r/eclipsephase • u/bonzy-buddy • 14d ago
What is EP like?
Hello!
While looking through the roleplaying section at my local library I stumbled upon the EP1 core rulebook, which immediately caught my interest. I sadly didn’t have any time to read it so I’m wondering what’s it like? Both from a player and storyteller perspective?
For reference, I come from a WoD/Kult background, so sci-fi is relatively new to me from a roleplaying perspective.
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u/yuriAza 14d ago
you don't really have to wonder, the books are free: https://robboyle.info/#eclipse-phase-pdfs
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u/xylethUK 14d ago
The lore is amazing, if a little too on the nose for current events recently (seriously, the first parts of the ‘how we got here chapter’ in the Ep2 book reads more like recent history than speculative fiction!). The world is really well crafted and a wonderful sandbox to play in.
But two warnings taken from bitter personal experience.
First - EP is a game of Ideas with the capitol I. If you or or players aren’t up for a bit of light metaphysics and philosophy around the table there are other systems that’ll scratch the SciFi itch without the heft that EP brings.
Second - the mechanics are overly complicated and difficult to adjust to if you’re coming from a D20 background. My group only played three times a year or so and half of the time was spent re-learning the mechanics each time. It also makes Pathfinder look underprepared in terms of having a novel subsystem for every possible contingency.
That said we had a lot of fun. We still talk years later about the time one player rode another one, currently sleeved into a mech-crab and utterly insane, across the hull of a space station to detonate a nuke. Or the time I claymored them in an asteroid tunnel after they all failed to spot the mining explosives.
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u/Brilliant_Estate_967 14d ago
Lore is amazing and mechanics are awesome. You can get all the ressource for éclipse phase V1 legally for free on the net.
For the player huge possibility of character création with lot of morph (your corpse) lot of implant and possibility to rune your character.
For the MJ a set that goes from search / case / horror scénarios with entities beyond compréhension.
There is a lot to bé done
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u/donutfiend84 14d ago
IMO EP lets you tell stories you just can't with other systems -- That is, a setting where all the things that are tied to humanity, are undercut by miracle technology. Everyone is immortal. All damage is reversable. All resources are functionally infinite. And yet, the result is horror even without the space monsters.
What do people do all day in such a world? What does 911 response look like when everyone is immortal? What about crime? What would a serial killer look like in such a world? Is a prison that gives neurosurgery to inmates to reform them enlightened or a dystopian horror? And amid everything in life being questioned, millions of people are just living on. How do they cope? If you love worldbuilding, EP is a bottomless well of options.
As a player, it's a setting where typical gamer instincts get turned on their head. Need to take out a big bad? Sure you could kill them, but they have backups too. Even if you destroyed every backup you found, how could you ever know you got them? The next day, any person you pass might them in a new body, looking for revenge. Nothing is certain, victories are nebulous, and death is a feature not a bug.
With the right group, it can be an absolute blast.
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u/Tasuko3 14d ago
Getting a group who understands and is enthusiastic about the setting and concepts is tough. I basically had to drag my DND group kicking and screaming into a campaign that we all ended up adoring.
I would recommend getting a campaign concept nailed down pretty well and be prepared to have a lengthy session 0 (or 2) where you do a setting Q&A while making characters and setting expectations for what things will be like. Make sure to get them used to the idea of being an ego early and drill in the idea that their body is a piece of disposable hardware, and their gear even moreso.
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u/OneWoundHeadPat 13d ago edited 13d ago
I have two games to refer to.
One was a mall on Mars that had exovirus pop. As this produced organized monsters, our group popped their own cans to ensure the cootie would not be in their systems. This was part of a greater 'Venus' storyline that was about crime, theft, trade and space. Firewall were clearly political there.
The other game was about uncovering a deep Anarchist Hab that was already tangled with. This one had a number of AIs that cooperated with Exsurgents, which ended with such an array of captures, mind warping and body jumping; the GM told me 'I' was the enemy near the end. The Firewall could not be counted on there, in fact several Firewall agents had 'turned'.
It can be a fun romp fighting with systems, the Exsurgent freak out, political battles, or nasty post-human conflicts beyond Uranus.
When Exsurgent 'growth' was happening on The Moon, I was vaguely offended. It's an amazing game.
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u/tsuruginoko 14d ago
With the right group, it's a lot of fun.
The first edition put me off in terms of the rules being a bit too crunch for what I prefer, but the second edition is actually good in my opinion. Not uncrunchy, but much less derived stat math, and much more "the basic principles are these, and they apply to everything". With WoD and Kult in your background, you're likely more of a narrative-first player, and if that applies to your group as a whole and you're not afraid of occasionally winging it or asking "what would make sense here?", I think you could have a lot of fun.
That being said, it's definitely a game where the group has to buy into the weirdness of the world and the themes in order for it to work. If transhumanism, alternative ways of organising a society, and weird body-switching sci-fi with a side of existential horror fascinate you, it's great. If you just want to play Cyberpunk 2077 on the tabletop with implants, guns and katanas, there are other games that scratch that itch (have you heard about our Lord and Saviour Shadowrun Anarchy 2.0?).