In the Horizon Effect setting, character take on the role of free-lance troubleshooters hired by the Solar Combine to travel through a region of space called the Verge and Bleed. The setting using the GURPS rule set and makes heavy use of settings like Transhuman Space and Eclipse Phase for inspiration. The following sections will include rules on how to make a character for the game, as well as provide ideas for how to do so. The galaxy is a big place that can be especially alienating to those not familiar with it, so the goal of this section is to reduce the complexity and make character creation seam more relatable.
Step-by-Step Guide to creating characters
Creating a character can be accomplished in several easy steps, although everyone has their own ideas how best to do it. Consider the outline below to be more suggestion than rules. Players begin play with 500 points and are required to create at least two (2) characters. At least one of these characters must be a fully functional character; the other character can be type that would normally be suboptimal in a conventional game, like an uplifted animal, a LAI or NAI, or some other entity that isn't fully sapient or is fully sapient but has restrictions that keeps them from participating in all aspects of the game. The second character should be seen as a chance to play something truly odd and unusual, such as a smart animal or a barely sapient NAI that nevertheless excels at its listed tasks. They have a disadvantage cap of 50 points total, between all of their characters.
Players must purchase a Background/Planet and Species template. The disadvantages in the Background/Culture/Planet template and the Species template do not count towards the 100-point hard limit. Disadvantages listed in other templates, such as the motivational templates and occupational templates, do. However, the motivational and occupation templates are optional - players are encouraged to look at them, but they do not have to purchase them, or if they do purchase one, they can edit the template as they see fit (they cannot edit Background/Culture/Planet and Species templates without GM permission, and and any replaced disadvantages or quirks count towards the 100-point cap).
Players must purchase a Background/Planet and Species template. The disadvantages in the Background/Culture/Planet template and the Species template do not count towards the 100-point hard limit. Disadvantages listed in other templates, such as the motivational templates and occupational templates, do. However, the motivational and occupation templates are optional - players are encouraged to look at them, but they do not have to purchase them, or if they do purchase one, they can edit the template as they see fit (they cannot edit Background/Culture/Planet and Species templates without GM permission, and and any replaced disadvantages or quirks count towards the 100-point cap).
Step One: Concept and Laser Having a strong concept for a character is important in this setting, since you can be almost anything. It's often useful to start with a broad archetype - for instance, "the face" or "the tech." This will help guide you when selecting what species templates to use, since not all templates synergize particularly well with all concepts, and synergizing in this setting can be subjective - for instance, an AGI face will do fine with other AGIs and possibly even transhumanists and AIs, but regardless what their skills are, they'll confront considerably bigotry in bioconservative areas. Players will have 500 points to spend, and must make a minimum of two (2) characters, although there is no upper limit. It's strongly recommended that players make two characters for different environments; that way, they will have a character who can participate in a number of different areas. For instance, one character may be for terrestrial environments, while another character is an uplifted dolphin, who is useful in aquatic environment. An AGI can be useful for a number of different areas, especially one that's capable of using multiple different cybershells, but such AGIs often face a great deal of discrimination and fear by the majority of the population. Once you have your concept, write down the traits associated with the Laser template (below) on your character sheet. |
Step Two: Meta-Empire and Planet Once you have your concepts for our two or more characters, you can start whiling down the various meta-empires or stellar nations that you can be a member of. There are seven major stellar nations, also called meta-empires, and dozens of smaller nations. These nations carry with them restrictions on species and templates; for instance, a character generally cannot be a parahuman, neo-animal, uplift, or exotic android in the Monarchy of Alandricht, since they're a bioconservative polity. Meanwhile, in Glitch and Err, being a biological will result in you being frowned upon, while the Imperium has no problem with biologicals but despises AGIs who prefer cybershells over biological bodies. The Meta-Empire you select will give you an outlook. Each meta-empire is painted in broad terms, since they are often so large it's impossible to speak of them in any other way. The Meta-Empire does not have generic cultural template; rather, that opens the door to planetary templates, which are included in the Meta-Empire description. These planets may further restrict the species that you can start as. It's also possible to pick a culture like Spacer culture. In which case, there is a generic template, although spacers do have their own unique cultures, as well. |
Step Three: Species and Motivation Once you have your meta-empire and the proper planetary template, you can start looking at your species template. Your planet of choice may have narrowed down your species options, but if it didn't, you can start thinking in terms of what species synergizes best with your particular choice or concept. While the majority of the species are available on the Species Template page, each meta-empire has their own page with the species, cybershells, androids, and the like that are unique to their meta-empire or culture listed there, so be sure to check the meta-empire page to see if there's any distinctive or unique species that fits your concept. Once you have your species template, it's a matter of spending your points in skills. You can take at the Motivations page to get a good idea about some potential advantage and disadvantages for your character that help flesh out why they chose the lifestyle of being a laser, or you can look at one of the may occupation templates to determine what they did before they chose to pursue the life of being a laser. Note that unlike Planetary templates and Species templates, occupation templates and motivational templates can be altered as the player sees fit, to help tailor them better to whatever idea the player had. Once they have the templates, they spend whatever points are left over and are ready to jump in. |
Game Overview: This section provides a detailed overview for the game.
