Post Gen Con FAQ

Updated Tuesday, September 3rd.

It's the Wednesday after Gen Con; our booth furniture is safely tucked away in our storage unit, we've sluiced off the sweat and grime from teardown and the drive back to Chicago, and we've put some real food into our stomachs and had a couple good night's sleep — the best we've had in weeks. I'm about to hop on the train home to Minneapolis.

Getting Eclipse Phase Second Edition finished and out to backers in digital form, and then in print for Gen Con was a heck of a crunch, and we had to scale back on some plans that were about to happen around the convention.

This means that we've been getting a handful of frequently asked questions over the last few days, so here are answers!:

Q: When can I pre-order a copy of Eclipse Phase Second Edition?

A: BackerKit is open for Pre-Orders. It will remain open until Wednesday, September 4th.

Q: When will the PDF version of EP2 be available?

A: It is now available on DriveThruRPG!

Q: When will Backer/Pre-order copies of EP2 going to ship?

A: Our printer will begin work on the second portion of the first print run in early September, and after those books are printed, they'll go out to our distribution centers and then to backers. That process will vary in time depending on what country you are in and how complex your order is.

We pushed the second portion of the print run back to correct mistakes found in the first release, and to touch up a few things. Very few of these things are mechanics/game-related, but we wanted to do a more thorough job!

Q: When will EP2 be available in game stores?

A: We anticipate mid-November, after all backer/Pre-order copies have shipped.

Q: How about the "Everything Eclipse Phase! USB key?"

A: Now that EP2 is finished, we'll be getting those manufactured and sent out in early October.

Q: What about those t-shirts and Surya pins?

A: We'll have an online pop-up shop for those before the end of September!

Q: What's coming up next?

A: We have some EP2 resources such as the Quick-Start Rules that were created during development that need some updates to bring them in line with the final rules. The third Nano Op: Better on the Inside is available now, and then we'll be moving onto digital stretch goals from the Kickstarter project like NPC File Volume 2 and Your Whispering Muse!

Eclipse Phase Second Edition material in advance!

Eclipse Phase Second Edition is really close to being finished. We're down to some final edits, graphic design tweaks, integrating those last-minute rules corrections, working on cross-references and the index.

The Open Playtest rules are still available, although the playtest itself is over. We'll keep the playtest rules available until the PDF version of EP2 drops! And of course, the Quick-Start Rules are available and they'll be getting an update when the core rulebook is finalized!

We've been releasing some gameplay and setting material in advance of the core rulebook, and we've mentioned it on the Kickstarter page but not over here, so here's a summary!:

Infamy

Eclipse Phase: Infamy — Rob Boyle & Davidson Cole's introductory fiction.

Nano Op: Grinder

Eclipse Phase Nano Op: Grinder — the first in a series of two page mini-scenario/encounters, this one geared towards Firewall characters!

Nano Op: Body Count

Eclipse Phase Nano Op: Body Count — this Nano Op is geared towards Criminal Gaunxi characters, and they start out in the middle of the fire!

Eclipse Phase: Character Pack

Eclipse Phase: Character Pack — All sixteen sample characters, Firewall members, Gatecrashers, and Guanxi Ops (free).

Eclipse Phase Second Edition: Rules Primer

Eclipse Phase Second Edition Rules Primer — The EP2 rules condensed to two pages (free!)

Catching Up: Eclipse Phase first edition Print on Demand

Eclipse Phase fans,

We're overdue to talk about a lot of different things—a lot of this stuff has been mentioned in Kickstarter backer updates or our mailing list but hasn't been relayed here. So here's the first in a series of posts to catch you up on what we've been doing lately, starting with Print on Demand first edition titles!

First up, a bit of philosophy:

And a bit of history:

When we started publishing Eclipse Phase Print on Demand was around but it wasn't integrated with DriveThruRPG, and it was generally more expensive than it is now. Thus we didn't go through the effort of making print versions of our small page count titles available via POD, and our large titles had full offset print runs — and in some cases, reprints! Hell yeah!

