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Running Continuity for new players, questions abound!

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Sun, 2015-02-22 00:52

Noble Pigeon Noble Pigeon's picture

Running Continuity for new players, questions abound!

So I've read a lot about Continuity on here, read up on nezumi.hebereke's cheat sheets and even participated in his game in 2013's TempleCon. The impression I'm getting is that Continuity was made for either conventions or one shots and probably isn't best for people completely new to sci-fi and coming fresh out of Dungeons and Dragons. But what about running it as a sort of prologue to a campaign? I really like that Continuity is self-contained away from the setting so I don't have to explain stuff like rep networks or psi-slights or what have you. In other words, aside from being quite a difficult scenario, it's perfect for people new to sci-fi and EP. What adjustments do you guys recommend I make to make it more friendly for newbies? I plan on giving them the recommended pregens from the books, with some modifications (for example, making the Mercurial Scavenger more useful, crossing off certain skills and Psi), and then give them the option of creating their own characters for the actual campaign or keeping their pregens (assuming they survive).

—

"Don't believe everything you read on the Internet.” -Abraham Lincoln, State of the Union address

Mon, 2015-02-23 12:51

nezumi.hebereke nezumi.hebereke's picture

Hi! Good seeing you again :)

Hi! Good seeing you again :) I don't know what I've gotten and what I haven't. I do have a set of characters specifically drafted up for convention games, so it's a character background, with the character tweaked for the adventure (equipment removed, etc.) And yes, I've generally removed the Mercurial Scavenger from that list for the reasons you specified. He tends to be fun, but short-lived. For me, difficulty transitioning from Continuity to a campaign is less than the difficulty of transitioning from 'first character' to 'effective long-term character'. What I frequently do is I have a 'test' adventure. You make your character, play the adventure, then you can tweak the character as much as you like without penalty. However, Continuity doesn't explore half of the system, so you'd probably want to do this twice for a totally new crew. I also let people carry rez over between different characters. For making the adventure easier for newbies? Most people with even a passing familiarity with sci-fi tend to do okay, as long as they avoid analysis paralysis. Keep them moving! I emphasize the little things they might not think of (microgravity especially is easy to forget), and I'd throw a few softball murder attempts to make sure they know they're in mortal danger. Hans tells them to go to the lab and open a tank of some chemical which, if any of them read the labels, is clearly very deadly. You're also going to be working against the D&D mentality of 'if it's there I'm meant to kill it'. Fortunately, Eclipse Phase has a built in tool against that. Just put a few extra morphs in the medical lab. If they bought you pizza, those morphs are identical to their current ones. Otherwise they're spares. Spares are pretty great because they objectively suck, but a creative player can and will use them to great effect. I'd say the WORST thing you can do with a group of D&D players is let them go toe-to-toe and win. EP requires a different mindset to be really effective.

Fri, 2015-03-13 00:02

Noble Pigeon Noble Pigeon's picture

Thanks for the response, I'll

Thanks for the response, I'll keep it in mind! Something else I wanted to ask though: how would people in biomorphs be subject to the chrynalus virus in the Kepler if it's infection vector is only digital? I get that if the nanofabbers are infected then they start making the nanoplague, but I'd think that if the players notice that the fabbers just start randomly producing something with no input from them they'd shut it down, so therefore biomorphs should have no chance of infection.

—

"Don't believe everything you read on the Internet.” -Abraham Lincoln, State of the Union address

Fri, 2015-03-13 11:41

nezumi.hebereke nezumi.hebereke's picture

On the Kepler the virus has

On the Kepler the virus has three vectors; digital, as a basilisk hack, and physical. Characters can get infected by digitally connecting with infected objects (remember, your ecto is an implant installed inside of you, so if it gets infected, it'll grow the physical spurs which are released into the bloodstream); by hearing and seeing the basilisk hack (because it's a basilisk hack); or by getting injured/inhaling a spur.

