice, Interpreter | | Artisan, smith, potter, fuller, baker | Artisan and Builder | Workshop Hand | | Builder, architect, engineer, fire gang | Artisan and Builder | Workshop Hand | | Porter, docker | Artisan and Builder | Workshop Hand | | Innkeeper, tavern keeper, cook-shop, shopkeeper | Innkeeper and Shopkeeper | Market Eye, Crossroads Hand | | Camp follower, sutler | Innkeeper and Shopkeeper | Market Eye, Marcher | | Thief, burglar, cutpurse, informer | Thief and Informer | Crossroads Hand, Household Keys | | Gang hand, hired fighter, street boss | Thief and Informer | Crossroads Hand, Client's Due | | Army scout | Scout and Huntsman | Field Craft | | Huntsman, beast-catcher, beast-dealer | Scout and Huntsman | Field Craft, Market Eye | | Envoy, hostage of rank | Envoy and Interpreter | Herald's Staff, Dinner Couch | | Interpreter | Envoy and Interpreter | Interpreter | | Sailor, deckhand, pirate | Sailor and Marine | Oarsman, Crossroads Hand | | Marine | Sailor and Marine | Shield Wall, Oarsman | | Actor, mime, musician, dancer | Entertainer and Courtesan | Crowd's Favor, Dinner Couch | | Courtesan, hostess | Entertainer and Courtesan | Dinner Couch | ## Worked Examples Each build spends 110 XP. Use these ratings for the examples in Era Rules, The Arena and the Games and Legion Battles.
##### EXAMPLE: BUILDING SEPTIMIUS **Origin and Role.** Septimius is a **Roman citizen Centurion**. The Origin gives Lore, Negotiation, Streetwise and Readiness; the Role gives Melee, Leadership, Readiness, Fortitude, Intimidation and Athletics. Readiness is on both lists, which leaves nine profession skills. His Ordo is Citizen and his Dignitas starts at 1. He speaks Latin, and the Centurion is a lettered Role, so he reads and writes it. **Characteristics.** All six start at 2. The free adjustment raises Might to 3 and lowers Intellect to 1. Raising Charisma from 2 to 3 costs 30 XP. **Skills.** Melee, Leadership, Readiness and Fortitude to rank 2 cost 5 + 10 = 15 XP each, 60 XP. Intimidation and Athletics at rank 1 cost 5 XP each, 10 XP. Skills: 70 XP. **Talents.** Vine Stick is his free Tier 1 talent. Shield Wall and Marcher (Tier 1) cost 5 XP each. Talents: 10 XP. He buys Front Rank later, with XP earned in play (Skills and Talents). **Total.** 30 + 70 + 10 = 110 XP. He has Might 3, Agility 2, Savvy 2, Intellect 1, Charisma 3 and Willpower 2. Charisma 3 and Leadership 2 give 2 Mastery Dice and 1 Ability Die , and Vine Stick adds 1 Boon Die with his own soldiers. **Derived values.** Wound Points 10 + 3 = 13. Strain Points 10 + 2 = 12. Resistance 4 in his mail: half his Might, rounded up, is 2, and the Mail Shirt adds 2. With the scutum readied, Melee Defense 1 and Ranged Defense 2 (Kite Shield, Defensive 1, Deflection 2). Initiative: Savvy 2 with no Perception on watch; Willpower 2 and Readiness 2 when surprised. **Kit and Stake.** The Centurion's kit and a Professional Stake of 675 HS, with a credit limit of 1,350 HS.
##### EXAMPLE: BUILDING CHRYSEIS **Origin and Role.** Chryseis is an **Enslaved person Physician and Midwife**, born on Cos. The Origin gives Perception, Craft, Streetwise and Fortitude; the Role gives Medicine, Science, Lore, Craft, Charm and Readiness. Craft is on both lists, which leaves nine profession skills. Her owner is the house of the Fabii, and Fabia's father speaks for it. Her Ordo is Enslaved and her Dignitas starts at 0. She speaks Greek, her birthplace's tongue, and Latin, the house's tongue; Physician and Midwife is a lettered Role, so she reads and writes Greek. **Characteristics.** All six start at 2. The free adjustment raises Intellect to 3 and lowers Might to 1. Raising Intellect from 3 to 4 costs 40 XP and Charisma from 2 to 3 costs 30 XP: 70 XP. **Skills.** Medicine to rank 2 costs 5 + 10 = 15 XP. Lore and Perception at rank 1 cost 5 XP each, 10 XP. Negotiation is on neither list, so rank 1 costs 10 XP. Skills: 35 XP. **Talents.** Hippocratic Training is her free Tier 1 talent. Household Keys (Tier 1) costs 5 XP. Talents: 5 XP. **Total.** 70 + 35 + 5 = 110 XP. She has Might 1, Agility 2, Savvy 2, Intellect 4, Charisma 3 and Willpower 2. Intellect 4 and Medicine 2 give 2 Mastery Dice and 2 Ability Dice ; Charisma 3 and Negotiation 1 give 1 Mastery Die and 2 Ability Dice. **Derived values.** Wound Points 10 + 1 = 11. Strain Points 10 + 2 = 12. Resistance 1, Defenses 0. Initiative: Savvy 2 and Perception 1 on watch; Willpower 2 with no Readiness when surprised. **Kit and Stake.** The Physician's kit and the Peculium Stake of 25 HS. She has no credit limit; the house's credit is the house's.
**Failure states.** Rebuild before play if you spend more than 110 XP, raise a skill above rank 2, take a Tier 3 talent or pick a Role barred by Ordo or sex.