Eclipse Phase

You've taken too many negative traits. RAW only allows -50 points worth, while the ones you've picked have a total of almost 100. You'll find that in an actual game you'll only be able to roleplay and make a small handful relevant anyway, so pick whichever ones are most important to the character and use those.

Remember a lost gets two Mental Disorders, and Psi 2 would require a third one.

> –Self-Control
that's a red flag if I ever saw one.

>You've taken too many negative traits.

SHIT. I swear to fucking god I scanned over the fucking book three times trying to find a limit, but I couldn't find one. That's frustrating as hell.

There's nothing on pg. 145 (when the section on Traits starts) and there's nothing in the beginning of the Character Creation section or in the outline on pg. 130.

Another check reveals that the note on the limitation of 50 points is apparently buried between the Background/Faction Section and the start of Motivations.

I had been focusing on detailing the character and it's concepts (of which traits are potentially a major part) before I started putting points into skills and so based on the concept.

Well, shit, this really throws a wrench into the works. Gon' have to take this up with my GM. I think he's missed that too.

Maybe he'll let it pass if he sees that I'm not min-maxing shit. There's also some things I really took just because I thought it fitted, like Hyper-Linguist, even though I don't intend to make him a Linguist.

But at the same time, I always understand when people want to stick to the pure rules, especially in the beginning.

>Well, for an Async, +/- Self-Control and +/- Neurodiversity are always interesting angles, usually relating to how an async feels about themselves and their abilities.

He doesn't give much of a fuck about Neurodiversity as he's practically an anti-tumblrite and a normie-lover (he'd probably be a Jovian if the Jovian Republic wasn't such a ridiculous, ham-fisted boogey-man in the fluff, and if the Jovian Republic wasn't so ass-backwards when it comes to humans; as long as the human form is preserved in it's essence, Callahan does not mind, so Exalts, Mentons, Futuras, Fausts, etc, are still essentially human to him).

But Self-Control. That's a really great one. Now, my fuckup with the Traits may make this go away (which is frustrating), but originally he's got Combat Paralysis, and hate himself.

>Remember a lost gets two Mental Disorders, and Psi 2 would require a third one.

Yeah, but I'm still way, waaaaaay over the limit, easily over 100 points Negative and Positive. I was currently sitting at:

Positive Traits:
Psi 2 (-25 CP)
Psi Defense 2 (-20 CP)
Psi Chameleon (-10 CP)
Math Wiz (-10 CP)
Hyper Linguist (-10 CP)
Fast Learner (-10 CP)
Potent Mind (-5 CP)
Exceptional Aptitude (INT) (-20 CP)
Expert (Investigation) (-10 CP)

Negative Traits:
Mental Disorder (Hypocondriac) (Psi trait 2)
Addiction (Major, Neem) (+20 CP)
Combat Paralysis (+20 CP)
Poorly Socialized (+10 CP)
Socially Graceless (+10 CP)
Debt, level 3 (+30 CP)
Bad Luck (+30 CP)
Incompetent (Protocol) (+10 CP)

That's 110 Positive and 130 Negative. Fucking hell. It all sorta worked together for the character, too.

>mfw

Well, the traits you get from your background (The Psi 1 and two mental disorders) don't count, because you don't pay for them, nor does the third you get when you buy Psi 2 for 5 points.

That said, yeah, you need to lose some traits. Hyperlinguist and Math Whiz can basically be implanted, and Exception Aptitude is very expensive for little benefit to you directly. Bad Luck and high Debt give a lot of points back, but might not be required thematically.

>Well, the traits you get from your background (The Psi 1 and two mental disorders) don't count, because you don't pay for them

Yeah, that's why I didn't list them. I've got them sorted elsewhere in the notes, and count those under combined Advantages/Disadvantages from Background & Faction.

>That said, yeah, you need to lose some traits.

Yeah, for Positives, I can reliably (although reluctantly) cut:

Math Wiz (makes me sad, though; him being a bit of a damaged savant was part of the concept)
Hyper Linguist (lel)
Psi Defense (nice, but honestly, I took them to be le psyker)
Psi Chameleon (same)
Potent Mind is debatable. I'd really like to have it, just because it's about punching things with my mind, when all else fails, but I'll live without it.

