A spacesuit-clad tech struggles to repair the warcraft's sensors, field generators, and torpedo magazines, even as the vessel suffers another barrage from enemy starfighters. Propelled by a flickering fusion drive, a pilot plunges the spacecraft deep into Jupiter's gravity well, attempting a slingshot maneuver even as the gas giant's atmosphere attempts to drag down another victim. The freighter's weary crew shambles into a neon-drenched spaceport bar, eager for some R&R after their recent escapades on an interdicted moon. The exploration team descends into the lightless chasms of a derelict megastructure, the spotlights of their antigravity harnesses playing across inscrutable machines left behind by a long-dead species of galactic architects.

Science fiction explores imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced technology, space exploration, artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, parallel universes, the possibility of extraterrestrial life, possible aftermaths of postapocalyptic annihilation, and much more. This means a near-future setting where aliens attack Earth and a setting on a megastructure halfway across the universe set a few billion years in the future are both science fiction even though the Venn diagram for what's shared between these two games is probably slim.

Despite science fiction's wide-open space, the genre usually focuses on how the situation affects society and especially the characters caught up in the setting. In our case, that means the characters you'll play as you delve into your GM's sci-fi game. You'll face themes related to transhumanism, dystopian societies, extinction, and probably a lot of exploring the unknown, likely using tools and other equipment that lie far beyond modern technology (or tools you've scavenged from a devastated modern world).

Though science fiction is rife with unreal things, it's often grounded in some kind of real-world framework of potential technological advancement and shared history. In any case, science fiction can attempt to be predictive while providing a compelling game, narrative, or, in some cases, a warning of what might happen if we don't change our ways. There are literally dozens of popular sci-fi subgenres. The Cypher Character Rulebook focuses on three: hard science fiction, space opera, and postapocalypse.

Beyond all the setting details, types help distinguish the setting. For instance, in a hard science fiction setting, you might play an Engineer, Diplomat, Soldier, and so on. But in a postapocalypse game, you have the option to play as a Survivor, Heavy, or Tender---people just trying to stay alive after the world has ended.

These skills are appropriate for hard science fiction and space opera games. Some of these skills are tier restricted, meaning there's a minimum tier requirement before you can become trained or specialized in them.

Astronomy

Athletics

Attacking (tier restricted)

Biology

Charm

Chemistry

Crafting

Cybernetics

Deception

Defending (tier restricted)

Disguise

Driving

Engineering

Escaping

Forensics

Gathering information

Geology

Gunnery (tier restricted)

Gymnastics

Hacking

Healing

Heavy equipment operation

History

Identifying

Initiative

Intimidation

Lockpicking

Magic lore

Mathematics

Mining

Navigation

Outdoor survival

Perception

Performance

Philosophy

Physics

Pickpocketing

Piloting

Piloting spacecraft

Psychic lore

Psychology

Publishing

Recognizing motive

Religious lore

Riding

Scavenging

Stealth

Systems operation

Tracking

Zero-G fluency

As a PC in a hard science fiction game, you can expect a setting that is potentially years in the future---maybe even a few hundred, after humans managed not to wipe themselves out, but instead colonized the solar system. In such a scenario, colonies stretch to the moon, a variety of space stations and orbitals, Mars, cloud cities in Venus's upper atmosphere, hollowed-out asteroids in the asteroid belt, and many other outposts farther out on the moons of various supergiant planets. Your challenges come in dealing with the limitations of real-world science (vacuum, the effects of low gravity and acceleration, long ship travel times, and so on) even as you work with and against various factions, new technologies, and maybe the implications of brand-new discoveries that threaten to set what everyone has long accepted as the standard limits of science on their head.

If you've read or watched the Expanse series, you're familiar with a particular type of hard science fiction setting. Other examples might have a contemporary setting where some new element threatens to upend society, such as in The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin and The Power by Naomi Alderman, to name just a very few.

Hard science fiction scenarios are so potentially numerous it's hard to specify any one setting. For instance, an entire hard science fiction game could occur in and around a generation ship hurtling between the solar system and the nearest star system, Alpha Centauri.

Core Character: Before choosing a type, create your core character.

Skills: Refer to the Science Fiction Skills list for skills you can choose from when creating and advancing your character. Your choice of background skill, and possibly the extra skill you might get if you also choose a meaningful inability, also come from the same list of genre skills.

Character Species: Hard science fiction settings usually center on Humans (in the absence of any real-world evidence of aliens), whether or not your GM is using the optional species rules.

Foci: The list of suggested hard science fiction foci is more restricted than the larger list of space opera foci because some technologies (and many environments) commonly portrayed in space opera are not likely to ever be developed or found. Perhaps other foci are available in your game, but possibly only after the discovery of some previously unknown alien supertech.

Suggested Foci for a Hard Science Fiction Game

Builds Allies

Carries a Gun

Controls Beasts

Doesn't Do Much

Entertains

Explores

Fights Dirty

Fights Unarmed

Fights With Panache

Fuses Flesh and Steel

Fuses Mind and Machine

Hunts

Infiltrates

Leads

Masters Weaponry

Never Says Die

Performs Feats of Strength

Sneaks Through the Shadows

Solves Mysteries

Stands Like a Bastion

Talks to Machines

Tends to the Wounded

Works for a Living

Equipment: In addition to one set of clothing, you get to choose items from the Science Fiction Equipment table; you start with six inexpensive items, five moderately priced items, one expensive item, and enough extra currency to buy a moderately priced item. Instead of picking your own equipment, you can just choose the equipment bundle described in your character type, which has items already picked out for you.

Manifest Cyphers: These cyphers are available only in settings where weird prototypes or mysterious alien tech exist.

Wound Treatment: Hard science fiction tends to be a realistic genre. Using treatment to remove a wound takes ten minutes for a minor wound, one hour for a moderate wound, and one week for a major wound.

Currency: The currency underlying price categories
in a hard science fiction setting usually are nonphysical credits controlled by a hidden financial network, accessible by a variety of different machines, including your character's smart device.

Background Options: Each type includes suggestions for your character's background. Choose one or create your own.

Genre Abilities for Your Science Fiction Character: At tier 3, your character gains a mid‑tier ability from the list of Science Fiction Genre Abilities at the end of this section, and at tier 6 you gain a high-tier ability from the same list. In addition, at tier 6, you can replace one of your mid-tier genre abilities with a different mid-tier ability. See that section for additional stipulations that might affect your science fiction genre ability choice.

Diplomat

Engineer

Medic

Noble

Operative

Pilot

You play the long game while everyone else is reacting to the latest provocation. You know how to smile, flatter, and offer gifts to your potential new ally, even when you'd prefer to jump across the table and strangle them. Sometimes less obvious means are required for negotiation. When possible, you try to discover as much as you can about who you'll be talking to. If they won't do as you ask initially, perhaps they'll make a deal in light of something they need that you can help arrange---or, if you're not above making veiled threats, because you know something they'd prefer not come out.

You understand others, so you're probably someone who can advise and assist teammates and serve as an intermediary between your allies and strangers. Many times, a bit of diplomacy---or a bit of distraction through verbal diversion---is what allows the rest of the team to reach a sensitive location, talk your way out of the same, or, when the stakes are really high, avoid escalating tensions.

You gain all of the following benefits:

Connected (2+ Intellect): You know people who get things done---not just respected people in positions of authority, but also a variety of online hackers and regular street criminals. These people are not necessarily your friends and might not be trustworthy, but they owe you a favor or two. When you use this ability, you remember or otherwise establish a level 2 contact you can reach out to in a specific location. You and your GM can work out the specifics.

Effort: Increase the level of the new contact by 1.

This ability renews when you access a new location or when at least a month has elapsed in the same location where you last used this ability.

Enabler.

At tier 3: You can establish two contacts in a specific location simultaneously.

Fast Talk (1 Intellect): When speaking with an intelligent creature who can understand you and isn't hostile, you convince them to take one reasonable action in the next round. A reasonable action must be agreed upon by your GM; it should not put the creature or its allies in obvious danger or be wildly out of character. Action.

Inspiring Suggestion (2 Intellect): Choose an ally who can see and easily understand you. Suggest a specific action for them to take, such as "attack the leader" or "climb the wall." If the ally chooses to take that exact action on their next turn, they gain two assets on that task. First action.

Choose the following equipment bundle to quickly outfit your character, or assemble your own starting equipment.

A briefcase (vacuum-proof), a surelock (to keep others out of your briefcase), appropriate clothing, an extra set of very fine clothing, a smart device (glasses, badge, ring, or the like), a breather, an environmental tent, an everlight, two days of rations and water, a grooming and toiletry kit, and eyeshades. Your character also starts with currency equivalent to a moderately priced item.

