Character Creation Outline:

1. Concept
   1. Pick a species (confer with Storyguide)
   2. Determine role or profession
   3. Determine appearance, personality, etc.
2. Hooks and Grommets
   1. Motivation
   2. Secret
   3. Important Person
   4. Optional: Personality Traits
   5. Optional: the Three Questions
   6. Spend free Advantage points
   7. Take additional (Dis)Advantages
   8. Optional: Role
3. Attributes
   1. Distribute points at Tier 2
   2. Cascade or consolidate as desired
   3. Add species modifiers
4. Abilities
   1. Distribute points at Tier 2
   2. Cascade or Consolidate as desired
   3. Note Core Abilities
5. Extras
   1. Experience Pool
   2. Resistance Thresholds
   3. Equipment

Concept

• The characters must be able to have conceivably met
  • similar enough environments for meeting
  • similar enough communication abilities for at least assisted communication
  • local enough to make meeting plausible
• The characters must have a reason to stay together, at least initially
• The characters must have a reason for wanting the ship
• The characters must be able to survive aboard the ship:
  • the atmosphere is an unalterable blend of 78.1%N2/20.9%O2/.9%Ar/<.1%H2O, CO2, Ne, He, CH4, Kr, H2, Xe
  • there is no gravity, but accelerations (after gel absorption) range up to 10g
  • doorways are typically 3x2 or 3x3 meters, and passages typically 3x4 meters
  • all other conditions (such as light, heat, etc.) are initially Terran-optimal (1 Atmosphere, 24hr lightcycle, 85 F, 85% humidity, etc.) but can be altered within reason

Hooks and Grommets

Motivation

• your motivation should apply, at least tangentially, to the campaign concept
• a good motivation is not easily accomplished, and will thus take time and effort to achieve
• a good motivation inspires your character to action, so that the Storyguide can use it to involve your character
• your character need not be fully aware of her motivation

Secret

• it should be something that you genuinely care about keeping hidden
• it doesn't matter if anyone else would actually care if they found out, as long as your character would care and/or believes others would

Important Person

• how was this person important? (mentor, idol, nemesis, sibling, etc.)
• it need not be someone your character has ever met
• it need not be a real person

Optional: Personality Traits

• you should start with any species Personality Traits, or explain why you don't have them
• each trait may be anything you choose; some examples:
  • a code of conduct
  • a fear or phobia
  • curiosity
  • compassion
  • shallow
  • industrious
  • a prejudice
• each trait should be rated
  • the normal range is from -3 to +3, but you may take scores as extreme as -5/+5
  • a score of ±1 is a minor trait that motivates the character, but will be easily overcome if necessary
  • a score of ±2 is a major trait that impassions the character, and can not be easily overcome; usually only under great duress
  • a score of ±3 is central to the character, and can be overcome only with heroic effort; even then, usually only through a great deal of rationalizing
  • a score of ±4 is an obsession of core importance to the character's conception of self, and generally can't be overridden and can at best be put off temporarily
  • a score of ±5 is a pathological condition that can not be ignored under any circumstances
• most people actually have three versions of their "self": who they think they are, who they wish they were, and who they think others think they are. to reflect this, each personality trait should be labeled as Apparent, Suppressed, or Concealed
  • Apparent traits are those which are readily known to others, and most often influence the character's actions
  • Suppressed traits are those which do not usually make themselves obvious, and which the character generally does no acknowledge. These can usually only be detected by looking at a character's actions over the long haul.
  • Concealed traits are those which the character is well aware of, but wishes to hide and/or change. Generally only those very close to a character are aware of these.
• a Personality Trait of +2 or higher may affect rolls
  • the Personality Trait adds one less Bonus Die than its rating
  • only situations that directly relate to the Personality Trait may be affected
  • the Storyguide has final say over the appropriateness (and therefore use) of a Personality Trait for a specific situation or action

Advantages and Disadvantages

• You may take as many Disadvantages as you wish
  • Each point of Disadvantage is worth 1 point towards further Advantages
• You do not have to spend all of your Advantage points
• The list of Ads/Disads is far from complete; feel free to propose others

Optional: Role

• hero, hero's reflection, romantic interest [nemesis]
• leader, brains, coward, mercenary, sure shot, muscle, psychic
• smuggler, sidekick, mentor, pupil, princess
• reluctant hero, reluctant hero's reflection, mentor, brash youth, sensible companion
• captain, tactical officer, navigator, security officer, doctor, science officer, engineer
• hero, love interest, comic sidekick
• higher self, mentor, allies, herald, shadow, trickster, threshold guardians, shapeshifter
• favored employee, rival employee, employer
• hero, mentor, threshold guardian, herald, shapeshifter, shadow, trickster

Attributes & Abilities

• to move to a lower-numbered Tier, average all of the ancestor's immediate descendants
• to move to a higher-numbered Tier, carry the ancestor's value to all immediate descendants
• at no time should you have values recorded for any two stats that are in an ancestor-descendent relationship, however far removed

Attributes:

• start with 3 points (at Tier 2)
• cost 1 pt per point of Attribute (at Tier 2)
• range from -3 to +3
• the scale is logarithmic, increasing by an order of magnitude for every 5 steps
• add any species modifiers [0 for all traits for Terrans]

Abilities:

• start with 50 points (at Tier 2), plus,
  • Age modifier [(Age - 16) for Terrans]
• cost 1 pt per point of Ability (at Tier 2)
• Terrans range from 0 (unskilled) to 10 (one of the best in the world)
• the scale is logarithmic, increasing by an order of magnitude for every 5 steps
• you must designate which are your Core Abilities
  • you may have as many or as few as you wish, but the more Core abilities you have, the more expensive it will be to raise any of them

Extras

Experience Pool

• You start with an Experience Pool of 1 die, plus:
  • 2 dice for each unspent Advantage point
  • 3 dice for each unspent (Tier 2) Attribute point (use Tier Factor to calculate equivalencies)
  • 1 die for each unspent (Tier 2) Ability point (use Tier Factor to calculate equivalencies)
• Dice in your Experience Pool can be used at any time during play
  • As many dice as you want may be spent on any roll for your character
    • Experience Dice must be declared before the roll is made
    • Experience Dice may be used as Modifier Dice or Add Dice in any combination
  • You may also spend Experience Dice on someone else's roll
    • Up to 3 Add Dice may be contributed to anyone else's roll, provided that a reason for the contribution can be provided
    • As many Modifier Dice as desired may be contributed to anyone else's roll, provided that a reason for the contribution can be provided
    • You may not contribute both Add Dice and Modifier Dice to the same roll (through Experience Dice)
• Once spent, Experience Dice are gone permanently, though more may be earned, of course

Resistance Thresholds

• Your Physical Threshold determines how easily you are affected by physical trauma
  • Subtract your Physical Threshold from all physical trauma before determining the Wound Degree
  • Your Physical Threshold is used to determine how long you can withstand physically difficult environments, such as wrong atmosphere, being crushed, etc.
• Your Mental Threshold determines how easily you tire
  • Subtract your Mental Threshold from all mental trauma before determining the effect
  • Your Mental Threshold is used to help resist mental attacks (psionics, hypnosis, torture, fatigue)

Equipment

• Choose equipment for your character
• Keep within the reasonable limits of your character's wealth and/or the limits of society
• Anything that is not clearly available and affordable for the character must be approved by the Storyguide