Here’s another teaser for the Cepheus Engine hack I’m putting together, for the new version of the Human Destiny sourcebook. This is part of the character design rules – the draft list of available “careers” for characters to indulge in during the lifepath generation process.

Again, this list is kind of atypical for a Cepheus Engine game. A few of the careers here are somewhat analogous to the ones you’ll find in the classic space-opera RPG that the engine emulates. Others are not – again, Human Destiny stories are likely to be heavily social-interaction-oriented, in a context of post-scarcity economics and a strong interstellar state. That sets different parameters (and constraints) on the kind of “adventures” that are likely to happen.

Careers List

• Activist – Individual who pursues a cause, agitating for social or political change.
• Artist – Individual who pursues celebrity status and supplements the Citizen’s Allowance by producing and selling works of art or handicraft.
• Athlete – Individual who pursues celebrity status and supplements the Citizen’s Allowance by taking part in one or more competitive sports.
• Bureaucrat – Official in an organized bureaucracy, either under the Hegemony or in an éthnos, charged with following the details of administrative process.
• Citizen – Individual who subsists almost entirely on the Citizen’s Allowance, and who spends most of their time on entertainment or socializing.
• Colonist – Individual who has settled on a more-or-less Earthlike (or terraformed) world and works to support the human community there.
• Counselor – Individual who provides psychological care or social services.
• Dissident – Individual who has rejected Hegemony society, but still uses some technology and lives in a Free Zone.
• Ecological Reclamation Service –Member of the Hegemony’s scientific corps, overseeing wilderness reserves to support and protect the natural ecology.
• Entertainer – Individual who pursues celebrity status and supplements the Citizen’s Allowance by performing before an audience.
• Feral – Individual who has escaped the Hegemony entirely, by rejecting all technology and living in the deep wilderness.
• Guard Service – Member of the Hegemony’s paramilitary force, enforcing the Praxis on planetary surfaces, also (rarely) carrying out annexation against pre-stellar civilizations.
• Influencer – Individual who advocates for ideas, products, or services, primarily on the global information grid.
• Interstellar Service – Member of the Hegemony’s interstellar paramilitary force, carrying out missions involving peacekeeping, enforcement of the Praxis, and exploration of deep space.
• Mediator – Individual who provides negotiation or conflict-resolution services.
• Physician – Individual who provides medical care.
• Rogue – Individual who frequently engages in deception and subterfuge, whether in violation of the Praxis or not.
• Scholar – Individual who is engaged in and has expert knowledge of a science, or some similar formal body of organized knowledge. Also, anyone attending or teaching at an institution of higher learning.
• Service Specialist – Individual who provides personal service to others, most often in the hospitality or leisure industries.
• Spacer – Individual who works aboard a deep-space outpost or colony, usually on an asteroid or moon.
• Technician – Individual who is skilled in designing, building, maintaining, or repairing complex technological systems.

Now that I’ve blocked this out, the rest of the character generation rules should follow without much trouble. We’ll see how much progress I’m able to make over the next week or two.