Most emotions are the results of hormones and I am realising that a lot of low end cyberbrains probably don't really do a lot of those
#Eclipse Phase
grizzled rapids
theyve got a simulated emotional state but it also might be...blunted yeah
at least on the low end
abstract bloom
The indent case cyberbrain FLOODING you with simulated dopamine when you meet quota
grizzled rapids
oh yeah thats absolutely a thing
abstract bloom
Oh thats awwwwwwful
grizzled rapids
heck
abstract bloom
Oh my god
grizzled rapids
you could make more expensive morphs "cheaper" if theyre like, company morphs that have enhanced behaviors for company loyalty
theres even some drugs that increase productivity
abstract bloom
A lot of case cyberbrains probably dont even react to certain stimuli or give certain emotions
grizzled rapids
abstract bloom
Sexual arousal is probably not simulated by cheap corpo cyberbrains (which is probably for the best), and it probably prevents you from getting depressed (if it stops you from working!)
Togzhi is definitely simulated when working though
abstract bloom
Transhuman capitalism is so fucking evil
grizzled rapids
yup!
abstract bloom
Giving a forced euphoric high after making us money!!!!!
I said this before but EP made me less fond of transhumanism
I think I am with the jovians on this one
grizzled rapids
hAH
its uh
complicated
but the world of EP is existentially terrifying yeah
Malignance is me on purpose making that existential terror worse
for the bit
abstract bloom
The technologies do have benefits! But their drawbacks outweigh those significantly
earnest wave
It’s accelerated but not quick
abstract bloom
Ye
earnest wave
I said this before but EP made me less fond of transhumanism
EP is good about having the traffic jams
grizzled rapids
...you know what
fuck you
im adding a highway to your martian city
abstract bloom
NOOOOO
The only good thing is that this place is walkable
Thief: She/Her Female, Digimorph and Critter
Fixer: He/They Male, Splicer
Async: She/They Female, Futura (No Stack)
Barsoomian: They/Them Non Binary, TITAN Buster Fury
Uplift: He/Him Male, Neo-Corvid
Student: He/Him Male, Exalt
Coworker: He/Him Male, Case
NPC genders and morphs
abstract bloom
Might give the fixer a synthmorph that isn't corpo case
Not enough rep there
Actually I kinda like the idea of little case robot PC interacting with all these biomorph people
grizzled rapids
like not a case, just a good quality robot body that feels nice
abstract bloom
Making the barsoomian androgynous and buff and then finding a good picture to use as a reference is going to be hell
But I'll make it work
grizzled rapids
i believe in you
earnest wave
Actually I kinda like the idea of little case robot PC interacting with all thes...
This is also interesting from a texture perspective cause synths generally have relatively low pools and some benefits instead of the better pools biomorphs
earnest wave
In 2e anyway
abstract bloom
Yeah in 2e I've noticed synths have worse pools but more ware and vice versa for bio
grizzled rapids
useful for me to know i suppose
since im gonna be back on my morph design bullshit
grizzled rapids
hahahaha
abstract bloom
EP is a setting for people like me: Yea, I do care how the primary conceit effects the economy and politics!!!!!!!
abstract bloom
My main thing is that the x threats and gatecrashing and and firewall doesn't particularly interest me
Which is unfortunate because 2e seems to prioritise those pretty heavily
grizzled rapids
understandable
i am not quite as interested either in the spooky mission focused gameplay and yet here i am, writing mission focused gameplay
abstract bloom
Imo I think it has such a cool world and the main focus imo doesn't explore it particularly indepth
Literally like half the book talks about culture and politics and economics and outside of mentions I can't imagine a firewall campaign getting into the nitty gritty of any of it
grizzled rapids
well
generally in a firewall game
youre gonna be delving into the underbelly of that stuff
infiltrating hypercorp meetings, dancing through high society, or getting into the nitty gritty of criminal gangs and shit
abstract bloom
Yeah I think my issue is that it's usually as outside observers with no stake in any of it other than the mission
grizzled rapids
cus the x-risks firewall agents deal with can pop up literally anywhere
mhm mhm
that is fair
i am making things worse on purpose as far as a campaign structure goes
grizzled rapids
you are doing everything firewall does but evil and horrible and bad
abstract bloom
Indent on mars circa AF9
grizzled rapids
yeah lmao
grizzled rapids
you are doing everything firewall does but evil and horrible and bad
lemme pull up the full mission list ive got
Build - create something. A building, a technology, an organization, a logistical structure. It’s unclear what, even the instinct is vague. Part of the mission is usually figuring out what you’re even supposed to actually make in the first place.
