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7 reviews for:
Eclipse Phase: The Roleplaying Game of Transhuman Conspiracy and Horror
Jack Graham, Rob Boyle, Brian Cross, John Snead, Lars Blumenstein
4.16 AVERAGE
7 reviews for:
Eclipse Phase: The Roleplaying Game of Transhuman Conspiracy and Horror
Jack Graham, Rob Boyle, Brian Cross, John Snead, Lars Blumenstein
4.16 AVERAGE
I got this game not knowing what to expect, being vaguely acquainted with transhumanism. I had heard some things about the game but nothing that piqued my curiosity. Then, on a whim, I bought it.
WHAT DO THE CHARACTERS DO IN THIS GAME?
The default assumption is that they are part of a shadow organization called Firewall, whose main goal is to defend transhumanity from threats within and without. However, the setting is so good and flexible that a lot of other campaigns are possible (the book includes suggestions, but I'm sure inventive GMs can come with many more) from traders in space, to settlers of a new colony, to explorers of the Pandora Gates (see below), to news teams in search of the next scoop, to private detectives in mars, to scientists investigating diseases caused by TITAN viruses (see below), and so on and so forth.
THE GOOD STUFF
The system is a straight percentile system where you roll a d100 and you succeed if you roll equal or under the value of your skill. It's simple and intuitive. I am a big fan of Call of Cthulhu which is also a percentile system so I was at ease. There is the advantage that the system takes little or no time to explain to a beginner. You just show him a character sheet and each skill value is a percentile. Everyone knows what Beam Weapons 75% means. There are a few additional rules, mainly cooperative rolls and competitive rolls, but nothing that slows down the game. Many call it bland, I call it a system that fades into the background and let's you play your story.
The setting is the thing that makes this game really shine. It's an inventive and complex look at what humanity becomes after a particular nasty Artificial Intelligence - TITANS - destroys the Earth, takes Humans to the brink of extinction and disappears without a trace. At this point, Humanity has evolved into something else: transhumanity. People can digitize their minds (Ego) like software and copy them into new bodies (morphs). Most morphs are biological morphs with some enhancements but others are completely mechanic or uplifted animals. Humanity has spread throughout the solar system and split into several factions. Given the profound changes in the way people live and perceive their ego/morph, society also changed to something else.
This is all explained in the first 100 pages or so, touching upon all aspects of society: sex, entertainment, news, law enforcement, economy, religion, etc. The authors create a possible future for humanity based on a few hard sci-fi concepts such as the ubiquitous Internet (called Mesh in this game), nanotechnology and the singularity, ego uploading and downloading, etc. It made me want to read more about this stuff and there's an extensive nonfiction and fiction bibliography in the back of the game.
Because now transhumanity can upload their ego to new bodies, death is virtually non-existent. Characters will die easily if they are not careful, but they can upload their ego into a new body as easily. Consider this like a saved game that you load when you die. Very nifty.
THE NOT SO GOOD
The character creation system, although not overly complex, is a bit convoluted. It takes a bit of practice and it may be daunting to first time players. Fortunately, the game's website has a lot of resources that simplify this process such as fillable character sheets or Excel sheets with automatic calculations. The good thing is that the book is choke full of pre-written characters. There's something to everyone.
Even though the character sheet is quite complete, it can still be a chore to rewrite stuff when the characters change morphs. My advise is to have prepare additional character sheets in advance with the data filled in so that the game won't grind to a halt when someone dies and uploads into a new morph.
There's no introductory scenario. Granted, the book is lengthy as it is and there is a free introductory adventure that you can download from the website. I consider this a very minor gripe mentioned only for completeness sake.
THINGS PEOPLE MAY OR MAY NOT ENJOY (SPOILERS)
After all the setting, rules and gear, there is a smaller GM section where secrets are revealed. Some parts of this take the game beyond what is a hard sci-fi setting. There are portals that take people across the universe and alien races that interact with transhumanity. I enjoyed these parts, however some may not.
VERDICT
Get it now! It's one of the best sci-fi roleplaying games out there and one of a handful with transhumanist themes (the other two being Transhuman Space for GURPS and Nova Praxis for Strands of Fate). This is no Star Wars or Star Trek, but a very coherent and logical extrapolation of the future with plenty of room for chase scenes, gunfight, explosions and octopus in space.
WHAT DO THE CHARACTERS DO IN THIS GAME?
The default assumption is that they are part of a shadow organization called Firewall, whose main goal is to defend transhumanity from threats within and without. However, the setting is so good and flexible that a lot of other campaigns are possible (the book includes suggestions, but I'm sure inventive GMs can come with many more) from traders in space, to settlers of a new colony, to explorers of the Pandora Gates (see below), to news teams in search of the next scoop, to private detectives in mars, to scientists investigating diseases caused by TITAN viruses (see below), and so on and so forth.