It's 10 years later and with Eclipse Phase Second Edition on the horizon, we're also working on making sure that every First Edition title is available via Print on Demand in addition to digitally.

Now, The Present

We started in September with the First Edition Gamemaster's Screen (cardstock pages designed to work with Hammerdog's World's Greatest GM Screen), and followed up in October and November with Sunward: The Inner System and Rimward: The Outer System.

Rimward cover

We took December off from Print on Demand releases, and landed two in January, the adventures Bump in the Night and Continuity.

Continuity cover

Then in February we released a A Time of Eclipse—all of the source material from Eclipse Phase first edition in a softcover sourcebook.

A Time of Eclipse cover

Bundles

We also maintain bundles of Eclipse Phase: Everything Electronic & POD Books and Eclipse Phase: All POD Books — these bundles give you everything that's available, and the price is pro-rated so if you've already bought some of them, you only pay for what you don't have ... and everything in the bundle is discounted!

The Future!

Morph Recognition Guide, X-Risks, Ego Hunter, and other first edition titles are all in the queue for conversion, roughly one a month until they're all available!

Category: 
Releases

Your Whispering Muse Open Call for Writers!

Posthuman Studios is seeking new-to-Eclipse Phase authors for our upcoming serial-style sourcebook project, Your Whispering Muse!

(February 1st: the Your Whispering Muse submissions period has closed! Thank you to everyone who submitted a proposal!)

Your Whispering Muse Introduction

Your Whispering Muse mock cover

The first series of Your Whispering Muse will be eight installments, each of them 4-6 pages (roughly 3400 or 5400 words). Your Whispering Muse will cover material that is "slice of life," "off the beaten path," and "you can drop this into your game/riff on it to make an adventure" — things that we don't get to cover in detail in major sourcebooks.

We want to work with many writers who are new to us on this project, as we're always looking for new authors but sometimes find them hard to integrate on more complex books. Your Whispering Muse is partly designed to get people's foot into our door and see if we like working together! We are especially interested in submissions from people who are often marginalized in tabletop gaming and publishing: people of color, women, transgender people, and those from other marginalized backgrounds or situations.

Potential Styles and Article Ideas

To juice your brain up, we have compiled a number of article ideas, and also three potential styles of articles. Use the list as inspiration, match it with an article style, and apply; or bring your own idea and apply one of the styles to it! Include the style information in your 100 word summary. Each eight-issue series of Your Whispering Muse will contain multiple articles in each style.

Style 1: Traditional Eclipse Phase — meshes main body text with a couple sidebars. It starts with in-character information and ends with a Game Information section.

Style 2: A listicle! — presents a number of items on a similar topic in an in-character voice. This style is best used for "slice of life"-style topics.

Style 3: Tables — a series of random-roll tables, grouped around related topics.

Ideas: Meathab, Space Fashion!, A Cool Specific Derelict Spaceship, A Swarm That Isn’t Anarchists, Sports, Bizarre Artificial Intelligence Mysteries, Scurrier Homeworld / Haplopelma, Ten Most Beautiful Sights in the Solar System, the Galactic Map project (Argonauts), Average Transhuman Days, 24 Births, 144 Overheard Conversation Snippets, Help Wanted Ads, Interactions with Everyday “Smart” Objects, Tragically Lost Keepsakes, Points of Etiquette in Microgravity.

We are not seeking submissions that include: alternate rules, additional equipment/morphs/ware/etc, plots with universe-altering scope, or that are prose fiction.

Include Important Details: This is a proposal to us, not a teaser. So if your pitch is about, for example, "a habitat that has a dark secret known only to a few," you need to explain the secret in the proposal!

Important Dates

This Open Call launches on January 17th 2018 and closes on January 31st, 2018, at 11:59PM, Pacific Time. This Open Call is closed.