Listen to those engines hum! Wait, are those harmonics in spec? For you, every machine is a potential opportunity to learn something, to fix something, or maybe even to make something new---however temporary---from its parts. If you don't know something, you know what archives are most likely to contain the blueprints or other answers you need, even if that knowledge is encoded in restricted databases.

You're a maker, a fixer, and a hard-edged knowledge worker with real-world experience in all kinds of scenarios. Because of your presence, your team's mission is more likely to succeed, rather than fail for want of a turbo encabulator.


You gain all of the following benefits:

Connected Knowledge (1 Intellect): You can connect to restricted data (via an implant, a handheld device, a robotic drone assistant, or the like) that isn't publicly accessible. Ask your GM a question and get a short but accurate answer if you succeed on an Intellect task. The difficulty is routine if it's something anyone could learn via their own method of access, level 3 if the sensitive or secret knowledge is primarily an engineering or scientific topic, and level 5 or higher if your GM decides the information is particularly sensitive or secret, whether scientific in nature or not. Last action.

Expert Engineer: You are trained in engineering.

At tier 6: You can become an expert in engineering if you are already specialized, but you must gain the skill normally (such as from a character advancement).

Modify Device (3 Intellect): You quickly jury-rig a piece of equipment or a power source in order to repair or upgrade it. This requires access to appropriate parts and tools.

Repair: If you succeed on an engineering task (difficulty equal to the device's level + 1), you temporarily repair a piece of broken equipment or an inactive power source to get a few more uses out of it.

Fully repairing a device---as opposed to the jury-rigged repair of Modify Device---is often possible, but usually requires at least a few days, specialized tools and parts, and the application of resource points ).

Upgrade: If you succeed at a difficulty 3 engineering task, you make the device function about 25 percent above its rated specifications. When you take a ten-hour recovery, the device breaks, requiring a full repair (as opposed to another Modify Device task) to regain its original, unmodified function. For example, you could overclock a medium blaster so that it deals 1 additional damage, modify a food printer so that each cup of coffee made with it tastes better, modify a spacecraft's engine so that its acceleration is improved by 25 percent, and so on.

Whether you repair or upgrade the device, it now has a depletion of 1--6 on a d20 (check each use).

Ten minutes to complete.

At tier 3: The modified device's depletion improves to 1--2 on a d20.

Choose the following equipment bundle to quickly outfit your character, or assemble your own starting equipment.

A set of tools specialized for engineering, appropriate clothing, a backpack, a smart device (glasses, badge, ring, or the like), a breather, an environmental tent, a bolt cutter, an everlight, two days of rations and water, a grooming and toiletry kit, and eyeshades. Your character also starts with currency equivalent to a moderately priced item.

You fix people, reknitting their flesh, patching their ruptured organs, and coaxing their shattered bones back together. Your bedside manner doesn't really matter, especially when your skills are called on during disaster or war. And your comportment matters even less in situations when you use your medical knowledge and supplies to disable foes---sometimes, no one expects a medic to fight back.

Your role on a team that routinely encounters challenging environments or conflict is crucial. Without your expertise and care, the group's next job could prove its last. Luckily, you can also handle yourself in a fight. In fact, either hard experience or professional training means you're not someone who needs protection when the situation sours.

You gain all of the following benefits:

Bad Medicine (2+ Intellect or Speed): With access to a medical field kit (or similar equipment), you deliberately misuse a medication normally meant to heal, such as a skin spray, injector, or similar device. Make an attack against a creature in immediate range; the medical device is a light weapon (the attack is eased). If you succeed, they can't take any actions on their next turn.

Effort: Instead make the creature unconscious until you use a recovery (requires two levels of Effort).

Action to prepare medicine; action to attack.

Bad Medicine doesn't allow you to exceed your normal Effort limit.

Expert Doctor: You are trained in healing.

At tier 6: You can become an expert in healing if you are already specialized, but you must gain the skill normally (such as from a character advancement).

Prepared Medic (2+ Intellect): With access to a medical field kit (or similar equipment), you can use treatment in half the normal amount of time or treat twice as many wounds for one character in the normal time. Enabler.

Choose the following equipment bundle to quickly outfit your character, or assemble your own starting equipment.

A medical field kit, appropriate clothing, an armored bodysuit, a smart device (glasses, badge, ring, or the like), a breather, an environmental tent, a single-use vacuum suit, an everlight, two days of rations and water, a grooming and toiletry kit, and eyeshades. Your character also starts with currency equivalent to a moderately priced item.

A medical field kit allows you to treat patients quickly and efficiently. Depending on the setting (and the GM's approval), you might instead have different technology that functions the same way as a medical field kit, such as artificial organelles in your cells, subcutaneous equipment in your hands, or targeted gene editing that creates microtools and medication as needed.

The stats for a hard science fiction Noble are the same as those for a Noble in a space opera.

You imagine yourself as the glitch in the system, or the "ghost in the machine" that gets in and then out without alerting automated surveillance until you're already elsewhere. As far as your foes are concerned, you're one of them, blending in with everyone else so that no one suspects you're an operative working for the enemy. But if you are caught out, you don't hesitate---you eliminate those who recognize you so quickly that they can't raise the alarm.

Some situations would benefit from having someone on your team already on the inside, which is perfect for you. Or at least someone who doesn't draw enemy fire until you can slip past perimeter security to shut down surveillance and/or take out guards who don't realize you're a foe.


You gain all of the following benefits:

Escape (2+ Speed): When you roll to escape (such as slipping your restraints, squeezing through the bars, breaking the grip of a creature holding you, or pulling free from sucking quicksand) and your roll is less than a 9, treat the roll as a 9. (This means you don't get a GM intrusion if you roll a 1.)

Effort: Increase the minimum number rolled for this ability by 3.

Action.

At tier 3: The minimum number rolled for this ability increases to 12.

Sneak Attack (1 Speed): If you use a light weapon to attack a foe under one of the following conditions, your attack inflicts +5 damage. (This ability doesn't work with medium or heavy weapons.)

First action.

Spin Identity (2+ Intellect): When you roll to convince an intelligent creature (including computers and surveillance systems) that you are someone or something other than who you actually are, and your roll is less than a 6, treat the roll as a 6. (This means you don't get a GM intrusion if you roll a 1.)

This ability doesn't let you impersonate a specific individual. Instead, you convince onlookers that you are someone they do not know belonging to a certain category of people. "I'm with the government." "I'm just a simple traveler going about my business." "Your commander sent me."

Successful uses of Spin Identity persist until you use a ten-minute or longer recovery, unless your actions or other circumstances reveal your true identity earlier.

Effort: Increase the minimum number rolled for this ability by 3.

Action.

At tier 3: The minimum number rolled for this ability increases to 12.

Choose the following equipment bundle to quickly outfit your character, or assemble your own starting equipment.

A molecular blade, appropriate clothing, spray-on
impact armor (ten uses), extra clothes and accessories for disguise, a smart device (glasses, badge, ring, or the like), a backpack, a breather, an environmental tent, a single-use vacuum suit, an everlight, two days of rations and water, a grooming and toiletry kit, and eyeshades. Your character also starts with currency equivalent to a moderately priced item.

You're sensitive to the slightest vibration and yaw of ion, nuclear, and chemical rocket-propelled spacecraft, honed during many hundreds of hours of test flights, combat missions, and your personal zeal for piloting interplanetary craft between moons and planets. Your job combines sophisticated course plotting, long periods of gradual acceleration and deceleration, and, sometimes, intense moments of action where your reaction times make the difference between arriving at your destination and your spacecraft becoming one more drifting hulk in a decaying orbit.

If the team's mission requires an interplanetary trip, it's your job to get everyone there. Should enemy craft threaten the trip, your superior piloting skills help keep everyone alive, up to and including the Soldiers who, scary as they may be, probably couldn't last ten seconds piloting through an interplanetary naval engagement.

You gain all of the following benefits:

Born to Pilot (2+ Intellect): When you roll to pilot a spacecraft and your roll is less than a 9, treat the roll as a 9. (This means you don't get a GM intrusion if you roll a 1.) Spacecraft piloting tasks include specific maneuvers like safely docking the craft, turning or accelerating the ship gradually enough to avoid dangerously high gravity for sustained periods, noticing something unusual come up on the sensors, and so on.

Effort: Increase the minimum number rolled for this ability by 3.

This ability renews when you take a recovery.

Action.

At tier 3: The minimum number rolled for this ability increases to 12.

Expert Space Pilot: You are trained in piloting spacecraft.

At tier 6: You can become an expert in piloting spacecraft if you are already specialized, but you must gain the skill normally (such as from a character advancement).

