Hudzen 10 Service Mechanoid

4000 Series Service Mechanoid

From The Magazine Rack: Teacher Of Fortune

Just one of many magazines available for download to the crew's personal display units, for a small deduction from their company credit.

Mothman Black IPA

Mothman is the only serious challenger to Leopard Lager as the 'drink of choice' for crews on the deep-space mining ships.

It's a 6.7% strength medium black ale;  however it's usually in short supply as the producers of Leopard Lager have struck a more favourable deal with the JMC

Pure Himalayan Yeti Meat

Shortly after Yetis - aka The Abominable Snowman - were actually discovered living in the Himalayas in the mid-23rd Century, they were promptly hunted to near extinction before being saved by an intensive captive breeding and cloning programme.

This, in turn, resulted in a surfeit of Yetis... a problem solved by the subsequent discovery that they tasted rather nice.

Tinned Yeti Meat has since become a fixture of kitchen cupboards around the globe and throughout colonised space.

Leopard Lager & Curry

Leopard Lager is a popular brand of lager (5.1% alcohol by volume), brewed under license and stocked as standard-issue aboard JMC vessels.

The Red Knight is incredibly well-stocked with supplies of Leopard Lager

The perfect accompaniment for a regulation space curry.

Leopard Premium Lager

Join The Red Shirts: Enlist With Security

Please note the phase pistol is for illustrative purposes only;
firearms are never issued to members of the JMC Securiy Branch, without very special training

INTRODUCTION - CONCLUSION

And finally, your A.I. will suggest you address the following questions to help fill in some blanks in your character's backstory (but not too much!)

The questions are:

1. Who would portray your character in a film?
2. What is your character's attitude to the space travel?
3. What is your character's greatest passion?
4. What is your character's greatest fear?
5. What was your character's occupation before they became a _____?
6. Where was your character's favourite place to hang out on the ship? 

Question one: I've been obsessed with using "actors" to portray player-characters (and NPCs, monsters etc) since I discovered numerous Buffy The Vampire Slayer campaign sites back in the day. I'd never come across this idea before, but it struck me as so obvious and brilliant that it has stuck with me ever since.

Questions two to four: These will, hopefully, give me some character-based material to work with to seed future plot lines. Greatest Passion could - but doesn't have to - tie in to the character's Goal.

Question five: This should bridge the gap between role-playing background material (possible contacts, career knowledge etc) and world-building.

Question six: As with question five, but with even more emphasis on world-building.

INTRODUCTION - PHASE FOUR

First things first, get yourself a Character Sheet and then come back here ...

If you decide to play one of the last surviving humans, or even a hologram of a not-so-lucky human, bear in mind you are not a superhero, rocket scientist, or colonial marine.

Instead, decide what menial role you filled as a lowly drone in Sector 7B, before the "big sleep".

Some suggestions are:

• Telephone Sanitiser
• Chicken Soup Vending Machine Technician
• Refuse & Recycling Operative
• Laboratory Technician, Third Class
• Public Relations Advisor
• Hair Stylist
• Insurance Salesman
• Security Guard
• Personnel Officer
• Management Consultant
• Interior Designer
• Estate Agent

etc

Now you can start to fill in your character sheet -

STATISTICS: 20 points to distribute between them.

SKILLS: 30 points to distribute between them.

ASSETS, LIABILITIES & BEHAVIOUR TAGS: These help define your character by giving you little quirks, personality drawbacks (that earn you more points for skills), and special abilities (such as Courage, Dumb Luck, Rank etc)

VITALS: Flesh out your character with details of age, height, weight, appearance etc

BACKGROUND: Craft a background for your character, including place of birth, life story, family connections, lost loves, deepest darkest secrets, fears and phobias, pets, favourite food etc

DERIVED STATISTICS:

• INITIATIVE = PERCEPTION + AGILITY
• SAVE = STRENGTH + WILLPOWER
• SHRUG = (STRENGTH + WILLPOWER)/2

Your character also automatically gets 1 DESTINY POINT - which can be spent to reroll botched rolls (e.g. crucial skills rolls or key saves).

The AI (gamesmaster) will be able to guide you through all this, tell you how much things cost, update you on the state of the Solar System as it was in the 23rd Century and so on.

Now go to The Conclusion.