Comments on: Upcoming Games from Catalyst Game Labs and Posthuman Studios http://www.adamjury.com/2008/upcoming-games-from-catalyst-game-labs-and-posthuman-studios/ Adam Jury • Gaming • Apple • Wrestling • Design Thu, 21 Aug 2008 12:00:17 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Clutch http://www.adamjury.com/2008/upcoming-games-from-catalyst-game-labs-and-posthuman-studios/#comment-691 Clutch Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:24:03 +0000 http://www.adamjury.com/2008/upcoming-games-from-catalyst-game-labs-and-posthuman-studios/#comment-691 [quote]Appealing to “gamers” is sometimes less important than appealing to “people who play games.”[/quote] Adam, That is a very elequent way of putting that. Scott [quote]Appealing to “gamers” is sometimes less important than appealing to “people who play games.”[/quote]

Adam,

That is a very elequent way of putting that.

Scott

]]> By: Adam http://www.adamjury.com/2008/upcoming-games-from-catalyst-game-labs-and-posthuman-studios/#comment-577 Adam Mon, 30 Jun 2008 06:07:36 +0000 http://www.adamjury.com/2008/upcoming-games-from-catalyst-game-labs-and-posthuman-studios/#comment-577 For anyone who hasn't seen, the EP dev team has started a blog while we work on the full site for the game: http://eclipsephase.com/blog/ For anyone who hasn’t seen, the EP dev team has started a blog while we work on the full site for the game: http://eclipsephase.com/blog/

]]> By: Adam http://www.adamjury.com/2008/upcoming-games-from-catalyst-game-labs-and-posthuman-studios/#comment-547 Adam Sat, 31 May 2008 23:18:26 +0000 http://www.adamjury.com/2008/upcoming-games-from-catalyst-game-labs-and-posthuman-studios/#comment-547 Catalyst Game Labs will be launching a site for EP in the near future, and there's a bunch of discussion about the game going on in this thread at RPG.net: http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=394144 Is there anything you're particularly interested in learning about EP? Catalyst Game Labs will be launching a site for EP in the near future, and there’s a bunch of discussion about the game going on in this thread at RPG.net: http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=394144

Is there anything you’re particularly interested in learning about EP?

]]> By: CmdrPowers http://www.adamjury.com/2008/upcoming-games-from-catalyst-game-labs-and-posthuman-studios/#comment-546 CmdrPowers Sat, 31 May 2008 23:08:39 +0000 http://www.adamjury.com/2008/upcoming-games-from-catalyst-game-labs-and-posthuman-studios/#comment-546 Eclipse Phase looks very interesting. I have all of the THS material from Steve Jackson, but it would be nice to have a different take on this idea. It looks like you've found one. I saw the art at our local game shop, but no more than that. When can we expect to see something more solid? Eclipse Phase looks very interesting. I have all of the THS material from Steve Jackson, but it would be nice to have a different take on this idea. It looks like you’ve found one. I saw the art at our local game shop, but no more than that. When can we expect to see something more solid?

]]> By: Trey http://www.adamjury.com/2008/upcoming-games-from-catalyst-game-labs-and-posthuman-studios/#comment-541 Trey Tue, 27 May 2008 00:01:37 +0000 http://www.adamjury.com/2008/upcoming-games-from-catalyst-game-labs-and-posthuman-studios/#comment-541 I'm very interested in Eclipse Phase. Looking forward to it. I’m very interested in Eclipse Phase. Looking forward to it.

]]> By: Allamistako / Infernal Teddy http://www.adamjury.com/2008/upcoming-games-from-catalyst-game-labs-and-posthuman-studios/#comment-540 Allamistako / Infernal Teddy Sun, 25 May 2008 18:40:53 +0000 http://www.adamjury.com/2008/upcoming-games-from-catalyst-game-labs-and-posthuman-studios/#comment-540 Eclipse Phase sounds VERY interesting, and I'm looking forward to hearing more about this one... Eclipse Phase sounds VERY interesting, and I’m looking forward to hearing more about this one…

]]> By: lategaming » Blog Archive » Transhumanism http://www.adamjury.com/2008/upcoming-games-from-catalyst-game-labs-and-posthuman-studios/#comment-538 lategaming » Blog Archive » Transhumanism Sat, 24 May 2008 11:48:15 +0000 http://www.adamjury.com/2008/upcoming-games-from-catalyst-game-labs-and-posthuman-studios/#comment-538 [...] (RPG.net has a thread about a new game called Eclipse Phase - “a game of transhuman conspiracy and horror”. [...] [...] (RPG.net has a thread about a new game called Eclipse Phase - “a game of transhuman conspiracy and horror”. [...]