Piloting Flourish: When you handle a spacecraft, your impressive piloting chops, your diverting quips, and/or a certain something in the way you accomplish a maneuver entertains or impresses others. One creature you choose on or near the spacecraft who can see you or is otherwise aware of your maneuver gains an asset to their next task if taken within a round or two.

At tier 3: You can impress up to three chosen creatures simultaneously.

Enabler.

Choose the following equipment bundle to quickly outfit your character, or assemble your own starting equipment.

A vacuum pistol and a weapon energy pack (50 shots), appropriate clothing, spray-on impact armor (ten uses), a smart device (glasses, badge, ring, or the like), a backpack, a breather, an environmental tent, a single-use vacuum suit, a first aid kit, an everlight, two days of rations and water, a grooming and toiletry kit, and eyeshades. Your character also starts with currency equivalent to a moderately priced item.

You've seen things civilians wouldn't believe: attack ships shattering Mars domes with mini-nukes; fellow soldiers disintegrated by stray linear accelerator fire, floating ashes their only grave marker; gravity-dropping through the silent void, praying your lidar warns you quickly enough to pop your brake rockets before you slam into the unlit enemy asteroid. The adrenaline kick of a firefight is like nothing else, but better yet is the fizzy exhilaration of another mission survived.

Made for combat, you're probably among the first on your team to confront armed foes. Your allies with other specialties are probably happy to let you; not everyone can rely on combat enhancements when adversaries begin firing kinetic weapons.

You gain all of the following benefits:

Combat Enhancement (2+ Speed or Intellect): Your military combat enhancement---likely some kind of nerve implant, subdermal hardware, or genetic modification---lowers your reaction time in response to unexpected threats so that you're rarely surprised. Roll initiative as normal, but if your roll is less than a 15, treat the roll as a 15. (This means you don't get a GM intrusion if you roll a 1.)

Effort: Increase the minimum number rolled for this ability by 3.

Enabler.

At tier 3: The minimum number rolled for this ability increases to 18.

Expert Combatant: You are trained in a specific weapon attack of your choice, such as swords, axes, or bows; or in a broader category of attacks such as light bashing weapons, light bladed weapons, light ranged weapons, medium bashing weapons, medium bladed weapons, medium ranged weapons, and so on.

At tier 2: You can choose to become specialized in the same attack method you chose at tier 1, but you must gain the skill normally (such as from a character advancement).

At tier 6: You can become an expert in a specific attack method (either the one you chose at tier 1 or another weapon skill you're already specialized in), but you must gain the skill normally.

For a Soldier, Expert Combatant means choosing training in weapons appropriate to the genre, such as laser pistols or rail guns (if available), or firing specific spacecraft weapons, such as point defense cannons, torpedo tubes, plasma casters, or something similar.

Push Implant: After attacking, you can activate a combat implant to make an additional attack as an extra action on your turn. Doing this inflicts a moderate wound on yourself. Enabler.

If you want a combat-capable character but don't want implants like those described under Combat Enhancement, you might prefer to use the Fighter type from the dungeon fantasy genre as the basis for your character, translating between the genres but otherwise using those abilities instead of the Soldier's.

Choose the following equipment bundle to quickly outfit your character, or assemble your own starting equipment.

A vacuum rifle and a weapon energy pack (50 shots), appropriate clothing, an armored bodysuit, a smart device (glasses, badge, ring, or the like), a backpack, a breather, an environmental tent, a single-use vacuum suit, a restraint (binds subject's wrists together), an everlight, two days of rations and water, a grooming and toiletry kit, and eyeshades. Your character also starts with currency equivalent to a moderately priced item.

If you're playing in a space opera game, you can probably expect faster-than-light (FTL) starships, and perhaps instantaneous transportation/teleportation technology that can beam or "portal" people planetary distances or farther---travel times may not even be important. Psychic abilities might be prevalent. Each planet could have a single biome and probably at least one place on it you can visit. Alien creatures across the galaxy (and beyond) might be monsters to fight, while alien beings are often very humanlike (if not entirely so), likely differing only in appearance, or perhaps the entire species stresses a singular trait. In fact, you might even decide to play an alien character if your GM uses them in the game.

Most space opera is likely closer to fantasy than hard science fiction. Thus, space opera themes sometimes feature the role of destiny and perhaps a struggle against evil like in many fantasy games. Others explore deeper themes, such as the fight against a much more intractable force: the underlying rules of reality itself.

If you've watched the various Star Wars and Star Trek movies and shows, you're familiar with space opera. Other examples include the Culture series by Iain M. Banks, the Known Space series by Larry Niven, and the Foundation books by Isaac Asimov (along with the 2021 television show). However, all these are on the "we're trying to seem real" end of space opera. Space opera also includes older pulp sci-fi stories and movies, such as Flash Gordon, Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, Edgar Rice Burroughs's John Carter of Mars series, and Andre Norton's many science fiction books like Sargasso of Space and The Time Traders.

Space operas could encompass so many different scenarios that it's hard to specify any one setting. For instance, an entire space opera game could occur inside a megastructure orbiting just beyond the event horizon of Sagittarius A, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

Core Character: Before choosing a type, create your core character.

Skills: Refer to the Science Fiction Skills list for skills you can choose from when creating and advancing your character. Your choice of background skill, and possibly the extra skill you might get if you also choose a meaningful inability, also come from the same list of genre skills.

Character Species: Nearly any science fiction species you can imagine might be part of your GM's space opera setting.

Space Opera Character Species Options

Aarak

Cyborg

Delph

D'nec

Drakain

Human

Mutant

Naron

Prota

Rigellian

Stelan

Vendeer

Zantari

Foci: The suggested space opera foci are less restricted than the smaller list of hard science fiction foci due to the more fantastic tone of the genre, including (if your GM allows it) the possibility of psionic abilities and alien supertech.

Abides in Stone

Blazes With Fire

Builds Allies

Carries a Gun

Changes Shape

Commands Mental Powers

Crafts Illusions

Doesn't Do Much

Employs Magnetism

Entertains

Explores

Fights Dirty

Fights Unarmed

Fights With Panache

Fuses Flesh and Steel

Fuses Mind and Machine

Hunts

Infiltrates

Leads

Masters Telekinesis

Masters Weaponry

Moves Like the Wind

Never Says Die

Performs Feats of Strength

Reveres a Supernatural Force

Rides the Lightning

Sneaks Through the Shadows

Solves Mysteries

Stands Like a Bastion

Strikes With Mystic Might

Talks to Machines

Tends to the Wounded

Walks Through Walls

Wears a Sheen of Ice

Works for a Living

Equipment: In addition to one set of clothing, you get to choose items from the Science Fiction Equipment table; you start with six inexpensive items, five moderately priced items, one expensive item, and enough extra currency to buy a moderately priced item. Instead of picking your own equipment, you can just choose the equipment bundle described in your character type, which has items already picked out for you.

Manifest Cyphers: These cyphers are present only in settings where weird prototypes or mysterious alien tech exists.

Wound Treatment: Space opera is usually a heroic genre. Using treatment to remove a wound takes a Last action for a minor wound, one minute for a moderate wound, and ten minutes for a major wound.

Currency: The currency underlying price categories in a science fiction setting usually are nonphysical credits controlled by a hidden financial network, accessible by a variety of different machines, including your character's smart device.

Background Options: Each type includes suggestions for your character's background. Choose one or create your own.

Genre Abilities for Your Science Fiction Character: At tier 3, your space opera character gains a mid‑tier ability from the list of Science Fiction Genre Abilities at the end of this section, and at tier 6 you gain a high-tier ability from the same list. In addition, at tier 6, you can replace one of your mid-tier genre abilities with a different mid-tier ability. See that section for additional stipulations that might affect your science fiction genre ability choice.

Android

Diplomat (from hard science fiction)

Medic (from hard science fiction)

Noble

Psion

Scoundrel

Soldier (from hard science fiction)

Starpilot

Tech

Trader

You were manufactured, not born. Some might say that makes you superior to living people, especially those born without the benefit of strict genetic oversight. And even people who have used genetic engineering lack your ability to upgrade yourself as needed to deal with new situations, new jobs, and wherever your curiosity might lead. Your integument and frame are tougher than skin and bones, and you have a way with other machines that most living things never will.

As adaptable as you are, you can take multiple different roles on your team over time, including serving as a frontline combatant. You're equally useful in other situations, especially when interfacing with nearby machines. But even that pales in comparison to your android capacity to dump old skills and take on new training in something important to an emerging situation or upcoming mission.

