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Author Topic: Does anyone here actually PLAY eclipse phase?  (Read 37808 times)

jeff37923

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Re: Does anyone here actually PLAY eclipse phase?
« Reply #270 on: May 05, 2021, 05:06:52 PM »
About two decades ago or so, on the Citizens of the Imperium forum, there was a guy who wasn't satisfied with Traveller. He wanted to be able to take his character's personality, download that personality onto a picotech bot, then have it as part of a neutron star's crystal memory structure as a virtual being, before uploading into an artificially gestated biosculpted human body. Basically, do everything in the last chapters of Alaistair Reynold's Revelation Space novel.

He was stopped short when somebody asked him, "How do you roleplay that?"

I think a similar question kills Eclipse Phase, "How do you actually roleplay this game?"
"Meh."

Abraxus

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Re: Does anyone here actually PLAY eclipse phase?
« Reply #271 on: May 05, 2021, 05:23:54 PM »
looks like Matt Swain created an account over at the TBP under the alias of Civil Minotaur with the same thread title. He is a new user that joined today. It could be a coincidence yet he gets banned here and similar thread appears at TBP. Some much for hating TBP. Another bullshit social chameleon SJW who was nothing but. I won’t link the thread it’s still on the first page.

Lol. How dumb can someone be using the same thread title and subject matter.
« Last Edit: May 05, 2021, 05:27:48 PM by sureshot »

Ghostmaker

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Re: Does anyone here actually PLAY eclipse phase?
« Reply #272 on: May 05, 2021, 05:35:20 PM »
looks like Matt Swain created an account over at the TBP under the alias of Civil Minotaur with the same thread title. He is a new user that joined today. It could be a coincidence yet he gets banned here and similar thread appears at TBP. Some much for hating TBP. Another bullshit social chameleon SJW who was nothing but. I won’t link the thread it’s still on the first page.

Lol. How dumb can someone be using the same thread title and subject matter.
I admit I'm sorely tempted... but no. Let them figure it out. We can start a pool on how long till they nail him for his sockpuppet account.

BoxCrayonTales

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Re: Does anyone here actually PLAY eclipse phase?
« Reply #273 on: May 05, 2021, 07:52:34 PM »
About two decades ago or so, on the Citizens of the Imperium forum, there was a guy who wasn't satisfied with Traveller. He wanted to be able to take his character's personality, download that personality onto a picotech bot, then have it as part of a neutron star's crystal memory structure as a virtual being, before uploading into an artificially gestated biosculpted human body. Basically, do everything in the last chapters of Alaistair Reynold's Revelation Space novel.

He was stopped short when somebody asked him, "How do you roleplay that?"

I think a similar question kills Eclipse Phase, "How do you actually roleplay this game?"
This question is true of scifi in general. It’s never been about realistic exploration of what the future could be like, given that humans have been shown to suck at predicting things. (E.g. smartphones and social media have rendered large swathes of scifi obsolete.) It’s mostly been about holding up a mirror to humanity.

Actual transhumanist and posthumanist fiction is so alien as to be unrelatable. If it’s not a comedy with flying monkeys and weirder shit, then it’s going to be very surreal as it describes the adventures of our alien descendants.


FingerRod

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Re: Does anyone here actually PLAY eclipse phase?
« Reply #274 on: May 05, 2021, 08:43:50 PM »
He was stopped short when somebody asked him, "How do you roleplay that?"

What a great example. There is absolutely no hiding from that question.

Kanyenya

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Re: Does anyone here actually PLAY eclipse phase?
« Reply #275 on: May 05, 2021, 08:53:52 PM »
looks like Matt Swain created an account over at the TBP under the alias of Civil Minotaur with the same thread title. He is a new user that joined today. It could be a coincidence yet he gets banned here and similar thread appears at TBP. Some much for hating TBP. Another bullshit social chameleon SJW who was nothing but. I won’t link the thread it’s still on the first page.

Lol. How dumb can someone be using the same thread title and subject matter.
I admit I'm sorely tempted... but no. Let them figure it out. We can start a pool on how long till they nail him for his sockpuppet account.

