Interest Check - Eclipse Phase Naughtiness

Started by AnneReinard, January 11, 2016, 10:46:03 AM

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AnneReinard

#25
I feel like you are calling my understanding of the setting into question Reiji. So please do not take this the wrong way as I point out the flaws in your arguments here. I just want to make certain you understand my reasoning behind things is all. This is just the experience I have gotten given repeated runs of the system.

Edit: Oh god, I sounded so bitter up there, please don't hate me for that. Just trying to justify how I've been handling things in the past based on running experience. I'm not that mean!

On Skills: For all skills, multipliers come heavily into play. Aim is a +10. SmartLink is another incredibly cheap +10. Short burst is another +10 (or more damage, but that is a risk you take). There's another multiplier on lasers that I forget the exact number of. Specialization is a CP cheap +10. So it is incredibly easy to bump that 40 up through various force multipliers to the fact that you will auto succeed. Trust me. I've been the player who has done that on a table. For non-combat skills, taking more time is the grand equalizer, making it so that you can typically autosucceed at a normal task.

On Moxie: Oh yes I am using the Moxie Track system if I am using the full rules. It is SO much better than the standard Moxie system. It rewards roleplaying, it is easier to keep track of since it isn't session/adventure based, and it is just plain shiny. Moxie is also easily the most undervalued stat in Eclipse Phase in my play experience.

On Firewall: Firewall recruits whatever Firewall needs at a given time. But you would be Sentinels first, not Erasers. They don't need to hire the world's best hacker. They need to hire a good hacker who has an ideology that will help them wade through shit that would make others cringe and do it for reasons other than money who happens to be at the right place to act against the right threat at the right time. And besides, character creation will always make somebody above average for Transhumans.
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Blythe

I think I'll give this one a pass for now, but I wish you (and those who will be playing) the best of luck! It looks like you've got a wonderful bevvy of writers interested already, and I hope that you get a really great game.  :-)

ReijiTabibito

Quote from: AnneReinard on January 11, 2016, 07:50:16 PM
On Skills: For all skills, multipliers come heavily into play. Aim is a +10. SmartLink is another incredibly cheap +10. Short burst is another +10 (or more damage, but that is a risk you take). There's another multiplier on lasers that I forget the exact number of. Specialization is a CP cheap +10. So it is incredibly easy to bump that 40 up through various force multipliers to the fact that you will auto succeed. Trust me. I've been the player who has done that on a table. For non-combat skills, taking more time is the grand equalizer, making it so that you can typically autosucceed at a normal task.

You're thinking of the 'beam sweep' +10 modifier, which only works for weapons that missed on the first shot.  And yes, there are a number of cheap - or free (in the case of Smartlink, which comes with every weapon) - ways to boost up your score.  I would point out - but you probably already know these - that A: there's a maximum bonus of +60 that can ever be applied, and B: when you take extra time, you need to use 50% of the original time frame per +10.  If you're searching a ship that takes, let's say half an hour, taking an extra hour is worth a +40.  But if you're trying to fix a hardware problem, which is a Task Action with a timeframe of 2 days, that's less useful.  Extra time is only useful when you have the time in the first place.

Quote from: AnneReinard on January 11, 2016, 07:50:16 PM
On Moxie: Oh yes I am using the Moxie Track system if I am using the full rules. It is SO much better than the standard Moxie system. It rewards roleplaying, it is easier to keep track of since it isn't session/adventure based, and it is just plain shiny. Moxie is also easily the most undervalued stat in Eclipse Phase in my play experience.

You and I are going to have to agree to disagree on that one.  WILL can easily be undervalued, despite the fact that in EP, WILL is what keeps you going.  There's very few bonuses for buying up WILL - you get more mental stress capacity, and if you're an async, bonuses to a couple of skills, but that's pretty much it.  You don't even get bonuses for when you reinstantiate, unless you're making a Continuity test (and there's a way to get a big boost on that without boosting WILL).

