Hello all. As the name suggests, I'm new to Eclipse Phase, and I haven't actually played a game yet (sadly) but I've been looking at it and, on the outside, it looks pretty good. I would definatly love to give it a go, and I'm wondering if people have any suggestions out there.
First of all, I'm wondering if there is, like, a rundown of the setting where I can read a condensed-ish review. I know the general stuff, humanity has achieved transhumanism, we attracted the attention of aliens, they razed earth and left, we're trying to figure out what the hell is going on, but a lot of the finer points elude me. I know the base book has a fair amount of the information in it but it is all spread out all over the place in the book, and half of it is written in the Eclipse Phase slang which can make it hard to parse. And, call me crazy, but I've never been one to read an RPG cover-to-cover.
I had an idea for a game, but I don't know if it would work in the setting. Here's my idea:
The players are Sentinels for Firewall, and they wake up newly re-sleeved with a year of 'lack' (that is, they wake up a year from their last backup.) The explanation is given to them that the Jovians found a Firewall safehouse and raided it. The Jovians then destroyed the character's cortical stacks, and people believed that they also destroyed their backups. However, old backups from an off-site location were discovered, but these were backups from a year ago.
In reality, this never happened. The players actually uncovered something and went rogue, breaking all ties to firewall and doing some very dangerous things (like compromising firewall's security). They players are activated 'forks' from a year ago. Firewall is going to send the same people on the same missions as before, and watch them closely to see if they can't find out what the rogue team is up to. The players will eventually uncover that conspirisy, along with several others, the details of which I have yet to work out.
Welcome! These forums will be deactivated by the end of this year. The conversation continues in a new morph over on Discord! Please join us there for a more active conversation and the occasional opportunity to ask developers questions directly! Go to the PS+ Discord Server.
New to Eclipse Phase, suggestions?
Thu, 2011-04-14 05:10
#1
New to Eclipse Phase, suggestions?
Thu, 2011-04-14 06:09
#2
Re: New to Eclipse Phase, suggestions?
I have a bundle of useful links, some to condensed settings, at this page:
http://www.aleph.se/EclipsePhase/useful.html
(I have various stuff from the forums at http://www.aleph.se/EclipsePhase/ )
Sounds very good, and definitely fits the setting. The big challenges are going to be 1) finding a suitably good Great Secret to motivate the original players going rogue, 2) making the Firewall monitoring unobtrusive, yet plausibly close.
Here is one idea for the Great Secret: during a mission the players discovered that Firewall is not just having high level dealings with other major groups, but that these groups are all run by seed AGIs. The Prometheans of Firewall might be 'nice', but they are still alien and dangerous superintelligences - and the things behind Ozma might be far nastier. This might be enough to get somewhat anti-AGI players to go rogue, but it is a bit uncertain. A more specific reason might be that the players came across evidence that the AGIs are directing transhumanity in a specific direction ("The Blue Entelechy Report") - whatever was in that report was enough to make them run for the hills. Firewall wants to have the players retrace their steps, ideally also running for the hills in such a way they lead Firewall to the hiding place of the original.
Of course, there might be another part here. One or more rogue AGIs or other entities that are opposing Blue Entelechy and are secretly, and very subtly helping the players. The real reason for the whole repeat from backups is an attempt by Firewall to lure them out - but the opposition might instead want to sabotage things by leading Firewall into a trap. For a really sick twist, the opposition is actually manifestations of the exsurgent virus - the Blue Entelechy plan, while having very sinister overtones, goes against the goals of the virus. So the players might have to choose between helping keep transhumanity in bondage to inhuman entities, help their 'benefactor' which will turn transhumanity into something alien or dead, or run away - somehow.
Another idea I mentioned in another thread might be sending the players off as a kind of "punishment" because their originals have turned themselves into dangerous exhumans or seed intelligences. The idea is that they will be innocuous enough that the now dangerous post-players will accept them, allowing Firewall to attack through the players.
