/epg/ - Eclipse Phase General

How would you play an erasure squad game? That is, how would you get people into the mentality of what an erasure squad is supposed to do and what would they shoot?

>>48667217
How would this be different from a normal EP game?

>>48667255
Extreme combat being the focus with little to no social interacting with anything beyond yelling and screams?

>>48667403
Have them play Overwatch instead.

This would be a great setting if it didn't masturbate over politics so much.

>>48668015
Then we'd be left with a game about immortal nihilists, who can have any toy they imagine without paying, visiting dead planets, trying to talk to giant amoebas, and shooting at space cthulhu, in breaks between snorting coke off futa dicks and wondering if there's a point.

>>48668299
Doesn't sound any different.

>>48668342
Then why are you even here?

>>48668376
Why wouldn't I be?

>>48668414
I don't think any of that is particularly compelling, and if I did there's probably settings that pull it off better, except maybe the posthuman degenerate angle, which I don't find a subject that lends itself well to games that are not ERP.

>>48668440
The game describes itself as transhuman conspiracy and horror first. No politics there yet. All of that comes after.

>>48668464
>No politics there yet. All of that comes after.

The answer is to run the game in one polity, and focus in on the politics that you like. Or just homebrew up the setting a little, make it one big homogeneous solar-system wide nation state. Though I guess, even then, it'd still be masturbating over politics, because if saying "look at all these different political systems" is masturbating over politics, then picking one particular type and making it the ascendant one is some kind of mega-masturbation.

>>48668464
Conspiracy IS politics, boy. Didn't you get that from any election cycle?

>>48668500
Or not focus on it. It's not hard. The politics in the setting are a clusterfuck, sure, but so are real life ones and people manage to go about doing other things just fine.

>>48668464
What conspiracies save criminal are there, that are not political in their nature, though?

>>48668504
All politics is conspiracy, but not all conspiracy is politics.

>>48668511
Transhuman ones.

>>48668515
So why arbitrarily exclude one type of conspiracy from a game dealing with all types of it?

>>48668531
Who said anything about exclusion?

>>48668522
I don't see how a transhuman conspiracy would not be by necessity either criminal or political.

>>48668541
No one did, but the claim EP 'masturbates over politics' strongly implies that its author would prefer the subject excluded or strongly diminished in its breadth and depth.

>>48668541
It was implied. If >>48668015 just wanted less of a focus on politics, then they could just leave it in the background until the PCs collide with it.

>>48668552
Well, if you want to take the word apart, a conspiracy is a plan to do something that harms someone in secret. So, you know, in a setting where a lot of lawless areas exist there's plenty of situations where that could happen and it isn't either illegal or politically motivated. Not to mention that we're dealing with inhuman threats that can take over minds here, the actions of which could also fall under that banner.

>>48668566
Or it could mean that other things should receive more focus.

>>48667403
I asked how it would be *different*.

>>48668015
It doesn't masturbate over politics any more than is necessary for fleshing out the setting.

Maybe you don't know anything about Forgotten Realms, or Shadowrun, or Warhammer 40k, or any of a dozen other major fictional settings, but Eclipse Phase actually masturbates over politics far less than any of those settings do.

>>48668832
Prove it.

>>48668860
Warhammer 40k has more factions and sub-factions than Eclipse Phase by far. The entire setting is a clusterfuck of ideologies colliding.

Forgotten Realms is fucking ridiculously politically complicated, owing to it's decades of existence and massive library of novels fleshing it out to the absolute limit of "who gives a shit anymore". There's so fucking many factions in that setting it's disgusting.

Shadowrun has just as many if not a handful more political factions as Eclipse Phase, mainly tied to your character's race or corporate affiliation or national background, not to mention there are three variations of reality to consider, and all the fantasy bullshit thrown in for good measure. It's comparable to Eclipse Phase, which makes sense, considering it was literally created by the same people.

>>48668891
>Warhammer 40k has more factions and sub-factions than Eclipse Phase by far. The entire setting is a clusterfuck of ideologies colliding.
But the focus is very rarely on the political interactions between them. Mostly they just try to kill each other, which is completely different.

>Forgotten Realms is fucking ridiculously politically complicated
It doesn't matter how complicated it is, what matters is how prominent it is to a player.

I'll give you that Shadowrun is similar, but even there the spread of political beliefs isn't nearly as widespread to all sorts of extreme and insane corners, and hence it gets a lot less spotlight.

>>48668917
The book spends half a chapter outlining politics and regions of space.

The rest of the book is devoted to game mechanics, character creation, skills, hacking, the mesh, and various technology.

You're exaggerating how much the setting focuses on politics. Yes, politics is a core element, but it's not any more of a core element than everything else going on. And like others have said, it's your game, so you can play it up as much as you want, or just run a game where you're doing GTA5 heists in outer space and it's just a series of adventure modules strung together with a flimsy meta-plot that has nothing to do with the political context.

I'm running a game exactly like that right now, and my players are brand new to the setting. Nobody has had any issues with politics being too complex. I've never even heard anyone bitch about this before you, and this general has been around a long time.

Sorry man, you're on your own.

>>48668951
Well you're misinterpreting my original complaint if you bring in mechanics. I was talking about the setting, and in the setting the politics are the primary thing to look at. Sure there are other things too, but they feel very secondary.

>>48668973
The game is about existential horror and transhumanism. Politics happens to be a big part of that, but it's not the primary focus. The primary focus IN FACT happens to be on morphs, and artificial intelligence, information security, and psychological warfare. Politics goes on that list, but it's nowhere near the top of it.

>>48668989
Yeah, but every time you read about some facet of the setting, it almost always ends up a list of things that have something to do with the various political factions.

It's like, no, it can't just tell you what the pandora gates are like, it has to go on and on for half an hour describing the political landscape around them and how the various factions are exploiting them.

>>48669013
No it doesn't.

To use your own example, on page 48 it gives a flavor text box explaining their origins, what we understand about them, who discovered them, what they're used for, and where they're located.

On page 377-379 it goes into even more detail about - guess what - how they work, where they came from, and where they lead. There's literally an entire paragraph just describing the wormhole that forms at the center. There's another paragraph about how they operate. Another about what they're used for. Another about "anomalies."

And... that's it. Politics isn't even briefly mentioned. It's barely mentioned at all.

>>48669051
I don't remember where I read it, and I don't have the pdfs with me right now anyway, but I remember perfectly well that there's loads of political information surrounding that.

If you want a different sort of example, just look at the threads here. The politics are mostly all that ever gets talked about.

>>48669092
Sorry man, you are wrong.

I have the book open right here right now in front of me and I checked it before I wrote that reply.

>It's like, no, it can't just tell you what the pandora gates are like, it has to go on and on for half an hour describing the political landscape around them and how the various factions are exploiting them.

And then you have half a page just describing what the wormhole LOOKS LIKE, and then speculations about how it works "is it plank-scale blah blah" quantum physics.

Oh, but it doesn't talk about what they're like, right? And you conveniently don't recall where you read it. Guess it wasn't in the core book then.

It spends half a page explaining how they operate. Another half a page explains who controls them and how they meter out their usage. Another half a page for anomalies, like I said.

The first half-page is entirely devoted to what they look like, and it even goes into detail about what they -feel like- to the touch.

You picked a really shitty example to use.

>>48669125
If it's not there then it's obviously somewhere else.

The specific example doesn't matter, it was just something that came to mind.

>>48669138
Yes, the specific example DOES matter, because why on earth WOULD it come to mind at all if you really knew what you were talking about?

Sorry but it's not obvious at all. Like I said, I have the book right in front of me, and checked every single entry for "pandora gate" in the index off the list. You're wrong as a point of fact. The only thing that's obvious is that you have a distorted subjective recollection of the setting and you're trying to pass it off as objective when it isn't.

>>48669175
Maybe he's remembering something he read in Gatecrashing. Or he might just be remembering something he read in a homebrew doc or on a previous /epg/ thread.

>>48669175
Because I'm talking about my own impression of the setting, which comes from my memories of exploring it.

The fact that you're still focusing on a single book when we already acknowledged that the stuff was probably somewhere else isn't very helpful to either you or me.

>>48669194
It's possible, though I'm almost certain it wasn't anything unofficial. I'm pretty good at keeping those separate, mostly because I don't read other people homebrew in the first place.

