TRANSHUMANITY'S FATE WRITING DEDICATION Jack Graham, Ryan Macklin The dedicate this book to Jef Smith, our ADDITIONAL MATERIAL companion of many days & nights around the table. Jef was a tireless organizer in Chicago's science-fiction/ Rob Boyle, Caleb Stokes fantasy fandom, including the Think Galactic reading EDITING group and spin-off convention, Think Galacticon. In Rob Boyle, Jack Graham 2015, he co-published the Sisters of the Revolution: A GRAPHIC DESIGN Feminist Speculative Fiction Anthology with PM Press. Adam Jury We will miss Jef's encouragement, wit, and bottomless COVER ART generosity. The person who lives large in the lives of their friends is not soon forgotten. Stephan Martiniere A portion of profits from Transhumanity's Fate will be INTERIOR ART donated to Jef's family. Rich Anderson, Nic Boone, Leanne Buckley, Anna Christenson, Daniel Clarke, Paul Davies, SPECIAL THANKS Alex Drummond, Danijel Firak, Nathan Geppert, Ryan thanks his wife, Lillian, for her support and Zachary Graves, Tariq Hassan, Josu Hernaiz, octomorph shenanigans, and blackcoat for being a font Jason Juta, Sergey Kondratovich, Ian Llanas, of feedback. Adrian Majkrzak, Stephan Martiniere, Marco Mazzoni, Thank you to all our playtesters—from the Eclipse Phase Mark Molnar, Maciej Rebisz, Lorenz Hideyoshi Ruwwe, forums during the open playtest, to the crack goups James Wolf Strehle, Daneil Stultz, Viktor Titov, assembled at Gen Con and Metatopia! Alexandre Tuis, Bruno Werneck, Andy Wright Thanks to Jonathan Bagelman, Emily Care Boss, Juliet Brownell, Andy Click, Russel Collins, David Cooper, Jim Cummings, Nathaniel Dean, Rob Donoghue, Rich Flynn, Aaron Grossman, SampleDr. Matthewfile Hare, Lucien Huete, Marc Huete, K, Howard Katz, Marissa Kelly, Joshua Kronengold, Kevin Kulp, Tony Lee, James Mendez Hodes, Jessica Noble, OUR RESOURCES Ethan Rex, Laiel Shepherd, Neal Tanner, Andrew Wilson http://eclipsephase.com —Eclipse Phase website, blog, and forum http://posthumanstudios.com —Posthuman Studios website

