/epg/ - Eclipse Phase General

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>>50568088
>>50571421

NPCs are transhuman average joes, the kinds of regular people typically working regular jobs with conventional amounts of experience. Player Characters are highly talented specialists with great talents or education or experience - and intended to be a cut above the people you normally bump into on the street. This is why they get Moxie, and the GM is instructed to ignore an NPC's moxie unless they feel they're actually an important character, not just some clerk manning a desk.

Compare to an Immortal Oligarch who has like, two of their many skills under 60. And then compare with the tiny skill pools on an Indentured Infugee - portraying somebody in a relatively flesh instance.

>>50571602
There are definitely some pretty scary NPCs

>>50571631

Yeah, my language got a little away from me there.

A better way to say it is that the NPC stats reflect a very average sample of what that sort of person is, PCs tend to be exceptional examples - but an average Oligarch is an entirely different thing to be reckoned with than an average Indenture.

A soldier with like 50% (plus an automatic +10 smartlink, probably a +10 on Aim and +10-+30 for rate of fire) is pretty reasonable - a certified professional with some extra experience on them, who would make a difficult shot 50/50 of the time. A Firewall Agent who is good at shooting people wants a much better numbers, like making 4/5 difficult shots.

>>50571744
There are NPCs who are better than that though

>>50572725
Yes, but they operate at the gm's discretion, presumably in connection with the game's plot. Battachya is an NPC, but if he ever appears in a game he is a GMPC.

>>50571575

Do you have a favorite X-risk?

>>50572802
Everything always operates at the GM's discretion

Post technologies that should be in the setting but are never mentioned

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helical_railgun

With fabbers, these shouldn't be any more difficult than the traditional straight railgun. Plus, you get a spin-stabilized projectile out of it.

-------------

On Titan, a combustion engine running on stored liquid oxygen reacting with hydrogen and methane in the atmosphere would be an option. The low prevalence of those compounds in Titan's atmosphere would mean it wouldn't work as well as combustion engines on Earth, but this would be partially offset by the very cold atmosphere improving thermodynamic efficiency.

----------------

Lighter than air vehicles would work quite well in the atmosphere of Venus. A vehicle like the one in this video would have no motors or bearings exposed, which would be quite handy in the acidic cloud layers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3-wIICjAhE

>>50582416

They actually mention noisy, unpleasant cars on Titan - utilized by the "Oligarch" bloc of young, political rebels who like to act like Inner System bigshots. I'm not a chemist, what's the exhaust on such an engine? Any environmental impact? They may just find electric easier for groundcars.

>>50582502
The exhaust is water vapor and CO2, plus whatever was in the air that didn't participate in the reaction, just like cars in real life. Electric may well be easier for groundcars, but for aircraft batteries can get awfully heavy.

>>50582538

Well, the passenger jets mentioned in the core run on Methane I believe, they're not wholly electric, though Buggies and Groundcars are. I don't know if the game actually calls out what helos run on, but I assume maybe similar to the planes. Only like, the one-man light planes run on battery.

>>50582692
Well it can't run on just Methane on Titan. There's no oxygen in the atmosphere.

>>50582749

It's probably a blend, similar to an HO engine.

Keep in mind, this is a game which I'm pretty sure still doesn't internally say if Thrust Vector works in vacuum - stuff like this leaves us with two choices, assume something doesn't work even if it seems like it's intended by the game which is weird, or assume there's more going on than an couple of sentences and roll with it.

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> mfw no shota pleasure pod

>>50584018
Why's she so sad?

>>50582416
>lighter than air vehicles on Venus
>never mentioned

One of the books describes literal floating cities on aerostats there. I think it's either Sunward or the core book.

>>50586614
Aerostats aren't really vehicles

How the fuck do you write adventures for this game that are not about Firewall or spess cthulhu syphilis or nano-handwavium? I tried and it turns out that most conflicts in my adventures can be solved by an existing piece of technology.
Nanofabrication mostly solves resource shortage, which in turn eliminates most traditional problems, and the ones it's supposed to create fell kinda tacked-on and forced. Death and injury don't really matter much because lolresleeving. Information shortage doesn't really work because lolmesh and lolsensors.

What the hell would a non-Firewall campaign be about? And how do I prevent it from devolving into plucky rebels overthrowing ebil corporashuns and bee-o-con nazis or players just deciding to immediately go to space and masturbate to their 30-flexbot-colony-body?

>>50586846
>Nanofabrication mostly solves resource shortage

What do you make things which are nanofabbed out of. It's not fairy dust.

>Death and injury don't really matter much because lolresleeving.

You looked at cost for healthcare lately? New morphs are like that, but y'know, whole body.

>What the hell would a non-Firewall campaign be about?

Crime, War or Relationships, the things fundamental to humans which never change. We will always fight, we will always fuck, and we will always break some rules to get ahead.

>>50586846
>How the fuck do you write adventures for this game that are not about Firewall or spess cthulhu syphilis or nano-handwavium?
Any non-zero level of creativity. If you want to stay consistent with the stody in the books then you will need to read the books, but this is optional.

>>50586944
>crime, war or relationships
>prevent it from devolving into plucky rebels overthrowing ebil corporashuns and bee-o-con nazis or players just deciding to immediately go to space and masturbate to their 30-flexbot-colony-body?

>>50586641
ok

>>50586981

I mean, if you give the players the presentation where that's things their characters can and would do, and you don't want them to, that's YOUR fucking problem.

>>50586846
>Nanofabrication mostly solves resource shortage, which in turn eliminates most traditional problems, and the ones it's supposed to create fell kinda tacked-on and forced.
Not really, restricting nanofabrication is a legitimate security issue, especially in places rife with tension like mars and luna. Then there's the cost of materials; cybernetics don't grow on trees, neither do cutting edge plasma rifle BPs.
>Information shortage doesn't really work because lolmesh and lolsensors.
Yes it does. Panopticon goes into detail about how to subvert sensors from mapping out blind spots to jamming the signal sensor spimes broadcast into the mesh. Film technology is so realistic that an artist can create a hyper realistic event with matching metadata to confuse anyone. Also keep in mind not all information is put on the mesh, you may need to ask some contacts or phish it out of someone. Finally, just because the information exists on the mesh doesn't mean you're going to find it on the first page of your google search, mars throttles opposing information from anarchists and barsoomians to keep the masses ignorant.
>What the hell would a non-Firewall campaign be about? And how do I prevent it from devolving into plucky rebels overthrowing ebil corporashuns and bee-o-con nazis or players just deciding to immediately go to space and masturbate to their 30-flexbot-colony-body?
First off, Firewall does't just deal with corperations and biocons. If anything, hypercorps have the biggest sphere of political influence while Jovians have the best military, why not run a firewall game from their perspective? Non Firewall games could be something like shadowrun: the PCs are just mercenaries that don't ask questions. Or you can do it like deathwatch except everyone's part of the Jovian military instead of a space marine.

>>50582416
>spin-stabilized projectile
No. You get a helical shaped projectile out of it. It's absolute shit in atmosphere.

>>50584018
A neotenic sylph is just as cheap as a standard pleasure pod.

>>50578661
I suppose I wasn't speaking plainly. You're right that rule zero exists, bravo.
An example of what I meant:
The kitted out private army killteam the party has to face in the context of a really hard encounter ought to live or die by their stats and the outcome of the combat, or propel the story though their victory or defeat with restrained GM fiat. The NPC in the fight are run like NPCs, and unless theres a point to it happening its safe to assume that swat teams have the stats for swat teams, and one guy Isn't secretly Inspector Tequila.
If that is the case, and Inspector Tequila is after the players, then he will be statted to represent his exceptional capabilities and presumably significant moxy, not to represent his position on a SWAT team, and unless he is meant to simply be a particularly difficult fight he will enter or be removed as a character from the campaign as the GM intends the character to participate in the story.

>>50588266
What the fuck are you even trying to say? Are you sleep-deprived, retarded, drugged, or all three?

>>50586846
Pandora Gate exploration

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Jovians wish they were the Ultimates.

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>mfw a 250 credit Rocket Pack annihilates virtually everything, but a Scum Barge and Destroyer, in the game

What would be the difficulties of getting an alpha fork in a place where they are illegal (Mars, mostly)? I understand that darknets and black markets exist, but I don't want it to be as easy as rolling Networking to find nearest Black-Mart-for-all-your-criminal-needs, AND I don't want it to bog down the game too much with extra scenes involving NPC contacts and negotiations.

>>50592319

You just need an open access to upload the Alpha Fork.

If there's an underground "railroad" for infugees, it's trivial.

>>50592283
A standard HEAP missile is only 6d10+24, which is 84 maximum.

At 250 creds per shot, it's meh. Still better off with ambushing things with a shredder on full-auto at short range.

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>>50592410

A rocket pack does 1d10+4 x70 @ max velocity

>>50592410
in my book it says 3d10 +12

>>50592454
Good luck aiming and accelerating that shit. Especially anywhere with 0.4 g and higher.

>>50592475
Standard missiles have double damage. Listed values are for minimissiles.

>>50592475

That's for a mini-seeker.

Micro-seeker's -1D10 damage

Standard seeker missiles, double the listed DV.

>>50592454
This is the exact reason literally every self-respecting space vessel has point defense batteries. To shoot space junk and rocks on collision courses, at the very least.

You think you're clever. Well, this isn't the case.

>>50592503

Given the luck of dice, going at those speeds is really more a danger to the user than whatever it's going to suicide into.

However, the game probably needs an errata on it, because in the description for shell movement, they say the listed Max Velocity is in K/pH. But in the collision damage rules, they still mention velocity but now in meters.

It needs correcting regardless, and more than likely an upper damage limit. Like say "The max damage of a collision can only be up to the max durability of the colliding object to whatever it is hitting"

>>50592530

I'm pointing out a rule that's a bit buggy for fun anon, don't get your GM knickers in a twist.

>>50592548
>buggy rules

We all know that the game is full of holes, exploits, inconsistencies, piss-poor writing and blatant bias. No need to point it out.

The concept is good, and some pieces are great, and it's absolutely possible to have fun, but if it was rebuilt from the ground up by someone who isn't shit at game design it would be even better.

>>50592590
>No need to point it out.

No I must, because pointing it out is where people can begin putting a band aid on the thing.

>>50592611
people don't give a shit or are just too lazy to do that.

You as a GM (or your GM) should tell the players how he want to fill those holes, and thats it.

