Backstories

The backstory defines the skills of the colonist in question and is divided into two parts, childhood and adulthood. The backstory may either enhance or impair the colonists competence regarding specific skills. Currently there are 11 childhood and 18 adulthood backstories. 7 of the latter are not available in the character creation phase, however they do appear as raiders and wanderers.

Childhood

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Abandoned child

"[Character] was a quick witted, funny child. One day she wandered off on her wealthy genetic parents, and was ultimately lost in a supposedly unused ore warehouse. Due to cloning technology, her parents decided that the time looking for her was better spent on just cloning a better son"

• Construction: +1
• Shooting: +1
• Melee: +1
• Social: +1
• Cleaning disabled
• Cooking disabled
• Firefighting disabled

Adventuring child

"[Character] was raised to become an engineer. For years, he planned to stow away on a cargo ship and start a new, more adventuresome life.

One night after his parents fell asleep, he managed to sneak aboard a cargo ship just before it left port."

• Construction +2

• Crafting +3

Amateur botanist

"Spending many summers crawling through dirt, [Character] found that he had quite the green thumb. Instead of learning to cook the food he grew, he just grew more and more."

• Growing +4

• Artistic +2

• Cooking disabled

Amateur engineer

"[Character]grew up in a family with a military and engineering background. He wanted to join the military, but his father didn't like the idea, so his interest turned to great flying machines and works of engineering. He secretly hoped that this would one day lead him to a life of galactic exploration. "

• Construction +2

• Research +2

• Mining +1

• Shooting +1

• Cleaning disabled

• Plant cutting disabled

• Growing disabled

Apocalypse child

"[Character] spend his childhood on a post-apocalyptic world. He fought for survival at a young age, on a planet where trust did not exist.

He told everyone that he had no luck."

• Shooting +2

• Melee +3

• Crafting +2

• Researching disabled

Aristocrat

"Born into an aristocratic family,[Character] spend his younger years in blissful ignorance. His studies were sporadic and he never took a liking to anything involving his hands.

Fate, however, would force a change in habit. A global war broke out and the nukes melted the planet's surface into radioactive glass."

• Social +2

• Cooking +2

• Cleaning disabled

• Hauling disabled

• Plant cutting disabled

• Mining disabled

Artful dodger

"[Character] grew up on one of the urbworlds and had to fend for himself all his life. He never trusted anyone, relying on his persuasiveness and cunning to survive.

He soon became skilled with firearms and knives as well as words."

• Shooting +1

• Melee +2

• Social +3

• Cleaning disabled

• Art disabled

• Crafting disabled

• Plant cutting disabled

• Growing disabled

• Cooking disabled

• Doctoring disabled

Artisan farmer

"[Character] grew up on his family's glitterworld farm. They were one of the last farms on the planet that preferred traditional farming methods instead to glitterworld technology."

• Growing +7

• Research -2

• Shooting -2

• Cooking +2

• Hunting disabled

Aspiring pop idol

"[Character] was being trained in song and dance to become the next big pop idol. She grew up being taken care of by company handlers.

She never knew manual labor, but learned a lot about music and social etiquette."

• Mining -2

• Shooting -4

• Social +4

• Artistic +4

• Cleaning disabled

• Hauling disabled

• Plant cutting disabled

• Mining disabled

• Growing disabled

Awkward nerd

"Always fascinated by machines, [Character] spent his time studying robotics and holography. He preferred the company of his scientific creations to that of other people."

• Research: +5
• Melee: -2
• Social: -2
• Crafting: +4
• Firefighting disabled

Bone collector

"Born to a family of fortune hunters, [Character] always had a passion for ancient history. Though never a tough or social boy, he/she loved to dig through history books as well as dirt piles."

• Growing: +2
• Mining: +2
• Shooting: -3
• Melee: -3
• Social: -3
• Medicine: +2
• Artistic: +2
• Crafting: +2

Brutal thief

"Growing up in a gang, [Character] learned the brutality of the streets. Knowing that showing weakness could be fatal, he closed himself off to others"

• Growing: -2
• Shooting: +2
• Melee: +4
• Social: -2
• Medicine: +2
• Art disabled
• Doctoring disabled

Cat herder

"[Character] helped out in his father's cat breeding business, socializing, herding, and feeding hundreds of cats. When he refused to clean up after the cats s/he was transferred to the breeding science division."

• Social: +2
• Cooking: +3
• Cleaning disabled
• Hauling disabled

Cave child

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Caveworld tender

"[Character] grew up in a cave complex deep beneath the surface of an inhospitable world. He/She worked with the children tending the tribe's fungus crop."