>>48669213
Your impression of the setting is distorted, which is made all the more evident by the fact that you can't even clearly recall it.

How can you claim your opinion is a legitimate one if you can't back it up?

>>48668891
The difference between EP and 40k or Forgotten Realms is that the ideologies in the two latter settings are largely fictional, while the ones in EP are extrapolations of real-life political ideologies. I would guess that's the distinction that makes EP masturbatory in the other Anon's view.

>>48669223
I can clearly recall it, I just can't recall where it was from.

And you do know what an opinion is, right?

>>48669237
If you can clearly recall it, then recall it for us. You don't have to cite the source, just repeat what was in it. Mention one or more details so maybe I can piece together what you are remembering and go find it for you, because I have no idea what you think you are recalling so clearly. I certainly -don't- recall it at all.

>And you do know what an opinion is, right?

Yes, and yours is baseless, in this case.

>>48669237
If you're sure you can recall it, search your books and find out which one has what you remember. Then post the book and page numbers here.

>>48669285
Well one thing for example is how the autonomists only hold one gate.

>>48669332
Are you referring to the half-a-page on page 22 of the Gatecrasher sourcebook talking about the Autonomist gates?

Because that's it. The rest of the -entire book- focuses on the climate and environment of dozens of exosolar planets, and the first chapter of the book is like 20 pages of quantum mechanics.

So, it's not in the corebook, and it's not in the sourcebook all about gates. I wonder where else "a half hour of politics" about the Pandora Gate could be then?

I'm legitimately drawing a blank here. I have no idea what you "clearly recall". Maybe you might try and be a little more clear than: "the autonomists only hold one gate." That doesn't sound like a "clear" recollection of the thing you read.

>>48669420
Look, I can't spare the attention to get into this deeply enough, but just for you I opened the book and ctrl-fd another term I remember being close to this topic, "Love and Rage".

It's there. You're just lazy. I mean, you can say that I'm lazy too if you want, but you're the one who feels this is important enough to scour the books because of it. So go and read the book if it's really that important to you.

>>48669452
Lol, now you're just being weasely.

Yes, I know exactly what you're referring to, and I'm sorry, is it "a half an hour of politics"?

Get over it. Your opinion is total bullshit and you're just bickering because you're trying to save face.

>>48669475
My opinion is fine, this setting has far more political wankery than any you can name. No, the three that you or someone else named don't even come close.

>>48669494
Your opinion is bullshit, as I've repeatedly shown. And every reply you make continues to demonstrate that all you're trying to do is save face at this point. It's really obnoxious and you should drop it if you "can't spare the attention to get into this deeply enough".

Oh, but I'm the one who's "just lazy" - right. Of course.

>>48669526
You haven't shown anything. I'm not trying to save face because my face has never even entered the equation.

An opinion can't even be bullshit in the first place, anon, it's not a thing that you prove or disprove.

We can all agree that the politics in this setting are more prominent than in any other game, except possibly some other politics-oriented ones that I'm not aware of. You haven't actually done anything to talk about that after you were rebuffed, you just started talking about a single specific example that I made while even telling you that I can't back it up at the same time.

>>48669555
I've shown the holes in your logic, the self-contradicting statements you make again and again, and refuted the example you provided. You're trying to save face by getting the last word, even though you claim you "can't spare the attention to get into this deeply enough".

An opinion certainly can be bullshit when it's stated to be a -fact-, as you do here: "We can all agree that the politics in this setting are more prominent than in any other game".

Really? "We"? Who? Your imaginary friends? Here we go again with your weasely bullshit. You're trying to make it seem as if you speak from a position of authority or consensus. Okay, prove that your "opinion" reflects majority consensus, or should we again simply take your word for it? Maybe you can "clearly recall" the names of the individuals who share your opinion then. Forgive me if I don't hold my breath after your last "example".

And as for being "rebuffed" - how do you even figure? Did you prove somehow that anything I claimed about Forgotten Realms, Warhammer 40k, or Shadowrun was false or unwarranted? No. All you did was go "NUH UH" and completely ignore what I stated by misrepresenting it, again, in order to save face and make your opinion sound meaningful.

Oh, sorry. My bad. I keep forgetting. It's "just an opinion" right? Not like you're stating anything -factual- about the setting, right? It's "only an opinion". Gosh, maybe you're right. Maybe I don't know what an opinion is after all.

>>48669494

>the setting is all about political wankery

>why

>b-because like uh i read somewhere that uh well ITS MY OPINION

Is someone forcing you to play the game at gunpoint? Blink twice if you're in trouble anon, I'm here for you.

>>48669627
Anon, you're incredibly tiresome, and my patience is getting thin. Unless you show more good faith instead of whatever butthurt crusade against me you're on right now, this will be my final post.

You've shown no holes in my logic, you've shown holes in my memory at best, since I can't remember any specific names off the top of my head. We haven't even started discussing any logic yet.

>the self-contradicting statements you make again and again
Like what? You're the one contradicting me, I've never made a complex enough claim for that to be even possible.

>You're trying to save face by getting the last word, even though you claim you "can't spare the attention to get into this deeply enough".
I don't feel I've lost any face, because I still don't feel that you've put even a small dent into my feelings about the setting. And yeah, I don't have the time to make a thorough read right now, I'm multitasking three things as it is.

>Really? "We"? Who?
We. You and me and some other guy who commented on that part, since the claim was made and not disputed. Well, it was disputed, but once I explained what it meant, you ignored that line afterwards. Instead you started badgering me about my memory and a specific example. We can go back if you like.

>You're trying to make it seem as if you speak from a position of authority or consensus.
No I'm not. I have no idea where you're getting this from, but it's not from me. All I've done was talk about my own opinions and views.

>Okay, prove that your "opinion" reflects majority consensus
Why would I need to? That's your brainfart, not something I ever said.

>And as for being "rebuffed" - how do you even figure?
Because the focus isn't on the politics there, they're in the background. You can't be serious here, can you? Shadowrun - yes, it's sort of similar. But the other two? Just no, anon.

>Not like you're stating anything -factual- about the setting, right?
Am I? Can you give an example?

>>48669672
Anon, I said it would be better with less focus on politics, not that it can't be considered good the way it is. You're implying some sort of strawman here, I think.

File: You Make Me Sad.gif (5MB, 400x225px) Image search: [Google]

5MB, 400x225px

>It's a "Anons argue about who among them is the biggest autist" episode

>>48669718

How is the inquisition hunting down heretics and resisting change in their millenial ways any different from Jovians resisting transhumanity and fighting off anarchs and shit?

It's the same thing, the difference is EP's politics are an extension of our own, while 40k's politics are completely fictional.

>>48669735

What focus on politics, though? The game is focused on high concept sci-fi shit, espionage and horror. The system doesn't even have any complex subsystems for social conflicts and macro-management of resources and/or other people, which is a big part of games focused on politics, like ASoIaF RPG and Reign.

The politics are all in the fluff. The only thing EP has more than those other systems is verisimilitude to our own real life politics. The setting of the game was written with a very hard sci-fi mindset, and sociol-economic factors play a much bigger part in the shaping of the setting than pew pews and lasers. Except, you know, that one part where we all got wiped out by pew pews and lasers.

>>48669718
Holy shit are you fucking kidding me...

>>Not like you're stating anything -factual- about the setting, right?
>Am I? Can you give an example?

Are you seriously fucking kidding me right now or what?

>>48669799
>It's the same thing, the difference is EP's politics are an extension of our own, while 40k's politics are completely fictional.
And that's a huge difference. But it's not the only difference. Most of 40k is about the fight, not political intrigue. The only places where political intrigue is prominent at all is if you look at the various factions in the imperium posturing at each other. But 40k is a LOT larger than that, there's an enormous amount of focus on things that aren't even in the imperium in the first place.
>The system doesn't even have any complex subsystems
Talking about the setting, not the game mechanics.

>>48669805
Go on, anon.

>>48669837
Fuck off and get your attention elsewhere.

>>48669867
Funny, I was about to tell you the same thing if you made another tl;dr post at me.

Please stop, Anons.

>>48669837

>Talking about the setting, not the game mechanics.

You're saying the game is focused on politics. The setting isn't focused on anything, the setting is the setting; it is just a fictional world where things happen. The game will focus on specific parts of the setting.

