Getting into a character for your first time can be hard, but this will give you an outline. Although you'll always be starting in the shallow part of the pool: old tabletop roleplayers will know that the way you play your character and react to things changes and evolves the more crises you wring them through.
Like any roleplaying, the most important part is that it's as difficult as you make it for yourself. Many players don't even bother doing things like flavor text or character records. But it goes both ways, since the more effort you put into your character, the more you'll get out of it. Think of it like digging the pool as deep as possible before you fill it with water.
It's recommended to read this one section at a time and refer to it in-game as you develop and play with your character.
This will mostly be focused on Human characters but this outline can easily be adapted to any species with a little extra knowledge from their lore.
The basement floor of any roleplay is an immersive name - it shows up on ID cards and when speaking. A character's name is reflective of their origins, whether it was their given name from the culture of their birth or chosen later in life. A galaxy is incredibly multicultural, with cultures familiar to modern-day Earth and countless partially or entirely new to the far-flung reaches of space.
It's recommended to find a culture in the lore and go from there, or use the in-game name generator (read: hit randomize and get the gist from what you see). Don't be afraid to use an unusual or 'sci-fi' sounding name - the players will inquire to you with a smile on their face.
The character's apparent biological sex. It doesn't have much direct gameplay influence but some species don't have binary sexes such as Plasmamen.
The station has reached gender egalitarianism, so - unless your character grew up in a very socially conservative area such as Arachnids or some kind of religious theocracy - it would have little bearing on your character's opportunities nor would their identity necessarily have an intrinsic connection with their birth sex. Transgenders, non-binary, and agenders are common, especially among non-human species, and reassignments would be easily available for those who desire it.
Basically this option is entirely up to your own preference in making a character.
The age of your character in Earth years. The character's physical age is the important one as it's how much the character's personality has grown, but a story can still be told with chronological age; time spent in cryosleep or time dilation.
Due to the wonders of modern medical technology, depending on the job a human might be expected to work well into their 70s and live to be 100 with some regularity, although by that point your character has probably had enough of working - hence the age limit.
A character's age is the most basic representation of their level of experience, but the reality is that some ages don't fit as well in certain occupations: medical or command staff would likely have years of prior experience while others such as Paramedic, Shaft Miner, or Security Officer would be intended for the very young. Of course, an old man in an occupation of younguns would be an obvious talking point…
This would also be relevant for the level of education that might be required for a particular position and previous experience they would have. An older character might have held previous jobs or be a senior role, while a younger character may be a total newcomer, or even an intern - though older people might be in those positions too, depending on how things have developed.
Body, hair, skin color, markings and augments, etc. This is also very much based on your character's origin, particularly ethnicity, and your role might have certain grooming restrictions.
While often prohibitively expensive, a character who has lost a body part to injury, illness, or deformity might have prosthetic or assisted limbs or organs, and in the most extreme cases perhaps a fully prosthetic (robotic) body. Your character's personal history will decide whether this is right for them. Although the more 'realistic' looking prosthetic brands would be more expensive and usually only available to the most wealthy (and vain) individuals. Even more affordable brands might only be available to a less well-off person as part of an insurance plan or contract with their employer - somebody might ask how you got them!
Your character's occupation is definitely the most important aspect, both in gameplay and roleplay, since it'll often form the basis for other aspects of who they are, just as much as age and personal beliefs. Why did your character choose this job - or had to take it, as the case may be?
It's best for this to be your first step: many character ideas can be spawned by thinking of a specific job or department first due to how essential it is to their background and defining them as a person in some regard. Alt titles can be used to develop and shape your character further but it's still part of a good character to act within your occupation unless the character has hobbies or some other good reason to know more.
There are dozens of languages spoken on the station, many from far across the galaxy - some common, some quite rare.
Outside of the ubiquitous Sol Common that everyone on the crew speaks, your character probably also grew up with an ethnic language such as Yangyu or Xerxian if your character is from a certain part of Earth or an old colony. The languages your character speaks might also be based on their upbringing, or certain professions may expect knowledge of things like sign language or Spacer for use in space or Encoded Audio Language for use with robots.
