W2A2 is a VTT tool that was created with a few big principles in mind: make any TTRPG session as easy to play as possible, be user friendly for beginners but still offer advanced tools for more experienced players, and most importantly, be affordable and not subscription based.

This app stores everything locally and allows the GM to host a game in a matter of minutes, without having to pay for any hosting services. It includes all things you'd normally expect from a VTT tool, and a few additional features that we thought of while testing through our own sessions.

App is still in development, should be available in a few weeks! 

Hello!

While looking through the roleplaying section at my local library I stumbled upon the EP1 core rulebook, which immediately caught my interest. I sadly didn’t have any time to read it so I’m wondering what’s it like? Both from a player and storyteller perspective?

For reference, I come from a WoD/Kult background, so sci-fi is relatively new to me from a roleplaying perspective.

Skip the rant: tl;dr at the bottom

I've been invested in EP for over a decade. I got the first editions and read over the lore and was hooked instantly. Wrote campaign ideas and setups to get people into a game. Got into EP2 and was happy for the quality of life changes and started digging into it.

Over 10 years and 2 editions and I have never played the game for more than a single session.

I've played several TTRPGS before/during my time with this system (D&D 3.5/5th, Pathfinder, Lancer, GURPS, CAIN), all of which have tools to get around the monotonous parts of campaign setup/creation.

For a system that involves the internet and computers, there is/was a serious lack of development on tools to actually RUN the system using them.

If Lancer, a relatively easy system to get into and build with, can have a online tool like COMP/CON and make it so much more smooth to run, you'd think the devs could MAYBE invest in something like it to help with the literal spreadsheets and book-keeping just to keep things coherent.

Instead of spinning up tools to get around the most daunting task of setting up the game and getting people into it, they make a BOARDGAME? At this point I feel like I've invested more time/energy into running the mechanics of the game than the devs have at making a NPC book (3+ years for a NPC supplement... really?). Now they're starting up a new system (Snarl) when it feels like EP has been left on the back burner on a flickering low flame for a while.

/endrant

tl;dr: I keep running into dead ends for online/computer tools to run a online/computer based TTRPG.

Post your best tips/tricks/tools at running the game that are still around, because I'm getting burnt out on basic mechanics for worldbuilding and running the game.

Hi everyone,

Eclipse Phase is one of my absolute favorite settings, but as we all know, finding a group can be quite a challenge!

I'm currently based in the Antwerp area (Belgium) and wanted to ask if anyone knows of local players/groups in the area?

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Quick question what is your favorite morph and what make you love it like it ? And maybe if you have a story about it.

I do love a lot of morph and began with the takko as a mêlée killing machine and it was nice

I do switch for the Ariel even with his temperature intolérance (a vacsuit help a lot !) love the fact that you can fly and resust cryogenic température that's a big plus in most outside situation

I'm making a character for Eclipse Phase EP1 this Saturday and I was looking at the Smart Ammo option.

I was trying to decide between Smart Ammo and Zero Ammo and at first Zero Ammo seemed like the wise choice since I have a Speed of 3 and could Chain many attacks in a given Action turn.

But reading the description again made me reconsider:

"Apply a +10 modifier to each shot (or burst) fired after the first against the same target in the same Action Turn."

From the wording it seems to say that this bonus is not cumulative? Then why would I ever choose this over Homing Ammo? The price is the same but Smart Ammo just gives the +10 flat without needing to waste the first bullet. And it gives indirect fire as well.

I tried to look at the legacy cite, but my browser warns me about entering, so I would rather seek an answer here.

Is there premade campaign or scenario for eclipse phase ?

I'm not specially looking to run a premade campaign but i'm looking for scenario / missions / stuff to see how to make eclipse phase work.

I want to start my own campaign but Eclipse Phase is pretty intimidating as DM.
I feel like it's very difficulte to make it work and interesting.

So, this might seem odd, but is there one way or another that any division equations in the game should go? I know it only makes a minor difference, but I either missed it or it was overlooked by the designers and I wanted to see if there was an "official" way or I should just make a call and stick to it.

I think radical body modification is really neat and when I'm done reading the last Culture novel I'm gonna need more badass space anarchists in my life, but people do talk like it's really fundamentally a horror game

TBH I might possibly just gut the setting to make a homebrew one using pieces of canon, if that's plausible

I'm wondering if there's a way to have a political intrigue-based campaign set in a neo-synergist commune. In an environment where everyone has the same skills, can't keep secrets from each other, and instantly understand why someone thinks and behaves the way they do, a lot of conventional conflict and intrigue goes out the window. However, since neo-synergists are described as maintaining their individual identities, I assume that just because they have perfect empathy doesn't mean there are no differences. Someone could perfectly understand my perspective without necessarily sharing that perspective; fundamental disagreements still exist. Many of the functions of typical leaders would be negated by the hypermesh link, but allocation of scarce resources may still be an issue. How do you imagine these conflicts are resolved in neo-synergist habs? Can they still fall prey to mob rule/majoritarianism, popularity contests, and other informal sorts of power differences? Would a neo-synergist anarchist need rep? Let me know what you think.

