Belters

**Belters**, also known as *Skinnies*, are born and raised in the outer limits of civilised space: on a station or ship in the asteroid belt, or the colonised moons of the outer planets. Separated from death by nothing more than basic support systems their whole life, they have learned to be cautious and aware of their environment, or else die.

Belters often have a diverse ethnic heritage, with ancestors from many different Earth cultures. They tend to be tall and willowy as a result of being raised in low- or microgravity environments. Regimens of bone-density drugs and genetic treatments are needed to keep Belters healthy, but these are often scarce, and many Belters have minor physical abnormalities because of this, which they tend to fix with an over-reliance on cybernetics.

## Origin Variants

### Rock Hopper

The earliest Belters were miners, living out of their ships and sustaining themselves on years’ worth of food reserves. Many still live this way, jumping from one small rock to the next, hauling back water and mined minerals to the nearest stations, and scratching out meagre pay to waste in casinos and bars. These people spend their entire life in microgravity, only rarely spending time in the artificial spin gravity of Belter cities. Even hormone treatments don’t address all of the physical concerns of this lifestyle: bones stretched thin and brittle, brain damage caused by hypoxia, malnutrition and dehydration, all of which contribute to a short, difficult life topped off by the clear dangers of asteroid mining and space in general.

Rock Hoppers find solace instead in their ships. Many build friendships and families with the thousands of others dancing between the rocks of the Belt, but their ship is their one true companion. It is a matter of pride amongst such people to fix their ships themselves, and to help others in doing so if ever the need should arise.

* *Origin Bonus: +1 TECH, +1 LUCK*

### Street Kid

People might think of the Belt as nothing but scattered rocks flying through space, and of Belters as nothing but squatters amidst those rocks, but the major cities of the Belt are just as dense and teeming with life as any on Mars or Earth. Medea Station alone, the largest ring station in the Belt, has millions of inhabitants, from those lucky enough to live in the outer levels with their larger apartments and their fake blue LED sky, to those living in the stacks and rows of 3D-printed “holes” in the inner levels.

These stations and spaceports play host to all manner of humanity, from miners to prostitutes to mechanics to tourists. UV lamps flicker in cramped, metal and plastic hallways with moisture collecting on the walls. Most walls are meters thick, keeping Belters safe from the radiation that pervades the Belt. In these tight spaces are the things that truly define Belter culture: casinos, brothels, bars, and plenty of opportunity for cheap drugs and booze. In summary, lights alone in the dark of space, where a hauler could find warm arms and a cold drink. Criminal gangs are common here, running black markets, protection schemes, grey-water reclamation scams, and generally working to advance their own meagre ends at the expense of visitors to the station, or other Belters in a pinch.

Street kids have lived most of their lives in inner levels of these cities, where lessened gravity and the Coriolis effect makes life a dizzy affair of nausea and seasickness, millions of miles from the nearest sea. They know the streets, the gangs, the slang, and generally what's going on in the "lower life" aspects of the station, and they revel in it. They can tell you where the best place to score is, and where the cheapest bars and brothels are, so long as you got the eddies for the information that is. Down here in the streets, the law of the jungle dictates the weak serve the strong, and only the canniest, or the luckiest, survive.

* *Origin Bonus: +1 COOL, +1 LUCK*

### City Belter

There’s a truism in the Belt: Belters are needed, but not wanted. The Earthers and Dusters who dock within the Belt are happy to drink Belter liquor and blow off steam in Belter brothels, buy Belter metal and sell third-rate materials back. Earth and Mars rely on the minerals of the Belt for technology and industry, yet they rarely provide anything back. The choicest fruits and grains and beef of Europa and Ganymede go to Earth, Luna, and even Mars, before they come to the Belt. The Earth corporations most Belters work for cut corners, resulting in unsafe work conditions for asteroid and water miners. Basic necessities such as water and air are tightly controlled and shorted during times of financial hardship (for the corporation, that is).

Still, working for one of the megacorps that have offices in the stations of the Belt is a life many Belters find preferable to living on the streets. They may not like their bosses a whole lot, but their eddies still pay just fine. Such Belters are seen by some as traitors to their people, sucking up to their inner-planet bosses and working against their own kind. Even then, these Belters are the lowest of the low on the corporate ladder, and have little hope of climbing any further.

* *Origin Bonus: +1 INT, +1 LUCK*