These records are in a separate section from the other character records due to how important they are. Exploitables are visible to many types of antagonists and it's meant for things about your character that can be used to access covert information or narrow down targets for whatever reason.
A big brain can do a lot with even 2 sentences saying how your character can be bribed and there's a lot of other things that can be put here: the classic "active bounties", crimes they've committed (or questionable things that aren't listed on security records) that might be used as blackmail, pin them as a target of a murder or kidnapping, or simply give hints as to their behavior when threatened…
Are they surprisingly wealthy? Could they be framed? Do they hold beliefs that might influence them to work with an antagonist to some degree? This could even be as simple as an observation that your character is cowardly, or particularly violent, or how much your character is gullible and naive and will do what they're told by command staff.
The only real limit here is that the information is both plausible enough as well as something to act on: maybe the doctors will want someone who recently failed a psychiatric exam or been prescribed antidepressants, or you read about how the cargo worker has underworld connections so you can buy the most skitz shit from him.
Example:
Tal Kera: Upstart Teshie kid, that much is certain. Contacts tell us that his personality is a sort of "rebel-without-a-cause", trying to find ways to get humans and Skrell to either loosen their grip on his people, or just give them independence entirely. Some minor crimes noted, mostly thefts and participating in a riot, none of which he's actually been convicted for.
I've got a nice bounty here, from someone named Xuqirr Koutaqa? Not really sure, fucking Skrell doctor's handwriting here... Anyways, as follows: Frame him for some kind of major, major stuff and make sure that he's certainly going to prison for a while? You get $34,000, no questions asked, redeemed via wire transfer at port.
Have fun with him, he's a feisty little raptor.
This also doubles as a veiled OOC message from you saying that you're okay with a scenario being opened like this and you won't just immediately cry for security or start wordlessly disarm spamming. We all need to make the new antagonists feel comfortable with making the first move - so the more people fill out this section, the more inspiration antagonists will have to involve people in the round. It's a public service!
Your character's personal items are a reflection of their personality and will make them stand out from the army of jumpsuited workers aboard the station. This can get quite deep for some people - Example: for a young robot character, they would start with a clean slate, their only possessions being their tools and uniform; attachment to personal items, custom appearances, and preferences of color are all signs of maturity and AI development that comes organically with time and can be shown over the months visually in a flowering cornucopia of colorful baubles.
Certain items of clothing would or wouldn't be suitable depending on the relevant role's dress code or safety regulations, and certainly some jobs (bartender, for example) are far less restrictive than others (such as security officers, or scientists). For some items you can customize the color, name, and description of the item to give it a personal flavor to the character.
This level of depth gets complex, but these details can be what distinguishes your characters from the average 30 year old random-name bald man or overly bland snowflake. Often these more 'passive' aspects to the character are the things that catch another players' attention and lead to interesting scenarios for both yourself and others and is well worth the little extra effort.
Used to exhibit your character's background in an 'official' way to inspire opportunities for someone else to pick off, details such as identifying features, place of residence and next of kin. These are recommended if you're playing a character that a lot of people will interact with such as social roles: service, command, security, etc.
This is one of those supplementary tools that assist character development greatly, but due to the writing effort required many roleplayers opt to not bother creating records until they think they enjoy a character enough to bother. But once you have a good idea of what to write in the first place (hopefully by following the outline above) then they become much simpler to produce.
This can get quite involved so consider using a template.
General: This is the most useful in fleshing out your character as you narrate the locations your character has worked over their life, their skills, qualifications and more. While some characters may have been working for Nanotrasen their entire lives, it's likely that most will have held other positions in their lives, whether they be other corporations, smaller companies, or militaries across the galaxy.
What would your character have been doing before they came here? You could have just gotten picked up by a gang of nomads while you were young and now you know everything about this role. Or you are taking it more seriously and since your position would require some level of education or experience requirements, e.g. a Roboticist character would probably require some kind of Mechatronics degree from a school. Maybe your character was a member of a ship's crew, served in some local or larger government service, or just held mundane jobs on some far flung planet. We would tell you to be reasonable but there's nothing stopping you from giving yourself the most ridiculous Rambo ass qualifications
If you want to go so far as to include your character's education, chances are your character has earned some certificates or had to go through some training over the years. These would tie into your chosen job as well as their employment history and in a broad sense determine which job slots your character would fit in. This is a pretty good opportunity to explain skills or reinforce your character's out of work interests.
