Wherein your humble scribe presents a Barbarians of Lemuria system character he put together as a test of the system for use in that highly-amorphous psychedelic scifi setting that still won’t gel in his head. Barbarians of the Aftermath informs this concept as well, as will be obvious in short order.
Axl Gunnarson, captain of the Hazj-class merchant vessel Alfadis, was truly born to the life of a spacer. His mother, Teja Khadim Gunnarson, was pregnant with Axl when she entered the stasis chamber aboard the colony ship that would take her and her husband Ivar to their new home on Djaribhk IV. The journey lasted some 12 years, and during that time something unusual occurred with the development of the child within her womb. Somehow, against all known medical wisdom, the child’s consciousness continued to develop even as its body remained frozen in time. Now, as an old man of the spacelanes, Axl is one of the few documented psychics within the Galanas Federation. Axl is not fond of his unique abilities and seldom uses them, leaving him more of a raw talent than a honed instrument. He prefers to make his way between the systems and starports, buying and selling goods when he can and ferrying passengers when he must.
Captain Axl Gunnarson / Lifeblood 12 / Hero Points 5 / Psychic Power 10
Attributes: Strength 2, Agility 0, Mind 1, Appeal 1
Combat Abilities: Brawl 1, Melee 0, Ranged 2, Defense 1
Careers: Spacer 2, Merchant 1, Scholar 1, Psychic 0
Boons: Born To The Stars (bonus die on piloting, etc.)
Flaws: None
Languages: Galanash, TradeSpeak, Draybledhi, Vaarntic
Equipment: Laser Pistol (d6), Personal Shield (d6-2)
Very cool! I’m curious to learn more about your sci-fi careers as I’m putting together a Traveller-ish BotA hack for the “New Era 1248” setting. Is “Spacer” a catch-all career covering pilot, astrogator, engineer, gunner, etc.?
I for one am looking forward to reading more as your psychedelic sci-fi setting comes together!
Well howdy, J. Vasche! I wish I could give you more details to check out, but sadly this is all very, very loose in my head only at the moment.
The “Spacer” career is definitely intended as a broad catch-all for precisely the kinds of things you noted. Perhaps not gunner, but the rest are definitely included. In Traveller terms (I’ve never played New Era, but I assume this will make sense), a rank in Spacer is probably worth level 1 in the core skills (pilot, astrogation, maybe even steward) and a specialized Jack-of-All-Trades in the important peripherals (engineering, etc.). I’m not quite sure how that games out in BoL (penalties to the “lesser” skills maybe?), but that’s my thinking right now.
I’ll try to keep banging away on this thing as I can. I found your BotA 1248 post quite inspiring, so you keep plugging away, too, por favor!