Version 1.1, March 2016 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. by Studios To view a copy of this license, visit: contact us at [email protected] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ or via http://eclipsephase.com or send a letter to: Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite or search your favorite social network for: 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA. “Eclipse Phase” or “Posthuman Studios” What this means is that you are free to copy, share, and remix the Posthuman Studios is: text and artwork within this book under the following conditions: 1) you do so only for noncommercial purposes; Rob Boyle, Brian Cross, Jack Graham, and Adam Jury 2) you attribute Posthuman Studios; 3) you license any derivatives under the same license. For specific details, appropriate credits, and updates/changes to this license, please see: http://eclipsephase.com/cclicense WELCOME TO FIREWALL 4 Creating Ego Stunts and Morph The Fall 4 Your Muse 25 Stunts 56 Aftermath 5 Stress and Morph Stunts 56 A Time of Eclipse: Consequences 26 Gear Stunts 57 The , Team Roles 26 List of Gear Stunts 57 Circa AF10 5 AI Researcher 26 MORPHS, BOTS, AND Firewall 6 Bot Jammer 26 VEHICLES 60 Cool Hunter 26 GLOSSARY 8 Anatomy of a Morph 60 Criminal Hacker 26 Type 60 TRANSHUMANITY'S FATE Ego Hunter 27 Morph Aspects 61 RULES 10 Enforcer 27 Morph Traits 62 Playing Eclipse Phase Explorer 27 Morph Stunts 62 with Fate Core 10 Field Engineer 27 Durability 62 Freelance Judge 27 Traits 10 Bots, Vehicles, Genehacker 27 Free Invocations 10 Journalist 28 and Habitats 64 Action Lengths 10 Merc 28 Device AIs 64 Languages 11 Militiamensch 28 Jamming 64 Teamwork in Mesh Sleeving into Devices 64 Actions 11 Networker 28 Contests Programmer-Archeologist 29 List of Morphs Under Fire 11 Scavenger 29 and Devices 66 Scout 29 Biomorphs 66 Conditions 11 Smuggler 29 Pods 68 GAME CREATION 12 Techie 29 Synthmorphs 69 Game Aspects 12 Xenoarcheologist 29 Bots and Vehicles 70 Creating Issues 12 Zone Stalker 29 Habitats 71 Creating a Server 13 SKILLS 30 Infomorphs 71 Proxies 13 Skill List 30 List of Morph Traits 72 Location/Specialty 13 Athletics 32 Essential Biomorph Traits 72 Firewall Factions 13 Civ Rep 33 Essential Pod Traits 72 Server Aspects 14 Cover 34 Essential Synthmorph Eye Rep Cap (Optional) 14 Cred 35 and Bot Traits 73 Ready-to-Play Games 15 Deceive 36 Essential Infomorph Traits 73 Gatecrashers 15 SampleEye Rep file 37 Morph-Specific Traits 73 Scrap and Salvage 15 Fight 38 List of Morph Stunts 76 Night Market Blues 16 Hardware 39 Armor 76 A Fistful of Credits 17 Infiltrate 40 Attraction 76 CREATING Infosec 41 Emergency Neutrino Broadcaster 76 YOUR SENTINELS 18 Investigate 42 Kinesics 43 Enhanced Senses (Type) 76 18 Character Concept Medicine 44 Hyperlinguist 76 Name 18 Notice 45 Medichines 76 Firewall Phases 18 Pilot 46 Mental Speed 77 Phase One: How You Program 47 Mobility (Flight) 77 Got Noticed 18 Provoke 48 Mobility Phase Two: Rapport 49 (Grip Pads) 77 A Recent Mission 20 Shoot 50 Multiple Personalities 77 Phase Three: Somatics 51 Multi-tasking 78 Crossing Paths 20 Survival 52 Natural Attack (Ink) 78 Phase Four: Will 53 Natural Attack (Venom) 78 Crossing Paths Again 21 Xeno-Contact 54 Reflex Boosters 78 Making Ego Aspects 22 X-Risks 55 Shape Adjusting 78 Skills 23 STUNTS 56 Stealth 78 Strength 78 Morph 24 Ego Stunts 56 Structural Enhancement 78 24 Ego Stunts and Stunts Swarm Composition 78 Spending Refresh 24 Different Morphs 56 2 Changing Morphs and Ending a Contest Under Gatecrashing 120 Moving Egos 79 Fire 96 Horror 120 Resleeving 80 Interference 96 As Thematic Element 121 Egocasting 80 Two-Sided Contests 97 As Situation Aspect 121 Forking and Merging 81 Firing on More than As Means to Attack or Popping a Stack 82 Just Contests 97 Create an Advantage 121 Morph Acquisition 83 MESH 98 As Consequences 122 Temporarily Acquiring What the Mesh Allows 98 More on Hostile a Morph 83 Communication 98 Environments 122 Jacking NPC Morphs 83 Access 98 SETTINGS 124 Being Forced into a Teamwork in Mesh 124 Morph by a Situation 83 Mars Actions 99 Brace (Nick Yao) 124 TECHNOTHRILLER Research 99 The Mogura Gwisin 125 CONFLICTS 84 Mesh Intrusions 100 Main Belt: Legba 126 Setting up a Conflict 84 Intrusions as Contests 100 Roland Nazon/Elleggua 126 Situation Aspects 84 Multiple Uranus: Oberon Zones 85 Intruders/SysOps 101 and Xiphos 128 Establishing Sides 85 Mesh Intrusions under Oberon: Chat Noir Determine Turn Order 85 Fire 102 and Fissure Gate 128 Flow of Conflicts 86 Scorching Conflicts 102 The Factors 129 Exchange Sequence 86 Tracking People 102 Xiphos 129 Attacks and Defenses 86 MIND HACKS 104 Adaphel Maine 130 Typical Attacks 86 Psi 104 Exoplanet Echo IV 131 Devastating Attacks 86 Creating an Async Abandoned Weakness 131 Invulnerable Defenses 87 Character 104 Hecaloth-7 132 When to Use Situation Psi Traits 105 Exoplanet Giza 133 Aspects Instead 87 Psi Stunts 106 Graves 134 Other Attack Rules 88 Risking Strain 109 Random Alien Condition-Inflicting Async Consequences 110 Chatrooms 135 Weapons 88 Changing Sleights 111 Explosives 88 Compelling Psi Aspects 111 THREATS 136 136 Ranged Weapons 89 Psychosurgery 112 The Exsurgent Virus Basilisk Hack 136 Unavoidable Attacks 90 Psychosurgery Basics 112 Mindstealer Strain 137 Hostile Environments 90 SampleRunning Psychosurgery file 113 Xenomorph Strain 137 Morph Death Psychosurgical Stunts 115 Exsurgents andNTENTS War E T and Destruction 91 Situational Aspect 115 a Rewriting Consequences 115 Machines 138 b Healing and Repairing: Recovering from Mental Fractal 138 l

Addressing Morph Wastewalker 138 Consequences 116 of Consequences 92 Rewriting Ego Aspects 116 Whipper 139 Morph versus Ego Narrating Exhumans 140 C Consequences 92 Psychosurgery at Predator 140 o Recovering from Milestones 116 Transhuman Threats 140 Morph Death Psychosurgery on Black-Hat Hacker 140 Asyncs and Exsurgents 117 and Destruction 92 Guanxi Enforcer 140 Consequences RUNNING THE GAME 118 Guanxi Soldier 141 Common Guardian Angel 141 with Morph Merc 141 Abandonment 93 Technologies 118 Psychosurgery and Security Drone 141 93 Swarms Resleeving Equipment 118 Smuggler 142 Nanoswarms 93 Public Meshes and Xenolife 142 Contests Under Fire 94 Surveillance 118 Factor Diplomat/ Setting up a Contest Simulspaces 119 Merchant 142 Under Fire 94 Tacnet 119 Echolalian Land Playing Out a Contest Nanofabrication 119 Anemone 143 Under Fire 95 Echolalian Microsauroid 143 3 WELCOME TO FIREWALL

