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Things that Warped Us as Children

Submitted by jackgraham on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 15:11
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So, Eclipse Phase is kind of a weird game. Explaining it to people unfamiliar with the game commonly provokes one of two reactions:

1) The person's eyes light up with excitement, and they say something like, "Wow, cool!" Then they start asking questions about the world, the mechanics, or whatever weird train of thought hearing about it inspired.

2) The person cocks their head, gets a funny look on their face, and says, "That's, uh, pretty effin' weird. Where did you get the idea for this?"

Well, people who have reaction number two, I'm weary of blaming my favorite sci-fi writers for our game's complex setting and unsettling themes. While they deserve a lot of credit, I decided to dig a bit deeper. So, for your amusement, I've questioned my fellow Eclipse Phase creators to produce this list of things that warped our little minds at an impressionable age, causing us to grow up to be writers, scientists, computer programmers, activists, and *gasp* game designers.

John Snead: Dr. Who. "The third doctor is almost entirely responsible for my fashion sense."

Lars Blumenstein: Captain Future, an anime series that aired on German Television in the early '80s.

Tobias Wolter: Tobias cited several influences, including Star Wars (his first action figure was a Tusken Raider), Das Schwarze Auge, Twin Peaks, and The Smurfs (which seems incongruous together with the other three... until you really start thinking about it, and then it gets pretty weird).

Me (Jack Graham): Allen Varney's weird-ass 1983 game Globbo. I played it the other night for the first time in about 20 years, and while there've been many bigger influences on my creative output, this one maps to EP in some bizarre and amusing ways.

Rob Boyle: Rob cited a bunch of novels, including Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars and Venus books. He read all of them around fifth grade or something. He even made his own dustcovers for a class project (which he claims to still have somewhere; I'm totally going to make him dig them up next time I'm in Chicago). Also, Heinlein's The Number of the Beast. (Rob's comment on this one? "Fucked up on so many levels. I was way too young when I read this.")

So be careful what you let your children watch/play with/read.

They might grow up to be game designers.

Jack Graham bio

Submitted by jackgraham on Fri, 07/31/2009 - 13:58
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Real Name: Jack Graham
Firewall Codename: Jake Carter
Eclipse Phase Background Equivalency: Terraforming Line Tech/Barsoomian Technosocialist
Previous Experience: indie sci-fi writer/publisher, co-author of 'Empyrean' (forthcoming far future posthuman SF RPG)

About Me: I hate writing bios. I'd much rather be doing something I enjoy: biking through Boston traffic without getting doored, hiking, writing a story about a robot country singer, pwning your punk ass at strategy games, thrashing around to loud music, or maybe building a 12 meter tall wooden firefly and then burning it whilst people dance 'round it. I'm from Chicago. Currently I live in nrrdtastic Cambridge, Massachusetts, which is possibly the best place in the world for stalking scientists and picking their brains for ideas. I have pictures of the following people on my office wall (partial list): Gygax, Arneson, George de Mestral (the guy who invented velcro), Thomas Pynchon, Du Fu, Janeane Garofalo, and Jean Luc Goddard. I breathe the Kurzweil Foundation's news feed and poop self-aware nano ice cream.

I'm throwing a Martian New Year's party this year on October 24 (roughly New Year's on the Darian Calendar). Everyone who plays Eclipse Phase is invited.

Transhuman Interests: Let me tell you something about transhumanity: we're it. EP presents a worst-case hard take off singularity, because this makes for a good story. But we're already living in the midst of a soft take off singularity. The upheaval of intellect posited by Vinge is occurring, subtly, now, and the self-enhancing intelligence is us, not some berserk AGI. Want to be in on it? Go out and get an Android phone; discover how having Wikipedia, search engines, and a mapping program in your pants buffs your effective intelligence. We have a ways to go before this flower becomes fruit, but the game is afoot.