While the tabletop war game and the RTS focus on the big, flashy battles of the 41st millenium, Battlefleet Gothic focuses on Naval warfare, and Dark Heresy focuses on investigation, espionage and, yes, political intrigue.

Of course, 40k is a setting that is ALWAYS at war, so most games in the setting will touch upon that, since EVERYTHING IS WARRING EVERYTHING AT ALL TIMES.

Eclipse Phase is NOT in a state of war, the setting is in a post-apocalyptic re-stabilization period, the factions are all trying to not start anything big so transhumanity can get back on its feet.
The game, though, is focused around espionage, exploration, investigation and combat.
All the fluff stories feature agents on stealth missions, backstabbing, shootouts, terrors beyond our comprehension and many other things that have absolutely nothing to do with political intrigue.

Like, I'm trying to understand your point here, but I can't see how anyone could claim that this is a game focused on politics.

>>48669955
No, go look up at the original post.
>This would be a great setting if it didn't masturbate over politics so much.
The setting. Okay, if you want a more specific way to put it, the descriptions of the setting. Better?

>>48669982

My point still stands. A setting doesn't "masturbate" over politics, it's just a setting. I mean, hell, it's super static even, the setting hardly develops from one splat to the other, it's all left to the players and GMs to decide what to do with the factions int heir own games.

Something like Warhammer plays up it's inter-faction relations, conflicts and intrigues much more explicitly, with canon plot development happening through splats and sourcebooks all the time, and with a much bigger focus on its political figures and leaders than any other system mentioned here.

Just because it has guns and people shooting at each other all the time doesn't mean it's not about politics. 40k's politics are much more infantile/cartoonish than EP's, sure, but it's a much bigger part of most games in the series than the latter.

The fandom's motto is "For the Emperor!", for fuck's sake.

>>48670097
>My point still stands. A setting doesn't "masturbate" over politics, it's just a setting.
Yeah, but the descriptions of the setting can.

>it's super static even
I don't see what that has to do with it?

> 40k's politics are much more infantile/cartoonish than EP's, sure, but it's a much bigger part of most games in the series than the latter.
Those aren't political factions in the same sense, they're enemy states basically. In EP there is constant political dialog happening, in 40k they just try to kill each other.

Wait. Is someone actually arguing that the devs don't fap over Anarcho-Communism?

>>48670184
They also hatefap over the Jovians, don't forget that.

This would be a great thread if that one guy didn't masturbate over masturbating about politics for 7 hours.

File: 1459120939278.png (119KB, 500x288px) Image search: [Google]

119KB, 500x288px

>Meat Market
A short story about an indenture getting gangbanged in a shitty brothel

>Jovian Women in Prison
Jovian waifu gets molested in Maui Patera...

>Jovian Women in Prison: Followup
...and masturbates thinking about gay shit

>Welcome to the Future
Revival fresh from dead storage gets passed around by a pair of savvy rusters

>Putting the 'RP' in ERP
Homestuck fapfic that mentions an /epg/ character by name

>Faction porn
Summaries of lewd XP

>Character Questionnaires
Sometimes porn

Did I miss anything?

>>48671490
What are you cataloguing? /epg/ smut or /epg/ writing?

That seems fairly complete for the former, but there's several exoplanet descriptions and some political stuff missing from the latter.

File: pod problems.jpg (205KB, 1024x644px) Image search: [Google]

205KB, 1024x644px

>>48671490
is there a better sort of pod than a pleasure pod?
>no

File: novacrab.jpg (49KB, 999x499px) Image search: [Google]

49KB, 999x499px

>>48672036
Novacrab

>>48672036
Basic pods are actually pretty nice. Same cost as a case for a Cyberbrain Splicer with a social stigma. Probably the best cheap morph. Worker pods are also super cheap useable combat morphs in a pinch.

>>48672036

I'm thinking now about a story of a criminal in hiding, who has to quickly transfer morphs in a shady underground body bank and ends up in an used, sluty as fuck pleasure pod.

>>48673268

This happened once in Know Evil - the party had to rent a anthroform morph quick because the party Face was an octopus who was also an XP star. They ended up with a very cheap Pleasure Pod.

>>48673278

Awesome.

Traditional sci fi is surprisingly conservative about imagine future societies. Often falling back on historical systems of goverment or very simplified versions of modern ones. The galaxy spanning feudalism of Dune and 40K or the militaristic meritocracy of Star Trek.

More recently post cyberpunk writers have tried to put more effort into imagining more radical future societies and Eclipse Phase reflects this with it's array of different would be utopias

Space

>>48673567

Not traditional sci-fi, but popular sci-fi.

There's lots and lots of great futurist sci-fi works out there, you just gotta look for it.

So, what faction would you guys choose?

"If you were really there" sorta thing.

>>48678329

Extropia. I'd see if that'd work out.

>>48678033

In fact, some of them are referenced by Eclipse Phase.

>>48678370
So, you'd be a space jew.

File: Guardian Angel 2.png (629KB, 900x552px) Image search: [Google]

629KB, 900x552px

>>48678411

My attorney drones have informed me that might qualify as slander.

I'll give you a ten second head start.

File: pleasure pod 1.jpg (112KB, 600x659px) Image search: [Google]

112KB, 600x659px

>>48673268
>prim, corporate rep and procedure focused contract fraud specialist
>op goes loud, forced to egocast out to the belt to lay low
>sleeved in buttslut pleasure pod with tons of aftermarket mods
>software quirks and nervous system tuning that default to dirty behavior and extra sensitivity
>Hither addiction
>Locals that keep forgetting the body has a new owner
>Extropians that keep offering contracts

File: url.jpg (22KB, 427x354px) Image search: [Google]

22KB, 427x354px

>>48679451
>implying we aren't perfect in our natural state

File: We are free.gif (7KB, 273x537px) Image search: [Google]

7KB, 273x537px

>>48679575
>Wanting extra morality

>>48678329
Whichever one lets me live in a figurative cage of dicks.

File: 1458292609952.webm (3MB, 1280x720px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 1280x720px

>>48679856
>wanting less morality

File: en-airprojectmanwithseekers.jpg (268KB, 1000x589px) Image search: [Google]

268KB, 1000x589px

how should an oligarch or similarly powerful inner system character engage enemies if they ever enter combat personally? Deploy at the head of a cutting edge black ops army? Use super science weapons to obliterate everything? Calmly shoot enemies in their office while having a drink with them?

>>48679987
The person sitting across from them who intends to harm the hyperelite suddenly has his mind suspended and force uploaded into a hyperbolic simulspace where a psychosurgeon proceeds to inception mindfuck him until his ego completely unravels.

The keep a fork of his former self trapped in another simulspace prison for actual questioning and interrogation before subsequently deleting it and every other known backup of his psyche.

>>48679987
If the top boss is fighting, something has gone wrong.

Everything in a ten block radius is atomized and he is restored from backup elsewhere.

>>48672036
Ayah are better. Just add enhanced pheromones and it's better than the pleasure pod at its own game.

File: barbarella's heavy gun.jpg (131KB, 1083x994px) Image search: [Google]

131KB, 1083x994px

>>48680377
I'm imagining its some kind of situation where he is purposely going out to kill some fuckers, and is of the persuasion to do this himself, not that he's being attacked. At very least Direct Action executives are sure to keep custom reapers ready for use

>>48678411
I thought that the LLA were Space Jews.

>>48678329
They all suck.

>>48680685
>>48679987
Nanomachines, son.

File: EschatologyandGenesis.pdf (1B, 486x500px)

1B, 486x500px

>space jews

Whatever you say, goyim

I'm working on a convention scenario for this called 'A Fistful of Shekels' where everyone is a secret agent of some kind trying to grab the async or her kids

>>48680714
>they all suck

So brinker then.

>>48678329
Argonauts, ideologically. Assuming I'd be up to snuff with my scientific/engineering capabilities. But I am also somewhat sympathetic, ironically enough, to Ultimates of the Iconics faction.

>>48679906
So... Hyperelite or just any hypercorp would do?

>>48681288
And then the entire family turn out to secretly be Sybils who arranged the entire thing.

Actually, the Sybils and Vedibere's EI's always seemed similar to me. It's a neat concept.

>>48685202
The Sybils are able to predict X Risks because they're the ones causing them. It's about as impressive as predicting you'll shoot your own son in the head.

>>48685481
Are the Sybils also emotionless sociopaths, too?

