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Hey now. New player here.

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Mon, 2011-08-08 13:29

Quigs

Hey now. New player here.

So, I used to be a commando for Catalyst/Fanpro. The first and only time I attended GenCon, I made the mistake of offering to GM a few games for them. Somewhat ruined my experience. Entirely my fault. That same convention was when Eclipse Phase was released. Thought it was exciting as hell, but never got a chance to play it, though did manage to hear a spiel from some of the writers and artists, which impressed me immediately. Got back home to NJ, and outside of a few searches on the internet, I never heard from EP again. Flash forward to 2 months ago. Attending Jersey's big gaming convention, DexCon. Pre Register, peruse the listed events, and there is Eclipse Phase, returning to me like some elliptical celestial satellite. Played in a 4 hour block. Loved the hell out of it. That convention I picked up the core book (despite objections of the gamemaster that the new book was soon to be released), and Sunward. Gatecrashing was available, but I decided the increased morph options in Sunward would be more appreciated by my players. A week later, I picked up the GM screen as well. I'm in love with the fiction almost as much as I'm in love with the game system. A few questions and observations, though. Travelling. It seems like it's a pain in the ass to move the characters around. Is this intended, or am I just reading it wrong? Is it the consensus of the community to, in general, keep the players on a certain locus for large chunks of time, moving them only when necessary? Also, to me at least, it seems like the process of forking or egocasting for communication purposes seems a bit vague. It could be that I missed a section in my haste to read as much as possible as quickly as possible. The Mesh/Ectos. Small confusion here. The Mesh seems to be EP's spin on Shadowrun's Matrix, or a dozen other sci-fi networks. However, while at some points it seems like the Mesh, and information itself is widely available, other times it seems like the Mesh, especially in rimward systems, is a small and jaded slice of the knowledge that's available. Is this true? Also, Mesh Inserts, if I'm reading it right, is something in a characters head that gives them access to the mesh at a thought. Are they seeing this information visually, or is it like a second mental presence rattling off information? Ectos seem to be an Android/Smart phone simile for non mesh-inserted characters. Is the information presented on the screen of the ecto, or does it use some skinlink-type method to transmit the information into the brain? Bio/Synth/Ego/AI. Confuses me greatly. AI's are generally outlawed. When not, they prefer to be in synthmorphs? Or am I reading too far into it? Would most long-term infomorphs feel more comfortable inhabiting a synth or bio sleeve? While EP is not a gun bunny game, are there any real advantages in taking a biomorph over a synthmorph for combat? An Observation. While I have a serious <3 for Eclipse Phase, one thing that annoys me, over and over as I read, is the constant use of made up acronyms, without frequent translation of what the acroynyms stand for. The Core book did a good job of providing a pair of Rosetta Stones, but they didn't cover all acronyms, and Sunward seems to be completely void of such a tool. It constantly breaks my immersion when I'm left scanning pages over and over to figure out why this Barsoomian is talking about TTO and such. Lastly; Swag. I saw a picture of some Eclipse Phase stickers and I needs thems. Where can I acquire such peripherals like stickers, posters, etc?

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"Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my

Mon, 2011-08-08 15:44

Darvon

Re: Hey now. New player here.

Hi! I'm no EP-pro, but I've read the book and now try to get some people playing. Perhaps I can help you out with some of your questions.

Quote:
It seems like it's a pain in the ass to move the characters around. Is this intended, or am I just reading it wrong? Is it the consensus of the community to, in general, keep the players on a certain locus for large chunks of time, moving them only when necessary?

Well, you're right, moving someone [i]physically[/i] is quite a pain. The transportation technology between planets is not far better than today, so moving from Mars to Venus might take, like, three weeks or so. But moving someone to another place can be far faster, by only sending someones mind, digitally. (This is called "egocasting" - the farcasting of your "ego", which is your mind, opposed to your boidy) That happens practically with the speed of light. That can be still somewhat slow (consider, that the light of the sun takes 8 minutes to reach Earth) but is LOT faster than travel by spaceship. This process is everything else, than a pain in the ass. Perhaps not everyone in EP ist doing it, but it is not more complicated, than booking a ticket to China today. This means, that players can very well change their location in the solar system very often. Sometimes so much, that people don't bother buying equipment, because it can't follow them so fast. They just get new equipment at their new destination, if they need it. Perhaps take a look at pages 48 and 275 in the core book.

