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[Xeron]

Ah yes, that's right
How about this , Romulus offered information  that would interest your character in exchange for service in the merc fleet for a short amount of time, until the actual bounty hunters/mercs grouped into a formidable armada.

[Kadzar]

Oh, I just realized it seems from my original posting of my backstory I was going to write the rest in response to other people's backstories, but Sergius later convinced me to write out more of it on my own, which I did in a separate post, which I can see as being more than a little bit confusing.

Here's my whole character so far:

Well, lessee.

For High Concept, I can't think of anything else besides Captain Albatross. I guess if I made a statement about the character, I'd say he's a space pirate captain who mostly brings trouble to himself and his crew, while occasionally having some very good luck to make up for it.

For Trouble, he's a gambler, a drinker, and a Casanova, constantly engaging in risky schemes to make money for his habits and lovers. Not sure if maybe that should be split up and some of it should go elsewhere (possibly the High Concept).

As for backstory, as a young man my character was press-ganged into the Royal Space Navy, serving aboard the H.M.S. Arcturus under Captain Jodrick. There he frequently suffered cruel and unwarranted punishment from the Captain's sadistic Lieutenant, Mr. Riggs. Seeking relief from his endless torment, (oh, crap, I think I need a name for my character. Let's go with Jonathan Wade) Jonathan stabbed the lieutenant in the back when he thought no one was looking. As it turned out, someone was looking, and the next morning he faced summary execution. However, by some great stroke of luck, the execution was interrupted by space whale, and, in the ensuing confusion, Jonathon was able to jump aboard it's back and thereby escape certain death.

After that, he spent many days drifting on the back of the space whale before he was rescued by a gentleman by the name of Sir Vincent J. Kenwigs. By this time the young man was starving, thirsty, and a bit space mad, so the old man took him into his home to recover. Afterwards, he let Jonathan stay with him and tutored him in such gentlemanly subjects as literature and history, the romancing of ladies, and, especially, the art of swordplay. However, one night, while Jonathan was out on business for his master, Sir Kenwigs was attacked by the Blue House Mafia, whom he had been some conflict in the past. Jonathan managed to return to his master just as he was near death, and with his dying breath he told him who had killed him and bequeathed to Jonathan his most prize sword. On that day Jonathan Wade made an oath on his master's sword to take down the Blue House Mafia.

As he made his way out of his master's burning villa (I've decided the house was on fire at the time, since it makes the most dramatic sense), the only thing on Jonathan's mind was revenge. So he headed off to make those responsible pay, but when he got to the Blue House, he noticed they had a hell of a lot of guys hanging around the place. He just then realized he was rather tired. He spied a kind-looking young woman nearby and figured she might be able to offer him a place to sleep for the night, and maybe more than just sleep. The next morning the young woman was shouting at him to get up, since her husband, the governor, had arrived early from his most recent business trip. And so it came to pass that Jonathan found himself on the run from the Port Estia Guard wearing naught but his hat, coat, and his master's sword. Through some cunning trickery, he was able to make his way onto a ship and escape the port, and from there he set off on his life of piracy.

[GentlemanRaptor]

Okay. So I gotta figure out how I fit in with Sirus. Nothing actually comes to mind at the moment, really. Any ideas?

[Kadzar]

Well, since your character spent a lot of time, being moved from ship to ship, you could have been around when he had his accident with the powder. Or you might have been piloting the ship when I picked him up off of Neo Barbarossa. Or, if Sirus is agreeable, you might have helped him fight off the slavers (you could raise the half-dozen number to be about a dozen or so to make it still as impressive).

[Sirus]

I had a thought about how I could fit in with Xeron's character's story while keeping him the star.
Perhaps Romulus was a sponsor/patron of the Gunnery School that Gethron attended back before Romulus lost his power, and Gethron might have seen him once at some sort of appreciation celebration. From a distance of course, so they never actually met and likely don't remember each other, but it would serve as a connection between the two.

