Eclipse Phase, Second Edition (EP2), is a full-color, hardcover tabletop RPG book. It contains the full rules for making and playing Eclipse Phase characters, four sample teams of four characters each, and detailed setting information—a complete roleplaying game in one book!
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Eclipse Phase Second Edition Rules Backer Preview
about 6 years ago
– Sun, Nov 18, 2018 at 10:49:41 PM
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
Before the EP2 Rules Backer Preview PDF is finished ...
about 6 years ago
– Tue, Oct 16, 2018 at 09:29:19 PM
Hey Backers!
I'm likely to give you a couple short updates over the course of this week in the comments to this post—I don't want to send you a ton of emails.
The next full update—and email—will happen when the EP2 Rules Backer Preview PDFis ready. In the meantime:
Please make sure that your BackerKit account is up-to-date and you have answered the Pledge Questions—if you're getting electronic rewards, we're using the address given in that section to deliver you DriveThruRPG coupons for your PDFs!
Here's the sitrep on delivering you the EP2 Rules Backer Preview PDF:
Rob is officially travelling until the 25th of October, and you'll get the EP2 Rules Backer Preview PDF before he returns. He left a bunch of correction notes with me, and he's taken other sections of the book with him to work on redline corrections, but not his laptop. I told him to enjoy his trip, only work when he's on a train/plane, and to return refreshed and ready to finish things up!
I'm crunching through those correction notes and doing other touchups to the rules sections, finalizing the formatting of tables, and getting down to the nitty-gritty of text balancing. I've had some family health stuff and immigration business over the last week that's been a distraction, but the worst/busiest of it should be behind us!
The EP2 Rules Backer Preview PDF isn't the locked final to-print version of the book; there will be adjustments happening after it is sent to you. It's between "Playtest" and "Final"—room for tweaks/corrections but not giant changes.
Adobe, of course, shipped a big update to all of their tools this week. Plug-in developers that I rely on have not updated their plug-ins yet ... but the new version of InDesign does have some stuff that can streamline our workflow in this book and future ones. I don't think I'll get chance to upgrade to it before finishing the EP2 Rules Backer Preview PDF, though.
Here's a couple pages from the Making Characters chapter, the spread on Careers:
I'll be talking to you soon with more this week, in the comment section on this post. Thanks for your support!
Posthuman Studios News, EP2 Update, Sunward to Print on Demand
over 6 years ago
– Sat, Oct 06, 2018 at 01:32:15 AM
Hey backers,
Before we get into Eclipse Phase Second Edition news, we need to bring you some PosthumanStudios news and how it will impact this Kickstarter going forward.
Shortly after Gen Con, the members/owners of Posthuman Studios and Jack Graham decided to part ways. Since then, we have proceeded through negotiations and Jack has now resigned his position as member/owner and staff writer.
What does this mean going forward? First, we have two stretch goals that were authored by Jack:
Xenovore gatecrashing adventure for Eclipse Phase, Second Edition & Transhumanity's Fate (Digital Stretch Goal)
Introductory Adventure from Jack Graham (Digital Stretch Goal)
These adventures are both written and in-hand at Posthuman Studios. They'll be going through the usual developmental and editing process once the EP2 rules are finalized. We have additional unpublished work from Jack that may be released in the future, too!
Jack's a talented writer and an extremely creative mind. Eclipse Phase and Posthuman Studios has benefitted from having him along for the ride, and we look forward to seeing what he creates in the future! You can follow his fabulous twitter feed at @FakeTSR to keep up to date on his writings and humor.
Second, we have begun looking for a part-time contract staff writer/project manager/developer to work on upcoming projects. We're looking for someone who can write 10,000-20,000 words a month and after a period of acclimation work largely without supervision on both setting material and rules.
If you're a freelance writer with an established gaming or technical writing background and you're interested in working on Eclipse Phase, email us at [email protected] with your CV and a writing sample. Please do not send us any Eclipse Phase-specific material.
While we look for a new staff writer we'll be pulling one of the original Eclipse Phase designers, Brian Cross, in to help out alongside longtime collaborator Davidson Cole.
Eclipse Phase Second Edition Update
Rob and I spent last week hunched over the same desk on a page-by-page pass through Eclipse Phase Second Edition.
A lot of our week was spent nailing down table styles, formatting of stat blocks, and other layout choices. We also re-organized several sections and pushed more of the actual manuscript into layout.
Working on this book has been strange and difficult. The new presentation style—compartmentalizing each section to be increments of two pages—was more challenging than expected. Now that things are falling into place the results are looking excellent and, more importantly, the book is far easier to navigate than Eclipse Phase first edition (or anything else we've published). With less page-flipping needed, we've also condensed cross-references: there are currently just under 600 cross-references in the book. Far fewer than EP1 due to the visual design changes!
That said, we aren't finished with EP2.
Here's what we have left:
Contract five pieces of new art to deal with the expanded page count, including more comprehensive portrayals of Morphs.
Global corrections. We've done a lot of redline corrections that need to be input.
Update the last few morphs for Second Edition.
Complete re-writes on the Gamemastering and History chapters.
Write and layout new in-character sidebars.
Edits and layout on Infamy, Rob Boyle & Davidson Cole's fiction piece.
Final art/diagram corrections.
Finalize the Firewall/Gatecrashing/Criminal character pages.
Finalize cross-references.