Quote:
Also, to me at least, it seems like the process of forking or egocasting for communication purposes seems a bit vague. It could be that I missed a section in my haste to read as much as possible as quickly as possible.

"Egocasting" is, like I said, not for communication, it is for travel. Basically, you put yourself in an e-mail attachment, and send yourself over. But you are right, egocasting, forking, and all that stuff is pretty hard to imagine from todays perspective. So if you have some questions about that, just go ahead :) Have you read that nice little short story at the beginning of the book? It's called "Lack", if not, you should give it a try, it explains some of these concepts from a characters viewpoint.

Quote:
However, while at some points it seems like the Mesh, and information itself is widely available, other times it seems like the Mesh, especially in rimward systems, is a small and jaded slice of the knowledge that's available. Is this true?

Absolutely. And there's a reason for it: Communication can not be faster than the speed of light. (there are some exceptions from this, but that's not important now ;) ) So, take for example someone, say Alice, who is near the Sun, and someone who is near Earth, Bob. If they want to speak over skype (or see each other via virtual reality), and Alice says "Hello!", Bob can hear her only 8 minutes later. He replies also with "Hello!", which takes again 8 minutes back to Alice, who waited not less than 16 minutes to hear a respond from her friend. That are very bad conditions for skyping, so Alice and Bob probably won't do that. They will be skyping with someone from their location, because there is no time lag. So on a habitat near the Sun, people will communicate rather with each other, and here is the point: Their mesh is is somewhat isolated from the mesh of a habitat far away. This doesn't mean, that communication between them is impossible, but with increasing range, communication becomes more difficult and expensive. So someone from near sun won't send a person from near earth a twitter like message of what they are doing now. It is expensive, and when it arrives, it might even be outdated. Just take a look on pages 43 (real and social distance) and 242 (Islands in the Net).

Quote:
Also, Mesh Inserts, if I'm reading it right, is something in a characters head that gives them access to the mesh at a thought. Are they seeing this information visually, or is it like a second mental presence rattling off information?

I'm not sure about this one, but I think it is something like your PC Desktop today, with the only difference, that your wallpaper is not some cool picture or a cute kitty, but what you are seeing through your eyes. So I'd say it's the first thing, visual information. This is better explained on p. 239, Augmented reality. There are also annoying popups that may come into your field of vision. (p. 248: traffic filters and mist)

Quote:
Ectos seem to be an Android/Smart phone simile for non mesh-inserted characters. Is the information presented on the screen of the ecto, or does it use some skinlink-type method to transmit the information into the brain?

By default, it is displayed on a screen, but you can wear some glasses, to get all the visual information, earplugs to hear audio-messages, and much more, you can find more on p. 237, meshing technologies.

Quote:
Bio/Synth/Ego/AI. Confuses me greatly.

Biomorph: A Body made of biological cells, like that of a normal human, an octopus, or a highly genetically modified gorilla. Synthmorph: A body that is made of something else. The terminator would be a synthmorph, no matter if he has flesh or not. Ego: The mind of a sapient being, like a normal human, an octopus, or a highly genetically modified gorilla, or, even an artificial intelligence. AI: a sapient being, that is programmed by humans. KITT from Knight Rider would be one ;)

Quote:
When not, they prefer to be in synthmorphs? Or am I reading too far into it? Would most long-term infomorphs feel more comfortable inhabiting a synth or bio sleeve?

I don't really know, perhaps someone else?

Quote:
While EP is not a gun bunny game, are there any real advantages in taking a biomorph over a synthmorph for combat?

