Cardul wrote:

www.catalystgamelabs.com has their 1st quarter 2010 releases..The GM screen and Sunward are listed among them.

Much appreciated. Just so I don't come off as illiterate, I posted that a few days before Catayst posted their Q1 releases.

An interesting question. I think it's the atmosphere of the setting.. that the universe is vast, dark, and very uncaring.. And that there things out there that have no regard for transhumanities existence.. let alone well being. Also, consider the TITAN's.. they created foating buzzsaw robots that cut off your head and spirit it away to download your mind for some mysterious unknown purpose. Stuff like that. I suppose its an interesting to me, because it's a matter of how you define horror. If those sort of themes don't qualify as horrific, I wonder what does? That's not a personal challenge to you, but just food for thought. I concede, Eclipse Phase thus far has been mre of a thinking persons brand of horror, rather than splattergore.

Nice! Soon we will have more material! :) As for horror, isn't the terrible "evolution" of mankind horrible enough, with questions on the table like "what is it really to be human?" or "am I still myself after dying and being placed into a new morph?" or the other many that appear in this context?

standard_gravity wrote:

We have to be careful it doesn't evolve into Vampires in space suits though ;)

One of my players asked if there was vampires in EP. I said "sure, there are people who put biomods to have spiky teeth, a different metabolism, dependence on human blood and a skin that melts in contact with UVs. Everyone laughs at them though. Why do you ask ? wanna play one ? :evil grin:" ** SPOILERS ** By the way, some exhumans seems to have a lot in common with the usual vampire themes : superority, different agenda, predation, denial of their human nature, etc... About the horror theme, I think it is quite present by the juxtaposition of two different universes. When you look at the transhuman civilization, either in the copr inner system our in the outside @ system, life is pretty comfortable. Sure, one can be indentured and poor but it is hard to not be immortal and not fed in the setting. Pretty dandy. Players come from this comfortable universe and what do they learn ? There are things worse than now-cured death, transhumanity is walking on a very thin line to avoid exctinctions, and outside the realm of the quiet comfy habitats, lurk things that could wipe Mars overnight. On a purely game mechanics, the horror setting is quite enforced by the fact that mental traumas are harder to heal than flesh wounds.

Well, as to horror, there's the fact that the vast majority of the human race is now dead OR POSSIBLY WORSE after the TITAN uprising, we can't be sure the factors ar telling the truth or just sizing up humanity for extermination, we have no idea what happened to the TITANs and what they're up to, is the race that created the exsurgent virus still around, what is the exsurgent virus up to, are there more bracewell probes on their way and humanity and it's descendants are still fighting among themselves in the light of all that. Pretty dam scary setting, if you ask me....

It's on the boat, but won't even reach port until May, and it will then take a few weeks to work its way into distribution. The current situation between Posthuman and CGL may create some delays too, though we're doing our best to sort it out and get things out quickly.

September?! the email I got from Amazon says mid-May (that'd be funny if it was delivered at the same time as the Storyteller Guide for Mage the Awakening! lol. did some Acanthus smartass cast a covert Time+Fate Perfecting spell on it and failed to tell me??) Are you sure it's for the Screen and not Sunward? Although I'm looking forward it too! I've re-read Mind the WMD, and realised it was a bit too straight forward for my group. between Vampire, Kult, Kuro and Humanidyne, we're used to turtuous and devious adventures. I think I'll make them work it out and figure by themselves with Gray Yu got her stuff. And before, on the Barge learn where and when that auction will take place. Let them meet, maybe even befriend G.Y. before the auction. The treason will be stinging all the more deeply, that way I'm making her something between ME2's Arya T'Loak and SGU's Dr Rush. "Yes, I'm the chief of the Anara Arabella's crew, their captain. Their queen, if you're feeling melodramatic!" I might add some of Reileen Kawahara in the mix, too, but not too much. all of my players have read Altered Carbon, and that might raise some flagg before she reveals herself. I'm wondering, though (and that's the reason why I mentioned MTWMD here) is the scenario sold with the screen a continuation of Mind, or is it stand alone (inside Iiii stand alloooone!) I have a little idea who might be the mysterious third party, though I'm introducing a group of my own (picture the Hellfire Club meeting Gorillah Grodd's gang and Ultra Humanite and you have an idea).