Or, if Sirus is agreeable, you might have helped him fight off the slavers (you could raise the half-dozen number to be about a dozen or so to make it still as impressive).

Consider me agreeable.

[GentlemanRaptor]

Alright then. I helped out Sirus with slavers, and was a getaway pilot for Xeron.

[Sergius]

Ok, now you just have to narrate it

Just needs to be a footnote as a minimum. But if you want to expand, go for it (try not to make it longer than your own backstory, lol).

I'll add the backgrounds one by one as they are completed (I'm just gonna put the guest appearances in the guest's char sheet. I wonder if you can put a spoiler inside another spoiler)

EDIT: Some art for OPs



Some (tentative) science of the Universe:

• Gravity is generated by some mineral or metal (maybe several). It makes things "fall" in a direction (could be towards it or maybe in a plane orientated somehow along its "poles"). These minerals make habitable worlds possible (big round Earthlike ones may have a big core, or a layer of these along the crust making "down" the center... or even a hollow world possible. Most artificial strutures use these materials in their construction and can have just "up" and "down" or even arbitrary planes of gravity.
• Space is breathable, but some zones may have like "high altitude" air. Some areas of space could be like pools of water, that you need diving gear? Ships are not usually airproof but they may have sealed compartments.
• Ships fly because a combination of passive magic/alchemical materials, helped by active devices that are mechanical (possibly with magic). You can sail "space currents", even with non-magical sails, and could use some sort of propeller (not rowing tho, because you can't row in space air, duh. But maybe muscle powered propellers). Some of the best ships are powered by magic and usually need to be driven by a mage (helmsman-mage). Magical glowy steering wheel! Also mages need to do a little invocation dance while saying magic words to activate it.
• Turtles.

Medieval cannons!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombard_(weapon)
For that early gunpowder look.

[GentlemanRaptor]

Okay. I'll fold this into one big post later, I guess.

Briggs had "acquired" a very small, incredibly fast vessel from some Procurement blokes at a nearby naval shipyard. He was flying it solo, no easy feat when taking into account riggings and solar drift. While joyriding through Rome in an attempt to escape the same Procurement lads he'd borrowed it from, he ran into a wounded man, adrift and left for dead in the wreckage of a once-stately liner. Being the charitable sort (he REALLY needed somebody else to help him with the ship) he picked the man up. As it happened, the man was Romulus, founder and leader of Rome, and a very wanted man. Seeing as how they were both being pursued by those who wanted them dead, Briggs agreed to take Romulus far away from his would-be assassins in Rome and head for the (relative) safety of unpatrolled Royal space.

I'll get the bit for Sirus up soon.

[GentlemanRaptor]

Okay, here goes the guest appearance in Sirus's back story.

While hopping from world to world on the run from the law, Briggs ended up on Neo Barbossa. A barebones place, it wasn't much to look at. This made it perfect for Briggs to lay low. However, his seclusion was abruptly halted when slavers visited the world, looking for plunder. They had taken a young woman when a hideously disfigured man strode out from the shadows and demanded her return. The slavers looked a bit scared, but didn't seem as if they would back down. That was when Briggs, from his hiding spot, gave them a little demonstration of pyromancy. The combination of a terrifying mutant and witchfire lapping at their heels was too much, and all twelve of the slavers fled.

[Kadzar]

So is there anything else we need now before we move on?

[Sergius]

So is there anything else we need now before we move on?

Yes, you should all do what GentlemanRaptor just did: your 2 guest appearances.

Some of you have a rough idea about it but you should write an actual paragraph saying what happened.

That's all that's left before we move to your actual character sheet with skills and aspects.

[Kadzar]

Well, for Sirus's story, I was simply captaining a ship when I rescued Gethron and Briggs. As for what Jonathan Wade was doing on Neo Barbarossa, that may be a story for another time, or, at the very least, it's not important to this story (i.e. I feel like if I added any more to this, like what my character was doing on Neo Barbarossa, it would just make it about my character when it's supposed to be about Sirus's). Oh, and I suppose Jonathan and Gethron probably remarked on how odd it was that they were seeing each other again.