>>50592611
If you really want to fix this thing, start doing it yourself, using a coherent scheme. Mashing individual fixes together will yield the same shit that the game is now.

>>50588103
No. you get a helical sabot propelling an aerodynamic, spin-stabilized projectile.

>>50592548
>"The max damage of a collision can only be up to the max durability of the colliding object to whatever it is hitting"
But then bullets wouldn't work

>>50592590
>>50592611
Have you not seen the number of 'PF is bad because the rules suck" threads on /tg/? How new are you people?

>>50595046

Bullets don't follow collision damage rules, nor do they benefit from them. They don't interact at all even now.

Hell, seekers don't either, except everyone talks about shooting them down somehow, even though they have no rules regarding how one shoots down a seeker.

>>50602068
Seekers are scramjets filled with explosives. Might as well try shooting down bullets.

Speaking of. I allowed my players to parry bullets with melee weapons if they have speed 3 or higher and Mental Speed, make their perception tests and have a sturdy enough weapon. 6 per round if speed 3, 8 per round if speed 4, full-auto can't be parried, burst fire eats 3 each. Always at -30 for attacking a very small target. Should I regret this decision?

>>50605121
Naw. Sounds fun. I would allow it with just one bonus speed, but thats because in EP and Shadowrun, I prefer to keep the turns per person down so that one player does not monopolize all of the games time with their 4 turns per turn

>>50605121

Ooh, that's a good system. I'll use it if it comes up. I've always thought about Mental Speed and parrying bullets but never made a solid system for it, and nobody really tried to hard.

>>50605121

Sounds super fun.

There's also a psi-power that allows people to read a bullet's trajectory a bit, to the point where it gives a "+10 to the Fray test". Note it does not say skill, so I'm unsure if it's divided in half, or not, against fired projectiles.

>>50606768

I'm pretty sure that's intended as a flat bonus, so it's a +10 on the actual roll, not your skill rating, same as some conditional +/-. At least, I'm pretty sure halving is first, and only affects skill rating.

>>50605121
idk, it feels like it would complicate the combat mechanics even more, and would just let the player be more arrogant in their actions.

>>50610315
But combat mechanics are not complicated at all.

>>50606768
It's a modifier to the *test*. The book says that the *test* uses only half the skill *rating*, so divide the skill first, apply modifiers second.

>>50610698
more than other games.
i'm not complaining, but is a fact that a turn in EP needs more rolls than other games.

>>50610893
Doesn't it basically boil down to:
1) Attacker rolls to attack,
2) Defender rolls to defend if required,
3) Roll damage if required.

I suppose it's more rolls than a game where an attack has to overcome a static number, where you can fold 1 + 2 together (think: Armour Class), but the basics of combat are fairly straightforward in terms of rolling. The amount of options player characters have and the toys they're bringing to the table can slow combat down a fair bit, but that's the same in quite a few systems.

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>>50599305
> space suit stockings
I don't know who first came up with this, but it was a great idea.

>>50610315
>let the player be more arrogant in their actions

What does that even mean?

>>50611278

My point is making players deflect bullets with malee weapons, would make combat scenes longer and/or easyer than normal.
Longer the combat scene, the more rolls you would have to make, the more evident will be the difference between Speed 1 and Speed 3, making player with speed 1, less interested in those scene and making players in general less scared of those scene if there are enemy with bullet weapons.

>>50611938
it means that players would less scared of enemies with guns because they can deflect woth the blade skill instead of half of the fray skill.

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>>50612059
>>50612075

>>50612059
>>50612075
On the other hand it would give a much needed boost to most energy weapons by comparison.

>>50612075
It requires at least one implant of [High] cost and means to boost their Speed to 3 and higher, which means either more implants of similar or more expensive value, or addictive combat drugs.

It requires a Perception test per each attack, with -20 for disraction and a melee test at -30.

I say it's enough investment to actually pay off. No different from stacking a megaton of armor so the damage gets absorbed anyway.

I'd only say that limiting uses per turn feels artificial. It would be better if it used your next complex action.

>>50612059
>using action phases
>not using multiple initiative rolls

Do you like to torture your players?

>>50612152
how?
for what i remember the big problem of the energy weapon is the damage, all but the plasma rifle that is still a very good weapon even if you cannot dodge bullet with melee.

>>50612196
it requires 2 [high] implants, mental speed and neurachem 2, so an average of 25 cp, if you start with 1000 cp its not that much.

>>It requires a Perception test per each attack, with -20 for disraction and a melee test at -30.
So as i wrote before it would add more rolls so it would complicate the mechanics.

>>50612217
in my game is:

1) roll initiative
2) everybody makes a turn
3) the players with speed 2+ make another turn
4) the players with speed 3+ make another turn
5) the players with speed 4 make another turn
6) restart from number 2

>>50612332
sorry neurachem 2 is [exp], still 25 cp for both tho

>>50612332
So you do like to torture your players.

>>50612332
It's 25 CP per morph. And good luck getting it if you farcast a lot and/or on time-sensitive quests.

>>50612447
And then he comes on to /epg/ to torture us too.

>>50612447
>>50612523

i'm not the gm, every player at the table is ok with it

>>50612523
What did we do to deserve such a punishment?

Okay, we probably did something.

I want to tone down the weirdness of the game, and emphasise the whole "humanity" thing. As in, the more weird your body gets, the less human your mind becomes.

The last time I told my players to make characters for an investigation-intrigue-social game they showed up with exhuman combat monsters. Because Exhuman background gives a fuckton of skills. And I'm sick of it.

So, how should we define the transition from transhuman to posthuman in game terms? When one (being a GM) should draw the line and say "no, fuck you, this is a game about transhumans, and your character is not one"?

I think something along the lines of introducing a Humanity stat which is lowered by sleeving into weird morphs, heavily modifying your current body and doing generally bad things. Maybe connect it somehow with Savvy, Willpower (and Lucidity) and Motivations.

>>50612516
>>good luck getting it if you farcast a lot and/or on time-sensitive quests.

in that case a rule like

>>50612196

would be just useless

>>50612904
Make a Jovian adventure where everyone is in a flat morph.

>>50612950
That is an option. But making all adventures Jovian is not.

>>50612904
>When one (being a GM) should draw the line and say "no, fuck you, this is a game about transhumans, and your character is not one"?

Personally, I've always seen it as a fairly fuzzy distinction that would be best handled through how NPCs interact with the players. I'd rather try and throw consequences at a player for pursuing this, ranging from open distaste on the NPCs to the point where, eventually, other Firewall cells are looking at them and going "hey, um, I think we need to do something about this".

Having a system to define the transition wouldn't be my preferred option, partly because I don't think that the "more weird your body gets, the less human your mind becomes" meshes particularly well with a game where that's really not the case. Mostly because if the problem is players pushing the limits of what they can make by making inhuman combat monsters in an investigation-and-intrigue game, they're likely going to go up to any limit you set anyway.

>>50613008
Consequences are absolutely necessary and will be present, including Firewall bogeymen.

That's not the problem here. The problem is players showing up with an AI in a swarmanoid or exhuman predator killing machine without any cares aside from bloodlust, and playing it like a borderline autistic white 20-something they are.

Since finding someone willing to play this piece of shit of a game is difficult, the next best solution is adding rules and enforcing them. Maybe loosen them up for good roleplayers and for the sake of story, but be hard and unrelenting in all other cases.

It's finally fucking done... Here's my calculations for the pricing, I didn't put the cred price in so it can be adjusted based on the location. I aimed for essentials only and feedback on that would be good.

Type: Synthmorph
Real CP: 203.5
DUR: 30 + 10 = 40
Light Synth Armor CP: 15
Total DUR CP: 10
Reflex Booster: Expensive 20,000
Light Combat Armor: High (FP) 1,000
Structural Enhancement: Moderate (FP) 1,000
Puppet Sock: Moderate 1,000
Roller: Moderate 1,000
Thrust Vector: Moderate 1,000
360° Vision: Low 250
Walker: Low 250
Digging Claws: Low 250
Radar: Low 250
Eelware: Low 250
Enhanced Vision: Low 250
Prehensile Tongue: Low 250
Access Jack: Low 250
Anti-Glare: 250
Mnemonic Augmentation: 250
Augment Cost: 25,500 ÷ 1,000 = 25.5 (Rounded) 26
FP Augment Cost: 2,000 = 2 CP
Coo 5: 42.5 Som 10: 85
Aptitude Total: 127.5
Adjusted CP: 51
Final CP Cost: 53

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>>50613211

Specs and fluff I couldn't fit in the original post:

The Pangaloid was designed through an open sourced team of scum for one pourpose: a cheaper, yet still reliable alternative to the Reaper combat synth. Inspired by the now extinct mammal, the Pangolin, the Pangoloid takes some liberties with the aesthetic in order to make the shell easier for humanoids to adjust to. The Pangoloid stands upright and 5 feet tall with a hunched over head and a small stub of a tail rather than the long one Pangolins use for balance. The Pangoloid also has the ability to curl into a ball for both protection and increased mobility. The designers decided to stay close to the aesthetic of it’s inspiration with overlapping armored scales on the back, digging claws and a prehensile tongue.

Enhancements: 360° Vision, Access Jack, Anti-Glare, Digging Claws, Eelware, Enhanced Vision, Extra Limb (Tongue), Light Combat Armor, Mnemonic Augmentation, Puppet Sock, Radar, Reflex Booster, Structural Enhancement
Mobility Systems: Walker 4/20, Roller 8/32, Vectored Thrust 4/20
Aptitude Maximum: 30
Speed Modifier: +1 (Reflex Booster)
Durability: 40 (50 with Structural Enhancement)
Wound Threshold: 8 (10w/Structural Enhancement)
Advantages: Extra Limb, +5 COO, +10 SOM, Armor 6/6 (20/18 with Light Combat Armor)
Notes: Tongue extends 1.5m and has Ellware included, under belly counts as armor 6/6 for the purpose of call shots, this does not apply when the morph is curled up, scales also have Eelware included.

>>50613144
No, the best solution is telling that player to make a new character which actually fits with the adventure, not a passive aggressive set of rules to screw over a player because they aren't playing the way you want.

Eclipse Phase is a really open ended game, you generally need to moderate what kind of characters people make anyway. I generally don't allow Lost and Exhumans, not because I have a rule against them specifically but because they generally don't fit into the games I want. They're also the edgiest backgrounds and factions, so often aren't made in good faith.

