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Eclipse Phase is a dystopian future rpg through and through, and I love it.
The most unique aspect of this game is the history of well, everything. The writers have thoroughly considered the whole of the worlds and the impacts on the varying societies. Provocative, creative, inspiring and heartbreaking, the story of Eclipse Phase takes you through most likely the darkest times of humanity's history.
Probably one of my favorite buys, I highly recommend this game for other science fiction enthusiasts.
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My favorite Sci Fi game.
If you are looking for something that allows you lots of character options and stories in terms of themes, then Eclipse Phase is the right thing for you.
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To admit my biases, I have played EP Orginal quite a bit, and love the setting. I'm also a fan of the FATE system, because the rules are there to enhance a story, and not nessecarily focus on simulation. The marriage of the two went much better than I expected, the core tropes of the setting have been preserved (sleeving, morphs, horror, hard sci-fi, post scarcity economic systems, etc.) and some are even arguably better in the new system. For instance the way Morphs are handled in EP FATE is a huge upgrade, by distilling the morphs down to a set of aspects, it's easier to disentangle the character from the body he is in currently (a trick that required a spreadsheet and and a steady hand in the prior version), and it allows the morphs to be more thematically different from eachother. The aspect system also fixes one of EPs biggest issues, the legion of super clones. When skills are just percentages, it's often hard to make characters who play differently from other characters who have similar skill sets. Aspects allow people with similar skills to preform very differently based on the situation.
The only reason I didn't give it a 5 star rating is this book isn't standalone in the slightest, You still need the eclipse phase book to get the small details of the setting, and a fate book for the rules. Both are available for download in pay what you want formats, so the money you spend on this book will get you started. The issue is that this book is an awkward kind of bridge between the two, and presupposes alot of knowledge of the setting and the rules. I hope this product gets the consumer attention it deserves so we can get a more complete EP FATE core rule book.
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Creator Reply: |
Randall -- thanks for your review!
Just want to point out that Eclipse Phase titles aren\'t \"Pay What You Want\" -- they\'re Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) licensed. That means that you can share them free of cost, but also that you can freely remix the material and redistribute it, as long as you let others further hack and remix what you\'ve made!
Creative Commons goes way beyond \"pay what you want\" from a societal and political POV, and that\'s important to us! :-) |
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All i can say is "thank goodness" finally a system that makes this killer background more accessible. While theres nothing wrong with the original game system its very, very intensive. for gamers who wamt to quickly get into a game it was a major proposition in terms of an investment of time. Now? perfection. definiately one to buy.
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To me one of the best games out there. This supplement helps any game master, so he can concetrate on the story without making up any new NPCs. I hope they do another one.
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First off; this is quality sci-fi writing served up in easily read chunks. It's a great read anytime, but I found it fit quite nicely into a morning commute.
It's a great look into the world of Eclipse Phase; and provides some view points that have been missing from the rule books.
It's also a nice bit of kit to have in your GM tool box, as it provides succinct explenations for for some of the more difficult to grasp elements of the setting. Such as the mesh, and ego & morph. All right at the front of the book.
Fully recommend picking it up, and lending it to your new players.
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A short story collection set in the Eclipse Phase universe. In keeping with the setting of the RPG, the stories tend towards horror and the grimdark. Fair warning up front - several of the stories have already appeared as flavor in the Eclipse Phase sourcebooks and corebook, but two thirds of the stories are new, and one of the older stories has been finished with the part appearing in a future sourcebook. The writing is generally excellent, but people new to the setting may have a bit of trouble with some of the slang, in-game terminology ported over to the fiction, and the fairly large amount of nonhuman protagonists and characters. The book contains a very helpful 'What is transhumanity?' primer for those unfamiliar with the ideas of the genre. Overall, some very solid reads, and recommended.
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A collection of short stories that ring true to the Eclipse Phase RPG setting - I really liked it!
Favourite story is 'Prix Fixe', but really they're all pretty good (even re-reading the ones that were existing chapter-opening fiction was a nice reminder of why I love this setting).
Some of the stories include things for which there are no rules in the RPG; if you're going to get annoyed by that stuff I still say buy it and just skip those :P
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This is an outstanding quick-start, and convinced me to purchase the hardback. As I've read in reviews, I knew the rules were "front-loaded", ie very difficult and complex to start with, and for character generation, but when running the game it's far less complicated. I really like the d100 system, as I'm a huge BRP/CoC fan. This is my first foray into transhuman sci-fi, and the possibilities are just stunning.
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As I said in the core sample characters and the firewall sample characters, same basic problem.
Five stars for a great free pdf supplement to print out at your leisure using all the toner out of your printer.
One star for $10 worth of cards that are printed back-to-back rather than one character per card, so you can never have one person play the Ultimate Gatecrasher and the person across the table easily play the Zonestalker. I will probably end up buying this again only because I'm a fool with money to blow on stupid stuff like extra copies for completeness' sake.
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Five stars for an excellent free PDF excerpt from the Firewall book.
One star for double-sided printing, so that you can never have one person use the Ultimate Purifier and a person across the table use the Titanian Science Police Inspector. Kind of defeats the purpose. I suspected this when I bought them. If I ever need to run some kind of Firewall-heavy non-sentinel campaign, I may have to buy a 2nd set of these, because I'm a a fool and like complete sets of things.
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The cards wren't cut off improperly in my copy, as the other reviewer stated, but I do lament the fact that they are printed back to back. I wanted to run Continuity, using these cards, but the Anarchist Techie and the Argonaut Xenoarcheologist are back to back, so I can't really do that. I am a fool, and so I may also just order a second set of these. It'd be better if in the future, somehow drivethrurpg just had these printed single sided. Otherwise, this is a very useful PDF, and well worth zero dollars. If you want the cards, you may feel the need to buy 'em twice.
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It's a solid enough adventure, but I can't help but feel that it wasn't balanced or playtested enough. It's definitely the SEED of a really fun little adventure; a good GM could turn the half-dozen or so NPCs into memorable, fun characters the PCs will enjoy interacting with, but there's just not that much substance. There are no guidelines on what kind of PC skillsets are appropriate for the adventure (as written the party can be thrown into combat with a quartet of Speed-3 dual-wielding assassins, which depending on party composition could be a tough but winnable fight, or a 50-minute slaughterfest that ends in a TPK) and it looks far too easy for a party of ego-torturing killbots to just buzzsaw their way through without any social skills at all. A good GM can salvage all of the good and fix the bad; but the fact that modules are supposed to come with all that work done already is holding me back from rating it any higher than 3 out of 5.
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Another excellent sourcebook from the guys at Posthuman, this time covering all things Firewall related from its origins to current operations & personnel and giving some great plot-hooks along they way.
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An amazing and vital resource for anyone running Eclipse Phase with Firewall agents.
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