Casey's Law wrote:Not to hijack the thread but:
Balance, are all of the pdf's for EP available in hard copy? And if so, is there somewhere i can buy them all? Maybe bundled together.
I believe their only PDF-only stuff is some add-ons (They sell 'Hack Packs' with artwork to mess with and diagrams
GMs might want to sue for scenarios) and maybe a few works that they can't see the sales on (I think their is a
NPC file, for example, that has not been published in dead tree). Otherwise, everything should be in print.
I have the hardcover main book and got it for a great price from The War Store, but that might not make sense for you as you appear to be in the
UK.
In general the main book is a huge intro to the setting and covers a lot of ground. There's brief info on every planet in the solar system and some of the countless habitats that humanity has fled to as the Earth is no longer viable. The Earth was wrecked by roge AIs that incorporated xenotechnololy/ubertech/Cthulhu so certain tech is considered dangerous.
The follow up books are good, but much more specialized: There's 'Sunward' which includes the inner system (Mercury to Mars or so) which tends to be more corporate-controlled and 'traditional' in economy. (Do work, make money. Spend money. Guys who managed to get lucky investing/inheriting money control 90% of the money.)
'Rimward' covers the outer worlds. As a rule, these are more 'new economy' than the inner, and more anarchist/ultra-libertarian/etc. in outlook. Think a big O'Neil-cylinder space station that is run by a co-
op that provides basic needs to all residents with extra credit handed out for doing work for the community. And it works.
(Side note: I love the EP setting, but I expect a few people would get annoyed at reading how some of the cultures int he setting that are most successful are also communist, socialist, and/or areligious. If the idea that these ideas might work given different pressures on the society, this might not be the game for you. I'm skeptical, but admit it'd be cool if some of the wacky ideas could be made workable.)
Rimward also has some info on the 'Jovian Junta' a nation-state centered around Jupiter that is known to be radically bio-conservative. As in, they don't even believe in the virtual immortality and always-on net connections that are pretty much 'free' to most characters in the game. (I think the developers have pointed out that, long term, this is a losing proposition. Even breeding like rabbits, they're heavily outnumbered, and the rest of the solar system has experience and better tech. However, they could be used as bad guys or just deluded patsies to be pitied.
Panopticon may turn into the first volume of several 'catch all' books. The volume that is out has two major topics: Security in the EP setting, and Uplifts. Security is 'interesting' as most cultures have settled on a model where privacy is pretty much a thing of the past due to the needs of living in a spinning tin can, but it's a fair system in that the same rules apply to everyone. Uplifts are animals given human intelligence. There are only a few major species, and they can have some interesting drawbacks (like being corporate owned and dependent on implants). The main book has a couple like Ne-Hominids, Neo-Octopi and Neo-Avians (big birds) but this book adds a few more to the mix, as well as some oddballs like resurrected and uplifted neanderthals. Uplifts are described in a very clinical and gritty way: They aren't just 'people that look like animals.'
The last of the main books I've read from this setting is 'Gatecrashers'. This book centers around exploring the 'Pandora Gates' that have been found around the system. Think 'Stargate' for this, but a bit more open. Gates are not 100% reliable, have varying levels of control and protection, and offer players a chance to do a lot of 'alien world exploration' adventures. This is a pretty good book with a lot of thought into Gatecrashing gear and such.
Eclipse Phase uses d100 rolls for most tasks. Character Creation is relatively involved: I highly recommend downloading the Spreadsheet someone has made, as it does all the math and such. Using the Spreadsheet has another advantage as well: when a character is 'backed up' it's easy to make a copy of the spreadsheet that can be reverted to if the character is killed and restored from backup.
From memory, character creation involves choosing a background (Is the character a refugee from Earth, a descendant of a long-time space-faring family, or something else?) and a Faction (Factions include the Argonauts (pro-science), Extropian (HUmanity is the old paradigm, go beyond), and several others). Factions should be taken as a relatively 'weak' concept, more a tendency than anything else. Points are spent to set a few stats. One unique thing is that these stats stay with the character (The 'Ego') even if the character changes bodies in play. So a character with +5 to Reflexes is going to have an above average Reflexes in any body. It's a little weird, but it seems to work in practice. Charcaters also choose three motivations: making progress towards these help refills the 'Moxie' resource, which is used to help smooth out bad die rolls and such.
Points are also spent on several reputation pools. These represent different groups including corporate, organized grime, and celebrities. These can be used to buy favors from the group. A good comparison is the reputation system some MMOs use, but there's a bit more give & take here: If you do a favor for the mob, you might get +2 points to the appropriate reputation pool (You're known as someone that can be trusted and that will help out with things). A character can then spend those reputation points for favors (Need a new gun in a hire? Use the linked Networking skill to see if you can find a contact in the underworld, and you might be able to trade 5 points of rep for the new gun you really, really need). The pools are broad (corporate, crime, media, etc.) so even if you've been dealing with the Mafia in on place, word gets out and you can still try to hit up the Triads as long as there's not active warfare between the two.The rules have some intentional room fro
GM intervention: the
GM has space to say "OK, they can get you the guns you need, but they need more than rep. What else can you throw in to the deal?" or outright refuse requests, as in most
RPGs.
After spending basic rep, the character has 1,000 'Free points' which is where things do get complicated.
These points can be used to buy more rep or increase stats, as well as buying skills, gear, and the haracter's starting morph. In fact, 700 if the points must be spent on skills!
The selection of starting morph (body) options can be fun to flip through. The main book includes a large number and the other books generally add a few more. Biological options range from baseline humans to the 'Remade' which are so heavily modified and rebuilt from human that they tend to unnerve people. (A Remade is somehow creepier than the neo-avian giant raven...) Synths, or robots, include bare-bones cheaply made forms up to floating disk-tank things. A third categoy of 'pods' is reserved for biological but not completely normal forms and includes both basic worker pods (a force-grown human clone with a cybernetic brain) and an up-scaled coconut crab designed for work in vacuum and on security due to it's nearly impenetrable shell.
Gear includes a range of guns and armor as well as a lot of stuff people expect in 'cyberpunk' games such as implants to give a character better vision, claws, etc.
'Post-cyberpunk' is a term that is sometimes used for games like Eclipse Phase: Cyberpunk tends to be heavly based around thoguhts and fears coming from the 80s and 90s, so the transhumanist ideals are more inspired by the 2000s.
A note on morphs: The morphs as described in the book are somewhat generic. Think "Sports Car" instead of "Porsche 911." A
GM can rule that a specific morph is unavailable, or the only available model has some selection of advantages/disadvantages applied. (It's used, and may have a mild drug addiction and some distinctive tattoos.) This kind of encouragement means this is probably not a good system for
GMs that like to actively oppose their players.
GMs are encouraged to customize weapons if they wish as well, but saying that XYZ brand has a slight boost to armor piercing at so & so cost increase, etc. it's a general sign that they're expecting players to want to have fun and buy-in to the game, not just show up and expect everything to be spoon-fed to them.
WHFB 3000 pts
40k 1000 pts
40k 1000 pts 
