In the Shadows of Olympus [Eclipse Phase FATE, Non-Con: Exotic] [Closed]

[ThisOneGal]

Eh, roll with whichever you like more. I'd personally go with the more focused one, but that's me.

Hmm. One thing we should try and figure out is how you actually attack with explosives. The playtest guide is all over the goddamn place when it comes to doing it. Sometimes its Athletics for grenades, Shoot for missiles, Hardware for mines... maybe. Other times it's only Athletics. Then sometimes it's Hardware is only for creating explosive related Aspects, if you want to lay traps that's Infiltration. It's a goddamn crazy circle where every skill says 'to do the thing, don't use this skill, use another skill', and then that skill says to use the previous skill...

I tend to be super flexible on this stuff when GMing (both in general and 'cause it's FATE; how you're killing dudes is less important than why you're killing dudes), so I'd just rule with 'use whatever makes sense at the time', but I dunno how comfortable the GM is with that.

[Kunoichi]

Alright, I went with the more focused version, then. ^^

And true, the explosives rules are definitely all over the place.  Hopefully they wind up fixing that in the final print version of the rules.

[AndyZ]

This is my first Eclipse Phase character, so suggestions and help are more than welcome.  The basic concept which has jumped out to me is a futanari Fury who handles the bodyguarding.

Alias/Name: Krysta

High Concept Aspect: Defender of Friends and Transhumanity

Trouble Aspect: Not good at minding her own business - When people are getting hurt, it's not uncommon for her to jump in without thinking.

Other Aspect 1 / Other Aspect 2: Furious and Passionate - Krysta can be easily led by her emotions, whether by lust, a strong desire for justice or an urge to keep her friends and transhumanity safe.  Although she's not too easily provoked by being attacked herself, going after her friends will rapidly get her attention.

Unflinchingly Loyal - Krysta never sways from her duties, and expects her friends and allies to treat her in exactly the same way.  She's lost more than one Morph to save allies, but never even saw it coming the few times she's been betrayed.

Skills: 25 Skill Points to spend, per Fate Core, capped at +4. Distribute at will!

+4: Shoot
+3: Athletics, Somatics, Provoke
+2: Credit, Eye Rep, Fight, Notice
+1: Rapport, Willpower, X-Risks, Xeno-contact

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Spending Refresh: You start with 6 Refresh and must spend at least 2. You must also have at least one Refresh remaining. This can be on the following.
Morph: You have to choose a Morph anyway, it might cost Refresh. Each Morph gives you free Morph Stunts equal to the Refresh value. You could also have a backup morph - this costs 1 Refresh to buy the slot for the Morph and then whatever the cost of the Morph is.
Ego Stunt: A stunt that always stays with you, as in standard Fate Core rules. You MUST choose at least one.
Morph Stunts: Spice up your morph with some MORE stunts that change when you swap the body out.
Gear Stunts: For particularly shiny pieces of equipment, but easier to swap out than other things.
Skill Points: You can have 2 more Skill Points for 1 Refresh. This cannot exceed the +4 cap.

Fury Morph - 1 Refresh

Free Fury Stunt: Reflex Boosters

Non-Lethal Combat - Gain a +2 on Fight actions when fighting to subdue your opponent, be it in hand-to-hand or with less-lethal weapons like eelware implants and shock batons

Muse: Krysta's Muse is named Smiley, a floating yellow smiley face.  He has Infosec +2 and Investigate +1.

Kinks: Krysta is really only interested in females, and does a terrible job at attempting any sorts of actual relationships.  None of that seriously affects her lusts, though, and most people who end up with her understand that a serious relationship isn't going to form as a result.

Background

While I'm not 100% I understand the background well enough to give an in-depth story, my idea was that she fits the aspect of Firewall that naturally wants to keep transhumanity safe.  She's loyal and obedient enough to go whenever she's needed and has likely seen a lot of combat as a result.

Currently working as a bodyguard for prostitutes is easy enough to piece together, especially combined with the non-lethal stunt just using martial arts to knock/throw out unruly patrons.

