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innocent_man is here and, as part of our time together, it seems we're going to make use of it to engage in simultaneous character creation! After long perusal of my game collection, we came to the conclusion that the only game we have in common that he hasn't already done is Eclipse Phase. As I'd put off doing Eclipse Phase in order to wait for when I felt like tackling the skill list, this seemed like a good plan. But first, pictures!
Here is Matt, all ready for character making. Isn't he handsome? I think so.
And next, here's Rosie! She's not making characters (although Eclipse Phase would be as good for that as any and better than most). Mostly she's wondering why I haven't petted her (again) yet. See those eyes? I defy anyone to withstand those eyes. It's all about the scritches, man. Sigh.
Okay, scritches delivered. Now we're onto character creation! Here's Matt's character, for those who are interested.
Okay, so Eclipse Phase. I had a chance to be in on the creation of this game, but life was way too chaotic at the time to let me participate in any meaningful way. As it is, I did an edit/proofread pass on the book (and got left out of the credits, unfortunately) but these things do happen. At least they paid me. At any rate, this is to say I've watched this game grow and become something really amazing over time. I really am impressed with the game, and I think it has a lot to recommend it. The system is simple and owes a debt to the Shadowrun sense of skills, perhaps, but given that it lets you play mind and body as two discrete elements (at least one of which can be radically altered at any given time) that's pretty amazing for an RPG. It took some real chances, not the least of which was releasing it under the creative commons license, a move which has paid off in my opinion. I hope the guys at Posthuman Studios are able to run with it now that they've parted from Catalyst and really show what it can do. There's so much more to be written for this game, and I'm looking forward to see where it goes.
The Game: Eclipse Phase.
Publisher: Posthuman Studios (through Catalyst Game Labs)
Degree of Familiarity: Fair to middling. Played a demo, edited it, read it, haven't played a real game of it yet.
Books Required: Just the core.
1) Character Concept. The idea is to sum up the character in one sentence. I was briefly taken by the idea of doing Rosie as an uplifted dog, but "canine" is not one of the given character types.... oh, fuck it. Rosie it is. Apparently this has inspired Matt, so the concepts we are doing are "a boy and his dog." No bitch jokes, if you please.
2) Choose Background. Mine is obviously "uplift" while Matt's going for "Fall Evacuee." So Rosie was a genetically engineered doggie, with added smarts and communication skills and an enhanced lifespan, assigned to guard her boy. Her boy's family was wealthy, and they purchased her as a pup. When his family sent him off-planet, they get her out to protect him too -- only she got resleeved right along with him and everyone else. Of course, there aren't any doggie morphs out in space (not a very efficient form), so when he wakes up, she's there too, this time in humanoid form. He was somewhat confused by this turn of events, but she took it in stride. After all, her boy (Vic) was there -- what else was there to know?
So, as an uplift, I get +10 Fray skill, +10 Perception, and +20 to 2 Knowledge skills of my choice. I have to have an uplift Morph to start with, and my options are Neo-Avian, Neo-Hominid, or Octomorph. Hmm. We'll have to take a look at that. We may alter this. (Yay Second Skin!)
3) Choose Faction. Matt's going with "socialite," fitting his background. The problem is that uplift morphs can't be socialites. Then again, we were going to stick her in a humanoid morph regardless. This just means it'll be a better and prettier-than-average morph, and may put disturbing implications on the potential relationships involved here. This is funny. :) She's not a good socialite and she's never going to be really accepted among them. Then again, she doesn't want to be. Her entire job is to guard and protect her charge - if that puts her on the edges of this faction, so be it. Factions aren't something she cares all that much about anyway.
So, Socialite: +10 Persuasion, +10 Protocol, +20 Networking: Media skill. May not start with flat, pod, uplift, or synthetic morphs. Common morphs are Exalts, Olympians, and Sylphs.
4) Spend Free Points. You get 105 pts to divide between Cognition, Coordination, Intuition, Reflexes. Savvy, Somatics, and Willpower. Average if 15 each, no lower than 5 and no higher than 30. Hmm.
10 Cognition
20 Coordination
15 Intuition
20 Reflexes
10 Savvy
20 Somatics (+5 from morph)
15 Willpower
She's just above average in smarts, just below average in ability to communicate/read people/be charming, just above average in Willpower, and pretty far above average in all her physical stuff.
