Rules Reference

Modeling your character around a concept you like is a great way to start. Maybe you’re inspired by Han Solo and want to build a scoundrel with a heart of gold, or maybe you like Paul Atreides and think someone trained in melee fighting and leadership is the character for you. Having a character concept in mind can help each decision you make bring you that little bit closer to what you had in mind.

Background, and motivation represent your character’s history. Background encapsulates where he comes from. Motivation shows where he’s going - what he wants to do. These are narrative devices you can use to give depth and personality to your character. They can double as great story hooks for your GM to use as well.

Is your character chasing down someone who wronged her? Fleeing the scene of a crime? Searching for something intangible she knows she won’t find trapped on her home planet? Whatever your character wants, what drives them day by day: that’s her motivation.

Feats are abilities that differentiate your character from others. Archetypes are curated collections of feats designed to evoke a particular feel or expression of play. The full list of Archetypes and Feats may be found in the Archetypes and Feats section.

Your learning focus determines what your character has trained for, studied for, or worked on over time. Skills under a Learning Focus are sometimes referred to as learned skills.

1. Combat Weapons, fighting styles, use of explosives, etc.

2. Education Science, tech, hacking, medicine, etc.

3. Vehicles Piloting, gunnery, navigation, etc.

You may raise skills in your chosen focus up to rank 5 (their maximum). In the two other focuses, you may not raise skills above rank 2.

The full list of Learning Focus Skills may be found in the next section, Attributes and Skills.

Each character begins creation with a pool of Skill Points determined by the GM. A typical starting character would receive 30 Skill Points to spend.

Skill levels can broadly be thought of as:

Each level of a skill costs its own number of skill points. So level 1 in a skill costs 1 skill point to get, while level 2 costs 2 skill points, and so on.

Going directly from level 0 in a skill (completely untrained) to level 3 would therefore cost 6 Skill Points: 1 from level 1, 2 from level 2, and 3 from level 3 (1 + 2 + 3 = 6). Here’s a table to see this in action easily:

If you already have level 2 in a skill and want to advance to level 3, it would cost 3 Skill Points.

The full list of Skills may be found in the Attributes and Skills section below.

Attributes are not ‘leveled up’ in the traditional sense; instead, each attribute is a measure of the various skills tied to it. The formula is:

Attribute = Number of ranks of attribute skills / 4 (rounded up)

So if your character has 8 ranks of PHYS skills (let’s say 4 in Powerlift and 4 in Athletics), their PHYS would work out to 2, because: 2 = 8 / 4

The full list of Attributes and what their descriptions may be found below in the Attributes and Skills section.

Your character begins with credits (standard currency) equal to 1d12 × 50 + 800. Thus, your starting credits will be somewhere between 850c and 1400c.

You may use your credits to purchase items before play begins, at your GM’s discretion. You may find a list of items under the Equipment & Gear section

Congratulations; you’ve finished creating your character. Now it’s time to see where their story goes.

If this is your first time playing, I recommend taking a look at the following sections in this book:

• Core Mechanics

• Stress

• Wounds

• Combat

These cover the very basics of playing Whisperspace.

Happy gaming!