Life Path Character Creation

Rather than making a character and then improvising a backstory that fits those stats, you may prefer a process that reflects your character’s passage through life, telling a story all on its own. This life path system produces characters by taking into account their past experiences and the fortunes and mishaps that befell them.

Overview

The life path system details your character’s progression from childhood and adolescence to adulthood. It incorporates both various stages of their life and major events such as the Fall.

This system is loosely based on default character creation (Making Characters, EP2). Familiarize yourself with those rules before proceeding here, especially the Character Stats, EP2.

At each step of your character’s life path, you update your character’s stats. Some steps provide straightfoward bonuses, such as your starting Flex and aptitudes. For 3 of the major steps — background, career, and interests — you either choose or roll randomly on the provided tables to acquire a package of skills, just like standard character creation (though usually with extra bonuses).

For the rest of the steps, you roll on an event table that details something that happens to your character and helps define them. Some events simply provide background details for roleplaying or story purposes. Others provide modifications to your character’s skills, rep, traits, or even aptitudes, ranging from minor to drastic.

[d100] Square brackets indicate rolls to make.

{1} Curly brackets indicate die roll results.

Life Path Step-by-Step

Balance and Fairness

This system is random and the results are not evenly weighted, meaning it produces characters that are neither balanced nor optimized. Your character may be worth more or less Customization Points than one built using the standard creation rules. This is intentional: life is not fair, and fortune smiles on some while drowning others in misery. Gamemasters (GMs) and groups that want their characters to start on an equal footing should not use this system.

Since the results can produce unfair outcomes, all rolls are final — there are no do-overs. If you choose to take this route for character creation, you agree to the risks. If the dice don’t roll in your favor, take your character’s disadvantages as a challenge to live up to at the gaming table.

The one caveat is that random rolls sometimes produce contradictory combinations. For rolls that produce odd results or a backtracking of the character’s interests, do your best to come up with a story on how it all fits together. However, if you get a result that renders a non-sensical outcome, either in terms of backstory or game mechanics, talk to your GM about ignoring it and rolling again.

Accumulating Points

As you progress, your character will acquire aptitude, skill, and rep points (as well as traits and other stats). These points are cumulative and added together at the end (Step 15); simply keep a tally as you go. For example, if you gain Athletics 10 and Athletics 30 in separate stages, you have 40 points for Athletics in Step 15.

A few events reduce your aptitude, skill, or rep points. If you accumulate 30 c-rep and an event reduces your c-rep by 10, you now have 20 c-rep. If you take a reduction but have 0 points in that rep or skill, take note of it, as you may pick up points in a later step (which then get reduced).

Trait Levels

Traits with levels are also cumulative. If you pick up Resources (Level 1) in one step and another Resources (Level 1) in the next step, you now have Resources (Level 2).

Optional Rule: Many of the traits in EP2 are available at different levels. With the exception of Psi and Resources, the multi-level traits in this path system are all at Level 2. If you prefer to make it more variable, you can randomly determine each trait’s level instead.

Changing Morphs

In Step 4, you acquire your starting morph. At various further stages, you may egocast, resleeve, or die. Some entries assign you a specific new morph, but most instruct you to roll on the Random Morph tables to determine your new sleeve. This new morph replaces your existing one. The morph you have at the end of the life path (Step 15) is the one with which you start gameplay.

This Is Your Life

The main value of this life path system is that it tells your character’s story. Each roll on the tables is a plot point in your character’s personal history. Use the details to flesh out your past, motivations, personality, and outlook on life. Even better, try to find ways to entangle your character’s history with the backgrounds of the other player characters (PCs), particularly if they share any similar stages or events. GMs should take note of each character’s life path progression and use it as a springboard for plot ideas, introducing NPCs, or tying the various aspects of a team and campaign together.