You gain all of the following benefits:

Built to Hack (2+ Intellect): When you roll to hack an unintelligent computer or machine and your roll is less than a 9, treat the roll as a 9. (This means you don't get a GM intrusion if you roll a 1.) Hacking tasks---which you can initiate using your ability to wirelessly network or by directly connecting to the target machine---include breaking into secure databases, taking temporary control of remote turrets, unlocking electronically secured entrances, and so on.

Effort: Increase the minimum number rolled for this ability by 3.

Enabler.

At tier 3: The minimum number rolled for this ability increases to 12.

Flex Skill: Choose one task (other than an attack or defense skill) on which you will concentrate. For the rest of the day, you're trained in that task. You can't use this ability with a skill in which you're already trained to become specialized. This ability refreshes when you use a ten-hour recovery. Enabler.

Androids using Flex Skill usually accomplish the training by expanding data they already downloaded, compressed, and stored in their system, though in some cases accessing a specialized skill might require connecting to an external data hub.

Machine Not Flesh: You are a sophisticated, intelligent machine with a generally humanoid shape; work with your GM to determine specifics. This gives you the following benefits:

Your machine nature also comes with some downsides.

Repair tasks to successfully treat (remove) your minor, moderate, and major wounds are level 1, level 3, and level 5, respectively.

Choose the following equipment bundle to quickly outfit your character, or assemble your own starting equipment.

A heavy blaster, five weapon energy packs (50 shots each), appropriate clothing, spray-on impact armor (ten uses), a smart device (glasses, badge, ring, or the like), a backpack, binoculars, a crowbar, digital intoxicant (works with Androids), a bag of light tools, an everlight, and eyeshades. Your character also starts with currency equivalent to a moderately priced item.

The stats for a space opera Diplomat are the same as those for a Diplomat in a hard science fiction setting.

The stats for a space opera Medic are the same as those for a Medic in a hard science fiction setting.

You descend from privilege, wealth, and power. Your family owns significant property, wields political control, and/or has vast wealth---or once did. You've stepped away from that somewhat, though you still carry a noble title, whether you want to or not. People recognize you in certain circles, especially those who've had dealings with your family.

With access to the privileges your title can command, you might be able and willing to pay for your group's passage on a starship, or even provide them with passage outright if your family's resources are extensive enough (assuming you are on good terms with your siblings and parents). But even if your title is more of an honorific handed down from better times, your nobility still grants access that you and your friends might not otherwise be able to attain.

Different cultures have different titles for nobility. Examples include duke/duchess, marquis/marchioness, earl/countess, viscount/viscountess, and baron/baroness. Work with your GM to determine your title.

You gain all of the following benefits:

Exorbitant Reach: You have an exorbitant item of your choice, such as a personal force field or a small spaceship. Work with your GM to determine something appropriate for the setting.

At tier 3: You gain another exorbitant item.

Noble Bearing (2 Intellect): You are adept at claiming the rewards that a noble background can generate. When you use this ability, strangers who are not already attacking give you at least a round to have your say. Alternatively, you can secure a place to stay somewhere that provides accommodations (even if that means others are turned out), get into a restricted area, ignore rules (minor ones, anyway), get in to see and speak with an important person, or gain some similar benefit without needing to succeed on an interaction task (unless your GM determines special circumstances apply, in which case you gain an asset to the task). Enabler.

Retainer: You enjoy the services of a loyal level 2 follower who looks after your affairs, accounts, meals, clothing, and other trivial needs so you don't have to. Work with your GM to flesh out the details of your retainer.

By spending 2 Intellect, you can have your retainer take the attack meant for you. If the attack brings them to 0 health, they are unconscious but not dead and can be restored by using your resource points and arranging or providing for a few days of care.

At higher tiers: Your follower improves when you reach tier 3 and again at tier 5 (this is explained in the section about followers).

Your retainer could be a robot or alien pet if you prefer.

Choose the following equipment bundle to quickly outfit your character, or assemble your own starting equipment.

A medium blaster and a weapon energy pack (50 shots), appropriate clothing, spray-on impact armor (ten uses), a smart device (glasses, badge, ring, or the like), a backpack, a breather, an environmental tent, a single-use vacuum suit, an auton, an everlight, two days of rations and water, a grooming and toiletry kit, and eyeshades. Your character also starts with currency equivalent to a moderately priced item, as well as something exorbitant; see Exorbitant Reach.

Your latent psychic talents were coaxed forth via study, specialized training, and perhaps even genetic manipulation and/or cranial implants. Now you routinely tap into another fundamental force of the universe, possibly an extradimensional energy field that gives you a mental connection to both the physical world and the minds of other creatures. How you choose to use your somewhat rare abilities depends on your circumstances and ambitions.

With your ability to peer into the minds of others, you can help your team avoid conflict. Your allies benefit from letting you help mediate situations, since you might gain an insight into the secret hearts of the other negotiators. But should you fail to read their thoughts (or dislike what you find), you're also a capable combatant, able to veil yourself in mental distortion while peppering foes with psychic violence.

You gain all of the following benefits:

Mind Reading (2 Intellect): You can read the surface thoughts of a creature you can see within short range. If the creature is unwilling, you must make an Intellect attack against them to read their thoughts. Once you have established contact, you can read the target's thoughts until you use a
ten-minute or longer recovery. Action.

Onslaught (1 Intellect): You attack a foe using energies that assail either their physical form or their mind. In either case, you must be able to see your target. If the attack is physical, you emit a short-range ray of force that inflicts 4 damage. If the attack is mental, you focus your mental energy to blast their thought processes with a mindslice that inflicts 2 Intellect damage (ignores armor). Some creatures without minds (such as robots) might be immune to your mindslice. Action.

At tier 3: You deal 1 additional damage with Onslaught.

Psychic Veil (1 Intellect): Your appearance is distorted as if viewed through the visual aura of a migraine until you take a ten-minute or longer recovery. The distortion doesn't interfere with your actions, but your dodge and Intellect defense rolls are eased.

While active, the distortion protects you from mental attacks, reducing their wound severity by one step (major to moderate, moderate to minor, minor to none). For example, if you are hit by a psychic blast attack that causes a moderate wound, you instead take a minor wound.

Enabler.

Choose the following equipment bundle to quickly outfit your character, or assemble your own starting equipment.

A carryall pack, appropriate clothing, a dose of space-fit serum good for a month, a smart device (glasses, badge, ring, or the like), a backpack, a breather, an environmental tent, a single-use vacuum suit, an everlight, two days of rations and water, a grooming and toiletry kit, and eyeshades. Your character also starts with currency equivalent to a moderately priced item.

You find that shading the truth, more often than not, benefits your endeavors. You've even pulled off one or more lucrative confidence games during your career, bilking the gullible of their resources for your own benefit. This kind of behavior tends to catch up with a person, so you probably move around a lot, hoping to stay ahead of unfortunate realizations and subsequent reprisal.

Your group might lean on you when it comes to breaking into places without proper authorization or for distracting guards, officials, or foes with your capacity to make almost anything sound plausible even if it's a complete web of lies. If you're forced into armed conflict, you'll fight, but you're also remarkably good at seeing to your own welfare first.

You gain all of the following benefits:

Desperate Defense: While you have at least one moderate or one major wound, you can choose to enter a state of heightened awareness against threats. While in this state, you can't use points from your Intellect Pool, but you add +1 to your Speed Edge and gain two assets to block and dodge tasks. If you choose to end the heightened state while you remain wounded, you can't resume it again until after you use a recovery. Enabler.

Fast Talk (1 Intellect): When speaking with an intelligent creature who can understand you and isn't hostile, you convince them to take one reasonable action in the next round. A reasonable action must be agreed upon by your GM; it should not put the creature or its allies in obvious danger or be wildly out of character. Action.

Hand to Eye (2 Speed or Intellect): When you roll to accomplish a task involving manual dexterity or mental agility---pickpocketing, lockpicking, games involving agility, and so on---and your roll is less than a 9, treat the roll as a 9. (This means you don't get a GM intrusion if you roll a 1.)

Effort: Increase the minimum number rolled for this ability by 3.

Enabler.

At tier 3: The minimum number rolled for this ability increases to 12.

Choose the following equipment bundle to quickly outfit your character, or assemble your own starting equipment.

A medium blaster and a weapon energy pack (50 shots), appropriate clothing, a false ID, an interface module, a smart device (glasses, badge, ring, or the like), a backpack, a breather, an environmental tent, a single-use vacuum suit, an everlight, two days of rations and water, a grooming and toiletry kit, and eyeshades. Your character also starts with currency equivalent to a moderately priced item.

The stats for a space opera Soldier are the same as those for a Soldier in a hard science fiction setting.