[wander]

Thanks for the advice. :)

I'll edit my Morph aspects given what was mentioned, also I know there isn't FTL comms in EP, my first sort of concept was to have my character pilot the pod from being an infomorph but I suppose I used wrong wording.
They are actually sleeved into their pod when they enter the system proper and are inside the body. If it was cheap enough to have the pod as a secondary morph, I'd work the concept more to allow for an egocaster, though instead I went with the story of how they become a Robin Hood figure for the clanking masses and gained rep points. So they're good when it comes to egocasting and getting bodies. This pod they're currently in is just their favoured model for when they're in-system.

The censored Trouble was kinda a joke... I was deciding between using the word 'nose' or 'dick', because I knew they'd do both and wanted Aspects about it... So I threw them both together... I very nearly put in [REDACTED] to make it kinda more fitting... I may still do that. ^^

I'm gonna say the Fabber is a hacked one, like Kunoichi mentioned.

Okay, editing my Morph Aspects presently. :)

[Kunoichi]

This is my first Eclipse Phase character, so suggestions and help are more than welcome.  The basic concept which has jumped out to me is a futanari Fury who handles the bodyguarding.

Your basic character concept is to provide the group's muscle, then?  Your skill and stunt choices definitely look like a good start for that, but I think that your aspects could probably use a little work.  Figuring out more about how your character ties into the setting could help solidify your character concept and give a little more direction and definition to work with when coming up with aspects, so...

Places of Interest: Mars

Mars is the headquarters of the Planetary Consortium, which is essentially a government formed from a number of corporate interests that gained power on Mars after the Fall.  Characters with a specialty in combat on Mars are likely to have a background as a member of a corporate security force, a mercenary group, a criminal group, ties to the Barsoomian Movement that fights to overthrow the Consortium, or possibly some combination of all of those different options.  To give an example, 'Ex-Mercenary Turned Bodyguard' could easily work well as a high concept aspect for your character, or something like 'Too Idealistic for the Criminal Life' might work for your trouble.

Looking a little more closely at your character sheet, I will note that Eye Rep +2 and X-Risks +1 both suggest that your character has some level of experience as a Firewall agent.  I think that Xeno-Contact +1 isn't likely to be a good fit with your overall character concept, though, because that's more of a 'scientist who studies long-dead alien civilizations' sort of skill than anything else.  You could replace it with Medicine +1 to have basic first-aid training, perhaps?

Similarly, Rapport +1 implies that your character has basic talents at negotiation and seduction.  I could see that working for you, but at the same time I also think it might be more fitting to have Civ Rep +1 instead, representing that you have a few old buddies and friends on social networks that you still keep in contact with and can occasionally call on for information.

Finally, you also get two Morph Aspects that you haven't filled in yet.  The first one is called the core aspect and has to include the morph's actual name in it, along with some descriptor denoting the morph's actual condition.  'Futanari Fury' could easily work for that one, if you wanted.  The second one still has to be related to the morph, but it can be a little more freeform.  You've already got an ego aspect relating to aggression, so perhaps something based around being particularly tough or strong...

[AndyZ]

Kunoichi, thank you very much for the suggestions ^_^ I'm definitely looking to fill in the muscle role, since we seem a bit lean there.  Just in case things go bad, not because I want everything to become a bloodbath.

I'll read the others over in detail, but you're very right about Xeno-Contact not fitting at all.  Civ Rep also seems like something very useful, though I missed that that was different from Eye Rep on my initial read through >.>

I do plan on giving her a little bit of Rapport, though she won't be great at it.

I'll read over everything, but just wanted to say thanks first.

Oh, also: I could easily see Krysta being down and bummed about something, and end up being dominated by Antimony ^_^

[wander]

For Aspects, whilst I'm not the best, I try to make them double-edged, so they can benefit and cause hassle for my character based on how they're worded. Your trouble fits that too, something that will cause hassle but also something you can say is a benefit to an action in a pinch. In that regard, your Other Aspects are pretty good, I think.

The furiously passionate one can be good for facing and seduction, but also it compels your character to dive in without thinking things through. Your Unflinchingly Loyal one is one that can cause great drama if something comes up that will lead you to question your loyalty, though I think figuring out what that thing is for Krysta may make a better Loyalty Aspect in that regard.

