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
- Step 1: Start with 1 Ego Flex
- Step 2: Determine Aptitude Template
- Step 3: Determine Native Tongue
- Step 4: Background Path
- Step 5: Youth Event
- Step 6: Determine Age
- Step 7: Pre-Fall Event
- Step 8: Fall Event
- Step 9: Career Path
- Step 10: Interests
- Step 11: Determine Faction
- Step 12: Post-Fall Event
- Step 13: Campaign Event
- Step 14: Optional Story Event
- Step 15: Final Stats and Details
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]
Roll Motivation 00 Acceptance/Assimilation 01–02 Adventure/Thrill-Seeking 03–04 AGI Personhood 05 Alien Contact 06–07 Anarchism/Autonomism 08 Asceticism 09–10 Autonomy/Independence 11–12 Biochauvinism/Bioconservatism 13 [Create/Preserve] Legacy 14–15 Creative Expression 16 Discover [Past/Self] 17–18 DIY/Self-Reliance 19 Education 20 Escape 21–22 Expand Influence 23–24 Exploration 25 Exoplanet Colonization 26–27 [Faction] Interests 28–29 Fame/Recognition 30 Family 31–32 Find a [Home/Purpose/Tribe/Partner] 33 Forget Past 34 Friendly ASI 35–36 Happiness/Serenity 37 Hard Work 38–39 Hedonism/Vice 40–41 [Help/Serve] Others 42 Hypercapitalism 43 Immortality 44 Indenture Rights 45 Individualism 46 Law and Order 47–48 Leadership/Power 49 Locate Lost [Friend/Item/Lover/Relative] 50–51 Martian Liberation 52 Morphological Freedom 53–54 Multiplicity 55–56 Neurodiversity 57 Open Source 58–59 Oppose [Asyncs/TITANs/Fascism/Other] 60–61 Personal Career 62–63 Personal Improvement 64 Posthumanism/Singularity Seeking 65 Privacy 66–67 Prosperity 68 Protect [Person/Place/Transhumanity] 69 Prove Others Wrong 70–71 Reclaim Earth 72 Reconnect with [Person/Transhumanity] 73 Religion/Spirituality 74–75 Research [Topic] 76–77 Revenge 78 Revolution 79–80 Safety/Security 81–82 Science!/Scientific Discovery 83 Skill Mastery 84 Socialism 85 Sousveillance 86 Stability 87–88 Survival 89 Technoprogressivism 90 Terraforming [Mars/Venus] 91 Transparency 92–93 Uncover Secrets 94–95 Uplift Rights 96 Venusian Sovereignty 97–98 Wealth 99 X-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.