Character Creation

This page is devoted to getting you started on creating your own character.

First of all, think about what sort of character you want to play. What are their strengths and weaknesses, how do they think about the universe, their loved ones, their homes, their enemies. Have they struggled all their lives? Had it all from day 1? Do they have magic, and how do they feel about it? Magic-users have limits and affinities - does your character like theirs? What do they want, what will they die for, what do they live for? Or are they still looking for answers, and the meaning to their lives? Or, is that sort of philosophical question pointless, something they'd never worry about? Do you see them yet? Give it some thought, and let's get to building them a body to inhabit.

You will need at least 1 six-sided die (d6). To begin with, you are going to need to roll it a fair amount (we advice you to roll a lot of them at once - it will speed this part up).

First, roll the d6 10 times (commonly written 10d6), and assign them to your Statistics: Force, Finesse; Intelligence, Wisdom; Charisma, Communications; Speed, Agility; Health, Hardiness. Please note how each pair of statistics are linked - the second in each pair may not be greater than the first at this time. Also note, we strongly recommend that a character not start with their Health, Hardiness, Intelligence, or Speed at less than 2. 3 is a much better idea.

GM's Note: This makes an assumption about most characters - ie, that they are young, and not fully grown (16 or 17 in human terms). If you want them to stand out a bit more, or you want the characters to be mature, you can let them re-roll 1s, or roll 2d6 extra and take the best 10 rolls.

Next, roll 2d6 5 times, subtracting 2 from each result - assign these values to the 5 senses: Sight, Hearing, Taste, Touch, and Smell. If a player rolls a pair of 1s, they are allowed to re-roll that set.*

Conversely, you can also let your players buy their stats, instead. In this scheme, each statistic starts at 2, and a player may distribute 23 points across them as they like between statistics and senses, with 3 exceptions: No Refined statistics greater than it's associated Potential, no starting statistic may be above a 6 before you pick species, and a 6 statistic costs 2 points (3-5 are all 1 to 1 for one point). (Again, this is for youths - GMs who want the party more powerful/matured should let them distribute 30, with the same restrictions).

Next, decide on your Species. There are a lot of them to choose from, and many of them modify your basic statistics. Note these changes off to the side! Some species need to roll to find their Soul Piece count.

After that, decide your Spiritual Disposition (though, if you picked Celesti or Touched for your race, this has more or less been picked for you). This won't affect your statistics, but it will determine if you can use magic, and give you some interesting powers. Dead Inside may need to roll for their Soul Piece count.

If you have magic, roll 6d6 to determine your proficiencies, and then once for each Soul Piece you have, to determine its strength, and then assign a type. These are important values for when you want to cast a spell. Traditionally, you should make your best proficiency the one spell type you would like to cast the most, and you should have at least one of each Piece type, assuming you have at least 6. Celeste may not assign more than 3 pieces to one type unless they have placed to pieces in all of the other types. Other than that, you can do what you like. Also, talk to your GM about Paths.

Next, you need to pick your Skills, including any Spell Nodes you want to start with. This game is very free-form in how it does skills. Each skill is a nod e attached to a set of skills on a "tree." As the tree grows, these skills can rise higher, and become more powerful. A player starts with 9000 SP to spend on Tree levels and Nodes, and an Adept rating in your original Language skill (this is for both speaking and writing; some unusually young characters might only start with a Trainee in their first language, and certain (low tech) planets may not automatically get the writing portion of this bonus - but both of these are very rare).

Spell Nodes cost the same as Adept Skill Nodes, and most characters start with no more than 2 of them (Spell Nodes do not have levels). A character should not start out as a Master in any Tree, and may only have an Expert Rating in 1 tree, with their GM's permission. If you do not have at least a Trainee level, you cannot buy Nodes for a tree (though a GM may grant them), and a Tree without Skills is generally not useful (though it does set a character up for taking skills later).

A GM may choose to grant additional Skill Nodes based on character backstory (like an Lt. with a penchant for baking bread as a morale booster might receive a free Trainee Cooking Node of some level). The GM is under no requirement to do so. In certain situations, based on game play and extraordinary efforts, a GM may gift a skill node to a player mid-game, though probably not mid session.

Mostly, the relation between a skill and it's tree is evident, but if you have a question, ask your GM.

There are a few skills that get mentioned often: Melee (F/F), Ranged (F/F), Manual Driving skills (includes most terrestrial vehicles, including ships and airplanes) (F/F), Professional/Craft skills (including scientific knowledge) (I/W), Assisted Piloting/Weapons skills (mostly starships, Gunnery, and Indirect Fire Weapons) (I/W), Language skills (C/C), Performance skills (C/C), Gymnastics/Acrobatics (S/A), Dodge (S/A), Armor skills (H/H), and Resistance skills (H/H). Magic users also have a Soul Tree, which is associated with their Spell Nodes, and affects how they use Magic.

Lastly, there are some derived statistics to generate. Simple Actions are used in combat, and equal a character's Speed +2. A character's Stamina is equal to their Hardiness + Wisdom. Their Psyche total (ie, mental health) is Hardiness + Wisdom + their spiritual stability (5 for Sterlings, 1/8 their soul piece count rounded up otherwise). Vidians should figure out their telekinetic stats, and Sterlings should note their Bright Idea totals.


 * A character may choose to have a 0 Sense, implying an impairment (a 0 Sight implies being permanently blind, for example). A character starting like this is highly unusual - modern medicine, cybernetics, and nanites mean that such defects are rare, and implies certain things about how and where they grew up. Besides the obvious penalty - automatically failing checks for that sense - this limit can affect other things; having no sense of Touch limits the Speed at which a character may safely move, for example (3 units per turn), and a lack of Sight may generate some serious C/C rolls due to things like improper dress, unusual body language or behavior, or the like. In many case, this may translate into some bonuses to other Senses, generally a +1 to two senses (commonly 2 of the following: Sight, Hearing, and Touch). Having no Taste rarely gives any bonus, though.