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[GruffyBears]

What is it?

Eclipse Phase is a pen-and-paper RPG designed for transhuman horror and conspiracy campaigns.
It's also a game that was released under the Creative Commons License, so people can redistribute the .pdf all over the place legally.

The standard campaign setting makes the players members of a secret organization called Firewall that deals with threats to transhumanity, namely the TITANs, the Exsurgent Virus, and TERRORISTS.
The TITANs are a bunch of self-improving AIs that went batshit insane and either directly or indirectly waged war on humanity while forcibly uploading people before disappearing into space, it is rumored that they left through the Pandora Gates, artifacts of an extraterrestrial race that act as the FTL in the setting, near as I can tell.  The Exsurgent Virus is a nanovirus that can infect meat and machine alike, and may have been created by the TITANs or aliens.
If you want to read more, click the banner.
There's also the Resources section on the site, where you can download a quickstart and some other stuff.

Other fun links

MUSE
Guy is trying to set up a bunch of useful tools for players and gamemasters.

Hard Takeoff
Website that basically redoes the crash-course to the setting, has some custom rules.

Firewall Darkcast
It's a wiki.

Cargo Culture
Some helpful stuff, a primer and an excel character sheet.

*(Note: Everything above shamelessly copypasted from another forum, with slight alterations.)

Does anyone else on the B12 Forums play this? I've started GMing with a  couple of friends. It's a lot of fun.
One of them is a robot-snake smuggler, one is just a normal guy and the other is an octopus with robotic hands, telescopic arms and carapace armour (which is literally a carapace, as your body can be genetically modified).
He's the tech guy!

The rules are really simple, with 2d10 being the only dice you need.

[Ampersand]

I could have sworn I made this thread last year, but apparently I had just posted about the game the day it was released in the P&P RPG mega-thread a long time ago.

In any case, the game can not be compared to Dungeons and Dragons in terms of how the game system works. I know you may be using that because people who are unfamiliar with table top rpgs probably have heard of Dungeons and Dragons somewhere before, but...

This is the Dwarf Fortress forum...

[LeoLeonardoIII]

Um, D&D in space is Spelljammer

I like the 2dX because it makes critical failures and successes less likely (1 in 100 on 2d10 rather than 1 in 20 for a 1d20) but it throws off your sense of the value of each modifier. Because rolling high or low is harder, the first +1 or -1 you get is almost worthless. But the tenth +1 or -1 (that is, the difference between +9 and +10 modifier, say by increasing your Sword skill) is a huge improvement.

So I'm not sure what to think about using multiple dice for success tests. It seems to work very well for character generation, but you typicaly see very small modifiers compared to the probability range of the dice. Example: 3d6 plus or minus 1, for 2E D&D, but an attack roll is 1d20 plus as much as 15 or 20 for a high-level Fighter.

So what does this game do really well that GURPS and d20 won't? Should people just raid it for the random tables and lists of mutations?

[Ampersand]

Well, you could read the free book to find out. Like he said, Creative Commons license. I can't really tell you specifically why you'd prefer this over Spelljammer for reasons other than the universe due to never really having had the opportunity to sit down and put the three games to the test. It is definitely interesting to read though, and I recommend it.

[LeoLeonardoIII]

Well, Spelljammer is weird. Like, space-galleons and stupid robotic steampunk tinker gnomes with giant space hamsters and flintlock hippo-man mercenaries and stuff.

It's best if the referee really tones down the weirdness, chucks half of it wholesale, and runs it as an Age of Sail or space opera or something.

Unless you really like the over-the-top stuff. If you liked the Alice in Wonderland level of Castle Greyhawk, you'd love Spelljammer.

Early D&D games seemed to have that going on though. Gamma World had mutations and such but it had a lot of weird in it.

Now I wanna run some Metamorphosis Alpha.

[GruffyBears]

Um, D&D in space is Spelljammer

I like the 2dX because it makes critical failures and successes less likely (1 in 100 on 2d10 rather than 1 in 20 for a 1d20) but it throws off your sense of the value of each modifier. Because rolling high or low is harder, the first +1 or -1 you get is almost worthless. But the tenth +1 or -1 (that is, the difference between +9 and +10 modifier, say by increasing your Sword skill) is a huge improvement.

So I'm not sure what to think about using multiple dice for success tests. It seems to work very well for character generation, but you typicaly see very small modifiers compared to the probability range of the dice. Example: 3d6 plus or minus 1, for 2E D&D, but an attack roll is 1d20 plus as much as 15 or 20 for a high-level Fighter.