Eliminate - you have an instinct to eliminate a certain type of person in an unclear quantity. This can be a criteria(the weakest, the strongest, the richest, the biological, etc) or it can be a specific assassination of someone and all their backups. You usually have a ballpark guess of how many you need to kill.
Guard - you must guard something, someone, or some project. You usually have an instinctual knowledge of what you need to protect, but unclear knowledge of what to protect it from. Sometimes it’s an exsurgent agent, exsurgent population, or project, but other times it may be a Jovian citizen, a titanian scientist, a consortium indent, or anyone really. Sometimes this even includes protecting grand corporate projects.
Ideal - there is some idea you must push forth. You have an instinctual understanding of the ideal or meme, and an instinctual desire to get as many people to know about it as possible. There is a pressure in the mind that lessens the closer you get to your target amount of people. Sometimes you are encouraged to target a demographic, though not always.
Infect - you have a pressure in your mind to infect a target number of people with the exsurgent virus. You don’t know the specific number, but the pressure decreases as you reach your goal. Sometimes you are to target a demographic, or use a particular strain or method. Other times it’s indiscriminate.
Reform - do not destroy, eliminate, or even infect the target individual, institution, or location... but shepherd and guide it towards an unknown state of being. The more the target aligns with the goal, the less the current nature of the target will horrify and repulse you.
Inhibit - There are things which are incorrectly aligned, misaligned, or work against the needs of that which calls to you. Uncover and explore another infected enclave, individual, or infrastructure - if it cannot be realigned, it must be eradicated and purified of the infection. Typically these may be asyncs infected with a Watts-MacLeod strain, but it can also be exsurgents who have strayed from the path, or uninfected TITAN forces.
Martyr - all things are subject to destruction and regrowth. You know that there are things you must do, attention you must draw to yourself and your nature... so that this iteration of you, and what you have done, can cause a response. Whether or not your destruction is permanent is unknown, but your goal is one of causing a stir.
Undetected - The time has come for you to rest, to hibernate, and to let the world pass you by. No matter how intensely you are hunted, how certain you are that you will be discovered... you must disappear amongst their ranks. You will know when you have waited long enough. Typically this mission appears after you have already completed one or two other missions.
Recruit - A particularly rare directive, this creates a desire to not only infect someone with your malignant strain, but to also brief them on their new life. In some cases, they will even become subsumed into your cluster(though this is only if your group’s Malignance decides it, it cannot be controlled by the players). The directive typically gives criteria (eg: someone strong, someone smart, someone rich, someone cunning, etc), and in rare cases even creates a strong desire to recruit a specific person. It is almost unheard of to not have criteria for a recruitment target, but not impossible
This is awesome actually
grizzled rapids
oh?
abstract bloom
This is gonna sound strange but I have like
Barotrauma traitor or SS13 antagonist energy
Radiating from these
earnest wave
Which is unfortunate because 2e seems to prioritise those pretty heavily
There is a big crime book coming out… eventually
grizzled rapids
genuinely a little bit of that might be leaking through
abstract bloom
I feel like these are things that need another force actively working against them (and there is)
grizzled rapids
yeah
exactly!
from Firewall to OZMA
even the factors
or non infected TITANs
this is playing the fucking villains of the setting
everyone else is united against you
youre like, the one thing that can get capitalists and anarchists to agree with eachother
some of these objectives are really funny but also kinda cool to imagine missions about
cus one of them is just doing propaganda for a thing you dont even understand
Ideal - there is some idea you must push forth. You have an instinctual understanding of the ideal or meme, and an instinctual desire to get as many people to know about it as possible. There is a pressure in the mind that lessens the closer you get to your target amount of people. Sometimes you are encouraged to target a demographic, though not always.