—

Thu, 2011-04-14 10:05
#3
Re: New to Eclipse Phase, suggestions?
The shortest summary I've seen starts on page 33 of the main book. Everything else is just icing. If you have the time, Schismatrix by Bruce Sterling will probably give you the best guide to the universe that you're likely to find.
Regarding actual gameplay, I'd practice character generation and combat a few times before trying to run a game. When running the game, I'd start with scripted adventures until I felt comfortable with the universe.
Character generation can be tough. I recommend using the automated character generator:
http://sites.google.com/site/eclipsephases/home/cabinet
Most importantly though, have fun! Don't get caught up on details, this isn't the game for that.
Thu, 2011-04-14 15:13
#4
Re: New to Eclipse Phase, suggestions?
Arenamontanus: thanks for the links and the ideas.
My initial idea was something less epic. I didn't really want to deal with the big bads of the series, as, well, giving them a motivation and a backstory make them far less threatening IMHO, plus it might poison future games as my players would think that is the way that the evil aliens always are. Plus, there is always the chance that my players will do something I didn't expect or roll super well or something, resulting in "Well, we've wiped out the Titans, made sure the evil aliens will never bother us again, and have recovered all of the uploaded minds that they stole . . . what now?!
One idea I did have was for the hypercorp responsible for the lost is intent on 'perfecting' their technology. They have infiltrated firewall and are intent on re-opening the Futura project again, only this time from within firewall, creating an army of sentinals from the process with zero acountability (and further vilifying firewall should things go wrong again.) They also seed misinformation to Firewall that their competitor is infected with the exurgent virus, or that hypercorp B is working counter to transhumanity, or whatever, in order to get rid of their competition.
Thu, 2011-04-14 17:49
#5
Re: New to Eclipse Phase, suggestions?
Wow! I had been writing a module that is similar to the one you are describing, except in my version the ex-PCs weren't rogue. They had been infected with the exsurgent haunting virus. Over the course of 7 months the characters became exsurgents. When Firewall found out, they destroyed all backups of the ex-PCs from the time of the supposed infection date and sent an Eraser team to deal with them. The ex-PCs proved to be very resourceful and eluded capture. That's when the plan to use the PCs to track themselves down came up. Firewall used old backups to make sure that they weren't infected and sent them to hunt down themselves. They where not told that a group of ex-Firewall individuals where reported to be carriers of the Haunting Virus and that they are to be tracked down and eliminated. Anyone they came into contact with was to be eliminated as well. This was supposed to be a two to three part module.
Part one: The PCs get the job and are sent out to find themselves. They track themselves to a Scum Barge that has contracted the virus and by the end of the session have to destroy it. I had planned on a few combats and some RP to flesh out a 4 hour session.
Part two: They track themselves to a planet and find another outbreak of the virus, during the course of getting ready to destroy the town they find out that a man has been treating the virus and possibly has figured out a cure. Firewall wishes the man recruited and when the man turns down the offer they are told to kill him and get his research. In a part of this I want to throw a moral dilemma in the mix as the Pcs, end up with the man and realize that by killing him and sending him to an earlier backup the man will lose the memory of his daughter being born, but if they don't then he knows about firewall and puts the entire family at risk with an eraser team. I figure the players wont care but maybe one of them is not a heartless gamer. :) As part of my revenge for their heartless action, :) they find out after they off him that the research was all in his mind and they lose it with the ego kill. If they don't off him he helps them develop a cure to the haunting strain of the exsurgent virus. but latter on it is found out that it doesn't work as well as they had hoped and in another module have to go back and take care of the town. I know I'm mean to my players, but I let the daughter live as she is immune somehow. its a horror game, things should be expected to be bleak.
Part Three: They Pcs finally find out where the ex-PCs are and during the module they are told by one of ex-pcs that they are the same egos. Dilemmas, mass hysteria, cats sleeping with dogs, and combat ensue. Much mental stress as they have to kill themselves, but they at least find out about the 'Lack' they have.