We will contact accepted writers shortly after that and writing assignments will be sent in mid-February. First drafts will be due in late February, and second drafts in mid March. If these dates will not work for you, please do not apply to this open call.

Behind the Scenes

We'll be anonymizing all of the submissions before reading them. Submissions will be evaluated based on creativity, general interest to Eclipse Phase gamers, writing quality, publishing a variety of styles/content throughout the series, and that quest for the elusive perfect vegetarian space BBQ sauce.

We'll probably assign more than eight installments, to provide a little bit of padding against delays. Those additional assignments will be released sometime in the future.

Each Your Whispering Muse assignment pays a flat fee of $200USD via Check or PayPal upon our approval of the second/final draft.

Please address questions to info@posthumanstudios.com.

Fine Print: You'll be asked to accept this disclaimer: "I agree that by submitting to this Open Call that this idea is my original creation within the Eclipse Phase universe created and owned by Posthuman Studios LLC. This submission includes no transfer of rights and creates no business relationship between Posthuman Studios LLC and myself. All submissions will be kept on file for future projects and you may be contacted in the future if we decide we want to use your proposal."

Category: 
Posthuman Studios
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YourWhisperingMuse

Eclipse Phase Second Edition Release Update

We passed this news onto our backers on Kickstarter several weeks ago, and to keep the public in the loop: Eclipse Phase Second Edition is late, and will be released in 2018.

Response to the playtest has been spirited, and we're still working our way through rules issues and rewrites. An update to the playtest package was made available on November 16th, and more material is forthcoming. All of the book's art is in. We're tweaking and expanding the graphic design. And we're pushing forward with Kickstarter stretch goals and other Eclipse Phase projects.

Eclipse Phase Second Edition Delays

Our schedule for Eclipse Phase Second Edition was aggressive, and it got waylaid by several factors, some unexpected, and some just hit us harder than expected. Our long-term fans know that we've always operated on a slow-and-steady pace leading to high-quality books, and we will continue that in finishing Eclipse Phase Second Edition.

Our most notably delay involves hiring a freelancer to handle art direction, a hire which did not pan out and put us several months behind in art. Rather than attempt to hire someone else for that position, we picked up the pieces and handled it in-house, diverting attention from other aspects of the book. All of the book's artwork is now in hand and looks great, from a mix of established Eclipse Phase artists and some great new ones!

Pivo, by Mobo Boeheme
Pivo, by Mobo Boeheme

Playtest Update

On November 16th we pushed out an update to the Open Playtest: revised Game Mechanics and Creating Character chapters. If you've already grabbed the playtest on DriveThruRPG, those files are available to you now. If not, you can download them here! As always, you can discuss the Open Playtest on our forums.

We're currently working on the Mesh and Accelerated Future chapters, and taking into account feedback on both the Psi and the Action and Combat chapters.

Updated Release Dates

At this point, we are aiming to release the Eclipse Phase Second Edition PDF to backers in early 2018, with the print edition following by April.

We understand that this is a significant delay from our original estimate. When it became obvious that the core book was behind schedule, we re-evaluated the entire release schedule for the Eclipse Phase Second Edition line. We still have an aggressive schedule that we are pushing forward with, including the core rulebook, all the stretch goals from this Kickstarter project, and titles that have yet to be announced or that aren't associated with the Kickstarter.

It is important that our schedule keep moving forward on these projects, even if it means 100% of our attention isn't devoted to the Eclipse Phase Second Edition core rulebook, as the long-term success of the game line relies on support books following soon after the core rulebook.

O'Neill Cylinder by Lorenz Ruwwe
O'Neill Cylinder by Lorenz Ruwwe

BackerKit and Pre-Orders

We still intend to allow pre-orders of Eclipse Phase Second Edition via BackerKit. However, that functionality will not open up until closer to the release date.

Quick-Start Rules

The EP2 Quick-Start Rules with a new adventure, Acrimony, are available to download for free!



Category: 
EP News