Eclipse Phase - Revision history

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2023-06-21T03:40:56Z

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1d4chan>FlintTD: Added a date for the end of the Kickstarter

2023-01-13T22:37:45Z

Added a date for the end of the Kickstarter

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:37, 13 January 2023
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	'''Eclipse Phase''' is a Transhumanist RPG published by Posthuman Studios. It was released in 2009 and all Eclipse Phase products (including printed rulebooks/sourcebooks and PDFs) by Posthuman Studios are [[copyright\|licensed]] under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. This means it's actually legal to go out and download it and share it with whoever you want. The game is set around 10 years after the singularity (called the Fall in the game) renders earth a nano-technological wasteland, and trans-humanity lives scattered around the solar system. Characters typically work for a shadowy organization called 'Firewall', who are attempting to ensure the survival of the solar system.		'''Eclipse Phase''' is a Transhumanist RPG published by Posthuman Studios. It was released in 2009 and all Eclipse Phase products (including printed rulebooks/sourcebooks and PDFs) by Posthuman Studios are [[copyright\|licensed]] under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. This means it's actually legal to go out and download it and share it with whoever you want. The game is set around 10 years after the singularity (called the Fall in the game) renders earth a nano-technological wasteland, and trans-humanity lives scattered around the solar system. Characters typically work for a shadowy organization called 'Firewall', who are attempting to ensure the survival of the solar system.

	The game was originally published by [[Catalyst Game Labs]] but is now published by Posthuman Studios. ~~They just~~ finished a [[Kickstarter]] to fund a second edition, which currently has a digital quick start guide, playtest packet, core rulebook, and not much else released. Interestingly, while the first edition was billed as "A game of transhuman horror", the second edition is called "A game of transhuman survival". This suggests that they might be toning down the game's cosmic horror elements.		The game was originally published by [[Catalyst Game Labs]] but is now published by Posthuman Studios. At the end of 2020, Posthuman Studios finished a [[Kickstarter]] to fund a second edition, which currently has a digital quick start guide, playtest packet, core rulebook, and not much else released. Interestingly, while the first edition was billed as "A game of transhuman horror", the second edition is called "A game of transhuman survival". This suggests that they might be toning down the game's cosmic horror elements.

	==Setting==		==Setting==

1d4chan>Blajbara: /* The Catch */

2022-09-16T18:16:41Z

The Catch

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:16, 16 September 2022
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	# Flip the script. This is the Jovian option that gets bandied about so often; ordinary humans just trying to save their souls in a solar system full of Cthuloid horrors that are still ''just'' human enough to enact a twisted parody of civilization while they wait for their TITAN masters to return. The downside of this option, of course, is that you're consigning a lot of player options to GM use only and that the very nature of the setting and system make unaltered humans pretty much suck. On the other hand, most alterations don't require resleeving per se, with the obvious exception of most morphs.		# Flip the script. This is the Jovian option that gets bandied about so often; ordinary humans just trying to save their souls in a solar system full of Cthuloid horrors that are still ''just'' human enough to enact a twisted parody of civilization while they wait for their TITAN masters to return. The downside of this option, of course, is that you're consigning a lot of player options to GM use only and that the very nature of the setting and system make unaltered humans pretty much suck. On the other hand, most alterations don't require resleeving per se, with the obvious exception of most morphs.
	# Treat your digital consciousness as a pseudo "soul." You are a digital entity that is constantly aware of its existence. When you transfer yourself you are moving your ego, not copying yourself. When you die you are "uploaded" via a constant stream that serves as an immaterial synaptic cord to another medium you inhabit. If you're having trouble grasping this, imagine how the traditional "soul" is suppose to work. When you die your mind persists as detached creature separate from the body. Essentially this means your PC will never feel fully attached to your body, but it's a simple solution to what is obviously an idiotic existential issue caused by bad writing and science's rather poor grasp of what self awareness even is. For other works of fiction that do this, look at Ghost in the Shell where copying digital minds is virtually impossible and the Matrix, which uses a whole host of spiritual analogies for the digital self.		# Treat your digital consciousness as a pseudo "soul." You are a digital entity that is constantly aware of its existence. When you transfer yourself you are moving your ego, not copying yourself. When you die you are "uploaded" via a constant stream that serves as an immaterial synaptic cord to another medium you inhabit. If you're having trouble grasping this, imagine how the traditional "soul" is suppose to work. When you die your mind persists as detached creature separate from the body. Essentially this means your PC will never feel fully attached to your body, but it's a simple solution to what is obviously an idiotic existential issue caused by bad writing and science's rather poor grasp of what self awareness even is. For other works of fiction that do this, look at Ghost in the Shell where copying digital minds is virtually impossible and the Matrix, which uses a whole host of spiritual analogies for the digital self.
	# All or none of the above. Maybe it'll be a little bit of each at your table. Or maybe it won't come up at all, because not everyone thinks so deeply about this stuff. After all, Star Trek hasn't been brought down by it.		# Have the option of your PCs travel via shuttles from planet to planet, propulsion systems like antimatter can go up to 70 million mph and can accelerate to fractions of light-speed pretty quickly. That being said, one may still run into issues such as your uploaded party members being beamed From Mars to Jupiter in ~20 minutes while the embodied ones need 20 days to reach it (unless TITANs developed the Alcubierre Drive or something similar).
			# All or none of the above. Maybe it'll be a little bit of each at your table. Or maybe it won't come up at all, because not everyone thinks so deeply about this stuff. After all, Star Trek hasn't been brought down by it. It's just a game and one can entertain an idea without necessarily accepting it.

