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Psi Stab is useless - drop it and the assault skill. The passive psi powers are great so max out on them I don't use the active powers very much but I would if I could take more than 5 The mind reading and subliminal skills are great utility powers that can't be matched by any tech. Same with ego sense, skill sharing and memory sharing. I took Mimic because I wanted to stay incognito. I see psi powers as aces in the hole that can save you when nothing else can.
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Sep 12, 2011 22:20
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Yeah I agree with the uselessness of most of the psi powers. The reason I chose an async is because we were playing a gatecrashing campaign, so I really, really wanted Grok (which, ironically, I've never had the chance to use. Naturally.). Psi stab is pretty useless but it's nice when you're unarmed, such as an ambush at the egocasting facility you just woke up at. The main psi power I use is thought browse- giving folks an aggressive hand shake is pretty fun. Especially when I met an unfriendly async and we introduced ourselves: obviously nobody shook anybody's hand, although we both tried. The other players got to see an interesting async vs. async introduction dance as we circled each other, trying to land a palm or finger on each other. Fun to roleplay. Probably the last async I'll play. One way that asyncs could be way more fun is if the GM writes in lots of opportunities for special treatment for the asyncs. The life on the planet Tanaka is friendly to them, unlike all other transhumans who it attacks on sight, for example. Maybe TITAN tech recognizes an async as a converted exsurgent ally, and offers itself to them without the usual attempts to crush/kill/destroy but rather genuinely help/aid/assist. Then the async could be the MVP player. Kire fucked around with this message at 02:33 on Sep 13, 2011 |
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Sep 13, 2011 02:30
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The big irony of psionics is that, while most of their passive benefits can be bought as augments and the like, sleights carry over no matter your ego. Also asyncs take penalties to adapt to new bodies  Especially bad is Lost, who, with three different disabilities, are pretty close to ending up with some sort of disability even further wrecks their ability to swap bodies. Agreed on Thoughtbrowse being the most used power. That and Subliminal are the two omega sleights that really, really make it worthwhile. Deep Scan is also really good if you don't particularly care if the target knows you're an async. Unfortunately, that leaves a whooole lot of other omega sleights that simply aren't worth it, and I haven't seen any notes or signs that they're making any more async material anytime soon. Unfortunately, as it stands, there's just way, way too much point investment just to get those two or three omega sleights that are super worth it.
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Sep 13, 2011 04:21
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The two levels of psi powers are psi-chi and psi-gamma. When you guys are saying omega, you mean gamma. Psis can use their powers against other psis at one range category greater than normal. Touch becomes close range when it's psi v. psi. Unconscious and sleeping targets cannot resist psi powers. Downtime is a GREAT psi-chi ability and worth the price for async by itself. Stress is REALLY hard to heal in EP - it takes 1 hour of psychotherapy to heal 1 point of stress. Natural healing lets you heal 1d10 points of stress A MONTH. Given that you need a psychotherapist for the first option and the therapist has to make a skill check to succeed, then downtime looks pretty great. 4 hours to heal 1 stress with no skill check required means that you can heal stress pretty quickly. High pain threshold, predictive boost and unconscious lead are great combat powers. Cloud Memory is a gamma power that will help clean up your use of thought browse and deep scan.
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Sep 13, 2011 06:49
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ProfessorCirno posted:and I haven't seen any notes or signs that they're making any more async material anytime soon. Luckily the EP fanzine The Eye has a conversion of Mass Effect's psionics to EP that is perfectly sane, balanced and reasonable. 
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Sep 13, 2011 07:23
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clockworkjoe posted:High pain threshold, predictive boost and unconscious lead are great combat powers. Unless I've missed something, why take High Pain Threshold when you could take Filter to eliminate the distraction of the gaping wound in your morph's arm?
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Sep 13, 2011 08:14
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Ettin posted:Luckily the EP fanzine The Eye has a conversion of Mass Effect's psionics to EP that is perfectly sane, balanced and reasonable. Is The Eye worth reading? Exalted has taught me to stay away from anything that's written by fans.
