I agree with most of what they said above. I'd like to know stuff you can use for adventures, both specific hooks but also general stuff. What form does "crime" take and how does it work, is it only the obvious like scientific spying and falsifying data or something else? (Which reminds me, I'd love to see some info on "rep crime"). What would make them meddle in other factions' business? What makes other factions meddle in their business?

What does your typical Argonaut do for a living, other than vague "science stuff"?

I noticed that the stretch goal listing at the Transhuman page calls the Argonaut book "Minibook: Prometheans". Did you just leak to us a potential future stretch goal? Because if so, I'm all over it.

Details on Medeans their armed wing. Description of Markov. Some GM secrets-for example how much was known about ETI's before the Fall in connection to Project Ozma(Sunward has a hint that something was known), or perhaps some alien artifacts or deals with strange groups Argonauts have. There was a long topic on them here before: http://eclipsephase.com/argonauts-0

I second the request for more details on the Medeans; their structure, organization, methods of operation, etc. Some general Argonaut views regarding Exsurgent/TITANs threats and research would be interesting too, especially in regards to their open-source views. Their relationships with Firewall and/or Oversight/OZMA would also be dandy.

jackgraham wrote:

Our latest What are your burning questions? What would you love to see Brian Cross cover in this supplement?

FWIW, this thread made me register after lurking on this forum for a couple years. Scientists lead fairly uninteresting lives, especially compared to the average role-playing character. But what scientists know can be very interesting, especially in the context of a high-tech, conspiracy-laden, mystery-driven, alien horrors game. Thus, the argonauts sourcebook should spend as much time going over what the argonauts know (or think they know) about some of the central mysteries of Eclipse Phase universe, as it does going over the argonauts themselves. This is an opportunity for the EP team to pull the curtain back a bit (or throw out options) on things like the nature of: [b]Powerful Seed AIs[/b] -- The argonauts work with Prometheans. What's that like, from the argonauts' perspective? Do the argonauts interact with the Prometheans in virtual space? Do the Prometheans manifest in the real world? If so, how? As a telepathic nimbus of mist and light? As a superhuman specimen that an exhuman would be envious of? As a giant, talking, moving, blob of computronium? Or all of the above, depending on the Promethean in question? The Prometheans also fought the TITANs. What was that like from the Prometheans' perspective, at least in terms that a transhuman might be able to comprehend? A lightning-fast, virtual knife-fight where years of codebreaking were compressed into a microsecond? Or a slow, brutal, real-world war with hyper-advanced weapons? Was contact with the Exsurgent TITANs ecstatic, fascinating, frightful, or perplexing to the Prometheans? [b]The Exsurgent Virus, the Gates, and the TITANs' Fate[/b] -- Presumably, the Argonauts know that the TITANs were infected with the Exsurgent Virus, from the Prometheans' battles with the TITANs during the Fall, if nothing else. The Argonauts also presumably have an interest in the alien biology and physics exhibited by the Exsurgent Virus, as well as the alien physics of the Gates. Are the Argonauts actively experimenting with this alien science? Do they maintain samples of broken TITANs, exsurgent transhumans, and/or the virus itself? Were the Argonauts/Prometheans key to deciphering Gate programming? Are they trying to recreate a Gate? Do the Argonauts/Prometheans think that some action of theirs caused the TITANs to retreat, or do they think that the Exsurgent Virus drove the TITANs to leave the solar system? Did the Argonauts decipher TITAN transmissions during the Fall? Are they still picking up TITAN transmissions? (Or even in contact with TITANs?) What are the Argonauts'/Prometheans' hypotheses about how and where the TITANs went and their motivations? Do the Argonauts/Prometheans think that the TITANs are now cows being led to alien slaughter? Or that the TITANs have artificially evolved into some higher lifeform? Or that the Exsurgent infection is fatal and that the TITANs are all dead, soon to be followed by all of transhumanity if the Virus is not stopped? [b]The ETI[/b] -- In fighting the TITANs, did the Prometheans uncover knowledge of the source of the Exsurgent Virus and have the Argonauts found (or are searching for) the Bracewell Probe? Do some of the Argonauts/Prometheans surmise that the Exsurgent Virus or other ETI intervention is behind the evolution of the Factors and the extinction of all extrasolar intelligences? Based on the Exsurgent Virus and perhaps the Bracewell Probe and/or extrasolar discoveries, what are the Argonauts'/Prometheans' hypotheses about the age, location, size, capabilities, and intent of the ETI? Are the Argonauts/Prometheans actively (likely telescopically) searching for other signs of the ETI? Do the Argonauts/Prometheans surmise that runaway intelligence is what trapped the TITANs and triggered the Bracewell Probe? Are the Argonauts/Prometheans preparing to defend themselves/transhumanity when the next transhuman singularity triggers a response from the ETI? Is that the ultimate purpose of the Medeans and the Argonauts' inner circle? The argonauts sourcebook doesn't, and probably shouldn't, answer these questions definitively, and the nature of the scientific process, as well as multiple leading Argonauts and Prometheans, lends itself to multiple hypotheses and theories. A GM section that provides different options, in terms of Argonaut/Promethean hypotheses/theories, for describing and dealing with these central mysteries in the EP universe would be great. I could even see an accompanying rules section -- similar to high-level rules in other role-playing games -- for interacting with and fighting entities like Prometheans, TITANs, and ETI agents like the Bracewell Probe. My 2 qubits... hope they're useful.

jackgraham wrote:

They're the same book. Apparently we don't have consensus on a working title yet. :)

Then THAT is what I want to know more about. The Prometheans are the only benevolent seed AI around, and I'd like more info about them to make them a bigger presence in my games. Maybe even detail a few along with personality traits. No need for stats, though. Never stat out a being that is meant to be far beyond mortals.

