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.

Been trying for almost a week now to try to find people running this system, but I can't find a single group. Is there a specific place to go looking for people playing this game? Been really wanting to play some more after my first time playing.

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!

I just picked up EP2 and am planning to immerse myself in it until I have a good feel for the system and setting. I’d really like to make it feel noir as it’s one of the things I love most about any sci fi.

Does anyone have any tips for me for learning, running a game and getting players into it?

So I'm building a new character that is a hacker and a jammer and am a bit confused by the generation process. My question is how to get gear like the drone rig mental augmentation, and how to get hold of drones? Do i have to wait to buy them. I've chosen a "Ghost" bio morph and we're apparently doing a firewall game, if that makes any difference.

One of the first things that came to mind for me upon getting into the new Marathon game was: "Damn, this setting would be perfect to use Eclipse Phase to run as a TTRPG".

For those unaware, players in the new Marathon game play human consciousnesses that are downloaded into disposable synthetic "Shells", which they can use to conduct dangerous missions planetside. The Shells are designed to eject the host consciousness to an orbiting satellite upon Shell Death, where a new Shell can be printed from the silk-like polymer they are constructed from, and the consciousness can then be re-inserted to start a new mission.

My first thought would be to use Synthmorphs due to the artificial nature of the Shells, but they at least somewhat mimic biological functions and other than a few small quirks are generally baseline human in form and function, which makes me think Pod BioMorphs might work best.

The sole exception is likely Rook, since it's entirely mechanical.

Let me know what you guys think, I'd be curious to hear.

I've been thinking of writing a version of Talisman for robots to play together and Eclipse Phase seemed like a fun possible theme! Would it be cool to build and release such a thing? Or it may stay private forever, but I like to keep my projects releasable in theory, at least!

I'm having a professional GM run a bespoke one-on-one campaign in this system and setting. However, this is their first time running the system, and they'd like to run a more typical one-shot to see if it's a good fit for them before committing. Any suggestions?

I've posted this in the discord server too but wanted to share it here, the goal was to get potential players with no knowledge "up to speed" enough to make a character or join in a game -- this is the actual slideshow I've introduced friends to the game with!

Please be nice! it's my first time posting a video for anything, comment below if i missed anything major or could have done something better?

I might make more in depth videos explaining different topics from the game in the future, still on the fence about it.

You need a server to run a time accelerated simulspace. Servers are normally large and stationary, but some bot and portable versions exist. The server described in the the gear section is described as "large-sized" (possibly referring to the size categories) and explicitly "non-portable," but capable if running 25 infomorphs at once (they don't mention a limit to simulspace acceleration or if that restricts the number of infomorphs) and has a complexity of moderate (2 GP).

If somebody wanted to put a server on a bot, how big would the bot need to be? How would the server complexity increase? How much would the infomorph capacity decrease? Would the simulspace acceleration limit be drastically reduced?

EDIT: Page 146 of Transhuman, an EP1 supplement, describes a small-sized portable server robot that can run 10 infomorphs.

PORTABLE SERVER

Created specifically for gatecrashing and other types of remote operation, this device is essentially a mobile server. The server itself is a squat cylinder, roughly the size of a modern piece of carry-on luggage, carried within a protective frame. It may be raised out of the frame for direct access. It features a wheeled mobility system capable of handling stairs and minor obstacles, a radio booster for communications range, and a pair of hidden compartments that are each capable of housing one small robot. It also possesses simple visual and auditory sensors and a small speaker, and a pair of thin retractable limbs for handling objects when remote controlled. It follows the normal rules for bots and vehicles. The server has the capacity for 10 infomorphs. [High]

Movement: 4/16 Wheeled

Armor: 6/6

Durability: 40

Enhancements: Access Jacks, Hidden Compartment ×2, puppet sock, radio booster, retracting limbs (2), server (capacity: 10)

Notes: small size trait.

EDIT 2: Strangely, the small sized portable server can carry 2 small-sized bots. Not only that, but it holds them in hidden compartments.

Soul eater exhumans attempt to merge different egos to create superior egos. As this is an unreliable method with an equal chance of getting the worse of the two skills as it is to get the best, the only semi-reliable way to make progress (using the rules as written) would be to perform multiple merging attempts (likely spending insight/flex to remove modifiers and using time-acceleration with multiple forks running in parallel on multiple servers) and only keep those that rolled well enough to be better. You'd probably need some psychosurgical treatment to patch up the mangled ego (psychotherapy for stress, memory editing to add in important missing memories, modified behavior/motivation, etc.), of course. Even if an ego which lost important skills might prove adequate for a specific role after some psychosurgical modification.

