Farcast "review"

[virgil]

I'm picking up where this thread left off, and will do at least ten a day. I'm also going to use the same mindcaulk that EP fans must have been using, and assume the destruction of Earth was more than a decade ago.

148: Gravity Bridge

• I'm intrigued by the juxtaposition of mismatched tech, as something that has access to exotic matter but still uses fuel rods is rather schizoid. I'm going to be a little nit-picky in regards to your astronomical terminology; the Bridge is in geosynchronous orbit. I also wouldn't qualify its gravity rating and the vague threat against basketball players as a 'mechanic'. Definitely a nice hook.

149: Goopers

• An excuse to have slimes, whose primary source of income seems to be selling blueprints for baby slimes. The biggest issue is that they don't bring more to the table than being weird & fragile punching bags. Their bodies are so fragile that they can be severely harmed by sitting down. Combined with their lack of thumbs, or other meat-space utility, it's hard to see them used as more than slightly eccentric hackers. And as we know, interacting with the hacking minigame in Eclipse Phase is listed under torture by the Geneva Conventions.

150: Ianthe Complex

• A serial killer who started as an anorexic otaku. It certainly hits the sympathy buttons considering its inherent topic, but I'm not sufficiently educated to tell if it could be seen as offensive to real-life victims of body dysmorphia. The mysterious benefactor to permit something like this to persist long enough to have a plurality of victims is good thinking to keep this from being a semi-random.

151: Mood Lizard

• It's difficult to have the mental image of this thing not be a gremlin because of the use of Mogwai in the company title, but that's probably just showing my age. I really like the first and second seed as they contain both robust morality considerations, inherently inferred antagonists and resolutions, and a downright cute (but no less real) threat. The third seed is more of a "remember my otaku succubus?," than a mood lizard seed, though I suppose the hint that we now have a psychic Ianthe Complex thanks to the pet lizard makes up for it.

152: Mitochondria 2.0

• As people who have been adults long enough to travel the Inner Sphere for a decade are being afflicted with identical mDNA, I don't think it's just the kids that "aren't alright." I'm not sure why it's assumed that Haal is assumed to be the criminal as opposed to a victim who was trying to investigate why he and others have the same mDNA, as the evidence suggests either scenario. Otherwise, it's a one page motivation for why the Johnson wants the party to break into a genebank, and it's not a good motivation, nor does it have any real stakes. Why can't the M2.0 Victims Network just buy a sample for analysis, since they're obviously wealthy enough to hire the PCs? Wouldn't a genebank implicitly scan any submitted material and keep a copy with it, which would make the cost of retrieval even easier?

153: Kora von Ran

• A block of stats for space-Javert, who seems to be underequipped for handling anyone with ties to the TITANs, so I predominantly see him as either a premade PC or a good contact within Firewall for the party.

154: The Martian Cryptids

• I like the fact that data has been balkanized and pock-marked, and Mars has been colonized long enough for a legitimate ecosystem of misfiled critters to roam about. And I can totally see the bigfoot hunter culture forming around it, so props on the useful world-building. The Aram Snail-Tortoise is downright cute as a generic exploration Maguffin, and the Borget Sunflower is a mini-hook on its own. I'm not sure why the Marsman is considered highly improbable by scientists, in a setting where morphs can be flying whales on Sol.

155: Antiares

• This thing is nifty, as I see it's potential for turning into a mad-scientist convention, or at the very least an exceedingly valuable trove of MaGuffin data. It's certainly got a big heist feel about it.

156: Communion of Re

• I totally appreciate the attempt to create something to interact with on Sol. I may disagree with corona-diving space whales in what is ostensibly a hard sci-fi setting, but it's not like I haven't run D&D adventures on the surface of a star before, and you certainly didn't invent them. The alien waypoint, sun cults, and mysterious gate coordinates are all great nice hooks to mess around with.

157: Metis

• For use in a campaign, it's a poignant touch of backstory for an NPC, so high marks for literary value. The stats seems kind of unnecessary given the purpose of the character in an adventure, and it could stand to have more meat on the hook.

158: Hush

• As acknowledged in Day 340, there aren't really mechanics for torture/interrogation, and for a legit reason. So having a 'drug' specifically interacting with the mechanics of interrogation is at odds. Flavour-wise, it's both amusing and a good delaying tactic.

[virgil]

159: Language Synthesis

• This tickles my inner conlang, who doesn't get out much, and the reminders of where it's useful to use, including it serving the same purpose as learning roper in D&D, are certainly handy. I certainly appreciate the minor worldbuilding for where conlang is used. The mechanics do hit a bit of a snag, as Target Number gets harder the lower you set it. Also, we hit the issues of the system's constrained RNG; shove four linguistic muses into a time dilated server, bake for three days, and you've got a rating 40 skillsoft for any language. What it essentially means is your conlang is cracked in the same timeframe spent inventing it.

160: Troika

• I appreciate the fact that since the triplets grew up conjoined, they were more likely to actually function with control of a single body; though why weren't they just split at birth when the tech's obviously advanced enough? While a touch light on seeds/hooks, they work well as background NPCs.

161: The Gamma Cipher

• It makes me think of a mix of Scientology & the Hellfire Club with math, which is a good mix. I really like the idea of 'priming' a mind for a basilisk hack, so this looks downright fun to use.

162: The Secret Forest

• A Martian greenhouse biome with a goat-sucking panda uplift that is most certainly mentioned on the Martian Cryptids Database. Thanks to the lower gravity, a chance for wire-fu seems high. Nice atmosphere with setup for a classic monster chase and viable for more.

163: Rust Convocation

• Some proper recognition of the fact that Firewall, while itself secret, is hardly a unique mindset and since people are a social creature we get the natural result of such. The subgroups are both decently conceived and their hooks are natural and look promising.

164: Molly 8

• An alright psi-experiment gone rogue, just enough sympathy while remaining at least somewhat of a threat. The seed rests predominantly on a different character whose stats would be more relevant (but are unlisted), though depending on one's opinion of the system, this may not be a real problem; because otherwise, I like the Molly v2.0.