Looks like he already got banned (for a day, at least):

https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/civil-minotaur-receives-a-%F0%9F%9A%AB-one-day-ban-belligerent-both-sidesing.881005/

Pat
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Re: Does anyone here actually PLAY eclipse phase?
« Reply #276 on: May 05, 2021, 09:47:33 PM »
About two decades ago or so, on the Citizens of the Imperium forum, there was a guy who wasn't satisfied with Traveller. He wanted to be able to take his character's personality, download that personality onto a picotech bot, then have it as part of a neutron star's crystal memory structure as a virtual being, before uploading into an artificially gestated biosculpted human body. Basically, do everything in the last chapters of Alaistair Reynold's Revelation Space novel.

He was stopped short when somebody asked him, "How do you roleplay that?"

I think a similar question kills Eclipse Phase, "How do you actually roleplay this game?"
This question is true of scifi in general. It’s never been about realistic exploration of what the future could be like, given that humans have been shown to suck at predicting things. (E.g. smartphones and social media have rendered large swathes of scifi obsolete.) It’s mostly been about holding up a mirror to humanity.

Actual transhumanist and posthumanist fiction is so alien as to be unrelatable. If it’s not a comedy with flying monkeys and weirder shit, then it’s going to be very surreal as it describes the adventures of our alien descendants.
Time travel might be a solution. Not the magic time travel of Back to the Future and kin, but the time travel we do every day, just over decades and centuries. Run a longitudinal game, where the PCs start in the modern era, and then come up with some excuse to shift them forward in time. Corpsicles, braintapes in storage, heads in jars, whatever. Then come up with another excuse, and then another. Each new jump leads to a new world, that's still close enough to the previous one to be comprehensible and create a sense of continuity, but it starts to add up. Eventually you can get really out there, without losing the players.

Abraxus

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Re: Does anyone here actually PLAY eclipse phase?
« Reply #277 on: May 05, 2021, 10:07:02 PM »

Looks like he already got banned (for a day, at least):

https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/civil-minotaur-receives-a-%F0%9F%9A%AB-one-day-ban-belligerent-both-sidesing.881005/

😂

Starting to think his claims about knowing how bad and repressive TBP were are false. Trump support and trying to see both sides of an issue was it his first time at TBP.

Ratman_tf

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Re: Does anyone here actually PLAY eclipse phase?
« Reply #278 on: May 05, 2021, 10:25:57 PM »
looks like Matt Swain created an account over at the TBP under the alias of Civil Minotaur with the same thread title. He is a new user that joined today. It could be a coincidence yet he gets banned here and similar thread appears at TBP. Some much for hating TBP. Another bullshit social chameleon SJW who was nothing but. I won’t link the thread it’s still on the first page.

Lol. How dumb can someone be using the same thread title and subject matter.
I admit I'm sorely tempted... but no. Let them figure it out. We can start a pool on how long till they nail him for his sockpuppet account.

Looks like he already got banned (for a day, at least):

https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/civil-minotaur-receives-a-%F0%9F%9A%AB-one-day-ban-belligerent-both-sidesing.881005/

At this point, I'm suspecting substance abuse of the methanphetamine variety.
The notion of an exclusionary and hostile RPG community is a fever dream of zealots who view all social dynamics through a narrow keyhole of structural oppression.
-Haffrung

Mishihari

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Re: Does anyone here actually PLAY eclipse phase?
« Reply #279 on: May 05, 2021, 11:00:06 PM »
looks like Matt Swain created an account over at the TBP under the alias of Civil Minotaur with the same thread title. He is a new user that joined today. It could be a coincidence yet he gets banned here and similar thread appears at TBP. Some much for hating TBP. Another bullshit social chameleon SJW who was nothing but. I won’t link the thread it’s still on the first page.

Lol. How dumb can someone be using the same thread title and subject matter.
I admit I'm sorely tempted... but no. Let them figure it out. We can start a pool on how long till they nail him for his sockpuppet account.

Looks like he already got banned (for a day, at least):

https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/civil-minotaur-receives-a-%F0%9F%9A%AB-one-day-ban-belligerent-both-sidesing.881005/

At this point, I'm suspecting substance abuse of the methanphetamine variety.