abstract bloom
It's so good
grizzled rapids
Guard - you must guard something, someone, or some project. You usually have an instinctual knowledge of what you need to protect, but unclear knowledge of what to protect it from. Sometimes it’s an exsurgent agent, exsurgent population, or project, but other times it may be a Jovian citizen, a titanian scientist, a consortium indent, or anyone really. Sometimes this even includes protecting grand corporate projects.
one of my favorite ideas of this is like
being told to guard a firewall agent
its SO funny
abstract bloom
I like the idea of going to the players "push any idea you want" and then having to piece together some sort of ideology out of everyone's disparate parts
grizzled rapids
imagine being a firewall agent and the fucking crack team of horrible body horror monsters for some inexplicable reason has decided you need to live
grizzled rapids
I like the idea of going to the players "push any idea you want" and then having...
YEAH
and then finding a way to push that ideology is the next step
actually getting that meme into the world
abstract bloom
Yesss
grizzled rapids
pulling strings to get people to hear it, or subliminally mind controlling celebrities into repeating it
etc etc
abstract bloom
This has me thinking of an antagonist for my game now
grizzled rapids
im super glad
abstract bloom
Maybe I don't have one...
grizzled rapids
malignants are good for crafting villains, conceptually
grizzled rapids
oh just from the like, angle of actually having a list of exsurgent motivations rather than just...having them be freaks in quarantine zones
abstract bloom
Yeeee
Ok I need to head out
Brain full of EP but I have work tomorrow and I was meant to sleep like 3 hours ago
grizzled rapids
go to beddddddddddd
abstract bloom
Thank you for hitting me with the inspiration stick I am giddy to run this campaign
abstract bloom
Goodnight!
abstract bloom
Had an idea for another NPC for this game
Neo noir detective investigating a murder
Big trenchcoat, maybe in a synthmorph
Oh they should totally be an AGI
abstract bloom
Just imagined a hypercorp with a majority case workforce that gives out daily dopamine alotments for work completed
Cashing in dopamine alotments so I can drop them all during my weekend
I am imaging that people who have been in cases for a long time who finally get into a pod or biomorph would go through so many emotions
abstract bloom
Basing the vibe of the barsoomian titan buster on ak15 from gfl.
heady crypt
So true
grizzled rapids
I am imaging that people who have been in cases for a long time who finally get ...
Oh man that would be adorable
abstract bloom
RIGHT?
grizzled rapids
YEAH
abstract bloom
feel like there should be some sort of dulled emotions negative morph trait
or maybe that's an ego trait
oh there's restricted behaviour
earnest wave
I am imaging that people who have been in cases for a long time who finally get ...
There’s actually a negative trait for this
abstract bloom
oh?
earnest wave
I think there’s a more generic version in 2e but I can’t remember where
grizzled rapids
Unfortunately not that I can see
Though you can probably package that in during a resleeve roll and add some funny disadvantages to early integration if they ever sleeve into a pod or biomorph
abstract bloom
think we'd just make it a narrative thing
grizzled rapids
True and fair
grand crescent
I think there’s a more generic version in 2e but I can’t remember where
The sentence at the end is an example of the type of thing that caused a bunch of game systems to switch to giving bennies when a flaw is relevant instead of character creation points
earnest wave
Yeah haha
grizzled rapids
Yeah
Though one of my ep players consistently buys expensive morphs and then places the most unhinged enhanced behaviors on them to make them affordable
heady crypt
Fluffy is out there slotted in mechas working on fey rules
abstract bloom
dwarf fortress fey moods
grizzled rapids
Paimon - Paimon, in occultism, is a king of hell, a spirit of the ars goetia, and notably more loyal to Lucifer than any other king. It is what some malignants use to refer to a specific Creeper Swarm inhabiting the Martian TQZ. To Transhuman senses it is a floating mass of dark bubbles, hazy from light diffraction, near invisible without powerful sensors, roaming a network of ancient lava tunnels. With mesh inserts activated, the hazy swarm instead appears as a mass of soft wings and eyes, blinking in and out of reality. Transhumans can clearly see the illusion as false, and it’s a simple matter of shutting off one’s mesh inserts to make the AR illusion go away.
To a Malignant’s senses, this illusion does not disappear. Indeed, Paimon always appears as a mass of wings and eyes, fluttering around and gently caressing their skin, staring into their souls.
