Character creation for Alien:Quarantine is fairly intensive, it is meant to weed out people and identify those players that have strong writing ability that will contribute to playing a compelling story. I wish I could say this was an equal opportunity game, and players of all levels could apply and play, but it is not. I'm looking for strong writers and strong roleplayers; so to do this, and to not waste everyone's time in the process, the character creation process is divided in to four steps. This system allows me to, hopefully, identify players that are not going to cut it before they spend too much time building their character.



STEP ONE - CHARACTER CONCEPT

Submit an RTJ with a a basic outline/concept for the character you want to play. Example: "I want to play a Roughneck with a bit of a criminal past."

Please keep in mind the different character archtypes available in the Alien RPG system:
Colonial Marines
Colonial Marshal
Company Agent
Kid
Medic
Officer
Pilot
Roughneck
Scientist

It's as simple as that. The GM staff will then review the concept to determine if/how it would fit into the overall scheme of the game.

Things the GM looks at:

- Does this concept already exist? How similar is this concept/character to other characters already in the game. (Obviously we expect some overlap -- multiple roughnecks, etc. -- but how similar are the two characters fundamentally).

- How easy is it going to be to fit this character into the story?

- What kinds of stories does this concept/character lend itself to? And will the GM staff need to create new NPCs/stories specifically for this concept/character?


STEP TWO - DETAILED CHARACTER PROFILE

At the bottom of this post is a character profile. It's long and daunting to look at, but it was developed to help you, as a player, develop and get a feel for your character. As such, there are certain aspects of it that are mandatory for character creation (marked with a red *) and some elements that are purely for you. During Step Two you will fill in all of the mandatory elements of the character sheet, including a BASIC outline of your characters history.

This basic outline is the first real opportunity that the GM's have to view you writing ability. USE IT. While it is easy to toss a few bullet points onto the page and call it good, why not write out a narrative history. Tell a story. After all, the purpose of the game is to do exactly that, tell a story.

The GM Staff will use this as an opportunity to help merge your character with the greater mythology of the world. Maybe you had a friend that died on LV-426 when the Hadley's Hope colony was destroyed. Maybe you've encountered a fault (homicidal) Working Joe synthetic, and have developed a hatred for them.

There is no required length for a character history, but the longer the better.

Once the profile is completed, the GM Staff will review it, discuss elements of it or any possible changes with the player, before giving approval or denial for the player to proceed to step three.


STEP THREE - ALIEN RPG CHARACTER SHEET

The next step is to:
Watch this video
Read through this PDF
Fill out this Character Sheet

The save it to your computer and export it as a PNG. Upload that PNG to your favorite image sharing website and submit it to the GM Staff. This will become your official character sheet in game, and will be posted under the character sheet for your player.

At this point, the GM Staff will add your character to the game, you may select your character portrait, upload a character description, and get ready to enter the world... But there's one final step...


STEP FOUR - THE QUESTIONNAIRE

At this point, the GM Staff is taking a page out of the Dread RPG and asking players to fill out a questionnaire specific to their character. This questionnaire will dive in to elements of your characters history and story, and ask you to elaborate on elements of that story, giving them more depth. Some of them may be unrelated to history elements, but are meant to add more depth to your character. These questions may include things like:

"You have left someone behind that you visit every time you're in port. Who is it? Why can't they come along with you?"

"How did your sister die?"

"What scared you most as a child?"

"You have seen a lot of odd things in space. What is the strangest thing you have ever witnessed?"

"What piece of contraband have you smuggled aboard? Who else knows about it?"

These questions will be used to give the GM ideas to add dramatic tension to your characters story that doesn't have to do with the creature hunting you...



As a reminder: Welcome to Alien: Quarantine...

May the odds be ever in your favor...

CHARACTER PROFILE

General Character Information
*Full Name:
Nickname(s):

*Date of Birth:
*Actual Age:
*Gender:
Sexuality:

*Place of Birth:
Ethnicity:
Religion:
Degree of Religious Practice:


Physical Appearance
Height:
Weight:
Body Type:
Hair Color:
Hair Style:
Eye Color:
Skin Tone:

Birthmarks:
Scars:
Tattoos:

Physical Disabilities:

*Physical Description:


Family/Relationships
Father:
Mother:
Siblings:

Marital Status:
Spouse:
Other Romantic Relationships:


Children:

Friends:
Acquaintances:
Associates:
Enemies:


Education/Occupation
Highest Education Achieved:
Degrees Held:
College/University Attended:

Elementary Education:

Skills/Trades Known:

Occupation/Career/Finance:
Current Occupation:
Socioeconomic Level (At Birth):
Socioeconomic Level (Current):

Spending Behavior:
Financial Assets:
Financial Liabilities:


Speech/Language
Languages (Listening, Reading, Speaking, Writing):
Languages graded on a 6-pt. scale: Novice – 0, Beginner – 1, Intermediate – 2, Advanced – 3, Superior – 4, Native - 5
Example (English – L5, R5, S5, W5)

Speech Pace:
Accent:
Voice Tone:
Speech Pattern:

Speech Disability:


Personality
Vices:
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Fears/Phobias:
Mental Illnesses:
Turn Ons:
Turn Offs:

Goals:
  Short Range Goal:
  Medium Range Goals:
  Long Range Goals:

How does the character handle emotions of…?
  Anger:
  Frustration:
  Fear:
  Desire/Lust:
  Emotional Pain (i.e. heartbreak):


*Character History
The longer the better. This is where the GM Staff will pull ideas from for your characters personal story.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:35, Mon 23 Mar 2020.

EXAMPLE:

STEP ONE:
"I want to play an ambitious Corporate Agent, with a 'do whatever it takes' attitude, that is looking to prove herself."


STEP TWO:


General Character Information
*Full Name: Jian-Li Ryu
Nickname(s): The Ice Queen

*Date of Birth: 2150
*Actual Age: 32
*Gender: Female
Sexuality: Heterosexual

*Place of Birth: Guangzhou, China, Earth
Ethnicity: Chinese
Religion: Buddhist
Degree of Religious Practice: Lapsed


Physical Appearance
Height: 5'4"
Weight: 112 lbs.
Body Type: Lithe, Athletic
Hair Color: Dark Brown
Hair Style: Long, pulled back and up
Eye Color: Brown
Skin Tone: Pale, Almond colored

Birthmarks: Cafe Au Lait spots on neck
Scars: Small scar on left ring finger
Tattoos: None

Physical Disabilities: None

*Physical Description:
Dark, raven-black hair frames a pale, almond colored face while two piercing blue eyes stare icily at you. The woman holding the P-DAT and tapping her foot has all the stern countenance that you've come to expect from a Corporate Lawyer, along with a short temper and a sharp tongue. She's dressed conservatively, in a black, floor-length cheongsam dress, with silver accents along the shoulders and the edge where it opens. Her dark hair is pulled back in a simple, professional bun, and her nails are clean and simple. She's not looking to attract attention, but it is obvious that she's aware of the eyes that are on her when she walks in to a room. Her looks, like her sharp tongue and equally sharp wit, are weapons that she wields with expert precision.


Family/Relationships
Father: Wei-Jun Ryu (Deceased)
Mother: Shu-Li Ryu (Deceased)
Siblings: Kai Guan Ryu (Estranged)

Marital Status: Divorced
Spouse: Michael Taylor
Other Romantic Relationships: Liaisons, not relationships.


Children: None (Who has time for children?)

Friends: None
Acquaintances: None
Associates: Anyone useful at the Company HQ
Enemies: Anyone in direct competition with her in the Company Hierarchy


Education/Occupation
Highest Education Achieved: Juris Doctorate
Degrees Held: Juris Doctorate in Law and Business; Master of Laws; Bachelor of Laws
College/University Attended:
Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts (JD)
Peking University Law School, Beijing, China (LLM)
Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, China (LLB)

Elementary Education:Guangzhou High School, Guangzhou, China

Skills/Trades Known: Martial Arts (Sanshou)

Occupation/Career/Finance:
Current Occupation: Corporate Lawyer (Scarif Corporation)
Socioeconomic Level (At Birth): Lower Class
Socioeconomic Level (Current): Upper Middle Class

Spending Behavior: Thrifty
Financial Assets: Apartment
Financial Liabilities: None


Speech/Language
Languages (Listening, Reading, Speaking, Writing):
Languages graded on a 6-pt. scale: Novice – 0, Beginner – 1, Intermediate – 2, Advanced – 3, Superior – 4, Native - 5
Example (English – L5, R5, S5, W5)

English - L5, R5, S5, W5
Chinese - L5, R5, S5, W5

Speech Pace: Fast
Accent: None
Voice Tone:
Speech Pattern:

Speech Disability: None


Personality
Vices: Sex, Alcohol
Strengths: Ambitious
Weaknesses:
Fears/Phobias: Spatisomniphobia (Fear of Hypersleep)
Mental Illnesses:
Turn Ons: Strength, Ambition, Dominance
Turn Offs: Attachment, Submission

Goals:
  Short Range Goal: Get back to a civilized core world; get a drink
  Medium Range Goals: Get a promotion
  Long Range Goals: Head of Legal Department

How does the character handle emotions of…?
  Anger: She seethes silently and plots; beware a woman's wrath
  Frustration: Alcohol, sex, or or Sanshou (Sometimes a combination of all three)
  Fear: Survival
  Desire/Lust: Sex
  Emotional Pain (i.e. heartbreak): Heartbreak? What's that?


