I have a few questions about creating characters. We already do know some things, but even then it leaves lots of questions up in the air.
1. I'm guessing that the game is going to have point-based creation. Can you tell us if there are going to be edges and flaws, like Shadowrun has? If so, what might they entail (since obviously certain edges and flaws wouldn't work in Eclipse Phase, like allergies).
2. It's obvious that most characters will be (trans)human, but does Eclipse Phase have the rules necessary to portray characters that aren't necessarily so? Perhaps a player wishes to be an AI (one of my game group thought it might be interesting if a person's muse could be another PC), or someone naturally born as a morph of some sort (the organic ones I assume can breed) with a mindset somewhat alien to most humans (even those who have resleeved as that morph)... will this be possible?
3. Since the game is skill based, it made me wonder if certain concepts from Shadowrun's skill system might be translated, such as Edge, skill groups, and similar goodies. Can we expect something similar? How many skills might we see in an Eclipse Phase skill group? Will there be something similar to knowledge skills?
1. I'm guessing that the game is going to have point-based creation. Can you tell us if there are going to be edges and flaws, like Shadowrun has? If so, what might they entail (since obviously certain edges and flaws wouldn't work in Eclipse Phase, like allergies).
2. It's obvious that most characters will be (trans)human, but does Eclipse Phase have the rules necessary to portray characters that aren't necessarily so? Perhaps a player wishes to be an AI (one of my game group thought it might be interesting if a person's muse could be another PC), or someone naturally born as a morph of some sort (the organic ones I assume can breed) with a mindset somewhat alien to most humans (even those who have resleeved as that morph)... will this be possible?
3. Since the game is skill based, it made me wonder if certain concepts from Shadowrun's skill system might be translated, such as Edge, skill groups, and similar goodies. Can we expect something similar? How many skills might we see in an Eclipse Phase skill group? Will there be something similar to knowledge skills?
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1. Yeah, it's point-based. There are positive and negative traits you can purchase, both for egos and for morphs (with some overlap). A lot of these are standard to what you'd expect to find in other RPGs, but there are a few explicit to the setting, such as familiarity with sleeving into certain morphs, having striking looks that separate you out from standard beauty, or having a look that falls into the "uncanny valley" where almost-human gets kind of creepy.
2. There aren't really rules for alien mind-sets in the core book, though you could certainly roleplay something like this. Most AIs and AGIs in the game are programmed and socialized to identify as transhuman. Same for uplifts. There are some rules for messing with minds via psychosurgery, but a lot of that ultimately rests on roleplaying as well.
3. There is a Moxie stat that is similar to Edge. There are no skill groups -- we originally playtested something like that, but it created complications with the skill purchasing so we dropped it. You can specialize in skills. There are both active and knowledge skills, like in SR, and you are required to spend a minimum number of points on knowledge skills.
I hope that helps!
Rob Boyle :: Posthuman Studios
Now with purchasing traits for your morph, are these tied directly to the body you have, so they are lost if you ever switch to a different body? In other words, is there an advantage to spending points on your morph that couldn't be gained by simply spending everything on upping your ego and then purchasing a better morph with money later?
Lastly, while I know what an AI is, and I can assume pretty easily what an AGI is (artificial genetic intelligence?), can I ask what an uplift is? I'm thinking an otherwise unintelligent creature, like dog or monkey, with their intelligence altered to be comparable to humans?
Yeah morph traits are specific that morph, so if you resleeve you lose those traits. So, yeah, it's a better deal to buy a trait for an ego, because that will stick with you from morph to morph, though ego traits are in most cases only acquired at character creation. An equivalent morph trait has the same cost, but the advantage is that you can acquire a morph with certain traits in gameplay.
When we use the term "AI," we generally mean narrow AI -- of human-level proficiency in its area of focus, but incapable of self-improvement. "AGI" is indeed artificial general intelligence, which is roughly of human-equivalent intelligence and capable of slow self-improvement. AGIs are a PC option.
Uplifts are animals modified and enhanced to human-level intelligence, yeah. In EP, this has been done with a few animals: gorillas, orangutans, chimps, ravens, grey parrots, octopi, dolphins, whales, pigs. Some of these are available for playing as PCs. Other animals have been uplifted to "smart animal" status, but are not playable as PCs.
