/epg/ - Eclipse Phase General

Everything always operates at the GM's discretion

...

...

Post technologies that should be in the setting but are never mentioned

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helical_railgun

With fabbers, these shouldn't be any more difficult than the traditional straight railgun. Plus, you get a spin-stabilized projectile out of it.

-------------

On Titan, a combustion engine running on stored liquid oxygen reacting with hydrogen and methane in the atmosphere would be an option. The low prevalence of those compounds in Titan's atmosphere would mean it wouldn't work as well as combustion engines on Earth, but this would be partially offset by the very cold atmosphere improving thermodynamic efficiency.

----------------

Lighter than air vehicles would work quite well in the atmosphere of Venus. A vehicle like the one in this video would have no motors or bearings exposed, which would be quite handy in the acidic cloud layers.

youtube.com/watch?v=c3-wIICjAhE

...

They actually mention noisy, unpleasant cars on Titan - utilized by the "Oligarch" bloc of young, political rebels who like to act like Inner System bigshots. I'm not a chemist, what's the exhaust on such an engine? Any environmental impact? They may just find electric easier for groundcars.

The exhaust is water vapor and CO2, plus whatever was in the air that didn't participate in the reaction, just like cars in real life. Electric may well be easier for groundcars, but for aircraft batteries can get awfully heavy.

Well, the passenger jets mentioned in the core run on Methane I believe, they're not wholly electric, though Buggies and Groundcars are. I don't know if the game actually calls out what helos run on, but I assume maybe similar to the planes. Only like, the one-man light planes run on battery.

Well it can't run on just Methane on Titan. There's no oxygen in the atmosphere.

It's probably a blend, similar to an HO engine.

Keep in mind, this is a game which I'm pretty sure still doesn't internally say if Thrust Vector works in vacuum - stuff like this leaves us with two choices, assume something doesn't work even if it seems like it's intended by the game which is weird, or assume there's more going on than an couple of sentences and roll with it.

...

> mfw no shota pleasure pod

...

...

Why's she so sad?

>lighter than air vehicles on Venus
>never mentioned

One of the books describes literal floating cities on aerostats there. I think it's either Sunward or the core book.

Aerostats aren't really vehicles

How the fuck do you write adventures for this game that are not about Firewall or spess cthulhu syphilis or nano-handwavium? I tried and it turns out that most conflicts in my adventures can be solved by an existing piece of technology.
Nanofabrication mostly solves resource shortage, which in turn eliminates most traditional problems, and the ones it's supposed to create fell kinda tacked-on and forced. Death and injury don't really matter much because lolresleeving. Information shortage doesn't really work because lolmesh and lolsensors.

What the hell would a non-Firewall campaign be about? And how do I prevent it from devolving into plucky rebels overthrowing ebil corporashuns and bee-o-con nazis or players just deciding to immediately go to space and masturbate to their 30-flexbot-colony-body?

>Nanofabrication mostly solves resource shortage

What do you make things which are nanofabbed out of. It's not fairy dust.

>Death and injury don't really matter much because lolresleeving.

You looked at cost for healthcare lately? New morphs are like that, but y'know, whole body.

>What the hell would a non-Firewall campaign be about?

Crime, War or Relationships, the things fundamental to humans which never change. We will always fight, we will always fuck, and we will always break some rules to get ahead.

>How the fuck do you write adventures for this game that are not about Firewall or spess cthulhu syphilis or nano-handwavium?
Any non-zero level of creativity. If you want to stay consistent with the stody in the books then you will need to read the books, but this is optional.

>crime, war or relationships
>prevent it from devolving into plucky rebels overthrowing ebil corporashuns and bee-o-con nazis or players just deciding to immediately go to space and masturbate to their 30-flexbot-colony-body?

ok

I mean, if you give the players the presentation where that's things their characters can and would do, and you don't want them to, that's YOUR fucking problem.

>Nanofabrication mostly solves resource shortage, which in turn eliminates most traditional problems, and the ones it's supposed to create fell kinda tacked-on and forced.
Not really, restricting nanofabrication is a legitimate security issue, especially in places rife with tension like mars and luna. Then there's the cost of materials; cybernetics don't grow on trees, neither do cutting edge plasma rifle BPs.
>Information shortage doesn't really work because lolmesh and lolsensors.
Yes it does. Panopticon goes into detail about how to subvert sensors from mapping out blind spots to jamming the signal sensor spimes broadcast into the mesh. Film technology is so realistic that an artist can create a hyper realistic event with matching metadata to confuse anyone. Also keep in mind not all information is put on the mesh, you may need to ask some contacts or phish it out of someone. Finally, just because the information exists on the mesh doesn't mean you're going to find it on the first page of your google search, mars throttles opposing information from anarchists and barsoomians to keep the masses ignorant.
>What the hell would a non-Firewall campaign be about? And how do I prevent it from devolving into plucky rebels overthrowing ebil corporashuns and bee-o-con nazis or players just deciding to immediately go to space and masturbate to their 30-flexbot-colony-body?
First off, Firewall does't just deal with corperations and biocons. If anything, hypercorps have the biggest sphere of political influence while Jovians have the best military, why not run a firewall game from their perspective? Non Firewall games could be something like shadowrun: the PCs are just mercenaries that don't ask questions. Or you can do it like deathwatch except everyone's part of the Jovian military instead of a space marine.

