CHARACTER CREATION

All the World's a Stage...
In this game, the players' characters are the protagonists: the ones whose view we follow over the course of the narrative. The player inhabits the character, becoming their consciousness, their will and ability to act upon the fictional world. During the game, we consider the fusion of player and character into one entity called the PC (for "Player-Character"). PCs will interact with the environment and other characters that are piloted by the Referee.

The Ref parts – commonly known as Non-player Characters (NPCs) – are the extras, supporting characters and antagonists that will influence, direct, and possibly try to kill the player's characters.

Both PCs and NPCs go through four basic steps to character creation.

Figure out your life's story.

 * This is the character's background and motivation. It's the basis for all the metrics, from attribute stats to resource packages. Here's where coordination with the Ref and setting gameplay expectations – what kind of campaign is this? – should also influence the character's narrative.
 * The coordination question comes in for certain scenarios or campaigns. In this case, there may be some prerequisites, such as: characters are active duty in this unit or are agents of that group.
 * For an in-depth walkthrough on this step, check out the character background page.

Generate basic attributes.

 * Pick the group of primary attributes that best corresponds to the capacity and experience of the character. There are no "character classes" in Speculation; it all comes down to attributes and skills so this is one of the points where the background and professional development of a character are taken into account.
 * Calculate conglomerate traits. There are a few measurements of a character that are combinations of certain other attributes. Not to scare you, but with the simulation roots, you may want to have a calculator handy for a little light arithmetic.
 * Adjust to taste. Roleplay technical challenge versus character capacity is adjusted here. Players might be assembling a crew in the spirit of Scooby and the Gang, which would be a ton of fun, but those characters will not have the capacity to execute a realistic hostage-rescue mission.
 * To add metrics to this character, check out the character attributes page.

Determine corresponding characteristics.

 * Some stats are dependent on attributes, others traits may be chosen by the player. Certain things some folk take for granted, which are key parts of background development, may be expressed here. This character was driven to exceed because their [gender/race/socioeconomic background] usually worked against them for every achieving this [particular role].
 * To hammer out these final traits, check out the characteristics page.

List accumulated skills.

 * Like the attributes, there are packages the player can choose from. Contributing factors include the LT (Learning Trait, a temporary skill used during creation) and age. Luck and force of will are the players' excuse to tweak the skills to appropriate levels.
 * When the history and physical expression of this character is complete, it's time to quantify all that experience on the character skills page.

The process is relatively painless and allows for as much creativity as the players can muster. If only it were this clear cut in real life.

It Builds Character
Character generation is a process all by itself. It could, and probably should, take some communication just to get players on the same page for what kind of campaign this is going to be. Whether that's a facebook group or whatever depends entirely on the players. Either way, knowing the setting establishes expectations and will dictate what kind of character the players make. Actual character construction needs a bit of a laboratory and probably a hard hat. If this type of campaign has characters in a matched background, such as being in the same military/police/scientific unit, it's up to the players to work with the Ref and go backward from there.

If a campaign has a little more freedom (such as "5 specialists are recruited by a rich industrialist for a secret mission..."), there is a different dynamic. There still might be provisos to influence character backgrounds, and players may still want to synchronize for a little overlap but have their feature specialists; such as:
 * Everybody knows first aid, but one guy is a doctor.
 * Everybody can handle a gun, but one guy is a sniper.
 * One or two folk may have less field experience, there instead as scientific advisors. In NASA parlance, someone with reasonable experience but high focus would be the "Mission Specialist." Someone with little field experience but a critical one-shot role would be the "Payload Specialist."

Form #1
Speculation provides a template for a character sheet, but you may want to start with a blank notepad as scratch paper as you sketch out and fill in your character.

Speculation gives more latitude to players than many games, but certain elements may throw off the scenario too much if granted in-game. The Ref has final approval on character builds.

Click here [PDF] for the v1.0 dossier form.
 * Note: this character profile sheet is in deep beta.
 * The Fandom wikia is finicky about document uploads, and .docs aren't supported, so this is a non-fillable PDF. If you'd like to contribute a form-fillable version, that would be awesome. Contact Erik directly for the original Word doc.