Character Creation

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Aug 21, 2024 12:39 am
Post your character concepts here.

We'll discuss Aspects and Skills and (if everyone's agreeable) work through a bit of a Session 0/Phase Trio to fully build out the characters here.

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Player Characters start with:
5 Aspects- 1 High Concept, 1 Trouble, 3 Additional)
Their High Concept should be:
1) compatible with being a colonist who ended up on the backwater of Farley's World whether you were born there or went there to hide from the authorities in the galactic core, etc.
2) something that along with your skill set (see below) would reasonably get you selected as a competent member of the first contact team

10 Skills which use the standard rankings: 1 Great (+4), 2 Good (+3), 3 Fair (+2), 4 Average (+1)

But a couple of significant modifications:
1) I'm intentionally limiting stunts to make character's dominant abilities more focused overall-- characters get either: 1 Stunt/2 Refresh or 2 Stunts/1 Refresh
2) There will be a Custom Skill set (open to further editing) which will be somewhat less generalized:
Athletics
Burglary
Deceive
Empathy
Engineering/Repair (i.e. Craft in the rulebook)
Fight (Close/melee combat)
Gunner (Shoot - vehicular weapons)
Information Technology (ability to understand/use/hack computer systems)
Linguistics
Marksman (Shoot - hand weapons)
Medicine
Notice
Physique
Piloting (Ability to fly atmospheric craft and orbital craft)
Provoke
Resources
Science (per field)
Rapport
Stealth
Will
Xeno-anthropology/archaeology (study of alien cultures/structures--the former has focused on the study of certain planetary phenomenon and whether or not they are the result of an alien culture, the latter is a theoretical science).
Xenobiology

I'm going to utilize the Conditions rules from Pg 18 of the Toolkit--in place of Consequences; these (like Consequences in the Core rulebook) are negative Aspects you can take to lessen the shifts of Stress dealt to you. Unlike Consequences, these are static/pre-defined and wear off in a fashion that I think may flow better with PbP:
Fleeting (go away when you have a moment out of conflict to rest)
1 Dizzy / 1 Scared
Sticky (stay until treated or someone succeeds in calming the character down)
2 Injured / 2 Shaken
Lasting (must undergo successful treatment and it persists until recovery is completed)
4 Severely Wounded / 4 Depressed and Demoralized
Aug 21, 2024 6:15 am
I don't have a full concept yet, but my initial thought is to play a kind of con-artist. There is a rumor that Farley has hidden a treasure somewhere (I will make up more details about that. It's one of those publicly known secrets). Nobody has ever found it, so most think it's a fairy tale, but nobody has ever searched this far out yet.

My character is a scientist but only an intern. Well below the needed experience for this venture. But he's great at talking himself out of things. Or in this case into things.

Would that be ok or do we really need a crew that's up to the task in a serious way?
Aug 21, 2024 6:19 am
I'm thinking of a character with a high concept like "Gifted Communications Engineer and Cryptographer." Basically someone who came into attention as an early discoverer of the radio burst transmissions and who has been trying to coordinate efforts to try and translate whatever language they were using.
Aug 21, 2024 6:58 am
I'd like to play someone who's been assigned to keep the nerds alive. I could go straight soldier/mercenary if that's the vibe, or more logistics/space engineer.

Either way, I'd like my trouble to be something like "These damned nerds don't understand how dangerous the world is".

Thoughts?
Aug 21, 2024 10:28 am
As a high concept I am towards a space engineer or space architect or a scientist (physicist?)...
Aug 21, 2024 2:25 pm
natknight says:
I'd like to play someone who's been assigned to keep the nerds alive. I could go straight soldier/mercenary if that's the vibe, or more logistics/space engineer.

Either way, I'd like my trouble to be something like "These damned nerds don't understand how dangerous the world is".

Thoughts?
I like it, every pack of nerds can use a nerd wrangler.

Maybe something like a Lieutenant Commander of the Colony Security Service? Something where you're high enough that the folks in charge know who you are, but not too high where it's a question why you would be sent on a potentially dangerous away mission.
Aug 21, 2024 2:27 pm
Ooh, based on natknight's idea for his Trouble aspect, mine could be something like "Your curiosity can get you into real trouble sometimes."
Aug 21, 2024 6:13 pm
I've made a character sheet, edited from the Fate Condensed one I already had. I haven't changed the consequences part yet as I'm unsure about it. If it looks good to you, @MinMin, I can share it with the other players.
Last edited August 21, 2024 6:13 pm
Aug 22, 2024 1:50 pm
TheGenerator says:
I don't have a full concept yet, but my initial thought is to play a kind of con-artist. There is a rumor that Farley has hidden a treasure somewhere (I will make up more details about that. It's one of those publicly known secrets). Nobody has ever found it, so most think it's a fairy tale, but nobody has ever searched this far out yet.

My character is a scientist but only an intern. Well below the needed experience for this venture. But he's great at talking himself out of things. Or in this case into things.