Moxie 1
Native Language: English 95 (70+INT)
Credit: 5k
Rep: 50 pts to spend among the reputation networks of your choice. I need a bit of f-rep.... let's say 15. @-rep is next, and let's make that 25. Last let's do EcoWave, for keeping track of what's been going on back on Earth, with 10 e-rep.
5) Spend Customization Points. Here you get 1000 pts (as Matt says, Sweet Zombie Jesus) which you use to buy basically everything else.
So, where to start... Jeepers.
Skills first. You have to spend 400 pts in Active skills and 300 in Knowledge skills. You start off with the rating of the linked Attribute and spend to raise it above that.
Active Skills (adjusted for morph: see below)
40 Animal Handling (Dogs) (40 spent, +5 for specialization)
70 Blades (60 spent)
60 Climbing (40 spent)
70 Fray (50 spent, +10)
60 Free Fall (40 spent)
55 Freerunning (35 spent)
50 Infiltration (30 spent)
30 Interfacing (20 spent)
30 Intimidation (20 spent)
50 Kinesics (40 spent)
50 Medicine [Paramedic] (40 spent)
30 Networking: Media (+20 bonus)
70 Perception (45 spent, +10 bonus)
25 Persuasion (5 spent, +10 bonus)
25 Protocol (5 spent, +10 bonus)
60 Scrounging (45 spent)
70 Unarmed Combat (65 spent)
Knowledge Skills:
50 Profession: Bodyguard
50 Interest: Pack Psychology
50 Interest: Group Dynamics
50 Interest: Animal Husbandry
50 Interest: Cooking
50 Interest: Small Group Tactics
That leaves an extra 300 to spend.
Morph: Splicer, because my "owner" is a cheap bastard. :) Splicer has a CP cost of 10. It gives me:
Implants: Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Cortical Stack.
Aptitude Maximum: 25 (whew)
Durability: 30
Wound Threshold: 6
Advantages: +5 to one aptitude of the player's choice -- SOM, to help out with combat skills.
Traits: 95
Animal Empathy (5)
Brave (10)
Danger Sense (10)
Direction Sense (5)
Fast Learner (10)
Improved Immune System (10)
Limber (10)
Pain Tolerance (10)
Second Skin (15)
Situational Awareness (10)
Tough (10)
Real World Naivete (-10)
5 points on credit, which gives me an extra 5k. That puts me at 110 spent.
Let's get two points of Moxie, so that's another 30 and puts me at 3 pts total. That's 140 spent.
That leaves me with 160 points to spend. I could go through and tweak everything and get higher than 60, but you know... I honestly don't care at this point, since I'm not playing this character. I'm going to spend it in chunks of 20. I considered buying attribute points, but I think the skills are a better plan. Also, it'll go faster. See above for amended points.
6) Buying Gear. I'm not buying gear. She's got a Muse and 10k worth of gear. That's an end to that. Phew.
7) Choose Motivations. +Protecting Boy, +Uplift Rights, +Hedonism, -Uplift Slavery. Why yes, she is slightly conflicted. Go figure.
8) Finishing Touches.
Lucidity: 30
Trauma Threshold: 6
Insanity Rating: 60
Initiative: 70
Damage Bonus: 2
Death Rating: 45
Speed: 1
With her interest in psychology and group dynamics, Rosie gets that there are certain rules to human social behavior. She also gets that many of them (particularly the ones dealing with personal space and sensory input) seem pointless. She has a tendency, therefore, to stand too close, to sniff people, and to generally seem sort of looming, even though she isn't really big enough to loom effectively (she has a female human-shaped morph). She also prefers contact to non-contact, and seems most at ease when Vic is touching her somehow. This has led to speculation among onlookers as to the nature of their relationship -- this does not concern her. Her only concern is making sure he stays safe in this completely crazy world. It's a hell of a job, but some doggie's got to do it, right?
innocent_man is here and, as part of our time together, it seems we're going to make use of it to engage in simultaneous character creation! After long perusal of my game collection, we came to the conclusion that the only game we have in common that he hasn't already done is Eclipse Phase. As I'd put off doing Eclipse Phase in order to wait for when I felt like tackling the skill list, this seemed like a good plan. But first, pictures! Here is Matt, all ready for character making. Isn't he handsome? I think so. And next, here's Rosie! She's not making characters (although Eclipse Phase would be as good for that as any and better than most). Mostly she's wondering why I haven't petted her (again) yet. See those eyes? I defy anyone to withstand those eyes. It's all about the scritches, man. Sigh. Okay, scritches delivered. Now we're onto character creation! Here's Matt's character, for those who are interested.