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Sep 13, 2011 10:26
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CAPSLOCKGIRL posted:Is The Eye worth reading? Exalted has taught me to stay away from anything that's written by fans. The Eye has some decent stuff, but... Okay, so the specific thing I linked: Some guy "converted" Mass Effect's biotics to EP as async sleights. The ego trait you need to use them, which costs 15 CP or 100,000 credits, requires Psi 2 and inflicts two permanent derangements. Not disorders, like the ones you already have just to qualify for biotics, but derangements, as in the temporary effects of trauma like "anxiety" and "mute" and "frenzy" and "paralysis". Then each of your morphs needs an Expensive implant to use the sleights, or they take damage and a -30 to all skill rolls made while using the sleights. The sleights themselves are: Barrier, in which you use your turn to give yourself a shield that reduces damage from kinetic weapons by 1... for every point of strain you voluntarily take. It's also sustained, which gives a -10 to all skills, and I'm pretty sure that includes combat skills. That is on top of any skill penalties from any wounds you suffered from the strain you took using the sleight in the first place. Charge, which gives you a +2/20 movement speed increase and a +20 mod to freerunning and fray. Also sustained, so it's more like +10. Imbue Ammo, which gives your melee (ammo!  ) and kinetic weapons -5 AP... against "a target within 5m". Hope you're in melee range! Also, it's sustained, so it's more like -5 AP for -10 to your combat stats.Leap, which adds a whole 5m of length and 3m of height to your jump OR reduces falling damage by 2d10! Stasis, a touch attack which immobilises an enemy and forces them to make (SOM*2) tests to do anything for a few turns. This costs 1 strain. Throw, which allows you to hurl a target through the air! You roll Psi Assault, and your target is thrown "Implant level per 10MoS" meters. Meters. A an excellent success would barely throw someone across a bedroom. Also, they take 1d10/2 kinetic damage per meter (+5 on an excellent success). This costs 2 strain. Also, using any of these sleights causes every observer who hasn't become hardened to them (reducing their Moxie stat by 1) to suffer 1d10/5 mental stress damage. The fans putting together The Eye think this is printable material.
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Sep 13, 2011 11:13
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Just a note - they don't cost 1 or 2 strain, it's +1 and +2, which means it's 1d5+1 or 1d5+2. That means with Barrier you can give yourself a wound on top of the -10 to all skills.
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Sep 13, 2011 11:24
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clockworkjoe posted:The two levels of psi powers are psi-chi and psi-gamma. When you guys are saying omega, you mean gamma. My problem with throwing down a bunch of psi-gamma sleights is that strain adds up really fast. I mean, I can armor myself enough to hold back bullets - there's no armor that reduces strain damage. As for Downtime, wouldn't it be easier just to go with Multitasking (which can be done outside of sleights too) and just have your Muse give you psychotherapy as you go about your life?
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Sep 13, 2011 11:33
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ProfessorCirno posted:My problem with throwing down a bunch of psi-gamma sleights is that strain adds up really fast. I mean, I can armor myself enough to hold back bullets - there's no armor that reduces strain damage. I'm not sure Muses can give you psychotherapy, given that they're limited AI's.
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Sep 13, 2011 23:02
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CAPSLOCKGIRL posted:I'm not sure Muses can give you psychotherapy, given that they're limited AI's. Likewise, getting a Ghostrider module and forking yourself into it would give a similar benefit.
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Sep 14, 2011 01:43
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Mental Speed is the nanoware equivalent to multitasking - not ghost riding modules with forks - keep in mind the stress costs of using forks. Looking at muses - they do have academics: psychology at 60. I reread the rules for psychotherapy and the psychotherapy rules specifically allow that skill to be used. However, it does require a successful skill check to work. Furthermore each disorder inflicts a -10 penalty to the therapy check. Therefore, an async will have at least a -10 penalty and a lost character will have a -20 to -30 to the check. Downtime requires no skill check to heal stress. No trauma can be healed until all stress is healed. Therefore, I still think it's a useful skill for an async to have. You can heal up all the stress quickly and deal with the traumas through natural healing or drugs (comfurt and weed) or go into therapy with an expert. edit: no mult-tasking with therapy - it specifically says you have to spend the time in therapy with a therapist.