Well, that is what I have been secretly toiling over for the past 6+ days. I was going to write it up and submit it to the eye, but if any of this helps with you're tale please feel to it.
Red
—
There are only 10 kind of people in the world; Those who understand binary, and those who don't.
Red
Thu, 2011-04-14 17:48
#6
Re: New to Eclipse Phase, suggestions?
The fun/evil part might be that some Firewall sentinels and proxies are in on it. After all, some might think hypercapitalism is the solution, and others may think being able to breed sentinels is just the thing to save transhumanity efficiently. Other parts of Firewall would of course be outraged, so the Cognite-Firewall conspiracy needs to be kept secret from both parent organisations (after all, to most of Cognite Firewall is just a terrorist group trying to sabotage some of their most radical technology projects).
"Well, now the cat is out of the box. Again. You found out much faster than your previous iterations - either you are getting smarter, or we are getting sloppier with operational security. In any case, the real question is this: would you be ready to continue working with us, if we show you *why* we have to do this?"
—

Fri, 2011-04-15 10:08
#7
Re: New to Eclipse Phase, suggestions?
Mechanics and setting info file here http://www.eclipsephase.com/qsr I had this on table during character creation and first few games. If I had to do it again I'd make a copy for each player or have them check it out themselves.
—
"The difference between truth and fiction, people expect fiction to make sense."
Fri, 2011-04-15 16:22
#8
Re: New to Eclipse Phase, suggestions?
Does anyone know any play-by-post or online games that are starting up in the near future? 'Cuse there are no games starting up where I live and I don't want to run a game I've never played before.
Sat, 2011-04-16 01:17
#9
Re: New to Eclipse Phase, suggestions?
yes http://www.myth-weavers.com/showthread.php?t=127579 teh_az is running it and i am the codm.
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Sat, 2011-04-16 17:52
#10
Re: New to Eclipse Phase, suggestions?
Redwulfe - One thing to keep in mind in your scenario is that they can kill the scientist and just recover his cortical stack, so they'd have a version of him that was up to date as of moments before his death available unless the scientist had a dead switch.
Sat, 2011-04-16 19:30
#11
Re: New to Eclipse Phase, suggestions?
Unless he was a flat, they don't have cortical stacks.
Also . . . isn't there a defect where you don't have all of your morph's base biomods? If so he could not have a cortical stack because of that.
Okay, so here is a question: What is the difference between a 'morph and a 'pod? I mean, I know pods are supposedly clone-grown impersonation humans, but aren't all morphs (except for flats) the same way?
Actually, that's the thing that always bugged me about EP, how do people have children? I mean, Flats can breed, sure, and probably the Splicers and uplift morphs can as well, but what about the little kid morphs (forget the name right now.) There is no way they'd ever be big enough to bring a child to term. And with all the deaths, there are likely more calls for bodies than there are people. . .
Can someone answer this?
Sat, 2011-04-16 20:31
#12
Re: New to Eclipse Phase, suggestions?
In short, 'no'. :D It's been discussed a fair bit. It's tricky and unclear. I can dig up some threads… Okay, wow. Finding these was vastly harder than I expected, because this forum lacks most basic features. :/
http://www.eclipsephase.com/children-af-10
http://www.eclipsephase.com/reproduction-do-hypercorps-own-copyright-you...
http://www.eclipsephase.com/ego-birthing
http://www.eclipsephase.com/morphs-and-having-children
http://www.eclipsephase.com/childrens-brains-egos
http://www.eclipsephase.com/family-matter
http://www.eclipsephase.com/reproduction-age-transhumanity
http://www.eclipsephase.com/evolution-vs-iterative-development
http://www.eclipsephase.com/lost-part-2
http://www.eclipsephase.com/mommy-daddy-where-do-babies-come-real-ep-que...
http://www.eclipsephase.com/natural-born-morph
Oh, and it'd be pretty weird for a random scientist not to have a stack; there'd need to be a great reason.