Quote from: AnneReinard on January 11, 2016, 07:50:16 PM
On Firewall: Firewall recruits whatever Firewall needs at a given time. But you would be Sentinels first, not Erasers. They don't need to hire the world's best hacker. They need to hire a good hacker who has an ideology that will help them wade through shit that would make others cringe and do it for reasons other than money who happens to be at the right place to act against the right threat at the right time. And besides, character creation will always make somebody above average for Transhumans.

No, but they aren't going to want someone who will go to utter pieces after the first job, either.  And yes, minus the (speaking self here) reviled lifepath system, pretty much any way you make your character will ensure they're above the cut.  I just prefer flexibility over speed.  Especially when this is just getting off the ground.

wander

Here's my character, please note the skill levels and Moxie to show I haven't been min-maxing. Also note in some areas he is really kinda awful and flawed, but then there are interesting times to be had with that.
Tbh, I could have created a better character very easily, but instead I went with a character I like to play.

Fox Vaan for everyone. I can change reps depending on what kind of game is being played. Made with standard chargen with normal point amount, no bonus exp or points or anything, he's straight from the box.

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide


Fox was raised as a drifter on one of the first spacecraft swarms to be classed as Scum (people who drift the system in ships, going from colony to colony generally due to being exiled dissidents from the inner system corps though others choose the lifestyle freely or are born into it), he was born in the void of space, having no homeworld. He'd call the ship he was born on home for the first twenty years of his life. Raised on a mixture of Scum and Anarchist ideals, he grew to become involved with his Scum Barge's grey marketeering and smuggling as the swarm drifted through the Belt and Outer system, exiled as their ships were from the Inner system. Fox himself was gifted with an Artful Dodger-like charisma, an analytic mind and the ability to snaffle up whatever physical object took his fancy and drop it off wherever he wanted.

Then the TITANS AI network came and infected his home.

Fox was sent on an emergency Ego-cast for reintegration, which just so happened to be with a beta fork of his persona he had sent to Mars in a Splicer morph (so called as their genes have been spliced to be slightly better than baseline humanity). It was his only choice for survival, the TITANS had already taken over the Mesh server Fox's Barge used to store their ego backups, he could no longer be reloaded if he died or was infected. Already partially infected with a nanovirus from the TITANS, the whole debacle left Fox somewhat unstable, trying to find escapism in simulspace gaming when he could get himself into a server. He was also stuck on Mars and his home ship was long gone.
10 years have passed since then and Fox has come on in leaps and bounds, becoming a member of the Barsoomian movement for martian freedom from corps and getting a good helping of @ rep (the main rep economy currency for the autonomists). Fox survives by doing various smuggling for the Autonomists and with some help from his Muse (who has the programmed avatar of a real beauty) his grey market goods (usually erotic art and adult XP vids) cement his place as somewhat of an icon of the transhuman community today.

Background: Scumborn
Faction: Barsoomian
Morph: Splicer (+5 SAV)
Motivations: +Liberty, +Exploration, -Authority
Gender Identity: cismale
Birth year: 20BF
Morph apparent age: 30 years

Aptitudes
COG 20
COO 15
INT 15
REF 15
SAV 15 (20 in splicer)
SOM 10
WIL 15

Stats
Moxie: 4
Trauma Threshold: 6
Lucidity: 30
Insanity Rating: 60
Wound Threshold: 6
Durability 30
Death Rating: 45
Initiative: 6
Damage Bonus: 1

Positive Traits
Fast Learner (10CP)
Home Turf (Martian City-Domes) (10CP)
Information Control (10CP)
Limber Lv.1 (10CP) = Morph Trait
Murder Sims Addict (10CP)

Negative Traits
Mild Addiction (Mesh Usage) (5CP)
Botched Merge (15CP)
Mental Disorder (Depression) (10CP)
Neural Damage (colour blindness from a TITAN nanovirus) (10CP)
Neurochemical Imbalance (continual feeling of self-loathing) (5CP) = Morph Trait

