Author Topic: Eclipse Phase  (Read 600913 times)

clockworkjoe

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Re: Eclipse Phase
« Reply #255 on: July 28, 2012, 06:28:38 PM »
Random idea for a NPC: The Man who is Shareware - basically an anarchist habitat engineer and incredibly nice guy who kept getting requests for help with maintaining habitat systems so he decided to offer a fork of himself to any habitat that wanted it. The only conditions being that each new fork be allowed to ping the main fork to let it know it exists and that the habitat not use laws contrary to its ethics. He expected a few stations to use him but was surprised when over a hundred habitats starting using his forks - most are brinker or anarchist stations with only a few people - tin cans and so forth. Unfortunately, he's gotten a few disturbing reports of Jovian or hypercorp stations that have enslaved and tortured his fork while keeping it a secret. It's too late now for him to stop it - the fork is being freely traded all throughout the system - but there are many desperate groups that need a skilled habitat engineer to keep them alive and the Shareware Man is the only thing that keeps them alive.

Gorkamorka

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Re: Eclipse Phase
« Reply #256 on: July 28, 2012, 07:24:13 PM »
This forum needs a like button. I'm so stealing the shareware man when I run EP.
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clockworkjoe

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Re: Eclipse Phase
« Reply #257 on: July 30, 2012, 04:58:50 PM »
A TITAN Haunted Universe part 3

Categorically, both the TITANs and the Lost Generation are similar, at least to the mainstream view. They are ambitious projects that failed because of unstable emergent behavior. Mistakes that should have been avoided. However, to group the Lost with the TITANs is an error. In fact, one can and should create a sharp divide between Pre and post Fall thinking. This is not a simple alarmist call for more extreme security measures but rather a recognition of the fact that our civilization has expanded in such a way that everything must be reexamined.

The Lost were specifically designed to be people that lived in a post-TITAN universe - workers that could rebuild in a world where the specter of extinction looms forever. Yet, they did not obey as obedient drones but as a heterogeneous group with unique psyches and flaws. They were all dubbed as useless, violent, and insane. But this ignores the fact that we live in a violent and insane universe. The TITANS can never be understood. Their actions breed madness and violence in anyone they touch. Perhaps the project worked too well. They are uniquely able to thrive, as they have all proven they can survive a nightmarish ordeal  and still go on. Is that not proof they are better suited for a post-Fall universe than anything else? Yet they are aptly named, for I feel they are lost - not spiritually lost but a lost opportunity for civilization. Had greater efforts gone into reintegrating  them into society, they could have proven their worth many times over. As it stands, my personal background gave me the strength of will to endure whatever hardships I had to face and make the hard choices for Firewall and as a result, several existential threats have been stopped that would have grown into greater threats otherwise.

This is why Firewall is the only organization with a truly moral mandate to do whatever it takes to stop the TITANs. They are a response to the Fall, not a pre-fall repurposed security agency. There is no organizational baggage or institutional memory that weighs down other anti-TITAN agencies. This gives Firewall a clarity of purpose that no pre-fall group could ever match. They saw value in me and in other refugees, exiles, freaks, and outcasts. They took us and gave us purpose, a war to fight. A war where we not only sacrificed our lives and minds, we sacrificed our principles. But in the end, it was worth it. We made the universe safer for the transhuman family.

In the end, Firewall will be all that stands between us and extinction. It does not matter if civilization ever realizes this or not. The fact that civilization led to Firewall's creation is proof enough that our civilization is advanced enough to deserve to continue existing. I do not fear the future, unlike so many others because I am privileged enough to know that we have evolved beyond the Fall. That is payment enough for serving in Firewall.

Salkovich

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Re: Eclipse Phase
« Reply #258 on: July 31, 2012, 12:46:01 AM »
I'm guessing that was Bartleby's epilogue for Know Evil? Damn.
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clockworkjoe

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Re: Eclipse Phase
« Reply #259 on: July 31, 2012, 02:43:59 AM »
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beej

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Re: Eclipse Phase
« Reply #260 on: August 02, 2012, 01:36:57 AM »
So i'm at Pink Taco (i know, its a hip bar/resturant chain) and the server at the booth behind us asks if they would appartizers.  They ask what he recommends, the server says they have a special, the 'sex tacos.'  One of the girls says "Yeah, we'll try the sex tacos."  My brain seizes and defaults the EP Takko and I imagine Preston rubbing his tentacles together as he forks himself into multiple takkos.
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Cthuluzord

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Re: Eclipse Phase
« Reply #261 on: August 02, 2012, 01:45:40 AM »
That's a completely rational leap to make. I'd of done the same.

