Distinctions are the main way to add color and uniqueness to characters, especially ones with similar attribute and skill combinations. Regardless of species, a useful pattern is to assign your background or origin to one distinction, your career or current situation to another distinction, and a quirk, personality trait, or goal to the third (discussed in more detail below, under "Creating distinctions"). To make a distinction more interesting than just stating an occupation or fact, consider adding an adjective. Describing your character as a "cocky smuggler" is more interesting than just saying they're a smuggler.
The distinction "quiet bounty hunter" is likewise more colorful than just "bounty hunter," but you could take it a step farther. In this case, does "quiet" refer to her chattiness or her stealthiness? It would be even more colorful to have the distinction "Bounty hunter who speaks softly and carries a grenade launcher."
For any distinction, consider more than just the text of the distinction itself. Think about how it would affect your character's personality, appearance, and behavior. This obviously informs how you will roleplay your character, but it also encourages you to think about when you would use this distinction to build a dice pool.
For all that I've belabored colorful distinctions, if you never engage a distinction mechanically, then it's just color. If you find yourself in this position, move the color to the "Notes'' section of the character record and see if you can create a different distinction – one that you will use with the game's mechanical bits and its roleplaying opportunities. A less vibrant distinction that gets used is better than a colorful one that does not.
Regardless of species, a useful pattern is to assign your background or origin to one distinction, your career or current situation to another distinction, and a quirk, personality trait, or goal to the third. To make a distinction more interesting than just stating an occupation or fact, consider adding an adjective.
Background or origin can describe your biological origin, how you were raised, what you were like as a child, or what your parents did. "Child of itinerant actors" sounds pretty interesting. This could also refer to a previous career, such as "former Vandeikyan enforcer."
Career or current situation refers to what you're doing now. "Cocky smuggler" is one example. "Desperate rock-hopper" and "belligerent asteroid miner" are also great.
Quirk, personality trait, or goal might be the first thing someone notices about your character, or it could be the thing that drives them but they hide from the world. "Talks a lot, says little" is an example of the former while "vengeance for my brother" might be an example of the latter.
This slot could also be a duplicate of one of the other slots. For example, the "child of itinerant actors" could also be a "former Vandeikyan enforcer." Your character could be a "quiet bounty hunter" who "speaks softly and carries a grenade launcher." There's no mechanical advantage either way to splitting or combining distinctions, since you can only use one at a time. Similarly, the distinctions, whether split or combined, are going to have the same SFX, and you can only use one of those at once, too.
Here are 99 adjectives that you can use with your distinctions.
| Adaptable | Dedicated | Impulsive | Opportunistic | Shy |
| Ambitious | Dishonorable | Inquisitive | Organized | Silent |
| Aspiring | Doomed | Insecure | Passionate | Smooth-talking |
| Begrudging | Driven | Insightful | Patient | Stealthy |
| Brazen | Empathic | Intelligent | Perceptive | Stern |
| Brooding | Exiled | Intimidating | Pragmatic | Stylish |
| Charlatan | Fearless | Jaded | Profound | Swift |
| Charming | Foolish | Learned | Reckless | Tongue-tied |
| Cheerful | Gentle | Mad | Redeemed | Tough |
| Clever | Graceful | Mechanical | Refined | Trickster |
| Cloistered | Guarded | Meticulous | Reluctant | Trusting |
| Clumsy | Hardy | Mighty | Reserved | Unyielding |
| Conflicted | Haughty | Mysterious | Resilient | Valiant |
| Considerate | Headstrong | Mystical | Responsible | Vengeful |
| Craven | Hideous | Naive | Restless | Vigilant |
| Creative | Homesick | Nervous | Revered | Wayward |
| Cruel | Honorable | Noble | Royal | Wealthy |
| Cunning | Hotheaded | Nurturing | Rugged | Weird |
| Cynical | Humbled | Open-minded | Ruthless | Worldly |
| Decisive | Idealistic | Opinionated | Sarcastic |
The following distinctions are ready to be used with any character. In addition to a short description, each distinction includes considerations that you can use to customize the distinction for your character and to add more color to your character.
To hear you tell the tale, each fugitive is the most dangerous sophont in the sector (if not the galaxy), every gunrunner is more heavily armed than the last, and every new crime boss more double-crossing than their predecessor. Sometimes your mouth writes checks that your skill just can't cash, and you won't be welcomed back to that particular den of iniquity this year.
You managed to break free from the behavioral controls on Illyria and escape from that planet.
You'd like to settle into a quiet life. War is your business, however, and business is good.
You were the best of your country's best. You traveled to far away planets, met interesting sophonts, and killed them.