In Transhumanity's Fate, you play that had been at a constant simmer for secret agents protecting the scattered the last century. As events accelerated, remnants of transhumanity from though, those who could pierce the fog threats that could wipe it out once of war realized that someone—or some- and for all. You might be a crusading thing—was applying pressure in just the hacktivist, an anarchist militia fighter, a right places to spark conflicts. planet-hopping xenoscientist, a psychic By the time the enemy revealed detective, or a social networker owed themselves, transhumanity’s nations, favors by all the right people. You’re a space colonies, and corporations were transhuman—a genetically modified already at each other’s throats. After human, an intelligent animal, a mind almost a year of stirring the pot, that in a robotic shell, or even a bodiless foe struck in earnest. They were rogue artificial generalized intelligence North American military AIs known as (AGI). Your body is heavily upgraded, the TITANs (Total Information Tactical and your mind can communicate with Awareness Networks). While distracting every electronic device around it. You the polities of , they had covertly need every advantage, because you’re built their own military-industrial up against mutants infected with an complex using nanofabrication and alien virus, WMD dealers, corrupted subverted bots. These autonomous AGI god-minds, shifty amoeboid alien factories churned out war machines merchants, rampaging alien wildlife, and self-replicating nanoswarms, which and the ultimate threat: transhumani- then attacked transhuman population ty’s own self-destructive capabilities. centers, cleansing them of life. An infopocalypse began as massive attacks on computer networks subverted infra- THE FALL Sample structurefile and destroyed data. Most Ten years ago, we lost Earth in the Fall. disturbingly, the war machines didn’t Transhumanity had already been on the kill everyone. Millions had their minds tipping point between enlightenment forcibly uploaded before their bodies and annihilation. We’d colonized were repurposed as shock troops. space, but ruined our own planet. We’d We fought back, but a coordinated uplifted animals and AIs to sapience, defense was impossible with trans- but billions of persons remained voice- humanity’s major factions already less. We’d even conquered death—by fighting each other. And one of the uploading minds (egos) and resleeving TITANs’ most potent weapons, the into new bodies (morphs)—but only for possibly alien exsurgent virus, could those who could afford it. propagate itself across both digital and Then something started going seri- biological life with frightening ease, ously wrong—orders of magnitude killing, corrupting, and subverting. The more wrong than the situation we’d Fall became a race to get key people, already gotten ourselves into. At first equipment, and resources off Earth as it seemed like an intensification of the quickly as possible—and damn the cost bush wars, cyberattacks, and civil strife to everyone else. 4 intelligences (AGIs), and uploaded people living as bodiless infomorphs AFTERMATH are not uncommon. Biological and It is AF10: 10 years After the Fall. Of 11 synthetic bodies are heavily augmented billion transhumans, barely 500 million and available in huge variety. An entire survived the Fall, spread across the solar generation of children raised in simul- system from Mercury to the Kuiper Belt. space VR—dubbed the Lost—proved No one knows how we survived. At prone to severe mental illness, but some point, the machines just stopped. Firewall knows some are also asyncs, There are a million theories why, but wielding what can only be called the possibility that they might return psychic powers. And just a few years ago, to finish us off hangs over the head of the Factors, an alien race of slime-mold every survivor. space merchants, made first contact. In their wake, the solar system was Politically, the solar system is divided. permanently altered. Earth was a The Planetary Consortium is the mouth- smoking ruin. Large swaths of Luna and piece of the hypercorp-aligned city Mars were quarantined as the machine states of Venus, Luna, and Mars. The life there, while no longer guided by Jovian Republic of Jupiter is fascist in the TITANs, remained dangerous. its politics but principled in its techno- ’s , Iapetus, had been logical precautionism. The Autonomist partially converted into a matrioshka Alliance includes anarchist, anar- brain—a planet-scale megacomputer. cho-capitalist, and technosocialist poli- And all over the system, we began to ties spanning Jupiter’s Trojan and Greek discover mysterious Pandora gates , Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and that opened to exoplanets in other star beyond. Enclaves of these factions exist systems—some so far from Earth that outside the parts of the system they astronomers haven’t been able to fix dominate, and the Main Belt and Kuiper their positions within the galaxy. Belt are a wild west exploited by all. Did the TITANs disappear intoSample the The file economies of the factions

network of Pandora gates? Did they differ, spurring conflicts. In auton- W

achieve some type of machine apothe- omist territory, currency is obsolete. elcome osis and leave us to our fate? Or are they Unrestricted use of nanofabrication still here, biding their time, before the means that anyone can manufacture final act of our destruction unfolds? anything they need given a blueprint

and basic raw materials. In these open to

economies, reputation, not wealth, F

mediates the exchange of information i A TIME OF rewall and services. In the Consortium sphere, ECLIPSE: THE nanofabber blueprints and the fabbers themselves are protected by DRM, SOLAR SYSTEM, enforcing payment in credits before printing items. That autonomist terri- CIRCA AF10 tories flagrantly disregard Consortium Our efforts to rebuild from the Fall anti-piracy laws doesn’t smooth brought strange harvests. Uplifted relations. In Jovian space, nanofab is animals, artificial generalized banned for most citizens, and credits 5 are used to pay for manufactured goods. The Jovians consider the rest of transhu- manity incautious for relying so heavily FIREWALL on nanotech, which the TITANs also You’re part of Firewall—a mostly-secret subverted during the Fall. organization dedicated to combating Earth governments ceased to exist. x-risks. Some of your peers have Beyond the sway of the big factions, been in this fight from the start. They crime syndicates, mercenaries, scien- started out in government outfits like tists, artists, pirates, isolationists, the UK’s Bletchley Park or China’s and weirder clades have built their Machine Intelligence Directorate own societies in private patches of (MIND). Others were part of inde- space. Aside from the threat that the pendent groups like the argonauts, TITANs will return, we face existen- the Jörmungandr Initiative, or the tial risks—x-risks—that complicate Singularity Foundation. After the Fall, our survival. These include weapons the battered remnants of these groups of mass destruction, diseases brought formed the Eye, an information sharing back from beyond the Pandora gates, network for anti-x-riskers. abuse of salvaged TITAN technology, It quickly became apparent that the celestial collisions, and the occasional disunity and mistrust that kept Earth’s nest of exsurgents bent on further governments from working together spreading the virus. during the Fall had carried over to the No one watches what’s going on new political factions. A series of virtual across all these borders. No one shares conferences on x-risk mitigation hosted information between the data vaults by the technoprogressive argonauts lead of Jupiter and the academic networks members of the Eye to form Firewall, of Titan. No one has the reach to help a cell-structure conspiracy devoted small, isolated space habitats, or to track to detecting and containing x-risks an exsurgent infiltrator from the clouds anywhere in transhuman space. of Uranus to the souks of Samplea Martian fileThis isn’t a simple mission. Keeping megacity. No one except us. the Eye’s servers secret and secure

WHAT IS ? Transhumanism is an international cultural and intellectual movement that endorses the use of science and technology to enhance the human condition, both mentally and phys- ically. In support of this, transhumanism embraces emerging technologies to eliminate the undesirable elements of the human condition such as aging, disabilities, diseases, and involuntary death. In Eclipse Phase, the transhuman program has borne fruit in the form of enhanced humans, uplifted animals, and machine sapience. But counter to the hopes of many present day transhumanists, eternal youth, enhanced anatomy, and heightened intel- ligence haven’t been equal for all. In the Planetary Consortium’s sphere of influence, they’re the prerogatives of the wealthy, while the masses make do with older used bodies, robotic shells, or sometimes no physical bodies at all.