Pods are basically biomorphs reliant on cyberbrains, because they have incomplete bio-brains.
Sat, 2011-04-16 21:10
#13
Re: New to Eclipse Phase, suggestions?
morph is the general term for any body, biomorphs are organic pods are organic with cyber brains.
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Sat, 2011-04-16 23:42
#14
Re: New to Eclipse Phase, suggestions?
The reason he had to be killed and his stack destroyed is because the players tried to recruit him and he now knows about firewall. Since he turned them down they are forced to send him back to a privies backup where he did not know about firewall. It's the whole men in black flashy thingy senario.
I am still working on the story lines as there is much that doesn't make since story wise that has to be fixed. It's all part of the process, currently it is just notes and a rough idea that I am fleshing out.
Red
—
There are only 10 kind of people in the world; Those who understand binary, and those who don't.
Red
Sat, 2011-04-16 23:50
#15
Re: New to Eclipse Phase, suggestions?
One thing to think about is mind hacking. If I am reading the book right, a sufficiently skilled player could edit the scientist's memories so that he remembers everything BUT firewall. It's risky, takes a week, requires skilled hands, and is a social 'no-no' but I've seen players pull off crazier plans in other games.
Then again, if they do manage to mind-hack the scientist, I'd give extra points for sheer ballsyness.
Sun, 2011-04-17 00:42
#16
Re: New to Eclipse Phase, suggestions?
But you can make multiple forks of your self with multiple forks of him to get multiple rolls.
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Sun, 2011-04-17 08:33
#17
Re: New to Eclipse Phase, suggestions?
http://www.rpol.net/game.cgi?gi=41456&date=1303043551
However, we have way more players than GMs, so there's a backlog for playing in missions.
At RPoL:
Tue, 2011-04-19 18:17
#18
Re: New to Eclipse Phase, suggestions?
Thanks for all the help everyone who responded, I have another question though . . .
I just got into a local mini-game (it is only expected to last 4-6 sessions) for Eclipse phase, and while toying around with character concepts, I had an question:
Say I want to play a Pod (worker or pleasure.) Now, both of those have the Puppet Sock thing, meaning someone with the right codes can override my body and command it to do whatever. Is there a cost or a CP thing I can pay at character creation to not have that? Or have it intentionally sabotaged? I mean, call me crazy, but I don't want some hacker to make me shoot my friends (or myself) by exploiting that.
I mean, I know I could choose NOT to play a pod, but I have a cool character backstory revolving around it.
Tue, 2011-04-19 18:23
#19
Re: New to Eclipse Phase, suggestions?
You can turn it off, sure. The rules don't explain the details AFAIK, presumably because it's not important. They do say you can have it removed (again, no details). I can't imagine it's very hard, given the technology.
Wed, 2011-04-20 04:49
#20
Re: New to Eclipse Phase, suggestions?
Think of it as blocking a USB port. You can do it in software if you have the right level of administrator access (presumably the owner of the pod has this), or you can do it in hardware by having a doctor/morph repair person remove the sock or cut the relevant connections.
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Wed, 2011-04-20 07:25
#21
Re: New to Eclipse Phase, suggestions?
also remember that a large part of the reason that synths and pods are cheaper and less desirable than their organic counterpart is that they can get brain hacked.
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Wed, 2011-04-20 07:30
#22
Re: New to Eclipse Phase, suggestions?
Pods have a Puppet Sock because they have Cyberbrains, and in the Cyberbrain text;
"They also have a built-in puppet sock, may be remote-controlled, though this option may be removed by those who value their security."
So yes. Yes you can have it easily turned off. They can still scorch your mind, so they can still drive you insane from miles away. But at least you wont be shooting your friends? (Unless you go really, really crazy...)