Medical: Every bit of health information pertaining to the character. Would your character have any physical or mental health concerns? And how they might effect current treatments - prescription drugs to manage ongoing symptoms, or complications that may arise with surgery or cloning should be noted and can help you engage with medical characters beyond the most rote gameplay mechanics. After all, the only people you don't want to lie to are your lawyer and your doctor...
Security: Any manner of criminal records, historical legal incidents, or behavioral expectations of your character. These are separate from the on-station incident logging used by security in-round. Having a criminal history doesn't have to mean anything serious, even the most straight-edge stiff might have had some teenage convictions, or similar misdemeanor charges from their past.
This is the most immediately visible bit of information to other players (since it's a part of the Examine function) so it's a good idea to include at least a basic description of your character's appearance to help others understand who they are interacting with. For yourself, this is a very accessible point to expand upon your character's origins as hammering out the appearance of your character is most people's first step toward better connecting with them.
Theoretically, literally anything can go in this field but be considerate of what's actually visible. If you have a plasmaman character living inside a bubble suit, then the only thing you'll probably be seeing is the face, so focus on that.
Example:
Everyone writes flavor text differently. One could go for the very descriptive, detailed text to describe their character's appearance and mannerisms, while others keep it simple and stick to the 3 sentence rule of descriptions.
Ultimately show don't tell applies here: be considerate of what's actually visible - if you have a plasmaman character living inside a bubble suit, then the only thing you'll probably be seeing is the face, so focus on that. Anything written there should be able to be discerned by looking or listening, so explicit details about the character's backstory would be out-of-place in the flavor text.
The headshot is also a way to link a reference picture of your character in your flavor text (if you like drawing your characters).
In the broadest terms, your character's birthplace (or where they grew up, at the very least) will often determine their core ideals - whether in line with the local culture or just influenced by it, for better or for worse.
Living isn't something done on a whim; while some can eke out a meager existence on some village out in the sticks where money is not needed to provide for oneself and your character is more used to getting paid in a wedge of cheese and goodwill, they may not be used to a city or a station of capitalists who squeeze everything they can out of the workers and charge as much as they can, where very few things come for free to the people who work aboard, including their own employees.
Much like Earth today, a galaxy is a big place and its civilizations range from luxurious cities where citizens want for little to airless orbital mining outposts where penniless workers toil for decades to fulfill draconian contracts in exchange for bare sustenance and air for their company-issued oxygen tank. While the most populous human areas in the Sol Federation are required to meet some basic democratic requirements, the corporations and their facilities are not necessarily members of the Federation and one must not forget the independents that range from bandit tyrannies to agrarian socialist communes to culturally regressive monarchies reminiscent of the pre-industrial period. Or you might even be born on ever-mobile spacecraft or fleets and can call no one place home…
Don't be afraid to invent your own colonies, planets, or ships if you need to develop your character a certain way - these can also be officially submitted via the lore development channels and the more tasteful ones might even be made into full-fledged canon for others to enjoy.
How well off would your character be? Would their family be similarly rich or poor? Were they brought to this station by hardship and need for cash, or did they relocate for a cushy position without much thought?
Like many other parts this ties into your role: a low-level janitor or bartender is unlikely to be particularly wealthy, unless of course they come from that background - legitimate or otherwise… Economic inequality is simply a fact of life, even this far in the future. The poorest often work under unfair corporate contracts for survival wages, while the ultra-rich are wealthy beyond comprehension.
Where would your character go after the end of the day? If your character is poor and alone they are probably fine with living in a dump where they're used to crime and degeneracy, but if they work for a department then they would have access to a more communal Soviet-style workers' faculties or tenements, and if they have a family then they probably have enough for a proper house in a peaceful area - you can't have eggs without a nest. All this being said, employees on the station would be expected to at least have a small place to live or sleep and the truly extremely rich are unlikely to have any business on such an average work station.
