Firewall answers the many many questions that come up about Firewall then promptly makes you ask many more.

This is one of the EP books I've been waiting for - an inside look at the conspiracies and operations of Firewall; that organization standing between mankind and annihilation by ETI, AI, and itself. Really enjoyed the deeper look into the times before the Fall, the Prometheans, new exoplanets, and a details of the various ongoing operations that Firewall juggles. This book is definitely one of the EP GM's (or fan's) "must-have" supplements!

I bought the printed cards just to have some nice pre-made characters I can hand out to new players or at one-shot sessions. Here are my thoughts on them:

Positive:

• The cards are not too thick, but still stable enough to stand some handling, and have a nice semi-gloss finish.

Neutral:

• Contents and layout are exactly the same as in the core book. That could be either a positive or negative, depending on one's viewpoint...

Negative:

• The cards are somewhat smaller than the pages in the core book and, more importantly, do not have the same format. In my case this has led to the title/character descriptor at the top being slightly cut off on most cards, which detracts from the otherwise good looks of the cards.

• The sample characters are printed back-to-back, which could be problematic if two players wanted to play characters that are on the same card. In my opinion, this defeats the main purpose of the printed cards, namely having a wide selection of ready-to-play pregenerated characters.

• High shipping costs from the US to Europe, though this is not DriveThruRPG's fault (shipping took two weeks).

I really really REALLY wanted to run this so bad that I'm GMing for the first time in over 20 years. The background (and implications thereof for the players) just hooked me right in.

The following review was originally posted at Roleplayers Chronicle and can be read in its entirety at http://roleplayerschronicle.com/?p=45290.

Eclipse Phase, the gaming system and universe developed by PostHuman Studios is, essentially, “Transhumanism, the roleplaying game.” For those who are not familiar, transhumanism is the ideology that humans will soon use technology to evolve and become something more than what we currently are. Eclipse Phase has this in spades. It presents a world where your body is replaceable, skills can be purchased as software and death is regularly little more than an inconvenience. The result is something very different than your usual roleplaying experience: you can be an octopus uplifted to human-level intelligence in a robot body as part of an art exhibit on Mars, or you can be a former human engaged in a heady philosophical debate with a digitized version of yourself and be losing.

There has been an incredible level of detail, work, and vision put into the game system; which can be both a great opportunity and a heavy burden on gameplay. The sheer volume of detail and options makes it very easy for players and GM alike to be swamped. In an early play through of the game with my gaming group, players routinely found that they were unaware as to all the options that they had, resulting in gameplay screeching to a halt as someone reached for the book. Paying attention to all the moving parts, however, is extremely rewarding. The depth can be one of the most amazing parts of the game. In my experience, deciding which aspects of the game to set aside for your play sessions is rewarding.

The system works extremely well. It’s a d100 based system with some tweaks to it, like the capacity for players to critically succeed or critically fail. It also addresses one of the ongoing problems that I had experienced with Call of Cthulhu using the d100 system, namely how to determine who has succeeded in actions that are opposed. Eclipse Phase resolves this through a simple and easy to understand mechanic that keeps the speed of play going. There are also some interesting mechanics, in particular one called Moxie which allows players to either re-roll a dice, or switch the 10’s and 1’s digits on their d100, to assist players in ensuring that they have agency.

Ultimately, the system and the background materials present a wide swath of content and a flexible system that can serve whatever your gaming group wants; whether it is a space opera, exploring the universe in a Stargate-esque gatecrashing scenario, or even something relatively mundane like spying for hypercorporations in the future, Eclipse Phase has the mechanics and the tools for you to use. Where the game really shines, however, is wedding the mechanics and the mythos that is provided within the books. The Eclipse Phase canon blends Lovecraftian-esque mythos in the form of things that cannot be understood by mere humans with advanced, singularity level artificial intelligence. When memories can be hacked or altered, or weeks of your life can disappear with a computer glitch, Eclipse Phase shines. It also shines when it is handled in a mature manner, but it can definitely be used in any manner of different scenarios. Tackling major philosophical and existential horrors is where this game excels. To get a better idea of how this can be handled, I highly recommend picking up one of the free scenarios that have been posted online to see the cosmic horror that Eclipse Phase can realize.

Nice introductory tool or follow up diversive to any Martian scenario in the brilliantly detailed and innovative ECLIPSE PHASE universe.

An absolutely amazing adventure! I love EP scenarios like Ego Hunter and Bump in the Dark, but the newer ones (The Devotees and Million Year Echo) are setting an incredible bar. The plot can get pretty awesome if you combine this with Zone Stalkers for some more TQZ action but even on its own this is enough for a great adventure. We'll see what the future holds, but right now this is the Tomb of Horrors of the Eclipse Phase scenarios out there.

This was the funnest adventure we played during our short stint in EP a couple years ago. My players absolutely loved the intro and I have used similar intros in new adventures (not going to spoil it). Needless to say, my only complaint is it was too short!

EP needs more material like this that has better legs to go on for more than two sessions. The follow on ideas did have enough meat for me to run so we tried other stuff. Unfortunately by that point the damage was done. I could not recreate that excitement with any follow up material and the players wanted to move on to something else.