Of course! Synthmorphs can be hacked, though not as easy as other usual divices. Hacking in EP is an art on its own in EP, but "Cyberbrain hacking" on p. 261 should give you an idea about the risks of using an infomorph :) I hope I could help, and answer most of your questions. Perhaps you should take another look at the book, and use the index in the back. Most things are explained quite accurately, I guess it is the very different setting that overwhelms people. Also, use the search function here in the forums, a LOT of things are explained here already :)

Tue, 2011-08-09 10:05

Xagroth

Re: Hey now. New player here.

Ego: From Sigmund Freud's work. The human mind is divided in several parts, and the ego is the one rooted to the sense of self ("ego" is "I" in Latin). As far as I understood, only alpha forks have this. Human/AGI/Uplift/AI: Human: born, grown, matured. Mess with the process and you get messed results... like the Lost Generation or half-crazy people. AGI: True artificial inteligences, with "brakes" in the speed at they grow, so they are on par with humans. Uplift: animal artificially evolved to the same level of humans. AI: an adaptive program without a will of its own, that cannot improve by itself, needing someone else to program new capacities (or improve existing ones). Of the four, it's the only one without an "ego". Biomorph Vs Synthmorph: Social situations: biomorphs always wins. Combat: synthmorphs are, on theory, better. However, properly using them would require a team of two or more people, one of them "manning" the body and all the others protecting the system from hacking attempts. Personally, I think the battle morphs are stored until needed in a faraday cage, and manually activated when needed (with some infomorphs ready to "get in") to avoid an attacker to take his time to hack the sentinel, and use him to infect everybody else. Ego preferences of casing: There is a table regarding integration and alineation in the core book, pg 272, where you can see modifiers that might help you get this.

Tue, 2011-08-09 12:24

Yerameyahu Yerameyahu's picture

Re: Hey now. New player here.

By quirk of the rules, biomorphs also tend to have better Apts and things.

Tue, 2011-08-09 14:46

Xagroth

Re: Hey now. New player here.

Yerameyahu wrote:
By quirk of the rules, biomorphs also tend to have better Apts and things.

That too, now that I think about it, the only way to reach 40 in an aptitude without being forced to buy a 20 CP advantage is the Remade morph (and maybe the Menton for COG) or be an infomorph...

Tue, 2011-08-09 16:06

CodeBreaker CodeBreaker's picture

Re: Hey now. New player here.

Xagroth wrote:
Yerameyahu wrote:
By quirk of the rules, biomorphs also tend to have better Apts and things.
That too, now that I think about it, the only way to reach 40 in an aptitude without being forced to buy a 20 CP advantage is the Remade morph (and maybe the Menton for COG) or be an infomorph...

Doesn't really matter, it's rare in game for characters to have a higher ego aptitude scores of 30 as it is. The only synthetic morph that comes close to biomorphs for aptitudes is the Steel series, and it is expensive as hell. The rest, in general, have more +5/10s than their synthmorph equivalents. Biomorphs tend to have the aptitude advantage, the ability to use Psi, and the social benefits. EDIT: And getting aptitudes of 40 is easy. For example, COG. Ego Aptitude of 20 Sleeves into a Menton, boosts it to 30 Has Psi(1), uses the Cog Boost sleight to boost it to 35 Takes a hit of Drive to boost it to 40. It is even easier if you are trying to get a 40 in one of the easier aptitudes, like SOM or REF.

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Tue, 2011-08-09 17:47

Xagroth

Re: Hey now. New player here.