Transhuman sci-fi and RPGs like Eclipse Phase provide a toolkit to explore the shape of things to come. What do we want out of the future, and what do we have to do to avoid fucking it up? I'm obsessed with questions like this: what happens when a "real" human falls in love with an artificial person? How will people adapt to the material abundance provided by nanotechnology and microfacturing? When we move out into space to live, not just to explore, how will it change our cultures... and what aspects of them will prove durable? How does physical deathlessness change one's outlook on life? Will everyone get a pony, or will we all be flesh eating combat drones in the future corporate cyberwar? Eclipse Phase challenges you to dig deep into these questions.

Contribution to Eclipse Phase: Solar System gazetteer, most of the Accelerated Future chapter, drugs & narcoalgorithms in the Gear chapter, starter adventure, Mars chapter in Sunward (Inner System setting book), several of the faction logos, semi-official marketing ninja

Favorite thing about Eclipse Phase: Finally, a game where when I ask the GM upon joining their campaign, "Can I be a brain in a vat?" (which I always do), they can say yes!

Tobias Wolter Bio

Submitted by RobBoyle on Thu, 10/30/2008 - 00:09
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Real Name: Tobias Wolter
Firewall Codename: Concrete
Eclipse Phase Background Equivalency: Scum Barge Vagabond
Previous Experience: Several Shadowrun titles in both English and German

About Me: A long time Shadowrun enthusiast, I started freelancing about six years ago, and haven’t gotten that bug out of my system yet. In real life, you could call me a wageslave/indentured hypercorp drone focusing on Logistics and Supply Chain management (global, not interplanetary—yet).

Transhuman Interests: While the technological aspects are essential to transhumanism, I find myself more intrigued by the question of how do (trans)humans retain their "humanity?" In the face of a technology curve spun out of control, triggering massive (and potentially devastating) changes on political, social, economic and environmental levels, how would our image and definition of "humanity" change?

Contribution to Eclipse Phase: I did the write ups on the various factions as part of the main setting section.

Favorite thing about Eclipse Phase: As a late addition to this project, I was immediately intrigued by the setting’s fascinating blend of futuristic political and economic models, their diversity reflected in the many factions and their often conflicting agendas. The strong undercurrent of the evolution of politics and society in general, aside from advanced technology, beam weapons, cortical stacks, and alien lifeforms are what set Eclipse Phase apart from any other sci-fi games I’ve ever encountered.

John Snead Bio

Submitted by RobBoyle on Mon, 09/01/2008 - 21:05
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Eclipse Phase Contributor Bio

Real Name: John Snead
Firewall Codename: Heron61
Eclipse Phase Background Equivalency: Autonomist/Voluntary Mercurial
Previous Experience: I've been writing RPGs professionally for more than a decade and have worked on almost a dozen SF RPGs, including Traveller, Star Trek, Star Wars, GURPS Transhuman Space, and Trinity
About Me: I'm a freelance RPG author living in the lovely city of Portland Oregon. I'm a generalist, with degrees in everything from history to mathematics as well as an avid SF fan and a gourmet cook. Socially and politically, I'm a fairly extreme liberal (at least by US standards).  My favorite authors are Alastair Reynolds and P.C. Hodgell. 
Transhumanist Interests: I'm an avid transhumanist for both personal and sociopolitical reasons.  In addition to being personally eager to make use of the upcoming advances in longevity and intelligence enhancement, I also see the various transhuman technologies as our best way to reduce poverty and increase both human potential and overall freedom while also managing this planet so that it remains a good home for all of its lifeforms.
Eclipse Phase Contributions: I wrote half of the gear chapter as well as the detailed setting section. 
Favorite Thing About Eclipse Phase: I read a great deal of modern SF by authors like Alastair Reynolds, Linda Nagata, and Ken MacLeod, and I'm very pleased to see a SF RPG that is based on modern SF and that involves both transhumanism and interstellar travel.