*Character History
Jian-Li Ryu was born to a lower-class working family in Guangzhou, China, an important manufacturing and port town in the region. Her parents worked for one of the manufacturing plants that produced microprocessors for the Synths produced by the Seegson Corporation, Weyland-Yutani Corporation, and Hyperdyne Systems. It was hard, dangerous work, for which her parents got paid very little. From an early age, Jian-Li KNEW that she wasn't going to be just another cog in the corporate machine.

To accomplish her goal, Jian-Li knew that she would have to do anything to attract the attention of a corporate recruiter. They were the ones that could help her get her foot in the door, recommendations to the best schools, money for her education, etc.; so, usuing the meager allowance that she was given, she began to cultivate her 'look'. Expensive, provocatively cut dresses, makeup, hair, nails. She visited the bars and clubs where the Salarymen would go after hours. It was there that she met Michael,

Michael Taylor was an American Businessman, a consultant for the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, in Guangzhou to oversee the delivery of a large shipment of microprocessors. They should have never crossed paths, but fate has an odd way of bringing people together. They met at a Hostess Club where Jian-Li was working, and immediately Michael was interested in the young woman with the almond skin and blue eyes. He was older than her, by almost a decade, but Jian-Li saw an opportunity. She fostered the relationship, flirting and teasing Michael, so that even after his assignment was complete, he kept coming back to Guangzhou to see her. Sending her money, gifts. Jian-Li used every dime to go to school. First at Guangzhou University, where she earned her Bachelor of Laws, then at Peking University in Beijing, where she earned her Master of Laws. At that point, she needed to go to the United States to study, and as luck would have it, Michael asked her to marry him.

It wasn't a marriage born out of love, at least not on Jian-Li's part, but one of convenience. She needed sponsorship to get a US Visa, being married to a man with ties to the largest multi-national corporation in history helped.

Once her visa was approved, Jian-Li immediately applied to Harvard. Her grades at both Guangzhou University and Peking University were just good enough, and with Michael's influence, she had the recommendations she needed from Weyland-Yutani to get the admissions board to look at her application. She continued to let Michael support her throughout the next three years of study, eventually graduating from Harvard with a Juris Doctorate in Law and Business. It was at that point, that things changed.

While Michael didn't mind supporting Jian-Li through her studies, he refused to help her get a job with the company that he worked for, and he flat out forbid her from working for a member of the competition. So Jian-Li bided her time. Her husband liked to bring work home with him, and after she had fulfilled her 'wifely duties', she would slip out of bed down to his office and make copies of his files. When she had enough, she left him, filed for divorce, and turned every, single document over to Weyland-Yutani's largest competitor, the Scarif Corporation.

Scarif was, to say the least, impressed. In a single day, Scarif Corporation gained the upper hand on no less than fifteen ongoing contract bids where they were facing off against Weyland-Yutani directly, and Jian-Li gained herself a position within the company.

Jian-Li currently works within the Contracts Disputes section of Scarif's Legal Department, however she has her sights set on higher; and if her history proves nothing else, she'll do anything to get to the top, no matter who she hurts along the way.


STEP THREE:




STEP FOUR:
Why were you on Tanaka-5?
Tanaka-5 is a recent acquisition for the Scarif Corporation. An arid, desert planet; recent surveys have shown large mineral deposits of  thulium, terbium, gold and manganese beneath the surface, however the local...wildlife...is hostile to human life. During a recent 'incident' a worker was seriously injured and threatened the sue the company. I was dispatched the deal with the labor and contract dispute, and ensure that the employee was aware that, should they proceed with their lawsuit, exactly how much money they would owe the company for their travel, food, lodging and medical care.

Why did you get married if you weren't in love?
It was always ever about doing what was necessary to ensure that I did not end up like my parents and my brother. My husband provided me with many opportunities that I would not have had otherwise. It was his own fault for failing to see my ambition for what it was, and he got what he deserved in the end.

If you didn't love your husband, why do you still wear a ring?
This thing? It's not the one he gave me. But I found, when I was married, that a married woman attracts a certain type of attention...

Why didn't you go back to China to attend you parents funeral?
Go back to Guangzhou? To the slums I grew up in? You've got to be kidding me? My parents never did anything for me; the meager allowance they gave me barely afforded my first nice dress. It was the opportunities that I made for myself that got me where I am, not anything they did for me. I didn't want to be around them when they were alive, why would I want to see them when they're dead?

Why are you afraid of hypersleep?
Why shouldn't I be afraid of something that mimics death?