—
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Wed, 2011-04-20 09:18
#23
Re: New to Eclipse Phase, suggestions?
I mean, we're assuming 'easily'; but rightly so!
It only says that the option can be removed (somehow). ;) If I were running it, I'd say the a hacker could re-enable it if it were only software disabled. Hardware disabling would be trivial though (or even [Trivial]).
Sun, 2011-04-24 04:34
#24
Re: New to Eclipse Phase, suggestions?
I've made a character for my upcoming EP game, and I was wondering if someone could give him the once-over? Don't need to double-check my math or anything, just want to know: any major skills I missed or points I allocated poorly? I know I am my own dude, and capable of making my own character, but I'd like to know if I am missing some 'vital' skills or if I've put too many points into one thing and not enough into another.
Character concept: On page 71 of the core book, it mentions that Direct Action committed war-crimes during the fall (I assume they mercilessly gunned down innocent civilians in order to make sure their corporate masters got off world.) My character was going to school as a Soil Scientist when he witnessed this and made an XP of the event, then uploaded it to the Mesh when he managed to escape the fall. Direct Action came after him, but with the help of the Anarchists and some criminal contacts, he made it to the outer system where he pretends to be a worker pod run by a simple AI. (Of course his boss and his friends all know there is an ego in there, but he tries to act like an AI in public.)
The events of Direct Action had a drastic effect on his life. He now hates that there is no oversight of the Hypercorps and that they can get away with such things, and he hates that he has to live his life in self-imposed exile or face oblivion. However, over the past ten years he has come to find admirable things in the simple life of asteroid surveying and he has formed a strong friendship with the Brinkers. Over the years he has placed considerable mods on his Worker Pod with his hard-earned money in order to ensure his survivability should Direct Action ever track him down (and mess with his backups.)
Tavaris Melo
Background:Fall Evacuee
+10 Pilot[Groundcraft], +10 Networking[Autonomists], +1 Moxie
Faction: Brinker
+10 Pilot [Spacecraft], +10 Unarmed, +20 Networking[Autonomists]
Morph: Worker Pod
+10 SOM, +5 Cog,
(Basic Biomods, Mesh Inserts, Cortical Stack, Cyberbrain, Mnemonic Aug, Puppet Sock)
Social Stigma (Pod)
Extras (145 Pts)
Innocuous (10)
Pain Tolerance[Ego Trait]:10
Morph:Worker Pod(20)
Extra Cash: 14
2 Moxie (30)
60 Reputation (6)
On th Run(Direct Action):+10
Blacklisted c-rep (+5)
Adaptability lvl 2 (20)
Will +5 (50)
Cog:15(+5)20
Coo:15
Int:15
Ref:15
Sav:15
Som:15(+10)(25)
Wil:20
Format
Skill[field]:Aptitude(Background/faction bonus)(Points, under 60)(Points, above 60)(Morph Bonus)=Total skill
400+85+60(over sixty)
Skills (Active)
Beam Weapons:15(+0)(+45)(+0)(+0)=60
Deception:15(+0)(+45)(+0)(+0)=60
Fray:15(+0)(+45)(+10)(+0)=70
Free Fall:15(+0)(+45)(+0)(+0)=60
Hardware[Electronics]:15(+0)(+30)(+0)(+5)=50
Impersonation:15(+0)(+45)(+10)(+0)=70
Interfacing:15(+0)(+30)(+0)(+0)=45
Navigation:15(+0)(+40)(+0)(+0)=55
Networking[Autonomists]:15(+30)(+10)(+0)(+0)=55
Networking[Lower Classes]:15(+0)(+20)(+0)(+0)=35
Networking[Criminal]:15(+0)(+20)(+0)(+0)=35
Perception:15(+0)(+30)(+0)(+0)=45
Pilot[Groundcraft](15)(+10)(+0)(+0)(+0)=25
Pilot[Spacecraft](15)(+10)(+35)(+0)(+0)=60
