Belter

Shipyards need a lot of things to keep voidrunners moving: raw materials for hulls, fuel for generators, and countless other necessities. And they need it all in bulk, because ships are large and plentiful. That’s where Belters come in.

Mining planets for their unique mineral contents and rare materials is something most societies accomplish well before the beginning of an industrial era. By the space age, though, a lot of those minerals are already in use, and the ecological damage of tearing new supplies out of your own world can cause socio-political upheaval and strife. All this is why most societies start mining uninhabited—and largely uninhabitable— rocks drifting in space.

Bouncing around the accretion disks of countless stars in the night sky are belters: people raised on starships and space-stations that are designed to land on a particularly large asteroid and act as a central hub and workstation for the processing of ores, crystals, and any other materials the asteroid might have that are worth taking. Life as a belter is one of cramped quarters, loud noises, and families doing their best to live in a dangerous and difficult profession. There are endless stories about atmo leaks, reactor breaches, and monsters just outside the bulkhead told to children at bedtime, after a long day of playing tag in narrow corridors or hide-and-seek in the ore-processing center.

When not planted on an asteroid, the behemoth ships drift slowly to stardock to deliver their cache of goods or toward the next asteroid in the belt to hollow it out in turn. This travel time gives belters plenty of time in between to try and live something resembling a normal life with their loved ones.

Characters raised in the belter culture share a variety of traits in common with one another.

All Hands on Deck. From an early age you got to know the machines of your asteroid hopper, and as you grew up you were instructed on their care and maintenance. You gain proficiency in the Engineering skill and space vehicles. In addition, when you undertake the Repair journey activity, you count your result as one higher. Critical failures become failures, failures become successes, and successes become critical successes. If you roll a critical success, you can remove an additional critical malfunction of your choice.

Gauge Threat. Growing up on asteroid hoppers and the space stations where you dropped your cargo, you learned how to pick out the petty toughs from the actual threats. You can use an action to make an Insight check against a DC equal to the target’s passive Deception check score (or an Engineering check in the case of androids and other constructs) against a creature you can see within 60 feet. On a success, you learn the creature’s Challenge Rating (or level in the case of a creature with character levels).

Vent-Rat. As a child and young adult you got skilled at hiding in cramped spaces, particularly if you were boarded. You gain an expertise die when making a Stealth check in cramped spaces and can move at full speed while squeezing.

Languages. You can read, sign, speak, and write Common and one other language.