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Players identifying with their morphs

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Tue, 2010-04-20 08:23

Smokeskin

Players identifying with their morphs

A player makes a character, selects a morph, gets the implants he wants. This signifies how you look and what you can do. So, many missions, they're going to get egocasted to some remote location, sleeved in a new morph. Or they're going to die and lose their starting morph. I'm very curious how players respond to this. How much does players identify with their morphs? Do you expect to get to run around in that morph most of the time? Do you expect to get a similar morph when you're egocasted around (at least most of the time, I think everyone can see a niche for missions where everyone is going gatecrashing in reapers or infiltrating in flats)? Do you expect to get an identical morph from backup? Do you think the cool thing about EP is that you're not using the same body, or do you expect to get lots of different morphs but wish you could stick with the one you really like? How do those of you who GM handle it, and what do your players think of it?

Tue, 2010-04-20 08:31

Ramidel

Re: Players identifying with their morphs

As a player, I personally assume my morph is a part of my usual gear. For most missions, I'll be using this morph, to a similar extent that I'd be using my +5 Sword of Demon Stabbity in D&D. On an occasional mission, I'll need to use something different (usually provided by someone else), and that's fine. However, something that needs to be front-and-centered in Eclipse Phase like it usually isn't in D&D: you can lose your morph without losing your ego. D&D players rarely "lose" majorly valuable items (they win or die, usually win), but if your super-tweaked Remade gets splattered in a mission gone wrong, you're out that morph and a lot of money. Thus, an adventurer needs to obey the axiom I dropped in the other thread: "only fly what you can afford to lose." If all your money is tied up in one morph and you lose it without insurance, enjoy life as an infomorph!

Tue, 2010-04-20 20:49

Cloud and Water Cloud and Water's picture

Re: Players identifying with their morphs

I think this is one of those things that varies widely based on what type of game you're playing. Unless you're campaign is limited to a relatively small region, like a single planet and its moons or one of the trojan clusters, the morph you started in may get very little to no use. I think the above poster is right in that morphs would be thought of as possessions, and accepting that "possessions are fleeting" is probably a very healthy attitude to have as a firewall operative ;).

Sun, 2010-04-25 21:20

Sepherim

Re: Players identifying with their morphs

This is one of the things my players had most trouble adapting to. And even now, they always plan their voyages in time, so they can get roughly similair bodies wherever they are going. Still, they have accepted the RP parts of it rather way, and change their looks as they change bodies, and all that.

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Wed, 2010-04-28 00:36

Dry Observer Dry Observer's picture

Re: Players identifying with their morphs

It's actually rather tricky, as anyone psychologically invested in radical personal enhancement is going to want to end up in a morph with advanced capabilities, especially in anything they're particularly good at. So a scientist or inventor may want a heavily augmented Menton or Remade morph, a networker/manipulator may want a Sylph and so forth. Even infomorphs are not immune to this problem, especially among the more potent uploads and AIs -- a Seed AI requires a lot of processing power for its primary consciousness, and even the delta fork or pared down shard of a Promethean or a Titan is apt to overwhelm anything short of a [b]very[/b] hefty chunk of computronium. And, a side concern not always discussed -- to transmit your core consciousness to another location not under your control is in many ways a tremendous act of faith and a phenomenal risk, especially to anyone who knows secrets worth stealing or who has gifts worth exploiting. A Seed AI may [b]never[/b] transmit their mind to a location not under their direct or indirect control, or at least only to the most trusted of allies. The consequences of gaining control of even a small piece of a Promethean or Titan, or even a Firewall Proxy or a Project Ozma director are staggering in their implications.

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