By SCSPIEKER - Dec. 31, 1969 Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 CHARACTER GENERATION Thanks for your interest in The Ghosts of Sygnus. Before you can start the process of generating your character, you'll need to know the environment he or she is going to be placed in. If you've seen the movies Alien and Aliens, you probably already have a good idea of the general setting. These were bleak, dark films that nicely set the tone and backdrop for the game we're playing. If you haven't seen these movies already, we insist that you become familiar with them before submitting a character. Other great movies to watch are: Outland with Sean Connery, circa 1981, and Mission To Mars These films have heavily influenced the look and functionality of locations like Rodina Station, and the colonly on Syngus from whence all new player characters will come. Of course you may play this game without having seen these films but you'll have a tougher time of getting the feel of the colony world and the men and women who live and work there. In The Chilling Depths Of Space Ghosts of Sygnus takes place in the year 2179, just like the movie Aliens. The events in our campaign happen at the same time as those depicted in the early part of that film. In fact, it takes place only a (relative) few light years away from LV-426, the colony world which becomes over-run with aliens. In that film, when the Marines say they're "seventeen days" away from the nearest help, they're talking about the folks on Rodina Station - the next destination further towards uncharted space. The characters in The Ghosts of Sygnus have encountered the LV-426 brand of aliens for the first time in human history, as far as we're concerned, so no one starting out in this adventure will be very knowledgeable about how the aliens operate or just what their life cycle is. There are a few important locations and spacecraft to know about in order to play the game. First is the planet LV-426, otherwise known as Acheron, the world that causes so much trouble for the characters in Alien and Aliens. These days it's a rainy terraforming colony on the far end of one arm of the Network. But it's not the only colony out there, and the distances between Earth and these remote colonies is so great that way stations need to be in place to refuel the supply ships traveling to the distant locations. The supergiant gaseous world of Rodina and the bioscience research station that orbits it and shares its name are located about midway between LV-426 and the inner worlds of the Network, and is perfectly suited for this function. Sygnus (also known as DM+38 2885) is located on the 'fringe' of the core worlds and is somewhat 'out-of-the-way' in terms of travel times. However, Sygnus is an important world producing huge amounts of iron ore and other more rare minerals for shipment back to Earth. A ship called USCS Mel Bay is commissioned to pick up Earth luxuries and other goods from the inner Network and transport them across the gulf of space to Rodina Station. There Mel Bay's cargo and crew replacements are unloaded, and she heads back to Earth with retiring employees and an empty hold. Back on Earth, the whole process starts all over again, taking about one full sidereal year to complete one round trip. On occasion, the Mel Bay will make a call at Sygnus to hall mineral ore or personnel back towards the core. The only other ship that docks with Rodina on a regular basis is the Y-class supply vessel USCS Korea. It was the job of Korea's small crew to load up the cargo brought to Rodina by Mel Bay and shuttle the load to three colony worlds, one by one. Two of these worlds are of no consequence to the game, but players may find some details about them in the archives. However, LV-426, the second of the three stops on Korea's route, is where the story of Ghost Ship had really begun. Character Concept Guidelines Your character will need to fill one of several career types. Sygnus is a fairly large colony world with close to five thousand inhabitants. Although that is a small number in today's terms, it represents a huge leap in population from the almost nothing of the first survey teams. However small the colony actually is, it does require normal maintenance and operations personnel to support those persons who operate the colony for a profit for Weyland-Yutani. Unfortunately, September 2179 is about a month before a very dangerous solar flare is expected to have very broad and lasting effects on the entire solar system. So as with normal solar flare quarentine procedures, most of the colony's inhabitants have been evacuated to the main Trinity colony facilty and into cryo-stasis chambers hidden deep under ground - safe from the harmful rays. A skeleton crew of one hundred and two, who remain behind inside the sheltering confines of the underground facility - insure the smooth operation of the installation during the flare period. Obviously these people would volunteer for such extreme and dangerous duty due to the large sums of money offered or possibly for some other personal reason. A small contingent of (platoon sized) U.S. Colonial Marines are also stationed on Sygnus at Trinity Station. This token force is what remains of the original regimental strength deployment from the colony's founding. Colonial Administration also maintains a small presense at Trinity Station to oversee the proper administration of the entire Sygnus colony, which they had co-financed with Weyland-Yutani. The Marines left to garrison Sygnus also remain 'awake' during the flare periods and act as a police force watching over the sleeping population. In most cases the marines are sent to investigate a report of random looting or pilferage of food-stocks. The characters we'll accept must meet a couple of requirements, but as always you are encouraged to use your imagination. Your character may only be drawn from the pool of workers on Sygnus, whether a lowly janitor or a department chief. Whatever career path you choose, your character will have been doing it for at least one year while on Sygnus, and probably longer. If you have a more mature person in mind, he or she will have probably held several jobs, each of which should be reflected through their skills and further helps to define your character. Keep in mind that your gamemaster