165: Clanstack

• A flavourful evolution and hybridization of cultural preservation and Facebook groups; also a sociologist's wet dream come true. A nice background element, and a good reminder of the fact it's useful for other purposes.

166: Firebreak Protocol

• Totally something I can see being invented as a means for inoculation, and even the mechanics seem natural for its purpose. It visibly (pun intended) improves the flaws inherent with the FORBIDDEN REACH entry by adding to the narrative that can actually be interacted with; making this a doublegood entry.

167: Codename: Sector

• As stated yourself in the entry, the mole trop is a golden oldie, and I very much appreciate each of the three suspects' backstories and the suggestions for their use.

168: Missile Children

• Literally raising children to be weapons, a very dystopic concept, and certainly plausible considering the Futura Project later in the timeline. Fleshing out the reason behind their use instead of just forking as you hinted in your response to mellonhead would've greatly improved this entry; not that it's not good on its own.

169: Firebase Saka

• If you're going to quarantine something, Thor Shots are only logical, and so this is a good entry for that alone. The four seeds make this an excellent staging point for adventure; I especially like the micro-adventure one.

170: Godkillers

• A strangely motivated group of troll assassins, killing people who claim to be immortal/awesome, and even their most successful kill is an admitted failure in the face of forking technology. I particularly like the fourth story seed, as it builds an idea of people profiting from terrorism. The rest is fairly decent.

[Ancient History]

159: Language Synthesis

• This tickles my inner conlang, who doesn't get out much, and the reminders of where it's useful to use, including it serving the same purpose as learning roper in D&D, are certainly handy. I certainly appreciate the minor worldbuilding for where conlang is used. The mechanics do hit a bit of a snag, as Target Number gets harder the lower you set it. Also, we hit the issues of the system's constrained RNG; shove four linguistic muses into a time dilated server, bake for three days, and you've got a rating 40 skillsoft for any language. What it essentially means is your conlang is cracked in the same timeframe spent inventing it.

That was by design; in a universe where there's no unfuckable encryption, you don't want to be stymied eternally by whatever weird language your enemies are using. It can be a temporary advantage only.

168: Missile Children

• Literally raising children to be weapons, a very dystopic concept, and certainly plausible considering the Futura Project later in the timeline. Fleshing out the reason behind their use instead of just forking as you hinted in your response to mellonhead would've greatly improved this entry; not that it's not good on its own.

This entry was surprisingly popular. There were people that wanted to play a "liberated" missile child.

[virgil]

171: Cuidad

• I'm totally in favour of what is can be described as the Philosopher Stone, and a reminder that it's a good resource for geological wisdom. I also like the idea of a rock being concerned with IP law. With the presence of the Mesh and satellite communication, the claim of isolation is a little hollow, and rare will be the time players will see it in person since they can just use space-Skype.

172: The Neptunium Skull

• An amusing evolution of the Maltese Falcon, and very conceivable at that. The fact it's *also* got a real-world value makes this an excellent idea. Colour me doubly impressed for doing the math on what mass the skull should be.

173: Graviton Trade Talks

• As someone with experience/education in physics, I can appreciate the mundane origin of what would obviously be an important scientific/diplomatic negotiation with the Factors. The world-building is good and the sympathetically obvious frustration on the part of physicists is amusing. The headlines are appreciated as well.

174: Typhoid Jane

• Nice horror element, making an person be transitory by nature and leave behind a trail of alien STD. I'd like to know her opinion of what must be a string of random xenomorph victims appearing in her life, even given her nature.

175: Human Upgrade Program

• I like the element of something that touches upon the psychology of the less financially well-off that's more than just the archetype of trailer trash, augmentation for less than a new morph and resleeving. I like that you point out the redundancy of what feels like an uplifted version of Theseus's ship, and their progress so far is a rather significant flaw on the part of mad scientists.

176: The Iktomi Vault

• An alien dungeon raided by ancient adventurers, leaving behind its own archaeological evidence. Some more detail on what the original tomb raiders left behind as far as evidence would've been appreciated, but otherwise a decent set piece.

177: Brauchen

• I'm intending just this once, but holy hell does this run into the timeline issues of Eclipse Phase like a bug on a windshield; you don't develop an entire new culture and language with 'ancient' weapons in less than ten years. You also don't get to call a community 'stable' if resources are so low that cannibalism becomes an established cultural practice out of necessity. Also, as the recycle systems still work, as do their broadcasters; why don't they have receivers and seem to function as if they don't have access to essentially the host of human knowledge (minus ten years)? So while I like the idea of a primitive colony, and the setup for their creation is flavourful, the logistics seem a bit wonky.

178: Niels Watanabe

• A genius cripple with shades of fishmalk and Dr House, completely inexplicably staying inside a laughably frail body well after the Menton morph has been perfected. Even his wheelchair is frail, requiring one of his wives to pilot, despite the fact he can keep his body while inside a mech suit or cybernetics, the tech of which is very much available, especially for an established character with resources.

179: Sweetjuice

• I'm not enjoying this as much as your others. Sugar/sweetener is certainly a product that would have a market, but it's just a little too quotidian to be that interesting of an entry. Within the context, the seeds do work and have meat to them, but it's hard to care all that hard. The reminder that it's a distinctly NPC problem from your comment to Mr Smith is good, which gives me the impression you should have focused on that more.

180: Echo Point

• A nice mystery with equally nice story seeds for something broadcasting back everything openly transmitted back during the Fall. The origin is sufficiently isolated to keep the focus on the content of the transmissions and reactions to them. One idea that struck me for use with this is the idea that one of the broadcasts that were picked up and rebroadcast by Echo Point was an infolife, ideally some time-period equivalent to Josef Mengele.

[virgil]

181: The Lonely Dome

• For the 'trapped' ego serving as a genius loci, the fact it was an experimental therapy for a non-lingual (and likely agoraphobic) ego serves as a good reason why the Dome doesn't just say something or leave. A nice set piece for a random haunting as well.