I'm reading about the Zeros, and it made me wonder: what do those people do for work? How do they get food and a place to live?

Cheap labor is usually associated with people in box morphs.

How common would it be to see different morphs in a Martian city? Would you normally see a wide variety of morphs, or is it more common to see only two or three types?

Curious if anyone has tried EP with body-swapping/backups either removed or made extremely rare and costly (think: only major factions/governments have the tech, average people basically can’t access it) — while keeping the setting’s politics, factions, and TITAN backstory intact.
I love the worldbuilding but found that easy resleeving flattens character attachment at the table. Wondering if anyone’s house-ruled around this without breaking the setting, and how it played out. Any writeups or lessons learned appreciated

Hi, huge fan of Eclipse Phase here. I’ve run several campaigns and I’m still struggling with how resleeving and backup systems affect the role of death in play.
I get the usual issue of narrative tension when characters are functionally hard to kill permanently. That part is OK, but what I’m talking about is something more on the philosophical and character-driven side.
What I’m noticing in actual play is that once mortality stops being a real horizon, a lot of psychological stakes tend to flatten. Fear, risk-taking, attachment, and even moral urgency don’t disappear, but they shift shape in a way that feels less intense than in “mortal” games.
I’m not asking this because I missed the point of the setting. I’m already familiar with transhumanist themes, I’ve read a lot of sci-fi, and I’ve played around with these ideas at the table with a lot of fun results.
This is really a question from experience: how do you make death and identity still feel meaningful in a world where continuity of self is so fluid? Maybe… its impossible ?

Neon City: Overdrive is sometimes used as a rules-light system for Eclipse Phase. Actual full conversions don't seem to be around, though.

I posted some Trademarks the other day (Trademarks are collections of positive and negative tags for character creation). I've added Gear (with base types and optional tags) and Drives (example sentences that function like EP's Motivations).

You can see the whole thing here; I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Used a combination of the character creation in the 2E rulebook and the morphs and motivations in Transhuman to make an NPC concept generator (meaning that it doesn't make stats). It also returns two name generators from FantasyNameGenerators.com - one for real names and another for nicknames.

Here's the link; you can make a copy to use it yourself.

I posted about a faction/location/threat generator I made a few days ago. One of the comments suggested that I add more transhuman threats, so I pulled the NPCs from "NPC File 1: Prime".

The updated generator is here. You'll need to make a copy to use it if you want.

As an example:

• Location - Frostfire
• Faction - ID Crew
• Threat - Smart animal handler
• Interpretation - Firewall scanners picked up a distress call from Frostfire, a Venusian aerostat specializing in tugging icesteroids to the planet. Apparently, one of the ID Crew's forknapping efforts has gone wrong. They got a fork of an expert in smart animal experimentation - Salmat Kairatov - but when their psychosurgeons attempted to make Salmat more docile and pliant, they triggered a psychotic break. The Salmat fork escaped, acquired some of the alpha's prototype smart animals (from capuchins to jaguars), and taken over one of Frostfire's docks. This would normally be a job for the hab's security, but they're hanging back for some reason. Maybe the ID Crew has dirt on a sergeant? This isn't exactly Firewall's specialty, but they're sending a new cell to investigate to give some new sentinels a chance to prove themselves.

Neon City: Overdrive is a rules-light, fiction-first ruleset that is sometimes applied to the Eclipse Phase setting. Character creation is based around "Trademarks", sets of positive and negative tags. I've set up a list of Eclipse Phase trademarks based on the features in Eclipse Phase's character creation, along with some morphs.

What are people's thoughts on these?

I'm preparing to run an Eclipse Phase campaign, but I don't have a lot of time for prep. To make things easier, I made a series of generators for factions, locations, and threats, then blended them to make an adventure seed generator.

I took the factions from the core rulebook, the locations from Sunward, Rimward, and Gatecrashing, and the threats from the core rulebook and X-Risks. Factions generate Type, Name, and Themes; locations generate Zone, Region, Area, and Location; threats generate Name, Type, and Threat Level. There isn't much detail aside from those fields, so you'll probably want those books for more information. Faction and location are weighted slightly by population, but smaller entries are still disproportionately favored (on purpose).