• Growing: +4
• Mining: +2
• Shooting: -3

Caveworld tunneler

"[character] worked as a digger in the massive underground cave complex."

"He/She knows rock so well that He/She can almost navigate caves by smell. Years underground have damaged his/hers vision, so He/She can't shoot very well"

• Construction: +1
• Mining: +6
• Shooting: -2
• Researching disabled
• Crafting disabled

Chess master

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Child prodigy

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Child slave

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Circus performer

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Coliseum cleaner

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Coma child

"A childhood accident put [Character] into a coma. He/She didn't wake up until he/she was in his/her late teens. His/Her body never recovered from the years of inactivity, but people tend to take pity on him/her when they hear his/her story."

• Construction: -2
• Mining: -2
• Social: +5

Construction grunt

"Growing up in his father's lab, [Character] was given the life of an intellectual elite. He/She got everything He/She desired, and price was never an object.

However [Character] did not partake in the luxury given to Him/Her. instead, He/She pursued more psychical. and - in his fathers eyes -lower class jobs."

• Construction: +4
• Social: +1
• Crafting: +2
• Cleaning disabled,
• Plant Cutting disabled,
• Growing disabled,

Core dilettante

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Core world student

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Corp student

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Disciplined farmer

"Drew was the younger of two sons on the family farm, a frontier plot that struggled to turn a profit. Drew's father was a strict disciplinarian, constantly at his suns to work harder, and keep quiet. Drew burned hand making breakfast once and swore never to cook unless his life was in danger"

• Construction: +2
• Growing: +3
• Research: -1
• Mining: +2
• Cooking disabled
• Warden disabled

Displaced nobel

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Dreamer

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Drug mule

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Fallen prodigy

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Farm boy

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Farmer boy

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Feral child

"Abandoned on an animal planet as a small child with nought but a blanket with a name embroidered on it, [Character] made him/herself one with the wilderness. When he/she was 13, he/she encountered a team of mineral surveyors who "offered" him/her passage off of the planet."

• Growing: +2
• Melee: +4
• Crafting: +1
• Researching disabled
• Warden disabled

Feudal farm boy

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Fire tender

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Fire-scarred child

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Foundry apprentice

"[Character] grew up as an apprentice in the foundries of an industrial world. this experience gave Her/Him metalworking skills and strong muscles, but stunted Her/His artistic development "

• Construction: +3
• Melee: +1
• Artistic: -2
• Crafting: +3

Frightened child

"[Character] grew up with a laundry list of phobias and neuroses. He/She feared, among other things, doctors and foodborne pathogens."

"As a result, he/she learned to cook and care for himself, but many of his/her fears dog him in adulthood."

• Cooking: +3
• Medicine: +3
• Firefighting disabled

Frontier marshal

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Gang member

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Glitterworld nerd

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G-nome sculptor

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Gun kid

"Growing up in a urbworld, [Character] never had it easy. Every day was a struggle and pollution, hunger, and gangs of older kids.

In the little space he had to himself he studied his passion - guns, combat tactics, and war history."

• Shooting: +3
• Melee: +3
• Artistic: -3

Hacker prodigy

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Herder

"As a child, [Character] tended the tribe's muffalo herds, keeping them safe from predators and treating the sick. It was quiet work, but he/she enjoyed being away from people."

• Melee: +3
• Social: -2
• Medicine: +3

Hillbilly prodigy

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Hive world child

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Imperial student

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industrial orphan

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Indworld urchin

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Mad scientist

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Mechanoid nerd

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Medieval lordling

"[Character] was a minor noble in an old kingdom on a medieval world. He grew up in a manor made of stone, served by bowing lowerclassmen. Such a life teaches no technical skills and instils a lifelong aversion to manual labor - but [Character] learned early the ways of social manipulation."

• Construction: -1
• Growing: -1
• Mining: -1
• Social: +4

Medieval slave

"[Character] grew up pulling carts and digging holes on a medieval world. Simple manual labor is his/her oldest companion - along with the master's lash.
He/She didn't learn to read until age nine."

• Construction: +2
• Growing: +2
• Research: -3
• Mining: +2

Medieval squire

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Mercenary recruit

"Descended from a long line off-world mercenaries, [Character] grew up in a busy trading hub."

"His/Hers interest in the foreign goods at the market often distracted Him/Her from His/Her chores and training."

