On the Kepler, it is said that ops center (#4 page 6) was ejected, right? Then how do the characters reach the computer bay (#5 page 6)? is there a corridor that links the pods to the greenhouse? a three dimensional illustration of the station would help. Also there is no indication of how high the station is? is there one level? two? three? four? Seeing the size of ships like the ones in Cargo (excellent german sci-fi flick made with a rather small budget) or Pandorum, I could see multi level, with ladder between each level and a big open space in sectors like the cargo bay or the fusion station. Imagine a game of hide and seek between the crates in zero gravity. Also, in the Istari where are the main propulsion thruster and the bridge? I have a bit difficulty to determine where is the prow and where is the aft? And on which different level they are. Look at the cover, we see that the Istari is like an ensemble of buildings assembled together at different heights.

so the Istari could be described more or less like the ISV Venture Star of Avatar fame? Though I think a better look would be the freighter in Cargo [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZnLZmfwbhU&feature=related[/url]. Small living quarters, lots of place for whatever freight

that's the beauty of the Exsurgent virus: even if you get rid of the physical vector, there's still the digital one to worry about! Nezumi could you give us a general timeline of the event between the backups and the resleeving of the characters? I think that would be very helpful about the Kepler and the Istari, we have the size in two dimensions, but what about the third one? since it's zero-g, the characters could move all around, and their movement rate would apply on that vector as well. That would really give something very interesting to play. like said in the Lunar Stadium there, quite like Ender's Game's Battle Room

Thank you. I try not to advertise. I get a little shy. Lessee, the timeline... The backups were made about 2 weeks before the adventure starts. The characters headed on out. It took about a week to reach the Istari, which must have been pretty dull. It's about 5 days between the characters reaching the Istari and the resleeving process beginning. Not a lot of details on those 5 days. Unfortuantely, the precise order is probably dependant on what sort of PCs are in your group. If it's one dude and he's sort of crazy, well his previous self probably barged straight in, ate all the algae chips, got sick and died right away, and the Istari only got around to sending the message off more recently. A more thoughtful group would probably take a while to search around the ship, carefully enter, set up defensive perimeters and such, and would die slowly and painfully over the course of several days. As the GM, you'll want to make up the Awesome story of how the PCs entered, suffered and died (note: describing a PC's body as caught on a giant, alien spike, his mouth full of algae chips will probably not contribute to the drama of the adventure). Hans's plight is pretty elastic. He's been intentionally isolating himself. His resleeving the characters is an act of desperation, and purely reactionary. It could be he was waiting patiently for all five days, and only got infected half an hour before he started the resleeving process, or he could have gotten hit right away and has been cloistered away, watching the situation and calculating (using gradually crazier and crazier numbers) the best response. The Istari habitat is literally like a saddle. Above it is the Kepler shuttle (which is upside down, docked roof-to-roof). Underneath you have at least one utility tunnel. That's all inside, where there's atmosphere. Once you step outside, the Istari is built around a central spine. At the fore is the meteor shield and a magnetic scoop for catching volatiles. It's still active, so you probably want to steer clear. The middle is a big, fat bunch of bubbles for holding different valuable elements and chemicals. Sometimes the tanks are opened to provide thrust, which could provide a surprising death for anyone nearby. The fusion generator is buried towards the aft, and will probably have some remote-operated drones for doing repairs in there. The rear has your fusion exhaust, which is also still running, so probably not a good place to hang out. Overall the ship is fat and dumpy. It's for picking up cosmic litter for recycling. 99% of it is inaccessible, but you can walk around the outside, and there are plenty of nooks and crannies for things to jump out at you. Because it's a complex of containment tanks, there is space between them for people to climb through if they wanted. The Kepler shuttle is meant to operate solely in a vacuum, so it doesn't need a lot of power. It's like an SLOTV, except smaller and not as good. It has chemical engines, a bit of storage space, and just enough equipment to keep the characters alive for a month or so. Everything would be accessible for easy repair. The Kepler is a bit more open. The purpose of the station will need to fit the reason the characters are stuck there. The greenhouse, labs and fusion generator all will likely occupy a fair chunk of space, and you're going to have a lot of equipment on the outside. In fact, given the size difference between the two, if the characters find themselves fighting hostiles on board the Kepler, they will probably be in a much worse position. The Kepler offers more space, more cover, and is more fragile (since it's not made to fly after comets). As a GM, if I were comfortable with portraying a 3D environment, that's where I'd focus on it (and you can adjust the timeline to accomodate - if the Istari docks earlier, the bad stuff has more time to come find you). If you're a GM who is not comfortable with 3D, well... Sorry. It already is 3D enough that you're probably going to have some head aches. As for long-range communications - The Istari is made to be very independent. At its zenith, every message will take about 1 year to get home, and 1 year to get back. Egocasting would be impossible. In fact, radio transmissions in general would be difficult. It's important to remember that the higher the bandwidth, the larger the receiver you need at greater distances (due to the inverse square law). To counteract this, the Istari will need a much lower-frequency, lower-bandwidth communications method. That will be fine for text messages or service data, but would be too limiting for egocasting or spreading complex nanoplagues. Additionally, the loss of fidelity may adversely affect the aural hack. The end result is, while the Istari can transmit the virus by radio waves, it will be limited by distance. This is why the PCs play such a critical role - out where they are now, the Istari doesn't have much in range. But as it gets closer to inhabited space, the possibility of infection goes up drastically.