Matt or the rpg.net community?  I haven't been there for years, but I went over to peek at what Matt was doing and holy crap have they gone downhill.  It's like Jim Jones started a left wing insane asylum.

Ratman_tf

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Re: Does anyone here actually PLAY eclipse phase?
« Reply #280 on: May 05, 2021, 11:47:36 PM »
looks like Matt Swain created an account over at the TBP under the alias of Civil Minotaur with the same thread title. He is a new user that joined today. It could be a coincidence yet he gets banned here and similar thread appears at TBP. Some much for hating TBP. Another bullshit social chameleon SJW who was nothing but. I won’t link the thread it’s still on the first page.

Lol. How dumb can someone be using the same thread title and subject matter.
I admit I'm sorely tempted... but no. Let them figure it out. We can start a pool on how long till they nail him for his sockpuppet account.

Looks like he already got banned (for a day, at least):

https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/civil-minotaur-receives-a-%F0%9F%9A%AB-one-day-ban-belligerent-both-sidesing.881005/

At this point, I'm suspecting substance abuse of the methanphetamine variety.

Matt or the rpg.net community?  I haven't been there for years, but I went over to peek at what Matt was doing and holy crap have they gone downhill.  It's like Jim Jones started a left wing insane asylum.

Matt. RPG.net is mostly high on their own farts.
The notion of an exclusionary and hostile RPG community is a fever dream of zealots who view all social dynamics through a narrow keyhole of structural oppression.
-Haffrung

Marchand

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Re: Does anyone here actually PLAY eclipse phase?
« Reply #281 on: May 06, 2021, 02:41:23 AM »
...He wanted to be able to take his character's personality, download that personality onto a picotech bot, then have it as part of a neutron star's crystal memory structure as a virtual being, before uploading into an artificially gestated biosculpted human body. Basically, do everything in the last chapters of Alaistair Reynold's Revelation Space novel.

Time travel might be a solution. Not the magic time travel of Back to the Future and kin, but the time travel we do every day, just over decades and centuries. Run a longitudinal game, where the PCs start in the modern era, and then come up with some excuse to shift them forward in time. Corpsicles, braintapes in storage, heads in jars, whatever. Then come up with another excuse, and then another. Each new jump leads to a new world, that's still close enough to the previous one to be comprehensible and create a sense of continuity, but it starts to add up. Eventually you can get really out there, without losing the players.

Relativistic time dilation as a consequence of near-C interstellar travel is a major plot element in the Revelation Space series. I love the idea of a campaign in that kind of setting, where the PCs travel between worlds, frozen on their ship (or having shipboard adventures) for a year or 2 subjective, coming back to a world 20 years after they left wondering what will have changed. There could have been a world war or a coup. Or the freedom fighter they helped win power last time they visited has turned into a despot.

As I recall, SWN had society-evolution tools that the ref could use to help cook it up.

I can imagine a sanity-like mechanic would be useful for handling the consequences as the PCs get progressively more disconnected in time, probably while loading up on all sorts of enhancements based on poorly-understood tech looted from fringe human factions or alien tombs.
« Last Edit: May 06, 2021, 02:44:48 AM by Marchand »
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Ratman_tf

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Re: Does anyone here actually PLAY eclipse phase?
« Reply #282 on: May 06, 2021, 03:52:28 AM »
...He wanted to be able to take his character's personality, download that personality onto a picotech bot, then have it as part of a neutron star's crystal memory structure as a virtual being, before uploading into an artificially gestated biosculpted human body. Basically, do everything in the last chapters of Alaistair Reynold's Revelation Space novel.

Time travel might be a solution. Not the magic time travel of Back to the Future and kin, but the time travel we do every day, just over decades and centuries. Run a longitudinal game, where the PCs start in the modern era, and then come up with some excuse to shift them forward in time. Corpsicles, braintapes in storage, heads in jars, whatever. Then come up with another excuse, and then another. Each new jump leads to a new world, that's still close enough to the previous one to be comprehensible and create a sense of continuity, but it starts to add up. Eventually you can get really out there, without losing the players.