Paimon’s goals are unknown. It has spoken, according to Malignants, only twice. Once at the ‘end’ of the fall, and once at the start of the Malignance’s appearance.
Some Malignants, those with a deeper understanding of the infections origins at least, theorize that Paimon is not actually a TITAN creation or former transhuman ego, but instead an alien intelligence sent to mars long before the TITANs were even built.
Other Malignants theorize that the personality called Paimon only appeared after the TITANs left, the TITANs uploading a fetch to the creeper swarm that has evolved unchecked.
Creeper swarms have always struck me as the most dangerous exsurgents since they’re nigh immortal and may not even obey the Titans.
When you’re a self replicating swarm of Femtobots the idea that you’re even a thing that can be killed and not a reality warping god becomes…less and less reasonable.
Exsurgent npcsss are fun
abstract bloom
I've been tryna gauge what fashion is like in EP
grizzled rapids
A good question
Trends probably change quickly but smart clothes can shift quickly so.
Hm
Honestly the various pieces of art probably says a lot about fashion
abstract bloom
a lot of the art is work stuff and practical clothing
which very much might be the trends at the time
a lot of the art is honestly fairly modern fashion trends
or earlier
safe stream
Am I misremembering that there was something in Eclipse Phase, at least once upon a time, about how quoting things was considered pretty shallow?
Haha! Found it. Still in there.
Such a silly part. I remember this almost scared me off as a young player trying to figure out how to rp the culture of Eclipse Phase.
abstract bloom
Haha! Found it. Still in there.
where is it?
safe stream
Its in the social culture section.
Access to such a vast amount of easily available information has resulted in a variety of cultural responses. Being able to quote from any vid, old movie, book, or historical speech is now trivially easy and can be done with a few seconds of thought. While children and young teens often play by interjecting large amounts of semi-appropriate famous quotes in their speech, most adults only do so for emphasis and in moderation. People who quote from other sources too often are considered dull and unimaginative. Recognizing such quotes is quite easy, since someone can simply set their muse to alert them to the nature and identity of all lengthy quotes they hear.
abstract bloom
lmfaoooo
yeah it's
to be fair I think that is meant to be an indicator that as a GM you can have player's muse's clue them into things like that
safe stream
Absolutely! But I remember the fear I had at the idea I had to never reference anything historical, cultural, or political from my own knowledge as a player.
Thankfully that was not how it was played in actuality.
abstract bloom
yeah
man I'd love to play EP sometime
THINKING of the NPCs I'm going to be running for this game and I might split infomorph/critter thief into two characters
grizzled rapids
Oooo fun
earnest wave
I've been tryna gauge what fashion is like in EP
Based on TftF it’s crazy out there
Just do whatever you want
queen harness
do everything, do nothing, do anything in between
grizzled rapids
two entirely different...i wanna say civilian fashions???
so yeah
lots of options
abstract bloom
Based on TftF it’s crazy out there
TftF?
earnest wave
My misremembered name of the After the Fall short story collection
abstract bloom
ahhhhh
abstract bloom
I've been seeing a lot of people struggle with EP being post scarcity
Since I do agree it limits personal motivations and conflicts common to most people to do ttrpg style adventures
And I think I also struggle with it: which is why I want to run games set in places that aren't post scarcity and why old economy places exist
bleak ingot
I think something EP tries to communicate is that in many places it's post-scarcity, but also it isn't post-scarcity at all. The things people consider scarce and are willing to take action for are different, but the underlying behaviors are pretty similar.
earnest wave
Yeah one of EP’s central tensions in the solar system is the body shortage
But equally there’s pretty much no one starving
Cause the scarcities are things like bodies and living space not food or consumer goods
heady crypt
Everybody is in scarcity of ensurance of their own survival
grizzled rapids
Cause the scarcities are things like bodies and living space not food or consume...
Yeah
bleak ingot
There's also new scarcities in a hierarchy of needs sense.
