Alternate Character Creation: Life Path 1e

Rather than just assembling a character’s attributes from scratch, some players prefer the character creation process to reﬂect their character’s development and passage through life. This life path system offers a way of devising characters that takes into account their past experiences, the training they’ve received, the jobs they’ve held, the people they’ve known, and the fortunes and mishaps that befell them.

# Overview

As described, the life path system details the character’s progression through life from birth to the present. It begins with the character’s background—their childhood and adolescence—and moves forward to adulthood and various stages of their life.
This system is loosely built upon the package character creation system. Players should familiarize themselves with that system before proceeding here. At each stage of the character’s life, they earn a package of skills and other characteristics, just like with the package system. On top of this, however, the player also rolls on an event table at each stage. The result of each roll details something that has happened to the character that helps to deﬁne them in some way. Some of these events simply provide background information on the character for roleplaying or story purposes, others incur modifications to the character’s skills, rep, traits, or even aptitudes. These effects range from the nominal to drastic.
There are two ways to use the life path system. The suggested method is to roll randomly on the provided tables at each stage of the character’s life, following the instructions as provided. Alternatively, players can simply choose from the available options at each stage, effectively using the tables to decide what packages to take. In this case, however, players should not be allowed to choose from the event tables. They can either roll the events randomly or skip them entirely, but they may not choose event results.

## A Word of Warning

The life path system, when rolled randomly, will produce characters that are not balanced. Depending on how you roll on the various event tables, your character may be worth more or less Customization Points than a character built using the standard creation rules. This is intentional: life is not fair, after all, and fortune smiles on some while giving others the ﬁnger. Gamemasters or groups that want their characters to start on an equal footing may be better off not using the event tables.
Gamemasters should strictly enforce that the result of event rolls are ﬁnal. If a player chooses to take this route for character creation, they are choosing to take the risks. If the dice do not roll in their favor, they should take their character’s new-found disadvantages as a challenge to live up to at the gaming table.

## This is Your Life

One of the main values of this life path system is that it helps you tell your character’s story. Each roll on the tables should be considered a plot point in your character’s personal history. Use the details to ﬂesh out your character’s 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, particularly if they shared any similar stages or events. Gamemasters 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 campaign together.

## Motivations

One specific thing to look at is the suggested motivations your character gets with each package. While these are simply ideas you can accept or ignore, they do offer a couple of methods of building your character’s personality and history.
The ﬁrst option is to pick and choose a single motivation at each of the main steps: one from your Background packages, one from the package you choose pre-Fall, and one post-Fall. This reﬂects your character’s growth over time, taking on new ideals and interests as they gain experience.
The second option is to take three motivations at the Background stage, based on the suggestions, and then to potentially modify these at each step based on the new suggestions. This reﬂects your character’s change in priorities over time. 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?

## Altering the Power Level

If a gamemaster wants a lower-powered campaign, they should cut down the number of Package Points the character accumulates through the various stages, limiting them to 8 or 9 PP. Similarly, for a higher-powered campaign, additional stages may be taken, up to 11 or 12 PP, as desired.

## Using Moxie on Your Life Path

Every character acquires 1 or more points of Moxie at the ﬁrst stage and they may accumulate more as they progress down their path. If the gamemaster allows it, Moxie that has been acquired so far may be used to re-roll on a stage or event table. Once a point of Moxie has been used in this way, it may not be used again during the life path character creation process (it still applies to the character’s ﬁnal Moxie total, of course).
If you really want to be hardcore, we strongly suggest taking whatever rolls you get, no matter how good or bad they might be, and rolling with the punches. It builds character.

### Sidebar: Imperfections

Randomized systems of this sort can sometimes produce interesting combinations. Some results may even be quite contradictory. If you get a result that directly contradicts a previous roll, we highly suggest you simply ignore it and roll again. For rolls that produce odd results, do your best to come up with a story on why they fit together. If you can’t, ignore the unusual result and re-roll.

# Life Path Character Creation Step-by-Step Guide

1. Choose/Roll Aptitude Template
2. Choose/Roll Native Tongue
3. Choose/Roll Youth Path (2 or 3 PP Background Packages)
4. Roll Background Event
5. Roll Character's Age
6. Choose/Roll Adult Pre-Fall Path (1 PP Package)
7. Roll Pre-Fall Life Event
8. The Fall: Roll Fall Event
9. Choose/Roll Adult Post-Fall Path (1 or 3 PP Package)
10. Choose/Roll More Packages Until Character Has 10 PP Total
11. Roll Post-Fall Life Event
12. Optional: Roll Firewall Event
13. Roll Gear
14. Combine Everything
15. Final Stats and Details

## Step 1: Aptitude Template

The ﬁrst step is to either choose or randomly roll your character’s starting aptitudes from the Random Aptitude Template table.