To you, the way the ship trembles right before you engage faster-than-light (FTL) speed communicates the stardrive's health. How the cockpit screens stutter expresses how much damage the ship has just suffered after that last enemy torpedo. And how much the deckplates buzz indicates how much more you can push your starship as you fly a looping, spinning trajectory past enemy starcraft.

When you're not conveying your allies between distant stars or outmaneuvering enemy fighters, you're reasonably competent in a hand-to-hand firefight. It seems like you've always got a little extra on your side---call it luck, audacity, or maybe just being too stubborn to know when to quit---potentially allowing you to defeat a larger force, or at least startle them long enough for you and your allies to get away.

Talk to your GM before choosing Starpilot as your type to see whether they expect a scenario where you'll have reasonable access to a starcraft.

You gain all of the following benefits:

Audacious Blast (1 Speed): You attack with a blaster (or other genre-appropriate ranged weapon) in a way that has a greater risk of making an error but gains an additional benefit. Your GM intrusion range for this attack increases by 2 (from 1 on a d20 to 1--3 on a d20), but if you hit you can choose one of the following additional effects:

Disarming Shot: The attack inflicts 1 less damage, but your foe drops something they are holding in one hand (such as a weapon or shield). To retrieve the object, the foe must use an action.

Piercing Accuracy: The foe takes +2 damage.

Action.

Audacious Blast GM intrusions: Your blaster runs out of power. Your blaster shot ricochets, hitting you or an ally for a moderate wound. The attack draws the attention of other hostiles.

Cypher Use: You can bear one additional cypher at a time.

Redline Maneuver (1 Speed or Intellect): You attempt a risky maneuver piloting the starcraft, increasing the GM intrusion range by 2 on your task, and "redlining" the craft beyond its regular operating envelope.

If you succeed on a difficulty 2 (or potentially higher, depending on your GM's assessment of the situation) task, you can accomplish something normally ill-advised when flying a starcraft. For instance, you could fire its weapons as you put the entire ship into an accelerating spiral, possibly directly into the swarm of fighters as opposed to fleeing, hoping to shatter their coordination and maybe cause a couple of crashes in the process. You could try to graze a star's corona (or even chromosphere) to lose pursuing ships. You could jump the starcraft to FTL more quickly than is usually possible, or closer to a gravitational source than is normally thinkable. Or you could move much farther or faster through FTL than normally works out well for the craft.

Action.

Redline Maneuver GM intrusions: The FTL engines fail. The ship takes significant damage. Someone's console within the ship explodes, inflicting a moderate wound.

Choose the following equipment bundle to quickly outfit your character, or assemble your own starting equipment.

A medium blaster and a weapon energy pack (50 shots), appropriate clothing, an impact cloak, a smart device (glasses, badge, ring, or the like), a backpack, a breather, an environmental tent, a "sidekick sphere" (use auton stats), an everlight, two days of rations and water, a grooming and toiletry kit, and eyeshades. Your character also starts with currency equivalent to a moderately priced item.

You're not simply good with machines; you're a galactic-level genius. Where others see a pile of junk, a boring appliance, or a simple device, you see potential---circuits, energy conduits, and power cells enabling you to build an explosive, repair a weapon, fashion a new custom-built device, or keep a starship limping along when by all rights that last enemy disintegration beam should have spelled the end.

Others on your team probably celebrate your technical know-how, especially as it usually falls to you to bypass dumb devices like surveillance monitors and force screens. And if they can protect you from direct enemy action, you can produce a gadget that might just be the key to accomplishing the overall objective.

You gain all of the following benefits:

Always Tinkering: You build a single-use technological device. You can choose its effect from the Low-Power Manifest Cyphers table. Your device counts toward your cypher limit (or the limit of anyone you give the device to). If you are already at your cypher limit, your choice of one of your current cyphers shorts out, had to be salvaged for parts to create the new device, or something similar, and the new device takes its place.

Ten minutes to build.

At tier 3: You can choose a low or medium-power manifest cypher as a single-use device.

At tier 6: You can choose a low, medium-, or advanced-power manifest cypher as a single-use device.

Each time you use Always Tinkering, you can choose a different manifest cypher you want to build.

Craft Device (5+ Intellect): You build a new---but somewhat fragile---device if you succeed at a difficulty 3 engineering task. You can choose its effect from the Low-Power Manifest Cyphers table. The resulting device is not a cypher, doesn't count toward your cypher limit, and usually isn't limited to one use; instead, it has a depletion of 1 in 1d6. The device is small enough that you can carry it.

One hour to build.

At tier 3: If you apply a level of Effort to this ability you can choose a medium-power manifest cypher as your device.

At tier 6: If you apply two levels of Effort to this ability you can choose an advanced-power manifest cypher as your device.

Cypher Use: You can bear one additional cypher at a time.

Choose the following equipment bundle to quickly outfit your character, or assemble your own starting equipment.

A medium blaster and a weapon energy pack (50 shots), appropriate clothing, a set of tools specialized for building your devices, a smart device (glasses, badge, ring, or the like), a backpack, a breather, a bolt cutter, an environmental tent, a single-use vacuum suit, a first aid kit, an everlight, two days of rations and water, a grooming and toiletry kit, and eyeshades. Your character also starts with currency equivalent to a moderately priced item.

You know commerce, which means you know people. Your ability to both charm strangers and talk your way around unfortunate facts, combined with your knowledge of the best trade routes and berth rates, gives you a leg up when acquiring goods at a steep discount, only to sell them at a profit on some other moon or planet. You try to make your clients at least feel like they've just struck the deal of their life, even when nothing could be further from the truth.

You're someone who can open doors to new opportunities for the whole team. Your talent applies both broadly speaking, when it comes to finding new jobs and maybe more chances for a payout, but also simply when it comes to negotiating with potential foes, talking your way out of trouble, or, if there's nothing else for it, shooting your way out.

You gain all of the following benefits:

Fast Talk (1 Intellect): When speaking with an intelligent creature who can understand you and isn't hostile, you convince them to take one reasonable action in the next round. A reasonable action must be agreed upon by your GM; it should not put the creature or its allies in obvious danger or be wildly out of character. Action.

A Smile and a Word: When you successfully interact with a creature by succeeding on a charm, deception, or intimidation task---even those having to do with calming animals or communicating with someone or something whose language you do not speak---you also learn one small useful or at least interesting bit of information. For instance, if you convince the guard to let you pass, you might also learn that their supervisor is due back in ten minutes. Action.

Smooth Operator (2+ Intellect): You purchase an expensive item for the cost of a moderately priced item. You can only use this ability in a location where services and items are routinely bought and sold.

Effort: Purchase a very expensive item for the cost of an expensive item (this requires two levels of Effort). Purchase an exorbitant item for the cost of a very expensive item (this requires four levels of Effort).

This ability renews when you access a new market or when at least a month has elapsed at the same market where you last used this ability.

Enabler.

At tier 3: You can use this ability twice before it must be renewed by going somewhere else or letting enough time pass.

Choose the following equipment bundle to quickly outfit your character, or assemble your own starting equipment.

A medium blaster and a weapon energy pack (50 shots), an apex edge knife, appropriate clothing, an armored bodysuit, a smart device (glasses, badge, ring, or the like), a backpack, a breather, an environmental tent, a single-use vacuum suit, an everlight, two days of rations and water, a grooming and toiletry kit, and eyeshades. Your character also starts with currency equivalent to a moderately priced item.

After civilization falls, the world is transformed into a harsh place where your character's very survival is in question. The only answer is constant scavenging for food and water in a ruinscape of collapsing buildings, rotting food stores, radiation, crazed animals, and desperate bands of raiders willing to take everything you have without shedding a tear. Postapocalypse games are grounded in a (somewhat) realistic portrayal of what life would be like in the aftermath of a world-ending sequence of events. Mere survival may be one of the primary themes of your GM's game.

If you're familiar with books or movies like The Road, Children of Men, and even the Mad Max series, you know what postapocalypse settings are like. The Walking Dead comics and TV show are very much a postapocalypse setting as well, aside from the fantastic element of the zombies that caused the world to end.

Skills: Use the Postapocalypse Skills list for skills you can choose from when creating and advancing your character. Your choice of background skill, and possibly the extra skill you might get if you also choose a meaningful inability, also come from the same list of genre skills.

Core Character: Before choosing a type, create your core character.

Postapocalypse Skills: These skills are appropriate for games in a modern postapocalypse setting. When you have the option to choose skills, choose from the following.