What makes Promethians friendly? I understand it was their development but what did the Argonauts do to separate them from other similarly-focused superintelligences? I also want more science-focused gear. While there's a lot of good stuff (chem-sniffers, eyes that have massive magnification, etc) to have more options would be pretty rad, keeping with the hard science feel.

Yes, all of the above. I also would like to see a bit more science gear, advise on using and building custom tech and how to leverage science skills.

Capricorn wrote:

A primer on everthing Argonaut, even if it is redundant / recycled material, so that I don't have to look up EP, Rimward etc.

Yes, this, or at the very least a page or section with references to Argonaut material in all the other books.

About the Argonauts: There's a whole lot of potential for this. Allow me to digress for a second, and then I'll bring it back on topic: One of the campaigns I wanted to run saw the players working with the Planetary Consortium. They were drafted by someone in the upper tiers of the PC to go after a rogue Argonaut that the PC had gotten drift of: this Argonaut had been engaged heavily in xenotech and xenoarcheology, and he'd been looking for information on the Factors. Despite internal pressures from within the Argonauts, he'd managed to kill a Factor ambassador in an exosolar colony, and the PC didn't want any extrasolar incidents, so they sent the characters in to retrieve the body so "it could be returned to the Factors." He wants to study the body and reveal what he learned from it to everyone, putting it on the Mesh as open source technology. Unfortunately, he crossed the line when he assassinated the Factor, and set into motion a whole crap load of problems that the players were working with the PC to try and head off (they get no help from the anarchists on the colony he was currently crashing in at the time of them finding him; who's going to trust a bunch of PC stooges that are claiming one of their best body designers, a very inoffensive and incredibly intelligent well-meaning guy, killed a Factor, huh?) As far as being an opponent went, he would have a relatively dangerous morph, that was mostly packed with xenotech that he'd managed to recover and figure out how to make use of, in addition to "xenowear", or bioware that had originally been xenobiology adapted to his morph. Non-violent by nature, his morph equipment would be mostly defensive stuff, making him hard to track, hard to find, and hard to kill. Now, to bring this conversation back to the topic. I assumed a lot about the Argonauts when drafting the campaign hook and the general idea about the campaign, and I can unpack those assumptions as things that would be really cool to have answers for: 1. There are almost certainly competing factions within the Argonauts. Select any two humans and you have at least four or five different opinions just in those two. What are some of the major ones? How common are extreme Argonauts - the ones who are willing to go so far as killing a Factor ambassador in order to figure out what makes them tick? What about ones who support making xenotech open source, and those who are wary of it? 2. The Argonaut in question had been actively pursing the uplifting of scurrids, the cute furry things from Gatecrashers. Gatecrashers describes them as being chimpanzee like intelligent, which opens the door for justification of xenouplifts. Argonauts are described as being active in the uplifting process in Panopticon; they sponsor the Kisilev OS Uplift Genetic Library. Are they involved in attempts to uplift any xenothings? 3. Argonauts and xenotech. Some examples of Xenotech have been given in Gatecrashers, but this is a good opportunity to introduce more. What kind of xenotech do they work with? What kind of xenotech do they have - and are they working on reverse engineering it? 4. There relationships with the other factions. What are they like? 5. The research into psi and the Watts-McLeod strain. What kind of progress, if any, are they making? The concept is cool; the Argonauts are a major player in the EP universe and it's good that they're getting the sort of attention the other groups got.

jackgraham wrote:

Brian is writing this book. :)

When it is ready it will be ready. Kindalas

Sorry, That was way more sarcastic and cryptic then I intended. Please accept my apology. On a serious note the book is being written by Brian who is an expert in alternate social structures. During Gen Con there will be a Posthuman Studios seminar that could have more information but I'm not privy to what will be said or discussed beyond the summary posted here and on the Gen Con flyer. Kindalas

I want to see [i]labs[/i], and the research that happens there. What research do the Argonauts do publicly? What do they do privately, and argue amongst themselves about the merits of? What do some of them study that others think is a waste of time and/ or dangerous? Eclipse Phase needs more hidden labs with terrifying research going on there. It's important to be clear that progress [i]does not stop.[/i] The world is changing fast. The rate of change is getting faster. And in some games, the PCs can tip the scales on what changes for transhumanity and how. EDIT: Oh wait, should have checked the dates.