### Random Aptitude Template

 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9-0

**The Story:** Your aptitudes define your character’s natural inclinations. Were they a rough-and-tumble type from birth? Did they always have the gleam of curiosity in their eye, or did they always play well with others? These aptitudes are their core nature, the source of their inner strengths—but it does not necessarily define who they will be as a person.

## Step 2: Choose/Roll Native Tongue

The next step is to determine your character’s native language. Every character receives their natural Language skill at a rating of 70 + INT. Roll on the random Language Fields table to determine the tongue with which you are raised (or simply choose).
**The Story:** Your native language is an indication of your character’s ethnic background and cultural heritage—or at least the dominant culture in which they were raised if they were an immigrant or outlier.

## Step 3: Youth Path

This stage pinpoints your character’s youth. Begin by rolling on or choosing from Table 3: Youth Path. Depending on the results, you will roll 1–3 times on Table 3.1: Background. Each of these rolls will direct you to a subtable where you will roll 1d10 to determine which Background package and starting morph you acquire (you may sometimes need to roll an additional 1d10 as noted).
You should end up with 2 or 3 PP worth of Background packages. If you roll for multiple packages and get the same package twice, re-roll. You may not take the same package more than once.
The Next Path result on your ﬁnal roll may inﬂuence what tables you roll on in Steps 6 and 9, so note it down.
After you have ﬁnished rolling, proceed to Step 4.
**The Story:** This reﬂects where the character was born and spent their early formative years, from childhood through adolescence and into early adulthood. This stage includes family and school as well as early vocational training, academic studies, and early life lessons. Some characters will have a thoroughly grounded background, others will have an early life that reﬂects change or even divisiveness. Characters that roll more than once may have had their childhood uprooted, may have rebelled in their adolescence and sought a new path, or may simply have moved on to a new way of life different from the way they were raised.
In most cases, your starting morph indicates the one with which you were born. Even characters with more advanced morphs may have been genecrafted, had their embryo modified, or undergone gene therapy as a child to incorporate traits common to current morph models.
Note that the package names do not necessarily pinpoint your character’s history. “Re-instantiated” and “Fall Evacuee” are misnomers at this point, as the Fall has not yet occurred—for simplicity, however, these packages define the skills sets your character has earned.
6–9 Table 6.3: Civilian,
In this case, ignore any other backgrounds rolled at this stage and move immediately to Step 9: Adult Post-Fall Paths.
† Characters with the Lost background ignore any other backgrounds rolled at this stage and move immediately to Step 9: Adult Post-Fall Paths.

## Step 4: Background Event

Now that the character’s early life is outlined, we see what major event may have occurred to shake things up. Roll once on the Background Event table (below), follow the instructions, then proceed to Step 5.

## Step 5: Starting Age

At this point you need to determine your character’s age at the beginning of play. Roll on the Character Age table (this page). Characters that are exceptionally young will skip directly to the events of the Fall. For determining exact age randomly, just roll a d10 to set the exact year in the decade. For example, if you roll a 23, your character would be in the 30s. A d10 roll of 5 to determine exact age would mean the character is 35.
again. Ignore this result if rolled more than twice;
this result if rolled more than three times; proceed

## Step 6: Adult Pre-Fall Path

This step covers the character’s adult life prior to the Fall. Roll on Table 6: Adult Paths to determine where the character’s next course in life leads. You will be directed to a subtable indicating the character’s current path focus. In some cases, this subtable may be determined from the Next Path entry on the last Background path you rolled in Step 3. Roll 1d10 on this subtable to determine which Focus package you acquire at 1 PP. After this, proceed to Step 7.
Each path subtable lists a Faction path. Note this—it is the likely Faction path you will roll on in Step 9.
**The Story:** For some characters, this step may represent only a handful of years immediately before the Fall. For older characters, this stage and the previously rolled background could mean decades of time before the Fall.
indicated by the Next Path entry from your
† Re-roll unless rolled by a character

## Step 7: Pre-Fall Life Event

Once again we see what major event may have impacted the character’s life before the Fall. Roll once on the Pre-Fall Life Event, follow the instructions, and then proceed to Step 8.

## Step 8: The Fall

Roll once on the Fall Event, follow the instructions, and then proceed to Step 9.
**The Story:** The Fall affected everyone in Eclipse Phase. How your character survived and what impact this had on their later life should be major elements of your character’s background.

