Character Creation: Death in Space

Why not, I got a little time and this is quick.

The Game: Death in Space
The Publisher: Free League
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

Another game chosen by the "damn green sticker won't stay on" method.

Anyway, Death in Space is a sci-fi horror game involving a crew of salvagers and other jobbers out in the depths of space. First thing you do is define your hub, be it a space station or a ship, and then...try not to die. Shades of Firefly (and the eponymous RPG), Scum & Villainy, and Alien, and also some games like Mothership and MÖRK BORG that I'm not as familiar with.

Making a character is pretty straightforward and involves rolling dice, which is always fun. First thing we do is roll 2d4 but subtract one from the other to generate stats. This gives me:

Body -2 (ugh)
Dexterity 1
Savvy -1 (ugh again)
Tech 0 

Now we pick an origin, and I'm happy to roll for it. I get solpod:

That's fine, maybe my body's been atrophying. I get a choice between two benefits. Long-lived means I've been around long enough to make friends everywhere, while Old Tech gives me a portable hibernation chamber. I think I'll take the latter. 

More dice rolling to generate details. I get "deep field welder" as a background,"polite" as a trait, and "a person" as my drive, which I'll have to think about. Rolling on look, I get "decorated cape," which is interesting, didn't really picture this guy as a "cape" sort of fella. But I like a challenge. What if it's like a Masonic kind of thing, a cape that's had embellishment added over the years as he's gone up in the ranks of [whatever]? Let's roll on "past allegiance" and see what I did during the War. "Winning side." Well, all right then. The book says that one of the corporations declared that they won the Gem War, but it was by no means a clear victory and really everyone got hosed in the end. So let's say that my guy did indeed work (as a welder) for the "winning" side, but when the war ended he got nothing but a "thank you for your service" and a new embellishment for his cape. 

Probably he'd have tried to get back to a more civilized area, but he knew that his brother had been put into a hibernation pod following a grievous injury, so he followed suit. He hasn't managed to find his brother's pod, but he keeps looking. 

Anyway, roll 1d8 for hit points (5). And hey, I get a starting bonus because my stats suck! Rolling a d6 for that, I get...a pistol. Ooooh. Probably a service weapon. I get a starting kit, which I could roll, but I have a better sense of the character and I'm gonna pick an engineer's kit. And I get a personal trinket, which I will roll: ancient synthesizer shaped like a gun. Must've been my brother's. 

That's it, really. My guy's name is Butler, but his brother used to call him "Butter." Likewise, his brother's name is Cheddem, but he always called him "Cheddar." Butter is older than he looks, but he has the gaunt appearance and slightly bluish skin of someone who's spent too long in hibernation. He has trouble gaining weight and his muscles are pretty atrophied, and he's starting to think that even if he loses a limb he's best served not going back to sleep. But that means he really needs to find Cheddar this time out. 

That'll do it! Like I said, quick.