THE GOOD STUFF
The system is a straight percentile system where you roll a d100 and you succeed if you roll equal or under the value of your skill. It's simple and intuitive. I am a big fan of Call of Cthulhu which is also a percentile system so I was at ease. There is the advantage that the system takes little or no time to explain to a beginner. You just show him a character sheet and each skill value is a percentile. Everyone knows what Beam Weapons 75% means. There are a few additional rules, mainly cooperative rolls and competitive rolls, but nothing that slows down the game. Many call it bland, I call it a system that fades into the background and let's you play your story.
The setting is the thing that makes this game really shine. It's an inventive and complex look at what humanity becomes after a particular nasty Artificial Intelligence - TITANS - destroys the Earth, takes Humans to the brink of extinction and disappears without a trace. At this point, Humanity has evolved into something else: transhumanity. People can digitize their minds (Ego) like software and copy them into new bodies (morphs). Most morphs are biological morphs with some enhancements but others are completely mechanic or uplifted animals. Humanity has spread throughout the solar system and split into several factions. Given the profound changes in the way people live and perceive their ego/morph, society also changed to something else.
This is all explained in the first 100 pages or so, touching upon all aspects of society: sex, entertainment, news, law enforcement, economy, religion, etc. The authors create a possible future for humanity based on a few hard sci-fi concepts such as the ubiquitous Internet (called Mesh in this game), nanotechnology and the singularity, ego uploading and downloading, etc. It made me want to read more about this stuff and there's an extensive nonfiction and fiction bibliography in the back of the game.
Because now transhumanity can upload their ego to new bodies, death is virtually non-existent. Characters will die easily if they are not careful, but they can upload their ego into a new body as easily. Consider this like a saved game that you load when you die. Very nifty.
THE NOT SO GOOD
The character creation system, although not overly complex, is a bit convoluted. It takes a bit of practice and it may be daunting to first time players. Fortunately, the game's website has a lot of resources that simplify this process such as fillable character sheets or Excel sheets with automatic calculations. The good thing is that the book is choke full of pre-written characters. There's something to everyone.
Even though the character sheet is quite complete, it can still be a chore to rewrite stuff when the characters change morphs. My advise is to have prepare additional character sheets in advance with the data filled in so that the game won't grind to a halt when someone dies and uploads into a new morph.
There's no introductory scenario. Granted, the book is lengthy as it is and there is a free introductory adventure that you can download from the website. I consider this a very minor gripe mentioned only for completeness sake.
THINGS PEOPLE MAY OR MAY NOT ENJOY (SPOILERS)
After all the setting, rules and gear, there is a smaller GM section where secrets are revealed. Some parts of this take the game beyond what is a hard sci-fi setting. There are portals that take people across the universe and alien races that interact with transhumanity. I enjoyed these parts, however some may not.
VERDICT
Get it now! It's one of the best sci-fi roleplaying games out there and one of a handful with transhumanist themes (the other two being Transhuman Space for GURPS and Nova Praxis for Strands of Fate). This is no Star Wars or Star Trek, but a very coherent and logical extrapolation of the future with plenty of room for chase scenes, gunfight, explosions and octopus in space.
The setting is amazing and interesting. The rule system is standard rpg with some innovative twists.
This is not a bad game. The rating I give it is due to it not being a good game for me. It was very much "OK" from my perspective.
I do find at least a bit of irony involved in a game about transhumanism that uses old school game mechanics based around a skill and attribute system using percentile rolls (one of the reasons it's probably not for me).
In many ways this game reminds me of Shadowrun. Mechanically, this is because of a similar initiative system, but there's more to it than that. Cyberpunk was cutting edge science fiction when Shadowrun first came out. Transhumanism is a major part of much science fiction today.
The subtitle on this book is "the roleplaying game of tranhumanism conspiracy and horror." If we accept that as a mission statement, I think it does an excellent job of getting across the transhumanism. There are a lot of interesting concepts here, from identity to economy.
There are conspiracy and horror elements, but neither is emphasized much throughout the book. The background contains elements of horror, but that's either in the past or largely confined to quarantined areas. They don't really get emphasized until the GM's section, and I see that as potentially problematical for players as they won't necessarily be looking to play a horror or conspiracy game, unless they focus on the subtitle, or it's emphasized in character creation by the GM.
