Chapter 4.7: Lifepath

Chapters 4.1 through 4.6 cover what the numbers on your sheet mean. This chapter covers where they come from. Building a character step by step, in order, gives you a life before it gives you a stat block: where you grew up, what your family valued, what you trained to do, what the Rites found in you, and what has happened to you since. Every step is a choice, never a roll. If you would rather start from a concept and assign numbers to match it, that works too; this chapter is a path to a character, not the only one.

The steps:

1. Species (Chapter 4.5)
2. Environment: where you grew up
3. Upbringing: what your family or hearth valued
4. Pre-Rite Vocation: what you trained or apprenticed to do
5. Rite-Keyed Formation: what the Rites found in you
6. Career Events: what has happened since
7. Finishing Touches: the last details, and beginning play

Two of these steps, Vocation and Rite-Keyed Formation, carry the most weight, and they carry it for different reasons. Vocation is secular: the field you trained in before you earned membership in the Starborn Assembly. Rite-Keyed Formation is what the Rites themselves left behind, the one chapter of your history every crewmate shares and the one that shaped you regardless of what you trained to do. Build both. A character is rarely just their training, and rarely just their Rite.

Starting Ratings

Before Step One, set every Attribute to 7 and every Specialization to 1. These are the ratings every Lifepath builds from. Species and the later steps add to them.

A direct build uses the same baselines, limits, and totals. Choose a species and apply its three Attribute points, Trait, and signature ability. Distribute 14 more Attribute points and 10 more Specialization points, reaching totals of 59 and 16. Complete the character with four Values, six Focuses, four Talents, one interface Trait, one Hardware or Equipment Trait, and the Traits that describe their history. The six Focuses form the character's active Loadout; mark each as Loadable or Rooted (Chapter 3.5). No Attribute may fall below 7 or exceed 12; no Specialization may fall below 1 or exceed 5; only one of each may sit at its maximum.

Step One: Species

Chapter 4.5 covers this ground fully. With all six Attributes at 7 and all six Specializations at 1, choose a published species package or build one for another species under Chapter 4.5. Apply that species' Attribute modifiers, signature ability, and Trait before continuing. Every species grants exactly three Attribute points, a mix of fixed and flexible depending on the species chosen. Everything below builds on top of this choice.

Step Two: Environment

Where you grew up leaves a mark distinct from your species and distinct from your family, the mark of a place: a homeworld's weight of tradition, a colony's improvisation, a ship's close quarters. Choose one Environment below. Each grants a Value, one Attribute point (a choice of two), and one Specialization point (a choice of two or three).

Homeworld. You grew up on your own species' homeworld, surrounded by the oldest version of its culture and its arguments. Value: how you connect to, or depart from, the traditions you grew up inside. Attribute: choose one of the Attributes your species increased in Step One. Specialization: Diplomacy, Security, or Science.

Established Colony. You grew up on one of the Empire's older, settled worlds or habitats, established long enough that its daily business is governance and culture. Value: how a settled, well-provisioned life shaped what you expect from the world. Attribute: Daring or Presence. Specialization: Diplomacy, Security, or Science.

Frontier Settlement. You grew up on the edge of imperial reach, where the Foundry's abundance arrives late and infrastructure is something people build themselves. Value: what a frontier upbringing taught you about self-reliance. Attribute: Control or Fitness. Specialization: Engineering, Security, or Medicine.

Isolated Outpost. You grew up somewhere set apart on purpose: a research station, a contemplative retreat, a colony that chose distance. Value: what the isolation gave you, or cost you. Attribute: Reason or Insight. Specialization: Engineering, Science, or Medicine.

Fleet-Born. You grew up aboard a ship, a family fleet, or a habitat that never stopped moving. Value: what shipboard life taught you about close quarters and constant motion. Attribute: Control or Insight. Specialization: Diplomacy, Engineering, or Security.

Among Another People. You grew up among a species other than your own, inside the Empire or beyond it (Chapter 2.3 covers citizens who reached the Rites from outside imperial space entirely). Value: how you relate to a culture that raised you without being yours by birth. Attribute: choose another species (Chapter 4.5) and take one Attribute it increases. Specialization: any one, your choice.

