[OCC]: Space Merchant

[ericthered]

Its 50 years after civilization on earth was bombed into a second stone age by an alien race. Star ships scattered to the eight corners of the wind, carrying the remnants of humanity to safety. The signs of war have subsided, and it is now time to reconnect humanity. Governments would do this with massive delegations. You plan do this by scrimping from planet to planet, trading both goods and technology while building the first interstellar map of new Humanity.


Character Submissions:

Bog Standard Human
125 points

Characters should have a functional number of disadvantages.
Negative wealth is not allowed without a good argument.
The ship is owned by an NPC, so don't worry about that.
Equipment should be transparent. Think safe tech.
Tech level is technically safe tech 10. some 11 and 12 will be introduced.

Play will be focused on exploring and social interaction. You can expect one dramatic hookup per world visited. Combat is possible but rare: fleeing will be more important.

NOTE: stat normalization is in effect. 12 is a good score. ST (and peices) are half cost.

[crretin]

What's the TL?

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by crretin

What's the TL?

Call it safe-tech TL 10. But lots of different techs will be thrown in there with it. Lots has been lost in the flight from earth.

[crretin]

Alright cool, I think I'm going to play as the cook.

[crretin]

Alex “The Wretch” Mason
ST 9 [-10]
DX 11 [20]
IQ 12 [40]
HT 12 [20]
Advantages
Pitiable [5]
Outdoorsman 1 [10]
Disadvantages
Hunchback [-5]
Skinny [-5]
Hideous [-16]
Light sleeper [-5]
Code of honor [-5]
Skills
A cooking IQ+3 15 [12]
E Camoflouge IQ+3+1 16 [8]
E Scrounging per+3 15 [8]
H Naturalist IQ+2+1 15 [12]
A Navigation TL 0 land IQ+3+1 16 [12]
A Hiking HT+2 14 [8]
H Detect lies per +0 12 [4]
A Intimidation Will+1 13 [4]
E First aid TL 10 IQ+1 13 [2]
A climbing DX+0 11 [2]
A fast talk IQ+1 13 [2]
A stealth DX+0 11 [2]
A Mercheant IQ+0 12 [2]
E Panhandling IQ+1 13 [2]
A Survival (forest) per+1 13 [4]
E spear DX+0 11 [2]

Alright, this guy was abandoned on an alien planet at the age of 6. For most of his life, it was spent being a mix between an intergalactic drifter, hitchhiker, cook and survival expert for hire.

Edit: I switched out engineer for detect lies and intimidate, since that would actually make more sense for the character that I'm trying to make.

[samd6]

I think I'd like to play as a ship's mechanic or apprentice trader. Hopefully this doesn't die off like most of Eric's games seem to. No cybertech or biotech, right?

[ericthered]

Justin, if you want in, be sure to build the character FAST.

Height: 6'3" Weight: 312 lbs.

ST 11

These are incompatible. a 6' 3' 312 man has ST 14+. GURPS acknowledges the correlation between height, weight, and strength.

Also, please give point values.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Justin Bedard

N1: You always have the appearance of staying calm. although you may be scared out of your wits, this gives a bonus +1 to allies for fright checks.

We aren't using fright checks. sorry.

also, is ST half-price?

ST is half price. Its just not worth as much in this game. (and current dimensions are fine)

Don't charge for DR on the cybernetic leg, or even for the biological one. Its equipment.

Home gravity is likely to be one of two numbers: terran standard (if he grew up on ships, where gravity is artificial and kept at 10 m/s^2 for historical reasons) or Auqa's gravity, at 12 m/s^2

(yes, I know earth is at 9.8. Terran standard is still 10).

[the_matrix_walker]

Gabriel Bell was born on Ceres Beta in a squalid encampment at the outskirts of the city. The stink of the fungi processors saturated the air from the north. The Ore processors were built the minimum safe distance away to the south, to prevent the smoke and gasses from contaminating the food supply. And so the city planners, in their wisdom, housed the workers in the space between. Assurances of safety did not prevent the shortened life expectancy of those who lived there. While one or the other of these factories might have been tolerable, the combination was not. Asthma and other respiratory ailments abound.

No one wanted to go there, and no one really wanted to be there. Separated from the city, a peacekeeper or ambulance could take an hour to arrive. The perfect blend of despair and apathy to breed the decay of civilization and the rise of nefarious crews of opportunists with nothing to loose. Gabriel had a knack for trusting the right people, and grew up luckier than most. His father even managed to apprentice him to a corp sponsor before the Greenlung took him.

Gabriel was 22 when he got sick. He was just finishing his apprenticeship. His father had arranged for a better life for him than working in the factories, but he still came home to the district, he still fell victim to it's curse. The fungal infection was severe and fast spreading, and in a matter of days he went from a cough to requiring a respirator to survive. He actually felt that he was luckier than his father, going quick, rather than feeling his chest fill with wet green spaghetti for a decade. As he lay in his hospital bed, his lungs burning with each hiss of the breather, a man came to him with an offer.

The man had a solution you see… He was from a medical ship, and they had the technology to cure him. The process was incredibly expensive, and Bell could work a lifetime and never pay the debt. But this off world doctor told him he found another who would cover the costs, but at a terrible price! The man had a client with dangerous hobbies, a Grav-Jumper who’s last stunt failed spectacularly, sending him into a roll down the side of a cliff face that pulped the bones of his limbs. All his money could not change the fact that he could not let the accident be known, he would not settle for cybernetics. Gabriel’s life could be saved, but not a simply the cost of an arm and a leg… but for the whole set! Gabriel did not trust the man, and he had learned to trust his instincts, but the alternative was certain death. So Gabriel agreed. As they drove across the city taking Gabriel to the shuttle, he could see that an evacuation was beginning, they had finally found a place to go. Gabriel know they couldn't have enough ships for the job, they had been preparing for the day they had a destination for decades, but as the population grew, the fleet never did. He wondered if they even bothered to tell his neighbors about the evacuation as they loaded him onto the medical ship bound for Aqua. He realized they wouldn't have of course, why tell the dregs when they're not getting seats? They'd just get in the way.

Soon after his recovery from the surgeries, Bell discovered that the source of the cure that was so expensive, was also used in it's raw form as a garnish on his dinner plate… That which was exotic and rare at home, was prolific on Aqua… He realized that with better communication and trade among the colonies, he would still be whole… and that there must be thousands of stories like his own. With that realization came more than a simple desire to make a buck, and Gabriel Bell set out to change things for the better.

[ericthered]

Tweaks on back story (or background details):

There was no habitable world in Ceres-Beta's system, and they didn't know of any. The original ship that started the colony had been cannibalized for parts, leaving them stranded and slowly starving until ships from Aqua made contact.

The rich client's body wasn't rejecting the cybernetics, The client was. It was politically ill-advised to use them, and would have 'made him look stupid and reckless'. The client's identity is still a secret, and Gabe isn't sure which prominent citizen of Aqua is wearing his limbs (though he has a few guesses). Gabe made it to Aqua as part of the deal (cheaper than keeping the limbs on life support). he pretty much always knew just how badly he had been taken advantage of, but it was that or death.

I hope that works for you...