Hello Catalyst Game Labs and Eclipse Phase devs!
One of the comment I've read on RPG.net and the Dumpshock forums about Eclipse Phase and its core book was the lack of an introduction adventure. While I understand the book is already 400 pages big and had little space for an adventure, it would be somewhat helpful to help GM understand what kind of things the players are supposed to do; the kind of adventures they will go through.
In Shadowrun, the players take mercenary jobs in a struggle against factions such as corps or mobs; in C. of Cthulhu, the PCs investigate paranormal mysteries linked with the great horrors and contribute to the earth being yet another day free of Great Ancients' influence. In Dark Heresy, PCs investigate and hunt heresy for the Imperium Inquisition. What about Eclipse Phase? While I understand it might be quite "freeform", I suspect -considering the intro page of the website, for instance- that the game was developped with one style of adventure in mind more than the others. And for that purpose, I strongly believe helping GMs see what this category of adventure consists in, how a typical Eclipse Phase adventure is built, could help them in creating their owns afterwards.
—
"What do monsters have nightmares about?
-Me!"
-Mme. De Pompadour and The Doctor, the Girl in the Fireplace, Dr. Who.
There was originally an adventure in the core book but it was cut for space, and will be appearing as a booklet in the EP GM Screen instead.
We have plans to put other adventures online as well, including one in the forthcoming QSR and the two adventures we ran this year at GenCon.
Rob Boyle :: Posthuman Studios
1. Devise an unpleasant encounter with the team's Firewall contact that will make them paranoid and cause them to question whether transhumanity is really worth saving.
2. Kill the characters. At once. Like, in the first encounter.
3. Have them wake up with missing time, in unsatisfactory morphs (synethic, gender-swapped, glitched, or what have you). Their Firewall contact may or may not contact them on the mesh to harangue them for failing, but in either case they now have to either:
a) do the mission over,
b) travel across the solar system in pursuit of their quarry, who egocast away and resleeved while they were dead,
or, c) go after a third target (examples: their Firewall contact, one of the PC's exes, a seemingly unconnected crime figure) who, it was revealed while they were dead, is somehow connected!
4. En route to their final goal, the PCs encounter something alien and horrific (a room made of sinew, cannibal babies, a boy band sleeved in neotenic morphs) that erodes their sanity, tries to kill them, and probably provokes either a lot of brute force hacking tests, a firefight, or both.
5. If they survive 4, a final encounter ensues in which the PCs are most likely blown into hamburger, driven insane by exsurgent async powers, or eaten by the exhuman who just rolled them. There is also the possibility that they win, which generous GMs should allow from time to time.
Anyway, I wrote the one in the GM screen, and it's kind of like that. ;)
Brian wrote two others, which we put on at Gen Con (and I think will go on at some other cons, too -- Rob is going to France, and I'll be at Arisia in Boston). Don't know if there are plans to release them yet.Brian Cross
Posthuman Studios
The Eternal Story Guide
Why on earth would you want to kill your players' characters off, especially in an intro adventure, in the first encounter? Not only causing them to lose the morph (considering you said about putting them in unsatisfactory synths or low-level bios), but some if not all the gear they paid for at character creation? Granted, EP has very few ways of causing permanent death, but no GM should be aiming to kill their players characters every session, regardless of how temporary or otherwise the situation is. In my opinion that's terrible GMing.
This game is not Paranoia, at least I don't think so, and I doubt the devs wanted it to feel that way. 'Generous GMs should allow them to win from time to time'? Seriously, what kind of GM only lets their players win SOME of the time? Now, of course they shouldn't win perfectly ALL the time but come on... roleplaying isn't about GM vs. players, which is what you really are making this sound like from this post. Okay, we all have our own opinions about how to run games, and this is mine. There is no point in writing an intro adventure that leaves people feeling like they can't accomplish anything, after all, their opinion is then likely to fall into 'Well what's the point if nothing I do works?'
Bit of a rant there, but I seriously disagree with this as anything vaguely resembling an adventure for any serious roleplaying game session...
Let me just make sure I'm understanding you.
I've finally gotten my friends together and convinced them to play a new game. They just spent a few hours making characters. Some of them might have gotten flats or cases, but likely some of them have spent 100+ cp on getting an awesome fury with a few nice mods, or maybe they're really excited about playing their octomorph.
I should then, in the very first encounter, take away all their morphs and all their gear without any hope of avoiding this, and stick them all in whatever I want.
That's what kind of game you're saying this is?
Awesome deal for the players in flats and cases, but the guy who spent bp on a nice morph just got really screwed. I understand that this may be a getting-screwed kind of game, but I feel like players who just sank 10% of their cp on something, or were really excited about playing a particular exotic morph (even if they were warned that death and resleeving will happen) will feel pretty screwed if this happens first thing, and due to no failure of their own. Maybe my friends aren't masochistic enough for this game?
Wouldn't it maybe be better to just kill one or two of them right out of the gate? (I can't believe I'm suggesting that as a generous compromise!)
With all due respect to both yourself and the forum rules, you suck hard at this.
Wow. That's an adventure I'd have zero interest in playing. It screams railroading from the beginning, and no matter how you might decorate it with EPs transhuman flair, I'd still step away from the table.
really? i dont think its that bad. lots of people use introductions or adventures that strip players down to bare essentials, rob them, imprison them, enslave them, or whatever. the adventure is then escaping.
if it was an introduction, i would either provide them with pre-gens or just have them make egos with no morphs. maybe dont even hand out characters or roll any dice until the proper adventure begins, so people understand that its an interactive introduction and not some failing of theirs as players that they're dying.
when the adventure ends (if it wasnt just a one-shot) the players should have enough reward to re-purchase whatever equipment was lost, plus whatever reward there should be for the scenario.
i can understand that people that enjoy maximizing their stats, bonuses, and equipment probably wouldnt enjoy the kind of problem solving, but they wouldnt play with this kind of GM, and this kind of GM wouldnt enjoy playing with them. its a self solving problem.
I thought the outline sounds about right too. Eclipse Phase is a game intensely NOT about gear. Seems like a good way to make players realize how things are in Eclipse Phase. Have your body blown to bits, and resleave. At which point everyone goes "Ahhh!". Of course the GM has to "get it" first.
Eclipse Phase can certainly be played as a game about gear - saying that it's hardwired into the design of the game to be the opposite is incorrect. If the GM 'gets it' to run it this way, that doesn't mean it's the only way (or even the preferred way) to do it. If his players disagree with the way the GM 'gets it' then there are going to be problems, and the GM is not necessariliy correct if his version conflicts with the majority of those at the table. In some cases, the players don't go "Ahhh!" they go "Oh. Really? I'm done with this. Next time we'll play a different game, right?" and majority will rule.