Fri, 2015-03-13 12:03

ShadowDragon8685 ShadowDragon8685's picture

nezumi.hebereke wrote:On the

nezumi.hebereke wrote:
On the Kepler the virus has three vectors; digital, as a basilisk hack, and physical. Characters can get infected by digitally connecting with infected objects (remember, your ecto is an implant installed inside of you, [b]so if it gets infected, it'll grow the physical spurs which are released into the bloodstream[/b]); by hearing and seeing the basilisk hack (because it's a basilisk hack); or by getting injured/inhaling a spur.

I'm sorry, [i]what[/i]? Are we playing the same game? First off, an ecto is not an implant. In fact, it is [i]definitionally[/i] not an implant. Mesh inserts are implants. Secondly, just because a computer gets infected by some version of the Exsurgent Virus doesn't grant it literally magical powers. A computer which isn't in any way, shape, or form, any kind of a nanofabricator, isn't going to be growng jack shit. Now, it may well do all kinds of computer nastiness, like order fabbers you have control over to start building infection nanites, it might start fucking with your entopics and such (and being that it's your mesh inserts, it can probably completely override your reality and make you see whatever it wants to see, which is pretty much going to be lethal,) it can flash basilisk hacks (though personally I hate the things and ignore them because "Oh, you looked in there? Congratulations, you're dead." sucks balls,) straight into your brain, etc. But it [i]cannot[/i] just start growing nanites to release into your brain. I mean, not unless you have an implanted general nanohive for some reason.

—

Skype and AIM names: Exactly the same as my forum name. [url=http://tinyurl.com/mfcapss]My EP Character Questionnaire[/url] [url=http://tinyurl.com/lbpsb93]Thread for my Questionnaire[/url] [url=http://tinyurl.com/obu5adp]The Five Orange Pips[/url]

Fri, 2015-03-13 12:26

Noble Pigeon Noble Pigeon's picture

nezumi.hebereke wrote:On the

nezumi.hebereke wrote:
On the Kepler the virus has three vectors; digital, as a basilisk hack, and physical. Characters can get infected by digitally connecting with infected objects (remember, your ecto is an implant installed inside of you, so if it gets infected, it'll grow the physical spurs which are released into the bloodstream); by hearing and seeing the basilisk hack (because it's a basilisk hack); or by getting injured/inhaling a spur.

I didn't even know basilisk hacks were able to infect people, I just thought they fuck people up in nasty ways? And I'm actually willing to accept that answer of it infecting your mesh inserts=things in your brain since if there's no real reason for a biomorph not to use wireless signals, it would basically invalidate the whole tension behind "can't use wireless stuff, gotta be careful" thing for biomorphs, since, y'know, magic powers already exist in the setting. Digital viruses might not normally be able to directly infect biological brains but this one can because, ETI space magic. Also, the pregens they picked was the brinker genehacker, anarchist techie, scavenger (the sunward one), and the siftrunner techie. Everyone's D&D senses are screaming "WHERE'S OUR COMBAT GUY? WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!" but I'm pretty sure they're gonna be okay (?).

—

"Don't believe everything you read on the Internet.” -Abraham Lincoln, State of the Union address

Fri, 2015-03-13 12:35

ShadowDragon8685 ShadowDragon8685's picture

Noble Pigeon wrote:I didn't

Noble Pigeon wrote:
I didn't even know basilisk hacks were able to infect people, I just thought they fuck people up in nasty ways?

That is how basilisk hacks work, normally. Of course, if the basilisk hack instructs you do something stupid like stick your head in the nearest fabber and breathe deep...

Quote:
And I'm actually willing to accept that answer of it infecting your mesh inserts=things in your brain since if there's no real reason for a biomorph not to use wireless signals, it would basically invalidate the whole tension behind "can't use wireless stuff, gotta be careful" thing for biomorphs, since, y'know, magic powers already exist in the setting. Digital viruses might not normally be able to directly infect biological brains but this one can because, ETI space magic.

I'm not. Even psi-episilon can't conjure matter [i]ex nihilo[/i], let alone conjure complicated nanites.