Mmmm... I wouldn't count drugs, since it's easy to assume there is a version for synthmorphs ("overclocking" the CPU, using strange algorithms, or exceeding the safety limits of the body). While there shouldn't be addiction tests, direct damage to the body should be a given. And I dunno about psi, I skipped the chapter entirely (my players don't want psy powers, so it's ok, if they face a psycher I'll just roll for some minor effects... unless it's an exurgent being, in which case I will really go crazy XD). Anyway, the Steel morph is not as expensive as some biomorphs (55CP for the masked version, against the Ghost or the Fury...not to mention the Remade or the Olympian, I'd say it's in the tier), and COG 30 is not as hard to start with (and it becomes a really, really lot of knowledge skills, even investing only the bare minimun), yet the aptitude limit is on 30. In fact, I think the only synthmorph (ok, leaving the infomorph aside XD) that allows for a limit of 40 in aptitudes is the Reaper (100 CP... plus all the bad looks you get for sleeving into a floating tank...).

Tue, 2011-08-09 18:07

Yerameyahu Yerameyahu's picture

Re: Hey now. New player here.

There *are* addiction tests for synths in 3rd Printing, AFAIK. The Steel (specifically, the Liquid one) is roughly the only humanoid synthmorph that's even closely matched to biomorphs, and even then it's a wash. Reapers are Reapers. :) This is just a petty issue of mine: synthmorphs should be better. The 30/40 limit *does* matter, per Boyle. Your ego Apt plus your morph bonuses are limited by the morph Apt Max. ('External' mods can exceed it, but only up to 40. http://www.eclipsephase.com/aptitude-max#comment-3776)

Tue, 2011-08-09 18:42

Xagroth

Re: Hey now. New player here.

Yerameyahu wrote:
There *are* addiction tests for synths in 3rd Printing, AFAIK. The Steel (specifically, the Liquid one) is roughly the only humanoid synthmorph that's even closely matched to biomorphs, and even then it's a wash. Reapers are Reapers. :) This is just a petty issue of mine: synthmorphs should be better. The 30/40 limit *does* matter, per Boyle. Your ego Apt plus your morph bonuses are limited by the morph Apt Max. ('External' mods can exceed it, but only up to 40. http://www.eclipsephase.com/aptitude-max#comment-3776)

Yes, I was having that into account. Additionally, the Exceptional Aptitude advantage (20 points) allows to raise the ego or morph's limit in ONE aptitude by +10, to a maximun of 40 (I understand there that any ego can reach a top of 30, with this advantage 40 in one aptitude, even if it's an infomorph). Anyway, all morphs can be extremely deadly if customized like hell. A player of mine spent 90 CP in money at character creation, and his Ghost morph was more than capable to take on 4 mercs sleeved in Olympian morphs (and the shredder in close quarters is more than deadly... I'm forced to split all enemies more than a meter apart after his first turn with the damn machine... sadly he has speed 3... XD).

Tue, 2011-08-09 19:48

#10

Unity

Re: Hey now. New player here.

I agree with the black mage on the necessary superiority of synthmorphs, which currently does not exist.

—

[img]http://boxall.no-ip.org/img/info_userbar.jpg[/img] [img]http://boxall.no-ip.org/img/immort_userbar.jpg[/img] [img]http://boxall.no-ip.org/img/mesh_userbar.jpg[/img] [img]http://boxall.no-ip.org/img/exh_userbar.jpg[/img] [img]http://boxall.no-ip.o

Tue, 2011-08-09 22:05

#11

Yerameyahu Yerameyahu's picture

Re: Hey now. New player here.

I'm not necessarily talking about being deadly, Xagroth; you can indeed make *anything* into a combat monster. It's just odd to me that biomorphs would have generally superior Apt Max and Apt Mods, when *obviously* synthetics would be faster, stronger, tougher, cheaper… and vastly easier to engineer. :)

Tue, 2011-08-09 22:40

#12

CodeBreaker CodeBreaker's picture

Re: Hey now. New player here.

I always rationaled it this way: No matter how much we argue otherwise, Aptitudes are supposed to be a primarily mental stat. They aren't how fast, how strong, or how technically intelligent your morph is. It is how capable the Ego riding it is at applying those things. So Biomorphs naturally have better Aptitude bonuses because they are much closer to the human norm. You get a potential COG boost because your Ego is much more used to working with wetware over the (albeit extremely advanced) simulation that runs on a cyberbrain. I know it doesn't stand up to much critical thinking (Like why can't robots crush steel with their fists, even if the Ego doesn't understand proper leverage technique.), but it tends to shut players up for a little while, and get their minds back on the Exsurgent Dire Badger that is charging them.