• Shooting: +3
• Melee: +1
• Crafting +3

Midworld sketcher

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Military child

"[Character] grew up in a family with a rich military background. His/Hers teenage years were spent traveling system to system wherever His/Her parents were deployed"

"He/She enlisted at age 18, following the tradition of His/Her family"

• Construction: +2
• Shooting: +3
• Melee: +1
• Medicine: +2
• Artistic: -3

Nerd

"[Character] was curious about everything. While other kids played tag in the suburbs of their industrial city, [Character] read every book he/she could find about technology, robots, and weapons - whatever looked coolest."

"His/Her strong French accent kept him/her from making real friends."

• Construction: +1
• Research: +4
• Social: -2
• Medicine: +2
• Crafting: +2
• Warden disabled

Noble ward

"[Character] was adopted by a prominent noble family after being left on their doorstep by His/Her mother."

"He/She quickly learned secrets that passed between the nobles like cheap wine - of world beyond His/Her own, languages, cultures and technologies both new and old"

• Research: +4
• Shooting: -1
• Melee: -2
• Social: +3
• Cleaning disabled
• Hauling disabled
• Plant cutting disabled
• Mining disabled
• Growing disabled
• Firefighting disabled

Officer cadet

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Optimistic child

"[Character] was blessed with loving parents and a pleasant midworld live. He/She was an optimistic and sociable kid who loved making friends and listening to their stories. His/Her imagination would run wild with ideas and questions "

• Social: +4

Organ farm

"[Character] was raised in an illegal underground organ farm. His/her body was used to grow organic implants for wounded mercenaries. Though his/her upbringing left him/her haunted, it has also given him/her a unique understanding of human biology."

• Medicine: +5
• Firefighting disabled

Orphan

"Born on a deep space station,[Character] was orphaned at a young age. In the orphanage, he stood up for the weaker kids and fought off the bullies."

• Melee: +4
• Medicine: +2
• Crafting disabled

Orphan of war

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Pampered

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Pickpocket

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Power-mad scholar

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privileged prodigy

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Rebel slave

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Reclusive child

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Scavenger

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Scout

"Born to colonial administrators from a small imperial power, [Character] was enrolled in a youth program that taught military scouting skills."

"He/She learned to survive in the wilderness, to obey, and not to ask questions."

• Construction +1
• Shooting: +3
• Crafting: +2
• Researching disabled
• Art disabled

Shelter child

"[Character] grew up in a shelter deep beneath a toxic world. He/She received a comprehensive education, but had no opportunity to do physical labour."

• Construction: -2
• Research: +3
• Mining: -2
• Social: +2
• Medicine: +3

Shunned girl

"[Character] was born into a small, poor family. She was bullied relentlessly, beaten and hated. As she grew up, she developed an interest in guns. She usually studied from books, but occasionally managed to get some practice time with the real thing. [Character] later discovered a talent for art and began to teach herself how to draw and paint."

• Shooting: +2
• Social: -2

Sickly child

"As a child, [Character] suffered from a rare disease. Quarantined in a research hospital, he/she had minimal human contact and got little physical exercise. In the sterile hospital enviroment, however he/she became very familiar with science and medicine."

• Construction: -2
• Research: +4
• Melee: -2
• Social: -2
• Medicine: +5

Slave farmer

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Sole survivor

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Son of a huntress

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Space fanboy

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Spoiled child

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Stableboy

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Starforce cadet

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Station whelp

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straggler

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Street child

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Street kid

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Student engineer

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Student socialite

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Terra child

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Test subject

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Tinkerer

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Toxic child

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Traders' child

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Tragic twin

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Tribe child

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Upper urbworlder

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Urbworld criminal

"Born into a bad circumstance on an overpopulated urbworld [Character] turned to small-time crime as a way to avoid starvation and hypothermia. Robery and murder were daily activities for him. [Character] learned that surviving was winning."

• Shooting: +2
• Melee: +3
• Medicine: +1

Urbworld hooligan

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Urbworld urchin

"The urbworlds - ancient and deep industrial cityscapes bursting with humanity and poison.
[Character] grew up in the dark, unwanted reaches of such a place. He/She had to fight for every scrap of food."

• Shooting: +2
• Melee: +4

Vatgrown assassin

"[Character] was not made as a man, but a cold hearted assassin. He was bio-engineered by scientists, and trained as a killer. He was bred to have no emotion, no feelings, and no care for who lives, and who dies."

• Construction: +2
• Shooting: +4
• Melee: +1
• Art disabled
• Plant cutting disabled
• Growing disabled
• Cooking disabled
• Doctoring disabled

Vatgrown medic

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Vatgrown slavegirl

"[Character] was vat-grown as a slave in an illegal urbworld laboratory. As a young child, she was taught only cook, clean and serve her masters. For most of her childhood, she knew nothing else. "

• Cooking: +5
• Artistic: -2
• Researching disabled
• Hunting disabled

Vatgrown soldier

"[Character] wasn't made as a person, but as an instrument of destruction.
Growing in a bioweapons facility and taught combat during his/her accelerated growth, [Character] still has a proclivity for combat of all kinds and an aversion to human contact."