>>50613537
>>No, the best solution is telling that player to make a new character which actually fits with the adventure
>>Not a passive aggressive set of rules to screw over a player because they aren't playing the way you want.

I agree, maybe you could say something like "Listen the adventure i have in mind is an investigation-intrigue-social adventure, with not a lot of combat action and with that exhuman combat character is less likely for you to have fun"

>>50613537
>no Lost and Exhumans
That's my negro. I also don't allow AIs and uplifts. There are almost no people who can portray them properly.

>>50613701
What about everything that's not a zeroed flat without any post-21st century tech? No one can portray them properly because they don't exist yet.

>>50613144
Give them what they want, at least to start with. Start with a no holds barred rampage through the TQZ or similar, give them the fix of sci-fi ultra violence they clearly crave. Then when they've all finished dying horribly and you've hammered home you point about the futility of attacking incomprehensible horrors with guns they can all resleave and try playing as sane human beings

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>>50612904
>I want to tone down the weirdness of the game, and emphasise the whole "humanity" thing

Play something else.

>As in, the more weird your body gets, the less human your mind becomes.

Again, this is completely contrary to the whole reason Eclipse Phase exists.

>So, how should we define the transition from transhuman to posthuman in game terms?

We shouldn't.

>I think something along the lines of introducing a Humanity stat which is lowered by sleeving into weird morphs

Pic very related.

>>50615009
>>50612904

Yeah, this whole system doesn't go for this sort of angle. It deliberately avoids "essence damage" for implants and the like like something from Shadowrun.

>>50612904
>I want to tone down the weirdness of the game, and emphasise the whole "humanity" thing. As in, the more weird your body gets, the less human your mind becomes.
You want Cyberpunk, not Transhumanism.

>The last time I told my players to make characters for an investigation-intrigue-social game they showed up with exhuman combat monsters. Because Exhuman background gives a fuckton of skills. And I'm sick of it.
Or because they don't want to play an investigation-intrigue-social game. They wouldn't make combat monsters if they wanted to do investigation-intrigue-social play, now would they?

>So, how should we define the transition from transhuman to posthuman in game terms? When one (being a GM) should draw the line and say "no, fuck you, this is a game about transhumans, and your character is not one"?
I don't think you know what transhumanism is.

That'd be like letting someone playing a transgender character, and you getting pissed if they ever find a way to fully transition, because then they're just the other gender and no longer "transgender".

Doesn't fit the genre, mang.

>I think something along the lines of introducing a Humanity stat which is lowered by sleeving into weird morphs, heavily modifying your current body and doing generally bad things. Maybe connect it somehow with Savvy, Willpower (and Lucidity) and Motivations.
Again, you should really play cyberpunk. Cyberpunk games always have mechanics regarding humanity, and retaining it despite implants.

Transhumanism is about the evolution of the human condition through modification. Transhumanist fiction doesn't thematically see modification as a loss of humanity, but rather an enhancement and evolution of it.

>>50615420
>>Or because they don't want to play an investigation-intrigue-social game. They wouldn't make combat monsters if they wanted to do investigation-intrigue-social play, now would they?

Well if you say to your players
>>i want to run an investigation-intrigue-social game

and they say ok, and after that they make
>>exhuman combat monsters

is not the GM fault.

If the players want to play a game where they are
>>exhuman combat monsters

they should say it to the GM when he tells them
>>i want to run an investigation-intrigue-social game

>>50615584
>is not the GM fault.
I'm not saying it is. I'm saying that GMs often have to read the playgroup and realize what kind of game that group wants to be in. And sometimes, the game they want to run isn't the game their players want to play.

Case in point: I GM at an FLGS for various groups, and a year ago I was starting a game for some of the tweens in the store. I thought I'd be running a kid-friendly Game of Thrones-style game, where they'd be interacting with royalty, and influencing national events.

Every one of them wanted to play a pirate.

So I ended up running a swashbuckle game of piracy instead.

I'm not saying this guy should necessarily cave like that if he truly doesn't want to run a combat-heavy game. But I am saying that if you want to appease your audience, you have to read the room.

>>50613144
Just tell your players that this is the sort of game you're wanting to run, ask them what sort of game they're wanting to play, and try to find some fucking compromises. Creating an extra set of mechanics that completely undermines the theme of the game, which you'll then waive if they're "good roleplayers", is a shitty way to fix a problem that basically boils down to "I want to run a game that's like X, my players want to play a game that's like Y".

>>50615674
What system did you use for the pirate game? Something with good ship mechanics?

>>50615674
Well sometimes a GM have an already prepared adventure, something like Glory for EP, and maybe the story already have a premade character, but the GM would like the players to make their own character.

In this case a GM would have to say
"this kind of adventure is...
...investigative"
or
...full of combat scenes"
or
...political"
etc...
or a mix of those.

At this time the players should speak and say if they agree to play or not.
If they agree they know that, for example, they are making a political story with not a lot, or 0 combat, and none of them have points in social skills it is a problem.

If, instead of agreeing, they say "no, we want to be space pirates" the GM can change the story or find/create a new one like you did for those kids.

>>50612904
You can play a more cyberpunk type of game on Luna or Mars, or on one of the big inner system orbitals.

Also... the first thing on the character creation chapter of EP should be "don't spend much on your morph". The whole point of the game is that you're gonna be resleeving and doing shady incognito shit. It's fairly explicit that most of transhumanity isn't really cool with a guy walking around in a vaguely anthropomorphic tank.

Basically, either switch to a campaign appropriate for crazy cyber hulks, or explain your intentions and restrict their options.

Heavy combat focus is also not terribly useful for most scenarios. You can storm some oligarch's private habitat and shred his morph, but he's just going to ego cast out or revive a backup somewhere else--and then use every trick in the book to take revenge for what amounts to a massive property crime.

This isn't supposed to be D&D, where you can burn down the village and then take off to the next kingdom over when the heat gets too hot.

>>50615904
>What system did you use for the pirate game? Something with good ship mechanics?
I wish. Nah, I had to run it with Hero Kids, because the store was trying to peddle the game. It went alright, but I had to fudge a ton

But every kid had some backstory about being a pirate, so a pirate game it became. If I were to do it again, I'd probably pick something different.

>>50615914
>Well sometimes a GM have an already prepared adventure, something like Glory for EP, and maybe the story already have a premade character, but the GM would like the players to make their own character.
There's your red flag. If you want to run a prepared adventure, choose the adventure after you have an idea what character the players are making. Grab a couple, pick the one that fits them.

If the adventure has pregen characters, and you want to guarantee that the playgroup will work with it, give them a pregen. Otherwise, accept that car might hit wall.

You gotta learn to roll with the punches when you GM. If you want them to bend a bit, that's fine... but if you aren't willing to bend as well, you're gonna have a bad time.

Think about it this way: if you're on a drive, and the freeway your route chose is under construction with a detour... do you detour, or do you stay the course? Because that's what happened. The playgroup made the original route a non-option, and they decided to go with it anyways.

>>50617068

>>There's your red flag.

how? your post is exactly what i was saying. Did you read it?


>>At this time the players should speak and say if they agree to play or not.
>>If they agree they know that, for example, they are making a political story with not a lot, or 0 combat, and none of them have points in social skills it is a problem.
>>If, instead of agreeing, they say "no, we want to be space pirates" the GM can change the story or find/create a new one

I mean if your players AGREE with you (GM) beforehand to make a political/social story and all of them make murderhobo characters you will have problems and it's not your fault.

My point is if you have a story in mind tell your players if it is an investigative/political/blabla story, if they say OK and then make murderhobo characters they are idiots.

IF THEY SAY NO, we want to be space pirates or whatever, try to see if there is a way to change the original story to fit their demands or create a new story.

>>50617319
My bad, I read your post incorrectly. That'swhat I get for trying to 4chan on my smoke breaks.

I agree though. Either build around the player characters, or make them build the player characters around the presumed setting.

What this guy should have done is set extra creation restrictions. Only these factions and backgrounds are allowed, so many skill points must be dedicated to these skills, and so on. That way, their compatibility with the game he had in mind was guaranteed.

Or he should have picked the adventure after they picked their characters. But yeah, we're in agreement.

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>>50595033
>spin-stabilized projectile
>out of a sabot that can't spin

>>50617417
i think he should have chosen another game.

>>50605121
At that point, just use GURPS cinematic rules.

>>50617450
He needs cyberpunk. The fact that he wants humanity to be something that you lose with implants shows he's looking at the wrong game for what he's trying to do.

Cyberpunk, Sprawl or Shadowrun might be up his alley.

>>50612059

To add to your rule, I'd recommend "shields" also, such as a standard shield, or grabbing a person to soak the bullets, or a sturdy object. Less sturdy objects obviously disintegrating under the attack, such as a wooden table.

>>50618239
not my rule, i was advocating for "No to stop bullets with melee weapons"

If you use "shields" like
>>standard shield, or grabbing a person to soak the bullets, or a sturdy object.

The enemy rolls with a penality of -10/-20/-30 depending on how much cover do you have and what kind of cover it is (sturdy object or not sturdy object).

In case of an object so frail that cannot sustain the attack the GM should say, example, "the desk you were hiding behind untill now, its not useful as cover anymore because its more a giant bullethole than a desk"

>>50612332

Just a note, you don't necessarily need Neurachem 2 to achieve speed 3. A cocktail of drugs will do the trick.

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>>50613221

>>50618239
>>50618396

Speaking of sturdy and frail objects, I used their durability as a reference. If an object gains a Wound from the attack, it's efficiency as cover is reduced for all the next attacks by a tenth.

Grabbing people to soak bullets would require grappling them first, which is a complex action. Otherwise, totally possible.

Shields are a separate thing in a way. They grant armor and treated as a piece of such, but they totally can be used to parry attacks. Howewer, they will be completely useless against attacks with AP more then their armor bonus. There are a lot of shield types (and gear in general cause I like gear porn), from lightweight riot shields to barely-portable ballistic shields.

As of rolls and rules, I prefer to keep most things either in my head hidden from players or automatic, so they are not inconvenienced. Thanks for input though.

>>50617435
>The helical sabot can't spin

Why the hell not?

>>50619137
Because it's helical, you retard.

>>50619845
The rails are helical. It's impossible for it not to spin.

>>50619845
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTFi8uoB2ek
Note the spinning projectiles

>>50619947
>The effort it would take to machine that thing
Ouch

>>50619845
>you retard
Does the Dunning-Kruger effect also make people meaner?

