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KickStarter Eclipse Phase, Second Edition RPG

Dayyālu

Arcane
Joined
Jul 1, 2012
Messages
4,465
Location
Shaper Crypt
Well, Banks definitely wrote politically charged stuff, so maybe that is where their admiration for him lies? Tho, just going by comments like ones in this thread, they appear to lack his subtlety and nuance.

Again, I'll never tire to say: I'm as left wing as they go and it was so in YOUR FACE to be annoying to read. One is to write some interesting set-ups and societies (EP is full of good ideas) another is to have an axe to grind for your own political ideas. Never mix the two. Take the tidbit Roxor copied: I don't remember them giving any rational explanation to why Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism are the only major religions left (bar the typical fake-orientalism of "western religion eviiil duuuur"). Compare with, i don't know, Infinity, that has high-tech muslims that make sense in context (Haqqislam).

EP is interesting and good to read, but when it starts rambling about pseudo-political views it's like reading delirious ancaps. It's simply cringeworthy.
 

Mynon

Dumbfuck!
Dumbfuck
Joined
Apr 28, 2017
Messages
1,138
Yeah, that quote is... odd, to say the least. Especially if they don't supply any sort of deeper reasoning for it, as you say.
If you actually went by actual teachings, Judaism/Kabbalah would be the one that is most compatible with transhumanism.
 

Luckmann

Arcane
Zionist Agent
Joined
Jul 20, 2009
Messages
3,759
Location
Scandinavia
I never even knew until now that EP was hated here?! Also honestly I didn't think it was overly complicated.
Honestly, I actually kinda like Eclipse Phase, for a lot of reasons. It's the developers and some of the writing that is utterly fucking retarded.
 

lightbane

Arcane
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
10,156
you think so huh

Thanks for reminding me of that bit. Honestly, I liked the cool setting and the super high-tech, but I found the rules overtly complex and too complicated for my taste. Sad to see that the devs went full retard as well.

Did they bother to fix the usual flaws at least (ie: Hackers play a different game while everyone else waits for them to be done)?
 

tuluse

Arcane
Joined
Jul 20, 2008
Messages
11,400
Serpent in the Staglands Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Shadorwun: Hong Kong
I never even knew until now that EP was hated here?! Also honestly I didn't think it was overly complicated.
I was being recruited for a game of it, and I couldn't get into the setting at all. Leftism doesn't bother me, but it felt disconnected and there was too much going on. There was nothing to latch onto as "this is what the setting is about".
 

Silva

Arcane
Joined
Jul 17, 2005
Messages
4,778
Location
Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
Yep, the setting is kinda bloated. They've put evil AIs, E.Ts, nanoplagues, space-nazis, wormholes, post-apocalypse, mind-uploading, end of the world -conspiracies, etc. all in the blender and turned it on. A little sliming would give it more cohesion.
 
Joined
Jan 7, 2017
Messages
1,370
How is it bad for a setting to have a lot of things in it?
The problem (from my point of view) is not that it's bloated but that it's a game that requires heavily invested players. When you have more familiar settings (think most D&D ones or even Cyberpunk) you have human needs, wants and archetypes and can draw analogies to familiarize the group with the setting, even when they haven't read a thing.

This game is set after an apocalyptic event that has put the existence of humanity in danger; in fact most characters will be personalities implanted in bodies different from their own, some times because the original one died, sometimes for other reasons, and the body doesn't have to be humanoid or even organic, which you can imagine would put most human drives in a new light. Hell, some people are just disembodied digitalized personalities because they couldn't afford a new body, or one was unavailable. There are existential dangers to the human race out there, and by default players belong to a secret organization dedicated to fighting those dangers.

In short, the players have to become familiar with societies and economies that are rather strange unless you happen to have read a lot of recent science-fiction dealing with transhumanism and alternative economies (think Iain M. Banks and Richard Morgan), which you can imagine is not that common, even among roleplayers. Good luck putting a group together.
 

Silva

Arcane
Joined
Jul 17, 2005
Messages
4,778
Location
Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
How is it bad for a setting to have a lot of things in it?
What FritzedProcess said above. It's a game not a treatise on futurism, it should be easily playable at a table and not require players to study 376h like an MBA.
 

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