I was thinking perhaps 'Shield for those she loves' may make a good High Concept, with 'Shoot first, ask questions later' as her Trouble, or something worded in your own way similar to those maybe. :)

Then yeah, like Kunoichi mentioned, write up your Morph Aspects and if you pick a second Morph Aspect, you can get 3 additional traits for your augments.

Hope that all helps. :)

[Kunoichi]

Ah, and speaking of adding on additional morph traits, I just added basic Martian environmental mods onto my character sheet.  I don't want to get too much in the way of body mods because I get the feeling I'll be getting my body shot out from under me in the first big firefight we get into, but basic environmental mods seem like a prudent thing to pick up.

[wander]

I figured Mars was okayish, it's winter cold there and low on oxygen but shouldn't need traits for being in a settlement really.
Rusters just have temp tolerance and enhanced respiration. The real problem is a lower level of oxygen (winter clothes and a nice big warm coat and scarf can deal with the Martian temps), I know that I've usually gone with characters that have Smart Vacc Suits to cover it, though unless we're heading into the wilds and have a need for the kinda stuff an Alpiner packs augment-wise, I think you could be fine. Being as we're all on Mars as for the campaign, I figured being able to breath properly on planet would be a given.

[ThisOneGal]

I figured Mars was okayish, it's winter cold there and low on oxygen but shouldn't need traits for being in a settlement really.

Low atmospheric pressure is the 'real' killer of Mars; while a baseline human could maybe survive the cold for a short period of time ('Warm' is about 100 degrees below freezing), the Martian atmosphere may as well be hard vacuum to a normal human. You won't need traits if you're inside a sealed hab of some kind (unless it's one that's less hospitable than Mars), but if something goes wrong or you need to go between habs in a hurry you'll want mods.

You can probably get away with just Environmental Adaptation (Vacuum) if you're pressed for traits; in the core rules it supplants pretty much all other environmental mods. In the FATE system, my interpretation of that is more Low Pressure+Cold represents the ability to live on Mars without issue, Vacuum represents the ability to spacewalk for a few hours. So with Vacuum, you'll be able to run around just fine, but if you have to trek across teh Martian wilderness without a suit you won't last a Martian day.

I know that I've usually gone with characters that have Smart Vacc Suits to cover it

Yeah, vacc suits should be trivially easy to get, buuut chances are people will be shooting at you when you really need them to work.

So yeah, while you don't need the Environmental Adaptation traits, you get three for free, so you may as well use them.

Alias/Name: Krysta
High Concept: Defender of Friends and Transhumanity
Trouble: Not good at minding her own business
Other Aspect 1: Furious and Passionate
Other Aspect 2: Unflinchingly Loyal

FATE Aspects are more art than science, but here are my suggestions/advice. Keep in mind, this is my advice; it's your character, so you should ultimately go with what works for you.

One of the things mentioned in the FATE rules is that Aspects should be evocative; instead of Bad Manners, try The Manners of a Goat. As a guideline, when Aspects should make you go 'Yes! I want to invoke that!' so you'll do stuff where you can get yourself in a position to use them.

As has been mentioned, you'll also need two Morph aspects.

High Concept: Bodyguard and Protector
The 'of friends and Transhumanity' feels clunky for an Aspect. Bringing up 'Bodyguard' also ties in a whole bunch of other stuff that 'Defender' doesn't; Bodyguarding is a profession/role, so you can invoke the aspect to know stuff about doing that/have experience with it.

Trouble: Hero Complex
This is shorter and more interesting, I think, but also explains why she jumps in without thinking.

Other Aspect 1: Lead by the Heart
As you said in your description, she's led by her emotions. That's a much more evocative. Also, by using 'Lead' instead of 'Led', we can make lead-as-in-bullets puns with it, which implies a whole bunch of other fun stuff.

Other Aspect 2: Loyal to a Fault
Aspects are more fun/useful if they're double edged. You've got this nailed with your description, but it doesn't really come through with the wording. Could also try 'Unquestioningly Loyal', or perhaps 'No Concept of Disloyalty'.

Morph 1: Futanari Fury
Normally the sex of a morph wouldn't be noteworthy. However, Fury morphs in the setting are mostly female, so a non-female Fury is an oddity (not rare, but unusual). Also, 'futanari Fury' was literally how you described your morph, which suggests it's the most interesting thing to you about it.

