To Boldly Go: Character Creation

Originally published February 5, 2014

A few weeks ago, I discussed the design for my had scifi game using the Fate system. This time I will discuss the character creation session and how my players put a unique spin on the universe of the Federation.

I started the session off explaining the rules. Only one of my players had ever played Fate before and it had not been a good experience, so I wanted to get things off on the right foot. We started discussing skills, the section of the rules most similar to other games they have played. From there I covered Aspects which logically led to Fate Points. From there we finished off the explanation with Stunts. All in all I think this went fairly well. I'll have more to say on the rules when I discuss our first adventure.

My players and I had decided many of the details of the setting before hand. The Player Characters (PCs) would be the First Contact Team for the Federation, a united humanity seeking to reconnect to those colonies that fled Earth's solar system during a devastating war. Technology would be mostly realistic except for faster than light travel (FTL) and some gravity manipulation technology. The Federation itself keeps advanced technology contained to avoid changes to society but the colonies are under no such constraint. This allows us to start with a familiar seeming origin point but still explore how future technology might alter humanity.

With this in mind, we discussed the types of characters who might be on the contact team: diplomats, scientists, bodyguards, linguists, and technical sorts. We didn't immediately begin claiming these but instead moved to fleshing out the Federation some more.

My wife suggested that the Federation might have something of a corporate vibe to it. In particular, she suggested that the cause of its restrictions on technology might be because of the advancement of copyright law. The threat of litigation has kept people from innovating too much. The rest of the group seems to like this idea, suggesting that the different sections of the Federation still identify with one corporation or another. People might even had adopted corporate names in the past as surnames as part of a sponsorship deal. We added the Aspect "We love our corporate overlords" for the Federation.

This also suggested that there might be some corporations that fled Earth and its colonies during the war and their mission might be to find out what happened to them. Since we are riffing a bit on Star Trek, I decided a threat for the first arc is one of those corporations. I jot down the Aspect "Samsung!"

The part of Samsung CEO will be played by master villain Christopher Walken

At this point we went on a bit of a tangent but one that served to define some aspects of the setting more clearly. The question came up of what Earth was like in the 25th century and whether the Federation was based there or in the first extrasolar colony of Virginia. while we never quite settled on the answer for the latter question, we did decide that earth was mostly abandoned after the destruction wrought by the war. Those parts that remained inhabited had gained a theme park quality, basically becoming tourist traps for the well to do in the Federation. People would stay at hotels on the moon and visit Earth in day trips, sampling "authentic" cuisine like pies made from apples that had reverted almost wholly to their wild roots.

Earth gained the following Aspects:

• Theme Park Version of Itself
• Reverting to Nature
• Try the Authentic Apple Pie

Next we solidified the current government. We decided that it was sort of a United Nations of corporations, founded to make sure the war never broke out again. Unlike the current UN, it possessed a truly independent military force and thus could establish a lasting peace. They kept dangerous and transformative technology under close guard, maintains a stable society, and worked to restore the damage of the war.

With the basic world building taken care of we started on characters. The results were...interesting. We ended up with a manager/diplomat, a pilot technophile, and a social bodyguard. Here are their High Concepts and Troubles:

Steve Walmart

• High Concept: Mid-level suit
• Trouble: I had no idea she was your wife!

Max Petrobas

• High Concept: Top Gun Technophile
• Trouble: What does this button do?

Rochelle "Rho" Total

• High Concept: Well-Traveled Bodyguard
• Trouble: Don't worry I've seen this before

Overall I'm pretty happy with these. I think Mr. Walmart's Trouble could be more succinct and I think Rho's Trouble could be better expressed as a flavor of overconfidence, but I can definitely see some adventures forming from these.

Next we did the interweaving of stories as we worked out the remaining 3 Aspects of each character. Some of these worked out better than others as you'll see.

Steve started first. As their space vessel reached the edge of known space, the Contact Team decided to get some intelligence of what they might find further out from some Space Gypsies. These wandering comet herders and asteroid miners are a divergent culture that exists on the fringes of the Federation. Tending to being tall and thin with genetically engineered gripping feet and neural interface implant they represent the strangest thing the Federation has experience thus far.

Steve spends the better part of a week pumping them for information and romancing their leader, Mercury Lu. One day she find him typing a report about the Gypsies' safety and copyright violations. This does not over well and he is soon facing an angry spacer with a laser gun. Steve adds the Aspect "It's only business".

Rho then adds herself to the story, acting as his bodyguard she grabs him and gets him away from the trigger happy Space Gypsy. She manages to get him to the shuttle, dodging laser fire all the way. Rho adds "Eye on the Door" as an aspect. Max for her part, explains she was about to get neural interface installed about the time the spacer crew turned on them. she quietly slips out of the operating chair and Rho and Steve find her waiting at the controls for the shuttle. "Time for a smooth get away" is her Aspect from this adventure.

Story 2 starts with Max. After their escape, she plays around with some of the tech she picked up from the Space Gypsies. when she hooks it up to the space ship's systems, a virus infects the computers. Power cuts out, systems go haywire. "It's still got a few kinks," becomes her new Aspect.

Rho happens to be in the ship's gym when this happens. The lights go out and she reacts by lashing out, hurting another crew member. Her aspect is "It's just my fight or flight instinct." Elsewhere on the ship, Steve notices the problem and drawing on his own technical knowledge, initiates a system-wide reboot. "Have you tried rebooting?" is the Aspect he gains from this experience.

As an aside, both Steve's player and I used to work in Tech Support together so this has an extra layer of humor for us.

The final was a tad rushed but concerns Rho encouraging the crew to try a local delicacy: spicy space worms. While Rho handles the alien meal thanks to her high Physique, the red shirts get sick. "Come on, it'll be fun" is her final Aspect. Steve joins in on the trouble making with the Aspect "This would be a great team building exercise." Max abstains from the mildly toxic meal, spending time working out a way to avoid actually eating them until the ship's medical team manages to patch up the rest of the crew. Her final Aspect is "I'm sure I can think my way out of this.."

Wrapping up character creation we look at their skills and see who knows what. I find two gaps in their knowledge: Science and Medicine. We decide to add a doctor and a scientist to the team as supporting characters. I'll have more to say about them next time.