Creating a Character

This campaign runs Cypher System 2nd Edition, not 1e.

Don't build alone. Bring me an idea and we'll make the character together — it takes about fifteen minutes, and it goes better than any form would.

What I need from you is not a stat block. It's a person with a job: a mechanic who owes somebody. A courier who knows the wrong berth crew. A hydro tech three years from a pension. Bring that, and the numbers take care of themselves.

What you should know before you pick a concept

Most characters here are ordinary people. Techs, mechanics, pilots, clerks, contractors, fixers. That is a rules choice as well as a tone one — they use Cypher's Real World build, which has no type and no focus. Your character sentence is just a [descriptor] [profession].

Being ordinary is not being useless. It means your competence comes from what you know and what you carry, not from a power list. Ordinary people are the ones who can get into the room.

A focus is something that happens to you. There is no magic in this setting, so nobody starts able to do the impossible. If your character ends up changed — augmented, trained by someone with an agenda, carrying something that hasn't let go — that is earned in play, and I'll tell you when you're there.

Some characters in the pool already have a type and a focus. Those are people something already happened to. You can play them too; they're just not where most people start.

Armor is a choice you buy later, not one you start with. Same with being able to carry anything heavier than a sidearm. Both are real decisions with a real price, made at the table.

Vac suits and survival gear are not armor. They keep you alive and cost you nothing.

Before your first session

Read What Is Different. Two things on that page will catch you out if you skip it: nothing resets, and pools are the real damage.

New characters join the shared pool — someone else may run yours next month and inherit whatever you leave behind. See Characters.

If you want the full rules rather than the short version, the Cypher Character Rulebook is the book, and I'm happy to lend it or read a section with you.