Character Creation: Free Spacer

Last character of June! YES I KNOW IT'S JULY WHATEVER.

Anyway. 

The Game: Free Spacer
The Publisher: Random Alien Games
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

Fun little sci-fi game, this - in the aftermath of Colonial War with multiple factions (that the book names but the players define), you're "free spacers," basically privateers (IN SPACE!). You get anti-aging tech as reward for your piracy, something that not everyone thinks is OK and not everyone can afford anyway. 

I love games that require table collaboration, though I admit Free Spacer made my eyes glaze over a little as character creation ("commissioning") went on. That may just be because I was tired and the air has been toxic of late. 

SO ANYWAY let's make a crew member. 

So, step one, we pick departments. Rather, I pick two stations and get a package for each (huh-huh). Stations don't have to be from the same department, so we don't pick departments so much as pick stations and the department choices are made for you (now I remember why my eyes were glazing over). I don't have any real concept, so I'll roll a d3 to pick a department (Communications) and then d% to pick a station (Linguist). Well, sure, I dig that.

Let's see. All skills start out with a dot (untrained). I then get my expertise die, my trained die, and two specialties in Culture. Let's take History and Linguistics. And then for my trained Skill (Sophontology), I get my trained die and one specialty; I shall take Insight. I think get a free pick in Comms skill (trained and one specialty). I shall take Politic with a specialty in Group Dynamics. And then I get to add mods to my Link, Scanner, and/or Shield tools. I shall add a Comm Browser to my Link, a Firewall to my Link, and a Holoprojector to my Shield.

Any number of ways my guy could go here, but I'm getting inklings of counter-intelligence during the way, which would imply at least some martial training. I'll take Marine as my second station. Same deal here; I get Fitness as my expertise and I'll take specialty in Martial Arts and Endurance. My trained is Pulse Projection, and I'll take Away Weaponry and Artillery. And then for my free pick I'll take Perception (Alertness and Analytics). 

I get to upgrade my Multitool, Shield, and/or EVA here. I'll take a Disruptor Targeter for the Multitool, an Energy Dissipater for the Shield, and the Utility Manipulator for the Multitool. 

Wartime history! I want my guy to have been counter-intelligence, I know that much. Probably that means whichever faction did the most spying, but since faction creation is a group thing, I'm gonna keep it vague. Let's say he worked for "the Outreach Bureau," supposedly facilitating communication and understanding between species and factions.

For wartime background, I'll pick...hmm. Not soldier, but how about Streamer? (Kinda like Youtuber, god help me.) I get trained and specialty in Culture, Economy, and Politic...oh, wait, already trained in two of those, so I just get specialties. C'est la vie. I'll take Anthropology, Trade, and Administration, respectively. And then I get one more gear mod. I'll throw a point into Development Kit for my Link.

Species! Human's fine, thanks. I get a language; I'll pick English to keep things simple. 

Oh, shit, I just realized I'm dangerously close to making Howard Campbell Jr. from Mother Night. Better watch that, don't want to be a space Nazi. 

Recruitment is next, or rather, why am I doing this? I don't want to be indentured, I know that. Let's say Professional. This is just where he ended up after the war. 

Next up, Drive - why I keep flyin'. I'll roll for it. Greed! Perfect. "Can't seem to top 50 mil." 

Special training! I get a bunch of extra skills. First I need to pick two dots in trained skills to bring me up to 9. I'll take Interface and Athletics. Now I pick three more trained skills to take me to 12. I'll take Pilot, Inscription, and Field Dynamics. 

And now we take specialties to take me up to 20. Can I take multiple dots in a given one? Doesn't look like it. OK, so I'll take Comms, Research, Sneak, Melee, Parkour, Hack, and Trace. That makes 20. 

Then I get 5 more tool upgrades. Let's see now. I can take extra dots in this, so I'll put one into Comm Browser, one each into Disruptor Targeter, Damage Boost (under Multitool), and Utility Manipulator, and one in Kinetic Deflector. I get one Contact, so let's say that Henrik Maarten, a colleague from my days with the Bureau. Henrik is still a Streamer, so he's got a good thumb on the pulse of the dataflow. 

Everything else is details, so! We'll say my guy's name is Camric Binnell. Camric is slim and careful, usually at rest but never relaxed, and he has a very dry sense of humor. When he was a streamer, he always introduced himself as "your bestie," so now "Bestie" is what he goes by. 

Camric has shades of Jayne Cobb to me, except, like, not as dumb. I think he'd be likely to weigh the decision to betray his crew carefully and decide that the money wasn't good enough (even if it was), but he definitely thinks in terms of rep and capital instead of ethics and morality. 

And I believe that's it!