Quote:
when *obviously* synthetics would be faster, stronger, tougher, cheaper

Three out of Four isn't bad! They tend to be faster. They are definitely tougher. And a fair few are cheaper, if not directly from credit cost then by time. It is just that people don't really want synthetics running around who can do steel girder bending super strength. And for kinda a good reason. Robot uprising and whatnot.

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Tue, 2011-08-09 23:35

#13

Yerameyahu Yerameyahu's picture

Re: Hey now. New player here.

Heh. They'd also be at least *as* smart, socially-adept, etc., because Infomorphs have Apt Max 40. It doesn't makes sense, and while I appreciate your heroic attempt to rationalize it, we know it ultimately doesn't work. *shrug* Oh well. :)

Tue, 2011-08-09 23:44

#14

CodeBreaker CodeBreaker's picture

Re: Hey now. New player here.

Yerameyahu wrote:
Heh. They'd also be at least *as* smart, socially-adept, etc., because Infomorphs have Apt Max 40. It doesn't makes sense, and while I appreciate your heroic attempt to rationalize it, we know it ultimately doesn't work. *shrug* Oh well. :)

Yup. It doesn't really make sense. Its a thematic choice that doesn't mesh entirely with what might be expected. It is all about game balance at the end of the day, and I am perfectly OK with that.

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Wed, 2011-08-10 17:48

#15

Xagroth

Re: Hey now. New player here.

Infomorphs are literally the ideal morph for the ego (the ego makes it him/herself!), so it's not surprising that there is no limitation but the ego's capacities (or at least I see it that way). The "the brain is adapted to wet, biologic bodies" has some failures: AGIs and uplifts... As for the "we purposely make synthmorphs inferior to biomorphs", the Reaper is an example in favour of that... and Rimward should have really, really good synthmorphs, since the autonomists a) don't have that distrust and fear out of control for the AGIs, and b) they don't really give a damn about the "biological superiority", since they are like an ongoing experiment. And since they are so good guys, they gift us with c) just another way to piss off the Planetary Consortium. Titan loves this one ^^

Wed, 2011-08-10 21:00

#16

Thantastic Thantastic's picture

Re: Hey now. New player here.

One of my favorite things about this setting is that the crunch is very much influenced by the setting. The points raised about synths being able to be engineered to have more extreme aptitude benefits than biomorphs is absolutely correct, the majority of transhumanity still has at least a marginal prejudice (or at least preference) for biomorphs. Those are the morphs most people with the most resources want to be in, and the morphs that are prized most by the PC and inner-system worlds that still have the bulk of population, production, wealth and influence in the system. The Steel series are the synths that come closest to the high-end bios for bonuses, and they're the synths that were developed by people strongly in favor of synths and that stand in opposition to the societal and institutional bio-preference of much of transhumanity. Up with the clanking masses!

—

Ex unus plures.

Wed, 2011-08-10 23:22

#17

Yerameyahu Yerameyahu's picture

Re: Hey now. New player here.

My point there, Xagroth, is just that Informorphs are merely the ego running on a computer (basically *any* computer). That's not very special, and there's no reason that should be better than a synth (which is much, much bigger than the computers we're talking about). Yes, the Steels are the only ones that come close (and for some reason, you can't get that extra +5 Apt unless you also want the liquid skin). The issue isn't that the Steels aren't good enough (though there's room to improve), but that it's just them. :) Anyway. Not to derail too much. :D

Wed, 2011-08-10 23:11

#18

jackgraham jackgraham's picture

Re: Hey now. New player here.

Screw synth morphs. Everyone should just play a neo-pig.

