Character Creation.

As described in the game's page, character creation basically consist of you picking one of the ship's crew role(s) to fill, and writing an appropriate background for this character. I'll build your character judged on this background. The more detailed the background, the more easier for me it'll be to select traits and a trouble. Don't make it so detailed that I'll be obvious which traits I'll pick, otherwise, I might as well let you do your own characters at that point. Nah, just give me nice little hints or prods, perhaps some hobbies, likes and dislikes, a few mentions of friends and families, etc.

With a 5 players game, the roles to fill will be as follows (Edit: You can pick more than one since small ship crews might require a person to fill more than one role...):
- Ship's Captain
- Cook
- Doctor
- Foreman (could be same as ship's captain)
- Mechanic(s)
- Mining Technicians/Engineers (yes, plural)
- Ship's Pilot

Padding roles (just in case, but reserved for 6+ players games):
- Chief of Security
- Scientist

Your amnesia will be selective, in that you remember that you're all humans, that you come from Earth or one of their colony worlds, will still be able to speak/read/write any language you know, will be aware of some of the major events of Earth's history and current geo-political climate. You just won't remember your name, what your skills are, each other, etc.

You'll also have a ship which will need to be named (either as part or a group effort or the captain can name her). And one of the Earth factions to pick for your crew.

The main factions are:
- The North-American Conglomerate (NAC): Formed shortly after the dissolution of the U.S.A. after their second civil war. Composed of Canada, Mexico, Cuba, The Dominican Republic, The Bahamas, and most of the former states of the dissolved U.S.A. (notable exceptions part of Alaska captured by Neo-Russia, The Democratic Republic of California, and The Free State of Texas). They banded together as a mean to compete with economic giants such as the Federation of Islamic Nations or the CRP, or for mutual protection against Neo-Russia or the CRP.

- The European Union (EU): Though the European Union has lost a few member countries (mostly dissatisfied Eastern-European countries), it is still going strong. Even the U.K. came back to the fold back in early 22nd century.

- New-Russia: Also often called Neo-Russia. Shortly after some slav countries broke away from the E.U. and joined with (some would be tempted to instead say annexed by) Russia, the country rebranded itself as New-Russia. Neo-Russia has sort of taken the role of the schoolyard bully in the theatre of international politics, often flexing its muscles to remind everyone the extend of its power.

- the People's Republic of China (CRP): The 21st century was known as "the Chinese Century" as China rose quickly as a major political and economic power. Taking advantage of this, it expanded and annexed many surrounding countries such as Honk-Kong, Taiwan, Nepal, Mongolia, and the Philippines. Also, thanks to the "Chinese Debt Trap", also called the "Chinese Money Trap", China managed to secure holdings in many areas all around the world, lending money to impoverished governments, and then seizing lands, assets, and holdings when said government could not pay back the loan and interests... China now treat those territories as modern-day colonies.

- The South And Central American Protectorate (SACAP): The nations of Central and South America, as well as Haiti and Jamaica banded together to protect their own interests when the CRP started seizing a lot of holdings in this region of the world. The straw which broke the proverbial camel's back was when the CRP tried to take control of the Panama Canal.

- The Federation of Islamic Nations (FIN): Shortly after World War III and the following Climate Crisis, most nations of the world started to quickly abandon oil and turn themselves towards cleaner energy. This threatened the oil-rich Arab nations with economic irrelevancy... The solution for those nations was to instead quickly turn themselves towards the development of new technologies and clean energies. Today, the reformed Islamic nations have become the world's leaders in the production of clean and efficient energies.

The Pan-Pacific Alliance (PPA): As the CRP and New-Russia were expanding their territories, many nations of the Pacific and Oceania panicked. Seeing most of latin America bande together for mutual protection, they came upon a similar idea. Today, the PPA is composed of Australia, Japan, New-Zealand, New-guinea, Indonesia, Brunei, the former state of Hawaii, and several of the small micro-nations dotting the Pacific Ocean.

There are still several minor players involved if the party would rather be working for one of them instead...

My eye keeps going to the Ship's Cook, from SACAP (Bolivia).

Premises:
- second career, originally a ______, but had to retrain after "the trial"; serving on board as work-study part of probation
- Enjoys performance arts, be it live music or other stage productions
- dislikes naked authority as opposed to consensus leadership
- parents were industrial magnates, not tycoons but the obsessive workaholic types that never enjoyed their wealth
- brother is a lawyer and represented me during "the trial"
- male, about 30, heavy set but not fat

How's that? Feel free to ask me to flesh that out a bunch more.

A bit on the setting.

