When you level up, you gain a random benefit based on your race or class. Here's what humans get.
You can either roll a d9 for your culture to get a result from a tightly-bound part of the table or roll a d100 to get anything from the entire table.
This is ostensibly for the Middle-earth Hexcrawl project but I think it can be broadly applicable to any fantasy adventure game with humans in it. To keep with the Tolkien/archaic English feeling, I'm using the universal "Man" here.
The Random Dwarf Advancement list is here.
Note: When you roll an advancement option twice, you can either select the option above or below the rolled benefit. However, a few advancements can be upgraded several times or unlock a new art entirely. These are noted in the text.
Men
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| Art by Goran Gligovic |
Breelanders
…When the Kings returned again over the Great Sea they had found the Bree-men still there, and they were still there now, when the memory of the old Kings had faded into the grass.- Art of Smoking: When you smoke for an hour, you can ponder riddles. Tell the GM about something that you believe to be true. They will say: "You don't doubt your guess," "Close to the mark, but not quite" or "You're not sure that's right."
- Brown Paper Package: In a settlement, you may purchase a brown paper package for 1 silver penny. At any time in the future, you may unwrap the package and reveal that it is a generic item of your choice that costs a silver penny or less.
- Caregiver: Through your ministrations, every healing source at camp heals +1 damage dealt.
- Dowser: With a willow wand, you can reliably find a source of water. You automatically fill all water bottles, if at all possible, while camping. In addition, you always have a feeling about the weather on the following day; you can ask the GM to roll early and tell you what it will be.
- Friendly and Familiar: +2 on Beauty rolls to inspire positive reactions from any member of the Free Peoples.
- Never Rains But It Pours: You can outline a contingency plan. On a notecard paperclipped to your character sheet, write a statement that follows this pattern: If X, then I'll Y. When X occurs, your character will always be assumed to have done Y, even if you didn't specifically state it. You can only have one contingency plan at a time, but may change it whenever you sleep.
- Sees Through a Brick Wall: Once per day, you can ask the GM any specific question about your immediate environment and receive an honest answer. For example: "Is there a hidden passage here?" (You can feel the draft.) "Is there anybody waiting in ambush?" (You can hear their breath.) "Is there gold hidden here?" (You can smell the metal.)
- Strange as News from Bree: When you hear a rumour, you may immediately ask the GM a follow up question that will be answered honestly. This question may be as simple as: "Is that true?"
- Soothes the Savage Beast: Your music can tame wild beasts. If you play a musical instrument to calm an animal, make a Beauty Δ6 test. If successful, you influence its reaction, stepping it up one positive degree.
Dunlending
…in the hills of Dunland a remnant lingered of an old people…- Chanter of Swords: Once per day, if you would fall unconscious, you may continue to act for a number of turns equal to your Strength bonus. Each time you suffer additional damage in this state, you must pass a Strength Δ6 test or take a Critical Wound (A).
- Fierce Folk: When you Maraud, you move 5' (1") for every 1 movement point spent (instead of 2) and then make an attack against a foe within 5' (1"). As normal, your total attack bonus is rounded down.
- Geas: Once per year, you can state an event and an effect that will occur if it occurs. Choose from the following lists or write your own:
Event:- When iron floats upon the water
- When the mountain weeps tears of stone
- If fire burns without consuming
- When the dead tree blooms in winter
- If a star falls into the sea
- If a mirror shows no reflection
- When seven bells ring as one
- If the firstborn denies their name
- When the serpent swallows its own tail
- The [Noun] will fall
- The [Noun] will return
- The [Noun] will pass to [Person]
- The price will be paid
- The harvest will [fail/be bountiful]
- The [Event] will come to pass
- Keening: Once per day, you may weep over a companion who has fallen unconscious or suffered a Critical Wound and heal damage equal to your Understanding score.
- Sign Searcher: When the company Explores a hex, ask the GM to give a hint about the random encounter table. They'll give you a clear indication about one of the encounters (preferably one you haven't yet found).
- Uncanny Music: You can play the strange music of the highlands. Once a day, you may instill a frantic feeling through your music in everyone who hears your song. You must play a song in full (not during a battle) with an instrument to activate this ability. Choose one of the following effects once your song is concluded:
- Confidence: The listeners are inspired to try things they otherwise wouldn't. They overcome their fear or pride and are willing to undertake actions that are out of character with only a little cajoling.
- Dance: The listeners get up and dance around—even the animals!