Rep
@ = 60
c = 40
f = 40
g = 20
i = 40 (r or x in Non-Firewall games)

Skills
Academics (Pre-Fall History) 35 [55], (Biology) 35 [55]
Art (Drawing) 45 [60] + (Writing) 35 [50]
Deception 35 [50]/55
Fray 35 [50]
Freerunning (Jumps) 25 [35]
Impersonation (Verbal) 35 [50]/55
Infiltration 45 [60]
Interest (Scifi) 40 [60], (Old Earth Trivia) 35 [55], (Pornography) 40 [60]
Interfacing 30 [50]
Intimidation (Verbal) 25 [40]/45
Investigation 40 [55]
Kinesics 35 [50]/55
Kinetic Weapons (Pistols) 35 [50]
Navigation 30 [45]
Networking (Autonomists) 45 [60]/65, (Media) 45 [60]/65
Palming 35 [50]
Perception (Tactile) 30 [45]
Persuasion (Seduction) 25 [40]/45
Profession (Smuggling Tactics) 35 [55]
Protocol 35 [50]/55
Research 35 [55]
Scrounging 25 [40]
Unarmed Combat 30 [40]

Gear and Extra Augments
Extra Augments
Enhanced Vision
Enhanced Respiration
Medichines
T-Ray Emitter

Gear
Smart Vac Clothes (1000 credits) with Chameleon Coating (50 credits)
Heavy Pistol (250 credits)
Basic ammo blueprint (250 credits)
--
Dust Repellent (50 credits)
Fabber (1000 credits)
ID Protection (250 credits)
Lifestyle (50 credit option)
Maker (250 credits)
Micrograv Shoes (50 credits)
1 x Nanobandage (50 credits)
Nanodetector (250 credits)
1 x Repair Spray (250 credits)
Utilitool (250 credits)

Muse
Skills: Academics: Psychology 60
Hardware: Electronics 30
Infosec 30
Interfacing 40
Profession: Accounting 60
Programming 20
Research 30
Perception 30
Knowledge Skills:
Academics: Astrophysics 40
Art: Erotic Entertainment 40
Interest: Grey Markets 40

Crash

Yeah for forum games I prefer less crunch than more crunch.  Love the standard for tabletop but not here.  I will back out too.

"Sorry, you must survive at least 3 games with me before we can chat like this."
Congratulations, you've unlocked Flirtatious Crash! - Envious

AnneReinard

True that on extra time. That is definitely something that has to be considered with. But if you are always succeeding at everything, there is no drama, anyway! What is life without a chance of failure?

I do agree with you on the matter of Willpower also being undervalued, but I do think that Moxie is pretty amazing. Going first, flipping rolls, ignoring critical failures, removing all negative modifiers? It is just plain shiny! My thought is that Willpower still has more of a tangible sense to people that it is decent, whereas in my experience I've seen a lot of people rolling around with 1 Moxie. And that is unfortunate.

True, true. They don't want people who go to pieces. But I like the breadth that characters get with the Package system as opposed to the full customization myself. I feel it tends to make more nuanced characters in my experience. Buuuut as I've said, I am open on that regard. It isn't something that would make or break anything.

...in any case, people shouldn't build anything QUITE yet. I'm still thinking about how I want to play this out! Just an interest check at this point! And I need to see if I like the FATE system for EP!
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Kunoichi

Quote from: AnneReinard on January 11, 2016, 08:12:17 PM
...in any case, people shouldn't build anything QUITE yet. I'm still thinking about how I want to play this out! Just an interest check at this point! And I need to see if I like the FATE system for EP!

*quietly shuffles away partially-filled character sheet for AGI hacker*

:P

At any rate, is there really that much of a difference in competence levels between characters the normal way and characters made with Transhuman's package system?  I assume that extreme min-maxing can tip the scale on normal character creation, but if I'm the type to not really bother with buying skills up above 60 during normal character creation in the first place, will there really be much of a difference between that and the package system if I create, say, a hacker with no social skills?