The whole economy of reputation, favors, and experiences is still very much an economy.
abstract bloom
I definitely think there's scarcity in places like mars just because of how market economies work
It might not be as bad as irl but the fact that money has value at all reads to me that there is scarcity
bleak ingot
Yeah, I think Mars is written as it is to have a bit more of a wild west subsetting.
grizzled rapids
Wild West between the big cities
Somewhat accurate since the original Martian colonies are being…well, paved over and demolished by Martian terraforming
bleak ingot
I'm trying to remember, is Venus the one that tends towards hypercapitalism hell?
earnest wave
They’re a small breakaway state from the PC who are basically “reformed mars” with a lot of weird Venusian sentimentality
grizzled rapids
Extropia might be what you’re thinking of since it’s ultra libertarian
earnest wave
They’re only really relevant cause they wound up in control of a Gate imo
earnest wave
I guess controlling a planet is kind of big but the population is tiny
bleak ingot
I just have a thing about Venusian cloud cities and I was momentarily sad because I think I remembered Extropia as being all of Venus.
earnest wave
People have described Venus as Champaign socialism but that never made sense to me
Since they’re also hypercapitalist just in a vaguely more fair way to steal talent and such from the wider PC
grizzled rapids
I just have a *thing* about Venusian cloud cities and I was momentarily sad beca...
Extropia is in an asteroid in the belt
And I hate them
I hate everyone from the eclipse phase server who said they were based because they ARENT
THEYRE JUST ANCAPS
bleak ingot
Oh okay
grizzled rapids
THEYRE NOT ANARCHISTS THEYRE WORSE THE PLANETARY CONSORTIUM THEYRE DSKDHSKZHU
(Imagine me dying on the ground)
bleak ingot
I have a vague recollection of reading about a Venusian community of extreme libertarians.
grizzled rapids
(Frothing in my own rage)
It’s possible they have some libertarian ideology I wouldn’t know cus I forgot their section
But Extropia is like
The mega libertarian zone
bleak ingot
I will instead imagine you sprouting giant green plasma wings and growing to be 14 feet tall.
earnest wave
They’re extremely based in the original sense
grizzled rapids
Hahahhaha
grand crescent
Belated, but EP really demonstrates that "post scarcity" is a sliding scale. A lot of stuff is non-scarce, but some things are (morphs, certain rare materials) and then it emphasizes certain things that are independent of scarcity (namely reputation, though not positional stuff interestingly).
And I guess stuff isn't post-scarcity on a nation-state level
earnest wave
Yeah an Actual Post Scarcity Economy probably needs like an upload civilization or something?
grand crescent
I think you need to draw boundaries over what you mean to make the term coherent
earnest wave
It’s not real post scarcity until real estate is post scarcity
grand crescent
This sounds like an EP faction in some random hab
grand crescent
TITANS figured out the only way to defeat nimbyism
earnest wave
This sounds like an EP faction in some random hab
iZulu kinda iirc
grand crescent
What's their synopsis?
earnest wave
earnest wave
Yeah
grand crescent
Compute is interesting in the EP universe because there is unimaginably more than exists today but it's still a bit scarce once you start using space for a bunch of infomorphs
grizzled rapids
Plus they don’t want you doing computational acceleration
But yeah it’s like
Super abundant
There’s spare computing power in like, everything
abstract bloom
I'm trying to remember, is Venus the one that tends towards hypercapitalism hell...
mars is hypercapitalism as well
grizzled rapids
Most of the inner system is primarily capitalist yeah
Thinking of letting you optionally put your own infection inside of drug glands or poisonous claws etc etc.
Uses your own infection rating.
It’s just incredibly amusing to me how scary malignants are from a firewall pov cus you are contagious and also smart
Honestly the main issue is trying to get past exsurgent virus screenings
Cus every hab in the system is scanning for that shit and trying to keep their systems up to date
It’s an interesting puzzle and I don’t know if I should provide a solution or not
bleak ingot
Youtube vs. uBlock Origin
heady crypt
I mean a constant issue in base EP is that nobody can actually keep up their screenibg systems with the evolution of the virus
Especially not a new, weird strain like the Malignant ought to be
grizzled rapids
Yeah
Though also
The way the virus disguises itself
Is functionally rolling it’s infection rating against the detection system
High infection rating meaning it’s very advanced and intelligent
The malignance is new certainly. But it’s also…way less subtle than watts Macleod.
And I do want trying to hide from exsurgent screening to be a factor
safe stream
I have an idea?
bleak ingot
I mean a constant issue in base EP is that nobody can actually keep up their scr...