6 is a massive task all by itself, even Operations are run on a shoestring if the rumors are true that we have budget, with proxies calling in whom- guardian angels in the form of transhu- ever they can from a given locale man-friendly AIs called Prometheans. to reconnoiter, infiltrate, or fight as Each Firewall working group, called needed. Your cell might be a long- a server, is organized by one or more standing team, or it might have been proxies—Firewall’s core of facilita- put together on the spur of the moment. tors, threat watchers, and logisticians. You were recruited because you’re Servers in turn oversee cells, consisting resourceful, you have needed exper- of teams of rank-and-file agents—that’s tise, or maybe you saw something you you—called sentinels. shouldn’t have but handled it well where The distributed, anti-hierarchical most people would have fled in terror. nature of Firewall keeps power from Maybe you lost everything in the Fall, accumulating in one place. On the up maybe you’re an idealist who thinks side, this keeps our operations secret and they can fix everything, or maybe you’re our decision making democratic, at least just looking for a good fight. You’ve at the level of the proxies. On the down passed our loyalty tests—for now—and side, it means that factional disputes proven you’re ready. between Firewall servers sometimes turn One thing we all agree on: transhu- ugly. As in wider transhuman society, manity stands on the brink of extinc- though, reputation in the Eye matters. tion. We all feel called to act, and with a Servers or cells that go rogue too often viewpoint that’s galactic, not local. quickly find themselves cut off from Extinction is coming. Will you fight it? support from the rest of the organization.

Sample file W elcome

to F i rewall

7 GLOSSARY

Below are some terms useful to players and GMs Biomorph: A biological body, whether a flat, getting to know the world of Eclipse Phase. Since splicer, genetically engineered transhuman, Eclipse Phase takes place in a hard or pod. universe, real-world terms from science and Body Bank: A service for acquiring or storing a technology also appear liberally. If it’s not in this morph. AKA dollhouse, morgue. glossary, try Wikipedia! Bots: . AI-piloted synthetic shells. AKA, drones AF: After the Fall (used for reference dating). Cortical Stack: An implanted memory cell used AGI: Artificial General Intelligence. An AI that for ego backup. Located where the spine has cognitive faculties comparable to that of meets the skull; can be cut out. a human or higher. Also known as “strong AI” Ego: The part of you that switches from body to (differentiating from more specialized “weak body. AKA ghost, soul, persona. AI”). See also “seed AI.” Egocasting: Term for sending egos via AI: . Generally used to refer farcasting. to weak AIs; i.e., AIs that do not encompass ETI: Extraterrestial Intelligence. The term (or in some cases, are completely outside of) Firewall uses to refer to the god-like post-sin- the full range of human cognitive abilities. AIs gularity alien intelligence theorized to be differ from AGIs in that they are usually spe- responsible for the Exsurgent virus. cialized and/or intentionally crippled/limited. Exsurgent: Someone infected by the Exsurgent Anarchist: Someone who believes government virus. is unnecessary, that power corrupts, and Exsurgent Virus: The multi-vector virus created that people should control their own lives by an unknown ETI and seeded throughout through self-organized individual and the galaxy in Bracewell probes. The Exsurgent collective action. virus is self-morphing and can infect both Argonauts: A faction of techno-progressive computer systems and biological creatures. scientists that promote responsible and Factors: The alien ambassadorial race that deals ethical use of technology. Sample filewith transhumanity. AR: Augmented Reality. Information from the The Fall: The apocalypse; the singularity and Mesh overlaid on your real-world senses. wars that nearly brought about the downfall AR data is usually entoptic (visual), but can of transhumanity. also be audio, tactile, olfactory, kinesthetic Firewall: The secret cross-faction conspiracy (body awareness), emotional, or other that works to protect transhumanity from types of input. When you use the Mesh, it’s “existential threats” (risks to transhumanity’s frequently through AR windows. continued existence). Async: A person with psi abilities. Forking: Copying an ego. Not all forks are full Autonomists: The alliance of anarchists, copies. AKA backups. Barsoomians, Extropians, scum, and Titanians. Gatecrashers: Explorers who take their chances Barsoomian: A rural Martian, typically using a Pandora gate to go somewhere resentful of hypercorp control. Also known previously unexplored. as Rednecks. Ghost-riding: The act of carrying an infomorph BF: Before the Fall (used for reference dating). in a special implant module inside your head. Bioconservative: An anti-technology Habitat: A transhuman space colony, whether movement that argues for strict regulation a tiny cluster of tin cans on trusswork, or a of nanofabrication, AI, uploading, forking, kilometers-long megastructure. AKA, hab, cognitive enhancements, and other disrup- space habitat. tive technologies. 8 Indentures: Indentured servants who have Exsurgent infection. The Prometheans secretly contracted their labor to a hypercorp or back Firewall and work to defeat x-risks. other authority, usually in exchange for the Proxies: Members of the Firewall internal promise of a morph. structure. Infolife: Artificial general intelligences and Psi: Parapsychological powers acquired due more powerful AGIs. to infection by the Watts-MacLeod strain of Infugee: “Infomorph refugee,” or someone who Exsurgent virus. left everything behind on Earth during the Re-instantiated: Refugees from Earth who Fall—even their own body. escaped only as bodiless infomorphs, but Jamming: The act of “becoming” a teleoper- who have since been resleeved. ated drone thanks to XP technology. Resleeving: Changing bodies or downloading Lost Generation: In an effort to repopulate into a new one. Also called remorphing, post-Fall, a generation of children were reincarnation, shifting, rebirthing. reared in VR simulspaces using time accel- Scum: The nomadic faction of space punks/ eration. The results were disastrous: many gypsies that travel from station to station in went insane, and the rest were stigmatized. heavily modified barges or swarms of ships. Some are rumored to have displayed Notorious for being a roving black market. psychic powers. Sentinels: Agents of Firewall. Mesh: The omnipresent wireless mesh data Simulspace: Full-immersion virtual reality network. Also used as a verb (to mesh) and environments. adjective (meshed or unmeshed). Singularity: A point of rapid, exponential, and Mesh ID: The unique signature attached to recursive technological progress, beyond one’s mesh activity. which the future becomes impossible to Mesh Inserts: Nanoscale cranial implants (in predict. Often used to refer to the ascension biomorphs) or mesh hardware (in synths) of some AGIs to god-like levels of intelligence. that act as computation, storage, and Mesh Sleight: A psi power. access, controlled by thought, from the brain. Synthmorph: Synthetic morphs. Robotic shells A cheap, disposable, external version made possessed by transhuman egos. of flexy plastic, called an Ecto, is a favorite Titanian: Someone from Titan, a moon of of hackers. SampleSaturn. file Morph: A physical body. AKA sleeve, shell. TITANs: The human-created, recursively GLOSSARY Muse: Personal AI helper programs. improving, military AGIs that underwent a Nanobot: A nano-scale machine. hard-takeoff singularity and prompted the Nanofabricator: Any of a family machines that Fall. Original military designation was TITAN: print physical objects from feedstock based Total Information Tactical Awareness Network. on digital blueprints. Some are specialized Transhuman: An extensively modified human. for mechanical or inorganic objects, while Ultimates: Separatist mercenary faction others can print food and drugs. whose ideology of genetic and mental Nanoswarm: A mass of tiny nanobots improvement draws from both Indian unleashed into an environment. religions and fascism. O’Neill Cylinder: A pop can shaped habitat, Uplifting: Genetically transforming an animal spun for gravity. species to sapience. Pandora Gates: The wormhole gateways discov- XP: Experience Playback. Experiencing someone ered after the disappearance of the TITANs. else’s sensory input (in real-time or recorded). Prometheans: A group of transhuman-friendly Also called experia, sim, simsense, playback. AGIs created by early argonauts years X-Risk: Existential Risk. Something that threat- before the TITANs and that (mostly) avoided ens the very existence of transhumanity.