>>48685493
Apparently. They also derive utmost amusement by lurking in the system and flinging rocks at habs.

>reading jovian republic chapter in rimward
>it's acctually pretty decen, highlighting positive traits along the negative ones
>get to the entry about political enemies
>"titan comonwealth is our enemy but they are good guys"
>"PC is our ally but they are bad guys"

>>48678329
I've always had a soft spot for the Morningstar Constellation. I'm not really sure how I'd react to some of the weirder societies in practice, the Panopticon is already strange enough.

>>48685869
The Jovians don't like the TC because it actively meddles in their politics. There's the Commonwealth totally not subverting Gerðr, and Hyoden, and Commonwealth influence over Europa and the trojans. The Jovians are practically surrounded by a power which seeks to overthrow them, even if not with force.

Meanwhile the PC doesn't give a fuck what happens out by the gas giants, so long as they make their money.

>>48687483
>>I've always had a soft spot for the Morningstar Constellation
>Unironically liking and trusting the group literally named after the Prince of Lies
Heathens go and stay go.

>>48684037
Aren't the Iconics the guys who want everybody to be better? If so, hard to not like them.

>>48678033
Do name some. I'm about to go into the post-cyberpunk / transhumanist fiction portion of my backlog (shit like Greg Egan, Neal Stephenson, Hannu Rajaniemi) and I'm interested in what other stuff I should add there.

>>48687566
They strictly want everyone to embrace the Ultimate philosophy, but they believe the best way to bring the rest of transhumanity "to the fold" is by the power of example - since the rightness of their cause is self-evident, the rest of transhumanity need only be shown its benefits. In practice it mostly means that their particular vein of pretension is quoting Plato and the Vedas instead of ranting about how the genetrash should be killed.

>>48682997
Living on the Brink sucks too.

>>48687483
Meanwhile the PC is waiting for an opportunity to gain a foothold and take over so that they can make even more money.

>>48687746

Ursula Le Guin's The Disposessed and Left Hand of Darkness date back to the 70s and feature some very imaginative sci-fi concepts.

They're very acessible novels, too.

>>48678329
Jovians and become a politician.
Trying to mend the ties between Minervans and Jovians and bring about the righteous fury of pure humanity upon inhuman freaks of transhumanity.
Of course I would try to do it wisely with clandestine support for Ultimates invasion to use it as pretext to invading and taking over more habitats.
Ultimate goal would be to cause civil war on Mars and invade it, taking for humanity.
Possibly destroy Titan using Relativistic kinetic kill vehicles which I would build in asteroids under the cover of establishing a new colony habitat.

What do spacecraft look like in Eclipse Phase?

How proeminent are they in your games? How often do people in the setting travel by ship? When covering short distances (a cluster of space habs in the same planetary system, for example), do most people in the setting travel by ship or by egocasting?

>>48692105
Spacecraft are hard sci-fi, so go binge Atomic Rockets. Short distances are by ship, but anything more and people usually egocast and ship their morph to meet them later.

>>48678329
Extropia, it looks like its the switzerland of EP, except with a lot more freedom.

Although I would probably end up as an infomorph the PC, just like almost everyone else, or as a jovian if I can get out physically for the simple fact that after the fall I would be so scared that I would seek protection ASAP, instead of "oportunities".

>>48692183

So something like the ships in The Expanse? I really like the way ships move around in that show, with no proper "front side", kinda tumbling through space from inertia.

>>48692105

Space in EP fall under hard science category but without almost any description, so its mostly up to you to decide how they actually work, therefore I just use as they're intended in the manual; a simple vessel for the story and for the rest just let the players egocast everywhere.

Just think about what you would have to define in your ship.

>ammount of waste heat that has to be radiated into space.
>Ammount of dV that needs the ship for its mission, and therefore; allowed payload, fuel, propellant and engine, all the equipment needs to have its grams defined.
>Orbital mechanics, for like everything.
>Hohman transfer calculations(so you better make sure to make a good design so your players don't end up stranded)


And of course, more problems would arise, like the legal code of space ships(example: should a spaceship be destroyed if it reachs a dangerous speed?) or the unavoidable constant that someone needs to have explained that space stealth is impossible without handwavium, and even though you explain it, no matter what, they never see why their arguments have been already debated and bashed to the ground.

So, unless I do a game that specifically needs a spaceship detailed, I just avoid the subject.

>>48692509

I understand that, and that's pretty much how I used ships in my 40k games, too, but I was just wondering if there were any "canon" depictions of ships in the official material.

>>48692278
Most ships have a front and a back, but that's mostly from where you put your engines and where you put your reactor.

http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/prelimnotes.php
Get reading. Try not to catch the site author's autism while you're at it.

>>48692624

Avoid the official material about this, the authors took a good desition by avoiding a subject they don't know about.

For example, after the battle of Locus, the jovians destroyed a PC spaceship that was going through Jupiter to do a slingshot maneuver with fighters.

And just to clarify, figthers are a retarded idea in space combat in objective ways. They're too small so they have little dV, so they need a space station or carrier to get them to places which means mass that could be put into other places much more efficiently since space figthers can't have enough missiles with them to overcome point defenses and any laser would be either too weak or too hot for the space figther, and the advantages of fighters today (speed, firepower, maneourability) don't exist anymore in space in any sense.

And there were a few things like this in panopticon, or the authors described the use of "cold pods" for stealth(which doesn't work in space, not even with cold propulsion since it would give you low speed and so it would take months or years to get into your target)

So yes, avoid it.

>>48692278

The ships in the expanse have armor, lack radiators, have artificial gravity(e.x: everytime the "reactor shuts down" the gravity disapears), more than one engine...

I wouldn't take them as a referent for realistic space design.

File: Robot_and_Slaves_by_ConceptArtOrg.jpg (364KB, 813x800px) Image search: [Google]

364KB, 813x800px

>>48678329
I would probably turn into Exhuman predator/sublime eventually, "The Normie Hunter"
The temptation is just too great.

File: Kronos1 space ship.jpg (410KB, 2560x1440px) Image search: [Google]

410KB, 2560x1440px

>>48692105
I've always liked stuff like pic related for EP ships. Long stalk-like parasol equipped hard sci-fi stuff.

I think it depends on range. I'd expect as a rule of thumb,that when the travel time by ship starts to exceed the time needed to acclimate to a new body egocasting gets used. Basically means anywhere further than a few days by ship.

>>48692924
To be fair, Eclipse Phase fighters are fairly big self sufficient ships I think, basically picket boats with nukes and antimatter. Maybe I'm wrong though.

The cold pods work for how they're described: a way to breach a habitat with very little warning from short range. IIRC they're used at ranges where they don't drift for more than 100 hours, so maybe a few light seconds max. (with a disguised explosive launch)

>>48678329
Probably the Morningstar Constellation because they seem like the least intrusive statist entity. I also really like city-states and the views seem nice.

File: Depositphotos_2329133_original.jpg (3MB, 3892x2586px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 3892x2586px

>>48694116
Sorry buddy, but the exhumans of today are the normies of tomorrow

>>48692986

I meant more the way inertia and acceleration was taken into question rather than anything else.

File: vlad-ciuban-1.jpg (272KB, 1352x563px) Image search: [Google]

272KB, 1352x563px

would you rather your gate open up here for a first in mission...

File: vlad-ciuban-2.jpg (249KB, 1352x563px) Image search: [Google]

249KB, 1352x563px

or here?

>>48696042
"Oh hey, that's kinda cool, it's like a little delivery ship fo-"
>the Space Shuttle for scale

>>48697240
This one.

From an in-character perspective I know there's life and potentially I can survive here.
From a player perspective I know there's macro-organisms and I might get to piss off a Space Dinosaur, have it chase me and lead it to the pirate colony so I can watch it eat their soldiers.

File: CritterCatalog.png (866KB, 1195x863px) Image search: [Google]

866KB, 1195x863px

>>48697271

File: SamsaMorph_JamesMosingo.png (152KB, 247x670px) Image search: [Google]

152KB, 247x670px

I have a question regarding if one can stack armor on carapace armor without penalties? I can't find way. Also if shredders are one, or two handed, my old GM said they are two handed, but in the book it does not say that.

>>48698475
Carapace armor doesn't stack. There's no fluff reason. I guess the devs just wanted an option for decent armor at a cheap price with the drawback of it being non-removable and conspicuous, and then realized that it was too exploitable for getting really high armor values for cheap.

