Author Topic: Eclipse Phase  (Read 600815 times)

Cthuluzord

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Re: Eclipse Phase
« Reply #90 on: August 02, 2011, 02:34:29 AM »
Venus-tier ended tonight after...12 sessions? Something like that. The characters all have their own subplots underway, but I thought I'd write up a few things so as to note the way the game world has changed due to character actions thus far.

Muse News: Venus Round-up

PCNN (Planetary Consortium News Network): BRINKER ECONOMY STUMBLES IN WAKE OF MASSIVE SCAM

Sybil fraud, a scam that involves a number of individuals conspiring to boost and quickly burn the reputation score of a planted identity, is a graft unique to transitional economies of the outer system. The criminal practice reached new heights on AF 11 Nov. 15.15.30 UT when the most massive reputation manipulation in transhuman history occurred.

In the space of half an hour, over 100 individuals burned rep scores sometimes in excess of 10 points over the course of a single hour before farcasting or otherwise disappearing from Titanian space.  Financial AI’s did not catch deviations in the suspects’ rep growth until inflation was well underway, and by the time confirmation from Lunar banks was received over a million credit’s worth of goods and services had gone unreciprocated.

Though not yet cause of a full-blown economic depression, Titanian micro-corp stocks took a steep dive at the opening of LLA trading on Wednesday. Commenwealth and Brinker economies seem in store for a considerable recession as consumers are now considering their favors more cautiously. Recovery may not be an option until some means of prevention can be devised for Sybil fraud on such a scale.

“The situation is simply unprecedented,” commented Cesare, a respected influence broker renowned in anarcho-socialist networks. “I’ve made a lot of friends in law enforcement over the years, and nothing in their futurist algorithms can account for what happened yesterday. It is a sad day for post-scarcity economies.”

Law enforcement officials on Titan would not comment on the case directly, claiming that an investigation was pending.  Clock Iver, current head of the Titanian Police Person’s Collective, would only say that the coordination necessary for a heist of this scale was “unimaginable.” Sources inside the outer polity report that Pax Familae is suspect, as only the Sybil manipulation in history thus far to even approach such a grand scale is largely attributed to the enigmatic Claudia Ambilina. Still, the simultaneous manipulation of so many social networks required for such a crime dwarfs every previous attempt at reputational larceny ever recorded.

Planetary Consortium financial experts have been dispatched on humanitarian missions to the Titanian province to lend their expertise to the crisis. The PC press core released an official statement Thursday urging citizens of Titan to consider the danger of currency-deprived economies and lobby their representatives to petition for union with the Consortium.

Cthuluzord

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Re: Eclipse Phase
« Reply #91 on: August 02, 2011, 02:58:26 AM »
The Morningstar Sunrise: SCANDAL DELAYS PC AUDIT OF MORNINGSTAR GOVERNMENT

Late Friday evening, a number of local political activism blogs broke news that Atom Lamont had falsified reputation scores and social history to hide his heritage as a graduate of the Lost project.

Lamont had previously been assigned as diplomat and auditor for the Planetary Consortium in the ongoing telemetry-gate scandal until the scandal erupted.  Unnamed sources provided a variety of news outlets with evidence confirming the claim, including interviews with “out” Lost generations members that grew up with Lamont, rosters listing his mesh ID as generated in the project, and extensive psychological records from Cognite psychosurgeons detailing a history of sociopathic behavior due to now illegal simulspace-only child-rearing practices.

In a brief statement broadcast from an undisclosed location, Lamont did not deny the accusations but assured his constituents that his checkered past in no way detracted from his current political mission or beliefs. Even before the statement had finished, however, PC announce the removal of Lamont from his post and the halt of all inspections of Morningstar until further notice.

Briefly, it was thought that Lamont had been killed on Gerlach when a “Social Action Committee” hanged an individual looking strikingly like his morph on Saturday morning. Interrogations of the victim’s cortical stack later revealed the ego to be a member of the ID crew criminal syndicate attempting to scam reputation scores by inhabiting a cloned copy of Lamont’s morph. 

