New Transhuman game?

[Pelorus]

Originally Posted by Denys

To be honest, John Snead coming out of the gate with "it's considerably better than THS" helped set the adversarial tone.

I got the same vibe but fell back on my theory that if I have a problem with something someone says, then I have a problem - so I deal with it.

It might be better than THS. It will be different to THS.

[Poster #15672]

Originally Posted by Pilgrim

OK, can we please move away from the butting of heads here folks?

I would like whatever the folks at Catalyst Game Labs can share about this with us.

Yes, this. I don't give a damn who started what, all I want to know is more about this game.

[David J Prokopetz]

Originally Posted by Denys

There's way too many people on this thread whose gut reaction is defensive rather than welcoming [...]

For my part, I'm not being "unwelcoming" because I'm defensive about THS - heck, I've never even played it. The reason I'm not welcoming Eclipse Phase with open arms is because the sales pitch is trying to sell me a particular sci-fi cliché that I find distasteful. If that's not what the game is actually about, then they need better promotional text.

[jsnead]

Originally Posted by Denys

To be honest, John Snead coming out of the gate with "it's considerably better than THS" helped set the adversarial tone.

That was likely an error on my part. A more accurate statement is that EP is part of a genre of SF that I like considerably better than the genre of THS (which is not to say that I dislike either game in any way or consider either one in any way bad). From my PoV, THS and EP are the two finest SF games produced in this century and two of the finest SF games ever produced. I like one more than the other, but that's just me.

[Word]

Originally Posted by Krypter

Since I consider both Stross and Morgan to be lousy writers recycling tired ideas, this isn't exactly a selling point for me. Modern transhumanist novels are mostly junk. THS was exemplary because it avoided so many of the cliches of these kind of novels.

First, I fire off my sassy retort: Morgan is such a shite writer that he won the Arthur C. Clarke award this year, eh?

Then, my sarcastic argument: It's true that THS avoided so many cliches of so many novels, like clear antagonists and a central narrative architecture.

I say this as someone who celebrated THS when it came out, and who will hold on to my copy for all the things it does well: It is a richly imagined setting that is not real well set up for gameplay. It does not sufficiently answer the question, "What do you do in this game?", in my opinion. It seemed like you could set a novel there easily, and an RPG adventure there with some difficulty.

(Having read a lot of, written a very small amount of, and signed an NDA about Eclipse Phase, I'll say only that "things to do" are abundant there. It is a game world built to be played in, not written about.)

My less obnoxious point: The avoidance of cliches is not, in itself, an inherently good thing. It is, in my opinion, even less important to the process of creating game worlds which need to be constantly rendered with some fidelity in several self-contained heads at once. Cliches serve a purpose, and while they can be abused, they can also be used.

Put another way: avoiding cliches is also a thing that can be done badly. I would cite THS as an example of something that tries too hard to avoid cliches, and ends up throwing out some babies with that bath water.

Edit:But here's the real thing, and I think we all know this, but I'll say it anyway: Transhuman Space is good in a lot of ways, and it's possible for two things to be good at the same time.

Cheers,
Will

[Pelorus]

I think there's a lot of people who have SEEN the text (or written the text) of EP who are singing it's praises. As long as we recognise that, I think we'll be okay.

[Mondscheinkonig]

I have a bunch of questions about what the characters in EP are like.

For those who know EP, could you tell me what kinds of characters are available in the game?

I see that there are "transhumans" but what does that mean in the world of EP? Genetic enhancements? Psionics? Cyborg bodies? Mutagenic viruses that let a person transform at will?

Do transhumans tend to specialize, or does the average person enjoy nano-powered super strength, psionics, and genetically-enhanced good looks?

Are these wicked crazy AIs a character option?

What's religion like in the world?

Is there support in the corebook for what's beyond the wormholes, or is that going to be fodder for supplements? If the latter, are you planning a single book with examples and options for creating distant worlds, or multiple setting releases, sort of like Rifts?

[Kylleran]

I can tell you a bit more about the CC license.

We're using a Creative Commons Attribution - Non-Commercial - Share Alike license.

For more information you can go here:
CC Info page

Or to the wiki page.

But basically we encourage fan material from anyone as long as they recognize the source material (attribution) don't try to sell their EP derived material (non-commercial) and are willing to make their material available to other EP fans for them to incorporate into their own projects (share alike).

[jsnead]

Originally Posted by Mondscheinkonig

I see that there are "transhumans" but what does that mean in the world of EP? Genetic enhancements? Psionics? Cyborg bodies? Mutagenic viruses that let a person transform at will?

The quick answer is yes, yes, yes, and no.

Do transhumans tend to specialize, or does the average person enjoy nano-powered super strength, psionics, and genetically-enhanced good looks?

Both options are common, but given that the game is set shortly after a devesting catastrophe, there are also no shorts of people in need of bodies or in low end ones.

What's religion like in the world?

At least as diverse as in our world.

Is there support in the corebook for what's beyond the wormholes, or is that going to be fodder for supplements? If the latter, are you planning a single book with examples and options for creating distant worlds, or multiple setting releases, sort of like Rifts?

From what they're telling me, there will both a considerably number of supplements.

[GregH]

Continuing with asking some questions...

Is there any thing like the "bioroids" (I think that was what they were called) that THS had, engineered human offshoots?

Is there any other known alien inteligences (given the setting they will probably be too alien to be PCs but it's nice to know the neighboors).

These "Pandora Gates"... are they something you need to go into space to access? or can they be done planetside?

It's also been mentioned that they are one-way, is that the case for all of them (in short, is travel to the colonies a one-way aspect, or can characters go from system to system and back again?

And given that it sounds like space travel is used a lot, is there going to be a ship design system or a set of customizable vehicles for the characters to play with?

Thanks