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Extremely condensed primer

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Baribal Baribal's picture
Extremely condensed primer
The question "So, what is Eclipse Phase about?" may be a little laborious to answer, and IMO it takes quite a bit of reading to get a sufficiently firm grasp to play like a native (unless you're playing one of those poor guys whose brain got scrambled in the first upload experiments, and who could only recently be reconstructed; Or if you're an AGI designed by some learning hobbyist, and are completely without episodic knowledge). Therefore I have created this quick write-up, which touches on the most important concepts that a Sentinel would be aware of, and which should get a contemporary human into the right mind space. I've even included a few factoids that I thought weren't spelled out clearly enough in the books, and a few others which I couldn't remember off the top of my head if my life depended on it. Consider it "Eclipse Phase - The Elevator Pitch." I know, the timeline is in shambles. I'm assembling it while dredging through the books for another project, writing equally concise notes on all the places, polities, organizations and factions. Other than that, comments?
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Morgan's Butchery | Body bank, morph individualization and upgrades | Psychotherapy and Psychosurgery, therapeutic and recreational | http://eclipsephase.com/comment/59484#comment-59484
SquireNed SquireNed's picture
I'd normally be the last
I'd normally be the last person to say this, but it seems like you've leaned a little heavily on the Ultimates; they have a lot of sections on that timeline.
Baribal Baribal's picture
See what I mean by "That
See what I mean by "That timeline is a mess"? I've started that other project with "Rimwards", and there's comparatively much historical data on the Ultimates in there, especially with actual dates (How the #### is the Battle of Locus undated? It was quite a big deal!); I haven't even started the base book yet (except for some notes from a long time ago, that I based this project on), so that timeline will fill up.
Morgan's Butchery | Body bank, morph individualization and upgrades | Psychotherapy and Psychosurgery, therapeutic and recreational | http://eclipsephase.com/comment/59484#comment-59484
Dilf_Pickle Dilf_Pickle's picture
Informative and succinct
Very nice. It could be made denser, but probably at the cost of some narrative feel. And there was some stuff in there that I had either glossed over or forgotten but which are actually pretty important, like 1/3 of all infomorphs not even wanting a morph. Thanks!
Baribal Baribal's picture
Dilf_Pickle wrote:Very nice.
Dilf_Pickle wrote:
Very nice. It could be made denser, but probably at the cost of some narrative feel.
Then I seem to have hit the right balance with the text. Could use more factoids though, IMO (and of course more timeline).
Morgan's Butchery | Body bank, morph individualization and upgrades | Psychotherapy and Psychosurgery, therapeutic and recreational | http://eclipsephase.com/comment/59484#comment-59484
CordialUltimate2 CordialUltimate2's picture
I recommend you leave the
I recommend you leave the timeline out of the primer. It doesn't add much in the way of understanding the setting, and I just skipped it. If you want it to be useful for new players create technological timeline before the fall (for better understanding which tech is new and what is estabilished), and really basic political timeline AF. EDIT: That's the feedback. As for opinion: it is something I would give to my fellow players starting the adventure with EP right now. Good Job!
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GenehackedGynoid GenehackedGynoid's picture
I agree about the history
I agree about the history section favoring the Ultimates in a way that feels conspicuous. Other than that, nicely done on this overall. I will likely have to keep this on hand.
Baribal Baribal's picture
I have updated the timeline
I have updated the timeline with bits from that in the basic rulebook, and shuffled around the primer's sections to improve the reading flow a bit. I'm still pretty sure I haven't mentioned quite a few important or interesting factoids yet, so please do feel free to make suggestions. Also, if people are interested, I can put this on GitHub, so you can suggest via pull requests. EDIT: Actually, I can think of a few things myself already, although I don't know yet how best to jam them into the primer. The major power blocs should be mentioned. In particular, the Autonomist Alliance is not alluded to beyond "Titan was colonized". That brings me to a few questions that I can't answer off the top of my head: * When was Extropia opened, and was that the first major instance of anarcho-capitalism being practiced within EP's timeline? * When did the Anarchists become so powerful? Even with the Fall being an opportunity to proselytize, as many habitat's offsite support structure has fallen away, there must have been some far earlier efforts to spread it, and establish places like Locus? * What exactly is the distinguishing feature between Anarchists and Scum? Is it that Scum practice old economy with outsiders? Or are Scum simply more freewheeling Anarchists?
Morgan's Butchery | Body bank, morph individualization and upgrades | Psychotherapy and Psychosurgery, therapeutic and recreational | http://eclipsephase.com/comment/59484#comment-59484
Noble Pigeon Noble Pigeon's picture
Baribal wrote:I have updated
Baribal wrote:
I have updated the timeline with bits from that in the basic rulebook, and shuffled around the primer's sections to improve the reading flow a bit. I'm still pretty sure I haven't mentioned quite a few important or interesting factoids yet, so please do feel free to make suggestions. Also, if people are interested, I can put this on GitHub, so you can suggest via pull requests. EDIT: Actually, I can think of a few things myself already, although I don't know yet how best to jam them into the primer. The major power blocs should be mentioned. In particular, the Autonomist Alliance is not alluded to beyond "Titan was colonized". That brings me to a few questions that I can't answer off the top of my head: * When was Extropia opened, and was that the first major instance of anarcho-capitalism being practiced within EP's timeline? * When did the Anarchists become so powerful? Even with the Fall being an opportunity to proselytize, as many habitat's offsite support structure has fallen away, there must have been some far earlier efforts to spread it, and establish places like Locus? * What exactly is the distinguishing feature between Anarchists and Scum? Is it that Scum practice old economy with outsiders? Or are Scum simply more freewheeling Anarchists?
1. Extropia opened shortly before the Fall, if memory serves correctly. 2. I'm sure there were attempts, but the Fall was the biggest opportunity for many people to get away from the battered inner system factions, who were simply too busy trying to contain the TITAN threat (or were far more interested in attacking each other than they were going after the social rejects of the solar system). 3. The way I understand it, scum tend to travel more around the system, anarchists tend to be more insular and isolated. Not to say that places like Locus make contact with other polities and there aren't anarchists that travel, but as a whole they simply want to be left alone and do their own thing. They don't really have the resources to do much of anything else...unless, again, you're Locus. While the scum could be considered lifestyle anarchists, they don't really have a unifying belief unless it's "do whatever, man". Calling them anarchists to their face would just elicit a shrug; they're not really interested in labels. At least, that's how I portray them anyway. Traveling space hippies with varying levels of eccentric behaviors with no interest in politics outside their own fleet or ship, or preying on other people...unless they're scum pirates, in which case stay away. Unless they're scum cosplaying as pirates. In which case...well, that's up to you at that point.
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