>>48698733
>then realized that it was too exploitable for getting really high armor values for cheap.
As if getting super high armor values is especially hard or even useful in this game.

>>48698960
How is it not useful? You're not going to turn a splicer into a walking tank, but you'll certainly last longer. Whether or not you have the opportunity is where the trouble is.

>>48699001
>How is it not useful?
High AP values are rather common, and autofire will eat through your very small Durability pool very quickly. When you have 30ish armor and the enemy is throwing two AP -8, 3d10+8 or 3d10+13 hits at you every round/Speed Phase, that 30ish armor isn't going to matter too much. And that's discounting armor-bypassing called shots or crit hits.

If you wanted to make melee an actually viable option on the level of ranged combat, within reasonable bounds though not strictly within the realm of reality, how would you do it in Eclipse Phase?

>>48699149
a simulspace VR game :^)

>>48698733
Thanks! Its a shame, I just wanted to be a bugman with comparable armor :/

>>48699425
It's for being cheap, but then they over-priced the morphs they put it on by ~20CP, according to my calculations.

Anyway, you could have a more normal morph with an extra pair of arms and fluff your armor to make him look like a bugman. I guess it's not what you're looking for, is it?

>>48699615
I think I will go with your suggestion, it will work best, just to be able to not die instantly in a firefight. I could also talk with my gm, maybe a house rule, because the other bioweaves stack, just not this one for no real reason except I suppose the devs thought they would try balancing, although they only accomplished making an armor effectively sub par. Unless your char.'s bs is being a poor mercenary who could only afford carapace.

>>48699001
Reminder that the Fenrir, a literal walking tank, has less armor and durability than an ordinary car

>>48698475
There's two options here: wear armor anyway, because there's no layering or stacking penalty. Or use a battlesuit, as it's a vehicle with its own rules for layering with WORN armor, which carapace isn't.

>>48699842
This actually works out ok though, because vehicles handle wounds much worse than morphs. With a Fenrir you really need to whack through its 80 DUR, but most vehicles go down after a single wound IIRC. It's kind of a dumb way to handle it, but it works for making vehicles largely immune to small arms.

>>48678492
I refuse to believe the devs are really the listed ones. They've got to be a bunch of basement dwellers.

>>48679987
Probably with a gun, I guess. Any oligarch engaging in it likely has immortality blues and needs something to keep his mind stimulated, something new and dangerous and exciting.

How much of a fuck over would it be if the only forks you ever made were gamma? I can't see it really affecting the game - or the character's life -, but I might have missed something.

Backups excluded, assume those fuckers are just fine but thanks to the power of plot if there's any more than one alpha fork ever active the newest one immediately becomes gamma.

>>48701008
But that's retarded.

File: commando.gif (1MB, 320x159px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 320x159px

>>48699149
Sleeve into a small, heavily armored drone with rocket engines for maximum short range acceleration. Become the bullet.

>>48701648
I'm talking more "How do you unfuck the rules for melee and make it viable?"

>>48701742
Allow multiple hand to hand attacks in the same Speed phase with a complex action

Adjust the SOM damage bonus so that it increases logarithmically

>>48701742
You don't, the man with the cruise missile rifle shoots the shit out of you with exotic explosives. Unless you're in close quarters, then an octopus with shredders fills you with shards of crystal before you close the distance. Excluding concealed weapons for a very low profile surprise attack, I don't see really any use.

>>48701874
*exponentially, not logarithmically

Make it so that someone with SOM 40 does more than 4 bonus damage

>>48701742
>hard sci-fi
>viable melee
Pick one. There's a reason guns revolutionized warfare.

>>48701907
Any idea what a good formula would be?

>>48701960
You'll note that I said not necessarily realistically here. I'm aware that overall it's hard-scifi, but my group is fairly lenient. I'm just trying to ask if anyone's done this idea before and managed to make it workable.

>>48701899
The intent is more or less to have a guy that's able to, when conditions are actually right for it and he's in semi-close or able to close to it, actually able to do melee well. As-is, the problem seems to be that you're never better off doing that. It's always, always better to shotgun the guy instead of stab him to death.

>>48702008
A possible idea would be to increase armor pen on bladed melee weapons. IRL ballistic armors aren't as effective vs knives, spears, etc. because they're designed to stop low-mass high velocity impacts, and a knife is a high-mass low-velocity impact.

/epg/, I need some clarification here.

If a character gets every possible sensor system, and uses them in Active, is there any way to actually defeat that at all if the character in question has Oracles? Doesn't it effectively just mean that his perception check turns into "I win. End of story.", since even if something can be hidden from one or two senses, the other twenty plus will find it?

>>48701742
Multiple attacks per action phase.

>>48702008
Transhuman takes DUR into account. I use (SOM+DUR)/10 to determine damage.

>>48702258
They can still fail the check, stuff that gives you a bonus to Infiltration will still grant the bonus. Blackbirds and certain types of Skulkers will avoid basically everything. Someone with active sensors is also painting a huge target on themselves in a combat situation.

Long term though, they'll find practically everything.

>>48699149
>>48701742

Hm... Can't quite remember EP rules for disengagement and shooting in melee. Just make it so that your opponent cannot use their gun, once you have engaged them?

To put melee and firearms on a slightly more level field, you can do something radical. Like allowing for full Fray against the latter. Or only allowing Melee/Unarmed Skills to defend against Melee/Unarmed attacks.

File: db5f286cc1f444cfdf8844b7e0ff09ab.jpg (299KB, 992x1204px) Image search: [Google]

299KB, 992x1204px

What do you guys think of the Life Path system in Transhuman? Do you prefer it to point-buy?

>>48702687
It gives a clue to how the devs envisioned people building characters, like the ones in the NPC file: points widely spread over many different skills, with a few in each. The way people actually make characters is to focus on the things they want to do and stack them up to at least 60, higher if it's not something like a weapon skill that you can stack an absurd pile of modifiers onto (though technically complimentary skills let you do this anyway). The only thing anyone leaves at 50 or lower is knowledge skills and other stuff they buy for flavor reasons

It's the way percentile systems are. There's no point in buying anything to a level below 50, since why bother investing points if you're going to fail more than half the time? Yes, the GM is supposed to be giving you positive modifiers for easier tests, but most people just have you roll against your skill.

>>48702008
I think you're looking for GURPS Transhuman Space with cinematic rules. It has at least two or three martial arts designed for use in low gravity environments.

>>48702687
It's fun, and can lead to some really interesting concepts (like sadsquid), but leads to some fucking weirdly built characters.

>>48704286
No, I'm not. Because Eclipse Phase has, overall, good rules and an enjoyable setting. The only real gripes I have with it are that psi seems kinda shit for 90% of it, and that melee is impossible to make worthwhile even with heavy specialization. I don't even want it to be like, top-tier. I just want a character that uses melee and high-tech bows to be viable.

File: 48549249.jpg (115KB, 982x315px) Image search: [Google]

115KB, 982x315px

>>48691842
>Spot This Guy: a fun cross-thread game for the whole family!

>>48704305
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/27380539/#p27381422
Actually, here, sadsquid.

>>48704307

You think Psi is shit, but the fact that Psi stab bypasses normal, even intrinsic armor is pretty good. The problem is that if you want to get the most out of Psi you need a shitload of sleights, and you can only go 5 and 5 at start and it takes a whole month RAW to learn a new one.

I had a guy with Potent Mind roll a crit success of Psi Stab for x2 DV and he took a neo-gorilla he'd only scratched a little with his monofilament down to 0 in a single Speed action.

>>48699149

I don't know about level of ranged, but the SOM+DUR DB means slightly higher damage tick and higher average damage (Because DV is fairly abstract even if you don't do wounds getting punched should still hurt but you could completely fail to hurt somebody with a punch if they have bioweave and you roll min damage). There are some homebrew attachments/mods to melee weapons and homebrew weapons which offer some useful bonuses. Bonus fray vs melee attacks is common. Reach bonuses also help.

>>48702512

Yeah, RAW, a ranged attacker in Melee takes a -30 penalty, though I don't know if this replaces being in Point Blank range. Reach is also useful, and remember if you put too much distance, the melee attacker can charge and deal +1d10 DV that way. You can also theoretically delay an action and stab them if they try and disengage. Do a wound and they can fall down, which will impede their mobility.

