Ferretz wrote:

As the subject says, we would love to see a pdf containing some alternate rules for different stuff. My group won't play Eclipse Phase anymore (despite the setting being one of our favorites), since the system has some real problems on a few different aspects. Of course, I could house rule it, write some alternate rules myself, but it's not the same as using stuff written by the "official guys". Well, that's my opinion anyway.

Hey Ferretz -- I hear what you're saying, but I highly suggest that you do work out house rules for your own group. Of course, we want you playing Eclipse Phase, but I'd suggest this for any game you play: you know your group better than we do. You know exactly why those rules don't work for you or bug you. You're in the best position to fix them to the satisfaction of the people who matter to you, and to make changes to those fixes over time to make them into the best fixes possible for your group. And then please, bring those tweaks back to the community -- that's one of the reasons why Eclipse Phase is Creative Commons licensed. :) You'll also probably be happy to hear that some of the material in Transhuman will be based around streamlining the game, and we'll be doing an open playtest of the material in that book in the coming months.

Ferretz wrote:

But, I'm having hopes for Eclipse Phase and that we might get into it again at some point. I'm wondering what the next book will be after Rimward, though. :)

The next title is Transhuman, the Player's Guide with alternate character generation rules, expanded material, etc, all player-focused. In other words ... we may well cover the stuff you want us to cover, so keep an eye peeled for the open playtest to help make sure your voice is heard. :-)

A book of gear (and implant) packs would be great. Breaking and entering, infiltration, personal defense, surveillance, countersurveillance, infosec, military space ops, lots of options. It can be really difficult to get an idea of what the actual gear options are, especially for new players. Add some new gear and implants, and it'll be an instant hit :)

twcrone wrote:

No more source books until you publish some more adventures and better yet start a 'campaign' like Shadowrun 'Missions' or Pathfinder 'Adventure Paths'.

I really like source books, but I think something that combined the "path" idea with source material would be great. I've not had much luck running or playing in the standard linear adventures, because we always get off the specified plot track by either making decisions which are radically different from what is covered in the adventure, or by solving something in a way that shortcuts 90% of the scenario. Also, these adventures have tended to have a unifying effect on the characters instead of a diverging effect, which is great for maintaining party cohesion in oneshot scenarios. In campaigns, however, I really like for there to be conflict within the party because it allows the GM to take a break on story generation, and provides ways for NPCs to further influence the characters in nasty and scheming ways. Thus, I'd have in mind something similar to the old WhiteWolf city books where a small and specific setting is pursued on the micro scale instead of the macro scale. For example, with Conch (Rimward p137-138): The setting is very confined and resources are limited. The major NPC players are outlined with their motivations and interactions with other major players, say 3x pages each, including character stats. Their henchmen are outlined with their motivations and interactions, say 2x pages each. The subordinates are outlined as above with about a page each. Finally, some of the "peons" are described in detail with 2-3 pages each. Each NPC should have multiple rivalries and agenda's which are currently ongoing. So, maybe 40 NPC's. Then the PC's get dropped in along one or more (preferably one or two per character) of 30 different single sentence conflicting plot hooks and (further) chaos ensues. There would need to be some outlined maps of the Conch too, since city maps would not be available. Key for pre-bundled adventure lovers would be that this would provide most or all of the material required for running a months long adventure sequence. Key for me would be that this would provide a LOT of source material on exactly how the insular culture on board a ship of people with virtually nothing to do (as far as required work) would have developed into scheming, manipulation, war, resource denial, etc, and what their day to day lives would be like. ie, "I never have to go to work. Just what do I do with all the extra time that I have?" How does society prevent people who have become 'bored' with their lives from disrupting everyone else by making trouble just to "see what happens", or is that the current past time? Have these societies devolved into one massive soap opera as the Ultimates appear to think? Then do the same thing for a Hypercorp station (or others) so that we can see the contrast between the multiple cultures. An alternative to the extended descriptions of their motivations, interactions, and agenda's, could be a set of tables which a GM could use for generating NPC's at different levels of society, similar to the "random encounter generator" of other notable RPGs. People on the upper end would have lots of specific opinions on specific high and mid level people, and generic or no opinions on the lower level people. People on the low level would have specific opinions on most of the high end people with some specific opinions on some of the other mid and low level people and general or no opinions on others. Mid levels of society would combine the two somehow. I think this would be an AWESOME tool that could be used for any RPG, since the GM would just roll out a bunch of general NPC's, and could always add more at the drop of a hat. If something like this already exists, please someone point it out to me. One specific rules thing I'd like would be something to expand on the cost of higher and lower quality equipment. For example, the really good software can only be self programed in existing rules, unless someone tries to cross reference the time to generate the program with rep favors with equipment pricing. The equipment chapter in the core book alludes to different qualities without (frustratingly) those last paragraphs on cost. For example: Guns that provide better or worse accuracy/damage/concealment. Unlike others, I'm not looking for specific models so much as guidelines on how increasing or decreasing the performance of equipment affects cost (primarily), legality (secondarily), and availability (secondarily). I think I and my GM can come up with the specifics of names and features that would interest the characters in my campaigns, and with all the variations, open sourcing, and small lot runs in the Eclipse Phase universe, I personally don't think it would fit the setting. -Joe

- thus, it's difficult for the majority of GM's to find the time to clear their heads and create a big, detailed enough world (however much source material they may have at hand) to facilitate the decisions of a creative, unpredictable player-character party. I would agree on this point with the folks who prefer adventures over more source material, since indeed there's an awful lot of source material already handy. However, most of the source material being suggested on threads like this I do think I would like to see. I would like to suggest one more thing: Tilesets and mapmakers, perhaps a program, including one that works on an android tablet (ahem), that helps an EP GM generate terrain and 'places' to use with her/his group. A book full of NPC's has apparently proven quite handy; a generator for physical terrain to help players conceptualize their characters' environment while giving a GM a variable tool and helping them save time would make a great difference. Here's a possible tool people may find useful, available from an outlet where you can of course find EP material: http://www.rpgnow.com/product/65402/Shuffler-2.11.00---Modern-and-Sci-Fi...

It seems I'm not the only ex warhammer fantasy rpg player around here :-) I would love a campaign, even if I think that build one that could work for any group of characters is a very complicated job. I like the idea of a small soucerbook (a planet or a colony or anythign you want) that can be used for an episode of a bigger campaign. I'm sorry but I used to play campaigns in other RPG, that's why I'm so fanatic about it :-) A player guide is a good idea too, really. My finger is ready on the download button :-) Ciao Luca

I don't play Savage Worlds (or anything d20). What is a "plot point"? How is a sandbox game different from a set of linked adventures in an open setting?