Charlatan

Occupation Tags: Mercantile, Underworld

You use your silver tongue and quick wit to deceive and manipulate others. You move from town to town, using your skills of deception to sell false remedies, perform illusions, or simply con unsuspecting marks out of their hard-earned coin. Whether you’re a traveling swindler or a confidence trickster, you always have a new scam up your sleeve, and you revel in the thrill of fooling others and getting away with it.

Starting Equipment

If you take this profession when you create your character, gain the following gear, in addition to the equipment you gained based on your background: pocketed cloak, gear to run your con of choice (choose one: marked cards, weighted dice, defunct goods, fake antiques, or false gems/gold), small hand cart or prop-up stand, 3 belt pouches, brigandine armor, 1 tool or kit, clothes (fine)

Skills

Each time you gain a rank in the Charlatan profession (including rank 1), gain +3 Deceiving, and +1 in three different skills of your choice from below:

• Acrobatics: Contorting

• Influence: Empathy, Gossiping, Intimidating, Leadership, Persuading

• Knowledge: Art, Economics, History, Law, Medicine*, Politics of [choose region], Religion [choose one]

• Observation: Appraising, Intuiting, Investigating, Perceiving

• Performance: Instrument* [choose one], Savoir Faire

• Subterfuge: Disguising*, Forging*, Lockpicking*, Sleight of Hand

• Survival: Sneaking

Scam Business

You are no stranger to bending the truth and have devised a number of scams to relieve people of their hard earned coin. There is always a chance that something goes wrong, but with great risk comes greater rewards!

Rank 1

You have a knack for disguises and can create a fake identity with one hour of work. This identity does not include any official paperwork and will not stand up to investigation. Once per day in a friendly settlement, you may attempt to run a scam. This scam can include selling a miracle drug, knockoff items, fake investments, or similar ruses and successfully running the scam earns you 2d20+20 sc. There is a 20% chance your scam is exposed.

This action can be repeated, but every subsequent attempt in that same settlement within a one month period comes with an additional 5% chance of being exposed. If the scam is exposed, gain -3 community Goodwill and the local authorities immediately know your name (or that of your disguise) and will seek you out for arrest or recompense. No other scams can be run in that settlement for one month.

If the scam does not involve or target notable NPCs or plot-relevant items, your MC might elect to abstract the scam into a couple dice rolls and let you narrate how it happens. First, roll to determine how many sc your scam earns, then roll percentile dice to determine if your scam is exposed or not.

Rank 2

Successfully running a scam now earns you 4d20+40 sc.

You are now adept at finding like-minded individuals who will help run your scams. If you spend one day in a town or city, you can find and recruit up to two conspirators that will act as audience plants, distractions, or “witnesses” to the efficacy of what you are selling. For each conspirator you hire, you lose 1d20 sc when running a scam, as you have to divide the coin up with them. However, each conspiratoralso decreases your chance of being exposed by 5%, to a minimum of 5%.

Rank 3

Successfully running a scam now earns you 8d20+80 sc.

You can now recruit up to three conspirators. Your fake identities now include official looking documentation and that will hold up against all but the most thorough investigations.

Rank 4

Successfully running a scam now earns you 20d20+200 sc.

You can now recruit up to four conspirators.

Rank 5

You may now follow your successful scams with a rug-pull. After running three successful scams in one area, you may run a final gambit that earns 80d20+800 sc.

As part of this action, roll 1d4 to determine the number of days before the settlement’s authorities become aware of you or your fake identity, after which they will attempt to seek you out for arrest or recompense.