Good afternoon, brave Operatives.

It is time to introduce you all to what is looking like will be a very popular career - the Everyman!

The team of super-skilled, highly-trained Operatives was a core of the vision we had for Dark Conspiracy... but we knew we could not leave it at that. Suppose someone did not want to be a high-powered professional? Suppose someone was a high-powered professional but had since retired? How to handle that?

The core of this idea started with Zander in Buffy the Vampire Slayer - someone with no real skills, obviously and hopelessly out of his depth... and yet, as they showed in the series, he was very much the 'heart' of the group.

More ideas followed on from that. John McClane of Die Hard fame is another great example (possibly a bit more skilled than Xander), and in playtests the Everyman became very common - we still remember Abby's failed Mercenary fixer (think the film War Dogs, but much, much worse) who after a single term became a bus driver. Went well until her bus was mobbed by a bunch of demonic bikers...

The Everyman is an optional career, hence it being tucked into an Appendix at the back (like the Prisoner). You can choose to be an Everyman form the outset, or become one after a professional career (if you want the retired angle). Simply pick whether you want to be Blue Collar, White Collar, or a Drifter.

You may have already noticed that the skill selection for the Everyman is not wildly exciting - but they are all very useful. In fact, you might be the only one who can, say, drive a car properly if the rest of the team is filled with scientists and hackers...

However, there is a little secret buried within those skills. You will have plenty of chances to pick up the Profession skill which is normally... fine in Traveller-based games. However, in Dark Conspiracy Profession acts like the highly-valued Jack-of-All-Trades within its field. So, you can basically offset the unskilled penalty with any task that you can vaguely relate to your job!

And yes, you will find that particular rule making its way into Traveller itself in a future update...

Another way that the Everyman becomes the 'heart' of a group is that he is the only Operative who can make Connections to the others. Everyone can do this in Traveller, but we figured that Operatives would be more locked into their own (often super-secret) careers.

Basically, you roll an Event as an Operative, and the Everyman's player can come up with a narrative as to how he met you and became involved. So, you will already know the Everyman before play starts (and will likely have been the one to bring him into the group - the Company might not even know about him!).

Doing this has benefits - you both get a free skill of your choice!

Mishaps are tragic for most Operatives, but essential for the Everyman. Each one represents an encounter with the Dark, and acts as the 'inciting incident' that propels the Everyman into a new life filled with terror.

Of course, life is pretty safe for most ordinary citizens, so the Everyman can opt to fail a Survival roll and get stuck into the campaign at any time.

Over the next three-odd weeks, we have oodles more to show you of the Core Rulebook - the dangers beyond Dark Minions that Operatives might face (including Demonground and Empathic Viruses, as well as, you know, poisons, radiation and animals that your friend prodded a bit too hard...), the vehicles your Operatives can own and commandeer, how cells work and how to create an HQ, the structure of missions and how Operatives can engage in their own investigations, just what Dark Empathy is, and something called DarkTech...

So, lots to cover. Stay tuned and we will give you the grand tour of Dark Conspiracy!