9 TRANSHUMANITY'S FATE RULES

The various components of simply can’t. Mobility: Limber could Transhumanity's Fate—physical and be used this way, providing permis- mental conflict, mesh hacking, morph sion to pass through a small crack and ego attributes, psi, and so on—use other characters can’t fit through. the rules from Fate Core as a baseline But it could also be invoked (via the with the following rules on top of that. Octomorph aspect) to gain the upper tentacle when wrestling someone. PLAYING FREE INVOCATIONS A few ego stunts and morph traits grant ECLIPSE PHASE either “one free invocation per session” or “one free invocation per scene.” WITH FATE CORE Per-session abilities refresh whenever For the most part, Transhumanity's fate points refresh, meaning that if Fate uses the mechanics presented in fate points refresh midway through a Fate Core. Where the rules diverge in game for a given reason, that ability’s minor ways, we specify this. For major free invocation refreshes. Likewise, if departures, such as skills that work the session ends on a cliffhanger and differently, we include a full write-up. the GM doesn’t want to do a fate point In any case, you will need a copy of refresh right away in the next session, Fate Core to play Transhumanity's Fate. these abilities don’t refresh either. The coreEclipse Phase rulebooks are Per-scene abilities refresh specifi- also recommended for a more complete cally when morph stress boxes would presentation of the setting. clear off, so if one scene runs right into another without a breather, the ability’s TRAITS Sample freefile invocation doesn’t refresh with that Some of the capabilities of morphs new scene. and psychic powers are represented by traits. Traits are, in part, sub- ACTION LENGTHS aspects. They serve as a reminder of Eclipse Phase splits various tasks when the core aspect they pertain to into different lengths, based on how could be invoked or compelled. In the involved the task is compared to pulling case of morphs, traits also provide a trigger or punching someone. Fate’s permission or justification to do sense of time is more fluid, but it still things other characters couldn’t do. holds to some sense of story logic, so For example, a character with the Transhumanity's Fate uses three scales morph aspect Octomorph has the of time: normal, long, and specific. traits Environmental Adaptation: Normal actions take an exchange’s Gills and Mobility: Limber. Gills worth of time as if in a heated conflict, aren’t a sub-aspect you’d often invoke, like verbal sparring or a firefight (see but they do mean the character can Exchanges, p. 159, Fate Core). Long breathe underwater where others actions can’t be done in the scope

10 of a heated conflict, as it can take Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese, Russian, several minutes or longer. Specific- French, Japanese, and Cantonese. timed actions tell you how long they Other languages that remain strong take, which is usually longer than a include Bengali, Dutch, Farsi, German, long action. Italian, Javanese, Korean, Polish, This is only important when different Punjabi, Swedish, Tamil, Turkish, Urdu, actions happen at the same time. A Vietnamese, and Wu. Some languages normal action can interrupt or compli- were effectively lost during the Fall, cate a long action, and at least an entire especially those in some undeveloped conflict full of normal actions can regions, as their speaking populations happen at the same time as a single long did not migrate into space pre-Fall and action. Use your sense of story and drama were not privileged enough to survive as a group to pace how the various scales in large numbers as infomorph refugees. of action work in a given moment of play. For more on languages in the setting, Naturally, there can be conflicts see p. 181, Eclipse Phase. that take place with long actions back and forth. Only worry about this when people are working at different speeds TEAMWORK IN of story. MESH ACTIONS The teamwork rules (p. 174, Fate LANGUAGES Core) for mesh-related actions Languages in Transhumanity's Fate are (hacking, etc.) have been modified not handled as skills. Your character slightly. See Teamwork in Mesh either knows it or they don’t, much like Actions, p. 99, for details. other, minor random talents. Language is not usually a barrier in Eclipse CONTESTS Phase, as everyone's muse (personal AI assistant) can facilitate real-time UNDER FIRE translation by accessing public softwareSample Transhumanity's file Fate uses new rules