Humanity somehow managed to survive through World War III, the Climate Crisis, pandemics, pollution, economic collapse, and much more. Eventually, they took to the stars in search of new resources to exploit and new worlds to colonize. Eventually, FTL drive was created which enlarged humanity's horizon. However, as humanity was reaching starts system farther and farther away from home, they made a strange discovery.

They were alone.

No ruins of a past civilization, no strange messaged coming from deep space, no meeting with little green men, not even the basic building blocs of life outside of the Sol system. Nothing.

This was truly a scary thought. Why are humans alone in such a huge universe? Nobody knew. And since nobody could answer, humanity stopped asking, and the question faded from relevancy. It soon became an after thought as humanity continued to find new worlds to settle and exploit.

The current geo-political climate is a bit odd. While there are tensions, nobody is ready to start another all-out conflict so soon after WWIII and the Climate Crisis. As such, there is a sort of "Cold-War"-like climate among the major powers. Also, while countries still exist, their notions have been greatly challenged by the formation of many fo the world's major factions. Most people view themselves as part of whatever faction their country have joined first, and as countrymen of their respective countries second. As such, the term "country" have come to mean something very similar to the term "state" or "province" in the mind of many: a smaller administrative part of a greater whole.

The Immutable Rules of the Setting:
- Humans are alone in the universe.
- FTL travel is not instantaneous, which requires cryosleep for the longer journeys.

So why am I talking so much about the setting in this section?

Because I want the players to get involved in it. If I make your own characters, how are you supposed to feel attached to them, make them your own? How about by getting involved in the world your characters will evolve. There are many great questions about the setting which needs to be answered, for example: What caused World War III? Why did slavic countries left the E.U.? Why did New-Russia invaded parts of Alaska? What is the name of the FTL drive and how does it work? Where exactly are located the CRP's "colonies"? What other former U.S. states (if any) are independent? What happened to Israel, India, or Korea? Etc.

There are also several minor questions, such as: Has the Federation of Islamic Nation declared any sort of "Economic Jihad" lately? Are there any advanced A.I.s? How is religion in the future? Is terraforming possible, or do most colonies consist of space stations or domed cities? Etc.

Having the players get involved in the "worldbuilding" is also a good way of breaking "ties" for people aiming for the same unique role to fill, with priority going to the person who I feel did the best job in expanding my setting, and with everyone else being relegated to either assistant or back-up.

Sounds good, see the post I was writing as you posted this.

Also, for my game, I need everyone of the crew to be part of the same faction. Worst case scenario, I guess I could allow for a split crew form two factions with good relationships with one another (like any two factions having a problem with the CRP, such as SAPAC and PPA could be seen working together).

Though your character sheets will feel empty, aside from your background, you can copy and paste my character sheet template there in the meantime, allowing it to fill it up as I give you information about your character...Speaking of regaining your memories, I'm thinking of using a few possible opportunities to do so.
- "Learn by Doing": As you try to perform tasks or actions, etc. you'll get to make some blind 5x5 rolls. On a success (or a non-double failure), you'll realize that you're actually capable of performing some actions better than others. The amount of information you gain on your trait will depend on your degree of success...
- "Experiencing the Familiar": Eventually, your character will see, hear, smell, tough, etc. something which can potentially trigger memories of your past. The amount of information gleaned about your character will all depend on how important/meaningful/traumatizing/etc. the event in question will be to your character.
- Simple Research: Let's face it, you're going to be on a spaceship, space is limited, keep poking around and you're bound to find some form of information about your character under the form of name tags, pictures, employee records, etc.
- Spend your Karma Points!: Instead of spending your earned Karma Points on improving your rolls, you could use them to have a breakthrough instead... If you feel your character should have learnt more about themselves from a particular event or scene, or wish to trigger one such event yourself, Karma Points are just the tool to do it.

Character idea below

Faction: happy to be assigned one once there is general consensus, since we have to all be part of the same one. No preference.Is this enough/too much detail for an amnesiac character?

Here's an idea I have for the Doctor..

- Doctor, a skilled surgeon and combat medic, capable of working comfortably in high stress environments.
- An avid artist, when not at work, he can be found sketching in one of his many sketch pads.
- A skilled free runner (or parkour), he's been known to work out in the Ship's cargo bays.
- Although a skilled soldier, something happened in his past, that made him stop utilizing his more combative skills.
- Came from a well to do upper class family. His parents didn't approve of his choice to enter military service.

The concepts are cool, but right now, they're more of a wish list of traits you'd like your character to have. Please do re-phrase those as some sort of more elaborate background/bio (no need to make it a 5 pages short story, but a nice paragraph or two). Bonus points for interesting world-building elements included since, as mentioned above, it will give you priority in the case of overlapping proficiencies.

