Characters are the core of every LRP experience. Your character is the role you play within the game world. This section and its linked pages detail the framework for your roleplay at events.

• All Characters must belong to one of the four Major Factions – Ascendancy, Commonality, Dominion and Free Union.
• You must play one of the species associated with your chosen Faction – either the Core Species or one of the Faction’s other Species. The species you choose determines your starting Hits and Death Count, and may give you access to some special skills & abilities.
• You have 10 Character Points to spend on skills and abilities for your character.
• Your character must belong to a Group – you can join an existing group or start play as a group of one.
• Your character should have a background. This is a concise paragraph detailing a bit about how your character fits into the setting.

• Players gain one Character Point for every event they attend.
• Unspent points may be spent on a new character (does not apply to your initial 10 points)
• Points may be spent between events.
  • If you buy a new skill that has benefits in Downtime (Engineering and Science skills) they do not grant those benefits until the following Downtime.
• Certain skills may not be public knowledge. Hidden Skills that are available to buy will appear in your downtime.

• Each player is only allowed to play one character at a time.
• If your character dies, you must go to Games Ops to register your character death
• You can create a new character at an event – let the team know and we may be able to provide inspiration or assistance.

• You may choose to retire your character by reporting to Games Ops and informing them.
• A retired character cannot be played again except as an NPC under the direction of the Game Team.
• Once you have retired your character, that character and their ongoing narrative (if any) in the game world becomes property of the Game Team. You cannot take actions on behalf of a retired character in any capacity - eg. communications, letter-writing, etc.
• Any game items on a character when they retire must be handed over to Games Ops.

Skills and abilities are one of the ways of making your character unique. All player characters have some basic abilities, while others must be bought with Character Points.

Most characters start off with the same set of basic abilities, although some species may have less facility with some of them.

• Basic Weapons Training – you may use small and medium melee weapons in your primary hand.
• Light Energy Weapon Training – you may use Energy Weapons with a dart capacity less than 10, with no powered mechanism and no replaceable magazine.
• Basic Tech Training – You can use any Tech devices that do not explicitly require a skill to use.
• Light Armour Training – you can wear Light Armour, which gives 1 locational Armour Hit.

• Your species determines your starting Body Hits and Death Count.
• Your species may have innate skills or abilities, or be able to purchase them with character points.
• Your species may have restrictions, making it more difficult or expensive for you to use some skills, or more vulnerable to certain effects.
• Your species determines what Faction you can be a member of.
• Your species may have certain physrep requirements which you must adhere to while in-character.
• See your Faction Species page for more details.

There are many species in the galaxy of Orion Sphere, which take a wide variety of forms. Many have unique abilities and powers as a result of their physiology or culture. As a rule of thumb, the more game abilities and innate power a species has, the more onerous the restrictions it will have - either in terms of vulnerabilities and restrictions or physrep requirements (or both!)

Starting Player Characters have 10 Character Points to spend on skills, and earn 1 Character Point after each event. Skills are divided into 4 skill areas: Combat; Professional; Psionic; and Species.

• Combat Skills are concerned with fighting, resisting injury and attacks, and weapons training.
• Professional Skills are concerned with manipulating and investigating the galaxy, and encompass non-combat specialist training and knowledge. They also encompass building your reputation.
• Psionics Skills are concerned with unlocking the hidden mental powers of certain species. They allow psionic characters to unleash the might of their minds upon the galaxy.
• Species Skills are special training or powers that are restricted to a small number of species, such as the Ascendancy Terran's iron discipline or the powers of the Tulaki priesthood.