I really want to keep Psi 2, Fast Learner, Exceptional Aptitude and Expert, though. Still, that's a lot closer to 50 points.

For negatives, it's harder. The Addiction to Neem ties into one of his mandated mental disorders, Combat Paralysis is practically a thematic necessity by now, as is his Debt.

I could lose Bad Luck, because I took it because I want him to just be fucking unlucky, for the lulz, but the compound social incompetence is also pretty important to the character concept by now.

And arguably, having too many Negative Traits is more of an issue than too many positive, since you get CP:s from it. I'd consider taking them at no CP bonus, though, if that's OK with the GM, when push comes to shove.

There's really no way out of this other than talking to him when he gets on. Thanks for bouncing ideas, though.

>- Self-Control

Most motivations comes with.. a motivation. What could possibly be the motivation behind having -Self-Control as a motivation?

An uptight AGI that really, really needs to loosen up, kick back, and relax, and it knows it, yet feel unable to do so?

Well, what's the motivation or goal with +Self-Control? You obviously have something about the self you need to hold back or be in control of, maybe muster some discipline.

Well, if you're a crazy async, you could just as easily be "no, fuck you, I do what I want". You're not playing a stable or rational person (and we can argue plenty of people aren't stable or rational without Psi) why do your goals and motivations need to be rational? That said, actually being -Self-Control can easily be a stepping stone to classic "Chaotic Neutral I whatever because chaos" characters, it should be reserved for characters who actually have say, something going on they could be in control off and make a decision to not be. Like somebody who choses to solve all problems with psychic powers.

I guess it comes down to what you think of Motivations. I think of them as something the character pushes for or wants to achieve, or things that keeps them going.

-Self-Control to me suggests someone that actively wants to lose control, not just someone that is a loose cannon or someone that happens to be chaotic neutral.

I agree that it's a stepping stone to the classic herp-derp chaotic stupid characters, though. It risks being someone that actively does shit just because it's random shit, and it's a very odd thing to have as an actual motivation, but I guess it could work for sincerely insane characters that actively want to wreak havoc or believes in some demented form of chaos theory.

>it should be reserved for characters who actually have say, something going on they could be in control off and make a decision to not be. Like somebody who choses to solve all problems with psychic powers.

That's just it, it's.. I guess it comes down to what you think Motivations are. I would say that someone that is in control of something but chooses to let go is just irresponsible, and have poor self-control; it's still odd to *pursue* poor self-control, I think.

>Like somebody who choses to solve all problems with psychic powers.

But either you think that's a good idea, thus it's not poor self-control, but merely a questionable decision, or you know it's a bad idea but do it anyway, meaning you're an idiot, not someone with poor self-control or pursuing poor self-control.

I dunno, maybe I'm just having a hard time wrapping my head around it.

Motivations do clearly have goals tied into them (As achieving them gets you bonus RP), and they can be short term or long term, but the game text itself says they do not have to be a specific outcome, but can also be your personal ideology.

A character with -Law And Order does not necessarily have a specific outcome in mind. Rather, they will act to oppose people or things that represent law and order, and will probably do so regardless of context due to their personal beliefs. A character with -Self-Control as an ideological point is driven not to engage in self-control, and proactively probably only works if the character has some kind of addiction, disorder or behavioral problem which would push their emotions or impulses into situations where normally people would exert "self control".

Fucking newfags.

>A character with -Self-Control as an ideological point is driven not to engage in self-control, and proactively probably only works if the character has some kind of addiction, disorder or behavioral problem which would push their emotions or impulses into situations where normally people would exert "self control".

Fair points.

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>Anyone played this piece of shit right here?
If only every general started on such a high note

Well, it's kind of in our style.

Math Wiz and Hyper Linguist are also implants, so drop them unless you're doing a poorfag campaign. Exceptional Aptitude and Expert are almost always unnecessary, as a morph that is cheap enough to not gib you at the start usually limits your aptitude anyway, and complimentary skills will make up for the need for the extra points in your skill of choice.