• Shooting: +4
• Melee: +4
• Social: -4
• Warden disabled
• Doctoring disabled

Vengeful child

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Video gamer

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Voyager child

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VR addict

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War child

"[Character] parents were drafted into a civil war in his home country. Growing up surrounded by fighting and death, He/She became well-accustomed to tragedy and tough as nails. His/Hers expressive side, however, never developed. "

• Shooting: +5
• Melee: +3
• Art disabled
• Doctering disabled

War refugee

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Wild child

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Winerunner

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Work camp slave

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Youth delinquent

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Youth hooligan

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Adulthood

* Unavailable during character creation.

Assassin*

"[Character] was a professional assassin. He/She was cold, calculating, and made a good profit. In this business, an utter lack of empathy was an asset."

• Construction: -2
• Growing: -2
• Mining: -2
• Shooting: +10
• Melee: +10
• Researching disabled
• Cleaning disabled
• Hauling disabled
• Plant cutting disabled
• Mining disabled
• Growing disabled
• Constructing disabled
• Warden disabled
• Doctoring disabled

Army cook

"[Character] joined the army as a worker and spent most of his time cooking and repairing. While he was stationed on a dangerous planet, he underwent basic shooting and survival training."

• Construction: +2
• Research: -2
• Shooting: +2
• Melee: +2
• Cooking: +3
• Medicine: -2
• Crafting: +1
• Warden disabled
• Doctoring disabled
• Firefighting disabled

Bartender

"[Character] worked as a bartender on a seedy space station. The job entailed one part drink mixing, one part diplomacy, and one part head-bashing."

• Melee: +2
• Social: +2
• Cooking: +1

Bounty hunter

"[Character] is a self-employed bounty hunter. He spends his days hunting space pirates and collecting cash bounties."

• Shooting: +6
• Melee: +4
• Medicine: +2
• Cleaning disabled

Colony settler

"[Character] was a settler on a new colony world.
Such a life requires a jack-of-all trades at basic hands-on tasks."

• Construction: +4
• Growing: +4
• Mining: +4

Combat Engineer

"[Character] became a combat engineer. He/She built bases, fixed guns, and repaired vehicles for the army - when he/she wasn't shooting at people, that is."

• Construction: +2
• Shooting: +5
• Crafting: +3

Con Artist*

"[Character] never created a thing in his/her life. He/She did, however, prove to be natural at getting others to give him/her what they had created."

• Social: +10
• Soldiering disabled

Courtesean*

"[Character] was used for his/her body by hundreds of customers in brothels on several planets. He/She gained some mental marks and a special kind of street smarts."

• Melee: +3
• Social: +8
• Cleaning disabled
• Hauling disabled
• Plant cutting disabled
• Mining disabled
• Growing disabled
• Constructing disabled

Deep space miner

"[Character] did the sweaty, grimy work of pulling metal out of asteroids on a deep space rig. He/She used his/her hands-on industrial skills daily - and wasn't bad in a bar fight either."

• Construction: +3
• Mining: +7
• Melee: +2

Glitterworld surgeon

"[Character] worked as a surgeon on a world mostly free of disease and suffering. His job mostly involved elaborate and creative cosmetic surgeries. He has a good understanding of human biology, but never had to remove a cancer - or a bullet."

• Social: +1
• Medicine: +3
• Artistic: +5

Herbalist

"[Character] lived in the forest near a village. Though many of the villagers feared him/her, sick villagers would come to her to purchase salves and poultices made from the herbs she grew in his/her garden. He/She was happy to help them - for a price"

• Growing: +4
• Social: -2
• Medicine: +4

Housemate

"As an adult, [Character] kept house and cared for children while his/her spouse worked."

• Cooking: +3
• Medicine: +3
• Crafting: +2

Illegal shipwright*

"There is a law that say that you're not allowed to put terawatt-range grasers on a cargo scow. Especially if you hide them under what looks like a communications dish for better ambush potential. [Character] discovered that there was great profit to be made, however, from those who are uninterested in these laws."

• Construction: +7

Inventor

"On his/her homeworld,[Character] worked as a moderately successful inventor. He/She developed several minor technologies."

• Research: +2
• Crafting: +5

Joywire Artist

"[Character] worked in an urbworld lab developing cutting-edge joywire software to maximize user pleasure."

