Rob Boyle Bio

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.

Gravato Artwork

Combat in zero-gravity situations can be pretty messy, as any spilled blood or other fluids tend to float around and get all over everything. This piece, by artist John Gravato, illustrates such a scenario.

End of the Week, End of the World

ABC News has an article on people who are preparing for the world to end in December of 2012, as predicted by the Mayan calendar. (Those of you who play Shadowrun are already familiar with this idea, as that game places Dec. 11, 2011 as the date of the Awakening, when magic returns to the world, on the same premise.) These people are even buying land and preparing caves as survivalist bases for when the End comes:

First, a polar reversal will cause the north to become the south and the sun to rise in the west. Shattering earthquakes, massive tidal waves and simultaneous volcanic eruptions will follow. Nuclear reactors will melt, buildings will crumble, and a cloud of volcanic dust will block out the sun for 40 years. Only the prepared will survive, Geryl said, and not even all of them.

Though Eclipse Phase is set far past 2012, it’s not inconceivable that there will be survivalist groups that band together under the belief than an impending singularity event will doom humanity and destroy the Earth … and, in a sense, they’d be right. Some of them might even still be surviving in the planet’s ruins …