Postapocalypse Skills

Animal care

Astronomy

Athletics

Attacking (tier-restricted)

Biology

Charm

Chemistry

Crafting

Deception

Defending (tier-restricted)

Disguise

Driving

Engineering

Escaping

Firefighting

Forensics

Gathering information

Geology

Gymnastics

Hacking

Healing

Heavy equipment operation

History

Identifying

Initiative

Intimidation

Lockpicking

Magic lore

Mathematics

Mechanics

Mining

Navigation

Outdoor survival

Perception

Performance

Philosophy

Physics

Pickpocketin

Piloting

Psychology

Publishing

Recognizing motive

Religious lore

Riding

Scavenging

Stealth

Tracking

The postapocalypse skills listed here are appropriate for games where the world ended in modern times. If your game is set in a different time, adjust the skills as needed.

Character Species: Postapocalypse settings usually feature mostly Humans.

Foci: The list of suggested foci for a postapocalypse game doesn't generally include foci with magical, science fiction, or other fantastic elements.

Suggested Foci for a Postapocalypse Game

Carries a Gun

Controls Beasts

Doesn't Do Much

Entertains

Explores

Fights Dirty

Fights Unarmed

Fights With Panache

Hunts

Infiltrates

Leads

Masters Weaponry

Never Says Die

Performs Feats of Strength

Sneaks Through the Shadows

Solves Mysteries

Stands Like a Bastion

Talks to Machines

Tends to the Wounded

Equipment: In addition to one set of clothing, you get to choose items from the Postapocalypse Equipment table; you start with six inexpensive items, five moderately priced items, one expensive item, and enough extra currency to buy a moderately priced item. Instead of picking your own equipment, you can just choose the equipment bundle described in your character type, which has items already picked out for you.

Manifest Cyphers: This setting usually has no manifest cyphers.

Wound Treatment: The postapocalypse tends to be a realistic genre. Using treatment to remove a wound takes ten minutes for a minor wound, one hour for a moderate wound, and one week for a major wound.

Currency: The currency underlying price categories in a postapocalypse setting is most likely barter. An especially organized and resource-rich group of survivors might develop scrip or something similar as usable currency within their own region of influence.

Background Options: Each type includes suggestions for your character's background. Choose one or create your own.

Genre Abilities for Your Postapocalypse Character: At tier 3, your postapocalypse character gains a mid-tier ability from the list of Science Fiction Genre Abilities at the end of this section, and at tier 6 you gain a high-tier ability from the same list. In addition, at tier 6, you can replace one of your mid-tier genre abilities with a different mid-tier ability. See that section for additional stipulations that might affect your science fiction genre ability choice.

Dealer

Heavy

Survivor

Tender

You make your way through civilization's ruins as best you know how, trading for supplies with your natural talent for bullshit. When things go south, you run away, or maybe plant a knife in your would-be trading partner's back. You have a way of connecting people to the things they want---or at least promising to do so---and folks sometimes call you a Fixer or Supplier. And though you might be moved to help others with their needs, if we're being honest, your own skin is your most important commodity.

You're adept at talking, so you're probably one of the people your band relies on to deal with strangers, allies, and potential foes for as long as words serve the situation. Others in your band also benefit from your trading prowess, such as it is. But when the situation turns ugly, you're ready to dance away from a double-cross, or maybe instigate the same yourself.

You gain all of the following benefits:

Fast Talk (1 Intellect): When speaking with an intelligent creature who can understand you and isn't hostile, you convince them to take one reasonable action in the next round. A reasonable action must be agreed upon by your GM; it should not put the creature or its allies in obvious danger or be wildly out of character. Action.

Sneak Attack (1 Speed): If you use a light weapon to attack a foe under one of the following conditions, your attack inflicts +5 damage. (This ability doesn't work with medium or heavy weapons.)

First action.

When the Deal Bombs: There's always a risk that someone you deal with will try to turn on you. After successfully charming, deceiving, interacting positively with, or using Fast Talk or a similar ability on a creature, if they become hostile to you within a day or so, you automatically reduce the wound severity of their first successful attack against you by one step. Enabler.

At tier 3: Instead of reducing the wound's severity, you ignore it completely (no damage).

Choose the following equipment bundle to quickly outfit your character, or assemble your own starting equipment.

A medium handgun (with 10 bullets), appropriate clothing, a bag of trade goods (which include a few pieces of candy, a couple of batteries, a few lighters, and so on), a handaxe, a backpack, a sleeping bag, binoculars, a fishing rod and tackle, a cast-iron pot, a book of matches, two candles, a hammer, and a rusted knife. Your character also starts with currency or barter equivalent to a moderately priced item.

War never changes---it only changes people like you who have to fight in it or, after the war is lost, battle for survival in a world broken by conflict. For you, the only way forward is to crush even potential enemies so quickly and violently that they'll never threaten you or that which you cherish again.

In an often violent postapocalyptic world, your allies appreciate your protection and, when necessary, your aggressive nature when you must force your way into a location that may contain the resources required to survive another day.

You gain all of the following benefits:

Combat Prowess: You add +1 damage to one type of weapon attack of your choice: melee weapon attacks or ranged weapon attacks.

Desperate Feat: While you have at least one moderate or major wound, you add +1 Edge to the Pool of your choice. Enabler.

Expert Combatant: You are trained in a specific weapon attack of your choice, such as swords, axes, or bows; or in a broader category of attacks such as light bashing weapons, light bladed weapons, light ranged weapons, medium bashing weapons, medium bladed weapons, medium ranged weapons, and so on.

At tier 2: You can choose to become specialized in the same attack method you chose at tier 1, but you must gain the skill normally (such as from a character advancement).

At tier 6: You can become an expert in a specific attack method (either the one you chose at tier 1 or another weapon skill you're already specialized in), but you must gain the skill normally.

For a Heavy, Expert Combatant also means choosing training in weapons appropriate to the genre, such as pistols and rifles.

Choose the following equipment bundle to quickly outfit your character, or assemble your own starting equipment.

A heavy handgun (with 10 bullets) and machete, appropriate clothing, a Kevlar vest, a backpack, a sleeping bag, a gas mask, 50 feet (16 m) of nylon rope, a teakettle, a book of matches, two candles, a hammer, and a rusted knife. Your character also starts with currency or barter equivalent to a moderately priced item.

You get by, but sometimes only just. Surviving means enduring situations that may seem unbearable. Sustaining yourself could mean you've had to harden your heart; with limited resources, even others who initially survived the apocalypse might have only put off the inevitable. But not you---you know how to find needful things among the remains of the past, you have the reflexes to avoid danger, and you have the flexibility required to prevail during the most difficult times.

You help your team survive, mainly through your expertise in scavenging for food, shelter, and useful things. You're also reasonably good in a fight, though running away (at least a little bit) from immediate danger always gives you an edge in what happens next, which could be to help an ally.

You gain all of the following benefits:

Despite My Wounds: While you have two or more moderate wounds or one major wound, you get a free reroll on one action each round (as if you had spent 1 XP). Enabler.

Enhanced Scavenging (2+ Intellect): When you roll to scavenge the postapocalyptic landscape for something useful and your roll is less than a 9, treat the roll as a 9. (This means you don't get a GM intrusion if you roll a 1.) Your enhanced effect persists until you take a ten-minute or longer recovery.

Effort: Increase the minimum number rolled for this ability by 3.

Enabler.

At tier 3: The minimum number rolled for this ability increases to 12.

Get Out: If you move at least an immediate distance away from the most obvious threat or toward what promises to offer safety, one task you attempt next round is eased. Enabler.

Choose the following equipment bundle to quickly outfit your character, or assemble your own starting equipment.

A medium rifle (with 10 bullets), appropriate clothing, a flashlight (rechargeable with crank), a backpack, a sleeping bag, a bolt cutter, a first aid kit, a water filter straw, a cast-iron frying pan, a roll of duct tape, a book of matches, a manual hand drill, a crowbar, and a rusted knife. Your character also starts with currency or barter equivalent to a moderately priced item.

Even under the worst possible circumstances, you usually feel that your life---whatever remains of it---is best lived in service to others. Depending on how you tend to others' needs, they might know you as a Sage, Doctor, Responder, or Minister. But names don't matter. You just want to help others survive, heal their hurts, and, if nothing else can be done for them, see that their ends are humane and painless.

Everyone probably welcomes your presence, or at least your skills, especially those in your group. Without your care and knowledge, their lives could come to a brutal, painful end. If conflict kicks off, you can handle a weapon, but you prefer trying to counteract the threat so you and your allies aren't hurt in the first place.

You gain all of the following benefits:

Foil Danger (2 Intellect): If you are aware of a danger within immediate distance and succeed on an Intellect roll against its level, you negate that danger for one round. For instance, the danger could be a feature of the landscape like a mud or acid pit, a trap triggered by a wire, or a creature's natural ability (like a snake's venom or a radiation blast from a glowing roach). It could even be a foe's mundane attack or action (such as a weapon attack or their attempt to flip a switch), in which case this ability means they can't take that action on their next turn. Action.

