Jobs and Backgrounds

jobsbackgroundscharacter

Last updated: 2/3/2026

In the fractured galaxy of Worldlines, your profession shapes your worldview, determines your contacts, and defines how others perceive you. A Martian soldier approaches problems differently than a Venusian scholar, even when facing identical challenges.

Jobs represent your character's training, experience, and professional identity. They determine your starting health and energy, grant access to specialized techniques, and provide the equipment and contacts needed to survive in your chosen field.

Income and Social Standing

Jobs fall into three economic tiers that reflect not just starting credits, but social access and professional respect:

Low Income (2,500 credits): Laborers, soldiers, and academics—essential but undervalued

Mid Income (5,000 credits): Skilled specialists and technicians—the backbone of civilization

High Income (10,000 credits): Professionals and leaders—those who shape policy and control resources

These starting funds represent recent payment, inheritance, or emergency reserves. They're enough to outfit yourself for immediate needs, but long-term security requires ongoing work.

Note on Intellect based skills

Players are only able to take 5 intellect skills maximum unless noted otherwise. When a job has an intellect skill given at character creation, it counts against the 5 maximum unless otherwise noted.

4.1 Complete Job Descriptions

Soldier (Low Income)

"We hold the line so others can sleep safely."

Starting Resources

Health: 30 | Energy: 10

Credits: 2,500

Technique Trees: Soldier, Combat Improvements, General Support

Soldiers are forged in conflict. Whether conscripted by planetary militias, trained in Coalition facilities, or hardened in corporate warfare. They understand tactics, violence, and the weight of orders. A soldier might be a Martian reservist, private security operative, mob muscle, or a folk hero from a rim world, but they all share the burden of protecting others through controlled application of force.

Starting Equipment

  • Assault Rifle (Heavy/Good) OR Submachine Gun (Light/Good)
  • Combat Knife (Light/Good)
  • Combat Armor Chest Piece (Light/Good)

Starting Items

  • Ammunition Cartridges ×3
  • Stim-Stamina ×2
  • Tier-1 Medical Access Card
  • Tier-3 Weapon Permit

Professional Bonuses

  • +2 to all Combat skills (Weapons, Hand-to-Hand, Athletics, Evasion, Spirit)
  • Access to all weapon and armor proficiencies
  • Demolitions skill unlocked (counts toward Intellect skill limit)

Skill Limitation: May only select 3 Intellect skills total at character creation instead of the typical 5.

Operative (Mid Income)

"The mission succeeds because I was never here."

Starting Resources

Health: 20 | Energy: 12

Credits: 5,000

Technique Trees: Operative, Combat Improvements, General Support

Operatives work in shadows and margins as covert scouts, corporate spies, freelance fixers, or former soldiers who've learned subtlety. They excel at infiltration, precision strikes, and vanishing before consequences arrive. Whether they're investigating corruption, eliminating targets, or stealing corporate secrets, operatives succeed through preparation and misdirection.

Starting Equipment

  • Laser Pistol (Light/Good)
  • Echo Suit Chest Piece (Light/Good)
  • Forger's Kit
  • Hackpad
  • Thieves' Tools

Starting Items

  • Laser Cartridges ×3
  • Electronic Bugs ×2
  • Tier-1 Medical Access Card
  • Tier-2 Weapon Permit

Professional Bonuses

  • +2 to Weapons, Hand-to-Hand, Athletics, Awareness, Deception, and Stealth
  • Light weapon and armor proficiencies unlocked
  • Breaking and Entering technique unlocked
  • Cryptography skill unlocked

Technician (Mid Income)

"Everything breaks. I fix what matters."

Starting Resources

Health: 22 | Energy: 8

Credits: 5,000

Technique Trees: Technician, Combat Improvements, General Support

Technicians are the unseen foundation of galactic civilization. They maintain life support, hack security systems, jury-rig solutions from scrap, and keep the galaxy's aging infrastructure functional. Whether they're ship engineers, data specialists, or salvage experts, technicians turn knowledge into survival.

