Quote from: jibbajibba;575707EP is noir and with a strong horror twist. An EP game plays more like The Sphere or Alien than it does like Star Wars or BSG.

I would say EP is heavy crunch. This is coming from a con game but being given a character sheet with 40 skills, a dozen implants, a dozen items of gear that adjust skill rolls etc was quite daunting and I am pretty good at that type of thing.

I think making body hoping easiery and faster, more pulp if you like but I am thinking really more 2000AD is because for me that is the core of the concept. Also limiting it to a single planet and playing that pseudo post apocolypse card might work. As would removing aliens.

So if we had a planet where a human colony was settled but that colony got caught in a system wide conflict between human factions then layer in hybrids and abominations so you end up with Human colonists trying to survive in isolated pockets living of fthe land, then you have decayed military bases that can be pluyndered for resources, then you have hybrid solders bred as servants or warriors and then ont eh other side the Aboniminations bred by the 'bad guys' in the war for purely destructve reasons... If you stuck to those ideas I think it woudl be far enough away.

I like focusing on the one planet. Like the decaying colony concept as well. I think you need other creatures on the planet to keep it interesting. Natives or colonists from another civilization.

Less focus on dark and horror like you say. In a way that free us up to be more creative.

Adding in a local stone age or iron age culture might be kind of fun.

Just to take things down a different route for a moment, the thing about transhumanism is you have to put your entire self, being, memories and outlook into a databank. Obviously within that system you are vulnerable, everything and anything about you could be rewritten to suit someone's agenda.

So lets say there's a performance assessment subroutine in the main AI that went a bit mad when things fell apart, and took over. Now everyone that gets "interred" is analysed according to bizarre rules, which then affects the body you get resleeved into, like a god in many ways.

Those who perform well get bonuses, those who don't get penalties. The program might even decide to start its own literal religion, with priests and the whole works. It might only happen in a certain area, or it could be made into a post mortem minigame where the characters flee this technogod into the nearest available body.

Maybe PCs have to shake off the "programming" for the first few days after they are reborn?

Quote from: The Traveller;575719Just to take things down a different route for a moment, the thing about transhumanism is you have to put your entire self, being, memories and outlook into a databank. Obviously within that system you are vulnerable, everything and anything about you could be rewritten to suit someone's agenda.

So lets say there's a performance assessment subroutine in the main AI that went a bit mad when things fell apart, and took over. Now everyone that gets "interred" is analysed according to bizarre rules, which then affects the body you get resleeved into, like a god in many ways.

Those who perform well get bonuses, those who don't get penalties. The program might even decide to start its own literal religion, with priests and the whole works. It might only happen in a certain area, or it could be made into a post mortem minigame where the characters flee this technogod into the nearest available body.

Maybe PCs have to shake off the "programming" for the first few days after they are reborn?

I would suggest something like a filter table, to see what gets altered during the process. But only have it come up on a failed programming roll or something. Have a pretty even mix of positives and negatives, as well as a few curve balls on there. This is a genre I know almost nothing about though.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;575738I would suggest something like a filter table, to see what gets altered during the process. But only have it come up on a failed programming roll or something. Have a pretty even mix of positives and negatives, as well as a few curve balls on there. This is a genre I know almost nothing about though.

Maybe a bit more deliberate, like if you'd spent your life denouncing the AI, you'd be reincarnated as a toaster or something. There could be quests, codes of conduct, any manner of crazed arbitrariness. I'd make it only one option for getting resleeved though, with an attractive advantage - its the only one that can resleeve after three days have passed, or its got better toys or more options or similar.

Anybody see the last few episodes of Eureka? They had a biomechanical loom that could create carbon copies of people in the town and implant extensive personnel data into them to impersonate the real ones.

Would a doppelganger scenario fit into this game system? Rather than waiting for a character to die and be re "sleeved", make a fresh sleeve and use previous data completely rewritten to serve the AI or whatever, using the PC's face to do all sorts of "big brotherly" sort of things.

Quote from: jibbajibba;575707EP is noir and with a strong horror twist. An EP game plays more like The Sphere or Alien than it does like Star Wars or BSG.

I would say EP is heavy crunch. This is coming from a con game but being given a character sheet with 40 skills, a dozen implants, a dozen items of gear that adjust skill rolls etc was quite daunting and I am pretty good at that type of thing.

I think making body hoping easiery and faster, more pulp if you like but I am thinking really more 2000AD is because for me that is the core of the concept. Also limiting it to a single planet and playing that pseudo post apocolypse card might work. As would removing aliens.

So if we had a planet where a human colony was settled but that colony got caught in a system wide conflict between human factions then layer in hybrids and abominations so you end up with Human colonists trying to survive in isolated pockets living of fthe land, then you have decayed military bases that can be pluyndered for resources, then you have hybrid solders bred as servants or warriors and then ont eh other side the Aboniminations bred by the 'bad guys' in the war for purely destructve reasons... If you stuck to those ideas I think it woudl be far enough away.

This is what I had already thought we were going with in the first place so I'm already on board for this.

The evil computer thing sounds a bit Paranoia to me, though I've never actually played that either.