Research:15(+0)(+10)(+0)(+0)=25
Unarmed:(15)(+10)(+35)(+10)(+10)=80
300
Skills (Knowledge)
Academics[Soil Science]15(+10)(+30)(+0)(+5)=60
Academics[Sociology]15(+0)(+30)(+0)(+5)=50
Interest[Hypercorps]:15(+0)(+45)(+0)(+0)=60
Interest[Post-fall history]:15(+0)(+30)(+0)(+0)=45
Interest[Current Events]:15(+0)(+30)(+0)(+0)=40
Language: Portugeese(native):85
Language: English:15(+0)(+45)(+0)(+0)=60
Language: Spanish:15(+0)(+25)(+0)(+0)=40
Profession[Asteroid Surveyor]15(+0)(+40)(+0)(+5)=60
Profession[Starship freight pilot]15(+0)(+25)(+0)(+5)=40
Gear: Shock Gloves (250)
Electronics Kit (250)
Laser Pulser (1000)
1 mo. Backup Insurance(1000)
Laser Sight on Laser Pulser (250)
Second Skin(1/3) (250)
Vac Suit, Heavy(7/7) (1000)
Nanobandagex4(200)
Utilitool (250)
Portable Sensor[Material Analyzer](1000)
Micrograv Shoes(50)
Puppet Sock system sabotaged? (250?)
Breadcrumb Positioning System (250)
Mods:
Enhanced Resperation(250)
Cyberclaws(250)
Emergency Oxygen Supply(250)
Neurachem (5000)
Medichines(250)
4,500Credits remaining
REP:
@Rep:60
gRep:50
+Philanthropy, +Equal rights for all, -Free Market
10 pts remaining
Sun, 2011-04-24 06:39
#25
Re: New to Eclipse Phase, suggestions?
Quick question. Did you take beam weapons for a background reason? Otherwise I think Kinetic Weapons is better.
Sun, 2011-04-24 07:50
#26
Re: New to Eclipse Phase, suggestions?
Note that in the 3rd printing, full auto is only a +2d10 bonus, and beam weapon concentrated fire is DV x2.
Beam Weapons are fine now. Sure, a heavy rail pistol with AP ammo will do more damage on full auto than a microwave agonizer on concentrated fire (averages of 38 vs. 27 counting AP). But the heavy pistol has to reload after each full auto burst, and ifyou miss with the agonizer gets a second shot with sweeping fire at +10 to hit, and unless your target is a synth or combat biomorph the agonizer has some really good secondary effects. Beam weapons also recharge easy, while kinetic weapons need a constant supply of bullets. At the high end, the plasma rifle is even the most powerful weapon in the game, if you can live with the range limitation and cost.
Imo, for non-warfare characters, beam weapons are a very solid choice.
Sun, 2011-04-24 08:07
#27
Re: New to Eclipse Phase, suggestions?
Just a quick ninja, but its actually not. Kinetic weapons are still king at the very top end. A Burst Fire (Damage bonus) Automatic Rifle firing Hollow-Point/Homing/Zero rounds is both more accurate and more damaging over short and long periods of time. In fact Full Auto has never been the problem when it comes to beam weapon damage, it has always been Burst Fire.
However I will agree that beam weapons are still a viable choice. Plus they tend to be more dramatic :D
—
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Sun, 2011-04-24 09:05
#28
Re: New to Eclipse Phase, suggestions?
Plasma is better high end, an AR with hollow-points is only 4d10+6, AP -4. Against a reaper in combat armor thats 32-4=28 armor, exactly the average damage. There's an even chance of no damage getting through at all. A railgun AR with AP ammo is a better choice, it gets 4.5 damage through per burst. A plasma rifle shot will get 12.5 points of damage through on average.
If I factor in that 15% of shots are criticals that bypass armor, it evens it out though, with the railgun AR with AP ammo doing almost exactly the same damage as the plasma rifle. The AR has to reload twice as often though, so it falls about 10% behind for continous action.
