■ Background · No. 05Disposition · LiferOrigin · Core
Surveyor Class · Personnel
Field Reference · Backgrounds · No. 05

The Specialist

Disposition
Lifer
Origin
Core
Tier mod
Player choice

Solace hired you for one specific skill — surgery, linguistics, locksmithing, demolitions, accounting, performance. Cartography is the job; your specialty is what makes you indispensable when the cartography goes wrong. You're not really a Path-walker by nature. You're a [whatever] who happens to walk Paths now. Your colleagues are field assets; you are sometimes also a field asset, but mostly you are the only person on the team who can do the thing.

Tier modifier

Player choice — +1 to any one domain, −1 to any one other. Pick the domain your specialty most depends on. The +1 may push a Proficient domain to Expert — the Specialist is one of the three Backgrounds permitted to start at Expert tier. Doing so invokes the Cost of Expertise. The −1 should reflect what your specialization cost you — the medic who never learned to fight, the linguist who can't bluff, the accountant who falls apart under physical pressure.

Choose your specialty. A one-sentence concept that defines what you do better than anyone else on the team. Examples: combat medic, forensic accountant, lock and security specialist, classical linguist, demolitions engineer, stage performer, pathologist, bookkeeper. Work with your GM to make it specific.

Perk · Tradecraft

Within your specialty, you operate at a level above your tier. In any roll the GM judges to fall within your declared specialty, you treat your Effective Tier as +1. This stacks with other modifiers within the ±2 cap. The specialty must be narrow enough to be specific.

Signature item options

3 options
  1. Opt 01The tools of your trade, in a kit you've owned and customized for years
  2. Opt 02A reference book, manual, or piece of documentation specific to your specialty
  3. Opt 03A trophy from your most memorable case, contract, or job — the thing you keep to remember you can do this

Hooks

4 prompts
  1. H01I want to apply my specialty to something Solace isn't paying me to investigate.
  2. H02I want to find a colleague — peer, mentor, rival — who disappeared on a Company assignment.
  3. H03I want to be promoted out of fieldwork and back to a desk where my specialty really belongs.
  4. H04I want to discover the *real* reason Solace recruited someone with my specialty.
End of entry · Background No. 05 · Filed by Surveyor Class Personnel