Negative traits. Wow. Your character is functionally retarded and not fit to be an agent.

Psi Defense, Psi Chameleon, and potent mind are all good, but are for different types of characters. Psi Chameleon is good for anti-Async offense, Psi-Defense is good for anti-Async defense, and Potent mind is good for ignoring armor against biomorphs, so full frontal assault asyncs. Trying to do everything will make sure that you can't do anything well.

Also, bear in mind that, as an async, you would do well to have some sort of negative trait that well defines your relationship with Cognite. Somehow, I doubt that Cognite settled for letting your character go for a large unpaid fee, so Debt III is silly. Enemy or Black Mark are common. Anyway, you can roleplay being socially retarded to the extent that your traits suggest, but your companions won't exactly be too thrilled with it, especially when you're deliberately causing plans to fail because you're doing so.

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>Math Wiz and Hyper Linguist are also implants, so drop them

I hate this line of thinking. You should pick traits because they fit the character and is a part of it, not pass on them because you can get them as implants.

The "don't get that character trait, you can buy equipment later that does the same thing" is complete min/max faggotry.

>a poorfag campaign.
Well, he's got a 3rd-rank Debt. That's 60k credits and another 3d10 x 500 credits in weekly interest. And a major drug addiction.

Well, if you're so strapped that you've like, spend double your trait allowance, the "if you really want this effect you can replicate it with morphs/implants" carries some decent weight. You only get so many traits, gotta pick which makes the most sense for your character,

>Somehow, I doubt that Cognite settled for letting your character go for a large unpaid fee, so Debt III is silly.

That's.. that's really not for you to decide. If it makes sense for the character.

An unknown number (of an unknown original total) of The Lost was released into the general population, and by the time they realized they were all asyncs and tried to round them all up again, many had been arrested or died, and yet more entered lengthy resocialization programs and therapy, and many just flat-out disappeared.

In my case, I'm one of the ones that did everything I could to keep my head down to avoid the witch-hunts that ensued, and in dodging manhunters and being trafficked cross-system, amassed a massive debt to the russian Vory on Titania.

It has nothing to do with Cognite "letting your character go for a large unpaid fee", don't be retarded.

>Negative traits. Wow. Your character is functionally retarded and not fit to be an agent.

>Anyway, you can roleplay being socially retarded to the extent that your traits suggest, but your companions won't exactly be too thrilled with it, especially when you're deliberately causing plans to fail because you're doing so.

You're being a drama queen. All Poorly Socialized does is impose a -10 to social skills when you meet someone for the first time, and Socially Graceless let's the GM fuck up one social interaction of which the character takes part, once per session, and Incompetence (Protocol) makes you useless in that one social skill, Protocol.

Hardly something earth-shattering that'll consistently and *deliberately* fuck up the party like some chaotic stupid or functionally retarded gimmick-character.

You really do sound like a min-maxing faggot that is trying to win the game somehow. Goddamn.

>Monolith.png

Well that's just horrifying.

I guess that's on Luna? Nice. We're going to Luna. In fact, we're starting there.

Yup.

Good times.

I'm not sure if it's anywhere in particular, it's just one of many pieces of art of freaky shit in X-Risks.

Where do the Ultimates fall on this?

Top-right, right on that line there.

>Where do the Ultimates fall on this?

Ultimates seeeeem to be big on personal freedom, and prefer to concern themselves with.. well.. themselves, rather than enforcing social structure or norms, even though they hate the decadent and unfocused.

I sincerely wish there'd be something like a mash-up between the Ultimates and the Jovian Republic (but slightly less stupid and shallow).

But I guess that'd appeal to too many people and end up making the setting a bit more shallow, but it's not like the writing is stellar to begin with. There's a lot of ham-fisting in-between the good bits.

That's just the Rajputs. They're ultimates who don't use any advanced gear. Almost everything is "analog" and they're not networked digitally at all.

>That's just the Rajputs. They're ultimates who don't use any advanced gear. Almost everything is "analog" and they're not networked digitally at all.

