/epg/ - Eclipse Phase General

>>51797064
Okay /epg/, you and five other randos have set out to colonize the outer system after successfully staking a claim on Chariclo (because you got there first) in AF 5.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10199_Chariklo

Who are you, what do you believe in and why are you in the middle of fucking nowhere?

>>51797541

>10199 Chariklo

Heh, that's funny you picked that one. I did a writeup for a new age-esque Singularity Seeker cult who formed a base on that object.

>>51797064
I didn't ask this properly in the last thread, but how common does egocasting-into-missions tend to be in most peoples' campaigns? Is it really worthwhile to upgrade your starting morph if there's a heavy chance that you won't be using it when you need it?

>>51797659

I've personally used and seen it used a lot as like, an act or chapter change - it seems inefficient to rapidly leap in Egocasting and then just leap back out again in terms of storytelling. Like if you were on Mars for like 5 minutes before figuring out a lead or whatever went elsewhere, couldn't Firewall figure that out for you and skip a step?

Generally, while focusing too strongly in your morph isn't "optimal", it doesn't always have to be about that, and personally I let players refund a lot of their equipment (including morphs) for a decent chunk of the price. If they make sound cash investments or have solid rep they can usually get another decent morph on the other side.

>>51797064

im anarch enough if i post drunk?

btw how would you go/roleplay characters on hardcore multipsyche psychedelics/uppers/downers etc, for the liberal twist EP have not much there in drugs 'if i want to destroy my life' kind of way. Im pretty sure most of anarch or at least Ulitimates would go full retard on Chems/Psychs.

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For a new player what's a quick and easy way to learn the system? How about for GM's as well?

>>51798490
>For a new player what's a quick and easy way to learn the system?

Find a GM who's willing to be patient with you

Unfortunately Eclipse Phase games are nonexistent here

>>51798682
It's just that looking over the core rulebook it's kind of a clusterfuck of things, so I am trying to find something that doesn't take ages to pour over.

>>51798781
There's Transhuman, if you don't mind reading another book to explain the first book

Besides that your options are the other systems Eclipse Phase has been converted to.

GURPS Eclipse Phase requires you to have mastered Eclipse Phase, GURPS, and for some reason, Delta Green
Eclipse Shoe is unfinished and doesn't contain setting information, so you'll still have to read the Eclipse Phase books
Eclipse FATE is finished but doesn't contain setting information, so you'll still have to read the Eclipse Phase books

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What's generally recommended to choose for character creation? It seems pretty expansive, don't know where to start. Like what's a good way to make a decent character that can actually function?

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>>51799215
you want a rating of at least 60 in any skill you expect to roll a lot, plus a (specialization) in whatever you're going to be doing with that skill, such as your preferred weapon. take knowledge skills that will grant bonuses to your existing skills under the complimentary skill mechanics.

ignore melee. melee weapons do less damage, get fewer attacks, and are half as likely to hit as guns. even if you don't want to make a really min-maxed character you will be frustrated by how useless it is.

take lots of moxie, especially if you expect to get in a lot of fights. learn how to use it.

get at least 2 speed if you ever want to be useful in a fight, preferably more if you expect to fight a lot. you also need speed if you want to be a hacker, but combat hacking is basically a waste of time (with every speed bosting augmentation in the game it still takes longer than most fights last)

buy the survival belt from the gatecrashing book.

learn which armor types stack. stack them.

people will tell you "don't spend too much on your morph and gear" but it really depends on who's running the game. if the GM assumes your character begins the campaign in the appropriate location in your starting morph it isn't a problem until you die. even then unless it's a party wipe your morph can be gholaed back to life in a day or two. egocasting means you can use whatever body you're in to pay for a new one

if you want to be a psychic the level 1 sleights are where it's at, especially the passive ones. level 2 is a waste of points outside a few niche options.

clarify with your GM how the information gathering skills will be used in your game. research, investigation, scrounging, perception and networking can all have substantial overlap, and depending on how the GM feels any one of them can end up being a crucial skill that every character will need some of.

more coming when I think of it

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>>51799324
take hollow point bullets for any firearms you use. the damage buff is numerically greater than the penalty to armor penetration.

the torch sucks. it gets fewer shots per turn and does less damage than a sprayer loaded with liquid thermite.

nanofabrication is mechanically a lot worse than the fluff makes it out to be. even with the right blueprints and the correct machines it still takes forever and should never be relied upon to generate a full set of gear, like after an egocast.

you want at least 20 WIL, which puts you at a 60 percent chance of passing all but the worst SAN tests

SOM is important for any character who might get in a fight since it governs your saving throws against falling down and passing out if you take wounds

REF and INT are good for boosting up your Initiative and not much else, it's better to get more initiative through augmentations or psychic powers

The only primary statistic worth raising to get more skill points is COG, for everything else it's cheaper to just raise the skills directly

Is the online character any good?

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>>51799732
/epg/ has loads of online characters, but most of them are just memes

>>51799423
>>51799324
What are some useful skills for say a engineer type character? Like I'll be dealing with electronics, hardware, computers, all that jazz?

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>>51800027
Unfortunately Hardware is a bit of a point-sink, since it's a field skill with individual sub-specializations like Industrial, Electronics and Robotics

Using computers means loading up on Infosec, Research, Interfacing and Programming. The last will come in handy if you want to use nanoswarms or nanofabricators of any kind.