Tadanori Oyama

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Re: Eclipse Phase
« Reply #262 on: August 03, 2012, 02:21:35 PM »
Just started an Eclipse Phase game of my own. Big group, seven people. I'm running them around Mars looking for strange things.

We've got:

A hypercorp supervising engineer from Earth orbit who knows the ins and outs of the corp system.

An autonamous psychologist "kidnapped" by uplifts during the Fall and currently sleeved into a neo-homid gorilla. He wears a top hat.

A Venusian orbital smuggler.

A Lunar Night Cartel morph lean enforcer.

A post-human synth-rights activist who loves resleeving.

A brinker outback Martian who supports Mars becoming independent.

And a hypercorp infomorph genehacker who dreams of a bio-terraformed Mars but has to do "favors" for the terraforming corps to keep her underground lab from being the center of an unfortunate geological event.

I can't wait to see what these crazy kids get up to in Noctis-Qianjian!

Anyway, all of these individuals are new to Eclipse Phase as a game, they literally just made their characters. Most of them have no significant backstory (as you can probably tell from the descriptions) so I'm going to inflict backstory on them. If anyone has ideas for interesting possibilities in the past of some of these individuals, let me know because with this many players it's going to be a challenge.

Cthuluzord

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Re: Eclipse Phase
« Reply #263 on: August 03, 2012, 03:30:58 PM »
Quote
A hypercorp supervising engineer from Earth orbit who knows the ins and outs of the corp system.

The remains of hypercorp he worked for on Earth have finally cleared the legal system and gone to auction. He ends up under the contract of his current employer's direct competition due to commitments made before the Fall. A legal battle over who "owns" his employment could ensue, or one group could claim all his engineering projects for the post-Fall company as intellectual property of the corp that owns his old contract. The hypercorp that newly acquired the contract could approach clandestinely as well, blackmailing the character into corporate espionage against his nominal employer.

Quote
An autonamous psychologist "kidnapped" by uplifts during the Fall and currently sleeved into a neo-homid gorilla. He wears a top hat.

Ummm...not a human at all, I assume? The kidnapping story is to obscure her identification as a self-hating uplift. Her love of psychology comes from a deep desire to be fully transhuman rather than an uplifted primate. She's, at best, a mercurial apologist, at worst an uplift Uncle Tom. An anti-uplift hate group on Mars could find out and destroy her hopes for cultural assimilation, or a Mercurial terrorist organization could target her as a collaborator

Quote
A Venusian orbital smuggler.

Shit. Not much there, is there? Maybe the smuggler is actually being paid under the table by Morningstar. His job is to arrange the hijack of a massive iceteroid being re-routed into Martian orbit from the belt. Stealing it would go a long way to terraforming the Venusian upper atmosphere, with the added bonus of dealing the PC a sizable credit and PR blow. All he has to do is get aboard the rock and reprogram all the thrusters with new telemetry. However, his involvement has to be completely clandestine; his capture could spark a war. Maybe he doesn't even know he's working for the government, either due to proxy hires or edited memories.

Quote
A Lunar Night Cartel morph lean enforcer.

Night Cartel has a lot of competition on Mars. Les Ghoules, Nine Lives, ID crew, and the Luna Organization all have inroads to the major Martian settlements. Maybe the enforcer has to juggle Firewall work inbetween assassinations on big players in other organizations. Maybe there's an underworld war taking place in the background. Maybe she's charged not with killing the morphs of big players, but demoralizing the competition by grabbing the stacks of their loved ones. Why does the character do these horrible things? Is he/she loyal Costa Nostra or do they have something to hold over the character?

Quote
A post-human synth-rights activist who loves resleeving.

Hmmm...Maybe invent a new addiction and give the player extra CP for it. They feel the need to resleeve. Bodies get boring after awhile, like people who constantly trade in their cars for the newest model. Maybe have them feel the itch for newer, more exotic morphs. Perhaps the need to experiment with sleeves starts to harm the player's activism. It's tough to give a stump speech on synth-rights sleeved in a modded Fury morph. It also will provide a huge financial drain on the player.

Quote
A brinker outback Martian who supports Mars becoming independent.