I didn't realize there were different flavours of Ultimates. I was just going by the sample Ultimates character and the section on Ultimates in the core rulebook.

Where is it possible to read more? Is there a section in some book that's good?

It's scattered throughout all of them. I forget which books the Rajputs are originally mentioned in. There are three main flavours of ultimates. Exceptionalists just want to fuck off and start their own civilization and leave humanity to rot. Overhumanists want to exterminate all genetrash. Iconics wants to be teachers and role models for the rest of transhumanity.

Rimward and Firewall are probably the best. Rimward describes a lot of their ranking, philosophy and I'm pretty sure handles their internal politics, and then Firewall talks about their subgroups who explicitly fight x-risk type shit; Rajput and Purifiers.

Rimward and Firewall have all the info.

The Rajput are practically the Ultimate inner circle. They're self-perfected warriors who are all veterans of the Fall or another combat with the TITANs. (Notably, the proto-Rajput won the only victory against the TITANs in Beijing). They're ultra self-reliant and specialize in environments where no tech can be truly trusted.

The Purifiers are another faction, they're extra militaristic, and have cut their teeth fighting the Rorties and other Exhumans in the extrasolar war being fought through the Discord gates. They're kind of like Space Marines, with a big warrior brotherhood and honor and exceptionalism going for them. Possibly my favorite faction of them.

What's up with the Rortians anyway?

Any genersl advice for someone setting up their first EP campaign?

>Overhumanists want to exterminate all genetrash.
Mah niggers.

Thanks for all the info, it's really helpful, getting a feel and idea of the universe.

>Space Marines

I've been thinking about that. There are combat morphs, but it's almost weird to me how the archetypical space marine is absent from the biomorph line-up. Or at least, none are depicted as such.

Either way, if something happens to the ego of my first character or if the campaign dies or reboots or something, I'm almost definitely going to roll up an Ultimate next time around.

All this talk about them made them feel a lot more like a credible foundation for something, and as long a they stick to the idea of humanity fuck yeah, I'm all for it

Who needs the faux-democratic Jovian Republic of Bush-ites and Francoists, when there's an aspiring imperium of actual potential fascists just around the corner, and who aren't ass-backwards regressives and reactionaries?

Oh, by the way, I have a general question: when sleeving into a new ("human") biomorph, is it possible, thematically/fluff-wise, to maintain a degree of.. self?

As in, let's say I'm legit a Futura. I was born that way. Or a Hazer, or Ghost or Fury. You get the drift.

And let's say I want to upgrade. But I don't just want to pick any random clone or stock option available, I want the morph to essentially be.. "me".

Is that something that is doable, or does that sound retarded, not in the spirit of the universe, or just plain odd?

Obviously certain aspects of yourself *would* change, no matter what. Sure, you were born/grown a Futura, but if you would create such a thing as a Hazer and sleeve into it, it'd still be more slender and with lighter muscle structure.

I guess, to condense the question; is it possible to use yourself as a basic template or genetic foundation for subsequent "human" biomorphs?

Sure, though depending on the morph, such bases would be reduced to cosmetics.

Why would anyone take Morph Traits on creation? Once the morph dies, those CP:s are lost, while Ego Traits, Aptitudes and Skills lasts as long as your ego. No?

>the archetypical space marine

Take the Ultimate faction, start with a Remade Morph, and take the Enlarged Size morph trait (10 CP) and Tought 3 (30 CP).

Genetrash includes the Jovians.

Well yeah, but that would probably just boiling down to having their faces all look the same.

>I guess, to condense the question; is it possible to use yourself as a basic template or genetic foundation for subsequent "human" biomorphs?

I'd imagine that it'd cost a fair bit extra if you wanted it to match your original genetics - you've got to grow your biomorph, which adds time, and you're presumably going to want to keep it in storage as well, which adds additional costs. Personally, in my game, I'd keep that sort of shit as the purview of the fabulously wealthy, who can afford the luxury of maintaining a fleet of perfect genetic replicas of their original body stored across the various places they visit and do business at.