So, if I understand correctly the reputation economies are basically service economies (as in "you do something for me - I do something for you"), and the Rep score is just how trustworthy, reliable or notorious you are said to be by the masses.

And I see a lot of statements both here in /epg/ and other places that such a system is fundamentally flawed and can be gamed easily. I can see how the system which is based on an all-encompassing popularity contest is fucked up. I can see the dangers and profits of identity theft. But that's quite obvious. In what other ways one would exploit the system?

>>50620455
That seems accurate and in no way different from the current economic system.

>>50620455

It's not necessarily a direct translation favor to favor, but as a gift economy basically you give people whatever you can spare if you have it (goods services, whatever) and if you're good and reliable then your Rep is solid can people will reciprocate.

>>50620527
What if you don't give anything, move from place to place and just abuse your high Rep, which is totally possible to have without doing anything significant?

>>50620556
How fast do you think you can move? You'll have to outrun the bad rep you leave behind, which can catch up pretty fast.

>>50620606
>>50620556

You can't outrun a bad rep. Radio moves faster than your Ego can get through customs and queues.

>>50620606
>>50620645
What if you spread false but believable rumors about yourself being hot shit in advance? It's not hard and takes zero effort if you know how to lie.

>>50620667
You'd have to spend a lot of time and effort setting up a consistent story between the various habitats you plan to go through before your mooching spree. Even then, the telephone effect will distort the rumors in ways that may hurt you, which would mean you'd have to micromanage the rumors and risk getting caught, try to work around the change and risk derailing your plan, or changing your plan on the fly.

Simply put, it would take more effort to game the system than to use it honestly, and with less reward.

>>50620667
The trouble is that the rep networks track things that actually happened, so people use them. You would have to falsify data in those.

How costly egocasting is supposed to be? It's listed as [Expensive], but also as a Moderate favor and upwards, depending on distance. Moderate favor is also listed as something equal to a [Moderate]-cost item or service.

It's described as being the go-to way to travel because it's faster and cheaper. I get that it's faster, but it's [Expensive], when physical space travel is [High] to [Expensive]. Something is clearly wrong here.

>>50620667

I mean, this sort of rep fraud is possible, but it's a real hassle like >>50620788 and >>50620842 say. You'd need to set up AI or any kind of false system to sockpuppet or astroturf a lot on the mesh systems.

>>50620868

I mean, things are a range, I'd say that the [Expensive] cost is probably a good blanket to like, pay a service for the upload and transmission and any customs for any trip, favor level might reflect something simpler to just bum off the guy with the antenna or whatever. As a GM, feel free to adjust price based on distance, services are kind of broadly rounded in the gear section.

>>50620667
Rumors don't really matter, lifelogging means that any rep bump you get is backed by XP evidence that it happened from anyone involved. No lifelog XP, no rep.

>>50620868
>>50621069
Well, yeah, but the ranges overlap weirdly. And making each PC pay twenty grand each time they have to move can be bad for the story.

As a GM, I ruled that egocasting is Moderate to High, depending on distance, and space travel is High to Expensive, from orbital shuttles to courier ships respectively. It just makes more sense, because physical travel literally burns a costly non-renewable resource.

What would you say are the serious issues with the setting and game mechanics of Eclipse Phase?

I'm about to start going through the books and wanted to know people's opinions on things.

>>50623080
>What would you say are the serious issues with the setting and game mechanics of Eclipse Phase?
The setting is presented in an unreliable narrator style, in a semi-formal first-person manner, from fellow Sentinels and Servers. Firewall itself is mostly anarchist, though there are members fro every clique... so much of the game's setting materal is presented from an anarchist's point of view.

Some people get butthurt and say that it's anarchist propaganda because of it. Take that for what you will.

Mechanically it's a d100 roll-under game mechanic, loosely based on Shadowrun 4th Edition, but with a feel very reminiscent of D20. Many of the problems those games had (the sheer power of speed increase, flat odds on rolls as big examples) continue to persist here. Also, the game doesn't really cover microgravity combat, despite that being relatively common... so you might have to make adjustments accordingly.

The setting is stronger than the core game. That said if you don't like the base mechanics, they have released a book for playing using Fate. Also, there's a Fiasco playset.

Welcome to the club.

>>50624181
>>Some people get butthurt and say that it's anarchist propaganda because of it.

Morons.

>>but with a feel very reminiscent of D20

Really? i don't feel it. Can you explain further?

>>flat odds on rolls as big examples

It's a game of chance, like al games that involve rolling dices.
In this game you reduce the chance of failure by increasing your skill points and/or using moxie points (switch, make critical hits, ignore penalities), so in many ways its a better system than any d20 system and some d100 system i used.

>>the game doesn't really cover microgravity combat

I would say that for the game there is no difference between the two.
This can be an issue or not depending on how your group want to play micrograv combat, but i would not say that is a serius issue.
I mean it's not a thing that can't be handled with a little bit of house ruling IF your group want to play micrograv combat in a different way than normal combat.

>>50625215
>Really? i don't feel it. Can you explain further?
The primary damage mechanic is effectively hit points, with a wound system tacked on. They even went with "you die when you reach half your max in negative hit points".

While Qualities aren't feats, per se, they can be acquired in play fairly easily (at least in comparison to a game like Shadowrun, where surgery to gain the attractive quality isn't an option). And they have much of the benefits that feats provide.

Speed effectively makes it so that combat characters can attack several times in a single round... "full attack", so to speak... while non-combat characters might prefer to focus on gaining mental actions. Admittedly also true of Shadowrun, but Shadowrun attacks don't play off each other as easily (there are smart ammo rounds that provide bonuses to later attacks in the same turn, for example).

Critical odds are strikingly similar to D20, 10% chance of critical hit or failure (the difference being that your overall skill determines which of the two is more likely).

Also, modifiers are largely in groups of 10s... the equivalent of a +2 or -2 in D20.

Note that I don't say this as an insult, as I'm not hateful of D&D. But it does have some of its feel to it.

>It's a game of chance, like al games that involve rolling dices.
Agreed, but some people prefer dice pools and odds curves. Just throwing it out as a thing some people might not like.

I wasn't trying to dissuade, only inform. It's up to him to decide whether the game is right for him.

>I would say that for the game there is no difference between the two.
Of course there is.

Free-float is a serious possibility in microgravity (that's when you're floating either stably or in a specific velocity and nowhere near an anchoring point that you can push off of or use to maneuver around). The game really doesn't have rules for handling this in movement.

That's a big discrepancy, to me.

>>50625429
>>The primary damage mechanic is effectively hit points

i actually never played a game with a character that does not have the HP stats.

>>with a wound system tacked on
If i think of the game i played with d 20 system (D&D, PF), where no matter how many times you get hit there is no actual repercussion (other than the HP loss).
I like the wound system, i feel it make the game more realistic.

>>They even went with "you die when you reach half your max in negative hit points".
Well, you faint when your DUR get to 0 and you die when your DR get to 0.
For synth the DR is DUR x 2, so depending on what morph you use you have more chances to live, never saw this in a d20 game.

>>While Qualities aren't feats
Are youtalking about traits? cause those resemble more (if not equal to) the traits in games like Vampire: The Masquerade

>>Speed effectively makes it so that combat characters can attack several times in a single round... "full attack", so to speak... while non-combat characters might prefer to focus on gaining mental actions.

Again i never played a game where this is not the basic thing. Sure those don't have the speed stat, but there is still a way for combat character to do more attack than a character focused on mental abilities, and i'm not talking about only d20 games.

>>Critical odds are strikingly similar to D20, 10% chance of critical hit or failure (the difference being that your overall skill determines which of the two is more likely).
I would say similar to every game with critical hits, not only d20.
More than that in EP, and i didn't play another game with this mechanic, you can use moxie to make a critical hit (if you hit) or to avoid a critical failure. (Moxies resemble the force of will points use in WoD but there is no critical there)

>>Of course there is.

I meant mechanically
cont....

>>50625429
It's way more similar to Basic Role Play or the 40k systems mashed with shadowrun.

Honestly, if D20 was the first thing you think of reading the EP rules, I'd suspect you haven't played that many different RPGs.

>Agreed, but some people prefer dice pools and odds curves

A curve does one thing: makes the power of bonuses to a roll scale nonlinearly. Otherwise it reduces to percentages just fine. People get all weird about dice pools when they don't really make a difference. a 40% chance of success is 40% no matter what die system produces it.

>Free-float is a serious possibility in microgravity (that's when you're floating either stably or in a specific velocity and nowhere near an anchoring point that you can push off of or use to maneuver around). The game really doesn't have rules for handling this in movement.

IIRC this is just half walking/running speed and uses Free Fall, otherwise it uses the normal movement rules. That might be moving around with tethers and stuff though, I didn't look it up.

>>50621238
So... pics or it didn't happen?

>>50625429

cont from>>50625577

Since the game don't give you a new roll mechanic for combat in low gravity it means that for the people who made the game you should use the normal rules for combat in that situation.

>>The game really doesn't have rules for handling this in movement.
Other than the fact that you can buy low gravity boots, it just means that the people that made the game think that you should use the normal rules.

I understand that you maybe (and me too) would like something more realistic for low gravity, but it can be easily house ruled, with some Free Fall roll.

For me a serius issue is something that it's not in the rules and and to make it you need to majorly change some game rules or mechanics.

>>50625616
Pratically.

>>50625577
>i actually never played a game with a character that does not have the HP stats.
There are a lot, and that's ironic considering you insult me about not playing many RPGs only a post below this.

>I like the wound system, i feel it make the game more realistic.
The wound threshold concept is bizarre. Shadowrun has hit boxes, and you have the effect of wounds once you lose so many. In this one, you have to lose them in a single attack to feel any penalty.

It's basically a massive damage mechanic for a hit point system.

>Well, you faint when your DUR get to 0 and you die when your DR get to 0.
That's exactly how D&D handles it, with DR being 1.5 times your DUR (hit points).

>For synth the DR is DUR x 2, so depending on what morph you use you have more chances to live, never saw this in a d20 game.
Certain creatures and classes can go further into the negatives, so this also applies to D&D.

>Are youtalking about traits?
Sort of. As I said, it's somewhat like Shadowrun's Qualities, yet you can earn more of them in play relatively easily (through psychosurgery, surgery, and other ways). That feels a bit more like feats, even if their handling is different.