This should also determine your character's loadout to some degree. If your character is poorer, they may not be able to afford designer clothes or high-grade prosthetics.
As with many of these smaller parts, your character's religion will have an influence on their personal morals and ideals whether they are a devout worshiper or a casual follower - and of course, will determine the kind of expletives they might scream when encountering something altogether terrible.
While your character most likely works for Nanotrasen, they could in fact be an outside contractor - or if they work for Nanotrasen but their true, most deep-set loyalties lie elsewhere. You might be from one of the other large corporations in the galaxy, but this may also be more personal. An off-station gang your character is a member of, a smaller company, or simply something as innocuous as their family or religious organization.
It's the quality and integrity of roleplaying, not its freedom, that is relevant. The boundaries and constraints and the pros and cons of the character you've developed should chop off all the undue options available to you.
Although even the "perfect" characters with an iron code of honor can enrich the story, they can be played in a way that still allows the conflicts you want - if you decide to play as an honest, kind, sweet Janitor with no flaws on the outside, make sure that you compensate for it with some flaw on the inside or other conflict-inducing detail, and likewise if you decide to play as a lying, explosive hysterical, bitchy Doctor with the manners of a snake, make sure that you compensate by making them fundamentally good-aligned on the inside or some other part for people to latch on to, so that it's interesting to play both with you, and against you.
The 1st step of playing your character is to get an idea of what their personality would be like - their temperament, how they would handle small interactions, the day-to-day small talk where nothing is really happening. You might think of some distinguishing trait that helps them stand out a bit from the crowd: they might speak with an accent, have a distinctive laugh, or always ask for a certain drink at the bar. It doesn't have to be anything overly complicated but it can help to distinguish your character and make them interesting.
Ask yourself these questions one by one and answer them. If you can't answer them within a couple minutes, consider the way you've behaved so far and use that as your answer.
Is your character a person who valiantly upholds the current status of whoever their employers are while staying calm in any situation, regularly ignoring direct orders, doesn't have a problem with bashing in someone's skull with a club if needed, never even feels slightly sick at the sight of gore, can take ridiculous amounts of pain without flinching, and is only mildly afraid of death?
If most of these apply, chances are you're one of the thousands who hasn't put much thought into roleplaying much beyond the ruthless mercenary that we call a player. Don't feel bad about it, this isn't anything special.
These are just a few small suggestions and only some of them will fit your character. If you haven't played out your character to this extent yet give it a shot. Talking with someone else's character about fictional topics for half an hour and enjoying a virtual beer then puking at the sight of the roboticist casually carrying a brain around can be a fulfilling way to spend your time.
There are simply some types of people that can't become a ruthless bastard even in this game; if this is you, don't try to force yourself to have a downside - fight evil instead. From denouncing low deeds to challenging a villain to a duel - be the beacon of civilization in this damned frontier bucket. After all, a kind character can still have a downside... for themselves. They can harm themselves with drugs and self-torture, take blame for misdeeds they didn't commit as some kind of misguided penance, or stupidly sacrifice their life for others.
The 2nd step is their goal - their moral alignment. It's not necessarily concrete things but moreso their moral guide for how they would handle an unusual interaction. Finding a briefcase of money in a closet is not something that happens every day, but would they keep it for themselves or report it to the police?
Ultimately there's a lot more than just the goal itself here, but also what kind of person it would take to fulfill that goal.
More importantly, make sure to to leave some room to lure other characters into them.
Example: A cowardly captain, who is hiding his craven and cowardly fearfulness in an attempt to prove his courage. He desires to achieve respect from his subordinates at all costs. How politician-like... just imagine how many stupid things you'll get up to while trying to secure public approval!
Consider other media.
Mass Effect 2: say what you will about 80% of the characters in that game having daddy issues, even the robots had daddy issues, but for each one they managed to make it different and compelling, whether the issues were personal, political, religious, maybe they were just too strict, or maybe even they were the parent with issues - there's a reason why that game was critically acclaimed for its time.