On the cheaper end of the spectrum, bodysculpting is a Low cost cost cosmetic mod, which is a far more affordable option if you're absolutely desperate to make sure that every human-ish morph you sleeve into has red hair, green eyes and giant testicles, or whatever it is your character finds maintains their sense of self across resleevings. Getting a cosmetic mod or two is one of those things that I've generally assumed most NPCs do, to help them be "them" rather than just looking like an off-the-shelf / fresh-out-the-vat Serrano Splicer (Model TG-12af).

In the course of your normal Firewall sort of game, though, you're probably going to have to sacrifice that desire for morphological purity on the bloody altar of This Mission Has Gone Tits Up And We Need New Bodies Right Now.

Synth-using psychosurgery-happy exhumans with their own gate empire. See pdf for details.

>why political compass is shit
>image is the same graph at an angle

Is that official in any way, or completely homebrew? Sounds cool, either way.

>In the course of your normal Firewall sort of game, though, you're probably going to have to sacrifice that desire for morphological purity on the bloody altar of This Mission Has Gone Tits Up And We Need New Bodies Right Now.

Well, as it is, we in fact *are* going to be playing what I assume is "your normal Firewall sort of game", at least based on what the GM has been telling me.

He's also told me that owing to my traits (all of which he accepted) he's going to fuck with me so bad it's hilarious. We joked that he won't need a DMPC (I've always hated DMPC:s and I always joke that every major character of his is a DMPC) because he'll live vicariously through tormenting me with my Bad Luck and my massive, gargantuan debt.

I'm sure that resleeving like mad is going to do wonders for my debilitating psychological condition.

>Genetrash includes the Jovians.

Well. According to Ultimates, yeah. Fucking flats. Filthy and unclean is what they are.

The Ultimates don't fall on the spectrum properly since they're a cult, not a government. Ultimate-run habs where non-Ultimates are allowed don't really exist, so there's no real way to tell.

What traits did you go for? I'm always hoping that my players will willingly saddle themselves with some extra CP and roleplaying opportunities via them, there's a whole load of them that I've never got to play with.

The closest I've got to weirdness from players was seeing a chap who wanted to take the "Lost Fork" negative trait (from Transhuman) and the "Wait, That Was You?" (from Panopticon), with the idea that he and his now missing fork were the stars of the briefly viral "Two Sylphs One Cup" video. He ended up changing his mind, which is a shame, because I had this sub-plot worked out where his missing fork was kidnapped by a bizarrely rabid fan of the thirty second clip, and was looking to make a sequel.

This is the whole thing about Eclipse Phase. You first have to buy into the Ego-Morph dichotomy, that there is a "you" that is separate from your biology, that if you start in morph a, sleeve into morph b for a while, and then sleeve back into morph a, you're the same person you were before, more experienced. Apparently, the biological differences slightly influence your proclivities and disposition, but there's some baseline that's always there.

Now, this isn't scientifically sound, but this is the axiom by which the setting is built.

As long as your total physical equipment expenditure is equal to or less than the average of your group, then you're fine. In past discussions, people seemed to agree with the suggestion that the 40 CP morphs seem to be made as intended starting morphs, so I'd say that the intended total physical equipment expenditure in your average campaign is 42.5CP, including the worth of starting credits in CP.

What kind of campaign?

There was a Rortian mega-Fenrir in X-Risks. So it seems they've been canonized.

They also use the term zeroes for people like the Jovians or hyper Corp slaves.

Actually, what do the Jovians think of the Ultimates?

>My character is good at math, so he should have the Math Wiz trait
:^)
Seriously, though, it's something that should be rather rare as a natural ego trait, but it's something that scientists have been able to replicate with bioware, and mental augmentations are "extremely common". It's not about min/maxing. It's about not being such a snowflake. If anyone's a munchkin, it's the guy who took 100 CP of positive traits and 130 CP of negative traits.

>well, he's got Debt III and a major drug addiction
A poorfag campaign as in a traditional cyberpunk campaign where you're all in cheap morphs with lemons and obsolescence and shit, have no or little access to advanced technology, and are fighting against the Man.

