Cyberpunk/Transhuman Group (Interest Check, LGBT friendly)

[vanTheMad]

Hullo, E!

Based off of an idea I recently posted in the Solo Roleplays board, I thought it might be interesting to expand to a group game, and decided I'll check to see if anyone is interested.

I've recently started getting into Eclipse Phase, and its system of different and diverse "morphs" and backgrounds/factions really piqued my interest in terms of roleplay. While I would be hoping to use the Eclipse Phase setting, or an otherwise similar one, I would not be looking to run this in the actual system itself. The manual is free to download under the Creative Commons license, so even if you're not already familiar with the game or setting, if you've got an interest in cyberpunk/sci-fi/transhumanism, I highly recommend checking it out.

The idea for this game would be that we would be a collection of characters who are put into a situation where they would have to interact, such as a long space-flight or being selected for some special mission, inhabiting whatever morphs you see fit (either directly from the system or of your own design, though, for obvious reasons, kindly do not select the Neotenic morph, or otherwise create any morph which is similarly akin to an underaged character.) Because of the array of morphs available, it is possible for this game to include furry-esque morphs or similarly non-human morphs, but I personally would prefer to avoid that outcome.

Kindly chime in below to let me know if you'd be interested in a game like this, and if there's enough interest, I'll get a rudimentary character sheet going to start getting approvals in.

Character Outline Guide

Name: Pretty straightforward. Eclipse Phase allows for enormous diversity in names, so don't feel restricted on this at all.
Age: How old is your character? Bear in mind that longevity treatments are a thing, and you can swap out your body for a new one, so really this doesn't mean much, as you could be 80 and look 21, but it might help other players understand your character's worldviews.
Gender: Gender and sex in a transhuman world, especially the world of Eclipse Phase, is difficult to define. I would recommend that this simply be your characters personal view on their gender, and if their morph is a different sex, you can list that here as well in parenthesis or something.
Sexuality: This, like gender, is a lot more blurred in the world of Eclipse Phase, as physical sex is so fluid; changing from a man to a woman to something in between is simply a matter of being able to obtain a morph of the desired gender. We'll keep it relatively simple here though, and let you decide how much you want to write in this slot.

Background: The group you were born into or come from- these are more of your history or homeworld, while your faction is typically a more recent affliation. They begin on pg.131.
Faction: The group you're most closely affiliated with. They can be found on pg.132.
Morph: Your starting body, can be found on pg.139 of the manual. They come in four types (biomorphs, pods, synthetic morphs, and infomorphs), and have a number of subdivisions from there. For now I'm recommending avoiding the outright non-human morphs, as they likely may not appeal to the group as a whole.

Bio:  Any history, personality, appearance, etc., that you are interested in sharing with the group to help them get a feel for your character. Essentially, this is the "catch-all" section that the other headers don't necessarily cover.

Postive Traits: This is probably going to be optional but I think it would be really fun if players pick one or two Positive Traits from the Eclipse Phase manual (pg.145) that their character might have.
Negative Traits: As above, probably optional but could be fun for roleplay purposes- try picking a negative trait or two from the manual, (pg.148) just to spice things up a little. Really though, neither of this are required, just thought they would be fun to try.

Likes & Ons: Don't view this or dislikes as purely sexual or kink-based; what kinds of things is your character interested in or about? This can extend to kinks as well though, obviously.
Dislikes & Offs: Same as above; both for things they dislike kink-wise and personal dislikes.

Code Select Expand

[float=right][img height=300 padding=5]Image link here, though this is totally optional.[/img][/float]
[b]Name:[/b]
[b]Age:[/b]
[b]Gender:[/b]
[b]Sexuality:[/b]

[b]Background:[/b]
[b]Faction:[/b]
[b]Morph:[/b]

[b]Bio:[/b]

[b]Postive Traits:[/b]
[b]Negative Traits:[/b]

[b]Likes & Ons:[/b]
[b]Dislikes & Offs:[/b]

Characters:

• Reagan Hierro - Van the Mad
• Fox Vaan - wander
• Cielo- Riveda
• Evangeline Bailey- A Japanese Dane
• Lyscaris Hasi- Angiejuusan
• Kari Duran- KaylaM
• Tankred- Cold Heritage

Profunda Paradiso OOC

[Angie]

I was quite sold on this game, and then I saw this:

Brought to you by the team behind the changes of Shadowrun Fourth Edition

TAKE ALL OF MY MONEY EVER!

