Characters are described by a number of Traits. Traits are rated from negative infinity to positive infinity, but most human Traits fall between zero (average) and ten (master). A competent professional has a level of five or six.
Players begin with 64 points to distribute among their character's Traits. All Traits begin at zero.
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Example: Bob wants a Science of six; this costs him 8 points. If he later wants to raise his Science to seven, this will cost 4 more points (12 for level seven minus the 8 already spent for level six).
Trait levels are open-ended.
Click here for the Forbidden Space character generator.
The list of Traits is below. It is not exhaustive; if a player wants to add an unusual Trait (Poetry, Weaving) to a character, that's just great.
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Aim Animals Awareness Athletics Command |
Engineering Fighting Health Humanities Medicine |
Navigation Piloting Science Spying Survival |
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Aim is the ability to hit things at a distance. It covers firearms, ship-to-ship weapons, and throwing for accuracy.
This skill represents animal empathy and handling. It can be used to train animals to perform work or tricks, and to effectively handle such domesticated animals. It can also be used, at higher levels, to befriend wild animals, or even to calm enraged beasts. It also covers animal transport such as horseback riding.
Awareness represents both sharpness of senses and attentiveness. This important Trait can prevent the character (and friends) from being caught off-guard. It can also help the character see through disguises and lies. It determines who goes first in combat.
Athletics is the ability to run, swim, climb, and jump. It helps when throwing for distance. It can be used to dodge attacks.
This Trait represents ego, willpower, charisma, and presence. A character with a high Command is a stunning person; he moves armies with a word, she crumbles nations with a glance. Command and rank go hand-in-hand.
This Trait measures the ability to build, maintain, repair, and destroy technology.
The art of violence. This Trait is used to hit in hand-to-hand combat; ranged combat uses Aim. Fighting, like Athletics, can be used to evade attacks.
Health is physical strength, toughness, and resistance to injury and disease. It adds to damage in hand-to-hand fighting.
This skill covers social sciences, philosophy, languages, and art.
Medicine covers every medical treatment from first aid to brain surgery. It is both theoretical and practical. It also covers the squishy sciences: biology, botany, and zoology.
Navigation is the ability to determine location and heading and to determine the best route to a destination. "Best" is relative - the quickest route may not be the safest or easiest. This Trait covers both planetary (over land or sea) and astronomical navigation.
This Trait measures the ability to control a vehicle - any vehicle. Starships, fighters, automobiles; anything the character has been trained to operate.
Science covers mathematics, physics, and chemistry. It's mostly theory; those who want to actually build things should be engineers. Science, however, lets one examine things that are new and mysterious to see how they work.
This Trait has many uses:
Survival is the skill of the outdoorsman. It lets one identify edible plants (if you've been to the planet before), track and trap game, hunt, and stay warm and sheltered.