Overall the world building is interesting and anchored (as far as I can tell), in reasonably solid science. I did get a chuckle out of a couple of things though. Most notably that the authors have killed off Christianity for being too inflexible, but have allowed the Muslim religion to survive. I'm not going to slam or praise either religion, but I think the authors may need to revisit their own prejudices if they truly think that the Muslim religion is more flexible in its belief system. I think it far more likely they would share the same fate, whether that be extinction or survival.
My opinion of the game might improve if I ever get the chance to play it, but I won't be going out of my way to look for such a chance. I've got too many other games that I have yet to play, and that I want to play more.
I do find at least a bit of irony involved in a game about transhumanism that uses old school game mechanics based around a skill and attribute system using percentile rolls (one of the reasons it's probably not for me).
In many ways this game reminds me of Shadowrun. Mechanically, this is because of a similar initiative system, but there's more to it than that. Cyberpunk was cutting edge science fiction when Shadowrun first came out. Transhumanism is a major part of much science fiction today.
The subtitle on this book is "the roleplaying game of tranhumanism conspiracy and horror." If we accept that as a mission statement, I think it does an excellent job of getting across the transhumanism. There are a lot of interesting concepts here, from identity to economy.
There are conspiracy and horror elements, but neither is emphasized much throughout the book. The background contains elements of horror, but that's either in the past or largely confined to quarantined areas. They don't really get emphasized until the GM's section, and I see that as potentially problematical for players as they won't necessarily be looking to play a horror or conspiracy game, unless they focus on the subtitle, or it's emphasized in character creation by the GM.
Overall the world building is interesting and anchored (as far as I can tell), in reasonably solid science. I did get a chuckle out of a couple of things though. Most notably that the authors have killed off Christianity for being too inflexible, but have allowed the Muslim religion to survive. I'm not going to slam or praise either religion, but I think the authors may need to revisit their own prejudices if they truly think that the Muslim religion is more flexible in its belief system. I think it far more likely they would share the same fate, whether that be extinction or survival.
My opinion of the game might improve if I ever get the chance to play it, but I won't be going out of my way to look for such a chance. I've got too many other games that I have yet to play, and that I want to play more.
F***ing amazing. I dunno what else to say. The system may not be the very best I've ever seen, but the setting blew my mind with its awesomeness. This WILL be played sometime
Fascinating setting. Atrocious system. Potentially amazing stories get lost in the crunch.
Part of me loves the hell out of Eclipse Phase-the setting is freaking amazing transhumanist post-apocalyptic existential horror cyberpunk.
On the other hand, I have some problems. The d100 system is... workable, I guess, but the skill list not particularly inspired, which is a problem given that you have to spend 700 of 1000 character points on it.
For RPGs, a big question is always "what do you do?" Kill monsters and get treasure; lounge around being depressed and drinking blood, get screwed over by some corporate Mr. Smith douchehole. In Eclipse Phase, the default setting has you as agents of Firewall, a distributed intelligence agency/conspiracy that preserves transhumanity from existential threats. While I haven't read the GM guide, Firewall appears to send poorly equipped agents on suicide missions. Not much fun there.
A second question is the materiality of the setting, and this is another area where Eclipse Phase falls short. Okay, minds are software, bodies can be bought off the rack, and everybody lives off of nanoreplicators in space, but I think there should be a more serious engagement with the value of information vs kilowatts and reaction mass, the dangers of high-powered weapons in glorified tincans, and how polities fragment when point-to-point travel takes months, and low bandwidth communication takes hours. The Solar System is big.
That said, kickass setting in a lot of ways, great presentation, and the book is free. What do you have to lose?
On the other hand, I have some problems. The d100 system is... workable, I guess, but the skill list not particularly inspired, which is a problem given that you have to spend 700 of 1000 character points on it.
For RPGs, a big question is always "what do you do?" Kill monsters and get treasure; lounge around being depressed and drinking blood, get screwed over by some corporate Mr. Smith douchehole. In Eclipse Phase, the default setting has you as agents of Firewall, a distributed intelligence agency/conspiracy that preserves transhumanity from existential threats. While I haven't read the GM guide, Firewall appears to send poorly equipped agents on suicide missions. Not much fun there.
A second question is the materiality of the setting, and this is another area where Eclipse Phase falls short. Okay, minds are software, bodies can be bought off the rack, and everybody lives off of nanoreplicators in space, but I think there should be a more serious engagement with the value of information vs kilowatts and reaction mass, the dangers of high-powered weapons in glorified tincans, and how polities fragment when point-to-point travel takes months, and low bandwidth communication takes hours. The Solar System is big.
That said, kickass setting in a lot of ways, great presentation, and the book is free. What do you have to lose?
Fascinating setting. Atrocious system. Potentially amazing stories get lost in the crunch.