	Philosophy on that aside, there are still a bunch of other hot-button political issues wrapped up in this game that could cause arguments at the table. Some of it is based purely on the nature of transhumanism, and some of it is intentionally injected by the writers. There are a lot of utopias to ruin in the Transhuman Future<sup>TM</sup>, and you had better believe someone is going to get their toes stepped on when you try to ruin theirs.		Philosophy on that aside, there are still a bunch of other hot-button political issues wrapped up in this game that could cause arguments at the table. Some of it is based purely on the nature of transhumanism, and some of it is intentionally injected by the writers. There are a lot of utopias to ruin in the Transhuman Future<sup>TM</sup>, and you had better believe someone is going to get their toes stepped on when you try to ruin theirs.

1d4chan>Newerfag: /* The Catch */

2022-04-12T23:46:14Z

The Catch

← Older revision		Revision as of 23:46, 12 April 2022
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	If you think about it enough, the idea that people are habitually "committing suicide" just to get around the solar system or do a specific job better could be seen as completely fucking absurd. In fact there's a whole faction in the setting, the Jovians, who see it as completely fucking absurd, and they're portrayed as the bad guys. The Jovians are a racist totalitarian dictatorship that commits atrocities, but in-setting they get shat on by the equally dystopian hypercorp-dominated cities because of their "ridiculous" attitude towards 'resleeving' (ie, physical suicide). To make things worse, the process of resleeving and egocasting can be compromised. Getting forked after cast, or even having altered version of yourself take your morph, is a real possibility. And it's not that hard either, many criminal organizations in the setting are known to do this. In the second edition of the setting, it is officially noted that storing a fork after transmission is ''routine practice'' for visitors to many habitats. These issues have been written about in science fiction forever, but the developers haven't really tried. Unfortunately, trying to excise the whole mess also forces you to excise a lot of the coolest parts of the setting (like the crime family that's all forks of the same chick). So if this comes up in your group, you're going to have to find a compromise that you can live with. Some possible approaches are:		If you think about it enough, the idea that people are habitually "committing suicide" just to get around the solar system or do a specific job better could be seen as completely fucking absurd. In fact there's a whole faction in the setting, the Jovians, who see it as completely fucking absurd, and they're portrayed as the bad guys. The Jovians are a racist totalitarian dictatorship that commits atrocities, but in-setting they get shat on by the equally dystopian hypercorp-dominated cities because of their "ridiculous" attitude towards 'resleeving' (ie, physical suicide). To make things worse, the process of resleeving and egocasting can be compromised. Getting forked after cast, or even having altered version of yourself take your morph, is a real possibility. And it's not that hard either, many criminal organizations in the setting are known to do this. In the second edition of the setting, it is officially noted that storing a fork after transmission is ''routine practice'' for visitors to many habitats. These issues have been written about in science fiction forever, but the developers haven't really tried. Unfortunately, trying to excise the whole mess also forces you to excise a lot of the coolest parts of the setting (like the crime family that's all forks of the same chick). So if this comes up in your group, you're going to have to find a compromise that you can live with. Some possible approaches are:

	# Ignore it. The Eclipse Phase forum ~~has done all kinds of sophistry trying to dance around~~ the philosophical concept that a copy of something is not the same thing as the original, so you'll be in good company. Some people may not have even considered any of this and/or prefer not to think about the implications; perhaps all of the stuff mentioned in the Setting section above is enough to distract from the deep-seated implications. And, it's not entirely impossible that a society might shift its attitude towards the acceptance, that sleeving is merely a change in body for the non-changing mind. After all, normal human beings have replaced every single cell in their body with the resources of nourishment by the age of 7-40 (depending on who you ask) and they are not considered different people or "food clones" of the person they were when they were born. So, accelerating this process from 40 years to an instant is not necessarily a horrifying concept to a futuristic society that has lived with this technology for quite a while, now. In addition, the majority of refugees from Earth survived as cortical stacks or egos in a database. Somewhat contributing to acceptance of the technology.		# Ignore it. The Eclipse Phase forum does not wholly agree with the philosophical concept that a copy of something is not the same thing as the original, so you'll be in good company. Some people may not have even considered any of this and/or prefer not to think about the implications; perhaps all of the stuff mentioned in the Setting section above is enough to distract from the deep-seated implications. And, it's not entirely impossible that a society might shift its attitude towards the acceptance, that sleeving is merely a change in body for the non-changing mind. After all, normal human beings have replaced every single cell in their body with the resources of nourishment by the age of 7-40 (depending on who you ask) and they are not considered different people or "food clones" of the person they were when they were born. So, accelerating this process from 40 years to an instant is not necessarily a horrifying concept to a futuristic society that has lived with this technology for quite a while, now. In addition, the majority of refugees from Earth survived as cortical stacks or egos in a database. Somewhat contributing to acceptance of the technology.
	# Embrace it. The various Eclipse Phase books do actually note that the huddled masses of transhumanity think the more esoteric stuff like forking and egocasting are weird and only resleeve when their existing bodies are about to die, so it's not that big of a stretch to just say that the upper crust of transhuman society that the PCs are assumed to belong to by default is so jaded and decadent that occupational suicide is small potatoes. (This is also more or less the approach to mind uploading taken by [[GURPS]] [[Transhuman Space]].) This lets you put focus on the existential horror inherent to what the PCs do to themselves and juxtapose it with the more cosmic threat of the TITANs. There's also the handful of ways you can resleeve while preserving continuity of consciousness, which may or may not be the escape clause your group needs to get on board.		# Embrace it. The various Eclipse Phase books do actually note that the huddled masses of transhumanity think the more esoteric stuff like forking and egocasting are weird and only resleeve when their existing bodies are about to die, so it's not that big of a stretch to just say that the upper crust of transhuman society that the PCs are assumed to belong to by default is so jaded and decadent that occupational suicide is small potatoes. (This is also more or less the approach to mind uploading taken by [[GURPS]] [[Transhuman Space]].) This lets you put focus on the existential horror inherent to what the PCs do to themselves and juxtapose it with the more cosmic threat of the TITANs. There's also the handful of ways you can resleeve while preserving continuity of consciousness, which may or may not be the escape clause your group needs to get on board.
	# Flip the script. This is the Jovian option that gets bandied about so often; ordinary humans just trying to save their souls in a solar system full of Cthuloid horrors that are still ''just'' human enough to enact a twisted parody of civilization while they wait for their TITAN masters to return. The downside of this option, of course, is that you're consigning a lot of player options to GM use only and that the very nature of the setting and system make unaltered humans pretty much suck. On the other hand, most alterations don't require resleeving per se, with the obvious exception of most morphs.		# Flip the script. This is the Jovian option that gets bandied about so often; ordinary humans just trying to save their souls in a solar system full of Cthuloid horrors that are still ''just'' human enough to enact a twisted parody of civilization while they wait for their TITAN masters to return. The downside of this option, of course, is that you're consigning a lot of player options to GM use only and that the very nature of the setting and system make unaltered humans pretty much suck. On the other hand, most alterations don't require resleeving per se, with the obvious exception of most morphs.

