Space World Pregame Material: Spooks, Link-Flight, and Brace

Between session 0 and session 1, our missing player and co-MC, Jamil created his character: Brace. We added some significant details to the culture of the world to complement him and some custom moves to handle piloting space ships.

Brace

I have less material on this character than I expected. Unlike the rest of us, Jamil didn't record his character on the communal website. I do know that he was an XP junkie and earned many advancements before his story was done.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Originally Brace was a Brainer.

I'm not sure which stat line he took but I suspect it was the one with Cool+2.

His starting moves definitely included Deep Brain Scan. He also might have had unnatural lust fixation.

He began with a violation glove of course.

Like many spooks, Brace seems strange. Thin and angular, his body moves with a grace that is both beautiful and inhuman. Like many of his kind, his skin is pale and his features tend to the striking and distorted.

Brace dresses himself in scraps of pilot gear. Working under Captain Farley he has piloted the Starlight through several dangerous encounters.

The long hours traversing the void of space began the changes to his mind and body that made him the freak he is today. His mind widened he now seeks to use his new abilities to pry into the hearts and thoughts of those around him.

Link-Flight

We planned these ship piloting skills mostly for Brace but we never really used them.

Link-flying is a perception synching method of piloting that creates a direct connection between a ship and its pilot. The procedure improves the reaction time and overall flight control. Prolonged link-flight can cause disorganized, irritable, and sometimes antisocial behavior. These effects are usually temporary, the implications has caused link-flight to remain a “high stakes” utility.

Entering link-flight is a relatively simple process. Exiting link-flight is likewise simple, assuming the ship is in a neutral, non-demanding state. Removal from link-flight during trying and active use can cause physical and psychological damage.

When using link-flight, you get +1ongoing when flying your ship.

When you end link-flight abruptly, or during a trying encounter, roll+hard. On a 10+, you suffer a headache and a nose bleed – nothing more. On a 7-9, choose 1 of the following:
Take 1-harm (ap)
Take -1ongoing for the duration of the scene
You are left stunned, unable to act or make coherent sense of the situation

On a miss, all three.

When you end link-flight in a calm, controlled situation, roll+weird. You are fine on a 10+. On a 7-9, you have headaches, shaking hands, irritability, or the like (MC details). On a miss, you get the effects of a 7-9 roll, plus the experience has a long-term impact on your psyche…

Spooks

This setting detail is important in our initial story. Brace is but one of many Spooks and there are always those looking to victimize them.

Spooks are humans who have been changed by prolonged exposure to deep space. They may possess one or more of the following features:

• Pale, sickly skin
• Unnerving eyes or stare
• Drawn in, boney appearance
• Social awkwardly
• Social ambivalence
• Unnatural insight
• Reclusive behaviors
• Constant sweating, shaking, or shortness of breath
• An invasive, un-ignorable presence

Spooks and reavers may or may not be related but the popular conception is that the two are inexorably linked.

Next time, the first full session!