Inspiring Suggestion
(2 Intellect): When you make a helpful suggestion to an ally, they have a better chance of succeeding at what they're doing. Choose an ally who can see and understand you, then suggest a specific action for them to take, such as "attack the leader" or "climb the wall." If the ally chooses to take that exact action, they gain two assets on that task. First action.

Wasteland Healer (2 Intellect): With access to a scavenged doctor's bag (or similar equipment), you can use treatment in half the normal amount of time or treat twice as many wounds for one character in the normal time. Enabler.

Choose the following equipment bundle to quickly outfit your character, or assemble your own starting equipment.

A light handgun (with 10 bullets), appropriate clothing, a scavenged doctor's bag, a backpack, a sleeping bag, a medical "how to" book, a bottle of aspirin (depletion of 1 in 1d20), a water filter straw, a water kettle, a book of matches, three candles, and a rusted knife. Your character also starts with currency or barter equivalent to a moderately priced item.

A scavenged doctor's bag is a collection of bandages, stitches, medicines, and similar supplies you've scavenged from the wasteland. It has a depletion of 1 in 1d10. If the bag is depleted, a Tender can restock it after spending at least an hour picking through ruins where people once lived and spending 1 resource point.

At tier 3, your science fiction or postapocalypse character gains a mid-tier ability from the following list of Science Fiction Genre Abilities, and at tier 6 you gain a high-tier ability from the same list. In addition, at tier 6, you can replace one of your mid-tier genre abilities with a different mid-tier ability.

However, the following stipulations apply:

Black Thumb: When repairing, modifying, or building machines or devices of any kind, your task takes you half as long as normal.

Cypher Use: You can bear one additional cypher at a time. You can gain this ability multiple times (as a character advancement or in place of a new focus ability). Each time you do, you can bear one additional cypher at a time.

Disable Mechanism (3+ Intellect): With a successful Intellect attack to hack a machine, robot, or device (intelligent or not) within immediate range, you disrupt it in one of the following ways:

You must touch the machine, robot, or device to disrupt it (if you are making an attack, it inflicts no damage).

Effort: Increase the range to as far as you can directly see (through your own eyes, not through a remote camera or other interface). Target a mechanism through a network interface you have unrestricted access to (this requires two levels of Effort).

Action.

Enhanced Stat: You gain 4 points in one Pool of your choice.

Exceptional Follower: You gain a level 3 follower.

Hands on the Wheel (2+ Intellect): When you pilot or drive a mechanical craft and your roll is less than a 9, treat the roll as a 9. (This means you don't get a GM intrusion if you roll a 1.) This ability's benefit persists until you take a
ten-minute or longer recovery.

Effort: Increase the minimum number rolled for this ability by 3.

Enabler.

At tier 3: The minimum number rolled for this ability increases to 12.

Incredible Health: Due to some unusual circumstances---alien physiology, injection of nanobots, exposure to strange radiation, your natural immune system coming into its own, or something else---you are now immune to diseases (and, if youwish, mutations) of any kind.

Machine Companion: A level 3 robot of your size or smaller (purchased or built by you) accompanies you and follows your instructions as an intelligent follower. You and your GM must work out the details of your robot. If the robot is destroyed, it can be restored using your resources and a few days of tinkering.

If you already have a robot assistant, machine companion, or similar device, you either gain a new one or upgrade the current one by 1 level, whichever you choose.

Mind Reading (2 Intellect): You can read the surface thoughts of a creature you can see within short range. If the creature is unwilling, you must make an Intellect attack against them to read their thoughts. Once you have established contact, you can read the target's thoughts until you use a
ten-minute or longer recovery. Action.

Snipe (2 Speed): You spend one action aiming at a foe. If you attack that foe on your next turn, your attack is eased, and if you hit you inflict an additional 5 damage. First action.

Spray (2 Speed): If a weapon has the ability to fire rapid shots without reloading (usually called a rapid-fire weapon, such as a crank crossbow or submachine gun), you can spray multiple shots around your target to increase the chance of hitting, gaining an asset to the attack. This ability uses 1d6 + 1 attacks' worth of ammunition or power (or all of the weapon's stores, if it has less ammo or power than the number rolled). If the attack is successful, it deals 1 less damage than normal. You can also use this ability on multiple thrown weapons (such as stones, shuriken, daggers, and so on) if you're carrying them on your person or they are all within reach. Action.

Arc Spray (3 Speed): If a weapon has the ability to fire rapid shots without reloading (usually called a rapid-fire weapon, such as a crank crossbow or submachine gun), you can fire your weapon at three targets (all next to one another) at once. Make a separate hindered attack roll against each target. Action.

Improved Machine Companion: You create, find, or otherwise acquire a level 5 intelligent machine companion follower that accompanies you and acts as you direct. If it's destroyed, it can be restored using your resources after a few days of labor. If you already have a lower-level machine companion, you choose whether it is upgraded to level 5 or you retain it as is and gain a new level 5 companion.

Inspire Action (4 Intellect): If one ally can see and easily understand you, you can instruct that ally to take an action. If the ally chooses to take that exact action, they can do so as an additional action immediately. Doing so doesn't interfere with the ally taking a normal action on their turn. Action.

Knowledge Expert: You are trained as an expert in two broad science and/or knowledge skills (such as mathematics, physics, engineering, geology, history, hacking, and the like) that you are already specialized in. Alternatively, you can increase your skill in two science or knowledge skills (from no skill to trained, or from trained to specialized). Enabler.

Lethal Capability: You've mastered how to kill with a particular attack. You inflict an additional 5 damage with attacks of one specific type, such as a thrown knife, a shot with a firearm, a swing of an axe, unarmed attacks, or some other specific attack you prefer.

You can gain this ability more than once. Each time you do, choose a different specific attack.

Severe Machine Disruption (5+ Intellect): With a successful Intellect attack to hack a machine, robot, mechanism, or device (intelligent or not) within immediate range, you disrupt it in all the following ways simultaneously:

You must touch the machine to disrupt it (if you are making an attack, it inflicts no damage).

Effort: Increase the range to as far as you can directly see (through your own eyes, not through a remote camera or other interface). Target a machine through a network interface you have unrestricted access to (this requires two levels of Effort).

Action.

Technology Expert: When you roll to use any kind of mechanical device (other than a weapon) and your roll is less than a 9, treat the roll as a 9. (This means you don't get a GM intrusion if you roll a 1.)

Effort: Increase the minimum number rolled for this ability by 3.

At tier 3: The minimum number rolled for this ability increases to 12.

Telepathic Network (0+ Intellect): You create a telepathic network between yourself and up to ten willing creatures you know, no matter where they are. All creatures in the network are linked and can communicate telepathically with one another. They can also "overhear" anything said in the network. Activating or using this ability doesn't require an action and doesn't cost Intellect points; to you, it's as easy as speaking out loud. The network lasts until you choose to end it.

Effort: Increase the base number of people in the network to twenty (5 Intellect), lasting until you use a ten-minute or longer recovery; each additional ten people costs 1 Intellect.

Enabler to create a network; action to create an expanded network (twenty or more people).

Intelligent species other than humans are often encountered in science fiction settings, particularly space opera.

For example, it's possible PCs could run into mutants in a postapocalypse game, cyborgs in a hard science fiction setting, or either one plus any number of alien species in a space opera game. Or the player characters might be of such a species themselves.

The GM may decide to handle species with narrative description (and maybe advice on how to adapt the type and focus you already have) rather than introduce additional mechanics. For example, if you're a 7-foot-tall furry rigellian, it might not change your stats or skills---though it may have interesting roleplaying challenges and benefits.

However, the GM might decide to offer species choices that do grant mechanical benefits. In this case, choosing the Rigellian species would change your stats.

If the GM decides that species with mechanical benefits are appropriate for their game, they may give you the choice to gain one described here and/or a species they've created to suit their setting.

Species offer a one-time package of characteristics for your character, much like a descriptor.

Aarak

Cyborg

Delph

D'nec

Drakain

Human

Mutant

Naron

Prota

Rigellian

Stelan

Vendeer

Zantari

Aaraks like you hail from a canyon-carved volcanic world that enjoys an embarrassment of thermals, updrafts from when the wind streams over mountains and ridges, and "cloud streets" of aligned lanes of cumulus clouds running parallel to the wind. Feathered, light-boned, and described as "avian" by certain other species, you've left your homeworld, looking for adventures (and thermals!) on other planets and habitats.

You gain the following characteristics:

Aarak: You can extend your glide duration and perhaps distance if you find a thermal, a series of thermals, or a low-gravity environment that can keep you aloft longer. Work with your GM to determine what local conditions are like.