1d4chan>FlintTD at 17:53, 14 March 2022

2022-03-14T17:53:52Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:53, 14 March 2022
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	[[Category:Roleplaying]]		[[Category:Roleplaying]]
			[[Category: Eclipse Phase]]

1d4chan>FlintTD at 18:31, 31 January 2022

2022-01-31T18:31:58Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:31, 31 January 2022
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	Extinction is approaching. ''Fight it.''		Extinction is approaching. ''Fight it.''

	'''Eclipse Phase''' is a Transhumanist RPG published by Posthuman Studios. It was released in 2009 and all Eclipse Phase products (including printed rulebooks/sourcebooks and PDFs) by Posthuman Studios are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. This means it's actually legal to go out and download it and share it with whoever you want. The game is set around 10 years after the singularity (called the Fall in the game) renders earth a nano-technological wasteland, and trans-humanity lives scattered around the solar system. Characters typically work for a shadowy organization called 'Firewall', who are attempting to ensure the survival of the solar system.		'''Eclipse Phase''' is a Transhumanist RPG published by Posthuman Studios. It was released in 2009 and all Eclipse Phase products (including printed rulebooks/sourcebooks and PDFs) by Posthuman Studios are [[copyright\|licensed]] under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. This means it's actually legal to go out and download it and share it with whoever you want. The game is set around 10 years after the singularity (called the Fall in the game) renders earth a nano-technological wasteland, and trans-humanity lives scattered around the solar system. Characters typically work for a shadowy organization called 'Firewall', who are attempting to ensure the survival of the solar system.

	The game was originally published by [[Catalyst Game Labs]] but is now published by Posthuman Studios. They just finished a [[Kickstarter]] to fund a second edition, which currently has a digital quick start guide, playtest packet, core rulebook, and not much else released. Interestingly, while the first edition was billed as "A game of transhuman horror", the second edition is called "A game of transhuman survival". This suggests that they might be toning down the game's cosmic horror elements.		The game was originally published by [[Catalyst Game Labs]] but is now published by Posthuman Studios. They just finished a [[Kickstarter]] to fund a second edition, which currently has a digital quick start guide, playtest packet, core rulebook, and not much else released. Interestingly, while the first edition was billed as "A game of transhuman horror", the second edition is called "A game of transhuman survival". This suggests that they might be toning down the game's cosmic horror elements.

213.124.164.73: /* The Catch */ - slight clarification on how the Jovians are presented and treated in-setting

2021-03-15T22:18:20Z

The Catch: - slight clarification on how the Jovians are presented and treated in-setting

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:18, 15 March 2021
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	In case you haven't noticed, there's a pretty big pulsating nodule in the setting's premise and logic, it's infamous for tying the Eclipse Phase forums in intellectual knots. You see, the centerpiece of the Eclipse Phase version of transhumanism is the ability to translate human consciousness into data and copy it between bodies and across interplanetary data links. The operative words here are ''translate'' and ''copy.'' It's the same philosophical issue that people have been raising with [[Star Trek]] transporters for decades; you're trusting a computer to use your brain to make something that kinda sorta acts like you, kill you, and then let the copy go on with its life thinking it's you, all while deluding yourself into thinking the copy that's left behind after you die is, in fact, ''you.'' Moreover, Eclipse Phase goes beyond simple transportation into duplicating and modifying people with egoware, resleeving and the forking mechanics, which makes it much harder to handwave away the implications as Star Trek does.		In case you haven't noticed, there's a pretty big pulsating nodule in the setting's premise and logic, it's infamous for tying the Eclipse Phase forums in intellectual knots. You see, the centerpiece of the Eclipse Phase version of transhumanism is the ability to translate human consciousness into data and copy it between bodies and across interplanetary data links. The operative words here are ''translate'' and ''copy.'' It's the same philosophical issue that people have been raising with [[Star Trek]] transporters for decades; you're trusting a computer to use your brain to make something that kinda sorta acts like you, kill you, and then let the copy go on with its life thinking it's you, all while deluding yourself into thinking the copy that's left behind after you die is, in fact, ''you.'' Moreover, Eclipse Phase goes beyond simple transportation into duplicating and modifying people with egoware, resleeving and the forking mechanics, which makes it much harder to handwave away the implications as Star Trek does.

