Entropy wrote:

and I've already got a number of stories I'd like to tell, starting with a rather creepy opener involving 2 weeks' lack, a drifting vessel out in in the Oort Cloud, one Exsurgent-infected TITAN nanoswarm and a lot of desperation (can you tell I like SF horror?)...

Might I recommend the pre-written scenario Continuity, which seems to describe something very close to what you have here? :)

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The only thing is that having looked at some of the character sheets out there, I'm somewhat intimidated.

As Codebreaker said... Chargen is the toughest part. IMO, the excel sheet bouncing around is a MUST and should be packaged with the book. That guy deserves some major rep. Aside from that... it's very rules light. I have an old SR player in my group who is struggling a little bit with how rules-light the game is, actually. EP seems like a game I could totally see playing diceless, in fact.

Entropy wrote:

I was vaguely wondering about doing something similar, with a very rules-light system (we have played rules-heavy systems for ages, but recently found a couple of aspect-based rules-light systems very intriguing), but I'd definitely like to see how it fits with the current rule system before I consider switching systems.

The only problem I'm having is determining whether every 5 points is 1 dice or every 10 points, with the latter seeming more obvious. Also, opposed tests are largely eliminated for things like combat; your total Fray is divided by 2, rounded up, and a person must try and roll in excess of that to hit you. Damage is unchanged for the sake of simplicity. Opposed rolls, meanwhile, are more likely to go in favour of the person with better skills/preparations/advantages; the chance of failure or success based on luck alone is reduced somewhat. It needs fine-tuning and playtesting but it's better than what's in place, at least for me .

Entropy wrote:

I may include a version of the rule that grants extra bonuses for cinematic descriptions. I like to encourage them to work on visualising the scene as well as it lessens my own workload. :-D

It works quite well. Our gaming group has some real showboats who keep the story interesting ("Define interesting...") for players who have already or are waiting to take their turns, and everyone seems to enjoy it. I would recommend limiting modifiers to +/- 20 until you get a feel for how it works, but your mileage may vary.

The Doctor wrote:

Entropy wrote:

...but realistically speaking, how numbers-heavy does EP get to play?

It depends on how you want to run the game.

Speaking for myself, I've actually been a little unhappy with the lack of crunch. But then again, I'm the sort of math-head player who loves SR3. I can understand the reasoning for it though. Eclipse Phase, by its very nature, is too far out there and changes too fast for hard rules to be fun at most gaming tables. So doing it the way they did is, IMO, a calculated and smart choice.

I was the GM for Monjay's game and with seriously slimed down social and hacking rules the Role Playing oriented parts of the game were great. However; the place where it seemed particularly cumbersome was combat. Not to say that combat was slow, in fact I'd say combat took less time than a 4e D&D game, but it was mentally taxing. There are just too many decision points and associated rolls in one characters Action Phase: 1) Attacker declares, attack and ROF if ranged. 2) Determine Range Modifiers + Multiple Target Modifier +...etc 3) Attacker Rolls Modified Weapon Skill 4) each Defender Rolls Fray 5) Compare results for each target 6) Roll damage (modified by ROF) 7) Determine Defenders Armor value, modified by the attacker Armor Piercing value of the weapon 8) Calculate final damage 9) Record Damage 10) Calculate and record # of Wounds 11) Roll for Knockdown if Wound is taken 12) Roll for Knockout if Multiple Wounds are taken Now, this isn't one person doing this, it's two, so within most steps there are questions, "What is your AP of the weapon?" "What is your Armor Value"?, etc, etc which take some time. The good think about the damage is that a couple of bursts of 2d10+3+1d10 (kinetic pistol) will generally take down an opponent so the combats didnt last more than 4 or 5 rounds. In my younger days I would have been all over the system and if you could find a group that loves that level of detail I'm sure the game runs great, but I'm just not into it. ANd as I said, we used streamlined rules too. That being said, I still love the setting, I think if I ran the game it'd have be using a different rules set.

Yerameyahu wrote:

I'm still wrestling with the basically d100/skill mechanic, myself, and the 'roll low, except not too low, or you'll fail Opposed tests' phenomenon.

We talked this over, too. I understand why the mechanic is the way it is now, because a higher skill dictates a greater chance of success, yadda yadda, but it feels contrary to the rest of the mechanic. We didn't feel the defenders were favored at all - with pregen characters from the book and a few three-round bursts form heavy pistols and we we able to beat 3:1 odds with only a few wounds. I felt that was good and like Raddu says, it sped the combat along.

Yeah, we should have just said, whoever has the highest margin of success wins the opposed roll, so the better skilled person is usually going to win, but not always.

Yeah, I think I'd have to play test it because I could see, adding another calculation, slowing it down. As you said, the sudden change of the mechanic was jarring to the players.

Treebore wrote:

Opposed is 1d100 + skill

Not sure if this is what you meant, but RAW an opposed is roll 1d100 under your skill+mods (just like an unopposed roll) but instead of MoS, the 'winner' when both rolls succeed is whoever rolled the highest. It's not 1d100 + skill though :)

Yeah, see? It's pretty complex no matter what. I'm not saying the writers made the wrong call, just that I'm still wrestling with it. The 'built-in target number' is a novel system to me, after playing AD&D, D20, Heavy Gear, WoD, and SR.

I think if you both crit, you just resolve as normal (highest), but yes, it's pretty messy in there.

You're right, Dramatic Exit (AFAIK, anyway). The mechanic seems to make high MoS harder for opposed tests; that could be good or bad, but it definitely a little confusing and inconsistent. :/