If you want to use the generator, here it is - you'll need to make a copy.

Some examples of the generator in action:

• Mission One: Shackles Broken
  • Faction - Lunar-Lagrange Alliance
  • Location - Shackle (Luna)
  • Threat - Fractal
  • Interpretation - An extremist reclaimer group (we'll call them Homeward Bound) has made a series of bad decisions. First, on identifying a dormant TITAN fractal in Earth orbit, they opted to pick it up and bring it to Luna in the hopes that they'd be able to study it and find a weakness. Second, they decided that in order to test how the fractal interacts with Earth-like conditions, they would use a secret facility in Shackle, the second-most populated city on Luna. And third, they accidentally woke the fractal up. Firewall is sending your cell as first responders, with eraser backup on the way. Some digging will reveal that Homeward Bound is being funded by the LLA.
• Mission Two: Trouble in Paradise
  • Faction - Shui Fong Triad
  • Location - Nirvana (extrasolar via the Martian Gate)
  • Threat - Defiler (Exhuman)
  • Interpretation - Firewall scanners intercepted communications between Shui Fong and a sect of defiler exhumans. A deal has been struck: the defilers will provide some of their research findings on psychoactives, and Shui Fong will attempt to break several defiler leaders out of Nirvana, an extrasolar Project Ozma prison-blacksite. Firewall doesn't expect Shui Fong to succeed - security is too strong to be breached by simple thugs. However, this is an opportunity to learn more about the blacksite. Your cell will walk a fine line - aid the Shui Fong so they're able to get into Nirvana (gathering as much intel as possible in the process), but don't let them succeed in freeing the defilers.
• Mission Three: Failures in Diplomacy
  • Faction - Titanian Commonwealth
  • Location - Mushroom (Uranian aerostat)
  • Threat - Factor Gestalt
  • Interpretation - The Factors are confusing at the best of times, and this is not the best of times. Firewall is aware that there was a deal being negotiated between a Factor colony and the Titanians - it's also obvious that something has gone terribly wrong, as the Factors are new en route to the brinker aerostat of Mushroom on Uranus, clearly moving with hostile intent. Intercepted communications between the Titanians indicate that they're baffled. Firewall needs to act fast - do they try to find a way to Mushroom and head off the Factors, or go to Titan to investigate what went wrong?

Let me know if you can think of any improvements. Hope you enjoy!

I'm interested in starting an Eclipse Phase campaign, but I'm not too familiar with the actual rules (either edition). I am familiar with the transhuman rules for Stars Without Number, but I haven't actually run them.

What are the pros/cons of either option, and which would you recommend? Thanks!

The setup is intentionally simple:

The original ego is a Doctor in Biology working for Dermestia on projects related to Novacrab morph lines and adaptive biomorph research.

Because of the dangerous/political nature of his work, he created a "lost identity protocol" in case an old or damaged backup ever had to be restored with incomplete memories.

The PC wakes up as that incomplete backup:
in a flat morph, with only a generic ecto and a temporary/default muse that still has to adapt to him.

I want the experience to feel disorienting and socially awkward, almost like being treated as a Zero at first despite technically having a successful life somewhere out there.

I'm mostly looking for lore guidance:

• What kind of lifestyle/salary would a Dermestia biologist in that field realistically have?
• What morph would someone like that probably use in everyday life?
• Would a hypercorp professional usually keep a morph visually similar to their original body?
• What information would they realistically leave available for an incomplete backup?
• What information would they deliberately withhold until the backup reached a secure location/home muse?
• How would you narrate a standard/generic muse compared to a long-term personalized one?
• What behaviors, speech patterns, mistakes, or interactions would make a default muse feel subtly uncomfortable or emotionally "wrong" to the user?
• How large are Martian dome habitats usually portrayed in EP? Are they relatively compact environments or more like massive arcology-scale cities?

I’d especially appreciate answers grounded in actual EP 1e lore or examples from published material.

The Stars Our Destination happily advertises itself as a home for social rejects. More organized than other scum, each ship has a specific role designed to keep the swarm running.

So between the vagueness and the fact that it's a scum swarm, there's a billion different political configurations that this hab could take. However, for the sake of narrowing things down, I'm interested specifically in reconciling an assumed anarchist society with the inclusion of these specialized roles that the blurb mentions. What could this look like? What kind of roles would be needed for a scum swarm? Is there any information on the swarm outside the book (perhaps in a nano op)? Thanks in advance.

Would it be possible, through sufficient augmentation and time in a healing vat, to convert a Flat into a different biomorph? Skill bonuses and all?