You sport a variety of cybernetic implants, some of which replace missing organs you would have had if you were a human, with others designed to enhance whatever biology you still possess. You might have been born of a birthing process all the people of your colony undergo, willingly augmented as part of a stint of military service, or assimilated into a cybernetic collective against your will (from which you later escaped)---or you might be ignorant of why you're half machine. Most days, you figure it doesn't matter. It's not what you're made of that counts; it's your actions.

You gain the following characteristics:

Delphs are welcome almost anywhere, usually because of their skin artistry---your people's metachrotic ability to create colorful, unique designs and patterns across your entire body, including your luxurious head tendrils. When you really apply yourself, you can make amazingly beautiful patterns (or help camouflage yourself in some environments if you have about ten minutes to create a new design on your skin). What's less well known is your people's capacity to produce intraspecies pheromones (usually whether you want to or not) that almost anyone---delphs and other species---find alluring, or at least pleasant.

You gain the following characteristics:

Delph: Your pheromones don't affect machines and may not affect all alien species. Work with your GM to see who might find your presence pleasant.

Like your fellows, you are a 4-foot (1 m) tall humanoid with glowing eyes. The d'nec are a nomadic species capable of repairing broken or scavenged electronics, engines, robots, and other devices, and then find a market for the reconditioned results. Though raised with the same disciplines as other d'nec, you struck out on your own, hoping to find new opportunities and new experiences the average d'nec can't even imagine.

You gain the following characteristics:

Your skin is ridged with lines of bone and you likely stand at least 6 feet (2 m) tall. Some might compare drakain to humans, but only the foolish would do so aloud. You and other drakain deeply value combat and honor, believing that death in battle is among the most glorious of ends. After all, yours is a proud warrior people, and drakain have parlayed their prowess into great empires in the past. You cherish your birthright, but that doesn't keep you from befriending beings of other species and exploring opportunities that come your way.

You gain the following characteristics:

Humans are among the youngest species, and perhaps that's why---when considered as a whole---they're more given to explore, conquer, and expand their communities, even if that means taking from other species or other humans. Individually, Hhumans couldn't be more diverse. Which means you could be under 5 feet (150 cm) tall and barely 100 pounds (45 kg), or well over 6 feet (180 cm) tall and weigh in at 250 pounds (113 kg); have blue eyes or brown, black, green, or some other variation; have no hair, flowing golden locks, amazing dreads, a mohawk, or some other rakish cut; be all about your faith, exploring ancient places, keeping evil at bay, enriching yourself, or some other disposition; and so on. What's definitely true is that you are not afraid to strive for what you want and believe in.

You gain the following characteristics:

In a game where everyone's human, using the Human species option may not make sense. Your GM might grant you the option to choose Human as a species only if other species are also part of the game.

If you choose Human as your species, your character sentence "I am an adjective species noun who verbs" gains another element: your second descriptor. For example, your sentence might be "I am a Brash and Rugged Human Fighter who Masters Weaponry."

Savage forces strong enough to destroy a world left you transformed. Perhaps through latent mutations passed down from ancestors that survived the apocalypse, or because something about you reacts when exposed to radiation or some other mutagenic source, you've gained mutations. You might look relatively similar to others of your species, or you might have one or more obvious physical differences that make it hard to disguise your nature---work with your GM to decide your specific features. Not that you necessarily want to hide what you are; you might wish to proudly display what makes you different and, to your mind, better.

You gain the following characteristics:

You are descended from a species of natural telepaths that communicate mind to mind, not via spoken language. Standing about 5 feet (1.5 m) tall, your prominence---usually a subtle glow that faintly silhouettes your bald head---moves in slow waves when you're relaxed, or flashes and pulses when you're excited or stressed (unless you consciously suppress it). The naron are generally a peaceful people, but some of you have found the wider galaxy offers interesting opportunities in all walks of society among creatures where psi is a rare to vanishing trait.

You gain the following characteristics:

Naron telepathy doesn't allow you to read others' thoughts or even talk with them if they want to shut you out. But if you are a naron who wants to explore your latent telepathic gifts, choose Psion as your type and/or a psi-heavy focus such as Commands Mental Powers. However, other foci could be adapted or reskinned so the abilities granted are considered to be generated by your latent psi.

Your flesh is akin to stretchy clay in that you can change your overall shape between a basic sluglike blob (or circular sphere) to a being with up to several pseudopods useful as your arms and legs. Your control over your shape is limited; you're unable to exactly replicate other creatures or objects, but you can evoke their shapes, though it takes you about ten minutes to achieve a new shape. Prota are rare---your homeworld was destroyed by war long before you were born. You rarely encounter others of your kind, so you've learned to get along with other beings, some of whom you've come to regard as your friends or found family.

You gain the following characteristics:

Examples of tasks a prota can gain an asset for after spending ten minutes reshaping themselves include hiding in a distinct spot, squeezing through an explicit small aperture, climbing a particular wall, aiming at a specified location, carrying an especially heavy load, and so on.

As a rigellian, you are a 7-foot (2 m) tall humanoid covered in thick fur. Rigellians are renowned for their strength, loyalty, and roaring language. Most rigellians are peaceful and enjoy life on a technologically advanced homeworld orbiting a distant blue supergiant star. While you may share the sense of honor most of your kind possess, you've probably left home behind to pursue adventure in the wider galaxy.

You gain the following characteristics:

If not for the angularity of your features compared with humans, outsiders would be hard-pressed to tell you apart. However, your difference in temperament is more obvious. It only takes a few minutes in your presence to understand that stelans prize rational thought above everything, having little use for gut feelings, emotions that cloud sound judgment, and the value of anecdote in the face of compiled data.

You gain the following characteristics:

You are a vendeer, which means that you are 9 feet (2.5 m) tall, slender, and purple-skinned. Your mane-like "hair" makes you slightly more sensitive to psychic phenomena, especially the thoughts and emotions of other creatures, intelligent or not. Vendeer are native to a lush forest moon, and though not technically advanced, your kin enjoy rich cultural and spiritual lives. But the lure of other planets and stars pulled you far from home, and now you pursue a life far different than that of the hunter-gatherers you left behind.

You gain the following characteristics:

Your antennae give you improved senses and your thick skin helps insulate you against the cold of the icy moon your people call home, but otherwise you appear humanoid. However, appearances can be deceptive, as zantari have five genders, which outsiders find difficult to distinguish. As a zantari, you value honor, ritual combat, and military service, but also artistry. Others sometimes describe you as emotional, but for you that's a compliment---without intensity of feeling, how could life be worth living?

You gain the following characteristics:

In some science fiction settings, certain species can be so advanced or so different that type might be a better option for characters than species as presented here. The most obvious example is in the space opera setting, with its Android type.

Alternatively, a type from another genre could serve as the basis of your preferred alien species, once adapted or reskinned to make it fit the sci-fi genre. For example, if you want to emulate a Predator-style species, the fantasy Ranger would make a reasonable foundation for your character. In any event, work with your GM to see what's possible.

In such cases where your type describes your species, but other PCs are choosing standard species from this section, you instead gain the benefit of two descriptors.

If you want more type options than those presented in one science fiction subgenre, your GM may allow you to choose a type from another subgenre (especially between hard science fiction and space opera) and convert it with just a little work. Types from the postapocalypse genre may require more customization---possibly a slight boost because they're a little less capable in certain ways. Work with your GM to see what's possible.

It might also be possible to choose types from other genres. You'll want to work with your GM, and will need to adapt or reskin the type a bit more comprehensibly. For instance, a Paladin or Mage from the dungeon fantasy genre might make an interesting science fiction character, but their equipment, background, general description, and basis for their abilities would all require a rework. Any magic these types do would have to be reimagined for science fiction as energies generated by devices they carry or some other in-world source.

The difference between a hard science fiction game and a space opera game is not especially large. Both operate with a nod toward scientific principles, even if one takes more liberties with what might eventually be possible. Scientific rigor between settings lies on a spectrum, and what one GM considers a fundamental scientific "sin" in their hard sci-fi game, another GM might view as a necessary narrative abstraction. Often, the deciding factor is the existence of faster-than-light (FTL) technology, which usually exists only in space opera games. Exceptions, of course, can always be made.

Space opera is revealed by the fantastic technologies beyond those normally found in hard science fiction and postapocalypse games. And just as the technology is probably beyond what may ever come to pass, the genre is also partially defined by how a character can recover from their wounds. In a hard science fiction or postapocalypse game, a character who survives a battle with a warbot might have to spend considerable time in the med bay. But a space opera character might be back in the fight in an hour or even less.