- Imbibe: A drinking song gets everybody thirsty. If strong drink is available, everyone has a bit more than is good for them.
- Laughter: A chorus of laughter that lasts about as long as the song itself: a listener can only act during this time if they marshal themselves with a Skill Δ8 test.
- Mock: You perfectly lampoon an action or performance previously heard that evening—it is no longer considered seriously by those in attendance for the rest of the night (but cooler heads may prevail later).
- Warrior Poet: At the end of the battle, if you were victorious, you may say a stanza of a poem (at least two lines) and reduce your damage taken by 1d6.
- Warp Spasm: Your muscles ripple, cords tighten, eyes bulge. You may take 1d6 damage to perform a feat of great strength: lifting a gate, breaking a sword, toppling a column. This never deals extra damage directly in combat, but may have damaging consequences.
- You Call That a Hangover?: When you Carouse, if you suffer a negative effect, you also gain temporary +10 Endurance. These Endurance points last until you take at least 10 damage.
Easterling
"I have crossed many mountains and many rivers, and trodden many plains, even into the far countries of Rhûn and Harad where the stars are strange."- Deadeye: You may take 1d6 damage to gain +4 to a missile attack.
- Horse Archer: You gain +1 to missile attacks while fighting from horseback.
- Long Under His Eye: You are resistant to fear damage.
- Nomadic: You take only 5 damage (not 10) if you make a forced march without resting.
- Patterning: Choose a tradition of divination: augury, astrology, haruspicy. You can spend an hour practicing this art to ask the GM: "If I do X, will Y happen?" You receive a "yes," "no," or "maybe" answer by interpreting the signs at hand.
- Peregrine: You gain +2 Movement.
- Reaver: When you Maraud, your Critical Wounds are treated as one letter higher (A->B, B->C, and so on).
- Truthspeaker: Once per day, you may say something you know to be true and convince all who hear you of its veracity. This doesn't apply to lies or half-truths, nor does it compel anyone to act—just to believe you.
- Voice of the Last Desert: You have trained your voice to be heard across valley or plain. Your voice always rises distinctly and is always heard by those you wish to hear it. Your commands can be clearly heard by members of your company in battle. Your words always rise above others in a debate. You can make yourself heard at a whisper only by those you wish to hear it.
Gondorian
"Well," said Boromir, "when heads are at a loss bodies must serve, as we say in my country. The strongest of us must seek a way."- By Our Vigilance: You gain +2 to melee attacks and +1 Defense when you are within 5' (1") of more than one enemy.
- Judge of Men: Once per day, after you have asked someone a question and received an answer, you may ask the GM any follow-up question related to their response and intuit the answer.
- Mountaineer: When you serve as the company's Guide, treat mountainous hexes as normal terrain, not difficult terrain. The difficulty for you to orient the company in mountainous hexes is Δ6.
- Onward in Battle: If you spend a Hope to heal in battle, you may distribute the healing you receive to companions that can see you and hear your voice. For example, if you spend one Hope to heal 1d6 and get 4: you may heal 1 damage yourself and heal a companion 3 damage.
- Tall: Add +4 to your Strength score for the purposes of your carrying capacity.
- Trained in the Houses of Healing: In combat, you may use your action to forestall a Critical Wound that results in death—as long as you minister to them, they will not die (if the death was not instantaneous). During a journey, your job can be "Healer." Each day spent ministering to a companion reduces one of their Critical Wound in severity and speeds their recovery—the GM will determine exactly how this works.
- Warden: If you spend your turn protecting someone else, they add your Defense+2 to theirs. If an attack still would strike them, you may take the damage instead.
- Watchful: Long have you watched for dangers from the East. If you are surprised, you still have a 5-in-6 chance of acting.
- Worthy Boast: Make a boast of a feat that would gain you renown in front of your companions and peers. You gain a +2 bonus to tests that directly further your attempts to fulfill this boast. You may only have one such boast active at a time.
Rohirrim
"They are proud and wilful, but they are true-hearted, generous in thought and deed; bold but not cruel; wise but unlearned; writing no books but singing many songs, after the manner of the children of Men before the Dark Years."- Charge: During the first round of combat, you may move and attack as a fast action: each movement point spent allows you to move 10' (2"). Additionally, you gain a +2 bonus to melee attacks during the first round of combat.
- Do not Lie, Are Not Deceived: As long as you have not told an untruth within the last fortnight, you may ask the GM if a character is lying to you. The GM will tell you honestly.
