Whether you're running Eclipse Phase for the first time or a veteran gamemaster, Router Case Files is your resource for fast plot hooks tailored to this intricate universe. Covering the three core campaign types—Firewall, gatecrashing, and Guanxi criminals—then spanning the solar system to deal with hypercorps, uplifts, media, politics, and more!
Available now on DriveThruRPG, Router Case Files will be available in print as part of the Eclipse Phase Second Edition Gamemaster's Screen in 2020.
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 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!:
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!
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.
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.
We took December off from Print on Demand releases, and landed two in January, the adventures Bump in the Night and Continuity.
Then in February we released a A Time of Eclipse—all of the source material from Eclipse Phase first edition in a softcover sourcebook.
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!
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!
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!)
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.
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!
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.
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."