Your character at Drift is your in-character representation. Your character is your skills, your knowledge, your personality and your equipment. Your character is the vessel for you to inhabit, explore and interact with the Drift universe.

At Drift, players may have more than one character registered in-system. However, a player may not play more than one character in a given event. In the pre-event character submission form, players should specify which character they will be playing for the event. In the event of character death during the event, players will be able to play a different character; either a living character already submitted, or a new character generated at the event.

Due to the high threat level of the system, we recommend players have at least a playable character concept for a ‘backup’ character prepared.

At character creation, players will be able to define the follow for their character:

• Personal Information (Name, Species, homeworld, group associations, etc)
• Character Background
• Career Rank allocations
• Skill Point allocations
• Gear Point allocations

For information on Career Ranks and Skill Points, see Character Creation and Progression.

Personal Information

The characters of Drift are the dock workers, the shady corporation representatives and backstreet surgeons; the outcasts of a Federation that has abandoned them. Player characters in Drift are not typically high-flying heroes of war, prize-winning scientists in good standing, or council members of the Federation. 

At character creation, players will be asked to define:

• Name
• Character Species (See Species of the Federation)
• Homeworld
• Group associations

Most characters in Drift hail from one of the core Federation Species, each of which has an associated lore page. Species selection provides a unique species perk.

The species lore page should be considered a guide for characters based on those species in order to retain the narrative integrity of these species and their cultures. Exceptions to these guidelines should be discussed with the Game Team at the earliest opportunity.

• Humans
• Ka’hetians
• Araksa
• Nocturni
• Muraak

Whilst many other species exist outside of the Federation, any players which intend to create characters that do not hail from one of these species MUST be discussed with the Game Team for explicit approval.

Each character should define a home world of some description. This could be a number of different planets, moons, space stations or otherwise.

If the character is to be, or have previously been a part of any named groups, corporations or other in-game entities, this should be set out in the pre-event character submission form.

We want players to come and add to the lore of Drift – but this is balanced with the narrative integrity and tone of the game and setting. If you’ve got ideas, come and talk to us about them and we can chat about how it might fit within the setting!

Character Background

Characters in Drift come from a variety of backgrounds which provide additional perks and character flavour. Standard backgrounds include:

• Faction Backing:
  • Federation of Core Worlds
  • Union of Independent Colonies
• Corporation Backing:
  • Leviathan
  • Onyx Dynamics
  • Solaris Industries
  • Veridian Technology
• Galactic Aid Front
• Underworld

Backgrounds provide player characters with one or more contacts within those organisations, who may provide plot hooks, support in the form of information or equipment, or other benefits.

A note on player organisations

Player characters in Drift are not assigned mechanically to any specific groups or factions – player characters are individuals and free to align themselves as they please with player or NPC organisations. Furthermore, Drift is intended as a co-operative system. NPC organisation politics do not heavily feature in the main event plot of Drift, and players should not consider backgrounds as a hard direction on how their character must be aligned and play.

Small player-made organisations (for instance, crews of ships, small business entities, or gangs) are welcome. In these instances, players should select a background that their organisation is affiliated with – perhaps they work for a subsidiary company of one of the mega-corporations, or they are enforcers for an underworld smuggling ring.

Backgrounds are intended to provide additional flavour to characters which link to some small in-game perk. If the standard backgrounds don’t fit, come and talk to us about your character concepts and we can craft a background to suit!

Career Ranks

Player characters have two career ranks at character creation, which can be assigned as they prefer; either two ranks in a single career, or a single rank in two different careers. This enables characters to specialise; gaining access to advanced skills within a career, or to have a broader set of less-specialised skills across two different careers. For more information, see Careers.

Skill Points

Starting player characters have 20 Skill Points which can be allocated in accordance with their Career Rank selections. Note, that General skills are accessible to all characters, regardless of Career selection.

The universe of Drift is dark and dangerous, and more challenging for those who attempt to traverse it alone. That’s not to say lone adventurers won’t survive, but the Drift character skill system has been designed with collaboration inherent within it; those who put their heads together to solve a challenge or overcome a problem will be set to gain more from that experience than characters who attempt things by themselves.  

A Skill Map is available to aid character creation – Skill Map

Skills are assigned one of three categories:

Lore
A Skill which provides information to the character. This might be innate understanding giving access to Self-Ref cards and other gameplay mechanics, or the ability to Ask a Ref for information.

Crafting
A Skill which provides access to crafting mechanics. This might be the ability to utilise Machines, generate or access Blueprints or craft specific types of Items.

Mechanic
A Skill which provides a unique mechanic within the game, provided by that Skill.

There will be situations that are more dangerous than your character’s skillset. Surveillance, reconnaissance and investigation are all key to understanding the universe around you and to understanding the threats you will face. Crafting, invention and ingenuity will also serve you well – quick thinking in the face of disparity will be key.

Gear Points

At character creation, characters will be assigned a number of Gear Points which is a reflection of the equipment and items that the character has in their possession. These gear points are a non-physical representation and cannot be traded for anything in-game.

At the point of character creation, characters will be asked to select their starting gear using these gear points. All manner of in-game Items will be available; including weaponry, (some) cybernetics and tools and equipment. Access to many Items in the gear list will be restricted to characters with specific career ranks.

Any left-over Gear Points will be converted to Federation Credits. 

The starting gear list will be published prior to the pre-event character submission form.