Randomized Identity Generator (The RIG)

12 November 2019 ☼ Mothership ☼ Argos

In the spirit of Dead Planet adding a derelict generator and A Pound of Flesh having cyberware, the Argos Economic Zone supplement is intended to include a few Traveller-like rules for longer Mothership campaigns. What causes an otherwise skilled and intelligent person to make a living by continually taking terrifying and dangerous jobs? Well… economic horror does.

Below is an alpha version of the first part of these rules: a set of Traveller-style lifepath character generation mechanics.

To create a character using the RIG…

Roll 6d10 4 times to determine stats.
Choose a Trained skill to represent your character’s personal interests and/or initial education.¹
Choose a career path and roll the stat listed in italics. You may add a relevant skill to your stat for this check. On a success, mark that down as your career. Otherwise, roll 1d10 to determine the career that you randomly fell into.
Mark down the starting skill(s) listed next to your career’s name.²
Note your Time, Rank and Wealth totals. They all begin at zero.
Mark 1 Time and make a Career Check. You may repeat this step until you fail a Career Check or choose to voluntarily end your career.
Choose a class, note their saves, and take their associated bonus.

Teamster: Take the Panic Reroll ability.
Android: None! They have a very high Fear save.
Scientist: Take a free Master skill.
Marine: Take a third HIT.

Take an equipment loadout relevant to your past career, and then roll on the Wealth table for each Wealth you’ve gained. Add your Rank to each roll. If you have 0 Wealth, take the 0 result on the Wealth table.
Roll for a random trinket and patch.
Finally, roll for a reason you left your career to go on the drift. If you need to know your age, it’s 20 + (Time * 1d5).

Career Check

Roll the stat associated with your career. You may add a relevant skill to your stat for this check. On a success, take +1 Wealth and you may continue in this career. On a failure, your career ends.
On a critical success, you also gain +1 Rank. On a critical failure, you die. Yes, during character creation.
Succeed or fail, increase one stat by 5, a second stat by 3, and gain 1 SP.

Career Table

Some careers have title progressions you can use to provide characters with a little extra flavor. You can find the relevant charts right over here.

Result	Career
1	Belter (Zero-G) [Strength] Asteroid miner Whenever you would gain Rank, take +1 Wealth instead.
2	Navy (Mechanical Repair) [Strength] Starship crew member in stellar navy When you reach Rank 1, choose whether to use the WO or CO title progression.
3	Bureaucrat (none) ([-] on the roll to join this career.) [Speed] Clerk or any government functionary [+] on Career Checks, but you cannot spend SP on Expert and Master skills.
4	Rogue (Rimwise) [Speed] Drifter without a set profession or member of criminal organization The first time you fail a Career Check, you may mark 2 Time and redo step 5. This represents exposure to a penal institution or similar corrective measures.
5	Scout (Piloting, Scavenging) ([+] on the roll to join this career.) [Speed] Member of an exploratory corps or society [-] on Career Checks. You may re-roll any credit results on the Wealth table.
6	Doctor (First Aid) [Intellect] Physician or similar form of med-tech You automatically start at Rank 1.
7	Merchant (Mathematics) [Intellect] A small business owner or free trader You may may re-roll any non-credit results on the Wealth table.
8	Scientist (Biology) [Intellect] A researcher or similar faculty member of an educational institution Whenever you would gain Rank, take +1 SP instead.
9	Marine (Military Training) [Combat] Foot soldier in a military unit, governmental or mercenary Your title is determined by your Time. When you reach Rank 1, choose whether to use the CO title progression or to become an elite trooper. Troopers gain the Heavy Machinery skill and take +1 Wealth instead whenever they would gain Rank.
10	Police (Athletics) [Combat] Member of a law enforcement or security force When you reach Rank 1, you may choose to become a Detective. Detectives gain the Rimwise skill and take +1 Wealth instead whenever they would gain Rank.

Career Failures Table

Result	Reason
1	A jump mishap forced you to start your life over (take a free nightmare [DP, p.28-29])
2	A severe injury necessitated early retirement (take a free Prosthetic [APoF, p.18])
3	An accident or tragedy affecting others made you a pariah
4	A serious misconduct ejected you from your chosen field
5	A significant political event precipitated a hasty relocation
6	A criminal element became irreparably involved in your career
7	A co-worker or rival destroyed your career and social prospects
8	An instance of whistleblowing required you to pick up and move
9	A bias against your beliefs or practices spurred you into moving on
10	An economic slowdown caused massive disruption in your industry

Wealth Table

Result	Reward
0	*5d10 10cr** (275)
1	item from equipment list <250cr [PSG, p.17-18] (250)
2	*5d10 20cr** (550)
3	pain pills, stimpaks, or drugs [ApoF, p.23] (750)
4	*5d10 50cr** (1,375)
5	armor or weapon (2,000)
6	*5d10 100cr** (2,750)
7	starting loadout (3,000)
8	*5d10 200cr** (5,500)
9	cybermod [APoF, p.18-19] (10,000)
10+	ship stake OR *5d10 500cr** (13,750)

A ship stake is some credit toward paying down a starship. If your group doesn’t already have a starship, you may set your Debt to 70 and take ownership of a used ship thematically appropriate to your career. If you already have Debt and a ship, additional ship stakes lower that outstanding Debt by 5. Detailed debt rules can be found in this post.

This write-up has undergone a few changes since it was originally posted. The most recent edit was on 01/23/2020.

If you prefer, you can roll 2d10 and count downward from the top of the Trained skill list to determine this randomly. Weirdly enough, rolling 2d10 here weights this decision toward more practical skills, like Piloting and Mechanical Repair.↩
If you already have the listed skill, take 1 SP instead.↩