My first attempt at making a list of Upbringings for Sagatafl ended up way too detailed, and looking more as if it was a list of the character's past careers, rather than the career of his parents.
I'm fairly happy with my lists of (Socio-Economic) Classes, e.g. various degrees of Nobility and then Gentry, Noveau Riche, Skilled and Labourer, although I think I want to add Outcast and also the Keltic specialty of Learned Caste (because the high Druids really don't fit well into any of the others).
But orthogonal to Class is Job. What the parents did - and how that rubbed off on the character when he or she was a child. Almost any Job can combine with almost any Class. You can have a mercenary that's so poor that he qualifies as a Labourer, or you can have a Warrior-Emperor, et cetera.
So I need a list of Jobs, for a medieval/fantasy world, that's as comprehensive as possible, but also as short as possible, and which combined with the parent's Class, their Species (not the species of the character, but the species of the parents - that way you can have the fun of a Human raised by Dwarves, as in Discworld, or a Human raised by a Dragon as in William Stoddard's Worminghall campaign) and their Culture, has the effect of priming the character for certain Skills, in a way that's orthogonal to the character's genetic Skill Aptitudes (as derived from Intelligence, Charisma, Dexterity, Agility, etc).
Attributes are the genes, nature, while Upbringings is the nurture, having a much less effect but still (if done right) being very flavourful, and allowing the player the choice of either something that synergizes with his genetic choices or something that complements it.
I don't mind that some Jobs (related to combat) are more attactive to players as Upbringing choices than some others (related to farming in particular), because I have other dials I can tune to compensate for that (certain Upbringings can make the character hardier vs climate and better able to train his Strength and Endurance up, or make the character better able to learn new Languages or new Etiquettes).
So...
Which Jobs should be on the list?
I'm tempted to go for the complication of a list with fewer actual entries but with variants for some entries, so that for instance I have Fisherman as an entry, but then also present Sailor as a variant of Fisherman but with a few Skill differences, because ultimately I think it's simpler than the alternative of having many more entries many of which are very similar to each other.
Clergy (v: Secluded, e.g. for celibate and non-celibate monastics or other group-"hermits")
Commerce (primarily about buying and selling stuff, or in some cases lending money, or selling insurance such as for ship cargoes, although the later AFAIK wasn't done in the medieval period, only earlier and later)
Crafts (primarily about making stuff - much less about selling it)
Criminal (should I have variants for Spy and for Con Artist? Both are very rare in a realistic medieval setting, but that doesn't make them illegitimate player choices)
Fisherman (v: Sailor)
Forrester (v: Guerilla, for use for rangers, proto-ninja and the like)
Generic Girly Girl (the more "fun" aspects of femininity, similar but toned down version of my earlier (Hyper)Feminine II idea)
Generic Housewife (the more boring version of femininity, although it should give a groundedness that can be quite useful, similar to my earlier Feminine I idea)
Generic Real Man (even more stereotypical than Girly Girl, this is similar to but toned down from my earlier HyperMasculine II idea)
Generic Rural (more about what kind of enviroment the character grew up in, and played in as a child)
Generic Urban (as above, more about the enviroment)
Labourer (e.g. for miner, quarryman, builders - but I don't think I need variants for each)
Magic-Worker (since most magic is more based on Psyche than on Intelligence, this is quite distinct from Scholar)
Medical (interesting enought to get its own Job entry, I think, and combined with Class it can be anything from a lowly nurse to a surgeon or a master physician)
Orphan (no parents, substitute parents, foster parents or being taken into a monastery and raised by the monks! Growing up on your own should have some nasty drawbacks, but also give a valuable self-reliance)
Scholar
Sex work (female prostitutes and bed slaves, brothel keepers, gigolos and professional catamites, con artists working the badger)
Warrior (v: Officer, V: General - were NCOs a thing in the medieval period? I know the Romans had them, but did the medievals?)
Wanderer
That's 19 Jobs, including 5 Generics, but have I covered all the major bases? All of the medium bases too?
I kinda like the idea of letting players choose two Upbringings, one for each parent, but... I think that's too much detail, and realistically, in many cases, a mother or father with a rare profession would have a spouse with a generic and boring profession. Not in all cases (unusual people sometimes do end up forming couples), but many (and often when unusual people do form a couple, they both have the same profession, or fairly similar professions).