>>48702917

Is there any way to minimize that kind of thing? Like in Dark Heresy, a player will rarely have more than a few stats over 40, let alone 50.

>>48707989

Well, Dark Heresy is kind of inverse to EP - you're supposed to be barely compotent and get horribly eaten.

In EP you're supposed to be extremely skilled and talented and get eaten anyway.

But you could always futz with with CP/PP totals or just tell people to make generalized characters. NPCs probably have lower skills for fluff reasons, like if you were better than 40% at anything you wouldn't need to be a street gang member - and then just assume they get bonuses for simple tasks.

>>48702512
>only allowing Melee/Unarmed Skills to defend against Melee/Unarmed attacks.

That's not a bad idea imo. Fray is already a super overvalued skill. Its basically the "avoid bad things" skill.

>>48704307
Right now the best melee character is a Swarmanoid with jaws and injectors.
>They only allow half fray
>Unsealed armor doesn't help
>They can harry, giving penalties to people
>They can inject and ignite liquid thermite
>Guns don't work very well on them
>They move fast, and fly

They're not great, but they're the best melee character in most situations.

>>48707989
Being generous with skill complements is a good place to start. Makes broadening your skills a better idea because its easier to get those bonuses, and the lack of ultra high scores doesn't hurt as bad. Even if the GM isn't handing out situational bonuses, its really easy to get extra bonuses thanks to stuff like the super permissive teamwork rules.

>>48708261

As a GM, my general rule on complementary is don't expect, say, a Knowledge skill to apply to an Active skill every time, but if you can pitch me in like a sentence or two how the skills actually overlap, it's fine.

Also important to remember that gear can give bonuses for being higher quality. So like, a really cutting edge ecto might give +10 or +20. Fellow PCs can design or upgrade gear other PCs use to give them bonuses - like the compsci hacker guy building an interrogation simulspace for the Psychosurgeon.

>Fray is already a super overvalued skill. Its basically the "avoid bad things" skill.

If you take a Full Defense action you could use Freerunning (or Free Fall) as your defense roll instead.

>>48711643

"If anyone asks it's just some fucking kids using nanos to "mark' their territory and not a fractal virus trying to turn the building into a terrible Titan Monster"

>>48713232
>virus detected
Thanks. I had no idea.

>>48706649
>Psi-stab is good
No. No, it really isn't. You have to damage yourself to use it, it doesn't do much damage, even investing in it doesn't do much damage, and it's generally just weak.

>>48707005
UGC has a few okayish ideas, but even the bows in that are just kinda crap with no real upsides to them. Railguns are already silent, guns have more ammo, all that shit.

Totally not trying to do this because of Warframe.

>>48713353

Well, Railguns count as suppressed already, but they are not silent. The rounds are definitely supersonic, so anybody in the vicinity with working ears will hear the report. A bow will always be relatively quiet to fire.

I think the point of AUGC bows are, y'know, multiple support for a Exotic Weapon skill for relatively cheap, and like some other weapons in AUGC if you can find the raw materials you can build a bow and basic arrows in the wild. And if I'm remembering right, many of them add DB, so that means a melee focused character can have a ranged option that fits their build other than throwing knives at people. Options aren't always meant to be optimal in EP, but situational.

>>48713562
But Exotic Weapon has the same problem here as it does in every other system, in that you have to take it for a specific weapon and can't specialize at all.

>>48713864

I mean, given the fact that examples are like "Mace" and "Spear" (under Melee, anyway), you can have multiple weapons of the same action fall into the field, same as how pistols and rifles are governed by kinetic.

A spear is still a spear, even if one is made by sharpening a pipe, and the other is elegantly crafted with carbon tubes, an armored crossbar and a monofilament diamond-edged blade.

>>48713864
>>48713913

Also, in very technical and literal terms you're wrong, you can still take Specializations with Field skills.

>>48713562
Just make the railgun fire large subsonic rounds. The only downsides are effective range and ammo weight/capacity.

>>48714003

I don't know if you can do that with a railgun. That would mean it would have to have a velocity which is lower than the local speed of sound. Assuming you can adjust how fast the railgun spits out rounds, it should dramatically decrease the damage and AP because the round doesn't have as much force.

>>48714063
The energy is the same. You put the same amount of energy into the round to accelerate it, but it has a higher mass, so instead of being supersonic, it's subsonic. Same amount of energy at the muzzle. Actually, it might have more energy at the muzzle, since there would be less loss to air compression and friction, since it's going a lot slower in the barrel. There will also be less Joule heating, since the current can be produced, as the projectile will spend more time in the barrel, allowing for more time to impart energy to it. Either that or you can have a shorter barrel with the same current.

>>48714003
>>48714325
You'll need a very heavy round to match a normal railgun bullet at that speed.

A 4 gram projectile at 2400 m/s has about 11.35 kJ of KE. If you want to match that with a subsonic round, it needs to mass about 250 g. That's in the ballpark of a 25-30 mm cannon projectile, which will have really different characteristics. That square on the velocity hurts pretty bad when doing something like this.

It's worth noting that 11.35 kJ is somewhere between an elephant gun and .50 BMG for KE. EP railguns should hit really hard.

So, anybody got any cool homebrew stuff they put together lately?

>>48716186
I'm working on an module right now where three sentinels get sent by a Firewall proxy to infiltrate the triads and set themselves up to be hired by a hyperelite in the inner system who has been sniffing around for a team willing to go down to Earth and help him retrieve some sort of lost artifact.

Once the team gets picked up, they have to escort the guy and his waifu uplifted AGI past the containment zone, which is when he reveals their exact destination, Area 51. The next part of the module is kind of a dungeon crawl as they have to gain access to one of the deeper sub-levels while avoiding exsurgent bullshit and automated defenses.

The climax of the module is when they find out that the "artifact" the guy is after is actually a dormant seed AI that never went online during the Fall because it was totally cut off from the outside world in complete isolation. I leave it up to the players what they want to do at this point, either help the guy retrieve it, or destroy it and then figure out how to escape the planet on their own.

I'm still working on where to go from there, depending on what they decide.

>>48701008
POinting back at this for an opinion. Forking's never been a huge part of the game for us, but there might be part of the game I'm missing that makes it necessary.

>>48718241
Mars was made the way it was for the purpose of being able to have classic cyberpunk campaigns as well as being able to be very light on egocasting. You miss out on microgravity fun and small hab problems.

>>48718393
>Mars was made the way it was for the purpose of being able to have classic cyberpunk campaigns
Speaking as someone who near-exclusively runs campaigns on Mars, even there it's not really cyberpunk. It tends to feel more post-cyberpunk, where everyone is a corp employee and it's an ocean of minnows and a handful of really big sharks as opposed to the dinosaur-like megacorp model.
Our campaigns have Mars set up so that creating your own small business is ludicrously easy, but not protected at all. The ultimate result tends to be lots of startups that fail quickly, the fittest survive and fill small niches in the economy, and the fittest from those eventually get bought out by a hypercorp.
Extropia is even less regulated and more small-business friendly, in that literally anyone can start up a business simply by renting a cubic meter of hab and declaring themselves a corporate entity providing [product or service]. Make sure you get that money back guarantee in contract.

Post theme songs for the factions of the setting. Lyrics/vocals optional.

>Planetary Consortium

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON-7v4qnHP8

>Brinkers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxvAjgXkpGI

>>48718393
Egocasting is still okay, just not 'egocast by sending a fork of yourself' because what arrives will be a gamma fork. Cheers regardless.

>>48701008
If your group doesn't like to fork anyway, it's fine mechanically. But it basically confirms the existence of an irreproducible "soul" in setting, which would mutate the setting beyond recognition.

>>48719173
Nah, I'm going to be fucking with one character specifically. Gamma forks for him are like personality tokens. If anyone looked at his backups, it'd basically be a really fluffy gamma fork.

There's only ever going to be one 'him' - when a backup is instanced, the gamma fork just becomes a fully updated ego.

>>48719196
How?

>>48719228
Pandora gate inflicted. Quantum binding of the ego state, assorted techno/psychobabble. Actual 'dead' periods suggesting some minor sort of conscious period at the mercy of something vast, sleeping there with him in the dark.

>>48719252
So you're an acync then.