Finalize the Table of Contents, Index, Credits, Character Sheet, Inspiration List, Bookmarks, other Appendix matter.
Eclipse Phase Second Edition is shaping up to be a 432-page book—the largest book we've produced at Posthuman. The above TODO list feels big—and it's not small—but it's at the point where all the tasks are discrete, manageable chunks.
Rob will be out of the country from October 15th to 25th. While he's traveling we'll deliver a Backer Preview PDF containing all the rules-based chapters of Eclipse Phase Second Edition. This Backer Preview won't contain any artwork, it won't be CC-licensed, and some sections (like the Index and Bookmarks) won't be included in their final form. It will be great and you will be able to start your campaigns!
As a part of that update we'll share the process for submitting corrections, which Adam will compile for Rob's approval when he gets back from Europe. Once Rob returns we wrap this baby up like puppy Pacey in a festive sweater!
Sunward Comes to Print on Demand
Our efforts to bring every Eclipse Phase book to Print on Demand continue with Sunward: The Inner System—for a limited time you can use the discount code "PHINNER39" at checkout to get a copy of the Premium Heavyweight Hardcover for the same price as the Standard Heavyweight Hardcover, only $39.99!
We've already reprinted Sunward several times; the print on demand version does not contain any additional corrections.
Thanks for your support!
Our next update will be no later than Wednesday, October 17th. Thank you for sticking with us!
EP2 Chicago Crunch Update
over 6 years ago
– Wed, Sep 26, 2018 at 09:13:46 PM
Backers! Hi!
A short and informal update today: Rob and I are hunkered down in Chicago (my iMac looks ridiculously huge on his office table...) for 5 days of crunch work on EP2 and some other projects.
It's likely that there will be some work streaming on Twitch this week, possibly with a few ad-hoc Q&A sessions along the way.
Rob is wrapping up the Threats chapter and we've been going back-and-forth with more visual design, working with our crew of convention gamemasters to optimize and organize stat blocks and number-heavy areas.
I've been spending time over the last week working on a (dwindling but still large) pile of "five minute tasks" that need to get done to keep EP2 and future projects flowing—real exotic and exciting stuff like "make sure we have a stock number assigned to every project we're working on."
After we get Threats into layout, our big three tasks this week are:
Integrating playtest feedback.
Finalizing visual design of complicated parts of the book (character pages, NPC stat blocks, etc.)
Identifying areas that need organizational tweaks, additional text, etc.
The Next Update
Our next update will be no later than Wednesday, October 3rd. We'll be releasing another first edition Eclipse Phase title via Print on Demand on that day as well. Talk to you then, if not before!
(By the way, does anyone have a Gator Case for an iMac? Good/bad experiences with it? If I'm gonna commute to Chicago with this thing more ...)
Eclipse Phase Second Edition Update: Playtest Deadlines & Nano Ops!
over 6 years ago
– Wed, Sep 12, 2018 at 08:16:35 PM
Hey Backers!
It's been a busy couple weeks for us. We're crunching on EP2, working on some adjustments to our workflow and processes, getting the first Nano Ops ready for release, and contracting the writing of their follow-ups!
Open Playtest Comments Lockdown
If you have any notes/corrections on the Sample Character drafts that were added to the Open Playtest, please submit them to this thread.
We'll be locking down Open Playtest comments on Friday, September 21st.
Eclipse Phase Second Edition
• Rob is digging deep into the Threats chapter, and we're working on revised graphic design for NPC stat blocks and also the 16 Sample Characters that will be in EP2. If you've been watching Adam's stream, you may have seen some of that work happening live, and you'll probably see more in the coming days. Design-wise, Adam also did a huge "normalization" on the EP2 book, catching pesky errors and unruly styles that slowed down production. The remaining text and design should flow faster and with less fuss than before!
• We're finalizing the first three Second Edition Nano Ops, the scenes we debuted at Gen Con this year. Once they and the 16 Sample Characters are finished, those scenes will be made available free to all of our Kickstarter backers and mailing list subscribers. If your friends aren't on our mailing list, now is a great time to tell them to subscribe!
And those Nano Ops have names that you may not yet know: Body Count, Grinder, and Better on the Inside! They'll be available to the general public shortly after they're available to Kickstarter backers and mailing list subscribers, and more will follow!
• Adam's travelling to Chicago for five days of in-person work at the end of September. Looking forward to that quiet day on the train and then some immersive work!
Print on Phase Progress
• We're moving forward with our next backstock print on demand releases. The October release is approved and ready to go, and I'm about to start work on the November release this week. As part of Getting These Done, we built a more exhaustive list of steps that have to happen for every release, and those steps look like this:
Elsewhere on Kickstarter
Designer Kira Magrann has done some work for an upcoming Eclipse Phase project, and she also has a Kickstarter running for her new roleplaying game: Something Is Wrong Here. Inspired by Twin Peaks and other David Lynch movies and designed to be played completely in one night, you're troubled humans with dark pasts and inner demons. With Unsettling Americana as your backdrop can you make meaningful and healing connections?
With a custom deck of cards, players and the Facilitator will play through two acts, each containing multiple scenes, as they explore their relationships with themselves and each other as the nightmare unfolds around them.
Something Is Wrong Here has already funded, and we're looking forward to playing it!
The Next Update
Our next update will come no later than Wednesday, September 26th! This is right in the middle of Adam's Chicago trip, so we'll be pushing hard to have some really great news for you by then!