Decaying colony sounds good. Another idea for that might be multiple human factions, e.g. when the colony ships arrive you could have unrest between colonists who were just stored for centuries while the ship arrived (cryogenically, or even just as data waiting for clones to be grown) and the crew of the ship who had to look after it while it was in space for however long.

Depending on who you want as good guys and who as bad guys you could have e.g.
#1 -  the crew feel they should be in control since they did all the hard work, and try to take over...
#2 - the AI that runs the colony ship has turned rogue: as colonists get reconstructed from the databanks, it has been reprogramming them to become loyal to it.  (That one is a bit Eclipse Phase though; I think it has evil AIs).

Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;575993#2 - the AI that runs the colony ship has turned rogue: as colonists get reconstructed from the databanks, it has been reprogramming them to become loyal to it.  (That one is a bit Eclipse Phase though; I think it has evil AIs).

If you start trying to duck every trope used by anyone anywhere you aren't left with much of a milieu though. Take a leaf from Microsoft's book - embrace, extend, etc.

I think removing AI and Robots and implants woudl make it feel less like EP.

If we say the colonists had limited natureal resources and wetware is more advanced than hardware it sets a good precedent. You can of course have real personalities running computer systems as that is a side effect of the PRISM idea.

But lets move forward someone give me something concrete to prep and I will get on with it.

Quote from: jibbajibba;576012But lets move forward someone give me something concrete to prep and I will get on with it.

Hmm...OK, how about you do race rules then - say the list of hybrid animal options and the stat modifiers (assuming 1-5 rated stats) and any special abilities for them?

How about a compromise?

You don't get new bodies, but you do have a chip installed in the brain that records memories and personality.

In the likely event of lethal trauma, if a trained medical crew can recover your body with head intact (or maybe just your head), they can activate the chip and attempt to resuscitate, rebuild/replace injure body parts.

It would still take a few days for the wetware to be fully operational, and several more for the brain to heal enough to start taking over operations for the chip.

Resuscitation could be resource inefficient for the colony (medical supplies, implants), and the 2-4 days or so wait for the brain to come back online and adapt to any implants means the character will be barely operational and very vulnerable.

The only surefire way to really kill someone is to damage the brain enough that it has no hope of recovery, dig in and find the chip, or disintegrate the head altogether. (provides a convenient out for villains too)

There's no reason why all of these and more couldn't be used in different territories, it would certainly make for a richer tapestry in what is a full sized world. Just spitballing anyway!

Quote from: Amalgam;576014How about a compromise?

You don't get new bodies, but you do have a chip installed in the brain that records memories and personality.

In the likely event of lethal trauma, if a trained medical crew can recover your body with head intact (or maybe just your head), they can activate the chip and attempt to resuscitate, rebuild/replace injure body parts.

It would still take a few days for the wetware to be fully operational, and several more for the brain to heal enough to start taking over operations for the chip.

Resuscitation could be resource inefficient for the colony (medical supplies, implants), and the 2-4 days or so wait for the brain to come back online and adapt to any implants means the character will be barely operational and very vulnerable.

The only surefire way to really kill someone is to damage the brain enough that it has no hope of recovery, dig in and find the chip, or disintegrate the head altogether. (provides a convenient out for villains too)

I think that, more traditional approach, is how EP and other systems approach it. I think a simple method of switching bodies is a far more interesting concept as it actually hasn't been done elsewhere. The idea that actually in combat you can take another PCs PRISM and switch it directly into an Abomination body you just stunned with a nueral pulse is I think a new idea I haven't actually seen before.

I don't think you need a way to permanently kill anyway. If the PRISM is a storable medium then you can back it up and if the PC dies all they get is a loss of memory since last upload.
I love the old cyberpunk trick of PC wakes up in hospital with 2 week old memories then has to find out who killed him and why. No reason why we can't reuse that old chestnut
You even have the classic clone gets activated dispite original still being alive and the legal question about who is who. You could replicate PRISMs and allow players to play the same PC in different bodies at the same time.
Why limit this stuff for 'game' reasons?

I will get something written over the weekend on the Races. Meat vs Personalities. I think it will include Chargen almost by default.

Looking at Human colonists and vat grown hybrids. Will use a parallel system of random and point buy. Will include a lifepath variant as well.
Will post the text here but will do the rest on a pdf as it needs tables and they are a faff to do here.

Looks like I have 2 weeks worth of thread catching up to do (hopefully by end of this weekend, kids and shit permitting).

Who's doing what? Any 'concrete' roles/game writing sections defined? Did we decide for certain on a skill system, i.e. whether skills are broad categories, or broken down into more specific skills. Example:

Medicine

OR

Medicine:

• First Aid
• Disease treatment
• Surgery
• Diagnosis
• Cybernetic enhancement
• Xenomorph Physiology
• Forensics
• Medical Treatment

That sort of thing. The 'Broad' category is obviously simpler, but perhaps too basic

Quote from: jibbajibba;576021I think a simple method of switching bodies is a far more interesting concept as it actually hasn't been done elsewhere.

Ah, i must have misread, i thought someone was saying it HAD been done, hence my suggestion.

In fact, it has been done, though i've no idea if it has been done on PnP games, Phantasy Star handles PC death this way, with a cloning operation in each town run by the "Clone Clown". (creepy dude...)