- Fey Mood: You may go into a fey mood at will. You take +1 damage and deal +2 damage.
- Impale: When you deal a Critical Wound with a spear, you may immediately make a second attack against another enemy adjacent to you.
- Ride of Ruin: You gain an additional +1 to melee attacks while fighting from horseback.
- Saddle-Born: When you serve as the hostler, you may care for three steeds instead of two. All steeds in your care gain +1 Movement.
- Shieldbearer: While wielding a shield, you gain an additional +1 Defense. If your shield is sundered, it deals 1d6 damage to your attacker.
- Shield Wall: You gain +1 to melee attacks and +1 Defense when you are within 5' (1") of an ally with a shield.
- Storyteller's Memory: You can recall specific images very well. You can ask the GM questions about the details of anything you've seen or heard.
Northmen
Great was the clash of their meeting. But the white fury of the Northmen burned the hotter, and more skilled was their knighthood with long spears and bitter.- Beast Speech: You realize that you speak the tongue of some bird or beast. The GM either chooses a valuable beast tongue to learn or lets the player make the choice.
- This advancement can be taken many times, learning new bestial tongues each time.
- Berserk: You may enter a rage when you fight as a fell action that consumes your entire turn. While berserk, every other turn when you take a Melee action you make two attacks instead of one. You cannot flee from combat while in this state, which only ends when all foes have been defeated. Anyone who has harmed you in combat counts as a foe.
- Bold: When fighting a foe much bigger than you (like a troll, giant, or dragon), deal +1 damage.
- Bolster Hearts: As a fast action, say a line of poetry or boldly shout your war cry. All companions who can hear you gain +2 to their rolls until your next turn. (If you never get another turn because you fall, the bonus lasts for the rest of the combat.)
- Courage of the North: At any time, you may choose to permanently reduce your Strength or Skills scores by 1 to permanently increase your Endurance by 2d6.
- Fetch Soul: If you forego rest and healing for a night, you may send out your spirit in animal shape. In your dreams, you see what your fetch soul sees. Choose a location in your hex for your fetch soul to explore. Then, roll a d6. On a 5-6, you can find nothing. On a 1-4, you may ask the GM a number of specific questions equal to the die result and receive an answer of what your animal spirit sees. For example: "Is the door to the tower locked?" "Is the tower guarded?" "About how many goblins occupy the tower?"
- Furious: If you would fall unconscious in combat from damage taken, test Strength ΔX, where X is your Endurance - Damage Taken. On a success, you remain conscious and active. This test must be repeated each round as long as your damage taken exceeds your Endurance.
- Skin Coat: If wearing no armour or leather armour made of the hide of a beast you slew yourself, gain +1 Defense.
- Winter Hardy: You are resistant to cold damage.
- Skinchanger: If you gain the advancements of Beast Speech, Berserk, Fetch Soul, and Skin Coat, you automatically unlock the special Art of Skinchanging. When you wear a ritually created animal cloak, you may take on the shape of a particular beast.
Southron
But I've heard tales of the big folk down away in the Sunlands. Swertings we call 'em in our tales; and they ride on oliphaunts, 'tis said, when they fight.- Acrobat: Gain a +2 bonus on all Strength tests related to leaping and climbing. Additionally, you treat falls as if they were 20' shorter.
- Avert the Evil Eye: You practice powerful taboos that avert the gaze of evil. When you fail to sing a Song of Power or when the GM rolls a Notice (an 11 on the wandering encounter table), you may choose to take 1d10 damage to negate the result. A gentle reminder to the GM once per session that you have this ability is always helpful.
- Chainbreaker: Take 1 damage to free yourself from any non-magical chain or restraint. Additionally, you gain a +2 bonuses to pick locks, break down doors, or escape imprisonment.
- Follow Through: If you defeat an enemy, you may spend movement points (moving 5' / 1" for every 2 points spent) and make another attack during the same turn.
- Marked Face: You know the secret of combining herbs with potash, oil, and dyes into a temporary tattoo, and gain the right to wear such marks. An herb's power can be "held" as a tattoo and called on when you need it. Calling on a tattoo herb's virtue is a free action that requires no movement points. The herb's virtue is held in reserve until you next bathe.
- Mind Over Matter: You may take 1d6 damage to perform a feat of uncanny contortion, agility, or discipline: dislocate your thumbs to slip free of manacles, squeeze through the bars of a cell, or balance on the tip of a spear.
- Serpent, Coldest: You are resistant to poison damage.