I'm mostly asking out of curiosity, since I've never actually used the package system before. ^^;

AnneReinard

Well, the package system is fairly different. Basically, you have a set number of Package Points you fill out first that give you broad groupings of skills based on background and specialties. Then you customize further with I believe 100 CP (I'm being lazy and not checking the book).

Ultimately, it comes up to the same thing, except since you can't stack skills from the packages directly, you end up having to spend only bonus CP on that, which reduces the amount that can be funneled into skills over 60 in particular. It also ends up encouraging a bit more breadth than the average player will go for.

Buuuut it doesn't kill anything.
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wander

It's just for me buying starting gear is as much as a pain as it is for me in Shadowrun... Too much money and hundreds of very cheap items, it's a pain to choose...

If I have to make another character, then I'd rather it be a FATE one where I don't have that issue (I hope, haven't read the rules yet). I don't mean to be That Guy, I just find gear buying a total bastard in this game and I don't ever want to subject myself to it again if I can help it.

ReijiTabibito

Quote from: AnneReinard on January 11, 2016, 08:23:09 PM
Well, the package system is fairly different. Basically, you have a set number of Package Points you fill out first that give you broad groupings of skills based on background and specialties. Then you customize further with I believe 100 CP (I'm being lazy and not checking the book).

Ultimately, it comes up to the same thing, except since you can't stack skills from the packages directly, you end up having to spend only bonus CP on that, which reduces the amount that can be funneled into skills over 60 in particular. It also ends up encouraging a bit more breadth than the average player will go for.

Buuuut it doesn't kill anything.

When you build with the Package System, you get 10PP.  Packages come in four types - Background, Faction, Focus, and Customization.  You have to buy packages from Background and Faction to make a valid character.  Packages are worth 1, 3, or 5 PP - though Customization packages are always 1PP, and there are no 5PP packages for Faction.

After you spend your 10PP, you get 100CP (yes, that's right) plus anything you gain from Negative Traits, to further customize your character.  As note - your Morph comes out of this 100CP, so if you want that Ghost Morph, be prepared to take Negative Traits or not have a whole lot of gear on-hand.

As Anne said, you can't stack skills from the packages directly - and if you gain a skill from two different places, then the book encourages you to swap one of those out for another related skill.  Example: both the Argonaut Faction package and Genehacker Focus package offer Networking: Scientists.  You can technically stack skills together, but it's clear that the book only recommends you do that with the exact same skill, and even then, they tell you to swap out rather than stack first.

Kunoichi

Quote from: AnneReinard on January 11, 2016, 08:23:09 PM
Well, the package system is fairly different. Basically, you have a set number of Package Points you fill out first that give you broad groupings of skills based on background and specialties. Then you customize further with I believe 100 CP (I'm being lazy and not checking the book).

Ultimately, it comes up to the same thing, except since you can't stack skills from the packages directly, you end up having to spend only bonus CP on that, which reduces the amount that can be funneled into skills over 60 in particular. It also ends up encouraging a bit more breadth than the average player will go for.

Buuuut it doesn't kill anything.
Quote from: ReijiTabibito on January 11, 2016, 08:31:10 PM
When you build with the Package System, you get 10PP.  Packages come in four types - Background, Faction, Focus, and Customization.  You have to buy packages from Background and Faction to make a valid character.  Packages are worth 1, 3, or 5 PP - though Customization packages are always 1PP, and there are no 5PP packages for Faction.

After you spend your 10PP, you get 100CP (yes, that's right) plus anything you gain from Negative Traits, to further customize your character.  As note - your Morph comes out of this 100CP, so if you want that Ghost Morph, be prepared to take Negative Traits or not have a whole lot of gear on-hand.