—

Fri, 2015-03-13 12:45

Noble Pigeon Noble Pigeon's picture

Wait, the ETI doesn't make

Wait, the ETI [i]doesn't[/i] make the fundamental laws of physics their bitch? And they call themselves a cosmic horror? pfffffft

—

"Don't believe everything you read on the Internet.” -Abraham Lincoln, State of the Union address

Fri, 2015-03-13 13:39

Urthdigger Urthdigger's picture

I was under the impression

I was under the impression that the exsurgent virus doesn't need nanites to jump from digital to biological, just a way into your head, usually via senses (basilisk hack) or via mesh inserts. Once it does, it sends data to you that rewrites parts of yourself so your own body starts growing a physical strain. So, the cosmic horror variant of those guys who send data through controller inputs to reprogram Super Mario World into Snake.

Fri, 2015-03-13 13:47

#10

eaton

I think nezumi.hebereke was

I think nezumi.hebereke was referring to each character's mesh implant with the ecto comment? I think the deadliness of the three different attack vectors is one of the things that can be dialed up and down depending on the scenario. In the two versions of it that I ran, I stuck with:

Basilisk hack: Immobilization to prevent the crew from fighting back
Digital vector: Subverted Infomorphs or synthmorphs are immediately ego-compromised. If they have any kind of implants capable of manufacturing nanites, they'll become physically infected as well. Biomorphs' mesh inserts will be compromised (and immediately turned on), their muses will be subverted, and anyone with nanofabricating implants will become physically infected as well. Anyone who's infected digitally but not physically, will flip on their wireless connection and begin infecting and activating fabbers around the station.
Physical infection: Contact with Exsurgent nanoswarm or take a wound when nicked by a spur: Sorry, pal, you're a spider-beast.

The big question, I think, is: "Does someone who's infected with Continuity's strain via digital vectors begin their physical transformation even without access to any kind of nanofabrication mechanism"

Fri, 2015-03-13 14:21

#11

uwtartarus uwtartarus's picture

Medichines are maintained by

Medichines are maintained by a hive, are they not? Explains the Jovian dislike of medichines.

—

Exhuman, and Humanitarian.

Fri, 2015-03-13 15:29

#12

eaton

Yep, medichines were one of

Yep, medichines were one of the possible vectors as we played it. Basically, anything that is capable of doing accelerated healing using nanomachines is also capable of manufacturing the exsurgent virus. So if the host's ego is compromised, or their implants are compromised, the medichines are compromised and boom: you're a vector.

Fri, 2015-03-13 16:46

#13

ORCACommander ORCACommander's picture

well further the mesh inserts

well further the mesh inserts can't grow the spurs because they are inorganic objects and are inf fact just electronic machines lieing under under your skin or bioweave. as I understand basilisk hacks they require fundamental understanding of what they see or hear. Example is the apple of knowledge variant in glory. you need both proficiencies in nanofabrication and programming in order to be infected by it. as for it transferring to physical... since this is the most limited vector it seems the amount of info transfered is very specific and very limited. usually just resorting in minor personality overrides

Fri, 2015-03-13 18:47

#14

uwtartarus uwtartarus's picture

Also basilisk hacks are not

Also basilisk hacks are not inherently exsurgent, iirc, they were developed by Seed AI's mastery of neuroscience, and even today there are weird perception phenomena that do weird tricks to the brain which are just our nascent understanding of what could become weaponized sensory information.

—

Exhuman, and Humanitarian.

Fri, 2015-03-13 20:55

#15

UnitOmega

A basilisk hack CAN

A basilisk hack CAN effectively turn you into an exsurgent, the same way a digital virus or even some of the biological vectors have purely mental effects. It just doesn't cause any other modification except directly to the psyche. AOK and YGBM hacks are only some of the Basilisk Hack types. It can also include "SERVE TITANS" or "MAKE VIRUS" commands. Speaking of AOK and Glory, that's actually how the Glory virus starts, the hack as a digital medium finds someone with the right kind of skill to build the nanohive for the second infection vector and subverts them. It can't make you a horrible flesh-eating crab man, but it can make you want to become one. And perhaps it can tell you to hook the virus up to a sufficient strength fab so it can begin making some of that virus.