>Firewall

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRs0PImOizQ

>>48719279
Not really. If he makes an Async I'll probably work it in that way, but otherwise? Gates. The tradeoff will be no lack. Not sure where I'll go with it, or even if I'll do it as anything except flavour to add to the whole 'cosmic dread' part of the setting.

>>48719304
Certainly snowflake way to make a snowflake character.

>>48719326
Well, I'm the GM and they don't have a choice in the matter since I wanted to play a different system. So less of a snowflake and more of a 'fuck you' as I try to wrench things in a direction I'm comfortable retelling. So try re-aligning your bullshit towards 'you're that guy', kthx.

>>48719349
Pretty shit gm then.

>>48714003
Doesn't that defeat the purpose of using a railgun?

>>48719085
>Exhumans

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeV9gsl5jR0

>>48719485
>Exhumans

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTGDLJiApIQ

>>48719485
>>48719569
You're both wrong

>Exhumans

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3472Q6kvg0

>>48719634
>implying Exhumans would listen to normie shit

Hypercorp music shills pls go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0wsfrU2Ekg

File: Titan remnants.jpg (114KB, 670x1343px) Image search: [Google]

114KB, 670x1343px

>>48719657

File: image.jpg (49KB, 500x363px) Image search: [Google]

49KB, 500x363px

>>48719884
The titans did nothing wrong

Let's say that a Promethean built a redoubt to host its forks in the Neptunian Trojans, near Ilmarinen, how would it be powered?
Massive yet discreet imports of antimatter?
Captive ferromagnetic asteroids creating used as a giant dynamo?
Unlimited energy generator far beyond transhuman tech?

>>48721740
A prommie would likely just use the magitek reactor option. Failing that, they'd just run standard fusion. Scoop fuel straight from the neptunian atmosphere.

>>48721821
Thanks a lot. Neptune is a bit too far for fuel, I'll take the Naquadah-like generator.

>>48679575
>equating non-change with humanity's natural state
Putting effort into remaining the same is like swimming against the flow to stay in place.

>>48721740
Solar collectors and an extremely efficient computer.

>>48722201
At 30 AU the amount of sunlight you get is roughly jack shit.

>>48719936

This is genuinely retarded but functionally psychopathic and sociopathic fucked up way of thinking i would put into AI.

'Consciousness was a mistake.'

>>48722313
AIs are just too dangerous. We should just use human sla- sorry, *indentures* like our honored ancestors did.

>>48722590
No, we need to create a brand new slave species that exists solely to obey us. Like uplifts, but not fucking terrible.

>>48722603
If you want to do that, first you have to eliminate the memes that oppose creating a slave species. Considering how hard it is to kill memes, that will be a tall order.

>>48722631
>Implying anyone shares Ancom Pepes

>>48722644
You underestimate how ancient and dank this meme is, and how deeply its infected our collective consciousness. Heck, Star Trek (you know, the basis for Starfleet Command?) promoted it, and that was around centuries BF.

>>48722666
Well, a bit more than two centuries. Speaking of post fall culture, I was thinking that Snow crash would be the transhuman future's equivalent to Candide. What other pop culture will end up canonized and considered classic?

>>48722992
The LLA uses a cover of Moonage Daydream for its anthem at formal events.

File: snowcrash10ftvq8.jpg (162KB, 662x472px) Image search: [Google]

162KB, 662x472px

>>48722992

I'm trying to watch Know Evil, since everyone recommends it in EPG threads and EP forums, but fuck, I've been trying to get past the first episode for three days. These guys joke around TOO FUCKING MUCH, I can't focus my attention on the podcast when they derail the scene and talk over each other to make jokes all the time.

Does it get better eventually? I mean, I like funny actual plays, but when the fun comes from the game, not from constant interruption.

>>48719349

Wait, you're making the characters for your players?

>>48724894

Same boat, still on first podcast. They talk over each other and don't back down for minutes at a time. Still somewhat enjoyable. Hoping it gets better also.

>>48725690

Apparently the other episodes don't feature as many PCs as the first one. I'm going to give the second episode a chance, since despite the constant interruptions the guys are pretty good.

>>48724894
>>48725690

I'd say yes and no. As they get more into the campaign, they get more invested and focused on stuff that goes on (and various players may not be at some sessions which cuts down on the table chatter) but broadly no, Ross doesn't really edit so you get the whole session. I have yet to run into a podcast which is constantly "ON" all the time, just some people edit more than others.

>>48678329
Titanian Commonwealth, Jovian Republic, or Barsoomians.

>>48722271
At 10 Kelvin, a perfectly efficient computer would consume about 50 milliwatts per exaflop. A modern solar panel would produce around 150 milliwatts per square meter at that distance, so the AI would have more than enough power to sustain itself.

File: bravestarr1.jpg (29KB, 400x287px) Image search: [Google]

29KB, 400x287px

DISCUSS:
Eclipse Phase would be much better setting if Jovian Republic would be changed into New America and portrayed as the main protagonist of the setting and colonizing new worlds through Pandora Gates and remaking them into idolized versions of American Wild West.All while PC would be Star Marshalls heroes' fighting inhuman monstrosities calling themselves "transhumanists"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ46aKjB9oE

>>48727954
You are wrong. Go jerk off to mirror universe star trek or something.

>>48728105
Your continued existence has been denied by Patriotic Association of New America.
Freak.

File: image.jpg (82KB, 600x1040px) Image search: [Google]

82KB, 600x1040px

>>48727362
>progressive sjw rep-based socialists with transparent direct democracy
>deeply conservative capitalists run by a military aristocracy with limited freedoms
>redneck muh freedoms eco-terrorists
>all of these are equally acceptable

What's your deal?

>>48678329
Morningstar Constellation best faction

What's the best way to build an EP character, and why is it Soldier-Scientist?

>>48678329
Honestly, I doubt I'd choose any of them. The bad sides of them keep getting shoved into my face as if they were the good sides.

>>48730117
Lifepath with random rolls, then adjusting afterward to make sense of the story or fit a campaign/dramatic conceit.

Why? Because it's fun.

>>48729973
Murderbots, sleeve in and roll out.

>>48730117
While it is objectively best, there is always a place for other combinations of skills and talents. EP is well suited for diplomancers and engineers-fabricators, either of which could could be combined with a party procurer. Some kind of sensors specialist, maybe doubling as an infiltrator. And, of course, information security experts - though, that may fall under scientist, engineer or sensor.

>>48678329
Argonaut. Argonauts are what the autonomists want to be when they grow up. Maybe in a decade or two they will be, assuming we're not eaten by TITANS.

>>48730562
Nope. They'll still be preoccupied by drug-fueled orgies until either they are destroyed or transhumanity itself is destroyed.

>>48730432

Yeah, EP actually has a good variety in roles and types of skills, both for traditional focuses and just, logic.

I've just noticed lately a lot of people naturally seem to trend toward "Action STEM" in terms of how they build their characters. Even the party face in my current game, also y'know, has PhD level education in Astronomy and Engineering and we're pretty sure was a literal rocket scientist before they decided to say "fuck it" and became a transient space jockey who dabbles in smuggling and partying.

>Some kind of sensors specialist

This, I'm not sure is enough to be it's own fully fleshed role. All sensor uses are basically Perception. Then maybe Research or Interfacing if you're working with a lot of systems over the mesh. Bundle it with a good Knowledge skill to complement and you're set. It would work well as part of, say, a "Space Cop" build, because then you'd also for sure pick Investigation (also a good pick for the infiltrator, it's RAW how you find sensors) and could bundle it with any combination of physical, combat and social skills as befits how you cop people.

>>48731097
It's like how everyone these days has to get a Bachelor's degree, and there's been a shift toward requiring a Master's degree. In the grim darkness of the transhuman future, there are only PhD students.

>>48731949
And prostitutes.

>>48732025
The prostitutes are PhD students, too.

>>48732740
PhD in prostitution?

>>48732987
Let's see, let's look at the random field skill tables in Transhuman and see what skills we'd be looking at...

Interest: Pornography 70
Art: Erotic Entertainment 65
Profession: Escorting 65
Academics: Psychology (Sexuality) 65 (75)
Academics: Sociology (Gender Studies) 50 (60)

>>48733153
What about Kinetics?

>>48731949

Well, the PCs aren't everyone. Firewall looks specifically for great minds that can handle themselves in a fight.