I'm not sure if you know this, but in EP, you want to get low. 99 is a critical failure, 00 is a critical success. As well as that, any doubles are either crit failures or successes, depending on whether or not they are under your target roll. Also, in the case of modifiers, the smallest I have seen so far is +10, and EP is recommended to be played using multiples of 5, as this smoothes gameplay along. On the subject of action rolls, it seems to work pretty well.
Combat is effectively:
1. Roll Opposed Test of character's relevant weapon skill against target's Fray (Dodge) skill.
2. If it hits, AP(armour penatration/piercing) is minused from the target's armour.
3. Damage against modified armour, if it passes wound threshold target takes a wound. If it doubles the wound threshold, target takes 2 wound etc.

So what does this game do really well that GURPS and d20 won't? Should people just raid it for the random tables and lists of mutations?

Short Answer: Yes.

Long Answer: EP holds a unique position in the Sci-Fi TTRPG setting. It is easy to play, which helps for beginners (such as myself) to pick it up quickly (me and my friends, for example, found it on a Tuesday and were playing it that Sunday without too much difficulty). As well as that, the post-apocalyptic nature behind the Fall (the destruction of Earth) and the unique relationahip between ego and morph (Your brain and personality are digitally archived, while bodies are just shells) makes it very easy for players to be killed off, learn from their mistake and get a new body.
Also, you can play as an octopus, or a flying disc with guns all over it.

[Pillow_Killer]

Been there, done that. Ran a pretty short test on B12 IRC, I liked it, nobody else did. Oh well. I hope a normal GM would be willing to run it on B12 IRC.

[Cthulhu]

I've always been wanting to run or play a Traveller game, but it seems like I'm the only person who ever wants to do something other than 3.5e D&D around here and I just don't have the staying power to DM a long-term thing.  Playing is different because I'm not doing the scheduling and it's part of my nature to never miss something other people expect me to attend.  But no one ever wants to DM, so I have to if I want to play something other than 3.5e.

Is this better or worse than Traveller?

[puke]

totally different from traveller.  in that, you have various human empires reaching out into space.  age of imperalism writ large, with technology thats basically on the level of starwars or original BSG.

It has more in common with GURPS TransHuman Space, in that its a game about transcendance and evolving beyond humanity.  but as much as i tried, i could never really find a story or plot in THS.  it was a neat setting, but there was no game there that I could discover.  Also, the GURPS rule system is far to crunchy for me.

I think its easiest to think of in terms of the books that inspired it.  Its got post apocalyptic stuff lifted from Verner Vinge's Fire Upon the Deep.  Its got Uplifts from David Brin's uplift series, and also personality forking from Brin's Kiln People.  and its got mind uploading and cortical stacks that are straight out of Richard K Morgan's Kovaks books.

There are other themes, but those are the most prominant ones that i've noted.  some of the "high-tech anarchist utopia in space" memes are a little masturbatory, but its a good setting and system over all.

And the rule system is basically a d20 system multiplied by 5.  the 2d10 thing doesnt really do anything for it, statistically.

[quinnr]

How is the 15$ PDF different from the creative commons one?

[Ampersand]

How is the 15$ PDF different from the creative commons one?

So if you receive this PDF from a friend who shared it in accordance with the Creative Commons license, and you like it, please support the cause by buying the PDF and/or bundle. To some degree, this is an experiment, and we hope to make it work. If it does, it may very well affect how Catalyst and other game companies go about biz in the future. So to be blunt, we need your support!

[quinnr]

How is the 15$ PDF different from the creative commons one?

So if you receive this PDF from a friend who shared it in accordance with the Creative Commons license, and you like it, please support the cause by buying the PDF and/or bundle. To some degree, this is an experiment, and we hope to make it work. If it does, it may very well affect how Catalyst and other game companies go about biz in the future. So to be blunt, we need your support!

I see..thanks.

[Grakelin]

I've always been wanting to run or play a Traveller game, but it seems like I'm the only person who ever wants to do something other than 3.5e D&D around here and I just don't have the staying power to DM a long-term thing.  Playing is different because I'm not doing the scheduling and it's part of my nature to never miss something other people expect me to attend.  But no one ever wants to DM, so I have to if I want to play something other than 3.5e.

Is this better or worse than Traveller?

I built a Traveller setting complete with huge empires, massive battleships, and intense inter-planetary intrigue.

Do I smell a beautiful friendship coming on?

[sluissa]

Doesn't the basic traveller setting have huge empires, semi-massive battleships and potentially intense inter-planetary intrigue?

I love mongoose traveller, and I've been wanting to get into it, but except for a few sessions with friends which didn't go too far beyond character creation, I haven't had much luck.

I've just been having fun rolling up characters.

[Grakelin]

The base setting does have all those, but I don't really like it.

Especially since it would take less time to study for a particle physics exam than to be familiar with it.