Eclipse Phase RPG, downloadable PDF Options

[KarmaInferno]

This is why moving heavy things in zero/low gravity is potentially dangerous.

You might be thinking, "Oh, I can swing this car around", but it still has mass and momentum. Try to stop it the wrong way when it gets moving, and you can end up squashed in slow motion between the car and the wall behind you.


-k

[Demonseed Elite]

Quick shameless Eclipse Phase-related plug!

I'm involved in a collaborative writing project for Eclipse Phase called Meltwater. It's basically a boomtown habitat on Mars that is being fleshed out by anyone who cares to pitch in. It's a frontier town sitting on valuable water ice that has become a flashpoint between hypercorporate interests and native terraformers. Anders Sandberg has started to compile the material into a PDF that we'll update as the material grows.

Figured I'd advertise the project to the EP fans on this forum in case anyone wanted to hop in and get involved.

[Fix-it]

thx for the update. saw the project on the EP forums, didn't know you had a pdf out yet.

[Adam]

If you've missed it, our latest adventure, Ego Hunter, is six kinds of awesome: http://eclipsephase.com/ego-hunter-has-landed

[PBTHHHHT]

Exactly. Things not in motion act like there's gravity. As soon as there's motion, they act like it's zero-g. If left for long enough, they will act like there's gravity again, but in slow motion (thanks mostly to air resistance).

Also worth mentioning, things still have mass, even when they don't have weight. You can "lift" a car, since it has no weight, but it takes a long time (low acceleration) because it has so much mass.

Heh, as an aside to the thread topic, I was reading my coworker's old Air and Space magazine the other day, and they was an article about the astronauts having to cope with stuff in orbit, mainly about hygiene. They mentioned about Alan Bean's journal entry on board Skylab, essentially he was having a bad day since while he was peeing, he sneezed. He got launched while spraying, fun times. Basically the article mentioned about astronauts propelling themselves due to sneezes and farts. Heh, it was fun little article, just felt like sharing since y'all were talking about acting in near zero-G.

[Grinder]

I need your help and creative input, fellow Eclipse Phase gamers! I'm trying to write up a scenario for my upcoming game: my group of five characters are the collective owners of a mining ship and currently located in higher Mars orbit (on the edge between Inner and Outer System). One of the characters is the Titanian Explorer archetype of the main rulebook and I woud like to center the next scenario on him to give the player more spotlight (and responsibility). What I need is a good idea on how the group stumbles over an artifact; to whose alien race it belonged to; which other factions would be interested in it; and how a pirate band of uplifts can be brought into the whole mess too (space pirate monkeys attack! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/love.gif) ). I'm sorry if this reads confusing (it's early in the morning), but I'm hopefully getting the main premise across.

[KarmaInferno]

Is the artifact in the shape of a tapered helix?




-k

[Yerameyahu]

Wacky. I didn't realize artifacts of various alien were just lying around in EP, though. I thought you had to use the stargates. The MacGuffin works regardless of details, though. It's just 'valuable', so any faction/space monkeys would want it. Sounds fun. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Grinder]

Yeah, alien artifacts aren't common in the EP universe/ solar system, but maybe one faction lost one somewhere?

[Grinder]

An artifact left behind by the Iktomi, perhaps?

[nezumi]

Are they a merc group, or do other people get to call on them?

Are they actually miners? Do they have other troublesome crew members who might reasonably expected to serve as red shirts?

[Grinder]

They are miners (one of the characters knows how to operate the mining stuff), but work as traders and mercenaries too; usually following their own agenda. They don't have any crew members.

[Demonseed Elite]

Maybe the artifact isn't just hanging out in the Sol system, maybe it was en route somewhere after being brought through a Pandora Gate. The Planetary Consortium's Pathfinder corporation controls the Martian gate. Maybe they found something on an exoplanet and are transporting it to a corporate research facility off-planet when something happens. Your crew of PCs responds to a distress signal or perhaps just stumbles across the ship floating dead through space. There's not just the mystery of the ship's artifact cargo, but also the mystery of what happened to the original ship's crew. Did the artifact cause their demise?

Not to mention whatever corporation was sponsoring the gatecrashing mission is going to want their artifact back. And anyone else who hears about the artifact is going to want it for themselves, whether rival corporations, autonomists, pirates, Titanian researchers, brinker cults, Firewall, whomever!

[Yerameyahu]

Perfect, Demonseed Elite. Mysterious crisis during transport is *classic*. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[nezumi]

A friend arranges a social call. He swings by the station, enjoys lunch, makes small talk. He's been working closely with some gatecrashers through the Love & Hate Gate. He avoids talking about what he's doing so far from 'home', although it is clear he is actually travelling by shuttle, not egocasting.

After the meal, the group's hacker comes up with something odd on the security equiment. The party finds a small pouch hidden in a ventilation shaft. Inside is a strange artifact the size of a peach pit. A tag attached to it identifies it as being from the friend, that it should be kept safe until he can return to collect it. Using microscopy, the skin of the artifact is inscribed with an alien script.

News reports that the friend's morph was found dead a week and a half later on a circulator to Luna, his stack brutally removed. Digging deeper reveals that all of his possessions are mising and the morph was actually surgically opened, although it's unclear why.

How it continues depends on the PCs. The artifact may be induced to begin revealing information. It's a sort of treasure map, except instead of leading to treasure, it tracks the movements of this band of aliens as they were pursued by a highly advanced, automated device pursuing the extermination of their species. That detail is not revealed until later on. The mathematical work of establish routes and locations is much easier, and suggest that there is something at a particular location which the characters may get close to by gate. The artifact was recovered by a private team working through the Love-Hate gate, then purchased (through suspicious circumstances) by Go-Nin before it apparently disappeared. Go-Nin is intensely interested in the artifact, since they already began unlocking the map and believe it leads to more alien artifacts. They are actively pursuing it, and killing anyone in their way. They've hired several bands of mercenaries, including the Band of the Black Hand, a group of primate uplifts.

If a transhuman reaches the artifact, they will discover that it is the genocide device - and if interacted with, it will lock onto the transhuman and begin a campaign to exterminate all transhuman life in the galaxy - something which it is, without question, capable of.

[Adam]

Pleased to announce that Sunward has been nominated in the Origins Awards for Best RPG Supplement: http://www.eclipsephase.com/sunward-nominated-origins-awards

[nezumi]

It's a shame Gatecrashing wasn't considered. IMO, that is the better of those two books (or Rimward, which is certainly going to be the bestest book ever).

[Adam]

Gatecrashing is eligible next year. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[nezumi]

In competition with Rimward. It doesn't stand a chance!

[Grinder]

Panopticon! Don't forget that book!

[nezumi]

No, sorry, Rimward will carry it, assuming it's released in 2011.

(I do admit bias, though.)

[Grinder]

Sounds like someone here contributed to it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[nezumi]

Sounds like someone here contributed to it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Just a little ;P

[Adam]

Hey, nothing stops the same company from being nominated more than once in a category ... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

(although that would split the vote and probably end up being a BAD thing.)

[Grinder]

Rimward Sell Sheet is up. Very interesting, even though the cover left me... meh. Anyway, want Panopticum before - and now! Now! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)