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The Dresden Files => DFRPG => Topic started by: ironchicken on August 21, 2010, 05:42:38 PM

Title: Wizard careers?
Post by: ironchicken on August 21, 2010, 05:42:38 PM
I am looking at making a wizard who is a blacksmith/artisan. Using traditional crafts to make jewellery etc and also work as a farrier.

I interested in how you have fitted your wizards into the real world whilst working around hexing? How do they make a living?
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: Baron Hazard on August 21, 2010, 09:41:22 PM
 I have two spell-casters in my current game. one is a newbie warden, and the other is an ex-denarian evocator. The Ex-Nicklehead is on the payroll of the Russian Mob acting as a consultant and field-partner for the mob's version of S.I. (another character.) The Warden is the owner of a bar that he inherited from his parents.
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: ralexs1991 on August 21, 2010, 10:00:41 PM
i've got a warden that runs a mechanic shop for old cars (it started out as him having to fix his own car then he started fixing others)
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: finnmckool on August 21, 2010, 10:28:34 PM
heh. the wizard in my group runs a curio shop. Comics, vinyl, collectibles, rpg books for the straights. "rare" books, "charms," "crystals," "potions" to the "occult community" (which is mostly his way of getting into the pants of various hippie, emo, goth and wiccan chicks), and the occasional real deal knick knack being kept safe for the council, all legal and regularly examined by the local warden.
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: MWKilduff on August 22, 2010, 12:15:02 AM
I actually designed my character to be a stage magician that uses slight of hand for his shows.  His deceit is pretty high and I planned on using that against people that know he is a wizard so that they would think some of the fake magic is real magic.  I wanted to have his normal day job to be working at the rennaisance festival which keeps him away the technology.  Not to mention that is a job that allows for plenty of time free and clear.
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: toturi on August 22, 2010, 02:22:49 AM
High Athletics - Gym/fitness/etc instructor
High Fists - Martial arts instructor
High Scholarship - Antiquarian books storekeeper

A Warden PC in my group is a Tai Chi instructor.
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: JosephKell on August 22, 2010, 02:25:41 AM
High Survival - Nature guide
Not "Nevernever Guide"?  Or would that be High Survival, High Lore (I imagine Survival for navigation would be restricted by Lore)?
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: toturi on August 22, 2010, 02:35:13 AM
Not "Nevernever Guide"?  Or would that be High Survival, High Lore (I imagine Survival for navigation would be restricted by Lore)?
I thought of that, but decided that it didn't really work. Even just as a nature guide. Which is why I removed the nature/tourist guide from my list.

Think about it. Most people that can get to the Nevernever don't really need a guide, and those that can't get their themselves don't either. A mortal wizard nature guide isn't going to get much business, because his clients' cameras/videocams/etc would be in danger of being hexed accidentally.
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: JosephKell on August 22, 2010, 02:38:00 AM
What about a "Safari Guide"?  Most exotic game is illegal to hunt.  But what wealthy poacher can resist the lure of hunting a real monster?
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: toturi on August 22, 2010, 02:49:49 AM
What about a "Safari Guide"?  Most exotic game is illegal to hunt.  But what wealthy poacher can resist the lure of hunting a real monster?
How is the client going to hunt the monster? If you can think of a non-tech method that the poacher can use to hunt a supernat, then it might work.
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: MijRai on August 22, 2010, 03:05:25 AM
How is the client going to hunt the monster? If you can think of a non-tech method that the poacher can use to hunt a supernat, then it might work.

Use a .50 BMG round. Or a shotgun loaded with steel shot, if you are hunting Fae.

My wizard is a security guard, currently. He works with armored cars, mostly.
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: toturi on August 22, 2010, 04:04:34 AM
Use a .50 BMG round. Or a shotgun loaded with steel shot, if you are hunting Fae.

