Maelstrom Rules - Skills: Career Skills

Key Concepts
The explorer and navigator career skills can only be used between events during downtime. For more information on downtime see Chapter Ten.

Career Skills
Explorer: If you have this skill then you can survey a region during downtime, learning the lay of the land. By spending extra time an explorer can locate any settlements and resources which are in an area. The time taken to survey and explore the New World is reduced if the explorer possesses a crafted telescope.

Navigator: If you have this skill then you can successfully navigate whilst on board a ship. This skill is essential for making any trip in open waters (away from the coast). Any ship that sets sail for the high seas without a skilled navigator on board is unlikely to be seen again. Journey times are reduced if the navigator possesses a crafted telescope.

Staunch Wounds: If you have this skill then you can staunch the wounds of anyone who is bleeding to death from a mortal wound. This slows their bleeding for as long as you continue to staunch their wounds, allowing the patient to survive for longer. You can also use this skill to revive someone who is incapacitated. For more information on staunching wounds see Chapter Six.

Treat Wounds (Race): With this skill, a character can treat the wounds of someone who has received a mortal wound. It takes time to treat wounds and a character may not survive long enough for you to complete surgery and save them. The time required to treat wounds is reduced if you have crafted surgical implements.

You may purchase this skill more than once. Each time that you purchase this skill you must select a single race from the following list:

Avian, Dracoscion, Dragon, Human, Mokosh, Myrmidon, Ophidian, Wemic.

This skill can only be used to treat members of the races that you have selected. You must have purchased staunch wounds to purchase this skill. For more information on mortal wounds and treating them see Chapter Six.

And so it began......

Dawn breaks, war looms, the evil Lord is gathering his armies to wage a campaign of destruction upon the free peoples of the world. It is up to I, Sir Maximilan Pegasus to stop him, with my trusted band of adventurers we must gather the enchanted sword of Tek, the Shield of Way-Lem and the amulet of Subsidence and together we shall slay this abomination! “TIME FREEZE” And bam, the fantasy world fades away, the enchanted sword of Tek in my hand is a rubber sword smothered in coloured ribbons with a laminated card cable tied to the hilt, I look down and I’m wearing plastic armour and unflattering heropants, and the magical world of my imagination washes away to reveal a field in Wigan, but you know what? It’s larp and I’m a larper, it’s what I do.
I started larping when I was 17, I’d never role-played before, I’d never played D&D or Warhammer, never played WoW or any form of online game, I’d never even read Lord of the Rings, I feel somewhat privileged that I hadn’t done any of those things, I think it gave me an untainted attitude towards what larp could be, I had no preconceptions about saving the maiden fair, slaying the dragon or smiting the liche, to me it was just a new thing to try.
It was cold, really cold, 10am on a September morning, the rain was battering down and I’d been given a faux fur tunic, a mouldy old sword and been pointed towards a man and told, “You’re monstering, there’s the ref he’ll tell you what to do.” I obeyed, I played wave after wave of zombies, orcs and various line monsters and to be honest, was cold, bored and hungry. That is, until lunchtime, the teams switched sides, I got into the kit I’d scrounged up, as with most first timers, a black trenchcoat. I took the mouldy old sword, stood with my fellow adventurers and it hit me, I’m a god damn hero!
Pow, there it was, a new larper was born.