Naturally, in order to play Orchestra, one must have a character. This is one of the areas that Orchestra is incredibly simple in- pick a handful of Specializations, some Maneuvers and Masteries, some Contacts, a bit of Gear, and go play!
Specializations:
Characters in Orchestra are more simple than in some other tabletop games. There's no modifiers to keep track of, in fact, there's not many numbers to keep track of. Instead characters have "specializations" in certain fields, anything as broad as a whole color category (Red, Blue, or Green, Silver is excluded), to an Attribute (Agility or Bulk), or as narrow as a skill (Evasion, Ranged Combat). To start off, a character gets one specialization in a color category, two specializations in attributes, and four in skills. Characters start out with 12 Health and Stamina (derived from these specializations, see Health and Stamina). As a general rule, each advancement adds one die onto any attempt to use a skill (check the dice system and skills). This is determined by a skill's location in its tree (e.g. Weight Lifting, which gains dice from a Red category specialization and a Bulk attribute specialization).
Contacts:
Each character is also allowed two contacts. They may call on these contacts once every three scenes. Contacts each favor one color category, one attribute, and one skill, though they can advance like player characters when they are called out to help players (basically they gain the same benefits for when they are called in). Contacts are limited to 2500 CCredits worth of gear, though these may be shifted between the two starting contacts (i.e. one gets 4000 and one gets 1000). Contacts will often be from at least a similar background (for instance, the average Neo-Anarchist will have Neo-Anarchist or Egoist contacts as a general rule, and a Corporate character will have other Corporate contacts), due to the fact that they know the character from mutual adventures in the past. Contacts will not work against their own faction, unless they feel there is more benefit than harm from their actions. Starting contacts represent childhood friends or long-term professional acquaintances.
