Please note that Planetfall is not finalised as the title.

I thought I would share a little bit about how characters will work in Five Parsecs: Planetfall. Broadly your professional crew consists of three classes:

Scientists, Explorers and Troopers. 

Each has their own starting profile, capabilities and special type of armour. 

Scientists are your go-to when it comes to a lot of the mission tasks such as scientific curiosities. In particular they will help you improve the odds of gaining rewards and completing certain objectives. They are of course the least capable when it comes to combat. They also feature advanced environmental protection suits. 

Explorers grant bonuses to avoid being ambushed and can help get better results out of unexplored segments of the battlefield. They are also highly mobile both featuring short range jump jets and being able to choose if they move before or after firing.

Lastly the Trooper is there to kill things. They were armour and can lay down rapid fire (if they act in the Quick Phase and dont move they can fire in both player phases). They also have access to the heavier firepower. 

Your campaign roster will have 4 of each and hyou are free to pick the composition of a squad you send into the field. Note that unlike other games you can have more than one battle per campaign turn. Sending out all your Troopers for example might mean you are short of bodies if you get attacked elsewhere.

There is a bonus class known as Specialists. By default these can consist of things like operational staff, medics or unity agents and offer their own benefits. If you import characters from another game they also act as specialists allowing you to bring your favourite characters along for the adventure on a new world.