Rift Station: Open Worlds
The Rift staff's initial call for volunteers had brought in far more than they were prepared for. It turns out there were countless people out there ready to jump at the chance to leave everything and everyone they know behind and be plunged into an unknown circumstance they might not survive.
After the Rift started employing background checks and psychological screening, the numbers dropped radically, to more manageable levels.
Your ship has reached the station now, and you gather up your things and wait to embark. You didn't bring much; obviously you won't be here long, and there's a limited amount of mass the rift can transfer. Once you go through it, you'll be on foot with only whatever gear can be carried in a 50 lb pack.
Really, psychological testing aside, it's arguable that no one who does this fits conventional ideas of sanity. And its been noted that for whatever reason, overwhelmingly, the volunteers are Humans. The most common reasons given are a massive or traumatic personal loss, an introverted personality with a lack of ties to begin with, complete bankruptcy, or an extreme case of midlife crisis. More frequently now, religious pilgrims are popping up. Occasionally the rift gets a public figure who's been involved in a scandal on a level they don't believe they can ever face up to, or a deposed dictator or two. Despite the care taken to screen out actual criminals, it's also of course likely a few manage to slip through, either on the run from prison or from their own kind.
There's one major perk offered to volunteers, although circumstances rarely align to allow them to cash it in: if you end up on an uncharted world and manage to make contact with either Humans or Emittiers, the world becomes yours in the legal sense, and any benefits that come from it are credited to you. Usually posthumously, due to the limitations of FTL travel, but a few have gotten lucky. (What the situation would be in the event of discovering an inhabited world is a grey area deliberately not covered, as it would be more of a governmental or military issue.)
So anyhow, why are YOU here?
((These are all just cosmetic flavor options to get you thinking. On the next page you'll see a place to write in specific character backgrounds.))
After the Rift started employing background checks and psychological screening, the numbers dropped radically, to more manageable levels.
Your ship has reached the station now, and you gather up your things and wait to embark. You didn't bring much; obviously you won't be here long, and there's a limited amount of mass the rift can transfer. Once you go through it, you'll be on foot with only whatever gear can be carried in a 50 lb pack.
Really, psychological testing aside, it's arguable that no one who does this fits conventional ideas of sanity. And its been noted that for whatever reason, overwhelmingly, the volunteers are Humans. The most common reasons given are a massive or traumatic personal loss, an introverted personality with a lack of ties to begin with, complete bankruptcy, or an extreme case of midlife crisis. More frequently now, religious pilgrims are popping up. Occasionally the rift gets a public figure who's been involved in a scandal on a level they don't believe they can ever face up to, or a deposed dictator or two. Despite the care taken to screen out actual criminals, it's also of course likely a few manage to slip through, either on the run from prison or from their own kind.
There's one major perk offered to volunteers, although circumstances rarely align to allow them to cash it in: if you end up on an uncharted world and manage to make contact with either Humans or Emittiers, the world becomes yours in the legal sense, and any benefits that come from it are credited to you. Usually posthumously, due to the limitations of FTL travel, but a few have gotten lucky. (What the situation would be in the event of discovering an inhabited world is a grey area deliberately not covered, as it would be more of a governmental or military issue.)
So anyhow, why are YOU here?
((These are all just cosmetic flavor options to get you thinking. On the next page you'll see a place to write in specific character backgrounds.))