Fondos

Backgrounds in AAA

In AAA (Alterated Alternity Alternative), your Background represents your character’s life, training, and experiences before they became a protagonist in the current story.

Choosing a Background is a critical step in character creation. It provides:

1. Favored Skills (Purchase Cost Discount): A set of skills that represent your upbringing. When you buy these skills, you pay 1 point less than their List Price (Market Value).
2. Background Ability: A unique mechanical benefit or special trait that reflects your past.

The “Market Value” vs. “Purchase Cost” Rule

To ensure all characters of the same Level have comparable power, we use a simple “Coupon” system:

• Market Value: Every skill has a “Market Value” equal to its List Price. This is what you record on your character sheet to determine your Character Level.
• Purchase Cost: If a skill is Favored (by your Background or Profession), you pay 1 point less to buy it. You get a high-value skill for a lower cost!

Sample Backgrounds

Academic

You spent your early years in universities, laboratories, or libraries. You are driven by a thirst for knowledge and a structured approach to problem-solving.

• Favored Skills: Knowledge, Life Science, Physical Science, Investigate.
• Background Ability [Polymath]: Once per session, you may treat an untrained Intelligence-based skill check as if you were trained in the broad skill.

Ambassador

You were a formal representative of a nation, corporation, or species. You are trained in high-level etiquette, protocol, and the subtle art of statecraft.

• Favored Skills: Culture, Leadership, Knowledge, Interaction.
• Background Ability [Diplomatic Immunity]: You have a +2 step bonus to checks made to avoid legal trouble or gain entry to restricted social events when acting in an official capacity.

Corporate Citizen

You were raised within the high-tech, high-pressure environment of a mega-corporation. You understand bureaucracy, brand loyalty, and the hidden levers of power.

• Favored Skills: Business, Law, Computer Science, Interaction.
• Background Ability [Insider Access]: You have a +1 step bonus to all checks made to navigate corporate bureaucracy or obtain restricted information from corporate databases.

Military Veteran

You served in a planetary or stellar military force. You are accustomed to discipline, chain of command, and the harsh realities of combat.

• Favored Skills: Athletics, Stamina, Tactics, Modern Ranged Weapons.
• Background Ability [Battle Hardened]: You receive a +1 bonus to your base Stun rating, and you ignore the “Dazed” penalty from Stun damage for the first 2 points suffered.

Negotiator

You made your way in the world by closing deals, resolving conflicts, and finding common ground where none seemed to exist.

• Favored Skills: Interaction, Deception, Medical Science, Business.
• Background Ability [Silver Tongue]: When you achieve a Good or Amazing success on an Interaction check to change an NPC’s attitude, the duration of that shift is doubled.

Outcast / Drifter

You lived on the fringes of society, moving from place to place and surviving by your wits. You are adaptable, observant, and difficult to pin down.

• Favored Skills: Awareness, Resolve, Street Smart, Covert Ops.
• Background Ability [Survivor’s Instinct]: You receive a -1 step bonus to Awareness-intuition checks made to avoid surprise or sense an ambush.

Technician

You grew up with a tool in your hand. Whether on a farm planet or a derelict space station, you learned that everything can be fixed if you have the right parts.

• Favored Skills: Technical Science, System Operation, Computer Science, Covert Ops.
• Background Ability [Field Repair]: You can perform a Technical Science-repair check in half the usual time, and you never suffer a penalty for using improvised tools.

Urban Native

You are a product of the sprawling mega-cities. You know how to talk your way past a bouncer, find a black-market dealer, and disappear into a crowd.

• Favored Skills: Interaction, Deception, Street Smart, Awareness.
• Background Ability [City Pulse]: While in an urban environment, you gain a -1 step bonus to all Street Smart and Interaction checks.

Creating a Custom Background

If none of these fit your concept, you can work with your GM to create a custom Background:

1. Select 4 Favored Skills: These should logically reflect your character’s history.
2. Define a Background Ability: This should be a small but useful situational bonus or a minor unique trait (approximate value of a 3-5 point Perk).