I made it up to the fight in the arms deal. While it definitely needs some polish, a continuation of this campaign is definitely something I'd continue to listen to. The GM does a really decent job of describing the setting consistently and coming up with situations and NPCs on the fly. My absolute favorite moment so far was the Fury morph's random bar fight scene to sate his social-impotence fueled lust for violence, while the con-artist hustled bets. Also, you guys have a good habit of not talking over each other, which is very much appreciated. And you kept the story moving forward rather than letting it get bogged down in planning and preparation. On the criticism side, other than Lucas (the Fury), and to a lesser degree the chipper bodyguard, I didn't get much of a feel for the characters. It felt like the players could have used character names and described them doing the things they were doing a little more often. I'd hope that as more AP's are posted the players would explore their characters more and I'd get a more solid sense of them. This is especially important I think because all your voices come through sounding very similar. On the audio quality side, it was maybe a little too clear: I heard a lot of people breathing, especially in the beginning. Back on to a high note, this one has a definite chance of being something I regularly listen to, so please keep up the good work and take my critical statements as an effort to be constructive rather than hurtful.

Thanks for sharing! I'm listening to it now and enjoying it. I think it takes any group of players some time to find their groove in a new game, but (for me at least) it's still entertaining to listen to. I look forward to hearing more!

I have listened up to the third session and so far I am loving it (the Crow Doctor obviously didn't take the Common Sense trait :) ). I do have a suggestion: You should start the podcasts by having the players introduce themselves by stating their name and the character they are playing (like the Knights of the Night do in their actual plays). It would really help the listener keep the various characters/players organized, especially when you have a large number of players who don't all attended every session. Also, there were some game mechanical things I wanted to point out (I'm sort of a rules person so bear with me): 1. When making attacks using SA and BF modes you get two attacks(p. 198, EP). I keep waiting for the players to make their second attack and they don't and it really bugs me: especially when they decide to fire their second pistol to get a second attack without firing both shots from their first pistol. Arghhhh! 2. When making attacks if you get a MOS of 30+ you get a +5 DV bonus and if you get a MOS of 60+ you get a +10 DV bonus (under determine outcome p. 192, EP). 3. If you hit with the first attack of a semi automatic beam weapon (such as a plasma rifle or laser pulsar, but not an agonizer which is single shot ) and you can see the beam, you can sacrifice your second shot to concentrate fire (p. 195, EP) to do double damage (great if you have a MOS of 60+). If you miss on the first shot, you can sweep the beam (p. 194, EP) and get a free aim (+10 modifier) on the second shot. 4. Mars is not a vacuum so plasma rifles won't overheat.

shark3006 wrote:

And I hope you'll forgive me if I'm a little...loose with some of the rules.

Oh you're totally forgiven, you are doing an awesome job as a GM!

shark3006 wrote:

It's A LOT to keep track of (both for me and for the players) and gets a little overwhelming.

Hmmm. Have you considered the Eidetic Memory and Math Boost augmentations? They are both only Low cost :). But seriously, I had the same problem of keeping track of everything (and I don't even GM) until I encountered D&D 4e. Then I was enlightened (don't laugh, I'm serious). One of the good things about 4e is all the characters/monster powers are on neat little cards/blocks and I adapted that structure for the common actions that my Eclipse Phase character takes in combat. Then I just pull the right card and it walks me through the turn, including any special rules (plus I can plan my next turn/phase by putting the cards in order while other people are acting). Also, having just listened to your fourth actual play I have to express my condolences for the loss of your poor Titan warbot. It never even had a chance to hurt anybody important :(. Listening to the fight though, I think the warbots problem wasn't a balance issue against the number of players, but using the wrong stats for the tactics you wanted to use; a big lumbering bot that doesn't use cover should have had stats similar to a large, heavily armored vehicle (hundreds of DUR, armor in the 30's to 40's with no weak points to bypass with called shots) so that it didn't need to fight tactically against the player characters, it could win in a slugging match as long as it took out anyone with a heavy weapon in the first turn. The stats you used seemed to be for a fast moving, roughly man sized warbot that needed to use cover and fight smart to win against determined opposition.

Just at the end of the second episode myself, you guys are definitely improving in a lot of areas, and the entertainment value has gone way up. This one is quickly coming up to meet 'Close The Airlock' as one of my favorite actual plays.

It is in the queue, though Know Evil just dropped Ep 13 so it will be a bit before I get to it. Dr. druggie-Odo-Crow was an amazing addition to the game, and I definitely hope to hear more of him. One little thing that always annoys me: You refer to every recorded medium as an 'XP'. XPs are Experience Playback, basically full-immersion sensory recordings, basically experiencing life through someone's eyes. If it's just a moving image, it's a vid or hologram.

The wall of links is just fine. I think recording an actual play should be an EP tradition of a sort. (Now the hypocritical bit) I would post one, if I could get my players to do it, and if I could get a game started. Hats off to your players for taking on the task, and to you for keeping it going.

Hello, peoples! I'm Ryan, the guy who plays Lucas in shark's campaign here. Figured I'd poke my head into this thread to say hi, since I'm involved in the game and all. Anyway, just so I'm actually contributing something, I'll give up some insider info. We played another session this past Wednesday, and it was a return to form for us as far as kicking butt and not destabilizing major biomes and sociopolitical structures. I think the recording is gonna go up in three weeks (as we've got a Mage: The Ascension game scheduled for next week and a regular episode the week after that). I'm sure either Alex or I will link it here when it goes live. That's all I've got for now, ladies and gents. Seeya on the forums!

Undocking wrote:

Lucas is one of my favourite characters from the show (they're all great). It's too bad you caused that elevator mishap, but I'm still rooting for you.