182: Relativistic Time Travel

• I'm glad you acknowledge the logistical limitations of abusing relativity, which is something too oft handwaved in sci-fi. In a way, this more of an anti-entry, as most of its language is spent toward discouraging the use of one-direction time travel.

183: Bear Safari

• A Care Bear game preserve? The placement, rules, and background theme work well, as does the story seed. If/when I use this, I'm definitely going to switch out the beast for something other than a Care Bear, because that's a little too...I don't have the word for it (I have no strong feelings for the franchise in either direction).

184: AllLove, Inc.

• An interesting idea on a corporate free love commune. A nice change of pace from the standard tropes (and counter tropes) of corporate cultures. I appreciate the "not for all audiences" warning.

185: Beano

• Mentally retarded child murderer clown sleeved into a spacesuit for children. A very nice comic-book origin story/seed, but it's got shades of comic-book logic; the fact it envelops a child's body gives a certain shade of pedophilia, and giving even the threat of malfunctioning control to a known murderer makes one wonder why they didn't consider just sleeving them into a low strength hugging doll-morph.

186: Gate Bleed

• An Eclipse Phase variant on Transporter Psychosis. I like the imagery given for someone suffering from the mental condition. I particularly like the rough plot given in your story seed that uses this.

187: Parasitoid Pod

• An awesome body horror morph, that I can totally imagine designed to look like a chestburster when its cover is blown. I can imagine a literal colony of these things living inside a corpulent morph with combat mods, like John Carpenter's Voltron.

188: Mr Spudd™

• Mr Potato Head mascot made flesh to please his corporate overlords. On the one hand, given the rest of the setting, it's believable NERF material to work with. On the other hand, it's a little on the goofy side when dealing with corporate espionage with his corporate rival Madame Yam. Granted, goofy can be fun.

189: Printfruit

• I like the worldbuilding logistics entries, and the goal of reproducing fruit for consumption is certainly a laudable one. The seed (hah!) is amusing and the commentary has the response to durian down. I'm certainly imagining a session that involves corporate espionage from Madam Yam, her team of fruit ninjas.

190: The Mirror of Earth

• A nice, powerful monument of one of the greatest tragedies in human history. Having a name and place to assign to what should undoubtedly be a very common subject for artists is nice to have around for setting dressing. The quick reminder of potential stories that can be used in games is good and appreciated.

[Ancient History]

176: The Iktomi Vault

• An alien dungeon raided by ancient adventurers, leaving behind its own archaeological evidence. Some more detail on what the original tomb raiders left behind as far as evidence would've been appreciated, but otherwise a decent set piece.

Inspired by Mt. Yucca and nuclear semiotics.

177: Brauchen

• I'm intending just this once, but holy hell does this run into the timeline issues of Eclipse Phase like a bug on a windshield; you don't develop an entire new culture and language with 'ancient' weapons in less than ten years. You also don't get to call a community 'stable' if resources are so low that cannibalism becomes an established cultural practice out of necessity. Also, as the recycle systems still work, as do their broadcasters; why don't they have receivers and seem to function as if they don't have access to essentially the host of human knowledge (minus ten years)? So while I like the idea of a primitive colony, and the setup for their creation is flavourful, the logistics seem a bit wonky.

In all things there's a bit of handwaving; this is definitely a Jonestown-style scenario.

179: Sweetjuice

• I'm not enjoying this as much as your others. Sugar/sweetener is certainly a product that would have a market, but it's just a little too quotidian to be that interesting of an entry. Within the context, the seeds do work and have meat to them, but it's hard to care all that hard. The reminder that it's a distinctly NPC problem from your comment to Mr Smith is good, which gives me the impression you should have focused on that more.

The foodie entries were surprisingly popular.

[momothefiddler]

The foodie entries were surprisingly popular.

I find that, when playing characters in worlds very different from mine, it's nice to have some ways to anchor.

And, because I'm me, food is a good option there. A good way to make a character a real person rather than a set of skills to use and a set of skills to avoid.

[virgil]

Life and crap. Stepping up my rate to catch up...

191: Eyebrow Network

• Some random meritocracy-derived quote updated for Eclipse Phase sensibilities introduces what is essentially the Anarchist Wiki. A good, explicit source for the information gathering minigame.

192: To Be Tuesday

• Essentially a community fanfic using a living body. I've had a vaguely similar concept, but this is certainly a more plausible setup for the character, and I really like the list of uses for such a character.

193: Plasmamorphs

• The introduction, people pissed about their lack of flying cars going the extra mile to create bodies of pure energy, reminds me of Japan's current fixation on robots; both stereotypical and realistic. A more detailed story seed for use of the plasmamorph I feel would be necessary, especially since the snippets given are quite good. The blink-and-you-miss moment mentioning how you can have sex with this body is amusing and a natural question for the kind of nerd striving for an energy body.

194: Zero Day Flu

• A reminder that a software driven reality means updates mess with custom-mods that control your splanch. My wife regularly plays Minecraft, so "update days" are certainly a feature of my life. It's a little thing that adds a touch of realism to the setting, and feels like a good narrative mechanic for EP plots. Granted, I can see overuse making zero-day the RPG equivalent of "holodeck malfunction." The NPC-only advice is appreciated, even if likely ignored (such as that Colin commenter).

195: The Forever Virgins

• Another mature-audiences only entry, the title explaining most of what you get; an unaging and auto-refreshing virgin morph. I've heard players mention this possibility with just the neotonic, so it's not exactly new territory, but it gives a good amount of discussion for why one would want to explore such themes and thankfully reminds the reader of the sensitivity of such a topic.

196: Biomimetic Sampler

• As Jan commented, it feels like something that should already exist. So congrats on making something so very Eclipse Phase our memories are willing to retcon it into place. Mechanics to attach to it are also appreciated.

197: The Last Caliphate

• Probably one of the better Islamic communities I've seen made for an RPG; it avoids being judgemental (in either direction), making stereotypes, and acknowledges the deviation from the expected format of an Islamic community. The Story Seeds are nice, though don't directly interact with the caliphate itself.