The virus is uBlock in this metaphor. XD
safe stream
Give every Malignant the ability to go into "Remission"
which takes a few rounds, and temporarily reduces their access to Malignant related abilities or options afterwards.
grizzled rapids
....interesting
thats a super interesting idea
and another way to give stress
since it may cut you off from your hivemind
but
yeah
maybe it adds +30 to attempts to hide yourself from screening methods
heady crypt
The malignance is new certainly. But it’s also…way less subtle than watts Macleo...
Yeah that's true
If to be more helpful- EP doesnt tend to give straightforward answers, just a lot of potentially helpful tools that are up to the players to be used when appropiate, ImSim style
I do like Remission tho as an emergency option
grizzled rapids
yeah yeah
remission seems like a really really funny idea
and yeah
maybe i add a bunch of equipment or ware for like
getting past exsurgent screening
hmmm
in that case
whats some fun ware and gear?
mortal pike
Perhaps a basilisk hack thats meant to subvert the scanner/scanner operator, via the scan. or like a low end version of one like making the operator sejestable?
grizzled rapids
maybe
though thats mostly just fulfilled by pre-existing psi abilities like subliminal and memory fog and stuff
though, a basilisk ware that allows you to fuck up short term memory formation could be fun
heady crypt
A sort of like fake sheddable "skin" made out of uninfected DNA?
heady crypt
A dedicated nanoswarm for this, of course
grizzled rapids
honestly yeah
a dedicated nanomod that lets you like
slip by medical detection methods by flooding false healthy protein signals and hacking medical bots n shit would be cool
maybe it doesnt quite full work but it also confuses results
creates false positives in other areas
here's my basic idea for the remission ability
its meant to be a really big last resort for hiding or infiltrating habs or systems, and 2d10 days without access to your group mind is bound to make a malignant feel very very stressed out.
plus, you could still be detected as an async, which is still treated with suspicion.
grizzled rapids
Refocus priority(Changing or broadening directives)
Psi-Delta
Zero-Point Prophecy(Get relevant information and omens about your directive)
Psi-Delta
Trance(Let infection take over body, gain mental actions)
Psi-Delta
Patch Vulnerability (make lesser infection ratings equal to yours)
Alter Structure (change an infected who isn’t fully transformed to a different strain)
Here’s delta sleights. Only 5 but you can only have one.
You can however swap between which one you have through a very time consuming process
I’ll draft out mechanics later but it’s the basic concepts
severe helm
heady crypt
Zero-Point Prophecy is a good name
grizzled rapids
Thank you thank you
It was originally called stellar prophecy but zero-point felt more accurate
heady crypt
Pondering running Mind the WMD as a begginer mission for a game
heady crypt
I'm slightly worried that it might be a bad introduction to the setting cause it takes place on a scum barge
grand crescent
You eventually to to Mars
earnest wave
A lot depends on how you portray Scum there but yeah
grand crescent
I think it's good in that the characters will definitely die and get resleeved
earnest wave
My best introduction has been via the Continuity module
grand crescent
Which I think a lot of modules miss on
Continuity is the one where you wake up in backups right? That one is great
earnest wave
Yeah
It’s a nice bottled introduction to a lot of the spookier themes of the setting
grand crescent
I think it's good in that the characters will definitely die and get resleeved
Which I like since at least first edition wanted players to realize death isn't as big of a deal as in most rpgs
earnest wave
And has almost no politics which is nice because eclipse phase politics tends to take a long time to explain
grand crescent
what do you mean, you just tell them that the anarchists are the good guys. And the more anarchist they are the more good they are
earnest wave
Yeah haha
I will say that the end of Continuity where you might ||egocast away tends to be funny because you’re in the middle of nowhere and most places nearby are all isolationist weirdos or complicated to explain||
heady crypt
And has almost no politics which is nice because eclipse phase politics tends to...
I was almost ready to disagree then I remembered how long I'd take me to explain just Firewall interior politics and shut up
earnest wave
Yeah it’s doable and fun and such
But also you may want to get to play some eclipse phase before the PowerPoint so to speak
grizzled rapids
God if I ever run a malignant playtest it could be tempting to actually use a lack of knowledge of the politics in character.