Advantages, Disadvantages, and Skills: the rules for the Advantages, Disadvantages, and Skills in this game.
Background Templates: background templates, also called homeworld templates, outline the skills, advantages, and quirks that you get for being from a particular homeworld.
- Meta-Empires: These are the background templates associated with the various meta-empires.
- Social Movements: These are the background templates associated with certain socio-cultural or political movements.
Occupation Templates: occupation templates help you determine what job your character filled in society before becoming a laser, if they filled a formal job at all.
Species Templates: species templates include genotype, uplift, android, neo-animal, infolife, and major commercially produced cybershells.
The Laser Template (5 points)
Lasers are multi-talented individuals who are employed by the Solar Combine to travel into the Verge and Bleed using the wormhole network to help local polities that lack the resources solve local problems. These problems can run the gamut but are usually limited in scale to just system wide; anything larger than system wide (such as a resurgent alien Seed AI) would demand the attention of all the meta-empires and so Lasers would not normally be called in to deal with something like that. However, this leaves a number of other jobs that Lasers are called in for - everything from election fraud to kidnapping to missing artifacts that no meta-empire would take seriously but are still important to the locality to murders that are too sensitive for the local polity to deal with directly - all these and more are the purview of Lasers. Laser frequently work in teams of between 3 to 10 individuals, and must own their own starship (either through lease or through proper ownership).
To obtain a job, Lasers normally must place an initial bid on the job - with the sole exception being every crew's first job, which the Combine assigns to them. The bid confirms that the Laser team is both on the job and working to fix it, and ensures that they take the job seriously, since it cost them money. Once they complete the job, they report back to the Combine, who will provide them with the reward as advertised in the job posting, although lasers often pick up other rewards as the job goes along, be it Reputation, Favors, or just odds and ends that happens to come their way.
Lasers have informal legal enforcement powers on an interstellar level; local law enforcement work with them and local governments are suggested to provide them with the legal lee-way that they need to solve whatever problem at had, although there is nothing stopping local governments and law enforcement from revoking that privilege. Similarly, they are immune to most local laws, but they must abide by Combine law, which is just as strict, and is something they agree too when they become a Laser. This is in exchange for a responsibility to assist the Combine; normally, Laser have the option to choose what job they want; if the Combine gets overloaded with jobs, however (which frequently happens) they may simply assign jobs. If a job is assigned it doesn't cost the team anything to obtain, although the price of failure can still be steep. Lasers must also be versed in Combine Law, and many are also at least passingly familiar with the Law of their local Meta-Empire or a particular Meta-Empire, as well.
To obtain a job, Lasers normally must place an initial bid on the job - with the sole exception being every crew's first job, which the Combine assigns to them. The bid confirms that the Laser team is both on the job and working to fix it, and ensures that they take the job seriously, since it cost them money. Once they complete the job, they report back to the Combine, who will provide them with the reward as advertised in the job posting, although lasers often pick up other rewards as the job goes along, be it Reputation, Favors, or just odds and ends that happens to come their way.
Lasers have informal legal enforcement powers on an interstellar level; local law enforcement work with them and local governments are suggested to provide them with the legal lee-way that they need to solve whatever problem at had, although there is nothing stopping local governments and law enforcement from revoking that privilege. Similarly, they are immune to most local laws, but they must abide by Combine law, which is just as strict, and is something they agree too when they become a Laser. This is in exchange for a responsibility to assist the Combine; normally, Laser have the option to choose what job they want; if the Combine gets overloaded with jobs, however (which frequently happens) they may simply assign jobs. If a job is assigned it doesn't cost the team anything to obtain, although the price of failure can still be steep. Lasers must also be versed in Combine Law, and many are also at least passingly familiar with the Law of their local Meta-Empire or a particular Meta-Empire, as well.
Advantages: Legal Enforcement Powers (Interstellar Jurisdiction; Informal, -50%) [5]; Legal Immunity [5].
Disadvantages: Duty (Combine, Extremely Hazardous, 6 or less) [-10].
Skills: Law (Combine Law) (H) IQ [4]-10; Law (Meta-Empire Law) (H) IQ-3 [1]-7.
Disadvantages: Duty (Combine, Extremely Hazardous, 6 or less) [-10].
Skills: Law (Combine Law) (H) IQ [4]-10; Law (Meta-Empire Law) (H) IQ-3 [1]-7.