	If you think about it enough, the idea that people are habitually "committing suicide" just to get around the solar system or do a specific job better could be seen as completely fucking absurd. In fact there's a whole faction in the setting, the Jovians, who see it as completely fucking absurd, and they're portrayed as "the bad guys". To make things worse, the process of resleeving and egocasting can be compromised. Getting forked after cast, or even having altered version of yourself take your morph, is a real possibility. And it's not that hard either, many criminal organizations in the setting are known to do this. In the second edition of the setting, it is officially noted that storing a fork after transmission is ''routine practice'' for visitors to many habitats. These issues have been written about in science fiction forever, but the developers haven't really tried. Unfortunately, trying to excise the whole mess also forces you to excise a lot of the coolest parts of the setting (like the crime family that's all forks of the same chick). So if this comes up in your group, you're going to have to find a compromise that you can live with. Some possible approaches are:		If you think about it enough, the idea that people are habitually "committing suicide" just to get around the solar system or do a specific job better could be seen as completely fucking absurd. In fact there's a whole faction in the setting, the Jovians, who see it as completely fucking absurd, and they're portrayed as the bad guys. The Jovians are a racist totalitarian dictatorship that commits atrocities, but in-setting they get shat on by the equally dystopian hypercorp-dominated cities because of their "ridiculous" attitude towards 'resleeving' (ie, physical suicide). To make things worse, the process of resleeving and egocasting can be compromised. Getting forked after cast, or even having altered version of yourself take your morph, is a real possibility. And it's not that hard either, many criminal organizations in the setting are known to do this. In the second edition of the setting, it is officially noted that storing a fork after transmission is ''routine practice'' for visitors to many habitats. These issues have been written about in science fiction forever, but the developers haven't really tried. Unfortunately, trying to excise the whole mess also forces you to excise a lot of the coolest parts of the setting (like the crime family that's all forks of the same chick). So if this comes up in your group, you're going to have to find a compromise that you can live with. Some possible approaches are:

	# Ignore it. The Eclipse Phase forum has done all kinds of sophistry trying to dance around the philosophical concept that a copy of something is not the same thing as the original, so you'll be in good company. Some people may not have even considered any of this and/or prefer not to think about the implications; perhaps all of the stuff mentioned in the Setting section above is enough to distract from the deep-seated implications. And, it's not entirely impossible that a society might shift its attitude towards the acceptance, that sleeving is merely a change in body for the non-changing mind. After all, normal human beings have replaced every single cell in their body with the resources of nourishment by the age of 7-40 (depending on who you ask) and they are not considered different people or "food clones" of the person they were when they were born. So, accelerating this process from 40 years to an instant is not necessarily a horrifying concept to a futuristic society that has lived with this technology for quite a while, now. In addition, the majority of refugees from Earth survived as cortical stacks or egos in a database. Somewhat contributing to acceptance of the technology.		# Ignore it. The Eclipse Phase forum has done all kinds of sophistry trying to dance around the philosophical concept that a copy of something is not the same thing as the original, so you'll be in good company. Some people may not have even considered any of this and/or prefer not to think about the implications; perhaps all of the stuff mentioned in the Setting section above is enough to distract from the deep-seated implications. And, it's not entirely impossible that a society might shift its attitude towards the acceptance, that sleeving is merely a change in body for the non-changing mind. After all, normal human beings have replaced every single cell in their body with the resources of nourishment by the age of 7-40 (depending on who you ask) and they are not considered different people or "food clones" of the person they were when they were born. So, accelerating this process from 40 years to an instant is not necessarily a horrifying concept to a futuristic society that has lived with this technology for quite a while, now. In addition, the majority of refugees from Earth survived as cortical stacks or egos in a database. Somewhat contributing to acceptance of the technology.

1d4chan>SpectralTime: Some alright points here, but need a once-over in terms of grammar and completed thoughts, and I dunno enough about the new setting to try to fix 'em.

2020-11-08T15:17:02Z

Some alright points here, but need a once-over in terms of grammar and completed thoughts, and I dunno enough about the new setting to try to fix 'em.

216.16.168.80: /* Notable Factions (roughly Sunward to Rimward) */

2020-11-08T12:23:15Z

Notable Factions (roughly Sunward to Rimward)