likes shoot-em-up action as much as anyone, and that sooner or later your character is going to get the opportunity to spill some acid. You may also want to keep in mind, although marines are often armed to the teeth, they are acting in a police role at the on set of the game. One thing to note when developing your character is that this game is closed-ended, and you shouldn't design your character with future improvements in mind. There is no system of experience points, and characters do not 'gain' levels. The entire Ghosts of Sygnus campaign will span less than one month of these people's lives, not nearly enough time to deserve a complicated experience system. The character you design now will look very familiar to you at the end of the campaign. Ghosts of Sygnus has from the outset been intended to tell just one story from start to finish. How it will end is still to be seen, and will have as much to do with GM planning as it will with the creativity of good players. We thrive on the fans and lurkers and all of the players who contribute their gifts, and in return we promise to provide a scary ride. We hope this has been informative and gives you some ideas. On the next page you will find the not-set-in-stone rules for character generation, which is to say that they are subject to change without notice. Character History Before you even think about working up your character's numeric stats, you should have a fairly clear idea of what he's like. Any character type that might logically be on a colony world will be considered for the campaign. What's appropriate for the campaign? What do you think is appropriate? Send me your submission, and we'll let you know if it's fly or if it's dry. We can usually tell in the first email from a potential player whether they've got what we're looking for, whether the character will fit or not. But we're always willing to work with a good player to develop a character that will fit in. When creating a character, you may first want to inspect the existing characters that have been generated at least in name. These Characters have been developed as a part of the story in terms of name, occupation, and a general description (by way of a photo). Some are already fleshed out and assigned to existing players. However any character record that show a file corruption statement within their description are available for a new player to assume those roles. If you choose to do so, you will need to use the information that is already stated, but continue along with these instructions to polish off the character's dosier. However you may choose to create your own character to submit, begin by writing up a history for your character. You don't have to craft a novel but I do expect at least a couple of paragraphs explaining your character's personal and career history. Be sure to mention where he went to school or college, any special programs or military service, other careers within the Company or other corporations. Did he travel to other systems or stay primarily near Earth? Be creative as you want, but don't go space-hopping. Travel through the cosmos is long and burdensome, so if someone takes a trip somewhere through space they usually stay there for a good long while. Your gamemaster is looking for characters that are realistic and flawed. Most characters will have been in romantic relationships, and there's a good deal of history that can come from this. Your GM doesn't want the details; just the results. In our game, most people have had at least one marriage and divorce by the time they're 30, and there's usually children in the picture as well. Of course, everybody has to work no matter how their love lives are going, and most people change jobs a couple of times in their lives. Work history is perhaps most important in determining what kind of skills your character will have. Use these suggestions to fuel your own ideas. Once you've written out a description of your character, you should be able to fill in the following information about him: Name: Your character's full name, first middle and last. Be sure to include Jr. or Sr. or III suffixes. Gender: Male or female. Or...? Birthplace: It's a big galaxy, and your character might be from one of the remote colonies of the Network. Be imaginative. Of course, lots of people are still born on Earth. Native language: Your character's place of birth should answer this question. If in doubt, English or Japanese would be considered typical for characters in our arm of the space Network. Birthdate: Without being too specific, our game is set in early September of the year 2179. Use this to figure out your character's age and date of birth. You can choose a character from nearly any age group, from 10 to 69 years old. This trait (your character's age) is perhaps the most important attribute, and will define how well he performs physically and mentally. Younger characters tend to be willful, strong, and fast, but lacking experience. Mature characters slowly lose their faculties while growing more wise and learned. See below for more about age's effect on basic abilities, special training, and plot holes. Age: This number will become very important to you throughout the rest of character generation. Occupation or job description: You may be as brief or as elaborate as you like. Division or department: Think of Sygnus/Trinity Colony as a very small city with more than its fair share of bureaucracy. There are several work departments your job may fall into, such as Communications, Security, Maintenance, Labor, Sanitation, Engineering, Science, Medical, Administration, and Service, among others. Your character might even just be an entrepreneur or profiteer like a shop owner, not an employee of any Weyland-Yutani department. Height: Metric system please. Weight: Metric. Build: Give us a general impression of how you see him. Tall and fat? Short and skinny? Hair color: You should probably find a picture of your character before filling in this information. Hair length: Likewise. Eye color: Same here. Skin color: Mmm hmm. Other distinguishing characteristics: These may not be so apparent. A strange way of speaking or moving should be noted here, anything from a lisp or limp. Tattoos, scars, bushy eyebrows, deep voice, bad breath. Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3