So yes I am quite interested. I love this idea!

[vanTheMad]

It's phenomenal and also free! I wouldn't be looking to run the actual system per se, but the setting just has so many cool ideas for characters!

In the Solo request I did, I already have a loose character concept but the real fun for me is always making someone who complements the larger group as a whole.

[Angie]

Okay I love it already. So much awesomeness and all I've really read is the "Welcome to Firewall" stuff (I plunked down $20 and got the full thing).

[wander]

I already have an EP character fully statted out in my request thread, a starting one with no xp, so if you like the look of him, I'd very much like to join. :)

[Muse]

  Oooh!  I'm QUITE INTERESTED! 

Ack...  You wanted this freeform.  Sorry, I misread.  Best of luck to you. 

[Rajah]

The idea for this game would be that we would be a collection of characters who are put into a situation where they would have to interact, such as a long space-flight or being selected for some special mission

Would the game move beyond this initial premise or is that pretty much where you're looking to stay focused?

[vanTheMad]

I already have an EP character fully statted out in my request thread, a starting one with no xp, so if you like the look of him, I'd very much like to join. :)

Really this is just intended as an interest check for the moment, but I did take a look and they're fine! The actual skeleton for characters that I put up is going to be a lot looser, since I was leaning towards freeform on this, but stay posted- it does look like we'd have enough people to do a small group if nothing else.

  Oooh!  I'm QUITE INTERESTED! 

Ack...  You wanted this freeform.  Sorry, I misread.  Best of luck to you.

Alas, yes, I would be aiming for freeform, simply because I want to play the game myself, and also don't know the system well enough to consider running the game. If someone else with a more intimate knowledge of the system was interested in GMing the game I would sign up for that in a heartbeat, but I lack the knowledge required to do so for now.

Would the game move beyond this initial premise or is that pretty much where you're looking to stay focused?

The initial premise is just that; a premise. Really, I'd like this to be a bit more long-termed of a game, as generally I'm someone who prefers the story of a roleplay over the smut half. So yes, it could likely move past that premise, or potentially never even include that premise, based on what everyone is interested in.

[vanTheMad]

Alright, based on the fact that I've got at least three people interested, I'll get a little more invested in this. I went ahead and added a character info guide to the top, and will start working on a more fleshed-out premise. I'll be posting my own character shortly; once we've got a reasonable number of characters posted and approved, I'll check in with all the players and set up the actual In Character thread.

Name: Reagan Hierro
Age: Late 60s, appears about 26. Born before the Fall.
Gender: Male mentally, but sees himself as female physically due to extended use of Fury morphs.
Sexuality: Open to all

Background: Reinstated. Reagan was a soldier before the Fall, and died before he could be evacuated off of Earth.
Faction: Extropian
Morph: Infomorph. As an infomorph, Reagan has no physical body, but exists as a digital consciousness, preferring to act as a Muse for other people.

Bio: Reagan was born on Earth before the Fall, and spent most of his early life as a soldier working for various hypercorporations. When the fall happened, he wasn't one of the lucky ones to make it off of Earth alive; his consciousness was saved last minute and beamed offworld for storage. With no physical body to inhabit, he found himself uploaded into the ghostrider module of a socialite living in one of the Lunar colonies to serve as a Muse. He did so, without a terrible amount of fuss (these were the people who saved him from dead storage, he often told himself), for almost a decade, until he found himself one day seperated from the socialite who had been his host, with his memory foggy and the identity of the socialite gone completely, along with his memory of the last week. From there, he has remained an infomorph, finding a certain comfort in it, and has continued to search for a new host to bond with. He does have access to a Fury morph, currently in storage, as he still finds his infomorph form more reliable.

Postive Traits: Right at Home (Furies). Since Reagan was a soldier, he spent much of his life sleeved inside of Fury morphs, and as such, finds their form easy to control and almost comforting to inhabit.
Negative Traits: Edited Memories. For several years after his consciousness was transmitted off-world, he spent his life serving as a Muse inside one of the giltterati's ghostrider modules, though now that time is hazy and distant, and he has no real memory of who he was with or what occured during that time.
Neural Damage (Amusica): When Reagan's consciousness was uploaded offworld, some loss of data during transmission has resulted in a minor, but inconvenient, level of neurological damage and have left him with an inability to understand or make any form of music.

