Character Journal: Instructions v1.2 · 1 Nov 2026

1. Quick start

1. Open your Star in the Character Generator (make one there, or with the Guided Character Creator), or press Load character file and choose your Star's save file (name.5150.json). A file loaded here doesn't change what's open in the Character Generator.
2. Open the Character Journal. Your Star and Band are already on the Cast tab.
3. When you meet someone worth remembering, press + Add an NPC, or send them here from NPC Squads or the Guided Campaign.
4. At the end of each month (or play session), write a Diary entry.

2. Your Star and Band

The journal reads your Star and Band from the Character Generator, so you never type them twice. Their name, race, Profession, Rep, People, Savvy and weapon come from the sheet; change those in the Character Generator, then press Update from Character Generator.

• Your Star's card has the book's career boxes: this month's Rep d6, Lifetime Rep d6 and months passed.
• On any card you can add what the journal keeps itself: who they are to you, their status (Around, Missing, In jail, Off-world, Retired, Dead), how you met, and notes.
• A Band member who's no longer on your sheet keeps their card, marked "Left the Band".
• A journal belongs to one Star. If the Character Generator has a different character open, the journal says so: save this journal to a file, then press New journal to start one for them.

3. The Cast: everyone you meet

Add the people who matter to your story: employers, contacts, rivals, the Ganger who got away. Three ways:

• By hand: + Add an NPC, then fill in what you know. Only the name is needed.
• From NPC Squads: press To Journal under any NPC's card.
• From the Guided Campaign: when an Encounter shows a group of NPCs, press Leader to Journal.

People sent from other tools appear in the Cast the next time you open the journal (or press Update), with how you met already filled in. Edit on a card changes it; Show picks who's on screen.

4. The Diary

+ New entry starts an entry on your Star's latest month. Give it a title and write what happened in your own words. Fill in from the campaign log adds that month's Encounters and Rep d6 from your Star's log as a starting point, to rewrite as you like. Entries show newest first; Edit changes or deletes one.

5. Printing, pictures and text

• Print / PDF (A4) prints the tab you're on: the Cast as cards, six to an A4 page like the book, or the Diary. Choose "Save as PDF" for a PDF, and Greyscale colours to save ink.
• PNG under a card saves it as a picture, for videos and posts.
• Save as text (.txt) saves the whole journal, Cast and Diary, as plain text, ready to turn into a blog post.

6. Saving and loading

The journal is kept in this browser as you go. Save journal file downloads a copy you can load on any device with Load journal file. The "Reset all 5150 tools" button on the 5150 tools page forgets it too, so save a file first.