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Inspirations/tropes for specific parts of the EP setting?

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Sat, 2012-12-22 17:52
#1
Fion Ravenwater Fion Ravenwater's picture
Inspirations/tropes for specific parts of the EP setting?
Hey, Just started my first campaign as an EP GM by having having the PCs reinstantiated by a branch of the Night Cartel. As I'm planning to give them a lot of free reign and sandbox capability, I'm looking for inspirations or tropes for specific parts of EP's setting. For example, their first adventure is in the Planetary Consortium and I'm drawing on a whole bunch of inspirations from Shadowrun, the Sprawl series and other cyberpunk. I was wondering which other media people use to help them define parts of the EP setting. I've got a good idea of autonomist collectives like Locus and the Jovian Republic is old hat for me (coming from a 40K background), but I'm having a lot of trouble with Extropia, the LLA and several other factions. Anyone got some insights?
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Sat, 2012-12-22 21:32
Undocking Undocking's picture
I think of the LLA like Luna
I think of the LLA like Luna in Ben Bova's Grand Tour series. The Planet Consortium reminds me of Earth in Larry Niven's Known Universe. When I think of Extropia, I think of Transmetropolitan.The Jovians strike me as more Starship Troopers by Heinlein or Forever War by Haldeman.
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Sat, 2012-12-22 23:28
Justin Alexander Justin Alexander's picture
Read the Takeshi Kovacs
Read the Takeshi Kovacs novels by Richard K. Morgan: They're the source for the cortical stacks and it seems likely that the Protectorate in that series also served as a point of inspiration for the Planetary Consortium. In general, I don't think you can go too wrong by just reading through the stuff on the "References" page in the EP core rulebook. Pretty much everything I was going to recommend -- Morgan, Sterling, Stross, Vinge -- already appears on that list. Among stuff that doesn't appear on that list: Cloud Atlas, C.J. Cherryh's Cyteen, Stephenson's Snow Crash, Bujold's Cetaganda, Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness, and Herbert's Dune series (particularly the later books; the God Emperor ain't a half bad way to think of TITANs).
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The Alexandrian
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Sun, 2012-12-23 07:41
Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture
Pushing Ice
I recommand that story by Reynolds But ignore the prolog, starting with the first chapter after it's a good story and inspiration for rimward bound adventures
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Sun, 2012-12-23 16:45
OneTrikPony OneTrikPony's picture
Be careful about using other
Be careful about using other sources for the L-LA. There's a lot of EP specific culture and flavor you're not going to find in other material because of the long history and the way the fall has effected that history. I thought the L-LA/Earth Orbit was covered pretty well in Sunward. What types of other things are you looking for?
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Mea Culpa: My mode of speech can make others feel uninvited to argue or participate. This is the EXACT opposite of what I intend when I post.

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Thu, 2012-12-27 00:01
matthra matthra's picture
TV Tropes has an eclipse
TV Tropes has an eclipse phase page, and discusses quiet a few of the interesting tropes in EC: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/TabletopGame/EclipsePhase?from=Mai...
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Thu, 2012-12-27 01:01
bibliophile20 bibliophile20's picture
The Expanse series
For a space opera with a strong Eclipse Phase feel, I'd recommend Leviathan Wakes and its sequel, Caliban's War, both by James S.A. Corey, numbers 1 & 2 of The Expanse. We have a realistically colonized solar system, amoral hypercorps, heavy factionalism, space warfare, mysterious tech with serious body horror applications... about the only thing separating it from EP proper is the lack of transhumanism (uploading especially) and no Fall (yet). Really highly recommend if you're going for a hard sci-fi horror feel.
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"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote." -Benjamin Franklin

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Sat, 2012-12-29 14:35
OneTrikPony OneTrikPony's picture
NO SPOILERS PLEASE
NO SPOILERS PLEASE!
bibliophile20 wrote:
For a space opera with a strong Eclipse Phase feel, I'd recommend Leviathan Wakes and its sequel, Caliban's War, both by James S.A. Corey,
I just got Leviathan wakes for xmas. :)
Spoiler: Highlight to view
from what I've read so far it seems to have really great descriptions of opperating in micro g. propulsion that is equevelant to the EP tech scale, and an awesome description of the habitat on Ceres. Plus It's about space truckers! Which is a theme of one of my campaigns. So far, I highly recommend it
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Mea Culpa: My mode of speech can make others feel uninvited to argue or participate. This is the EXACT opposite of what I intend when I post.

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