Your character comes from somewhere. For some Backgrounds — Native Recruit, Pathwalker, Stranded — that somewhere is a major part of who they are. For others — Junior Surveyor, Functionary, Steward — it might be "the Core, City X" and not need much elaboration.
You build your origin world yourself. The GM has light veto for tonal fit and overall consistency, but the world is yours. The GM may also use what you create as campaign content — your home village, the friend you left behind, the dying queen — unless you specifically ask for parts to be left as background only.
This is layered. Use as much or as little as fits your character.
Layer 1: The Five Quick Questions (required if you have a defined origin world; ~5 minutes)
- What is your world named? Both the local name (what its inhabitants call it) and any Company designation (often a code: "Pocket 4471-Q").
- What's the climate or environment? One phrase. ("Endless rain forest." "Cold ocean planet, communities living on platforms." "A single endless library.")
- What's the tech level or era? One phrase. ("Bronze Age tribal." "1980s neon urban." "Genuinely impossible to classify.")
- What's one thing about it that's beautiful or distinctive? Anything you want to remember. ("The way the moonlight pools in the marshes." "A festival every solstice where everyone trades masks.")
- What's one thing about it that's hard, dangerous, or painful? Personal or systemic. ("My family is in debt." "The rains are getting longer every year." "I was exiled before Solace found me.")
Done with these five? You have enough to play.
Layer 2: The Surveyor's Sketch (optional, ~15 minutes more)
For players who want a more textured world. Add:
- What's the dominant culture or government? Who's in charge?
- What's the dominant belief system? What do most people believe about the world, the dead, the unseen?
- What's your world's connection to the Paths? Is it Core, Settled Frontier, Wild Frontier, or something stranger?
- What's your home base? A specific city, settlement, or location your character considers home — not just the world in general. Even if your character can't return.
- Three notable NPCs or locations. Specific people or places that matter. A name and one sentence each.
These ten answers give the GM hooks they can pull on without inventing anything.
Layer 3: The Guide Entry (optional, deeper creative work)
For players who want to commit fully — write an actual Guide entry for your world in the Guide's voice.
The Guide's voice is clinical, slightly evasive, with intentional gaps. It uses Company-speak (your world is called a "pocket" in the Guide, even though locals call it a world). It cites references that may or may not exist. It uses bureaucratic euphemism for difficult truths. It has redactions where the original report was sensitive.
Suggested format:
POCKET DESIGNATION: [Company code]
COMMON NAME: [local name]
CLASSIFICATION: [Core / Settled Frontier / Wild Frontier / Unmapped]
LAST OFFICIAL UPDATE: [date or "[REDACTED]"]
ENVIRONMENT: [one paragraph]
POPULATION & GOVERNANCE: [one paragraph]
DOMINANT BELIEFS: [one paragraph]
PATH ACCESS: [known Paths, who controls them]
NOTABLE FEATURES: [2-3 specific things — locations, people, customs, hazards]
HAZARDS: [bureaucratic-cheerful warnings about real dangers]
Lean into bureaucratic understatement ("Indigenous population: cooperative" describing complicated people), selective redaction, and things that don't quite add up. The Guide is not neutral.
Your completed entry goes into the team's Guide as canon from session one. Other players will see it. Your home becomes part of the campaign's world.
Special Notes by Background
- The Stranded — Your home is lost. The worldbuilding is an act of remembering. Leave gaps where your character no longer remembers. The Guide Entry is especially powerful here.
- The Anomaly — Worldbuilding may be deliberately partial. "There was a tower. I think it was a tower. I remember the smell of the stairwell." Lean into not-knowing.
- The Native Recruit — Your home world is the most mechanically relevant of any Background; your Local Knowledge perk references it directly. Layer 2 is strongly recommended.
- The Pathwalker — You may have multiple "homes." Layer 1 covers your origin; Layer 2 may include other worlds you consider familiar.
- The Recovered — Your origin world may be Core. The unrecorded world you came back from is its own slow worldbuilding prompt — develop it across the campaign.
- The Junior Surveyor, Functionary, Steward, Specialist — Probably Core-born. Layer 1 may be enough. Go deeper if you want.