I always loathed Shadowruns way of giving weapons and vehicles specific brands and ignoring it in cyberware. I like it as it is. I'd prefer a system as its done with the morphs. Present every gear with a player-chosen modifier to represent it being built by another corp/collective/whatever. And then there's the option of getting better quality gear.

X-threats book would be great-covering TITAN's, their artifacts, dangerous extra solar discoveries, exsurgents, dangerous technology. Bonus points if we get a chapter on how to play Project Ozma operatives.

Let's see.... [list][*]A Mesh supplement. Expanded mechanics for the mesh, as well as sample topologies, simulspaces and more. Maybe even some setting material for infomorph culture (I'm sure they have a culture all their own at this point). [*]A Psi supplement. Hell, you can probably just make a general "mind-related stuff" supplement. New mental disorders, new sleights, new psychosurgical procedures... there's plenty of room here for fun. Plus, I think there should be async organizations (or factions within existing organizations) within the EP setting. I'd like info on them. [*]Starships and a general travel supplement. Have a system for calculating travel times that isn't necessarily scientific, but accurate and fast enough for GMs to use without having to go to some calculator on the net. Plus, designing your own starships and perhaps even habs, with rules for purchasing and more. This also leads to.... [*]An economy supplement. The Eclipse Phase setting has a very complex and diverse economic structure, and it needs more information. The mechanics for a gift economy are considered lacking by most of us on the forums. I think it warrants a massive book all to itself. It could talk about such things as trade, commodities, the wide variety of currencies and such, the structure of hypercorps... and might even have rules for players running their own hypercorp (or simply rules that the GM could use to run hypercorps for his NPCs). Of course it should probably have expanded reputation rules. [*]A nanotechnology supplement. The info on nanotech is fairly vague right now, and it would be nice to know more about how it works. Expanded rules on programming, blueprints, and production times would be very nice. Also, some nanotech we all want is missing from the books right now... like exowombs. I want it, and I'm sure others do as well. [*]Equipment supplements. These are always awesome. Arsenal and Augmentation were two of my favorite SR4 supplements, and we need new toys. Furthermore, you could have micro-supplements that showcase experimental tech of the time (they could come with flaws to show that they are still not ready for commercial release). Let's call these supplements "Cutting Edge". Every 5 or so Cutting Edge releases, you can release a supplement called "Tech Book XX AF" (first one could be Tech Book 11 AF) that takes the Cutting Edge items and creates stable versions of them good for commercial purchase, then collects them in one medium-sized supplement. [*]Miscellaneous stuff. I loved the Panopticon coverage of uplifts, and I would like something similar for AGI and AI. To that end, I'd also like some sort of supplementary info regarding the law in Eclipse Phase. What sort of punishment does murder garner when you live in a society where resurrection is as simple as retrieving one's cortical stack? How does kidnapping get ruled on in a world with forking?[/list] I think that covers what I would like to see. I know what you're thinking: "Decivre, why do you ask for so little?" I just don't know, folks... I just don't know.....

Decivre wrote:

Plus, I think there should be async organizations (or factions within existing organizations) within the EP setting. I'd like info on them.

Asyncs Anonymous (AA) meets every weekend in Mesh Node [C76], you are more than welcome to attend! Please, no Hypercorporate recruiters.

tsedeq wrote:

These are all some great ideas, but after Rimward my own vote would be for a publication of a full campaign. The occasional one-shots are great ways to supplement an ongoing game, but I've found great utility in past RPGs from basing off of a long cohesive single pre-written campaign that takes the characters through a long story arc comprised of 10 or so adventures. Such a resource could focus on one or two of the smaller areas which people have mentioned could use additional materials as well, killing two or more birds with one stone.

I'm kind of torn on the issue of a continuing plot. On one hand, my favorite campaign settings have a continuing plot... Dark Sun, Shadowrun, Battletech; all of them progressed in some way. On the other hand, a continuing plot also fixes the direction that the setting will take. Even if you take into account the fact that the developers are intending to make all event books optional to some degree, this makes guiding the events in any major ways rather difficult. An inherent element of a progressive plot is that some element of it must, by function, be uncontrollable by the PCs, or a game group simply has to accept that their game has branched severely from the canon setting and the material that comes out will serve more for inspiration than being directly-usable.

I completely agree with you about the dangers of a continuing plot. What I am more thinking of is something akin to the darkstryder campaign from star wars d6 (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/The_DarkStryder_Campaign) - a standalone campaign taking place in some specific geographical area that, while tangentially important to the setting of the game, does not dictate the needs of further supplements. For example, the campaign could focus on some new gate or a relatively isolated part of the solar system where new colonies are being set up.

By "campaign" I mean a series of adventures that are fully written out (such as "bump in the night" or other already released adventures) and all work together to tell a single story with recurring characters, interrelating themes, plot twists, and the like. It would be nice if the campaign gave some flexibility to the backgrounds and goals of players in it (unlike in Darkstryder where players are assigned pre-made characters) as well. It would also be best if it primarily took place in some new location(s) that current supplements do not deeply explore, so the GMs and writers have greater flexibility in telling the story. I prefer to work under the freedom that a pre-constructed story provides and can tweak it to my liking to adjust to the desires of my players. The large brush strokes you use in constructing your above idea for a campaign are great - but they are very high level and leave a massive amount of work for me, the GM, to implement. For example, I need to create the hooks, the NPCs, the geographical locations, design and balance the trials the players must face, etc... While this work is certainly enjoyable, it takes a very long time to do it well. I enjoy being provided a firm framework of a story and working through it (occasionally breaking it if needed) to tell the story to my players (for the same reason I prefer to use code libraries rather than starting from scratch for every new application). With the basics of the story already created, it frees up time for me to work on various details and nuances - the little things that are usually what players most appreciate. In response to your fish analogy, two things: 1) I believe EP has already taught me (and everyone else interested in GMing) sufficiently how to "fish". What I'm asking for is a pre-stocked lake in which to perform my hobby of choice. Another shiny lure or other device to aid with future fishing (which I would analagize to gatecrashing, sunward, and panopticon) are very much appreciated and excellent. But if asked what my personal preference is, I would rather have the lake. 2) Give a man fire and you keep him warm for the evening. Set a man on fire and you keep him warm for the rest of his life.

OldSchoolGM wrote:

• It would be great to have something similar to Shadowrun Sprawl Sites - a book devoted to making the GM's life easier, with locales, NPCs, and story ideas. I loved that book because no matter how many times I'd gone to it before, I could always glean something that would spark a new idea.

You've seen the NPC Files, yes? Would you want a Sprawl Sites-like book to have NPCs like that, or something different? (I loved the hell out of Sprawl Sites back in the day.)

I'd like a Mesh supplement but what I'd love to see, as much as Sunward is brilliant (and I imagine Rimward will be too) is a book focusing purely on a specific region such as Luna, Venus or Mars.

AdamJury wrote:

You've seen the NPC Files, yes? Would you want a Sprawl Sites-like book to have NPCs like that, or something different? (I loved the hell out of Sprawl Sites back in the day.)

I'm thinking with slightly more info, but still remaining relatively generic so that the characters can be used the whole system through. A writeup with about as much complexity as those from Shadowrun 4th Edition's Contacts and Adventures. Also, I'm hoping for something more concise than the current character sheet. Any chance of a character folio or dossier for those of us that do a lot of character writeup?