As a new player to EP, how difficult is character generation? I just got accepted into a game and it looks...daunting, at first glance. What are things I should focus on when creating a character? What should I avoid?

>>48734328
It gets a lot easier when you use a spreadsheet character generator.

>>48719485
>>48719569
>>48719634
>>48719657

>Exhumans

You guys are way off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm-upHSP9KU

>>48734328
Honestly its going to take you a long time. I recommend dedicating a session to it and working together as a group, especially if you haven't played before. But if the other players have already made their characters and the game is running I guess you're kind of up the creek. It isn't hard, it just takes a while.

I'd recommend not spending too much on your morph, and not being afraid of buying a lot of rep.

File: 1464548106824.jpg (2MB, 2480x2730px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 2480x2730px

>>48734328
Fray, Freerunning, Freefall, Perception and a weapon skill (kinetic weapons is the best all-rounder, beam spray and seeker are more narrowly focused but can be very effective if played properly) all at least 60. At least 60 in anything else you want to be good at. Once you understand the system you'll be able to stack your chance of success to at least 80 using taking time, gear and consumables, complimentary skills or the huge stack of positive combat modifiers.

Knowledge skills are a mix of flavor options and compliments to your active skills, it's rare that you actually roll directly against them

Medichines, a Guardian Nanoswarm, a Utilitool (or just get a Survival Belt), a primary weapon and some method of vacuum breathing (suit or augmentations)

Buy moxie. Learn how to use it.

Rep is cheap enough that you can get as much as you'll ever need in character creation. Remember that under RAW you need a networking skill to use it, which costs as much as any other active skill.

>>48719085
>Ultimates
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBktYJsJq-E

File: 1-f06ca4f478.jpg (499KB, 903x1189px) Image search: [Google]

499KB, 903x1189px

>>48734328
When you pick motivations remember that they're what you use to recharge moxie, so if you make all three of them too esoteric you'll never be able to get any back

>>48724977
No. I'm just going to tack it on to one in particular.

>>48731097
It's because there aren't really that many knowledge skills. The only ones with huge variety are the academics ones, and since you need.. was it 300? To make a character..

>>48730117

>>48704949

>>48735656
>tfw you were the one who rolled that 44
Those character creation threads were a ride.

>>48735647

Hm, I'm pretty curious now. Alright so you didn't want to play the system; mind elaborating on the "I try to wrench things in a direction [you're] comfortable retelling?"

>>48735749
We've been playing together for upwards of a decade. We're all pretty geographically seperate now, still meet up via MSN and skype for games a few times a month, schedule permitting. GM role rotates between campaigns. Rule has always been, barring a few changes, GM chooses. Everyone wanted to play EP next, so I gave in. I'm not particularly good at sci-fi gming - at best I can handle the more bizarre Shadowrun campaigns. Elements like this gives me fluff and filler.

>>48735710
Fucking tell me about it. Every time I run across a throw away comment of mine in an archive I always get a little headspin.

So, people who have read the short stories in "After the Fall":

Which ones did you like, and why?

>>48734873
In addition to complementing your active skills, knowledge skills can also be used to gain rep.

Art is incredibly useful for f-Rep. A skilled artist will never lack for rep.

Academics is useful if you have time to engage in side projects/research; every faction appreciates a scientific discovery or new invention. Also, the bigger the discovery and/or invention, the better the payoff. But if you don't have time to produce research or inventions, or if you can't share your research or inventions, this particular skill won't be that helpful.

Everyone appreciates Profession: Event Planner - throwing parties is a great way to quickly bolster your rep in small increments in just about any social network - and everyone loves Profession: Info Broker.

>>48734328
If there's something really [expensive] you want a lot, get it as a blueprint. Nanofab blueprints for [Expensive] items are only 10k credits (10 CP) more than normal.

So a Reaper Morph is 100 CP, but a Reaper blueprint is 110, and is generally more useful. It's easier to find black market or otherwise unlocked fabs than new war machines.

Certain powerful augments can be good to pick up this way. Reflex Boosters are a 30 CP blueprint, and not illegal a lot of places for example.

Guys, before this 404, I have a question.

Should cortical stacks be able to be used with any ecto/endo? Or they need a special skeed or specialization?

The manual doesn't clarifiy this, and although the second one makes much more sense(for obvious security reasons and the fact that virtual time compression exists you can interrogate in situ a captured cortical stack) but the first can allow you to have something like rogue trooper where the egos of your fallen comrades follow you by controlling your helmet, gun or backpack, which is somewat a cool idea.

This question arose in my game under very normal circunstances; someone dies and you need to interrogate him as fast as possible.

>>48738904
No, you need an ego bridge or a Spare morph. The name of the morph is 'Spare', not just any other body around.

>>48738904

No, stacks are typically write-only until you plug them into something specialized (like an ego bridge, which aren't portable). If you kill somebody and want to interrogate them, you'll need to take them somewhere with a server/bridge set up to instance them into. Other than physical travel, it shouldn't take any time at all.

>>48738904
From The Devotees it seems that you need an access jack, so recovering an ego shouldn't be super hard. Probably some specialized connectors and something which can handle the data.

>>48740522
>Access jacks
>On a cortical stack

>>48740522
>>48740567

I'd have to reread the Devotees, but I'd wager you're not pulling the stack then, you're just accessing the Cyberbrain. This you can just pull an ego into an ecto or whatever, very quickly.

>>48740587
That would depend on if whoever you're doing that to is alive or dead and if you can beat cyberbrain security.

>>48740647
Oh wait, or even if they're using a cyberbrain at all. Can't pull an ego through someone access jack if they're using a biobrain.

>>48738904
Cortical stacks go next to your brain stem. You cannot run on a cortical stack. They are strictly a backup mechanism.

>>48740687
I'm pretty sure that you can, as long as they have access jacks and mnemonic augmentation.

>>48741305
I'm looking at both of those and the rules for backing up and resleeving and I don't see how you can.

>>48741362
If you can merge, that means that you have access to an infomorph version.

>>48738698
>Nanofab blueprints for [Expensive] items are only 10k credits (10 CP) more than normal
Can I get a page number?

>>48741468
I think that's just going off the general price chart tier chart

>>48741609
If you extrapolate from the pattern that [trivial] through [expensive] creates, one cost tier above [expensive] should be 500,000 credits/500CP.

>>48738698
>>48741468
>>48741609
Blueprints are 'one cost category' higher than the object they're for.

Also, remember that fabricating something takes a long, long time, enough that a full set of gear can take an in-game day or more. Getting access to a cornucopia machine for this long is going to require a significant investment of money or reputation. Nannofabrication isn't nearly as useful in-game as the fluff pretends it is.

>>48741659
There is also +25% for it being restricted/+50% for illegal and another +50% for being extremely rare.

>>48741687
>a full set of gear can take an in-game day or more

A handgun alone takes a full day to fabricate, I'm pretty sure.

>>48741725

No, most are [Low] to [Moderate] which is only a few hours, a couple hours more to fab the ammo and then some labor time because most guns don't necessarily fit in a small Fabber in one piece. You could go to sleep and have the pistol ready in the morning.

>>48741725
RAW, it's an hour per cost category. If the size is larger than the dimensions of the CM fab chamber, it has to be made in pieces, so multiply the time by how ever much the GM says. It all runs on "nanomachines, son" anyway.

>>48741758
>>48741773

I don't remember where I read it, but I'm pretty sure tools with very precise internal mechanisms, like kinetic handguns, take longer than usual.

>>48741805
So fab an AK.

>>48741805

The actual time to fab the parts doesn't take any longer, but the end user might have to spend a little extra time assembling it.

>>48742071
>insert tab A into slot B x who knows how many times to assemble a Reaper

>>48741687
>Nannofabrication isn't nearly as useful in-game as the fluff pretends it is.

Yup. Having a Cornucopia machine is basically the equivalent of having a factory-scale 3D printer nowadays.

Fabbers, which is what PCs will probably have, are really small and can only produce small tools and items, and even those will have DRM to disallowed non-corp-aproved blueprints (but you can always try to hack them).

>>48740567
>>48740587
I'm going off of the description of the Fetish Market.

>>48741468
Page 196, about 2/3rds though the "Acquiring Gear" section.

>>48742071
Reaper by IKEA

>>48742258
>Fetish Market
The what? Which book/page?

>>48742258
Man. These rules are such trash.

>>48678329
Being a Belter could be cool