20 metres is approx. 66 feet. So maybe about six stories and a bit.

How would the PCs close the airlock before it empties? It says 1 hour till the air is gone and the task time to close the airlock due to the barrier is 1 hour. I'm confused, what did I miss?

Major spoilers incoming. More general (and pretty minor ;) ) questions on Continuity: [list=1] [*] On p.10, it mentions closed airlocks and sealed airlocks. I don't see anything specifically mentioned as to how the sealed ones were sealed, so I'll just treat these as keypad e-locks (p.291 core rules) unless someone knows better. [*]Throughout the adventure there are various robots who can be utilised by the GM. Are there any default AI aptitudes/skills for these? Otherwise - if it's ever needed - I'll just assume an aptitude score of 10 by default and 15 in specific aptitudes for whatever job they were for.[*] In p.7 Life Support it mentions 'struggling to regenerate the lost atmosphere' on the Istari. What lost atmosphere? Suspect I've missed something. [*] As I understand it, the number of Exsurgents should be equal to the number of characters since the original Istari crew are dead (with one informorph). However the adventure mentions a total of 9 - 2 docking spar, 3 recycling, 2 ops center, 1 shuttle, 1 missile storage. Before I cut these down to my group size of 4 (in places maximised for dramatic effect of course) is there anything i'm missing?[/list] Thanks in advance :)

Dramatic Exit wrote:

[*] On p.10, it mentions closed airlocks and sealed airlocks. I don't see anything specifically mentioned as to how the sealed ones were sealed, so I'll just treat these as keypad e-locks (p.291 core rules) unless someone knows better.

The airlocks in the Kepler were closed to prevent contamination (and as a general security precaution. I would assume that airlocks in any habitat vulnerable to breaching are, by default, closed.) They would have keypad e-locks (in addition to the normal mesh interface, although the mesh interface is obviously unavailable at the time of the adventure). They shouldn't be considered 'locked' unless you feel like it would spice things up.

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Throughout the adventure there are various robots who can be utilised by the GM. Are there any default AI aptitudes/skills for these?

None by default. It's unlikely they'd come into play. They probably follow the rules for AIs, which I don't have at my fingers right now. 10/15 for aptitudes and 40 for specific skills seems reasonable. There aren't outfitted for combat, so none of them should have those skills. Mostly just repair skills for maintaining the ships.

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In p.7 Life Support it mentions 'struggling to regenerate the lost atmosphere' on the Istari. What lost atmosphere? Suspect I've missed something.

The Kepler lost a lot of atmosphere. When the Istari docked, it equalized pressure with the Kepler - which means it is now at lower atmospheric pressure than is considered normal. Since the equipment isn't well maintained, it's going to be noisy and inefficient. However, this shouldn't make any serious difference for gameplay, just for descriptions.