Partly to answer @Dr_B's query about his robots, and also to impart useful information about the setting to everyone. I see technology in my setting as being this weird mish-mash of old and new. As ship crews spend a large amount of time in cryo sleep on long journeys, technology often have a bit of an "anachronistic" feel where state of the art tech will often coexist right alongside centuries-old tech (yes, this is inspired by the Alien franchise which pulled something very similar with its own lore). Because of this, humanity has adopted a "tough and reliable" approach to space-faring technology, looking for tech that was low maintenance, easy to repair or replace, and quite capable of outliving their user. This has proven to have the potential of saving lives on long FTL trips. As such, this level of sturdiness often come with some level of bulkiness, especially in the civilian sector (military or security sectors are a whole other story). As such, it would make more sense if your small bots are about three or four times larger than a current computer mouse.

I'm thinking of a pilot, leaving any other secondary role(s) up to you.

One of her hobbies is collecting rare pre-WWIII digital media. The rarity of certain media is due to how the CRP invested in digital subterfuge, not only hindering the ability of their opponents to utilize their digital networks, but also actively seeking out and destroying large amounts of data. The effects ranged from the contents of personal computers to the contents of entire social platforms.

Although it was far from total destruction, the CRP's efforts resulted in a fairly significant loss of digital media, and the culture associated with that media. It largely contributed to the loss of confidence in the US government's capability, which in turn, contributed to the eventual dissolution of the US. It also led to the restructuring of the internet.Comes from a low class family, having a bunch of siblings. Being the oldest, she often provided for the family by doing odd jobs. Was scouted into the position after a chance encounter with one of the program's veterans.

I really like your idea about the CRP, the collapse of social media, and subsequent dissolution of the U.S. Exactly the sort of stuff I'm looking for. Really good.

Just make your background something like a paragraph of two, so I get some good inspiration for traits and trouble.

She comes from a colony planet affiliated with the [faction]. The colony planet in question is a typical mining one, with an industry based on extracting various rare earth metals used in FTL drive components. Being the oldest of the seven siblings, she took on work to help support them. She worked as one of the mining technicians in less than ethical work conditions. After a health incident caused from mining, she turned to odd jobs instead, carrying out tasks with varying amounts of legality.

During one of her jobs, which she happened to have a talent for, she had a chance encounter with one of the more eccentric veterans of the [faction]'s [so and so] program. The veteran, impressed by her skill, invited her to the program. She accepted, as it was better than whatever she was doing before.

At present, the seven siblings mostly have lost contact with one another as they went off on their own paths. Some have died or have been arrested, while others have found their way in life.

There isn't really any concept of nations in telespace. Firewalls yes, but borders no. The televerse was central to preserving knowledge and sharing technologies after the collapse. While data is power in the race for rebuilding, the opensource nature and rewindable backups of the archives meant that the obsessive uploading was faster than any amount of sabotage.

Mostly. I didn't believe in quitting. My town was sitting on a good thing, a huge stockpile of ready to process rare earths. Further, one of the remote archive hardpoints was local. With access to the firmware, could one sabotage the televerse, engineer an advantage in the rare minerals markets? How might one do that? Corrupt the instructions that harm rival products? Download the tech deets and erase the originals to create a monopoly? Saturate the archive with misleading information? Without robust industries, the desperate could not afford to safely test the alternatives.

This began the secret telewars, a simultaneous corruption of knowledge while disseminating it through the known universe.

Tried for his crimes in "his part in providing for the pathway for others to work toward to the downfall of galactic civilization through the corruption of universal knowledge", my character was sentenced to retraining. They find the protocols for wiping a mind and replacing the personality with a more pliable one.

Only, those knowledge protocols were also corrupted.

My eye keeps going to the Ship's Cook, from SACAP (Bolivia).

Premises:
- second career, originally a ______, but had to retrain after "the trial"; serving on board as work-study part of probation
- Enjoys performance arts, be it live music or other stage productions
- dislikes naked authority as opposed to consensus leadership
- parents were industrial magnates, not tycoons but the obsessive workaholic types that never enjoyed their wealth
- brother is a lawyer and represented me during "the trial"
- male, about 30, heavy set but not fat

Wow, very nice background Qralloq.

Another piece of world building I though of:
Diamonds. A precious stone right? Wrong. Turns out it's far more common in the universe than we had thought. In the 21st century, scientists had found a large planet composed in great part out of the stuff and found out it was actually raining diamonds on the gas giants and outer planets of our vey own solar system! Even right here on Earth, if the rumors of the great mines discovered in Africa in the 1920s or 30s are to be believed. Eh, tough luck for De Beers, I guess...

