by Tom Verreault
When it comes to jumping out of a perfectly good air vehicle to perform a dangerous mission you’re the one they call. Whether it’s a low level insertion without a chute or high altitude insertion using a gli-jet, this is what you live for. Evolution has gifted you with patagium skin flaps for gliding and you were born to fly. You love what you do and the fact that you get paid to do this is just sauce for the barbeque!
| Yaziran Paragliderss - by C.J. Williams |
Even colonies with large populations are still new to their planets and most of the planet’s surface qualifies as untamed. It’s routine that people exploring or recreating get into emergencies and when they do the call goes out for Air Rescue to respond. Using jetcopters your service responds quickly and your unique abilities allow you to jump safely from a low hovering jetcopter while others must be lowered by winch. You are always the first responder to reach emergency victims.
You’re able to reassure and comfort those being rescued and treat them for life-threatening medical conditions. You have a sharp awareness of the environment and are able to function in harsh conditions. Some call you hero but you call yourself lucky that you get to do such an exciting job.
Militaries, militias, and mercenary outfits across the Frontier rely on force recon patrols to support their overall missions. You are part of an elite Special Forces community that is capable of independent action cut off from direct support. You and your team are able to insert by air, ground, or orbit and get behind enemy lines. You specialize in stealthy reconnaissance and the opposition never knows you’re there. Your team can take direct action then fade away, but you excel at recon.
Whether you’re the sniper, the demolitions tech, or the medic on the team, you’re supremely confident in your skills. You can pass unheard and unseen within a meter of an enemy. You are a ghost in the night and you can’t imagine being anything else.
In a modern society so much of the focus of security is against threats from ground level. That is why you are in demand: you sneak in from above. Whether base jumping from another, higher building or from an aircar, you’ve found that rooftop security is usually easier to penetrate. Your get in and out with the “goods” and depart the way you came.
You know security systems and your tech and stealth skills are superb. You also know all the fences and ways to dispose of the goods or to launder the credits. Some of your contacts are dangerous people but that goes with the territory.
You live for the challenge of the next job. You love the thrill of what you do and may one day retire but there is always another big score out there. Perhaps you will always be chasing the next big job but if that’s true you’ll also be having fun.
The focus of the skill sets for each character concept is a little different but one ability pair is crucial to all three: RS/DEX. If the parajumper is required to grab a hold of something at the end of his glide path to keep from descending further it’s almost guaranteed that the referee will call for a RS check to see if he succeeds. In addition, RS and DEX are likely to modify many of the skills and subskills used by a parajumper making this a crucial ability pair (depending on the rule set used). The upper story thief will also benefit from developing PER in an effort to bluff and misdirect NPCs he encounters while on the job.
For the rescue jumper, medial and environmental skills will be paramount. If he is likely to face aggressive or hostile wildlife, a shooting skill could come in handy. Eventually the rescue jumper may wish to be able to fly the vehicles he relies on, if for no other reason then to be a backup pilot.
For the force recon jumper, skills conferring stealth and concealment are paramount as his safety will lie with the enemy’s inability to detect him. Combat skills are a given. He needs to be able to shoot accurately and take down a guard up close but quietly. Most recon jumpers have a specialty that is connected to their position on the team; medic, technician, demolitions, robotics, etc. Early on a recon jumper should focus on his specialty, building it up before branching out. Robotics will be required to identify and deal with robotic sentries. A technician will be useful for detecting and defeating security devices. Demolition skill is important when the mission is to take out a target in support of other military operations.
For an upper story thief, technician and stealth skills will be important. Because a thief often works alone, he may wish to take a level of medic skill to patch himself up if things go wrong. Robotics and computer skills will be important to the thief when dealing with robotic sentries or hacking the installation’s security. Of less importance is shooting and combat skills since his safety relies on getting in and out unchallenged, but occasionally things can go very wrong and the ability to shoot could come in handy.
All parajumpers can benefit from the martial arts subskill tumbling. Tumbling can reduce damage from a fall and will allow the parajumper to exceed his maximum glide distance for the current gravity and negate some of the damage he would otherwise suffer.
Sometimes the altitude involved will be beyond the safe gliding distance and require other means of descent. Gli-jets, parawings, and flit boards come in handy when jumping from a height too high to land safely.
Parajumpers will want to outfit themselves with both a skeinsuit and inertia screen. If they are forced to take a hard landing both of these items used together will reduce any damage taken to ¼. Other screens and suits of use to the parajumper are holo or light-shift screens and stealthskin suits.
A rescue jumper entering a hostile environment or a thief might carry a small pistol while the recon jumper will want a silent or silenced rifle. A knife that will double as a tool is also a good choice of melee weapon.
Finally an infrared jammer will be a must for all but the rescue jumper. Infrared detection is a common security measure and the jammer is light enough that it should always be carried.
If using the optional system of Edges and Flaws at the back of the Alpha Dawn Remastered book, you may wish to consider some of these ideas.
When the pressure is at its hottest the parajumper is at his coolest. Once per session the para jumper gains a +20 to a skill or ability check in a high stress situation.
Arial acrobats are in the jumper’s blood. He is able to double his safe gliding distance with a successful DEX check. This applies to all gravities due to his raw ability.
The character just can’t help but push things too far sometimes. Once per session the referee can invoke this flaw and force the character to take an action that could fail and that is an unwarranted risk. Jumping from just a little too high, leaving a taunting note for investigators, or stealthily moving within centimeters of a security asset when he doesn’t have to.
Links
[1] https://frontierexplorer.org/file/yazparaglider-300wpng