Quincey Forder wrote:

September?! the email I got from Amazon says mid-May

Amazon is often a little strange about upcoming release dates. Please just pay attention to our site for release dates instead of Amazon. :)

I did the same Saturday. for the same pack. I think I'll run Glory before Mind the WMD, though I'll boost them both some and intertwine them together. for exemple, introducing Gray as possible contact/ally for the PCs, and with a more glamourous morph than the one describe, either a furry, Splicer or Pleasure Pod, I'm not sure yet. Something as seductive as the hawt Asari femmes fatale Samara and Anyara from ME2. Her betrayal toward them will be all the more stinging. "Find solace in the arms of the goddess..." riiiight Saddistic? mooiii? I like the idea of the thailandese theme going there. it changes from the Chinese or Japanese, though the names, aside the one of the gang, is a real tongue twister for me. how big is that ship, actually? the mental picture I got from it is the ship from Pandorum (oh Eywa, I love that movie! these creatures just scream Exsurgent Virus everytime I see them!) that scene with the Firewall executive... that reminded me when Bauer and his group were in the cryotanks zone, and the poor chap awakened just in time to be served as lunch... Oh I'm so gonna watch it again!

Sunchaser wrote:

I know Eclipse Phase has elements of personal horror...but I have a hard time accepting it as a dark hopeless setting that is usually associated with horror games. The Solar System has just passed through a grim war for survival...but what you get out of it is a new era. The universe is opened up and there for the taking, death and disease are banished, technology and society has reached a point where no one need be poor or deprived. Sure...you got TITANS running around, dangerous viruses, and the usual lunatic fringe that makes life miseralble for everyone. But its not substantially more horrifying than the specter of nuclear war, terrorists dumping toxins in the city water supply, or the usual banes of disease and starvation that afflict us now. The universe may not care...but that also means it doesn't hold grudges. Anyway...its a great setting! I hope to seriously play it one of these days rather than just read about it.

Actually, I find the core setting to be relatively positive and upbeat, at least as much so as the modern day and perhaps more so. While many still hope to return to the homeworld we lost, many fully embrace the spacebound life they now live. However, the players are not just standard denizens within the system... they are Firewall agents who have essentially been introduced to the horrors that most know nothing about, and have to battle the nightmares that threaten humanity with no one else the wiser. Ironically, I find this very akin to the Lovecraftian horror that inspires it. As horrific as the Cthulhu mythos is, only those in the know truly feel that it's a crapsack world. To the rest of humanity, everything is as it should be and there are no monstrosities lurking past the stars who threaten us merely with their attention. Eclipse Phase's setting feels very much like this.

Quincey Forder wrote:

how big is that ship, actually?

The station in Glory or the ships in NMWMD? The station in Glory isn't too huge -- a few hundred meters, if I remember correctly. To use other sci-fi referents, in NMWMD, Grey Xiu's ship is a freighter -- probably a bit bigger than the ship in Firefly (but a very different design). The scum barge is, hmm, probably Galactica-sized; it has a ton of people living on it.

Hi, do you have an update on release date for the hardcopy? Thanks

Make sense, Thanks

Its been like that for a little while now, at least a week or so. When I went to the page last week I saw it and mistook it for Sunward. I got excited and then less so.

NO! How do I get a copy?! ;) (Seriously, though, I don't have my author copies yet... so you may trust that we are not keeping them hidden away in the Posthuman Studios SEKRET WAREHOUSE).

Ugh...Amazon still has this one listed as unavailable.

Good to know! Thanks.

I know who has them! it's Mrs Frederic! she has to! can you fetch Pete and Myka on her for us, please? (oh and Claudia Donnavan's phone number, too, while you're at it?) more seriously, I can't wait to get it!

Little question: has the GM screen reached retailers shelves yet? I've contacted a game store in Paris,but they haven't received it yet, though they follow the gameline. At least they do retail the game, no gameshop in Brussels, and neighbouring cities don't even have it distributed to them my friend in San Diego also told me that at Game Empire they don't know anything about release of the GM screen (or Sunward, for the matter), and to contact on Thursday

RobBoyle wrote:

FYI, Sunward will be in stores in the US Sept. 1st.

Awesome!

The EP Gamemaster's Pack has a revised street date of September 1st; the same day as Sunward. We apologize for hitting your wallet twice in the same day. ;-)

If you placed your order in March, Amazon will likely cancel your order when they finally process the updated GM Pack information; since the ISBN changed, it's an entirely different product from the one Catalyst was going to release. When Amazon has updated info and has our GM Pack available to order, we'll post about it. Amazon is _always_ a "when Amazon does it, we'll let you know, but it's really hard to predict what they'll do and when they'll do it" sort of situation. Just keep watching them, or wait for us to tell you about it, please.