Starting Equipment

  • Hackpad
  • Data Scanner
  • Multi-Tool
  • Diagnostic Scanner

Starting Items

  • Encryption Keys ×2
  • Crafting Materials ×10
  • Terminal Spikes ×2
  • Decryptors ×2
  • Quick Fix Foam ×2
  • Tier-1 Medical Access Card
  • Tier-1 Weapon Permit

Professional Bonuses

  • +2 to Engineering and Programming
  • Light armor proficiency
  • Battlefield Engineer, System Redundancy, and Implant Specialist techniques unlocked
  • Engineering and Programming skills unlocked

Medic (High Income)

"Do no harm…when possible"

Starting Resources

Health: 18 | Energy: 10

Credits: 10,000

Technique Trees: Medic, Combat Improvements, General Support

Medics stand between injury and death, whether in sterile hospitals or battlefield triage zones. They diagnose, stabilize, and improvise under pressure. Their oath to preserve life sometimes conflicts with the harsh realities of galactic survival, but their skills make them invaluable to any group operating in dangerous territory.

Starting Equipment

  • BioMonitor
  • Utility Knife
  • Filtered OxyMask
  • Surgeon's Tools

Starting Items

  • Emergency MedPacks ×2
  • Meditabs ×8
  • Coagulators ×2
  • Panaceas ×2
  • Stim-Stamina ×5
  • Tier-3 Medical Access Card
  • Medical License

Professional Bonuses

  • +2 to Chemistry and Medicine
  • Light armor proficiency
  • First Aid, Emergency Stabilization, and Implant Specialist techniques unlocked
  • Chemistry and Medicine skills unlocked

Pilot (High Income)

"I can get you there if you've got the credits."

Starting Resources

Health: 22 | Energy: 10

Credits: 10,000

Technique Trees: Pilot, Combat Improvements, General Support

Pilots are humanity's lifeline between worlds. Representing military drop pilots, cargo haulers, courier runners, or smugglers threading through asteroid fields at full burn, they understand not just flight, but space itself: the physics of void travel, the politics of port authorities, and the split-second decisions that mean the difference between safe harbor and explosive decompression.

Starting Equipment

  • Laser Pistol (Light/Good)
  • Flight Suit (Complete Protection: Chest/Arms/Legs/Head, Light/Good)
  • Utility Knife
  • Filtered OxyMask

Starting Items

  • Laser Cartridges ×2
  • Anti-Rad tablets ×10
  • Pilot Credentials
  • Tier-2 Weapon Permit
  • Tier-2 Docking Permit
  • Tier-1 Medical Access Card

Professional Bonuses

  • +2 to Piloting/Navigation, Programming, and Engineering
  • Light weapon and armor proficiencies unlocked
  • Ace Maneuvering and Rapid Egress techniques unlocked
  • Piloting/Navigation, Programming, and Engineering skills unlocked (counts against maximum 5 intellect skills)

Diplomat (High Income)

"Wars begin when diplomacy fails."

Starting Resources

Health: 20 | Energy: 8

Credits: 10,000

Technique Trees: Diplomat, Combat Improvements, General Support

Diplomats navigate the galaxy's fractured politics—faction envoys, corporate negotiators, cultural liaisons, or independent mediators trying to prevent bloodshed through careful words. They open doors others cannot, speak the right languages, and understand the delicate balance of interests that keeps civilization from tearing itself apart.

Starting Equipment

  • Basic Armor Chest Piece (Light/Good)
  • Translator Device
  • Encrypted Datapad

Starting Items

  • Anonymous Credsticks ×5
  • Electronic Bugs ×2
  • NexaDust ×2
  • Official Credentials
  • Diplomatic Status Card
  • Tier-3 Medical Access Card
  • Tier-2 Trading License

Professional Bonuses

  • +2 to Persuasion, Deception, Insight, and Law
  • Light armor proficiency unlocked
  • Persuasive Argument, Diplomatic Influence, and Cultured techniques unlocked
  • Law and Commerce skills unlocked (counts against 5 maximum intellect skills)

Merchant (High Income)

"Everything and everyone have a price."

