Character Sheet
When creating a Blackout Character, players will need to fill a Character Sheet which will contain all the necessary information about the character, their experience, gear, personality and all other facets that both the player and GM need to know.
You can find a google sheets Character Sheet here, make a copy of the sheet to fill when making your character.
This section will focus on guiding you through filling out a character profile, while each item will be explained further in subsequent sections and chapters.
Attributes
Characters start with the following scores in each of their attributes and have 12 points they may use to increase their scores, to a maximum score of 6 in any given one.
Strength
3
Endurance
3
Dexterity
3
Intelligence
3
Insight
3
Charisma
3
2. Background
Your Background represents your character’s origin and life before freelancing, Backgrounds give you suggested Specialized Skills, a Suggested Ambition and Drives and a small Advantage in specific situations.
3. Feature
Your background Feature is a unique modifier or benefit that correlates to your character’s history. Keep in mind not all backgrounds will unlock the same Features and you may only pick one.
5. Drives
A player may pick up to 8 possible Drives for their character from the Drive page, out of which they can pick 3 every session. These Drives may change through play and present conditions that, when fulfilled, allow a character to add dice to your group’s Inspiration Pool. A character’s background, feature and trait may also give suggestions for Drives that would fit the character.
A player may replace Drives from their list with any other option by fulfilling them at least once per session over three or more sessions.
6. Inspiration
The Inspiration pool is a pool of dice available to your group to be used as Advantages - any unused Inspiration dice are discarded at the end of each session. Characters then add 1 die to the inspiration pool for for each fulfilled Drive for next time.
During a session, characters can also add a die to the Inspiration Pool whenever they gain Stress or are Wounded and the GM may award an inspiration die when a character critically fails a significant test.
7. Genetic Modifications
All characters have the option to take up to one cosmetic (cost 0) Gene Mod, but some will be able to take more Genetic Modifications if they’ve taken the corresponding trait by spending Gene Mod Points.
8. Specialized Skill
A character may choose any five skills as Specialized Skills. Unless otherwise indicated by a trait, the Vitality and Profession skills are ALWAYS specialized. Your background will usually include a short list of suggested specialized skills for a character.
Specialized skills don’t gain any inherent bonuses- but upgrading them is cheaper when spending XP.
9. Starting Experience
A character starts with 50 points of Starting Experience which they may spend on increasing the rank on their Skills or purchasing new training as detailed in the Advancement section.
10. Training
Each character will start with three free Level 1 options from the Physical Training , Mental Training and/or Social Training sections.
11. Starting Proficiency
Select a Proficiency your character receives for free; some traits and trainings might also give you extra proficiencies.
12. Hit Points
Determine your character’s maximum Hit Points. A character’s total Hit Points are equal to three times the sum of their Endurance characteristic and their Vitality rank. Think of Hit Points as an abstraction of your character's luck, grit and resilience. It is only when a character runs out of Hit points that they start receiving real harm.
13. Stamina
Determine your character’s stamina which is three times the sum of their Endurance characteristic and their Fortitude rank. Stamina is used to fuel some special abilities as well as using Combat Maneuvers.
14. Walking and Running Speed
Fill in your character's walking and running speed. A humans normal walking speed is 30 feet per round, whereas their running speed is 60 feet per round. Additionally, every point of encumbrance a character has past the first decreases their running speed by 5 feet, and every rank a character has in the Athletics skills increases their running speed by 5 feet.
15. Starting Gear
Determine how much your character can carry ((3+Strength Attribute + Endurance Attribute)*5 + Athletics Rank*15), then purchase Equipment from the Gear Index. Characters normally start with 1000 credits. Unless otherwise indicated, characters may purchase rare gear during character creation by doubling the final cost of the item.
16. Implants
Fill in any Implants your character might have purchased as well as the bulk they take up. The maximum bulk a character can have is usually their Endurance score plus their vitality rank, but some traits and trainings can increase it.
17. Psionics
If your character is Psionically Sensitive, determine their Psionic charges and pick their Psionic Abilities. Psionic charges are equal to your chosen Attribute (Insight, Intelligence, or Charisma) plus your psionic skill (Knowledge, Willpower, Empathy or Presence) minus your used implant bulk times 3.
18. Attacks
Fill in your attacks with each of your equipped weapons, specially the amount of dice you use for weapon attacks. Template weapons do not have Attack dice, you can mark instead how difficult your templates are to evade, with the baseline being (2).
19. Armor
Fill in your Armor, Damage Resistance and Encumbrance based on the rest of your equipment. Armor usually does not stack, whereas Damage Resistance does.
20. Name and Ambition
Give your character a name and origin. You may also pick an ambition for your character. An ambition is a long term goal or objective that may help the GM generate plot hooks for your character.
Some possible ambitions include;
Get revenge on someone who wronged me.
Pay off a significant debt.
Resolve a mystery related to me.
Make amends for something I did.
Own my own Starship.
Build a stash of credits or resources.
Escape my past and start a new life.
Your background and feature will also include prompts for possible ambitions your character might have, but these are only suggestions. Remember that ambitions may change through play and serve to give your GM an idea of what your character would like to achieve.