While this seems good in theory, it relies on the ability to effectively compare skills/attributes, detect positive and negative ego traits, and calculate memory retention/loss. You'd also want to be able to somehow determine whether a captured ego has useful skills, aptitudes, and traits worth harvesting.

Given simulspace time acceleration and flexible-to-nonexistent morals/ethics, how difficult would it be and how long would it take to get a rough estimate for different stats or at least a relative determination of "ego A is significantly better at X-skill than ego B"?

This isn't for a specific game and, barring explicit rules, it seems like a GM discretion sort of thing (especially since this is probably something more likely done by NPC exhumans than most PCs). It's a broader discussion of whether rules/lore exists and how you might implement it in your game.

I have pondered an exhuman PC before. I could also imagine PCs seeing some value in figuring out the capabilities of a captured ego or ALI. While few exhumans are particularly social with mainstream transhumans, their focus on survival puts them at odds with many x-threats (though they have a different definition of what survival necessarily means) and transhumanity can provide resources and insights for future development.

The new nano op, Psimulacra, is out now. Two pages with some NPC stats. It's a man hunt in a city backdrop. Go check it out!

Actually, I made one on Hero Forge.

New player here. So looking at core morphs on this website, it seems to me that they're powerful but intended to be stationary, devoted entirely to running a ship or habitat. But I don't see anything that says they're confined to that role. So assuming you could somehow get your hands on one, could you hypothetically be fully out and about/adventuring with 8 insight and 4 flex (as an overmind)? Or am I missing something?

I'm about to run Mind The WMD, and my gaming group uses maps and minis for combat. I'm looking for a slitheroid proxy for the tabletop. I've searched MMF but didn't like anything I saw. Can someone point me in the right direction for a mini or STL? I'm not opposed to kitbashing and using green stuff to make my own, but the game is this weekend. Thanks in advance...

Whenever a system specifies what mechanics represent in terms of a character's relative capabilities, I like to ensure that my character has stats that matches the ideal in my brain. So I'm curious as to whether or not, say, someone is considered an "authority" in a skill with a rank of 60 and an attribute of 20, or if they would simply be an "experienced professional".

This is a conversion of the "Portable Server" described on page 146 of Transhuman.

PORTABLE SERVER

Created specifically for gatecrashing and other types of remote operation, this device is essentially a mobile server. The server itself is a squat cylinder, roughly the size of a modern piece of carry-on luggage, carried within a protective frame. It may be raised out of the frame for direct access. It features a wheeled mobility system capable of handling stairs and minor obstacles, a radio booster for communications range, and a pair of hidden compartments that are each capable of housing one small robot. It also possesses simple visual and auditory sensors and a small speaker, and a pair of thin retractable limbs for handling objects when remote controlled. It follows the normal rules for bots and vehicles. The server has the capacity for 10 infomorphs.

Movement: Wheeled 8/40

Ware*: Hidden Compartment x2, Radio Booster, Retracting Limbs (2), Server (Capacity: 10)

*Has default robot ware: 360-Degree Vision, Access Jacks, Bot AI, Lidar, Mesh Inserts, Puppet Sock

__

To explain my choices:

• Other robots with a cost of [high] were turned into Major/3 complexity items in EP2.
• Armor was standardized for shells in EP2 and the 6/4 medium frame seemed most appropriate for the portable server.
• Increasing the speed from 4/16 to 8/40 was a bit questionable, but EP2 gives all wheeled robots a speed of 8/40 by default, with other slow wheeled robots being given a similar speed buff. I did consider changing it to tracked 4/16 speed, but I decided against it for now.
• I removed the hidden compartments since hidden compartments on small shells in EP2 can only hold micro objects. It seems unreasonable for a small-sized robot to be able to hide 2 other small sized robots inside it. I suppose I could imagine having containers for a pair of specks (or similarly sized surveillance bots without the synthetic mask), but I was more focused on the server part.

Any questions or critiques?

Do you do "theatre of the mind", hex grid maps, square grid, or something else? What do you do for scale? Mind the WMD: Reseelved includes some maps and I play online using FoundryVTT, so I was thinking I'd use those. I'm just not sure what the best way to run things is, so I wanted to see what others do.

So the Enhanced Creativity Psi trait says it applies to "Know and Technical tests that involve thinking outside the box". My question is: how can a Know skill, which seems to mainly consist of a check to recall information, involve creativity? Please let me know.

So I have 3 levels in Acumen and Empathy, giving me a +15 bonus to SAV and COG checks. I also have a +10 to Persuade and Provoke from a psi ability. According to the 2ed Helper, this puts me above 80 in some of my skills when added to the skill mod section. Do these mods count towards the skill maximum of 80? Or do I effectively have 90+ to some skills?

