EP has mechanics for relatively small tasks. Programming a fabber to create some item, researching info on a subject etc. But how about BIG stuff like creating a new morph or AGI or engineering a new habitat?
Why would it be interesting? Well, even though it's most likely outside the scope of what a single player can do in a session, one of these goals could really be the focus of a mini-campaign by a team of players (possibly or even probably with recruited help). It would also provide a framework for a more solid-feeling, realistic background for most campaigns, whether by giving an idea of what many "corporate" characters do for a living or by making it feel "reasonable" that offing Gene the Genehacker will set back Cognite's evil project for three to five weeks.
I was wondering if anyone has taken a stab at this. Perhaps it would involve:
A) some examples and some meta-engine for deciding the scope of the project in terms of personnel months, necessary skills, funding for equipment etc. for a few dozen sample projects (create a new or variant morph, set up an election campaign, film a new movie etc.)
B) some mechanics to break down the entire project into subtasks, each probably corresponding to a single Ability check, with interesting consequences if it's failed or critically failed.
Oh, wouldn't it be great if it were in the Argonauts book to come?
Or would someone be willing to team up to make a professional-looking booklet?
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Mechanics for big projects
Sat, 2016-07-16 22:14
#1
babayaga
Mechanics for big projects
Sat, 2016-07-16 23:50
#2
DivineWrath
Hmm...
Hmm...
Some forum people have made a stabs at what you asking. Of hand, I can remember finding an old thread when I was digging through old posts that was about a gatecrashing vehicle that would build a base. Was supposed to an Argonaut project or something. I'll try to find a link.
Transhuman has rules for creating new morphs. More focus on CP and credit costs, and little focus on the skills and tests to make such morphs. Kinda skips answering such stuff saying that normally player characters will not have the time or resources to make their own morphs.
Transhuman does cover programing time needed to make new stuff for infomorphs: addons, upgrades, and Eidolons. For instance, Eidolons take 6 months per price category, so a moderate (price category 3) will take 18 months to program.
I'll give this some more thought. This is a topic I'm interested in.
Sun, 2016-07-17 00:13
#3
DivineWrath
Here is the thread I was
Here is the thread I was speaking of:
http://eclipsephase.com/self-constructing-outpost-how-turn-eclipse-phase...
Sun, 2016-07-17 18:07
#4
babayaga
DivineWrath wrote:Hmm...
Thanks for the interesting link. Though I was looking for something a bit more "general".
Right, that's the issue. What I was looking for was some sort of mechanical support for a game where the players are, say, the owners of a small startup trying to create and "launch" the Sylph v2.0. From genehacking to biosculpting to marketing ... what skills are needed? How much manpower? It's not something that a single player should be able to do on his own (on the other hand, some morphs like the Jenkin are supposed to be the creation of a single person), but it's a nice goal for the player team in a campaign that's not (completely) based on chasing down X-threats. Having mechanics for it, even if somewhat abstracted, would make the whole play experience more "solid" -- at least to my gaming group.
Incidentally, note that some existing morphs like the Remade are just impossible to make under the rules in Transhuman, regardless of the cost. For the Remade (or the Hyperbright) it's because they exceed the maximum total aptitude bonus -- a total of +35 vs. the maximum of +30 stated in Transhuman. I wonder if this is intentional, or just a mistake in Transhuman that errata would (eventually) fix.
Yes. That's a start, albeit a) for a very very narrow area (it does not even cover writing [i]all[/i] software, from AI to sniffers to videogames) and b) with rather dull mechanics: make a single Programming Test. It would be cool if the entire process involved Research, Networking etc. (e.g. possibly Profession: IP Lawyer to figure out if you can reuse certain portions of the someone else's code) with a set of interconnected tests, each of them creating interesting "complications" if failed.
Sun, 2016-07-17 18:29
#5
DivineWrath
The more I poke those morph
The more I poke those morph creation rules, the more I think it should be used as a suggestion and not as a hard set of rules. The Remade and their +35 total aptitude bonuses is one such reason. I have made morphs that have violated those rules many times and the world hasn't ended. I suggest that if you need to violate the rules, that you think twice about it. Does the morph really need to violate the rules or are you pushing things too far.
I wish those rules got more attention before the devs published it. There are flaws with them.
Sun, 2016-07-17 19:13
#6
DivineWrath
So lets see if I understand.
So lets see if I understand. You want rules for what skills are required, how many checks need to be made, and how much time is required? So if it turned to be some kind of adventure to make a new morph, you would be happy with that? Or a habitat, or some multiplayer video game? And you want the rules to be general enough that it could be applied to any big project?
Tue, 2016-07-19 02:03
#7
babayaga
DivineWrath wrote:So lets see
Yes, that sort of thing. Other stuff too: e.g. how much money/equipment etc. is needed. Perhaps what sort of competition/opposition such a project might call for. Etc.
I guess I'd like a system with a bunch of ability checks "in the background" with adventures popping up as the result of those checks (probably of failures), ideally as options. So, say that the check for the design of the morph's enhanced musculature fails because of some metabolic issues. You have the option of EITHER going back to some previous stage (having wasted time, money etc.) OR maybe you have heard that a certain researcher at Titan University apparently developed a solution to a very similar metabolic problem -- but he's gone missing ... If you decide to go after him, you run an adventure, and if you're successful, you've gained ground with your research. Otherwise, you can still go on, but it will take more time etc.
Obviously, the same rules can't be used for [i]any[/i] big project. The skills, time, money etc. for terraforming a planet, designing and/or marketing a new morph, or building a new habitat are sufficiently different. But I'd like, for each problem in a largish set including morph design, habitat engineering, memetic campaigns etc.:
a) the order of magnitude of the resources needed. How much money? How many ego-hours (for egos with which skills)? How much time? Etc. As a very rough approximation and/or a range of values -- die rolls can randomize whether a project costs 1 or 4 million credits.
b) some sort of generic framework with which to resolve that randomization, as a sequence of steps that give you the idea that "stuff is happening". You know, say, first some networking checks to kickstart the funding/recruit the workforce/find synergistic partnerships. Then some research to find where to start from, legal issues, known problems. Then the engineering phase. Then the building phase. Then the marketing phase etc. With problems popping up here and there: your head of engineering is bribed to sabotage your efforts, you face a lawsuit over some patents, a bad meme attaches itself to your project etc.
Perhaps each project type in a) could be represented as a sequence of "packages" (engineering, art, marketing, research) common to most projects of variable complexity and "size". Each package would have its own set of skills, potential problems etc.
I don't know, I just have a very vague idea :)