Eclipse Phase

[nekomata]

How many people out there have looked at this and/or find it interesting? It was a real surprise to hear Ross mention Dresden Codak, part or me wondered if I was the only one that read it. No one I know is really into this kind of thing.

[ArtfulShrapnel]

Are you referring to Eclipse Phase? Because THAT is of great interest to me.

I've read through the PDF and it's extremely cool. Overall the game itself seems like Shadowrun advanced a few hundred years, with a horror twist. Balance appears like it would become an issue, but I don't think that game balance is the point. There's an overabundance of body types and gear, but a relatively small number of consistent character attached feats/abilities.

I think that, like people in a transhumanist society, players will need to change how they perceive a "character" in order to get into this game. They change so fast and so often by switching bodies, taking on new forms and abilities, dying and reloading themselves, that they barely fit the definition of a "character" build anymore. I can also see this occasionally breaking game flow, as the player recalculates their new sleeve's stats, selects implants, and buys new gear for the third time in a game session.

Overall, I found it to be an engaging read and that it is a great RPG incredible explorations of transhumanist sci-fi concepts. The game does seem a bit crunchy for my taste. The last real issue I see with the game is the downright overwhelming level of complexity and options for creating characters. This is right in line with the game's concept, but has made it hard to get any of my local players interested in making a character.

[nekomata]

Yeah, fixed that. Yay for staying up all night playing halo. I haven't read through much of the book yet, but I'm more interested in the setting then the system. I find transhumanism fascinating (maybe because I'm a furry ). Crap, I've been sitting here for the last 10min thinking what kind of character I'd make...

[clockworkjoe]

gonna run it for rppr at some point but I just don't have time to write an adventure so I will wait until a published one comes out - hopefully i can snag some pregens with it.

[nekomata]

The a whole host of sample charaters in the pdf, a dozen or more I think.

[ArtfulShrapnel]

gonna run it for rppr at some point but I just don't have time to write an adventure so I will wait until a published one comes out - hopefully i can snag some pregens with it.

The a whole host of sample charaters in the pdf, a dozen or more I think.

Yeah, the sample characters are pretty awesome all around. Best part about the customizability is that two people could play the same character and swap sleeves to take on different roles.

[clockworkjoe]

oh yeah dur. Still want some adventures to run.

[Shallazar]

Aren't there also some PCs on the rpg.net forums?

I'm thinking of running a pseudo Cowboy Bebeop/Total Recall/Alien game with it- eventually.

[Shallazar]

So I finally got through the 1st half of the book and rolled up a character.

An uplifted Orangutan, Dr. Zaius, who is incredibly addicted to drugs. It was through his recreational drug abuse that he gained Psionic powers! To this end he has 10 G-rep, 35 R-rep
and 20 @-rep. Other than that he uses a Wasp blade to knife people stealthily.

BTW Street date is October 13th.

[clockworkjoe]

you can download it legally here http://www.cargo-culture.net/eclipsephase/CAT21000_EclipsePhase.pdf

[nbneil]

I'm with Artful on this one.  The game looks really interesting to me, but it was a bit daunting from my quick glance at the preview.  Same thing for the Battletech RPG that came out.  Tons of tables and tons of specific rules.  Eventually I could dig my way through it especially since I love more futuristic games for a change of scenery. 

It's also been a challenge to get my group to learn new systems.  Something as complex as Eclipse Phase or the Battletech RPG would be way too much to ask.

Bottom line:  I'd love to play, but I think that could only be done with a remote group.  If anyone has suggestions for how to gently nudge your group into learning systems more willingly, I'm all ears.  Originally, we thought about each person learning one system to GM and rotating, but it's a loooooong process.

[Shallazar]

I've been thinking about it alot lately. And the strategy I'm going to employ is to

1) Run a one shot, simple scenario, more of a rules test than anything.
2) Pre-gens, or walking through character building as a group.
3) Use as little of the rules as possible. Like, sticking with the core mechanic for EP the d100 rolls, adding the difficulty modifiers if i REALLY need to.
4) Handling combat as a skill challenge rather than how it is laid out in the book
5) if  a player wants to do something, let them look up the rules about how to go about doing it.
6) and of course, taking it slow.

[Tadanori Oyama]

I tried presenting this idea to my group as a game. No one was interested. Apparently I work with alot of firmly planned individuals.

[Shallazar]

Alright, so this Holiday season I've wrangled together four people to play Eclipse Phase.

I'm goin' balls to the wall on this one pretty broad sandbox.
I was listening to Grand Theft Aparatus of Kawalish and So you want to run a  campaign, and started jotting down ideas.

I've got pop-up encounters that I can throw at the players pretty much no matter where they go. Space Pirates, a basilisk hack, and one of the "two episode specials" is a group that is stealing peoples' cortical stacks in order to create a giant super computer to defend against the titans.

The hook I'm using to get the PCs motivated to do anything is that they have NO rep and NO Credits. Due to some look alikes having recently sabotaged them.

Of course they can begin tracking down the saboteur's but doing so will take cash.
Quick credits can be made a variety of ways, including bounty hunting and scavenging.
For Rep generation I have some tasks from various factions, including helping an argonaut get some test subjects, assassinating an actor, running supplies to remote outposts.
And to spice up the encounters I have my random encounters of horror sci-fi nature.

But with all the freeforming and sandbox bullshit that is going to happen, I'm struggling most coming up with a reason for them all to find eachother and teamup,
Especially since the system emphasizes individual motivations.

I don't want to start with "So you are all sitting in a Space Tavern, with no idea why you are there"
or
"the last thing you remember was being shot in the face, you slowly wakeup finding yourself resleeved into your customary morph. Around you are people you don't recognize but you feel connected some how" Like having all the players resleeving at the same time, at the same place. It's quick and dirty.

Any suggestions on how to bring the characters initially together?

[clockworkjoe]

hey quick start rules with an intro adventure

GUESS WHAT I WILL BE RUNNING TOMORROW