Morph 2: ???
For this, we need more backstory. Things to think about: How did you get the Morph? What do you think about it? What is it's history? Is it famous/infamous?

As another note, you've used 2 or your 6 Refresh. I would suggest spending another 2, or at least keeping something in mind. FATE Core rules say that if you can't think of a good Aspect/Stunt to take a chargen, you can wait until the game is going. In fact, it suggests doing that over setting everything up in the beginning, so don't feel like you must spend Refresh now.

[Kunoichi]

I picked up the environmental mods myself mostly due to a combination of having them as that extra safety net and because I imagine that they're fairly common on Mars.  I actually am thinking that Harley is pretty much in a stock, unmodified pleasure pod morph, and she just picked up a variant model out of some catalog at the body bank, or something along those lines.

Mostly, I'm just trying to make sure I don't get too attached to this body, since as I said before I'm expecting to lose it if we get into a fight. :P

[ThisOneGal]

I'm planning on hanging onto my body, partly 'cause I'm lazy and don't want to look for more images, but also because I like the idea of that being one of Red's issues. She's already messed up in the head from the Lost Project, having her body get all shuffled around won't help things. Doubly so since she's an Async, and Ayncs don't handle non-biological brains very well.

[Kunoichi]

In Harley's case, I imagine that she can swap around to different pod morphs without too much trouble, both because that's the sort of runtime environment her programming was originally optimized for and because she's already used to doing a lot of swapping from her criminal career.

She won't do well in either full-bio or full-synth morphs, though, due to a combination of her AGI and async features.

[wander]

Mars isn't that cold, ThisOneGal btw... It's noted in the fiction to be around 20 below most days, worse in the winter (then it probably does go to -100 om a cold night out of a settlement) and at a warm midday it's +7 to +8 degrees. That's still hella cold and it's noted even Rusters need heavy winter duds, but it's warm enough to get by.
But I myself have spent winters in my house with no heating at -10 for days and sure, I was near wearing a big ol wooly hoodie near 24/7 and shivering my ass off, but it's survivable at that level at least for sure.

As mentioned, the environmental adaptation is the real killer.
I'm kinda bummed, as those three traits I chose are ones I really felt fit my character's concept of being a hacker, especially the last two. Though in the actual EP rules, Mnemonic Augmentation is included for free in a cyberbrain though it didn't seem the case here. That's a damned useful thing to have and I'd most likely swap that out for environmental aug if I knew my character's cyberbrain covered it.

[Kunoichi]

If it helps, you could probably just wear a vacsuit and still be reasonably well-protected.  Alternately, aren't T-Ray Goggles, or at least a handheld T-Ray scanner a thing in the setting?  And you do have a nanofabricator, so...

[AndyZ]

Thank you all ^_^

For Morph Aspect 2, I'm thinking Too Sexy For Her Own Good.  That'll have positive aspects in seduction and drawing attention, and negative aspects when she draws unwanted attention.

Did I read correctly that you get a free Ego Stunt?

Wander, you mentioned 3 free traits for your augments.  I know I get essential biomorph traits and a free morph stunt, but what does that part mean?

[ThisOneGal]

Mars isn't that cold, ThisOneGal btw... It's noted in the fiction to be around 20 below most days, worse in the winter (then it probably does go to -100 om a cold night out of a settlement) and at a warm midday it's +7 to +8 degrees.

Derp. >_<

If it helps, you could probably just wear a vacsuit and still be reasonably well-protected.  Alternately, aren't T-Ray Goggles, or at least a handheld T-Ray scanner a thing in the setting?  And you do have a nanofabricator, so...

Specs/Viewers give you pretty much everything vision-wise you could get from implants. They don't have some of the more fancy emitters, but they do have a T-ray emitter in them.

[ThisOneGal]

Thank you all ^_^

For Morph Aspect 2, I'm thinking Too Sexy For Her Own Good.  That'll have positive aspects in seduction and drawing attention, and negative aspects when she draws unwanted attention.

Did I read correctly that you get a free Ego Stunt?

Wander, you mentioned 3 free traits for your augments.  I know I get essential biomorph traits and a free morph stunt, but what does that part mean?