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As I understand it, the number of Exsurgents should be equal to the number of characters since the original Istari crew are dead (with one informorph). However the adventure mentions a total of 9 - 2 docking spar, 3 recycling, 2 ops center, 1 shuttle, 1 missile storage. Before I cut these down to my group size of 4 (in places maximised for dramatic effect of course) is there anything i'm missing?

The original crew of the Kepler was 8. The PCs make up (in your case) four of those crew members. Hans only has backup morphs for some of the crew (coincidentally, exactly equal to the number of player characters!) So four of the exsurgents are ex-PCs, four are ex-friends of PCs. Hope that helps!

One thing I am trying to do with Continuity is play up the horror aspects. Beyond the usual ambient sound - parts of the System Shock 2 & Deadspace soundtracks - and lighting I'm working to create small notes I'll subtly pass to players as they move through the Kepler, Istari and if/when they're infected. In all honesty, it's been a while since I've done this so I'd appreciate any feedback. You can find the file so far (.doc format) [url=http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25828981/Eclipse%20Phase/continuity_notes.doc]he.... The key for the coloured borders:[list][*] Black = Kepler [*] Red = Istari [*] Purple = Virus[/list] Many of these do have a reason and/or follow-up behind them. For example:[list] [*] the 'metallic, rhythmic, thumping.' is due to a small cargo canister bashing against the open airlock door in the machine shop. [*] the 'smell of decay' is due to the greenhouse systems shutting down.[/list] The notes [b]themselves[/b] don't have to be 'creepy' - though it helps. The important part is building tension and nervousness in the group. As an addendum, I'll likely tone down the amount of equipment - especially weapons & hardsuits - the group can obtain on the Kepler. I'll probably reduce the number of exsurgents to compensate. At some point the group will find more equipment on the Istari but, at least for the start of the adventure, building up the tension is important.

Those are awesome (and an idea I may steal for future adventures :P ) Some quick comments; Do remember that you can't hear in a vacuum, so a canister by an open airlock will be silent. At best, you might get some low-frequency vibrations through the station's structure. You can justify smells though by explaining the suit's built-in sensory suite samples the air and feeds the data to the user's sensorium (if anyone asks). When doing hallucinations, I've found it better to simply describe what happens, and make it clear that either no one else seems to have noticed it, or that everyone is reacting appropriately. Players will generally figure out what's a hallucination, but leaving that question lingering will add to the tension. You can really ramp it up by using the same cards to describe REAL events. So if you have card that says "you feel something crawling on your skin inside of the suit", decide beforehand whether there's actually something in there or if it's just a hallucination, and follow through appropriately. When groups are small enough, present something like "Jim's suit tears as strange, metallic limbs stretch and burst through his flesh". Again, decide beforehand whether it's a hallucination or not (in either case, it sucks to be Jim). Music is also fantastic to use, if you can do it properly. The issue with music is always timing and keeping it discreet. If you find some good background music (I recommend checking out Silent Hill) and you know your player well enough that you can start it quietly without making a fuss, it can really add an edge to the game. I did include a music track with the original draft, but typing "boooowoooop! boooooowooooop!" over and over again really eats up the word count.

Major thread necro I am planning on running Continuity soon and have a few questions, mostly things that are left up to the GM, but stuff that I still want a second opinion on:

• What is the research station doing in the Kuiper Belt? The example characters have skills in xeno-archaeology, xeno-biology, and xeno-linguistics (including some mentions of gate exploration on one), plus a bunch of scavenger types, so some alien life-form might be dangerous enough to warrant this isolation, but I don't want the research stuff to be too much of a red herring or concern compared to the exsurgents.
• What morphs are the players re-sleeved in? Almost all the sample characters have high-end biomorphs with extra implants, so it makes little sense that they have spare clones of their original morphs. On the other hand, I am not sure if I want to take away some of the cool morph variety when I'm trying to introduce new players to the game (veterans from fantasy rpgs, though they be).