on the mesh. This means that language in several situations called Contests FATETRANSHUMANITY'S RULES is only important in Fate games when Under Fire. They’re especially useful it complicates situations (no muses or when hacking attempts overlap with mesh access), but in order to achieve combat action. See p. 94 for details. that, you need to have a sense of what languages you speak. CONDITIONS The short rule is that you know the Conditions are a new type of situation languages most tied to your aspects and aspect. Unlike most situation aspects, your background. Having more than conditions can persist beyond a single one or two languages is unusual, and scene. However, they’re not as persistent having four or more is extraordinary. If or difficult to get rid of as consequences. the GM and other players think you’re Weapons that have temporary effects abusing the spirit of this rule, talk it over. like stunning a target use conditions. The ten most common languages in Conditions are also used to track the the solar system by speaking popula- progress of the exsurgent virus in char- tions are: Mandarin, Hindi, English, acters who become infected.

11 GAME CREATION

The world ofEclipse Phase is vast in scope, with numerous factions, envi- EXAMPLE ISSUES ronments, and types of characters to explore. During game creation, you’ll FACTIONAL narrow that scope, defining your • The Ultimates’ Long Game Doesn’t Include the team’s relationship to Firewall and the Rest of Us types of missions they specialize in, • Can Anarchism Prevail Against Existential and with that, the character roles that Threats? are important to the kind of game you want to play. You’ll also get some hints IDEOLOGICAL about where the game could go over • Hypercorp Greed Could Be Our Downfall the long run. • Infomorph Slavery Threatens Everyone GAME ASPECTS X-RISKS You’ll create two game aspects for your • Escalating Trade in WMDs Transhumanity's Fate campaign. • Cognite’s Unrestricted AGI Research One should be about a current issue in your world. The other should be ORGANIZATIONS about a coming change, something at • Project Ozma Is Always Hiring stake, or imminent danger. Either could • Titanian Intel: Our Best Frenemies concern your Firewall server—the working group within the conspiracy EXSURGENT CULTS to which you’re most closely tied (see • The White Khanhs Server Aspects, p. 14). Sample• fileThe Cult of the Destroyer MEME-BASED CREATING • The Precautionary Principle ISSUES • Transhumanity Needs Backup Colonies The Eclipse Phase world abounds in OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS political and economic intrigue among • Pirates Are Making Salvage Work Tough its mainstream factions and social • Paranoid Jovian Internal Security movements. Meanwhile, exhumans, exsurgents, and other fringe elements LOOMING PROBLEMS lay their own plans for transhumanity’s • Night Cartel-Pax Familae Tensions Are High future (or lack thereof). In the back- • Corrupt Aerostat Government ground, the TITANs and the ETI that created the exsurgent virus loom. This ferment of agendas provides ample sources for issues.

12 Most PCs begin play as sentinels, but characters who start the game with a +4 CREATING A or better in Eye Rep may opt to begin play as Proxies. In addition to greater SERVER clearance for Firewall’s secrets, Proxy Your sentinel isn’t alone in the fight characters have more access to their to save transhumanity. Your team is a NPC peers than other characters. Firewall cell, a group of sentinels who NPC proxies may be fleshed out as receive mission guidance and orga- major NPCs (and may even become nizational support from one or more antagonists over time). proxies. Your cell is in turn part of a server, a working group of proxies. Your cell and server might not be your only LOCATION/ connections to Firewall. If you have Eye SPECIALTY Rep skill (p. 37), you have access to the Many servers either have a specific Eye, Firewall’s secret social network. territory they watch over or are During game creation, the table should specialized for a certain type of make some decisions about the team’s mission. Common examples include server. Is it small and new, or old and servers based in a city or space station, established? Are its proxies open with servers that specialize in gatecrashing the sentinels, or do they withhold infor- or erasure ops, servers with an interest mation and sometimes outright lie in the in particular types of x-risks like name of mission security? Does it run on TITAN lore or WMDs, and servers a shoestring budget, or it above average in with a particular factional or political terms of resources? (Remember that desir- orientation. The five main factions in able resources can also be a disadvantage). Firewall are the pragmatists, conser- Is it a tight-knit server, working mostly vatives, mavericks, backups, and struc- on its own projects, or does it collaborate turalists, but servers may belong to heavily with other servers, sometimesSample multiple file or none of these factions.