What's the best weapon for a frontline combat character? Sniper rifles and assault rifles would be my first assumption.

If the memes here have taught me anything, the math says dual SMGs with hollowpoints out damage literally any other option.

That said, the particle bolter has always been my personal favorite.

Sniper rifles are not front-line.

They seem pretty devastating form any range.

That's because it's left up to your gm to assign negative modifiers for stuff like trying to room clear with a twenty inch barrel.

It's an adaptive reactive barrel made of space materials. Don't abstract the rules too much or you end up with SR4e.

>It's about not being such a snowflake.
I'm usually all about not being a snowflake, but Eclipse Phase seems to be all about being a snowflake. I even edited my character portrait specifically because I felt the base portrait I was using looked like too much of a normie - so much of a not-snowflake that that, in itself, became snowflake-y.

That being said, I don't think the character comes across as a snowflake at all - or at least not more so than most others. RAW-breaking aside, I think it all ties nicely into a well fleshed-out background, while avoiding being some super-unique thing.

True, The Lost can be considered snowflake-like, because there's not that many of them (comparatively speaking), but the more I look at character creation, the more I think Eclipse Phase is actually lacking a bit when it comes to Backgrounds. They're all incredibly generic or incredibly specific, and there's not really that many to choose from. Choice of Faction is mildly better.

>If anyone's a munchkin, it's the guy who took 100 CP of positive traits and 130 CP of negative traits.

110 Positive, actually. Hr-hrm. Not that it makes things better.

That being said, does the setup come across as munchkin-y? I don't think so at all, but I also have no hands-on experience with the system. I'd consider it munchkin-y if it's building towards being overpowered in some way, maybe even game-breaking (or attempted game-breaking), but I don't feel like anything I picked was munchkin-like. Hell, I was even prepared to ditch the free CP, just to get the negative traits anyway.

Fortunately, I worked things out with my GM and after some thinking he said it was all OK, but that he's going to be fucking around with me a lot, have me do favours for the mob, basically force me to steal shit during ops just so I can pay my debts, and fuck me over with bad luck. Honestly, best-case scenario for me, because it means my character gets integrated into the game.

If they wanted you to be that snowflakey, they wouldn't have put the cap on positive and negative traits at all, besides the negative morph trait cap, which is there to discourage frail syphilitic dwarf flats that you dump at game start for a synthmorph you fab up.

>judges snowflakeness solely based on the number of traits

I found a hard cover copy of the rulebook sitting around a bookstore in Tokyo right next to the section where they keep the porn manga.

I was going to pick it up, but it was like 7k yen (around $70) and decided not to.

Any sort. I'm more looking for tips mechanically or with the broad setting; things a first-timer will mess up.

Visually a Bruiser Morph is probably most similar, but an Enlarged Size Fury is probably closest in terms of everything else. Remades aren't quite dedicated combat morphs after all.

There is a Security Pod variant called space marine, but they aren't very 40k.

I think that first turned in Gatecrashing.

Frontline combat where? Hidden Concern Enforcers aren't going to use any of the same gear as the Solarian Defense Force for an extreme example.

...

>Ultimates seeeeem to be big on personal freedom, and prefer to concern themselves with.. well.. themselves, rather than enforcing social structure or norms, even though they hate the decadent and unfocused.
Depends on the subgroup. The Overhumanists are the most prominent of the subgroups of Ultimates, and they are also the most likely to become an existential threat. They believe in the use of force in eradicating the weak, rather than simply ignoring and abandoning them (as the Exceptionalists desire to do).

But then there are the Iconists, who believe it is the duty of the Ultimates to help others in becoming more than they are. Fear of progress is itself a genetic flaw that they must help eradicate.

They're the closest thing to a friendly public face in the Ultimates. Their version of "liberals"

>talk to a new friend
>they have a homebrew hard sci-fi setting with transhumans and friendly extrasolar intelligences
>mfw they want to love Eclipse Phase but it's too dark for them

And because they're curious, can you have a furry morph?

Yes. Cosmetic biosculpting is easily available.