Step Three: Upbringing

Where Environment is the place, Upbringing is the household: what your family or hearth valued, and whether you grew into that or away from it. A character may accept an Upbringing, absorbing what it taught, or rebel against it, building strength from the friction. Each Upbringing grants three Attribute points split across two Attributes (the split differs by whether you accepted or rebelled), one Specialization point (a choice of several), one Focus, and one Talent.

Rural and Agricultural. Your household worked land, herds, or a hydroponic range, closer to nature than to crowds. Accepted: Control +1, Fitness +2. Rebelled: Presence +1, Reason +2. Specialization: Engineering, Security, or Medicine. Focus examples: Survival, Animal Handling, Field Medicine, Navigation, Toxicology.

Artistic and Creative. Your household made things meant to be looked at, heard, or read, and expected you to have an eye or an ear of your own. Accepted: Insight +1, Presence +2. Rebelled: Daring +1, Fitness +2. Specialization: Diplomacy, Engineering, or Science. Focus examples: Foundry Craft, Music, Cultural Studies, Persuasion, Observation.

Trade and Commerce. Your household moved goods, brokered deals, or ran an enterprise that touched dozens of worlds. Accepted: Daring +1, Presence +2. Rebelled: Insight +2, Reason +1. Specialization: Diplomacy, Engineering, or Science. Focus examples: Negotiation, Finances, Trade and Commerce, Survey, Metallurgy.

Diplomacy and Politics. Your household lived inside argument and negotiation, a family known for a seat on some council or a voice in some dispute. Accepted: Control +1, Presence +2. Rebelled: Fitness +1, Reason +2. Specialization: Diplomacy, Security, or Science. Focus examples: Debate, Law, Etiquette, Assembly Procedure, Historical Precedent.

Science and Technology. Your household lived close to research, whether raised by scientists and engineers or simply given every tool for taking things apart. Accepted: Control +2, Reason +1. Rebelled: Daring +1, Insight +2. Specialization: Engineering, Science, or Medicine. Focus examples: Astrophysics, Cybernetics, Power Systems, Genetics, Xenobiology.

Service and Defense. Your household had a tradition of standing between people and danger, generation after generation, whether or not any of them ever held rank for it (the Empire keeps none to hold). Accepted: Control +2, Fitness +1. Rebelled: Daring +2, Insight +1. Specialization: any one, your choice. Focus examples: Small Arms, Tactical Planning, Survival, Hand-to-Hand Combat.

Step Four: Pre-Rite Vocation

Before the Rites, you were already someone: trained, apprenticed, or self-taught in a field that mattered to you. Vocation is the biggest single step in this chapter, because it is the closest thing your life had to a career before the Empire offered you a seat in it. Choose the field below that your training centered on. It should usually match the Specialization you mean to lead with, though matching is a strong suggestion, not a rule.

Each Vocation grants a Trait (the examples are suggestions; write your own where one fits better), a Value, +2 to one listed Attribute and +1 to a different listed Attribute, a Specialization split of +2 to your chosen field and +1 to one other (your choice from the pair listed), two Focuses (examples given; write your own where the work calls for it), and a Talent. Talents qualify against your new Specialization rating (Chapter 4.1); Chapter 4.9 is the roster to choose from, and your gamemaster can help you find or build one that fits what this Vocation trained you to do.

Medicine. You trained to keep people alive, at a hearth, a clinic, or wherever the work found you. Trait examples: Field-Taught, Steady Hands, Hearth Medic. Attributes: Control, Insight, or Reason. Specialization: Medicine +2, then Science or Diplomacy +1. Focus examples: Trauma Surgery, Xenobiology, Toxicology, Genetic Sequencing.

Science. You trained to make sense of the unknown, in a lab, a field station, or however far your own questions took you. Trait examples: Self-Taught, Sees the Pattern, Never Satisfied. Attributes: Reason, Insight, or Control. Specialization: Science +2, then Engineering or Medicine +1. Focus examples: Astrophysics, Sensus Data Interpretation, Xenoarchaeology, Quantum Mechanics.

Engineering. You trained to build and repair, apprenticed to a Foundry artisan or a working engineer who needed the extra hands. Trait examples: Foundry Apprentice, Fixes What's Broken, Colony-Deep. Attributes: Reason, Daring, or Control. Specialization: Engineering +2, then Science or Security +1. Focus examples: Cysuit Calibration, Adaptive Tool Configuration, Propulsion Systems, Robotics.