Likes: Having someone to be close to or inhabit, the view of Earth from the Lunar colonies, driving groundcraft, the smell of Martian soil.
Ons: Males, females, and everything in between. Acting as a Muse while the host is being pleasured. Passion and intimacy. Tends to lean slightly towards dominant when in a physical form, and genuinely enjoys egging people on while a Muse. Zero or low gravity environments. Greatly enjoys oral acts, both giving and receiving. Also enjoys exhibitionism/voyeurism (a trait he thinks he picked up from the socialite he used to inhabit).
Dislikes: Being seperated from others, inhabiting synthetic morphs or pods, the Jovian regime, spicy foods.
Offs: Uplifts, scat/watersports, pain, and any sex with even dubious levels of consent.

[wander]

Name: Fox Vaan
Age: 30, his Splicer Morph is grown to appear that age also. Born 20 years before The Fall.
Gender: cismale, doesn't mind inhabiting other gendered morphs though.
Sexuality: Open

Background: Scum. Fox was born on a ship of exiles that were sent to the Outer system. Though currently Fox now lives as a Martian vagrant, paying rent to stay in a bazaar stall overnight when he needs a roof over his head.
Faction: Barsoomian. Fox has various autonomist ideals though makes his bread and butter with the Martian freedom fighters most.
Morph: Splicer. A Morph genetically enhanced from a human to be enhanced in specific aspects. Fox's Splicer has had their charismatic gene traits enhanced and placed forward more.

Bio:
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 analytical 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 back-ups, 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.

Postive Traits: Information Control; Fox is particularly savvy when it comes to not leaving a datatrail that will lead back to him on the Mesh when he uses it, which helps seeing as he's a smuggler. Murder Simulator Addict; FPS videogames have advanced to life-like aspects past the Fall. Fox spent some fair time in Mesh servers playing these Sims and is now a dab hand when it comes to called shots when using a firearm.
Negative Traits: Botched Merge; When Fox arrived on Mars, they botched the merge with the beta-fork he already had there. Periods of stress shake Fox's already tenuous grip on his memories and self-identity, leading him into a confused dissociative state. Depression; Fox suffers from depression, which makes him feel most things he does are hopeless or worthless and noone cares. He must rely on his willpower to do any sustained action, which is troublesome when it comes to networking and other elongated skill tests.

Likes: Liberty for all, a good night out with a fuck at the end, The Ol' Family (Scum), (Place name here tbc), the rush of a gunfight, pissing off the Hypercorps and Jovians, Porn XP and making it, his Muse.
Ons: Loves anal and loves doing it with any gender and most Morphs. Is slightly dominant and likes to keep in control. Likes corruption and helping partners enact out their naughtier fetishes and fantasies. More open minded than most. Has a special like for Morphs that look female though have male genitalia.
Dislikes: Petty authority (Hypercorps), being stuck doing monotonuous activities, removal of individualism from others, boredom, puzzles, Bigots (biochauvanism, bioconservatism, The Ultimates) and Fascists. Not fond of Lunars due to their treatment of the Clanking Masses. Not fond of Titan's politics because voting every half hour for every little thing would piss him off.
Offs: Same as my own, found in O/O thread.

[Blobbe]

Potentially interested depending on what rating/section this would be in

[wander]

As an FYI, recently the new sourcebook called Firewall has been released. I haven't got it yet, but if anyone is going to be playing Sentinels of the Firewall agency or really any character that may have some link to the organisation, it may be cool to check it out. :)

[Rook Seidhr]

Name: Cielo
Age: 35 (looks 25)
Gender: fluid
Sexuality: fluid but mostly gynecophilic

Background: Isolate
Faction: Scum
Morph: Exalt. Cielo’s morph is based on the human genome, cleaned up and optimized for mental agility, charisma and coordination, with a handful of useful augments.

Bio: Cielo (born Richard Skye) was born and raised in a trans-Neptunian habitat run by a religious cult. Those years are mostly gone—deliberately edited away—but co knows co learned the rudiments of psychology and psychosurgery at a young age. At the age of 18, co scammed access to the habitat’s outside communication systems and arranged an egocast to a Scum barge, partly by leveraging the habitat’s rep, but mostly by sheer chutzpah. Nearly two decades later, co’s an expert psychosurgeon with a sideline in nanofab programming—and one of the top petal-crafters in the System. Hey, the Scum don’t care; and co’s Triad contacts are as useful to them as they are to co.

