science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
transhumanist
Transhumanism is a philosophical and intellectual movement which advocates the enhancement of the human condition by developing and making widely available sophisticated technologies that can greatly enhance longevity and cognition.
Transhuma ...
themes. Originally published by
Catalyst Game Labs
Catalyst Game Labs (CGL) was created in May 2007 by InMediaRes Productions, LLC for the purpose of publishing print ''Shadowrun'' and ''Classic BattleTech'' sourcebooks. ''Eclipse Phase'' is now published by the game's creators,
Posthuman Studios
Posthuman Studios is an American game company that produces role-playing games and game supplements.
History
Catalyst Game Labs's fourth roleplaying line was '' Eclipse Phase'' (2009), the product of Posthuman Studios, a new game design studio c ...
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
game based on transhumanism, and the themes of post-apocalyptic, conspiracy, and horror. It takes place after a
World War III
World War III or the Third World War, often abbreviated as WWIII or WW3, are names given to a hypothetical worldwide large-scale military conflict subsequent to World War I and World War II. The term has been in use since at ...
project to create
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...
known as TITANs has gone rogue, resulting in the deaths of over 90% of the inhabitants of Earth.
Earth is subsequently abandoned, and existing colonies throughout the Solar System are expanded to accommodate the refugees. The setting explores a spectrum of socioeconomic systems in each of these colonies:
*A
capitalist
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, priva ...
/
republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
system exists in the Inner System (Mars, the Moon, and Mercury), under the Planetary Consortium, a corporate body which allows the election of representatives but whose shareholders are nominally most powerful.
*An Extropian/ Propertarian system is established in the
Asteroid Belt
The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, located roughly between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies, of many sizes, but much smaller than planets, c ...
. The Extropians are split into two subfactions, an
anarcho-capitalist
Anarcho-capitalism (or, colloquially, ancap) is an anti-statist, libertarian, and anti-political philosophy and economic theory that seeks to abolish centralized states in favor of stateless societies with systems of private property enfo ...
group, more closely related to the Hypercapitalists and a mutualist group, related closely to the Anarchists.
*A military oligarchy rules the moons around Jupiter.
*An alliance of Scandinavia-style
social democracy
Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote s ...
and Collectivist anarchism are dominant in the Outer System.
From there, the setting explores various scientific advances, extrapolated far into the future. Nanotechnology,
terraforming
Terraforming or terraformation ("Earth-shaping") is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying the atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology of a planet, moon, or other body to be similar to the environment of Earth to make ...
reputation system
Reputation systems are programs or algorithms that allow users to rate each other in online communities in order to build trust through reputation. Some common uses of these systems can be found on E-commerce websites such as eBay, Amazon.com, ...
s are all used as plot points and background.
With all of this, the game encourages players to confront existential threats like aliens, weapons of mass destruction, Exsurgent Virus outbreaks, and political unrest.
Mechanics
''Eclipse Phase'' uses a simple roll-under percentile die system for task resolution. Players roll the percentile dice (by rolling two ten-sided dice with one of the dice representing a 10 value), and compare that roll to a target number with the goal being to match or go under that number with the roll. Unlike most similar systems, a roll of 00 does not count as a 100. In addition, any roll of a double (11, 22, 33 etc.) is a critical. If the double is under the target number it is a critical success, while being over the target number constitutes a critical failure.
For damage resolution (whether physical damage caused by injury or
mental stress
In psychology, stress is a feeling of emotional strain and pressure. Stress is a type of psychological pain. Small amounts of stress may be beneficial, as it can improve athletic performance, motivation and reaction to the environment. Excess ...
caused by traumatic events), players roll a designated number of ten-sided dice and add the values together, along with any modifiers.
*''Nano Op: Grinder''
*''Nano Op: All That Glitters''
*''Nano Op: Better on the Inside''
*''Nano Op: Binge''
*''Nano Op: Body Count''
Upcoming
* Lifepath Character Creation (Second Edition) - In Layout
* Morph Recognition Guide, Revised (Title TBD) - Layout
* Your Whispering Muse (EP2 KS Stretch Goal) - Dev
* Blackvein's Underworld Guide - Drafts
* System Gazetteer - Outline
* Space Combat (Final Title TBD) - Outline/Drafts
Creative Commons License
The ''Eclipse Phase'' roleplaying game was released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 license, and newer printings have updated to the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 license ; the text found on the ''Eclipse Phase'' website is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License. As stated on their website, the publishers encourage players and
gamemaster
A gamemaster (GM; also known as game master, game manager, game moderator, referee, or storyteller) is a person who acts as an organizer, officiant for regarding rules, arbitrator, and moderator for a multiplayer role-playing game. They are m ...
s to recreate, alter, and "remix" the material for non-commercial purposes as long as Posthuman Studios is attributed, and any derivatives are licensed under the same Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License. Further, copying and sharing the game's electronic versions non-commercially is legal.
Reception
In 2010, it won the 36th Annual
Origins award
The Origins Awards are American awards for outstanding work in the game industry. They are presented by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design at the Origins Game Fair on an annual basis for the previous year, so (for example) the 1979 aw ...
for Best Roleplaying Game of 2009. It also won three 2010
ENnie awards
The ENNIE Awards (previously stylized as ENnie Awards) are awards for role-playing game (RPG) products (including game-related accessories, publications, and art) and their creators. The awards were created in 2001 by Russ Morrissey of EN World i ...
: Gold for Best Writing, Silver for Best Cover Art, and Silver for Product of the Year.
See also
*
Transhuman Space
''Transhuman Space'' (THS) is a role-playing game by David Pulver, published by Steve Jackson Games as part of the "Powered by ''GURPS''" (''Generic Universal Role-Playing System'') line. Set in the year 2100, humanity has begun to colonize the ...
*
Orion's Arm
Orion's Arm (also called the Orion's Arm Universe Project, OAUP, or simply OA and formerly known as the Orion's Arm Worldbuilding Group) is a multi-authored online science fiction world-building project, first established in 2000 by M. Alan Kaz ...
*
Hard science fiction
Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by concern for scientific accuracy and logic. The term was first used in print in 1957 by P. Schuyler Miller in a review of John W. Campbell's ''Islands of Space'' in the Novemb ...