>spin-stabilized projectile
No. You get a helical shaped projectile out of it. It's absolute shit in atmosphere.

A neotenic sylph is just as cheap as a standard pleasure pod.

I suppose I wasn't speaking plainly. You're right that rule zero exists, bravo.
An example of what I meant:
The kitted out private army killteam the party has to face in the context of a really hard encounter ought to live or die by their stats and the outcome of the combat, or propel the story though their victory or defeat with restrained GM fiat. The NPC in the fight are run like NPCs, and unless theres a point to it happening its safe to assume that swat teams have the stats for swat teams, and one guy Isn't secretly Inspector Tequila.
If that is the case, and Inspector Tequila is after the players, then he will be statted to represent his exceptional capabilities and presumably significant moxy, not to represent his position on a SWAT team, and unless he is meant to simply be a particularly difficult fight he will enter or be removed as a character from the campaign as the GM intends the character to participate in the story.

...

...

What the fuck are you even trying to say? Are you sleep-deprived, retarded, drugged, or all three?

Pandora Gate exploration

Jovians wish they were the Ultimates.

>mfw a 250 credit Rocket Pack annihilates virtually everything, but a Scum Barge and Destroyer, in the game

What would be the difficulties of getting an alpha fork in a place where they are illegal (Mars, mostly)? I understand that darknets and black markets exist, but I don't want it to be as easy as rolling Networking to find nearest Black-Mart-for-all-your-criminal-needs, AND I don't want it to bog down the game too much with extra scenes involving NPC contacts and negotiations.

You just need an open access to upload the Alpha Fork.

If there's an underground "railroad" for infugees, it's trivial.

A standard HEAP missile is only 6d10+24, which is 84 maximum.

At 250 creds per shot, it's meh. Still better off with ambushing things with a shredder on full-auto at short range.

A rocket pack does 1d10+4 x70 @ max velocity

in my book it says 3d10 +12

Good luck aiming and accelerating that shit. Especially anywhere with 0.4 g and higher.

Standard missiles have double damage. Listed values are for minimissiles.

That's for a mini-seeker.

Micro-seeker's -1D10 damage

Standard seeker missiles, double the listed DV.

This is the exact reason literally every self-respecting space vessel has point defense batteries. To shoot space junk and rocks on collision courses, at the very least.

You think you're clever. Well, this isn't the case.

Given the luck of dice, going at those speeds is really more a danger to the user than whatever it's going to suicide into.

However, the game probably needs an errata on it, because in the description for shell movement, they say the listed Max Velocity is in K/pH. But in the collision damage rules, they still mention velocity but now in meters.

It needs correcting regardless, and more than likely an upper damage limit. Like say "The max damage of a collision can only be up to the max durability of the colliding object to whatever it is hitting"

I'm pointing out a rule that's a bit buggy for fun user, don't get your GM knickers in a twist.

>buggy rules

We all know that the game is full of holes, exploits, inconsistencies, piss-poor writing and blatant bias. No need to point it out.

The concept is good, and some pieces are great, and it's absolutely possible to have fun, but if it was rebuilt from the ground up by someone who isn't shit at game design it would be even better.

>No need to point it out.

No I must, because pointing it out is where people can begin putting a band aid on the thing.

people don't give a shit or are just too lazy to do that.

You as a GM (or your GM) should tell the players how he want to fill those holes, and thats it.

If you really want to fix this thing, start doing it yourself, using a coherent scheme. Mashing individual fixes together will yield the same shit that the game is now.

No. you get a helical sabot propelling an aerodynamic, spin-stabilized projectile.

>"The max damage of a collision can only be up to the max durability of the colliding object to whatever it is hitting"
But then bullets wouldn't work

Have you not seen the number of 'PF is bad because the rules suck" threads on Veeky Forums? How new are you people?

...

...

...

...

...

Bullets don't follow collision damage rules, nor do they benefit from them. They don't interact at all even now.

Hell, seekers don't either, except everyone talks about shooting them down somehow, even though they have no rules regarding how one shoots down a seeker.

...

...

...

Seekers are scramjets filled with explosives. Might as well try shooting down bullets.

Speaking of. I allowed my players to parry bullets with melee weapons if they have speed 3 or higher and Mental Speed, make their perception tests and have a sturdy enough weapon. 6 per round if speed 3, 8 per round if speed 4, full-auto can't be parried, burst fire eats 3 each. Always at -30 for attacking a very small target. Should I regret this decision?

Naw. Sounds fun. I would allow it with just one bonus speed, but thats because in EP and Shadowrun, I prefer to keep the turns per person down so that one player does not monopolize all of the games time with their 4 turns per turn

Ooh, that's a good system. I'll use it if it comes up. I've always thought about Mental Speed and parrying bullets but never made a solid system for it, and nobody really tried to hard.