>Again i never played a game where this is not the basic thing.
Many games do not allow for multiple attacks in a round. That they are such a significant part of the game is also a key reason I say it has the feel it has.

>I would say similar to every game with critical hits, not only d20.
The statistical odds for a critical in Shadowrun does not equate to exactly 10% like it does in EP and D&D. The same is true for many other games (Fate, Apocalypse World, Savage Worlds, etc).

>>50625580
>Honestly, if D20 was the first thing you think of reading the EP rules, I'd suspect you haven't played that many different RPGs.
You mean I haven't played many RPGs using d100, and yes that's correct.

But why did you have to get insulting and childish about this?

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>>50583563
hmmm... really makes you think

Continuing >>50625695

>>50625580
>A curve does one thing: makes the power of bonuses to a roll scale nonlinearly.
How can you say this, then immediately say they don't make a difference? Some people don't like linear odds progression. That's why I said it.

Again, you're getting defensive over something that was never intended as an insult. Then you insulted me for effectively giving an honest statement. Why did you feel the need to do that?

>IIRC this is just half walking/running speed and uses Free Fall, otherwise it uses the normal movement rules.
That's ridiculous. Why would a person incapable of significantly changing their momentum and velocity use normal movement rules? Do you allow falling characters to swim through the sky in your games?

>>50625635
>I understand that you maybe (and me too) would like something more realistic for low gravity, but it can be easily house ruled, with some Free Fall roll.
I don't want realism, I want it handled in any way at all. There are no rules for free-float. It'd be like a game having no rules for swimming, and you telling me that it should be handled by just having people walk on the bottom.

Do you honestly not think that's idiotic?

>>50625695
>>There are a lot, and that's ironic considering you insult me about not playing many RPGs only a post below this.

I'm not >>50625580
you can see that because i'm a namefag and desu

>>I'd suspect you haven't played that many different RPGs

it's not even an insult.

Since you say there is a lot of games where a character does not have an HP stat i'm curious to know what are those games? Really i would like to know.

>>Many games do not allow for multiple attacks in a round.
Again, curious to know what games.

>>50625736
Again me and >>50625580
not the same guy

>>It'd be like a game having no rules for swimming.

Not really, this game have rules for movement in zero-g, its called Free Fall skill.
I was saying that since its a space setting, and there are zero g boots you can buy (i think they are [trivial] or [low]), and the fact that, the majority of times, you would know when to buy those depending on where you are and/or where you are going, micrograv combat can be handled like normal combat.

IF you are in a zero g situation without boots, when you move you would have to make a Free Fall test to see if you can move the way you wanted to, as written on the Free Fall Skill. You can also have the Specialization: Microgravity.

>>50625695
I'd like to apologize to The Martyr. He wasn't the one who insulted me, and I didn't see that the other post was from someone who wasn't a namefag. My bad.

>>50612904
kill yourself desu you shadowrun loving faggot. Stick to your pleb game.

>>50625829
Yes, I know that wasn't you now. I already apologized.

>Since you say there is a lot of games where a character does not have an HP stat i'm curious to know what are those games? Really i would like to know.
I already listed several. Fate, Shadowrun and World of Darkness (hit boxes are quite a bit different in operation), Nobilis, Don't Rest Your Head, Battletech, Mutants & Masterminds, I think Savage Worlds, Apocalypse World.

Note that when I say hit points, I mean a point-based damage system where loss of points carries no inherent penalty until one runs out of points. Not every single mechanic that uses numbers.

>>50625829
>Not really, this game have rules for movement in zero-g, its called Free Fall skill.
Rules for the free fall skill are very sparse, and the game does not detail movement in free fall, at all.

>I was saying that since its a space setting, and there are zero g boots you can buy (i think they are [trivial] or [low]), and the fact that, the majority of times, you would know when to buy those depending on where you are and/or where you are going,
Boots are not a guarantee that you won't be caught in a free-float situation. It only means that if you get close enough to something that they stick to, you can stick to them.

What if I grapple someone and throw them towards the center of the room? What if I leap? These things won't work the same in micrograv as they will on a planet. Not even close enough that you could just use the same rules. As I said before, it'd be like using ground combat rules for a water battle.

>>50625877
So, you think hit boxes are not like hit points?

>>Note that when I say hit points, I mean a point-based damage system where loss of points carries no inherent penalty until one runs out of points.

So you are not talking about EP, cause in EP there is the wound system, that gives you penalities and if you have Medichines and take too many Wounds you can faint even before your DUR get to 0.

>>Rules for the free fall skill are very sparse, and the game does not detail movement in free fall, at all.

I think that is because the base of the game is that your body is not fixed, you can change it, and a lot of times you (the player) know that you are going in a place where there is (or there could be) zero g, so you should change your morph with a morph that can move in zero g as well as normal gravity. A morph that have more than one way of moving itself.

>>What if I grapple someone and throw them towards the center of the room?
You would have to make a contested unarmed check and if you win the enemy would make a Free Fall check and the GM would say what happens depending on the results.

>>What if I leap?
You would make a Free Fall check and the GM would say what happens depending on the results.

As a GM i would say that the movement in zero g would be connected to your SOM (like SOM/10 or SOM/5 meters x round), same think for leaping, same thing for how far you throw people.

>>50625877
>>I mean a point-based damage system where loss of points carries no inherent penalty until one runs out of points.

So you are not meaning, for example, D&D 4ed since once bloodied (half hp) you would suffer a penality to your attack.

>>50626003
>So, you think hit boxes are not like hit points?
You take penalties for having lost so many hit boxes (in Shadowrun, it's -1 for every 3 lost, for example). It's not an attrition mechanic with no consequences until 0 HP.

>So you are not talking about EP, cause in EP there is the wound system
The wound system is separate, and only triggers when you take so much damage in a single strike. It's a second damage mechanic that applies only to certain attacks (much like the massive damage rules from D&D).

Durability is hit points. Please stop taking it so negatively. Jeez. I didn't mean it as an insult, just a comparison.

>I think that is because the base of the game is that your body is not fixed
Even if it isn't fixed, there aren't many bodies that are capable of floating easily. Anything with jets or wings, for the most part. That's it.

Even then, they would operate differently. In free fall your velocity is fixed without acting to adjust (or being acted upon), so you could, as an example, spend one speed round only accelerating to max movement. Then spend the next several rounds only attacking while continuing to move because you're in free float.

At least that's how it SHOULD work. The game doesn't actually have rules for floating in micrograv. Hence my problem.

>>50626030
>So you are not meaning, for example, D&D 4ed since once bloodied (half hp) you would suffer a penality to your attack.
Actually, I would say that was an interesting deviation from usual mechanics. However, it could be argued that the Bloodied mechanic was really just effects that triggered when you or a target were at half hit points. The mechanic itself carried no consequence outside of other things.

But that was a slight alteration, yes. That said, I really think this conversation has gone way out there over something so trivial as comparing Durability to hit points. Do you not think they work like hit points?

>>50626072
>somewhat like the massive damage rules from D&D
inb4 someone flipped out over that line.

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I hope this doesn't come off as too generic of a question, but I'm looking to run some basic eclipse phase games and was looking for some suggestions of how to start out. I and one of the players have some lite experience with the system, but I plan on running it as mostly "theater of the mind" semi rules-lite, basic combat, skill checks, driven forward through rp.

My question is mainly what the best starting campaign is. I could fairly easily hack a plot and some locations together, but in that case where can I find info on how to balance combat encounters/what enemies are appropriate for the characters? I was also looking into running one of the precon adventures like Glory, but it almost seems harder to try and work through someone else's story than coming up with something basic like a basic firewall setup.

In either scenario, I think using pregen characters for at least the first session/mission would be good but outside of the firewall book I havn't found any others. I am not quite confident enough in my rules knowledge to make the characters myself, though for a one-off at long as they fit archetypes I probably can't mess up too badly. Lastly somewhat of a repeat but is there a mechanism to balance encounters based on characters/morphs/equipment? I don't want want to vastly over or under gear/morph the characters.

Thanks in advance if anyone has some pointers

>>50626072
Do you not think they work like hit points?

The starting argument was that you felt d20 system vibes because, for example, DUR is similar to HP.

And you said "with a feel very reminiscent of D20" in a post where you were presenting your view of some of the issues in EP.
I (maybe wrongly) understood that you didn't like that EP had "a feel very reminiscent of D20"

My point is that in a game where somone do damage to somebody else, that somebody else will have a system that determines how much damage he can take.
If EP had hit box system would you say that it was giving you WoD vibes?

I'm saying that i don't really see that much of a similarities with EP system and a d20 system.
That is because of the wound system that is connected to the DUR/HP system and separate at the same times, see the example of the morph with medichines that if sustain too much wounds it shuts down and faint even if DUR is not 0.

You say that a +10 in EP is similar to a +2 in D&D.

Sure, of course, thats because with a +2 on a d20 you have 10% more success probability, but nothing stops you to give a bonus or a penality of +/-17 or +/-6 in a skill roll in EP. Giving bonus or penalities like +/- 10/20/30 is just easier.

>>Durability is hit points
hit boxes are hit points too.
they both are a way to see how much damage your character can sustain.

>>Please stop taking it so negatively.
Am i? I'm just trying to understand why you feel that EP has a d20 vibes.

The combat actions are different
The combat mechanics is completely different (the defender defends with a roll and not with a set number)
The damage mechanic is different (you still have the armor to defend you even on a hit)
There are no calsses or levels

>>Even if it isn't fixed, there aren't many bodies that are capable of floating easily.
You can buy any synthetic morph and change its movement system by buying robotic enhancement.

cont...

>>50626072
cont from >>50626266

>>At least that's how it SHOULD work. The game doesn't actually have rules for floating in micrograv. Hence my problem.

And you just solved your own problem.

>>In free fall your velocity is fixed without acting to adjust (or being acted upon), so you could, as an example, spend one speed round only accelerating to max movement.
>>Then spend the next several rounds only attacking while continuing to move because you're in free float.

>>50626232
>>My question is mainly what the best starting campaign is.

I think the best start with EP is not a campaign, It's better to make a one-shot first to make the players understand the setting and how the game works if they are not used to it.

The easiest way as you mentioned is a Firewall Mission.

>>where can I find info on how to balance combat encounters/what enemies are appropriate for the characters?
You'll have to find a way yourself depending on what characters your players make.

