If you're as excited about the release of Starfield as I am, you're already thinking about your first character build. Bethesda's latest RPG promises to be their most extensive and immersive experience yet, so you'll want to plan ahead before customizing your Spacefarer and choosing your starting class. 

Classes are known as Backgrounds in Starfield, and determine something of your character's backstory, in addition to your starting skills and abilities. There are 16 different backgrounds to choose from, and while not everything is currently known about each of them, we've listed them below;

• Beast Hunter
• Bouncer
• Bounty Hunter
• Chef
• Combat Medic
• Cyber Runner
• Cyberneticist
• Diplomat
• Explorer
• Gangster
• Homesteader
• Industrialist
• Long Hauler
• Pilgrim
• Professor
• Ronin

There's little known about the majority of these backgrounds currently, but details on a few have been revealed through various live streams and interviews. Perhaps the most amusing is the Chef, which will have skills in Gastronomy and Scavenging, with a background in the culinary arts, essentially an intergalactic Gordon Ramsay.

The Cyber Runner is a stealth and tactical security expert well-suited to cybercrime, while the Cyberneticist will focus on robotics and medicine and being a dab-hand with a laser rifle.

Diplomats will have persuasion and bartering skills, while explorers will have additional abilities in Astrodynamics and being able to survey their surroundings. Finally, the Combat Medic, as the name suggests, will have skills in medicine and wellness.

The abilities and stories of some of the other backgrounds can be inferred by their names; I'd be shocked if the Bouncer didn't have buffs in Melee or hand-to-hand combat, for example. Others, such as Ronin, are a mystery, at least to me. Let me know in the comments your thoughts!

Starfield launches on the 6th of September, exclusively on PC and Xbox Series X|S, with the game also coming to Xbox Games Pass on Day 1, although those who preorder the Premium Edition can start playing from September 1st.