Reputation Score Record Sheets

In an previous post I wrote about Reputation and it's importance in the Eclipse Phase setting. I also mentioned that it is challenging to keep track of if the players are not deliberate and suggested we use a group spreadsheet for that purpose. 

This spreadsheet actually contains a page for each of the characters - currently denoted by the tabs with player names along the bottom (player names because I am still fucking waiting on character names!). As part of character generation players determine their characters' starting rep scores in the various networks by spending character points accordingly. 

When you (fucking finally) get around to making characters, you will each need to enter your various rep scores in the proper categories. The sheets are mostly self-explanatory, but if you do not know how to write (or in this case, just edit spreadsheet formula) let me know and we can do it together. Anyway, you need to put your starting values into the formula in the top cell of each column that currently reads a red 0. When you double click on a cell containing a red 0 the formula that appears should look like this = 0+sum(a3...a12). Simply replace the 0 with your character's rep score for that network and hit enter. 

We will then track your rep gains and losses in the corresponding columns creating a running total for each of your networks as well as a cool kind of ledger history of your character's social interactions and worth. I know this may sound weird and cumbersome, but I have done most of the heavy lifting, so once it's set up it will actually be pretty simple.

EP Glossary and Gazetteer

I thought this fan-made gazetteer might prove useful - especially after we get started on the campaign and you guys start exploring the setting. 

Player Types

Robin Laws is one of the most respected RPG creator/writers in the industry. He is also a master GM who has not only studied the art of drama in the roleplaying format but has written several books on the subject. One of them is called Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering. In this book, among many other things, he codifies the classic types of RPG players, describing them in easily recognized archetypes.

In an attempt to make our own gaming more fun for all of us, I shamelessly crib some of his text below and ask that you read through the short selection. As you do so, please select the two (picking more will make the group's matrix uselessly complex) and in the comments section of this blog entry, post a comment in the following format:

Jeff - 75% Storyteller, 25% Method Actor

Having gamed with each of you for a while now I suspect I could guess your types with fair accuracy, but I also suspect if you pick yourself my efforts to play to your interests will be more effective. You might also gain a little personal perspective about what kind of player you really are - for example, I was surprised to realize I was a lot more interested in the story moving along and feeling movie-like than I was in strictly sticking to my character's concept and psychology.

Player Types

People play roleplaying games for all sorts of reasons, but a few basic types tend to recur in large numbers. (I didn't invent these categories, many of which originate with the late Glen Blacow. I have departed a bit from the traditional list, though.)

The Power Gamer wants to make his character bigger, tougher, buffer, and richer. However success is defined by the rules system you're using, this player wants more of it. He tends to see his PC as an abstraction, as a collection of super powers optimized for the acquisition of still more super powers. He pays close attention to the rules, with a special eye to finding quirks and breakpoints he can exploit to get large benefits at comparatively low costs. He wants you to put the "game" back in the term "roleplaying game," and to give him good opportunities to add shiny new abilities to his character sheet.

The Butt-Kicker wants to let off steam with a little old-fashioned vicarious mayhem. He picks a simple, combat-ready character, whether or not that is the best route to power and success in the system. After a long day in the office or classroom, he wants his character to clobber foes and once more prove his superiority over all who would challenge him. He may care enough about the rules to make his PC an optimal engine of destruction, or may be indifferent to them, so long as he gets to hit things. He expects you to provide his character plenty of chances to engage in the aforementioned clobbering and superiority.

The Tactician is probably a military buff, who wants chances to think his way through complex, realistic problems, usually those of the battlefield. He wants the rules, and your interpretations of them, to jibe with reality as he knows it, or at least to portray an internally consistent, logical world in which the quality of his choices is the biggest determining factor in his success or failure. He may view issues of characterization as a distraction. He becomes annoyed when other players do things which fit their PCs' personalities, but are tactically unsound. To satisfy him, you must provide challenging yet logical obstacles for his character to overcome.

The Specialist favors a particular character type, which he plays in every campaign and in every setting. The most common sub-type of specialist is the player who wants to be a ninja every time. Other specialists might favor knights, cat-people, mischief-makers, flying diameters, or wistful druid maidens who spend a lot of time hanging about sylvan glades with faeries and unicorns. The specialist wants the rules to support his favored character type, but is otherwise indifferent to them. To make a specialist happy, you have to create scenes in which his character can do the cool things for which the archetype is known.

The Method Actor believes that roleplaying is a medium for personal expression, strongly identifying with the characters he plays. He may believe that it's creatively important to establish a radically different character each time out. The method actor bases his decisions on his understanding of his character's psychology, and may become obstructive if other group members expect him to contradict it for rules reasons, or in pursuit of a broader goal. He may view rules as, at best, a necessary evil, preferring sessions in which the dice never come out of their bags. Situations that test or deepen his personality traits are your key to entertaining the method actor.

