15.12 Profession

This skill mostly exists to support the narrative universe surrounding the players, rather than as a tool for players. If players do take Profession, it’s good to think about when their profession is relevant and reward them for their choice. However, make sure not to let Profession completely replace multiple other skills. In general, Profession can only ever replace a small subset of an existing skill. One way to reward players without making Profession too powerful is by applying a bonus or penalty for Profession-based checks based on the profession’s relevance.

For example, a player with Profession (sailor) shouldn’t be able to use that skill to completely replace the Awareness, Devices, and Swim skills. It’s true that sailors are often good at those things, but players should typically represent that by also having the relevant skills. You could allow Profession (sailor) to be used instead of Awareness (because the player might have spent some time in the crow’s nest as a lookout), but at a penalty since the skill isn’t perfectly relevant. You can also get more specific if you want, such as by saying that Profession (sailor) helps you see distant objects better, but it doesn’t help your hearing at all. This is more detail than you will need most of the time, but it may help you improvise when you need it.