—

J A C K G R A H A M :: Hooray for Earth! http://eclipsephase.com :: twitter @jackgraham @faketsr :: Google+Jack Graham

Wed, 2011-08-10 23:23

#19

CodeBreaker CodeBreaker's picture

Re: Hey now. New player here.

jackgraham wrote:
Screw synth morphs. Everyone should just play a neo-pig.

Only if they are called Scorpio.

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Thu, 2011-08-11 00:00

#20

Unity

Re: Hey now. New player here.

Damnit Jack, not everyone has the Panopticon notes yet! Also, what's this about sleeving into habitats now?

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Thu, 2011-08-11 00:11

#21

CodeBreaker CodeBreaker's picture

Re: Hey now. New player here.

Unity wrote:
Damnit Jack, not everyone has the Panopticon notes yet! Also, what's this about sleeving into habitats now?

I was especially impressed with the Neo-TRex and the Neo-Platypus morphs. Especially how the TRex can breath fire and has a +20 COG bonus. *throws out more bait*

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Thu, 2011-08-11 08:18

#22

Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture

Re: Hey now. New player here.

CodeBreaker wrote:
I was especially impressed with the Neo-TRex and the Neo-Platypus morphs. Especially how the TRex can breath fire and has a +20 COG bonus.

But the vulnerability to iridium might balance things a bit.

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Thu, 2011-08-11 09:17

#23

Xagroth

Re: Hey now. New player here.

Arenamontanus wrote:
CodeBreaker wrote:
I was especially impressed with the Neo-TRex and the Neo-Platypus morphs. Especially how the TRex can breath fire and has a +20 COG bonus.
But the vulnerability to iridium might balance things a bit.

Yeah, but the really overpowered morph is the Neoraptor, with the parts from the swarmaroid mod for morphs... That really is a hive-mind, with psi powers to boot!

Thu, 2011-08-11 09:29

#24

Yerameyahu Yerameyahu's picture

Re: Hey now. New player here.

Crap, it's not actually a Neo-Deinonychus instead? 'Raptors' have the best PR contracts.

Thu, 2011-08-11 10:34

#25

nezumi.hebereke nezumi.hebereke's picture

Re: Hey now. New player here.

There is actually a picture of a pig in a space suit, and it's totally freaking me out. I haven't gotten to that section yet though, but images of Deliverance are already filling my head. To the topic at hand, I imagine people have had more time making and modifying biomorphs (care of medical technology) than they are at making generalist robotic bodies capable of properly sustaining an ego. Since biomorph technology is more mature, and is continuing to get more funding (c/o hypercorps and the Junta) than synthmorphs, they will keep that performance edge for a while.

Thu, 2011-08-11 11:54

#26

Yerameyahu Yerameyahu's picture

Re: Hey now. New player here.

An ego can be sustained by a credit card. Robot bodies have existed since… well before today. :) It's at least equally mature, if not vastly more so.

Thu, 2011-08-11 13:31

#27

jackgraham jackgraham's picture

Re: Hey now. New player here.

NEO-GRIMLOCK HATE IRIDIUM! NEO-GRIMLOCK SMAAAAASH!!!! Now CodeBreaker, stop trolling. It's just mean. ;) Yeah, since this one's well out of the bag, there are rules for habs as morphs. As you might imagine, this is an option aimed at advanced characters (we've got to give you something epic to do at level 20, right?). Starting PCs won't want to try it unless they're heavily min/maxed for bodyhopping. However, for less advanced characters, particularly infomorphs, you'll find some new & interesting ways to interact with habs that don't go the full route of becoming the hab's controlling persona.

—

J A C K G R A H A M :: Hooray for Earth! http://eclipsephase.com :: twitter @jackgraham @faketsr :: Google+Jack Graham

Thu, 2011-08-11 13:35

#28

jackgraham jackgraham's picture

Re: Hey now. New player here.

I love that character. Unfortunately I lost my copy of that book -- need to find it and finish the damned trilogy.