Diplomacy. You trained to move people, at a negotiating table, a hearth gathering, or wherever disputes needed a level head. Trait examples: Voice for the Hearth, Reads a Room, Trained to the Table. Attributes: Presence, Insight, or Reason. Specialization: Diplomacy +2, then Science or Medicine +1. Focus examples: Mediation, Cultural Protocol, Treaty Law, Public Address.

Security. You trained to meet force, drilled by a household tradition, a local defense circle, or simple necessity. Trait examples: Drilled to the Line, Watch-Kept, Steady Under Fire. Attributes: Daring, Control, or Fitness. Specialization: Security +2, then Engineering or Diplomacy +1. Focus examples: Small Arms, Hand-to-Hand Combat, Threat Assessment, Tactical Planning.

Infiltration. You trained to go unseen, whether the Empire taught you or you learned it somewhere the Empire had never reached. Trait examples: Border-Runner, Unlicensed, Ghost-Handed. Attributes: Control, Daring, or Presence. Specialization: Infiltration +2, then Security or Diplomacy +1. Focus examples: Stealth Movement, Lock and Circuit Systems, Disguise, Social Engineering.

Step Five: Rite-Keyed Formation

Every crewmate at your table passed the Four Great Rites, or holds the title by the sovereign grant Chapter 2.3 describes. That chapter owns what a Rite is and what it is built to find in you; this step is where that finding becomes part of your sheet. Choose the Rite that marked you most, and whether you passed it clean or reached the title through a failure first (Chapter 2.3, Failure, and the Way Back, is a strong place to start if you choose the second). Neither path is worth less than the other.

Each choice grants a Trait (what the Rite left behind; the worked examples below are starting points, and a line in your own words is always stronger), a Value, +2 to one listed Attribute, +1 to the other, and one Specialization point in a field of your choice. This step grants no Focus and no Talent; a Rite changes who you are, and the Vocation step carries trained capability.

Bhaegor (Valor). The Rite that asks whether fear freezes you or moves you. Passed clean: Daring +2, Fitness +1. Trait example: Moves Through Fear. Failed, then returned: Insight +2, Control +1. Trait example: Knows What Freezing Feels Like.

Sceolwyn (Wisdom). The Rite that drops you into a problem where your sharpest tool is the wrong one. Passed clean: Reason +2, Insight +1. Trait example: Trusts the Second Idea. Failed, then returned: Presence +1, Insight +2. Trait example: Sceolwyn showed me my cleverness runs out.

Clyddr (Devotion). The Rite that asks whether you keep showing up to needed, unglamorous work. Passed clean: Fitness +2, Control +1. Trait example: Still Shows Up. Failed, then returned: Presence +2, Fitness +1. Trait example: Learned What Devotion Costs.

Ildan (Empathy). The Rite that sets you beside suffering you cannot fix. Passed clean: Insight +2, Presence +1. Trait example: Stays in the Room. Failed, then returned: Control +2, Insight +1. Trait example: Once Looked Away.

The Sovereign Grant. Your nature closed the ordinary path, and the Crown opened this one (Chapter 2.3). Attributes: +2 to one Attribute and +1 to a different Attribute, both chosen freely. Trait: reflecting what closed the ordinary path or what the grant itself means to you. Chapter 2.3 leaves the story of your grant for you and your gamemaster to work out together.

Step Six: Career Events

Your record as Starborn crew starts before this campaign does. Choose exactly two events below to provide mechanical benefits. A longer career may include further events in its history, with no additional ratings, Focuses, or Traits. Each chosen event grants one Attribute point, one Specialization point, and a Focus. Several also offer an optional Trait.

First Contact. You were present at a people's first meeting with the Empire. Attribute: Presence. Specialization: Diplomacy. Focus example: First Contact Protocol.

Answered a Crisis. Your crew was the nearest help when a colony or a ship needed it badly. Attribute: Insight. Specialization: Medicine. Focus example: Field Triage.

A Breakthrough. You solved a technical or scientific problem that mattered beyond the moment. Attribute: Reason. Specialization: Engineering or Science, your choice. Focus example: Experimental Design or Systems Integration. Optional Trait: a name for the thing you solved.

A Hard Call. You chose between the requested outcome and what the Doctrine of Response demanded, and you held to the Doctrine. Attribute: Reason. Specialization: Diplomacy. Focus example: Doctrine of Response or Mandate Interpretation. Optional Trait: reflecting the call and what it cost you.