Easy. Organize terrorist attacks and make scavenging runs into the White Zone. Have the Barsoomians learn about a players Firewall involvement and demand the character use the conspiracy to further Barsoomian goals. Split the loyalty of the character between Martian politics and dealing with X-threats.

Quote
And a hypercorp infomorph genehacker who dreams of a bio-terraformed Mars but has to do "favors" for the terraforming corps to keep her underground lab from being the center of an unfortunate geological event.

Is she indentured? Is she an informorph or infoLIFE? Hmmm. If she's just an indentured person, have her "sleeved" into her threatened lab. She can only do missions in puppet socks or as a fork. Threats on the lab or threats are threats on her existence. Maybe the hypercorp is demanding some seriously questionable gene work, like engineering bioweapons or mapping TITAN genetic materials. If she is infolife, use real world naivete to have her engineer some truly distasteful morph that becomes popular with a particularly disliked faction. For instance, a really cheap Shaper variant that becomes a favorite for suicide bombers or something.

I'd be sure to give your characters enough time to play so that they can secure their own backstories as they get inspired. Everybody is reticent about themselves when they meet new people anyway. The characters can warm up as the players do.

Of course, if they get to game 8 or something without telling you anything, just make their consciousness shareware :-)

Tadanori Oyama

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Re: Eclipse Phase
« Reply #264 on: August 03, 2012, 05:19:10 PM »
Wow, you got on that fast. Thanks.

I like the Night Cartel and genehacker ones especially.

I'm certainly in favor of giving the PCs time to adjust and see how they want to fit into the character they've made. They don't need a huge backstory right at the start of play after all.

Snake-Eyes

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Re: Eclipse Phase
« Reply #265 on: August 03, 2012, 05:59:50 PM »
You've been sucked out of the airlock into the black. Roll all the dice on the table for damage.

clockworkjoe

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Re: Eclipse Phase
« Reply #266 on: August 03, 2012, 06:02:10 PM »
What kind of adventures do you have in mind for your group Tad?

Tadanori Oyama

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Re: Eclipse Phase
« Reply #267 on: August 03, 2012, 06:53:47 PM »
Luckily none of my players are on these forums so I can talk about it.

The campaign is going to focus entirely on Mars until I'm sure the players are comfortable with the setting and game rules. Once they are I'll be sending them into the outer system.

Anyway, they are starting out looking into another Sentinel's case. The Proxy had him looking into the Barsoomians, concerned that they where "passing around" a version of the exsurgent virus between their tribes. This lead him to a small group in Noctis-Qianjian, where there had been several insidents of nomads clashing with individuals inside the domes. Someone else was always reported with the nomads but nobody seemed to get him on camera.

The Proxy called for additional resources (the PCs) at this point but the current Sentinel (an Ultimate who always works alone) decided to continue solo and backtracked the nomads into the TQZ. That was two weeks ago and the Sentinel missed his check in so it's done from investigation to possible rescue.

[spoiler]Continuing in spoilers, just in case.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]I posted this idea on the Eclipse Phase forums awhile ago. There is a tree in the outback that is perfect. It's an exsurgent trap that hacks anyone who comes close enough, which a group of Barsoomians eventually did. With them was a psychologist, studying their culture. He suffered a pretty major mental break down and believes the tree is the Platonic ideal of "tree".

So he takes the tree's fruit, forks himself several times, resleeves, and sends himself out to spread the good word, after a fashion. The fruits are nano-hives that produce exsurgent nanoswarms in the form of "seeds". These seeds convert anything they are placed onto into a sensory hack or any other exsurgent horror, as required.

So the campaign will largely be the players playing catch up with the forks, all of whom call themself the Executor. The tree and fruit provide the device by which subtle exsurgent infections are being scattered around Mars.

Ideally the campaign will culminate in the party having to go to the location of the tree itself without a full understanding of what they are likely to encounter.[/spoiler]

clockworkjoe

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Re: Eclipse Phase
« Reply #268 on: August 12, 2012, 06:26:59 PM »

Snake-Eyes

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Re: Eclipse Phase
« Reply #269 on: August 13, 2012, 05:25:15 PM »
Question for you all. One of my players want his character to be a blind swordsman. I have no issue with that but since there is no blind trait, I figured using neural damage would do the trick. Where my question lays, is how would that effect him in AR, VR, infosec checks, etc. He wants to do hacking as well as chopping up his enemies.
You've been sucked out of the airlock into the black. Roll all the dice on the table for damage.