Firewall
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==Setting==
==Setting==
In the not too distant future... <br/>
In the not too distant future... <br/>
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There was a massive war between first world nations and corporations, then the singularity happened, and a bunch of AIs went crazy, Earth had to be evacuated. Now everybody lives elsewhere- on the
half
terraformed surface of Mars, on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, floating above the clouds of Venus, space stations and hollowed out asteroids across the solar system. Nanotech is readily available, people can upload their minds to computers, and humans uplifted a couple of species (
chimps
and
octopuses
).
+
There was a massive war between first world nations and corporations, then the singularity happened, and a bunch of
seed
AIs
called the Titans
went crazy, Earth had to be evacuated. Now everybody lives elsewhere - on the
partially
terraformed surface of Mars, on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, floating above the clouds of Venus,
or in
space stations and hollowed out asteroids across the solar system. Nanotech is readily available, people can upload their minds to computers, and humans uplifted a couple of species (
mostly different types of apes, birds,
and
cetaceans
).
−
There are several Wormholes left behind by the
AIs
that link to various other solar systems
- these are
called
the
Pandora gates.
Also, there are some aliens calling themselves
'
The Factors' who claim
to
represent
the
rest of galactic civilization
,
but
they
are very mysterious
.
+
There are several Wormholes
(possibly
left behind by the
Titans)
that link to various other solar systems
,
called Pandora gates.
They might be tranhumanity
'
s ticket
to
survival as a species by allowing expansion to varied locations throughout
the
galaxy
,
or
they
might be a trap or Trojan horse that will lead to death and horrible Cthulhu-style alien threats
.
Who knows?
−
Also there are space-whales living in the sun, and all kinds of weird ass fucking to be had.
+
Some aliens calling themselves 'The Factors' appeared, claiming to represent the rest of galactic civilization, but they are very mysterious and possibly completely manipulative assholes who want to fuck humanity over. Or maybe they're helpful - who knows?
+
+
There's an odd thing called the Exurgent virus (possibly left behind by the Titans), that's basically everything horrible about nanoplagues and the [[Warp]] that you could ever imagine, rolled into a single ever-changing threat that seems guided by unknowble intelligences to better improve itself and screw with everybody else through insense body horror and mental reprogramming. On the other hand, it's so incredibly advanced that understanding it would be a huge leap forwards for science, and the Watts-McLeods strain might just be a relatively safe and easy path to functional psychic powers. Or it might all be an even more insidious horrible trap. Who knows?
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+
The solar system alone contains more factions and sub-factions than your average Drow city, and they trust each other about as much as the Drow do. They almost all believe that they have the only safe and functional methods to avoid transhumanity's extinction (and make huge profits along the way, in most cases) and/or improve safety and quality of life for everyone. Or maybe they're all wrong, and everything will end in a huge war throughout the solar system. Who knows?
+
+
If you didn't get it by now, there's a reason why Eclipse Phase is generally considered a mystery/horror game. It's full of the stuff!
+
If the ethical and practical implications of some of the stuff that can be done with transhumanity's technology doesn't scare you, the Exurgents and Titan threats will. And the setting itself is absurdly full of plot hooks and conspiracies to <s>get repeatedly killed by</s> have fun with.
+
+
Also there are space-whales living in the sun, and all kinds of weird ass fucking to be had
. Especially if you join a Scum swarm, or any of the other groups who use the incredible potential offered by transhumanity's technology to do weird shit going from absolutely crazy sex to pseudo-Darwinian "enhanced natural selection" through cannibalism and fighting to the death repeatedly.
+
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This game's setting is incredibly well developed and thought out, and it's quite a nice read. The fact that the pdfs are free is nice too
.
==Books==
==Books==
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'''Eclipse Phase:''' The core rulebook with the general information on the setting.
'''Eclipse Phase:''' The core rulebook with the general information on the setting.
−
'''Sunward:''' A sourcebook focusing on the inner solar system, detailing the Sun and its whale-like
Suryats
, the nomadic miners of Mercury, the city-states of Venus, the fallen Earth, the Moon and associated space stations, the first autonomists of Extropia, with the particular focus on the Big Boy of the sandbox
,
the Planetary Consortium of Mars.