Atom Lamont remains at large and is wanted for questioning by PC Oversight. His replacement has yet to be announced. Morningstar press secretary Quicken Oliphant stated Sunday that the polity would wait patiently and that the government “had nothing to hide so long as a sane observer could be found among the attendees within the PC’s parliamentary halls.”

Cthuluzord

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Re: Eclipse Phase
« Reply #92 on: August 03, 2011, 07:20:04 AM »
LLA Financial Times: MARKET REPORT VENUS

Expansion of Venusian mining operations showed signs of stalling late in the 3rd quarter. Though still profitable, installation and production of new surface mining facilities has shown a marked decrease in recent months, owing to what Morninstar Constellation analysts are calling “overly cautious” labor practices in the wake of the Telemetrygate scandal.

This devaluation of Venusian market value has been offset, at least momentarily, by a boom in aerostat investment opportunities following a new meteorological discovery. Psymon Kitter, a prominent Argonaut most well-known in the field of xenobiology and “gatecrashing,” recently open-sourced wind-pattern prediction software more advanced than anything yet developed for the dangerously turbulent lower atmosphere, allowing aerostat placement to range thousands of kilometers farther North and South than previously thought possible. All third-parties appear to vouch for the accuracy of what is being called “Kitter’s Doppler,” though Egonomix has publically questioned the doctor’s use of a thermonuclear device said to have detonated in the atmosphere during his experimental trials.

Overall, futures markets on Venus maintain steady growth but have show their first signs of faltering since the feverish bull market took hold in the years after PC secession. It remains to be seen whether this is a temporary fluctuation or the beginnings of an economic downturn.

Cthuluzord

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Re: Eclipse Phase
« Reply #93 on: August 14, 2011, 02:05:34 PM »
We are doing Wild Talents this Monday, but in EP news, I have homework for my players.

Please resleeve and print a new character sheet before we start playing Monday.

Remember, house-rule is that Firewall will pay for a morph of your choice or a shit ton of starting gear...not both. The morphs are dependent on availability (i.e. NO SPIDER BOTS), so ask me if you are picking something weird.

If you are taking the same brand of morph or want to pick your own, then sell all your stuff. Pick a different morph and use whatever credits you have to buy gear/implants. We will do Alienation and Integration checks in game.

If you want Firewall to pay for all your gear and implants, sell all your stuff and pocket the credits (NOT YOUR MORPH...that becomes Firewall property). They'll cover 40,000 credits worth of stuff.  Then send me a message and I'll let you know what kind of morph they can spare for you.

We will be starting out on Venus, but if you have your old sheets it will be easy enough (I don't plan on combat). Once everyone farcasts, we'll just switch sheets to your Luna selves.

Keep in mind when you are picking your stuff that...

--high-end morphs might require favors or a trait like allies/patron
--Luna is the most conservative area other than Jupiter; the wilder the morph, the more uncomfortable people will be
--while you will need weapons at some point, weapons laws on Luna are strict.  Anything that fires projectiles and has  armor piercing ability is strictly illegal. Blueprints for weapons would make more sense than hauling around the actual guns. Melee/non-lethel stuff is cool.
--I'm going to play up the surveillance angle for this tier, so if some cred gets loosened up in selling your gear, another identity might not be a bad idea.

If y'all really don't want to take the time, we can do it together...I guess. Just don't get angry if the "game" turns into a page-flipping, math party.

PS: Andrew, if you wanna roll-in, we'd love to have you. Just talk character concept with me so we don't have like two octopi or something. RAINBOW COALITION.

Rawtooth

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Re: Eclipse Phase
« Reply #94 on: August 23, 2011, 11:51:54 PM »
Which online character creator do you guys use?
Fractals are our friends.

Cthuluzord

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Re: Eclipse Phase
« Reply #95 on: August 25, 2011, 07:10:20 AM »
Eclipse Phase is tonight. Don't forget to resleeve and print another sheet.

Space Oprah: "Check under your chairs! You get a new body! And you get a new body! New bodies for everyone!"

Tadanori Oyama

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Re: Eclipse Phase
« Reply #96 on: August 25, 2011, 11:29:47 AM »
Hope you dudes have good Alienation protection with all the body swapping you have to do.