Brian Cross Bio

Submitted by eclipseadmin on Fri, 08/01/2008 - 12:00
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Eclipse Phase Contributor Bio

Real Name: Brian Cross
Firewall Codename: Kylleran
Eclipse Phase Background Equivalency: Loonie/Argonaut
Previous Experience: Shadowrun, Fourth Edition, and a few other SR products (both 3rd and 4th)
About Me: I’m a graduate student by day and by night as well. I’m currently writing my dissertation and hope to be set loose upon the world soon. In my spare time I both play and write games and spend a great deal of time planning elaborate escape plans from my current geographical confines.
Transhumanist Interests: I’m both personally and professionally interested in the effects of accelerating technologies on the human-turning-transhuman condition. While I’m skeptical of such ideas as ‘the singularity’ happening on time (January 1, 2050, right?), I do think that the emerging technologies present the best opportunity that has come along in a long time to radically reshape our world into something better, something more egalitarian.
Eclipse Phase Contributions: I co-created the Eclipse Phase concept with Rob Boyle and have contributed to the development of the project as time has allowed. Specifically I’ve worked on the skills and some of the intro materials to the game.
Favorite Thing About Eclipse Phase: I like my sci-fi hard, but I realize not everyone does. In that vein, EP is about as hard as they come but also has a real (trans)human element that should resonate with even the most casual gamer. We’ve made a game that doesn’t sacrifice your post-singularity dystopian best-guess future, but it’s also a game that doesn’t require a Ph.D. in Physics to really get. It’s got something for everyone and it brings a whole new dimension to tabletop RPGs with the uploaded personality system (look ma, no deaths!).

Rob Boyle Bio

Submitted by eclipseadmin on Tue, 07/15/2008 - 12:00
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Eclipse Phase Contributor Bio

Real Name: Rob Boyle
Firewall Codename: Sprite
Eclipse Phase Background Equivalency: Original Space Colonist / Anarchist
Previous Experience: Shadowrun, Fourth Edition, and numerous other Shadowrun and other game titles (full list here)

About Me: I’m a dad and game designer by day and a powernoise DJ, martial arts teacher, and dodgeball player by night. I have worked in the tabletop RPG industry as a writer, editor, and developer for over ten years now. I have been employed by FASA and FanPro and freelance for Catalyst Game Labs and other companies. I co-founded Posthuman Studios as a creator-owned enterprise. I consider myself an anarchist and transhumanist and have spent many years agitating for social change.

Transhumanist Interests: I look towards accelerating technologies as a means of empowering people, instigating radical social upheaval, and countering oppression, injustice, and control. I plan to live forever, and I plan to have fun doing it.

Eclipse Phase Contributions: I co-created the Eclipse Phase concept with Brian Cross and have overseen the entire project as lead developer. I’ve had my hands in all parts of the book, especially Game Concepts and Character Creation.

Favorite Thing About Eclipse Phase: That it portrays a future that is simultaneously cautious but hopeful. The post-apocalyptic flavor and existential risks emphasize that transhumanity walks on a cliff’s edge, but defeating death, creating new social models, exploring space, and other aspects of the game show that the future is still full of possibilities.

Lars Blumenstein Bio

Submitted by eclipseadmin on Wed, 07/02/2008 - 12:00
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Eclipse Phase Contributor Bio

Real Name: Lars Blumenstein
Firewall Codename: LabRat
Eclipse Phase Background Equivalency: Hyperelite Argonaut
Previous Experience: Numerous Shadowrun titles in both German and English

About Me: I’d classify myself as an open-minded futurist scientophile in both passion and profession. I hold a PhD in biochemistry (biophysics and bioanalytics background) and currently work in the pharma biz. I have been a regular RPG freelancer for about 7 years now, and before that I wrote fan fiction for German-based RPGs (I am German, btw). I am also a caffeine addict (who isn’t?) and a media junkie (news feeds, books, movies/series, i-net, RPGs) when I get the time, though work, freelance writing, social life, and GF have diminished that in recent months.

Transhumanist Interests: I am interested in the posthuman angle like self-evolution and genetic redesign of mankind (augmentations, genetic engineering).

Eclipse Phase Contributions: I wrote the first version of the Psi section (expect the unexpected), the Mesh chapter (the omnipresent infosphere), part of the Gear chapter, and some of the material on the mysterious Factors, the only known alien (and I mean it) xenobiological species in EP so far.

Favorite Thing About Eclipse Phase: What I like most about EP besides the setting and versatile take on character play (“Death is just an Option,” gendernauting, and body-hopping) is seeing the game continuously evolve from the basic concepts and rules mechanics with which we started.

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