Certification (mage V20)
Certification
In an age when you need permits for every damn thing imaginable, the right certifications can save you a world of aggravation. With this Background, your character has official papers that allow her to pursue some regulated activity: hunting, driving, operating heavy machinery, practicing medicine, owning certain weapons, and so on. Generally, such activities involve risk, demand special training, affect society at large, or a combination of the three. Simple certifications, like a fishing permit, are easy to obtain, whereas really hazardous or complex activities demand higher levels of certification.
Unless your character has managed to obtain a permit without the proper training, you’ll need at least one dot in a related Ability for each dot in this Background; a medical license, for example, would demand at least four dots in Medicine. Assuming that your character has the appropriate skills (or has paid the appropriate bribes), you can get certifications for alternate identities (see Alternate Identity, above) to reflect a character with the right papers under various names.
Official certifications carry a degree of visibility. Certifications can be checked by the authorities, and although a heavy-weapons permit might let you own some serious hardware, it also assures that you’ll be one of the first people the cops look for when someone commits a crime with such weaponry!
- X -- The usual stuff – driver’s license, government ID card, nothing special.
- • -- Hunting license, business license, passport to an open country, etc.
- •• -- Teaching certificate, bodywork license, PADI certification, CPA, trucker’s or motorcycle license, basic firearms permit, etc.
- ••• -- Concealed weapons permit, HAZMAT disposal license, church-ordained clergy, lifeguard certification, private investigator’s license, private pilot’s permit, etc.
- •••• -- Class C weapons permit, board-certified medical or legal professional, professional aircraft pilot’s license, government intelligence operative, etc.
- ••••• -- Diplomatic immunity, license to kill.
