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!
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
Hey Backers!
Here's what's going on right now:
We'll be adding the four Sample Character Teams to the Open Playtest within the next 24 hours. They were created with the most recent version of the rules; obviously they'll get another round of proofing after we make any final changes to the character creation rules.
If you're looking to play a few more games over the next couple weeks, grab one of the sample teams and give them a shot!
The Transhuman Tech chapter is into layout; below are some pages from it and a close-up excerpt of some of Andy Wright's art!
Rob's working on revisions to the GMing chapter and some final Transhuman Tech tweaks and additions.
Apart from the Kickstarter, we've established a schedule for making all Eclipse Phase first edition books available via Print on Demand, as part of our mission to keep all of Eclipse Phase perpetually available. First up is the first edition Gamemaster's Screen, which will go live on Wednesday, September 5th. Kickstarter backers will get a coupon for a discounted print version!
Adam has been streaming Eclipse Phase work (and other freelance work) over on Twitch recently. If you're interested in hanging out during his streams, follow twitch.tv/adamjury to get notifications on when they'll be live—usually in the early afternoon, central time. We'll keep experimenting with streaming times and formats over the next few months!
— from El Destino Verde: I had one group that went a very sneaky sneak and diplomatic route, ended up locking the doors and trapping most of the combat threats. The person playing Ajaya wandered into the primate room; saw the state the poor primates were in, and eventually Bobdog. They alert the rest of the team. Svafa's player checks for infection, once all is clear Araja opens the cage and carries Bobdog to the bar. They then proceed to do the same thing with the rest of the primates because they didn't want poor Bobdog to get upset any further. The rest of the team had moved on, but once Ajaya had all the primates at the bar they proceeded to give the primates each a beer and some peanuts before answering the call of the team. Then as they were looking for ways to rig the place to blow, Ajaya was about to sneak into the tiger's room and do the same thing, but Jake and the rest of them eventually talked Ajaya out of it with the phrase: "We can't fit the tigers in the getaway car!"
- from Dust to Dust: Despite their directions from Zim, the players couldn't decide on a final course of action and ended up fighting each other for control of the ship/cargo. Vector and Case felt it was a waste to allow the antimatter to be destroyed and wanted to commandeer the payload for some other use. Grey wanted to ensure the payload would reach the Jovians as a terrorist strike. In the end, Jo breached the antimatter containment, killing everyone.
How many people had a Total Party Kill in your very first roleplaying session, no matter the game? Sound off in the comments!
We'll have a mini-update next Wednesday, September 5th when the EP1 GM Screen Print on Demand goes live on DriveThruRPG, and a bigger update on Wednesday, September 12th with more EP2 progress reports and tidbits.
Talk to you then, and thanks for your support!
Hey everyone!
It's been a whirlwind few weeks of Gen Con preparations, Gen Con itself, and then slamming back into the real world—including more house-sitting, playing some games we acquired at Gen Con, and having my glasses eaten by Pacey, the smol but savage.
Serves me right for trying to sleep in on a weekend?
For Gen Con we whipped up an EP2 Rules Primer for use in demo games, and we just added it to the Eclipse Phase Second Edition Open Playtest kit. It will also be available as a free download after the release of EP2, and via print on demand.
With only two pages to work with and a complex game to distill, the primer needs to be tight. We'd love to hear what you think of it!
Some insight into the editorial process:
Gen Con was great this year; our games were full and people had a lot of fun and we talked to a lot of people about Eclipse Phase and the upcoming second edition. We also debuted the new Surya pins and almost all of the Limited Edition ones were snapped up! The rest of them will be available online soon! Our yearly World of Dungeon game continued and we adventured late into the night (some of us later than others...) and of course we had meetings and business chat.
For those of you who came out to Gen Con, it was so good to see you and hear what you think about the evolution of Eclipse Phase and how you're feeling about the playtests and sneak peeks!
And a special thanks to our booth staff, gamemasters, and other people who do backstage logistics around conventions. You're great!
