Character Creation: Nemesis 382

I am, still, behind on my chargen posts. Been having problems working up the inspiration and the focus to do it, as I rather feel like I'm teetering on the edge of "fuck it" a lot more than is comfortable. Unlike the past year, though, "fuck it" feels less like "find a high structure and jump off" and more like "cut off all contact with anyone that I don't physically see on a regular basis, because the internet is dark and full of horrors."

(This is no one's fault, but it doesn't help that since G+ is going away, the traffic on my blog is dropping. It's not like there were ever a lot of comments anyway, but it does feel like I'm talking to myself. Which is fine, I'm not doing this for money or love, just for the hell of it, but still, it does contribute to the feelings of isolation.)

WOW TOO REAL. Anyway.

The Game: Nemesis 382: The Point of No Return
The Publisher: Pelgrane Press, as part of Seven Wonders
Degree of Familiarity: None, reading it now.
Books Required: Just the one.

 

Nemesis 382 is a game about exploring a black hole, but apart from that, it's meant to be hard sci-fi. First step is to set the tone, which for my purposes isn't really important, but the default is tension/horror and I'm fine with that.

Next step is to set the scene, but that would consist of the GM reading out a brief passage. The gist of it is: It's 2237, we've got FTL travel but for the average person, life isn't much different because space travel is hella expensive. We're on the cusp of a new frontier - traveling into a black hole to see what (if anything) is in there. The hole in question is Nemesis 372, a supermassive black hole. The ship is the Albert Einstein III.

So, my first actual step for character creation is my role on the ship. I don't think I want to be the captain. I like Corporate Sponsor, for some reason, and I also like the idea of playing a mechanic or maintenance tech (which are kinda opposite ends of the spectrum, as I think about it). I think I'll go the latter and play the ship's Mechanic.

Next question: Where is my character from? My character grew up in Germany, but his family is from Belarus. Figure that there has been plenty of conflict in that part of the world in the ensuing decades, and he and his family got forced out (and it's not like the US was accepting refugees).

Name and description. His name is Mikalaj Rusiecki, but folks on the AEIII call him Nico. He's in his late 40s, heavyset, bald, wears a short beard (once black, now grey). He likes to sing; most of the songs he knows are in German, but he knows a few in Belarusian. (He does speak Russian, but prefers not to.)

Why did you join the mission? Nico is a good mechanic and he knew the right people. He and his wife divorced a couple of years ago and he's estranged from his daughters, so he doesn't have a lot keeping him on Earth. He took the job because it's a job - it pays well and it'll be interesting, and his dad taught him that you don't turn down work.

What did you leave behind? Nico's left behind his family in a literal sense, and his country and culture in a more abstract one. He hasn't fully internalized that, in all probability, he's not coming back from this.

The only other thing left that I could do on my own is decide whether Nico really wants to go into the Black Hole or not. And I'm gonna say no, when it all comes down to it, he'd rather live on Earth and try and to fix things with his family, but that may not be in the cards.

The other part of chargen is deciding relationships with other characters, but since it's just me, that's me done.