Okay, so Eclipse Phase. I had a chance to be in on the creation of this game, but life was way too chaotic at the time to let me participate in any meaningful way. As it is, I did an edit/proofread pass on the book (and got left out of the credits, unfortunately) but these things do happen. At least they paid me. At any rate, this is to say I've watched this game grow and become something really amazing over time. I really am impressed with the game, and I think it has a lot to recommend it. The system is simple and owes a debt to the Shadowrun sense of skills, perhaps, but given that it lets you play mind and body as two discrete elements (at least one of which can be radically altered at any given time) that's pretty amazing for an RPG. It took some real chances, not the least of which was releasing it under the creative commons license, a move which has paid off in my opinion. I hope the guys at Posthuman Studios are able to run with it now that they've parted from Catalyst and really show what it can do. There's so much more to be written for this game, and I'm looking forward to see where it goes.
The Game: Eclipse Phase.
Publisher: Posthuman Studios (through Catalyst Game Labs)
Degree of Familiarity: Fair to middling. Played a demo, edited it, read it, haven't played a real game of it yet.
Books Required: Just the core.
1) Character Concept. The idea is to sum up the character in one sentence. I was briefly taken by the idea of doing Rosie as an uplifted dog, but "canine" is not one of the given character types.... oh, fuck it. Rosie it is. Apparently this has inspired Matt, so the concepts we are doing are "a boy and his dog." No bitch jokes, if you please.
2) Choose Background. Mine is obviously "uplift" while Matt's going for "Fall Evacuee." So Rosie was a genetically engineered doggie, with added smarts and communication skills and an enhanced lifespan, assigned to guard her boy. Her boy's family was wealthy, and they purchased her as a pup. When his family sent him off-planet, they get her out to protect him too -- only she got resleeved right along with him and everyone else. Of course, there aren't any doggie morphs out in space (not a very efficient form), so when he wakes up, she's there too, this time in humanoid form. He was somewhat confused by this turn of events, but she took it in stride. After all, her boy (Vic) was there -- what else was there to know?
So, as an uplift, I get +10 Fray skill, +10 Perception, and +20 to 2 Knowledge skills of my choice. I have to have an uplift Morph to start with, and my options are Neo-Avian, Neo-Hominid, or Octomorph. Hmm. We'll have to take a look at that. We may alter this. (Yay Second Skin!)
3) Choose Faction. Matt's going with "socialite," fitting his background. The problem is that uplift morphs can't be socialites. Then again, we were going to stick her in a humanoid morph regardless. This just means it'll be a better and prettier-than-average morph, and may put disturbing implications on the potential relationships involved here. This is funny. :) She's not a good socialite and she's never going to be really accepted among them. Then again, she doesn't want to be. Her entire job is to guard and protect her charge - if that puts her on the edges of this faction, so be it. Factions aren't something she cares all that much about anyway.
So, Socialite: +10 Persuasion, +10 Protocol, +20 Networking: Media skill. May not start with flat, pod, uplift, or synthetic morphs. Common morphs are Exalts, Olympians, and Sylphs.
4) Spend Free Points. You get 105 pts to divide between Cognition, Coordination, Intuition, Reflexes. Savvy, Somatics, and Willpower. Average if 15 each, no lower than 5 and no higher than 30. Hmm.
10 Cognition
20 Coordination
15 Intuition
20 Reflexes
10 Savvy
20 Somatics (+5 from morph)
15 Willpower
She's just above average in smarts, just below average in ability to communicate/read people/be charming, just above average in Willpower, and pretty far above average in all her physical stuff.
