And off we are to the races! I will do systems as they come to mind, without pre-planned order.
One thing I wanted to go for this time around is exploring several blue-collar sci-fi games. Note: I will not make the exact same character in all such systems. This is more for a general look at several popular systems in the genre. And two of them I have even played before!
One of the two is Mothership, a rather successful indie RPG with a lot of third-party material out there. It features a rather comprehensive set of still simple rules. Character creation in the game uses old-school type random attribute generation, so I roll 6d10 for each of Strength (39%), Speed (33%), Intellect (19%, ouch), and finally Combat (47%, wow!). Whoever they are, best not to insult them. Or maybe go for an insult that goes right above their head, which should be easy.
Next, I get to choose a class from Scientist, Marine, Teamster, or Android. Mmmh…Scientist is tempting, but Marine it is. And let’s call him Aidan Zharkov, I think that has a nice ring to it. His stats and class mean Aidan starts the first session with 78 HP (Strength*2) and Saves against Sanity 25%, Fear 30%, Body 35%, and Armor 40%. He also adds five more points to his Combat rating, and if he ever fights alongside another marine he gets another 5%.
As a Marine, he also gets the Skill Military Training and can spend 3 more points on skills. Skills in this game aren’t ranked, instead, they add a bonus to an attribute when rolling for just having them. They are sorted into a kind of skill tree with three levels, so there are Trained, Expert, and Master skills, with some Expert and Master skills needing lower-ranked skills as a prerequisite. With three points I could buy three more Trained skills, or one Expert and one Trained skill. If there were a Master skill without a pre-requisite I could take that instead. Let’s give Aidan Athletics, which is a Trained skill, and Gunnery, which is an Expert skill unlocked by Military Training. He might not be an intellectual powerhouse, but he is an artist with ship weapon systems. Aidan also runs fast.
Mothership does have a Stress system, and each class has additional rules affecting it. Marines are fun; if a Marine panics, all surrounding characters need to make Fear checks.
For starting equipment I can either roll 5D10 * 10 for credits and go on a shopping spree, or roll 5D10 for credits and choose one of four premade loadouts. I choose the latter and take the Extermination kit. This includes an SMG, six Frag Grenades, Standard Battle Dress (Heads-up Display, Body Cam, Short-range Comms), six Stimpaks, and an Electronic Tool Kit. Aidan also has 33 credits to his name, according to the dice. Finally, I roll on two tables and learn that he has a Faded Green Poker Chip and a patch reading HMFIC (short for ‘Head mf’er in charge’) - classy.
I assume Aidan has done his 10 years in the corps, then mustered out, and is now working wherever the GM needs him to. He is a marine with an attitude, maybe a bit like Private Drake in Aliens. Essentially a guy with a lot of machismo, but essentially friendly. Good at shooting things, not too concerned with thinking deep thoughts, and with a sense of humor.
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