The final part is the simplest: what role you're playing and how that would mesh with the personality you've set up in the previous two sections. You probably already selected one when you created your character but it's worth going over again since this is where everything "comes together": now you must tie your character to the role they're in now, as why did your character end up here in this position?
This should go without saying but to maintain your character it's recommended to make a new character for every role, or make realistic developments for a character transitioning into similar roles, to avoid the ludonarrative dissonance of how did this security officer become captain over the course of two months? It's best to just avoid the question and make two characters rather than weakening one just so you can have a different role.
Civilians have an easy life. IRL you're probably one of them. Hence these roles have the room to make basically any type of character - your character could be some potato-picking peasant, or some Logan Weston gigachad army soldier that's had enough of war, or some college graduate with a useless degree, but a common characteristic is that you want your simple life. Otherwise why wouldn't you just get a job change? You may or may not have the brain for a science position, the brawn for security, or the know-how for engineering, but you always wanted to go to space, so you went for one of the simpler roles just to fulfill that desire of yours. After all, where would our world be without its fair share of simpletons?
That doesn't mean you're not valuable: it just means you have an easier job and people don't expect as much of you, so less stress for you - some real work-life balance stuff. However, that also means that your character would probably not be all that interested in violence, death, and the other strange stuff like aliens and whatnot.
This is the free space. Really - your character can basically be whatever would fit. The depth is in the alt titles: maybe you're a waitstaff who delivers food and drinks from the counters to the tables, a technical assistant helping with the small unskilled tasks like debugging an APC, a lab assistant hauling equipment or noting down data for proper documentation (they might even let you go on an expedition), an artist looking for inspiration, or a peddler getting things where they need to be.
But ultimately remember that your character had to have done something to get on a space station and not get kicked off.
Essentially the same in terms of function, since you're supposed to provide food/drink to the crew that wishes so. The only difference however is the fact that booze makes people "happy" enough to comprehend the daily horrors of their work, while food just fills the stomach, making food an ostensibly more healthy option. Play that card well and you can use it for good effects on people's characters.
This is a roleplay job. It's why these two roles were made: roleplay. Hence it's important to know how to have a good character. Sure, both these roles do have some useful equipment in gameplay but you're not just the station's religious figure or the brain trauma guy: you're effectively in charge of the crew's personal problems. Maybe someone's choosing a new career since they're not happy with the one they have now, maybe they've been out here for too long and they finally got that “Dear John” letter from back home, maybe they need help with settling the will to their family, or something worse…
Death tends to maim people psychologically and you'll be needed to help them cope with it. It doesn't mean that stress doesn't affect you, but you need to be a figure of stability so they can be strong against these stresses and somebody like the Chief Medical Officer might be too busy to help them.
Quite a messy job, since you only tend to have work when someone messes up. Usually the cause of the mess is long gone when you arrive, so this is quite a laid back job and you can get quite a lazy life with almost no one complaining.
Your character's got about an Assistant level of freedom here, from a clean-freak that must clean every spot in the station clean to a lazy fat dude that walks slowly and cleans even more slowly, since cleaning for him is a distraction from his lunch.
You do what the Quartermaster says, but apart from that, truthfully you're about as free as an Assistant who helps with the mail as far as character development. That being said you have the superpower of summoning things from the cargo shuttle, which can greatly show off your character's personal skills and hobbies by doing things like setting up projects.
A bunch of real laborers. It's a tough job. They tend to be strong burly types, and maybe think of the station population as a bunch of wusses. They risk life on the fringes of a giant asteroid or on a remote outpost all day with almost no interaction with anyone but each other. It can inspire some rather deep connections, or maybe your character is just a weird loner who likes holes.
The reality is that most people don't care as long as their materials arrive on time.
You love plants. That's fairly obvious. Maybe you like cooking to them or talking to them. Either way, you wouldn't have taken this job if you didn't appreciate them in your own way. Right? Maybe you like them more than other people and are a rather introverted person. Or maybe you're just a friend to all living things. Just don't expect the living things to be friends back…
A bit of an elitist group. It takes a certain kind of person to develop new contraptions, or chemicals, or any other type of improvement that will help the general well being of the crew. Medical doctors may not have much of a problem with blood and corpses since they see that all the time, but the Roboticist wouldn't tend to handle them as well.