Lost Someone. A friend or crewmate died on a commission, and you carried on. Attribute: Insight. Specialization: Medicine or Diplomacy, your choice. Focus example: Grief and Loss Counseling, or a pursuit taken up in the friend's memory. Optional Trait: reflecting the loss.

A Ship Lost. Your ship was destroyed or crippled beyond repair, and you were among those who made it out. Attribute: Daring. Specialization: Security or Engineering, your choice. Focus example: Escape and Evasion.

Named by Another People. A people outside the Empire came to consider your crew a friend, publicly and on the record. Attribute: Presence. Specialization: Diplomacy or Science, your choice. Focus example: the people's Cultural Protocol or Language. Optional Trait: Friend to the people who named you.

A Close Call. You were hurt badly enough to remember it, and the recovery left something behind. Attribute: Fitness. Specialization: Medicine or Security, your choice. Focus example: Pain Management or Hazard Survival. Optional Trait: reflecting the injury or the recovery.

Step Seven: Finishing Touches

The character is nearly complete. A few adjustments and a few last choices close it out.

Value. Choose one final Value, your fourth. It may grow out of a Career Event, or it may be something none of the earlier steps touched. Chapter 4.1's sample list is there for a starting point.

Attributes. No Attribute may exceed 12, and no more than one may reach 12. Where a total runs over, bring it down to the limit and move the difference to another Attribute that is still under it. Once every Attribute is within range, add one final point to two different Attributes of your choice. A standard character built through every step above has Attributes summing to exactly 59.

Specializations. No Specialization may exceed 5, and no more than one may reach 5. Handle any overflow the same way: bring it down, move the difference elsewhere. Once everything is within range, add one final point to two different Specializations of your choice. The same character totals exactly 16 across all six Specializations, including the baseline of 1 in every field (Chapter 4.3).

Focus Loadout. Fill any open slots until you have six active Focuses. Mark each one as Loadable or Rooted. The choices made during Lifepath are the starting Loadout and may change under Chapter 3.5's Focus Swap rules.

Cysuit and equipment. Choose and record one interface Trait: Cysuit, Joined through a Cysuit, Synthetic Chassis, or Unbonded. An Unbonded main character completed the Rites while cysuit-bonded and separated afterward; record when and why the separation occurred, along with any lasting Trait it left (Chapter 2.3). Then choose one matching Hardware or Equipment Trait. Examples include Clinical Sequencer, Deep-Survey Sensor Array, Integrated Microfoundry, Defensive Field Projector, Signal-Bending Rig, and Expedition Environment Package (Chapter 3.5). This Trait records the specialized capability the character routinely brings. Equipment required by a commission arrives separately through Chapter 2.6.

Talents. Fill any open slots until you have four Talents in total. Traits have no such cap (Chapter 4.1); take as many as the steps above gave you.

Derived ratings and resources. Your maximum Stress equals Fitness (Chapter 3.4). Begin the first commission with 1 Determination and 0 Momentum (Chapters 3.3 and 3.2).

Partnership and Companion. Decide whether your character carries a Synthetic partner, travels beside a signature Companion, or works without either. Chapter 4.4 covers the available arrangements and any additional details they add to the sheet. For a one-sheet Joined character, decide which partner is the full character. A full wearer keeps their biological species package. A full Synthetic keeps the Synthetic package and adds a Trait naming the biological body they share.

Final Details. Choose a name (your species' naming conventions live in the Reference Manual) and settle a rough sense of age, appearance, and manner, whatever the table hasn't already worked out in play. You may also choose a pastime: a hobby or interest that has nothing to do with the job, useful for roleplay and occasionally, at your gamemaster's discretion, usable as a Focus when it turns out to matter after all.

Once these are set, the character is complete. Begin play.

Final Check

A standard Lifepath character has:

• Attributes totaling 59, with one rating of 12 at most.
• Specializations totaling 16, with one rating of 5 at most.
• One species Trait and one species signature ability.
• Four Values, six active Focus Slots, and four Talents.
• One interface Trait: Cysuit, Joined through a Cysuit, Synthetic Chassis, or Unbonded after a post-Rite separation.
• One Cysuit Hardware, Chassis Hardware, or Equipment Trait.
• Maximum Stress equal to Fitness.
• 1 Determination and 0 Momentum at the start of the commission.