This is excellent and just the sort of thing that would be a great inclusion to the adventure book, should you be thinking of working on a future one. I, too thought of having the research involving listening for alien radio (or more exotic) transmissions far from the noisy inner system as another possibility, but, again, was afraid of making a red herring that some players might latch onto. I notice that the sample characters in the notes are different than those in the pdf I have (apparently giving everyone humanoid morphs). I know that it says that you can choose different options, but was there a particular reason for the swaps? Also, the equipment seems different: no hardsuits, but a particle beam bolter and chrysacid spurs on the Kepler (I assumed Hans was good enough to turn off and/or protect the nano-fabricators, until the PCs do something to screw it up). Does the equipment have something to do with the character choices/what everyone would bring to the Istari? I think I might not have some of the Jovian Spy or Oversight backgrounds, since I don't want to have to throw in too much politics into an introduction into Eclipse Phase. Role-playing a bio-conservative Jovian spy when he is resleeved from backup (presumably for the first time) is tricky enough when you have a good grasp of the lore, much less 20 minutes after having the setting described to you.

nezumi.hebereke wrote:

Yep, I dropped the synthmorphs because their infection process isn't nearly as dramatic, and the mercurial scavenger because he sucks. The Oversight Auditor I always play as just a manager. He doesn't work for Oversight, I just use the stats. The Jovian Spy hasn't ever been an issue. The character description says "you hate technology; destroy this place" and most players are on board. Of course though, it's totally up to you.

I haven't really compared the characters or their stats, so I'm not sure what makes the mercurial scavenger suck, but did kind of want to give some less "human" options. I understand skipping the synths for flavor's sake, but maybe I'll look for another uplift or pod (not that pod is really that radically different). I know the Oversight Auditor doesn't work for Oversight, but there is still that political connection. I can probably get through that pretty easily, though. I think I might keep this group on second thought. While the Jovian spy brings a measure of possible in-fighting that I'd rather avoid with a small, new-to-the-setting group (I mean isn't being out-numbered 2-1 by exsurgents with superior equipment enough?), I think that the conflict will only really come up when the "do we blow up the place?/do we take a sample?" question comes up. Since the Jovian Spy is in a flat, I assume that this it was his original body and that he might be a bit disturbed by resleeving (unless he is a bio-con that says cloned bodies are okay). That might be fun, actually... EDIT: Where would the security cabinets be?

Of course the dude in the REAPER is going to be overpowered anywhere you can reasonably take a reaper (and a few places where it ISN'T reasonable). I figured that the officers' chests would be near officer sleeping quarters, but there are mentions of "emergency cabinets" which I assume are somewhere easy to reach, but I'm not sure where they would be. I think I'm going to go with the scenario as described in the notes, with a few changes, such as: having one hard-suit remain on the Kepler and keep the nano-plague off the Kepler to start. Hans ordered a bot to manually disconnect power to (i.e. unplug) all the fabbers before turning off its mesh connection, so, while some fabbers are infected, they won't make evil nano-tech unless the players plug them back in (so it is THEIR fault). I briefly questioned why the ENTIRE crew left to investigate the Istari (and assumed that a player might ask the same), then I noted that: a) the crew has been on the station for months with NOTHING happening, so are bored, b) the station is being left in the capable hands of Hans, who has at least 3 robots to tele-operate plus several fabbers to make more, and c) the listening outpost has an excellent sensor setup, so he can detect a threat a long way off and make whatever preparations are necessary days in advance (make basic combat robots, order up some mercenaries to ego-cast in, recall the shuttle, etc.) I just hope that enough players are able to make it. I'm planning this one-shot because absences tomorrow make our two existing games impractical.

I don't think he stays in his Reaper all the time. I reckon he jams it when he's clocking hours, but has a separate, morph when he's not in mission. either an Olympian or an Exalt if paid by the corp, or a Splicer if it's his private morph on the Kempler, how did the GM describe it? I kinda imagine it like a mix of Dead Space's Ishimura and the ship from Pandorum. or maybe the Forward Unto Dawn from Halo 4? Would be a nice twist to replace Hans by Cortana as she's developping rampancy *humming the tune Miracle of Sound's Reclaimer song* Do you guys got floor plan of it, by any chance? of the Kempler, I mean