It's an interesting approach, though I noted that it does seem to remove a bit of agency from the players, so it seems that maybe it would be better suited to one-shots than longer games? If you're asking the geologist to report in I guess that means you've decided there must be a geologist in the party.

I am definitely a fan of leaving blanks in characters to be worked out in play though. It makes for characters that feel much more part of the world and the story than anything that comes with the baggage of a detailed backstory that has to be shoehorned in.

Currently in the process of doing chargen for a Mindjammer game. For those not familiar it's a far-future transhuman sci-fi RPG which uses Fate as its system. I've made myself a canid xenomorph scavenger with loyalty issues, and now I'm just waiting to see how I met some of the other characters (one of whom is playing a spaceship) before we get started!

I haven't played it before but I've played other games using Fate, so I'm looking forward to getting stuck in. It's been a while since I've had any regular RPGing in my life (my previous groups mostly fell apart during the pandemic).

Other than that, I may be playing some Lancer at some point (wish the hardcopy book was available where I live), and I'm mulling over the idea of possibly trying to run some Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4e at some point.