So, the way we've figured out Stunts/Refresh to work is like so:

You have 6 Refresh to spend on stunts and such.
You have to spend at least 2 points, and have to have at least 1 point left. So, spend 2 to 5 points.
At least 1 point has to be spent on an Ego stunt.
Your morph has a Refresh rating. You have to buy at least as many stunts from its Morph Stunt list with your refresh. (So a Fury with 1 Refresh needs to buy at least 1 of: Armor, Enhanced Senses, Medichines, Reflex Boosters, Structural Enhancement)

Morph Traits are on pg. 45. Basically, they're sub-aspects that don't give you mechanical bonuses, but allow you to do stuff you would otherwise not do, or invoke your Morph's Core Aspect for other stuff. So, since your Fury has 'Essential Biomorph Traits', you could invoke 'Futanari Fury' when using the Biomods, Mesh Inerts, or Cortical stack traits.

[wander]

Okay, I'm swapping out the T-Ray Emitter for Enhanced Respiration, which the Ruster has and that morph is what near everyone has on Mars. I can always have my guy in-game seek open source blueprints for sight based stuff on the Mesh to nanofab. My guy will be in winter duds at the start, though they could always be Smart Clothes, y'know for the option to look cool and sexy. ^^

[AndyZ]

Rereading everything, would Credit or Civ Rep be more likely to be used on the default setting of Mars?  The two seem really similar, and it's hard to tell exactly where one ends and another begins for me.

[ThisOneGal]

Credit will probably dominate on Mars. Civ Rep is much more useful for the outer system/autonomist habitats.

“Once upon a time, there was a planet so incredibly primitive that its inhabitants still used money. That planet is called ‘Mars.’”
—Professor Magnus Ming, Titan Autonomous University

[wander]

I still went with Civ Rep as it's more fitting to my character... It was a toss up, though. On the plus side, I fig you can use Civ Rep on the Mesh when dealing with snagging things from the Outer System to download... Plus there are some autonomists that happen to claim Mars as home, so Civ Rep does have it's uses still.

[AndyZ]

Currently thinking this:

+4: Shoot
+3: Athletics, Somatics
+2: Civ Rep, Credit, Eye Rep, Fight, Notice,
+1: Medicine, Provoke, Rapport, Willpower, X-Risks

May change as I continue hammering things out.

If my futanari fury morph is destroyed, do I need to have an Infomorph to remain conscious, or does a digital self count as sort of the norm until I get another body?

[ThisOneGal]

If my futanari fury morph is destroyed, do I need to have an Infomorph to remain conscious, or does a digital self count as sort of the norm until I get another body?

If your fury is destroyed, you are dead. But it's not the end!

If we have a copy of you somewhere, we can fire you up as an infomorph on a server somewhere or just upload it straight to a new body (assume we can get one).

Even better, if we can recover the cortical stack from your fury, we have a version of you that remembers everything right up to and including your painful, traumatic, grisly demise!

Even better, if we can recover your fury, we can dump it in a healing vat for a few days and you'll get it back!

So yeah. If your morph is destroyed, you're rendered, like, super unconscious until we do something about it. But being an informorph is almost totally free.

By way of analogy:
Your mind is a piece of software. Like, say, a really huge word document.
Your consciousness is what happens when the file is open/running.
Your morph is the computer it's running on.
Your cortical stack is a really, really tough portable backup drive.
And if you have backup insurance, you have a copy of you on a server somewhere else that's kinda out of date but better than nothing.

[AndyZ]

Appreciated ^_^ I knew most of that, but what I mean is: if I pay the refresh point for an infomorph, can I just swap to that after dying and hang around as an e-ghost until I can get another body?  And do I need to pay a refresh point to get that?

By this point, Krysta will kinda see dying as another experience inherent to existence, even if she doesn't remember it every time.

Edit: Honestly, she's probably died a few times in unusual ways just to see what it was like.

But let me do a multiple choice to better explain the question:

A.) If Krysta's Fury Morph gets taken out, she can instantly pop to a backup of her Ego onto an Infomorph.  Doing so costs 1 Refresh.
B.) As above, but doing so doesn't cost a refresh.
C.) You can't just jump to a backup so easily.