]]> By: robboyle http://www.adamjury.com/2008/upcoming-games-from-catalyst-game-labs-and-posthuman-studios/#comment-537 robboyle Sat, 24 May 2008 01:07:20 +0000 http://www.adamjury.com/2008/upcoming-games-from-catalyst-game-labs-and-posthuman-studios/#comment-537 Hey everyone, just wanted to pop my head in and provide some extra info on the upcoming Eclipse Phase game. This is a game that I've actually had in the works for awhile (over 2 years) but that has just come into active development in the past half-year. We're still in the final draft, playtesting, and dev-editing stage, but it will be out later this year. The game has a post-apocalyptic, post-singularity transhumanist setting. It's influenced a lot by sci-fi by authors like Richard Morgan, Charlie Stross, Ken Macleod, Alistair Reynolds, Bruce Sterling, and Peter Hamilton. It's a bit darker than Transhuman Space, and while we do try and stick close to a hard science approach, it does include things like psi and wormhole gates. It takes place primarily in the Solar system, with a few extrasolar colonies and opportunities to explore beyond via wormholes gates. There's an emphasis on backing up your mind and downloading into new bodies of different types (biological, synthetic, or mixed), allowing for character "save points" as well as optimizing your character's abilities for specific missions. Here's some of the sell sheet text: <i>Humanity stands on the cusp of a new age, with accelerated technological growth converging toward a singularity point, promising an undreamt-of future. Despite the ecopocalypse and social upheavals on Earth, humanity has conquered the solar system and partially terraformed Mars. Advancements in biotechnology, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence and cognitive science have transformed our lives. Everyone is wirelessly networked with the world around them, AIs process vast amounts of information, and nano-fabrication enables people to “print” complex devices from the molecular level—at home. Biotechnology allows people to genefix, enhance, and clone their bodies, while others pursue body modifications to adapt to new environments or make themselves into something no longer quite human. People’s minds and memories can be digitized, uploaded, transferred over long distances, and downloaded into new bodies (biological or synthetic). Death has been defeated—for those who can afford it. From within, disaster struck. Transhumanity reaped the rewards of its arrogance when a group of military AIs known as TITANS achieved full sentience, autonomy, and rapidly began exponentially incrementing their own intellectual growth. The AI intelligences spawned by this hard-takeoff singularity quickly turned against transhumanity, enveloping the system in unprecedented levels of violence, disaster, and warfare. What began as a struggle between man and machine escalated into a whirlwind of conflict between political factions, revolutionaries, and hypercorps. In less than a year, transhumanity was nearly wiped out with nuclear strikes, biowarfare plagues, destructive nanoswarms, infowar attacks, mass uploads, and other unexplained singularity events, ripping the superpowers of old to pieces. Our planetary home—Earth—was transformed into a toxic and strange hellhole, while many major habitats were left frozen sarcophagi in the vacuum of space. Just as quickly as they came, the TITANS disappeared, taking millions of uploaded minds with them, leaving behind a network of wormhole gateways. Known as Pandora Gates, these poorly-understood devices allow instantaneous teleportation to distant star systems—often one-way and/or fatal. Though only a handful of Pandora Gates are known to exist—each highly contested—the foolish, brave, curious, and desperate are already risking certain death to enter and explore what lies beyond. In the aftermath of the Fall, transhumanity lives on, divided into a patchwork of hypercorp combines, survivalist stations, transhuman faction species, and city-state habitats. Under the oppressive police states of immortal inner-system oligarchies, advanced technologies remain highly restricted, and refugee infomorphs are held in virtual slavery or resleeved in robotic bodies and forced into indentured labor. In the outer system, rebel transhuman scientists and techno-anarchists struggle to maintain a new society—from each according to their imagination and to each according to their need. And on the fringes and in the niches lurk networked tribes of political extremists, religious fanatics, criminal entrepreneurs, and bizarre posthumans, among other, stranger, and more alien things ... Though most claim the Fall was carefully orchestrated by the out-of-control TITANS, others whisper that the driving powers behind the wars—both AI and transhuman—were infected by a mutating virus with multiple infection vectors—biological, information, nano—dubbed the Exsurgent virus. Whatever its source, this virus has been known to sometimes transform its victims into something unexplainable ... something monstrous and reality-altering. Whatever the truth, the remnants of the TITANS and this virus were left to the desolated ruins or driven to the edges of the system, where they remain hidden away in dark corners, quietly waiting to infect the minds of the scavengers and explorers who find them ... </i> The game system is a simple d100 variant, optimized for quick resolution so people can focus on the setting more than mechanics. We'll have a website up soon at http://eclipsephase.com. Feel free to post questions, but I may wait to answer them over at the forums we'll have on the website. Hey everyone, just wanted to pop my head in and provide some extra info on the upcoming Eclipse Phase game. This is a game that I’ve actually had in the works for awhile (over 2 years) but that has just come into active development in the past half-year. We’re still in the final draft, playtesting, and dev-editing stage, but it will be out later this year.

The game has a post-apocalyptic, post-singularity transhumanist setting. It’s influenced a lot by sci-fi by authors like Richard Morgan, Charlie Stross, Ken Macleod, Alistair Reynolds, Bruce Sterling, and Peter Hamilton. It’s a bit darker than Transhuman Space, and while we do try and stick close to a hard science approach, it does include things like psi and wormhole gates. It takes place primarily in the Solar system, with a few extrasolar colonies and opportunities to explore beyond via wormholes gates.