My wizard is a security guard, currently. He works with armored cars, mostly.
And when the gun jams at a crucial moment because said wizard is around?
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: JosephKell on August 22, 2010, 04:15:45 AM
Part of the thrill?  Maybe carry a spear as well?
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: MijRai on August 22, 2010, 04:33:45 AM
And when the gun jams at a crucial moment because said wizard is around?

Use an 1897 Trench Gun (or, maybe a double barreled shotgun rigged to fire both rounds at once), or one of those WWI Anti-Tank Rifles. There are old guns with high calibers out there. Also, modern guns aren't unreliable. Some of them are better then the older designs, and would be harder to hex.
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: lankyogre on August 22, 2010, 04:55:08 AM
And when the gun jams at a crucial moment because said wizard is around?

It may be best to continue this conversation elsewhere if it goes to far, but: Harry is around modern firearms a lot and even though he uses older weapons, so far not a single one has jammed because of him. Just about every encounter involving Kincaid after the first has involved a great deal of guns that work fine.
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: Leatherneck on August 22, 2010, 02:39:00 PM
The wizard being made for my game is an Arson Investigator.  His specialized element is of course fire.
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: ironchicken on August 22, 2010, 05:50:06 PM
Use a .50 BMG round. Or a shotgun loaded with steel shot, if you are hunting Fae.

Running a business of taking hunters into never Never to hunt big game with iron shot! And I wonder just how long that will last before one of the queens comes down on him like a ton of bricks!
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: MijRai on August 22, 2010, 06:11:48 PM
Running a business of taking hunters into never Never to hunt big game with iron shot! And I wonder just how long that will last before one of the queens comes down on him like a ton of bricks!

That could be a problem. Just stick to hunting trolls and various creatures that roam the world then. Get a swarm of pixies with birdshot, and mount them in your chandeliers.
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: finnmckool on August 23, 2010, 03:14:25 AM
Considering how adamant Harry was at the end of Proven Guilty about not leaving any iron behind because it'd be rude to leave something so toxic just lying around I'd say that the NeverNever Safari trips wouldn't last long. Unless you were in Wildfae.
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: Chlorofiend on August 23, 2010, 04:12:17 AM
Considering how adamant Harry was at the end of Proven Guilty about not leaving any iron behind because it'd be rude to leave something so toxic just lying around I'd say that the NeverNever Safari trips wouldn't last long. Unless you were in Wildfae.

One or more of the queens might intervene even then, just on general principle. A bunch of rifle-toting yahoos peppering Faerie with iron or steel ammunition smacks of deliberate provocation any way you slice it.
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: finnmckool on August 23, 2010, 04:28:36 AM
I concur.
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: Wyrdrune on August 23, 2010, 12:35:37 PM
in my group we have a mercernary wizard - you can hire him for all legal stuff you like - as a consultant, farmers hire him to do their weather, a mother hired him to help with her sons sleeping problems (her words were that "the charlatan is cheaper than the psycho therapist), another wanted to know why his house is always burning down, a sheik hired him as bodyguard for his son, because a business partner may have set a djinn on his trail. a little bit like paladin in "have gun will travel".

his teacher who is an npc in the game, is a goldsmith.

i like the idea with the curio shop.

tonight i start another game with another group, maybe there are more wizard carreers :)
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: DFJunkie on August 23, 2010, 02:16:55 PM
You just gave me a potential idea for a Most Dangerous Game storyline.

Poor players.
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: Papa Gruff on August 23, 2010, 04:17:39 PM
The wizard I have planned out, yet have not played up to this point is actually a scholar. I got inspired by the case files where Harry points out, that many of the older council members have literally dozens of higher degrees. I guess I have always appreciated the idea that with long life at some point there might come big boredom and the idea that you could go back and learn some interesting new stuff...