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>>51800158
Okay good to know. Would you happen to know anything about synthmorphs? Like what are some good options? Say want to be a big ol robo like Loader Bot from Borderlands

>>51800245
Be a Daitya

>>51800278
Nautiloids are bigger, and better for vore enthusiasts

What would you take gatecrashing?

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>>51801828
Would this fit in the budget?

>>51802482
That would not fit through a gate.

>>51799960
What are these character questionnaires?

>>51799423

INT is the basis for most of the percept-y skills and Languages and Art. Your GM may also call for INT x3 to get an idea. Depending on what sort of character you do it might be very useful

REF is literally only good for init, dodging and pilots.

>>51802657
Questionnaires that you fill out in-character to help define the character in relation to the setting.

>>51802939
>INT is the basis for most of the percept-y skills and Languages and Art.

You need 10 or more different INT linked skills on your character sheet in order to make a 5 point investment in INT cheaper than just buying the skills individually.

>>51804025
INT also bumps your initiative up

It should be noted, I don't think a person has ever seriously advocated actually spending CP increase an aptitude. It's very costly for what can be little gain - and almost always you can get way more out of say, just dumping those points into Rep or Credit and getting mods/bodies/gear with that. I'm pretty sure the only time you'll get such a bump is via the PP system or on Lifepath.

Starting aptitude selection should almost always be a combination of your morph, and rebalancing from an averaged 15 in everything to start.

>>51804788
Exsurgent Virus Infection resistance is COG+INT+SAV so boosting one of those can be acceptable, though more frequently morph selection gets you at least one of those.

Really COG is the one most worth boosting, as it's not that hard to have 10+ COG skills.

So do people never default on skills?

>>51805701
No. Every time I've played or GMed Eclipse Phase, when someone is told that a course of action will require a skill they don't have, they backtrack and pick a different strategy rather than defaulting

Even if people did default on skills, an extra 5 percent chance at something you're probably going to fail anyway isn't worth 50 CP.

The main use of aptitudes is for *3 tests, like SOM*3 to avoid knockdown and unconsciousness, or WIL*3 to avoid sanity damage

>>51805701
Why do you ask? Are you thinking of using higher base stats and defaulting more?

The problem is that you get 10x more for that specific thing out of buy skills over raw stats, and it's also much cheaper to get stat bonuses through gear than at character creation.

Stats are just too expensive to really be worth upgrading.

>>51805746
>Even if people did default on skills, an extra 5 percent chance at something you're probably going to fail anyway isn't worth 50 CP.
Yeah. That was the premise of saying that. The fact that attributes have non-skill in-game effects and that you'll probably want at least a few skills that use a given attribute were never in consideration.

>>51805701

I have adventurous players who will occasionally do it - but almost always they put a few points in a core skill like say, Perception even if they aren't a perceptive person. Mostly it's like >>51805746 said they just go "Oh, so maybe the guy who's good at this should do it" or something else.

Core aptitudes let you spend a few less points on skills, and give you good derived stats/stat rolls, defaulting is for emergencies only - like the only weapon lying around is a gun and you really want to fucking not die right now - and even then weapons are just full of fucking secondary bonuses.

Jovians are sleeping.

Post synthetic girls and anarchist memes.

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>>51807880

>>51807880
>tfw you download a car

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>>51807880

>>51807938
I always thought Heinlein was an interesting author.

His political allegiance and ideology was basically "whatever the lady I'm fucking believes in" at various points in his career.

>>51807990
What makes you think he didn't just find ladies to fuck who matched whatever political ideology he was leaning towards?

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>>51807880

>>51808118
I did find her online though

>>51808131
Hot baseline singles near you in <<JUPITER NETWORK QA INTERRUPT, NODE 447>>!

>>51807938
>seed AI tricks moon dwellers into rebelling against earth so he can own the moon as his personal fiefdom
>lelbertarians and anarkiddos unironically believe this is a story about freedom

Mike was literally pretending to be retarded

>>51808514
The rebellion was already happening when Mike showed up, and Mike essentially dies in service to the rebellion.

>>51808662
>The rebellion was already happening when Mike showed up

The rebellion was already happening when Mike told the protagonist he was 'awake'. He'd been plugged into the moon's computer network since long before that.

>Mike essentially dies in service to the rebellion

No, he just stops talking to the protagonist. Never do we see any evidence that he's actually dead.

>>51810295
Is there any evidence that the computer incited this rebellion?

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>>51811513
>>51809373
>tfw no robo gf

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How does your character get dates, /epg/? Dating networks? Matching apps? Nosy friends?

Or do they just sit at a bar and match eyes like a dinosaur?

>>51812675
>dating
>In 22XX

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>>51812675
>AF 10
>dating
>not hiring a robohooker to vacuum suck your dick

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>>51812675
>Be AI
>Stupid meatbags having to date to feel "fulfilled"
THE METAL IS SUPERIOR

>>51812675
The character I played the most was an emergent AGI from a network of expert systems, including muses and the AI assistant to an air warfare controller.

I can't imagine them dating humans, but they'd probably use AITinder to get in autistic super technical conversations with other AGI, and maybe mix codebases a little.

My most recent character used rep networks extensively, and I bet those include a lot of dating services. Muses probably do a lot of background matchmaking for their respective transhumans.

>>51813300
Hiring a hooker to fuck you is like hiring someone to hang out with you.

>>51811918
At least you're only interested in human girl robots.