—

H-Rep: An EP Homebrew Blog http://ephrep.blogspot.com/

Sat, 2015-03-14 13:31

#16

nezumi.hebereke nezumi.hebereke's picture

Okay, you all are going to

Okay, you all are going to force me to close Mermaid Adventures here and flip over to my Eclipse Phase books :P ShadowDragon is correct on both points; I meant mesh inserts, and no, they don't normally produce the spurs. When I run it at conventions I have 3.5 hours to kill everyone. Rarely do people survive long enough for the different methods of infection to become relevant :P I think eaton answered pretty effectively, so I won't restate all that. Thank you! To circle back to Noble Pigeon's question, how do folks on the Kepler get infected? In my experience, about 1 out of 10 PCs stick their head directly into the fabricator to see why it's doing that, or they wait long enough that the room is coated with the stuff, and they pick stuff up blithely, or they tell the machine to produce something useful and it comes out covered with dust that they proceed to wipe their filthy hands all over. Or they'll collect samples and then somehow (hilariously) infect themselves despite all their caution up to that point. The Kepler has been infected for quite a while, so if you want to say the spurs grew here or there, you totally can. But in general, I normally find people don't infect themselves until the Istari has come on scene. This is intentional, since the mission is written for new players. The Kepler gives them a safe-ish environment to get their feet under them, then you crank up the heat with the Istari. Why no wireless? Because having the digital version riding around in your mesh insert is still *really bad*, especially for Hans. As the GM, you do have a lot of leeway to play merry hell at that point; false signals, coopting the medichines as mentioned, turning off devices back on, transmitting the virus to other devices, and so on. How much you crank it up depends on what you think is credible/how much pizza they bought for you prior.

Sat, 2015-03-14 14:07

#17

UnitOmega

Caleb Stokes, when running

Caleb Stokes, when running his campaign Know Evil, had a great action when a PC who was in a biomorph was infected with the digital virus. He wasn't subverted, but since the virus had his mesh inserts and his muse, it was much like being hit with a scorcher - he was subjected to crazy intense audio/visual input until his sanity collapsed - and had there been serious active TITAN activity in the area, he would have been super-disabled for any body or thing else to give them the physical vector. Another thing is if a digital virus stream contains a basilisk hack (like Digital Glory's AOK hack), if your mesh inserts are subverted, they can project the hack right into your AR display, real as life. And there's not a lot to do about it, since the manual controls for mesh inserts are inside your cranial cavity somewhere. EDIT: So, to also contribute more to the general discussion, I personally see there are two elements to a TITAN/Exsurgent attack. Characters can be "subverted" or "infected". Egos exposed to basilisk hacks and Muses and Device/Bot AIs are likely to be subverted (along with any pure infomorph). No new information is necessarily added, any changes are internal to the mind and change very little fundamentally about the subject, just their priorities are skewed to serve the TITANs/Virus. Characters who are infected experience radical internal and external alterations. They gain new knowledge or skills, and big chunks of their personality might be completely rewritten. Infected also implies an infection vector, while a subverted agent isn't intrinsically infectious. Not everyone who is infected is subverted - take WML for example. Those people retain most of their previous personality and values, but they have some physical alterations which in turn alter the psyche.

—

H-Rep: An EP Homebrew Blog http://ephrep.blogspot.com/

Sat, 2015-03-14 17:25

#18

ORCACommander ORCACommander's picture

Basilisks i wouldn ot

Basilisks i wouldn ot classify as digital and only should only affect the weird thing we call consciousness not the mesh inserts and should probably have a base minimum intelligence to be comprehended. I would classify it as a biomechenaical vector and have synthetics immune to it.

Sat, 2015-03-14 17:49

#19

UnitOmega

No, synths with Transhuman

No, synths with Transhuman Egos in them are definitely vulnerable to the Basilisk. At least when using their conventional audio/visual sensors. The sensory input is the same, and a Cyberbrain functions by a digital emulation of the sectors of the brain. The Basilisk is basically like an Exploit for the transhuman mind, the only thing that matters is that an Ego experiences the hack at a sufficient level of fidelity and the proper spectrum. A synth probably has finer control over their sensory systems, even without Sense Filters, though. Infomorphs would only be immune if the system they view it through is not sufficient, but for purposes of infection vectors, pure infomorphs are probably the least secure against actual direct digital infection. My point was, though, that if a digital exsurgent virus form subverts your mesh inserts and itself contains the data for a Basilisk Hack, the hack to reprogram you can be dumped directly into your AR inserts. And there's jack shit you can do about it without some flash surgery, the virus already controls your mesh inserts.

