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marjaerwinEclipse Phase is a roleplaying game of life in the solar system after a singularity-gone-wrong has devastated the earth and many other settlements. It is close, in spirit, to some of Ken MacLeod's Fall Revolution novels. It is designed to focus on characters from different backgrounds and factions joining together to try to stop threats to the survival of sapient life in the solar system. I haven't had the chance to play it yet, but have tried creating characters in it. I am working on two fall evacuees, one an alpha fork of the other, to begin with.
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Character Creation
The three different character creation systems aren't all compatible. The packages seem more internally coherent than the original rules, but they seem more trouble to add up. The three different character creation systems could each benefit from step-by-step worksheets, to keep track of accumulated aptitude increases, skill points, etc., but there are none.
The original character backgrounds, unlike the original character factions and the package-based adaptations are unbalanced. The lost are unplayable without the errata, but are playable with the errata. The isolates, fall evacuees, and re-instantiated are a few points behind the other backgrounds. The moxie bonuses for these backgrounds don't make sense to me. The skill selections for these backgrounds don't make sense for every character, but some adjustments would fix that. The original character backgrounds include advantages and disadvantages which the package-based adaptations lack, and vice-versa.
The skill purchase system has problems. The character sheet doesn't provide columns to use it properly, and the game system doesn't provide language to describe it, so I will invent my own. The skill percentage is based on the sum of the ego's aptitude rating, the morph's aptitude bonuses, and the ego's training/experience, which I'll call the skill training/experience. The character sheet combines the ego's aptitude rating and training/experience into the skill base. The customization points can be used to buy skill training/experience. The customization point costs increase as the skill increases. The customization point costs double, not when the skill training/experience exceeds 40 points, which would make sense to me and which would make aptitudes especially important, but when the skill base exceeds 60 points, which doesn't make sense to me.
Character Sheets
The basic character sheets are badly organized. The character sheets are not usable during character creation. The three different character creation systems could each benefit from step-by-step worksheets, to supplement the sheets during character creation. There is nowhere to list the specific fields of hardware, medicine, networking, academics, etc. characters have unless we repurpose the specialization column. There is nowhere to list the customization points added to each skill. There is not enough space to list traits. There is not enough space to list muse skills. The all-important reputation and traits are on the back of the sheet.
Read More...
Character Creation
The three different character creation systems aren't all compatible. The packages seem more internally coherent than the original rules, but they seem more trouble to add up. The three different character creation systems could each benefit from step-by-step worksheets, to keep track of accumulated aptitude increases, skill points, etc., but there are none.
The original character backgrounds, unlike the original character factions and the package-based adaptations are unbalanced. The lost are unplayable without the errata, but are playable with the errata. The isolates, fall evacuees, and re-instantiated are a few points behind the other backgrounds. The moxie bonuses for these backgrounds don't make sense to me. The skill selections for these backgrounds don't make sense for every character, but some adjustments would fix that. The original character backgrounds include advantages and disadvantages which the package-based adaptations lack, and vice-versa.
The skill purchase system has problems. The character sheet doesn't provide columns to use it properly, and the game system doesn't provide language to describe it, so I will invent my own. The skill percentage is based on the sum of the ego's aptitude rating, the morph's aptitude bonuses, and the ego's training/experience, which I'll call the skill training/experience. The character sheet combines the ego's aptitude rating and training/experience into the skill base. The customization points can be used to buy skill training/experience. The customization point costs increase as the skill increases. The customization point costs double, not when the skill training/experience exceeds 40 points, which would make sense to me and which would make aptitudes especially important, but when the skill base exceeds 60 points, which doesn't make sense to me.
Character Sheets
The basic character sheets are badly organized. The character sheets are not usable during character creation. The three different character creation systems could each benefit from step-by-step worksheets, to supplement the sheets during character creation. There is nowhere to list the specific fields of hardware, medicine, networking, academics, etc. characters have unless we repurpose the specialization column. There is nowhere to list the customization points added to each skill. There is not enough space to list traits. There is not enough space to list muse skills. The all-important reputation and traits are on the back of the sheet.