Also, you're the Science Team, not a Wrestling Team, or a Shooting Squad. You're valuable because of your brain, not your brawn. Let security handle the dangerous monsters, while you handle the dangerous substances, chemicals, and machines. You make the things that security uses to handle the problem.
A lot of alt titles here, such as working with plasma (read: bombs), studying aliens of various lethality, and creating highly experimental weaponry. Your job is a dangerous one that can potentially put all the crew in danger and everyone knows that, including you. It may make your character a bit wacky, or more serious, but no matter how you cope with it, you're still here because you like what you do (probably, or you're one depressed scientist...) You know the power and responsibility in your hands and you're sane enough to keep yourself in check. Usually.
The invisible helping hand of the station. Whenever a bot helps someone, it's because you made it, therefore, you're responsible for another life being saved. (Well, it's hard to imagine a clean bot having that much importance, but you get the point). But don't expect people to recognize you for that since they saw the bot and not you. You main skill is your ability to make machines mimic life. These can change the station into a more durable and serious state, since (some) robots are all metal and no emotions, and exosuits increase productivity dramatically. So your character is probably not very emotional or social, much like the robots you make.
Corpses don't bother you as much either, since you do some lobotomies from time to time. But performing live lobotomies on your fellow humans is something else... Always, always use the sleeping gas to avoid having any bad dreams about it. Or maybe just get a medical doctor to do it for you.
You keep the crew alive and healthy. That being dealing with anything or anyone that comes into Medbay and treating whatever ailment they have. This is a tough job that attracts a wide variety of people, with a single goal, keeping people alive.
A stressful job: you'd constantly be dealing with people hovering on the brink of death and it's your job to tip the balance into the doctor's favor. You're not there to deal with the Janitor who comes in complaining about a burn from touching a lightbulb, but more often than not you'll be pulling double duty as a doctor too. This job attracts those who can deal with the stress, but it's tough. You're probably a bit abrasive and commanding, you need to take control in emergencies after all! At the end of the day though, you're the reason those people are still alive, and others will have to accept that, no matter how grudgingly.
But a Paramedic is not an MD. Think like an EMT would, not a doctor. Asking questions a doctor would consider 'silly' is perfectly fine for you, since Paramedics are strong and young, trained on urgency and the speed that every second counts, unlike the 30-something MDs who had to spend a decade studying before they even started practicing. That contract between your coworkers and you can give an interesting edge to the character.
You can play a guy tired with all mountains of whiners that complaining, no matter how bad they are, but you still stick with them to help. Or your character could be a helpful fella with a smile in his face, ready to be kind and courteous to anyone and everyone. You're a bit of a general medic, bringing people to the medbay and making sure they leave fully healthy. But chemical mixing and viral isolation is probably a bit beyond you though. All medical crew have access to the operating theater and you're no exception. Anyone can staple a limb back on if they read the book, but the truly delicate surgeries like eye surgeries are best left to your precise hands. The most patient contact you have will usually be while they're asleep, so your character may be a bit abrasive at times...
You're still a highly skilled individual however, so don't be afraid to flaunt it. You're skills are mostly centered on the equipment in the operating theater, but you should know a bit about general medicine too. Just let people like the Chemist deal with the cryo cells or other such things.
You tend to have your chemical dispenser and your character probably considers it their "little world", caring little for what people do around the station as long as they don't touch your shit. However, remember that many people, especially doctors, expect you to make some medicines for them. You probably have a very good knowledge of all kinds of chemicals and how they work with the body, medicines or otherwise…
You cure and research disease, so it's unlikely you're the most social butterfly. However, you're probably good at what you do and unafraid to show it. When people come in dying of Radian's Syndrome, you're the guy who knows just how to solve it it. The whole thing might inspire a bit of a 'God Complex' in your character. You probably don't have a lot of patient contact, so the practical side of medicine may elude you. But you may be called in to help in emergencies, so you're expected to at least know the basics - you're still a doctor, after all.