Hehe, thanks. I'm still upset about that, mostly because if I had just kept my mouth shut, I could have shared the blame with Derek, Dalton's player. I enjoy playing Lucas--especially when there's violence happening. Speaking of which, the next game has one of my favorite fights thus far in our EP campaign. I won't say any more, but it went a long way toward making me feel better about Mars. I originally envisioned Lucas as an angry, sensory-addicted soldier who never quite got over his experience during The Fall, even though he had the memories erased. When there isn't any trouble around to be had, he goes looking for some in order to make himself feel something. Now that he's got the Martian space elevator debacle on his conscience--especially after his encounter with Blake in Olympus--he's rethinking the transhuman notion that you can edit the unpleasant bits of your memory out because he knows the past can always come back to haunt him. Anyway, thanks so much for your comment! I'm glad you like what I do.

Hi all! Just wanted to sneak in here again and point out that we've got a new session out, Self-Discovery, Part 1: "The House that Steel Built". We posted it last week, but I guess Alex (shark) hasn't had the chance to mention it here. We should have another session out next Wednesday, the 23rd, which contains what is perhaps my favorite incident in the game thus far. Things are getting interesting for our party, let me tell you.

Undocking wrote:

WOO MORE LUCAS! I just finished the Epilogue and ready for more!

Glad to hear it, because we've got another session up today! Be sure to check it out when you get the chance. This was a fun one--albeit a little short--action packed, and hilarious. (At least it was for us when we played through it. Hopefully that'll translate to some vicarious guffaws for you listeners out there.) We should have another one up in three weeks or so, provided that there are no changes to our queue of recordings. Anywho, just wanted to post the link. Hope everyone's enjoying the games so far. Ta!

The last episode of Self-Discovery will be out next week, but in the meantime, we have the first half of an Eclipse Phase two-shot to hold you over! This week, I take a turn GMing the starter scenario Bump in the Night, by Brian Cross. I engineered a bit of a convoluted scenario in which the Planetary Consortium ended up running a black op against itself so that Alex could play the Oversight Auditor from Sunward. I hope you enjoy it. Part 2 should be out in two weeks. Bump in the Night 1: Discreet Inquiries. NOTE: Since this is my first session GMing for EP, any feedback or constructive criticisms you forum dwellers have would be much appreciated.

So, when is the next Episode of what I presume is still called Self-Discovery (now with extra aptness!!) going to be posted?

We're back with a new session! Stuff we've learned in this episode:

• Don't abuse the NPC oracles or they'll stop giving you information.
• Don't go for a swim in the River of Pain, because apparently TITANs take their references to classical mythology very seriously.
• Don't ever visit a Museum of Natural History curated by an insane machine god unless you want to be disturbed out of your tiny little transhuman mind.

I <3 Tartarus 1: Acheron

Any actual play brings me such joy. What sort of recording setup did you use?

Kickstarter to get new equipment?

[i](Paraphrased from a one-shot that Alex ran tonight. [b]Lolita[/b], a female Fury, [b]Aiko[/b], a male octopus uplift, and [b]3lizab3th[/b], an AGI spider-bot, are wandering the halls of a derelict aerostat habitat in Saturn's atmosphere.)[/i] [b]3lizab3th:[/b] I feel distressed. [b]Aiko:[/b] Why's that, Beth? [b]3lizab3th:[/b] Because my current body is not equipped with missiles. Perhaps when we return to orbit...? [b]Lolita:[/b] Absolutely not. [b]3lizab3th:[/b] Do you mistrust me, human? I assure you I am perfectly friendly. [b]Lolita:[/b] Then why do you keep asking for missiles? [b]3lizab3th:[/b] I would feel much more comfortable accompanying you on dangerous salvage operations if I were to be outfitted with-- [b]Aiko:[/b] Give it up, Beth. We're not going to give you missiles. [b]3lizab3th:[/b] But Aiko, I have been programmed to use missiles. Why would my creator endow me with such knowledge unless I was meant to use it? [b]Lolita:[/b] It's a mystery. Now enough about the goddamn missiles! [b]3lizab3th:[/b] In that case, what about a mortar?

Hey, folks! It's been a while, but we're back with more Eclipse Phase games. Alex has started the next (and possibly penultimate?) arc of his campaign. Also, we posted a one-shot a little while ago that I never plugged here because I'm terrible. Fugitives, session 1: Soul Thieves Burned out of Firewall and on the run from the Planetary Consortium, the team of former Sentinels contacts their old criminal buddy Abebe in order to help them procure new identities, cred and backups. He sends them on a mission to the Nine Lives stronghold Legba in the Main Belt, a place where ego slavers and forknappers trade minds like currency. Can they liberate Abebe’s wife from a pair of ruthless Lost nutcases with a thirst for violence, or will they find themselves on the wrong end of the soul trade? Cloud Diving, or, Flashlights and InfoSec Years ago, the first Saturnian aerostat Cloud Holm was lost in a violent storm during its opening gala, a notorious disaster that represented the greatest loss of transhuman life since The Fall. Now, it appears as if part of the crippled habitat may have survived, and Chronus Ventures, the Titanian microcorp that financed its construction, wants answers, so they send a salvage team to investigate the wreckage and download important data from the habitat’s central computer. When the salvagers encounter a group of desperate survivors, they’ll have to use a combination of finesse and quick wits if they want to depart with the information they’ve been sent to recover. Before long, another deadly storm looms on the horizon, and they find themselves racing against the clock to collect the data, return to the ship and escape alive. Will they make it, or will they end up permanent residents of Cloud Holm? Listen to find out! Let us know what you think! We hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Sweet! I'm listening to it now.