Step 1: Choose a Ship
Your characters will be influenced by the ship you fly, so discuss the ship selection for your game first. Pick the ship now (you can work out more details about your ship later if you want, but start here).

There are three starting ships to choose from:
--Stardancer: Smugglers and blockade runners. Looking to do odd jobs, small thefts, and find lost items.
--Cerberus: Extraction specialists. Looking to find missing people or items and claim bounties.
--Firedrake: Rebels and criminals. Looking to protect the downtrodden and fight the Regime.


NEXT: choose a reputation:
What reputation has your team garnered with the different factions of the sector? Choose one (or create your own):
Ambitious, Brutal, Daring, Honorable, Professional, Savvy, Strange, Subtle.


NEXT: customize your ship:
You begin with a couple of extras based on which ship you choose:

Special Benefit: Choose one of the special abilities below listed for your ship.

STARDANCER special abilities:

--The Getaway: Add +1 when you scramble or helm for the purpose of avoiding capture or running a blockade.

--Appraisal: You gain +1 cred for smuggling or delivery jobs. Whenever you gather info you can always ask, “What is most valuable here?”

--Field Repairs: Add +1 when repairing your ship while in space.


CERBERUS special abilities:

--Licensed: The law is less likely to be suspicious of you, especially while you are under contract to work on any legitimate bounty hunting job. Your ship can carry particle weapons, and your crew can carry and legally use heavy blasters in the pursuit of a target.

--Light Touch: Add +1 when tailing a target, or when gathering info at a target’s previous location.

--Snatch’N’Grab: When you use a deception, infiltration, or social plan to execute a kidnapping or extraction, add +1d to the roll.


FIREDRAKE special abilities:

--Forged in Fire: Your crew has been toughened by cruel experience. You each get +1d to all resistance rolls.

--Sympathizers: Your ideology is especially appealing. When you deal with a crew or faction, the GM will tell you who among them believes in your cause (one, a few, many, or all (there'll be AT LEAST one)).

--Natural Enemies: When you run a job against The Regime, take +1d to the roll (or the first roll, if there's more than one).




NEXT: upgrades:
Each ship starts with 2 upgrades:


Stardancer starts with: Medical Bay: A clean room with medical equipment. No hospital, but sufficient to patch most injuries. Storage for drugs and medical scanners. Add +1d to healing rolls.

Cerberus starts with: Brig: A secure jail on board the ship. Not meant for long-term incarceration, though.

Firedrake starts with: Heavy Shields: Particle sinks and EM deflectors. Can be overwhelmed by focused fire. Counts as armor against ship weapons and energy attacks. Largely absorbs blaster fire.




Then pick one more option from the appropriate list below (you can get more later):


Stardancer upgrade options:

--False Ship Papers: A few well-forged or transferred documents, giving the crew and ship identities that are less wanted in any given system. You have a couple sets you can swap between.

--Dark Hyperspace Maps: Routes through systems that aren’t officially maintained. Sometimes faster. Always less patrolled. Often full of Way creatures, pirates, and other scoundrels. You don’t want to think about the poor fools that died mapping them.

--Science Bay: Laboratory that can be used to analyze anomalies and Precursor artifacts. Secure storage for things that may react oddly with the rest of the ship (or physics).


Cerberus upgrade options:
--Tracers: A wide array of ways to track your targets. Includes tiny bugs that can be hidden on clothes with a suave pat on the back, beacons that can attach to hulls, and even transmission cloners for comms. Legality varies.

--Stun Weapons: A variety of weapons for capturing and securing prisoners without (serious) harm. Includes, but is not limited to: restraints (0 load), stun batons (1 load), stun settings on normal blasters (1 load), even stun grenades (replace detonators on sheet, 1 load), knockout drugs (0 load, may not work on some xenos). Not required to bring on jobs, but useful if you want to claim bounties. Generally legal.

--Personal Vehicle: Sleek single-seater craft that can fold up tight enough to fit into a reasonable parking space. Limited fuel, but can enter and leave atmosphere. Can carry basic weapons, though they can’t seriously damage anything freighter-sized or larger. With this, you also get a small landing bay on your ship.


Firedrake options:
--Black Market Contacts: Able to get you all the modules (even illegal ones) your ship needs, even when you’re wanted. Resourceful. Mobile. May have jobs for you from time to time.

--Secret Base: Perhaps inside ancient Ur ruins on a planet. Maybe buildings inside a massive asteroid. Possibly an old and forgotten station, long abandoned but now repurposed. You have found and commissioned a hiding spot away from the baleful gaze of the Regime where you and your allies can meet, hide, and plan your jobs. It’s secret...for now.

--Popular Support: It takes work to win hearts and minds, but your cause has supporters among the common folk. When you approach a planet or a station, ask the GM who there might be a sympathizer.




NEXT: the GM will tell you about three factions impacted by your choice:

FACTION ONE: The first Faction helped you get your ship improvements. They did you a favor. How do you respond?

--Pay them off. Give them 1 cred (you start with 2) in exchange for a job well done.
--Owe them one. Promise them you’ll return the favor down the line when they ask, and gain +1 status with them.
--Stiff them. No need to pay a faction that doesn’t demand payment up front! Take -1 status with that faction.


FACTION TWO: The second Faction that helped you get an upgrade, you're on good terms with. They like you, and you get +1 status with them. At your option, spend 1 cred to repay their kindness, and take +2 status with them instead.

FACTION THREE: The third faction you maybe kind of stole from to get a ship upgrade-- or that's how THEY feel about it, whether they're justified about feeling that way or not.

They don’t like you, and you get -2 status with them. At your option, spend 1 cred to mollify them, and take -1 status with them instead—- tell me how you spent that money to smooth things over (somewhat), exactly.

You’ll be able get more upgrades in the future by spending cred.



NEXT: favorite contact
Take a look at your potential contacts on the appropriate list below.

Choose one contact who is a close friend, long-time ally, or partner in crime.


Stardancer contact list:
--T’kala, a dockmaster
--Alor, a keen-eared barkeep
--Rakka, a diplomat
--Citani, a reclusive info broker


Cerberus contact list:
--Stacy Weathers, a hacker
--Ishi, a weapons dealer
--Lix, a xeno tracker
--Jezri, a bookie


Firedrake contact list:
--Garin, a Guild weapons engineer
--Ada Black, a famous performer
--Tiko Lux, a hotshot pilot
--Tyura, an ancient Cult mystic



The GM will tell you about two factions that are impacted by your choice:
-One faction is also friendly with this contact, and you get +1 status with them.
-One faction is unfriendly with this contact, and you get -1 status with them.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:22, Thu 13 Oct 2022.