Sun, 2011-04-24 09:08
#29
Re: New to Eclipse Phase, suggestions?
I just wanna 'ditto' this: Full Auto wasn't an issue before, so it's not now; and a small buff to Concentrated Fire doesn't 'redeem' beam weapons. I think Beam Weapons are a great choice, but not if your decision is motivated purely by damage.
Sun, 2011-04-24 09:24
#30
Re: New to Eclipse Phase, suggestions?
Ah, if we are using an extremely high armoured Reaper target, then yes, the Plasma Rifle is indeed the better choice. Kinetic Weapons still have a better one though. Splash rounds filled with Liquid Thermite with a Smart Clip of Zap will bring that down just as fast. Plus it has the added benefit of eating through armour so your friends also do increased damage.
I really like the Plasma Rifle, especially the new and improved version, but I still think that there are better options out there.
Edit: Ah, I forgot about the extra fire damage on the Plasma Gun. Never mind, you are correct, the Plasma Gun is indeed the biggest, baddest thing on the range.
—
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Sun, 2011-04-24 12:29
#31
Re: New to Eclipse Phase, suggestions?
GUYS GUYS!
Sorry, I didn't want to ignite a "kinetic" vs. "Beam" fight here. I did consider Kinetic weapons, but in the end, I chose Beam weapons for several reasons: none of which were motivated by "Which weapon catagory is capable of doing more damage."
1) The laser Pulser holds 100 rnds, vs. the heavy pistol's 16 before reloading. My character is supposed to be a Worker Pod run by a 'normal' AI, so people would turn heads if he had anything bigger (like an automatic Rifle) equipped.
2)The Laser Pulser has a 'stun' setting that can be used simply by giving his gun a mental command, vs. having to eject a magazine and reload with a magazine loaded with Zap Rounds, making it more versatile. I know that they don't have the same effect, but they both reduce a person's ability in combat without killing them.
3)The Laser Pulser can be recharged by simply pointing it at the sun (with one of those recharge strips) or plugging it into the wall, eliminating the need to carry around copious amounts of ammo or buy new ammo (something that would look suspicious for a worker pod to be doing.)
So, anything else about my character sheet that jumps out at people?
Sun, 2011-04-24 13:48
#32
Re: New to Eclipse Phase, suggestions?
The laser pulser is moderately sized and non-concealable, it sounds like what you want is the microwave agonizer.
I think your char needs kinesics skill to properly read people, you're going to be defaulting as it is, and you'll need that to put your deception and impersonation to proper use.
I think you'll be disappointed with your unarmed combat skill. I'd shift some of those points into palming, letting you smuggle useful weapons around, and it'll come in handy in many other situations and is really good for impersonation.
Sun, 2011-04-24 15:17
#33
Re: New to Eclipse Phase, suggestions?
Technically, the pulser recharges itself (nuclear battery). The non-damage reasons you list for a beam weapon are all good ones, especially if you're not playing EP as paramilitary or something. :)
Sun, 2011-04-24 18:29
#34
Re: New to Eclipse Phase, suggestions?
While the laser Pulser cannot be easily concealed in a skin pocket, it can be placed in a briefcase or sachel without too much trouble, but larger things like an autorifle pretty much require a duffel bag.
As for unarmed: well, the idea was to use the shock gloves if I get into combat. The unarmed skill is mainly there because it means I'm not carying around a big ol' diamond axe and that I can still get into and out of grapples. Plus, cyberblades are better than every other weapon in the book except the vibroblade, the axe and the monosword. All three of those can be taken away by security, and are hard to conceal.
Thanks for the idea with Kenetics though, it makes sense for him to invest into reading others so that he can tell if they can tell that he's faking it. Of course, if they have kenetics, then they can tell that he can tell that they can tell that he can . . . oooh I made myself dizzy.