Rob Boyle :: Posthuman Studios
Oh, that is so sweet. Gives me all sorts of ideas for character concepts. RELEASE THE GAME ALREADY!!! :D
That was a surya morph, which is specifically-designed to live in the solar corona. It's basically a body type that anyone can sleeve into and go swim around in the sun. As described in Sunward, a lot of dolphin and whale uplifts have gone for the surya lifestyle, meaning that they've resleeved from their original uplifted dolphin/whale bodies into surya morphs.
Uplifts can resleeve just like other transhumans. So you can start off as an octopus and end in a human, robot, or even a neo-avian morph.
Rob Boyle :: Posthuman Studios
Yep, uplifts can go all-digital infomorph or resleeve into other bodies. Likewise, AGIs can sleeve into human, bot, or uplift bodies. All such characters are treated the same when resleeving, though the differences between your original morph and what you're sleeving into may apply some modifiers.
Rob Boyle :: Posthuman Studios
Radioactive Ape Designs: ENnie and Indie Award nominated publisher of Atomic Highway!
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Radioactive Ape Designs: ENnie and Indie Award nominated publisher of Atomic Highway!
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Radioactive Ape Designs: ENnie and Indie Award nominated publisher of Atomic Highway!
http://radioactiveapedesigns.com
Radioactive Ape Designs: ENnie and Indie Award nominated publisher of Atomic Highway!
http://radioactiveapedesigns.com
Radioactive Ape Designs: ENnie and Indie Award nominated publisher of Atomic Highway!
http://radioactiveapedesigns.com
b) Morph and implant bonuses are not added until the very end -- they have no impact on CP costs.
Rob Boyle :: Posthuman Studios
Edit: Never mind, I just reread the character creation rules more carefully, heh... my bad for skimming it I guess
When buying skills, you buy *up* from the linked aptitude -- you don't have to buy the aptitude points over again. So if your aptitude is 15 and you buy a skill at 16, you've only spent 1 skill point.
Rob Boyle :: Posthuman Studios
This might seem like I'm saying that I dislike the system, which isn't true, I have jsut found some design decisions that seem to encourage a certain playstyle that I'm not sure I would want to encourage, which is rather obvious when one considers my post in the Weapons of the Future thread a few days past.
I mean, say, for instance, you were making a combat monkey, and you took just fray, unarmed combat, and your choice of ranged weapon at 80(the maximum) each. That is only 240 points, you also put, say, 60 total into perception, and, since you likely made savy your dump stat, have only 30 in networking, so you are at 330 points. Since, you say, you are making a combat character, you do not need anything else..and, so, go looking at all those combat implants, and cackle madly as you spend money rediculously...since, after all, you likely did everything you could to minimize the number of points you needed to put into combat skills...and, without a minimum in Knowledge Skills, you would likely not take any, since most people do Combat characters as dumb psychopaths. Since, after all, they are the hammer, and every problem becomes a nail.
Honestly, I like the minimums, as they require that you take something outside of a narrow concept, and, at the same time, require that you take knowledge skills.
Something else to consider, Nielk, is, since you have spent 45 points(20 points to also make teh character a Psi), and are saying that you now have no intention of spending any more points in skills, since you now have 16% chance of doing anything...where are you going to be putting the the 955 points you have remaining?
I admit that a player like that is probably going to run into the situation of too many points in most, if not all, categories... but some character concepts just can't spend that many points, I had to give, for example, a Scum salvager/tinkerer character extensive knowledge of engineering and mathematics just to make those 300 knowledge skill points. That's not the character I wanted to make, as I was going very much for a self-taught 'bang things and stick them together with duct tape till they do something interesting' type of character, and it ends up looking like he got an engineering degree from MIT.
Granted, there are other knowledge skill categories, but really, there's only so many fields that you can fit on a certain character concept before it's silly, and even loading them up on languages (how many septilingual people do you know?) or interests makes for a slightly oddball looking character. Granted the times where I've made certain characters I easily spent the required points minimums but they do force people into creating well-educated professionals, rather than a practical hands-on type with little academic experience, or a learned intellectual with minimal physical prowess. Or crazy psychics who stay away from people and don't fight, doing what they're told only with a lot of cajoling, hehe ;)
I thought in the beginning (like everyone seems to do in that rpg.net-character building-forum-thread) that you have to spend 400 CP for active skills and 300 CP for knowledge skills. Ok, skill minimums, not that happy about it but at least the characters will have some skills.
But in the thread was said that it is not necessary to spend 400 CP in active skill points but that you need 400 skill points and because you can get those already with a mere 25 CP the minimum total amount of active skill points just doesn't make sense.
Once more the minimum says that you need 400 skill points not that you have to spend 400 CP. A big big difference.