Editor’s Note: The content that follows was written by Nathaniel, the author of Barbarians of the Aftermath and the forthcoming Barbarians of Heavy Metal. The original post (and the comments thereupon) can be found here. I’m separating out the design diary portions themselves for easy indexing. -tvp-

PART 3: CAREERS
Ok, a short entry today, as the baby madness around the house is building to a crescendo that will only be nullified once the kid is born.

Here is the list of careers for BoHM. There are 24 in all, and not all of them are Metal enough name-wise, so I’m open to suggestions about names as well as new careers.

Assassin: Even in the 31st century, where being loud and brash is the status qou, there are those who forgo all of the killer noise for killer silence.

Barbarian: It’s a BoX product, so there MUST be barbarians. In the game, these represent pretty much everyone living on the very fringes of headbanger society on primitive worlds so far off the beaten path that planetary society regressed ever further back than the feudal age, to a time of barbaric tribes and clans (that’s right. I said it. The Clans in this universe are actually less advanced than their BT counterparts! Take that, FASA!)…

Beast Master: Somebody needs to be able to train all those rottweilers, snakes and pseudo dragons that headbangers buy to add to their metalocity. Oh, and they train beasts of burden as well, for those who want to be true ‘cowboys from hell…’

Dok: The medical arts are still necessary, although most Docs, as are most educated classes, are typically traveling monks from the ‘Great Church,’ typically because few headbangers have the patience to learn anything beyond basic field medicine.

Flyboy: Pilots of aero-fighters, aircraft that can also travel in space.

Groupie: Basically Courtesans.

Hunter: In a fuedal society, hunting is actually a main source of food. THe best hunters in the galaxy are the members of House Nugent.

Interrogator:Inquisitors, basically, with an extreme dedication to their particular Book of Rock. Their main function is to seek out those who ‘aren’t metal’ enough for their particular segment of the Rocktagon and punish accordingly.

Manager: These are the leaders of Titan Bands, officers of a sort with organizational skill in large scale battles who operate from command vehicles near the back of the line.

Mercenary: There are a ton of military bodies who owe no allegiance to anyone but the highest bidder.

Occultist: The Sabbathites in particular produce a number of mystics and cultists of old, dead religions. These religions are far cries from their antecedents, however, with rites and ‘traditions’ that are usually made up to make them more ‘Metal,’ such as biting the heads off bats or worshiping fictional monsters.

Priest: The ‘Great Church’ is the last bastion of the morals and codes of the ‘old days’ before civilization fell and was taken over by the headbangers. They still send missionaries out into headbanger society, and are actually tolerated for the academic and technical skills they bring with them, skills which are usually unavailable to headbangers or are of no interest to anyone with a truly metal outlook.

Raider: Pirates and planetary raiders are part of daily life in the petty kingdoms.

Roadie: Technical support crew for Titan Bands, they are skilled in construction, heavy equipment usage and drive support vehicles from trucks to tanks. They can repair just about anything that isn’t AdTek, including doing repairs on Titans.

Scavenger: There are those who have been shunned by society for any number of reasons, but typically for not being ‘metal’ enough. They may eventually return to the good graces of the metal community by proving their worth (usually at the cost of proving themselves more metal than somebody else, who takes their place in the scavenger ranks), but most die scavenging scrap and other supplies to sell to survive or join the Great Church, rejoining headbanger society as monks with a different calling.

Scholar: The Monks of the Great Church are the only ones with the patience to take on the more academic tasks that bore headbangers to tears. This is a catch all career that can be used for anything from Lawyers to Accountants to Programmers.

Scout: A combination of forward observer and spy. Sneaky and observant.

Slave: Scavengers are lucky they’re not slaves. Slaves are what prisoners of war become if they aren’t important or rich enough to be ransomed and the degrading life of a slave makes scavenging look like a worthy past time. The only way out of slavery is to escape and hope that you can find someone to take you in just to spit in the eye of your master, survive as a scavenger for a time until they can get back into society, or join the Church.

Soldier: These are the regular troops of the Great Houses and Petty Fiefs and Kingdoms

Tek: Only the monks of the Great Church possess the technical skills to repair AdTek, the lost tek of the ancients, although even they are unable to reproduce such technology and their skills are often shrouded in mysticism.

Titan Rider: The nobility of headbanger society, those who own or can operate these massive behemoths are, by definition, more metal than everyone else. The rock stars idolized by a society of rock stars.

Tradesman: This is a catch all category that allows one to take a career in basic trade skills, like leather working (leather being the preferred clothing of the 31st century second only to flame retardant spandex), farming (something so unmetal that its relegated to slaves) or vehicle detailing (which is how vehicles and Titans get their spikes, metal goblin faces and cool paint jobs).

Warlord: These are the rulers of headbanger society, usually by noble bloodline, who command anything from aa small army to a petty kingdom of linked star systems.

Warp Rider: The warp riders are all possessed of a rare psychic gift that allows them to ‘see’ disturbances caused by space-folds which allows them to steer a ship into hyperspace. They also have slight precognitive abilities which allow them to see a small way into the future, allowing them to plot a course over light years of distance. These individuals are usually identified in childhood and given to the Great Church who trains them in the extremely complex skills necessary for interstellar navigation so that they may keep interstellar commerce alive. As their gifts and skills strengthen they may make longer and longer jumps, and the most advanced Warp Riders, given the title of Navigator or Navigatrix, and can make jumps thousands of light years at a time.

Due to the strange time dilation effects of warp-jumping, most Navigators and Navigatrixes are often centuries older than they look and there are still a few that remember the great war…

Up Next: The Books of Rock…