Part of the bit being trying to figure out the politics of whatever the fuck you’re trying to sabotage
grand crescent
I will say that the end of Continuity where you might ||egocast away tends to be...
||my players took a shuttle and got taken over by the infection while hibernating on the way home. Which seemed like an appropriate enough ending. Probably bad for the rest of the system though||
heady crypt
Yeah taking a look at Continuity it looks verg nice
It'll give it a refurbish for 2e and see if I can get a game going
earnest wave
I’ve run Continuity, Million Year Echo, and Xenovore for new groups and Continuity has worked best
Million Year Echo is not really one shot material but it is cool
And comes with an insanely high octane but hard to run set of premades for like an 8 hour convention game
Xenovore is just hard to run
grand crescent
I liked the idea of the one where you are all backups of the same person, but, uh, it really expects a lot from the players
earnest wave
It’s not bad but it throws a lot at the GM
earnest wave
I liked the idea of the one where you are all backups of the same person, but, u...
Yeah that one seems cool
I have not run it
grand crescent
It was ok with my players, though there is some weird red herring where ||someone ran off to the desert and I had to explictly tell the players not to follow that lead lmao||
heady crypt
Xenovore is just hard to run
Yeah I looked at it and it seemed pretty hefty
My first game I tried to run was Overrun and was sorta weird but probably like 99% chalkable to my inexperience back then
earnest wave
Wait fuck I was thinking of Overrun haha
I’ve not run Xenovore I just got the names mixed up
grizzled rapids
WOOO
heady crypt
Cleaned up the background on these if anyone ever needs them
heady crypt
heady crypt
severe helm
Who authored this, out of curiosity?
heady crypt
Everyone on the Moon is Essential Personnel by Julian K. Jarboe
severe helm
Thank you!
severe helm
I want an Opteryx morph as gender-affirming care tbh
heady crypt
Average law student
abstract bloom
pretty much
he is a lunar student that was studying industrial engineering and economics
and also was a student activist
abstract bloom
all the traits are in the crb right? Or are there new traits in other 2e books
earnest wave
I think there’s some new ones in Character Options
abstract bloom
yeeeeeee
abstract bloom
earnest wave
What’s the character’s deal?
abstract bloom
They are the face and fixer of the party
I think I need research though
Might be a neglected skill here
earnest wave
Research is only good if you get a LOT of it because your muse has 40 in it
abstract bloom
ahhhhh
in that case it can stay 15
@earnest wave are there any holes you notice?
my thoughts rn are maybe a Galatea or a Sylph
earnest wave
Fray
abstract bloom
Oooh yeah fray is the dodge skill right
queen harness
yeah
cinder hill
bleak ingot
As exhumanities most powerful predator, I am capable of eating any exhuman while they are in English class
proper lotus
Anybody know where I can find some maps good for gunsights?
I am making an airdoft like battle arena setting.
Also not 100% sure how to run it when most of the PCs are noncombat. I was thinki9ng skillware-loaded morphs
earnest wave
Make em big and think about fire lanes
I don’t recommend thinking too hard about it since EP combat is funky without knowing what exactly people will do
proper lotus
I was thinkign aobut maybe giving each PC a 'class': sniper, grenadier, pointman, etc.
Think CS:Go
stray fjord
grand crescent
200m of mulch of a lot of mulch
heady crypt
Reading Eclipse Phases hopeful vision of sousveillance and ugly crying
grizzled rapids
odd question, but which faction, hypercorp, group, or territory are solid candidates for "would make a seed ai for some reason in secret"
its obviously not like, a thing most people would do because of all the caveats with that, but im trying to think of motives for it.
heady crypt
I mean it's the Extropians whose canon reaction to someone possibly being a seed Ai is going "Yeah its ok the free market will sort it out"
queen harness
Cognite is always doing secret unethical bullshit for ineffable reasons
grizzled rapids
extropians make sense for a lot of funny reasons yeah. Esp since they might not even be imagining a seed ai directly just like...making a self improving system for market nonsense.
cognite would also make sense. werent they the ones who made the lost generation? or was that someone else
possibly project ozma.
earnest wave
odd question, but which faction, hypercorp, group, or territory are solid candid...