As Anne said, you can't stack skills from the packages directly - and if you gain a skill from two different places, then the book encourages you to swap one of those out for another related skill.  Example: both the Argonaut Faction package and Genehacker Focus package offer Networking: Scientists.  You can technically stack skills together, but it's clear that the book only recommends you do that with the exact same skill, and even then, they tell you to swap out rather than stack first.

It sounds like running normal character creation and the package system alongside each other won't really cause any problems unless we have a hardcore optimizer at the table, then.

...Which means I should probably retire the Async AGI Hacker idea and check out the package system a little more thoroughly, since I think I'd actually be the one most likely to cause those sorts of issues. :P Though, if we do wind up going with the Fate version of the rules, perhaps I could dig said character concept back out again and see how well it maps to those rules, instead?

ReijiTabibito

Shouldn't, no.  Generally speaking, it's in the best interest of a character to go broader rather than specialize, anyways.  On average, you're getting around 4-7 Rez a game, with maybe a couple of extra points for RPing or other major plot stuff.  The math just makes more sense to have your character have a bunch of skills that sit around the 50-60 range, rather than invest them all into skills and bring them up to 70-80 range, and then need to spend all your Rez bringing skills below 40 up to snuff.

I know when I build characters, I usually make sure I get whatever skills I consider critical to the character up to 60, and then add in a few more, before I start pumping them up to the 2:1 range.

There is also the Complementary skill thing to consider, as well as remembering that your Muse (who possesses quite a few skills) can always provide that +10 Teamwork bonus.

Hexed

Meep. Lots of chatter on here. :D

I've only used a pregen myself so while I don't know much about the character generation I do know a lot of decent skills helps over one or two specialized ones. Bad rolls happen even with high as crap skill rankings! And you'd be surprised just what comes up during a mission.

As far as casings go one of the ideas proposed did seem like the GM would assign bodies instead of letting one choose. Unless I miss understood the whole newly resleeved refugee bit. :)

AnneReinard

Nah. I wouldn't assign bodies to people. It musses a bit too much with how character creation goes out.

I would create a scenario which might motivate people's choice of bodies and how they justify it. I'm still thinking of a story to start from - I was just poking to see if there was even interest in Eclipse Phase to begin with and was QUITE pleasantly surprised.
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Vercile


AnneReinard

Nice seal!

In any case. Looked over Transhumanity's Fate to get a feel for how that looked and think that it might be worth giving it a go if people were sufficiently interested. With that being said, I want to get a feel for how many are interested and what is dealbreakers on either side, so have a strawpoll!

http://strawpoll.me/6519300
Ons and Offs

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wander

Voted... Interesting results so far.

That said, I have to make up a character using Transhuman, I may drop interest. I don't mind playing with FATE, but gear purchase is too much of a pain for me using the EP system.

AnneReinard

Yay for more votes! In any case, I DO have to ask about this because I am a little confused.

Both Package and Standard character creation involve the same rules for purchasing gear (with the exception that Package also has some gear packages you can just flat buy with CP).

Is your problem specifically with the FATE implementation of Gear Stunts, if I am understanding correctly?
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Kunoichi

Quote from: wander on January 12, 2016, 01:55:14 PM
Voted... Interesting results so far.

That said, I have to make up a character using Transhuman, I may drop interest. I don't mind playing with FATE, but gear purchase is too much of a pain for me using the EP system.

Don't worry, I'm sure the GM will let you use the character you've already got made, if we use the standard Eclipse Phase rules.

Although the thought also occurs that, if we do use the package system, you could always just work out how many points your current gear is worth and then set that exact amount aside for gear, and use the rest to use the package system and build something as close to your character as possible...

Quote from: AnneReinard on January 12, 2016, 02:13:50 PM
Yay for more votes! In any case, I DO have to ask about this because I am a little confused.

Both Package and Standard character creation involve the same rules for purchasing gear (with the exception that Package also has some gear packages you can just flat buy with CP).

