EDIT: The stats in this thread are working drafts. Please see the final versions on the Burning Empires Wiki.
Yes, I know, I thought I was finished doing these too. But over possibly the lamest Christmas holiday ever, while sick for a week and taking care of a wife and toddler much, much sicker than me, I ended up re-reading, in my occasional moments of semi-lucidity, C.J. Cherryh’s Downbelow Station, a novel I’d highly recommend featuring a once-proud starfleet reduced to piracy, press-ganging, the use of refugees as a weapon, and the deliberate sabotage of life-support for tens of thousands of people nominally under its protection. All of which seemed deliciously in keeping with the Iron Empires, so I offer three new lifepaths for everyone’s suggestions/criticisms/merciless vivisection:
Press-Ganged
Setting: Hammer
Time: 2 yrs
Stat bonus: none
Skills: 4 pts: Discipline Officer-wise (Per), Inconspicuous (Wil), Begging (Wil), Foreign Languages (Per)
Traits: 1 pt: Captured, Pragmatic, Homesick
Requirements: Captive of War or any Spacefarer lifepath
Vac Monkey
Setting: Hammer
Time: 3 yrs
Resources: 1
Circles: 0
Stat Bonus: +1 P
Skills: 4 pts: Zero G (Spd), Jury-Rigging (Wil/Agi), Catastrophic failure-wise (Per), Ugly Truth (Wil)
Traits: 1 pt: Brave, Lucky, Stupid
Requirements: Shipfitter
Saboteur
Setting: Hammer
Time: 6 yrs
Resources: 1
Circles: 1
Stat Bonus: +1 M,P
Skills: 9 pts: Security Rigging (Per/Agi), Explosives (Per/Agi), Fortress-wise (Per), Space Station-wise (Per), Inconspicuous (Wil), Falsehood (Wil), Forgery (Per/Agi), Smuggling (Wil/Per), Foreign Languages (Per)
Traits: 1 pt: Cold Blooded, Burned, Just Following Orders
Requirements: Vac Monkey, Stormtrooper, Agent, Circle of 10,000, Psychologist, or any Engineer-type lifepath (Anvil, Hammer, or Spacefarer)
NOTE: Saboteur allows Breaker or Smuggler