Hello, welcome to the open playtest for our next book: Transhuman, a player's guide for Eclipse Phase.
Transhuman covers a number of topics that are particularly useful for players. It includes two alternate character creation systems, a selection of new morphs and traits, advice and rules for playing unusual character egos (uplifts, AGIs, indentures) and morphs (swarmanoids, flexbots, infomorphs), and advice for handling various factors that affect player characters in the game, from madness to psychosurgery to reputation. The first drafts are in and we are working over the material now. We are also launching a kickstarter campaign soon to help us fund the print costs for the book.
We want input from our players and fans on this process, and so we're turning this over to you with this open playtest. Over the next several weeks we'll be posting drafts up in this section of the forums. We have a limited amount of time to playtest before this book goes to print, so we'll be updating and posting new versions on a regular basis. We'd like you to take this material to your gaming group and give it test run. Or five test runs. Whatever it takes. If you have an ongoing campaign in which you can work the material, great! If you want to spin up a one-shot adventure just to see how some of these new rules play out, that also works! Alternatively, you can grab some beers and some friends and have a marathon character creation session, to see what you can get away with or what comes out broken. If you don't have time to use the material in actual game play but simply read through the drafts and send us feedback, that helps too, though obviously we'd prefer if you could try the material in action at the game table.
In order to collate and assess the feedback in a way that is most helpful to us, we've set up a specific format for this playtest. Each time we post up a new or updated draft, we will start a new thread for that draft on the forums. This thread will list a set of specific questions that we want feedback on. These questions will ask you how you playtested the material and what you thought the best and worst parts of the draft were, and will also include some queries we have about the specific material in the draft. Please use this thread ONLY to respond to these specific questions. It is these questions that we are most interested in getting feedback on. If we see responses that diverge from the questions on hand, we will likely ignore them. If we update a draft and post a new version in a new thread before you have a chance to post your feedback, you should still post it in the old thread.
At the same time we post up the draft and its specific question thread, we will also open up a thread that is for general comments, feedback, and discussion on that draft. This is where you should post anything else you have to say in regards to the specific material that wasn't covered in your answers to the questions. We will also review these threads for feedback, but depending on time constraints and the length of the responses, we may not get to everything. We will do our best to read everything.
There are a few other things to keep in mind while reading and playtesting this material:
We will be posting a lot of rough first drafts early on. This is material straight from the author. It has not gone through a development or editing pass yet, but it will. Do not be concerned if it seems rough around the edges—in fact, expect it to be. It will be polished and fixed up before it goes to print!
At this point we are not interested in typos, bad grammar, or other basic editing corrections—unless it specifically affects a rule's interpretation. This material may get rewritten, and it will go through multiple editing passes by professional editors later in the process, so it's too much of a burden to keep track of all the minor editing corrections at this stage. Later on, as we near the final drafts, we may ask specifically for editing/proof corrections, but for now don't worry about them.
That's it for now -- have at it!
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Rob Boyle :: Posthuman Studios
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.
Rob Boyle :: Posthuman Studios
Rob Boyle :: Posthuman Studios