Motivations

Every new character starts with 3 motivations (EP2) that are assigned along with your background in Step 4, reflecting your character’s youthful ambitions. At each additional step in the process, you should consider whether or not to modify or replace any of these motivations based on your character’s experiences so far. Some entries may suggest specific new motivations to adopt.

All of the motivation suggestions are optional. If you’d rather stick with what you have or have an idea that better fits your character concept, then go with that. If you don’t like a suggestion, but don’t know what to replace it with, roll on the Random Motivations table. Remember that motivations are noted as either + (for it) or − (against it); for most random results you can assume a + but you can also determine that randomly if you like.

This system reflects your character’s change in priorities over time, taking on new ideals and goals as they gain experience. You may even end up with motivations at the end that are opposite to the ones with which you began. Such changes beg for explanations: why did your character evolve and what major events shaped their outlook and turned their eyes in new directions?

You should never have more than 3 motivations; if you want to add a new one, you must drop an existing one.

Random Motivations [d100]

RollMotivation
00Acceptance/Assimilation
01–02Adventure/Thrill-Seeking
03–04AGI Personhood
05Alien Contact
06–07Anarchism/Autonomism
08Asceticism
09–10Autonomy/Independence
11–12Biochauvinism/Bioconservatism
13[Create/Preserve] Legacy
14–15Creative Expression
16Discover [Past/Self]
17–18DIY/Self-Reliance
19Education
20Escape
21–22Expand Influence
23–24Exploration
25Exoplanet Colonization
26–27[Faction] Interests
28–29Fame/Recognition
30Family
31–32Find a [Home/Purpose/Tribe/Partner]
33Forget Past
34Friendly ASI
35–36Happiness/Serenity
37Hard Work
38–39Hedonism/Vice
40–41[Help/Serve] Others
42Hypercapitalism
43Immortality
44Indenture Rights
45Individualism
46Law and Order
47–48Leadership/Power
49Locate Lost [Friend/Item/Lover/Relative]
50–51Martian Liberation
52Morphological Freedom
53–54Multiplicity
55–56Neurodiversity
57Open Source
58–59Oppose [Asyncs/TITANs/Fascism/Other]
60–61Personal Career
62–63Personal Improvement
64Posthumanism/Singularity Seeking
65Privacy
66–67Prosperity
68Protect [Person/Place/Transhumanity]
69Prove Others Wrong
70–71Reclaim Earth
72Reconnect with [Person/Transhumanity]
73Religion/Spirituality
74–75Research [Topic]
76–77Revenge
78Revolution
79–80Safety/Security
81–82Science!/Scientific Discovery
83Skill Mastery
84Socialism
85Sousveillance
86Stability
87–88Survival
89Technoprogressivism
90Terraforming [Mars/Venus]
91Transparency
92–93Uncover Secrets
94–95Uplift Rights
96Venusian Sovereignty
97–98Wealth
99X-Risks

A Word On Safety

The event table entries detail things that happen in your character’s life — both good and bad — and either provide a positive or negative outcome. Some events deal with sensitive circumstances, such as death, violence, coercion, and other sucktastic things. These shouldn’t be read as saying these events are the only way you get those results, nor that such events always have the same outcome. They simply offer a possible explanation for how your particular character turned out. If you don’t like the explanation provided in an entry, invent a

different one. It’s your character, you control the story. If you are sensitive to certain topics, ask the GM or another player to read the entries you roll first, and re-roll any that cross into topics you want to avoid.

Optional Rule: Using Flex

Your PC starts with a point of Flex, and you might accumulate more as you progress down your path. If the GM allows it, you may spend Flex points to re-roll on a stage or event table. Once you have used a point of Flex this way, it may not be used again during the life path character creation process (it still applies to your character’s final Flex total, of course).

Alternatively, if you really want to be hardcore, you can rule that such a re-roll requires you to permanently lose that point of Flex. The whims of fate are not easily disrupted, or something.

Really, though, we strongly suggest taking whatever rolls you get, no matter how good or bad, and rolling with the punches. It builds character.