Would that be ok or do we really need a crew that's up to the task in a serious way?
I think that'd be fine (always good to have a scoundrel). You could even have a fun Trouble along the lines of something like 'Not Really Qualified to Be Here' which seems to open itself to invoking, etc. You'd just need to come up with a good excuse as to why you got chosen--you talked your cousin on the selection committee into appointing you or you had presented someone's research paper that you'd stolen from the last batch of files from the Core as your own, etc.
Aug 22, 2024 2:00 pm
Responding to these as I go, sorry for the delay.
natknight says:
I'd like to play someone who's been assigned to keep the nerds alive. I could go straight soldier/mercenary if that's the vibe, or more logistics/space engineer.

Either way, I'd like my trouble to be something like "These damned nerds don't understand how dangerous the world is".

Thoughts?
It looks like this relates well to the more scientific roles the others are aiming for, so it should all fit together nicely.

In the campaign section I pencil sketched out the armed forces. You could be something direct Army type rather than the Orbital Guard (who's kind of a play on the Coast Guard, in the sense they do a ton of day to day stuff but aren't really geared towards war).

It's a quibble, because we can always invoke it the same way, but I might suggest rewording the Trouble just slightly into something more character motivation focused so that it's 'I'm the Only Thing Keeping these Damned Nerds Alive'

With the difference being the nerds are going to be oblivious nerds on their own, the compel will be making you put yourself in danger to save them, etc.
Aug 22, 2024 2:16 pm
virtualbasement says:
I'm thinking of a character with a high concept like "Gifted Communications Engineer and Cryptographer." Basically someone who came into attention as an early discoverer of the radio burst transmissions and who has been trying to coordinate efforts to try and translate whatever language they were using.
virtualbasement says:
Ooh, based on natknight's idea for his Trouble aspect, mine could be something like "Your curiosity can get you into real trouble sometimes."
I think these are both great--the team would definitely be prioritizing adding someone who'd been involved in detecting and studying the communications, and it gives you and nat fun ways to play off each other.
Aug 22, 2024 2:38 pm
MinMin says:
think these are both great--the team would definitely be prioritizing adding someone who'd been involved in detecting and studying the communications, and it gives you and nat fun ways to play off each other.
Awesome! I'm going to try putting a character together, if that's cool. Then I'll share it for feedback and/or critique, since I'm not super familiar with the system (I just grabbed copies of the core book and toolkit from DriveThruRPG)
Aug 22, 2024 2:57 pm
Alepous says:
As a high concept I am towards a space engineer or space architect or a scientist (physicist?)...
Sure thing, there would definitely be a scientific component to the team.

In a general sense we'd just need to work out the exact character concept:
space engineer--so assuming that's something like a ship's engineer somewhere between the mechanic on the Orbital Guard fleet or someone who is designing craft/devices for space those have clear applicability. And will be someone who can also try and figure out alien tech encountered, etc.

space architect--I'm a little less clear on, are they designing orbital stations etc.? But you know that type of concept seems plausible and that type of knowledge/skillset would probably overlap with what is above.

Physicist or other scientist is straightforward and works. And in truth I'll probably try applying science skills a bit more broadly because I'm splitting them. I didn't want one Science skill that makes the PC a genius at everything, but I also don't want to have someone create a Physicist and be like 'hah, sorry that's Chemical Thermodynamics, no bonus!'

So, knowing Physics will make you generally knowledgeable at Math or other sciences to a lesser degree. The overall goal is to keep it from making someone too smart at figuring out every mystery of alien culture/technology.
Aug 22, 2024 4:26 pm
TheGenerator says:
I've made a character sheet, edited from the Fate Condensed one I already had. I haven't changed the consequences part yet as I'm unsure about it. If it looks good to you, @MinMin, I can share it with the other players.
Very nice, the Condiitions would look more like this:
https://i.imgur.com/17vKtr0.png
Aug 22, 2024 8:54 pm
MinMin says:
You'd just need to come up with a good excuse as to why you got chosen
I was thinking I assumed the identify of the person who was actually planned to join the mission. And that would be my trouble. But reading your suggestions, I like that it's less complicated and accomplishes the same thing.

Going to have a think about it and create a draft.
Aug 22, 2024 11:09 pm
I went ahead and filled out a character sheet also. I'm still thinking aspects past the High Concept and Trouble - I thought that would probably come up during this session 0-ish chat.

Also, let me know if I have the skills listed correctly.

I wasn't sure what to make my main science skill so I put Applied Mathematics (Cryptography) and I figured dealing with communications gear would fall under his Info Tech and Engineering/Repair skills. Let me know if you have any thoughts or suggestions.

https://gamersplane.com/characters/custom/30364/
Aug 23, 2024 1:50 am
I also submitted a character, and I like that spin on the trouble! I was also thinking it could compel me to jump in or be protective when I should really be hanging back, or slow me down because I’m being too meticulous.
Aug 23, 2024 6:53 am
Here's my sheet, in case anyone wants to use it. You can just click the 'create character' button and then fill in a name. It will create it for you.
[ +- ] Character sheet
Last edited August 23, 2024 1:28 pm
Aug 23, 2024 1:57 pm
Will this initial adventure involve multiple "sessions" or just one? Trying to see if a 'once-per-session' stunt would be worth it or not.
Aug 23, 2024 4:32 pm
Oh, nice sheet! I'll rework my character to use that. :)

Edit: updated draft character: https://gamersplane.com/characters/custom/30376/
Last edited August 23, 2024 4:51 pm
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