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Sep 14, 2011 06:56
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hey lets talk about the best gear in EP my picks: Kinetic weapons in general - cheap and versatile with differing ammo types. My character uses a heavy pistol with accu-hollow points on full auto with great success. Medicines - healing nanoware that should be mandatory for all PCs. Mental Speed - think faster and +3 initiative bonus Neutrachem - cheap and safe method of getting +1 speed MRDR - best combat drug and pretty cheap too. Chameleon Cloak - cheap way to boost infiltration Armor mods - GET ALL OF THE CHEAP ONES - turn smart vac clothing into 23/19 armor for a few thousand credits. Second Skin and Smart skin - stacks with other armor  Micograv shoes - you know you'll be in a room that suffers explosive decompression - make sure you have magnets on your boots. Nano detectors and a guardian nanohive - disassembler nanoswarms are hard to kill. Be prepared. Panopticon has some good software - there's a kinesics skillsoft of 40 that only costs 1000 credits plus 2 AIs that only cost 1000 each - technician and sensor AI have a ton of skills each that can help round out a character. Load them in a ghost rider module or in cheap robot bodies as helpers.
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Sep 14, 2011 07:19
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Oh, before I forget;clockworkjoe posted:Psis can use their powers against other psis at one range category greater than normal. Touch becomes close range when it's psi v. psi. Close is defined as being five meters. Not exactly a huge upgrade over Touch. Also this is relying quite a bit on facing other psis, who are supposed to be rare. ProfessorCirno fucked around with this message at 07:57 on Sep 14, 2011 |
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Sep 14, 2011 07:51
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ProfessorCirno posted:Oh, before I forget; well that's true but it means that you won't have psis trying to touch one another in a weird dance like Kire was saying earlier. But on the other hand, that would be awesome to roleplay.
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Sep 14, 2011 21:24
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ProfessorCirno posted:Oh, before I forget; That's more useful than you think. 5 meters is way larger than most hallways or space habitat rooms. And then it wouldn't require unarmed skill, if the async has poor HTH* fighting ability. *Hand-to-Hand, not "hope that helps" lol
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Sep 15, 2011 03:25
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I'm playing in an Eclipse Phase campaign. First two sessions are available as AP podcasts here http://actualplay.roleplayingpublicradio.com/2011/09/genre/horror/eclipse-phase-know-evil-episode-1/ The players of Know Evil: Bartleby: Team leader and my PC. A Lost generation brinker. Sleeves in Futura morphs whenever possible for the Willpower bonus. Skilled in kinetic weapons, simulspace design, stealth (infiltration, security ops and smuggling) , psychotherapy and psychosurgery. Level 2 psi. Maintains a loose network of allies - either patients for his experimental psychotherapy treatments that involve complex simulspace environments or followers of his cutting edge simulspace design work (has the psionic power of enhanced creativity so his work is unique to say the least) Has a complex delusion/personal conspiracy that forms the center of his madness - he believes that his sister Alice was kidnapped by an entity he knows only as the Red Queen while they both were in the Lost simulspace. He wants to find the Red Queen and rescue his sister. Of course there may or may not be a Red Queen in reality. His sister may not be real either. He has no qualms about violence or treachery but feels sympathy for other 'lost' souls - especially those tortured or mistreated in simulspaces. I previously played Bartleby in the one shot "Think before asking". Devoted Firewall agent - they saved him from a mob in the rim. Preston Crowley: Played by Tom. An uplifted socialite (got the advantage to buy a restricted morph so he could be sleeved in an octomorph). Preston is an experimental project by a hypercorp to develop a more socially engaging media personality. He has recently started an XP show called "Release the Kraken" which mixes politics with stunts - think a combination of the Daily Show and Jackass. Maxed out social skills. Uses monofilament blades in combat (extra levels of ambidexterity to wield up to 4 blades at once). He provides cover for the group. Not sure how Firewall recruited him. Fayun: Played by Thad. A criminal from Luna with a varied mix of underworld skills and abilities. Proficient in spray weapons. Has a sordid background on Luna but doesn't want to go into it. Sleeved in exalt morph I believe. SAIRAC: Played by Aaron. AGI engineer sleeved in arachnoid morph at start of campaign. Argonaut background. Idealistic and helpful, SAIRAC is a skilled hacker and programmer. Full time Firewall agent. Uses beam weapons and seekers. Prefers non-lethal solutions. Advocate of AGI rights. Gerrad: Played by Jason. Fall evacuee, anarchist and reclaimer. Military background - worked for Direct Action on Earth during the Fall. Abandoned post to save as many lives as possible. Has edited memories so he isn't sure exactly what happened but he made an enemy during the Fall. An enemy that's highly placed in Direct Action now. Gerrad is highly suspicious of technology, especially AI technology. Skilled in hand to hand combat and beam weapons. Saved an important anarchist during the Fall. The anarchist is his patron now. We recently got a new player but we've only played 1 session with him so I don't know his PC too well - some kind of ultimate Cognite security guard sleeved in a remade morph.