Starting Resources

Health: 20 | Energy: 8

Credits: 10,000

Technique Trees: Merchant, Combat Improvements, General Support

Merchants understand the galaxy's most fundamental truth: everything flows toward profit. They might run legitimate trade operations, manage black market networks, or serve as economic fixers for criminal syndicates. Whatever their specialty, merchants know where to find anything, who wants it, and what it costs to move it safely.

Starting Equipment

  • Laser Pistol (Light/Good)
  • Basic Armor Chest Piece (Light/Good)
  • Trader Datapad

Starting Items

  • Anonymous Credsticks ×10
  • Laser Cartridges ×2
  • Tier-3 Weapon Permit
  • Tier-1 Medical Access Card
  • Tier-2 Trading License

Professional Bonuses

  • +2 to Insight, Commerce, Persuasion, and Deception
  • Light armor and weapon proficiencies unlocked
  • Guild Trader and Bargain Hunter techniques unlocked
  • Commerce skill unlocked

Scholar (Low Income)

"Knowledge is the only wealth that multiplies when shared."

Starting Resources

Health: 20 | Energy: 8

Credits: 2,500

Technique Trees: Scholar, Combat Improvements, General Support

Scholars pursue understanding in a galaxy built on forgotten secrets. They might be university researchers, field archaeologists, linguistic specialists, or archivists documenting vanished civilizations. In a universe where ancient technology and alien artifacts hold the keys to survival, scholars often prove more valuable than soldiers.

Starting Equipment

  • Encrypted Datapad
  • Scientific Toolkit
  • Translator Device
  • Portable Shelter

Starting Items

  • Crafting Materials ×3
  • Chemical Solvents ×2
  • University Credentials
  • Herbacore samples ×5
  • Tier-1 Medical Access Card

Professional Bonuses

  • +2 to all Academic skills (History, Linguistics, Cryptography, Planetary Science, Law)
  • Encyclopedic Knowledge, Quantum Analysis, Shaman, and Anthropologist techniques unlocked
  • All Academic skills unlocked – Can take 7 intellect skills maximum.

Explorer (Low Income)

"The galaxy's full of wonders when it's not trying to kill you"

Starting Resources

Health: 22 | Energy: 10

Credits: 2,500

Technique Trees: Explorer, Combat Improvements, General Support

Explorers map the unmappable and survive the unsurvivable. They might be Coalition scouts charting new worlds, salvage specialists picking through dangerous ruins, or guides leading expeditions into hostile territory. Where others see death, explorers see opportunity and they have the skills to claim it.

Starting Equipment

  • Double-barrel Shotgun (Special/Good)
  • Combat Armor Chest Piece (Light/Good)
  • Multi-Tool
  • Utility Knife
  • Nylon Rope

Starting Items

  • Crafting Materials ×3
  • Quick Fix Foam ×2
  • Panaceas ×2
  • Tier-1 Medical Access Card

Professional Bonuses

  • +2 to Athletics, Awareness, Bushcraft, Surveying, History, and Cryptography
  • Light armor and weapon proficiencies unlocked
  • Survival Expert and Bushcraft Master techniques unlocked
  • Surveying, History, and Cryptography skills unlocked

LineSeer (Low Income)

"I see what was, what is, and what might be. Truly a burden, and not a gift."

Starting Resources

Health: 20 | Energy: 12

Credits: 2,500

Technique Trees: LineSeer, Combat Improvements, General Support

LineSeers are touched by nexacite's temporal properties, granting them glimpses of alternate timelines and probability threads. They might be gifted children raised in isolation, survivors of temporal experiments, or mystics who learned to navigate causality's currents. Their abilities come with a price as many worlds consider them dangerous or even heretical.

Starting Equipment

  • Quantum Saber (Special/Good)
  • Phase Cloak covering Chest and Head (Light/Good)
  • Celestial Compass

Starting Items

  • Anonymous Credstick ×1
  • Stim-CD ×2
  • Nexacite Shard ×1
  • NexaDust ×2

Professional Bonuses

  • +2 to Hand-to-Hand, Athletics, Evasion, Awareness, and Celestio-Dynamism
  • Light armor and weapon proficiencies unlocked
  • Send Thoughts technique unlocked
  • Celestio-Dynamism skill unlocked