+
'''Sunward:''' A sourcebook focusing on the inner solar system, detailing the Sun and its whale-like
Suryas
, the nomadic miners of Mercury, the city-states of Venus, the fallen Earth, the Moon and associated space stations, the first autonomists of Extropia, with the particular focus on the Big Boy of the sandbox
:
the Planetary Consortium of Mars.
'''Gatecrashing:''' A sourcebook focusing on Pandora Gates, the totally not Star Gates that lead to places outside of the Solar system, one of which is giant dyson sphere big enough to fake being a planet. Discover the majesties of the universe as it tries to kill you.
'''Gatecrashing:''' A sourcebook focusing on Pandora Gates, the totally not Star Gates that lead to places outside of the Solar system, one of which is giant dyson sphere big enough to fake being a planet. Discover the majesties of the universe as it tries to kill you.
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'''Firewall:''' A sourcebook focusing on the default protagonist faction, the loose underground organization fighting against the extinction of humanity. Helps with differentiating them from [[Inquisition|these guys]]
'''Firewall:''' A sourcebook focusing on the default protagonist faction, the loose underground organization fighting against the extinction of humanity. Helps with differentiating them from [[Inquisition|these guys]]
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+
The Eclipse Phase website also has several mini-sourcebooks about little things like the Titan Quarantine Zone on Mars or a scum swarm called ''the Stars Our Destination'', a '''Morph Recognition Guide''' with pictures and rules for every Morph in the game found throughout the sourcebooks, a list of NPCs ready to use, and a few adventures.
==Characters==
==Characters==
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===Notable Morphs===
===Notable Morphs===
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Eclipse Phase has lots of Morphs to choose from, many of which can be invaluable to specific character builds or allow for great player options and/or roleplaying.
+
On the other hand, the game also has a bunch of relatively hilarious ones, that players or GMs like to bitch about.
+
'''[[Female Space Marines|Furies]]:''' The most combat-oriented biomorph available. They are quick, fast, strong, and usually biologically female, to <strike>introduce strong wymynz to the setting</strike> offset their natural aggressiveness.
'''[[Female Space Marines|Furies]]:''' The most combat-oriented biomorph available. They are quick, fast, strong, and usually biologically female, to <strike>introduce strong wymynz to the setting</strike> offset their natural aggressiveness.
−
'''Reapers:''' An armoured disk with four arms, each capable of [[Rip and Tear|fucking your shit up]]. It can also maneuver in microgravity, due to having small thrusters. Reapers are forbidden on most habitats because people fear their sheer potential for [[Khorne|badassness]]. For extra lulz, visit a [[Slaanesh|Scum Barge]] with one of these things and four [[Flamer|flamethrowers]] installed and when they object, [[Kharn|burn them all down]] [[Troll|while shouting something about your morphological freedom]].
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'''Reapers:''' An armoured disk with four arms, each capable of [[Rip and Tear|fucking your shit up]]. It can also maneuver in microgravity, due to having small thrusters. Reapers are forbidden on most habitats because people fear their sheer potential for [[Khorne|badassness]]. For extra lulz, visit a [[Slaanesh|Scum Barge]] with one of these things and four [[Flamer|flamethrowers]] installed and when they object, [[Kharn|burn them all down]] [[Troll|while shouting something about your morphological freedom]].
The Ultimates love these babies, and few other people like the Ultimates. I wonder why?
'''[[That Guy|Swarmanoids]]:''' A swarm composed of thousands of insect-sized microbots that share one consciousness. Awesome in theory, but [[skub|have fun arguing about the intricacies of the sensory input of the damn thing]], [[Lolwut|or watch your player stack every fucking implant in the book on the swarm and then try to electrocute a thousand enemies at once]]. That the Swarmanoid has special rules on fucking everything, including picking up fucking crates, doesn't help. [[Troll|Just introduce strong winds and watch the Swarmanoid get literally pulled apart]] [[grimdark|and die]] if it pisses you off too much. Or use EMP's. Normal synths can survive those, but Swarmanoids get positively [[Lamenters|rekt]] by them.
'''[[That Guy|Swarmanoids]]:''' A swarm composed of thousands of insect-sized microbots that share one consciousness. Awesome in theory, but [[skub|have fun arguing about the intricacies of the sensory input of the damn thing]], [[Lolwut|or watch your player stack every fucking implant in the book on the swarm and then try to electrocute a thousand enemies at once]]. That the Swarmanoid has special rules on fucking everything, including picking up fucking crates, doesn't help. [[Troll|Just introduce strong winds and watch the Swarmanoid get literally pulled apart]] [[grimdark|and die]] if it pisses you off too much. Or use EMP's. Normal synths can survive those, but Swarmanoids get positively [[Lamenters|rekt]] by them.