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Re: Eclipse Phase
« Reply #97 on: September 05, 2011, 09:40:37 AM »
god damn it's hard to get anyone to actually be interested in eclipse phase. everyone just wants to kill orcs and befriend elves.

fuck this earth.

clockworkjoe

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Re: Eclipse Phase
« Reply #98 on: September 05, 2011, 12:31:03 PM »
maybe just pitch to them as sci-fi horror - event horizon and dead space? Don't go into the transhuman stuff until you're running a one shot with them. 

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Re: Eclipse Phase
« Reply #99 on: September 05, 2011, 02:03:35 PM »
That's what I did, just ran a one shot and didn't mention switching bodies in the summary, just saving humanity from danger. Boy where they surprised.

Cthuluzord

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Re: Eclipse Phase
« Reply #100 on: September 07, 2011, 07:16:49 PM »
(Excerpt from Escape Velocity Entertainment Feed)

Impending Downloads: Tavin Ribbisi’s Top Five for the Week

Ribbisi’s net was cast far and wide this week.  He’s dragged back an eclectic mix of politics, mystery, and public scandal for your consumption. Make sure your accounts are charged with creds, kiddos! Here’s the top five!

5.   The Fall: A Legacy

Luna’s stranglehold on the entertainment industry is well-deserved, but it has the unfortunate side effect of subjecting the entire system to sad-sack specials about our recent genocide every. single. year. After AF 10’s Remember the Fallen, I had to turn on my emotional dampeners just to get out of cot the next morning. Nobody is saying that the Fall wasn’t the worst tragedy in history, but damn Luna, do you really think we forget about that shit accidently?

Thankfully, AF 11 seems to be changing the tone.  Only about the first 45 minutes of The Fall: A Legacy consists of the typical slow-mo crying montages and blurry stock footage of TITANS so typical of the genre.  The remainder of the two-hour special focuses on humanity’s reconstruction and continued progress.  There is actually a fair amount of decent reporting in the last hour over some unique memorials set-up on brinker habs.  I actually caught myself being interested at times!

I like to keep it light here on the list, but I include this because this is a trend we all need to support.  Let’s at least keep on eye on the future, transhumanity.

4. MEMEwatch: What is Akaja Lacuna?

You know I’m crazy about a mystery. In this season’s bleak offerings, I’ve started reliving lifecasts of myself watching Lost AND Found just so I can remember what a good whodunit feels like.

To fill the gap, I’ve turned to the typically hibernation-inducing MEMEwatch.  This week’s episode, however, revolves around the emerging “Akaja” character hounding the mesh of late.  Fans of the ARG game “Spylife” may remember last month’s brilliant hack which saw the villain for the scenario “Who is A.L?” turn out to be every single PC in the game.  Entire servers shut down when the game erupted into double-agent chaos as players performed their character cues.  As of yet, no one has found a set of nefarious objectives that seems to match any other players.  Spooky….

MEMEwatch dives deeper into this phenomenon.  Anon and the other merry pranksters of the mesh deny responsibility, yet mental health and serial killer wikis are still getting spammed with entries about “Lacuna infection” every day.  Apparently, the latest episode of Nicotine Cat shows an eerie, long-haired woman in the background of Ron’s petal-induced dream sequence – but none of the animators remember putting it there.  Repair message boards are filling up with stories about some app called “the darkness between the stars” showing up randomly on ectos.  Akaja = darkness. Lacuna = stars. Freaky!

We haven’t had a decent, parody-free mememonster since Meet the Slendermans came on the air.  I can’t wait to see how this creepy little conspiracy turns out.

3.   Release the Kraken

Look, I don’t do uplift casts (let the comments section explode…now).  It isn’t a prejudice thing. I avoid them for the same reason I don’t air documentaries about the clanking masses at dinner parties. An ego can only stand so many XP’s and lifecasts about being downtrodden.

Release the Kraken may be coming to my rescue. Experia’s new mixed media broadcast seems to put entertainment first and keep politics the butt of the joke.

Host Preston Crowley’s first few episodes are a frenetic stew of traditional travelogue, political commentary, and shock performance art.  Episode One jumps from a cloud-diving XP (those tentacles go crazy at terminal velocity!), to Mahjong tips, to a scintillating political interview that ends in a brutal cameraman beatdown.  This last feature apparently resulted in a minor scandal within the Experia ranks, but my many Uplift friends assure me that Crowley has yet to bow under corporate pressure.