Probably the most provocative settings I've read to date. Beautiful art and background. Unfortunately my only negatives are that the system is not to my taste and there is not enough solid adventure material to help GMs run this complicated, yet interesting, setting.

When there are more 'stories' to use for adventures and the FATE version is available, I believe it will get a stronger following.

Excellent sourcebook containing some great info on the TQZ (Titan Quarantine Zone) on Mars, how to get in & out of it and who you might bump into while there. Some great plot hooks as well to give your players a reason to go into this most dangerous area of Mars.

An excellent overview of the TQZ and the hazards contained in it - making it clear what a cancerous growth there is on the face of Mars. Ranging from a view of zonestalker culture and the profits to be had from the Zone's terrible treasures to the denizens and threats of the zone, with a heavy enough seed of hooks and the usual 'intercepted communication' sidebars to provide solid flavor and meat.

I'd put this as a must for any EP GM planning to run a game on Mars, even if they never plan to have the group go near the TQZ.

If you are of a mind to put the party in danger, how about suggesting a stroll across one of the deadliest regions of Mars, the TITAN Quarantine Zone?

Beginning with an explanation of what the Zone is and how it came to be, there are details of the terrain and major features as well as of the measures taken to ensure that the curious stay well out of it. This is intermingled with suggestions as to how these measures might be counteracted, although it will be up to you how you choose to pass on any ideas to your players if they are struggling to come up with their own - this is a book decidedly for the GM!

The hazards of the TQZ are extreme, even without the Patrol ready to pounce on intruders. Extensive jamming of all communication links render not just keeping in touch (or yelling for help) but navigation difficult. The terrain is rugged in the extreme, and prone to dust storms. All sorts of malevolent critters live there and even the artefacts that are the usual reason for anyone wanting to go there are dangerous if improperly handled (in many cases, if handled at all). A random encounter table and full notes on what you might encounter are provided to liven things up a bit.

Various locations are described, as are some of the TITAN artefacts that remain to be found - including quite an array of different drugs and addictive substances. Finally, there's a collection of plot hooks to get the party's interest in an expedition whetted enough for you to get to use all of this on them.

If you like adventures in which the environment is as much an enemy as the monsters, this is one to consider.

Excellent product, very detailed; especially for the price. Very detailed locations, well fleshed out NPCs, an interesting story, and a nice tie-in to the RPPR campaign for those that enjoyed Know Evil.

Caleb does an excellent job of bringing one of the darker places of an already dark universe to life. Maps are included, so any GM should be able to run this adventure without much extra effort.

A definite must-have for any Eclipse Phase lover, especially those considering adding criminal elements to their campaigns or character backgrounds. This adventure contains plenty of inspiration to work with.

The book is well written with great layout and graphics that set the tone and immerse the reader in the portrayed future, while remaining easy and entertaining to read.

The book systematically covers the inner system, starting with the solar corona and out to Mars, as well as an assortment of inner system asteroids and martian trojans. The book expands and adds to the information in the Eclipse Phase book, but most of the material in this book is probably understandable without having read the core book. The descriptions of people, environments, habitats, orbital stations, politics, transportation, and so on are evocative and plausible. They are also done from the viewpoints of various local Firewall agents with different backgrounds and political views. This not only makes the reading more interesting, but gives more insight into life in the future of the solar system and reminds the reader that what they are reading is an opinion and not necessarily the whole story or even entirely accurate. There is lots here to get players thinking about, frm how to play a conservative and prejudiced “Loonie” to a Barsoomian redneck from Mars. For the GM there are lots of political agendas, habitats and dangling plot hooks and descriptions that conjure up ideas for cool scenes everywhere. Perhaps something involving piracy of airships travelling between the floating Aerostats in the upper atmosphere of Venus, or something to do with the remote controlled Quartz morphs working the high temperature and pressure mines of the Venusian surface going missing?

The Planetary Consortium (one of the most powerful power blocs in the setting) is described in detail with information and ideas that go a long way to help illustrate the various parts and agendas that make up the consortium and in the process creates a lot of useful plot hooks.

Game information is all covered in the last part of the book. This is great both because it means that the rest of the book is completely rules agnostic, which is very handy for a setting book you can use with your own favourite system, and because it means that all the stats and rules for hazards, morphs, gear and so on are collected at the end. Even if you don't plan on using the Eclipse Phase rules this section of the book is still useful, not least for the secrets and plot hooks.

I bought the PDF thinking that a Sci-Fi transhumanist themed setting like this would be best read on my tablet, but although the core Eclipse Phase book has been adapted for e-readers Sunward has not and it takes a long time to turn pages on my Nexus 7 and the page format is a too big and would probably fit something like the Nexus 10 better. On a computer, and potentially a more powerful tablet, the PDF is first class and is a joy to read. I'm not rating it down because there was no claim about this product being tablet friendly. In the end like the other Eclipse Phase books, Sunwards is just so beautiful that I had to also buy the hardback to hold it in my hands and read it on the sofa (and other unspeakable places). Very happy with that decision.

Gives a good look at the soul trading market and the kind of psychology that it would take to be involved in it. I like the multiple routes to the objective including considerations for when your players do the unexpected "sure I'll send a copy of myself to the ** and hope it doesn't ** me to badly, what could go wrong?"