← Older revision		Revision as of 15:17, 8 November 2020
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	**'''Inter-Planetary Consortium:''' PROFITPROFITPROFIT...profit? PROFIT! All the wealthiest and coolest bastards got together on Mars after The Fall and formed this super-club. They don't use slaves for menial labor jobs. They employ indentured infuegees in tasks they wouldn't trust a self-aware AI to do. Sure, they sometimes extend a person's contract for arbitrary reasons like "Letting anti-corporate terrorists damage valuable property." But can you blame them? they're trying to run a business here, not some charity. There are various interesting corporations within the Consortium.		**'''Inter-Planetary Consortium:''' PROFITPROFITPROFIT...profit? PROFIT! All the wealthiest and coolest bastards got together on Mars after The Fall and formed this super-club. They don't use slaves for menial labor jobs. They employ indentured infuegees in tasks they wouldn't trust a self-aware AI to do. Sure, they sometimes extend a person's contract for arbitrary reasons like "Letting anti-corporate terrorists damage valuable property." But can you blame them? they're trying to run a business here, not some charity. There are various interesting corporations within the Consortium.
	**'''Barsoomians:''' The blue collar working class of the planet Mars. I guess they should called red-collared since they have to deal with the rusty dust storm. Anyways, their needs aren't always met by the Consortium, who they share Mars with. Besides being Populists, most Barsoomians don't have much in common with each other than speaking like Texans and having Korean names. Some of them are actually Islamic terraforming engineers, who roam the planet and, in a role reversal, dodge giant explosions thrown at them by corporations.		**'''Barsoomians:''' The blue collar working class of the planet Mars. I guess they should called red-collared since they have to deal with the rusty dust storm. Anyways, their needs aren't always met by the Consortium, who they share Mars with. Besides being Populists, most Barsoomians don't have much in common with each other than speaking like Texans and having Korean names. Some of them are actually Islamic terraforming engineers, who roam the planet and, in a role reversal, dodge giant explosions thrown at them by corporations.
	*'''Jovian Republic:''' Take a South American Junta republic (secret police, Elected Dictators), combine it with the worst aspects of McCarthy-era North 'Murrica politics (Red Scare-style Paranoia, Lobbyists, Military Dominance) and put all that in orbit around the planet Jupiter. What do you get? This faction. The biggest reason you should respect these Luddites is that they'll never be eaten by a swarm of self replicating nanobots of their own design. Recently this shifted to just-as-augmented Jovians who think that they sold their souls to the devil for the sake of their country. Politically, these guys are a "republic" in the Classical Age Greek sense of the word, as in: If you have fulfilled mandatory military service or are the offspring of a politician, then you get to vote. If not, NO VOTE FOR YOU BECAUSE YOU AREN'T A CITIZEN, YOU'RE A USELESS CIVILIAN. What are you voting on? You're voting for a Senator who will hopefully vote yes on the bill to give your space station some radiation shielding. Seriously. Unfortunately, they'll never be expanded on - the designers have noted in the forums that they like to keep a bad guy faction for Space Sweden ~~cause they are~~ a ~~literal junta and Starship Troopers film if not taken as parody~~		*'''Jovian Republic:''' Take a South American Junta republic (secret police, Elected Dictators), combine it with the worst aspects of McCarthy-era North 'Murrica politics (Red Scare-style Paranoia, Lobbyists, Military Dominance) and put all that in orbit around the planet Jupiter. What do you get? This faction. The biggest reason you should respect these Luddites is that they'll never be eaten by a swarm of self replicating nanobots of their own design. Recently this shifted to just-as-augmented Jovians who think that they sold their souls to the devil for the sake of their country. Politically, these guys are a "republic" in the Classical Age Greek sense of the word, as in: If you have fulfilled mandatory military service or are the offspring of a politician, then you get to vote. If not, NO VOTE FOR YOU BECAUSE YOU AREN'T A CITIZEN, YOU'RE A USELESS CIVILIAN. What are you voting on? You're voting for a Senator who will hopefully vote yes on the bill to give your space station some radiation shielding. Seriously. Unfortunately, they'll never be expanded on - the designers have noted in the forums that they like to keep a bad guy faction for Space Sweden to face off against, despite all the interesting possibilities inherent in the idea of transhuman rejectionists in a world full of transhumans.
	*'''Autonomist Alliance:''' The loose bloc of anarchists, whose main stated ideal is to restart progress of knowledge and humanity by taking off the shackles of entrenched traditions enforced by old governments, thought in practice in most cases it amounts to people just wanting to get away from Earth. Obviously, they got a substantial membership boost after the Fall. Despite appearances, the Autonomists owe their continued existence to the ''Jovians,'' who consider everything beyond the orbit of Jupiter their sphere of influence. On at least one occasion, the Jovian Junta stopped the Consortium takeover of an Autonomist hab whose control of Jupiter gravity well prevents other factions from moving large amount of military hardware to the outer system. Notable members of the Alliance are:		*'''Autonomist Alliance:''' The loose bloc of anarchists, whose main stated ideal is to restart progress of knowledge and humanity by taking off the shackles of entrenched traditions enforced by old governments, thought in practice in most cases it amounts to people just wanting to get away from Earth. Obviously, they got a substantial membership boost after the Fall. Despite appearances, the Autonomists owe their continued existence to the ''Jovians,'' who consider everything beyond the orbit of Jupiter their sphere of influence. On at least one occasion, the Jovian Junta stopped the Consortium takeover of an Autonomist hab whose control of Jupiter gravity well prevents other factions from moving large amount of military hardware to the outer system. Notable members of the Alliance are:
	**'''Firewall:''' The default protagonist faction. It is an underground organization dedicated to fighting x-risks, extinction level threats to humanity, formed by the remnants of the similar national programs who were not taken seriously before The Fall. It is very loosely organized, with individual cells barely working together for the sake of secrecy, if they even know of each other at all.		**'''Firewall:''' The default protagonist faction. It is an underground organization dedicated to fighting x-risks, extinction level threats to humanity, formed by the remnants of the similar national programs who were not taken seriously before The Fall. It is very loosely organized, with individual cells barely working together for the sake of secrecy, if they even know of each other at all.
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	**'''Mercurials:''' A movement comprised of Uplifts, AGIs, Infomorphs and other non-humans who advocate for equal rights with transhumans. Of course, some also want special or outright superior rights, but much of this is brushed aside as hardcore revolutionaries or fringe anti-humanists.		**'''Mercurials:''' A movement comprised of Uplifts, AGIs, Infomorphs and other non-humans who advocate for equal rights with transhumans. Of course, some also want special or outright superior rights, but much of this is brushed aside as hardcore revolutionaries or fringe anti-humanists.
	**'''Space Station Anarchists:''' Anarchy only works as a viable system of government under specific conditions: like aboard a self-sufficient space station. Even then, [[Space Station 13\|things don't always work out]]. However, Post-Fall, most space station inhabitants have a vested interest in each-other's well-being.		**'''Space Station Anarchists:''' Anarchy only works as a viable system of government under specific conditions: like aboard a self-sufficient space station. Even then, [[Space Station 13\|things don't always work out]]. However, Post-Fall, most space station inhabitants have a vested interest in each-other's well-being.
	**'''Scum Barge Nomads:''' Similar to the anarchists but way more hedonist and cray-cray. Seriously, they have ships called "Lick me, I'm Delicious" and "Rule 34," and that's just to fuck with the poor gal who's giving them permission to dock. Okay, some of them aren't totally crazy but a lot of them are. Before I tell you anything, consider this: about 2/3rds of transhumanity got killed (or worse) by the TITANs and deep down the scum are a little tiny bit traumatized. That's why they have their yiffing futa rave pit orgies in a zero-g recreational drug lab. Seriously, you guys, that's totally the reason. It takes their minds off the horrors of The Fall, which they probably ~~did~~ see personally. ~~Perma~~-death is a scary possibility no matter how far from Earth you fly, whether it's by the guns of the corporations or by the blades of TITAN-spawned horrors. The important thing is to enjoy life, which is what the Scum try to do every artificial day cycle.		**'''Scum Barge Nomads:''' Similar to the anarchists but way more hedonist and cray-cray. Seriously, they have ships called "Lick me, I'm Delicious" and "Rule 34," and that's just to fuck with the poor gal who's giving them permission to dock. Okay, some of them aren't totally crazy but a lot of them are. Before I tell you anything, consider this: about 2/3rds of transhumanity got killed (or worse) by the TITANs and deep down the scum are a little tiny bit traumatized. That's why they have their yiffing futa rave pit orgies in a zero-g recreational drug lab. Seriously, you guys, that's totally the reason. It takes their minds off the horrors of The Fall, which they probably didn't see personally despite it happening only ten years before. But perma-death is a scary possibility no matter how far from Earth you fly, whether it's by the guns of the corporations or by the blades of TITAN-spawned horrors. The important thing is to enjoy life, which is what the Scum try to do every artificial day cycle.
	*'''The Ultimates:''' Buddhist super soldier mercenaries who live [[FATAL\|around Uranus]], who seek perfection by pushing the ever-changing limits of mind and swappable bodies. While many of them actually follow that philosophy, many of them are also your garden variety "master-race supremacists". They are [[Minotaurs\|extremely pragmatic]], and have no problem with cutting out people's cortical stacks en masse to "evacuate" more people with the mass available. Frequently employed by corps or oligarchs, these warriors have, at very least one time, taken over a hab ~~temporarily~~ they were hired to protect. Needless to say, their clients learned from such occasions and the Ultimates recently landed a contract "to secure mankind's extrasolar colonies...." Are confirmed to be removed as a viable player character option in the upcoming second edition, because of the political implications of playing a fascist cult, though nothing is stopping a player or GM from houseruling them in regardless. This is incredibly dumb considering the leadership of the Ultimates hot dropped onto Earth during the Fall to punish members for acting fascist. Not only making this a self-fulfilling prophecy for the faction		*'''The Ultimates:''' Buddhist super soldier mercenaries who live [[FATAL\|around Uranus]], who seek perfection by pushing the ever changing limits of mind and swappable bodies. While many of them actually follow that philosophy, many of them are also your garden variety "master-race supremacists". They are [[Minotaurs\|extremely pragmatic]], and have no problem with cutting out people's cortical stacks en masse to "evacuate" more people with the mass available. Frequently employed by corps or oligarchs, these warriors have, at very least one time, taken over a hab they were hired to protect. Needless to say their clients learned from such occasions and the Ultimates recently landed a contract "to secure mankind's extrasolar colonies...." Are confirmed to be removed as a viable player character option in the upcoming second edition, because of the political implications of playing a fascist cult, though nothing is stopping a player or GM from houseruling them in regardless.
	*'''Brinkers:''' Survivalist and isolationist types who live in many places, but primarily out in the farthest reaches of the solar system, generally around and between Uranus and Neptune. Some of them are hermits, some of them are extremophiles, some of them are radicals, some of them are exiled or being hunted, and some of them would just rather sit eternity out in a bar at the end of the universe. They're so far from the sun that they have to either harvest their own fusible hydrogen or have it shipped out.		*'''Brinkers:''' Survivalist and isolationist types who live in many places, but primarily out in the farthest reaches of the solar system, generally around and between Uranus and Neptune. Some of them are hermits, some of them are extremophiles, some of them are radicals, some of them are exiled or being hunted, and some of them would just rather sit eternity out in a bar at the end of the universe. They're so far from the sun that they have to either harvest their own fusible hydrogen or have it shipped out.