But I digress. My Wizard has an Islamic background and is stated out to be a pretty famous Koran translator / islamic scholar, who gets by on teaching at a college and doing lots of translations as a side job. Compared to other wizards he isn't stated out to be super strong but he has a pretty decent discipline skill and obviously high values in both lore and scholarship.
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: Remy Sinclair on August 23, 2010, 05:05:49 PM
In the game I am running:
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: Brimstar on August 23, 2010, 09:36:01 PM
NPC Wizard I'm cooking up is a professor at a university studying the bio-mechanics of extinct species.  He spends a lot of time hiding the fact he plays with Necromancy to do it. 
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: FangGrip on August 23, 2010, 09:42:22 PM
We have a Sorcerer & Wizard in our game working as Bounty Hunters, along with most of the party although we also have a Focused Practitioner (Biomancy) who is a Massage Therapist.
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: Wyrdrune on August 24, 2010, 07:44:50 AM
in yesterday's group somebody started a gothic hairdresser stylist witch who also sells goth apparel. her room mate claims he is gay, but she's not sure about that.
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: theDwarf on August 24, 2010, 04:34:48 PM
So far we have (in 2 local groups) spell-casting:


That is so far ... still waiting on 3 players to finish their concepts.  One was looking at doing an Alderman but scrapped that idea.
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: exploding_brain on August 24, 2010, 08:47:13 PM
My character uses sponsored magic instead of mortal, but he makes his money as a bike messenger.  Which is part of the reason that he got sponsored by Hermes. Great athletics + supernatural speed = get anywhere in New York City in the least possible time, assuming normal traffic conditions.  You'd think he could make good money from that, but his resource skill is score is mediocre, so I figure he usually can't hang on to the money, in a Peter Parker kind of way.
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: MijRai on August 24, 2010, 09:11:14 PM
A potion-maker who sells breast enhancement potions, hair potions of different types, diet potions, etc. Bob's perfect owner.
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: zcthu3 on August 25, 2010, 04:07:32 AM
You just gave me a potential idea for a Most Dangerous Game storyline.

Poor players.

I had exactly the same thought!
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: JosephKell on August 25, 2010, 04:43:38 AM
Bear Grylls: Man versus Nevernever   :-X
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: HobbitGuy1420 on August 25, 2010, 06:16:40 AM
That's not a goblin, that's just a man in a goblin suit!  And he's staying overnight in 4-star demesnes!
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: Kaldra on August 25, 2010, 05:34:47 PM
I had exactly the same thought!
dido

i think i will start it out the players try and find out why so many people are being killed *cough* "hunted" *cough* in the shanghi tunnles under portland.

investigation leads to the fae playing the most dangerous game

which leads to the reason they started playing

humans hunting in the nevernever

all ties into story arc number one comming to a rpg table as soon as i think of it
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: MorningDarkness on August 25, 2010, 06:18:48 PM
I haven't yet played in a game but I was thinking along the lines of a therapist who specializes in helping people deal with PTSD.  The only thing she ever uses her magic for during work is her Sight to see if there has been supernatural tampering, plus she is a sensitive (kinda like Molly I guess?).  That way, she is helping all kinds of people.  When there is evidence of bad supernatural mojo, she can go in and put a stop to it (covertly or not, depending on the situation).
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: Garraffa on September 06, 2010, 01:33:02 AM
Mine cleans boats!  ;D
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: Dumbledresden on September 06, 2010, 07:08:21 PM
Some of my Ideas for a wizards career:

- Wizard Night-Club Owner:
Wanne party all night with some fairies, but on this side of the never-never?
Best (Potion-)Cocktails in Town!

- Wizard Ghost-Train Owner:
"The Monsters looked so real.."

- Stage Illusionist
Title: Re: Wizard careers?
Post by: KassidyMoss on September 07, 2010, 12:37:29 PM
At the moment I'm playing a wereform but I have a wizard layed out in my head for my next character. She's a musician and plays acoustic at different dive bars. For some reason she never gets invited back to the same one twice... something about their equipment always having to be replaced...  ;)