Paradise was one of those small moons where support broke pretty evenly between those backing Independence and those favoring the Alliance.  With numbers like that, it's no surprise that battles were bitter and that families were split.  After the war ended the governor's fervent support for the Alliance might not have mattered too much, were it not for his eager actions and decrees seeking to "root out and punish those damned Browncoats."  Combat was fierce, repeated and guerrilla actions widespread and harsh; Governor DeMille's anti-sabotage laws, reprisals, and special taxes only fed the flames.

Many things, done by many, were questionable, much less ethical.

Tired of the violence and tired of being more than a bit hungry, one small group decided that as long as no one--no innocents anyway--got hurt, breaking the law was their only way to escape the madness on Paradise.  Against the odds (and with a bit of underhanded dealing), they got possession of a small freighter.  Getting out of the snake pit of Paradise and doing a little trading around the 'Verse, making some money and seeing the sights seemed like a pretty fine option.

Reality was a mite less shiny.  Trading wasn't so easy, particularly with many of the less savory folks who seemed to be everywhere.  Then there was someone who seemed to be on their trail--who were those guys, anyway, and what did they want?  There was the misfortune of being witness to some things that... well, they didn't understand at all (Hey! that's not in my physics textbook!).  Encounters with, well... monsters (yeah, right--no, seriously.  Must be some wartime Alliance genetics program run a muck.  Or maybe real aliens?  Or something worse?)
And if that wasn't enough, there was what they found out about themselves...

The only way it could get worse is if they encountered Reavers, but only children believe in Reavers...

$10 (platinum) = 1 Alliance credit

Cut #6
Starting characters;
Current Finances 29 Dec 2007
    Each Player needs two characters; one must be male, and the other female.  A player's characters may not be siblings, lovers or married (they can be any of these things with other player's characters or have such people as dependents).
    Each Player will have one “crew” and one “field operator”.  The "Field Operator" will be your primary character, the "crew" will be your secondary (supporting) character. Secondary characters will be used as needed & as plot hooks and won't played much (therefore won't progress much). Secondary characters should be built as a complete, well rounded character. Secondary characters could be "hired help" or a minor owner of the ship (depending on how the first few scenarios go).
    Wealth: All characters have Average Wealth, 0 points. Status can be anything you want (pay the points), but in your background be sure to include how you got to average wealth!  (for example; born to a millionaire family but the family business went broke. Or Your dad was lord, but you ran away from your arranged marriage and now your disgraced or you were born a beggar and worked your way up).
    Status: You may buy a maximum of +3 status levels (5 points each), you may not buy down your status (not without a good story anyway). Status comes in many forms, Underworld, Aristocracy, Business, Religious, Bureaucracy, Academic, etc.

Lon's Character Editor.

Each character has;
75 points base
40 points disadvantages
5 points Secret Advantage (the GM will tell you what is during the game, don't make one up)
2 points hard to kill level 1
1 point Electronics operation
1 point Geography (planets in the system)
1 point Contact "Bowler"
0 Average Wealth (fixed you can't buy it up or down)

You may keep up to 5 points unspent.

For a net total of 85 points.

Cash on hand: $1,000 to buy your equipment or in your pocket.

Points should be spent on skills, advantages, disadvantages relevant to the game. Other skills, advantages / disadvantages are Background Skills. List Background skills on your character sheet as needed, but don't pay any points for them.

Crewman; (secondary character) one of each is needed, the players get to fight over who gets which:
Secondary characters (Crewmen) may have one wild card skill, field operators may not have wild card skill. I strongly recommend that you take a wild card skill.
Pilot; Piloting! wild card skill, this includes; Pilot (small ship atmospheric & space), Pilot (medium ship atmospheric & space), Navigation (space), Navigation (planet), Pilot (shuttle atmospheric & space). Pilot (Large ship space), etc
Engineer; Mechanic! wild card skill,  this includes: Mechanic (space drive, atmospheric drive, contra-gravity drive--includes artificial gravity,  ship systems, Electronics operation, Repair electronics), etc.
Doctor;  Physician! wild card skill, this includes; Diagnosis, Surgery, Electronic operation (medical), Pharmacy, Physiology, Psychology, etc.

 New Disadvantage: Secret Disadvantage -15 points. At your option each character may have a maximum of one Secret Disadvantage. I have some secrets in mind and will tell you about them when the time is right, so there is no need to think up any secrets.

Campaign Suggestions;
To round out the  campaign several things are needed, I will let the players fight over who gets what.
Crew have ship skills. Field operators have... other skills. Of course, the lines may not be quite so neat...

At least one character should be/have; an Aristocracy status, an Underworld status, some High Tech skills, some College skills, some Low Tech skills and some Space skills.

A typical small freighter needs 4-6 people (to cover all the shifts and help with the heavy maintenance) and the skills; Pilot (Freighter space), Pilot (Freighter atmospheric), Navigation (space), Navigation  (atmospheric), Medic (first aid), mechanic (Freighter) and all should have Crewman (spacer) or acquire shortly after the campaign starts. Cross training and backup skills are common. One or two people if they had the necessary skills could run the ship in a pinch, but trouble would be hard to deal with!

Other useful skills are Environment suit (Vacc), Piloting (shuttle atmospheric), Piloting (shuttle space), Law (trade), Administration, Current events, Current affairs (business), Freight handling, Freight handling (hazardous materials)  Free fall, Accounting, Market analysis, Driving (small land [mule]), Driving (medium land [large mule]), Environment suit (exoskeleton), Machinist, Armory (guns), Gun (pistol), Gun (rifle), some "low tech" skills Riding (horse)...

Contacts: A couple of (off starting world) contacts could be good. Maybe something from your background?
Vehicles: You could windup with a ship and two shuttles and a couple of "Mules" and you may want to operate them all at the same time...

Starting Scenarios:
#1 the "Pre-quell"; These will  be one-on-one scenarios to flesh out your characters. So start with a character concept, the advantages/dis-advantages you would like,  few of the more important background skills (look at the skill categories carefully, don't try to take college skills if you never went to college! or have a really good story for me.)  and maybe some roughed out attributes. Players should also have roughed out a background for each character.  Also think about what you did in the war; Which side were you on? Did you fight?, How do you feel about it now? Conscripted? Volunteered? Dodged? Too young?, Too old?, etc. And how did you wind up on Paradise?

#2 the "Bowler Job"; A few years after the war you wind up here in Paradise. Bowler has a job that doesn't involve killing anyone, specific anyway, and it pays hard platinum $. You take it, it's better  then starving and with any luck you'll make enough to buy a ticket off world.
#3 "The way out" This thing used to fly didn't it? What are "Ship's Articles" anyway?
#4, #5 "Deal? Job?" What's the difference?"
#6ish "Flash?"

"Where did that come from?" and what are we going to do with it?
"Go for Big the Game!"
"Commandeered"
"Thugs"
"Gypsies, Tramps or Thieves?"
"Atmosphere? We don't need  no stinking atmosphere!"

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