Want more Challenge? Try Discovery Freelancer Hardmode!

Discovery Freelancer Hardmode (DFHD) is a personal project of mine that has been tinkered with over my years in Disco and, in a sense, has helped me remain interested in Discovery. The simplest way to explain what DFHM stands for is to say that it is a "set of self-applied rules and regulations regarding gameplay events that are otherwise absent from Freelancer's game mechanics and are introduced by the player themselves in order to enhance the immersion of ingame roleplay as well as to significantly bump up the difficulty and challenge of the base game"

In short, it is a set of rules that you yourself apply to your gameplay with a certain character. From a simple bump in difficulty to a full-on ironman mode, it is up to the player in question to chose a set of rules for their gameplay. The overall goal of each of these characters regardless of level of difficulty is to leave as large of a RP footprint as possible with said character. Depending on how it plays out, you might get a SRP-worthy story out of it or have the poor thing die within days.

Randomness is a part of the fun.

Since the point of DFHM is to provide a boost in game difficulty and overall challenge, it is important to pick a level of limitations you yourself will be imposing on the character you create. This step is important as one of the main rules and, by extension, challenge of the hardmode is to retain a sense of self-discipline and stick to these rules no matter the circumstances. From personal experience, I can instantly tell you that it only takes one moment of ''this does not count...'' for the whole thing to go south. In the end, if your run is ''succesful'', it will be all the more rewarding if you yourself know that you haven't taken any detours.
Below are listed a few examples of difficulty tiers you could use for your character, you can use one of them or assemble your own from existing lines:

Beginner Difficulty: - Best used for people wishing to try out the hardmode.

*Restart is used to create the character to get a better map/reputation.
*Player may start with a certain ship/sum of money.
*Player is allowed to rename the ship at will.
*Closed Economy Character.
*Character is allowed to have multiple ships - can transfer cash between them.
*Upon ship destruction, character is to be sent to Connecticut, where their current ship and gear are sold - the money you get is considered ''salvage'' or ''insurance'' money.
*Moneymaking has no specific limitations.

Standard Difficulty: - Self-explanatory. The way it is meant to be played.

*No restart is used.
*Default starting money.
*No renames.
*Closed Economy Character.
*One ship per character.
*Upon ship destruction, character is to be sent to Connecticut, where their current ship and gear are sold - the money you get is considered ''salvage'' or ''insurance'' money.

Optional rules:
**Money can be made only via player interaction (Escorting, Bounty Hunting, Group Mining, Piracy, etc).
**Ships larger than a snubcraft, if destroyed, need to be rebuilt via forum roleplay asking (and paying) for supplies.

"Just cuck my life up, fam" Difficulty: - Got a death wish?

*No restart is used.
*Default starting money.
*No renames.
*Closed Economy Character.
*Multiple/one ship per character
*Upon ship destruction, character is deleted and only money that was on the character is retained. A new one is created with the same name.
*Use a 1d10 die for a 50/50 chance of the character dying.