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Sep 29, 2011 00:35
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So you have an inner-system group then? Interesting to have an anarchist patron while playing an inner-system campaign, I like how different that is from all the campaigns I've been in (which were very, very anarchist focused since I'm playing with a lot of irl anarchists).
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Sep 30, 2011 04:11
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Kire posted:So you have an inner-system group then? Interesting to have an anarchist patron while playing an inner-system campaign, I like how different that is from all the campaigns I've been in (which were very, very anarchist focused since I'm playing with a lot of irl anarchists). Inner system but we're all weirdos by inner system standards - an uplift, AGI, crazy person, reclaimer and a criminal? We don't exactly blend in with the normal hypercorp workers.
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Sep 30, 2011 06:33
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Some day, I'll run an EP campaign where you play anarchist terrorists tired with the outer system's complacency towards the hypercorps, setting out on a crusade to forcibly bring leftism to the inner system. 
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Sep 30, 2011 09:45
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Lemon Curdistan posted:leftism I kid, I kid. 
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Sep 30, 2011 10:33
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Ettin posted:I kid, I kid. No you don't.  (Also no you're not wrong.) e; VVV Ettin posted:I run a non-anarchist gatecrashing campaign and nobody complained. Take that, thread. None of your players complain (except Cirno). I complain all the time, you corporate shill. Lemon-Lime fucked around with this message at 11:59 on Oct 1, 2011 |
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Sep 30, 2011 11:21
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I got sick of my GM's campaign where we were a group of very powerful Gatecrashers from the outer system, all very much @-rep, and yet we did nothing to help indentures or anybody. So I wrote and ran a 3-part campaign of anarcho-sabotage where the players infiltrated a PC exoplanet colony and fomented an uprising, taking over the colony and bringing it under the protection of Titan, in the model of Templeton's World.
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Oct 1, 2011 02:12
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I run a non-anarchist gatecrashing campaign and nobody complained. Take that, thread.
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Oct 1, 2011 04:31
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Ettin posted:I run a non-anarchist gatecrashing campaign and nobody complained. Take that, thread. To be fair I complain all the time, just not about the gatecrashing or anything like that V  V
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Oct 1, 2011 05:34
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ProfessorCirno posted:To be fair I complain all the time, just not about the gatecrashing or anything like that V I complain about how useless my rez points feel. All I really want to improve is my skills, but all I can improve with rez is my rep.
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Oct 2, 2011 06:28
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Kire posted:I complain about how useless my rez points feel. All I really want to improve is my skills, but all I can improve with rez is my rep. I mostly stick to whining about psionics and weapons that aren't kinetic guns.
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Oct 2, 2011 11:50
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ProfessorCirno posted:I mostly stick to whining about psionics and weapons that aren't kinetic guns.
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Oct 3, 2011 04:24
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Comrade Gorbash posted:I fixed the latter already once, if Ettin will let you use the alt rules. Oh, we do. Well, when I remember to use them, at least. To be more concise, it's less whining about Ettin's game in particular and more about those two aspects in EP as a whole. And much more about psionics then anything else v v.It basically comes down to "I spent a ton of points into psionics and then learned they weren't that good." Ettin's letting me change out some of my skills and sleights though so hopefully my whines will stop.
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Oct 3, 2011 05:28
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ProfessorCirno posted:Ettin's letting me change out some of my skills and sleights though so 
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Oct 3, 2011 05:51
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Sooo, I also just ran "Think Before Asking" after listening to the RPPR podcast and getting some inspiration. One of my players is running a naive AGI with Promethean roots (not exactly a low/street level campaign, as the players requested to "not be poor"), and asked about her heritage. And another player asked about saving humanity from the likes of the AI. Welp, looks like they've unleashed TITANs mk2. I am so glad they did this.
