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Lethality Level of the Campaign?

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Wintermaster Wintermaster's picture
Lethality Level of the Campaign?
I am a little curious what people think is a suitable lethality level for a campaign? So far, me and my friends have had 3 small campaigns, each with its own storyteller (we alternate who runs the game, each storyteller starts their own campaign), and different lethality levels. I began to wonder which is usually the one that people here use, and what is recommended. I'll list a few beneath, but they're just my interpretations. [b]Suicide Runners - Lethality 90%[/b] This level of campaign was brutal. Character death was a regular part of the game, and pressed forth a paranoid feel to things. At least once a session someone had to be resleeved, Firewall footed the bill but things were still far from pleasant. The characters memories became fragmented quickly with missing days, and at the last mission, weeks of their lives. They fought the big battles, they took a few choices to sacrifice themselves in order to save the team, and they did not hesitate to activate a self-destruct sequence inside an infested colony even though they were not sure if they could make it in time to their escape vessel. The characters were portrayed as cold professionals that did what had to be done. Their I-rep rose to the roof, but ultimately, every last one of them had become more or less a monster along the way. The repeated resleeving and loss of cortical stacks or having witnessed a good friend die over and over again drove the team to the point that insanity was a breath away. [b]Elite Operatives - Lethality 20%[/b] The other end of the table, the characters thought out their moves carefully, and followed up with careful plans. Paranoia ruled the day, but some trust existed between the team members. The Firewall's agents fought for what they believed in, but also for their own agendas. There was an inter-party tension between an anarchist and a hypercorp, but they kept professional when out on the job. There were several situations where a character was wounded, and being outright stupid was shown to be a quick way to waking up on the slab of a dollhouse, but in general the characters had a very good chance of walking away with their morph still intact, and without any loss of time. Farcasting lead to morph-changes along the way, but at the end of the day, the characters own 'bought' Morph was kept on ice for their downtime, when they left their mission and had some time to themselves. There was a mixture of day-by-day living alongside these missions, in fact, one of the missions began when a project Ozma agent attacked one of the Firewall agents in their own home. This lead to a hunt that culminated with confronting what was revealed to be a Alpha fork of their own proxy. They found a leak in the Firewall, plugged it, and their last mission involved smuggling an anti-matter bomb in the heart of Project Ozma facility. Under Pentagon, Earth. Two of the four characters died pulling off this mission, but their friends popped their stacks and fled with them. Nobody lost more than a couple days of time (and backup before a mission was almost a requirement). [b]Die Another Day - Lethality 50%[/b] This level of lethality seemed quite educational. Single mistake could leave a character badly bashed, their morph in need of healing. Serious mistake might land them dead. Cortical stack damage did not really occur much, but retrieving it wasn't exactly a cakewalk either. Most attacks against the characters came in alternate forms. Attacking their reputation (of at least their alternate identity), framing them for crimes ("You have the right to remain silent because surveilance is everywhere...") and attempts to break the group's loyalties (Passed secret notes about agents of the opposing force trying to convert a Firewall agent or 2 to their purposes.) in order to prevent their success. Death, and loss of time occured, occasionally, but for most part, characters might end up in some trouble, but walk away later with a grudge and a promise to pay those people a visit later.
"Yes I am new here. We were all new once, and I aim to learn fast, I only ask that you have a little patience when dealing with me. Thank you."
Anarhista Anarhista's picture
Diffusion
I believe you would gain diverse answers as there are different players. To me perfect lethality would be combination of first two. Low lethality combined with 'non-omega-priority' missions and important ops that require significant sacrifice. Since purpose of the game is... fun I wouldn't press too much with suicide runs. On the other hand you have tools to wipe them out on first significant mistake and not lose your story and players which is... great ;)
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish.
Limited Reagent Limited Reagent's picture
My experience so far has been
My experience so far has been similar to Elite Operatives, but different. Less paranoia. Combat, not matter what, was lethal. Decent planning would give the character's a good chance of coming out of a fight without death, but combat invariably led to wounds. Combat is chaotic. Sometimes, even with the best planning, things go wrong, and a lucky hit will kill someone. But this is Eclipse Phase after all, and death, while stressful and expensive, is not a huge deal.
Gantolandon Gantolandon's picture
I'd say it depends a lot of
I'd say it depends a lot of other factors - mostly availability of morphs and some kind of a reliable backup service. If the players are playing the default campaign, death is probably not such a big deal. In such cases, the stakes are usually also very high and a fate worse than death becomes a major possibility. A bit of stress and loss of memories beats being corrupted by exsurgent virus or waking up inside an interrogation simulspace maintained by Ozma. And there are occasions when dying means a lot. For example, the character learned something which made them switch sides. They was backed up before that, when they were a loyal employee or citizen. In such case, death brings terrible consequences - even if an organization which holds their copies even bothers with resleeving them, it will come after making sure this won't happen again. Therefore, death is not an option until arrangement with someone else is made. Probably there is no good answer to your question, because even during the same campaign dying may mean more or less. Generally, EP scenarios seem to be more lethal than in most RPGs. In [i]Continuity[/i], for example, there is a good chance that at least some player characters will leave the station as stacks, or not at all.
nezumi.hebereke nezumi.hebereke's picture
I tend to run a lot of one
I tend to run a lot of one shots with a few other GMs. Continuity has a kill rate of between 60-90%. Ego Hunter around 20-30%. So it definitely varies with the mission and the group. IMO, either side of the scale is okay, as long as the players are happy (but as a GM, I prefer that 90%).