198: Axis Solari

• Space Nazi that are weirdly self-aware of their behavior; gives me images of the Operative from the Serenity movie. In a literary sense, they work well. In a literal sense, the introspective nature is a bit odd.

199: Vel Von Voom

• The concept is old, but the venue is new, so breathing some new life is good. I would've appreciated better effort at giving us examples for use as something other than Space Carrie rather than telling me to do so; and the question of how the hell she hides such an obvious exsurgent ability for any real length of time is necessary IMO.

200: Thermal Sword

• A more 'realistic' lightsaber. The description is ambigious in that I can't tell if it's a blade or melee-range fountain (intent seems to be blade). I'm skipping the usual derision of melee combat in Eclipse Phase, as that's a philosophical concern, and this is certainly something I can see as invented in the setting. The "on-fire" mechanic is nice.

201: The Burning Plague

• Somebody likes fire, as evidenced by the prior two entries, plasmamorphs, and even the Space Nazis like flame wars. Otherwise, it's a virus that makes people turn into pyrokinetics if they survive the first week of gaining powers. The fact they become different people is something feel warrants more detail than given. Otherwise, a fine venue for horror; fire zombies.

202: Jhassa Autumnbringer

• Utility assassin, deciding whether someone is a burden and erasing them from society. The concept of some right-wing who views Idiocracy as a legit cautionary tale is a little boring in concept. I can't disagree with their existance, and the language/descriptions are good, I'm just not enthused with the concept itself.

203: The Green & the Black

• Makes me think of the beginnings of Star Trek Cheronite racism, and the fact they can see the oncoming issue is fascinating. Quite well done here, and the seeds are good as well.

204: Lunar Pimps & Hos Ball

• I'm in a circle where pimps carry an inherently negative connotation in their use, so the required presence of them is a bit weird for what comes off as a appreciably positive portrayal of the sex scene for EP. The attention to detail in the rest of the set up is quite nice.

205: Skinchasers

• I like the reminder that there's a gut-reaction to teeth in hominid psychology, and the chance for more nuances in uplift social/mental differences would've been hugely appreciated here. I like the fact we can have a derogatory term, as it's a perfectly natural result for such a society. The story seeds are ironically humanizing & down-to-Earth, which on the one hand is a good thing, but on the other hand the party is nominally a team of runners fighting X-threats.

206: Single Splicer Female

• A creepy stalker that isn't filled with exsurgent viruses or experimental psycho-tech gone wrong. Ths is a nicely described NPC, representing the type of horror that exists in real life & is further augmented by the setting. I totally agree with Nick that she needs some skill in Impersonation.

207: AF Ice Cream

• Another one of the food entries that are evidently popular. Like prior slice-of-life entries, I appreciate the nuanced detail for life in Eclipse Phase. A few more sentences toward its applicability in game would've been welcomed, but what you do have is decent.

208: Randomly Accessible Memories

• A variation of digitally tagged memories stored in a semi-random bubble for the explicit goal of letting the DM remind the player of something they forgot about. The flavour-text doesn't really grab me, and my DMing style is usually pretty OOC, so something like this doesn't hold a strong value.

209: Juan Diez-Cancel

• Campy adventurers with a list of their deeds hit me in the nostalgia, so it's hard to go wrong with Indiana Jones, Space Dentist. The uses are a little esoteric, but personality is certainly something that's not lacking here.

210: Skinmorphs

• As described in the last couple sentences, this is the hybrid of synthmorph and swarm morph, able to function like a regular biped with all the fun advantages inherent, then essentially turns into crawling bugs if it wants to enjoy less coherent body structure. I like this, and the siren call of thumbs is indeed a sweet song.

[virgil]

211: The Corps Wall

• This is more about the Space Marines, one of the anti-TITAN military units that survived as an institution and has better marketing than its peers, than the monument. I agree with TITAN (because we need yet another titan...) in that making yet another rep source to keep track of is a bad idea, and should probably be rolled into the Ultimates or something.

212: A Thousand Words for Fire

• A transhuman inducement prize contest Wiki, where you can open a tab to yell "First!" and get a quest reward. While not the only thing, it's certainly looks like a major component in maintaining a sandbox campaign in Eclipse Phase.

213: Demi Wannah

• An NPC who suffered mutilation because of a birth defect escaped and augmented themselves. As a character, I think she's alright, and her story seed is very goodl. The follow-up post regarding the question of "why not resleeve" I feel is a hugely important element for the setting that should either get its own entry or someone point out where this is already established in the official material (as that's not the impression I've gotten).

214: Anglers

• Suitably creepy as random TITAN 'monster', and definitely horrific. The story seed works as well, and is otherwise a solid entry.

215: Exonatural

• Alien ginkgo biloba, and it's certainly an obvious thing to consider for players used to Shadowrun and D&D, where loot is expected. I highly appreciate the "contractual limit" in a scenario where players would undoubtedly argue bringing an entire bluewood tree back through a Gate. A good read on the whole.

216: Friederich Alba

• Hard not to think of this being an Arcanaloth...in SPAACE! As someone who loves Planescape, I can't deny the appreciation for such an aesthetic. From a different PoV, it's good to have a face attached to the TITAN tech black market, and it's got just the right amount of mad scientist without going full-Tesla.

217: Gash

• Sexually transmitted nanites that give you periods and hormone imbalance. An interesting concept, and the advice section is highly appreciated as far as use in an actual game. As it's part of a general category of world-building, it's hard not to like it.

218: Grendal's Loop

• An interesting code, essentially sending the gatecrasher on a pile of other planets for a microsecond. I really like the potential story seeds offered with what would ordinarily just be an interesting 'glitch' in the Gate system.

219: Kuronaga

• A society of hermits in a more realistic depiction than what you initially think. As they specifically have no goals other than existing without dealing with people, and will kill themselves to maintain this, I would ordinarily question the point in having them since they by definition won't interact with your campaign/adventure. But, you redeem them by offering an interesting campaign concept.

