>Flats are as I understand them normal evolved human stock. Can a flat be upgraded to a slyph or other morph using surgery without resleaving? IE. What would someone be considered as if they were born human and got all the upgrades w/o going for a completely new body?
>
>>This is important as such upgrades by the book's timeline have only been around for 70 years and I find it a little difficult to believe that sleaving would become so accepted so quickly, even with the sudden destruction of Earth. The old tend to be a conservative lot; they also tend to hold most of the economic cards.
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>What are the costs for a character to start with their own ship? What about a small habitat? While the GM can always fiat it it would be nice for there to be some solid guidelines especially for mixed groups where some characters don't have any ownership of a vessel while others might own one themselves or have a large state in one.
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>It seems a bit unclear in most of the equipment section how much everything costs in credits for purposes of character creation. Could you please post up a price list for the various bits of equipment? Or am I missing something here?
>
>What kind of life remains on Earth? And perhaps more importantly how much of the biological diversity did we manage to get off of Earth?
Questions about the EP setting.
Tue, 08/25/2009 - 01:40
#1
Questions about the EP setting.
Wed, 09/02/2009 - 10:22
#3
Re: Questions about the EP setting.
I haven't finished reading the book yet, but this is how far my research has led:
You could certainly add mesh inserts, cortical stack, and other mods using surgery. With nanotechnology I'm guessing gene therapy wouldn't be impossible. I would consider the end result a splicer.
I imagine as the spectors of old age came upon people, the bones creaking, the illnesses etc, they probably would have looked into the above tech, especially if they had the money. With the promise of immortality within their financial means... very few would resist. I imagine many of the older folk who didn't embrace the technology (or couldn't afford it) either perished in the fall, or are flats somewhere.
I am reading up on the economies now... maybe I can post more about it later. The good pages so far are 61-66, 137 and 284-296. It seems if you use their system you shouldn't have to bother with the sheet of expenses that is very familiar with other games unless the habitat you are dealing with requires it.
Sun, 09/06/2009 - 00:48
#4
Re: Questions about the EP setting.
I think that consideration in terms of the culture of resleeving is who made up the off planet colonies and who had the power are key.
Before things got bad on earth the people who moved off world were not "traditional" or "conservative" people in terms of their lifestyle. Getting off earth and going into space requires some combination of adaptability and/or willingness to accept a radically different environment.
They made up the social/political structure of the various colonies. At the very minimum they were in a dangerous environment; cortical stacks were common.
People fleeing earth were poor refugees. They were disoriented, and many of them who did survive did so because of cortical stacks, etc.
They were accepted into cultures where that was normal.
I understand the point you're making; it's impossible to imagine in a "normal" timeline.
That's why there is a Fall (other than being a cool element of the story engine in general). We're talking about the surivivors of an extension level event, many of them accept stacks, resleeving even though it's psychologically traumatic because of their experiences.
Sun, 09/06/2009 - 04:36
#5
Re: Questions about the EP setting.
@graf: I agree. Basically there aren't many "flats" because only a few of them were able to get off the planet. Its much easier to transport digital copies of egos, than it is to get a few billion off the planet. So the people who are old, or wouldn't want the technology definitely are in the minority. Most of the population has little problem with resleeving, because they are who survived. The rest are corpses at the bottom of a space elevator 
@Gerzel: Well the economy in the game certainly is different. Until I get to play or GM it I won't have the entire handle on it. It is something I am reading up on, but its a bit complex. It has alot to do with where the characters are, or where they start, and what reputation they have gained.
If you wanted the quick way of dealing with purchasing things, look at the bracketed word at the end of the items description and use the chart on page 296 to figure out a cost. Maybe a quick spreadsheet on name, cost and page # would be appropriate. I'll probably whip one up if it hasn't been done.
What I will likely do when the character's purchase gear, is tally how many items they purchase and then roll something to raise/lower the totals per category. Now that's just for a money based economy. There is still the reputation economy to think about and I am not quite ready to explain that to anyone.
I think things like large ships and habitats go beyond that list though. I'd consider them akin to castles in fantasy games. There is a bit much to run either of them and it extends past one person. Likely it is too much for just one person to afford or keep around (or they have to engage in risky work to keep them). If they did have it, it would certainly have to be by the grace of the GM. Now using reputation to borrow one is a different matter.
Mon, 09/07/2009 - 00:31
#6
Re: Questions about the EP setting.
Also, and I don't mean this to more than it is.... but....
-Most- older people I know don't like being old; body parts are sore, in many cases the can do the same amount mentally, but are limited by what their body can take.
It's a sucky experience. You can talk about it being character building or part of life or whatever but the experience, as an experience, sucks.
The other thing is that it's an incrimental change. It's not like everybody wakes up and says "stick me into the body of a robotic snake!"
Maybe your wife get's cancer. She's 70, you're 72. It's terminal. You don't want to loose her, you spend your life's savings to get her into the 50 year old flat body of a wealthier woman (who's going into a 30 year old splicer body that she's had made.)
You're 72, she's 50 (physically) you're together but you're broke. You both start working to try to save again. 75 you there's an accident; you die. Your wife tells the doctor she won't lose you; not so suddenly. She has you infomorphed so you can talk in VR. (or XP or whatever it's called).