even loaning sentinels out to other ME G proxies? And finally, how controlling FIREWALL FACTIONS a are the proxies? Are they collaborators Your server is probably aligned to one and teammates, or are they ruthlessly or more of the major factions within C manipulating the sentinels toward ends Firewall. Even servers that are osten- reation the sentinels don’t fully understand? sibly neutral tend to lean toward one faction or another because of their PROXIES proxies’ allegiances. Most servers have 5-50 proxies, averaging a few dozen. As a sentinel, you’ll only • Pragmatists, the majority faction, know one or two proxies—the ones who favor using all of the tools at Firewall's work with your cell. You’ll most often disposal and improvising in the field talk to your router, the proxy in charge to get the best results. of coordinating your missions. You also • Conservatives favor a scorched Earth might have some contact with your vector, policy, disposing of TITAN artifacts the proxy in charge of secure communi- and infected transhumans quickly cations between you and your server. and thoroughly. 13 • Backups advocate focusing Firewall’s game world because of how your server resources on survival initiatives, behaves. These aspects can describe creating redoubts and secret colonies the server’s reputation within Firewall so that transhumanity’s eggs aren’t (Unpredictable Mavericks, Nuke-it- all in one basket. from-Orbit Conservatives), the style • Mavericks are unified mainlySample in that offile its NPC proxies (Forknapping they favor autonomy for individual Manipulators, No One Left Behind), servers and embrace unorthodox or its resources (TITAN Lore solutions to Firewall’s structure. Clearinghouse, Superior Morph They also have their share of nihilists Provisioning—via Black Market). and malcontents. • Structuralists want to reform Firewall into a more hierarchical, EYE REP CAP unified, accountable, and above- (OPTIONAL) ground organization. Finally, the group might decide to cap Eye Rep (p. 37), a sentinels’ skill SERVER ASPECTS at networking and calling in favors You may choose a server aspect as part from within Firewall through the Eye, of your game aspects (p. 12). Good Firewall’s secret social network. If the server aspects are double-edged, like group decides they want to play new any good aspect. They could confer an recruits, or that their proxies aren’t advantage, but they also imply trouble letting them fully into the fold yet, or a change that can happen in the placing a cap on Eye Rep makes sense. 14 alien world; Synergy, a world of aerial creatures where the colonists have READY-TO-PLAY formed a group mind; Olaf, a massive unexplored Dyson sphere. GAMES Likely Opposition: Colonial authori- If your group wants to jump right into a ties, hostile xenolife, rival explorers, game with some parameters set for them, TITAN remnants the following example games provide a Inspirations: Blindsight, Prometheus, quick starting point. Alternatively, use Stargate, Traveller bits of these for building your own game. Game Aspects: Exploration Will Save Transhumanity but Might Kill Us, GATECRASHERS What Lies in the Dark Between Firewall sends its brightest and most the Gates? reckless on missions through the Pandora gates. In a gatecrashing game, you’ll be investigating the Fall-like SCRAP AND demises of other civilizations, infil- SALVAGE trating off-the-grid corporate labs, or Your crew of rowdy scum barge even seeking traces of the TITANs. misfits somehow ended up in Firewall You’ll regularly brave the dangers of (possibly after doing something useful, being cut off from the rest of trans- or possibly after doing mind-altering humanity on the far side of the gates. substances with your new proxy at Scientific knowledge and practical a Carnival of the Goat drug orgy, or survival skills are important. Often, possibly both). You still do what you you’ll be too busy fighting hostile do best—exploring abandoned space alien fauna or exsurgent xenodinosaur stations and derelict ships—but now analogs to talk. However, social skills you do it with the knowledge that the do come into play when your team next hull Firewall sends you to claim discovers a new species and has toSample nego- could file be teeming with self-replicating

tiate a price for its genome—or choose nanoviruses or slavering exsurgent ME G to preserve it in the public domain. toadmen. So, sometimes also you are a Ultimately, exploration into the nature murder hoboes. This type of game calls of the gates themselves might reveal the for a good mix of tech, fighting, and C galaxy’s ancient truths. social skills (for wheeling and dealing reation Useful Archetypes: Explorer, Field with your space treasure—or bribing Engineer, Merc, Programmer- crazed exhuman space pirates who want Archeologist, Scout, Xenoarcheologist to jack your loot and eat your morphs). Interesting Locales: Chat Noir, an Useful Archetypes: anarchist gate city in Uranian space; Bot Jammer, Militiamensch, Echo IV, a megafauna paradise; Luca Programmer-Archeologist, Scavenger, II, grave of a failed, aardvark-like Smuggler, Techie civilization; Giza, planet of the alien Interesting Locales: Abandoned aster- chat pyramids; Ma’adim Vallis, the oid mining colony; derelict freighter; Planetary Consortium gate facility on Meathab, a probably-sapient living Mars; Portal, a nexus of gates on an space station with a hull made of

15 bacon; Earth orbit, full of abandoned Your sentinels will need guile, tech habitats, autonomous killsats, and skills, and no small willingness to get pieces of ships destroyed in the dirty in this type of game. To the right war with the TITANs; Fresh Kills, a audience, a canister of self-replicating heavily defended scavenger base in TITAN-designed nanoplague prac- Earth orbit; crash site on an out-of- tically sells itself—unless you take it the-way Kronosian moon; the ice off the market. To make things more tunnels beneath Iapetus, bored out by challenging, Firewall might not entirely the TITANs in an attempt to make a trust your team, given that a criminal planet-scale megacomputer background is almost a requirement Likely Opposition: Corporate “acqui- to function in this world. Expect to be sitions” teams, exhumans, military unwillingly resleeved, sent on decoy blockades, other salvage crews, space missions, and generally fucked with pirates, things that should have been by your anonymous, god-complexoid left in their cryo tubes proxy from time to time. The table Inspirations: Alien Resurrection, Event might wish to agree on a very low cap Horizon, Farscape, Pathfinder / for Eye Rep in this type of game. Dungeons & Dragons Useful Archetypes: AI Researcher, Cool Game Aspects: Making a Living Off Hunter, Criminal Hacker, Detective, Dangerous Space Junk, We Do What Ego Hunter, Enforcer, Freelance Judge, Firewall Asks … Usually Genehacker, Networker, Smuggler Interesting Locales: Extropia, an anar- chocapitalist city; Kronos NIGHT MARKET Cluster, a dangerous space hab divided B LUES between anarchist communities and Night markets used to be a thing in criminal gangs; Locus, a well-orga- south and southeast Asia, old Earth, nized anarchist cluster hab in the where bazaars were held by night to Jovian Trojans; the red-market bazaars avoid the heat of the day. NowSample the term fileof Noctis-Qianjiao, Mars; online black "night market" has become a byword in markets; the New Quebec clone vats; criminal and anarchocapitalist circles shady street doc lairs; Legba, asteroid for marketplaces—red, black, and grey— stronghold of the Nine Lives ego-trad- that trade anything imaginable in an ing cartel ever-changing array of places to avoid Likely Opposition: Out-there artists, the heat of the law or social ostraciza- body thieves, black kettle genehack- tion. Guns, missiles, unrestricted nano- ers, singularity seekers, soul traders, fabbers, exotic gene therapies, discount weapons brokers, exsurgent infiltra- pleasure pods, three-legged marsupial tors, your own Firewall proxies goldfish, indentures, forknapped egos, Inspirations: Altered Carbon, Bladerunner, stolen prototypes, and weapons of mass Cyberpunk 2013, The Stone Canal destruction all make their way through Game Aspects: You Can Get Anything the Night Market—and Firewall has its in the Night Market; Our Proxy, eyes peeled. “Maximum Mike,” Doesn’t Tell Us Much