Moxie 1
Native Language: English 95 (70+INT)
Credit: 5k
Rep: 50 pts to spend among the reputation networks of your choice. I need a bit of f-rep.... let's say 15. @-rep is next, and let's make that 25. Last let's do EcoWave, for keeping track of what's been going on back on Earth, with 10 e-rep.
5) Spend Customization Points. Here you get 1000 pts (as Matt says, Sweet Zombie Jesus) which you use to buy basically everything else.
So, where to start... Jeepers.
Skills first. You have to spend 400 pts in Active skills and 300 in Knowledge skills. You start off with the rating of the linked Attribute and spend to raise it above that.
Active Skills (adjusted for morph: see below)
40 Animal Handling (Dogs) (40 spent, +5 for specialization)
70 Blades (60 spent)
60 Climbing (40 spent)
70 Fray (50 spent, +10)
60 Free Fall (40 spent)
55 Freerunning (35 spent)
50 Infiltration (30 spent)
30 Interfacing (20 spent)
30 Intimidation (20 spent)
50 Kinesics (40 spent)
50 Medicine [Paramedic] (40 spent)
30 Networking: Media (+20 bonus)
70 Perception (45 spent, +10 bonus)
25 Persuasion (5 spent, +10 bonus)
25 Protocol (5 spent, +10 bonus)
60 Scrounging (45 spent)
70 Unarmed Combat (65 spent)
Knowledge Skills:
50 Profession: Bodyguard
50 Interest: Pack Psychology
50 Interest: Group Dynamics
50 Interest: Animal Husbandry
50 Interest: Cooking
50 Interest: Small Group Tactics
That leaves an extra 300 to spend.
Morph: Splicer, because my "owner" is a cheap bastard. :) Splicer has a CP cost of 10. It gives me:
Implants: Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Cortical Stack.
Aptitude Maximum: 25 (whew)
Durability: 30
Wound Threshold: 6
Advantages: +5 to one aptitude of the player's choice -- SOM, to help out with combat skills.
Traits: 95
Animal Empathy (5)
Brave (10)
Danger Sense (10)
Direction Sense (5)
Fast Learner (10)
Improved Immune System (10)
Limber (10)
Pain Tolerance (10)
Second Skin (15)
Situational Awareness (10)
Tough (10)
Real World Naivete (-10)
5 points on credit, which gives me an extra 5k. That puts me at 110 spent.
Let's get two points of Moxie, so that's another 30 and puts me at 3 pts total. That's 140 spent.
That leaves me with 160 points to spend. I could go through and tweak everything and get higher than 60, but you know... I honestly don't care at this point, since I'm not playing this character. I'm going to spend it in chunks of 20. I considered buying attribute points, but I think the skills are a better plan. Also, it'll go faster. See above for amended points.
6) Buying Gear. I'm not buying gear. She's got a Muse and 10k worth of gear. That's an end to that. Phew.
7) Choose Motivations. +Protecting Boy, +Uplift Rights, +Hedonism, -Uplift Slavery. Why yes, she is slightly conflicted. Go figure.
8) Finishing Touches.
Lucidity: 30
Trauma Threshold: 6
Insanity Rating: 60
Initiative: 70
Damage Bonus: 2
Death Rating: 45
Speed: 1
With her interest in psychology and group dynamics, Rosie gets that there are certain rules to human social behavior. She also gets that many of them (particularly the ones dealing with personal space and sensory input) seem pointless. She has a tendency, therefore, to stand too close, to sniff people, and to generally seem sort of looming, even though she isn't really big enough to loom effectively (she has a female human-shaped morph). She also prefers contact to non-contact, and seems most at ease when Vic is touching her somehow. This has led to speculation among onlookers as to the nature of their relationship -- this does not concern her. Her only concern is making sure he stays safe in this completely crazy world. It's a hell of a job, but some doggie's got to do it, right?
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Date: 2010-04-09 02:31 pm (UTC)From:Also, it amuses me that you were involved with at least some proof-reading/editing on Eclipse Phase. A friend and I (David Foster Walrus on RPG.net) have had a joke for a few years now about how no one can publish a cyberpunk rpg without consulting you. I have yet to have any significant evidence against this theory...
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Date: 2010-04-09 05:50 pm (UTC)From:*if