You agree that you want to be together. You'll both work and save money and you'll get new fresh bodies. So you agree to do 10 years as a robot. You make betas of each other and come home and merge each year and spend some time together in VR.
It's a life; you're happy. Maybe you manage to make enough money to live together in bios for a while, maybe prices keep rising and you're stuck. She migrates into older flats, you keep working in a synth.
It's not what you wanted, but it's a life.
These things are incremental. 50 years ago my parents living in San Francisco with their parents, nobody had gone to the moon, nobody had ridden an airplane; they both wore glasses.
Today they talk over videophone with their grandchildren who live in a foreign country; they've had corrective laser surgery for their eyes.
It's the incremental adaption, the bit-by-bit, "this is better than that" development.
Mon, 09/07/2009 - 03:28
#7
Re: Questions about the EP setting.
@Graf: Pretty much what I was getting at in the first post. You put a nice spin on it though.
As I take it, VR is more like WOW or an MMO. You have an avatar and you move around the digital world. XP on the other hand is like being in someone else's body, like the movie Strange Days. You get locked into their senses, and get their life for a little bit.
Mon, 09/07/2009 - 04:41
#8
Re: Questions about the EP setting.
OK, random bit of data I'm looking for, and a call for thoughts if it doesn't exist:
Are there any notes on how a Muse/AI might be upgraded with higher aptitude ratings or skills? What the cost would be? Thanks for any help or thoughts ahead of time.
Mon, 09/07/2009 - 19:44
#9
Re: Questions about the EP setting.
I didn't see anything on how to upgrade a muse/ai. They did say that one could use an AGI or Informorph instead or in addition, which would likely have higher stats. These would be fitted into a ghostrider module (on page 307). Perhaps anything more complex than a muse (and having higher stats) won't fit well in the programing space in the cyberbrain.
I suppose from a game mechanic, one could play around with the stats. Trading a point in the muses stats to another stat to customize it a little bit . However I'd rule that the Int aptitude could not be changed. The blurb on page 332 says the muse can have three custom knowledge skills, and I'd think they'd be skillsofts loaded into the muse itself.
Something bigger/better beyond what I mention above, would probably come with some sort of drawback.
Mon, 09/07/2009 - 22:22
#10
Re: Questions about the EP setting.
@MR Thanks. I find that narratives can be a good way to get around a sort of "this would never happen" kind of thing. But I'm about enabling stories vs. strict modeling of some sort of 'objectively true' reality.
Thanks for the VR/XP thing. Hadn't (still haven't) managed to actually read the Mesh section... :/
Upgrading Muses hits a lot of stuff
1) Metagame/mechanics
a) A muse IMHO is a bit of mechanical trickery. Most "future" games bog down when the actual technology appears; it's not usually RP friendly. (I've seen a cyperpunk game bog down in a 5 hour argument about public keys, encryption and stock manipulation).
Muses turn that into a roleplaying interaction; you get away from having lots of semi-experts arguing about encryption.
Also, some people like to play hardened, non-technosaavy kinds of people (warrior monk, rough and tumble miner).
The muse having some skills lets them function in society without having to compromise their character concept.
That's what the muse "does" in the game. It's mechanical reason for existing.
b) There are PCs (see Mercurial Investigator) who are AIs (AGIs but).
If a Muse gets more skills and abilities how is that different from having a second PC? If a PC Infomorph is just a collection of skills with a personality and a Muse is the same, and the Muse can buy all the skills, how is a PC different or special (see 3)?
I can easily imagine an AI PC who started as "someone's muse".
3) Broadly speaking roleplaying games are about heoric protagonists doing awesome stuff. The game structures support PCs as awesome.
So upgrading Muses has a bunch of mechanical implications for how the story pans out and the game works.
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In the "world" of EP it's very easy to imagine muses with lots of skills (esp. ones that are owned by wealthy people) that border on (or are) full AIs.
Mon, 09/07/2009 - 23:33
#11
Re: Questions about the EP setting.
@graf: Yeah, I understand the behind the scenes stuff, and I was thinking most of upgrade for users to add on certain skills, or even certain Traits (or even having a Muse have developed a negative trait over time due to ingrained lessons it's learned)
@ MoonlitRaven: I think you are right that the skillsofts option is the best direction to go, with many limitations based on who's willing to develop what from an in-character sense.
As a long time Shadowrun GM, I'm just trying to forsee certain questions from players, rather than have to think of this stuff only when it comes up *chuckle*
Thanks folks.
Hi Gerzel,
"It seems a bit unclear in most of the equipment section how much everything costs in credits for purposes of character creation. Could you please post up a price list for the various bits of equipment? Or am I missing something here?"
Lookup p. 137: "The average costs for each cost category should
be used when calculating gear prices." - My understanding is that after char creation prices may vary as indicated in the Gear Costs Table, while for char creation the avarage price should be calculated. So when I create a char a piece of gear which is priced Moderate would cost 1.000 Credits. Purchasing the same piece of gear in game play would cost sth between 500 - 1.499 Credits.