Positive Ego Traits:

• Adaptability—Cielo finds it easy to resleeve into almost any morph, rarely suffering from integration or alienation issues.
• Eidetic Memory—co’s memories and sensory processing are organized for perfect recall.

Negative Ego Traits:

• Addicted to Petals—like so many other drug designers, Cielo has gotten a little too close to co’s work, and gets jumpy and moody if co doesn’t partake once or twice a week.
• Edited Memories—as noted above, co has wiped away most of co’s childhood, and no longer remembers how it was that a conservative religious cult in the outer system came to train a young teenager as a psychosurgeon.
• On the Run—co’s wanted badly enough by a Jovian exec for him to send assassins after co.
• Blacklisted—the same exec has made sure co’s rep on the C-Net is less than zero.

Motivations: +anarchism, –religion, +psychedelia

Morph Augments: bioweave armor, ghostrider module, medichines, mnemonic augmentation, multi-tasking, nanophages, oracles, sex switch, skillware with half a dozen assorted skillsofts, skinlink nanites
Other Noteworthy Gear: desktop cornucopia, general-purpose nanohive, seeker pistol with plasmaburst ammo, various petals

Likes: pre-Fall science fiction, concocting new mind-states, the Art of the Deal
Ons: females, herms, innovative biosculpt, mindfucking, sex under the influence
Dislikes: religion, the Jovians, restrictions on movement, suicide sports
Offs: waste products, vomit, pain, humiliation

[vanTheMad]

Potentially interested depending on what rating/section this would be in

It occurs to me that I never actually tested the water to see what opinion on this was; personally I would like to see it as Bondage level at most, group roleplays are weird for me when it comes to non-consensual, but based on group opinion I'm personally willing to go in any direction on that.

Also, your characters both look cool and are definitely approved :)

[Wajin]

Is there anything in the setting that would disagree with an Infolite in a Ghost morph? haven't gotten around to reading the whole thing

[Rook Seidhr]

Examples of Cielo's petals:

Eternal Sunshine simulates the experience of being edited down to a delta fork while wide awake. The user feels memories and personality traits slipping away, until they can barely remember who they used to be; they then experience being sleeved in a pleasure pod and vigorously used by their unedited self. At the final climax, the user reintegrates in an onslaught of delirious pleasure. The trip takes about an hour and a half.

Unfurling Iron Lotus takes place in a sword-and-sorcery world. It begins with the user near death from exposure and starvation in a frozen wasteland; they are offered survival at the cost of their soul. (If they decline, the trip ends early and unpleasantly.) What follows is an initiation into a world of pain and blood and ghosts, alternating murder sims with fetish porn to create a deeply nihilistic BDSM headfuck. The trip lasts nearly a day, but the subjective length is more than two weeks, thanks to judicious use of memory editing and time dilation.

As one reviewer for an underground mesh node said, "You have to be a special kind of fucked-up to ride the Cielo wave, but it's never boring."

EDIT: obviously if we're not going to be in Extreme there will be no playing out of these petals on-screen, just summaries like this

[wander]

When it comes to gear, actually I have all that listed along with added augmentation to Fox's official character sheet with EP stats in my request thread. If he needs anything new, he has to get past his depression and do some networking. Its a starting character's sheet, so nothing on there is gonna take the piss when it comes to gameplay. :)

@ A Japanese Dude, you mean an Infolife? There's nothing in setting that resists you sleeving into any Morph tbh. Of course money and networking can come into it sometimes, though there's always a way (especially freeware blueprints on the Mesh and a hacked nanofabber... )

Whilst Infolife started as AI on a Mesh server, they can easily be downloaded into a Cortical Stack and placed in a physical morph. Doesn't have to be any type either, once your ego is in a Cortical Stack, I believe the only Morph you really couldn't go in off the top of my head would be a Flat, unless you bought the modification for it to house one. But then you're better off using a Splicer.

TL, DR; Yeah you can totally have an Infolife in a Ghost morph, given the setting. :)

[Angie]

So has anyone here watched Battlestar Galatica (the remake)? I had an idea for a character that was 'boxed' in some fashion-basically, her ego was shoved into storage for some insane length of time (which in Eclipse Phase, might be how jail sentences are carried out) and because of how long she was in cold storage, she can't quite grasp biomorphs but works incredibly well with synthmorphs. Thoughts?