—

H-Rep: An EP Homebrew Blog http://ephrep.blogspot.com/

Mon, 2015-03-16 12:23

#20

eaton

Basilisk frequency?

So, here's a question that stumped me when I first ran Continuity. Are the Kepler's speakers/systems transmitting the basilisk hack when the PCs resleeve? Or did Hans' attempts to reclaim the ship and shut down nonessential systems protect them from that? The followup question is, how frequently do players need to roll against the basilisk hack if it's being broadcast continually? "Roll until you pass out" seems a bit punishing. After it was all over, I realized that the "immunity from stress source" rules might make sense: players who avoid the hack 5 times become immune to it, but take a "deferred derangement", lose a moxie, or something like that. The most punishing interpretation would have players continually rolling against the basilisk attack from the moment they exit the medical bay. The most lenient interpretation would have them encountering it once the Istari arrives.

Mon, 2015-03-16 12:49

#21

Noble Pigeon Noble Pigeon's picture

eaton wrote:So, here's a

eaton wrote:
So, here's a question that stumped me when I first ran Continuity. Are the Kepler's speakers/systems transmitting the basilisk hack when the PCs resleeve? Or did Hans' attempts to reclaim the ship and shut down nonessential systems protect them from that? The followup question is, how frequently do players need to roll against the basilisk hack if it's being broadcast continually? "Roll until you pass out" seems a bit punishing. After it was all over, I realized that the "immunity from stress source" rules might make sense: players who avoid the hack 5 times become immune to it, but take a "deferred derangement", lose a moxie, or something like that. The most punishing interpretation would have players continually rolling against the basilisk attack from the moment they exit the medical bay. The most lenient interpretation would have them encountering it once the Istari arrives.

Speakers? In the transhuman future? What are you, a [i]Jovian[/i]? ...No but seriously that's a good question. One of those things where it's like "is this thing even used in this alien, bizarre, barely recognizable setting"?

—

"Don't believe everything you read on the Internet.” -Abraham Lincoln, State of the Union address

Mon, 2015-03-16 13:02

#22

eaton

I'm assuming that any decent

I'm assuming that any decent station that's been updated post-Fall would have at least some emergency systems that aren't entirely mesh-dependent. Speakers for playing emergency warnings, say...

Mon, 2015-03-16 14:36

#23

nezumi.hebereke nezumi.hebereke's picture

No, the speakers are not

No, the speakers are not playing the basilisk hack. Hans has successfully (if only from his perspective) quarantined the digital virus. Unfortunately, when the PCs go poking around, they tend to go to the footage of their previous selves and/or try to establish communications with the Istari, both of which may create vectors for it. I've never had anyone stand around the hack long enough for me to ask if they need to roll twice. The hack is indeed audio and I describe it as sounding weird, so there's always one PC in the group who has seen enough sci-fi movies to know that device needs to be turned off immediately.

Mon, 2015-03-16 14:49

#24

eaton

Cool, that's what I suspected

Cool, that's what I suspected, but I wanted to be sure I hadn't been going too easy on them. My group played it super-cautious, keeping all coms devices offline, so I fudged: as soon as the Istari was within visual range, it started flashing messages to the Kepler via laser-pulses. Although they'd been super cautious with the mesh network, one of them told his muse to decode the pulses. "It looks like an audio file!" They played it. Saaaaad trombone.

Mon, 2015-03-16 15:50

#25

nezumi.hebereke nezumi.hebereke's picture

Nice!

Nice! For a really cautious group, they could probably make it through without opening any vectors for infection--but that's where the exsurgents come in. I run new groups through it almost exclusively though, and it seems there's always someone who ends up licking a door knob (even if it's for a really good reason).