weavermount wrote:

Hello I was really excited when I found this game, but honestly "From the creators of SR4" didn't inspire much confidence in me. I couldn't stand the SR4 matrix rules. For my they failed to sufficiently encapsulate the factious system or model the genre conventions and fluff. I wont go into that further on a different game's boards(I fought that fight on Dumpshock for years). I made SR work for me largely by ignoring and abstracting the matrix rules but that doesn't seem to be an option for this game. So my question is this: if you didn't like matrix might you like the mesh? Also I did search for this thread and couldn't find it. If I missed, apologies.

Eclipse Phase's handling of the Mesh is far more abstract from the mechanics of the Matrix. For instance, rather than software replacing your attributes for your pools (like in Shadowrun), software simply allows you to make certain hacking or mesh actions, with superior or inferior software granting modifiers. The d100 mechanics of the game are significantly more fluid and faster-running than a dice pool mechanic, but it doesn't have the same feel in statistics... so you may like it more, may like it less. One major difference is that matrix users do not have an extra set of stats to handle; there is no "system health", nor software attributes to play with. This also extends to AIs and AGIs (the Eclipse Phase equivalent to Agents/IC and AIs respectively) who have the same statblocks as every other character in the game, and don't have stats like Firewall, Response or System to toy with. Setting-wise, VR is handled quite a bit differently. For one thing, you cannot hack in VR. All hacking tasks are done via AR. In VR (or as it is known, simulspace), play is treated similarly to Ultraviolet nodes in Shadowrun; you use the same skills in VR that you do in real life. Also, you cannot surf the web in VR (though while in a simulspace, the virtual world can provide you a browser with which you can still interact with the net... but it is nothing like in Shadowrun). As such, there are no metaphor programs, reality filters, and the Mesh is generally very similar to the internet today. Also unlike VR in Shadowrun (and hacking in Shadowrun in general), biofeedback is not a risk in a simulspace. Any pain and injury, no matter how severe, does not translate to physical injury to your real body (of course, your mind doesn't know that, and being tortured in VR is just as traumatic as torture in real life). This is not to say that you cannot create feedback, but it isn't a threat of VR ("scorchers" are programs used for cyberbrain hacking which are designed to cause damaging neurofeedback... mental, not physical, damage). Dumpshock still occurs from VR (if forced out without preparation, as always), but does not cause physical harm. All in all it is more akin to the internet, far more immersive but not [i]as[/i] immersive as the Matrix. One of the best parts of this is that much of the knowledge you might have about how the internet works translates far better into how the Mesh works, than it does to the Matrix. One disadvantage is that the Mesh isn't as big a threat to you or your enemies' lives as the Matrix can be. This means no real lethal combat between hackers, and hackers might be a more difficult fight... Mesh combat is more akin to two people trying to hack into each other's systems, than a sword fight where each character exchanges injurious blows. Take of that what you will. I hope it answers your questions.

standard_gravity wrote:

I understand what you are trying to say but still feel inclined to add that in the one EP campaign I've been running a lot of the conflicts have been centered around the mesh and many have been resolved simply through the mesh. It's not that the PCs/NPCs have been directly hurting each other [i]in[/i] the mesh, but [i]per[/i] the mesh. Examples include preventing/ensuring access to habitat sections, turning off/on automated (meshed) weapons, taking control over meshed bots, destroying servers etc.

Of course. Mesh combat is more subtle, and has more to do with control than force. Whether you control their system, control the area, or control a group of bots that you reprogram to shoot at him, control is the bigger factor. And when I say it's not lethal, I mean [i]directly[/i] lethal as Shadowrun was. A smart hacker can shut down an enemy hacker's life support system on his ship, or force him on a crash course and lock his controls, or set his smartgun to fire the minute they are in front of the barrel. It can still be indirectly lethal, but you have to be a bit more crafty to make it so... it isn't like the Matrix, where you can use an attack program in a Matrix fight like you would a gun in a real fight. It is literally a different battlefield.