Scoundrel

You find that shading the truth, more often than not, benefits your endeavors. You've even pulled off one or more lucrative confidence games during your career, bilking the gullible of their resources for your own benefit. This kind of behavior tends to catch up with a person, so you probably move around a lot, hoping to stay ahead of unfortunate realizations and subsequent reprisal.

Your group might lean on you when it comes to breaking into places without proper authorization or for distracting guards, officials, or foes with your capacity to make almost anything sound plausible even if it's a complete web of lies. If you're forced into armed conflict, you'll fight, but you're also remarkably good at seeing to your own welfare first.

Background Options

• A happy childhood ended when a world ship collided with your planet. Since then you've grown up as best you could, but you've never stopped looking into who or what was responsible.
• You were the lieutenant of a crime boss until they were killed last year in a violent hit.
• Born into a well-to-do merchant family, you embezzled, were found out, and were banished. Now you're trying to figure out how to make it up and apologize.
• You recently finished blowing through the funds from your last successful con job.
• You hired a pilot to haul illegal cargo a few weeks ago, but they dumped it to avoid authorities.
• Your parents were traders, but you always wanted to do something else. To please them, you took up the trade but have never been very good at it. Maybe it's time to find a different life.
• Your sibling entered the government. After years of no contact, they want to talk.
• About three months ago, you finally kicked a serious drug habit.

Scoundrel Abilities

You gain all of the following benefits:

• Able to take two more minor wounds and one more moderate wound
• Add +2 to Speed Pool
• Add +2 to Intellect Pool
• Add +1 Edge in Pool of your choice
• Freely use light and medium weapons
• Freely use light armor
• Gain one weapon of your choice
• At tier 3 and tier 6, choose an ability from the Science Fiction Genre Abilities list

Desperate Defense: While you have at least one moderate or one major wound, you can choose to enter a state of heightened awareness against threats. While in this state, you can't use points from your Intellect Pool, but you add +1 to your Speed Edge and gain two assets to block and dodge tasks. If you choose to end the heightened state while you remain wounded, you can't resume it again until after you use a recovery. Enabler.

Fast Talk (1 Intellect): When speaking with an intelligent creature who can understand you and isn't hostile, you convince them to take one reasonable action in the next round. A reasonable action must be agreed upon by your GM; it should not put the creature or its allies in obvious danger or be wildly out of character. Action.

Hand to Eye (2 Speed or Intellect): When you roll to accomplish a task involving manual dexterity or mental agility—pickpocketing, lockpicking, games involving agility, and so on—and your roll is less than a 9, treat the roll as a 9. (This means you don't get a GM intrusion if you roll a 1.) Effort: Increase the minimum number rolled for this ability by 3. At tier 3, the minimum number rolled for this ability increases to 12. Enabler.

Scoundrel Equipment Bundle

Choose the following equipment bundle to quickly outfit your character, or assemble your own starting equipment.

A medium blaster and a weapon energy pack (50 shots), appropriate clothing, a false ID, an interface module, a smart device (glasses, badge, ring, and the like), a backpack, a breather, an environmental tent, a single-use vacuum suit, an everlight, two days of rations and water, a grooming and toiletry kit, and eyeshades. Your character also starts with currency equivalent to a moderately priced item.

Part of Space Opera