"When the local government imposed harsh restrictions on joywire manufacturing, he began selling his products on the black market."

• Research: +2
• Medicine: +2
• Artistic: +3
• Cleaning disabled
• Hauling disabled
• Plant cutting disabled

Luddite Rebel

"When the majority of people on his/her world chose to give up their individuality and biological humanity to join together in an online hive-mind [Character] joined a rebel faction that chose to forsake most technology."

• Construction: +3
• Mining: +2
• Melee: +3
• Researching disabled
• Crafting disabled

Medieval doctor

"[Character] worked as a doctor on a medieval planet. He/she firmly believes that most ailments can be cured with a little bloodletting.
He/she was also a master anaesthetist, developing a specialty technique that involved a heavy blow to the head.

• Melee: +6
• Medicine: +1

Medieval farm oaf

"Tilling, hoeing, guiding ox carts, pushing wheelbarrows. Digging ditches, planting seeds, predicting the harvest.
Medieval-level farmers aren't educated in the usual sense, but they know a lot about growing plants without technology. That said, such a life leaves one essentially incapable of participating in intellectual, technology-driven activities."

• Growing: +8
• Mining: +3
• Research disabled

Medieval lord

"[Character] was a lord on a preindustrial planet. He/She went to parties, managed the underlings, and even learned some swordplay.
His/Her soft hands did not hold a work tool during that entire time. He/She considers manual labor to be beneath him/her."

• Construction: -5
• Growing: -5
• Mining: -5
• Shooting: +5
• Melee: +5
• Social: +7
• Cleaning disabled
• Hauling disabled
• Plant cutting disabled
• Mining disabled
• Growing disabled
• Constructing disabled

Military commissar

"[Character] was an internal spymaster in an Imperial army battalion. He/She made sure that the men were loyal, and did not fall back unless ordered. This made him/her unpopular, but he/she gained great skill at detecting the slightest dishonesty."

• Shooting: +3

Military inventor

[Character], in a final act of rebellion, left his fathers lab and joined the local imperial military. He/She used His/Hers laboratory skills to design machines of war, at this He/She was one of the best on his planet.

• Construction: 3
• Research: 3
• Shooting: 1
• Social: 2
• Crafting: 3
• Art disabled

Navy scientist

"Interstellar warfare is won by technology, so imperial navies are always on the peak of modern research. Even better, they have first access to Transcendent artifacts because they find them in space."

[Character] worked in a navy lab."

• Research: +8

Pit Brawler*

"[Character] was 15 when he/she got in his/her first fight. He/She won, but more important was the enjoyment of his/her audience. Pit fighting turned out to be a lucrative career for those who could survive it. And it was even mostly legal."

• Melee: +8
• Researching disabled
• Doctoring disabled

Space Marine*

"[Character] was a warrior in an Imperial navy. His/Her job was to be punched into enemy warships, gun down the crew, and capture the ship intact. And he/she was good at it."

• Shooting: +7
• Melee: +5

Space pirate*

"Piracy appears everywhere that governments are weak and society spread thin. [Character] was part of this age-old part of human existence, extorting and smashing peaceful trade ships for profit."

• Shooting: +4
• Melee: +4

Stalwart Farmer

"With the farm under constant threat from brigands, [Character] learned to defend himself with his fathers rifle. He also mastered how to construct fences to keep livestock and local wildlife out. [Character] tried to paint a picture of his home and learned he can only draw scribbles and ducks."

• Construction: +3
• Growing: +3
• Research: -2
• Mining: +2
• Shooting: +5
• Melee: +2
• Art Disabled

Starship Janitor

"While other passengers pass the years between star systems in cryptosleep sarcophagi. [Character] had to wake up at periodic intervals to perform inspections, check the navigation systems, and to oil the mechanoids."

• Construction: +2
• Crafting: +3

Teacher

"[Character] was educated in the liberal arts and taught at a public school. He/She was widely knowledgeable and well-liked by his/her students."

• Research: +3
• Social: +4

Urbworld entrepreneur

"In the urbworlds, most suffer. But someone has to run the corporations. [Character] learned the skills of the trade - greasing palms and technical analysis. He/She is a sociointellectual machine."

• Research: +3
• Social: +6

Urbworld politician

"It's no secret that the Companies own much of the urbworlds, but someone has to take the bribes. [Character] was one such figurehead. He/She learned how to manipulate the hopes and dreams of the people while living comfortably on a penthouse."

• Social: +8
• Cleaning disabled
• Hauling disabled
• Crafting disabled
• Plant cutting disabled