220: Mother Okunya

• Evocative descriptions of this old woman mob boss, giving just the right amount of juxtaposition between friendly grandmother and toothless sociopath that encourages castration.

[Ancient History]

Somebody likes fire, as evidenced by the prior two entries, plasmamorphs, and even the Space Nazis like flame wars.

One of the tricks for content generation is to use a "robot" - I did something similar; broke the whole thing down into 13 4-week "months," gave each month it's own "theme", then each week it's own "sub-theme" and with the rotating entries (notice how you get two NPCs every seven days?) used those as inspiration to map out the individual entries for the year. Of course, individual inspirations can trump plan, and there's a couple ideas I discarded, but that's why you can see "clusters" of entries with similar themes.

203: The Green & the Black

More Shaper/Mechanist/Schismatrix, at least that was the more direct inspiration. While I had started writing these things in October of the previous year, by the 140s I had burned through all of my lead and was largely writing each entry the day before it was posted.

[virgil]

221: The Fungal Stains

• I like the general list given as to where colours come from in the sci-fi future of Eclipse Phase, and the use of uncontrolled bacterial colonies used in pigment manufacture spreading and adding random colour to the station is nice. This is probably one of the least useful entries for a game, as the closest thing to a story use is a half sentence mention of a Martian cult that uses them for drugs.

222: The Painted Diamond

• A ancient diamond MacGuffin with three-dimensional lenticular images embedded in it. I can't tell if the "let the players' outspoken musings direct the true nature of the diamond" advice is useful or not, because I've been DMing for a couple decades now and this isn't new material to me. Are you specifically evoking the metaphor of the difference from just a change in viewpoint that is literally happening with the diamond itself? The Cube gate coordinate is alright, if a bit empty.

223: The Fatal Oracle

• An exhuman/alien AI that sits morosely on Mercury, giving out bad ideas and prophecies. This is an interesting and borderline fairytale style NPC as far as narrative purpose goes, giving me inklings of The Booth at the End. A few ideas it's suggested would've been nice.

224: Earth Beta

• Escapism made huge, where people attempt to go back to pre-Fall Earth in a simulated reality, and people are justifiably wondering why they can't just get over it and return to the present. The first seed is decent, and the second looks morbidly fun to mess with. A good entry overall.

225: Bruixera

• I really like the idea of exsurgent Shangri-La with hints of migratory instrincts buried deep in multiple viruses. A nice background element, focal point, etc.

226: Die Wende

• A conspiracy organization with access to experimental, mass hysteria, basilisk hacks. I really like your point that EP is resplendent with such entities, and Die Wende is the small fish in a vast, transhuman pond, but still meaty enough for the players to bite into.

227: Luvia

• She makes me think of the bottle woman from Order of Tales, down to the fact both are MacGuffin characters. This might be a bias because I'm a huge fan of Evan's work, but I like this variation and the backstory is both believable and usable. I would've liked a mention of the Goopers, because they would love to have her.

228: Last Flight of the Chattanooga

• Essentially the Flying Dutchman in Space with a heap of cultural treasure. As there's no such thing as stealth in space, the fact that nobody has found it in space yet really should've been commented on. I'm also mildly confused to see a distinctly Eastern origin ship given a Native American-derived name that may or may not be referring to Tennessee; though it's not like Americans don't borrow random words at times. At least it makes the story seed (pun intended) better, as it encourages the proper interpretation that it crashed somewhere. I am not a big fan of simple treasure-hunts, which this largely sets itself up as, but others may enjoy it.

229: Isotope Ants

• Sim-Ant MMO for Martian terraforming. I really like the list of story seeds, especially the one where one group is trying to turn it into StarCraft and the exsurgent wasp origins.

230: Rexxus

• I'm amused by the opening quote, as who wouldn't at least consider the idea of being a cybernetic dinosaur with lasers if such a reality were possible? The fact it's a nutty professor who chose so is worth a chuckle and I like the plausible options given for such an individual for whom the morph is ultimately just 'flavour'.

[Ancient History]

222: The Painted Diamond A ancient diamond MacGuffin with three-dimensional lenticular images embedded in it. I can't tell if the "let the players' outspoken musings direct the true nature of the diamond" advice is useful or not, because I've been DMing for a couple decades now and this isn't new material to me. Are you specifically evoking the metaphor of the difference from just a change in viewpoint that is literally happening with the diamond itself?

Nah. It's just a trick for GMing on the fly; you present players with the situation/evidence/etc. and let them start to reason it out on their own as to what it is/what is going on - and if it's better than what you had in mind, you roll with it. Which makes them feel good because they got something "correct" and are on "the right track," and increases investment in the game.

228: Last Flight of the Chattanooga Essentially the Flying Dutchman in Space with a heap of cultural treasure. As there's no such thing as stealth in space, the fact that nobody has found it in space yet really should've been commented on.

Space is big; and with all the confusion of the Fall, I guess I reckoned it didn't need the elaboration. Or else I'm lazy and ignorant. I'll cop to either.

I'm also mildly confused to see a distinctly Eastern origin ship given a Native American-derived name that may or may not be referring to Tennessee; though it's not like Americans don't borrow random words at times. At least it makes the story seed (pun intended) better, as it encourages the proper interpretation that it crashed somewhere. I am not a big fan of simple treasure-hunts, which this largely sets itself up as, but others may enjoy it.

I was re-reading a lot of Bruce Sterling at this point, so it's based off of the Chatanooga Wende...so, basically, the city in Tennessee.

[virgil]

This batch should have me caught up on my personal goal of at least 10 entries reviewed per day. Here's to hoping I don't fall behind again.

231: Gravity Prison

• Prisons made in high gravity zones. I heavily question the cost-savings in maintaining such prisons, which is my biggest stickler. It's a decently described and evocative set piece, but the plausibility is a bit strained for me.

232: Mercy Wing

• Classified hospital for black swan Gate accidents. Just to confirm, as a physics major, I do enjoy the hypothetical of sticking a hand into a universe where the Planck Constant is suddenly lower. The story seed is decent, if a bit barren, but the overall design is decent and plausible.

