More Troika Goodness

I'm in a giving mood today.

As you should probably be aware, I'm a huge Troika! fan (what's that? See this interview I did a couple of days ago) -- I love the rules lite design, the descriptive and charming character backgrounds, just everything about it. Well, almost everything. I'm honestly not a fan of the character sheet included at the back of the book.

So I had my friend Jim Magnusson draw up some new ones:

I think they are absolutely fantastic!

I also have them stored in a Drive folder for easy access: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0JM-EYYc91td1VuU2pjRlNPQkU

But wait! There's more!

So check these out:

These are Troikan Initiative Bags, which are the best method for tracking initiative in Troika!. They are sold as a set of 30, 10mm dice of varying colors. To understand better, here are the initiative rules from the Troika! rulebook:

5.0: INITIATIVE

5.1 Assemble the Bag. During combat or at other times where it is important who goes first, you will need to assemble the Initiative Bag. To do this, get a container and a selection of coloured dice or other convenient markers. Each player will be assigned two dice of a single colour, while all enemies will share one colour of the number specified by their Initiative Rating or the GM’s whim, and a final single token of a distinct colour will be added to mark the end of a round when drawn (5.3).

5.2 Using the Bag. The GM will remove a token from the Bag at random, the colour of which will determine who holds the Initiative and takes a turn.

5.3 End of round. If the end of round token is drawn then all tokens, including the end of round token, are put back in the Bag. Resolve any per round or end of round activities such as magic effects, fire, poison or bleeding out, then draw another token and carry on.

5.4 Henchmen. If you have any hired help that are willing to fight for you, treat them as their own character that only gets 1 Initiative token in the Bag. 

5.5 Rationale. The random turn length adds a degree of uncertainty where you never know how much time you have left. When actions are not taking place it represents hesitation, panic or other incidental delays that can happen in a tense encounter where every second counts. The goblins have few dice because they are cowardly, not because they are slow; the dragon has many because it knows exactly what it wants, not because it is fast.

They're only £3.50 (plus shipping) for a bag...not, bad, right?

...but how about FREE instead?

So here's the deal: 

I'm going to give away (5) sets of Troikan Initiative Bags. How do you win one? Easy.

Create a new character profession and background for use with Troika!

Troika! features 36 original backgrounds, which are more than enough and cover a variety of options for use in the game, as well as providing details that paint the unique setting of Troika itself.

They mention things like the Million Spheres, Lost Corda, the Phoenix Throne, and fleets of golden ships...a lot of interesting details about a diverse range of places.

So lets add to the setting by providing new professions and backgrounds. Don't worry about details like skills and possessions (unless you really want to) -- all I'm really looking for are new background details to play around with.

Post them below in the comments and, when I have at least 10, I'll pick my favorite 5 and send the Troikan Initiative Bags, along with a bonus surprise, at absolutely no cost.

And, if we can get to 36, I'll have them fleshed out as full character profiles (with skills and possessions) and release it as a free supplement for use with Troika!.

Here's an example character background from the book:

Sorcerer of the Academy of Doors

As a student at Troika’s very own wizarding academy, pride of the city, experts in pan-dimensional mobility, you were able to penetrate the (2d6)th door. You are no master, certainly, but few outside your peers can claim to know more about the vagaries of skyward travel than you.

You are welcome to provide multiple entries, but I'll only pick one per person, so that five unique people can win a Troikan initiative bag.

And besides, who doesn't love having more dice?

Purchase a copy of Troika! here: http://melsonia.bigcartel.com/product/troika

Or grab the free, no-art version here: http://www.rpgnow.com/product/199604/Troika--Free-Artless-Edition