Well, anyways, with such a tough and durable material available in such great quantities, humanity would have been crazy not to make great use of the stuff in their tech, right? Diamond-coated body armor, diamond coated hull platings, reinforced diamond glass panes for environmentally dangerous or hostile colony worlds and space stations, diamond data discs, you name it... The stuff has basically found its way in virtually every facets of daily life. Diamond has made life in the future that much easier. I'm not sure how humanity's conquest of the stars would look like if it wasn't for that little clear rock. Yeah, diamonds may no longer be "expensive", but they sure have became "valuable"...

Frederick Lindswirth

a space ship captain who has the reputation of 'getting a job done'. He is not completely without morals but he will try his hardest to bring a ship to its destination and he doesn't ask too many questions. In general he doesn't say two words when one word suffices.

When Frederick manages a ship he trusts everyone to do their best and will listen to reason but he is not the kind of guy who accepts behavior he deems disrespectful. As he is a former rugby player and has a size of 2 metres (6 feet 6 inches) his mere presence is often intimidating enough to teach someone good manners.

Frederick wanted to be a space captain since he was a little child. With 18 he joined the space marine corps of the EU as this was the only way he could afford to go to space. Soon his superiors discovered his ability to perform under great pressure and accomplish missions even when the odds are stacked severely against him
He got his first command of a ship at the age of 32. He liked his job very much but the bureacratic hurdles and the politics in the army wore him down more and more.
If his superiors wouldn't have called him back he could've prevented the fall of space station Centaurus VII. If he hadn't been ordered to he would've never attacked this pirate base without waiting for backup. 56 men under his command died. Surely his superiors always tried to explain to him that he has to look at the bigger picture and that diplomatics and politics play a big role in which battles to fight and which not.
But he didn't want to follow senseless orders just because someone lightyears away decided that he has to fight a senseless battle and therefore he resigned and became a captain for hire.
The first mission of his civilian career that made him kind of famous among his peers was the breaking of the blockade of an EU colony on Proxima Centauri b. New-russian forces blocked any ships from landing on the colony in order to starve it out. Frederick was the captain of a freightship who was tasked with delivering food there.
With a number of daring maneuvers he managed to slip through the blokade three times and subsequently the new-russian had to retreat because their own supplies ran short.

Although he is usually calm on the surface he is in fact restless. Whenever he finishes a job he has the next one lined up. Although he'd probably have more than enough money to take a lengthy vacation he will never rest. Every destination he travels to is just an intermediate step to the next flight he captains.
This has costed him two marriages and the contact to his son.
The only thing he does for relaxation is playing billiard which he is quite good at. He also doesn't say no to the occasional drink.

Frederick got to captain this flight because he got a recommendation from a friend.
The job was to bring a cargo bay full of equipment from the EU to a space station a few light years away, expect pirate attacks... or was it equipment from the SACAP that has to be brought to a farm planet?... no it was seeds for a garden planet of the FIN?... Why doesn't Frederick remember what he was supposed to do?

Very nice background. You went above and beyond what I asked. But now we have EU and SACAP characters. I'm going to ask everyone else to limit their choice of factions to those two then. Without spoiling anything, the nature of my scenario cannot work if everyone comes from a different faction.

I'm not married to the SACAP. I can certainly imagine that as Spanish rather than Bolivian.

I'm willing to fully switch to EU if it's fine with everyone else then.

A little more on the Mechanic:

Gaila Greyox (engineer/science officer)

When you grow up in the modern-day equivalent of a hippie commune on Ganymede, you're almost guaranteed to become a very self-sufficient, hands-on kind of person. The adults at Eldalas, the underwater arcology Gaila called home, had a very hands-off approach to parenting and couched what was basically child labor in the trappings of treating their young with respect.

As a result, Gaila was helping collect samples and conduct tests as soon as she was able to talk and hold the controls of an extraction arm. Eldalas survived and made its living from the aquatic flora and fauna that surrounded it, and she learned early on that sustainability was the key to a thriving community.

She was most at home in the science labs, but also loved heading out into the ocean to help with the excavation of what would eventually become Lethander Station. She thought of pursuing a more formal education in the field, but wound up leaving the moon with Drift, a folk-jazz band that came to perform and wound up finding their lead singer.

Gaila toured with Drift for a few years, but never lost her first love for researh and rocks. She began taking geology courses while on the road. Eventually, this nomadic life lost its appeal and she left the band, opting to make a living on assignments with various mining outfits.

She has close ties to her family, who she sees as much larger than her parents and biological sister. She hasn't been home in quite a while, but sends and receives messages on a regular basis.

Anna MacGregor was born on an earthlike planet settled by an ark ship from the European Union, mostly from what was known as the U.K.

She has a slight Scottish burr to her voice but very subtle. She went to medical school in Ontario.
She has always kept herself fit and as she gets up 8nti her 50s that is paying off.
While in university she competed in the university games in judo.
She always had an ear for languages and can read and speak multiple languages.