Relativistic time dilation as a consequence of near-C interstellar travel is a major plot element in the Revelation Space series. I love the idea of a campaign in that kind of setting, where the PCs travel between worlds, frozen on their ship (or having shipboard adventures) for a year or 2 subjective, coming back to a world 20 years after they left wondering what will have changed. There could have been a world war or a coup. Or the freedom fighter they helped win power last time they visited has turned into a despot.

As I recall, SWN had society-evolution tools that the ref could use to help cook it up.

I can imagine a sanity-like mechanic would be useful for handling the consequences as the PCs get progressively more disconnected in time, probably while loading up on all sorts of enhancements based on poorly-understood tech looted from fringe human factions or alien tombs.

Sounds simliar to Forever War, where time dilation plays a huge role with the characters skipping decades and centuries into their future, the huge tech disparity between combat engagements, and the social disconnection when they get home and home is now an alien world.
The notion of an exclusionary and hostile RPG community is a fever dream of zealots who view all social dynamics through a narrow keyhole of structural oppression.
-Haffrung

jeff37923

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Re: Does anyone here actually PLAY eclipse phase?
« Reply #283 on: May 06, 2021, 03:58:03 AM »
...He wanted to be able to take his character's personality, download that personality onto a picotech bot, then have it as part of a neutron star's crystal memory structure as a virtual being, before uploading into an artificially gestated biosculpted human body. Basically, do everything in the last chapters of Alaistair Reynold's Revelation Space novel.

Time travel might be a solution. Not the magic time travel of Back to the Future and kin, but the time travel we do every day, just over decades and centuries. Run a longitudinal game, where the PCs start in the modern era, and then come up with some excuse to shift them forward in time. Corpsicles, braintapes in storage, heads in jars, whatever. Then come up with another excuse, and then another. Each new jump leads to a new world, that's still close enough to the previous one to be comprehensible and create a sense of continuity, but it starts to add up. Eventually you can get really out there, without losing the players.

Relativistic time dilation as a consequence of near-C interstellar travel is a major plot element in the Revelation Space series. I love the idea of a campaign in that kind of setting, where the PCs travel between worlds, frozen on their ship (or having shipboard adventures) for a year or 2 subjective, coming back to a world 20 years after they left wondering what will have changed. There could have been a world war or a coup. Or the freedom fighter they helped win power last time they visited has turned into a despot.

As I recall, SWN had society-evolution tools that the ref could use to help cook it up.

I can imagine a sanity-like mechanic would be useful for handling the consequences as the PCs get progressively more disconnected in time, probably while loading up on all sorts of enhancements based on poorly-understood tech looted from fringe human factions or alien tombs.

Sounds simliar to Forever War, where time dilation plays a huge role with the characters skipping decades and centuries into their future, the huge tech disparity between combat engagements, and the social disconnection when they get home and home is now an alien world.

It is, but Aleistair Reynolds best work along those lines is House of Suns. An incredible look at a fascinating setting just waiting for an RPG treatment.
"Meh."

HappyDaze

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Re: Does anyone here actually PLAY eclipse phase?
« Reply #284 on: May 06, 2021, 05:38:07 AM »
I can imagine a sanity-like mechanic would be useful for handling the consequences as the PCs get progressively more disconnected in time, probably while loading up on all sorts of enhancements based on poorly-understood tech looted from fringe human factions or alien tombs.
EP has a sanity system, and going insane is one of the only ways to have your character permanently die (if all of the backups are corrupted too). Sure, therapy is very effective in the game, and psychosurgery can overcome many traumas, but the list of things that can cause mental stress is pretty big (including inflicting or even witnessing excessive violence) and your sanity can die the death of 1000 paper cuts if you don't make your character with a fairly strong willpower. You can also start out hardened against certain types of traumas, but doing so is basically mental scar tissue that gives permanent penalties to all sorts of social actions, so there is a cost to it. Keep in mind too that witnessing asynch (psionic) powers will also sap your sanity, and this category cannot be hardened against, so a group with an asynch is already hurting themselves (yes, the sanity hit includes the user of the powers too).