What did your parents do?
I'm fairly happy with my lists of (Socio-Economic) Classes, e.g. various degrees of Nobility and then Gentry, Noveau Riche, Skilled and Labourer, although I think I want to add Outcast and also the Keltic specialty of Learned Caste (because the high Druids really don't fit well into any of the others).
But orthogonal to Class is Job. What the parents did - and how that rubbed off on the character when he or she was a child. Almost any Job can combine with almost any Class. You can have a mercenary that's so poor that he qualifies as a Labourer, or you can have a Warrior-Emperor, et cetera.
So I need a list of Jobs, for a medieval/fantasy world, that's as comprehensive as possible, but also as short as possible, and which combined with the parent's Class, their Species (not the species of the character, but the species of the parents - that way you can have the fun of a Human raised by Dwarves, as in Discworld, or a Human raised by a Dragon as in William Stoddard's Worminghall campaign) and their Culture, has the effect of priming the character for certain Skills, in a way that's orthogonal to the character's genetic Skill Aptitudes (as derived from Intelligence, Charisma, Dexterity, Agility, etc).
Attributes are the genes, nature, while Upbringings is the nurture, having a much less effect but still (if done right) being very flavourful, and allowing the player the choice of either something that synergizes with his genetic choices or something that complements it.
I don't mind that some Jobs (related to combat) are more attactive to players as Upbringing choices than some others (related to farming in particular), because I have other dials I can tune to compensate for that (certain Upbringings can make the character hardier vs climate and better able to train his Strength and Endurance up, or make the character better able to learn new Languages or new Etiquettes).
So...
Which Jobs should be on the list?
I'm tempted to go for the complication of a list with fewer actual entries but with variants for some entries, so that for instance I have Fisherman as an entry, but then also present Sailor as a variant of Fisherman but with a few Skill differences, because ultimately I think it's simpler than the alternative of having many more entries many of which are very similar to each other.
Clergy (v: Secluded, e.g. for celibate and non-celibate monastics or other group-"hermits")
Commerce (primarily about buying and selling stuff, or in some cases lending money, or selling insurance such as for ship cargoes, although the later AFAIK wasn't done in the medieval period, only earlier and later)
Crafts (primarily about making stuff - much less about selling it)
Criminal (should I have variants for Spy and for Con Artist? Both are very rare in a realistic medieval setting, but that doesn't make them illegitimate player choices)
Fisherman (v: Sailor)
Forrester (v: Guerilla, for use for rangers, proto-ninja and the like)
Generic Girly Girl (the more "fun" aspects of femininity, similar but toned down version of my earlier (Hyper)Feminine II idea)
Generic Housewife (the more boring version of femininity, although it should give a groundedness that can be quite useful, similar to my earlier Feminine I idea)
Generic Real Man (even more stereotypical than Girly Girl, this is similar to but toned down from my earlier HyperMasculine II idea)
Generic Rural (more about what kind of enviroment the character grew up in, and played in as a child)
Generic Urban (as above, more about the enviroment)
Labourer (e.g. for miner, quarryman, builders - but I don't think I need variants for each)
Magic-Worker (since most magic is more based on Psyche than on Intelligence, this is quite distinct from Scholar)
Medical (interesting enought to get its own Job entry, I think, and combined with Class it can be anything from a lowly nurse to a surgeon or a master physician)
Orphan (no parents, substitute parents, foster parents or being taken into a monastery and raised by the monks! Growing up on your own should have some nasty drawbacks, but also give a valuable self-reliance)
Scholar
Sex work (female prostitutes and bed slaves, brothel keepers, gigolos and professional catamites, con artists working the badger)
Warrior (v: Officer, V: General - were NCOs a thing in the medieval period? I know the Romans had them, but did the medievals?)
Wanderer
That's 19 Jobs, including 5 Generics, but have I covered all the major bases? All of the medium bases too?
I kinda like the idea of letting players choose two Upbringings, one for each parent, but... I think that's too much detail, and realistically, in many cases, a mother or father with a rare profession would have a spouse with a generic and boring profession. Not in all cases (unusual people sometimes do end up forming couples), but many (and often when unusual people do form a couple, they both have the same profession, or fairly similar professions).
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