Engineering is the brawn and muscle aboard the ship. You do the hard labor, and without you, the station would fall apart. You give air, power, and stability to everyone else. They need you, and they know it, even if they don't like to admit it sometimes…
You care about the station: because it's your home and a man's home is his CASTLE. Engineers and the like are known to use their brawn for unarmed combat and they aren't defenseless, so you might be fiercely protective of the station, starting fights over a broken window, but ultimately an unparalleled genius when it comes down to your field. After all, being frequently exposed to life threatening situations tends to make you bold and as such your character probably learns to live with the crazy shit.
It's all about keep the station alive and your character wants to show everyone how spectacularly they can do it.
An odd group. They control the air, which is needed more often than not. But your character would tend to be a bit quirky, or even outright geeky - knowing how to decipher the mess of pipes that is Atmospherics can do that to you, since you need to keep your precious atmosphere inside the station. You're also the main one to call to fight fires that steal away your precious air. You keep everyone breathing. And in the end, that's all the really matters.
You don't take this job as a joke. At all. Unlike many other jobs, you'll be handling something much more dangerous than people's food, or bombs, or the supermatter. Criminals. Human minds hellbent on making the whole station go kaput. And why are they more dangerous then poisoned food and bombs and supermatters mixed together? Because it tends to be THEM who mixes them. You're a trained professional in a dirty job. Act like it - you keep the station safe, even if it costs a bit of yourself.
You're well trained and briefed on just about every enemy that could show up. Most of the time. You may actually be quite the opposite ‘jittery rookie’ type. The main thing is that your character knows full well that your job is dangerous and the question here is how you cope with it. Do you show patience with the crew, or do you give everyone that steals a nickel from you a citation? Do you ask and investigate the crimes or do you threaten and coerce a confession? Are you the good or the bad cop? Regardless, you keep the station safe, even if it costs a bit of yourself.
You're less about managing and more about securing security. You're in charge of the brig. If someone tried to break in (or more likely, break out), it's your job to deal with it. Any criminals brought in are under your watch. But your character is a bit older than the typical security officer, probably with more of an educated background in criminal justice - a perfect foil to the Lawyer. You're there to make sure some over-zealous officer doesn't assign a ridiculous time for the crime. Keeping calm and collected is an important part of the job. Prisoners may hurl insults at you and try to break out. Just deal with it as it comes, and remember that criminals are there to be treated fairly, but firmly.
The prime investigator. Much like a Virologist your aloof nature gives you a good degree of distance from everyone else, but you're still an essential asset to the team. You're part of security, but not the running around catching pickpockets in the act type of security. You're there for the little details. The high-value theft, the unidentifiable dead bodies, the locked room mysteries, the bomb threats, and the mental cases. Why people commit crimes is one big puzzle of life, and you're there to put the pieces together. That's the difference between your character and the average security guard. You go into a crime scene and you come out with the answers. You go to the trial and you have what it takes to have the guilty party locked up.
You're at the top. The highest of those around you. The elite of elites. You were put in this position not necessarily because you're superior in your career to everyone on the station, but because you've got it mixed with that leadership ability that only a few people have. What the station needs is what you need and what you command is what happens.
The simple tasks that require someone to actually work are not to be handled by you, but instead by your subjects. Although it's not because they're menial tasks not fit for a leader, but because if you distract yourself with those simple tasks, other parts of the station may end up being ignored and disasters will happen. As a Head, you oversee the station but it's not your position to step in unless the extra hands are necessary. If something goes wrong, you don't blame the engineers, you blame the Chief Engineer for not allocating hands to the situation. You take responsibility for everything your team does, be it great advancements or terrible mistakes.
The Supply Officer.
You're the one that supplies. You get stuff. You give people what they need. You're one of the few people who actually turns a profit on a regular basis: while the rest of the crew is preoccupied with such important things as passing out in a pool of vomit, wearing their own ass as a hat, or trying and failing to strangle a monkey, you make the entire day worth it for the company - and everyone knows it.