>>I am not quite confident enough in my rules knowledge to make the characters myself

There are pregen character in the corebook, but if you want to do them yourself i would give you the advice to stay low on implants, cause if you have players that never played EP, having a lot of implants, could be difficult to remember what does what and when.

>>there a mechanism to balance encounters based on characters/morphs/equipment?
i don't think there is.

>>50626232
>Lastly somewhat of a repeat but is there a mechanism to balance encounters based on characters/morphs/equipment?

Not really. Though combat, and the messy deaths that follow it, aren't as much as a set back in Eclipse Phase as they are in some other games. I generally hold with the idea that the players are most often to be the ones initiating combat, and so have the opportunity to try and gather intel and work out whether or not the thing that's in their way is something that they can take on in a fight, and so balancing encounters to make them "fair" doesn't really come into it. The player characters make a judgement about whether or not it's something they can overwhelm by force based on the information they've gathered, and act accordingly.

There's nearly always other options beyond "we blindly kick down the door and face whatever enemies are in this encounter".

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>>50626531
>>There's nearly always other options beyond...

Erase the "nearly".

>>50626581
You could probably create scenarios in which it is the only option, or at least the option that the players are most likely to take, but admittedly it's going to be pretty rare. Anyway, the point was that balancing encounters isn't such a huge thing, because you're generally playing a game where players are expected to anticipate problems and work around them, rather than trying to throw combat encounters at them for the sake of having a fight.

>>50626362
>>50626531

Oh I certainly agree, and thanks for the replies. I was thinking more in the instance of an investigation of something like an abandoned colony or space station, finding some kind of big bad/entity at the end, but you are right there should be alternative ways to take it out even in that case.

>>50626642
>there should be alternative ways to take it out even in that case

I think the big question in these sort of situations is - why are the players there? I'm not saying that there's no reason whatsoever why player characters would go in to explore an abandoned space station, but the reasons why the PCs are going there is going to inform them how to approach it, and what "encounters" would be easy/hard to circumvent.

If you tell the player characters that there's some kind of big bad entity on that abandoned space station, saner minds might propose destroying it from a safe distance, so you'd want to come up with some good reasons as to why. If they're going in to recover stuff, then fighting the big bad entity might not need to happen, the players could opt for something a little more sneaky and avoid detection by the Big Bad Entity. Hell, the Big Bad Entity could stalk them through the station, or if you wanted to be a Grade-A Jerk, perhaps your Big Bad Entity will patiently wait in ambush for the PCs to return to their entry/exit vehicle.

If you've got a Big Bad Entity that you want to use, you can probably design a scenario around players encountering it and dealing with it in one way or the other.

>>50621238
Lifelogs are fakeable though

>>50626232
>My question is mainly what the best starting campaign is.
Many people talk about Mars, which has merit, but I contend that an introductory session should involve egocasting and resleeving at the destination. These mechanics are fundamental to both the game and the setting and should be introduced initially even if they won't be used that much later.

Flexbot question-

Suppose I have a two-module flexbot consisting of a Bouba and a Rogue. Can the whole thing fit through small holes thanks to the Bouba?

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>>50627101
Bouba uses Squishbot, Rogue has "only" normal Shape Adjusting. So while the Bouba can go complete slime and fit under small cracks, the Rogue will probably get stuck/take longer to shape. Or at least I don't think flexbots share their implants automatically, you may have to install Squishbot in the Rogue as well (which has some ups/downs).

Though you can always just use a fork and split off the Bouba for blob recon work for the time.

>Sound System: The character can emit sound through several concealed speakers in the morph. The sound system can go up to 200 decibels and reach a much wider frequency than standard transhuman hearing can pick up. [Trivial]

200 dB is impossible in air at STP

>>50627243
If you're going to split it off then you might as well just go with an apiary though

>>50627271
Jet planes are around 120-140 dB, if I remember correctly. So...anyone ever weaponize this?

>>50627322
I've heard of aircraft being flown overhead to provide audio cover for stealth operations. Particularly popular with noisy drone aircraft, for obvious reasons.

>>50627322
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_weapon

>>50626861
Probably but just faking one account won't do you much good. The systems that manage the rep economy are smart enough to cross check and verify any claims to spot potential fraud.

>>50626266
>And you said "with a feel very reminiscent of D20" in a post where you were presenting your view of some of the issues in EP.
No. I was telling the person what the system was like. I did say at one point that it has some similar issues to D20, but not that this made the game bad. Only that if you had issues with one, you might have issues with the other.

>I (maybe wrongly) understood that you didn't like that EP had "a feel very reminiscent of D20"
Very wrongly. I like D&D.

>If EP had hit box system would you say that it was giving you WoD vibes?
Well... yeah. Would you take that as an insult?

>That is because of the wound system that is connected to the DUR/HP system and separate at the same times
Within a specific context, yes EP's damage system is not like D&D's. Which is why I said it was similar, not identical. Durability, by itself, is hit points plain and simple. Wound points are a subsystem that alters it. Hence why I said "The primary damage mechanic is effectively hit points, with a wound system tacked on." in my first post. That last part is what makes it different... heavy damage switches to the wound system, light damage just utilizes the hit point system.

>hit boxes are hit points too.
>they both are a way to see how much damage your character can sustain.
Hit boxes have explicit negative effects when you lose any quantity; penalties to your rolls. This is not a separate mechanic tied to your class, feats or monster properties like the Bloodied mechanic of 4th Edition, nor is it a secondary mechanic that only triggers when you lose a certain number of boxes in a single strike. It's tied directly to the boxes you've lost, and occurs alongside losing boxes.

Hence, I see it as different (though not worse, because I was just telling someone distinctions I see, not criticizing a game I like).

>The combat actions are different
Because those are based on Shadowrun, which I also mentioned.

>>50626285
Did you just seriously continue off an anonymous post, after that whole issue earlier of insulting me from an anonymous post?

I'm not saying that was you, but that's pretty suspicious.

>And you just solved your own problem.
Well I've been GMing this game since its inception, so I should hope I have. You can't run a game in certain scenarios without having a means to do so. But I felt it pertinent to inform people that this aspect of the game is absent. You HAVE to houserule it. It isn't covered.

That's a discrepancy. Doesn't mean the game is terrible, only that it is created by human hands.

Are you under the impression that I dislike the game? Why do you feel that someone hates a game if they compare it to D20? Do you hate D&D that much?

>>50628849
>Are you under the impression that I dislike the game?
Probably. The guy's something of an eejit, and probably figures that he likes the game, he's arguing with you, so you must hold the opposite view.

>>50628904
I guess it's cool to like the game, but I'm annoyed that I wasted minutes of my life clarifying that a comparison to D&D isn't a bad thing. He seemed honestly butthurt that I think it feels a little like the D20 system.

What system comparison would he have considered a positive comparison? Would there be one, or must I see it as a game formed wholecloth unto itself, with no other inspirations?

>decide to run the game in 30 AF instead of 10 AF to have more freedom to stray from canon

>players immediately whine REEEEEEEEEEE WHY THERE IS NOTHING NEW IN 20 YEARS M-MUH INTERWEBZ DEVELOPED IN UNDER 20 YEARS WHERE IS M-MUH NUU TEEK-NOLOGIES

That was unexpected.

>>50628930
>must I see it as a game formed wholecloth unto itself, with no other inspirations?

Bingo!

>>50628849
>>Did you just seriously continue off an anonymous post
I did, i post in other thread not with this name and sometimes i forget to put the name back.

>>Are you under the impression that I dislike the game?
No

>>Why do you feel that someone hates a game if they compare it to D20?
I actually don't i just think that is really not that comparable for the reason i wrote here >>50626266

>>The combat actions are different
i'll add: than most of d20 games
>>The combat mechanics is completely different (the defender defends with a roll and not with a set number)
>>The damage mechanic is different (you still have the armor to defend you even on a hit)
>>There are no classes or levels

The point is that you were answering to someone that asked >>50623080

>>What would you say are the SERIUS ISSUES with the setting and game mechanics of Eclipse Phase?
answering, (other than all the other stuff that you said here >>50624181 ) that it's a game:
>>loosely based on Shadowrun 4th Edition, but with a feel very reminiscent of D20

By answering that EP is
>>loosely based on Shadowrun 4th Edition, but with a feel very reminiscent of D20
To the question
>>What would you say are the serious issues with the setting and game mechanics of Eclipse Phase?
I understood that you see that as a serius issue.

My point is not only i don't see it as an issue, i don't even think, as i said before, that EP and the d20 system have more dissimilarities than similarities.

>>50629091
>I understood that you see that as a serius issue.
To me, "serious issue" is not necessarily a negative. It means "what are things that I should probably know about before I jump in"? For example, your wife being pregnant would be a "serious issue", but not necessarily a negative, right?

An issue is just something that must be called to mind. I addressed them neutrally, but also stated where they MIGHT be problems:

If you don't like D&D or Shadowrun, you actually might not like this game. I know plenty of people that hated this game despite liking Shadowrun because of the d100 mechanic; I know people who didn't like the game because it feels a bit like Shadowrun as well.

I mentioned the anarchist point of view specifically so this guy didn't come back to these threads screaming about SJWs and liberals. The game does have a first-person unreliable account structure to fluff, and that structure creates bias that apparently bothers people. I figured informing him now prevents possible whining later, because he knew what he was getting into. And I say this despite being fan of a faction that is largely treated as fascist and an existential threat within the material.

Serious issue is not bad or good. It's serious, and it's an issue. Stop taking things as an insult, please.

>>50629173
>that structure creates bias that apparently bothers SOME people
Again, just correcting so no one jumps down my throat over that line.

>>50629173
>>To me, "serious issue" is not necessarily a negative.
Synonyms for Issue:
Controversy, Concern, Contention, Problem ...
In my native language the english word for Issue translate as the english word for Problem.
I guess now you can see why we didn't understand eachother.

>>50592590
>if it was rebuilt from the ground up by someone who isn't shit at game design...

It would be a GURPS Transhuman Space spinoff.

>>50629303
Fair enough. But I would also note that "concern" is not necessarily negative either in the American dictionary. Only that it is something you should take note of (be concerned about). That it is most commonly used in a negative manner does not mean it always has to be.

Ironically, I was just trying to nip future complaining in the bud. These threads get bogged down by people complaining about system issues everyone already has known about a long time, and by the writing style. I figured if I could inform a new reader about these things now, they wouldn't have a reason to shitpost about them later.