For GentlemanRaptor's story, after the heist we headed to a hideout one of our guys had, a little hollow asteroid base out in the middle of nowhere where we could lay low in relative comfort. While we were there, the other guys talked in secret about how the haul would go a bit further split four ways rather than six. They all knew each other pretty well, while the two of us had only done one or two jobs with them each, so it was easy for them decide where they were going to pick up the extra shares. We only just managed to survive because I happened to overhear them the night they were planning to do the deed and was able to warn Briggs in time for us to make a fighting retreat to one of the ships.

[Sergius]

Nice, now we just need Xeron's and Sirus'.

Anyway, Kadzar and GentlemanRaptor: (and Xeron and Sirus once you finish your stories)

Now that you have your guest appeareances, and backstory, we'll come up with our 5 aspects.

• High Concept: something that defines you, usually your profession, your main (positive?) personality trait. The idea is that this aspect is something you can almost always rely on when you need to invoke something.
• Trouble: this is what "haunts" you the most. Not necessarily your worst flaw, but the one you want to come up more often and shape the adventure - I'm going to be compelling this one a lot, because if you put it here it means you really want it compelled. Maybe someone's trying to cause problems for you, or you have a compulsion to get in trouble all the time.
  (the reason I "decoupled" these from the general backstory "high concept" was mostly so that you can take a look at the whole story and pick something you think is cool, instead of just the first thing that came to mind as "high concept" and "trouble")
• 3 Aspects: this is where we don't follow the Vanilla rule too closely: these don't HAVE to be related each to your 1 story and 2 appearances. Take the story as a whole, including your appearances, and come up with 3 aspects that you think are cool. If you can't think of 3, leave (some or all of) them open and fill them in play. The best aspects are those that you can Invoke AND can be used for compels, but it's ok if you want to make separate "flaw" and "advantage" aspects.

Note: There's no "mechanical" difference between these 3 aspects and the HC or trouble. Those two are mostly here so players don't forget to have at least 1 aspect that's for Compels, and another that's for Invokes. A good Trouble can in theory be invoked, and a good HC can in theory be compelled, it's up to you. Also, they're there so that the DM knows which ones to focus on the most.

Next, fill your skill pyramid. The skills are vanilla. Shoot means any ranged attack, including guns, spells, arrows, darts, Donkey Kong barrels (it just has to make sense with your aspects, so someone with "Kingdom's Top Sharpshooter" isn't going to spontaneously start flinging fireballs).

The last part is Stunts. Those always give me trouble, I'm not that good at thinking those they're generally a Bonus to a skill in certain (specific) situations, or a permission to use a skill that shouldn't normally apply to an action (like, using Physique to open a locked door, if it's made of wood or something).

[Kadzar]

Well, thinking out just aspects, I'm thinking either:

High Concept: Captain with Strange Luck
Trouble: Risky Plans
3 Aspects: The Day I Escaped Captain Jodrick
An Oath on My Master's Sword
Casanova

or

High Concept: Captain with Strange Luck
Trouble: Wants What He Can't Have
3 Aspects: The Day I Escaped Captain Jodrick
An Oath on My Master's Sword
Risky Plans

Maybe the "Risky Plans" aspect needs rewording as a non-Trouble to make it less negative. Also, I'm not too sure about "The Day I Escaped Captain Jodrick", but I don't know what else it would be (maybe I'll have a better idea when Sirus finishes his guest appearance in my story).

[GentlemanRaptor]

Alright, here's the first bit of my character sheet.

High Concept: Maniac Mage-Pilot
Trouble: Running From The Ghosts Of His Past
Aspect 1: Joyrider
Aspect 2: Stuck-up Sumbitch
Aspect 3: A Good Man At Heart