Off-Grid Ghost
Never connected.
Born to unconnected parents on a Rim outpost, a free-port rock, or somewhere past the last beacon. No Kadiss install, no Core record, no Argus number. Raised on the wrong side of the grid -- clan-protected, family-taught, or raised by themselves. Some are outlaws by birth (their parents ran dark), some are outlaws by circumstance (the family lost the grid in a market crash or a Day One purge), some are outlaws by choice. The leash is whatever protects them locally; the debt is whatever the grid would have paid for. They leave the Rim by ship, by contract, or by the next war.
Rules Reference
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Archetype Combinations / Academic | Bad fit. The school is the work. |
| Archetype Combinations / Chaplain | Awkward fit. World-specific creeds, not licensed chaplaincy. |
| Archetype Combinations / Face | Workable fit. Rim haggling is real; Core polish is not. |
| Archetype Combinations / Officer | Bad fit. Command is the Other. |
| Archetype Combinations / Operative | Good fit. Born unseen, stays unseen. |
| Archetype Combinations / Psion | Workable fit. An unconnected psion is either a beacon or a saint, depending on the clan. |
| Archetype Combinations / Sawbones | Workable fit. Frontier medicine is field medicine. |
| Archetype Combinations / Scout | Natural fit. The ghost is the scout by birthright. |
| Archetype Combinations / Soldier | Good fit. Clan and outlaw militia work is real soldiering. |
| Background Trait / Cause | Because the grid was never theirs to lose. |
| Background Trait / Name | Running Dark |
| Background Trait / Trigger | Passive; freedom bonus and one structural lockout. |
| Birthplace | rim-or-uncharted |
| Pipeline | off-grid-ghost-outlaw |
| Starting Kadiss Tier | 0 |
| Starting Rek | 100 |
| Verse Anchor | Off-Grid Ghost |
Notes
Background Trait / Effect: The character is unconnected; no Kadiss, no tier, no Argus trail, no rek wallet. While off-grid the character is immune to Confed surveillance and tier-throttling effects (there is nothing to throttle). +4 bonus to all checks using the SKILL-OFF-GRID-ADAPTATION skill. However, the character has no Confed identity, no transaction capability in Core space, and no legal existence; any attempt to enter Confed-tier space requires a forger, a fixer, or sympathetic cover. Re-connecting (Kadiss install) is a slow, expensive, painful process and may be treated as apostasy by Day One cells and as a criminal act by Rim clans.
Social Hook: The ghost has never been a number on anyone's ledger. They can read weather, skin a hunt, splice a rifle, and walk into a town the Argus has never heard of. They owe no one, on paper; in practice they owe whoever fed them last winter and whoever taught them to shoot. The Rim is theirs; the Core is a foreign country.
Starting Gear: No ID. No Kadiss. No record., Hand-me-down weapon (often a knife, a hold-out, or a clan-forged rifle), Two reloads, Worn field clothes (patched, Rim-cut), Rek (cash-equivalents only; chips, bullion, barter; starting balance 100), Three days' field rations (foraged or pressed), A clan token or family mark (recognition token in one Rim port; one favour per story), A single off-grid contact's name (one Rim fixer, one call)
Trained Skills
| Skill | Ranks | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Off-Grid Adaptation | 2 | Running dark is the baseline, not the exception. |
| Stealth | 2 | Born unseen; stay unseen. |
| Survival | 4 | The Rim is the school; the school does not repeat lessons. |