>>50625736
>Then you insulted me for effectively giving an honest statement. Why did you feel the need to do that?
If you think

>I'd suspect you haven't played that many different RPGs

was an insult, you be wrong.

If I had said that you are a thin-skinned moronic dipshit who takes offense at the first opportunity it would be an insult.

>>50626861
That's no longer zero effort if you know how to lie. Past a certain point faking rep gets hard enough that just doing freelance lifelog editing for other people gets you the same amount of legit rep.

>>50630361
>was an insult, you be wrong.
Yes. If your response to someone else's argument is to argue that they don't know what they're talking about, that is the very definition of an insult. That you can also make a more severe insult does not change that fact.

Quit being a child, stick to the topic.

I got to say I love the homebrew stuff in the OP documents. The gear, the mods, the brain modifications. It all pleases my scifi transhumanism boner so hard.

>>50629025
Autism. The only major difference would be what morphs are popular. Maybe there would be more neogenetic morphs, but the difference in 20 years would mostly be modifiers.

>>50629033
>implying that the devs have come up with anything original

ITT: anons generally agree but end up arguing over semantics

>>50632866
All thread every thread. It's why I don't advertise my EP games here.

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>>50633036
>EP games

Don't lie, anon. You aren't fooling anyone.

Total n00b, checking the core pdf right now.

I don't get how much the population in the inner rim is "oppressed". It's my understanding that basically you
a) don't really have need to work for a pretty good basic living, unless you're a synt evacuee
b) you can't criticize the corps, but it's not like they make you DO shit you don't like

Correct?

>>50633238
Well, during the Fall, some people egocasted their ego away from Earth, some of them still don't have a body.
The majority of the evacuee that have a body didn't pay for it, it was a "gift" from a corp to have the guy work for the corp (more like to be a slave).
A lot of times the people in those body that are near the time of the end of their slavery get in some "incident" and the corp will "hire" them again by resleeving their backupped ego from before the first slavery time in to another morph, so the ego does not know that he already worked for the corp.

In another manual there is a morph trait that makes your SOM stat decrease by 5 every 3 month if you don't get a special treatment (that you have to pay) from the corp.

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>>50633238
According to Transhuman, the Eclipse Phase Player's Guide, "The majority of transhumanity is clanking around in indentured synths." A real body like the one you currently occupy is considered a luxury. Absolute poverty in Eclipse Phase is actually worse than in real life, since in real life most places don't consider your body an asset that can be confiscated if you're delinquent on your debts. You can lose your house and your car and you might have trouble finding food, but you won't be confined to life in a robot body with no skin, face, hair or genitals, or a digital existence as a file that can be deleted at any time by a server admin.

>>50633521
>>50633583

Though those aren't the PCs, right?

My problem is that they pointed me to EP as a game that explores themes of dictatorships and living under a regime, and while it is an interesting setting, I'm kinda confused if you could say that.

>yep, it's for a thematically-centered convention

>>50633583


Don't try it, the two arguments are the "good" by Hobbes.

>>50633521
damn it forgot to namefag again

>>50633743
Though those aren't the PCs, right?

Well, it could be a PC background to be a slave of a corp for some time.
And as >>50633583 wrote if the PC makes criminal act and get caught they can literally take his body away from him and store his ego in to a server.

but no, usually the PCs are free to live as they like, until they have the money to do it.

>>themes of dictatorships and living under a regime
While corp are generally pretty shitty, maybe the people who told you that were referring to the Jovian Junta, that is pratically a military, fascist regime.

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>>50633743
>Though those aren't the PCs, right?

No, the PCs are several orders of magnitude wealthier, more popular, and more capable than the average person. They're either rich or well connected enough to hop bodies on a whim, when most people are struggling to pay for just the one they're in. They have the equivalent of multiple PHDs, while most people are stuck chasing temporary jobs in the few sectors of the economy open to low skill workers which haven't been automated out of existence yet.

For reference, according to the table given in Rimward, the average Firewall Sentinel would have enough skills to qualify as a mid to high level Ultimate, supposedly the most badass faction in the game world.

>>50633831
Don't try what? What two arguments? Are you sure you're replying to the right post?

>>50633893

Possibly. It was just a passing reference.

Anyway, just to be sure: in the inner system you generic citizen have some sort citizen income and can live quite well without doing shit, right?
(not even sure how you do really earn wealth actually. I mean, yeah, I do realize how you can have a normal job, and attitudes/skills are payed, but I have some problems picturing how to start an industry as normal citizens. I guess you basically have to already work with the corps, even when starting your niche.)

Yeah, interesting game, but probably not what I was looking for.

>>50634074
>Anyway, just to be sure: in the inner system you generic citizen have some sort citizen income and can live quite well without doing shit, right?

If you don't mind being a case or infomorph, sure

>>50634074
What were you looking for?

>>50634146

Really? No, I'm serious. I was under the impression that aside from synth evacuees you had universal free healthcare -which I thought would include a new morph in the case of an accident. Not the fanciest one, sure.

>>50634167

A game set in a totalitarian setting. Real, magical, scifi, doesn't matter, needs to be... well, serious isn't the right word, let's say a little less extreme than 40k.
And the PCs should be feel this oppression.

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>>50633238
>a) don't really have need to work for a pretty good basic living, unless you're a synt evacuee

A lot of people are synth infugees or indentured though. Transhuman says it's a majority, but there must be a shitload of synths on Venus, Luna, and the martian outback as all the major martian cities are 50-60% biomorphs.

That said, you need to work a lot. Indentures get the brunt of it with tons of hours and few rights. It's not legal to treat indenture backups as forks to start their terms over, but that happens anyway.

If you're not an indenture you still need to work a lot. Professionals still have a 40 hour week or more, and terraforming workers can double that. Infomorphs can be stuck with 30 hour work "days". There's little social safety net, besides the cheapness of basic power, food, and medical care, so if someone is stuck in a rut of bad luck, they might be sold into indenture to pay off debts.

Social and political structures have been designed by the Immortal Oligarchs to keep themselves on top, so while most people might live comfortably, they are fairly politically disenfranchised, and there's a hard ceiling to the social mobility of most people. That said, someone who works hard and doesn't rock the boat too much can have a comfortable life.

It's very oppressive for the lower classes, such as indentures and people who are barely above that, but there's a thriving middle class as well.

It certainly isn't anywhere near peak oppression in Eclipse Phase, places like Alpha Plus which psychosurgically alter their citizens to be compliant and happy with their lot are much worse.

>>50634235
There is universal free healthcare, but that doesn't cover morph replacement. It's *really* hard to kill a morph in such a way it can't be revived though. It also won't cover stuff like Genetic Service Packs which most Martian morphs require to keep functioning long term.

>>50634235
>>I was under the impression that aside from synth evacuees you had universal free healthcare -which I thought would include a new morph in the case of an accident.

Depending on what implants you get in your body you don't need healthcare at all, you are simply immune from every disease.
But yeah, no one gives you free shit.

>>A game set in a totalitarian setting.
>>PCs should be feel this oppression

Man, read the Jovian Junta, it's like "Space North Korea", they don't like tech to be "free for all" to buy, the most fancy morphs are Flats or Splicers (Flat morphs are normal humans with all their flaws and Splicers are still humans with some implants and genetic modification). They have the biggest military fleet (i think?). And they purposely misinform their people to not let them know about new technologies.

>>50634235
>I was under the impression that aside from synth evacuees you had universal free healthcare -which I thought would include a new morph in the case of an accident.

Nope. Morphs are the most scarce and sought after good in the setting. If you want yours replaced after an accident you'd better have private insurance of some kind.

It sounds from what you're saying like you're confusing the Titanian Commonwealth with the Planetary Consorium

>>50634399

I thought even more basic needs were very cheap, basically. Need a new not-too-fancy suit? Not really a problem.

Oh well. Doesn't seem "regime" enough anyway, just too little welfare.

Not a diss on the game, of course.

(yeah, no JJ. It's a manual of 400+ page, I couldn't run it for a smaller "fringe" culture")

>>50634608
You're correct, clothing and many basic electronics and consumer items are cheap, I ran out of characters to cover everything.

I'd agree with your assessment that Eclipse Phase isn't ideal for a game set in an oppressive regime, there's a lot of ingredients which could be turned into one really easily, like state ownership of bodies, and omnipresent surveillance, but that isn't really the point of the game.

>>50634547
Part of the character of transitional economies is universal healthcare and access to the basics of survival. That covers Mars, Luna, and Venus, and their orbitals.

That doesn't cover replacements though.

>>50634722

Funny thing is that you could make the point that a society without anonimity may be even worse than a regime (well, a regime without too much economical unfairness). I mean, I don't think the PC would really give a fuck to what porn I watched, but the idea of a society where you go out for a walk and know what the individual next to you masturbate for in the last twenty years, in nice chronological tables, IS pretty chilling.
And I guess many people there make those datas public.

Anyway, nah. Maybe if I already run it for a while I'd consider it.

If the next theme would be "the future", sure.

>>50634722
>state ownership of bodies
>omnipresent surveillance

That's what the Titanian Commonwealth is for

What, you thought they were just giving out all those hazers for free?

>>50633583

Uh, I thought most of transhumanity was in splicers? And if most of transhumanity was in robots why are biomorphs the majority on, say, Mars?

Did the players guide really say that? I don't doubt it, the game loves contradicting itself.

>>50634146
No seriously, why are people assuming that cases or synths outnumber biomorphs in the inner system?

>>50637424

Well, they have fixed their own population numbers before - and we don't know who wrote that section, so an error would not be surprising.

But, not doing the math on my own, it's possible that very large pops of synths in the LLA over tip the balance back. Or not, it could just be wrong. I feel like in Sunward the numbers generally skew to like 10-20% synths, unless there's a lot of non-censused Martians in the outback in clankers.

>>50637489

Well, as pointed out in >>50637489 most of our data is only to large habs/cities. Pop chunks are sizable in them, and could be bigger in areas we don't get a breakdown for.

Or just somebody got that impression and then wrote it. I mean, they're called "Clanking Masses" you can forgive people the assumption

>>50637489
>>50637424
Transhuman, page 118

>There’s a reason the majority of transhumanity are clanking around in indentured synthmorphs: resleeving is prohibitively expensive.

>>50637642

Yeah, this is the section we're disputing. ARE the majority of transhumanity clanking around in indentured synthmorphs?