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Oct 4, 2011 04:28
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Tsed posted:Sooo, I also just ran "Think Before Asking" after listening to the RPPR podcast and getting some inspiration. One of my players is running a naive AGI with Promethean roots (not exactly a low/street level campaign, as the players requested to "not be poor"), and asked about her heritage. And another player asked about saving humanity from the likes of the AI. hahahahahahahhahaha. Awesome! Ask the EP designers about EP: http://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/l2drl/we_publishdesigned_eclipse_phase_ama/
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Oct 6, 2011 04:11
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Sadly they only seemed to answer three or four questions and then vanished.
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Oct 6, 2011 09:55
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I'm looking for a game to gm for my group and this looks perfect. I was about to just buy in for Call of Cthulhu but I think I'll try this first.
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Oct 8, 2011 00:29
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I'm running a game at a small convention in Birmingham this weekend, but I was to test out my scenario (and the rules) beforehand. Would anyone be up for a one-shot Skype game Thursday night? Probably start at 7 or 8 Central depending on everyone else. I've got pregens (from the rules intro) but don't mind byo characters.
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Oct 9, 2011 15:34
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Well no takers, so I guess I'll throw it to the wolves tomorrow night. Here's the teaser summary: The Characters are contacted by Firewall to investigate a habitat, that has stopped communicating with the outside world. When they go to investigate, they discover that everyone seems to be under some form of daze. No hostilities are encountered, but everything is “dead”. All the colonists seem to be sedated in some way, both physical Morphs, and Infomorphs. The mesh seems to work normally, but is “dead” with no other Ego activity. After investigating, they discover that a modified Anesthesia AI built with a combination of narcoalgorithms, delta forks, and TITAN tech is being tested on the unknowing colonists. And here's the (still in progress) Google doc of it all: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GGOlGMGxyFATAqMwdxPEDDVjQuFte0Oz56q_tjCvO68/edit?hl=en_US
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Oct 13, 2011 21:58
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Hey guys, I'm looking to join an existing EP game, and I'm pretty daunted by the character creation. If I was joining a group just starting out, I could make my character with the rest of them, but they're already set up, and I need to make my character fit, and not be too weak compared with them. Are there any good guidelines 'must buy' skills, etc on character creation? Was thinking of playing a synthoid, techie type character...except the group's hacker, who left the game, came back, and I don't want to step on any toes. Is there a role for "scroungy, kit-bashy hardware guy"? I've also got no clue what to do, weapons-wise. Clockworkjoe mentioned kinetic weapons are good?
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Oct 22, 2011 20:37
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Look at the anarchist techie pregen for inspiration on p 154 of the main book. An expert crafter/engineer with programming, hardware, interfacting and infosec skills is extremely versatile - build whatever tools you need when you need them. Then buy a fabber and some nanoswarms as your main tools. Be the group's armorer, trapsmith and hardware hacker - you need more than infosec to sabotage actual devices. Demolitions and chemistry to make custom explosives. Medichines are essential for any morph - stop bleeding injuries, ignore the pain penalty from one wound and slow regen. I prefer kinetic weapons because they're cheap and versatile - get different ammo types for different situations. However, if you don't want to be combat heavy - get unarmed and wear shock gloves - they're allowable on practically any habitat and work as a great self defense weapon. Another idea I've had is a smart animal trainer. Smart animals are cheap and have great skills. Don't be a feel good/empathic animal trainer - be a brutal 'i don't give a poo poo' one that uses smart baboons with shock batons as cannon fodder edit: one last idea - be a hyperconnected social butterfly - high rep in ALL factions and high networking skills with all factions and the social butterfly advantage from panopticon. Get favors from EVERYONE.
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Oct 22, 2011 21:06
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clockworkjoe posted:edit: one last idea - be a hyperconnected social butterfly - high rep in ALL factions and high networking skills with all factions and the social butterfly advantage from panopticon. Get favors from EVERYONE. The Oligarch from Sunward (yes, the one who has become so freaking jaded becoming a kid again is the last new thing left they have to try) is probably the character that sticks the most in my head as a Connections Monster in the making in the old tradition of 'complete and utter bastard' instead of 'metaceleb.'
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Oct 22, 2011 21:35
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