Doctor

Of the 8 Career Skills, choose 4 to get a free rank. Of the 4 Specialization Skills, choose 2 to get a free rank.

Colonist Career Skills: Charm, Deception, Knowledge (Core Worlds), Knowledge (Education), Knowledge (Lore), Leadership, Negotiation and Streetwise

Doctor Specialization Skills: Cool, Knowledge (Education), Medicine and Resilience

Of all the types of Colonists who come to the Outer Rim, Doctors probably have the easiest time finding employment. They are in high demand almost anywhere they go. Unfortunately, most of what they are asked to do involves patching up the wounds of the worst kind of beings.

With their skills, a Doctor brings not only healing and the treatment of illnesses with him, he brings a broad spectrum of knowledge and a solid persona in the face of adversity.

Most Doctors trade their healing talents for a chance to see more of the galaxy than their time in medical school ever allowed. Their overall motives can be as varied as those of any being, yet they tend to share a common instinct to heal where there is harm. While many will simply take up residence with whatever lord, corporation, or boss will hire them, other Doctors will find a way to get out into the larger galaxy, both to bring help to those in need and to experience life in some fashion.

A Player Character Doctor is likely to be considered a kind of "combat medic" for the group; this isn't a bad thing at all, and the role will make him very popular. At the same time, a Doctor can often help with broader issues of understanding or finding things out, especially if there isn't a Scholar in the group.

Potential Backgrounds

  • The Opportunist: Doctors may be some of the most welcome opportunists since their skills are so vital to a colony's success. A doctor might be a naive youngster moving out to a colony to make his fortune and gain vital experience before returning to the Core, or an older physician with a modest skill set who figures he might be able to make more money in a place where demand for doctors outweighs supply. In either case, their callow attitude or eccentricities may be tolerated by their new neighbors, who are just happy to have a doctor join the settlement.
  • The Grizzled Settler: Years of watching patients succumb to local illness, accidents, and even violence could leave a Doctor with a grizzled and bitter outlook. He could be especially frustrated because he knows many of his patients would have survived had he possessed better tools and medicines than could be found on a backwater colony.
  • The Fugitive: Sadly, not all Doctors are motivated by idealism and the desire to help others. Some are disturbed, quacks, or even amateur researchers who view their patients as little more than the subjects of their "experiments." Such an individual could have become a wanted man in many star systems, and decided to flee to a minor colony. There he could avoid bounty hunters and resume his experimentation with a new batch of subjects.
  • The Local Leader: Many frontier colonies rely on livestock to survive, and use animals as means of transport and beasts of burden. Some colonists keep animals as faithful and useful companions. In these cases, a Doctor may have gotten his start as a veterinarian. Tending to the health of the animals in a community may have even led to practicing medicine on the actual colonists, if the need was great enough.
  • The Idealist: Doctors (or at least those with valid certifications) often receive their training in the Core Worlds—even Doctors who themselves originate from the Outer Rim or other, equally far-flung locales. However, many of those Doctors who leave the remote edges of society to pursue an education later return to their old homes to help their communities overcome problems they could not solve before. A Doctor might return to a colony to research a vaccine for a local disease that took a loved one long ago, help a mining community institute safer purification practices of dangerous chemicals, or simply provide a town with the sort of general medical care it would be hard-pressed to get otherwise.