233: Eden Ventures

• A religious corporation that crowdfunds shoestring budget colonization onto as many exoplanets as it can afford. I've personally considered this idea, so the finer details being worked out is something I can appreciate, and the numerous story seeds are all quite nice and seem workable.

234: Malomer

• With cortical stack technology, your away team of red shirts can result in rather interesting characters, and this is one of them. I am pleased & satisfied with the NPC, and the implied backstory in his Xenobiology specialization is amusing.

235: Maintenance Rats

• Clever and plausible, both good points. I like the enforced behavioral modifications in regards to where they can poop and eat. I really like the trio of story seeds, especially the first one where someone kills with scent markers.

236: Sistemy

• Essentially a rules variant that brings in customizable skill groups like you see in Shadowrun. Something that's vital in Eclipse Phase, which balkanizes combat skills *way* too much. A little more detail would've been nice, as it's hard to tell what skills you're intending to be grouped together and what limits there should be at least on a practical level.

237: Holder

• Black market peddler for the Gatecrasher community with secret corporate backing who use him as a deniable asset. Good backstory (and implied double bluff) and nice aesthetic.

238: Antimirror

• Simsense recordings for masochists. I'm surprised this isn't already offered in the system, so kudos on filling an unexpected void. The set up is nice, and I like the Sweets section, as the Witness is a nice reminder of how this drug can be used in an adventure.

228: Last Flight of the Chattanooga Essentially the Flying Dutchman in Space with a heap of cultural treasure. As there's no such thing as stealth in space, the fact that nobody has found it in space yet really should've been commented on.

Space is big; and with all the confusion of the Fall, I guess I reckoned it didn't need the elaboration. Or else I'm lazy and ignorant. I'll cop to either.

Oh, I'll admit that losing track of it during and shortly after the Fall is exceedingly plausible. But the link I give is fairly robust in answering the "space is big" excuse, and my pedantry is in regards to it continuing to be lost in the face of a plurality of people looking for it. This is a common narrative trope, however, and it's unlikely that many people would even think to notice this when it's outright ignored in essentially the entirety of sci-fi media.

[Username17]

Stealth in space arguments, like most every "real hard science" space arguments, are retarded. The people who make the no stealth in space arguments make ridiculous assumptions and then say it means that stealth in space is impossible. It's just dumb.

Sixty degrees has been suggested here as a reasonably "narrow" cone to hide one's emissions in.

Really? Really? I can buy a 1 mrad laser pointer at a gas station. Why is it "reasonable" to assume that sensor technologies will improve and my ability to focus released energy won't? There is a hard cap to how narrow you can make your emissions cone. It's:



And you know what? That is a fucking shit tonne smaller than 60 degrees. In fact, that's so fucking small that the idea of people being able to detect it in fucking space is pretty laughable unless you're pointing it at them on purpose. If the emissions cone is anywhere near the hard cap of how narrow it could theoretically be, you will never ever find it in space.

Therefore, the entire "no stealth in space" camp is just whining that it's not fair or not cool or something for ships to send their heat and propulsion out the back with tight beam lasers. They have no physics argument, they are just whining. They want the spotters to beat the stealthers, so they allow sky survey technology to improve and pout when you suggest that stealth technology also improves.

In reality, there is no way to know whether stealth or detection technology will be winning at any particular point in future time. Sooner or later people will be able to detect you by your gravity disturbance, and there's fuck all you can do about that! At least, there's nothing that we know of that you can do about that. Not that we can make a gravity disturbance detector that will locate a moving ship, we just think that it's physically possible for such a device to exist.

But the idea that it's necessarily going to be the case that future spaceships will generate visible radiation that future passive detectors can find them with in a reasonable amount of time is just as much wishful thinking and bullshit as claims that the opposite is true.

-Username17

[virgil]

The Eclipse Phase setting hasn't begun to suggest that ships, let alone ark/colony ships, would implicitly have access to the technology (let alone use) to refrigerate itself and redirect all of its waste heat into a laser with beam divergence of ~.1°

[Username17]

The Eclipse Phase setting hasn't begun to suggest that ships, let alone ark/colony ships, would implicitly have access to the technology (let alone use) to refrigerate itself and redirect all of its waste heat into a laser with beam divergence of ~.1°

The Eclipse Phase setting hasn't told us what ships are like from a stealth standpoint. There's just no world building there at all. They have told us that the solar system is full of crap that people don't know what it is, which means that practicing "stealth" by merely being one of a million objects of unknown providence is trivially achieved.

Remember, basically every single claim in the rant you linked to is pretty much horse shit.

A full spherical sky search is 41,000 square degrees. A wide angle lens will cover about 100 square degrees (a typical SLR personal camera is about 1 square degree); you'll want overlap, so call it 480 exposures for a full sky search, with each exposure taking about 350 megapixels.

Estimated exposure time is about 30 seconds per 100 square degrees of sky looking for a magnitude 12 object (which is roughly what the drive I spec'd out earlier would be). So, 480 / 2 is 240 minutes, or about 4 HOURS for a complete sky survey. This will require signal processing of about 150 gigapizels per two hours, and take a terabyte of storage per sweep.

That's so much fucking derp. Literally every single one of those assumptions is a total ass pull. Why are the things you're looking for magnitude 12? Why are the things you're looking for moving slowly enough for them to be in the same pixels for 30 seconds? How is that resolution supposed to find things in the first place? 350 megapixels for 100 square degrees gives 700k pixels to the fucking Moon, and only 51 pixels (not 51 million or even 51 thousand, literally 51) for the entire planet of Jupiter (from Earth). I have no idea how big Eclipse Phase ships are, but I assume they are significantly smaller than the solar system's largest planet, and they could very easily be farther away.

So with those assumptions, if a thing is as far away as Jupiter, and moving 1000 kilometers a second, it will be a one pixel dot that also won't be in the same pixel at the end of the exposure so even if it was at the magnitude that such an exposure would detect it still wouldn't work.

It's just a chain of gibberish assumptions stacked on each other that there is no way to verify or justify any part of.

