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?"

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.

Quote from: sureshot 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.

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.

Quote from: jeff37923 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?"

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.

Quote from: jeff37923 on May 05, 2021, 05:06:52 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.

Quote from: Ghostmaker on May 05, 2021, 05:35:20 PM

Quote from: sureshot 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.

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/

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on May 05, 2021, 07:52:34 PM

Quote from: jeff37923 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?"

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.

Quote from: Kanyenya on May 05, 2021, 08:53:52 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.

Quote from: Kanyenya on May 05, 2021, 08:53:52 PM

Quote from: Ghostmaker on May 05, 2021, 05:35:20 PM

Quote from: sureshot 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.

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.

Quote from: Ratman_tf on May 05, 2021, 10:25:57 PM

Quote from: Kanyenya on May 05, 2021, 08:53:52 PM

Quote from: Ghostmaker on May 05, 2021, 05:35:20 PM

Quote from: sureshot 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.

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.

Quote from: Mishihari on May 05, 2021, 11:00:06 PM

Quote from: Ratman_tf on May 05, 2021, 10:25:57 PM

Quote from: Kanyenya on May 05, 2021, 08:53:52 PM

Quote from: Ghostmaker on May 05, 2021, 05:35:20 PM

Quote from: sureshot 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.

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.

Quote from: jeff37923 on May 05, 2021, 05:06:52 PM
...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.

Quote from: Pat on May 05, 2021, 09:47:33 PM
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.

Quote from: Marchand on May 06, 2021, 02:41:23 AM

Quote from: jeff37923 on May 05, 2021, 05:06:52 PM
...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.

Quote from: Pat on May 05, 2021, 09:47:33 PM
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.

Quote from: Ratman_tf on May 06, 2021, 03:52:28 AM

Quote from: Marchand on May 06, 2021, 02:41:23 AM

Quote from: jeff37923 on May 05, 2021, 05:06:52 PM
...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.

Quote from: Pat on May 05, 2021, 09:47:33 PM
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.

Quote from: Marchand on May 06, 2021, 02:41:23 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).