They also know you can't give everything to everyone, and as such, you can get a lot of people being nice to you just to get on your good side. Your character might be from the mining team, ready to make tough calls quickly where doing so can mean the difference between life and death. Or they can be the HoP-esque executive who enjoys their position as much as they want, your character might even turn to outright corruption if they develop that way, but if you go too far, there will be repercussions when those supplies ordered by the Captain don't arrive promptly...
The Science Officer.
You supervise the team that gives a purpose to the station. The science team is a weird bunch, all quite different and with the tendency to not communicate much, since they usually have more important stuff to do. Which is fine with you since that's what you want most of the time, a productive and working science team.
Your character could be the typical paper pusher since you don't need to get in the labs; you just need to tell them what you believe is more important right now. Or perhaps they're more of a rigid director with a limited budget and time schedule, or instead an eager scientist and a dreamer hoping to see science changing the world around you as your team discovers more and more ways to amaze the whole crew.
The Medical Officer.
The hospital is your domain - every part of it. You're the one who has to know all the answers when people walk through that door. You know people and how they work. You keep people sane and keep them healthy. But considering the crew you have to work with, this can be an almost impossible task.
Your character is an expert in their particular field, whether it be chemistry, surgery, or psychology. You can show it too: since by this point your character's probably had several years of experience plus command training on top of it all. A CMO who just doesn't get it (whether it is how to mix chemicals, how to stabilize a patient, or just how to calm someone down) imbues a negative amount of confidence, especially when you're in charge of the department responsible for saving people's lives.
The Engineering Officer.
The engine, atmospherics, EVA, the AI, Telecoms, and a lot of repairs to make can be a huge responsibility, but you can take it. You're the CHIEF because you can hold the dam while your team fixes it. You're the master beaver, the one that finds the holes in the dam and knows how to fix them. But much like the rest of command you DON'T apply that knowledge unless they need the hands, since if you're busy fixing a hole, you might not notice the other four that just opened. Instead you have a whole team of beavers, your engineers, that will fix all holes you point to, change the light bulbs in any room you tell them too. You have a simple job. Prevent station damage. And that's both serious and hard.
Which would make your character serious and hard. But that's why they're the CHIEF. Everyone can close a hole. But YOU find them all. And when nobody's trying to bust the dam down, you build it taller by being the project-builder for the big stuff, like station goals or ship-building.
The Security Officer.
The top in the security chain, you coordinate your team in any crisis, whether it be disease outbreaks or the supermatter blowing up. If there's two situations happening at the same time, you're the one who decides how many officers go to each, and you're the one who makes those calls to either negotiate or move in a hostage situation. You're the one to give tactics and battle experience since you decide everything that has to do with security in the station.
The fact is that you're the guy who's supposed to know what to do. You've been briefed and trained on all the possible enemies and your character has probably been present for interrogations/scientific testing on some of them. Your character could be a battle hardened veteran or a paper pusher with little field experience but is a brilliant tactician and knows a lot of law.
The Executive Officer.
A pencil pusher, to be honest. Not security, engineering, science, or any of the main departments, really. Apart from handling jobs and positions for the departments, prepare to execute the “hidden” parts of the Captain's orders - arranging the proper paperwork and logistics, giving yourself the power to add a lot of immersion in many cases.
This role has even more roleplaying freedom than the Captain, whether it be a subservient right hand man to the Captain type to a devious power-monger who puts ‘the right people’ in ‘the right positions’, but don't expect people to remember you much if you don't interact outside your office.
The Commanding Officer.
With great power, comes great responsibility: you oversee one particular part of the station: all of it. Yes, it's quite a daunting job. However you do it, you have to be confident, since only YOU can do it, or the crew may doubt you and mutiny may occur. The way you solve situations depends entirely on your character, either as an inflexible and rigid commander, or as a caring, charismatic “father to the men” type.
Due to your power to give out orders essentially without limit, the way you play your character WILL have repercussions, no matter how you go about it. The buck stops with you and for most, there's nobody else to turn to if you wrong them. It takes a Herculean effort to topple a Comdom, so don't let it come to that. But that's why you're the Captain, because you're the few with the courage to step forward and manage a whole station. Always remember the guts it takes to hold this job.