Is your problem specifically with the FATE implementation of Gear Stunts, if I am understanding correctly?

I think his issue is with spending hours going through the big, long lists of gear in the standard Eclipse Phase rules and trying to pick out gear from there that is both useful and fitting for his character to have.  He did it once and would prefer not to have to do it ever again, if I'm reading his statements right.

ReijiTabibito

Gear is always a frustrating thing to do in Eclipse Phase, especially if things like egocasting are utilized regularly in the course of a story.  The GMs basically tell you to invest your points and Rez in software and nanofab blueprints and stuff that can travel with you, as well as in your skills and rep scores.  Kunoichi knows this story because I told it to her once, but there was a campaign where players were encouraged to design their own character, gear and all - and the first thing the GM did was have everyone who couldn't justify being there already egocast to Venus.  A little over half the party basically lost every CP they had invested into their morph, augments, and physical gear - two of them only got it back late-gate, when the story moved to the Belt, and the one guy from Titan never got the opportunity to use his stuff.

And yeah, okay, you can use favors to get gear and augments, as well as arrange for a body - but do you really want to use your favors on stuff like that?

One GM I ran across had an interesting way of handling the issue of 'leave all your cool gear and acquisitions behind' - the story was largely set Belt-Sunward, which meant that credits were a viable way to acquire stuff.  He basically gave his players a black-ops budget, and occasionally they would run heists and pull other tricks in order to replenish their budget.  The one big one I remember is they ran across an illegal Fa Jing operation, and basically stole the entire remaining budget for that project - a little less than half a million credits - and that carried them for the game.

Angie

Bahhh, Eclipse Phase, I love it too much. Still room?
Avatar is by Lemonfont. Will remove it if he asks me to.

Come check the Cyberpunk Images Thread!

wander

Quote from: AnneReinard on January 12, 2016, 02:13:50 PM
Yay for more votes! In any case, I DO have to ask about this because I am a little confused.

Both Package and Standard character creation involve the same rules for purchasing gear (with the exception that Package also has some gear packages you can just flat buy with CP).

Is your problem specifically with the FATE implementation of Gear Stunts, if I am understanding correctly?

As Kunoichi and Reiji mentioned, it's the massive lists of gear, all of which are silly cheap which makes choosing even harder in the EP corebooks. If I have to make another character using Packages, I'm gonna have to pick gear again and doing that damn sucks for me.

I haven't read the FATE rules yet, but I'm gonna. I guess there is the point of totalling up how many CPs my gear comes to (I believe it's the minimum starting cash amount) and then fiddling with Packages so I don't have to relook through Gear lists again.

AnneReinard

Ah! Then I understand in that case a little better. I was under the impression that it was an issue with the FATE gear set-up, since your statement was immediately preceded by mentioning FATE.

...it is a bit of a nuisance. Which is why I always buy so many blueprints instead. Whee!
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ReijiTabibito

Blueprints are useful to have, since it means you permanently have gear anywhere you go, but there are a number of complications.

A: blueprints always cost one pay grade higher than whatever you're buying.  And in some cases, the cost isn't necessarily clear - especially, to me, in the case of smart rounds.

B: you need to arrange to either have a nanofabber and feedstock on hand through Networking, or have it on hand wherever it is you go.  And that's assuming the nanofabber you're using will let you make things like guns or other potentially illegal-by-the-polity items.  Otherwise, you have to hack the fabber.

C: depending on where you start, you may not need to buy blueprints at all.  The Argonauts have piles and piles of open-source blueprints for a ton of things - Kunoichi will be able to remind me if I've got this wrong - a campaign I know of started on Gerlach, which is the primary Argonaut station on Venus.  They basically got their hands on the blueprints of anything they thought they might conceivably need at the time, all for free.  (Yay Argonauts!)

wander

I believe also the feed for the nanofabber never got a price, plus it never gets mentioned until Transhuman came out...

...My character has a nanofabber. They're actually not too badly priced as is.