Characters can be rescued after crash-landing on the player map, they can wander in, or they can be captured after a raid. As time goes on, more characters will join the colony. The characters have a randomly generated set of traits which affect how they can contribute to the colony, the decisions they make, and how their existence affects the other characters. The player characters (referred to as 'pawns' in game documentation) are stranded on a procedurally generated planet located in the frontiers of known space (a 'rim world'). The game has a small variety of scenarios to choose from, although the core gameplay is the same.
