Building Characters

Characters are the one file type where the machine does real work for you. Built right, a character sheet computes its own wound threshold, composure, perk slots, skill ratings, and crew standing from the inputs you provide. Built wrong, it is a wall of numbers that means nothing. This chapter is about feeding the machine honestly.

The inputs that matter

• Rule set — the reference that makes the sheet compute. Skill ratings, wound threshold, composure, and perk capacity all derive from it. A character without a rule set is a person with no gravity; attach one first.
• Attributes — the five ratings, 0–6. These are the engine's fuel. Skill ratings are attributes plus +2 for proficiency, so the gap between "good at everything" and "great at one skill" happens entirely in how you spend proficiencies.
• Skill proficiencies — the shape-maker. Two characters with identical attributes become a medic and a machine-fixer purely on this field. Encourage players to think in proficiencies, not raw numbers.
• Exposure — the poison that moves the other numbers down. It should start at 0 and be earned. If you never move it, you are playing a different game.
• Perks — reference to perk files, so the sheet can count slots and the GM can read rule text without opening another tab.

The derived numbers, and what they mean

The computed fields exist so the GM never does arithmetic mid-scene. Wound threshold (rule set base + Brawn) answers "how much can they take." Composure and perk slots answer "how much Aether have they soaked." Crew standing (the average of relationships) answers "is this crew still a crew." If a number surprises you, look at the inputs — that is the system working, not breaking.

Conditions are half prose, half data

Each condition row in a rule set carries an effect written for a human and an optional skillPenalty written for the sheet — scope (which attribute's skills, or all), value, and whether it multiplies per stack. The character sheet reads the structured half and folds it into every skill rating automatically; the GM reads the prose half for everything that is not a dice modifier.

Keep the two in agreement. If you write a condition whose effect is not a flat modifier to a family of skills — a bleed that eats wound threshold, a mark that changes what hunts you — give it no skillPenalty at all and let the prose carry it. A condition that silently modifies six systems is a condition nobody can reason about, and a structured penalty that disagrees with its own effect text is worse than either alone.

Secrets, voice, background

The human half has as much weight as the math. Secrets are the GM-facing truth — the thing in the load-bearing relationship, the thing Confess can spend. Voice is how they talk and what breaks under pressure. Background and personality are texture. Do not let the texture crowd the mechanics, but do let the mechanics serve the texture: an exposure-driven loss of composure means more when the voice notes promised exactly that crack.

Relationships and standing

The relationships array is the crew's emotional economy, with standing −5 to +5 doing the accounting. Build a bond and an opening standing for each pair, then let the numbers move through downtime and betrayals only. The GM updates standing — the sheet reports the average. The rule to enforce is the one the players will fight: a good roll never, by itself, fixes a relationship.

Archetype

Archetype is a one-line promise — soldier, scientist, occultist, drunk, fixer — not a class with abilities. Write it as a noun plus an honest flaw. It is the fastest shorthand a GM has for "what does this person do when the plan collapses," which is the only question that reliably matters at the table.