Next scheduled update will be by August 29th—we'll talk to you then about more introductory materials for Eclipse Phase and probably a few other things!
As always, our inbox is always open at [email protected] if you have comments or concerns.
Hey Backers!
It is the Eve of Gen Con Setup for us. Davidson and Jack are making trips to the storage unit, Adam's sending print orders to Kinkos ("FedEx Office" just rolls off the tongue so well...), BA is finalizing schedules and Rob is debugging the house/office internet connection, which went out right after we got back from a very late lunch today—sweet timing. (It's back up! You can tell, because I'm posting this!)
Our Gen Con booth is in the usual spot near the back-left of the hall #449. Come on by -- we have some new Eclipse Phase demo scenarios to run (one each for Firewall, Gatecrashing, and Criminals!), and we'll be running a bunch of special deals on Eclipse Phase first edition books!
We'll also have a draft copy of Eclipse Phase Second Edition as it stands now, so you can flip through the book and see the state of it as of now. You'll see great art, some unfinished tables, and probably some embarrassing typos and notes to the developer!
Eclipse Phase Second Edition is not finished. We're integrating playtest feedback, we're re-organizing sections, re-building the sample characters after rules changes, tweaking the advice section, getting some art revised, and more.
This project has been harder than we expected. Running the Open Playtest has been useful, but has lead to more re-designs and re-writes than expected. In the long run, that's obviously good for the quality of EP2. In the short run, it means this project ... hasn't been as short as any of us would have liked.
It's been a rough work year for all three of us core Posthumans. The work itself has been challenging, interesting, and frustrating—and in the end, we think the results are shaping up great. The mental toll of the work, missing deadlines, trying to maintain work/life balance while feeling like both are falling behind—has hit all of us hard.
This is Adam's 20th (consecutive!) Gen Con. Jack and Rob have been to even more. We've long felt that Gen Con is like a year-end party, and after Gen Con, a new year unfolds. New goals, new ideas, new games to both play and make. We're looking forward to Gen Con, and then coming home, collapsing for a few days of relaxation, and then digging right into the home stretch of Second Edition.
(We still party on New Year's Eve, don't worry. And Halloween.)
Our goal is to release the digital version of Eclipse Phase Second Edition by the end of September, and fulfill print orders by the end of the calendar year.
The new two-page demo scenes—Body Count, Grinder, and Better on the Inside—and twelve pre-final sample characters will also be available to you shortly after the convention. Marc Huete with Rob Boyle as developer wrote the demo scenes, and Jack Graham designed the sample characters.
We appreciate your patience as we wrangle our way through this project, and we're sure that you're going to love how Eclipse Phase Second Edition looks, reads, and plays!
Check out our new art for Elis Menezes, Scum Techie member of the Criminal sample team, the Guangxi Professionals—from long-time Eclipse Phase artist Mark Molnar & Pixoloid Studios.
If you're going to be at Gen Con, sweet—see you there! If you're not, the next scheduled backer update is on August 15th. Talk to you then!
We just had another get-together in Chicago, spending more time bashing at rules, working on edits, and re-organizing sections of the book before sending Rob off to Launch Pad.
It took a bit longer than expected to get the last set of playtest documents finalized, but the WiFi-less Amtrak trip back to Minneapolis was perfect to power through much of the tedious update process!
The following chapters have been updated in the playtest documents:
As a reminder, if you haven't grabbed the playtest packet yet, it's available for free on DriveThruRPG.
Playtest feedback can be provided on our forums.
Make some characters, play some games, explore the solar system—then let us poke around in those cortical stacks!
Elsewhere on Kickstarter...
Many Eclipse Phase fans know Caleb Stokes, and he and his colleagues are currently running a campaign to fund Party Fowl: The Game of Drunk Ducks. They're not quite uplifted, but their spirits are!
Talk to you soon!
We're nose down on EP2 and followups. Except to hear from us by mid-June with schedule updates, after Launch Pad and another flurry of editing!