In Broken Swords & Battered Shields, your character follows a series of careers that form a chain, called a career path. Each Career has a set of 5 skills that are there to lay the foundation for that career. Nor every skill in the path will be viewed as such, but that is where you, the player, come in. In BS&BS you have the opportunity to create skills for your character that fit the career. This helps to individualize the characters and careers from each other, lending creativity to the mix.

Within each career are character knacks that give that career and added boost. These knacks might be considered a small power or ability, but each is different from the other. These too, can be created by the player as their character advances through their careers.

Everything in Broken Swords & Battered Shields can be built upon by the creativity of the Lorekeeper and Player alike. Here is a sample career path of a Midnighter for you to see how it lays out in game terms.

PROWLER
CAT BURGLAR
ROOFTOP RUNNER
INFILTRATOR
MIDNIGHTER

PROWLER
This is where you start, traveling the dark back alleyways of the city or town in which you live. You may not have grown up poor but this is the quick way to get rich and also provides the most when it comes to exhilarating. The Prowler uses their stealth and cunning to make their way into a person's home or business with intent to rob them of their personal items. In this, your first career, you will learn to sneak into people’s lives, remove what is dear to them, and sell it. You might even find that your services are needed for what they are- you can professionally break into locked places, (though traps are out of your league right now). If your reputation grows high enough, the guild may find you.

SKILLS: Alertness, Picklocks, Move Silently, Evaluate, and Hide in Shadows

KNACK: Hide Quickly (You have the knack to make yourself scarce, so as to avoid detection. When you feel the need to hide or need to hide to avoid being seen, you just need to make a Luck Roll +15%. If you make it you have disappeared from detection. All those searching for you are at a -15% to their Spot rolls to find your location.