I'm fine leaving as luck of the dice, though looking briefly at ATOW it seems we will be extremely squishy and fragile in combat - average BOD score is 3-4, so 6-8 points of damage will kill us outright. That's two lucky hits with a sidearm/pistol. The book's examples all list characters with BOD 6 or 7, so I wonder if we are woefully weak or if the book assumes characters who aren't starting out.<br/><br/>As far as independently hiring, that works out well. I wrote Sebastian's backstory assuming he was getting a Dirty Dozen-style deal of employment or life in penal serfdom, but I assume other people will be more 'legitimate' hires.