The Storyteller, like the method actor, is more inclined to the roleplaying side of the equation and less interested in numbers and experience points. On the other hand, he's more interested in taking part in a fun narrative that feels like a book or a movie than in strict identification with his character. He's quick to compromise if it moves the story forward, and may get bored when the game slows down for a long planning session. You can please him by introducing and developing plot threads, and by keeping the action moving, as would any skilled novelist or film director.

The Casual Gamer is often forgotten in discussions of this sort, but almost every group has one. Casual gamers tend to be low key folks who are uncomfortable taking center stage even in a small group. Often, they're present to hang out with the group, and game just because it happens to be the activity everyone else has chosen. Though they're elusive creatures, casual gamers can be vitally important to a gaming group's survival. They fill out the ranks, which is especially important in games that spread vital PC abilities across a wide number of character types or classes. Especially if they're present mostly for social rea-

sons, they may fill an important role in the group's interpersonal dynamic. Often they're the mellow, moderating types who keep the more assertive personalities from each other's throats - in or out of character. I mention the casual player because the thing he most fervently wants is to remain in the background. He doesn't want to have to learn rules or come up with a plot hook for his character or engage in detailed planning. You may think it's a bad thing that he sits there for much of the session thumbing through your latest purchases from the comic book store, but hey, that's what he wants. The last thing you want to do is to force him into a greater degree of participation than he's comfortable with.

If the Moon Were Only One Pixel

This link will take you to an art project by Josh Worth. It is the very best tool I have ever seen for demonstrating just how empty the solar system is and how very far away all the familiar celestial bodies really are from each other. 

Go ahead and give it a scroll...

Rules Summary / Cheat Sheet

This is a well done rules summary for Eclipse Phase and proves very useful during play. 

Some Existential Facts

The horror in Eclipse Phase arises from the reality of unknowable existential threats. Well, here is a sample of knowable existential facts that will also help give you an appreciation of the game setting...

Reaper

The baddest morph in the game.

Reputation

Reputation Scores are another aspect of the EP setting that I find particularly compelling.

In the post-scarcity world of nano-fabrication (at least in polities where access to fabbers is not artificially restricted) old world economic theory breaks down and money loses its meaning. In these places reputation is the new currency, but it’s not just a substitute for cash and it’s not spent in the same way.

In reputation economies everyone’s every interaction with others is assessed, reviewed, scored and ranked (mostly automatically by muses running algorithms tuned to their clients preferences) and shared via a host of peer-to-peer social networks. The resulting aggregate values provide uncannily accurate indices of a person’s social standing and clout as relates to a given demographic - the higher the rep score on a particular network, the higher the individual’s standing among those who make up that network.

The scores are basically tangible measures of social credit against which people can borrow access to community resources or acquire unique items or services from others within their various networks. This credit can be temporarily tapped to gain assistance, access or specific items, in a kind of pay it forward favor system. As long as you do not go to the well too often (without reciprocity) or too aggressively (asking more than you deserve or not waiting your turn) you can get what you need and any resulting reputation drain will restore itself naturally over time.  If you ask a lot (on a short turn around, or with lots of challenging or dangerous caveats) you have to “burn” reputation to get it, permanently reducing scores in given networks as you press, demand, browbeat, threaten or take what you want from of others.

Though the game mechanics describes Rep Scores like the numbers that pop up over the heads of video game characters when they power up, I think the setting intention is that they are more like stock prices listed on an exchange - constantly shifting values monitored, compiled and statistically verified by ubiquitous and invisible AI systems, then posted via the various networks. Accordingly, whenever you consider a person (look at him with AR, ping her mesh ID, interact in simulspace, check a social network, etc.) you also see/get meaningful rankings of the individual’s true and tangible social worth.    

In the course of play, your decisions and actions can raise or lower your scores in specific networks, and maintaining, building and ultimately spending your reputation creates interesting in-game and meta-game effects, motivations and roleplaying opportunities - far more interesting than just earning and spending money. Accordingly, with seven primary, system-wide social networks and dozens of smaller, more specific or obscure ones, keeping track of the ongoing fluctuations of each character’s Rep Score is challenging. This brings me to my purpose.  

My intention is that we will use this Google spreadsheet as a sort of Reputation balance sheet where each of you will be responsible for tracking your character’s Rep favors, “burns” and rewards. I find this shared, online mechanism particularly apropo since the whole Rep system in-game is an entirely peer-to-peer online phenomena, and I love me some gaming verisimilitude.

Yes. It. Does.

Muses

One of my favorite elements in EP is the use of muses - the limited, personal AIs via which everyone interacts with digital resources. Usually acquired in childhood most people keep the same muse program for life, upgrading and developing it as they grow and change themselves. Muses have learning algorithms and are ultimately able to customize and anticipate on their own, giving their users what they want or doing what they need, often before being asked for it. For most, the relationship becomes personal and reassuring, an extension of one's own personality that becomes a constant and loyal companion.

Most people customize their muses to fit their own sensibilities - some have avatars that appear/behave as relatives, famous people, fictional characters, historical figures, alien creatures, cartoons, anthropomorphic inanimate objects - whatever. Some interface through spoken words, AR, full VR, induced recall, encrypted symbology, interpretive dance, or their own exotic, two-user languages - however the user cares to develop his/her/its/theys muse.

