To create a character for Planetfall follow the following steps.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to get in touch!
1. Who Are You?
Your character in Planetfall is someone who is present on one of the Fleet Vessels in Keter System who finds themselves suddenly cut off from the main Federation and volunteers for exploratory, peacekeeping, and investigatory Missions on the various planets in the system.
Think about who your character is and why they're here, and why they might be risking life and limb to aid the stranded inhabitants of Keter System.
Think about where your character is from - do they call one of the Core Worlds home, are they a Spacefarer, or do they come from the Keter System itself?
Pick a ship you currently reside on, pick a background, pick some OC goals.
Your Species indicates your physical characteristics, and provides you with special quirks. It doesn't prescribe your culture or your homeworld, just your physical form.
Select your character's Species.
3. Pick Background (Optional)
Your Background adds depth and additional character options to explain who you are and how you came to be where you are.
Select a background (or wait to pick one up in play).
4. Pick Class and Abilities
In Planetfall your character's impact on the world is defined by their character Class and Abilities.
You may pick abilities from your Class or any General Ability restricted by rank.
In order to purchase Subclass skills of a certain rank, you must have at least 1 XP in each lower Rank of that Subclass.
Unless otherwise stated, you may only pick each Ability once.
At Character Creation you have 3 XP to spend on Abilities - each Ability costs 1 XP.
5. Spend Clout (Optional)
When you create a character, you start with 3 Clout that you may spend on Factions of your choosing to start with a leg-up with them.
You don't have to spend any Clout, and can hold onto it instead for later use.
You may, if you wish, start playing a character at a Higher Rank. This isn't advised for your first character, but for less frequent attendees it's a great way to get involved with plots that aren't just low level.
If you do this, you simply start with more XP calculated as 4XP per Rank below your starting Rank, plus 3 (so 7 for Rank 2, 11 for Rank 3, etc) up to a max of Rank 5. You still need to meet abilty spend per rank requirements to unlock each Rank as above (i.e. you cannot put all 7XP for a Rank 2 character into Rank 2 abilities).
Since this represents an experienced character entering the story for the first time, you don't gain additional Clout.