The Kids Ain't Alright

on February 6, 2024

D60 fun jobs for kids from an early modern urban fantasy setting, and a quick mechanic for running a gauntlet with child PCs in Shadowdark

D60 Child Backgrounds

I wanted a background table modified to fit my home setting, for use with a gauntlet (funnel, meatgrinder) I'm writing. Longer than the usual d20 because I'd rather not have a lot of duplicates with 24 level-0 PCs.

  1. Acolyte
  2. Alley Guide
  3. Assasin's Page
  4. Babysitter
  5. Barber's Apprentice
  6. Basket Weaver
  7. Baker's Helper
  8. Beggar
  9. Blower's Dog
  10. Bookbinder's Apprentice
  11. Burglar's Protegé
  12. Butcher's Apprentice
  13. Candle Dipper
  14. Coal Breaker
  15. Clock Tower Winder
  16. Cordwain's Apprentice
  17. Crossing Sweep
  18. Cult Chorister
  19. Cutpurse
  20. Egg Collector
  21. Evestrough Sweep
  22. Factory Sweep
  23. Familiar Keeper
  24. Fence's Courier
  25. Flower Seller
  26. Flue Climber
  27. Gong-Scourer
  28. Guild Lookout
  29. Guttersnipe
  30. Highwayman's Squire
  31. Kiln Tender
  32. Knocker-Up
  33. Lint Picker
  34. Messenger
  35. Mudlark
  36. Needle Grinder
  37. Night Soil Collector
  38. Newsie
  39. Pamphleteer's Apprentice
  40. Pinsetter
  41. Pickpocket
  42. Potion Mule
  43. Powder Monkey
  44. Rag-Picker
  45. Rat-Catcher
  46. Rope-Walker
  47. Runaway Scion
  48. Sacrificial Offering
  49. Silversmith's Apprentice
  50. Slaughterhouse Drover
  51. Stage Actor
  52. Stablehand
  53. Stool Pigeon
  54. Taper-Bearer
  55. Temple Virgin
  56. Tinker's Apprentice
  57. Torchbearer
  58. Toshher
  59. Tour Guide
  60. Water Carrier

Running a Gauntlet with Child PCs (NSFL?)

I think to run a gauntlet as a sort of dark, Oliver Twist inspired heist or escape the only modification I would make to the normal rules would be to roll 2d6 down the line for the stats on all the level-zero characters. I'd also allow players to control all four of their level-0 characters at once right from the start, I want the kids to be able to overcome obstacles by sheer force of numbers. When they grow up during the time skip, roll and add an extra d6 to each stat.