This may be the first program to appeal to both audiences: authentic enough for the animals and engaging enough for those of us that took the long way to sentience.  Episode Three supposedly takes place on Erato; we’ll see if the buzz stays alive in a less exotic locale, but I’m keeping my eye on this one for now.

2. Earth: AF 199

It’s no secret that I go after new episodes of AF 199 like a MRDR addict in need of a fix, so I guess I’m biased.  But the new season hasn’t even started yet and the sentence-long description of the premiere is enough to place the show on this week’s list.

“A special guest star provides survivors with startling new information about the ExUp War.”

The ExUp War?! The Exsurgent Uplift War is easily the best three seasons of programming to stream since Bollywood became an N-bomb crater! I’m geeking out over here!

Haters are already lighting up the mesh.  And yeah, I agree that plot thread resurrection and guest starts are usually signs of a dying show, but this is AF 199 here. This vid is an institution! Personally, I smell a renaissance for the series in the works, and a smart viewer is going to pay for 1st night viewing rights on this one.

1.The Truth About…LLA President Arva Don

If your muse isn’t already set to record this interview, you must have never made it off Earth.  How are the nanoswarms today, my Flat brother?

But seriously, LLA president Arva Don needs to hire a new psychosurgeon.  Just because she seems immune to physical assassination doesn’t mean she can’t commit political suicide.  I’ve met “Truth” Hoffman; the cat’s the Hunter-Killer of media spin.  Submitting a Beta fork to unedited, non-preapproved questioning by that man is either the bravest or the dumbest thing this administration has ever done.

And Radio Argosy is N-casting the whole thing “live.” How quaint! Grab your faux-corn and let’s learn what a political career looks like after explosive decompression.

That’s it for this week, adoring fans. Tune in next time for more hot downloads sure to dominate your conversations around the food fabber.  This has been Tavin Ribbisi, reminding you that media is life, SO LIVE IT.

clockworkjoe

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Re: Eclipse Phase
« Reply #101 on: September 09, 2011, 02:41:15 AM »
Here is a new post from everyone's favorite async, Bartleby :D

Spoilers for tonight's game.

[spoiler]Bartleby sat down, hunkered against the wall of the craft. His back itched. The Yakuza tattoos of his new morph still irritated him. It was female, which he insisted on because he wanted to minimize his profile while they were on Luna. At least it was a futura. It was the only morph he felt truly stable in. He had tried a splicer once. He jumped at the littlest thing. Nothing seemed as real. Never again, if he could help it.

He looked at the AGI's cortical stack, still in his left hand. The poor thing had sacrificed its morph to guarantee that the explosion would happen. Its plaintive cries still bounced around in his head. It felt responsible for Preston's death. When they had time to recover, he would ask what it wanted. He could try to treat it, to speak the soothing words he had learned, but he wondered if it would want to carry on. It might demand it be restored from a backup - a backup not scarred by the trauma of losing a comrade, of encountering the exsurgents, of death. Are the exsurgents worse for an AGI to see? To know that the same AI technology that created it could also create a new TITAN? The AGI could also ask to press on, despite its guilt or perhaps because of it. It might even ask for death - to be deleted or to retire so that Firewall could send them a new, less damaged agent. It deserved whatever it wanted - whatever he was in a position to grant, he would do so. It deserved that much at least.

Preston had no decision to make. He was dead of course. One of the digging drones had bitten through his vac suit and infected him. After they had slain the exsurgents, he had turned on them. He had no choice but to empty a clip into his friend. His friend. How could he call him his friend after that.

Bartleby looked at the pistol in his right hand. Loaded.

It was easy to rationalize the murder. That Preston would have wanted to die rather than face life as an exsurgent. That there was no choice. That Preston was better off this way - his backup would be as jovial and entertaining as ever. If he had survived, his audience would surely notice the difference. They would see the horror in his eyes. But that's not what concerned Bartleby now. With his eidetic memory, he remembered every detail, including how he felt when he pulled the trigger. Nothing. No fear, no regret, no guilt. Bartleby only reduced to Preston to an abstraction - an obstacle to survival. Survival meant everything.

