Guide ChapterPlayer References

Manual notePage source details

Manual note details

This page source note preserves attribution details.

  1. issue-385-jobs-section-placeholder-prose: Generated provisional section prose and artifact-style sidebar copy for the Jobs of the Weird Age manual preview without changing job mechanics.

    Provider
    openai
    Model
    gpt-5-codex
    Prompt
    Draft a short EldritchDark Jobs of the Weird Age manual section using existing content-package patterns, the current job page voice, and the noir/pulp Weird Age direction. Link existing job pages and avoid duplicating canonical mechanics or talent-table minutiae.
    Generated
    Not recorded
    Input references
    GitHub issue, GitHub epic, docs/architecture/eldritchdark-manual-preview.md, content/games/eldritchdark/pages/*-job.md
    Target
    page:jobs-of-the-weird-age
    Intent
    placeholder
    Supersedes
    None recorded
    Replacement notes
    Placeholder prose is for manual-preview shape and replacement review., Canonical job mechanics remain in linked catalog-backed job pages.

Jobs of the Weird Age

A job is what the city says you are when it needs a file, a headline, or a toe tag. It is also what you do when the lights go out and the alley starts whispering back.

This section points to the current job references. Those pages hold the job records and talent tables. Read this page for the shape of the profession, then follow the links when you need the table-facing rules.

Dense Weird Age pulp noir Jobs opener showing detectives, grifters, bruisers, mediums, and canary performers waiting under hard lamplight.
SourceProvenance details

Choosing Work

Jobs in EldritchDark are not clean offices with clean names. They are bad habits, old favors, night-shift callings, and the one thing you can still do when the respectable folks lock their doors.

Pick the job that says what trouble follows you. A Muckraker knows which printer will run the truth. A Peeper knows which window was left open. A Medium knows the dead do not keep office hours. A Drifter knows every road has a bill collector waiting at the end.

A button man with a slightly elongated nose offers a job to a grifter with deep-set reflective eyes in a speakeasy back room.
SourceProvenance details

How This Section Works

Each job reference page carries its own job block and job-talent table. This section gives you a street-level entry and a clean way into the same references used by the character creator.

When a job page tells you what dice, gear, spells, or talent table to use, trust that linked page. When this page tells you what sort of trouble the job attracts, treat it as mood and table color.

A worn matchbook, classified clipping, coat-check token, lipstick smear, ash, and rain drops on a bar top.
SourceProvenance details

The Job References

The cards below preserve the existing page ids and slugs. They give each job a case-file face and a quick street read, then lead to the current reference pages rather than copying the mechanics here.

Illustrated Arcanist portrait in a rain-dark library with a locked grimoire, occult light, and no obvious species tell. Restricted stacksArcanistThe Arcanist keeps a library where the dust knows your name. Choose this work if you want forbidden formulae, bad sleep, and answers that arrive already smoking.
Illustrated Bruiser portrait behind a speakeasy with taped fists, broad shoulders, and subtle Saurian scale patches in the lamplight. Hired muscleBruiserThe Bruiser is the answer when politeness breaks its knuckles. You have size, nerve, and enough hard-earned charm to make a locked door reconsider.
Illustrated Button Man portrait in a shadowed corridor with a low fedora, dark suit, concealed weapon, and no obvious species tell. Contract workButton ManThe Button Man speaks softly because the city already heard the gun. Pick this job when trouble needs ending and nobody respectable can be seen near the bill.
Illustrated Canary portrait on a smoky nightclub stage with a brass microphone, spotlight, and faint feathered species details. Nightclub witnessCanaryThe Canary works the room until the room confesses. Songs, smiles, and the wrong kind of miracle all come easy when the spotlight goes sour.
Illustrated Copper or Crook portrait in a station back room with a badge, truncheon, street authority, and no obvious species tell. Two jacketsCopper or CrookThe Copper or Crook knows both sides of the station desk. Badge or burglary, warrant or window latch, you understand how authority gets forged after midnight.
Illustrated Diviner portrait above a pharmacy with tea leaves, a magic bauble, bad omens, and huge Deep One eyes. Bad forecastDivinerThe Diviner reads tomorrow's bruise in today's tea leaves. Choose this path if clues talk first in omens, smoke, and headaches behind the eyes.
Illustrated Drifter portrait in a railroad yard with a worn suitcase, road clothes, luck-token trinkets, and no obvious species tell. No fixed addressDrifterThe Drifter has a road map, two names, and one reason not to stay. When the case leaves town, you already know which ditch keeps secrets.
Illustrated Grifter portrait in a smoky gambling booth with cards, dice, a palmed coin, and a Saurian forked-tongue divot. Confidence fileGrifterThe Grifter sells hope with a clean smile and pockets the change. Use this job when the monster at the table still believes it can win the hand.
Illustrated Medium portrait in a seance room with a radio, candles, family photograph, spirit smoke, and luminous Mi-Go skin. Seance witnessMediumThe Medium takes statements from the dead and invoices the living. The voices are rarely helpful, but they know where the bodies stopped lying.
Illustrated Muckraker portrait at a rain-dark newspaper desk with a press camera, ink-stained notes, and no obvious species tell. Press room menaceMuckrakerThe Muckraker follows ink, money, and blood until one of them runs. You ask ugly questions, keep receipts, and make powerful people sweat through good linen.
Illustrated Peeper portrait on a fire escape with a small camera, jimmybar, stiletto, and Tindalos large-nose profile. Window detailPeeperThe Peeper sees what the city paid curtains to hide. Rooftops, ledges, back stairs, and keyholes are all just different kinds of invitation.
Illustrated Raider portrait near a museum loading dock with a whip, relic satchel, broken case, and Leng horn-like forehead bumps. Forced entryRaiderThe Raider hits first because hesitation leaves paperwork. You bring speed, sharp tools, and the kind of plan that starts with the glass already breaking.
Illustrated Vigilante portrait on a rainy rooftop with a simple mask, long coat, courthouse lights, and Mi-Go deep-set dark eyes. Masked complaintVigilanteThe Vigilante writes justice in bruises after the courts go home. You are not the law, which is fortunate, because the law has stopped returning calls.

Field Notes

The Weird Age needs people who can lie to a gangster, pray over a corpse, read a crooked ledger, kick down a door, or listen to a radio frequency that has no business existing. Jobs are how the manual organizes that trouble.

Keep the job archetype stable in play. Let the exact talent results, equipment permissions, spell details, and other mechanical particulars come from the linked reference pages.