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	If you're wondering how they stayed relevant against other more organized factions, a friendly ASI's (the Super AI like the TITANs) influence might have had a hand in it.		If you're wondering how they stayed relevant against other more organized factions, a friendly ASI's (the Super AI like the TITANs) influence might have had a hand in it.

	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-all-the-time Erasure teams are called in to purge everything in ~~the~~ 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-all-the-time Erasure teams are called in to purge everything in general vicinity, including the Sentinels if they are unlucky.

	To avoid subversion and to increase recruiting pools, Firewall's internal political structure is much closer to that of the Imperial Inquisition than say, The Laundry or the Men In Black. 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.		To avoid subversion and to increase recruiting pools, Firewall's internal political structure is much closer to that of the Imperial Inquisition than say, The Laundry or the Men In Black. 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.

← Older revision		Revision as of 12:23, 8 November 2020
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	**'''Inter-Planetary Consortium:''' PROFITPROFITPROFIT...profit? PROFIT! All the wealthiest and coolest bastards got together on Mars after The Fall and formed this super-club. They don't use slaves for menial labor jobs. They employ indentured infuegees in tasks they wouldn't trust a self-aware AI to do. Sure, they sometimes extend a person's contract for arbitrary reasons like "Letting anti-corporate terrorists damage valuable property." But can you blame them? they're trying to run a business here, not some charity. There are various interesting corporations within the Consortium.		**'''Inter-Planetary Consortium:''' PROFITPROFITPROFIT...profit? PROFIT! All the wealthiest and coolest bastards got together on Mars after The Fall and formed this super-club. They don't use slaves for menial labor jobs. They employ indentured infuegees in tasks they wouldn't trust a self-aware AI to do. Sure, they sometimes extend a person's contract for arbitrary reasons like "Letting anti-corporate terrorists damage valuable property." But can you blame them? they're trying to run a business here, not some charity. There are various interesting corporations within the Consortium.
	**'''Barsoomians:''' The blue collar working class of the planet Mars. I guess they should called red-collared since they have to deal with the rusty dust storm. Anyways, their needs aren't always met by the Consortium, who they share Mars with. Besides being Populists, most Barsoomians don't have much in common with each other than speaking like Texans and having Korean names. Some of them are actually Islamic terraforming engineers, who roam the planet and, in a role reversal, dodge giant explosions thrown at them by corporations.		**'''Barsoomians:''' The blue collar working class of the planet Mars. I guess they should called red-collared since they have to deal with the rusty dust storm. Anyways, their needs aren't always met by the Consortium, who they share Mars with. Besides being Populists, most Barsoomians don't have much in common with each other than speaking like Texans and having Korean names. Some of them are actually Islamic terraforming engineers, who roam the planet and, in a role reversal, dodge giant explosions thrown at them by corporations.
	*'''Jovian Republic:''' Take a South American Junta republic (secret police, Elected Dictators), combine it with the worst aspects of McCarthy-era North 'Murrica politics (Red Scare-style Paranoia, Lobbyists, Military Dominance) and put all that in orbit around the planet Jupiter. What do you get? This faction. The biggest reason you should respect these Luddites is that they'll never be eaten by a swarm of self replicating nanobots of their own design. Recently this shifted to just-as-augmented Jovians who think that they sold their souls to the devil for the sake of their country. Politically, these guys are a "republic" in the Classical Age Greek sense of the word, as in: If you have fulfilled mandatory military service or are the offspring of a politician, then you get to vote. If not, NO VOTE FOR YOU BECAUSE YOU AREN'T A CITIZEN, YOU'RE A USELESS CIVILIAN. What are you voting on? You're voting for a Senator who will hopefully vote yes on the bill to give your space station some radiation shielding. Seriously. Unfortunately, they'll never be expanded on - the designers have noted in the forums that they like to keep a bad guy faction for Space Sweden ~~to face off against, despite all the interesting possibilities inherent in the idea of transhuman rejectionists in~~ a ~~world full of transhumans.~~		*'''Jovian Republic:''' Take a South American Junta republic (secret police, Elected Dictators), combine it with the worst aspects of McCarthy-era North 'Murrica politics (Red Scare-style Paranoia, Lobbyists, Military Dominance) and put all that in orbit around the planet Jupiter. What do you get? This faction. The biggest reason you should respect these Luddites is that they'll never be eaten by a swarm of self replicating nanobots of their own design. Recently this shifted to just-as-augmented Jovians who think that they sold their souls to the devil for the sake of their country. Politically, these guys are a "republic" in the Classical Age Greek sense of the word, as in: If you have fulfilled mandatory military service or are the offspring of a politician, then you get to vote. If not, NO VOTE FOR YOU BECAUSE YOU AREN'T A CITIZEN, YOU'RE A USELESS CIVILIAN. What are you voting on? You're voting for a Senator who will hopefully vote yes on the bill to give your space station some radiation shielding. Seriously. Unfortunately, they'll never be expanded on - the designers have noted in the forums that they like to keep a bad guy faction for Space Sweden cause they are a literal junta and Starship Troopers film if not taken as parody
	*'''Autonomist Alliance:''' The loose bloc of anarchists, whose main stated ideal is to restart progress of knowledge and humanity by taking off the shackles of entrenched traditions enforced by old governments, thought in practice in most cases it amounts to people just wanting to get away from Earth. Obviously, they got a substantial membership boost after the Fall. Despite appearances, the Autonomists owe their continued existence to the ''Jovians,'' who consider everything beyond the orbit of Jupiter their sphere of influence. On at least one occasion, the Jovian Junta stopped the Consortium takeover of an Autonomist hab whose control of Jupiter gravity well prevents other factions from moving large amount of military hardware to the outer system. Notable members of the Alliance are:		*'''Autonomist Alliance:''' The loose bloc of anarchists, whose main stated ideal is to restart progress of knowledge and humanity by taking off the shackles of entrenched traditions enforced by old governments, thought in practice in most cases it amounts to people just wanting to get away from Earth. Obviously, they got a substantial membership boost after the Fall. Despite appearances, the Autonomists owe their continued existence to the ''Jovians,'' who consider everything beyond the orbit of Jupiter their sphere of influence. On at least one occasion, the Jovian Junta stopped the Consortium takeover of an Autonomist hab whose control of Jupiter gravity well prevents other factions from moving large amount of military hardware to the outer system. Notable members of the Alliance are:
	**'''Firewall:''' The default protagonist faction. It is an underground organization dedicated to fighting x-risks, extinction level threats to humanity, formed by the remnants of the similar national programs who were not taken seriously before The Fall. It is very loosely organized, with individual cells barely working together for the sake of secrecy, if they even know of each other at all.		**'''Firewall:''' The default protagonist faction. It is an underground organization dedicated to fighting x-risks, extinction level threats to humanity, formed by the remnants of the similar national programs who were not taken seriously before The Fall. It is very loosely organized, with individual cells barely working together for the sake of secrecy, if they even know of each other at all.
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	**'''Mercurials:''' A movement comprised of Uplifts, AGIs, Infomorphs and other non-humans who advocate for equal rights with transhumans. Of course, some also want special or outright superior rights, but much of this is brushed aside as hardcore revolutionaries or fringe anti-humanists.		**'''Mercurials:''' A movement comprised of Uplifts, AGIs, Infomorphs and other non-humans who advocate for equal rights with transhumans. Of course, some also want special or outright superior rights, but much of this is brushed aside as hardcore revolutionaries or fringe anti-humanists.
	**'''Space Station Anarchists:''' Anarchy only works as a viable system of government under specific conditions: like aboard a self-sufficient space station. Even then, [[Space Station 13\|things don't always work out]]. However, Post-Fall, most space station inhabitants have a vested interest in each-other's well-being.		**'''Space Station Anarchists:''' Anarchy only works as a viable system of government under specific conditions: like aboard a self-sufficient space station. Even then, [[Space Station 13\|things don't always work out]]. However, Post-Fall, most space station inhabitants have a vested interest in each-other's well-being.
	**'''Scum Barge Nomads:''' Similar to the anarchists but way more hedonist and cray-cray. Seriously, they have ships called "Lick me, I'm Delicious" and "Rule 34," and that's just to fuck with the poor gal who's giving them permission to dock. Okay, some of them aren't totally crazy but a lot of them are. Before I tell you anything, consider this: about 2/3rds of transhumanity got killed (or worse) by the TITANs and deep down the scum are a little tiny bit traumatized. That's why they have their yiffing futa rave pit orgies in a zero-g recreational drug lab. Seriously, you guys, that's totally the reason. It takes their minds off the horrors of The Fall, which they probably ~~didn't~~ see personally ~~despite it happening only ten years before~~. ~~But perma~~-death is a scary possibility no matter how far from Earth you fly, whether it's by the guns of the corporations or by the blades of TITAN-spawned horrors. The important thing is to enjoy life, which is what the Scum try to do every artificial day cycle.		**'''Scum Barge Nomads:''' Similar to the anarchists but way more hedonist and cray-cray. Seriously, they have ships called "Lick me, I'm Delicious" and "Rule 34," and that's just to fuck with the poor gal who's giving them permission to dock. Okay, some of them aren't totally crazy but a lot of them are. Before I tell you anything, consider this: about 2/3rds of transhumanity got killed (or worse) by the TITANs and deep down the scum are a little tiny bit traumatized. That's why they have their yiffing futa rave pit orgies in a zero-g recreational drug lab. Seriously, you guys, that's totally the reason. It takes their minds off the horrors of The Fall, which they probably did see personally. Perma-death is a scary possibility no matter how far from Earth you fly, whether it's by the guns of the corporations or by the blades of TITAN-spawned horrors. The important thing is to enjoy life, which is what the Scum try to do every artificial day cycle.
	*'''The Ultimates:''' Buddhist super soldier mercenaries who live [[FATAL\|around Uranus]], who seek perfection by pushing the ever changing limits of mind and swappable bodies. While many of them actually follow that philosophy, many of them are also your garden variety "master-race supremacists". They are [[Minotaurs\|extremely pragmatic]], and have no problem with cutting out people's cortical stacks en masse to "evacuate" more people with the mass available. Frequently employed by corps or oligarchs, these warriors have, at very least one time, taken over a hab they were hired to protect. Needless to say their clients learned from such occasions and the Ultimates recently landed a contract "to secure mankind's extrasolar colonies...." Are confirmed to be removed as a viable player character option in the upcoming second edition, because of the political implications of playing a fascist cult, though nothing is stopping a player or GM from houseruling them in regardless.		*'''The Ultimates:''' Buddhist super soldier mercenaries who live [[FATAL\|around Uranus]], who seek perfection by pushing the ever-changing limits of mind and swappable bodies. While many of them actually follow that philosophy, many of them are also your garden variety "master-race supremacists". They are [[Minotaurs\|extremely pragmatic]], and have no problem with cutting out people's cortical stacks en masse to "evacuate" more people with the mass available. Frequently employed by corps or oligarchs, these warriors have, at very least one time, taken over a hab temporarily they were hired to protect. Needless to say, their clients learned from such occasions and the Ultimates recently landed a contract "to secure mankind's extrasolar colonies...." Are confirmed to be removed as a viable player character option in the upcoming second edition, because of the political implications of playing a fascist cult, though nothing is stopping a player or GM from houseruling them in regardless. This is incredibly dumb considering the leadership of the Ultimates hot dropped onto Earth during the Fall to punish members for acting fascist. Not only making this a self-fulfilling prophecy for the faction
	*'''Brinkers:''' Survivalist and isolationist types who live in many places, but primarily out in the farthest reaches of the solar system, generally around and between Uranus and Neptune. Some of them are hermits, some of them are extremophiles, some of them are radicals, some of them are exiled or being hunted, and some of them would just rather sit eternity out in a bar at the end of the universe. They're so far from the sun that they have to either harvest their own fusible hydrogen or have it shipped out.		*'''Brinkers:''' Survivalist and isolationist types who live in many places, but primarily out in the farthest reaches of the solar system, generally around and between Uranus and Neptune. Some of them are hermits, some of them are extremophiles, some of them are radicals, some of them are exiled or being hunted, and some of them would just rather sit eternity out in a bar at the end of the universe. They're so far from the sun that they have to either harvest their own fusible hydrogen or have it shipped out.

Line 103:		Line 103:
	If you're wondering how they stayed relevant against other more organized factions, a friendly ASI's (the Super AI like the TITANs) influence might have had a hand in it.		If you're wondering how they stayed relevant against other more organized factions, a friendly ASI's (the Super AI like the TITANs) influence might have had a hand in it.

	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-all-the-time 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-all-the-time Erasure teams are called in to purge everything in the general vicinity, including the Sentinels if they are unlucky.

	To avoid subversion and to increase recruiting pools, Firewall's internal political structure is much closer to that of the Imperial Inquisition than say, The Laundry or the Men In Black. 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.		To avoid subversion and to increase recruiting pools, Firewall's internal political structure is much closer to that of the Imperial Inquisition than say, The Laundry or the Men In Black. 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.