## Step 9: Adult Post-Fall Paths

Step 9 is where your character really starts to come together. In this step you gain one new Focus package and one new Faction package. Some characters will be defined more by their faction, others more by their profession. To reﬂect this, roll on Table 9: Adult Post-Fall Paths to determine what value of PP to take for each package.
To determine your Focus package, roll on Table 9.1: Focus Packages and follow the results. Each Focus path subtable lists a Faction path. Note this down; this is the likely Faction path you will roll on next.
Once you have your Focus package (at the PP amount indicated by your roll on Table 9), determine your Faction package; roll on Table 9.2: Faction Packages and follow the results. Uplift and AGI characters should roll on Table 9:14 instead.
**The Story:** After the Fall old ways of living crumbled and were forgotten and new ideas and societies rose up offering promises of hope, wealth, or safety. Many left behind their old lives to join new communities or leveraged their hard won skills into positions of power or inﬂuence. What became readily apparent in the post-Fall world was that you needed allies, or least friends you could depend upon to help you and keep you safe. This step encapsulates the character’s allegiances and work in the time after the Fall. The chosen faction indicates where the character is likely to live, who they associate with, and what political opinions they are likely to have. The Focus package illustrates what the character has been spending time on.

## Step 10: Final Packages

At this point, your character should have between 6 and 10 PP worth of packages:

* 2 or 3 PP in Background packages (Step 3)
* 1 PP in Focus or Customization packages (Step 6)
* 4 or 6 PP in Focus and Faction packages (Step 9)

If you have less than 10 PP, roll on Table 10: More Packages and take another 1 PP package as the table indicates. If you roll a package you already have, ignore it and re-roll. Repeat this process until you have 10 PP total, then proceed to Step 11.
**The Story:** This step deals with more recent changes to your character’s life. Did they change jobs? Switch faction allegiances? Move to another part of the solar system (or galaxy)? Pick up a hobby or a few odd skills on the side? What sparked or motivated these changes?

## Step 11: Roll Post-Fall Life Event

Along with the packages you have chosen, you now get to see what major event inﬂuenced your character’s life after the Fall. Roll on the Post-Fall Life Event table, follow the directions, then proceed to Step 12. Some results from this event table may require you to roll on the Gatecrashing Event table as well.

## Step 12: Firewall Event

For characters that are participating in Firewall-based campaigns, you can roll on the Firewall Event table to determine how your character became introduced to the conspiracy. After the roll, proceed to Step 13.
Non-Firewall characters should skip this step and go directly to Step 13.

## Step 13: Gear

You now determine how much credit your character has for purchasing gear. Roll on the Starting Credit table. Moxie may only be used for a re-roll on this table once. Any credits acquired from events are added to this amount; any credits lost from events are subtracted from this amount (if the amount goes below zero, treat as zero). These credits may be used to buy any gear the gamemaster allows, with the exception of morphs.
It is strongly recommended that players choose gear that is appropriate for their characters. Players that wish to randomly choose gear, however, may roll on the Gear Packages table and purchase one of the gear packages detailed here.
In addition to the gear purchased here, every character begins play with a standard muse and one month of backup insurance at no cost.
Any credits left over from purchasing gear are what the character has in their possession at the start of gameplay.
When ﬁnished, go to Step 14.

## Step 14: Combine Everything

Now that you have all of your character’s packages determined and the various modiﬁers from the life events, it’s time to put it all together. Follow the same guidelines for putting your character as described under Combine Everything in the package creation system rules. Proceed to Step 15 when done.

### Starting Faction

Though factional allegiance has no direct game mechanics effect, many players will want to know which faction their character considers home at the start of gameplay. The simplest answer is to use the faction corresponding to the last Faction package rolled. For a more complex answer, however, you can go for a character with multiple factional ties. How does your character balance these links? How do they reconcile any conﬂicting interests? How do they respond when two or more factions call on them simultaneously? Is the character simply dabbling with one faction, testing the waters before committing themselves? Or are they consorting with another faction in the hopes of breaking free from the conﬁning ties that keep them bound to their old tribe?

## Step 15: Final Stats and Details

The character’s ﬁnal characteristics are now calculated. See Remaining Stats. Once those are ﬁnalized, you can put all of the life path elements together and detail the character’s history, personality, and current status. See Detailing the Character, just down from Remaining Stats.

## Step 16: Story Event (Optional)

Story events are background elements that do not have a game effect on your character, but are included for potential roleplaying and plot purposes. Some of the results on the earlier event tables may have instructed you to roll on this table.
As a ﬁnal step, you may roll on the Story Event table to determine a recent event in your character’s life. This may help deﬁne what your character is doing or concerned with at the beginning of gaemplay. It may also be used to tie the character to the other player characters in the game.

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