—

J A C K G R A H A M :: Hooray for Earth! http://eclipsephase.com :: twitter @jackgraham @faketsr :: Google+Jack Graham

Thu, 2011-08-11 16:29

#29

Xagroth

Re: Hey now. New player here.

Jack, the habitat-sleeving is not really a spoiler, there was quite visible in the Panopticon preview that was published last week XDDDDD. I'm glad to see that there are some growing options , but I think I will use that (if I ever use it, that is) as NPC stuff. Hell, my regular players are a little put off because of the "send only your mind to travel" part of the setting, and one is really freaked out by the Fork options (I keep telling him he doesn't need to fork himself, but it's a player issue, so it's not easy when everywhere people use forks...).

Thu, 2011-08-11 18:48

#30

Thantastic Thantastic's picture

Re: Hey now. New player here.

If you have players that are jittery over egocasting and forking Xagroth I think that I can promise you will have story options that will give them nightmares. From the pre-release playtesting I've maintained that ego singularity vs. multiplicity/alterity is one of the most ripe and revealing aspects of the setting, and needs to get more of a spotlight. Jack can attest, but I hope he does so without any specificity. :D

—

Ex unus plures.

Fri, 2011-08-12 18:46

#31

Xagroth

Re: Hey now. New player here.

Thantastic wrote:
If you have players that are jittery over egocasting and forking Xagroth I think that I can promise you will have story options that will give them nightmares. From the pre-release playtesting I've maintained that ego singularity vs. multiplicity/alterity is one of the most ripe and revealing aspects of the setting, and needs to get more of a spotlight. Jack can attest, but I hope he does so without any specificity. :D

Not really, it's getting harder to make them play EP... which is a shame since I can't make any of them to GM an EP game, either... >.

Sat, 2011-08-13 06:18

#32

GreyBrother GreyBrother's picture

Re: Hey now. New player here.

I'm with you there. Most interesting settings i present to my closest RPG friends tend to either weird them out or make them think about going back playing Shadowrun or Werewolf the Apocalypse (not that there's anything wrong with it, but goddamnit...)

Sun, 2011-08-14 21:16

#33

jackgraham jackgraham's picture

Re: Hey now. New player here.

This brings up an important point: you can't make EP too, too dark. It should be gritty, the PCs should occasionally be frustrated or feel betrayed, and for sure, it's not a very nice world. But it's important to emphasize the positive aspects, too: saving transhumanity, championing technoprogressivism, that sort of thing. Some groups are OK with unabated gloom & doom, but they're rare. There's a lot of room for heroism in EP, and it's important to let players know that the opportunity to be an awesome, TITAN-smashing/outwitting badass exists. I made the mistake of letting the setting encroach too much on my players' fun when I first ran the game, so I know it's an easy trap to fall in to. But it's an RPG, and it's supposed to be fun -- so make sure players understand that the setting is not all about making them powerless and depriving them of choices.

—

J A C K G R A H A M :: Hooray for Earth! http://eclipsephase.com :: twitter @jackgraham @faketsr :: Google+Jack Graham

Sun, 2011-08-14 23:28

#34

Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture

Re: Hey now. New player here.

jackgraham wrote:
Starting PCs won't want to try it unless they're heavily min/maxed for bodyhopping. However, for less advanced characters, particularly infomorphs, you'll find some new & interesting ways to interact with habs that don't go the full route of becoming the hab's controlling persona.

I could totally see an Argonaut scientist lady who was forcibly sleeved by her bankrupt lemon-hating boss/lover into a habitat, grudgy, embittered and obsessed with pointless test and fictitious pastries... as negative trait, she'd have enemy. A mute scumborn parkour champion chica the argonaut doesn't want her dead, anymore, though, now she only wants her gone. for the neo-pig, I could picture a scavenger one from the Reclaimers and a phobia of AGIs, runaway young hyperelite girl with her endentured neo-neanderthal amnesiac criminal. All 3 together are very risky for the neo-pig's health... (anybody who pick the references will get +10 in R-Rep for Pre-Fall cultural history knowledge)

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