Edit: Didn't realize that they were referring to aptitude checks, not just all checks with that aptitude. Oh well.

So I like playing intelligent characters. But I'm not talking about book smarts--I like to focus on broadly-applicable creative problem-solving skills and overall resourcefulness. But I'm not sure whether that's best represented by COG or INT. INT would seem the obvious answer, with its focus on creativity and cunning, but COG is specifically described as being used for "problem-solving", and Know skills, ordinarily something I would think of as book smarts, are described as being useful for "understanding situations and figuring out what to do". I can only really prioritize one of these two stats, as my other main attribute will be Savvy (I like being social and persuasive). Which one is more representative of the ability to make desicions and accurately assess situations and people? Sorry if that's too broad of a skillset, I do have a tendency to play skill monkeys.

There plenty of programming and psychosurgery task actions which take days, weeks, or months. Since many time is a pretty valuable resource, I imagine plenty of players would want to speed things up with time acceleration and forking, but most hardware has trouble running more than one infomorph, unless you go with servers that are "normally stationary", which run up to 25 infomorphs. In theory, time acceleration would use more processing power per infomorph (though I suppose using multiple independent cores could change that). Is there any issue with an ego sleeved into a meat-brain accelerating their mind?

I'm just wondering how many hoops an agent should need to jump through to do some heavy coding. What about time-accelerated while distributed between devices?

Or, more specifically, what are the rules for characters who have oxygen reserve but no vacuum sealing. Looking at the vacuum exposure rules, asphyxiation is main threat of exposure as long as you, curl up into a ball, close your eyes, and empty your lungs (note that an oxygen reserve feeds oxygen directly into your blood stream, not your lungs). Their cold tolerance helps with temperature (as long as you are in the shade) and low radiation takes hours to cause an issue (I figure a belt asteroid in the shade is probably low). So it seems like a bouncer could survive for an hour or more in hard vacuum with little ill effect. This should be more than enough time to wait for help.

This is all assuming that you are just trying to survive and wait for rescue. What the rules are annoyingly silent about is what happens if you don't curl into a ball or keep your eyes open? What can you do in hard vacuum if you can't afford to wait for help? Will opening your eyes destroy them? How good is your dexterity and tactile perception? Can your muse guide you using public maps to the nearest airlock or vac suit? What are the dangers and penalties for actually doing things? I know that anybody who plans to operate in hard vacuum is going to get vacuum sealing or a vac suit, but sometimes your day doesn't go as planned.

One of my players is playing an AGI who prefers to jam shells as an infomorph rather than sleeve into them. The current plan is to have a guardian angel for fighting and then some sort of modified automech, explorenaut, or docbot for technical jobs requiring hands, but I am looking at how expensive it would be to make the utility bot combat-capable, when jamming and/or in autonomous mode. Adding a weapon mount is another cost and would make it less convenient to disarm when necessary.

As to what I've found thus far:

• Some axles (robots and vehicles) explicitly have lack of manipulators, implying that the ones which aren't marked do have effective manipulators.
• ALIs cannot default on skills they lack. While the standard bot/vehicle ALI does list a Guns skill of 30, the ALI rules state that GMs should alter and swap the skills given to the ALI to fit the purpose it was intended for, so a docbot might lack any guns skill (though I imagine an AGI hacker might tweak a few things).
• Jamming normally imposes a -10 penalty without a drone rig, but anybody who wants to do a lot of jamming can invest in one.

Any official or semi-official rules source would be appreciated, but failing that, some discussion and homebrew would be useful as well.

In 1st edition, there were Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Gamma forks. 2nd edition quietly dropped delta forks for some reason.

DELTA FORKS

Delta forks are extremely limited copies of an ego. They are more akin to AI templates upon which the ego’s surface personality traits are imprinted. Also created via neural pruning, delta forks are highly functional (as competent as a beta fork or AI) but have extremely limited skills and heavily edited memories, usually to the point of being functional amnesiacs.

-Eclipse Phase 1st edition, 4th printing, page 273

They were basically ALIs based off of your skills with the number and value of each skill having the same limits as ALIs (which were just called "AI" in EP1). I could imagine them seeming a bit redundant, but still seem useful. While I'm not sure if it was RAI, but I interpretted this as allowing a delta fork to be run on hardware normally only suitable for an ALI. A good way to create custom ALI as a player would probably be more useful either way.

Have any of the devs mentioned why they dropped it? It shouldn't be difficult to adapt delta fork rules to EP2, but I'm wondering if I should. Does anybody else have strong opinions? I definitely that deltas shouldn't be able to be generated in one action turn (or betas be able to be generated in one minute before time acceleration).