-Username17

[Wulfbanes]

That's a weak argument, virgil. From the wiki, it does implicitly have nanotechnology, terraforming, Zero-G living, upgrading animal sapience, a computer virus that can infect both machines and animals, and (wait for it) non-theoretical but actual space ships.

The applied and available technology far surpasses anything we currently have, and such a minor detail as not being explicitly called out is only expected. After all, if we had a full theoretical breakdown down to the physics level of how each aspect of the setting functions, then we'd probably have some massive technological breakthroughs, and the developers would be leading scientists instead of, you know, RPG designers.

[virgil]

That's a weak argument, virgil. From the wiki, it does implicitly have nanotechnology, terraforming, Zero-G living, upgrading animal sapience, a computer virus that can infect both machines and animals, and (wait for it) non-theoretical but actual space ships.

No, here's the thing about that. I'm not saying that active stealth technology is impossible in this setting. I'm saying that something like a colony ship having active stealth is a mildly implausible assumption to make without anyone commenting.

So with those assumptions, if a thing is as far away as Jupiter, and moving 1000 kilometers a second, it will be a one pixel dot that also won't be in the same pixel at the end of the exposure so even if it was at the magnitude that such an exposure would detect it still wouldn't work.

So your counter is asspulls of your own? The Eclipse Phase books does have explicit guidelines for travel time; on the order of days/weeks for inner system travel and months for the outer system, which implies velocities roughly an order of magnitude slower than your 1Mm/s.

I have no idea what telescope technology is like in Eclipse Phase, or how much better than the contemporary examples used from that website. But, this is a setting where a major splatbook's titled Panopticon. This is not a setting that posits casual stealth, especially for ships that act as glorified USB sticks.

[virgil]

239: Dreamgate

• A planet that looks just like Mars, but filled with empty cities and an open internet connection designed for a species with echolocation as their primary sense. We're not told whether there's any similarity to Mars in regards to its stellar system, nor are we given much in the way of inference on the inhabitants despite access to all of Xenotube. But basically this is a ghost city where you can describe stuff as alien and weird near continuously. As we've been given the option for "there's strange stuff, go explore" before in Eclipse Phase, this at least gives the DM a rough germ to build on.

240: Dreamcrackers

• There is a group of semi-religious techies trying to understand sleep with the resources of Eclipse Phase science. The Dreamcrackers are the less-legal branch that gets ostracized, but "mysteriously" still funded. Their capabilities seem to largely be the same as the legit researchers, but are worded in a less savory fashion. I really like the sermon intro and the rough concept. A few more specifics would not go amiss at all for this entry, either in terms of activities or seeds or even proper nouns; as this is essentially "some research dreams, some of them are bad m'kay"

241: Bailey y Goch

• An AI that sells its dreams and commercializes like crazy, only caring about art and money. A really good corporate NPC with personality, down to their pet weasel and urge to preserve the Welsh language.

242: The Sleeping Generation

• Roughly five thousand people from Johannesburg escaped Earth by becoming heads in jars. The reasoning for their existence is fine, though the setup is a little weird for recreating a Futurama archetype. I like the meatier backstory for this new morph.

243: Superkinesics

• Being able to read a person requires looking at someone, and Superman can see more and therefore read people better. Good to see this concept actually explored and given a proper incorporation (not extreme). The reference works are appreciated, and are likely entering my reading queue.

244: Long Mei Chou

• Another old lady criminal, only instead of being a local 'boss', she's more of a trouble-shooter. Also hosts an ultra-porn knitting show. I really like the assassination method in the seed, and the "90 and older" age tag porn is amusing to me.

245: Cancer Dreams

• This posits cancer can be way more psychosomatic than previously understood. The general description that eliminating them remains a distant goal is nice, and the seeds are doubly do, but I'm not 100% married to the idea of "see a brutal murder, get cancer within the week."

246: The Crypt

• Firewall's warehouse where the Ark of the Covenant is stored, only given a more 'realistic' depiction of being secret & potentially dangerous while not being full-on SCP. Amusing in concept and decent seeds placed here.

247: Melikov's Expedition

• Three ships were sent out to find, and likely stop if able, the TITANS after their departure. I like the reminder for how to handle missing expeditions, and I like the evocative descriptions for the starting points.

[Ancient History]

245: Cancer Dreams

• This posits cancer can be way more psychosomatic than previously understood. The general description that eliminating them remains a distant goal is nice, and the seeds are doubly do, but I'm not 100% married to the idea of "see a brutal murder, get cancer within the week."

This was 100% inspired by the classic story "If All Men Are Brothers, Would You Let One Marry Your Sister?" by Theodore Sturgeon.

246: The Crypt

• Firewall's warehouse where the Ark of the Covenant is stored, only given a more 'realistic' depiction of being secret & potentially dangerous while not being full-on SCP. Amusing in concept and decent seeds placed here.

This was almost blatantly an SCP/Firewall crossover.

[ScottS]

This was 100% inspired by the classic story "If All Men Are Brothers, Would You Let One Marry Your Sister?" by Theodore Sturgeon.

Perhaps you mean "Carcinoma Angels" by Norman Spinrad?

[virgil]

248: Jules Khyyan

• Depicts in evocative language, the space miner aesthetic, which for me also sounds vaguely similar to the trucker aesthetic because of the use of radio. And this NPC infomorph is extra miner-y, treating the excavation as an art form. I'm a little curious as to what it *uses* for mining, since it can't exactly throw 1s and 0s at the rock. This is the first time I'm going to comment on the numbers you've given Jules, as I normally gloss over that stuff for similar reasons to Frank, but it's hard not to notice; a 55 is below professional, which is counter to the description of how transhumanity considers Jules's work. BUT, the skill system is so messed up that all he has to do is spend extra time (an obsessive informorph can make/find the time) with a delta fork and he'll have an 95 in it.

249: Wraith

• Ghost morphs are designed for stealth. Wraiths are Ghost morphs made without concern for budget and includes a new active stealth module. A good, logical extension of what would exist in this setting.