Some of the practical uses of muses are described on page  EP-244. These are extensive, but I anticipate that clever players such as yourselves are likely to make even more robust use of muse capabilities. Accordingly I want to collect some specific information about each of your characters' muses using another questionnaire. They are essentially mini-NPCs in their own rights and since I will be role playing them I want to know how you imagine your muse so I can portray it appropriately.

Character Questionaire

Here is the EP character questionnaire I promised. My intention is to collect essential information that I can use to custom build the upcoming campaign to fit not only my story, but your characters and their goals, and your interests as a player. I can't do this however, unless you answer these questions - and some of you are notoriously recalcitrant about doing your RPG homework. So, I am sending this out now so that even the most reluctant of you will have plenty of time to hunt and peck your way through your answers before we start the new game. Additionally, coming up with answers to these questions should also help you come up with and finalize your character concepts.

Not to worry. If you decide to change your answers as you go through the chargen process, just submit a new form and I will delete the old. Note - please use this form rather than send me notes in an email. Doing so allows me to easily compare player answers as well as quickly find specific information for which I might be looking. 

Character Concepts and Creation

I wanted to offer some general guidelines for character creation and encourage you all to get started on the process. EP chargen is on the more complex end of the spectrum and will take some time and thought.

1. As a sci-fi game, a party of the usual archetypes is fine, but due to the setting's environmental, technological and sociological diversity it will prove useful to make sure that all the essential roles are covered.

2. With intention, the process allows individual characters to be very good in a couple of areas - like pilot/weapons specialist, or medic/computer hacker, or social manipulator/infiltration expert. Generalists are viable/fun too, but difficulty penalties are common, so even then it would be good to have some focus.

3. As long as you don't get too crazy or exotic, I am fine with just about any character concept and starting morph you want to play, recognizing that the variety of polities in the solar system will make life interesting (and more fun!) for anyone in the ends of any curves. The core book and supplements have lots of sample characters you can use for inspiration - or simply use.  

4. The EP core book uses a point-buy char-gen system. The latest supplement, "Transhuman," introduces a package-build system. They are supposed to be fully compatible so feel free to use the one you prefer. Whichever you use, build your characters using the standard starting values.

5. EP has features (like point-buy and negative traits) that allow you to make characters with "realistic" skills, interests, knowledge and meaningful disadvantages. Be creative and try to build characters that will provide us cool roleplaying hooks and opportunities.

6. The only restriction I have for your characters is that you build them based on an origin and history (ethnicity, nationality, family, job, personal problems) on Pre-Fall Earth or in Earth orbit. There is a lot of sociopolitical coolness in the setting but to take advantage of it we have to have some potential for conflict.

7. Do not worry about initially kitting out your characters. This will happen in-game, so don't bother with starting gear or money.

8. Once it seems like you have all settled on a concept, morph and background, I will send around a Google Survey to collect some specific information about each of your characters. In the meantime, let me know if you have any questions or want to bounce around some ideas.

Bill has generously bought a group license for us for "Singularity" - the Eclipse Phase character generator. Thanks Bill!

Coolest thing?

One of the coolest things about Eclipse Phase? The PC is the one on the left.

Books and Setting

Posthuman Studios has made the entire EP line available free online as a nod to one of the central themes (post-scarcity, digital economies) in the setting. However, please consider purchasing the books or PDFs to help support this exceptional game.

As the campaign begins, less will actually be more as I intend to exploit what I suspect is a general group unfamiliarity with the setting. Accordingly, if you have not already read (or read much) of the setting material, hold off until the game is underway, as doing so will enhance the initial premise and experience. Similarly, please do not read any of the published scenarios - I may or may not be stealing bits and pieces here or there and want to avoid potential spoilers.

You are encouraged however, to read and learn as much of the game mechanics chapters (including the equipment) as you are willing - the system is very crunchy and I will need everyone's help to make it work smoothly. This means you Wellington...

How Soon They Forget...

Your mind is software. 

Program it.

Your body is a shell. 

Change it.

Death is a disease. 

Cure it.

Extinction is approaching. 

Fight it.

Ten years ago Earth was lost to an insidious, nightmarish, ultimately apocalyptic campaign of extermination by an unknowable number of post-singularity entities digitally mutated from human-made seed AIs known as Total Information Tactical Awareness Networks. Within six months civilization unraveled and humanity began abandoning the planet, lifting or farcasting away as fast as resources, ships and facilities allowed, retreating to outposts in orbit, on the moon, Mars and beyond. Within 12 months the Earth was a quarantined wasteland and the TITANS had inexplicably vanished. Barely five percent of the billions crowding the planet made it off and most of those only as infomorphs dumped directly into cold storage. These refugees now live in planetary settlements and orbital habitats scattered across the solar system, variably trying to get on with their lives and waiting for the other shoe to drop. How soon they forget…