Wildcard Skill: Innkeeper!

Taverns

The innkeeper is somewhat meant as a joke class in Taverns. She is something of a very flexible jack-of-all-trades. Want a fighter? Get some strength and weapon skills. Want a thinker? Get some IQ and knowledge skills. Like the Scholar previously mentioned, her strength is super flexibility. Let's see if we can make wildcards work with her as well.

The Basics

Since we have to decide on one specific set, among all the things an innkeeper can be, let's go with one of the pieces of advice on p. 8, and go for the "social genius" archetype. You could literally go any which way with the bartender, but wildcard skills need a focus. We could make one called Everything! but it would cost about 35 points per level for the DX+1, IQ+1, and Basic Speed -.25, and a bunch of 1-point perks to be able to use certain skills without prerequisites. So we are going to make a wildcard skill for a talkie type bartender who's a bit less magically and musically inclined than a bard, a bit less underhanded but just as pragmatic as a thief, and not quite as classically trained, but still battle-competent like a swashbuckler. First piece of this exercise is to look at the bare minimum required skills:

• Brawling
• Crossbow
• Fast-Draw (Knife)
• Knife
• Wrestling
• Professional Skill (Bartender)
• Carousing

We have a mandatory 16 points invested in 5 DX skills, 1 IQ skill, and 1 HT skill. These according to the wildcard book account for about 4.5 skills. A lot of them are easy, hence the low number. We got some decent wiggle room on the way to our target. Adding the recommended skills to the list puts us right on target for the appropriate skill count for a wildcard skill. All of them come from the secondary skills choose 8 category, so we can remove them from that list, and now we are at a total of 30 points, and can only choose 1 other skill from the secondary skills category if using the wildcard skill. It would be nice to find a way to apply another 6 points to the skill to reach the next break-point as well. I think since we will be taking the smooth operator talent off of the advantage options, one other option to add to the template would be to move 6 points from the advantages to the investment in our wildcard skill.

As an aside, I feel like a broken record right now, so let's call the skill "Innkeeper!" for now. I wouldn't say it is the only interpretation of an innkeeper, but it is one.

Wrapping it all up

If a player takes the Innkeeper! wildcard skill, remove the option for the smooth operator talent from the Innkeeper template. Remove Brawling, Crossbow, Fast-Draw (Knife), Wrestling, Professional Skill (Bartender), and Carousing from primary skills. Remove options for Fast-Talk, Merchant, Diplomacy, Detect Lies, Intimidation, Streetwise, and Sex Appeal from Secondary Skills. Only allow selecting 1 secondary skill, or exchanging it for 2 extra points in Innkeeper! Allow shifting up to 6 points from advantages to Innkeeper! The skill is defined as below:

Innkeeper! (IQ)

Skills: Fast-Talk, Merchant, Diplomacy, Professional Skill (Bartender), and Streetwise. Make a DX roll for Brawling, Crossbow, Fast-Draw (Knife), Knife, and Wrestling. Make an HT roll for Carousing and Sex Appeal. Make a Per roll for Detect-Lies. Make a Will roll for Intimidation.

Suggested Benefits: Skill bonus applies to reaction rolls on anyone to whom he or she extends hospitality.