Character Connections
During Character Discovery, also called Stepping Stone I, Players work to build connections with the existing Travellers in the campaign.
From the Character Discovery One more way that this is Character Discovery instead of Creation is that we cooperatively look for reasons to tie each Traveller's life to at least one of the existing Travellers in the campaign. Discovering these Character Connections linkages that exist often leads to more stories and a richer experience for everyone. A new Traveller might enter our game after months or years have passed on the calendar. We discover that the existing Travellers had interacted with this new Traveller while visiting a system and are now building a more complete relationship.
To help facilitate these Connections after a Traveller has gone through the full Discovery process the Player adds that history to the Backstory Compare Table. They can then see if they line up on their time line with any of the existing Travellers. If they do they can create a Connection with that Traveller to create a logical reason why they might want to be involved in that section of the Campaign. Alternatively if there are multiple Players creating their Travellers at the same time they can build connections to the other new Travellers.
Each time a Character Connection is created the new Traveller gets a bonus of one skill. This can be a new skill or an increase to an existing skill, always staying within the guidelines for skills. If the Connection is with a new Traveller that is created at the same time than both get to choose the skill they want. It can be the same one, or a different one as long as it makes sense story wise to have acquired that skill. If a Traveller is joining in and wants to make a Connection with an existing Traveller only the new Traveller gets to add the skill, the Traveller that has been out in Charted Space as part of Stepping Stone III does not get the increase of a skill.
There is a limit of two Connections that grant skills for any Traveller. It is highly encouraged to have more Connections with the many Travellers in the Campaign. Only the first two chosen grant the bonus skill to the new Traveller coming out of Character Discovery.