250: Statistical Tradecraft

• Eclipse Phase spies are decentralized cells that produce results from surveys and math, way less action-y than modern spies, except for the mathematically weird stuff. This basically sets the stage for saying that if you want to be a spy like Bourne, you need to mix it up with X-Files.

251: Achamoth

• Something that cleaves closer to the monster-of-the-week aesthetic, a 'normal' looking person filled with acidic green slime and prone to facade-cracking fits of murder. It's got a set of 'handlers' directing it like a CE barbarian, and the story seed makes a nice opening for introducing it.

252: Bioconservative Ethics

• A reminder that even the nominal 'bad guys' don't argue like cartoon villains, but will use the language of justification, which this sets up with a good set of quotes for such use. A good resource and a nice reminder that bioconservatives don't need to twirl their tiny Hitler-stache.

253: Recess

• A business where people gain child bodies to recapture their youth for a vacation in a more literal sense. An interesting concept, justifiably expensive, and the story seed is quite imaginative. Subjectively, it's hard to get super interested because of the knowledge/reminders of the pornographic applications, despite you reminding the reader that this is a sensitive subject that needs to be handled maturely.

254: The Posthuman League

• A positive depiction of a exhuman society that went into isolation before the Fall, then giving the more down-to-Earth (hah!) revelation that if/when they return, they're going to come off as Eclipse Phase's version of retro-futuristic, and there will be culture shock. More proper nouns and specific applications would've been appreciated, but a good thought piece otherwise.

255: Breaklight

• An AGI interface programmer famous for making an internet for animals and Lovecraft-style imaging software. Kind of an amusing character, and I like the potential use for it. I will admit that I'm more intrigued by SmartHerd than Breaklight itself.

256: Urvinoids

• An alien slug with a digestive system so complex, it's being seriously researched and considered to be a sentient brain. I really like Babbage, who's enjoyable eccentric that works well with alien itself.

257: The Black Spot

• Having a DM arbitrarily decide you're abusing the rep system and changing the rules on you can be frustrating, and this entry essentially gives them the language to justify their decision. On the other appendage, Eclipse Phase is a very flawed system and needs patches, and this is a good language for how the mechanics would be represented to handle such a flaw. Giving an 'out' for the PC to use is good, as it at least gives some fodder for use against recalcitrant DMs.

[Ancient History]

This was 100% inspired by the classic story "If All Men Are Brothers, Would You Let One Marry Your Sister?" by Theodore Sturgeon.

Perhaps you mean "Carcinoma Angels" by Norman Spinrad?

You're quite correct; my brain conflates them because they both involve psychosomatic cancers.

248: Jules Khyyan

Based in part on Omar Khyyam, and in part on an old story I heard about a Bedouin poet.

252: Bioconservative Ethics

This was a surprisingly popular one.

254: The Posthuman League

I was actually trying to do a sort of Justice League/The Authority mashup with self-obsessed posthumans, and it morphed a bit in the fixing.

[virgil]

258: Gresham

• An octomorph driven to retirement because nail biting is *way* too tame. Aside from the mild question as to whether octopus uplifts have even existed long enough to be considered "James Bond with a century of experience," this is a nice aesthetic and commentary of what the tradecraft world has in store for itself.

259: Ageshift

• A 'ware that permits dynamic adjustment of a morphs apparent age, and this is yet another well-made creation of "didn't EP already have this?"

260: Amberwald

• Opening with what sounds like something from Borderlands, we have an alien greenhouse, friendly to Terran life, that periodically floods with radioactive molasses (so...not that friendly). A few more reminders of what could be found in exploration wouldn't have gone amiss, but otherwise and rather neat sounding place to run into.

261: AF Ninja

• Ninja mythology hasn't diminished in the future of EP, and it's been going on long enough for a handful of mall dojos to become worth a damn. This is more of a descriptive piece, with some good background details, and reminders of what 'realistic' ninjas are going to do.

262: Grandmaster of Mars

• A follow-up of the prior entry, this is one of those "hide in plain sight" type by not only being a sponsor for his McDojos, but also a client. The fighting style and stats leave me decidedly neutral, but the prior part is alright.

263: Rep Day

• Eclipse Phase's equivalent to Life Day. I like the build up for how holidays have been handled in the post-Fall future, though I find the holiday itself a little hokey; and I can certainly imagine some players being RDDs with the mechanics described here. In genre, the seeds fit the theme, so props for that.

264: Ghost Boxing

• A method of memory file storage where you directly cut/copy the memory from the ego instead of use the simsense recording. An interesting concept, and I relaly like the idea of Niggly Bits being able to be reconstructed by gathering all of his home movies like some kind of elder thing. Sounds more secure, in that assimilating the memory is like merging an ego and requires a bit more effort if you're not the original donor (or its fork).

265: Krzyzewski's Monster

• With the rules for fork merging in one of EP's splatbooks, I have seriously considered the same thing that Krzyzewski evidently did, going full-on Frankenstein and stitching a pile of egos into one. The reaction of Miriam and the public are a nice deconstruction of the Frankenstein mythos, and I like the monster as a whole; though I still find it weird it still doesn't have a name for itself.

266: Low Tech

• More advanced stuff has more moving parts, and therefore more points of failure. This is a decent and pragmatic reminder that low-tech stuff would still be around as a Plan C in the face of your black box breaking down for some reason. The seed doesn't inspire much, and the main body text is partially redundant after the cited 'excerpt', but on the whole, I like the point being brought across.

267: The White Room

• A hub of freemium MMOs for Eclipse Phase, where you pay with hours played as a mascot/NPC for hours on your actual character, though I'm not sure how that would really be a 'cost' to many online gamers I know of. I consider it negligent to not at least mention how they enforce NPC behavior or the likely presence of those who make a dozen specialized forks to earn them a tonne of time at once. That's minor pedantry, as I still like this entry on the whole.

[Ancient History]

262: Grandmaster of Mars

I was trying to give a mechanical and in-universe justification for conservation of ninjitsu.