Eclipse Phase is a sci-fi RPG dealing with AI, nanotech, biotech, mind copying, and other far-future issues, all played in a straight manner. By default, characters are part of an organization created to fight against existential risks, after they’ve become all too real.
That sounds freaking awesome! One question though: how loose is it? As in, how much breaking-the-rules-of-physics and going-beyond-the-impossible-kicking-reason-to-the-curb does it allow?
Also, are there “strictly legal means” of getting that for free? EDIT: It even has a legal torrent! Nice...
I created a few characters using the system, read through most of the book, and it’s fairly loose with what you can accomplish. It seemed more limited by what a GM might allow than game rules, since characters have access to things like nanofactories, the ability to switch bodies, etc. Most of the in-game limitations are resource constraints, the lack of stats for large weapons platforms, and the pure strength of existentially threatening baddies. I get the impression you’re supposed to die a lot while playing...
And yes, the content is Creative Commons licensed to allow the entire rulebook to be legally downloaded.
Of course, any Hard Sci-Fi work should have at least that much. What I’m worried about is the role we’ll play there… The vanguard of the new era, a ragtag bunch of pioneers whose work wasn’t very fruitful in itself but tore open the path for greater endeavors, a plain old dead branch in the tree of science evolution… or harbingers of DOOM?
From the book (technically from the GM-only section, but not really a spoiler for most campaigns):
The Singularity Foundation—formed at the dawn of the 21st century—was dedicated to the creation of safe articial intelligence software, while raising awareness of the benefits and dangers AIs represented. A fervent believer in the singularity doctrine that technology would move towards a single explosion of advancements that would forever reshape humanity, the Singularity Foundation was a strong advocate for creating friendly AIs that would help protect humanity from an uncontrolled, dangerous singularity event. This group was significant in that it secretly succeeded in creating a group of friendly seed AIs before the Fall. These Prometheans were indispensable in protecting transhumanity and countering the TITAN threat during the Fall.
(“Seed AI” is a term Eliezer coined, in case it isn’t already obvious that the writers have been reading the SIAI website.)
Actually, if I understand the setting right, the Earth itself ended up under the control of Unfriendly AI (the TITANs), so technically “the world” was not saved—although plenty of people were.
I have run a game of Eclipse Phase at an RPG convention in Sydney. I found it to be a very cool game, the setting in particular is very interesting and varied however the rules are a little complex for people who want to just try it.
There are a lot of bits which don’t quite fit into hard sci-fi—aliens, psychics, nanotech that works like magic. However, it’s pretty easy to leave these out, except it’s difficult to know how realistic nanotech would work. I doubt we’ll ever use it to create mundane things due to energy constraints, but I guess in the context of the game it works.
Where the game really shines is in dealing with mind uploading, “re-sleeving”, virtual worlds and psychic surgery—you can copy minds and re-merge them, even edit them to some degree. It gives a lot of scope for games that work with meta-levels of reality and manipulation of minds. I would like to explore possible transhumanism using it if I ever get the time to.
Anders Sandberg wrote some campaigns for Eclipse Phase. There’s even one about gur evfxf nevfvat sebz n fhcrevagryyvtrag benpyr negvsvpvny vagryyvtrapr.
Eclipse Phase is a sci-fi RPG dealing with AI, nanotech, biotech, mind copying, and other far-future issues, all played in a straight manner. By default, characters are part of an organization created to fight against existential risks, after they’ve become all too real.
That sounds freaking awesome! One question though: how loose is it? As in, how much breaking-the-rules-of-physics and going-beyond-the-impossible-kicking-reason-to-the-curb does it allow?
Also, are there “strictly legal means” of getting that for free? EDIT: It even has a legal torrent! Nice...
I created a few characters using the system, read through most of the book, and it’s fairly loose with what you can accomplish. It seemed more limited by what a GM might allow than game rules, since characters have access to things like nanofactories, the ability to switch bodies, etc. Most of the in-game limitations are resource constraints, the lack of stats for large weapons platforms, and the pure strength of existentially threatening baddies. I get the impression you’re supposed to die a lot while playing...
And yes, the content is Creative Commons licensed to allow the entire rulebook to be legally downloaded.
It also has SIAI (named “Singularity Foundation”) in the backstory.
Of course, any Hard Sci-Fi work should have at least that much. What I’m worried about is the role we’ll play there… The vanguard of the new era, a ragtag bunch of pioneers whose work wasn’t very fruitful in itself but tore open the path for greater endeavors, a plain old dead branch in the tree of science evolution… or harbingers of DOOM?
From the book (technically from the GM-only section, but not really a spoiler for most campaigns):
(“Seed AI” is a term Eliezer coined, in case it isn’t already obvious that the writers have been reading the SIAI website.)
LOL we did end up saving the world!
Actually, if I understand the setting right, the Earth itself ended up under the control of Unfriendly AI (the TITANs), so technically “the world” was not saved—although plenty of people were.
I have run a game of Eclipse Phase at an RPG convention in Sydney. I found it to be a very cool game, the setting in particular is very interesting and varied however the rules are a little complex for people who want to just try it.
There are a lot of bits which don’t quite fit into hard sci-fi—aliens, psychics, nanotech that works like magic. However, it’s pretty easy to leave these out, except it’s difficult to know how realistic nanotech would work. I doubt we’ll ever use it to create mundane things due to energy constraints, but I guess in the context of the game it works.
Where the game really shines is in dealing with mind uploading, “re-sleeving”, virtual worlds and psychic surgery—you can copy minds and re-merge them, even edit them to some degree. It gives a lot of scope for games that work with meta-levels of reality and manipulation of minds. I would like to explore possible transhumanism using it if I ever get the time to.
I’d be interested to playing this via google+ meetups or posts. Anyone else?
Anders Sandberg wrote some campaigns for Eclipse Phase. There’s even one about gur evfxf nevfvat sebz n fhcrevagryyvtrag benpyr negvsvpvny vagryyvtrapr.