There’s an emphasis on backing up your mind and downloading into new bodies of different types (biological, synthetic, or mixed), allowing for character “save points” as well as optimizing your character’s abilities for specific missions.

Here’s some of the sell sheet text:

Humanity stands on the cusp of a new age, with accelerated technological growth converging toward a singularity point, promising an undreamt-of future. Despite the ecopocalypse and social upheavals on Earth, humanity has conquered the solar system and partially terraformed Mars. Advancements in biotechnology, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence and cognitive science have transformed our lives. Everyone is wirelessly networked with the world around them, AIs process vast amounts of information, and nano-fabrication enables people to “print” complex devices from the molecular level—at home. Biotechnology allows people to genefix, enhance, and clone their bodies, while others pursue body modifications to adapt to new environments or make themselves into something no longer quite human. People’s minds and memories can be digitized, uploaded, transferred over long distances, and downloaded into new bodies (biological or synthetic). Death has been defeated—for those who can afford it.

From within, disaster struck. Transhumanity reaped the rewards of its arrogance when a group of military AIs known as TITANS achieved full sentience, autonomy, and rapidly began exponentially incrementing their own intellectual growth. The AI intelligences spawned by this hard-takeoff singularity quickly turned against transhumanity, enveloping the system in unprecedented levels of violence, disaster, and warfare. What began as a struggle between man and machine escalated into a whirlwind of conflict between political factions, revolutionaries, and hypercorps.

In less than a year, transhumanity was nearly wiped out with nuclear strikes, biowarfare plagues, destructive nanoswarms, infowar attacks, mass uploads, and other unexplained singularity events, ripping the superpowers of old to pieces. Our planetary home—Earth—was transformed into a toxic and strange hellhole, while many major habitats were left frozen sarcophagi in the vacuum of space. Just as quickly as they came, the TITANS disappeared, taking millions of uploaded minds with them, leaving behind a network of wormhole gateways. Known as Pandora Gates, these poorly-understood devices allow instantaneous teleportation to distant star systems—often one-way and/or fatal. Though only a handful of Pandora Gates are known to exist—each highly contested—the foolish, brave, curious, and desperate are already risking certain death to enter and explore what lies beyond.

In the aftermath of the Fall, transhumanity lives on, divided into a patchwork of hypercorp combines, survivalist stations, transhuman faction species, and city-state habitats. Under the oppressive police states of immortal inner-system oligarchies, advanced technologies remain highly restricted, and refugee infomorphs are held in virtual slavery or resleeved in robotic bodies and forced into indentured labor. In the outer system, rebel transhuman scientists and techno-anarchists struggle to maintain a new society—from each according to their imagination and to each according to their need. And on the fringes and in the niches lurk networked tribes of political extremists, religious fanatics, criminal entrepreneurs, and bizarre posthumans, among other, stranger, and more alien things …

Though most claim the Fall was carefully orchestrated by the out-of-control TITANS, others whisper that the driving powers behind the wars—both AI and transhuman—were infected by a mutating virus with multiple infection vectors—biological, information, nano—dubbed the Exsurgent virus. Whatever its source, this virus has been known to sometimes transform its victims into something unexplainable … something monstrous and reality-altering. Whatever the truth, the remnants of the TITANS and this virus were left to the desolated ruins or driven to the edges of the system, where they remain hidden away in dark corners, quietly waiting to infect the minds of the scavengers and explorers who find them …

The game system is a simple d100 variant, optimized for quick resolution so people can focus on the setting more than mechanics.

We’ll have a website up soon at http://eclipsephase.com. Feel free to post questions, but I may wait to answer them over at the forums we’ll have on the website.

]]> By: Adam http://www.adamjury.com/2008/upcoming-games-from-catalyst-game-labs-and-posthuman-studios/#comment-535 Adam Tue, 20 May 2008 23:38:30 +0000 http://www.adamjury.com/2008/upcoming-games-from-catalyst-game-labs-and-posthuman-studios/#comment-535 runester -- I can probably sneak you onto the playtesting team. Drop me an email to my company account, adamjury at catalystgamelabs dot com, and tell me a little bit about your gaming group, how many players you have, what sort of games you enjoy, etc -- I'll get it in front of the right person. Cheers! runester — I can probably sneak you onto the playtesting team. Drop me an email to my company account, adamjury at catalystgamelabs dot com, and tell me a little bit about your gaming group, how many players you have, what sort of games you enjoy, etc — I’ll get it in front of the right person. Cheers!

]]> By: runester http://www.adamjury.com/2008/upcoming-games-from-catalyst-game-labs-and-posthuman-studios/#comment-534 runester Tue, 20 May 2008 20:47:09 +0000 http://www.adamjury.com/2008/upcoming-games-from-catalyst-game-labs-and-posthuman-studios/#comment-534 I don't suppose you have a mailing list or something that I could subscribe to for updates on "Eclipse Phase?" Or, I don't know ... an alpha tester ... ;) I don’t suppose you have a mailing list or something that I could subscribe to for updates on “Eclipse Phase?”

Or, I don’t know … an alpha tester … ;)

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