16 or more of your cell are proxies, full A FISTFUL OF CREDITS members of the Firewall server with Corrupt officials and rival gangs. which you’re affiliated. Hypercorp secrets and left-behind Useful Archetypes: Bot Jammer, Cool TITAN war machines. Glamorous Hunter, Criminal Hacker, Enforcer, cities and wild outland towns. Mars is Field Engineer, Freelance Judge, the new cradle of transhumanity, and Genehacker, Journalist, Martian it’s Firewall’s biggest hotspot. Part Ranger, Scout, Smuggler, Zone Stalker spaghetti western, part Asian crime Interesting Locales: A space elevator thriller, this type of game centers on car carrying a suspicious shipment hypercorp machinations and the threat of morphs; the Red Northern rail from the TITAN Quarantine Zone, a line connecting Olympus to Noctis- massive stretch of Mars still overrun Qianjiao; New Dazhai, an unfriendly by now-masterless TITAN minions. corporate settlement engaged in The backdrop is the glittering excess questionable research; the aban- and social inequality of Martian cities doned industrial area surrounding played against the frontier sensibilities the Olympus Mons space elevator of the Martian outback. on Mars; Pilsener City, a ditchstop Firewall brought your team together agricultural dome town where weird because you know the hinterlands shit has been going down; Brevard’s and the fringes. Survival, combat, and Souk, a cave system used as a meeting investigative skills are all important in place by the northern Maker nomads; this type of game, but you’ll want a few El Destino Verde, a yakuza dive in team members with good credit, Civ the Noctis badlands concealing an Rep, and social skills as well. Expect to operation to make drugs from exsur- visit a lot of towns in the outback where gent bodily fluids; a thousand-cred- there’s something evil in the water, it-a-night bordello in Elysium, the and the local bosses are among those Los Angeles of Mars; the smugglers’ affected. Exhuman cults, black-budgetSample caves file at Ascraeus Mons; the nearby

labs, and entire towns infected by the Martian Ranger station; the ruins of ME G exsurgent virus can all take root out the city of Qurain, deep in the TITAN a in the Martian countryside, but some- Quarantine Zone; the White Zone, the times, the trail leads back to the city. dangerous heart of the TQZ C Under the domes of the big cities, the Likely Opposition: Black kettle reation opposition includes hypercorp security genehackers, corp security, corrupt forces, crime syndicates, covert exsur- local officials, exsurgents, Guanxi gent cults, and Firewall’s rival, Project mobsters, indentured servant Ozma. Finally, the occasional possible holders, local crime bosses, Planetary suicide run into the TITAN Quarantine Consortium spies, Project Ozma, Zone is not off the table. TITAN war machines Because Mars is a key theater of Inspirations: A Fistful of Dollars/Yojimbo, action with its huge, dense population, Cowboy Bebop, Django Unchained, proxies here get involved personally Durance, Oldboy trilogy more often than elsewhere in the Game Aspects: This Here’s Our Planet system. This is risky, but the stakes on and We Won’t Trade Her for Nothin’, Mars are high. You might decide one Proxies in the Trenches 17 CREATING YOUR SENTINELS

You may have some good ideas that could generate your high concept and CHARACTER trouble aspects. Before you write those CONCEPT down, proceed with the Firewall Phases. First, come up with your overall char- NAME acter concept, using the Character There are a couple different names you Concepts section on p. 130, Eclipse should think about for your character: Phase. The same advice in there their actual, legal name and their applies: talk with the rest of the group Firewall codename. For operational about if your character concepts mesh, security, codenames are used on and turn a short description into a missions and on the Eye, Firewall’s sentence. Important: this is not an peer-to-peer social network. aspect, at least not yet. Aspects come later. If you need help devising a concept, see Team Roles, p. 26. FIREWALL Once you have that, choose a back- ground from the Choose Background PHASES section (pp. 131–132, Eclipse Phase) Next, you’ll fill in theFirewall phases, and a faction from the Choose Faction which works much like Fate Core’s section (pp. 132–134, Eclipse Phase). The default phases (pp. 38–44, Fate Core), game statistics listed for those choices except that there are four phases rather have no effect in Fate; this is purely a than three, and you won’t write down narrative choice, one that you’ll incor- aspects for the phases at this point. porate as needed into your aspects later, as well as how you play yourSample character. file For both choices, write a brief statement PHASE ONE: HOW about how that element shapes your YOU GOT NOTICED character today. What impact did your Firewall is picky when it comes to background have on you? What benefits inducting people into its secret organi- or debts do you have with your faction? zation. Some event (or events) demon- After that, come up with one to strated your extraordinary and useful three motivations from the Choose capabilities, and that’s how you got on Motivations section (p. 138, Eclipse Firewall’s radar. What was it? Phase). As with the background and Use the framework for the Your faction choice, write a brief statement Adventure phase (pp. 40–41, Fate Core), about how this motivation shapes you. and address the following: What are you chasing because of your motivation? What did you do recently • Why were you in this situation? Since for your motivation that put you in a it wasn’t for Firewall, this shows your difficult situation? individual loyalties or motives.

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