Olympus 35% Synth
Valles-New Shanghai 20% Synth
Noctis-Qianjao 15% Synth
Elyisum 10% Synth
Ashoka 5% Synth
Progress 30% Synth

All of these have larger percentages of Biomorphs, and are the only population breakdowns of this kind in the books as far as I find. Where does the idea of the overwhelming number of Synthmorph Indentures come from?

>>50586846
Watch Babylon 5. It's not post-scarcity, but it has some very good plotlines that revolve around humans being human. Force the PC's to make unpleasant choices between loyalties, have sessions dedicated to reclaiming trust lost in previous campaigns...relations with other posthumans are the hardest of all currencies.

>>50641167
>it's not post-scarcity
Neither is Eclipse Phase.

>>50642850

The scarcity problem is flurrier between the SOCIETY and the material reality.

The tecnology doesn't give a shit in the pre-scarcity peoples. Yes, in SPACE its necessary, but its not the fundamental for the definition.

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>>50643041
The fuck kind of language is that?

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>>50649433

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>>50571575
I decided to write some shotgun scenarios using material I had lying around

Here's one from earlier

1/3

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>>50651755
Here's one based on some setting fiction I posted a while back

2/3

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>>50651772
And another

3/3

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>>50608452

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Not to start a Jovian Republic/Junta argument, but I'm not the only one who thinks the Jovian Republic/Junta would be better if they were actually fascist or a stratocracy, instead of just being a corrupt republic, right?

>>50636548
Aren't elephants supposed to be extinct?

>>50654796
There is a decent amount of fascism though. No reason you can't have that in a republic.

>>50655665
Neo elephants are. Regular elephants go wherever the fuck they want, apparently.

>>50655721
>>50655665

While Shackle was primarily founded by a consortium of hypercorps, the Indian government and several large Indian corporations both had a large interest in the city’s construction. As a result, it remains the largest center for Indian culture on Luna. Slightly more than 40% of the inhabitants of Shackle consider themselves to be culturally and religiously Indian.
Unlike both Erato and New Nectar, Shackle is not built inside and around a single large cavern. Instead, most of it consists of a series of smaller caverns that are between 200 and 600 meters in diameter, connected by a series of large tunnels. At the end of one of these tunnels is a series of eight heavily guarded and monitored sealed caverns that form the Lunar ice reserves.

New Varanasi, also known as the city of temples, is the most striking portion of Shackle as well as the center for Indian culture. Using water taken from the polar ice deposits, New Varanasi is built alongside the banks of a series of large canals. The central canal is 500 meters wide and emulates a large Indian river, filled with fish, river dolphins, and an abundance of other animal life. In addition to the many temples, shops, and expensive dwellings along its banks, this canal also contains a series of large islands that are home to many birds and other small animals. The largest of these islands is half a kilometer across and two kilometers long, and is home to a small herd of Indian elephants. Attitudes towards synthmorphs in Shackle are better than in most of Luna, with those who dislike synthmorphs tending more towards condescension than active distrust.

Idea- stealthed skinlinked smartswarm with laser comms.

Laser comms are used only when minibots are disconnected, otherwise it's coordinated by skinlink. It support decently sized modularized gear. It can fit through any hole a bot single minibot can fit through. You could even avoid using the laser comms when sending minibots through a hole by setting low-level behavior to have them just go through and link up again.

It might be the ultimate infiltrator.

Am I reading this right? Heavy combat armor stacks with the morph's base armor. Reapers have no listed armor augmentation so that listed 16/16 is all base armor that would stack to 32/32 with a heavy combat armor augmentation. Then add ablative patches to get to 36/34

Dreadnoughts have 37/37

>>50661007
Yup, that's right. Inherent synth armor and armor augmentation stack. Limit is the morph's durability, I think.

Only thing you can't do is dress up additional armor suit on top of that. That only works as long as you stick to the built-in synth armor.

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246KB, 600x800px

>>50663465

>>50591600

i can see where the cunts from mass effect got thier inspiration from

>>50612904
Social Stigma is a thing.

Also, if they are exhuman combat wombats designed to rampage and destroy, you should be putting them into situations that call for exhuman combat wombats designed to rampage and destroy. Say they end up as the third Firewall team on site, and the first two ended up executed as the situation went from bad to worse.

>>50624181
>>50625215
>>50629173
The setting is post scarcity wank fiction.

Read the threads on their forums about Anarchism, and you'll see one of the writers said they more or less created it as such.

Not to mention how special snow flake and "It all just works!" the write-up of the anarchists are in the books.

>>50669565
This probably isn't a super common opinion here, but I kind of like that aspect of the setting. There's already tons of Cold-War-In-Space capitalist wank sci-fi to choose from so the change of pace is kind of refreshing. It's definitely not a politically neutral setting, but most aren't and it's somewhat less common ground.

>>50669565
>The setting is post scarcity wank fiction.
Post-scarcity wank fiction written by insufferable SJWs, at that. Anyone else remember them going off at MRAs on their forum, before banning everyone who disagreed with them politically and telling them to "fire themselves as fans"?

>>50670339
It's fine to like that, I'm not saying I have a problem with the work being idealogical, but it clearly is.

>already tons of Cold-War-In-Space capitalist wank sci-fi to choose from

I'm drawing a blank here, the only explicitly capitalist sci-fi work I can think of is 'The Culture' which is more An-Cap than cold warrior
capitalism.

What then, Star Wars? The creator said the Empire represented America.

Even in a setting where you find latent levels of capitalism, I've never seen one that goes out of its way to say how good of a system it is.

I have no problem with a work being ideological, but in Eclipse Phase it's almost to the point of creating a setting as special pleading for why your ideology will totally work™

>>50670458
To correct myself, both lead writers and founders of the studio are anarchists.

>>50670458
>Post-scarcity wank fiction written by insufferable SJWs, at that. Anyone else remember them going off at MRAs on their forum, before banning everyone who disagreed with them politically and telling them to "fire themselves as fans"?
Seriously?

>>50671523
>I'm drawing a blank here, the only explicitly capitalist sci-fi work I can think of is 'The Culture' which is more An-Cap than cold warrior capitalism.
You the majority of time I see pure capitalism in Scifi its almost always portrayed negatively.

>>50671523
>the only explicitly capitalist sci-fi work I can think of is 'The Culture'
Are you fucking high? That's a shining example of post-scarcity

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>>50671732
Oh sorry, I had it in my head the author was an An-Cap, apologies, yeah, it's post scarcity/direct democracy

Anarchist fiction is always so cringeworthy to me.

"For example, anarcha-feminists point out how egos in male morphs find it easier to adopt leadership roles and tend to be extended more privileges—in a subtle, but measurable way—than egos in female morphs"

or

"All Queer opposes assimilation and instead promotes the idea that all of transhuman society needs to be—and is well on its way towards being—thoroughly genderfucked"

Compare that to this shitty ancap comic

>>50671523
Literally everything sci-fi that Baen publishes for a start. There's a lot of semi-transhuman evil socialists in other places as well.

>>50672082
Wait, that's not an edit?

>>50672376
Afraid not.

>>50672082
>"For example, anarcha-feminists point out how egos in male morphs find it easier to adopt leadership roles and tend to be extended more privileges—in a subtle, but measurable way—than egos in female morphs"
>or
>"All Queer opposes assimilation and instead promotes the idea that all of transhuman society needs to be—and is well on its way towards being—thoroughly genderfucked"

Are those actual quotes?

I'm starting to regret starting to read the books.

>>50671701
Seriously.

>Here's our stance: If you self-define as an MRA, please fire yourself as an Eclipse Phase fan. We don't want you.

http://eclipsephase.com/regarding-mras

>>50672811

You know this a game which also includes subfactions and clades who, y'know, trade in egos for slavery or forcibly merge themselves with them - several flavors of dictatorship including benevolent ones, some other real 1984 shit and a hab with recreation of a "ambisexual" rotating gender system from an Ursula K. Le Guin novel, right?

This is on top of the values of many major factions.

Anyone else sees the Jovians being all buddy-buddy with the Minerva Fleet?

I mean, those guys are almost Battlestar Galatica, with the rest of transhumanity as the Vorlons.

>>50673108
Cylons, excuse me. Always mix them up, too similar names.

>>50672971
>>50671701

Yes certainly two years ago I suddenly got the distinct impression that everywhere other than here regards anyone choosing to identify as an MRA as something like saying you're in the KKK - which I never really understood other than perhaps some general asshattery, which has since mostly disappeared as we have other things to yell about. Probably because other than to hear people dredge it up in /epg/ I don't think I've heard anybody use that term in like 2 years.

Do we want to keep playing the 2014 internet politics cards, or do you have a more relevant song and dance tonight?

>>50672763
Fuck me that's bad. Is it even possible to be an ancap without being either 12 or massively delusional?

>>50673130
>>50673108

I'm pretty sure the Minervan Fleet also dislikes the Jovians and the Jovians Minerva on the account that they both act like the militant last bastions of humanity.

Also didn't Minerva defect or hijack assets from Jove?

>>50673151

I mean, if you don't go prattling on about statist zombies, shouting about JOHN GALT or assuming that you could make a "libertarian paradise" overnight by having the government disappear you're probably as reasonable as anyone else's political stance.

>>50673156
AFAIK they split off even before the Republic started calling itself as such.

But yeah, the Joves hate them for defection and treason. And out of the two the Joves are more reasonable.

>>50673108
Huh, that can be a pretty cool way to introduce people into the game. Advance time a dozen years, lure them in with Battlestar Galactica comparisons, have them start as indoctrinated SIS operatives, and just watch what happens when they find out that The Enemy are humans, and what wonders of tech they have. Maybe give some options - progressing through Minerva ranks, infiltrating the transhumanity, defecting and rebelling, and so on.

And then start a regular campaign under the guise of "now you get tonplay as not!Cylons!".

>>50673370
It'd be a fun scenario, but I'm not sure I'd ever use that as a way of introducing people to the game.

>>50673151
Yes, you can just be an asshole

>>50669565
>Not to mention how special snow flake and "It all just works!" the write-up of the anarchists are in the books.
I guess you've never read the book on Firewall, then. Anarchists are explicitly said to be the most vulnerable factions to Exsurgent infection.

But sure, focus on the fact that a game written in first-person narrative from the PoV of anarchists has positive things to say about anarchists. Then afterwards, you can go bitch on the Shadowrun threads about how anti-corporate that game is. And then the Warhammer threads about their pro-dystopian agenda....