'''Novacrabs:''' For when you want to play a mansized sapient [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_spider_crab spider crab]. To stay in-character and catch the spirit of the developers, [[Lolwut|then complain loudly about how no one in the inner system wants to hang out with you just because you're a giant fucking monster crab from hell]]. [[Derp|MUH MORPHOLOGICAL FREEDOM!]]
'''Novacrabs:''' For when you want to play a mansized sapient [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_spider_crab spider crab]. To stay in-character and catch the spirit of the developers, [[Lolwut|then complain loudly about how no one in the inner system wants to hang out with you just because you're a giant fucking monster crab from hell]]. [[Derp|MUH MORPHOLOGICAL FREEDOM!]]
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There's also a spider tank Morph out there, for when your Novacrab player decides to keep trolling you while adding enough combat utility to solo a small army to his PC.
−
'''Jenkins:''' Jenkins look like 75% human and 25% rat, making them the ugliest motherfuckers around in a universe that has the Novacrab. [[Nurgle|They also stink like shit]], to the point where you can't remove their smell from furniture if they sit on it for a longer time. The scum's are particuarly fond of this morph and are known for [[Troll|rubbing themselves on visitors to make them smell as bad as they do, for teh trullz]]. This is usually followed by whining about how it's the policy of most Hypercorps to [[Exterminatus|glass them on sight]], just because they hate <strike>lazy, degenerate assholes</strike> '''FREEDOM'''.
+
'''Jenkins:''' Jenkins look like 75% human and 25% rat, making them the ugliest motherfuckers around in a universe that has the Novacrab. [[Nurgle|They also stink like shit]], to the point where you can't remove their smell from furniture if they sit on it for a longer time. The scum's are particuarly fond of this morph and are known for [[Troll|rubbing themselves on visitors to make them smell as bad as they do, for teh trullz]]. This is usually followed by whining about how it's the policy of most Hypercorps to [[Exterminatus|glass them on sight]], just because they hate <strike>lazy, degenerate assholes</strike> '''FREEDOM'''
. These guys were deliberatly designed to be as annoying as possible, but also for massively enhanced sexual stamina and to cater for a bunch of weird fetishes. They were obviously designed by the Scum. The only worse thing is '''Griefers''', a (throwaway) Morph that literally has an Anonymous mask on its illustration and that exists only to harass people and do some quick brainhacking to make politicians masturbate in public.
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'''Suryas:''' Eclipse Phase has a lot of odd morphs for those who want to explore areas with harsh environmental conditions, from the centaur guys you can have on the frigid surface of Titan to the odd synthmorphs you miught want to use to fly among the rings of Saturn for months on end. Suryas, however, are even odder. While most people might want one of the specially designed robot bodies for this, it is entirely possible to become a red space whale that uses odd magnetic field shenanigans to fly around in the Sun's corona. And yes, there is a humanoid version you can use to go [[Awesome|surfing on a space whale inside the Sun]]
.
==Firewall==
==Firewall==
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Your typical PCs are Firewall Sentinels, a team of agents who are tasked to assess the potential problem without drawing too much attention and, if possible, neutralize it. If something is way above their capabilities or things goes south, the Min-Maxed All-Combat Erasure teams are called in to purge everything in general vicinity, including the Sentinels if they are unlucky.
Your typical PCs are Firewall Sentinels, a team of agents who are tasked to assess the potential problem without drawing too much attention and, if possible, neutralize it. If something is way above their capabilities or things goes south, the Min-Maxed All-Combat Erasure teams are called in to purge everything in general vicinity, including the Sentinels if they are unlucky.
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To avoid subversion and to increase recruiting pools, Firewall's internal political structure is very close to that of the [[Inquisition]]. Firewall cells do go rogue, they sometimes end up fighting each other, and Firewall has "puritans" and "radicals" who argue over what can be used and what must be destroyed.
== Notable Factions (roughly Sunward to Rimward) ==
== Notable Factions (roughly Sunward to Rimward) ==