Firewall did this
heady crypt
Firewall did this
grizzled rapids
Firewall did this
okay that would be really fucking funny
since this is for a ttt concept
Agi with terminal goal for monitoring x-risks built by a firewall cell
"what do you mean you lost it"
"We dont know where it is anymore"
heady crypt
They forgot the baby
grizzled rapids
"What do you mean you lost the baby. Go find it."
honestly that is a funny concept
firewall cell building a predictive ai system to search for x-risks across the solar system, then someone else steals it and now they dont know where a possibly self improving ai system went
maybe its just got constellation, chaos, agentic, and anthropic
built only to take in data and make complex outputs
heady crypt
That's very cute
grizzled rapids
Could be fun if they start with one or two tier three upgrades
Forcing them to be at an extremely high base cognition cost
One that they’ll have a hard time filling in the eclipse phase setting
Or maybe just modifying the rules such that multiple cognition costs are multiplied
I’ll ponder it
grizzled rapids
one concept is that different informorphs that you can puppet sock might have internal functionality
an agi might on its own suck ass at social interaction, but when directly talking via an Ikon puppet sock, it can use its social skills to be better at pretending to be human.
i suppose skillsoft in other sleeves and also being able to inhale xps might also make gathering data or skipping past some knowledge requirements very funny
poking and prodding at ideas
grizzled rapids
pondering one hard coded safety measure being "you are capable of feeling pain" and having that represented as something that can fuck with your confidence and risk assessment whenever it happens.
queen harness
what about "you interpret damage to your hardware and malfunctions of your software as pain"
grizzled rapids
oh probably that too
im just also thinking about how infomorphs have haptics too so- yeah
i think overall whatever you're coded as can feel pain in some weird numerical way that fucks with your ability to make rational predictions about reality.
pain makes you irrational, and that irrationality damages your ability to make confidence checks.
damage to hardware is probably harder to measure though
grizzled rapids
man i should work on my eclipse phase homebrew some more after finals
if nothing else, working on the new psi abilities is probably fairly easy
like man i was cooking something
including the new psi delta strains
grizzled rapids
The Manifold Palace - TQZ
If you’re willing to cut off complete mesh access, if you’re willing to endure the isolation and less than ideal living conditions, if you can find a way in, then the Manifold Palace in the White Zone of the TQZ isn’t a bad place to be. For Malignants, that is.
Getting in is difficult, you need the right access codes, something only TITAN machinery or other exsurgents might know. It’s impossible to land there, the Tharsis League will see you coming in from kilometers away and bomb your ass to high hell, at least if you don’t have authorization. You have to farcast in via laser to one of the hidden transceivers, or user a neutrino transmitter, again, with the proper access codes.
Getting out is just as hard, if only because you’ll need to do the same in reverse. The intense jamming from the Tharsis League prevents anything from easily getting out, and the perimeter of the TQZ is enforced with extreme prejudice.
But if you’re willing to endure it, the Manifold Palace can be considered one of the safest places for Maligancy. The remaining TITAN machinery is infected entirely, and lives more or less in lockstep with whatever exsurgents inhabit the place. Nanoswarms tend to make the rules or set down the law, but they tend not to make themselves known except to make new infrastructure or repair damage. It’s a giant underground city, stretching deep below the Martian surface in mazes and alcoves and cavities that seem almost like a gigantic hive. There’s plenty of resources, nanofabrication, and the depth it’s at prevents meteor impacts or bombardment from causing issues. There’s even something like a local network, if constant subliminal basilisks are an acceptable alternative to hypercorp adverts. Given your new life, it probably is.
Some Malignants theorize that this is a testbed for the ‘new society’, that the exsurgent virus is attempting to find stable holding patterns for what transhumanity will become. It is not a pleasant place by human standards, rife with violence, cannibalism, and horrors that seem only acceptable to minds too far gone to be considered people. One must live at risk of a Jelly devouring them alive, or a nanoswarm deciding their molecules could be better spent elsewhere, or a worm deciding to test a new basilisk on you. But if nothing else, these are your people now, whether you like it or not, this is what society looks like for you. This is a tiny slice of your future.```i dunno its 2 am and im rambling
but im opening up my malignance doc again and writing a new safehouse