Backgrounds

Here's some custom backgrounds for After the End. Default backgrounds are fine too, with some modification if things don't work out so well outside of a pseudo-medieval setting. Players are also welcome to come up with their own backgrounds with DM approval.

Caravaneer
Skill Proficiencies: Survival, your choice of Animal Handling or Persuasion

Tool Proficiencies: Vehicles (land), your choice of one game or instrument

Languages: Any one of your choice

Equipment: The gaming set or instrument you chose to be proficient in, a letter of introduction from your company, a set of traveler's clothes, and a belt pouch containing 15 g

Feature: Caravan Contacts

Even after putting aside trading to find adventure, you still have ties to your company. You can get in touch with your old company to find work or to travel across the wasteland as part of one of their caravans. If you stay on company's good side, you might even be able to arrange a discount for you and your companions on goods bought from the company.

Mechanic
You're handy with tools, and have a talent for taking machinery apart and putting it back together. If it's broken, you can probably fix it. Someone's got to keep these rusty, nearly two centuries old machines working, so your skills are in high demand.

'''Skill Proficiencies. '''Persuasion, Athletics

'''Tool Proficiencies. '''Mechanic's tools, your choice of vehicles (land) or vehicles (water)

'''Equipment. '''Mechanic's tools, a pair of welder's goggles, a set of traveler's clothes, and a belt pouch containing 10 g

Feature: Junkyard Jury-rigging

After many years of working in the wasteland, you've had to learn that half decent parts aren't easy to come by. At the DM's discretion, you can perform relatively simple repairs on broken vehicles and machinery even if you're lacking the proper parts and facilities, as long as you have a set of mechanic's tools and a nearby source of scrap and junk. These repairs will not last long, and when the fail the jury-rigged machine can even damage itself further. The same object can only be jury-rigged once unless it has received proper repairs.

Scavenger
The Old Word has left plenty of goodies behind still waiting to be found, and you're determined to be the one to find them. You make a living off of plundering old buildings and selling off what you find. It's dangerous, dirty work, but it's surely only a matter of time before you hit the jackpot.

Skill Proficiencies. Investigation, Athletics

Tool Proficiencies: Thieves' tools, computer kit

Equipment: Crowbar, a random trinket, a set of traveler's clothes, and a belt pouch containing 5 g

Feature: Scrap Trader

Most people see a lot of what you haul out of ruins as nothing more than junk, but stouts and Acolytes of the Machine love the stuff. In exchange for whatever odds and ends you've scavenged, you and a few companions can receive food and lodging in areas largely populated by stouts or followers of the Ghost in the Machine. For particularly interesting finds, clerics may give you and your friends free healing as well. Your hosts will not put themselves in danger for you.