...

Sounds super fun.

There's also a psi-power that allows people to read a bullet's trajectory a bit, to the point where it gives a "+10 to the Fray test". Note it does not say skill, so I'm unsure if it's divided in half, or not, against fired projectiles.

I'm pretty sure that's intended as a flat bonus, so it's a +10 on the actual roll, not your skill rating, same as some conditional +/-. At least, I'm pretty sure halving is first, and only affects skill rating.

...

...

idk, it feels like it would complicate the combat mechanics even more, and would just let the player be more arrogant in their actions.

But combat mechanics are not complicated at all.

It's a modifier to the *test*. The book says that the *test* uses only half the skill *rating*, so divide the skill first, apply modifiers second.

more than other games.
i'm not complaining, but is a fact that a turn in EP needs more rolls than other games.

Doesn't it basically boil down to:
1) Attacker rolls to attack,
2) Defender rolls to defend if required,
3) Roll damage if required.

I suppose it's more rolls than a game where an attack has to overcome a static number, where you can fold 1 + 2 together (think: Armour Class), but the basics of combat are fairly straightforward in terms of rolling. The amount of options player characters have and the toys they're bringing to the table can slow combat down a fair bit, but that's the same in quite a few systems.

> space suit stockings
I don't know who first came up with this, but it was a great idea.

>let the player be more arrogant in their actions

What does that even mean?

My point is making players deflect bullets with malee weapons, would make combat scenes longer and/or easyer than normal.
Longer the combat scene, the more rolls you would have to make, the more evident will be the difference between Speed 1 and Speed 3, making player with speed 1, less interested in those scene and making players in general less scared of those scene if there are enemy with bullet weapons.

it means that players would less scared of enemies with guns because they can deflect woth the blade skill instead of half of the fray skill.

...

On the other hand it would give a much needed boost to most energy weapons by comparison.

It requires at least one implant of [High] cost and means to boost their Speed to 3 and higher, which means either more implants of similar or more expensive value, or addictive combat drugs.

It requires a Perception test per each attack, with -20 for disraction and a melee test at -30.

I say it's enough investment to actually pay off. No different from stacking a megaton of armor so the damage gets absorbed anyway.

I'd only say that limiting uses per turn feels artificial. It would be better if it used your next complex action.

>using action phases
>not using multiple initiative rolls

Do you like to torture your players?

how?
for what i remember the big problem of the energy weapon is the damage, all but the plasma rifle that is still a very good weapon even if you cannot dodge bullet with melee.

it requires 2 [high] implants, mental speed and neurachem 2, so an average of 25 cp, if you start with 1000 cp its not that much.

>>It requires a Perception test per each attack, with -20 for disraction and a melee test at -30.
So as i wrote before it would add more rolls so it would complicate the mechanics.

in my game is:

1) roll initiative
2) everybody makes a turn
3) the players with speed 2+ make another turn
4) the players with speed 3+ make another turn
5) the players with speed 4 make another turn
6) restart from number 2

sorry neurachem 2 is [exp], still 25 cp for both tho

So you do like to torture your players.

It's 25 CP per morph. And good luck getting it if you farcast a lot and/or on time-sensitive quests.

And then he comes on to /epg/ to torture us too.

i'm not the gm, every player at the table is ok with it

What did we do to deserve such a punishment?

Okay, we probably did something.

I want to tone down the weirdness of the game, and emphasise the whole "humanity" thing. As in, the more weird your body gets, the less human your mind becomes.

The last time I told my players to make characters for an investigation-intrigue-social game they showed up with exhuman combat monsters. Because Exhuman background gives a fuckton of skills. And I'm sick of it.

So, how should we define the transition from transhuman to posthuman in game terms? When one (being a GM) should draw the line and say "no, fuck you, this is a game about transhumans, and your character is not one"?

I think something along the lines of introducing a Humanity stat which is lowered by sleeving into weird morphs, heavily modifying your current body and doing generally bad things. Maybe connect it somehow with Savvy, Willpower (and Lucidity) and Motivations.

>>good luck getting it if you farcast a lot and/or on time-sensitive quests.

in that case a rule like

would be just useless

Make a Jovian adventure where everyone is in a flat morph.

That is an option. But making all adventures Jovian is not.

>When one (being a GM) should draw the line and say "no, fuck you, this is a game about transhumans, and your character is not one"?

Personally, I've always seen it as a fairly fuzzy distinction that would be best handled through how NPCs interact with the players. I'd rather try and throw consequences at a player for pursuing this, ranging from open distaste on the NPCs to the point where, eventually, other Firewall cells are looking at them and going "hey, um, I think we need to do something about this".

Having a system to define the transition wouldn't be my preferred option, partly because I don't think that the "more weird your body gets, the less human your mind becomes" meshes particularly well with a game where that's really not the case. Mostly because if the problem is players pushing the limits of what they can make by making inhuman combat monsters in an investigation-and-intrigue game, they're likely going to go up to any limit you set anyway.