- Song of the Oasis: Whenever you would benefit from healing at camp, you heal +2 damage.
- Subtle Attacks: If you are wielding a one-handed weapon and nothing in your off hand, your Critical Wounds are treated as one letter higher (A->B, B->C, and so on).
Umbarim
The fleet came at last to that place that was called Umbar, where was a mighty haven that no hand had wrought. Empty and silent under a sickle moon was the land when the King of the Sea set foot upon the shore.- Ambusher: If you surprise your foes, your Missile or Melee actions allow you to make two attacks during the first round of combat.
- Charmed Net: In a river or sea, you always catch something with a net you have woven yourself (but it might not always be pleasant).
- Dour: What can go wrong, will go wrong. When you rest for the night, you can meditate on this. Ask the GM if there's something you're not thinking about that would cause trouble for your next day's plans. The GM will give you an honest answer.
- Flickering Presence: Once per day, you may choose to either be the most noticeable or least noticeable person in a crowd. This effect lasts for about ten minutes.
- Pearl Diver: Gifted with the ability to deep dive, you can hold your breath up to 20 minutes.
- Sea Legs: You gain +2 to swimming or piloting boats. Moreover, you will (almost) never drown (though you will shrug off burdens such as armour in the process of swimming).
- Squall Witch: +2 bonus to tests while in bad weather.
- Sword Dance: When you fight with a weapon in both hands, you may treat your 2d6 attack roll as two separate d6 attacks against two separate foes, adding your melee attack bonus to each dice.
- Unforgiving: If an enemy misses you, you gain +2 on your next attack against them.
Woodmen
There were many of them, and they were brave and well armed, and even the Wargs dared not attack them if there were many together, or in the bright day.- Brotherhood of the Hunt: If you wear the antlers and hide of the stag, arrows you fletch can wound targets normally only harmed by magic.
- Bow of White Ash: After an opponent has rolled their attack, you may choose to sunder your bow instead of suffering the damage.
- Fletchery: Each arrow that you craft that strikes a target only breaks 50% of the time. (Normally, arrows that hit cannot be recovered.)
- Forest Harrier: You gain +2 to any test to set up an ambush in the forest. Also, you gain +2 to your attack during the first round of combat.
- In the Shadow of Dol Guldur: Take 1 damage to see through an illusion created by sorcery.
- Master Hunter: The job of Hunter only costs you 2 movement points.
- Resourceful Herbalism: When using an herb, a single use can be stretched to benefit two targets simultaneously.
- Woodcrafty: When you serve as the company's Guide, treat forest hexes as normal terrain, not difficult terrain. The difficulty for you to orient the company in forest hexes is Δ6.
- Wood Wary: While in the forest, you are never surprised.
All Men
- +1 Valour
- +1 Strength
- +1 Beauty
- +1 Skill
- +1 Subtlety
- +1 Understanding
- +5 Endurance
- You may gain this advancement up to 3 times.
- Armour of Heroes: If wearing no armour, reduce damage taken by 1 (to a minimum of 1).
- You may gain this advancement up to 4 times.
- Artifice: You can forge items of enchantment.
- Battle Scarred: Once per day, when taking a Critical Wound, you can roll twice and choose which effect to receive.
- Bravery of Blood: When fighting next to a kinsman (a man or woman of your nation), you gain a +1 to attacks.
- Leader of Men: If you roll this advancement again, it upgrades. All kinsmen fighting with you gain +1 to attacks as well and +2 bonus to Morale.
- Charmed Life: Once per day, after an opponent rolls their attack, you may choose to reduce the damage or Critical Wound to 0.
- Dour-handed: If you've taken damage equal to half your Endurance, you deal +1 damage.
- Fleet: Gain +2 Movement.
- Foresightful: Once per month, when you sleep, you may ask the GM a question. The GM provides either a clear answer or a source for a clear answer through a dream.
- Lore-master: Gain 2 Lores of your choice.
- Master of Horses: A mount you name and provide care for for a month no longer makes Morale tests (unless its rider falls) and gains a bonus of +10 Endurance.
- Best of Breed: If you roll this advancement again, it upgrades. One horse you've named and cared for can be trained to go beyond the limits of their breed. They gain +2 Movement. They can understand the common speech and obey your commands as well as a page.
- Resolute: You heal +2 damage from Hope.
- Heirloom: News comes to you that a relative has died and bequeathed you a strange object (the GM randomly rolls a magic item) or great wealth (5+1d6 gold florins), your choice.
