Let's debate it: is it genius, or is it junk?

RPGpundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;429346Let's debate it: is it genius, or is it junk?

RPGpundit

There are only two possibilities?

-clash

It's really good, if you have a big enough brain to ignore the parts of the background that you don't like.

Neither. Like the majority of it's brethren, it floats somewhere in between...

Seanchai

Yawn....


Call me when this thread gets past the one liners...

Depends on if the setting floats your boat or the rules work for you really otherwise it's probably gonna be of zero interest to you, kind of like 99% of rpg's in that regard.

The genre just doesn't fit my brainspace, so to me it's junk. That is no reflection on the game itself though - i just don't get transhumanism.

Nitpicks about projecting current political climates directly into the fluff aside, it's pretty average, IMO.  The combat mechanics seemed clunky and there wasn't a lot of "Wow" factor there for me, either in terms of system or setting.

But I do give the team massive props for releasing the corebook under Creative Commons.

It's certainly the best and most playable transhuman setting in the market right now.

If you don't like the genre, odds are you won't like the game, though. I have yet to meet a gamer who likes transhuman SF who didn't love EP; and I know of at least one gamer (me) who was sold into the genre by EP.

Come to think about it, EP feels very White Wolf-ish to me. Characters are members of a conspiracy (Firewall) fighting other conspiracies (Project Ozma, terrorists, the Exsurgent virus) with Kewl Powrz (transhuman tech and/or psi), against a background of apocalyptic urgency (extinction hangs over transhumanity like the sword of Damocles). I find this a Good Thing as it offers my own gaming group an easy handle on the setting.

Honest question -- what makes it so playable/interesting from a game perspective?

Granted, I'm one of those people who came into the hobby hating RPG fiction and related books, so I tend to focus more on the mechanics than I do on the fluff.  I prefer to draw inspiration from novels and stuff.

Eclipse Phase didnt click for me. Dont know why though. I admit its a well thought out transhuman setting (and a very playable one, at that).

But Id rather play Transhuman Space (deep beyond), Blue Planet or Freemarket anyday.

Closer to 'genius' than 'junk'... I don't think I've ever played 'junk'.
 
It was the first transhumanist game I'd played (I'd read Transhuman Space wayback when)... and it was pretty trippy trying to take on that mindset.
Very much a horror game from my point of view... unpleasant in the way playing a vampire ought to be but never was.

I'm not a system junkie but I thought it was pretty smooth in play, it reminds me a lot of BRP... the mechanics faded to the background for the most part and when they did come up they felt intuitive (one player had arguments with certain details but I think he was a 'special case').

The Character generation was slow for us newbies but I think it'd be a LOT faster once we got a grasp on the possibilities... it felt like there were quite a few options, which I like.

Depending on the players/GM I can see how it might risk falling into a rut of being played as a sexed-up cyberpunk game... which wouldn't be all that bad... but I think it has potential beyond that.

Quote from: Peregrin;429471Honest question -- what makes it so playable/interesting from a game perspective?

Granted, I'm one of those people who came into the hobby hating RPG fiction and related books, so I tend to focus more on the mechanics than I do on the fluff.  I prefer to draw inspiration from novels and stuff.

Q: How do you challenge transhuman characters, who can switch bodies to cheat death, and create goods out of thin air with nanoreplication?
A: You raise the stakes.

EP posits a fractured transhumanity, and a clandestine organization rallying elements from distinct, often diametrically opposed factions, to fight against extinction-level threats, namely a quasi-Lovecraftian unfathomable nanotech horror that is the Exsurgent virus.

There are "soft", non-mechanical restrictions on resleeving, because with the destruction of Earth, both living space and physical bodies are at a premium. And nanoreplication is similarly constrained by the lack of desktop transmutation, and/or the availability of nanomanufacturing templates (the book describes a terrorist cell acquiring templates for plasma bombs and gutting an habitat, a scenario which just screams "adventure hook!").

The setting is very well-developed, and draws a lot from transhuman SF (Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space and Richard K. Morgan's Altered Carbon are to me the most immediately recognizable influences).

I've got the free copy, and I really want the print book. There is just so much stuff there I want to read and re-read. I'm not sure I like the system. (I'm someone who liked Transhuman Space, but would adapt it to Big Eyes Small Mouth to run it.)

Of course I liked Centauri Knights even more. (Not quite transhuman-space.)

Quote from: The Butcher;429524Q: How do you challenge transhuman characters, who can switch bodies to cheat death, and create goods out of thin air with nanoreplication?
A: You raise the stakes.

EP posits a fractured transhumanity, and a clandestine organization rallying elements from distinct, often diametrically opposed factions, to fight against extinction-level threats, namely a quasi-Lovecraftian unfathomable nanotech horror that is the Exsurgent virus.

There are "soft", non-mechanical restrictions on resleeving, because with the destruction of Earth, both living space and physical bodies are at a premium. And nanoreplication is similarly constrained by the lack of desktop transmutation, and/or the availability of nanomanufacturing templates (the book describes a terrorist cell acquiring templates for plasma bombs and gutting an habitat, a scenario which just screams "adventure hook!").

The setting is very well-developed, and draws a lot from transhuman SF (Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space and Richard K. Morgan's Altered Carbon are to me the most immediately recognizable influences).

Love Alastair Reynolds.