[Rook Seidhr]

@Angiejuusan, that might be someone who died on Earth during the Fall, but whose cortical stack was retrieved and reinstantiated later. As for working better with synthmorphs than biomorphs, the Right at Home positive trait is almost what you want, but it goes by specific kind of morph, not "all synthmorphs" or "all biomorphs." Maybe vanTheMad can suggest something?

@wander, @A Japanese Dane, actually I think you'd have to have the ghost morph fitted with a cyberbrain? IIRC infolife can't download to a cortical stack. But hey, we're not using all the system rules so who cares about the fiddly details? Other than me because I have obsessive-compulsive tendencies?

EDIT: Also,

(especially freeware blueprints on the Mesh and a hacked nanofabber... )

I didn't post Cielo's complete character sheet with all the numbers, but he's an expert nanofab programmer and has silly amounts of @-rep and g-rep. Get on his good side, find a nanofab bigger than a desktop cornucopia, and he can probably get quality blueprints and instantiate them for you.

[Angie]

I was going to take Right at Home and make it for the "Snyth" shells, but also roleplay here as being more comfortable in synth sleeves (I.e. no mechanics, just she prefers synth to bio).

[Rook Seidhr]

@Angiejuusan, sounds about right to me

[vanTheMad]

@Japanese Dane: Yeah, that's totally reasonable. I believe Riveda is correct in that you normally need to have a cyberbrain installed to load an infolife into a biomorph, but like he said, since we're not really going in-system, by all means, that's an acceptable character idea, would love to hear more about it.

@Angiejuusan: Also, pretty similar to what Riveda said, that description is pretty similar to that of someone who would have died during the Fall and was re-instated later offworld (in fact, my character themself is a re-instated pre-Fall Earther), but there are tons of other situations in which an ego may be kept either in dead storage or simply as an infomorph. Some different, readily feasible scenarios using stuff that's already in the setting could involve the Nine Lives, a criminal organization of "soul-traders" who kidnap egos and steal backups, nearly every hypercorp owns infomorphs that they use as remote workers (and many would say, exploit outright). Outside of that, if your character for some reason wasn't able to resleeve after the destruction of a morph (due to monetary problems, blacklisted reputation with nearby facilities, criminal issues, to name a few possible reasons), it's possible that they could have remained in dead storage for an extended time. You've got plenty of options.

[wander]

Wow, lots of stuff happened whilst I was doing other things! xD

I didn't know Infolife couldn't be uploaded to a Cortical stack, fair enough then! Still, getting a cyberbrain augment for a biomorph is easy enough, same as a Stack for a Flat. Its just more creds or a bigger favoured owed at the end of the day. :)

If anyone hasn't realised, I've placed most of Fox's likes and dislikes in now. I know my lists are rather bigger than most others... I kinda went crazy with both, but also I felt it painted a more specific picture of who he is. Tbh, outside of being down with B, he's pretty much an average joe when it comes to some of the characters in EP, even given he's a smuggler and also an erotica grey marketeer... ^^

I also recommend if anyone hasn't got it yet to look into the Morph Recognition Guide, I have a copy and it is amazing that every Morph in the line has an image and description within it, as before some Morphs had no image in the books, now every one does. :)

[Blobbe]

It occurs to me that I never actually tested the water to see what opinion on this was; personally I would like to see it as Bondage level at most, group roleplays are weird for me when it comes to non-consensual, but based on group opinion I'm personally willing to go in any direction on that.

Also, your characters both look cool and are definitely approved :)

If it's Light or Bondage, then I'm definitely in

[Angie]

Okay, I decided to have a little fun with character background, and in case you guys are wondering what's taking me so long, I'm actually stating this out-why? Because I find it fun and I need to kill half an hour at work. Anyway, I decided to go with Infolife background, where my character is a recreation of someone who died and couldn't get a backup made for (insert plausible reason here). Not a perfect remake, but close enough. She worked for Exotech for most of her existence, but upon learning the truth of her origin (because someone left a server unlocked when they shouldn't have), she decided to break free and find her creator.

I'll only post here what actually matters and also provide a link-Myth-Weavers has an EP sheet, which is nice.