He couldn't trust anyone. If he failed, then the Red Queen won. Alice depended on him and him alone. He had to survive to find her.

He closed his eyes, putting his hands to his face. The cool metal of the gun and diamond armor of the stack pressed against his cheeks. He didn't even realize he was crying.

After escaping Luna, he had fled into deep space. Became a brinker. Did whatever it took to survive. Trusted no one. He would have died as a paranoid recluse but Firewall saved him. Made him realize that trust was the real key to survival. Belief in a greater cause.

That's why he didn't space Fayen. She had been exposed to the exsurgent virus as well. She didn't react like Preston though. After hauling her to the craft, he had given her a sedative to make her sleep. As they reached orbit, every instinct in him screamed to space her. But he couldn't. He didn't want to be a monster. He didn't want to be a soulless killer, the freak like everyone else in the LOST project. They were friends and comrades in the fight to save everyone. If Bartleby couldn't control himself, how could he save anyone?

The opposing desires to trust and to survive raged within him. The emotional dampeners had already overloaded from the fight with the exsurgents. The war abated as he thought of a compromise.

He watched her as she slept and realized there was only one way to know for sure if she was infected or not. He placed the cortical stack down and commanded the vac suit to remove itself around his hand. He felt her forehead and concentrated. His other hand aimed the pistol at her head. A few moments later the capillaries in his eyes hemorrhaged. A thin trail of blood ran down his nose.

OOC: Bartleby will use deep scan on Thad's character in order to make sure she's not infected.

[/spoiler]

Salkovich

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Re: Eclipse Phase
« Reply #102 on: September 09, 2011, 01:27:32 PM »
Ross you are the king of awesome.
"It's heresy. Burn the heretics." - Ross Payton NEVAR FORGET
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Cthuluzord

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Re: Eclipse Phase
« Reply #103 on: September 10, 2011, 09:10:45 AM »
2 Rez points for Bartlby. 

Man, Ross sure is pulling down the out of game rez points. If only the other players had those board things with the letters on them that you can press (hint hint nudge wink cough)....

Anyway, more spoiler stuff from the last game.

[spoiler]BREAKING NEWS: LUNA

Explosions collapsed a section of subshuttle tunnel just minutes ago, report LLA-government sources.  The unfinished track, which was being constructed to complete the Translunar Subshuttle (expected completion AF14), registered a brief period of seismic disturbance and temperature irregularities before all safety spimes suddenly ceased transmission. Other security measures had yet to be installed on the line.

Repositioned surveillance satellites confirm that roughly 300-meters of tunnel have collapsed.  Thermal imaging and radiation scans from repositioned satellites indicate that the cause of the damage was likely an extremely low-yield thermonuclear explosion.

No official casualty reports are available at this time, but Subshuttle authorities have released a statement assuring families that construction crews were located at least 30 kilometers ahead of ground zero. The synthmorph workers remain undamaged and are currently being evacuated.

In the same press release, Full Moon Transportation’s CEO, Edith Wipff, assured the public that standard safety protocols would have prevented any disaster of the explosion’s magnitude.  Wipff went on to suggest sabotage as “the only possible explanation for the extent of the damage.” Though no group has yet to claim responsibility, militant factions of the Steel Liberators and other Industrialist ideologies have a history of subshuttle terrorism dating back to before The Fall.

LLA Security Chief Ord Brown has stated, “The full resources of LLA law enforcement will come to bear on this senseless attack.” LLA President Arva Don was in the process of reintegration after an interview and was unavailable for comment.

Any investigation will be complicated by the necessary removal of debris and the unlikelihood of surviving evidence; the heat of the blast was intense enough to warp the meta-material supports for kilometers around the origin point. It is unclear how long the damage will delay completion of the Translunar Subshuttle, but preliminary estimates already suggest that this incident may become the most costly act of terrorism in LLA history.
[/spoiler]

clockworkjoe

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Re: Eclipse Phase
« Reply #104 on: September 10, 2011, 05:32:24 PM »
the luna government is full of jerks

although I suppose the truth would be worse news and the luna government would still somehow blame the clanking masses

edit: also you can't resist psi powers if you are unconscious :D